11/29/12 Impact

Ratings:
Mickie James vs. Gail Kim: *3/4

Bobby Roode vs. Christian York: **1/2

James Storm & AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels & Kazarian: **

Matt Morgan vs. Douglas Williams: N/A (squash)

Rob Van Dam vs. Austin Aries (X-Division Title): **3/4
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Reviews/Thoughts:
It's Championship Thursday, but only one title match scheduled? Oops.

Hulk Hogan starts the show. Of course, HH gets the huge cheer. He wants answers from Bully Ray regarding this whole alleged deal with Brooke Hogan. Do we really need another damn scandal? Hulk laying down the law about not wanting Brooke to see other wrestlers. Aries in Hogan's office. He wants to know how Brooke can lie down on that desk. ARIES BURN. Hulk pissed off now.

Knockouts start it off with Mickie and Gail. Yay for two women that can put on a decent match if given time. Gail with the legs around Mickie's neck, and slams Mickie's head into the canvas with the legs. Ow. Nice counters and crowd reaction. Tornado DDT gets three for Mickie. Enjoyed this one. Nice momentum for James heading into the PPV.

So it's Aries, Zema Ion, Kid Kash, and Kenny King that Hulk chooses from to get a shot at RVD tonight. King is the first eliminated. Leaving ROH doesn't look like a good decision now, huh Kenny? Granted, he really hasn't been given much of a shot aside from Destination X.

Roode promo saying Hardy is a paper champion. Roode also mentioned that he took out York with one move, and Hardy nearly lost to the new Gut Check winner. Enter York. Slap to Roode. Wake up call! We got a match! Must note that you can't call York a rookie because he's been in the business so long. Rolling Senton in the corner is called Dreamscape, and that got two. York nearly stole the win countering the fisherman's suplex, but Roode slaps on the crossface for the submission win. Another impressive match that makes me wonder if York got that much better over the years or if he simply was under the radar all this time. Or perhaps a little of both.

Jeff Hardy comes down to get a piece of Roode. RR avoids the Twist of Fate.

Devon wants his TV Title back and wants a match against Samoa Joe. It's true that Devon never lost it; he got stripped of the title after not renewing his contract and a lot of people thought he'd go back to WWE (but that didn't pan out because of the WWE-TNA lawsuit). If Hulk gives Devon the title match, Aces & Eights doesn't hurt anyone on this episode.

Prichard says there were positives and negatives in the Gut Check match, and I'm still a stickler for seeing that Brisco also had both of his shoulders down when pinning Garett Bischoff last week. Kurt does his one final pitch to Prichard and Taz. No Al Snow for the show? Interesting. D'Lo Brown doesn't know where Al is, either.

Kaz and Daniels vs. Storm and Styles. Can't go wrong with this tag match. It really should be a better 2013 for AJ Styles, because 2012 has really not gone his way. Styles can't get anything going in the early going, so Storm has to come to the rescue. Storm with the blind tag. AJ misses the Pele, but Storm nails the Last Call on Daniels for three. Styles doesn't feel like celebrating. It's more to further the hard luck that AJ has gone through lately.

Next year's TNA Lockdown PPV will be at the Alamodome. March 10. Nice.

Joe gives Devon his title shot. Meanwhile, Hulk decides who faces RVD later.

Douglas Williams faces Matt Morgan. Yes, size matters. Convincing win for the Blueprint. Nice beard, Morgan.

It's Gut Check time for Wes Brisco. Still no Al Snow, so D'Lo fills in. He saw Wes Brisco's match, so it's all good. Prichard speaks the truth; he knows the match wasn't that great last week. But he knows what Wes can do, so it's a yes. Taz with a surprising "no" vote after giving off the vibe that he would go with a "yes." So D'Lo does have to make the call after a final plea from Wes. It's a "yes" from D'Lo, and Wes has his contract. I would like to see what Al Snow would have voted, and frankly, it might have been "no," just to get some type of storyline going. Note also that Kurt had really been pushing hard for Wes to get in, so I'd even look for references to that down the road.

Aries gets the nod for the X-Division Title shot against RVD. Could we have a similar deal to how he won the world title in 2012? Main event intros from Borash. Aries mocks RVD with a version of the Rolling Thunder for two. Aries with the RVD mocking again, but the frog splash misses. Very good match here. RVD going for the five-star, but Aries pushes him off into the steel barricade. RVD tossed back in the ring. Aries with the trash talking on the mic instead and more Brooke Hogan bashing. Bully Ray runs down and the ref tosses the match out. Aries backs up the stage, but Hulk blocks his exit. Staredown now between Hulk and Bully as the show ends.

One more Impact until Final Resolution. My predictions right now:

Looking for Hardy to retain over Roode, in which Roode will somehow cry foul and get another rematch at Genesis. Tara should retain over Mickie, likely with Jesse's interference. Styles could get his win over Daniels to kiss 2012 goodbye, but that could depend on what we see on Impact next week.