TNA Impact Reactions: AJ Goes for a Ride

The big story from last night’s Impact was AJ Styles being apparently injured at the hands of Bully Ray.  The main event saw Ray, Styles, Rob Van Dam, and Mr. Anderson battle in a fatal 4-way for the #1 contendership.  In typical TNA fashion, we didn’t get a winner.  Anderson and RVD were both down in the ring at the same time, and Earl Hebner, the world’s most incompetent referee, slapped the canvas three times for seemingly no reason.  Ray, understandably upset, punched Hebner then turned his attention to AJ.  The two brawled for a few minutes, but after Ric Flair got involved, the upper hand belonged to Bully Ray.  He proceeded to powerbomb Styles off the stage of the Impact Zone to the floor.

After the attack, ten minutes were spent showing Styles being loaded into an ambulance, Fortune contacting his wife with the news, yadda yadda.  Yawn.  Look, Bubba Ray did this before.  To an 80-year-old woman.  Who was pregnant.  And she didn’t miss a stride.  She was back the next week on Raw, and before you knew it she was giving birth to a perfectly healthy rubber hand.  So, bottom line, if AJ Styles misses time because of this “vicious attack,” he’s a wimp.  The rest of Impact, including Sting’s new shiny gold belt, after the jump.

• As stated, my wish was fished and TNA has a new World Championship belt.  Sting opened the show with the new, kind of traditional looking belt on his shoulder, and I couldn’t be happier.  Hogan met him in the ring, and the two got their digs in on Hardy.  Sting mentioned that the purple belt, which he was carrying, was the last remnant of Jeff Hardy left in TNA.  He handed it to Hogan and the Hulkster carelessly tossed it out of the ring, as if to signify Hardy’s dismissal.  Good stuff here.  The promo wound up being a platform to announce the fatal 4-way main event, and while I’m not big on interviews of this length, it was good to see them wash their hands of Jeff Hardy.
• Madison Rayne made another open challenge this week, and it was answered by Alyssa Flash.  Madison attacked her opponent from behind on her way to the ring, and went on to squash her in a minute long match.  I’m as big a fan of Rayne as the next guy, but jobbing Cheerleader Melissa in seconds flat seems excessive.  After the match, Mickie James hit the ring and exchanged words with the Knockouts Champion.  At Lockdown, it’ll be Mickie vs Madison, with Rayne putting her title on the line against James’ hair.  I don’t want to see Hardcore Country lose her locks, but I suspect that’s what’s going to happen.
• The Pope is the worst.  After a backstage segment showed us him instructing physically well people on how to act like they were blind and handicapped so he could stage a healing, he came to the ring and staged said healing.  First of all, why do guys know they’re being filmed backstage when it behooves the situation, and don’t know other times?  Secondly, what?  Why is Pope healing people?  This segment was one of the worst I’ve seen in a long time.  After The Pope enabled the wheelchair bound man to walk and bestowed the gift of sight to the blind man, Samoa Joe’s music hit and he approached the ring with Okada.  This already ridiculous angle got even more insane when Pope captured Okada, holding a knife to his throat and walking him up the ramp into the backstage area.  Seriously.  Backstage, he tied Okada up and whipped him with a belt until Joe made the save.  Everyone involved in the creation of this segment should be fired, and fast.  Just awful.
• Jeff Jarrett, accompanied by Karen, extended a truce to Kurt Angle.  The Olympic Hero came to the ring with a present for the couple, claiming that he was willing to put their troubles behind him.  Jarrett opened the gift, a guitar with an American Flag painted on it, and Kurt quickly went back on his word and smashed the instrument over Jarrett’s head.  It looked like Double J got busted open pretty good here, would be surprised if he didn’t need stitches.  Afterwards, a match was made between Jeff and Kurt at Lockdown.  This has gone on long enough.
• The vacant Television Title was decided in a triple threat match between Immortal members Gunner, Murphy, and Rob Terry.  Gunner won this match, and it’s just as well he did I guess.  No one in the world would have been excited for any possible outcome in this one.  I’m starting to question if TNA’s tag team division is heading in the same direction as the WWE’s.  The Machine Guns haven’t been on in months, Team 3D is done, and in the past week, we’ve seen troubles between the members of Generation Me, Ink Inc., and now Gunner & Murphy.
• Matt Morgan, Angelina Love, & Winter defeated Hernandez, Sarita, & Rosita in the world’s shortest street fight.  Velvet Sky was upset about Angelina taking Winter as her partner before the match.  I don’t really understand what they’re doing with the Beautiful People here.  Velvet did NOTHING to upset Angelina at Victory Road, and I refuse to believe that Angelina Love has not seen a tape of the event to have that cleared up.  After the match, the “fan” that interfered in Hernandez and Morgan’s match at the PPV appeared again, showing that he had some alliance with SuperMex and the Knockouts Tag Team Champions.

All in all, a pretty “meh” show.  The increasingly boring Jarrett vs Angle feud, the lack of a decisive main event finish AGAIN, and the too-bad-to-believe Pope promo did this show no favors.  If AJ is held off of TV to sell his “injuries,” Impact will become even more unwatchable over the next few weeks.  Great way to make it up to the fans after the disappointing Victory Road, guys.