“Chained To Fate”
Mickie James and Tara are brawling in catering. The cameraman gets knocked down in the crossfire. Madison Rayne, the Beautiful People, and Sarita join the action. Everyone brawls into the Impact Zone and enter the ring. Ric Flair comes out with Gunner and Murphy to separate the knockouts. Tara slaps Flair, who flops to the canvas. Mickie slaps Flair twice, causing him to grab the microphone and tell her off. He books the Beautiful People and Mickie against Tara, Rayne, and Sarita for tonight.
Ric Flair is talking to Eric Bischoff in his office. Bischoff says that Hulk Hogan is taking care of some “serious acquisitions”. He tells Gunner and Murphy to make sure that Kurt Angle does not enter the building tonight. A trainer walks in and asks Bischoff to not make Mr. Anderson wrestle tonight. The trainer explains that Anderson suffered a concussion last week and it would be unethical for him to compete. Bischoff does not want to hear it.
D’Angelo Dinero is in the ring with a casket at ringside. He wants to take care of Abyss by putting him in the casket and sending him straight to hell. Abyss appears in the crowd and says that he received orders to extinguish Dinero from TNA. Abyss claims that he is coming after everyone…one by one. He grabs two fans and brings them backstage. Dinero runs through the crowd to attempt a save.
Matt Morgan confronts Ric Flair backstage about Mr. Anderson competing tonight. Morgan has a problem with it but Flair tells him that he needs to support whatever Bischoff decides to do.
Opening Match: Street Fight: Jay Lethal vs. Robbie E.
If Robbie wins, he will receive an X Division Title shot at Turning Point. Lethal charges the ring and lands a dive to the floor. He hits Robbie with a trash can lid and suplexes him onto a road sign. Lethal crotches Robbie on a street barrier. In the ring, Lethal utilizes a kendo stick. He puts a trash can over Robbie’s head and smashes it with the kendo stick. Lethal goes up top but Cookie sprays him with hairspray. Robbie hits a neckbreaker for the win at 4:55. Fine use of weapons and they fit a lot into five minutes. Hopefully they receive a decent amount of time at Turning Point so Robbie can showcase himself. *½
In the Beautiful People‘s locker room, Winter continues to stalk Angelina Love. When Love tries to show Sky, Winter is gone.
EV 2.0 minus Rob Van Dam is in the ring. Dreamer calls out RVD, saying that RVD didn’t return any texts in the past week. RVD walks down to the ring. Dreamer tries to explain to him that what happened last week with Sabu was an accident. RVD continues to think that Raven is the turncoat and gets in his face. Ric Flair and Fortune interrupt. Flair says that Fortune will battle EV 2.0 for the last time at Turning Point. AJ Styles and Kazarian will face RVD and Raven tonight. Douglas Williams seems to have some sort of problem but it’s never made clear.
Backstage, Williams calls the rest of Fortune “irritating Americans”. He also brings up the fact that he defeated Kazarian for the X Division Title. Flair settles the discrepancy by replacing Kazarian with Williams in the tag team match tonight.
Match #2: Angelina Love, Velvet Sky, and Mickie James vs. Madison Rayne, Tara, and Sarita
It’s a brawl from the start. Gunner and Murphy try getting everyone into their respective corners. Love and Sky hit a russian leg sweep on Tara. Sky follows with a satellite headscissors. Mickie snaps off a hurricanrana on Sarita and hits a neckbreaker. Tara catches Mickie with a kick from the apron. The heels isolate Mickie until she knocks Tara down and makes the tag. Love cleans house before tagging out. Sky hits a DDT on Sarita. Mickie lays out Rayne with a jumping DDT. Tara hits the Widow’s Peak on Mickie. Sarita hits a tiger driver on Sky for the victory at 7:08. Despite some miscommunication down the stretch, this was pretty decent. I can’t remember the last time the knockouts were given seven minutes and the division was taken seriously tonight. Definitely a breath of fresh air. *¾
D’Angelo Dinero continues his search backstage for Abyss. He finds Abyss and starts brawling with him. Abyss tosses Dinero into a wall repeatedly and opens the casket. He puts Dinero into the casket and closes the lid. Abyss grabs hold of Janice and starts hitting the casket with her. Abyss provides us with a tribal scream to end the scene.
Match #3: TNA World Tag Team Titles: Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley © vs. Max and Jeremy Buck vs. Jesse Neal and Shannon Moore
Neal hits a neckbreaker on Jeremy. Max holds Shelley in place while Jeremy dropkicks him off the apron. Max launches Jeremy, allowing him to dropkick Neal. Generation Me isolate Neal until he hits a spinebuster on Jeremy and makes the tag. Moore lands a flying crossbody on Max and connects with a spin kick. Moore hurricanranas Generation Me to the floor and Neal follows out with a dive. Sabin takes out Jeremy with a dive of his own. Moore lands a springboard moonsault onto Max. Ink Inc. hit a samoan drop-neckbreaker combination on Shelley for a nearfall. The Motor City Machine Guns hit their crossbody-neckbreaker combination on Neal to retain their titles at 5:48. This was a solid showcase for all three teams. They packed a lot of action into six minutes and each team received a chance to shine. It seems like everything not involving the new regime is working well tonight. **¼
Team 3D come out after the match to praise TNA’s tag team division. They also want an answer from the MCMG about one final tag team match. Shelley asks for the crowd’s approval, which he receives. The MCMG agree to a title match against Team 3D at Turning Point.
Matt Morgan enters Eric Bischoff’s office. He questions Bischoff about Mr. Anderson wrestling in a chain match tonight. Bischoff wonders why Morgan cares about Anderson’s wellbeing and has security escort him out of the office.
Another creepy video package of Jeff Hardy is shown. He states that the fans’ acceptance is meaningless. He is the anti-Christ of professional wrestling.
Match #4: AJ Styles and Douglas Williams vs. Rob Van Dam and Raven
Fortune attack Raven before RVD can make his entrance. Even at that, RVD takes his time to enter the ring. Raven sends Styles to the floor. RVD hits Rolling Thunder on Williams. Fortune find an opportunity to work over RVD. Ric Flair runs down to ringside and hits Raven with the Television Title. RVD looks to make the tag but no one is on the apron. Williams connects with a flying knee on RVD for the win at 5:45. Strictly used for storyline purposes, although the booking was thankfully more creative than last week. *
Jeff Jarrett makes his way to the ring. He violently calls out Mr. Anderson on the microphone. Anderson’s entrance music starts playing but Matt Morgan comes out instead. Morgan starts explaining the dangers of concussions to Jarrett. This is coming from someone who used to bicycle kick people’s heads into ringposts. Jarrett doesn’t give a damn about Anderson and his concussion. Jarrett demands that Morgan leave the ring. Morgan attaches the chain to himself and starts tossing Jarrett around. He connects with repeated elbows in the corner and hits a side slam. I really wish TNA would make Reaction an official third hour of Impact. The last match of Impact constantly goes over into Reaction on a weekly basis. Jarrett busts Morgan open by ramming him into the ringpost. Morgan hits a chokeslam but falls victim to the Stroke. That gives Jarrett the win. Morgan connects with a clothesline after the match. Fortune run to the ring and attack him. They use the chain to hang Morgan over the top rope. Jarrett and Fortune stand tall to end the show.
Overall: While not a tremendous show by any means, this was a significant improvement over the last two weeks of Impact. The knockouts and tag team divisions were handled with respect and some decent matches resulted. While everything involving the new regime is still rough around the edges, Matt Morgan became infinitely more interesting tonight. Even RVD’s dissention with EV 2.0 was creatively advanced. There’s nothing on this show that is required viewing. However, there were a few spots throughout this episode that had me thinking that TNA was on the right track.
