The Aussie Perspective By Brock "Aussie" Sisson TNA IMPACT on 07/28/08 Another Thursday and another Impact. It had its ups and downs but overall definitely 2 hours of enjoyable television. Here is The Aussie Perspective A little interesting note to start things off, the introduction sequence to Impact tonight was full of clips from the TNA videogame currently in development, this also carried through to the superstars entrance videos, nice little touch with subliminal marketing for TNA. Impact kicked things off with Booker T in his plushly decorated locker room telling JB that tonight he is going to give Joe a personal tour of HIS six sides of steel with weapons and that a "personal friend" of his will also be there. When JB questions if it is indeed Sting we get a look from Booker who then requests some champagne from Sharmell. I personally thought this segment lacked any real intrigue, it's not really a secret that Sting has been the one interfering so all this talk about his "personal friend" just left me feeling flat. Onto the opening match for the night which was a great tag match between Beer Money Inc and the team of Rhino/Cage to determine the #1 contenders to LAX at Hard Justice. Beer Money have impressed me every week and one thing I liked even more this week was the absence of whipping, don't get me wrong, I like the viciousness of whipping someone but if it happens every week there is a strong possibility the fans will get desensitized to it and this will kill the heat of Beer Money. In a good solid match by all 4 guys Beer Money get the 3 count to continue their feud with LAX due to Team 3D interference which leads to Cage challenging Team 3D to a New Jersey street fight at Hard Justice. Up next was a promo with The Rock 'N' Rave infection, evidently they're rockstars living from gig to gig, the promo itself was good it's just the gimmick that's a letdown in my eyes. An exciting and as always fast paced six man X-Division tag match followed with Rock "N" Rave infection teaming with Johnny Devine to take on Jay Lethal, and 2 members of the Prince Justice Brotherhood in SharkBoy and Curry Man. Lethal gets the pin on Devine following a hot tag and the Lethal Combination. Now it gets even more interesting as Lethal calls Val into the ring so that he can propose to her again, she however has lost the ring. This results in Lethal storming off saying " I don't think you ever wanted to marry me." Following this segment JB is in the back with Super Eric who apparently is taking it upon himself and the Prince Justice Brotherhood to find the ring, this smells of filler to me. Samoa Joe has arrived at the Impact Zone and when JB tells him of Bookers comments earlier in the night he says that he wants both Sting and Booker in the tour tonight but only he will be walking out. As always I love the intensity of Joe, he manages to mix it with just the tiniest bit of Sting paranoia which is perfect at the moment. After a quick recap of the history between Booker, Joe and Sting we are in the locker room area with JB trying to get Nash to help Joe calm down, Joe is very worked up and paranoid about Sting but Nash tells Joe he has his back and a plan to go to war. Here we go with the tour, at first I found this whole tour of six sides of steel odd considering Joe won the belt off of Kurt in a six sides of steel match but I guess with weapons us fans are supposed to believe it's a whole new match. That detail aside this segment was done quite well, Joe came out and essentially said if I go in there i'm the only one coming out, Booker starts stalling and goes toward the exit of the cage but he turns and sees Nash standing there blocking the exit, Joe starts beating the hell out of him which leads to Sharmell coming out trying to stop it, Joe watches as Nash carries her out but suddenly a black bat drops from the rafters and Booker is able to nail Joe in the back of the head with it. Booker looks up to the rafters and says thankyou. One of the big letdowns for me tonight was AJ Styles, his promo while good in its intensity he sounded like a crying child who just found out Santa wasn't real, "I've been defending you Sting, for 3 weeks i've been defending you, i'm sure you have your reasons BUT WHAT ARE THEY!!!!! I never thought i'd say this but... Stings a coward." It was an intense promo but someone like AJ Styles shouldn't be under any illusions about anyone, it just takes away from him and it was sad to see. As soon as AJ called Sting a coward his music hit and the arena went dark, when the lights came back on Angle was standing behind Styles who was still looking up at the rafters waiting for Sting. Angle was looking alarmingly thin during this segment which was just another assault on AJ like we've already seen before so this did nothing for me except make me concerned about Angles health. As it turns out what I had previously thought would end up being filler results in some of the funniest one liners from Curry Man and actually relevant to other storylines throughout TNA. The first people to be accused of stealing Vals ring were The Beautiful People who denied it and weren't particularly interested in finding out how Curry Man tasted, despite his attempts to convince them. The second of these segments involved LAX and apparently Curry Man speaks their language and he represents, even has his own gang symbol, just before LAX start to beat the hell out of them Super Eric arrives because there has been a major break in the case so they take off. When we next see them they're watching some video footage that apparently reveals Sonjay Dutt stealing the ring, they'll confront him next week. Petey Williams cuts a quick promo on Creed saying how he's done nothing in TNA so why shouldn't he take him lightly in this match tonight, he's maple leaf muscle, the wizard of the washboard and the definiton of definition. Basic heel promo here, not respecting your opponent etc, Petey is one of those guys whose ring work speaks volumes compared to his mic work in my opinion. In a non-title X division bout we had X-Division champion Petey Williams taking on Consequences Creed, in yet another oustanding X-Division match, Creed gets the win, which ends up earning him a shot at Williams and the X-Division title at Hard Justice. Should be a good match at Hard Justice if they get around 8-10 minutes. We cut to the back where AJ Styles redeems himself promo wise with an excellent promo saying essentially that he's done and will be the first one to greet Sting when he comes out of hiding and get some answers. He then challenges Angle to a Last Man Standing match at Hard Justice, a match that definitely has the potential to steal the show. Time for part 2 Of Karens Angle and her interview with KAZ. I like the direction this is going in, evidently he needs to focus on himself so he's leaving the company, when he returns i'm expecting a heel KAZ, kind of simillar to how Jericho is in the WWE now, no longer caring about pleasing the fans and pleasing TNA, i'm expecting KAZ to start looking out for KAZ when he returns. Post interview, Tomko comes on and destroys the set saying he's going to make Karens life a living hell, he turns the camera away saying "you don't need to see this." Matt Morgan was out next for another squash match where he decimated a jobber named Sal Rinauro. After the match the real point of it occured when Morgan called out Tomko and they brawled until security was able to force them apart. They manage to seperate and Morgan takes out Tomko with his big kick then the Hellevator. TNA have done wonders with their Knockouts Division and tonights main event showed how much faith TNA have in their Knockouts as this was the second time in recent memory the Knockouts were in the main event and first time I recall no male wrestlers in the match with them. The turning point in this match occurred when Gail was slammed into the steel ringpost. She eventually makes the hot tag to Taylor who cleans house and pins Velvet Sky for the 3 count. The Beautiful Peoples surprise was then revealed to be a new alliance with the returning Awesome Kong who awesome bombed both Gail and Taylor before ODB and Roxxi (who was armed with a steel chair) came down to scare Kong off. After this we cut to Joe in the rafters searching for Sting, he stares down a corridor and the camera pans to reveal a black crow and Impact closes with an enraged Joe yelling STING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm in two minds about this ending because on the one hand it's a great storyline but on the other, everything seems to be pointing to a Sting turn which pretty much spoils the mystery, everything he's done has been black and dark, the lights going off, his trademark black baseball bat and now a black crow. This was The Aussie Perspective, thanks for reading.         TNA Impact Results - July 21, 2008