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IMPACT THOUGHTS: IF YOU WERE NOSTALGIC FOR 1980S WWE WRESTLERS, THIS WAS THE SHOW FOR YOU; AN ALMOST PPV QUALITY MATCH BETWEEN STYLES AND JARRETT; SAMOA JOE LIVES

Tonight’s pre-recorded Impact gave us our first glimpse of the new steel cage since the days of the Six Sides of Steel are no more. The build for Lockdown in less than three weeks continued slowly and we have two matches announced and await the participants in the Lethal Lockdown Match. Who will the musical guest be on this week’s show? While there were a few very good television matches, including one that was on its way to being a pay per view quality match, the non-wrestling segments took away from the overall quality of the show.

Here are my thoughts on the show as it happened:

I liked that Hogan repeated to someone else what he said to Bischoff last week about separating the personal from the business end of things. This way we know that he is telling someone else so Bischoff can’t blow it off as ‘Hulk being Hulk’.

At least we got to know that Hulk Hogan never watched Impact before he signed with the company. Jarrett was getting a great face reaction ever since he took his time away from the product after losing to Sting at Bound for Glory in 2006. Then I guess Hogan did not remember how Jarrett got a better reaction from the crowd than he did on January 4th?

So after being relegated to a bathroom attendant for TNA, Jarrett gets a chance to be the number one contender if he can win a non-title match? How many people are going to be cleaning the bathrooms on next week’s show.

If Jeff Jarrett still has an ownership interest in the company, wouldn’t he have known about Hogan’s trip to New York? What is so important that Hogan cannot be at the show?

Since Jay Lethal is back on television, does that mean that we might see a certain Samoan who was kidnapped a month ago? (written at the time we first saw Jay Lethal, make sure to read further for my discussion of Samoa Joe’s appearance)

I guess it is good that TNA is now going back 20 years for the Mega Powers references. Maybe they are also giving Montreal closure.

When Sean Waltman and alternate backstage interviewer were walking to the ring, did we see the passing of the torch from X-Pac Heat to Bubba Heat?

After seeing the new mouthpiece for the Band in the ring, I apologize for the oversaturation of Eric Bischoff. I would rather hear Bischoff’s Concert for Kampuchea than hear him cut another promo.

If Nash is such good friends with Eric Young, why did he turn on him at the pay per view? Why would Eric Young believe him? If Eric had accepted the spot in The Band, how long before they would have turned on him. Why did the mouthpiece go after Young?

With Bischoff doing the acoustic guitar deal last week and Jeff Hardy’s singing of his entrance music, how close are we to Eric and Jeff performing More than Words.

I liked that we saw highlights from Destination X since there were so few on last week’s show.

I liked the action in the opening match. Kendrick did a good job of pulling the referee in front of him to allow Williams to attack Kazarian from behind. I thought Kazarian worked well with Kendrick and Williams in the ring. I liked the spin kick as a catalyst for the German suplex by Kazarian. I liked that

It was interesting to see Williams working with Kendrick since Kendrick uses a high flying style in the ring.

I guess someone in TNA watched the original Superman movie since Eric’s assistant was called ‘Ms. Teschmacher’.

Did TNA think they had the cast of Hot Tub Time Machine with the names that Jay Lethal and Eric Bischoff mentioned?

I thought the promo by D’Angelo Dinero started off well, but then he started to go off the rails and almost sounded like a Ric Flair promo. I thought it went further downhill when Chelsea came out. I did not think she was that good on the mic tonight.

Chelsea did not do a good job of distracting Desmond Wolfe and Wolfe also did not do a great job of being discreet in his attempt to attack Dinero.

Was Daffney trying to snap into a Slim Jim in the back during the brief return from commercial after the Dinero segment?

Maybe someone should have turned on the heat wherever Samoa Joe was filming his hostage video. Like Taz and Tenay wondered who are the people that Joe was talking about?

Words cannot describe the Cirque de Soleil deal with Orlando Jordan so I won’t.

I really liked Tara’s interview with Jeremy Borash until she started talking about Daffney taking her spider and making that the reason why she wants revenge. What about the times that Daffney attacked her leading to their match at Destination X.

I thought the Tara/Daffney match was a good brawl between the two. I liked that they fought around the Impact Zone and the image of Daffney dragging Tara from the announce table to the ring. The blood on Daffney’s head was very minimal, but the image of Daffney tasting her own blood was fitting for her character.

The Styles/Jarrett match was very good and was close to the quality of their pay per view matches. There was a lot of good action and these two men work well together in the ring. The match lost a little starting with Flair’s return to ringside. The ref bump was awkward and then Eric Bischoff’s presence I thought it was funny that they did not call what Jarrett did to Styles a Pedigree. I did like that the referee sent Flair to the back, but of course with the effectiveness of TNA referees, Flair was able to get back to ringside during the match.

I thought Eric Young’s promo with Hardy and Van Dam was very good. I guess he is also forgetting about his time with the World Elite. I did not like the other two promos in the segment. While Young is cutting a serious promo, Hardy and Van Dam come off like people who are cashing a check.

I thought the Lethal versus Beer Money match was okay, but I was surprised by the finish of the match. Jay Lethal couldn’t beat guys whose best years are behind them in singles matches, but he is able to defeat one of the best tag teams in the company in a handicap match? Why did James Storm go for the beer bottle? When he brought it into the ring, shouldn’t he have cared about the match?

I guess Chelsea is a three tool TNA personality. She had a promo tonight, got to push Ric Flair to the ring in his wheelchair, and accompany Desmond Wolfe to the ring for his match with D’Angelo Dinero.

For a television match, the Dinero/Wolfe match was okay but definitely not up to the quality of their prior matches. It also does not help when you have a referee who is so easily distracted involved in the match.

While I don’t like the idea of a ladder match on free television when they are having a cage match less than two weeks later, they gave us a reason for the match because it for possession of the key to the lock. It reminded me of the pole match that was done with the weapons in the boxes to be used at a pay per view.

While I wasn’t the biggest fan of Nash and Angle acknowledging their old alliance in the Main Event Mafia, I did like that Angle walked past Hall and Waltman without acknowledging them.

I thought the cage match was too short and probably would have been better off not being in the main event, especially with the Styles/Jarrett match on the same show. I thought the elbow drop from the top of the cage was a nice touch. I also liked the angle from the crane camera into the cage.

I thought Abyss’ promo was well done at the end of the show. I like the way that they are doing the announcements with the wrestlers for the match. Maybe they will do most of the announcements next Monday so we can get something involving the wrestlers on the final show before Lockdown.

Jeff Jarrett does belong in the Lethal Lockdown Match. I liked Jeff’s comments in his promo about getting back at Flair for what he did earlier in the night.

What to watch if Impact is on your DVR: The X Division tag match; Tara/Daffney A.J./Jarrett match (until the ref bump); the Eric Young and Kurt Angle promos.

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