Re-Making an iMPACT - #8 - Jeff Jarrett v Shark Boy

TNA Xplosion #87 Results (17th July 2004) - Total Nonstop Action Wrestling #107 (21st July 2004)

Let's be honest, the first seven episodes of iMPACT have hardly been a tour de force of wrestling. There's been some good matches here and there, but on the whole things haven't been great, especially when looking at Jeff Jarrett's NWA World Heavyweight title reigns' coverage on the show. So with even more enhancement matches this week and Jarrett in action in the main event...this was going to great, yeah? 

What an utter treat on 23rd July 2004's iMPACT as Jeff Jarrett defeated Shark Boy [The Stroke] in the NWA World Heavyweight Champion's debut on the show. This was actual a much more entertaining bout than I was expecting with Boy getting in a surprising amount of offence in against the top heel in the company, pulling out a couple of missile dropkicks. Boy also works as a perfect whipping boy for Jarrett earlier on, willingly bumping around the iMPACT Zone, as they brawl in the audience. A nasty slam on the steps and a couple of chairs shots, whilst the commentators are putting it over as Jarrett sending a message to potential challengers Monty Brown and Jeff Hardy, made for a entertaining brawl. It was a shame however that the referee had actually called for the bell before all this, because of course, everything Jarrett was doing should have resulted in disqualification. The show would conclude with Hardy making the save for Boy, only for Brown to deliver a Pounce and stare down with Jarrett as the episode went off the air. 

In tag team action, "The Monster" Abyss and "The Baby Bear" Alex Shelley would overcome Team Mexico's Abismo Negro and Mr. Aguila [Double Stomp to back of the head, Shelley to Aguila] in a fun match with a shoddy ending. The finish was a real shambles, as Abyss would get pissed off with Shelley for pinning Aguila, because "The Monster" had been about to pin Negro, clearly forgetting that only the legal man should be able to get the pin and that the legal man was Shelley. Either Abyss was supposed to look stupid or the booker decided that this rule that the audience was stupid and wouldn't recognise. It was a real shame that the match would end this way, as after a bit of a shit start, things began to turn the corner with Shelley pulling out a sweet head-scissor takedown on Aguila using Negro's shoulders, Negro hitting a dropkick to knock Shelley off the top and too the outside and Aguila would handspring off the rope and straight into a Shock Treatment backbreaker from Abyss. 

Team Canada's Bobby Roode, Eric Young, Johnny Devine & Petey Williams conquered a make-shift X Division team including Chris Sabin, Mikey Batts, Sonjay Dutt and The Amazing Red in a pleasing but brief eight man tag bout. As seems to be the way with these multi-man X Division style bouts, there were a couple of guys that shone brighter than others. For me that was Bobby Roode in Team Canada and Chris Sabin on the babyface side. Both men looked extremely crisp on the offence pulling out some nifty moves, including a butterfly suplex from Roode, whilst Sabin hit brilliant three person version of his enziguiri/DDT combo, before nailing stereo tope conhilo's with Red. The finish would nicely build throughout the match, with everyone but Batts on the outside, before he'd be corner by Roode and Williams for a spectacular, yet heely finish. These guys deserved more time to fully showcase what the four could do together, as what they did in five minutes was easily the best match on the show.

X Division Champion AJ Styles collected a quick win over Jerrelle Clark with a lovely double underhook transition into the Styles Clash, he'd have a stare down with Kazarian and Michael Shane after the match. Raven dominated (Kid) Romeo, slamming him into barricade with three Russian leg sweeps and finishing him off with a Raven Effect DDT, before having a brief pull-apart brawl with Sabu. Another squash match for "The Alpha Male" Monty Brown this week as well, as he destroyed Antonio Banks (Montel Vontavious Porter) in minutes with the Pounce! 

Results 

Singles Match: X Division Champion "The Phenomenal" AJ Styles def. Jerrelle Clark

Tag Team Match: "The Monster" Abyss & "The Baby Bear" Alex Shelley (with Goldylocks) def. Team Mexico - Abismo Negro & Mr. Aguila 

Singles Match: "The Alpha Male" def. Antonio Banks

Eight Man Tag Team Match: Team Canada - Bobby Roode, Eric Young, Johnny Devine & Petey Williams (with Scott D'Amore) def. Chris Sabin, Mikey Batts, Sonjay Dutt & The Amazing Red

Singles Match: Raven def. Romeo

Singles Match: NWA World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Jarrett (with The Elite Guard - Collyer, Hernandez & Onyx) def. Shark Boy

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 4.67/10

Whilst the amount of squash matches is worrying, this was the strongest episode of iMPACT since the original, thanks to three solid matches. Nothing particularly spectacular, with the eight man tag being the strongest bout of the show, but unlike previous episodes there hasn't been anything to majorly drag things down. The booking of the main event scene has begun to improve and this has definitely been a big problem for the company thus far. With Jeff Hardy being positioned as a challenger for Jeff Jarrett and whilst Monty Brown is hardly a favourite of ours, he's at least been built up very well by the company for a similar role. 

As we move closer towards the end of the weekly PPV's, I've a feeling we'll see the quality of these shows begin to increase. At least that's what I'm hoping!

Written content by James Marston. Additional content by David Marston. 

Re-Making an iMPACT: #3 - Killings v Young (James & David Marston)

TNA Xplosion #82 Results (12th June 2004) - NWA Total Non-Stop Action #102 Results (16th June 2004)

After a strong start, TNA seemed to stutter with it's second episode of iMPACT last week, with the weekly PPVs proving difficult to run alongside a weekly hour of television. Would TNA begin to iron out the creases with it's 3rd episode, aired on 18th June 2004 and headlined by Ron "The Truth" Killings taking on Team Canada's Eric Young, or would it be more of the same?

Ron Killings' disappointingly straight forward victory over Team Canada's Eric Young, turned out to be more of a way of getting Killings into an angle with NWA World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Jarrett than it did an attempt to put on a satisfying main event match. There were some nice touches in the match, like Scott D'Amore tripping Killings with his hockey stick, only to be chased off by Jerry Lynn, and Killings nailing a lovely overhead belly-to-belly suplex of the middle rope, but boiled down to spell of control for both competitors before Killings hit an dancey axe kick situation for a flat win. The segment that followed was a weird way to built to Killings' challenge for Jarrett's belt on Wednesday's PPV, as Jarrett nailed Dusty Rhodes (who was on guest commentary) with his guitar, before getting the best of Killings and sending him into the crowd. Killings looked like a punk, whilst Vince Russo would steal the spotlight to pointlessly mention that titles can change hands by DQ in TNA. Not good. 

The show kicked off with a pacey six way bout where Hector Garza pinned Miyamoto following a Tornillo, in a match that also involved Michael Shane, Chris Sabin, Primetime and Kazarian. The match involved lots of twists and turns with guys tagging themselves in at various points, keeping the turnover of different performers high, but for a match with so much talent there was little actually worth talking about here. Mike Tenay's reference to the debuting Miyamoto being from "the Orient" and his use of red mist show an outdated view of Japanese performers even for 2004. The idea of legal men becomes a distant dream in the closing stages, making the earlier tag in and tag out situation entirely pointless. A fun opener, but mainly fluff and pretty pointless.

X Division Champion AJ Styles continued his fine run of form, both in kayfabe and performance-wise, with a victory over Mr. Aguila with a Styles Clash. Whilst it's hardly the best representation of the X Division style, it does show off "The Phenomenal One" as a performer well with Aguila making sure Styles looks his shiny best. The finish is intriguing as Styles seems to have suffered a legitimate injury being unable to lift Aguila up for a Styles Clash, grabbing his back. I'd be willing to chalk this up to selling, had the pair not immediately gone to repeat the move, that would grab the win for Styles. When Kid Kash and Dallas attempt to jump the X Division Champion after the match, 4 time WWE European Champion D'Lo Brown turned up to make the save, before cutting a promo staking his claim to an NWA World Heavyweight Championship. No, D'Lo, get yourself away from the World title picture. 

In his iMPACT debut, Sabu teamed with Sonjay Dutt in a losing effort against The Naturals' Andy Douglas and Chase Stevens. Before the match began America's Most Wanted attacked The Naturals with security separating the two teams with Mike Tenay explaining that The Naturals had stolen some of AMW's clothes on the recent PPV. Nothing actually came of the attack, the tag match carried on like nothing happened and AMW weren't seen again. I thought that Dutt shined the brightest here, bringing a nice energy in both his rana littered face shine and his come back. He's far from polished at this point, but you can tell there's some real talent in there. The finish ended up a bit of mess with way too many elements coming together at once, not helped by their being a steel chair in the ring that almost killed Dutt on his Hindu Press attempt. No appearance from Raven either despite the commentary team pushing his rivalry with Sabu hard throughout.

Abyss also picked up another squash victory, this time over D-Ray 3000. 

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 4.25

A bit of an improvement on last week's episode, which is mainly down to their being a lot less talking, as the match quality remained average, at best. There were some promising performances from the likes of Sonjay Dutt, whilst AJ Styles has quickly became the star of the show. The booking continues to be the main thing that's holding the show back, with a lack of intelligence or forethought. Having to build a PPV every week is still not helping the situation either. 

Next Time - AJ Styles & D'Lo Brown vs. Abyss & Dallas