Impact Wrestling begins with a recap of the ending to TNA Victory Road, with Bobby Roode attacking Sting, and dragging Dixie Carter about (the Dixie part was actually froze, so we heard what was going on, but didn’t see it. Still uncomfortable having this segment on again).

From the intro, Dixie Carter makes her way to the ring. She says Bobby Roode has disrespected the company and fans, and reckons there is only one option left, but before she can say what it is, Sting comes down. He tells her not to fire Roode, as it lets him off too easy, without suffering any revenge. Sting then says it’s not working with him pulling double duties, so gives up being the GM. He also says he’ll go home, rest, and come back better than before to fight for the company. Dixie asks what she’s going to do, and Sting says he won’t leave her hanging, and suggests putting the keys in the hands of the REAL Hulk Hogan.

Bully Ray is shown backstage and he is “super frickin’ pissed”. Says he’ll be taking hostages, it doesn’t matter who, and tonight isn’t the night to get in his way.

First match of the night saw Austin Aries defend his X-Division title in a Fatal 4 Way against Zema Ion, Kid Kash and Chris Masters. Wait, sorry, not Masters, it’s Anthony Nese. For the short time this match had, it was a good bout. We saw some nice spots, including a fast paced suicide dive from Aries, and then Ion, Kash and Nese hit high risk moves to the outside. After a tower of doom, Bully Ray ran down and beat up all 4, surprising considering how he teamed with Aries recently.

Out in the parking lot, Mexican America are complaining about having their car towed away by some guy from a show called Repo Games. We see them take part in a quiz to try to win the car back, and fail. Anarquia says they’ll be able to pay to get the car back once they win the Tag Titles. Useless segment, no need for this.

The first Tag Team titles match saw the Knockout titles on the line. Before the match, they announced Eric Young and ODB will be married on the April 12th episode of Impact. Anyways they took on Rosita and Sarita. ODB dominated Rosita until she missed the Bronco buster. Sarita came in and took over, and they had momentum in the match till trying to double team ODB. She kicked them away and tagged in EY, who both challengers flirted with. ODB didn’t take too kindly to this, and knocked Sarita out the ring, hit the B-A-M on on Rosita before telling off EY for not wearing his ring, kissing him and pushing him onto Rosita for the pin. Fun little match.

It cuts to the Direct Auto ad with Matt Morgan, which we see Crimson is watching. He says how it was never about being a team, always just about Morgan. Says the fans just want to see him, and Morgan kept messing up. Tells Morgan they’ll face off next week, before Morgan appears and they brawl.

Dixie Carter is backstage and says she doesn’t have a response to what Sting said, and doesn’t know what she’s gonna do.

Next we see Jeff Hardy, saying Kurt Angle talked a lot of trash, but when it came to the PPV, he had to cheat to win. Suggests a match at Lockdown, before Joseph Park arrives. Same as usual, he asks for info about Abyss and Hardy doesn’t know either.

They show a video of Bobby Roode and James Storm, highlighting how their TNA careers began, and how it’s gone for them so far.

James Storm comes down to the ring and talks about how it was wrong what Bobby Roode did to Dixie and Sting. Says his Dad always told him a man who hits a woman, isn’t a man at all. He’ll right all the wrongs Roode’s done, by taking his title, before calling out the Champ. Instead of Roode, his lawyer comes out and reads a statement. The statement basically reads Roode won’t appear until further notice, due to it being an unsafe work enviroment. Also says how Storm wanting a fight, so Roode suggests either Kazarian or Daniels. Storm says he’ll take on both, before hitting a Last Call Superkick on the lawyer.

We cut back to Kurt Angle who talks up on being the greatest wrestler ever, and saying he won’t give Jeff Hardy the rematch. When questioned on the 5 minute challenge, he isn’t happy about Garrett lasting. He finds Garrett and tells him that he can’t last 3 mins tonight, and Garrett accepts. Wait, Kurt couldn’t do it in 5 mins, but thinks he can do it in shorter time? Riiiiiight…

3 minute warning to skip this next segment as it’s the 3 minute challenge with Kurt Angle and Garrett Bischoff. The first minute is spent with these talking, next minute Garrett hitting awkward moves (including an unusual finisher) and the final minute, he tried to avoid Angle, till Gunner stopped it and threw Garrett back in. Gunner and Angle beat him down till Jeff Hardy makes the save. Ugh, even worse than last week.

Promo video highlight that the Motorcity Machine Guns are coming back!!

Time for the male half of Mexican America to challenge for Tag Team Titles, as they took on Samoa Joe and Magnus. This was a good match, and I liked seeing a tag match where both teams worked so well together. Really liking how well Joe and Magnus click now, a team really enjoyable to watch. Anarquia also looked better than he did before his trip back to Development. As Joe tried to end it with the Coquina Clutch, Rosita and Sarita tried to get involved and got carried off by the guy from Repo Games. Magnus and Joe wrapped it up with their snapmare and elbow drop combination finisher.

Hulk Hogan enters the building and he doesn’t know anything about becoming the new GM, only there because Sting called him. The smirk on my face leads me to believe he knows, or may be up to something.

Back to the parking lot as once again Mexican America are trying to get their car back. Anarquia takes a swing at the repo guy, who dodges it and pushes him into Hernandez. The repo guy then walks off with Sarita and Rosita…while I’m glad they used Mexican America so much in this show, these segments just seemed strange.

TNA announce next week, will be the premiere of the music video for “Longnecks and Rednecks”, the entrance theme for Cowboy James Storm.

From that, we see James Storm in action as he took on both Kazarian and Daniels. Daniels tried to ambush Storm at the start and failed. Despite this, the duo had control of the match, until a disagreement over who would attack Storm, gave the Cowboy a small opening. He avoided a splash in the corner from Daniels, then hit the Last Call Superkick to first Kazarian and then Daniels before picking up the win. Storm’s coming off looking quite strong and good lately, nice to see.

After the break, it’s time to wrap up the show, with Dixie Carter and Sting. Sting tells her that since Hulk Hogan got rid of Eric Bischoff, we now see the real Hulkster, and he trusts him. Dixie says that she trusts Sting, and if he believes in Hogan, then she does too. They call down Hogan, and he comes down. Sting tells him how he’s made both of them a believer, and the fans believe in him too. The fans chant Hogan’s name…and that’s how the show ends. Bizarre ending.

Aside from a few segments, this was an enjoyable show, with a mix of interesting promos and good matches. The negatives for me were the 2 backstage segments with the guy from Repo Games (guess this was just to help promote a fellow Spike TV show?) and the 3 minute challenge. It’s not me picking apart another Garrett segment, but like I said above, if Kurt failed to beat him in 5 minutes, why set up a challenge for less time this week? Once again, liking where it’s going with James Storm and Bobby Roode, the two tag matches were good, and despite no ending, the X-Division match stood out. Austin Aries is easily the best part of any TNA show for me, absolutely love seeing anything The Greatest Man That Ever Lived does on Impact or PPVs. As for Hulk Hogan, mixed feelings about this, so will reserve to comment till after the next episode.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and look forward to reading your thoughts on this.

James Partridge
@GoofyVillain of @TheTopRope crew