Hard to Compete with HBK

TNA knew what was going on during RAW last night and they still put on a decent show. The first Knockout first blood match, D'Angelo Dinero vs. Desmond Wolfe and Jeff Jarrett vs. A.J. Styles. I know I'm not the WWE blogger but I'm putting my two cents out there. Mania sucked except Taker/Michaels... and Michaels retiring on RAW was very, very sad for me. He is my idol and the reason I've watched wrestling as long as I have. Now onto Impact!

Footage from earlier in the day included Jay Lethal (didn't know he was still under contract, haven't seen him in forever... speaking of The Nasty Boys and Consequences Creed have been let go). He played up the Black Machismo gimmick and Hogan grants him some power. Lethal is a good talent, its a shame that he did a Randy Savage impression once and has been saddled with this stupid gimmick for so long.

We start with the Band and Bubba. I'm not crazy about the Band, especially Scott Hall, but putting Bubba with them will get them even more heat. TNA fans hate Bubba and he is an excellent talker. It's a good pairing and I'd rather hear Bubba then Scott Hall mumble out another "Hey Yo!"

They bring out Eric Young and everyone saw the attack and the save coming. No big deal, just building up for later in the night. Decent opening... Nothing great, nothing terrible. Hardy should be better on the mic than he has been for TNA. I know he can talk, watched him do it in WWE, wonder how seriously he's taking his role.

Doug Williams/Brian Kendrick vs. Kazarian/Shannon Moore, a good tag team bout with guys that don't normally tag. Weird that Magnus didn't team with Williams but I guess Magnus isn't really in the X-Division. And I'm not shying away from Kendrick, I'm a fan and so was the Impact Zone with Kendrick chants dominating this match. The ending was cool with Williams ducking the loss by pulling Kendrick in and letting him take the final shot and the loss while he walked away still seemingly standing tall.

Bischoff new secretary Ms. Teschmacher (Superman reference) has HUGE responsibilities... hahahahahahaha.... I'm looking forward to a BBSD Random Bikini Girl Shot of her. Its former WWE Diva Brooke Adams apparently, strange I don't even remember a Brooke Adams in WWE. Lethal gets some funny moments here and props for talking about King Kong Bundy and some other legends.

The Pope is amazing. I HATED him when he was Elijah Burke but he has really come into his own in TNA. He is definitely one of the best acquisitions that they have picked up from their big brother from the North. He is writing his own material and it is fantastic. He rips on Ric Flair and A.J. Styles... the crowd is behind him 100% and he gets a "Pope is Pimpin'" chant.

Chelsea (Desmond Wolfe's valet) comes out and they build another tawdry moment that Vince attacked them for last week. Its a ploy and one that every wrestling fan sees but the swerve is, Pope gets it to. He knocks down Wolfe when he comes in on the attack, plants a kiss on Chelsea then drops her to the floor. Great segment all around for everyone.

Hey, a Samoa Joe video... weird, another guy they never mention... the man was put into the back of a van by men in masks and never talked about again... until now. Bad writing and I'm tired of Joe leaving and coming back under someone else's control, it's been done. Stop wasting a talent like Joe and let him wrestle.

The Orlando Jordan thing is creepy, just plain creepy and unnecessary. I get it, he's bisexual. It doesn't bother me, wouldn't bother me, but stop making it a central theme. This served no purpose at all and one of the few moments in wrestling I told my daughter to go to the other room because I didn't know where it was going.

Tara vs. Daffney (First Blood match), honestly I expected more. I know Tara is training for women's MMA and Daffney is/acts crazy so I expected a crimson mask, which would've been amazing. We got some good "hardcore" action and the girls almost plowed over Mike Tenay which was funny. The ending sucked with a small cut in Daffney's hairline... I rated it a resounding... meh.

A.J. Styles vs. Jeff Jarrett, this match had more of a big match feel than half the Wrestlmania XXVI matches. Great offense from both men, great to see Flair get sent to the back for interfering. It pissed me off they went to a commercial and when they came back replayed two HUGE moves from Styles. Such a waste not to allow us to see it live. The ref bump looked nasty, props to Baby Hebner for flying off like that. Bischoff made his appearance to screw with Double-J and it worked. Styles' hand got cut open bad and it was nasty. Another wound to show people when they say wrestling isn't real.

Jay Lethal vs. Beer Money, I skipped it, it was a regular beat down on Lethal. It was interesting that Lethal won but still didn't make me want to watch it.

D'Angelo Dinero vs. Desmond Wolfe, this match could easily have been as classic as AJ/Jarrett but a distraction from Chelsea on Grandpa Hebner and Wolfe cheats for a victory. Good work between Chelsea and Wolfe and Pope and even Hebner was comedic. It was good for what it was. These guys have great chemistry together.

Angle and Anderson are another two guys that just feel like a natural pairing. Another two guys that were HUGE pickups for team TNA. Their work together has been amazing. Anderson's promo was weak at times but the ending was fantastic. Nice guys finish last and that's okay because he Thanks God that he's an A$$HOLE...... A$$HOLE... Classic, funny, awesome. Watch it if you didn't see it, you will be thankful.

Oh yeah, and a ladder match next week between these two will be amazing, make no mistake, there will be blood and carnage.

The Band vs. Eric Young/RVD/Jeff Hardy (Steel Cage), not a lot of hope for this. Why bring in RVD and Hardy to fight guys with a median age of 50... gross. Hall is terrible, can't believe I used to cheer for him, it makes me sad. Hall can't do anything but punch, he can't even do that well, he won't bump, won't even stumble to the floor but once a match. At one point it looked like he was cheering for RVD, in the middle of the match during the Rolling Thunder... just fucking retire Hall, you suck.  The end was cool with the Frog Splash and Swanton (that landed on Nash's head) and EY doing that nasty elbow drop from the top of the cage. Would've watched Shawn retiring over this but I would watch Shawn retiring over an all-female orgy involving Scarlet Johansson, Megan Fox, Angelina Jolie and Jessica Alba... maybe that's just me.

I normally don't plug but Metroplex Wrestling is having our first live show, this Saturday, doors open at 7:30 p.m. at The Metroflex Gym-FTW MMA at 5501 Thelin Street in Fort Worth. It's going to be an amazing show, please come out and support all of these hard working athletes. For more information go to www.MetroplexWrestling.com.