6/21/12 Impact

Ratings:
Mr. Anderson vs. Christopher Daniels: *1/2

Kurt Angle vs. Robbie E: N/A (squash)

Magnus vs. AJ Styles: *

Tara vs. Taeler Hendrix: 1/4*

D'Angelo Dinero vs. Bully Ray: *1/4

Jeff Hardy vs. Rob Van Dam: **1/4
_________________

Reviews/Thoughts:
It's Open Fight Night and Gut Check! We're gonna have our first female Gut Check contestant!

Hulk Hogan starts the show, a surefire way to get the crowd nuts from the start. We are going to find out Aries' decision right now: (A) hand over the X-Division title and face Roode for the World Title, or (B) keep the X-Division Title and bypass Roode for now.

Aries is torn on what to do, so he comes up with Option "C": every year, at Destination X, whomever the X-Division champ is can trade the belt in for a shot at the World Title, bringing more prestige to that X-Division belt. Wow, I LOVE that idea. LOVE IT. Hogan loves it, too.

Roode comes out to protest. Aries and Roode brawl. Anderson comes out?! Anderson says he's gonna win the BFG Series. He calls out Daniels on his open fight night. Aw, Daniels has to put down the appletini. Joseph Park again shown in the stands. Decent short match between the two. Anderson wins with a neckbreaker and then a Mic Check for three.

AJ Styles and Dixie Carter in the back. AJ now reluctant to share the truth and wants to find another way.

Brooke Hogan now has her own office. Must be great to be Hulk's daughter. She says "make your work your boyfriend." In a way, that's true. Actual relationships in this business typically don't last long, or probably exist with your co-workers. Anyway, Brooke has Velvet, Mickie, ODB, and Madison in her office. Brooke quickly eliminates Madison.

Two Robbies in the ring. He challenges any of the guys in the BFG Series. Oops, Kurt Angle accepts! Angle squashes Robbie. Bonus points for a submission win! 10 points for Angle.

Video package of our first female Gut Chck contestant, Taeler Hendrix. Great background story, overcoming her cancer diagnosis (diagnosed when she was 21). Good clips compiled from the indies. She's driven, and she would be a great addition to the Knockouts Division. Hoping she impresses.

Magnus wants to call someone out. Whoa, cutting the heel promo tonight. He calls out AJ Styles. Styles missing moves and being more indecisive than normal. Daniels and Kaz distract Styles, and Magnus hits a Michinoku Driver for three. Very short match, but good stuff during that time. That'd be 7 points for Magnus that go toward the BFG Series.

Gut Check time for Taeler Hendrix. She faces the most experienced Knockout, Tara. Great pairing here, like a professor mentoring the student. Hendrix with a couple of good moves, but nothing real special overall. Glad they kept the match short. Tara basically with the Widow's Peak for the win.

You know, you'd think Joseph Park's character would be smarter than to put up with Bully's antics. Coulda sued Bully multiple times by now, but instead plays the coward. Apparently, that's just way too easy.

Samoa Joe calls out James Storm. Storm eliminated Joe in that battle royal last week to get 20 points. Back and forth here. Joe decides to try for the submission win and get more points, but Storm catches Joe with the last Call for three. 7 more points for the Cowboy. Storm with the celebration. Joe comes in with a beer bottle, looking like he's gonna hit Storm. Instead, Joe just hands the bottle over. More celebration.

Brooke Hogan eliminates ODB next. No surprise there. Down to Velvet and Mickie to see who faces Tessmacher for the title.

Bully Ray is right, he's the most hated bully ever. He picks Pope because Bully thinks it'll be an easy 10 points for a submission win. Far from it. Pope looked good here. Sure enough, Abyss shows up in the crowd. Ref coulda easily called for the DQ when Abyss put his hands on Bully, but didn't. Pope gets a clothesline and a pin for 7 points. Abyss chases Bully to the back.

Hardy and RVD didn't get called out tonight. So Hulk says they will face each other in the main event tonight.

We get a lengthy clip of Montgomery Gentry's new music video. That's the one Velvet Sky is in, thanks to Brooke Hogan. You can go online for the full video.

Time for Tessmacher to defend her Knockouts title. Brooke Hogan makes her decision, and it's Mickie James tonight. Fair move, considering Velvet got to do the music video. Fairly competitive here, with Tessmacher scoring the win with a rollup. I'm more interested in Mickie's actions after the match, showing more angry emotion. Probably a heel turn waiting to happen. Would be great for the Knockouts Division to have her and Gail (two very experienced Knockouts) as heels to help the less experienced talent. TNA's trying to build Tessmacher up right now, and they still have a couple of veterans in Tara and Velvet on the face side anyway.

Main event time with RVD and Hardy. Again, 10-minute time limits for all BFG Series matches. Quick pace, very competitive. Hardy misses the Swanton, RVD breaks out a 450(!) and misses. Hardy DDT for two. Twist of Fate gets three for Hardy -- 7 points. Only maybe a bit over 4 minutes in match length, but very good.

BFG Series after this week has Storm well out in front with 27 points. Angle has 10. Anderson, Magnus, Hardy, and Pope each have 7. The others (Daniels, Joe, Styles, Robbie E, RVD, Bully) have 0 points.

Tag title match next week with Angle and Styles facing Daniels and Kaz.

Styles and Dixie to the ring, no music. Dixie with a more monotonous, nervous tone here. AJ then basically takes her aside to say they can just leave the building. They start to exit the ring, but some unknown woman comes out. She introduces herself as Claire Lynch. She's a recovering (drug?) addict that AJ and Dixie have apparently been secretly trying to help. Daniels is fuming that Claire is in the building spilling the beans. There's no AJ/Dixie affair.

I honestly thought Claire would be someone portraying AJ Styles' wife to keep the storyline going. They could have easily held off on this for several more weeks. But now what? The episode ended with that closure feel to it, instead of keeping the suspense up. This could mean AJ and Angle retain next week, but if this storyline is to continue (as I've read that it will), I'm hoping there's more twists to this one.