"TNA iMPACT!" 7-26-07 Talkback (Spoilers)

[The Penguin]

There’s still a good forty minutes of iMPACT! remaining. Talk about it here!

[James Bester]

Man, that main event was awesome. TNA's been on a roll lately.

[Djm912]

Fun Impact.

Great opening tag. I don't mind the MCMGs losing to LAX, really. I just hope they don't become the jobbers of the TNA tag team division.

Decent segment with the Tag Team Senior Circut, but it makes TNA's homegrown tag teams look insignificant.....stop me if you've heard that before. Bubba Ray is fat, and nobody likes him. And Scott Steiner really is lucky to be alive. That wasn't sucking up playing the babyface card. That was as much a worked shoot as anything else.

Traci Brooks is so gorgeous.

Wild main event. Abyss again, bleeding like a madman, and Sting taking bumps that no one else in wrestling at his age is taking. If you can't give Sting credit by now, then you're just hatin'.
Again, Traci looked amazing. She is just such a beautiful woman.

Fun Impact, despite the lack of Joe.

Angle is hilarious, as is Nash

[Fifi Fanatic]

Very good Impact this week.

Angle is back to his egomaniacal "I'm an Olympic Gold Medalist and you're not" character. And his schtick is just as hilarious as ever. And then adding in speedo clad Dr. Nash as the final touch. XD

Three good matches plus Scott Steiner owning Bubba Ray and Road Dogg on the mic.* And yes, he truly is lucky to be standing in that ring.... or standing anywhere, for that matter. And LAX are apparently faces now. w00t!

And what a main event! Abyss is "Mr. Hardcore" as far as I'm concerned. And Sting is still a wrestler's wrestler. Now..... who was the mystery guy under the ring? Hornswoggle taking a vacation in Orlando? The ghost of Andre the Giant? The immortal Bob Backlund himself? Where's Robert Stack when you need him?

Oh! And I forgot to mention that Sting-painted Eric Young looked more like he had just joined the Insane Clown Posse. :anime:


*Yes, I know their current names are not Bubba Ray or Road Dogg, but since I'm under no legal obligation to either WWE or TNA, I can call 'em anything I want.

[SonGoku V3]

"STOP CALLING ME FAT!!!!!!1" will probably goes down as one of the funniest wrestling moments of the week, barring a certain segment on Smackdown that I can only expect to be funnier. Fifi Fanatic pointed out about every reason why I enjoyed Impact, so I won't go any further, but I'll just say that I LOVE both LAX and Murder City Machine Guns now. I just hope that LAX doesn't lose their edge in becoming faces.

Only thing I didn't care for was VKM.If you anyone thought the Dudleys didn't deserve to be in the presence of the Steiners, then the Road Dogg and Billy Gunn is like taking ten steps backwards in comparison.

[MGFanJay]

Impact ended up being much better than I expected after reading the spoilers. Sting-Roode was the most enjoyable Sting match so far this year, MCMGs-LAX was exciting and had some interesting double team moves, and the main event was the usual good Abyss-AJ match,with the best selling of the shock treatment yet. The Steiners-3D segment was fantastic, and I didn't even mind VKM coming out since Scott buried them.

I love the realistic face turn for Scott, and that was the most realistically emotional promo he's done since the one on Nitro where he was crying and stating that he had to retire due to a bad back. LAX turning face to defend Scott, who gained respect for the Puerto Rican nation LAX is defending, was excellent. Unfortunately, the segment was hurt by Mike Tenay talking over some parts, but it wasn't hurt as much as the first incredible Steiner-3D promo.

Dr. Nash being revealed as Kurt's shrink, complete with Angle burying TNA in a tanning bed while in an Armani suit, was funny, and much better than Kurt spending most of last week's show in a speedo. I didn't like Joe being treated like an afterthought, and I don't see how anyone can think he's going to win after the Angle-Joe video stated that Angle is a seven time world champion, while Joe is dangerous!~. It makes me sadder that their next match is for five "world" titles, as the build has been horrible given that fact.

The show-ending beatdown was exciting, but not as violent as the last one one on Abyss, and it made AJ look like a jobber as he could only beat Abyss after tons of interference that saw Abyss get bloodied by... something (hopefully a leprechaun) under the ring, and the entire Christian Coalition. I got a laugh out of Jericho Personal Security returning for Christian, but was saddened by them actually trying to make them look somewhat professional, instead of just using a marker and playing it for comedy like so many other parts of this storyline.

That Dustin promo was weird, good, and corny all at once. Hopefully it leads to TNA doing something interesting with Dustin, instead of just having them ape the Goldust character as the current rumors go. The split personality gimmick gives them a lot of room to work with, and they could easily turn it into a compelling story about Dustin losing his mind due to his past, his other family's success in WWE, and his inability to escape his father's shadow.

All in all though, this was a really good edition of Impact. It had incredible drama, good matches, and excellent promos that outweigh the negative aspects of the show. Scott Steiner's mic work alone made this an unforgettable show - TNA needs to employ him until the end of time, because they're making better use of him than anyone else has since WCW. I loved him telling Brother Ray to let his thyroid grow so he'll gain some more fat cells, followed by Ray saying "STOP CALLING ME FAT!". I seriously want to watch that segment over and over again on an endless loop.

[The Penguin]

TNA knows what they have with Christian and they always make sure they use him even if he isn’t in the ring. ‘Cage Security’ might not work out much better than all the other forms of security the wrestling world has seen, but Christian put the whole thing over well.

Robert Roode is finally moving on! Sort of. His match against Sting finally put him more with Christian’s group than anything else, although we did get Eric Young before it was over.

Dustin Rhodes seems just a little bit crazy and when he doesn’t have that gold face paint to hide behind, it’s just kinda freaky. I watched it a second time and I still don’t get it.

Shelly & Sabin intrigue me as an actual team and I look forward to seeing more. LAX on the other hand have become significantly less interesting with the departure of Konnan.

An easy criticism of WCW in their more unoriginal days was that their line-up often looked like a version of WWF/E Magazine’s ‘Fantasy Warfare’ and that was definitely the feel I got from the tag team promo segment. Dudley Boyz vs. Steiner Bros. vs. New Age Outlaws. I’m interested in this whole thing, but it needs to be pointed out.

I don’t know if we were told that last week, but it wasn’t a huge surprise to see Nash as Angle’s psychiatrist. What was a surprise was Nash in a Speedo wanting to get in on the tanning bed.

On the general topic of Angle, there is excuse to leave Samoa Joe off the show. I know TNA is always pressed for time, but you can’t have your top face with three championship belts ‘in training’ rather than appearing on the program. You need to find a place for him.

Abyss vs. Styles devolved into the typical huge mess I have come to expect from the TNA main event. It was being driven by a story, but it always seems to be the same story. And what the heck happened to Abyss under the ring? He looked like he’d had his wrists slashed. And is it just me or are the tacks and broken glass getting overexposed?

[MGFanJay]

The tacks have been overdone in TNA for a couple of years now, but they're somehow killing the "glass" gimmick even faster. What amazes me is that they're selling it as the most vile thing ever, yet it results in less blood than the average headbutt in a Joe-Angle feud.

[Damien]

Great opening bout.

The tag team brawl was great, especially Scott Steiner's ratings rant. (Didn't know the NAO were on TNA now. What do they call themselves here?)

Closing wasn't fun to watch as a Sting fan, but great from a storytelling standpoint.

[VCXZX]

I've noticed that TNA seems to be more comedy-oriented as of late. And I don't mind since WWE besides King Booker (and Santino/Great Kahli) has been lacking it of late.

I'm really digging this Christian Coalition segments. the one 2 weeks ago was amazing. at "Look who's riding with Christian". at "Go back to a street corner, you trick." Hilarious.

And course Scott Steiner returns which means more hilarious rants. Like last night's which made a fool out of Bubba. at "Stop calling me fat." Now that's getting owned at its best.

[The Penguin]

The tag team brawl was great, especially Scott Steiner's ratings rant. (Didn't know the NAO were on TNA now. What do they call themselves here?)

Well they used to be the James Gang and now they're VKM (Voodoo Kin Mafia). Road Dogg/B.G. James has been in TNA for quite a while and Billy Gunn/Kip James has been around for a while now too after his WWE release. Before you ask, Kip took the James name because he and B.G. are 'like' brothers, not because TNA is pretending they are.

[EinBebop]

I've noticed that TNA seems to be more comedy-oriented as of late.

I was going to comment on this last week, but I love that TNA is not only out-wrestling WWE, they're also out-'sports entertaining' WWE.