TNA Impact Reactions: A Monster Homecoming

The Monster Abyss returned to Impact last night, aligning himself with Ric Flair, Bully Ray, and Matt Hardy.  Prior to Abyss’ appearance, the trio cut a promo bragging about the dismantling of AJ Styles and challenged the rest of Fortune to a match at Lockdown.  Bully Ray stated it would be “the 4 of us against the 3 of you,” which was a bit odd at the time since the fourth man was unknown.  Not ones to listen to themselves being run down, Fortune hit the ring and began to brawl with Flair, Ray, and Hardy when the lighting in the Impact Zone turned an ominous shade of red.  It was then that Abyss hit the ring and helped the members of Immortal take out Fortune.

So it looks like we’re heading towards a Lethal Lockdown match between Fortune and Immortal, and that’s cool I guess.  Despite it currently being promoted as a 4-on-3, I’d be shocked if AJ Styles didn’t even the odds.  My money would be on Fortune winning, although I’m a little suspicious of an AJ heel turn, ala Curt Hennig in Fall Brawl ’97’s War Games match.  Mark my words, something fishy is going on here.  Maybe it’ll be one of Beer Money turning heel since TNA seems keen on inexplicably splitting up tag teams these days.  Anything’s possible.  The rest of Impact after the jump.  

• The show opened with a segment that began with Mr. Anderson, and then grew to include Hogan, Bischoff, Sting, and Rob Van Dam.  It lasted for nearly a half hour and was split up by two (TWO!) sets of commercial breaks.  Look, promos are part of wrestling.  I’m not one of those purists who hate when guys talk.  But sometimes, such as when a segment runs so long that it surrounds two sets of commercials, it’s just too much.  It could be the best interview in the world, and once it passes the 10-minute mark, it’s no longer going to hold anybody’s attention.  And this one wasn’t too good to begin with.  A quarter of the show, wasted, right off the top.
• Mickie James beat Tara in a match that I thoroughly enjoyed.  I’ve been a big fan of both of these women since their early days in WWE, and it was really good seeing them square off.  Before that match, Madison Rayne seemed to threaten Tara that there would be repercussions if she lost.  I’ll be curious to see if anything comes of that, but either way, they’re building towards the Mickie vs Madison match pretty decently.  A lot better than some of the WrestleMania matches are being promoted, I must say.
• Okada beat the Pope by disqualification, but he probably would have been better of losing.  Pope bashed Okada’s face repeatedly with his “bling,” bloodying the Green Hornet ripoff.  Samoa Joe eventually ran in for the save, chasing Pope off and checking on his friend/photographer/sidekick/whatever.  This was much better than last week’s train wreck of a segment, although I still could have done without it.
• Hernandez, along with Sarita & Rosita, cut a promo introducing his new parter Anarkia, who was the “fan” that interfered at Victory Road.  After panning America and telling the crowd how Mexico would take the country over (which naturally instigated some USA chants), SuperMex called out Matt Morgan.  Morgan answered, bringing Devon with him, and an impromptu tag match was conceived.  Hernandez & Anarkia went over with some help from a pair of brass knucks.  During the match, Velvet Sky ran down the ramp and into a 2-on-1 attack by Sarita & Rosita.  As she was being pounded, Angelina Love appeared in the Impact Zone, seemingly to rescue her fellow Beautiful Person.  Love looked like a zombie though, and before she could help Velvet, Winter appeared behind her and summoned her back.  There’s a strange and somewhat ridiculous brainwashing angle going on here between Winter and Angelina, and I’m going to have to see a little more of it before I pass judgement.
• Crimson & Scott Steiner notched a win over Ink Inc, after which Shannon Moore continued to be a jerk.  He and Steiner got into it a little bit after the closing bell, with Steiner cursing him up and down.  Looks like the dissension in the ranks of Ink Inc is continuing.  Meanwhile, Moore is picking fights with guys twice his size.
• In the main event, Mr. Anderson vs Rob Van Dam with Sting as the special enforcer went to a no contest, and thus we still don’t have a #1 contender.  The conclusion of the match saw Anderson hit a Mic Check on RVD right into the steel ring post, knocking him senseless.  Anderson and Sting then began exchanging blows, and in the midst of all the chaos, the bell mysteriously sounded.  A post-match interview saw a confused Rob Van Dam unable to remember what had happened, having apparently developed amnesia after the blow to the head.  Mr. Anderson wants to know who rang the bell, and Sting was unable to provide him an answer.  Really, this “who rang the bell” stuff is nonsense – the bell is ringside, it’s not hard to determine who rang it.  RVD did an awesome job acting knocked silly, and I’m actually hoping the follow through with this amnesia schtick, it could be entertaining.

And that was Impact.  I like what they’re doing with Van Dam, he needed a fresh angle.  I hate what they’re doing with Anderson and Sting, they’re fighting over nothing.  I’m really curious to see where the Angelina Love story angle goes, and I’m genuinely looking forward to Mickie James vs Madison Rayne.  The Abyss return was all right and it evens the sides for the Fortune vs Immortal feud, which is good.  Now if only they’d do something about the unwatchable Pope/Joe/Okada saga, Impact would really be showing some promise.