5/17/12 Impact

Ratings:
Bully Ray vs. Rob Van Dam: *1/2

Open Fight Night Qualifier Battle Royal: **

Jeff Hardy vs. Mr. Anderson: **1/2

Gail Kim vs. Velvet Sky vs. Brooke Tessmacher (Knockouts Title): **

Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe: **3/4
__________________

Reviews/Thoughts:
Roode again starts the show to gloat about his latest win against RVD. Celebration of domination, and he wants Hogan out here. A few demands for Hulk. Champagne! Vintage green plain M&Ms! Golden Canadian confetti! There are other demands as well. No dice, says Hogan. Open Fight Night again next week, and Roode's number is up. Who wants to challenge? Everyone! We got RVD/Bully, Hardy/Anderson, Angle/Joe, and everyone else in a battle royal. Nice opening segment.

In two weeks, Impact moves to 8 pm ET (one hour earlier).

RVD and Bully begin. RVD's left knee taped, so Bully focuses on that area. Bully uses a cutter for his finisher now. No need a partner. Joseph Park and Bully in the back. Only a matter of time when Abyss shows up more often.

King Mo announced as the first to try pro wrestling and MMA at the same time. Clearly, they forgot about Bobby Lashley's attempt at that.

Battle Royal time to determine the wild card spot for the OFN qualifier for Roode's title. EY and ODB went right after Crimson, so that storyline continues. Madison Rayne spotted on the stage having eyes for someone in the ring, so at least that got narrowed down to a few guys. Robbie E eliminates his own bouncer (Robbie T). Devon took Robbie E out, so that didn't work out so well. Garett Bischoff among the last four guys. Gunner, Styles, and Aries are the last three. Gunner took Aries out, but Styles tosses Gunner to get into that title match. Good, but not the best battle royal, Taz.

ROFL, there's a Dixie Styles sign in the front. AJ vows to explain the photo. Daniels and Kaz come out, and they only wanted to expose the truth. Now a video is shown of Styles and Dixie.

Joe and Angle get it on in the back. There was even video from when Angle first broke into the company, with one of his first feuds being against Joe. Great stuff. But Anderson and Hardy are first.

Very good match between Jeff and Ken. Counters at key points of the match, and also otherwise placed here and there throughout. Lots of crowd reaction, although I'm sure a bunch was pumped in. Lots of free-flowing action here. Anderson tries that roll through fireman's carry slam but Hardy counters with the rollup for three. Again, very close on whether it was three. Solid.

Knockouts title match now. Velvet and Brooke gang up on Gail. Nice spot with Gail's Boston Crab on Tessmacher and Velvet with a dragon sleeper on Gail. Octopus from Gail, almost thought Brooke tapped for a sec there. Unique rollups resulted there. Gail with a missile dropkick to both opponents, nice. In Yo Face from Velvet to Tessmacher, but Gail picks the scraps for three.

Angle and Joe finish the night off. Crowd pretty jacked for this one. Roode comes out for commentary during the match. Usual great stuff from both guys; they know each other so well. Numerous counters. Ankle lock on Joe for a pretty long stretch. Muscle Buster countered, sunset flip by Angle gets three. Nice main event.

All four guys (Angle, Hardy, Bully, Styles) come out to eye Roode and his title. Hogan's likely picking Angle. Bully's occupied with Abyss, Styles has Daniels and Kaz, while Hardy probably still has stuff with Anderson.