Andrew’s TNA Impact Report: Hard Core Justice
By Andrew Ryan
This week TNA continues to battle themselves by promoting pitting the ECW reunion show, Hardcore Justice, up against “The Whole F’N Show” PPV-quality Impact for next week, promoting both as the most epic hardcore shows ever. That is a great way to get people to buy a PPV when they can see a PPV-style Impact four days later. However, this is the go-home show for Sunday’s PPV and the very special Impact next week with the matches originally planned for Hard Justice.
Mike Tenay says the main event for tonight will be Tommy Dreamer and Rob Van Dam vs. Abyss and Raven.
The show begins with Tommy Dreamer coming out to the ring to call out Raven over the attack last week. Dreamer asks Raven why he did it. He talks about everything they have been through. Dreamer’s kids even call him Uncle Scotty. Raven still isn’t over Dreamer taking Beulah from him. He said Dreamer’s kids shouldn’t be calling him Uncle Scotty, they should be calling him daddy. This was one of my favorite angles of all-time and it is really great to see it being brought back to life at least for a fleeting moment. It makes it seem like there is a good chance we will get to see Beulah at the PPV.
Dreamer goes up the ramp and attacks Raven. Abyss comes out and then attacks Dreamer. RVD comes out and attacks Abyss. Eventually, Raven DDTs Dreamer on the stage only to be met by Mick Foley and a barbed wire bat shot to the gut. Foley tells Raven that he will be the special referee for the Dreamer/Raven match at the PPV.
The first match of the show sees the Beautiful People of Lacey Von Erich and Velvet Sky defending the Knockout Tag Team Championships vs. Taylor Wilde and Hamada. Lacey is looking great as usual. She is right up there with Maryse for hottest chick in wrestling. The mystery woman comes out and attempts to help the BP by giving Lacey a chair. It backfires as Wilde dropkicks it into Lacey’s face and Wilde and Hamada become the next Knockout Tag champs. Velvet is absolutely furious and glares at Madison Rayne who is standing on the ramp.
AJ Styles comes out to defend the TV title (formerly Global title) vs. Rob Terry. Terry is entitled to a rematch after losing the strap to AJ. Very short match which sees AJ hit Terry with pele kick and then finish him off with a very nice springboard 450 splash. Next week’s Impact features a big matchup between Kurt Angle and Styles as Kurt continues his quest through the top 10.
A brawl is erupting backstage between Velvet Sky and Madison Rayne. Lacey tries to help but Sky shoves her and Lacey ends up hitting her head on some backstage items.
Next up is the Motor City Machine Guns vs. Beer Money in an Ultimate X match in the best of five series with Beer Money leading 2-1. This was a fantastic match for the time it was given. Many nice spots including Sabin giving Storm a hurricanrana while hanging from the ropes. Finish saw Sabin and Roode meeting at the X hanging above the ring. Sabin manages to knock Roode to the mat and evens up the series 2-2. The final match of the series for the straps will be at the PPV-quality impact next week.
Hogan, Bischoff and Miss Tessmacher come out to the ring. Bischoff announces matches for next week’s impact. Kevin Nash then interrupts and finally gets to confront Bischoff and Hogan. Hogan tells Nash that the older guys like them need to step aside for the younger guys in the business and the days of minimal effort and maximum paychecks are over. Nash questioned Hogan lecturing him on politics. He then proceeds to attack Hogan who is saved by Jeff Jarrett. Jarrett gains control of Nash and is about to hit him with a chair until Sting returns with red face paint and makes the save for Nash. This seems to be setting up a big tag match for the next PPV.
Orlando Jordan vs. “The Pope” D’angelo Dinero was up next. The Pope wins in a short throwaway match which sees Eric Young come out and start swimming in the money that falls when the Pope comes out and then Young begins stuffing it down his pants. After the match, Matt Morgan attacks the Pope and Mr. Anderson makes the save.
Flair cut a promo prior to his streetfight with Jay Lethal. In the match, Flair was juicing from his head and Lethal began tearing Flair’s clothes off until Flair was just in a pair of colorful underwear. At one point, Lethal pulled Flair’s underwear down and Earl Hebner pulled them back up in a “comedy” spot. The finish saw Douglas Williams lay out Lethal with the X Division championship allowing Flair to get the win.
Backstage, Christy Hemme interview RVD which ends with Jerry Lynn walking up to RVD wishing him luck and revealing that the two will tangle one last time at Hardcore Justice.
The main event tag with RVD and Dreamer vs. Raven and Abyss saw RVD winning it with a five-star frog splash onto Raven. After the match, Abyss attacked RVD and Dreamer. Various ECW wrestlers including Stevie Richards, Rhino and the Dudleys attempted to fight off Abyss to no avail. The lights in the Impact Zone then went off and when they came back on Sandman was in the ring with his signature Singapore cane which he used on both Raven and Abyss. The fans chanted “E-C-Dub!” as the ECW wrestlers celebrated.
The show ended with a short video package hyping up the ECW PPV on Sunday and also next week’s special Impact.
Overall, this Impact was much better than last week. I very much enjoyed the opening and closing segments involving the ECW wrestlers. The tag match between the Guns and Beer Money was very good. Despite TNA pitting their own shows against each other the PPV and PPV Impact look to be both extremely entertaining and I am looking forward to both.