Pro Wrestling Chronicle

Coming off the heels of their five year anniversary we are live blogging and watching TNA Impact on Spike TV.

If you’re reading along as we go..keep hitting the refresh button

We start off with the video recap of Slammiversary which probably like many TNA pay per views wasn’t a blow-a-way show but wasn’t near as bad as it is being made out to be.

-Jim Cornette is in the ring so yells Mike Tenay so we go to the man from Louisville. He asks for all the champions in TNA to come down. So in the ring we have “Black Machismo” Jay Lethal (horrible name), Kurt Angle, and Team 3D.

He announces the new concept match for TNA where Angle and Lethal will team up to wrestle Team 3D. Whoever gets the pinfall wins the belt the person held. If by new concept they mean- a match used at a 1995 WWE In Your House- then yeah it’s new.

For the next 3 weeks all the titles will be defended. Win and you stay in- lose and the person(s) who beat you are in.

Angle cuts a promo about how he doesn’t need the fans help. Cornette finally comes in and screams at Angle saying he needs to work becasue they are not catering to pampered wrestlers anymore. Also in there Angle took some digs at Samoa Joe. Cornette than says Lethal’s title is up for grabs first this week as he’ll defend against Chris Sabin and Samoa Joe in a 3 way X Division match. Very good opening segment to the show.

- Jeremy Borash is in the back and says TNA is in contract talks with a major main eventer- probably RVD. This text messaging thing they do is actually kind of cool. Lots of shows use it so it makes them look with the times a little.

Jay Lethal comes in for an interview and says he plans on keeping the title while Sonjay Dutt as Ghandi sits and meditates.

- Back to the ring and we have Robert Roode/ James Storm versus Eric Young/ Rhyno. Mike Tenay finds a way to work in a Martin Luther King reference about Eric Young. Tenay used to be a very good announcer but anymore he is just outright terrible. They need to hire a different announcer and move Tenay to the color role.

They need to stop with calling Traci Brooks the “Chief Executive Offender”- it just sounds completely forced. Maybe Tits McGee or something- it fits better.

Quote me on this- either in TNA or in the WWE, James Storm will be a huge star in the business. He has the look, attitude, and carries himself as a star.

Rhyno gets pinned and then goes completely crazy when they pour alcohol on him. He destroys the announcers table and the ring steps.

- Back to Slammiversary and we recap Jeff’s speech from the pay per view. Getting to watch it again- I can’t imagine how tough that was for Jeff to do. Nothing about it was exploitative, it was just Jarrett speaking from his heart. I may not always like Jarrett the wrestler, but I damn sure respect Jarrett the man after it.

- Heaviness aside we are back and Joe is being interviewed and screaming. He said he will win his belt back and then team with Kurt Angle and will defeat him.

- “Wildcat” Chris Harris comes down to the ring as Mike Tenay talks about the glass ceiling being busted. Meanwhile all the people who are waiting for UFC scratch their head at that reference.

Harris is wrestling the heavily bloated Raven- who hasn’t been relevant since 2000. This might not be the best argument for the glass ceiling being broken.

Kazarian comes out and causes Raven to lose. Oh boy trouble in whatever the hell Raven’s group name is.

Christian pops up on the video board and issues a statement to Chris Harris. He says he is going to seek revenge on Harris for costing him the belt. Then someone walks into the room and we don’t know who it is..

Until Abyss and him brawl out of the tunnel- there went that suspense. Barb wire bat is out but Tomko and Styles make the save for The Instant Classic

- We hear Jaems Mitchell and he is talking about a new person he is bringing into TNA. Ricky Banderas I bet.

- Main Event time, and I can see already we don’t have much time- maybe 10 minutes for this.

The Macho Man gimmick is kind of weird to me. I think in the long run it will help Lethal, but obviously he can’t get stuck with it for a real long time because it could hurt him then.

Fast-paced action with very little long term selling. Joe hits a dive through the ropes and we head to commerical.

Back from the break and Lethal gets powerslammed by Joe who then walks into a missle dropkick from Sabin.

Lethal gets tossed which leaves Joe and Sabin- they battle with Joe finally hitting the Muscle Buster on Sabin meaning Lethal is out, Joe is in.

Next week Cornette announces it will be Kurt Angle vs Christian Cage vs Rhyno for the world title.

I think if TNA is smart- they use this feuding partners story to build up to Samoa Joe vs Kurt Angle at Bound for Glory and put the belt on Joe. That being said- I’m sure it doesn’t happen.

Good episode of Impact as they made Slammiversary seem like a huge deal and they built up a month worth of compelling television…that’s all you can ask for. As much as it sucks to have Lethal lose right after winning the belt it gets over the concept of the tag match where you must win to stay in.