Daveportivo's Cultural Evaluation Facility

I'm still fiddly my review style, I'm not sure whether to go with Hits and Misses or the headline style that I've used for RAW this week, I'm going to try hits and misses this week and then see which I prefer so bare with the format changes.

Hits:

Team 3D Tag Team Tournement: Team 3D set it up with a great respectful promo putting over the importance of Tag Team wrestling and how their glad to be in a company where tag teams are important was a really nice touch. I just hope we don't get one of the those stupid deals where we have a tag team tournement only for the night after the PPV for a random team to be given a title shot for no apparent reason. Beer Money vs. Lethal Consequences was a fun TV match shorter than I'd like but still a fine tv match up, same goes for No Limit vs. Holliday and Young.

Scott Stiener & Kurt Angle Promo: I liked this alot, it wasn't anything to write home about but I'm glad to see Scott Stiener being the angry arse kicking monster. While I think the character consistency is all over the place I'm glad to see them return to clear heels and faces. Scott Stiener should not be likeable he should be a straight up bad arse.

The Beautiful People Celebration: I'm going to catch alot of flack for this but I thought this was a really good segment, as was the interview early in the show, I thought this was the kind of ultra obnoxious heel promos that will make people hate and thoroughly boo the beautiful people. Obviously bringing out male strippers is not a great idea on the program where the key demo is men 18 to 34 and a few people might have switched channel the minute they said "bring out the dancing" boys but this should serve the purpose of removing any lingering cheers for the Beautiful People. It also made Kong look like a bad arse and for ending the male stripping should stop anyone asking themselves why they are supposed to cheer the big nasty heel.

Christopher Daniels Sitdown Interview: He said all the right things in all the right way, I'd be really interested in seeing who they progamme him in against. This promo summed up the three dimensional characters that Vince Russo loves to create, sometimes it works really well, some times (most times) it fails miserable, this was a success. Daniels return has been very well handled.

Scott Steiner bounces on a Pogo Stick: No joke he did this during the Cactus Jack Smack Attack.

Misses:

Openening Segment: Mick Foley comes out and does his usual mild comedy friendly Foley stuff, which is love it or hate it, this week its hate it, Foley runs through a series of out of date references but the real problem is the horrible Sacrifice Main Event they announce. Mick Foley will defend the title in a four way match, sounds fine right, well seeing as Foley will be sacrificing his World Title, the other contenders will be chosen based on who will sacrifice the most? Yes not who deserves a shot or whose earned one or anything like that. Why does every bloody TNA show have to have a theme, its not like on Summerslam every match takes place in a swimming pool or on the fucking beach. Foley and Jeff have a lovers tiff over who really runs the show and Foley then goes through some cringe inducing catches phrase and then books Jeff in a Cactus Jack Smack Attack, ugh.

Booker T & Nash tension: Sharmell and the stupid z list celebrity tension is just horrible, I really hope this doesn't run or lead to an kind of match.

Mick Foley-cam: God I hate Mick Foley, I really do, I found all of these segments completely pointless, other than making Foley seem like a total prick, if you find Foley funny you'll probably love this.

Taylor Wilde vs. Sojo Bolt Ladder Match: This was just horrible in every way, a three minute ladder match? A ladder match on free tv with no prior build up? Sojo is number one contender again? The last point is actually the hardest to understand of the bunch why is the least over knock out on the roster getting another shot. Sojo isn't ready for TV and damn sure isn't ready for PPV. This was just a terrible idea from start to finish.

Doctor Stevie: They shouldn't have involved Lauren in the Doctor Stevie skits, she'd been doing a really good job of being the voice of reason and asking the sensible questions that fans would ask of the ludicrious TNA storylines. I don't mind Stevie Richards I think he plays this role well but I'd much rather see him and Abyss wrestling and playing as legitimate bad arses. I hate that the commentators are still pretending they didn't know who Dr. Stevie was until lockdown, it makes them look like morons, and patronizes everyone who watches TNA.


Other Newsworthy Happenings:

-AJ Styles defends the TNA Legends Title against Kevin Nash in a servicable TV match, which is about the best you can hope for from Kevin Nash these days. The match ended when Rudy Charles spotted Booker T's inteference out of the corner of his eye.
-Kevin Nash and his Z list ho argued with Booker and Sharmell backstage, please tell me this does not end up being a PPV match, nobody wants to see that.
-Trevor Murdoch debuted as The Outlaw Jethro Holliday and Teamed with Eric Young to defeat No Limit and advance in the tag team tournement.
-Beer Money defeat Leathal Consequences to Advance in the tag team tournement.
-Sojourn Bolt became number one contender to the Knockouts Title
-Jeff Jarrett defeated Scott Steiner in a Cactus Jack Smack Attack after a guitar shot and the stroke. Embarsing in places but had enough solid action towards the end to make it an acceptable Main Event.
-After the Main Event Mick Foley saves Jeff Jarrett from an Ankle Lock Steiner Recliner combinition only to turn on Jeff Jarrett with a chair shot once e ran of the MEM.
-Jeff says Mick made things personal and he's going to shove a pink slip up Mick Foley's arse, then Bobby Lashley's music hits and Kurt looks happy and Jeff Jarrett looks pissed off.

Overall Thoughts: This show was a total drag to watch, lifeless and utterly horrible in places. Totally skipable, this breaks the streak of good iMPACT!s but at least if impact sucks we might get a good PPV it normal works that way around. (3.5/10)