TNA iMPACT! Results (9/23): “They Say…Only The Strong Survive…”

Source: TNAstars.com

Opening Segment

Footage plays from last week of Eric “I might as well be running TNA” Bischoff trying to make the Bound for Glory main event a triple threat, getting overturned by Dixie “I’m still president” Carter and the Jeff Hardy/Kurt Angle match that ended in a double pin.

Rob Terry comes out to the ring in his attire, so we must have a match. Before his opponent could even come out we go backstage to security trying to restain Rob Van Dam backstage. Abyss’s music plays and he comes out through the Madison Rayne and Tara entrance way with Janice ((Jarrett’s Jab – New Heel Entranceway? And I see Bob isn’t out there with it. Heard that Janice and Bob are Dixie Carters parents, overkill much?))

Rob Terry vs. Abyss

Crowd chants “Abyss Sucks.” ((Jarrett’s Jab – Wonder why?)) Abyss gets several straight right hands in the head and abdomen of Terry. Abyss Irish Whips him into a corner but gets a clothesline for his effort and then a spinkick. Terry charges in the corner at Abyss but eats a boot and a clothesline. Abyss beats Terry in the corner again with right hands and plunges at him with a running splash. Abyss goes for a chokeslam, but Terry breaks free, holds Abyss for a moment then powerslams him. Terry picks Abyss up over his shoulder and delivers a British Bulldog powerslam for a two count. Terry goes for a chokeslam on Abyss but Abyss rakes the eyes and hits a side supex for a two count. Abyss goes for a chokeslam this time and gets it, but only gets a two count. Abyss runs right through Terry with a clothesline knocking him out of the ring as a split screen moment occurs and it shows Jeff Hardy and Rob Van Dam planning a attack on Abyss. As the split screen closes Abyss rips a part of the steel guardrail and throws it at Rob Terry.

Winner by Disqualification: Rob Terry

Abyss throws the guardrail on Terry two more times before a very bandaged and chair weilding Rob Van Dam limps down the stairs through the crowd. Abyss sees him and grabs Janice, but security runs out with chairs and Abyss backs off. Gunner and Murphy come out trying to restrain Van Dam, but RVD struck one as the other stood in shock as Van Dam gingerly gets in the ring. He grabs a mic and thanks the fans for their support, and says the reason he’s here tonight is to show the fans that he’s not going anywhere. He asks Eric Bischoff to come out to the ring.

-Commercial Break-

RVD is in the ring with Bischoff, and RVD is telling Bischoff how upset he was about being stripped of the TNA World Title and the announcement of the title tournament, but there’s nothing he can do about it, so he wishes luck to Kurt Angle, Jeff Hardy, and Mr. Anderson. Van Dam challenges the winner to give him the first title shot. But what he’s here to talk to Bischoff about is his physical condition because he hates looking like this and appearing vulnerable. His doctor has given him a date of clearance to return to the ring, and it’s 10/10/10. He wants Abyss at Bound For Glory. Bischoff says he wants it, the fans want it, and Bischoff wants it for him, so he makes the match: Rob Van Dam vs Abyss at Bound For Glory.

Tonight: Dixie Carter has a major announcement. ((Jarrett’s Jab – At least it isn’t another “surprise.”)) But wait, Bischoff is still in the ring and the Pope’s music hits. Pope comes walking out and he doesn’t look like a happy camper. Pope says hi to Eric and says since he’s in a mood to do favors, he can do Pope a favor and tell him what the hell’s going on around here. Bischoff looks confused, and Pope says he can smell crap a mile away and Bischoff is full of it. In the past month or so, he’s done what few men have been able to do: he beat Matt Morgan, then the week after that he pinned Kazarian, and then the week after that, Pope pinned Kurt Angle giving Mr. Anderson a win. He’s not going to complain about what happened at No Surrender, but he wants to know how RVD is going to get the first title shot after Bound For Glory, and how Kurt Angle and Jeff Hardy got into the main event of Bound For Glory without winning. Bischoff says he hopes Pope is not accusing him of what he’s accusing him of, to which Pope replies that he’s not accusing Bischoff of anything, he’s telling him straight to his face that he’s a con man. Bischoff says they need to take this in the back and discuss it like professionals, not this way and not right now. Bischoff drops the mic and walks off, followed closely by Pope.

We go backstage to the women’s dressing room as Angelina Love & Velvet Sky are getting their makeup done, and Lacey Von Erich strolls in, pulls a chair up behind them, and sulks. Velvet asks Lacey if she’s okay, and Lacey says no, she’s really ******* pissed off over Madison Rayne getting Tara to beat her ass. She kicks her chair over and stalks off. Velvet said she’s never seen her even the tiniest pit pissed off before.

-Commercial Break-

We go backstage to Pope and Bischoff, and Pope is yelling at Bischoff to put him in the title match at Bound For Glory. Bischoff says if he’s up for it, he’ll put him in the ring with Samoa Joe tonight and if he can get by Joe, he’ll put Pope in the title match. ((Jarrett’s Jab – Oh god…more of the Twilight Zone))

Jeremy Buck vs Chris Sabin

Sabin goes to a side headlock, Jeremy fires him into the ropes and Max trips him from the floor. The referee sees it and kicks Max Buck out of ringside. Sabin rolls Jeremy up from behind, then gets a hiptoss and a shoulderblock and covers for a two count. Sabin is heavily favoring his shoulder, and gets an armbar on Jeremy. Jeremy makes the ropes and elbows Sabin in the shoulder on the break, then leaps to the apron and comes back in with the slingshot facebuster for a two count. Jeremy gets a snapmare and Dragon Sleeper on Sabin, then gets a neckbreaker for a two. Jeremy chokes Sabin on the top rope and then charges him in the corner, but Sabin gets the boot up, heads out to the apron, suplexes Jeremy to the outside but he lands on his feet on the apron and DDTs Sabin on the apron, then rolls him back in the ring and covers for a two. Jeremy gets a full nelson, but Sabin backs him into the corner to break, so Jeremy nails a chinbreaker to the back of the head and then goes for a tornado DDT, but Sabin escapes and gets an enziguiri and a schoolboy rollup for the win.

Winner by pinfall: Chris Sabin

Max comes running back in and nails Sabin and Generation Me beat him down 2-on-1. GenMe kills Sabin with the the hanging DDT. Max grabs the title belt from ringside and he and Jeremy hold it up high.

Velvet Sky and Lacey Von Erich are shown backstage walking.

-Commercial Break-

Last week on Reaction, the Pope said his top priority is to win the TNA World Title, and he feels like he’s being held back. Jeff Jarrett said that Pope’s got an ego problem, and he can complain when he has the kinds of matches and gets the kinds of reactions that Jeff Hardy and Kurt Angle do.

Knockouts Tag Team Title Match: Taylor Wilde & Hamada vs Velvet Sky & Lacey Von Erich

Lacey and Taylor start, Lacey gets an armdrag but Taylor comes back with an ankle pick and a side headlock takeover. Lacey sends Taylor into the ropes and manages to drop down and hiptoss Taylor, then hiptosses and armdrages Hamada. Lacey tags Velvet (who is already in the ring) and she cranks the arm of Hamada, who rolls out and plants a running boot right in the chest of Velvet. Hamada gets a slam but misses the moonsault and Velvet capitalizes with a diving dropkick to Hamada. Taylor tags in and exchanges pinning combinations with Velvet, but Velvet gets the advantage and drops a few elbows on Taylor before tagging Lacey back in. Taylor kicks her legs out from under her and gets a running dropkick to Lacey. Hamada gets tagged in and they hit a double suplex for a two count. Hamada nails an enziguiri and a cradle suplex for only a two count. Taylor gets tagged back in and flattens Lacey out with a clothesline, but Lacey whips Taylor to the corner and tries to go up and mount her, falls off, does it again, and does a bad Frankensteiner. Velvet and Hamada come in and brawl and wind up out on the floor, and then Madison Rayne runs in and nails Lacey with the motorcycle helmet, and Taylor takes advantage of it and hits a spinning kick and covers Lacey for the win Winners by pinfall and still Knockout Tag Team Champions: Taylor Wilde & Hamada

Angelina comes running out and stares angrily after Madison Rayne as Velvet checks on Lacey.

Backstage, Tommy Dreamer is arriving at the Impact Zone, and he’s got EV2.0 with him.

We go to a video package of Jesse Neal, detailing his history aboard the USS Cole and dream of becoming a professional wrestler. He trained at Team 3D’s school and then was signed to a contract by TNA, left the Team 3D fold, and formed a team with Shannon Moore. ((Jarrett’s Jab – At least we don’t get the sob story shoved down our throats, why bother? Doing it in his debut was fine, but it seems like he should have done enough now that this isn’t necessary. And notice I said “seems.”))

We go to the broadcast booth as Mike Tenay and Taz are joined by Dixie Carter, who announces that the main event of the live Impact on 10/7, everyone on the Bound For Glory card will participate in a $100,000 battle royal. Taz said they should be an announcer’s battle royal for $50,000. ((Jarrett’s Jab – I don’t know why, but this reminded me of the line from the original Rush Hour Movie “Fifty million dollars, who do you think you got, Chelsea Clinton?”)) Tenay then asks Dixie about the major change she teased months ago on her Twitter, and she said that details about that are going to start to come out on the live Impact.

“The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero vs Samoa Joe

Joe attacks Pope before the ring, tosses him into the corner, and pummels him with rights. Joe whips Pope into the ropes and catches him with a flying knee. Joe unloads with a series of rights, but Pope comes back with a few kicks and an STO and covers for a two count. Pope tries coming off the ropes again but Joe wipes him out with a double axhandle, whips him into the corner and charges in with an elbow and a leaping enziguiri for a two count. Pope fights his way out of Joe’s chinlock but Joe flattens him with a clothesline and applies the chinlock again. Pope fights out again and takes Joe down with a series of double axhandles, an inverted atomic drop, and a flying shoudlerblock for a two count. Pope comes off the ropes but Joe catches him with a snap powerslam for two count, and then Pope ties Joe up in the ropes and gets a neckbreaker. Jeff Jarrett comes out to cheer for Joe as Pope puts the boots to him in the corner. Joe recovers as Sting and Kevin Nash come down to ringside and attack Jeff Jarrett, he hooks the Kokina Clutch and Pope passes out. Winner by Submission: Samoa Joe

Joe immediately goes out to the floor and helps even the odds, and he and Jarrett are able to turn things around on Sting and Nash.

Backstage, Christy catches up with EV2.0. She notices that “the boys are back in town.” Tommy says that he forgot who he was, but these guys helped remind him, and Dixie Carter made a Lethal Lockdown match at Bound For Glory, and Sabu will face AJ Styles later tonight to decide who gets the advantage.

Ken Anderson is backstage walking and drinking Red Bull. ((Jarrett’s Jab – If it gives people wings, what does it give assholes?))

-Commercial Break-

We’re back from commercial, and Mr.Anderson comes out and tells the assholes he loves it when they make noise.  He asks Kurt Angle to join him in the ring. Anderson says it’s no big secret that he is what his t-shirt says, which by the way, can be purchase on shoptna.com. ((Jarrett’s Jab – Nothing like a DX-esque cheap clothing reference.)) That’s not going to change at Bound For Glory, and the interesting thing they have in common is that they both don’t play politics and they don’t swing from the boss’ nuts. Well, Anderson admits that would technically be impossible in TNA, but the point is that he thinks Kurt is without a shadow of a doubt the best in the business, but at Bound For Glory, he plans to be better. Angle says he respects that and the fact that he’s saying this to Angle’s face like a man, and when he started in this business, he had the mindset that he wanted to be the best, and anything less would be failure. Here he is, ten years later, and he’s accomplished everything he’s set out to do. They’re going to have a problem at Bound For Glory, because he promised everyone that if he lost on his way to regaining the TNA World Title, he’d retire. But there’s something Anderson needs to understand: what Angle does in this ring is who he is, he’s sacrificed everything and many people don’t know where his drive and determination come from and that he’s some kind of freak, maybe he is and maybe he isn’t, but at Bound For Glory, he’s not going to lose because without wrestling, Kurt Angle doesn’t have anything. Angle extends his hand to Anderson and Anderson shakes it, then raises Kurt’s hand so everybody can applaud him…for the last time. Angle looks at him and Anderson said he was an asshole.

Ric Flair is backstage with Fortune, and he calls them the heart and soul of TNA, and in Lethal Lockdown, EV2.0 are going to be gone from TNA. Tonight, AJ has a ladder match with Sabu and the winner gets the advantage at Lethal Lockdown. They give Flair a Smirnoff Ice so he can chug the entire thing. ((Jarrett’s Jab – Ok…why did we need to see that))

-Commercial Break-

The Shore is coming in two weeks! ((Jarrett’s Jab – Oooo…WWE beat you to the Jersey Shore gimmick. Woo Woo Woo You Know It!))

Backstage, Kevin Nash and Sting ask the Pope if he has the information they need. Pope says he doesn’t know what information they want, and they mention his rendezvous with Miss Tessmacher. Pope looks shocked and asks them if they know, and Sting says that’s what they’ve been fighting for all this time. Pope says he’s in.

A video package hyping the Fortune-EV2.0 match at Bound For Glory plays.

Ladder Match for the Lethal Lockdown Advantage: Sabu vs AJ Styles

AJ unloads with some heavy rights to start, but Sabu fires back and beats AJ down. Sabu tries to go for the ladder, but AJ kicks the middle rope into Sabu’s groin as he stepped through the ropes to take the advantage. AJ sends Sabu into the ropes, but Sabu comes back with a flying headscissors and a clothesline off the ropes. Sabu climbs out of the ring and goes after the ladder, but AJ chases him out to the floor and nails him. AJ tries to suplex Sabu, but Sabu picks him up and dumps him chest-first on the guardrail. Sabu slides the ladder in the ring and heads back in, but AJ yanks the ladder back out and slings Sabu’s neck across the top rope. AJ picks up the ladder and puts it on the apron, and Sabu baseball slides it into AJ’s ribs. Sabu rams AJ into the rail and grabs a chair, then heads back in. Sabu nails AJ as he gets back in the ring and tries to climb, but AJ nails him and Sabu falls to the mat. AJ tries charging Sabu in the corner, but Sabu moves and then takes the ladder and nails him with it. He picks it back up and tries to launch it at AJ, but AJ dodges and the ladder flies out to the floor. AJ goes out and brings it back to the apron, and Sabu tries the baseball slide spot again, but AJ lifts the ladder out of the way and Sabu slides to the floor where AJ cracks him with the ladder. Mick Foley comes wandering out of the back.

-Commercial Break-

We come back to Sabu tossing a chair at AJ’s head, then setting the chair up for a triple jump into the corner on AJ. Sabu follows that up with a triple jump dive at AJ and both of them tumble over the top to the floor. Foley gets in Flair’s face on the floor and Matt Morgan nails Foley from behind and holds him so Flair can kick him in the nuts. Tommy Dreamer comes running out to help, but Kazarian comes out of nowhere to tackle Dreamer and they brawl at ringside. The rest of EV2.0 and Fortune all come pouring out to ringside and a big brawl erupts as AJ sets up the ladder and starts climbing, but Sabu pushes the ladder over and AJ falls onto the top rope, and then Sabu hits a springboard dive onto everyone on the floor. Sabu sets up the ladder and starts climbing, but Bobby Roode comes in and nails Sabu, but then Rhino comes in and gores Roode. James Storm comes in and superkicks Rhino, but Sabu nails him and sets the ladder back up, and he and AJ each climb up one side of the ladder. They fight at the top of the ladder and Sabu knocks AJ to the mat, but Storm runs back in and cracks the beer bottle over Sabu’s head, then literally carries AJ to the top of the ladder where he can grab the key.

Winner: AJ Styles

Fortune will now have the advantage in Lethal Lockdown.

Jeff Hardy is backstage with Rob Van Dam and saying how good it is to see him back here, and says that if he wins the title at Bound For Glory, he’ll give RVD the first title shot. RVD says he has no doubts about Hardy and walks off, leaving Hardy staring off into space, deep in thought when all of a sudden, Abyss runs in and I guess knocks out the cameraman because the camera ends up on the floor as we hear Abyss beat Hardy up and ask him if he wants to fight like his buddy.

After commercial, Abyss is carrying Jeff Hardy’s unconscious form out from the back. He tosses him in the ring, then grabs the mic and asks RVD if he’s wondering why he’s got his best friend Jeff Hardy here with him. Seeing RVD here was like seeing a ghost because he was never supposed to come back, and the fact that he did only proves that he’s just as ignorant and pathetic as he thought. THEY gave Abyss strict orders to eliminate him from TNA, and he made one mistake: he left RVD breathing. He’s going to correct that on 10/10/10 because at Bound For Glory, THEY will finally reveal themselves and begin the takeover of TNA. And on 10/10/10, Abyss and Janice are going to finish the job once and for all because they’re not going to hurt, maim, or cripple RVD. On 10/10/10, Abyss and Janice are going to slaughter RVD. After talking to Janice backstage, she doesn’t want to wait until 10/10/10, she wants another piece of him tonight, so Abyss yells for RVD to come to the ring. RVD’s music finally hits and he comes staggering out with a chair. Abyss tears Hardy’s shirt off and starts to go after RVD, but RVD throws the chair at Abyss’ head and gets in the ring. Abyss boots him in the fact and starts pounding on RVD, hanging him up in the corner and charging in with a splash. Abyss grabs Janice and stands over RVD. Reaction picks up where iMPACT left off.

Forgot where this was in the show, but the Bound for Glory code for iMPACT tonight was: “Bound”. Very Anti-climatic, right?