By Chris Shore

TNA Impact Wrestling on SpikeTV
Taped on 9/26 in Little Rock, Arkansas.

[Q1] The recap video aired…Mike Tenat and Taz checked in on commentary. AJ Styles made his ring entrance. AJ said he appreciated Hulk Hogan trying to smooth things out last week before Dixie Carter showed her true colors. He said he wasn't out there to talk about them, he was there to talk about his opponent at Bound for Glory.

He said he knew exactly who Bully Ray was, he was the man AJ was going to beat for the title. He said he had no contract so he was all in with winning. He said he hadn't seen the title in a year he hoped to win. He said people say Bully Ray was the most dangerous man in the building, but he disagreed. Aces and Eights music hit to cut him off.

Ray made his entrance and said Dixie was so in AJ's head that he didn't even know if he could win he just hoped he could. He said Dixie was a beautiful woman, but he should put her out of his head because Dixie wasn't what AJ had to worry about at Bound for Glory. He mentioned all the people he put out in Aces and Eights and asked what AJ thought he would do to him. He said he had already beat AJ before, but he wanted to take AJ away from the crowd.

He said he hated traveling around and hearing all the crowds chant for AJ. The crowd obliged him with another chant. AJ smiled and Ray told him to smile all he wanted because he wouldn’t have it for long. AJ said Ray was just like Dixie, they used people and then kicked them to the curb. Ray said he took that as a compliment and he would send AJ back to his miserable wife and three kids with no contract and no title.

AJ said Ray should concentrate on his match tonight. Ray said he didn't have a match. AJ said Hogan hated Ray as much as he does and he made a match. AJ said, "Joe's gonna kill you." Ray sold being confused and AJ said it again. The crowd started chanting it and AJ left as Ray looked pissed off…

Backstage, AJ argued with Dixie Carter. She said he had no contract and only had one more obligation to the company. She told him they had heard enough out of him and told security to get him out of the building. AJ told them to save their energy because he didn't want to breathe the same air as her. He stormed out so they walked away…[C]

Shore's Slant: Well, they are throwing everything they have at this story, but other than Ray they don't have the mic skills to carry it. The segment wasn't bad, but it didn't move the needle of excitement for this viewer.

[Q2] Austin Aries sat in on commentary. Kenny King made his ring entrance, followed by Chris Sabin and Velvet Sky. Aries had choice words for both. Manik and Jeff Hardy were out next. Aries said Manik was the best looking man in the match…

1. Kenny King and Chris Sabin (w/Velvet Sky) vs. Manik and Jeff Hardy. Sabin and Manik started, but Sabin ran and tagged King before they did anything. Manik locked into a Black Widow on King. Somebody might want to tell him he's doing a girl's move. King got his face opened up again from the Black Widow setup. But he escaped and hit a hang man on the rope to have the heels take control.

Sabin tied Manik in the tree of woe and put his foot on Manik's nuts to retie his boot. Manik reversed a whip to the corner to hit a missile drop kick to get the hot tag to Hardy. Hardy cleaned house and then the match broke down. Manik shoved King into Sabin and hit his finisher. Hardy followed with the swanton for the win…

Manik and Jeff Hardy defeated Kenny King and Chris Sabin at 7:07.

Post-match, Sabin attacked Hardy and Manik. Aries ran in to chase him off and Sabin escaped. Aries took a mic and challenged Sabin, Manik, and Hardy to a fourway with him at BFG. Sabin nodded his agreement, but Jeff took the mic and said he wanted to have his first Ultimate X match. Manik agreed and Sabin didn't look happy…[C]

Shore's Slant: An OK match, but instead of thinking about the Ultimate X match, all I could think was "F*** YOU KENNY KING!" I mean, why have him be odd man out like this? His absence is very conspicuous. Maybe he'll play into the match eventually but what a shitty way to treat a guy on your roster.

[Q3] Sting and Hogan spoke backstage about having to deal with Eric Bischoff the last time the person in charge went crazy. Hogan said he didn't think anyone would be worse than Bischoff. A young woman came in and gave Hogan a gift from Dixie. Hogan opened it and it was a watch. Sting said it was the same watch she gave him last year. Hogan said she was worse than Bischoff because Bischoff never gave him anything…

A video recapped the attack from EGO on Magnus last week and showed Sting checking on Magnus after the show. Magnus said he was going to demand Hogan give him a match with all three men and Sting couldn't talk him out of it…[C]

Shore's Slant: Do Hogan and Sting mean Bischoff in TNA or WCW? If it’s the former I barely even remember that. If they mean the latter I may kill someone because Hogan and Bischoff were allies. Of course that would be true in TNA for the largest part too, but whatever. Who needs logic?

2. Magnus vs. Ego in a gauntlet match. Christopher Daniels was the first opponent and immediately took control. The crowd died quickly. Daniels went for the Best Moonsault Ever, but Magnus got his foot up and kicked Daniels in the face. Magnus hit a backbreaker for the pinfall.

Magnus pinned Christopher Daniels at 3:52.

[Q4] Kazarian started his entrance but wasn't getting there fast enough for Magnus, so Magnus ran out and tossed him in the ring…[C] Back from commercial, Kazarian came fighting back and hit a drop kick, but Magnus hit his slam into a suplex. He hit the top rope elbow and covered, but Kaz got his foot on the rope.

Magnus went back to the top, but Kazarian hit a pump kick and setup for Fade to Black. Magnus slid out and rolled through. He took nine minutes to put on the Cloverleaf, but he finally stepped over and hooked it for the submission victory.

Magnus submitted Kazarian at 12:18.

Bobby Roode started his entrance but stalled on the ramp. Kazarian clipped Magnus and then hit a legbreaker. Roode climbed into the ring and stalked a down Magnus into the break…[C] Back from commercial, Roode worked the leg over. With an Indian death lock.

[Q5] Roode continued to work the knee with dirty strikes and holds. Magnus hit a slam out of nowhere and hooked the cloverleaf on Roode. Roode punched the leg to escape. Magnus tried to hit the top rope elbow before Roode recovered, but Roode moved and slapped on the crossface. About six people clapped to try and encourage Magnus. Roode broke the hold and hooked an ankle lock and even those six people stopped clapping. Magnus finally tapped but no one seemed to care…[C]

Bobby Roode defeated Magnus at 22:50.

Shore's Slant: That match was way too much for this crowd who has now been sitting through over three hours of TV tapings. Not to mention TNA hasn't done a good enough job of making Magnus feel special.

Post-match, a few fans at ringside chanted for Magnus. Magnus threw a chair out of frustration. Sting walked out with no music and asked Magnus to come with him. Magnus blew him off and started to say something, but the stupid camera crew cut to Sting. Sting took a mic and said he didn’t want to do it this way but Magnus was making a public display. He asked Magnus to come to the back and talk about it.

Magnus took a mic and said with all due respect, he had had enough. He said Sting, Kurt, and Joe all saw it in him, but he didn't have it in him. He said the three of them all took their opportunities when they were presented but he was always just short. Sting tried to tell him to look past the bad but Magnus said he wasn't in it. He said it was a results driven business and he had no results.

Sting said he remembered what it was like. He said he remembered when he needed one big match and said Ric Flair put him on the map. Magnus yelled that he knew that because he saw it with his own two eyes, but who was going to put him on the map. Sting yelled, "Me at Bound for Glory." Magnus looked confused and then understood. Sting nodded and they shook hands…

Backstage, Aries walked into Hogan's office and gave him a bottle of vitamins. He said maybe Hogan needed some extra vitamins and prayers tonight with his decision. Aries said there was two Hogans, the yellow and red American hero and the black and white Hollywood made. He said where he was sitting, it was pretty black and white. Hogan said he got it and Aries left him and wished him luck. A video recapped how Hogan stole the company from Dixie, then helped Sting from the beating at Bound for Glory, then became GM, and finished with Dixie telling him to get in line…

Backstage, Sabin said Velvet would be fine in her match for the number one contendership so he was going to sit backstage and drink his diet soda…

Shore's Slant: Sting vs. Magnus is NOT the same thing as Sting vs. Flair. Flair was still in his prime when he gave Sting the rub. I like the idea, but I'm not sure the comparison is a smart idea. The biggest risk they have is keeping Magnus babyface as I'm not interested in seeing a heel Magnus and I don't think it helps the company to turn him. Does anybody besides Hogan get what Aries meant? I don't. I mean, I get what a black and white decision is, but I fail to see how it relates to the Hollywood character.

[Q6][C] A video recapped the Magnus match and then the show cut backstage where EGO told Bobby Roode he was getting inducted into the EGO Hall of Fame. They acted stupid and celebrated the news. Hmm, I wonder who Bobby Roode is facing at Bound for Glory…

Brooke and Velvet Sky made their ring entrance and squared off. Before the ref could call for the bell, Lei'D Tapa came in and beat up Velvet and the ref. Brooke left before she could get touched. Tapa hit a Samoan Slam on Velvet to end the beating. She screamed something and left…

Shore's Slant: An effective debut for Tapa, but the burned out crowd didn't give her a great reaction.

A vignette showed a wrestler arriving at an offices I assume were the TNA offices. They may have showed that but I missed it if they did. We never saw his face, but he walked in and threw his coat on a person and acted like a privileged ass. It transitioned to the "Ethan is coming" graphic…

[Q7] A video hyped how Gunner and Storm became a team and they put each other over. Tenay announced the tag team gauntlet match on the BFG pre-show…A Kurt Angle Hall of Fame hype video aired…

3. Samoa Joe vs. Bully Ray. Joe started in control and Bully got a small cut right between his eyes the hardway. Ray hit a low blow before the break, and a cut in during the break showed him mocking Hogan while stomping on Joe…

[Q8][C] Back from commercial, Joe came back with his atomic drop, kick, and senton combo. Ray whipped Joe into Earl Hebner is the worst looking ref bump I have ever seen. Seriously, that was terrible. Joe hooked on the rear naked choke and Ray tapped. Joe broke the hold and checked on the ref. Bully wrapped his chain around his hand and hit Joe with it, but Hebner had recovered enough to see it and disqualified Ray…

Samoa Joe defeated Bully Ray by disqualification at 10:24.

Post-match, Ray shoved Hebner down and tossed Joe to the floor. He ripped the padding up and setup for a piledriver. AJ Styles ran through the crowd and broke it up. Security broke it up and AJ ran through the crowd to escape. He stopped in the crowd and the crowd molested him while he dared security to bring it on…[C]

Shore's Slant: Well, the crowd woke up for AJ, but they were mostly dead for the match. So was I. This has been a very flat show for TNA. Not bad mind you, just flat. Unfortunately they have no time to be flat as Bound for Glory is only two weeks away now.

Dixie Carter made her entrance and shit on the audience for being stupid to business. She gave them the "Bless your hearts" gimmick, which is a serious nastygram in the South. She said the one person who did understand business was Hulk Hogan. She called him out and he made his entrance.

Dixie put over his career and asked him if he was ready to take his career to another level because she could get him there. She said she was "tickled" he was wearing the watch. She asked him if he was ready to take a ride on the Dixie train or would he force her to make a decision she didn't want to make.

Hogan thanked her for the watch and said he had always dreamed about being a power couple and having a beautiful woman like her with more power than anyone. He said it was an amazing offer and they could do a lot together, but it was an amazing offer for someone else because he quit.

Hogan left the ring and Dixie chased after him. She stopped him and Hogan tried to walk away. She dropped to her knees and clutched his leg to keep him from leaving. He looked at her in disgust and she let go. He left and she recovered and said she didn’t want him anyway and he was fired…

Shore's Slant: OK, that was lame, but not as bad as the spoiler report made it out to be. I'm a little surprised at the overt sexuality they are putting into this angle though. Bully Ray mentioned how beautiful Dixie is, as did Hogan. And "taking a ride on the Dixie train" got a very male reaction from the crowd, just like the Dixie on her knees comment from AJ did. Don’t get me wrong, she is a beautiful woman, but I'm just surprised by it.

As I mentioned earlier, this was a flat show. Yes, it was the recorded show and yes, the crowd didn’t help them any. But they didn't give the crowd a reason to care all that much either. This was not the way to seel Bound for Glory, though I do appreciate them finally turning AJ's attention to Bully Ray. Hopefully they have big plans for the next two weeks because right now, WWE has done a better job of selling their next PPV than TNA has, and WWE has been terrible at it. I'll have more tomorrow on the Impact Hitlist and Will Pruett will be by with the Member's Exclusive audio review. 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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