We’re back from No Surrender and the fallout is as follows: Kurt Angle is still the TNA World Champion, Black Machismo is the new X Division Champion, and Team Pacman captured the TNA World Tag Team Championship. Also, AJ Styles and Tyson Tomko managed to secure a spot as the #1 Contender’s to the Tag Team Championship and Abyss was pulled under the ring from whatever James Mitchell promised would be his ticket to hell.

Karen Angle opened up the Impact! Zone tonight by introducing her husband, only to have Sting come out instead. At last Sunday’s No Surrender Karen Angle faked that Sting hit her in the head. As the two were discussing this, the crowd began chanting “You Suck!” at Karen and then Kurt came out and cracked Sting from behind with a steel chair. A very Russonian start to the show. Like that? I just made that word up – Russonian. It means “from, of, or like the mind and booking style of Vince Russo.” Patent it!

In any event, we got a main event proposal for the Bound for Glory pay-per-view from this segment with Kurt Angle challenging Sting.

Another eye-catching moment on Impact tonight was the cable television debut of Black Reign, otherwise known as Dustin Runnels. He comes out with a hammer and a rat – it’s weird. Reign was pitted against Shark Boy, who obviously had no chance from the start. The Black Reign character is reminiscent, in look, of the Goldust character. At the end of the match we had Reign attempt to put his rat in Shark Boy’s mask (which he took off) and put the mask back on Shark Boy, but Eric Young saved him.

During this match we had Mike Tenay talk about this week’s major impact: that Impact is going to 2 hours in October! Major congratulations are in order for the TNA organization from the front office down to the ring boys. Good job on stepping up to the next level – now it’s time to fill out a lot of the “other” areas of the business where you’re lacking a little bit…

Why does Pacman Jones never smile?

I never noticed how gigantic Matt Morgan is until he was in the ring tonight. Damn. He’s huge.

Jim Cornette gave us some indication of what to expect at October’s Bound for Glory pay-per-view. He talked about a “Fight for the Right” match where 15 men enter in a Battle Royal atmosphere. The object is to be one of the last 4 men in the ring. At that point, you’ve won the match and now you’re in a Four-Way match to be the number one contender. Interesting. Innovative. Let’s see how it works out.

There is also going to be a 10 Girl Gauntlet Battle Royal to crown a new TNA Knockout Champion. I’m always down for some good women’s wrestling so this should be good!

Kinda sucks for Black Machismo, huh? He just wins the X Division title and then loses his first match as Champion against Christopher Daniels.

And one of my favorite moments tonight – the introduction of Junior Fatu (formerly known as Rikishi)! Fatu will be fighting Christian Cage next week – so I’ll be tuning in!

The main event of the night was a pretty wild steel cage match where Abyss almost beat Kurt Angle by making him tap out. Then Judas Messias tore his way out from underneath the ring and beat the hell out of Abyss – complete with steel chair and razor wire (gotta love razor wire). This dude has stone white eyes and was really into getting Abyss’ blood in his mouth. It was pretty gross.

All in all, a great Impact that showed, once again, how a 1 hour show can be jam-packed with debuts, a decent match or two, and some good storyline progression. What will happen when TNA hits 2 hours in October?

Quote of the Night:
“Look wherever you want for the biggest baddest Samoan…I don’t care if it’s Afa, Sika, I don’t care if it’s Don Ho for all I care!” – Christian giving props to the legendary Wild Samoans tag team

- Joe
joe1897 [at] gmail [dot] com

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