A strong episode of TNA Impact Thursday night was highlighted by a non-title match pitting TNA world champion Rob Van Dam against Samoa Joe and a verbal confrontation between Ric Flair and Jay Lethal. The show was focused and did a fine job of hyping Sunday's Victory Road pay-per-view, which, on paper, looks very promising.
The first RVD-Joe match in TNA was pretty much what you would expect from these two in that it was hard-hitting and entertaining. I liked the finish, which saw Joe trap RVD in a chokehold, but RVD managed to push off the turnbuckle and flip backward on top of Joe for the pin while Joe still had the hold applied. This was a good win for RVD, and Joe looked strong in defeat. It also planted the seed for a future program between the two.
The Flair-Lethal exchange was really well done. Lethal was cutting a solid promo when Flair interrupted him, got in his face and started ranting and raving, including insulting Lethal's ill mother. It was a very intense confrontation, as Lethal said little but never backed up – even after a seething Flair demanded several times that he do so. Flair was on fire in this segment, and I also was quite impressed by Lethal's facial expressions and how he carried himself. He looked like a star.
Other thoughts on Thursday's show:
I was really surprised that the main event between Jeff Hardy and Mr. Anderson ended with a clean finish, as Hardy scored the pin in a match that only went a little over three minutes. The run-ins from Abyss and RVD that I was expecting didn't happen until the post-match. …
TNA has done a good job of building up Sunday's TNA world title match between the four guys mentioned above. You have the question of whether Hardy can trust Anderson; RVD facing long odds of retaining his title; and Abyss being portrayed as a bloodthirsty monster. …
The A.J. Styles-Kazarian match – which ended in a double count-out – was good but I wish it would have gone longer than six minutes. I figured these two would be facing each other on the pay-per-view, but it was announced that Flair booked them in a tag team match against opponents to be announced. …
Brother Devon delivered some strong mic work, which he usually does when he gets the opportunity. I'm interested to see what happens in the three-way match between him, Brother Ray and Jesse Neal at Victory Road. …
I thought it was unnecessary to have Samoa Joe beat up the referee after his match with RVD. I suppose it was an attempt to get Joe over as an anti-hero but it just made him seem like a sore loser to me. …
The six-man tag match that saw Beer Money and Matt Morgan defeat The Motor City Machine Guns and Hernandez was entertaining. I liked that Morgan and Hernandez – who will meet in a steel cage match at Victory Road – never touched, as Morgan played chicken heel. …
It was great to see Daffney back on television, but I'm disappointed that she was squashed by Angelina Love. Obviously Love needed to win since she is challenging for the TNA Knockouts title Sunday, but I don't understand why the match wasn't booked to be at least a little more competitive. By the way, is it just me or does Love appear to be getting skinnier by the week? …
It was an interesting booking decision to have X Division champion Douglas Williams lose a non-title ladder match to Jeremy Buck of Generation Me on the show before Williams' title defense against Brian Kendrick at Victory Road, but it actually made sense. The point was to establish that Williams has a fear of heights, and therefore his title is in jeopardy Sunday because it's an Ultimate X Match. Hopefully, TNA follows up and Buck gets a title shot against the winner. ...
I'm a bit confused as to what the deal is with Kevin Nash waiting to speak with Eric Bischoff. If the idea is that Nash's job is in jeopardy because he is being held accountable for the actions of Scott Hall and Sean Waltman, wouldn't he have already been punished by now? And if Nash is in trouble, why were he and Eric Young allowed to participate in the TNA world tag team title tournament?