Off-Air Notes From Last Night's TNA Tapings

Richard Trionfo of PWInsider attended TNA s tapings last night and passed along the following report:

Here are some thoughts and observations from last night s Impact and Xplosion tapings featuring the Impact Zone debut of Kurt Angle.

It was interesting to see A1 and Petey Williams as a team against The Naturals. I had thought that no member of Team Canada could work together, and so did a number of people around me in the Impact Zone.

I thought Joe s promo during the first episode of Impact was very good. It did both a good job of pushing the Monster s Ball match at Bound for Glory as well as start the tease for Joe s quest for the NWA World Title. I also liked how Joe s promo attempted to rebuild the prestige of the title. I see a lot of similarities between Joe s promo and the way that he helped to make the Ring of Honor title one of the most prominent titles in wrestling.

If someone was going to come out to dispute Joe s comments about the people who have held the title during the TNA era as paper champions , I am glad that it was not Jarrett who came out. I thought Christian was a good choice. I liked how Christian still brings up the fact that he was screwed out of the title at Slammiversary to some degree. However, Christian continues have selective memory when it comes to title runs. Apparently, Christian forgot about the almost two year title run Samoa Joe had in Ring of Honor.

It was an interesting twist to have Christian want to hold the title belt instead of Joe. I never expected that I would see a ladder match for the right to possess the NWA World Title belt.

I thought the segment with A.J. Styles and Christopher Daniels attacking LAX and then fighting into the Impact Zone was a good touch. This has been one of the best feuds that TNA has had and they have done a great job of making it mean something other than wrestler A against wrestler B .

I have not been a fan of the Kevin Nash and the X Division angle and I am not looking forward to seeing what is going to happen with his return. However, Kevin was at his best with the fake sympathy during his promo.

With the Diamonds in the Rough teasing a break-up, I wonder how many other teams will also tease a break-up since we already have the continuing issues between America s Most Wanted. It was also surprising to see Ron Killings come back into the ring to shake hands with Elix Skipper after David Young and Simon Diamond left the ring.

While I understand the need for a strong main event, but I disagree with the decision to have Joe and Christian wrestle for the first time on television on Impact. To me, that is a pay per view match. It will probably get people to watch Impact on Thursday night, but a Joe/Christian match would do a lot for a pay per view buy rate. Then to have a ladder match for the purpose of holding the title belt was a little confusing. When the belt was hung over the ring, I was almost expecting to see Joe or Christian go for the belt only to see it slowly raised to the rafters to have the belt taken back by Samoa Joe.

While the Abyss, Raven, Brother Runt, and Rhino run ins could be explained to build up the pay per view matches involving Samoa Joe and Christian; they take away from the match and detracts from my interest in their matches on television.

I liked the way that show number two started with the announcement by Mike Tenay followed by Abyss, Brother Runt, and Raven fighting into the Impact Zone. However, I wonder why Samoa Joe was not involved in this brawl since he is a part of the Monster s Ball match.

It was good to see Jake Roberts because he was one of the top stars when I started watching wrestling in the 1980s, but the fact is that he was one of the top stars of the 1980s. TNA had billed itself as the new face of professional wrestling and with the inclusion of the likes of Jake Roberts, Buff Bagwell, Lex Luger, and others from the heyday of WCW; it is not really following the slogan of the company.

Is there a big wrestler who is not afraid of snakes?

I had a hard time hearing and comprehending what Jake Roberts was saying during his promo and I hope it comes out better on the broadcast.

It was funny to see the return of the Screaming Norman Smiley attire from his days in WCW. It was interesting to see Shark Boy and Norman Smiley prominently featured on both episodes of Impact while the team that is the actual number one contenders for the tag titles relegated to Xplosion.

I assume that there is a Christian promo that was pre-recorded that will explain why he brought out a straitjacket and tried to put it on Norman Smiley and Shark Boy.

I don t know if the Sonjay Dutt/Jay Lethal segment was a return to the Jackassery from previous weeks, but I liked that Senshi destroyed both of them for mocking him. It was also a good thing to have the attack occur when Lethal was scheduled to wrestle for Senshi and that it was right before their match. The match also did a good job of setting up Senshi s match with Chris Sabin by having Senshi continue to attack Lethal after the match and bringing Sabin to the ring.

I don t know if the LAX attack on America s Most Wanted was done because they were angry that Chris Harris was pinned or if it was done because of their Anti-Gringo promos, but I liked that heels attacked other heels. The border toss that Hernandez gave to Gail Kim looked sick. It was a bit of a shock to see A.J. Styles and Christopher Daniels come back into the ring after LAX s attack on America s Most Wanted since they had feuded, unless this was going to lead to a face turn for America s Most Wanted or was simply a way to show that Styles and Daniels did not want to deal with anyone putting a Mexican or Puerto Rican flag on top of another person.

There was a consensus from the people I was sitting with that Samoa Joe would have been a perfect candidate for the Brood based on the shirt he was wearing. We were talking about how we wanted to see Samoa Joe rise up from the ground through a ring of fire. Then we got Kurt Angle s entrance as he rose through the floor.

The crowd exploded for Kurt Angle s entrance into the Impact Zone. They had been teasing his debut during the entire night and I think the crowd was definitely ready to see Angle.

I thought it was a mistake to have Joe and Angle face off this soon. I would have kept Joe and Angle away from each other until at least the start of next year and do something when one of them has the World Title. I think Joe s character has been weakened over the last few months, and I think after getting busted open with a head butt and then getting an Angle slam.

I hope they do not start a pattern of eight man tag match, tag match, and singles match for the future episodes of Impact.

Kurt Angle showed a lot of intensity in his promo for the fans in the Impact Zone. I do not know if this will air on Impact, but it makes me want to hear his comments that will air this week when he is interviewed on Impact. That interview was not shown in the Impact Zone.

Instead of taping the two episodes of Impact followed by the two Xplosion matches, they sandwiched the Xplosion matches around the two Impact tapings. With the way the second episode of Impact ended, and if they were trying to tape the Xplosion matches with the full crowd in the Impact Zone, taping the Xplosion matches at the start of the night might be a good idea.