Genuine Impact Review - June 11, 2009

So we open up with a promo from TNA Champion Mick Foley. Ill be honest. When Foley first became champion I pretty much shat on the idea. I thought the guy was way past his prime and should not be a World Champion in 2009, especially when TNA should have been focusing on the Frontline/Mafia feud in order to build new stars. But Ive rather enjoyed Foley with his new little heelish persona. He has some nice segments, some bad (Furley eyes, anyone?), but Im not shitting on the idea like I originally did. As long as he drops it soon, that is, since he shouldnt be a long term champion.

So Foley's promo was about Foley losing his smile because of Jarrett or something or another. He calls Jeff Jarrett out, saying to do things face to face pretty much. So the opening segment is about Jarrett hitting Earl Hebner last week. Due to this, Foley threatens (I say threaten because I dont think itll actually happen) to suspend and fine Jarrett. Long story short, Jarrett is given the easy or hard road, and Jarrett takes the latter, getting beaten down by Foley's new security force/the Mafias old security force. But the segment doesnt end without the face comeback. More threats from Foley to throw Jarrett out of the Impact Zone. So the segment was pretty much just to continue the little feud between Jarrett and Foley, with Foley trying to act like the face and be concerned about Earl Hebner, but pull it off in a heelish way.

Interview with Team 3D, who go on about hating British Invasion. In the middle of the interview the camera shows Raven sitting down on the side. Team 3D giving props to Beer Money is good. I enjoy that the feud went from Beer Money being the heels to it becoming about Beer Money actually respecting (at least it seems that way to me; I havent been a regular viewer) and their upcoming match with 3D being about just who the better tag team is. I still find it hard to give a crap about Team 3D, but if they end up putting Beer Money over and turn them into big tag team, itll be a job well done. Just dont let this be like the 3D/X Division feud that never even gave said X Division any sort of big rub or anything.

TNA Video Vault plug.

Some more Jarrett, who admits he lost his temper last week and can see where Foley is coming from with the Hebner thing. Jarrett challenging Foley to throw him out of the building. Eh. It is hard for me to get into Jarrett. I just dont like seeing him as a main eventer. I just dont know if I can really be interested in this Foley/Jarrett feud. Just as long as it doesnt come down to Foley dropping the belt to Jarrett at Bound for Glory or something. I still firmly believe TNA should put a young guy over at that event.

Alex Shelley and Jay Lethal vs Team 3D: I noticed in a Botchamania video that TNA are miscalling the tag belts from New Japan. Instead of calling them the IWGP Tag Team Champions, they call them the New Japan Tag Champs... Not a big deal, just something I noticed in a Botchamania video I was shown and noticed during the name card during Team 3Ds entrance. Quite surprisingly an above decent match. Shelley at the beginning worked the agility card well against Brother Devons powerhouse physique. Off topic note: I have fallen in love with Don West on commentary. A few months ago I could not stand the guy and thought he was just beyond horrible, but his little heel turn has turned the guy into something I look forward to seeing when I tune in. He just plays the whole obnoxious heel commentator role extremely well. Back to the match, it wasn't a grand match, but it was a nice little tag match that pitted the X Division tag teams against the more powerhouse tag team of 3D. Nice spot during the match was Lethal and Shelley both going for suicide dives on 3D to the outside, but instead hitting their partners. Following the double team headdrop move 3D do, British Invasion (only two) came out and got knocked off the apron by 3D, and the third attacked Devon from behind with the briefcase. Sorry, I just dont care for British Invasion, nor do I really care about Jay Lethal anymore, and I never really cared about Creed. MCMG, though, I quite love. They are a superb team I think. Very entertaining both in and out of the ring. I would give the match no thumbs up or down. It was above decent, but really just average with some nice short spots of Shelley getting shots in. I hope British Invasion get taken care of and are taken off tv or just dropped down the card, unless TNA can make me care about them somehow (attacking 3D doesnt make me want to hate the team to be honest).

Mick Foley having more security detail to help him "single handedly" take Jarrett out of the building. Not bad. Foley is just dead set on tossing him out of the building over the Hebner situation, despite not really caring and just wanting to throw Jarrett out and now having a reason. That's what I think anyways. And after a commercial we get Foley going into Jarretts locker room, with Jarrett saying he will leave before he does something he regrets. Not before telling Foley to reevaluate his role in the company.

Booker T and Scott Steiner backstage with Borash... Booker shouldnt have been allowed to talk. Hard to understand what the hell he was saying and it sounded like he was just overacting. Even if it is part of his gimmick, it just comes off bad. Steiner took care of the segment; though, it was missing calling Joe fat like last week. I seriously loved that, partly because I just do not like Joe at all, and because the way Steiner said it was just hilarious. Go and look for the Mafia sitdown interview with Mike Tenay from last week and tell me you dont laugh at that part.

Booker T and Scott Steiner vs Samoa Joe: First blood match here. Since I actually paid attention, there DOES seem to be a point to this, what with Joes new 'sadistic' gimmick he has going on and wanting to spill the blood of the Mafia. But these gimmick matches need to be used less on Impact. My personal opinion, but I just think TNA need to make the gimmick matches mean more by building them up instead of just throwing them out there with little explanation/reason or not a good enough reason. Case in point, Cody Deaner vs British Invasion Member in a ladder match; total waste of a ladder match, even IF the briefcase was in play. Anyways... I find it hard to care for Joe. His little pissy selfish prick phase from a few weeks ago was bad, because he should have been doing the Frontline thing instead of that (for whatever reason), and him on the mic is just not that great these days, and his new look is horrible and just comes off as an Umaga ripoff. The match with Steiner was not anything great. The match with Steiner was busted open after a little trash can action, and now comes Booker T. The match with Booker was a joke. It lasted all of 3-4 minutes. Once again, I just dont care for Joe. His new Nation of Violence gimmick is something that could work. Him FINALLY going after the Mafia is the right direction at least. Now all that needs to happen is to get AJ and Daniels in it as well and fight alongside Joe to make it more than just a one man army getting the rub of beating the Mafia (if TNA doesnt end up jobbing Joe out to Kurt/Sting in the end). I just dont really care to tune in for Joe right now. I dont know if itll change in a few weeks after the feud with the Mafia goes on for a bit more, or whether I just cant ever get into him again. I mean, I can understand what he is doing and understand it is the 'right' thing to do, him taking the Mafia out one by one until he gets to Angle, but it's still just hard to get into him. Probably because of how his new character was booked prior to a couple weeks ago where he issued the statement of taking the Mafia out one by one, what with carrying a shitty looking knife around and acting like some killer and all.

Random shot of Raven backstage sitting in the corner in the same room with the Mafia, who are checking on Booker and Scotty.

AJ Styles vs Shane Douglas: I dont care for Douglas returning. Some may love that he is back, but he is just taking up the time for someone else that could use it, and I dont see exactly what will be accomplished. Beating him wont boost anyone up. But maybe he can pull out some nice matches. The match was not that good. I would rate it below decent. Just not interesting really. Post match with Daniels coming out and getting handcuffed to the ropes was... interesting. Samoa Joe comes running out to save AJ from a beatdown from Shane Douglas. So does this mean Douglas is with the Mafia or soon will be? Joe actually saving AJ and Daniels was good, because at least it shows he is on the same page that they are. Or were, at least, since I dont even know if either Daniels or AJ are involved in the feud against the Mafia at this point. Joe gained a point from me for that at least.

And more of Raven. This time chasing the backstage interviewer into a bathroom, followed by some screaming and slamming. Ah. Daffney. My love. Dont quite understand it, but Daffney is involved. Automatic care and love of the segment, even with the overacting from inside the bathroom. And another Daffney segment, this time beating up Taylor Wilde. Steven Richards little "Sorry Taylor... This is all the time we have for this week" was actually a nice line. And now I get it. Raven was in shots of Lauren throughout the show, and Lauren is friends with Taylor Wilde, and Taylor is the enemy of Daffeny. Slow brains ahoy.

Nice little interview with the Beautiful People. Borash being called an idiothole was great. TBP are nice at the whole pretty but dumb but still aggressive shtick. Was a fun interview. I find Borash to be rather bad, mostly for his stupid little facial expressions, but he can serve the role of a Kevin Kelly/Coach rather well when need be.

Another Cody Deaner/ODB training video... Just no. I do not see what is so great about ODB. She is horrible and not funny in the slightest.

Kurt Angle angry towards... Samoe Joe? Hmm. Good. I was actually expecting Angle to be upset over Sting being the new Godfather of the Mafia, so that was nice (even if he is facing Sting later in the night). Pretty simple little segment this was. Now TNA just need to build up Angle/Joe well. Even though I dont care for Joe right now, TNA need to build new stars up, and Joe could be one of those stars. TNA just need to bring AJ and Daniels, or someone else, into the mix, because I dont believe Joe should get the glory of taking out the Mafia himself. Like I said, though, I think the problem I had with Joe was how he was booked upon his initial return with this new gimmick. Thinking about it as the show is going on, and now that Joe is now going after Angle after having taken out Nash/Scotty/Booker, I kind of want to see where things go from here. His look is still daft, but him pretty much going back to his original gimmick from when he debuted in TNA of just being a badass in the ring added with him being a man on a mission to take the Mafia down is the right way to go with things, and him taking out Nash, Scotty, and Booker helps build him back up as said badass.

Madison Rayne vs Tara: Off the bat, I havent cared for Victoria as much since she dropped the psycho gimmick in the WWE a few years ago. That didnt take anything away from the match, though. Not great, but it was entertaining and serves as a way to build up the Tara/Love feud. Little nitpick, but Im not a fan of some one word names. Abyss works. Kane, Batista, Sting, those work. Tara is eh, and Daniels is just bad. It doesnt make a whole lot of difference, but I wouldnt have minded having her be called Tara Vachon or Tara Marie. Again, not biggie, because I think Tara works better than Daniels does.

Now we go to a segment with Eric Young explaining his recent actions. Young states hes been taken advantage of by everyone, even the fans. And Young knocks Borash out... Ya know... I could never stand Eric Young. I thought he was overrated and just was not entertaining. But now that he is pretty much saying "screw you" to the fans, he could be somewhat interesting. I didnt think a heel turn would make a difference, but eh. Im not saying Young could be main event material, but I could actually be a bit interested in the guy with this little heel turn he has going on.

Daniels promo from the back wasnt really anything to judge. Just Daniels challenging Shane Douglas to a match at Slammiversary: Shane wins and he gets Daniels' spot in the company, but if Daniels wins then Shane gets his ratty ass out of 'his' company.

Kurt Angle vs Sting: Okay, Angle/Sting shaking hands? TNA? Thank. You. I am fucking glad that TNA are not doing another Sting/Angle feud, and Angle showing good sportsmanship means he isn't going to throw any egomaniacal hissy fits over not being in charge. So that is really a sigh of relief from me, as I was just waiting for Angle to throw some sort of hissy fit this week or something over the whole ordeal. The match, before the first commercial break, was slow and boring, but it was only a few minutes so nothing horrible. Before the second commercial break, eh. Thus far the match hasnt really been anything special at all, just rather average. Part three of the match was better, but it's the final part so that would be it. The match itself still wasn't that great. I'd call it an average main event with some hot moments towards the end. Matt Morgan coming out? Eh. I'm not sold on the guy. He has a good look, but I dont think he is as great on the mic or in the ring as some make him out to be. Morgan costing Sting the match due to last weeks confrontation between the two is good continuity. Could this mean Angle puts over Joe and Sting puts over Morgan? I probably wouldnt care for either man, but it would be good if TNA create two new stars of their own. Angle gets the win and is added to the KOTM match at Slammiversary (thoughts on the current card to follow). Sadly my DVR cut the show out about a minute before it ended, so the last thing I saw was Angle looking in awe at Morgan clapping in the ring after costing Sting the match. I can see this going one of two ways. Sting remaining the face and Morgan remaining the heel, but Angle not condoning nor happy that Morgan helped him win, or Angle happy about Morgan doing what he did, and the whole thing turning into Angle/Morgan against Sting/Joe with a loose alliance. EDIT: I was told that Angle got in Morgans face and wasnt happy with him getting involved, so again bravo to TNA for actually having Angle and Sting remain on the same page like this. I am pleasantly surprised.

So, all in all an alright show. Nice womens match, Eric Young may interest me for the first time ever, Joe is now on the right track (though again, I still cannot get into him), the first blood matches were rather meh and serve as proof that TNA need to stop giving away gimmick matches on free tv unless there is a good enough reason/backstory to do so or they can have the gimmick matches actually live up to their hype... TNA actually shocked me by having Angle and Sting shake hands, and also by not really showing much sign of Angle getting pissy over Sting being the new leader.

I usually hate on TNA, but sitting down and watching a full show to write a blog was good. If I hadnt written the blog, I probably would have just skipped over most of the Joe, Foley, Jarrett, and Young stuff. I dont think TNA are suddenly great or anything like that, but yeah. I'm going to try and not worry too much about what TNA may or may not do, may or may not fuck up, in the near future and just focus on the shows as they occur.