• Wrestling News & Wrestling Rumors – WWE & TNA

Thanks to Jeff Hamlin for the following TNA Impact results for May 22, 2009:

The Big News: Only real news of note is Jeff Jarrett is the final man in this weekend’s four-way main event for Sacrifice. If Jarrett loses, he gives up the voting shares in the company. Since I don’t know what that involves, I’d say the chances are strong Jarrett will lay down Sunday. Also, the Suicide-Daniels program with two other tag teams was aborted suddenly without reason.

Jeff Jarrett came out for an in-ring interview to announce himself as the final participant in the four-way main event this weekend. He was calm despite getting jumped by Mick Foley last week in Nashville. In fact, too calm as that type of white-meat babyface doesn’t fly on top nowadays. It got a good but not great reaction. Jarrett cut a promo on Mick Foley saying he wasn’t fit to be TNA champion. Foley came out in Cactus Jack flannel and had a Cactus Jack delivery, saying Jarrett screamed like a girl after Foley rammed the chair into his leg again and again last week in Nashville.

Foley asked Jarrett what he was willing to give up to be in the main event. Foley kept taunting him about how Jarrett was scared to put up his voting shares in the company. Foley screamed deal or no deal. To Jarrett’s credit, the crowd was behind him as he made his verbal comeback and accepted the deal. It’s Jarrett’s voting shares on the line. Exactly what that is or constitutes I have no idea. Too bad none of this will draw.

To show how little this company pays attention to its own storylines, on the December 11th edition of Impact, Jarrett in fact gave up control of the company to Foley because he was about to wrestle Kurt Angle at Genesis. So what’s been done since then for Jarrett to regain authority? Either they’re ignoring this part of the storyline or I know this show better than the people that write it. Regardless, it’s another stipulation that falls through the cracks.

Foley then climbed in the ring and made a match where all four of the men involved in Sunday’s main event would be in singles matches tonight. Eric Young would face Sting, Matt Morgan goes against Kurt Angle, and Jarrett (still less than 100% with a bad hamstring) would face Samoa Joe. Foley tried to set it up like Jarrett was facing the bad ass of the company, but Joe’s been so badly buried the announcement got no pop. Foley said a former world heavyweight champion that wanted to face him and built him up to be a legend, but didn’t say who.

Kurt Angle was back after a week away shooting a movie and was upset at Sting for “not knowing his role.”

Suicide and Daniels (who was called Chris by Lauren the interview girl) were backstage for a promo. Tonight, the two will team against The Motor City Machine Guns and Lethal Consequences. Then, they’ll turn around and Daniels will face Suicide for the X division title this weekend. So the only program worth a damn in the company since Lockdown was blown off tonight with no warning. Plus, they skipped a month’s worth of angles that could have built up the next natural match in the program for the next PPV and rushed it all onto TV in three days. And keep in mind how little depth TNA has to begin with.

1. Suicide and Daniels defeated the Motor City Machine Guns and Black Machismo and Consequences Creed in a three-way tag team match in 6:04. Again, little heat, which was the rule on this taping. Despite blowing off the program three days early, it was a real good match because they got more time than most Impact matches during the first hour do. Daniels and Alex Shelley traded stiff kicks, including the guns giving Daniels the bulletpoint (double team superkick). Shelley and Chris Sabin did a slingshot elbow and slingshot senton on Daniels. Sabin did a cool uranage into the Demolition finisher with Shelley coming off the top.

Consequences Creed came in, but Daniels laid both he and Sabin out with a combination bulldog and flying clothesline. Suicide got the hot tag. Sabin did a spectacular flying DDT on Black Machismo. It appeared the guns had the win when Sabin gave Suicide a chokeslam and Shelley followed with a frog splash, but Daniels made the save in a good near fall. Daniels hit a split-legged plancha to Machismo, which popped the crowd. Shelley went for the sliced bread #2, but Suicide blocked it, rammed his head into the turnbuckle and pinned him after a codebreaker. Daniels looked ready to confront Suicide about something after the match, but Suicide vanished again. ***

Kurt Angle was still looking for Sting, and was set to go up in the rafters. I guess sublets an apartment up there. Jeremy Borash followed Steiner and Angle up there. Then they cut away.

There was training footage with Booker T and Kevin Nash working out. Could they have chosen a worse person to get over in-ring violence than Nash at this point? Even worse, he was shown throwing two clotheslines. And Nash has the worst clotheslines this side of Jim Hellwig. Even worse, Nash looks like Killer Tim Brooks’ older and taller brother. After following the show with a tremendous UFC buildup job with Serra and Hughes, words can’t describe how lame this was. Hell, they should have shot the moon and promoted a piece on clutch NFL quarterback play in big games, then showed video of Tony Romo. That was the last of Nash on the show, and we still saw way too much of him.

Team 3-D came out to promote the championship match of the invitational tag team tournament between the British Invasion and Beer Money. Brother Ray called the TNA tag titles the most prestigious belts ever. His nose was noticeably growing at this point. Ray started running down the British Invasion for jumping them last week, and put over Beer Money for having class and dignity. Brutus Maximus, Doug Williams and Rob Terry went to the ring. Problem with this group is there’s not one decent talker amongst them. Maximus put over Terry as a bodyguard he spent big money on.

It wound up with 3-D jumping Williams and Maximus before Terry hit Ray with a briefcase. Maximus and Williams are carrying the briefcases that Homicide and Hernandez won in the feast or fired match in December. So a guess their titles shots have gone the way of the Tokyo Dome special. Even with limited activity, you could see how green Terry is. They laid out 3-D with Williams giving Ray the European uppercut off the top rope. Beer Money ran in for the save saying they have respect for 3-D and would beat the invasion to win the tournament, then vowed to take the belts from 3-D. 3-D and Beer Money shook hands, so it appears Beer Money are faces until the next set of tapings.

Eric Young was backstage upset about facing Sting tonight. Jarrett blew him off saying if he hadn’t have discovered him in southern Ontario in 2002, he would be nothing. Guess that sounds better than learning about Young from Scott D’Amore.

Angle found Sting in the rafters. Angle was mad about Sting being in the main event. He was in the main event on the last show Angle appeared on. Why would Angle be mad now? Sting asked Angle if he watched the show. Doesn’t he know that no TNA star watches the show? Sting said he was upset about being screwed out of his belt at Lockdown and now he wants revenge. Basically the same thing as two months ago when the two teased trying to win the belt for themselves when they’re in a multi-man match. Angle seemed a little more at ease after Sting explained the situation, but it’s clear another program is developing.

2. Sting defeated Eric Young in 3:04. The background was neither man wanted the match and Young applauded when Sting made his entrance. They did Sting-Ric Flair spots early, and that wasn’t lost on the crowd. Especially when Young did the Ray Stevens flip to the corner and ran to the adjacent corner, but Sting slammed him off the top rope. Crowd also knew Young had no chance since this company refuses to take chances with talent. Young went for a missile dropkick, but Sting caught him and put him in the scorpion deathlock. Young struggled for a few seconds before tapping. Mike Tenay barely had time to get over it could be the last time we see Sting in action on Impact, like anybody’s buying that. *1/2

Borash was in Foley’s office and announced firings and acquisitions over the past week during his text message promotional tie-in. Borash tried to get Foley to tell him who it was, and thought he knew. I guess he thought it was Flair. Foley remained tight-lipped.

Awesome Kong and Angelina Love were called out to the ring by Jim Cornette for a contract signing for this weekend’s Knockouts title match. Love came out with bodyguards since Velvet Sky, Cute Kip and Madison Rayne were all put out of commission in the last three weeks because of Kong. Raisha Saeed signed for Kong. Love got on the mic and tried to apologize for cutting Kong’s hair. She came off hilariously insincere. She promised after the match on Sunday, she would buy her real make-up instead of the clown make-up she has on now. She also promised Kong a new wardrobe and to send her to a fat farm to get her in shape. If that didn’t work, there was always liposuction. Hey, worked for Luger. Okay, bad example.

Kong’s facials were great. Love offered to shake hands, and Kong obliged but refused to let go and choked her before the referees broke it up. Referee Rudy Charles got in Kong’s face, which earned him an Awesome Bomb through the table. Love looked freaked out going to the dressing room. After dropping the ball with Suicide earlier the show, the Kong-Love buildup has been the best thing in the company this month.

Lauren was furious with Dr. Stevie after Taylor Wilde’s blind date went awry last week. Abyss tried to calm her down. She and Abyss went into Dr. Stevie’s front office, which looks remarkably like backstage at the Impact Zone. The receptionist said Dr. Stevie was on vacation and wouldn’t return until Monday. Maybe he’s in Vegas too.

A.J. Styles did a good promo after his I Quit match this weekend. It would have been even better if they hadn’t have shown the match last week which made you want to stop seeing I Quit matches forever. Styles said he had come face to face with quitting wrestling for years, but never did. He also said he has no relationship with Joe, so he’s likely getting involved in the finish.

Matt Morgan cut an interview about potentially joining the Main Event Mafia. He compared himself to Kevin Garnett being a free agent. Well, Garnett does get injured some. That’s where the comparisons end.

Kurt Angle defeated Matt Morgan in 4:28. Morgan got almost all of the offense since he did the job. Storyline was Morgan was really impressing the leader of the mafia, but Angle inched out a victory in the end. Morgan worked on Angle’s neck early, including giving him a wheelbarrow slam into the railing before a commercial. Morgan got a near fall with a carbon footprint. Then came the usual teases of Angle going for the Olympic slam and ankle lock. Morgan gave Angle a fallaway slam and teased the hellevator, but Angle turned it into an inside cradle for the pin. Angle shook Morgan’s hand afterward, so the tease of Morgan joining the mafia goes on. Angle did a good job carrying here. **

Jarrett did an interview with Lauren, who didn’t want Jarrett wrestling tonight because his hamstring is almost torn.

Jenna did a promo and said she was waiting to sign the financial papers in order to financially back the mafia. But she wouldn’t do it until Sharmell apologizes. On a serious note, best of luck to Jenna’s real-life boyfriend, who was diagnosed with cancer recently.

Jeff Jarrett defeated Samoa Joe by DQ in 2:45. Jarrett had his left leg all taped up. Same thing with all of Jeff’s big matches where there’s a big brawl into the crowd early. Joe kept kicking at Jarrett’s leg to the point where referee Mark Johnson kept intervening not wanting to see Jarrett get hurt anymore. Finally, Joe threw Johnson into the barricade for the DQ, and the crowd wasn’t happy. Joe kept beating up Jarrett until Styles ran out to stop him. It wound up with Joe and Styles in a pull-apart. Keep in mind, Joe was a face a month ago. If he turned, and I would think he would have had to by now because he’s certainly not a face, I missed it. 1/2 *

Mick Foley came out and introduced his opponent as Rocky Balboa. A man in a grey sweatshirt came out carrying a cardboard cutout of Balboa circa Rocky II. One of the security guards carried the cutout during the staredown, and Foley even sold for his punches. The bodyguard couldn’t hide his grin, and neither could the actor portraying Mick outside the ring. Mick fought back and gave the cutout a piledriver and the people’s elbow (not called that, of course) for the pin. Foley even blew up in this comedy match.

Speaking of Rocky movies, I’ve always wondered why Ivan Drago had a punch that was twice of the average boxer, which is pretty hard anyway. So shouldn’t that have decapitated Rocky when they fought? I know, trying to apply logic to Rocky IV is like trying to make sense out of that Roode-Young feud from years ago. Jarrett came out pissed off and said Foley made a mockery of the company. Yeah, the Johnson’s, the Russo-Rhodes program and last week’s I Quit match were fine, but Foley wrestling a cardboard crossed the line.

Jarrett decked Foley. Then Angle ran in, jumped Jarrett from behind and put him in the ankle lock. This brought out Sting, who tried to play peacemaker. But as he did so, Foley jumped Sting from behind while Jarrett gave Angle the stroke. Foley then hit Jarrett with a chair over the head, to walk out of the ring while his three opponents in the ring were left laying.

SUMMARY: Probably the best show of this PPV cycle, but it hasn’t been a successful period for this company. The more time goes on, the more running PPVs every two months seems to make sense. This company just doesn’t have the depth to run monthly PPV shows. Like WWE, they’re forced to go with the same matches over and over, and there’s only so much on PPV you can do. It was also a telling sign looking at the crowd reactions for the past three weeks. The Orlando crowds are typically hot no matter the workrate, but their tepid nature indicates they understand these matches are just four minute cut-ins before the next cycle of angles, so they really don’t mean anything.