7/5/12 Impact

Ratings:
Devon vs. Crimson: *

Flip Cassanova vs. Dakota Darsow: **1/4

Miss Tessmacher & Tara vs. Gail Kim & Madison Rayne: *

Kenny King vs. Lars Only: **3/4

Jeff Hardy vs. James Storm: ***1/2
_________________

Reviews/Thoughts:
Impact's getting much better now, I have to admit. X-Division's as strong as it's ever been (certainly more prestigious now), there are better storylines, and the BFG series will make for exciting stuff over the next few months.

Not to mention, this whole Park/Bully storyline has been immensely successful. Bully Ray starts the show. Big announcement from him. Oh, Bully is on Twitter now! Didn't know Bully was "bigger" than Park/Abyss, but maybe it's not in a physical manner. Bully accepts Park's fight, so it happens next week. No rules, anything goes again. Oh, and Bully's conveniently got a restraining order against Abyss. Parting cheap shot from Bully ends segment. Bully may have a shot here just so there's a reason for a rubber match.


Video from last week about the latest storyline twist. AJ's the father of Claire's baby. Certainly fit for Springer. Backstage taped segment showing Dixie and the Gut Check people (and D'Lo Brown), probably indirectly talking about new talent coming in. She refuses to comment on Claire.

TV Title match...Devon battles Crimson. So much for that undefeated streak, thanks to Storm. Crimson trying to cheat and steal a quick one early on. Bully Ray's already trending worldwide, must be a pro wrestling record. Devon with a clean win here. My, how Crimson has fallen.

Madison Rayne comes out. Wait, not Devon...right? WTF SHE PLANTS ONE ON EARL HEBNER. DAMMIT HEBNER. Vintage Hebner devilish grin. Get the man some Cialis, stat!

Chris Sabin promo next. Poor guy suffered another torn ACL just when he had returned from a previous ACL tear. He teases the retirement deal. Roode comes out to capitalize for more heel heat. Kicks Sabin in the bad knee. Aries for the save. Segment did its job. It's possible Roode cheats to win again, but frankly, I'd just go ahead and have Aries win it on the first attempt, especially at Destination X.

More X-Division qualifying. Dakota Darsow and Flip Cassanova get their time to shine. Dakota is the son of Barry Darsow (Demolition Smash and Repo Man, among other aliases). Impressive backflip into a seated splash for Cassanova. Guess that's how you get the "Flip" name. Cassanova shows off more aerial moves to get the crowd popping. Dakota got a broken nose there. Cassanova advances via Shooting Star Senton finisher -- basically turning 450 degrees into a senton. Sweet finish. Give it maybe another 3-5 minutes, and it's easily over three stars.

Knockouts title match delayed until next week. Something about Gail Kim getting lawyers involved. Fine, give lawyers more of a bad rep. Tessmacher's still ready for a tag match with her BFF, Tara.

Taeler Hendrix shown again as the first person on Gut Check that was actually supposed to win (the first guy wasn't supposed to win, but Flair screwed everything up, which is why he's probably no longer on the panel and gone from the company). Hendrix has a good back story, hoping to see more of her in the future.

Knockouts tag match. Yeah, pretty clear the face tag team was going over. Nice that Tara basically handed things to Tessmacher for the finish. I liked that suplex-like finisher from Tessmacher better, but her discus clothesline can be done on anyone.

AJ Styles promo, basically saying Claire baby accusation is false. Kaz and Daniels come out. More proof from Daniels? AJ says enough's enough. Last Man Standing match between AJ and Daniels at Destination X. AJ won at the PPV last year and brought that up, so Daniels probably wins this year just to extend the storyline more. Kaz interference is all but guaranteed.

Some guy gives Hogan an envelope. "We're not cowards," the guy says to Hogan. Envelope contains the Dead Man's Hand. Interesting.

X-Division qualifying match. And it's KENNY KING FROM ROH. More on this in the next paragraph. Lars Only looks like he belongs in California. Lars got some moves, I'll say that much. Gotta watch those Kenny King kicks. Damn, Lars with an awesome hurricanrana after going around the ringpost. Really diggin' this match. Awkward-looking Russian leg sweep-stunner hybrid from Lars. Excellent finisher from King, fireman's carry into a uranagi-like slam for three. Not quite his Coronation finisher in ROH (at least from the Wikipedia description), but good enough. Maybe it was meant to go into a DDT, like an F-5, but whatever. Nice promo after the match.

So anyway, Kenny King showed up for that TNA X-Division qualifier, and ROH wasn't very happy with that, to say the least. ROH's take on things was that King's contract had expired, but the two sides had agreed to an extension where King wouldn't wrestle for another company (negotiations with other companies were OK). Yet, Kenny went ahead anyway and wrestled this match for TNA. ROH basically terminated King after that. Honestly, TNA may have better upside for Kenny King because he could be showcased weekly on a channel that reaches more viewers. King could be yet another person to revitalize the X-Division. If you haven't seen his ROH work, track it down. King's immensely talented and has incredible agility.

Aries video to hype his title match with Roode is shown. Very well done.

Time for Hardy and Storm to face off. Hardy tries for Twist of Fate a few times early. Crowd VERY vocal with split chants. Storm tries to slow things down. More big moves from both guys, Hardy providing the aerial stuff. "YES!" chants start. Crowd is going NUTS, especially for Hardy. No Swanton for Hardy. Storm to the top?! Savage diving elbow for two! Great match so far. Setting up Last Call. Hardy ducks, Twist of Fate! Three count for 7 points. Solid match, best of the night.

Huge win for Hardy for BFG Series standings, especially when beating the leader. At the end of the day, Storm's still in the lead with 36 points. Samoa Joe in second with 27. Jeff Hardy now gets to 14 points, tied for third with Magnus. Note that Robbie E, Bully Ray, and AJ Styles have 0 points. Bully and AJ don't need the points (they have other significant storylines). Robbie's just out of luck in this one for whatever reason.

Remember when Angle and Joe squared off many moons ago? With the Angle headbutt to Joe? Yeah, that was awesome. Speaking of which, BFG Series match next week between Angle and Joe.

Bound for Glory is in Phoenix, Arizona, on October 14! Hey, my friend's getting ready to move there tomorrow!

Hogan ends the show, and of course, he gets the biggest pop of the night. It's time for Aries to give up the title. But that's Roode's music playing first. Roode with attitude toward Hogan. Bold proclamations from Roode, very nice heel promo. Bobby's really thriving in the main event role.

Aries comes out. He wants to fight Roode now. Roode backs off, then tries the cheap shot with the World Title again. Aries ducks and decks Roode with the X-Division Title. Crowd goes home happy tonight. Aries holds up both belts as Hogan approves. End show.