The Big News: Kurt Angle is officially in the King of the Mountain match after beating Sting thanks to help from Matt Morgan, which Angle didn’t appear to want. There was more wrestling on this show than any program in recent memory.

The streak of shows starting with a wrestling match ended at two as Mick Foley came out for an interview with his security team of Rocco and Sal. Foley claimed Jeff Jarrett had taken away his smile. I was afraid this meant Foley was going to fake a knee injury in order to bail out of dropping the strap. He called out Jarrett. Foley, wearing a Jarrett t-shirt, suspended Jarrett without pay and fined him for hurting a senior citizen like Earl Hebner during last week’s melee with Eric Young. Jarrett said he was tired of Foley’s comedy and started to leave. Foley started screaming that he wasn’t kidding and gave him the old “easy way or hard way” line. Either way, Foley said Jarrett was being removed from TNA. Jarrett chose the hard way, but Sal and Rocco jumped on him while Foley rooted them on from the ramp. Jarrett made his own comeback, giving both 400-pounders a clothesline and leveling them with chair shots. Foley vowed to remove Jarrett from the Impact Zone later tonight, but only when he had his bearings.

Team 3-D did an interview. The camera panned over and Raven was sitting in a corner stalking Lauren the interview girl. Brother Ray proclaimed Beer Money was the future of the tag team wrestling, but they couldn’t have the titles just yet.

Jarrett was in the locker room when Jeremy Borash asked him about Foley. Jarrett admitted he screwed up when he hit Hebner and had already apologized to him several times. But he dared Foley to throw him out of the building.

1. Black Machismo and Alex Shelley defeated Team 3-D in a non-title match in 7:40. Machismo came out dressed as Randy Savage circa 1985, which reminds me of the youtube footage of Savage’s invasion of the Mid-South Wrestling from 1984 I found the other day. Savage was one phenomenal heel, and Lance Russell was nothing short of incredible selling it. He brought out Jerry Jarrett, he threatened to call the cops. The match was longer than most opening Impact matches and solid. Shelley threw lots of cool kicks on Brother D-Von. Chris Sabin and Consequences Creed were at ringside interfering. At one point, Sabin and Creed held Dvon and Brother Ray outside the ring so Shelley and Machismo could hit stereo topes, but Team 3-D both moved and Sabin and Creed got whacked. Mike Tenay and Don West were talking about the identity of Suicide again, and West blurted out he just hoped it wasn’t Glen Gilbertti. West also dropped Bobby Hennan’s name during tonight’s broadcast. 3-D gave Shelley wuzzup, but not before Sabin and Creed jumped in the ring right in front of the referee, only to get backdropped out. Just as Ray ordered Dvon to get the tables, the British Invasion ran out. As Brutus Magnus brawled with Dvon while referee Mark Johnson was tied up, Doug Williams hit Ray with a briefcase, leading to Shelley getting the pin with a jackknife cradle. Tenay wondered why Beer Money wasn’t there to fend off the Invasion after 3-D had held the Invasion last week when they tried to interfere in Beer Money’s match. Here’s another reason why matches mean nothing in TNA. This was the tag champs losing to two undercard wrestlers, but the commentary barely paid any attention to it. **1/2

Foley was backstage watching at all the heinous acts Jarrett had pulled from the 1990s. I guess the Impact Zone has WWE 24/7, because he brought up Cindy Margolis (WWE 1999), Beetlejuice (WWE 1999) and Gary Coleman (WCW 2000). By the way, for recently subscribed members of the website, one Figure Four Daily to go out of your way to listen to is Borash’s first (and probably only) appearance with Bryan Alvarez from 2006 when he goes into detail about the time Coleman was in WCW. That story is worth the price of a month on this website alone. Foley led a flock of TNA officials to Jarrett’s locker room, including Rocco and Sally Boy who weren’t selling anything from getting hit over the head with a chair earlier. Foley said the entire senior citizen community was up in arms over what Jarrett had done to Hebner, and the Italian community was upset over what he did to Rocco and Sally Boy. Jarrett voluntarily left before he did something he really regretted, but asked Foley to reevaluate his role in TNA to find out what his role really is. I’m not sure what Jarrett’s role is in storyline.

Booker T and Scott Steiner did a promo about the Nation of Violence First Blood match tonight against Samoa Joe. Steiner challenged Joe’s mentor to show up tonight. Only when his non-compete runs out.

Samoa Joe defeated Scott Steiner and Booker T in a Nation of Violence First Blood match. Rules were Joe had to face Steiner in a first blood match. So Joe defeated Steiner in 4:32. Steiner gave Joe a shot with the ring bell as they fought on the floor early. Steiner then put the bell over Joe’s head and hit the bell with the bell hammer. Why didn’t he just use the hammer on Joe’s head? They finally got in the ring, but Joe used an STO to turn the tables. Steiner blocked a clothesline and used the downward spiral, then pulled a turnbuckle pad off. Joe kept Steiner from ramming his head into the corner and threw Steiner into the exposed turnbuckle instead, but no blood. Steiner threw Joe into the corner and went out to ringside to get his lead pipe, but Joe hit him with an elbow suicidia. Then Joe took a trash can, placed it over Steiner’s head and hit it repeatedly. Referee Rudy Charles put a towel under the trash can and found blood on Steiner for the win. So Joe then faced Booker in another first blood match and defeated him in 2:49. Booker could be heard calling spots while Joe was hitting him within earshot of the camera. Booker posted Joe without drawing blood. Joe sent Booker headfirst into the railing and ringpost. Booker threw some Urijah Faber knees, but crotched himself on the railing after missing a side kick. Joe then hit Booker in the midsection with the lead pipe, causing internal bleeding. Booker had blood coming out of his mouth to end the match. The portion with Steiner was much better. **1/4

They cut backstage for a status report on Steiner and Booker like they were members of the top face group in the company. Raven was sitting in a corner in the monthly Russo-written angle away from the angle.

A.J. Styles defeated Shane Douglas via submission in 5:12 Three matches over five minutes in the first hour, which might be a new record for Impact since they went to two hours almost two years ago. Douglas, wearing a black tank top, can’t do much of anything, so he relied on working the crowd and punches. Styles did a dropkick and pescado, where he came up favoring his ankle legit. Douglas sent him into the stairs and guardrail, which had been done to death in the previous match. Styles used his pele kick. Douglas had the upper hand when Styles delved into the George St. Pierre playbook for a gorgeous rolling cross armbar for the quick tapout. **

Postmatch, Douglas jumped Styles. Daniels ran out for the save. After a quick exchange, Douglas decked Daniels by swinging a towel at him. Douglas let go of the towel, and a pair of handcuffs fell out. Doulgas kept putting the boots to Styles and Daniels until Joe ran out for the save. Joe was much more warmly received on this week’s show and didn’t come off as the guy buzzing around in neutral because the fans didn’t know what to think of him.

Lauren was being stalked by Raven backstage, so she called “Chris” on her cell phone asking for help. She finally ran into a women’s bathroom, where she stumbled into Chuck Berry photographing…whoops, wrong atrocity. We heard lots of loud banging and slamming while Raven just sat outside and listened. Turns out Daffney was waiting for Lauren and jumped her. How did Daffney know that Lauren was going to go into that particular bathroom? Couldn’t Lauren have chosen another route?

Taylor Wilde caught wind of this and brawled with Daffney. Wilde was wearing a mini-skirt, which is no way to come dressed for a brawl. Daffney started strangling Wilde until Dr. Stevie stepped in and asked her to stop. Stevie addressed Wilde like it was the end of a therapy session.

The Beautiful People did an interview where Madison Rayne talked extensively for the first time. Angelina Love was upset about their standard set being taken away, like their thrones to cover their beautiful butts. Borash offered to cover Love’s butt herself. Velvet Sky spoke of protecting their turf from Tara, nee Victoria, which led Borash to mention the 1978 movie “The Warriors.” Good segment because the Beautiful People play their roles perfectly and Borash knows how to interact with them as the goofy guy from high school trying to score with the hot, cool girls.

ODB continued to train Cody Deaner. It was basically a takeoff on the scene from Rocky II when Mick ordered Rocky to catch a chicken to build up speed, instead ODB ordered him to catch a duck.

Kurt Angle accepted Joe’s challenge and said he had something for him. Deal is Joe has now taken out Kevin Nash, Steiner and Booker, so Angle is the last one remaining since Joe isn’t targeting Sting. The wildcard is Matt Morgan’s offer to join the mafia, which wasn’t mentioned.

Tara defeated Madison Rayne in 4:15. Tara’s presence alone makes her best suited for her role in this company. They didn’t work as well together early because Tara isn’t used to being the top face in a division yet and Rayne is still green. It got better when Tara was on offense, using her standing moonsault and getting the pin with the widow’s peak. *1/4

Eric Young was asked by Borash about what has caused him to be so abusive over the last few weeks. Young said he was tired of being used. When Borash told him to stop feeling sorry for himself, Young slapped across the face. Borash took a dive like he was Bruce Seldon, to the point where we could see his briefs. Add this to the list of angles that would have been better if given more time, especially considering how great Young was on the mic last week.

So Cal Val replaced Borash in the interview spot, the third person to occupy it this week. Daniels walked in and challenged Douglas to basically a loser leaves town match at the PPV.

Kurt Angle defeated Sting in a King of the Mountain qualifier. Unlike earlier this year during the empty arena match, the two shook hands and wrestling as counterparts instead of enemies. Crowd did the dueling chants with Angle receiving a surprising amount of support. It picked up after the second commercial break with the standard amount of solid false finishes you see in many Angle matches. Sting missed a Stinger splash and Angle got a back suplex for a two count. Later, Sting hit two Stinger splashes and a vertical suplex for a two count. Angle did three rolling German suplexes and teased the Olympic slam, but Sting escaped and tried the Scorpion Death lock, but Angle countered that into the ankle lock. Sting reversed it and hit a rare power bomb for a two count. Angle escaped the scorpion death drop, but missed a charge in the corner. Then Sting hit the death drop, but Morgan ran in to distract the referee. Angle whipped Sting into the ropes, where Morgan nailed Sting from behind which Angle “didn’t see.” Angle then got the pin with an Olympic slam. Afterwards, Morgan went to congratulate Angle, who caught on that Morgan interfered. Angle was upset with him and started shoving him. The two argued as the show went off the air. Good match. ***

SUMMARY: It’s good to see some new faces being pushed like Morgan and Young. Under many circumstances, it would appear that the Morgan-Angle program would end with Angle in cahoots with Morgan so they can force Sting out of the mafia and Angle can regain control. But TNA does so many swerves you can never tell. Overall, a pretty solid show.

Jeff Hamlin
jhamlin@wchl1360.com