TNA Impact report 5-15
Tonight’s show begins with highlights from last Sunday’s Sacrifice PPV.
Kevin Nash and Samoa Joe are seen walking together backstage. The two shake hands as Joe heads to the ring to deliver a major announcement.
Most of the TNA roster stand around the ring as Mike Tenay and Don West inform us that tonight’s broadcast will feature a Sting interview, “disturbing footage” regarding Abyss, the new Tag Team Champions LAX in action, and Gail Kim challenging Awesome Kong for the Knockout Title.
Samoa Joe makes his way to the ring:
Joe announces to the wrestlers before him that eight competitors will compete in this year’s King of the Mountain Match at Slammiversary; furthermore, Jim Cornette has allowed him to choose four of those participants. Joe reads off Cornette’s selections – Robert Roode, James Storm, Tomko, and Matt Morgan – and states that he will reveal his choices for the match next week after scouting potential opponents tonight. Booker T’s music hits, and the former World Champion confronts Joe inside the ring. Booker accuses Joe of ducking him and threatens that there will be consequences if he is not chosen for KOTM next Thursday. Booker nails Joe in the face, but is run off by Christian Cage and Rhino, prompting him to challenge the trio to a six-man tag bout later in the show.
Jeremy Borash catches up with Kurt Angle and Frank Trigg in the locker room. Following Trigg’s departure, Angle tells JB that he will be out of action for a while due to his injured neck. Kurt says he has allowed his wife Karen and their children to move back into the Angle home and shows Borash the speech he has prepared for later on tonight.
Lauren interviews Kaz, Sonjay Dutt, and Jay Lethal in preparation for their upcoming match against The Rock ‘N Rave Infection and Johnny Devine. Lethal paces around and says he is “freaking out” with something on his mind.
Match #1: The Rock ’N Rave Infection (W/Christy Hemme) and Johnny Devine vs. Jay Lethal (W/SoCal Val), Kaz, and Sonjay Dutt:
Lance Hoyt and Dutt start out, but Hoyt is soon replaced by Jimmy Rave, who teams up with his partner for a clothesline/hiptoss/kick combination on Sonjay. Devine enters, but misses a charge in the corner, allowing Dutt to tag Lethal, who catches the Team 3D associate with a springboard dropkick. Devine uses a distraction by Hemme to lift Lethal into the air and deliver a Codebreaker-type maneuver. Hoyt becomes legal and throws Lethal to the mat with a fallaway slam; unfortunately for Lance, Dutt is soon tagged in and reverses Hoyt’s tilt-a-whirl slam into a DDT. Lethal re-enters and Dutt crucifixes him to catch Jimmy Rave with a spinning kick to the head. Kaz comes in and nails Hoyt with a flying kick of his own to the chest and covers the Rock ’N Raver for the win out of nowhere. I’m glad that Kaz was given the pin due to his push at Sacrifice, but he should have had much more ring time here. Post-match, Jay Lethal gets down on one knee and proposes to SoCal Val, asking her to marry him at Slammiversary. Val replies, “Ohhh yeah” and the happy couple celebrate as Sonjay Dutt looks on in horror. This was done completely out of the blue and is something the company could have built up to, rather than treating it as just another segment on Impact.
A video package airs documenting the career of Abyss, followed by footage of The Monster straitjacketed in a mental institution. Abyss says that he committed himself due to his unquenchable love of pain, but will soon be ready for release.
Lauren is backstage with Samoa Joe and Kevin Nash. Nash says that he and Joe have come to an understanding regarding their differing views on the wrestling business and now believes they now have a stronger bond than ever. Lauren (who apparently didn’t hear Joe’s promo earlier in the show) asks the Champion whom he will choose as his King of the Mountain opponents, but Joe reminds the announcer that he will make those selections next week. Joe then addresses Booker T and refers to him as a jealous former titleholder who wishes to recapture past glory.
A video package is shown documenting the Awesome Kong-Gail Kim feud.
Match #2: Knockout Champion Awesome Kong (W/Raisha Saeed) vs. Gail Kim (Knockout Title Match):
Gail dodges Kong in the corner early on, but fails with an attempt to catch the Women’s queenpin with a huracanrana from the top turnbuckle. Kong goes for an Awesome Bomb, which Kim reverses into a sunset flip; when Kong tries a double-armed chokeslam, Gail turns her over into a rollup for a two-count. Saeed trips Kim from the outside, prompting ODB to arrive, followed by Velvet Sky, Salinas, Christy Hemme, and Traci Brooks. Gail sunset flips over Kong in the corner and manages to wrap her legs around the Champion to support an armbar, but Kong uses her power to lift Kim and place her on the top buckle. Gail begins to gain momentum, but is quickly dropped to the canvas with a Kong clothesline. Kong fails a second Awesome Bomb attempt, but scores with an Implant Buster, which earns her a count of two. Kong misses a splash from the second rope, allowing Kim to mount an offense. Gail gets a two-count following a spear, but is quickly caught with a spinning back fist. Kim manages to come off of the second turnbuckle and somersault over Kong, driving the Awesome one’s head to the mat on her way down. Gail follows this up with a back senton splash off of the top rope, which gets her another near fall. ODB pulls Saeed off the apron, which instigates a Knockouts brawl on the arena floor. Gail climbs to the top again, but is pushed to the mat by Angelina Love as the referee is distracted. With Kim’s knee injured from the fall, Kong delivers a devastating Awesome Bomb to retain her title.
A highlight package airs – entitled “As The Angles Turn” – documenting the recent history between Kurt and Karen Angle.
Kurt Angle comes to the ring for a promo:
Angle says he realizes how miserable his wife Karen must be without him, but tells her that he is willing to forgive her shortcomings as a wife provided she remembers her place. From there, we abruptly cut to commercials. Kurt’s music is playing when the program resumes, but based on Mike Tenay’s comments, the Olympian has apparently invited Karen to the Impact Zone next week for a public response. It’s hard to defend production blunders such as this one, seeing as Impact is a taped show.
JB interviews LAX, who credit Hector Guerrero for their Tag Title win at Sacrifice. Hector then encourages fans to support LAX.
Match #3: Tag Team Champions LAX (W/Salinas and Hector Guerrero) vs. The Motor City Machineguns (Non-title):
Homicide and Alex Shelley begin the bout. After some grappling on the mat, Homicide catches Shelley with a belly-to-belly suplex and proceeds to vertical suplex the MCM onto the shoulders of Hernandez, who drives Shelley into his shoulder. Homicide re-enters, but is soon on the canvas courtesy of a springboard dropkick by Chris Sabin into Shelley’s reverse STO. Sabin scales his partner’s back and dropkicks Hernandez off the apron. The Guns spend the next few minutes using fast-paced double-team maneuvers on Homicide, but the smaller LAX member eventually catches Sabin in a springboard attempt and T-bones suplexes him to the mat. Hernandez catapults over the top rope into a clothesline on both Guns and throws Shelley overhead with a Crackerjack. Hernandez positions Shelley for a Border Toss, but Sabin prevents the move by nailing the big man with an enzuigiri. The MCMs attempt a double suplex, but Hernandez takes both men over with simultaneous suplexes of his own. Homicide dropkicks Shelley out of the ring and LAX then team up for a Gringo Cutter on Sabin, which gets them the win.
JB is backstage with Booker T. Team 3D arrive and chase Borash off. Booker and Brother Devon speak, with both making strange references to the King Booker character.
A video is shown of Eric Young’s search for Elvis Presley leading up to the Slammiversary PPV.
Part one of Mike Tenay’s sit-down interview with Sting is shown. The Stinger speaks on the early days of his career working for Jerry Jarrett and teaming with Jim “The Ultimate Warrior” Hellwig, saying that the parting between he and Hellwig was not a nice one.
Lauren interviews Velvet Sky and Angelina Love, who make fun of Roxxi Laveaux for having her head shaved at Sacrifice in a terribly acted segment.
Match #4: The Beautiful People (Angelina Love and Velvet Sky) vs. ODB and Roxxi Laveaux:
ODB and Laveaux hit the ring and go right to work on Velvet and Angelina. Sky is then left inside with ODB, who lifts the blonde Knockout into a fallaway slam. Laveaux is tagged in and The Voodoo Queen delivers an overhead slam to Sky before yanking Love into the ring. Love dodges a dropkick and tags out to Velvet, who applies an octopus submission hold on Roxxi. Laveaux kicks Sky away and tags out to ODB; the flask-toting female enters the ring with a clothesline from the top rope to Sky and later slams her onto Angelina. ODB drives Velvet to the mat with a running powerslam, but Love interrupts the three-count. As the referee tends to a fallen Roxxi, Love jumpkicks ODB into Velvet Sky’s sunset flip to give The Beautiful People a victory.
Lauren interviews Christian Cage and Rhino. Cage says he has never respected Booker T, while Rhino tells Team 3D that he does not consider them family tonight, despite their history in ECW (Well, I should hope not, considering he is opposing them …).
Match #5: Team 3D and Booker T vs. Christian Cage, Rhino, and TNA Champion Samoa Joe:
Joe and Brother Devon start things off, and Joe soon catches the former Dudley with a leg lariat from the second turnbuckle. Booker breaks up the pin, prompting a melee involving each participant. As Rhino battles Booker outside, Cage comes off of the top rope with a flying bodypress onto Brother Ray on the floor. Ray later slaps Hector Guerrero – who is providing commentary at the Spanish announce table – as he and Cage brawl amongst the crowd. Following a commercial break, Ray delivers a reverse neckbreaker on Rhino and gets a two-count after a Rock Bottom slam. Rhino counters Ray’s Irish whip into a spinebuster, buying him the time to tag Joe, who enters the ring a house of fire. Joe tosses Ray into Devon in the corner and follows up with an enzuigiri to Devon. Joe then targets Booker T and drops the ex-monarch with a leg lariat before driving Devon to the canvas using an overhead suplex. As Booker and Rhino battle on the floor, Cage comes off of the top turnbuckle with a dropkick to Ray. Christian is then downed courtesy of a Devon clothesline, but falls victim to a match-winning powerslam from Joe. An irate Brother Ray once again strikes Hector Guerrero and Team 3D drag the broadcaster to the back, where they proceed to pummel him until Cage, Rhino, and Joe – who had been held back by a chair-wielding Booker T – are finally able to run them off.
This was a pretty solid show featuring some great wrestling. The Gail Kim-Awesome Kong match was the best on the program, but the LAX-MCMs, the opening bout, and the main event were good also.
I recently read that TNA is encouraging Abyss to tone down his violent style – something I am wholeheartedly in favor of for any wrestler – and the video tonight seemed to indicate that his new gimmick upon returning will reflect that change. As I said, I agree that Abyss’ hardcore practices need minimizing, but I hope TNA is able present this element in the character without having him appear weak.
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