[Byrntrigan]

Are you adequately prepared for Joe vs. Angle VII? [glow=red,2,300]ARE YOU PREPARED TO WATCH THIS RUMBLE?[/glow]

This should either set up Angle & Joe's next fueds or be a schmozzfest that Dusty would be proud of.

Either way you HAVE to watch so you can particpate in the Pun's 12 Pack! Watch up Bitches!
Chat starts promptly at 8:00 PM CDT (whenever the hell that is on your timezone is up to you, humanoid ;D )

Oh, and as a favor to various PH luminaries you can watch Impact! here on a somewhat reliable stream from the Intarweb: www.channelsurfing.net/watch-wwe.html (yeah, disregard the wwe url, it's all TNA baybee...)

Taken from www.tnawrestling.com:

TONIGHT ON “iMPACT!” ON SPIKE TV AT 9PM – HUGE WORLD TITLE REMATCH WITH SAMOA JOE VS. KURT ANGLE

Tonight, TNA returns to SpikeTV at 9pm for two hours of Total Nonstop Action!





The below is a quick preview of what to expect on the broadcast:

HUGE MAIN EVENT: TNA WORLD TITLE REMATCH
Champion Samoa Joe vs. Olympic Gold Medalist Kurt Angle

This past Thursday, Kurt Angle announced he was immediately using his rematch clause to get another shot at the TNA World Heavyweight Championship he lost to Samoa Joe at Lockdown. As a result, the big World Title rematch will take place this Thursday night on “iMPACT! on SpikeTV!

Less than two weeks after their war at Lockdown, Joe and Angle will collide one more time for the gold! The question is, can Samoa Joe hang onto the title in his first title defense against his longtime nemesis? Plus, will “Big Poppa Pump” Scott Steiner – who will cash in on his title shot at Sacrifice – be watching the bout?

Don’t miss this huge World Title rematch this Thursday night on SpikeTV between Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle!

WILL STING ANSWER BOOKER T’S CHALLENGE TO FIGHT?
In addition, as “iMPACT!” went off the air this past Thursday, Booker T was livid with Matt Morgan and Sting regarding the outcome of the six-man main event. In fact, Booker T got in Sting’s face and told him that if he wanted to step up and fight, Booker would be up for it!

Now, the question is – will Sting answer Booker T’s challenge this Thursday night? Will it be the first-ever TNA match between Sting and Booker T? Or, will cooler heads prevail? Tune in this Thursday night to find out!

- Also this Thursday night, we’ll hear from TNA Management Director Jim Cornette regarding the controversy surrounding the TNA World Tag Team Championship. After the controversy surrounding the ending of the three-way bout this past Thursday, Cornette held up the championship and declared it vacant for the time being. This Thursday on SpikeTV at 9pm, Cornette will announce his decision regarding the situation!

- Also this Thursday night, tune in for news and matches for the upcoming TNA May “Sacrifice” Pay-Per-View event, featuring all of your favorite TNA superstars!

All this and much more this Thursday night on the two-hour “iMPACT!” on SpikeTV starting at 9pm!

[Byrntrigan]

Placeholder for recap - more then likely uploaded Friday night.

[paddler]

I don't think that Kurt's a glass-ceiling sort of guy who holds the new talent down. That being said I'm sincerely hoping that this isn't a Karen Angle-intereference schmozz that ends up with Kurt getting the belt back this soon. I figure that they've got enough storylines to go for at least a half-year of Joe holding the title so, unless they feel that they need to do it just to justify Kurt's paycheque, Kurt should stay away from the title for the foreseeable future. I'd have him go nuts in the tag division, maybe with a new heel Booker as a partner or something, or even have him spend some time doing a nutcase blue-eyed demon Angle Invitational sort of bloodbath series on the X-division the way the Dudleys did. Whatever they do with Kurt they definitely need to let Joe establish his own bona fides with the belt, at least for a few months anyway.

[jetskid48]

Isn't there a way for Joe to establish his own reign without having to drop Angle completely out of the main event picture?

And wouldn't dropping Angle to the tag division or X division just so he can kick the shit out of everyone make TNA exactly like WWE, where anytime someone from above has to take on anyone lower, they just destroy them on the way back to the main event picture?

If we know Angle is great, you can still keep him around doing main event type stuff, but give TNA a ton of depth in the upper card if he can have some major feuds with Sting, AJ Styles, Christian, etc, anyone whose not actually fighting over the belts. It would be similar to the Attitude era when different guys could be in the main event and they could switch off their many main event stars each ppv, not repeating as much in title matches, but still having a ton of guys close enough to shuffle in month after month. TNA tends to make sure that they have some sort of storyline for most of their guys, so having depth in the upper card seems like it would be a way to use one of their strengths more.

[Lucky]

Angle definitely doesn't seem to be a glass ceiling guy as just in TNA he made Kaz look like a million bucks and put over Lethal clean and was supposedly pissed TNA didn't do anything with that (which would make the 2nd time Lethal has had a great showing against a World Champ and got nothing to show for it). So I really don't think Joe will lose tonight (or last week). Plus I figure if that would have happened the spoiler thread on another board I look at would be twice as long as it is. But I'm gonna be a little worried and I do expect Karen. But Karen costing Angle the match seems more likely. I'm mostly worried that Joe is doing her.

I'd love to see Angle find a tag partner. I think he has a clear fight against AJ but after that stepping into other areas worked. And last year I really wanted to see TNA do an Angle/Joe vs LAX match and Angle/Joe vs AJ/Daniels. So even with MCMG replacing AJ/Daniels and someone else in Joe's spot I'd be into it.

And part of me would LOVE it if TNA ripped off ROH with Angle/Joe by having Angle decide he's gonna go own the X Division. At least I think that's what ROH did with Joe winning the Pure Title. But Angle saying that he would surpass Joe's dominance in the X Division and going in and having awesome matches with guys he'd most likely never work with in the Heavyweight Division. But I know people would complain about it. And I wouldn't want him to "destroy" them for very long. Let him kill guys like Shark Boy and Devine. Let guys like Lethal, Petey, Shelley, and even Curry Man have kick ass PPV matches with him. And then do what you fucked up with Joe and have someone beat him.

[Lucky]

Skids, I don't think a desire to see Angle in the X or Tag division is about wanting him to dominate. For me its about wanting to see him work with guys he won't otherwise. I'm more interested in a 1 month program with Lethal, 1 month with Petey, and 1 month with Curry man than I am a 3 month program with Booker. They could do something interesting with Angle/Booker that I'd like to see but it would probably just be Karen slapping Sharmell. Meanwhile both guys feel like they could be more interesting and valuable feuding with Lethal and Storm (or whatever). Something fresh and different.

[Byrntrigan]

Also, I'd be remiss in not stating that Angle would be very believable in matches against the X Division guys. He's not so large that he appears gigantic when placed next to ordinary sized X wrestlers.

Plus, if they did have him go on a tear like Joe did against the X Division he could do something as bad ass as have bloddy towels with each guys blood on it like they were big game trophies.

Joe only had 1 guys blood on a towel, how about a whole divisions blood on organized towels that he'd have on display?

Just imagine if this went over the pop Angle would get for something as simple as coming to a match witha clean white towel?

[jetskid48]

Lucky...Yeah, there's nothing wrong with mixing things up. I would just worry about throwing him down there and starting to show a divide if his goal is to destroy the X division and then he does.

After his work with Kaz, there's probably a desire to see what he could do with Lethal and others. There's def a feud with AJ I would love to see, but hopefully that's put just below whatever heavyweight feud is going on rather than around the X division area so that AJ can be put back into a firm main event level spot. It's really just about placement I'd be worried about. It's better that people are raised than Angle go down and do his damage far out of the upper card picture.

[Lucky]

Well noone who has tried to destroy the X Division yet has succeeded. And the truth is that the division still hasn't recovered from the guy who came the closest to destroying it in Joe. I'd like to believe that Angle's recent history with Kaz and Lethal gives us reason to believe that they'd do it right. In Joe's case it was about showing he was dominant and couldn't be stopped. But Angle wouldn't need that, he'd just have to win. And if he was the heel trying to show up the face World Champion he could cheat.

You're just presuming that Angle goes down and roughs over everyone making them look like crap like WWE main eventers often do. But I think we're all thinking something different along the lines of the Kaz and Lethal stuff. And I absolutely wouldn't want to see it unless it ended with one of those X guys beating Angle for the title clean. Because the two reasons Joe hurt the X Division is that noone looked viable against him so they were all buried (except Daniels or AJ who left for the tag division) and that noone every beat him to be able to claim it. I'd hope TNA would learn from those mistakes and they seem to be handling Kong much better than Joe.

Although obviously we'd all be worried. But Angle seems to have a better rep for this stuff than others.

You know what I'd love? If there was a 3rd Title in TNA. I just had this image of Angle vs AJ and AJ beating Angle. Then Angle getting pissed off at Joe AND AJ and choosing to take over the X Title to undermine the two greatest X Champs of all time. Then somewhere in the course of that AJ takes the 3rd title and you basically have the X Champ mocking the World and Whatever Champs by attacking something they care for. I wouldn't want some kind of 3 way unifying match or anything, but something about AJ and Joe as champs while Angle is the X Champ mocking them really works for me.

[jetskid48]

Gimmick Match Alert! Gimmick Match Alert!

[Lucky]

Don't be hating on Battle Bowl.

[jetskid48]

Vader's back!??!?! YESSSSSSSSSS!

[Mr. Dashbee]

I agree on a secondary title in TNA. I don't consider the X-division championship secondary, because it's more about the style of competition. Maybe a television championship or an Intercontinental/US title, but with a different name.

If there were to become a secondary title, I'd be glad that it got introduced after Joe won the World title. Otherwise it would have been too easy to put the secondary title on Joe and hold off on his world title run even longer.

[jetskid48]

Apr 24, 2008 20:23:38 GMT -5 Mr. Dashbee said:

I agree on a secondary title in TNA. I don't consider the X-division championship secondary, because it's more about the style of competition. Maybe a television championship or an Intercontinental/US title, but with a different name.

I know I've been forever struggling with figuring out what the X division title really is, but is it really about a different style anymore as much as a midcard belt now? Maybe it's because so many of the midcard in TNA are guys that fit into this division that it seems that way, but it seems they basically book it that way at this point.

I guess if Angle went after the belt, that would make the X division belt "cross card levels", and really be about the style. In that case, then a third belt would help differenciate between the upper and middle divisions.

But really, if there's ever left over guys that don't fit into the X division, they seem to land in a tag team or something until their next singles fight, so maybe that adds to the reason why it seems like the X division is the belt for the midcard.

[Lucky]

James Storm, Bobby Roode, Matt Morgan, Booker T, Sting, Abyss, Rhino, Chris Harris, Ron Killings, Monty Brown. All guys who didn't fit in the X Division and were stuck in limbo. The X Title IS a style even if its tough to define. James Storm isn't an X Wrestler. He could use a secondary title and others like him.

[jetskid48]

I know an 'extreme' title they could use if they're ever looking for a belt for the midcards.

[bdbdbd]

I think they'd prefer a belt with some meaning.

[Lucky]

Rhino burned that anyway.

TNA's really piling on the gimmick matches for this episode...

[Demko]

Yeah, between the Britney Spears makeover match (sorry about revealing that last week, Lucky!) - I gotta admit, a women's ladder match has piqued my interest... the 'Deuces Wild' Tag tournament (does this mean Umaga and Deuce are gonna enter the tournament and win it?)... and the 'twisted structure' that JC was referring to just before the main event... looks like Sacrifice is gonna be gimmick-tastic!

[Lucky]

I'm guessing Cornette's match is for Slammiversary. My best guess would be a modification of King of the Mountain to include a cage and some sort of hijinks. Because with the Deuces Wild match it seems like the entire roster is pretty much accounted for.

I liked Battle Bowl so I really don't mind Deuces Wild and I actually am kinda interested. Yeah, its gonna be "random" enemies teamed up and stuff like that which we have to suspend our disbelief to go with, but I'm a sucker for that stuff. I'm a WCW fan. My guess is AJ & Tomko and LAX qualify over Kaz & EY and Rock 'n' Rave. Then Booker, Sting, Storm, Roode, Morgan, Kip, and BG are pretty clear options for the "Deuces Wild." One spot left could just go to Nash, could go to a returning guy like Abyss or JJ, could go to an X guy, or a surprise. But we'll get VKM randomly teamed up, Booker teaming with Sting or Morgan and having problems, stuff like that. But 4 of Booker/Sting/Storm/Roode/Morgan go in with LAX, Team 3D, Christian/Rhino, and AJ/Tomko. Makes for a good match after a couple of qualifiers.

Just to guess at the pairings this looks like the card:
World: Joe vs Steiner vs Angle
X: Petey vs ???
Tag: LAX vs Christian/Rhino vs AJ/Tomko vs Team 3D vs Morgan/Nash vs Sting/Storm
VKM vs Morgan/Nash
Booker/Roode vs Sting/Storm
Makeover Thingie: All Knockouts besides Kong

So there's still room on the card but no top players. Unless Cornette's evil plan is for the leftovers of the X Division, MCMG, the Monsters, and whoever else misses the cut... I don't see it happening at Sacrfice. Seems more likely we get an X filler and maybe a Super Eric vs Kaz match (I imagine Super Eric again showing up, Kaz getting pissed off, this costing them the qualifier, and Kaz challenging Super Eric only for EY to not understand why Kaz is mad at him).

The Makeover Thingie is over kill and unnecessary. And I don't know if they have a real plan why one of these women needs to be shaved, or what. But I hope its not just them fucking around and shaving a lady for a cheap moment. The match itself seems like fun though because I like gauntlets and there's plenty of girls in that mix I'd like to see give a ladder match a go. Saeed vs Kim with Saeed getting her head shaved and maybe having her face revealed sounds plausible to me. And if nothing else, I'd be happy to see the two of them in a ladder match.

Show was fun. MCMG vs Christian/Rhino was very good. I had this argument in chat. I really don't care that the Guns are losing. Someone compared them to London and Kendrick and I think that's BS. London and Kendrick were taken off TV. They weren't allowed to do anything to stay over. And even now that they're back on TV and winning matches they only get 4 minutes and are treated as meaningless. The Guns had a 10 minute match where they went toe to toe with 2 former world champions who are being pushed. They were allowed to look good and keep doing what they do well. They lost. I wish the Guns could win some matches and I wish they were in the tag title picture, but they're not. If TNA is determined to punish them for wrong doing then I'm glad that they're not burying them or leaving them off TV. They're just hurting their W-L records and keeping them out of the stories. I can live with that.

Why didn't Morgan attack Roode and Storm? Didn't he say "1 down, 2 to go" when he attacked Kip? Then we never saw him again? Is he gonna do it weekly? That seems lazy.

No Petey, no Lethal, no X Division. I hate when part of TNA gets ignored for a week but it was a wrestling heavy show and I guess some things had to be sacrificed for it.

I liked Booker apologizing to Sting because he's a hothead, but clearly still being a hothead. They're friends and faces... but Booker is clearly about winning and competition and just because Sting's his buddy doesn't mean he's going to put that aside. And Sting is the guy who spent months trying to reach a monster he didn't know and help him regain his sanity and freedom. The match was meh. If nothing else I'm glad it happened because it shows that (a) Storm is gonna stay in the mix with these big players and (b) the Team 3D breakup tease probably was not a precursor to a breakup but just tension as the theme for Deuces Wild (Rhino/Christian, Booker/Sting, Storm/Roode, Kaz/EY, AJ/Tomko... noone gets along).

Joe/Angle was pretty good. Commercials breaks seemed to break up the flow and it never really found its flow like some of their matches. We just need time away from these two. We were watching the same spots and moves we've seen time and time again from then. I don't mind the 3 way because it seems logical. Steiner's a hotheaded muscle head. Kurt pissed him off she he cost him his shot. Since Steiner cost Angle his fair shot Cornette's giving Kurt another at the expensive of Steiner's shot. Makes sense to me. I really thought Steiner/Joe was a fine match but if AJ and Tomko are in the tag thingie then we don't get AJ/Angle yet. So stringing this along for another month seems fine. Steiner mixes the match up a bit and can take the pin, and Angle probably makes it into King of the Mountain next month. But I hope that after Slammiversay Angle goes on to AJ and then as I said before I'd love to see him do an extended time away from Joe letting things build again.

[Demko]

Apr 24, 2008 23:45:35 GMT -5 Lucky said:

I'm guessing Cornette's match is for Slammiversary. My best guess would be a modification of King of the Mountain to include a cage and some sort of hijinks. Because with the Deuces Wild match it seems like the entire roster is pretty much accounted for.

I'm pretty sure I heard him say that whatever it was, it was coming at Sacrifice. I might be wrong on that, though.

Apr 24, 2008 23:45:35 GMT -5 Lucky said:

Saeed vs Kim with Saeed getting her head shaved and maybe having her face revealed sounds plausible to me. And if nothing else, I'd be happy to see the two of them in a ladder match.

While I'd love to see that too, I distinctly heard JC say 'the women IN THIS RING' would be competing in the match, and Saeed was clearly not there. Dunno if that was an oversight, or if she's intentionally not in the match. I do hope they get her involved, though. I'd love to see Saeed vs. Kim or Saeed vs. Roxxi in a ladder match!

Apr 24, 2008 23:45:35 GMT -5 Lucky said:

If nothing else I'm glad it happened because it shows that (a) Storm is gonna stay in the mix with these big players and (b) the Team 3D breakup tease probably was not a precursor to a breakup but just tension as the theme for Deuces Wild (Rhino/Christian, Booker/Sting, Storm/Roode, Kaz/EY, AJ/Tomko... noone gets along).

This led me to a question, because I've noticed that they've been teasing a lot of tag team tension lately (why yes, I AM a member of the alliteration association) and I wonder if it's because TNA has been plotting out this match for a few months, or if it's because they noticed that their writers were overusing the tension, and decided to capitalize on it. If it's the former, then kudos to whoever's planning the stories, because they've been weaved in almost perfectly for a match like this.

Apr 24, 2008 23:45:35 GMT -5 Lucky said:

I don't mind the 3 way because it seems logical. Steiner's a hotheaded muscle head. Kurt pissed him off she he cost him his shot. Since Steiner cost Angle his fair shot Cornette's giving Kurt another at the expensive of Steiner's shot. Makes sense to me.

What did make sense to me was Steiner attacking him in the first place. I mean, I guess you could argue that Steiner's just a nonsensical roid-rage machine. But you'd think even if he didn't foresee the 3-way possibility, he might think 'Maybe I shouldn't piss off Kurt Angle, because then he'll interfere in my title match at the PPV'... *shrug* maybe I'm just overthinking it.

[Ultimatejobber]

I enjoyed the show, and it makes me smile just to know that TNA pushes tag team wrestling in general. I even like the concept of this tournament even though i didn't totally get it until Tenay explained it slowly after a commercial break.

I'm not sure how I feel about all the gimmicks going on for the Sacrifice PPV. I think I like them because it seems to be turning into a specific angle for Cornette. I thought Crazy Jimmy was funny. As the inmates continue to try and run the asylum, Cornette the control freak loses it and starts abusing his authority to force them to toe the line. It was very progressive through the show and I found myself not annoyed. Looking back, this has been developing since Matt Morgan started making decisions regarding the show.

As for the show itself, I enjoyed the MCMG vs. Cage/Rhino match although the result was never really in doubt. Team 3D vs. the Monsters was what it was. I didn't hate it, but I forgot the match after it was over. I really wanted Sting and Booker to have a match between them, but I am ok with waiting on that to develop. I was happy to see AJ be more serious than silly this week which is good direction to take his character as he hopefully starts his feud with Angle.

[bdbdbd]

I can't think of the last time I walked away from a TNA show thinking "Fuck you, TNA", but there it was last night. An unnecessary three way and piling the pay-per-view after Lockdown with gimmick matches? Eugh. And the connect the dots singles match to tag team partners of Booker/Sting is what I've come to expect from a WWE show when they have one too many weeks between PPVs and need to stretch two feuds. Even they try not to do that often.

[Lucky]

Apr 25, 2008 5:13:59 GMT -5 Demko said:

What did make sense to me was Steiner attacking him in the first place. I mean, I guess you could argue that Steiner's just a nonsensical roid-rage machine. But you'd think even if he didn't foresee the 3-way possibility, he might think 'Maybe I shouldn't piss off Kurt Angle, because then he'll interfere in my title match at the PPV'... *shrug* maybe I'm just overthinking it.

But he IS a nonsensical roid-rage machine, isn't he? Hasn't that basically been Big Poppa Pump for a decade? An arrogant monster with a hair trigger who will lash out at anyone. Angle disrespected him so he punked him. Steiner's not the type to sit down and say "But this will make an enemy of Angle I rather not have" or "But this may backfire on me and result in a 3 way or Angle's interference in my match." He just got pissed off and fucked Angle.

It would be like getting mad at TNA because they had Sting be gullible and trust a partner who appeared to be ready to turn on him. Its just Sting. Everyone's not supposed to be smart and logical.

[bdbdbd]

Neah, Steiner attacking Angle made sense if you watched last week. Angle stole his thunder and insulted him last week, why should he sit back and watch him take the title back? Fuck that, take him out and push him out of the title tournament at the same time.

I don't think I've ever seen anyone in wrestling think as far in the future as "if I mess with this guys match today, they may mess with my match later" and even when that does happen, they usually overcome it.