TNA had the right idea on Thursday night?s episode of Impact Wrestling as far as hyping Sunday?s Sting-Kurt Angle match at the Hardcore Justice pay-per-view.
In addition to a nicely done video package, the empty arena match between the two from a couple years ago was shown ? with Angle providing commentary ? and the final segment of the show featured the official contract signing for Sunday?s match for Sting?s TNA world title.
After signing the contract, Sting and Angle both cut good promos that were designed to make their showdown at Hardcore Justice seem special.
However, the segment wasn?t as effective as it should have been because I was distracted by the fact that ?Joker Sting? had slipped into ?Sane Sting? in the blink of an eye.
I understand that having Sting do his Heath Ledger/Jim Carrey shtick would have seemed ridiculously out of place following Angle?s serious promo, but after weeks of seeing a mentally unbalanced Sting, it didn?t make any sense in the story line for him to break character like that.
Then again, this is the same creative team that had Angelina Love walking around as a drugged-up zombie who was impervious to pain before abruptly becoming ?normal? again.
Other thoughts on Thursday?s show:
While I do think it was a good idea to revisit the empty arena match to show that Sting and Angle were once fierce rivals, I don?t get the sense that it?s the much-talked about classic match that TNA was making it out to be. ?
The feud between Immortal members Bully Ray and Mr. Anderson ? who will face each other at Hardcore Justice ? is happening way too fast. To make matters worse, it appears that Anderson is supposed to be the babyface here. By turning Anderson so frequently, TNA has succeeded in making me totally lose interest in a guy who I thought was one of the most compelling characters in the company not all that long ago. By the way, could TNA possibly make Anderson look any more ridiculous than he did when he fell for Ray?s fake apology? ?
As bad as Anderson?s character has been booked as of late, that?s nothing compared to all the damage that has been done to Samoa Joe over the years. After losing by disqualification to ?The Pope? D?Angelo Dinero in a Bound for Glory series match (Joe had won by submission but the referee reversed the decision when Joe refused to release the Kokina Clutch), Joe ? who now has minus-10 points in the series ? cut an angry promo about TNA brass screwing him over and how the blood will be on their hands. I suppose that means that Joe is about to go on a tear, but the problem is that he has done so much whining and complaining over the years and his character has had so many re-starts that I don?t see how any fan could possibly have any emotional investment in him. At this point, he should just ask for his release and go to Ring of Honor, where he can be the proverbial big fish in a small pond. ?
The Bobby Roode-Hernandez street fight was the most entertaining match on the show, although I could have done without all the unprotected shots to the head with garbage cans and lids. I also didn?t care for the finish ? Hernandez rolled up a distracted Roode for the win ? but I understand why it was done. With no one really believing Mexican America has any chance to beat Beer Money for the TNA world tag team title at Hardcore Justice, Hernandez needed to get the win. It?s also being played up that Roode and tag team partner James Storm are both banged up heading into Sunday?s match. ?
There were two other good matches: the tag team bout that saw Rob Van Dam and Crimson defeat Scott Steiner and Gunner, and the X Division contest in which Austin Aries beat Alex Shelley. ?
Joe doing the Undertaker gimmick of rolling his eyes in the back of his head while choking out Dinero was unintentionally funny. ?
I don?t care if it was booked to look like a fluke or not, Devon should not be scoring pinfall victories over A.J. Styles. ?
Styles lost the match due to an inadvertent distraction from Christopher Daniels. It seems as if TNA is determined to have Daniels turn on Styles, although for the life of me I don?t know why. It?s not like it?s anything we haven?t seen before. ?
What?s with guys spitting in each other?s faces in TNA? On this episode, Ray did it to Anderson, Steiner did it to Crimson, and Angle did it to Sting (in the clip of their empty arena match). TNA has never learned the lesson that less is more. In WWE, it was a big deal when Christian spit in Randy Orton?s face because it?s something that you rarely see there. ?
Speaking of Steiner and Crimson, unless I zoned out and missed it, the announcers failed to mention that Steiner was mentoring Crimson just a few months ago. ?
While the match between Miss Tessmacher and Madison Rayne (which Tessmacher won) only lasted about 90 seconds, TNA did manage to get six Knockouts some camera time during it. Mickie James sat in on commentary, and she was attacked after the match by Angelina Love and Winter. Plus, Tara accompanied Tessmacher to the ring. ...
Matt Morgan did a decent job on commentary during the Joe-Dinero match. It?s a good move by TNA to keep him involved in things while he recovers from his torn pectoral injury.
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