7-19-12 Impact results and thoughts

Coverage and thoughts on the July 19, 2012 episode of Impact

The show starts with a recap of last week’s attacks on Hulk Hogan & Sting. They show a pic of Hulk in a hospital bed (he had legit back surgery). Then Tenay says that Hogan & Sting aren’t in the Impact Zone.

They show the Bound for Glory series stats. James Storm is back in the lead.

James Storm comes to the ring. He says that wants to address a few things. He mentions that Austin Aries is the new World Champion. He congratulates him. He says that he’s back in first place in the BFG Series. Then he says that he hasn’t forgotten about Bobby Roode and he wants to kick the living crap out of him. Then he talks about the Aces and eights. Storm says this isn’t the Wild West because if it were he would be the sheriff. Storm sends a get well shout to Hulk Hogan. Then Storm says the measuring stick of wrestling is measured by 1 man. Tonight on Open Fight Night he calls out Kurt Angle. Angle’s music plays but doesn’t come out. Cue Angle’s music a second time but no Kurt. Then Storm tells the cameraman to go find him. The camera guy goes backstage while Storm waits in the ring. Cut to backstage and Angle has been attacked by Aces and Eights. I knew that was coming. This was a good segment. Storm cut a good promo. Then when Angle didn’t come out I knew the playing card guys struck.

Samoa Joe comes to the ring. He says that there isn’t a man alive that would call him out so he figured he’d pick a fight for himself. He calls out The Pope so he can make him tap. Pope comes out.

Samoa Joe vs. Pope D’Angelo Dinero in a Bound for Glory Series Match. Samoa Joe wins by submission for 10 more points. This was a solid match.

From earlier in the day, some guy asks if Roode has anything to do with the Aces and eights guys. Roode says that he has other stuff to worry about. Then the guy brings up Austin Aries and Roode says that he will show Aries’ win was a fluke.

Jeff Hardy comes to the ring. Jeff welcomes everyone to Open Fight Night. He says he has someone in mind he’s about to call out. Before he can say who Robbie E comes out. Robbie says that everyone in the series is ducking him. Tonight he’s calling Jeff out and there’s nothing Jeff can do about it because he’s not on the list. Whatever that meant. Jeff says, “Creatures lets do this.”

Jeff Hardy vs. Robbie E in a Bound for Glory Series Match. Robbie E wins by count out for 5 points when Jeff went after Rob Terry. This was ok but short. 

They show the next Gut Check contestant Sam Shaw backstage.

ODB is backstage on her cell phone talking to Eric Young who is right behind here. She asks where he’s been. Eric talks about getting his own show. Then they make out. ODB tells him to get the beer and fired chicken. This was typical Eric Young-ODB comedy.

They recap Claire telling AJ he’s the dad.

Kazarian & Daniels are backstage. Daniels says that what surprises him is that with all the evidence against AJ AJ’s being self righteous and refusing to admit to his errors. Kazarian says that if Claire brings some proof that will do something. Whatever. Can they end this idiotic storyline really soon please?

Jeremy Borash is in the ring and he brings out the Gut Check contestant Sam Shaw.  Shaw says he wanted to be a pro wrestler his whole life. He’s finally getting his chance to show the fans why he should be on the Impact roster. JB says there needs to be something that separates him from other Gut Check contestants. Then the Aces and Eights guys hit the ring and attack Shaw. I wasn’t expecting those to come out during this segment.

Back from break and Al Snow and referees help Sam Shaw to the back.

Ken Anderson comes to the ring. He says that at the last Open Fight Night he called out Christopher Daniels. The fans cheer. He asks why they are cheering him. This time he’d like to call out a guy he respects. Someone he sees as a friend and brother. He calls out AJ Styles. AJ comes out.

Ken Anderson vs. AJ Styles in a Bound for Glory Series Match. Anderson gets the pin for 7 points. This was a really good back and forth match.

Afterwards Claire comes out and screams at AJ. She says she’s been calling him all week. She says if he won’t return her calls they’ll talk about it right here. Claire says that AJ has a hard time remembering that night. Claire says that they were in a hotel room and had some drinks. AJ says he doesn’t remember anything and that it all happened in her imagination. Then she takes out some photos of the 2 of them in bed and making out. She says that went on all night. She tells him to think about and see if can remember. This is really idiotic! I’m way past tired of this storyline! Can they please just end this crap already!?

AJ Styles is backstage looking at the photos.

Rob Van Dam comes to the ring. He says that it’s great to be part of Open Fight Night and he feels like fighting. Then he says he wants to kick the crap out of Christopher Daniels. Daniels comes out.

Rob Van Dam vs. Christopher Daniels in a Bound for Glory Series Match. Daniels gets the pin with his foot on the rope for 7 more points. This was a good match too.  

Austin Aries is backstage and the camera guy asks for his reaction to Roode calling him a fluke. Aries says that they way Roode won at Lockdown was a fluke. Aries says that he trumps Roode. Then as he picks up his cape aces and eights cards fall out. Aries says that he trumps the Aces and Eights too. Good promo from Aries.

Mike Tenay & Taz are on the phone with Brooke Hogan. Brooke says that Hulk’s been taken to surgery and she doesn’t want to talk about it. Taz wishes Hulk a fast recovery. That was a wasted segment. Thankfully it was short.

Joseph Park is backstage with Garrett Bischoff and offers Garrett his services. Then Garrett asks him about the match with Ray. Joseph says he might’ve lost but he stood up for himself. Garrett says he doesn’t mean the match, he means the look on his face afterwards.

They show Magnus & Bully Ray face to face backstage.

Magnus walks out to the ring and Ray hits him from behind. Magnus fights back and rams Ray into the guard rail and steel steps. Then they get in the ring and the match starts.

Magnus vs. Bully Ray in a Bound for Glory Series match. Ray gets the pin for 7 points. This was also a good match.

They show the BFG Board. Samoa Joe is back in the lead.

They show a video package promoting the TNA debut of Chavo Guerrero, Jr. He will be on next week.

Bobby Roode comes to the ring. He’s on the stage and says, “1 word, 1 word, fluke.” Then he says that as promised he’s calling out Aries.

Back from break. Roode is in the ring and says that Aries’ win over him was nothing but a fluke and the whole world knows it. Aries comes out.

TNA World Champion Austin Aries vs. Bobby Roode. Aries wins by DQ when The Aces and Eights come out and go after Aries. The beat down continues as Roode watches. Then they turn to Roode. Roode applauds them. He offers his hand to one of them but then they beat him down too. These guys beat down both Roode & Aries to end the show. This was good too. I liked both the match and the Aces and Eights attack.

This week’s show was really good overall. There were good matches on the show. Anderson-AJ was great. Anderson has really gotten better. The AJ-Claire storyline is stupid. Joe-Pope was solid and I liked Magnus-Ray and RVD-Daniels too. I like what they’re doing with the Aces and Eights faction. Having them come in during the Gut Check segment I thought was unexpected which I thought was good. This storyline so far has been good. I think some of that might be because they’re masked so we don’t know who they are. I’m hoping they can keep this Aces and Eights storyline going. Overall I thought I thought this was a good show this week.