The major impact that we saw on tonight’s edition of TNA Impact has got to be the dramatic reduction in the amount of vignettes played throughout the night. Sure, there may have been one or two too many recaps and there was a lot of talking and interviewing, but I’ll take it. I’ll take original content before a sappy taped vignette any day of the week.

That said, for me the major impact on tonight’s show was not the brawl between Jeff Jarrett and Eric Young (which I enjoyed – good for Jarrett for elevating Young) or the fighting between the Main Event Mafia and Samoa Joe or even the craziness of Mick Foley, but the best part of the show was seeing MORE show and less crap.

It’s good to see TNA getting a somewhat “major” sponsorship from Stacker 2. I’ve never been a fan of those on-the-mat promotional pieces, but I know that Dixie Carter and her team have been working religiously towards making TNA profitable and I’m sure that Stacker 2 paid a pretty penny for such prime real estate.

On this topic, I think that if TNA wants to really begin ramping up its efforts to be considered a big-time wrestling company, then they should try to get some better advertising/promotional partnerships on their pay-per-views. I’d start with Bound for Glory and build from there.

And now for some random thoughts about the show.

Once I saw Shane Douglas return last week to attack Christopher Daniels (by the way, why do they call him just “Daniels” now?), I knew that his angle was going to be, “I want my second chance, too!” Frankly, I don’t think there are any legs on that storyline, but let’s see what TNA comes up with…and let’s hope the first thing they come up with is a gym membership for Shane Douglas. Good grief that man is fat!

It’s nice to see the Knockouts division being added to by experienced women like Daffney and Victoria. Kong has done a great job of making this division a force in professional wrestling and the Beautiful People have helped along the way (as has Taylor Wilde). Good work. Oh – and I had no idea that “Sarah Palin” was Daffney. Shows you how little I pay attention to the wrestling websites.

Does anyone think that Kipp James has any future in TNA or any other professional wrestling organization? Didn’t this guy win the King of the Ring at some point? What a meteoric…nothing.

Why does Booker T speak?

I can’t stand Mike Tenay. Not only is his voice the most boring voice on the planet, but he’s now contradicting himself in his own sentences! He mentioned that Taylor Wilde’s plan to “get” the Beautiful People with “Sarah Palin” worked to perfection, but only up to a point. Really? It worked to perfection, but only up to a point? How does this guy collect a paycheck? Honestly.

Anyone else get a kick out of how the cameraman tries to create a “we’re in a big arena” view by keeping the camera on the ring and zooming out so you can see the main seating area of the fans? It makes me happy to see the ingenuity, but seriously – it’s time to go to a bigger arena. I know that there are probably contracts in place and that using the old WCW Worldwide studio is a cost efficiency, but wouldn’t it make the show look that much better if they taped it in front of 1,000 fans? Maybe in front of 5,000 fans? Think about it…

Why isn’t Matt Morgan in the main event? He’s a massive beast and one of the most agile big men in the business. Think of him what you may, but Vince McMahon’s innate desire to constantly have a “big man” at the top of the card has paid dividends. Carter and her crew could learn something from Uncle Vince.

With Team 3D, Stevie Richards, Daffney, Raven, Shane Douglas, Mick Foley, Matt Morgan, Jay Lethal, and any other number of tri-state area-based performers – when is TNA coming back to New Jersey?!

Quote of the Night:
“Yeah. That’s right, sexy.” – Chris Sabin to backstage interviewer Lauren Brooke

And anything else the Motor City Machine Guns said during the show.

“He’s fat!” – Scott Steiner ripping into Samoa Joe’s girth

- Joe
joe1897 [at] gmail [dot] com

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