Casey's Commentary: TNA iMPACT 06/21/2007
Welcome to our live iMPACT coverage. This raises the question, can it be live coverage if the show is taped?
Before I start I must make 2 statements:
1. I'm really hungry but can't eat until I'm done with this show.
2. I want it to end quick so I can eat and pick Strikeforce and with that out of the way, click behind the cut and refresh your yada yada for all the latest bla bla bla.
TNA...We are, surprised he's back to recapping this show.
We open with Abyss on a mission backstage. We know this because he's grunting a lot and Don West told us that's what he's doing.
Slammiversary recap, showing the highs and lows from Sunday. Too much focus on the lows, not enough on the highs.
Oh, I decided I couldn't wait to eat so I'm typing and eating. This is another reason these recaps are award winning...as soon as someon gives me the reward I've rightfully won.
Impact opening, the one you've come to know and love and loathe.
Jim Cornette is in the ring and is going to announce the main event for Victory Road. He asks for all the TNA champions to come to the ring. Lethal heads out, followed by 3-D and then Angle.
Cornette says the match of Champions will be at Victory Road. The world and X champions will team to face the tag champions. All the titles on the line, if you score a pin then you win the match and the title of the man he pins.
If Angle or Lethal pins one of 3-D then that man wins both belts and can pick his partner. Tonight and for the next 3 weeks, all the titles are defended. Win and you're in, lose and your replacement wins your title and your spot. It will be great to see Jay Lethal main event a TNA PPV...whatya mean that might not happen?
Cornette asks if there are any questions and Angle wants to know where his celebration is for winning sunday? Hey Kurt, its called budget cuts.
Angle says Cornette has no idea what he's doing. In other words, he fits right in around here. Crowd is hostile towards Kurt. Angle decides to celebrate by thanking himself for making it all possible. He thanks himself for doing what he said he was going to do. I guess he's officially a heel. He thanks himself for putting TNA on the map. He shouldn't thank himself for something that hasn't happened. He also thanks himself for being the best wrestler in TNA. He tells the crowd to blow off because they're indecisive.
He encourages the crowd to keep hating him and is pissed they chanted "Joe's gonna kill you". He runs through his catchphrase and then Cornette starts talking again. I don't like this new Kurt Angle, it seems he's got an ego problem. I can't get along with men that have big egos, I hate them.
Cornette is on a rampage ranting about Angle getting paid to compete. I love Jim Cornette going back to the Midnight days.
Cornette announces Angle will face 2 former champions next week for his spot in the Championship Challenge. He then says that Lethal will face a former champ in Chris Sabin and another former champion, Samoa Joe. So much for Lethal's title run.
Commercial Break!!
The segment set up the main event, wasn't too hard to understand and the promos were ok. However, I must insist that TNA steal UFC's tagline and call the show TNA Wrestling's 'victory road: Brings the Champions'
JB is backstage and says TNA is negotiating with a main eventer looking to jump to TNA...and if we want to know who, we need to subscribe to TNA mobile. Ok, they have to know that they're doing the Mean Gene thing and it has to be a homage. Seriously, it just has to be. Although I'm not sure I'd call Bicky Randeras a main eventer.
Macho Lethal does an interview and says he'll win or something.
Match 1: Robert Roode/James Storm Vs. Eric Young/Rhino
I want Eric Young and Robert Roode to never appear in a match with one another ever again, sadly I never get what I want.
Here's whatyou need to know about this match.
Ice Cream sandwiches are good.
Storm superkick and pin gets his team the win.
Winners: James Storm and Robert Roode
After the match, Rhino goes on a rampage, and Don West says he's never seen Rhino do this. West must not watch Discovery Channel or Animal Planet.
Commercial Break!!
Match was too short to amount to anything, JB shilling TNA mobile like Mean Gene is painful and Black Machismo still rules even if he's getting fucked tonight.
We're back and we get a reminder of the main event.
We go to the Jeff Jarrett interview from Slammiversary. I'm not going to make any comment regarding this.
I do however, still want to eat.
Mike Tenay is back and using the quiet voice, like Dixie Carter's limo blew up. Ok, we saw the interview on the PPV and now it has aired on Impact. They can put it on the website but lets just move past this.
The interview was moving and powerful and I'm afraid they're going to exploit it just to be like WWE and I don't want any part of death angles. I hate the Vince one, I hated the Eddie Guerrero storyline and I'll hate this too if they keep going back to the well. They said it, got their touching moment, and I hope that we just leave it at that. Anything more would just ruin the moment which, no joke, moved me incredibly.
Commercial Break!!
Latisha Klein tries to interview Joe. Joe threatens to kill her and she runs away. He then threatens to do very bad things, bad things indeed to Kurt Angle. He says until he's done with what he has to do, there will be no more interviews.
Match 2: Chris Harris Vs. Raven
Tenay and West are talking about the video. What did I just say?
I almost forgot Raven was still around, hopefully I'll be able to succeed next time.
Havoc (Johnny Devine) and Martyr (Matt Bentley) are at ringside while Kaz (No, not Hayashi and that's too bad cause he ruled) is missing and the announcers make a point of it.
Kaz comes out when Havoc and Martyr interfeer, he attacks Raven and Chris Harris gets the win.
Winner: Chris Harris
Just when you think that we're going to see Serotonin implode, Christian Cage appears on the screen. He talks to Harris, mainly telling him how great he is and the stars he makes. He blames Harris for him not winning the belt at the PPV. He says that at some point he and Harris are going to put on a show. "Cats" is the early favorite.
Christian is yelling for Tomko and Styles at the end of the interview. We find out that it is Abyss as he beats Christian all the way down to the ring. Abyss has a barbed wire bat but like an idiot takes his sweet time and Tomko and Styles hit the ring for the save. Note to Abyss, don't waste time. Abyss clears the ring and we head to a...
Commercial Break!!!
It is nice that TNA is making main events longer, but these other matches are still short to mean anything. Christian cut his usual good promo and the Abyss thing was so, so at best.
Why would the Valtrex people think iMPACT is a good show on which to advertise? I mean it is supposed to prevent the spread of herpies, but I watch iMPACT and women don't even talk to me. My friends watch iMPACT and women don't talk to them either. I don't understand, they're advertising on a show that is a better way to prevent the spread of herpies than the product they're selling.
We're back with a James Mitchell promo. I've missed his promos. The gist is that he found his new man and he's coming. Mitchell referred to him as his son. Well, it doesn't say much for his parenting skills if he had to go thousands of miles to find him as he claimed. As I've said so much before, the man is Ricky Banderas former WSX champion. If you're mad I spoiled it, get over it.
We're back to Mike Tenay who completely ignores what we just saw to talk the main event.
Oh, my mistake Tenay mentioned the video during the Samoa Joe enterence.
Match 3: Samoa Joe Vs. Chris Sabin Vs. Black Machismo Jay Lethal
It is a 3-way match for a TNA title that involves Samoa Joe as the challenger. If you don't know the finish then you should just quit life.
Commercial Break!!!
This show has a lot of commercial breaks. We get a commercial for the reairing of the last 2 episodes of TUF and for the Finale on Saturday. There will be coverage of the show here on the site cause we're great that way.
We're back for the last 4 minutes of the show...yeesh, TNA needs to work the commercials better.
Remember when I said you should know the finish? Joe hit the musclebuster on Sabin and got the pin. Sabin for those who have forgotten since the top of the show, was in fact not the champion.
Winner: Samoa Joe
Cornette comes out, says that Joe is in the match of champions and then he announces that next week Kurt Angle will defend against Rhino and Christian.
My thoughts: The show was inoffensive. The matches were too short and I thought I was watching Battleground with the frequency of the commercial breaks. TNA has always had those quick segments but it really hit me tonight just how fast they can be at times.
Nothing was horrifically stupid, and I didn't want to run screaming from the room. I've heard good things about next week's match but we'll see what commercials do to it.
Biggest complaint, well it is 2. I hate that Lethal's title reign was so short and that they put the title back on Samoa Joe who doesn't need it in the typical TNA way of having him lose without being pinned.
Before I start I must make 2 statements:
1. I'm really hungry but can't eat until I'm done with this show.
2. I want it to end quick so I can eat and pick Strikeforce and with that out of the way, click behind the cut and refresh your yada yada for all the latest bla bla bla.
TNA...We are, surprised he's back to recapping this show.
We open with Abyss on a mission backstage. We know this because he's grunting a lot and Don West told us that's what he's doing.
Slammiversary recap, showing the highs and lows from Sunday. Too much focus on the lows, not enough on the highs.
Oh, I decided I couldn't wait to eat so I'm typing and eating. This is another reason these recaps are award winning...as soon as someon gives me the reward I've rightfully won.
Impact opening, the one you've come to know and love and loathe.
Jim Cornette is in the ring and is going to announce the main event for Victory Road. He asks for all the TNA champions to come to the ring. Lethal heads out, followed by 3-D and then Angle.
Cornette says the match of Champions will be at Victory Road. The world and X champions will team to face the tag champions. All the titles on the line, if you score a pin then you win the match and the title of the man he pins.
If Angle or Lethal pins one of 3-D then that man wins both belts and can pick his partner. Tonight and for the next 3 weeks, all the titles are defended. Win and you're in, lose and your replacement wins your title and your spot. It will be great to see Jay Lethal main event a TNA PPV...whatya mean that might not happen?
Cornette asks if there are any questions and Angle wants to know where his celebration is for winning sunday? Hey Kurt, its called budget cuts.
Angle says Cornette has no idea what he's doing. In other words, he fits right in around here. Crowd is hostile towards Kurt. Angle decides to celebrate by thanking himself for making it all possible. He thanks himself for doing what he said he was going to do. I guess he's officially a heel. He thanks himself for putting TNA on the map. He shouldn't thank himself for something that hasn't happened. He also thanks himself for being the best wrestler in TNA. He tells the crowd to blow off because they're indecisive.
He encourages the crowd to keep hating him and is pissed they chanted "Joe's gonna kill you". He runs through his catchphrase and then Cornette starts talking again. I don't like this new Kurt Angle, it seems he's got an ego problem. I can't get along with men that have big egos, I hate them.
Cornette is on a rampage ranting about Angle getting paid to compete. I love Jim Cornette going back to the Midnight days.
Cornette announces Angle will face 2 former champions next week for his spot in the Championship Challenge. He then says that Lethal will face a former champ in Chris Sabin and another former champion, Samoa Joe. So much for Lethal's title run.
Commercial Break!!
The segment set up the main event, wasn't too hard to understand and the promos were ok. However, I must insist that TNA steal UFC's tagline and call the show TNA Wrestling's 'victory road: Brings the Champions'
JB is backstage and says TNA is negotiating with a main eventer looking to jump to TNA...and if we want to know who, we need to subscribe to TNA mobile. Ok, they have to know that they're doing the Mean Gene thing and it has to be a homage. Seriously, it just has to be. Although I'm not sure I'd call Bicky Randeras a main eventer.
Macho Lethal does an interview and says he'll win or something.
Match 1: Robert Roode/James Storm Vs. Eric Young/Rhino
I want Eric Young and Robert Roode to never appear in a match with one another ever again, sadly I never get what I want.
Here's whatyou need to know about this match.
Ice Cream sandwiches are good.
Storm superkick and pin gets his team the win.
Winners: James Storm and Robert Roode
After the match, Rhino goes on a rampage, and Don West says he's never seen Rhino do this. West must not watch Discovery Channel or Animal Planet.
Commercial Break!!
Match was too short to amount to anything, JB shilling TNA mobile like Mean Gene is painful and Black Machismo still rules even if he's getting fucked tonight.
We're back and we get a reminder of the main event.
We go to the Jeff Jarrett interview from Slammiversary. I'm not going to make any comment regarding this.
I do however, still want to eat.
Mike Tenay is back and using the quiet voice, like Dixie Carter's limo blew up. Ok, we saw the interview on the PPV and now it has aired on Impact. They can put it on the website but lets just move past this.
The interview was moving and powerful and I'm afraid they're going to exploit it just to be like WWE and I don't want any part of death angles. I hate the Vince one, I hated the Eddie Guerrero storyline and I'll hate this too if they keep going back to the well. They said it, got their touching moment, and I hope that we just leave it at that. Anything more would just ruin the moment which, no joke, moved me incredibly.
Commercial Break!!
Latisha Klein tries to interview Joe. Joe threatens to kill her and she runs away. He then threatens to do very bad things, bad things indeed to Kurt Angle. He says until he's done with what he has to do, there will be no more interviews.
Match 2: Chris Harris Vs. Raven
Tenay and West are talking about the video. What did I just say?
I almost forgot Raven was still around, hopefully I'll be able to succeed next time.
Havoc (Johnny Devine) and Martyr (Matt Bentley) are at ringside while Kaz (No, not Hayashi and that's too bad cause he ruled) is missing and the announcers make a point of it.
Kaz comes out when Havoc and Martyr interfeer, he attacks Raven and Chris Harris gets the win.
Winner: Chris Harris
Just when you think that we're going to see Serotonin implode, Christian Cage appears on the screen. He talks to Harris, mainly telling him how great he is and the stars he makes. He blames Harris for him not winning the belt at the PPV. He says that at some point he and Harris are going to put on a show. "Cats" is the early favorite.
Christian is yelling for Tomko and Styles at the end of the interview. We find out that it is Abyss as he beats Christian all the way down to the ring. Abyss has a barbed wire bat but like an idiot takes his sweet time and Tomko and Styles hit the ring for the save. Note to Abyss, don't waste time. Abyss clears the ring and we head to a...
Commercial Break!!!
It is nice that TNA is making main events longer, but these other matches are still short to mean anything. Christian cut his usual good promo and the Abyss thing was so, so at best.
Why would the Valtrex people think iMPACT is a good show on which to advertise? I mean it is supposed to prevent the spread of herpies, but I watch iMPACT and women don't even talk to me. My friends watch iMPACT and women don't talk to them either. I don't understand, they're advertising on a show that is a better way to prevent the spread of herpies than the product they're selling.
We're back with a James Mitchell promo. I've missed his promos. The gist is that he found his new man and he's coming. Mitchell referred to him as his son. Well, it doesn't say much for his parenting skills if he had to go thousands of miles to find him as he claimed. As I've said so much before, the man is Ricky Banderas former WSX champion. If you're mad I spoiled it, get over it.
We're back to Mike Tenay who completely ignores what we just saw to talk the main event.
Oh, my mistake Tenay mentioned the video during the Samoa Joe enterence.
Match 3: Samoa Joe Vs. Chris Sabin Vs. Black Machismo Jay Lethal
It is a 3-way match for a TNA title that involves Samoa Joe as the challenger. If you don't know the finish then you should just quit life.
Commercial Break!!!
This show has a lot of commercial breaks. We get a commercial for the reairing of the last 2 episodes of TUF and for the Finale on Saturday. There will be coverage of the show here on the site cause we're great that way.
We're back for the last 4 minutes of the show...yeesh, TNA needs to work the commercials better.
Remember when I said you should know the finish? Joe hit the musclebuster on Sabin and got the pin. Sabin for those who have forgotten since the top of the show, was in fact not the champion.
Winner: Samoa Joe
Cornette comes out, says that Joe is in the match of champions and then he announces that next week Kurt Angle will defend against Rhino and Christian.
My thoughts: The show was inoffensive. The matches were too short and I thought I was watching Battleground with the frequency of the commercial breaks. TNA has always had those quick segments but it really hit me tonight just how fast they can be at times.
Nothing was horrifically stupid, and I didn't want to run screaming from the room. I've heard good things about next week's match but we'll see what commercials do to it.
Biggest complaint, well it is 2. I hate that Lethal's title reign was so short and that they put the title back on Samoa Joe who doesn't need it in the typical TNA way of having him lose without being pinned.
Labels: Casey's Commentary, iMPACT, OCC Television Coverage, TNA
posted by Casey Trowbridge at 6/21/2007 07:53:00 PM
6 Comments:
Casey pudding pops ruled back in the day. And do you remember the WWF wrestling ice cream bars.
Well, it hasn't erupted in to Vince McMahon fury yet. They showed the video tonight and Mike Tenay and Don West commented on it for maybe 30 seconds. I don't have a problem with them showing it tonight because it is a larger audience than saw it on the PPV and really it was a pretty moving video. I even don't have a problem with them putting it on their website, because I'm sure a number of people will want to remember it for a very long time.
However, I want it to end here. What they've done so far has been tasteful and hasn't turned in to a storyline...but if we go back to this well again then we've definitely crossed the line in to unwelcome territory.
I guess we'll see in the next couple of weeks if it gets any mention or if it does how much of a focal point it becomes.
However, as I said I'm not a fan of death as a wrestling angle and the Vince thing bothers me more because not only is it death but the whole thing is so illogical that I don't even want to think about it.
You watch Indy wrestling to escape, I will hopefully soon be receiving my Pride 2000 Grand Prix DVD and can escape for 90 minutes with Gracie-Sakuraba without Royce failing a drug test afterward.
as always you make great points, I just got caught in a heat-of-the-moment situation...
just dealt with a death yesterday so as I said earlier I've personally dealt with death this friggin' month and the Vince thing and the Jarrett interview being played twice set me off.
I'm sure the Jarrett segment was moving and all but I personally can't be dealing with a fine line of slightly expoiting one's death (or in WWE's case throwing it in your god damn face which I know for years is their thing).
Mark, I've heard of WWE ice cream bars but have not had the fortune to try one.
Art, I wasn't trying to attack your feelings, so please I hope you don't feel that I was and if so I'm sorry. Fact is, I wrote my reply more because of my original post than your comment. I thought I made TNA seem like bigger asses in my post than I actually believe they are right now. Even though I understand why they did it and don't have a problem up to this point...it was very uncomfortable. I saw the video on sunday and had to fight back tears because I thought of his 3 young girls and how this must effect them. I was as I said, very moved, but even though I know why they showed it tonight...I muted the sound because once was enough for me. I want to believe that this won't turn in to an angle and the hope that makes me an optimist says they won't go the WWE route. However, the person who has been burned by wrestling companies for as long as I can remember is very much afraid.
So, given what you've been dealing with lately I can certainly understand why even a tasteful video might be more than too much. I personally hate these kinds of storylines not because I find them overly offensive, but for much the same reason you gave in your original comment.
When it comes to me, I don't particularly like drams. I don't watch dramas on TV and I don't go to movies in the theater that are overly dramatic. The reason is because my life has enough drama, I don't feel the need to experience more of it in the things that I escape from. Personally, that's why I like comedies and animated films...they're not usually based around things that could realistically happen to me in real life.
So, I don't like the reality based storylines in wrestling most of the time either. Partially because for most topics the wrestling companies especially WWE can't treat them respectfully anyway. For reasons which I won't explain in this comment but may ellaborate on in a more private conversation, I dread the next miscarriage angle in wrestling...and I know that sooner or later we're going to get one.
Is it really that much to ask for 2 people to want to fight for a belt only one of them can have? That's real life, and beyond wanting to win, I don't need any other reason for these fights to exist. Sometimes, those other reasons add to what we're seeing but at other times they are greatly tacked on and not necessary. I still find it very believable that one person has the championship and everyone else wants it because they want to win, and no matter how much WWE and TNA want to over complicate it...that's really all you need.
no man, I never took offense to anything you wrote, you made great points.
I'm just taking this Vince/fake death crap a little more personally than usual because of certain situations that I don't want to expoit but I just wanted to make my points as to why I was taking such offense to a dumb fuckin' angle.
If TNA handled the Jarrett thing tastefully and put the issue to bed then I'm cool with it. But if West and Tenay hint at Jarrett's wife during one of his matches then it's crossing the most sensitive of boundaries.
What really got me this week (didn't watch but heard about it on the Bryan & Vinny show) were the 10-bell salutes WWE staged for Vince, that really slapped the taste out of my mouth and my tolerance wore thin. I always use the line "nothing is sacred in this world" when confronted with certain moments in life, but the 10-bell salutes and the seriousness WWE portrays on TV really gets under my skin.
This scar will take a while to heal, I hated WWE when Eddie Guerrero was still used to sell bullshit tickets and draw as much as possible exploiting not only a death but fans' true love and sorrow for Eddie.
People can say what they will about indy workers botching spots, looking sloppy etc. and deathmatches and such but (so far at least) I can pop in a PWG, ROH, IWA, CZW, JAPW, FIP, or whatever indy group DVD and not have to deal with fuckin' shit like on WWE TV.
I hope TNA learns from WWE's mistakes although they've yet to learn from their own so I worry a bit but not too much.
The 10 bell salute thing bothered me quite a bit but you already explained why.
Want to know what was a kick in the balls for me? I watched Raw for the first time since the Eddie Guerrero tribute show the night of the draft, and when I say I watched Raw, I mean all of it from open to close. The last Raw, not counting the Eddie show I watched from open to close before Vince bought it?...Dr. Hiney!
Dr. Hiney is the only angle I can remember being embarrassed to watch even though nobody else was in the room. Sure, I'd been embarrassed by other angles before, but there were people in the room to feel embarrassed in front of, and that time it was just me and my dog.
So, I watch for the first time since then...and it happens again.
There's a reason I don't recap WWE events for the site and it shouldn't take a Euan to figure out what it is.
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