By Chris Shore

TNA Impact Wrestling on SpikeTV
Aired live from Little Rock, Arkansas.

[Q1] The recap video covered the Aces and Eights problems and Dixie Carter's heel turn on AJ…Dixie was shown arriving backstage and Sting tried to talk to her and said she wasn't the Dixie he knew. She ignored him and played with her phone for a moment and then told him not to worry about Dixie because she had it handled….Mike Tenay and Taz checked in on commentary as Bully Ray and Brooke made their ring entrance

Ray said he's not often at a loss for words, but Dixie shocked the hell out of him. He asked everyone if they heard how she talked to AJ. He said he had been trying to decide how to beat AJ but it didn't matter because she was in AJ's head so much he couldn’t win anyway. He said he didn't always agree with Dixie, but she did make AJ phenomenal and make it possible to perform in front of the idiot fans.

He asked "Do you know who I am?" and the Aces and Eights music hit again. The other three members walked out with Knux on the mic. Knux said they knew who he was, he was supposed to be the president, but he was too busy doing his own thing. He called Brooke a ho again, and Ray said he was only going to tell him one more time not to do it. That got a very disjointed "ho" chant started.

Knux said they were going to take care of club business tonight when they beat the Main Event Mafia and they would do it without him. Ray said they don't get to make the rules because he was president and they were lackeys. He talked about all the guys he ran out of the club and asked what made them think he wouldn't do the same to them. Ray said if they didn't win tonight, one of them would be kicked out of the club. Taz defended Ray as Ray and Brooke left while mouthing off to the club…

Shore's Slant: I'm happy that there is an exit strategy for the Aces and Eights, but does it have to be so bad? What is Bully Ray without his crew? I get that a heel like him has an ego that doesn't consider that, but I fail to understand why the three remaining members even care what he says. The only guy that is backing Ray up is broken down Taz. What the hell is he going to do? It doesn't make any sense.

Backstage, Joseph Park started to shave his face, but Eric Young and ODB ran in. EY took the blade away and said if Park cut himself shaving he could kill the civilians backstage. Park asked Young if he was OK because he was acting weird. EY said they had a match and they all left. The Bro-mans made their entrance with Gail Kim while the worst entrance music in history played…

Shore's Slant: Seriously, that's their entrance music? It sounded like someone stuffed a calliope into one of those shitty keyboards you can buy for $30 at Wal-Mart.

[Q2][C] 2. Bro-mans and Gail Kim vs. Eric Young, Joseph Park, and ODB. Tenay said after Dixie's actions last week it’s more important than ever to follow her on Twitter. Sure, Mike. After some silly comedy garbage, Park took the beating from the heels until EY got the hot tag. The match broke down and ODB dumped Kim to the ramp and stuffed Robbie in her tits. She officially tagged in and pinned Jesse after a splash from Park and a top rope elbow from EY…

Eric Young, Joseph Park, and ODB defeated Bro-mans and Gail Kim at 6:23.

Backstage, IQG asked Austin Aries what he was going to do now that the BFG series was over. Aries said he would tell everyone in the ring next…[C]

A video from "earlier today" showed Hulk Hogan arriving and he said he was going to clean up the mess with Dixie…

[Q3] Aries made his ring entrance and said people wanted to know what he was going to do after coming up short in the BFG series. He put himself over big and then Kenny King's music cut him off. King said Aries was starting to get on his nerves and put himself over. King said Aries stole the X Division title from him by putting on the Manik gear. He said it was brilliant, but he owed Aries one for it. King said he was the future of wrestling, not Aries.

Aries said he would talk about right now. He said he had his gear on so why didn't King shut his mouth and do something. King said he was going to quote Hillary Clinton at night when she looks at Bill in bed, "You don't want none of this." He said he wasn't fighting Aries tonight, and then punched him in the face. He played to the corwd and Aries knocked him from the ring. Aries grabbed a mic and demanded a ref come out. One did as Aries jumped on King on the ramp…[C]

Shore's Slant: I'm happy to see Kenny King get a real chance at a push, but this was a rambling mess from both guys. They both tried to be too cute and should have dialed it back a little. Still, this could be a very good match.

2. Austin Aries vs. Kenny King. The bell rang as soon as the show came back from commercial, but Aries had busted King open during the break on the steps. I don't think it was hardway, but I don't know why they would have King blade here either. King came back hard and hit a throw off the second rope, but Aries immediately recovered and hit the brainbuster for the win…

Austin Aries defeated Kenny King at 4:55.

[Q4] The announce team hyped the six-man tag match main event…[C]

Shore's Slant: Either King was enhancement talent here, which makes no sense because Aries needs to start building his feud for BFG, or King is Aries's feud for BFG, which makes even less sense because now that I've seen King busted open and defeated, why should I care about them facing again? TNA makes the strangest booking decisions.

A hype video aired for Lei'D Tapa…Backstage, Chris Sabin and Velvet Sky walked up to Aries and Sabin told Aries he had a good win over King. Sabin put over his cashing in the X Division title as more impressive than Aries's and Aries mocked him. Sabin said he was going to win the X Division title for the seventh time and make history. He said he would go on to be greater than the greatest man that ever lived and walked off with Sabin. Aries said he would have to test that theory…

Backstage, MEM was getting ready for their match and Magnus pitched a fit about EGO. Joe said they were all about mind games and to chill. Sting echoed the advice and said they were close to ending the Aces and Eights and to let anyone derail that. Magnus calmed down and continued to get ready…[C]

Shore's Slant: Magnus heel turn?

A video recapped the AJ Styles and Dixie Carter confrontation last week…

[Q5] Hulk Hogan made his ring entrance and Little Rock was very, very happy to see him. Hogan played to the crowd and then said he was hired as the GM to run the day to day operations. He said he had seen a lot of things in his 35 years in wrestling but you didn't air your dirty laundry in the ring like he saw last week.

Shore's Slant: Wait…what?

Hogan asked how many people wanted to see AJ stay with the company. He asked the fans again even though they were already going crazy. He said he would be out later with AJ and he would get this problem fixed…Tenay announced that Kurt Angle would be returning at Bound for Glory…[C]

Shore's Slant: So Hogan had a talking segment to hype a talking segment? That's some meta-shit right there. Good to hear Angle will be back at BFG. Let's hope going back on the road doesn't bring back old bad habits again.

A video hyped "Ethan" as coming soon…Backstage, Styles said he would hear Hogan out later…

[Q6] 3. Chris Sabin (w/Velvet Sky) vs. Manik for the X Division Championship. Manik had to be held back to keep from attacking Sabin. Manik tackled him at the bell and pounded on him. Sabin sold his knee being hurt and Velvet started to help him to the back. Manik hopped to the floor and Sabin shoved Velvet into Manik as a distraction and hit a kick to take control.

Sabin set Manik on the top rope, but Manik dumped him to the mat and hooked on a leg submission. Sabin crawled to the ropes, but Sabin grabbed Velvet's hand and dragged her into the ring. Manik broke the hold and Sabin hid behind Velvet. He slipped out and tried for a rollup, but Manik reversed for the win…

Manik retained the X Division Championship at 5:41.

Post-match, Sabin attacked Manik until Aries ran out. Sabin hid behind Velvet again to escape to the floor, and he left her in the ring with the two men as he went to the back…Backstage the three Aces and Eights stooges hyped each other up and said they couldn’t afford to lose another brother…[C]

Shore's Slant: Why would the other two allow the third person to be kicked out of the club> This is the stupidest thing I have ever seen! They're all pissed off at Bully Ray but they'll just let him dump one of them? I don’t get it. It looks like Aries's opponent for BFG will be Sabin, so I guess that means King bled hardway earlier. Or at least I guess that's what it means. And I guess Velvet is the new Miss Elizabeth too.

The announce team hyped Angle's return again. Backstage, EGO mocked his return and then Daniels and Kazarian did a maniacal laugh. They tried to get Roode to do it and he just walked off…

[Q7] 4. Aces and Eights vs. The Main Event Mafia. If the Aces and Eights lose one of them is kicked out. Magnus started for the MEM, but the crowd said they wanted Sting. The match broke down quickly and EGO ran out and attacked Magnus before being chased off. The gang dragged Sting into the ring and beat on him into the break…[C]

Back from commercial, Magnus had been taken to the back so Joe and Sting were the only ones left. Joe got the hot tag and hit a powerslam on Brisco. He covered, but Garett made the save and the match broke down. Sting whipped Knux into the corner on top of Garett and then hit a Stinger splash on both. Joe locked in the rear naked choke on Wes and Wes tapped…

The Main Event Mafia defeated Aces and Eights at 10:04.

Post-match, Bully Ray and Brooke headed to the ring. Ray took the mic and repeated his stipulation from earlier. He said Wes was a disgrace to his colors and demanded his cut. Knux and Garett climbed in the ring and Wes refused. Ray called him a disgrace and demanded it again, but Wes said no again. Ray ordered the other two to take the cut off Wes.

They hesitated and Ray said he didn't pay them to think, he paid them to follow orders and demanded again they do it. Neither man moved, so Ray clotheslined Wes. He asked them where their balls were and hit a piledriver on Wes.

[Q8] Their music started to play and Ray yelled for the music to be cut. He told the two to take the cut off and hand it to him or he would do it again. They pulled the cut off Wes and Ray demanded Knux be the one to hand it over. Knux finally did and then they picked up Wes, but they cut away before we saw any more…[C]

Shore's Slant: Ugh. That was stupid. I still don’t understand why Ray has any control over them. The mention of pay was the first time we have heard about that. If that's why they didn't protect Wes then that feels like a direct rip-off from WWE. I defended the Dixie Carter heel turn as not being a rip-off from WWE, but this smacks way too close to Big Show if that's the only reason they take Ray's shit.

Hogan stood in the ring and called out AJ Styles, who made his entrance. Hogan said he couldn't have the man going after the championship and end Bully Ray's reign not have a contract. He handed AJ a clipboard and said that was his new contract. AJ started to speak and Hogan said he knew AJ was focused and they were all rooting for him. AJ said, "I'm yours" and signed the contract before handing it back.

AJ came out saying, "Hold on, boys." Dixie said she brought Hogan in to open doors for TNA and had taught her a lot about the business, but he was still just an employee. She said she could make Hogan the best he could be. She said while Hogan saw something in the "marginal one," she didn't. She took the contract and tore it up.

AJ mouthed off to her and she told him to get out of the ring. AJ got in her face and she dismissed him again, so he left. Dixie cut a rapid promo about how 99 percent had criticized her but those people didn’t realize the 1 percent made their lives possible and didn't understand the burden of that. Dixie told Hogan she was going to consider what happened a lapse in judgment. She asked him if he was going to get on Team Dixie or watch from the sidelines. She said he had a week to decided and left a befuddled Hogan in the ring to close the show…[C]

Shore's Slant: Dixie's promo was as fast and all over the place as a TNA match. There was a little bit of the 99 percent class warfare stuff mixed in with some "hard decisions" heel logic sprinkled with general disrespect for AJ Styles. She covered a lot of ground in a short period of time. I thought her delivery was better than last week, even though she spoke directly to the hard cam way too much for it to really feel natural, but the content bounced around so much it made it hard to get a good feel for what her key point is.

Whatever your opinion on the Dixie storyline, there can be no question that with less than a month to hype Bound for Glory, your biggest show of the year, it is dumbfounding that the champion is dicking around with guys at the absolute bottom of the card while his challenger is getting punked out by a woman. What in the hell are they doing? Jason Powell and Will Pruett will have more tomorrow. Good luck guys. Thanks for watching along tonight.

Questions? Comments? Anyone, anyone? Let me hear from you. Email me at css3238@gmail.com or tweet me @TheShoreSlant with whatever is on your mind.

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