Angle starts us off with a solid interview.  He makes a nice reference to Planet
Angle to toss a bone to long time TNA fans. Of course no one has mentioned the name
Jarrett yet so it’s still slightly (unhelpfully) veiled.

We get the second half of last week’s Beer Money/Hernandez
match, as it’s Hernandez vs. Robert Roode: 

Hernandez utilized what was literally the longest held
vertical suplex I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately there was no momentum built from
it as Roode rolled immediately out of the ring. That’s the one time a suplex
could have turned into a credible near fall but they blew it. Roode used a very
nice Curt Hennig style snapmare/forward rolling neck snap. Nice focus by Roode
as he hits a standing neckbreaker. Hernandez uses some interesting, varied
offense. Very impressive match for him. Storm and Roode played their parts
quite nicely and are good foils for him.

A ladder match for the gold medal? Awesome. Tonight, on
Impact! should be awesome but 1) shouldn’t this be a PPV main event or semi-main;
2) is there any chance this match will go long enough to be the stellar match
it should be and 3) why on earth would AJ Styles consent to giving Angle a
chance to get back the medal? Aaarggh.

Eric Young and BG James vs. MCMG: 

Okay, I have no idea how
James is supposed to keep up but yeah, this should be a nice showcase for the
Guns. Oh. I didn’t see that one coming. A first time tag team of third tier
players defeating the Guns? Cleanly? My goodness that just doesn’t help. Well I
suppose if it means a heel turn that’s a helpful ultimate outcome but can we
please get them there in a slightly helpful way.

I love that Angle is so solicitous toward Booker T.
Surprising but a nice touch. Talking around Jarrett is more than annoying now;
it’s just ridiculous. Angle doesn’t drink? That’s pretty funny if you think
about it. I mean how many drugs does he have in his system at any one moment?
Gotta love the rationalizing.

If So Cal Val needs a new man, I don’t think she’ll have a
shortage. Super nice dress. Dutt and Lethal are getting better as they ratchet
up the intensity and draw down the cartoon. (Okay, the Lethal elbow looks
pretty weak when compared to Jericho dropping Rebecca Michaels Sunday (hello,
timing!) but most everything in wrestling pales compared to that one.)

I like the Consequences Creed Rough Cut this week too. I am
starting to wonder though if he’ll change his name to Austin Creed. Maybe that
will be his announcement when he wins the X Division title.

Matt Morgan vs. Frankie Capone:

Tenay helpfully puts Morgan over by using his demolition of
Tomko a few weeks ago. I’m a little surprised that TNA is so consistently using
squashes for Morgan but it works. ‘Let’s go Beast’ gets chanted throughout the
Impact Zone. The Hellevator was not as impressive this week because he went up
then down so quickly. Brother Ray does a great job dissing Morgan’s victory.
Abyss walks out really quickly again. It seems clear that we’re headed toward a
Team 3D/ Abyss/Morgan feud. Some potential for interesting power moves and
perhaps a helpful way of getting Morgan up the ladder a little bit.

The Nash sit down interview works well. Nash is smart enough
to know how to work the psychological angle as well as anybody. Nash calls
STING ‘Steve’ and makes a clear mistake that doesn’t get fixed or edited; he
just corrects himself. It seems so much closer to real.

The Beautiful People are good as always. Kip may add
something soon but it hasn’t happened yet. I’d be excited to see Angelina Love
get a run with the title. She’s good enough to wear it and have a couple months
of solid matches. And uh, no one who can beat Awesome Kong should get ‘knocked
out’ with a plastic makeup case. Painfully ridiculous.

Rhino is helpfully intense and finally has a chance to talk
and, looka here, wrestle a singles match. Hopefully he’ll lose and keep tagging
with Christian.

I’m also hoping at least one of the Four Ways to Glory
matches is heel vs. heel or face vs. face. These kind of events provide natural
opportunities to see atypical matchups.

Rhino vs. Booker T:

Booker still has amazing agility and flexibility. He doesn’t
look worse in the ring than he did five or even ten years ago. The axe kick at
the finish was a surprise to me. Still, a solid match.

Nice promo from Gail Kim. She obviously cares in the ring
but that doesn’t always come through in her personality segments.

Petey Williams (c) vs. Consequences Creed in an X Division
title match: 

Williams and Creed really pulled out all the stops in this
match. Both men generated great reversals, interesting offense and lots of
fire. Good stuff. Creed looks better than I’ve seen him. Unfortunately TNA
insists on throwing extra wrestlers into every match. Bashir’s interference
rightfully pisses off Creed and Williams. A 3 way might be the very best idea.

I’m ignoring R&RI and Prince Justice Brotherhood. Do you
blame me?

Awesome Kong vs. Gail Kim in a Knockouts Street Fight:

Wow. This may have been the single best women’s match I’ve
ever seen. It featured intrigue, weapons shots, highspots, smart interference
and smart responses to it, credible near falls, emotional involvement and a
very smart finish.

It’s sad that Kim is leaving as she could have had another
great series with Kong. I also wanted to see her feud with Angelina Love. I
really wanted to see if Kim could raise Love’s game to the point Love was a top
tier Knockout. Kim’s departure hurts the division substantially because she was
both beautiful and totally credible. Taylor Wilde is cute (I’m not as much a fan
of her looks as many seem to be) but so small that she needs a gimmick to beat
women like Kong, ODB and Moose. Roxxi and ODB are both very credible but
neither is traditionally beautiful. Oh well, let’s hope TNA comes up with a
strong replacement. Molly Holly? Ivory? The Holy Grail of women’s wrestlers,
Trish Stratus? What a coup that would be.

AJ Styles vs. Kurt Angle in a Ladder Match for Angle’s
Olympic Gold Medal:

Styles and Angle work incredibly well together. They have
intense matches and both have incredible combination of pro and amateur
wrestling moves, agility and selling.

Booker T spoke directly and passionately to Angle which was
caught by the cameras. A helpful touch. Then Samoa Joe clearly could be heard
instructing Styles in how to work his way out of a hold. Both were really good
extra touches that help the fans get invested in the match because all the
participants seem to care so much. That’s critical. Both guys had uncomfortable
landings that were cringe worthy. Hell, even the ladder looked as though it had
been in a match. The wobble on the ladder was clearly legit.

Lights out in the Impact Zone powerfully negates the action
of the match and basically suggests that however interferes will determine the
outcome. I understand the drama but to diminish from the action so decisively
just doesn’t help. This week’s pleasant surprise for me is that Styles keeps
the medal. My hope is that Styles and Angle will meet in a cage to determine
the rightful holder of the medal. Angle of course would win that match but then
Styles could go after STING or Jarrett, hopefully winning that feud and moving
into the World title picture immediately after.

 TP

 Well folks, 

This is the unmistakbly clear sign that the tennis rating
system is in need of overhaul. http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/news/story?id=3516178

It’s not bad enough that Rafa Nadal doesn’t have to win this
weekend to become #1 but now Jelena Jankovic will become #1 immediately after
losing in straight sets in a quarterfinal match. Ish. 

It’s sad on two fronts. 1- the rankings look ridiculous,
arbitratry and fan distant and 2- players should be celebrated when they climb
ladders not have their accomplishments belittled.

TP

(revised on 8.12.08)

Booker’s king shtick is growing on me I suppose. Oddly, I
think he needs to turn up the arrogance a bit. I’ll withdraw that statement if
TNA intends to turn him soon. Maybe they’ll do a Hart/Austin style double turn
in the weapons match. This would be a great time to give Booker the title via
the DQ rule as happened when Abyss won the belt from STING. It would also lead
to a natural third match that keeps both guys occupied for another month while
STING works with Angle or Styles.

Beer Money vs. Christian Cage and Rhino in a #1
contenders match:

Wait a minute, haven’t 3D been dominating Cage and Rhino?
How does that team get excluded from the #1 contenders match? Goodness.

This match reminds me how much I’d like to see a series of
matches between James Storm and Christian Cage. They’re both incredibly
versatile with realistic offense and solid selling. This kind of series could
do what Storm’s truncated program with STING was supposed to: elevate Storm
into a top tier player.

Another match that ends with not just interference but also
with radically incompetent officiating. A 6 on 2? Just not necessary or
helpful.

Christy Hemme busts out with ‘We are living the gimmick.’
That, friends, is an instant classic.

Johnny Devine and the Rock ’n’ Rave Infection vs. Curry
Man, Shark Boy and Jay Lethal:

Gimmickalooza ’08 is upon us. Okay, this is two straight
matches in which women have physically accosted men. Since men can’t hit women
in TNA there needs to be a concerted effort to simply eliminate the physical
interaction between the genders. Wow, Jay Lethal looks absolutely fabulous in
this match. He really is someone they could build the X Division around. Good
outcome too as Lethal needed to get the victory here.

Okay, so apparently nobody on the TNA roster actually
watches the program. Jay seems so stupid here. That’s just unacceptable. I did
like the Heroes reference though.

I still don’t think I understand why Samoa Joe has become
such a hothead. His role as the calculating, destructive machine got him
incredibly over. Watching Joe slide into this new, vaguely unhinged persona has
been jarring at best. He gets much better reactions, even now, when he simply,
concisely states what he intends to do. Finally, the ‘Joe’s gonna kill you’
chant comes back. A 3^rd woman hits a guy. Just not necessary,
although Sharmell’s intrusion made sense.

Oh yeah, Sheik Abdul Bashir is gonna be over in a big, giant
way. No doubt.

It was great to see AJ Styles pressing the fans to react
strongly to STING. Styles needs this kind of move to help him seem like a
credible wrestler instead of a glorified stuntman. Angle’s appearance was a
helpful surprise and their interaction was helpfully intense. Even though the
premise of their feud feels tired and a bit silly by this point, (especially
since Kurt didn’t want Karen!) there’s a great dynamic between the two
wrestlers.

The Beautiful People are just great. Shark Boy and Curry Man
are humorous too. So seriously nobody in this organization watches the show?
Embarssing. Lots of fun lines though and great sexual innuendo.

"Rahka, let’s roll." That’s gotta be Petey Williams’ exit
line. By the way, how smart an idea is it to have wrestlers actively making fun
of other wrestlers’ gimmicks? This is two segments tonight in which that’s
happened. Yeah, clearly Consequences Creed is doing an Apollo Creed gimmick but
does it seem so ridiculous as to be mocked? Maybe if there’s some comeback time
for Creed but not if it’s just a one-off comment.

Consequences Creed vs. Petey Williams (c) (in an X
Division non-title match apparently):

Helpful win for Creed, although I missed it being non-title
until Hermie Sadler mentioned it 2 minutes before the decision. Speaking of
which, Hermie Sadler is competent but only adds to the regional, small time
flavor of TNA. Now if he can bring a few drivers to the table, we’re talking
something different.

Are we really building to a STING turn and a series with AJ
Styles? Super sweet. 

Karen’s Angle would be so much better if she had a distinct
personality. That being said, Kaz handled himself quite well. It must be tough
for him to make that kind of ‘announcement’ while she seems incapable of
intelligent response.

Matt Morgan vs. Sal Rinaldo:

Another squash match for Morgan? Probably a helpful idea.
This is going to do wonders toward making Morgan the monster TNA needs him to
be. Wow, that was about 2 minutes. The fans ate it up too. There’ll be some
Mile High Club signs soon.

And now, they feed Tomko to Morgan. The hellevator was
impressive and this was a great way of using Tomko on his way out.

The PJB solves the Val ring case. So sad.

Wow, JB needs to get paid extra. He’s all over this show.

I love these Rough Cuts. They really work for me. Developing
back stories and 3 dimensional wrestlers always helps. There’s just more you
can do with real people than with cardboard cutouts.

The Beautiful People vs. Gail Kim and Taylor Wilde:

I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a women’s match featured as
the main event. I seem to remember WWF featuring Wendi Richter in house show
main events when they ran two shows on the same day back in the 80s. This is
clearly different. And I think it works. The fans are really into this match
and the wrestlers are performing well although Velvet Sky is not in the same league as the others. The timing of the finish made
it look a bit too contrived but everyone played it nicely. I think it's great that this 'first' doesn't seem likely to ruffle feathers.

Kong looks Awesome. It doesn’t happen often that the faces
introduce chairs to the ring but it worked well.

Joe on the rampage to end the show? Well, maybe, except
STING has not been presented as a threat to his title. That would be the guy
who laid him out earlier in the show and has him in a cage match in a couple
weeks. Booker is a good enough wrestler and a big enough star that he doesn’t
have to be the secondary contender. Especially if they plan to give him the
belt! <sigh>

 TP