TNA Impact Insight 4.02.05
Posted by Steve Cook on 04.02.2005
A great main event and not much else makes for a happy recapper that doesn’t have to do as much as usual.
Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of TNA Impact Insight! I am the Impact Playa Steve Cook, and this week we’ve got 2 matches on tap! Luckily, one of them is a 4-man X Shootout with a 30 minute time limit, so this is actually a good thing. The other features Abyss, but doesn’t last nearly that long, so stay tuned for some wrestling goodness!
This is TNA…the new face of professional wrestling.
We open to clips from last week where the main event of Lockdown was set up, featuring DDP/Nash/Waltman vs. Brown/Jarrett/Outlaw in a steel cage.
Impact Zone! Fans! Pyro!
“Iron” Mike Tenay & Don West have big news for us! The second steel cage match has been made for Lockdown, and it’ll be AJ Styles vs. Abyss. AJ comes out at this point to do some guest commentary, and it’s mentioned that the winner of that match will receive a shot at the NWA World Title. So Abyss will get 2 shots if he wins this match too? Probably not, but I’m just trying to make sense of Dusty booking. Speaking of Dusty, Tenay says he made this match because of the massive amount of e-mails he received requesting it. So now we’re blaming the smarks for non-sensical booking? Sounds good to me.
Match 1: 10 min…hahahahaha
Abyss vs. Cassidy Riley
Riley ducks a couple Abyss punches and does a waistlock, which is countered by an Abyss headbutt. Whip by Abyss, Riley chops Abyss a couple times, off the ropes, flying forearm barely fazes the monster, Riley goes off the ropes again but meets a big Abyss clothesline. Splash in the corner by Abyss, followed by the Shock Treatment, then the Black Hole Slam finishes it.
Your winner: Abyss (1:28)
Abyss looks at Styles, then goes back to the ring and gets out some thumbtacks! AJ doesn’t like the thumbtacks. Before he can do anything fun, the Charismatic Enema comes out and attacks Abyss. Twist of Fate by Hardly, then Raven comes out and it’s 2 on 1 until Styles comes down and hits a flying forearm on Abyss. Hardly dropkicks Raven out of the ring, and the faces stand tall.
My Insight: Typical Abyss squash, and the aftermath probably sets up a tag team match for sometime in the next couple of weeks. I have no complaints here, 1 Traci moon.
Lockdown commercial
We’re back and Tenay & West yap about the main event. They then throw it to a 4:30 video package about the history between Elix Skipper and Christopher Daniels. It’s a nice video, but it reveals the ending to today’s main event. Oy. With this being the third show off of a TV taping, there’s no reason why somebody couldn’t have noticed this and placed the video after the match. I’m guessing somebody will get fired for this, as well they should.
Lockdown commercial
Tenay talks to Monty Brown, asking him what went through his mind when he joined up with Jeff Jarrett. Monty is still an honest guy, except he will be even more honest. DDP had 265 pounds of the Alpha Male going through his mind after he got pounced. The only thing Jarrett owes him is mutual respect. He is doing big things in this business. He has 2 words about Lockdown: Survival & Pain. Nash, Waltman & DDP will feel pain, and they will survive. They’ll be like Pee Wee Herman in the movie theater, they will hold their own.
I don’t know about you, but I love dated references.
TNAwrestling.com commercial…while not mentioned here, I’ll go ahead and mention that this week featured an updated diary from the lovely Traci! Go check it out, nizzles!
AJ shirt/DVD commercial
Tenay & West yap some more about the Lockdown main event, and then they toss it to a 3:35 video package about it.
Victory Road DVD commercial
We’re back to the opening from Destination X, which takes 2:02.
Match 2: 4-man X Division elimination match with a 30 minute time limit, winner gets a shot at X Division Champion Christopher Daniels at Lockdown
Chris “Ham Sandwich” Sabin vs. “Prime Time” Elix Skipper vs. Michael Shane vs. Petey Williams (w/Coach D’Amore)
Speaking of Mr. TNA, Daniels joins Tenay & West to make listening to the show more entertaining. He spends most of the time ignoring Tenay and commenting on the in-ring action, which quite frankly is a good thing. Team Canada huddles up and pumps up Petey before he enters the ring. Not literally. Sabin & Skipper start, hammerlock into a headlock by Sabin, off the ropes, arm drag by Sabin. Skipper lands on his feet when Sabin tries a back body drop and rolls up Sabin for 2. Sabin gets a cradle of his own for 2. Tags to Shane & Williams! Tieup into an arm wringer by Petey, headlock by Shane, off the ropes, arm drag by Petey. They then exchange some chop suey, Petey comes with some kicks then a clothesline, snap mare, Shane back with a boot, he goes up top but Petey stops him and gets him into the tree of woe…OH CANADAAAA! Tag to Skipper, who Cactus clotheslines Shane over the top! Petey comes off the apron and ranas Skipper! Sabin with an Asai Moonsault off the second rope onto all three! Wooo, we need a break.
We’re back, Sabin & Petey are going at it as we look at a replay of the stuff from earlier. Petey’s all over Sabin as we return to live action, he sets up the Canadian Destroyer but Shane comes in and superkicks Petey! Sabin rolls on top and Petey Williams is eliminated! (6:36) Shane comes in and attacks Sabin with knees to the back, Sabin crotches Shane on the ropes, Skipper tags Sabin and hits the New School Rana on Shane! Cover gets a 2 count, a kick by Skipper gets another 2 count. Skipper yaps at Daniels, Daniels tells the young man to keep his focus in the ring, and sure enough Shane attacks him from behind, knocking him onto the floor, then he whips Skipper into the safety rail! Back into the ring, Skipper with punches, whip reversed, overhead belly to belly by Shane gets 2. Shane with axehandles to Skipper, he chokes Skipper with the middle rope, then with his boot. Skipper fights back with forearms, but Shane answers with a vertical suplex, then a flying elbow gets 2. Rear chinlock by Shane, Skipper fight out and gets a sleeper, off the ropes, double cross body! Both men are down as we see a replay. They then both try to tag Sabin, but prevent each other from doing so, series of reversals, Shane tries a piledriver but Skipper powers out and hits the Sudden Death for 3! Michael Shane is eliminated (11:27), and Sabin dropkicks Skipper out of the ring as we go to commercial.
Lockdown commercial
We’re back, whip into the corner, forearm by Sabin, vertical suplex gets 2, Sabin tries a headscissor submission, but Skipper gets out of it, Sabin answers with an inverted atomic drop for 2. Punches back and forth, whip into a powerslam by Sabin, then a running senton splash gets 2. Snap mare into a rear chinlock by Sabin, Skipper fights out, whip, Sabin with an elbow, tries a tornado DDT but Skipper tosses him off, Sabin’s successful the second time and gets a 2 count! Skipper hits a spinebuster and gets 2. Forearms back and forth, an enziguri by Sabin gets 2. Sabin hits a running Liger bomb for 2! Sabin places Skipper up top, they exchange punches, Skipper’s hanging off the top, Sabin goes up, Skipper reverses the superplex attempt and sends Sabin crashing face first to the mat! Skipper hits a spinning heel kick off the second rope and gets 2! Sabin goes for the Cradle Shock, Skipper gets out, then Sabin tries a flying headscissors, Skipper twists him around into Sudden Death! That’s all, folks!
Your winner: “Prime Time” Elix Skipper (21:21)
Daniels is speechless! Replays of all the eliminations are shown, then Daniels says that the challenge Skipper went through today will be nothing compared to what he will face at Lockdown! They jaw at each other as we end the show.
My Insight: Well, so much for that talk of the diminished role of the X Division. Now if we can have these guys wrestling more often than David Young, then we’ll be getting somewhere. Skipper looked real strong here and poses a real threat to Mr. TNA at Lockdown. Sabin finally got a chance to show off his skills, as did Michael Shane, who was pretty much nowhere in the weeks prior to this match. Poor Petey seems to be on the outside looking in, but that can be chalked up to the reported ankle injury he worked the show with. We’ll give this one 4 Traci moons, one for each competitor. This is what we need to see more on Impact!
Overall Insight: This show was a recapper’s dream. Not only was there an awesome X Division match, there wasn’t a whole lot else for me to do here. Minimal work for me is always a good thing. The show did have one fatal error though, the poor placement of the Daniels/Skipper video ruined any speculation as to how the main event was going to turn out. And since this show was in the can for about 3 weeks, there is absolutely no excuse for that. Some people are pointing the finger at FSN, but the fact is that TNA edits their shows, and FSN airs them. It’s not their responsibility to make sure everything is in proper order…that falls on TNA. They had plenty of time to make sure this show was the way they wanted it to be, and if they wanted their main event spoiled 15 minutes into the show…well that’d just be goofy. Other than that, it was a pretty good show.
Well, that’s all for this week…see ya Sunday and GO CARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
