8-15-13 Impact results and thoughts

Coverage and thoughts on the August 15, 2013 Hardcore Justice episode of Impact The show starts with Jeff Hardy vs. AJ Styles vs. Austin Aries vs. Frankie Kazarian in a 4 way BFG Series ladder match. Kazarian wins for 20 more points with assistance from Daniels & Bobby Roode. This was a great match & a good way start the show. Jeff Hardy was climbing the ladder & then Daniels got the referee’s attention (I’m not sure why since there are no DQs in ladder matches). While the ref was tied up with Daniels Roode came in & went to pull Jeff off the ladder but Jeff kicked him away. Then Kazarian climbed the ladder & threw Daniels’ appletinni into Jeff’s face. Then Kazarian grabbed the clipboard for the win. WINNER – FRANKIE KAZARIAN. Backstage camera guy asks Sabin how he prepares for a cage match. Sabin says he used to watch Ray & Devon put guys threw flaming tables. He isn’t taking Ray lightly, but Ray shouldn’t take him lightly either. He beat him a month ago & he will beat him again tonight. Dixie Carter & MEM come to the ring. Dixie says that 2 weeks ago Kurt Angle went into a rehab center & is still there. They aren’t sure when he when he will be back but he has the support of Dixie & MEM. Cue the Aces & 8s music & out they come. Anderson says since Angle’s not there that means MEM has a week to find a replacement. Anderson says next week they’ll be able to say they ended Rampage Jackson’s wrestling career before it started. They’ll also have ended the career of Samoa Joe. Then he gets to Sting. The fans cheer him & Anderson says Sting will never wrestle again. Anderson then says that Magnus was gonna be the future of Impact Wrestling. Magnus says the only future Anderson needs to worry about is his immediate future because Magnus is gonna let him have it. Magnus says it might be hard to find a replacement for Angle, but Norfolk is MEM country so maybe they recruit someone in the crowed. One way or the other Aces & 8s can be sure that 1 of them is going home with the pink slip. Anderson says tonight starts a new chapter in the Aces & 8s book. Ray regains the world title tonight & next week they get rid of MEM. Then the brawl starts. This was awful. I’m way past tired of this MEM-Aces & 8s story. The show Tito Ortiz earlier in the day showing up at the arena. ODB vs. Gail Kim vs. Knockouts Champion Mickie James. ODB wins when she pins Gail. This was a solid match (Note: This match was supposed to be Velvet & ODB vs. Gail & Mickie. How come they switched the match & had no explanation as to where Velvet was?) WINNER - ODB Backstage we see MEM. Sting says MEM is vulnerable & they need a replacement. Joe tells Sting to be careful. Sting is gonna talk to Austin Aries because they need him right now. Backstage Sting talks with Aries. Sting says he knows that Aries hates Ray & Aces & 8s as much as MEM does. He also mentions that Aries is a former world champion. Then Sting asks Aries to be part of the MEM team. Aries says that’s a lot to think about. Sting asks him to be part of the family. Aries says no. Cut to Bobby Roode backstage. He changed the landscape of the BFG Series. He helped Kazarian win the ladder match. Now if Roode wins his match he gets 20 points & will be in 2nd place. More backstage stuff as we go back to MEM. Sting says that Aries told him no. Rampage then says that he has the answer but of course he has to say what that is in the ring. Sting tells Joe to go with him. Then they come back after a break. Joe & Rampage come out of the MEM dressing room. Rampage says he’s got the answer & you don’t wanna miss it or something like that. Then they go back to break. What was the point of having this bit in between commercials? Time for a video package recapping the Chris Sabin-Bully Ray saga We then get ANOTHER backstage bit. This time we see Bully Ray on his cell phone. He agrees with his “honey” that this relationship has been anything but normal. Tonight is about him, next week is about “us.” He will take care of Sabin tonight. Then next week they will tell the world the truth about themselves. Then he says, “I love you too Brooke.” Rampage Jackson & Samoa Joe come to the ring. Rampage says he needs the fans’ support. When he first came to Impact Wrestling MMA fans called him a “sell out”. It makes him sad that his own MMA fans don’t know him. He wrestled in high school & loves TNA. Now that he’s part of MEM he feels like he belongs to a family, but he didn’t come here to get his ass kicked by punks. He knows he has to fight this guy in November but he asks Tito Ortiz to be the 5th guy on team MEM. Out comes Tito. Rampage says everybody knows he & Tito will fight on 11-2. Each guy knows what the other can do & he rambles on about that for a bit. Then he says they need Tito’s help. Tito wants to make sure he’s hearing this right. Rampage says they can takeover this sport like they did MMA. Tito says he made headlines. He’s the longest reigning lightweight champion in MMA history & kicked everybody’s butts. Now Rampage wants him to be in the tag match. Then out comes Bully Ray. Ray says if he didn’t have to win back his world title later he would beat the piss outta both Tito & Rampage. Then there would be no Bellator PPV. Ray already has Rampage’s number. Then Ray says that he warned Tito (Or Blondie as Ray called him) that if he crosses Ray, Ray will make Tito his Huntington Beach b**ch. Tito wants some of Ray but Joe & Rampage hold him back. Ray says Tito’s got nothing on him. This was terrible. Rampage’s promo was idiotic, Tito was lousy on the mic here too & I really wish they wouldn’t have plugged their Bellator fight! That was idiotic. Then out comes Ken Anderson. He will be in a BFG Series match next. Magnus vs. Samoa Joe vs. Ken Anderson vs. Bobby Roode in a BFG Series tables match. Roode wins for 20 more points after power bombing Magnus threw a table. This was a good match. Kazarian & Daniels came out. Magnus & Roode were on the 2nd turnbuckle & Daniels threw his appletini into Magnus’ face. The Roode power bombed Magnus off the ropes & through the table for the win. WINNER – BOBBY ROODE They show the cage being set up. The world title match is next. Backstage Sting is asked if Tito will be on team MEM. Sting says Tito’s an asset wherever he goes. Sting’s gut says this will work out. Tito will be a great asset to MEM. But he just doesn’t know. Backstage we see Ray & Anderson. Anderson asks if Ray can do better than he did. Ray asks if he means by beating Sabin. Then they argue about the hammer. All Ray’s been hearing is if he can beat Sabin. Anderson asks if he can. Ray asks if he has help from his club. Anderson says they’re not his enemy. Ray says that they sure don’t seem like his ally. TNA World Champion Chris Sabin vs. Bully Ray in a steel cage match for the title. Ray gets the pin to retain the Title. There was a ref bump & then Ray threw the ref into the cage. Then Sabin covered Ray but the ref was out. Then as Sabin was looking to go out the cage door Ken Anderson comes out & locks the cage door. Then out come Rampage & Tito. They lay out Anderson. Then Tito hits Rampage with a hammer. So Tito’s a heel. Then Ray power bombed Sabin for the pin. WINNER & TNA World Champion – BULLY RAY. Then Tito gets in the cage & raises Ray’s hand to end the show. This was a good match & I knew Ray would regain the title. I wasn’t too crazy about the Tito Ortiz heel turn though. I have a feeling we’ll be seeing Rampage vs. Tito before November 2. I hope I’m wrong, but I got a feeling. This was the typical kinda show we’ve been getting from TNA the past 3 weeks. Good wrestling & questionable (to say the least) booking. There were only 4 matches on this show. I liked the ladder match at the start & the cage match at the end was good too but they didn’t need the ref bump. I knew Aces & 8s would get involved in the match but I still wasn’t into that. The 3 way knockouts match was solid but I’m not sure why it wasn’t Velvet & ODB vs. Gail & Mickie like they announced. The tables match was also good. Roode continues to gain momentum in the BFG Series. The Dixie promo supporting Kurt Angle was down right terrible, the Rampage promo later on was awful too. Having them talk more about his Bellator fight with Tito Ortiz was idiotic & the rest of the promo was lame too. There were also too many backstage segments this week. They really need to cut down on those. So overall I thought this was a mixed bag show.