Reviewing the 2/17/11 episode of TNA.
10 Thoughts on TNA Impact
1. Ric Flair in any capacity on TNA TV is a huge addition to the program. Ric Flair returned this week to reveal where he stood in the Immortal/Fortune feud. Flair came into the locker room to deliver an icing to Beer Money/AJ and lure them into believing he was still with them. Flair then came down during the AJ Styles vs. Matt Hardy match to seemingly cheer AJ Styles on before turning on him. So the Flair babyface tease was just that. He’s better as a heel anyways. Only he has his work cut out for him if he is going to convince me the rag tag group of Immortal can go toe to toe with Fortune. AJ battles Ric Flair next week in a dream match coming out of this storyline.
2. Hernandez looks to have aligned himself with Sarita and Rosita. He then went on to attack Douglas Williams from behind before their match and squash him. Hopefully this will lead to a feud between the two or Sir Douglas really got buried. Douglas did take one helluva Border Toss and made Hernandez look like a monster heel.
3. Not only did The Pope lose at the PPV, he got taken out by Samoa Joe this week as well. Okada is now being pronounced as O-Kato according to Taz or directed by TNA creative. He is also being dressed to look like Kato. Ridiculous gimmicks aside, Samoa Joe needs him and a sidekick….Why? Unless it is supposed to be leading to a tag team match much like Sarita bringing in Rosita to feud with the Beautiful People, then I can only surmise Okada is there to eventually help build The Pope back up after his setbacks at the hands of Samoa Joe. In fact if The Pope doesn’t attack Okada next week for revenge, I’d really be disappointed in how far they are dropping The Pope.
4. AJ Styles vs. Matt Hardy: Matt Hardy has returned to his pre-braided look. AJ Styles’ no hands somersault plancha  was as sweet as ever. Hardy looked bad in a couple of spots, even tripping on one, but seemed to recover enough to still get hit by AJ’s dropkick. He’ll have to step up his game if he wants to compete on AJ’s level. The finish with Flair looked bad to me because while the ref’s back may have been turned when AJ was pushed by Flair, he turned around looking almost directly at Flair hiding near the post on the apron. Those little things are not going to go unnoticed when fans try to suspend their disbelief in wrestling. To the referee’s defense, though, he would have no reason to believe Ric Flair would have pushed his own man off the turnbuckle at that point. It still did not seem right to me.
5. Velvet Sky may even look more hot when she is mad. After Sarita pinned Velvet again, Velvet laid out a challenge to Sarita who rightfully so at this point asked her to up the ante, putting her career on the line for one more match against her. Very nice build up and execution to this feud with a big time stipulation added to what should be the climax of this feud.
6. Lines of the Night:
Taz commenting on Sarita’s “low blow” to Velvet Sky
Taz-“Now hold on a minute…would that…how would that…hurt…well…I guess it could hurt some…female.”
&
Kazarian to Robbie E w/ Cookie  in a prematch in ring promo
Kazarian-“This company was built on the foundation that the X-Division laid. Maybe not as much foundation that is on Cookie’s face right now, but you get the point.”
7. All episode long, TNA stuffed in as much as they could to get everyone they could even a few seconds of TV time. I’m not sure what to make of the Jarretts/Angle segments. They could have stretched them out over weeks while also teasing Kurt Angle’s depression over being beat and losing the opportunity for full custody of his kids in interviews looking like they are taking place at Kurt’s home…only to have him explode on Jarrett on March 3rd. The Jarretts segments seemed to be repetitive and overkill as was the Kurt Angle barge in at the restaurant. Too much.
8. TNA did make great use of Bully Ray in his limited time on Impact, tho. He came out to bully Mike Tenay as TNA stressed the despicable actions of Ray at the PPV towards Devon’s sons. The Taz/Bully Ray face off at the announce table was a very nice touch, too and makes me wish Taz had another match in him to face off against Bubba.
9. Match of the Night:
TNA World Heavyweight Title Match
Jeff Hardy (c )Â vs. Rob Van Dam
w/ Special Guest Referee Mr. Anderson
Jeff Hardy vs. Rob Van Dam has a much bigger feel now that it is for the TNA World title. While it is a major TV Main Event, this match is PPV quality. Which can only reveal that ratings are put ahead of buyrates. Months of build up add to the hype of this match and TNA did put together a nice video during the show chronicling the history between the two. The match was very good for the time it was given, but I would have loved to have seen them go longer. I guess that would be the PPV tease. Although it could be a tease of the three way since Anderson channeling his inner Steve Austin gave Mic Checks to both Jeff Hardy and RVD post match. The finish of the match had seen a bit of a botched spot as Anderson seemed to maneuver himself into the way of Jeff and RVD in order to get in Hardy’s face and miss Hardy’s low blow that led to the Twist of Hate and pin on RVD. Still, knowing what type of magic RVD vs. Jeff Hardy can create on the big stage, hopefully we’ll get to see more big matches involving the two. Kazarian vs. Robbie E was better than I may have had every reason to believe in the brief action that was shown, but every match was going to have a tough time topping RVD vs. Hardy this evening.
10. Final Show Thoughts.
The Hardys each gained pinfall wins with the Twist of Hate. How many times does that happen on the same show? TNA may be leading towards a 3-Way title match at the next PPV. It is smart to get RVD back in the hunt as well as finally deliver his long awaited rematch with Jeff Hardy considering Jeff’s legal fate is still uncertain at this point. There didn’t seem to be too many new feuds coming out of this program as Sarita vs. Velvet looks to be reaching it’s climax as well as The Pope vs. Samoa Joe still looks to be going on. The original TNA Knockout Traci Brooks returned this week to help even the odds in the fight between her real life husband Kazarian vs. Robbie E and Cookie. AJ vs. Ric Flair will be very interesting to watch next week as well as where they go with Immortal from here. The power group really looks weak at this point compared to what it was. Not looking forward to Scott Steiner vs. Rob Terry in a match, posedown or whatever TNA can come up with. Not much focus on the tag team division these last few weeks which is very disappointing. TNA has to showcase what they do best. One would forget Beer Money are the champions and who the other contenders are if they don’t showcase a match from the division on their flagship show. Not every fan is watching X-Plosion every week.
That is all.
M.C. Brown
You can find me on Twitter as
ShocXwavE
