I have switched to a new match rating system , which is out of 10, rather than out of 5.
I felt that 5 was too limiting because there are those match that are between two ratings (Not good enough to be ***3/4, but definitely better than just ***1/2). I had actually been thinking about doing this for a while but held off because I didn’t want to sell better matches short (at first glance 4 out of 5 seems like a better rating than 8 out of 10). To derive normal star ratings from my new ratings, just divide the rating by 2.

1 or below- Utter crap.

1.25-3.75- Bad

4 or above- Okay

5 or above- Solid (usually these match would have been a lot better but needed more time- can also be flawless execution of the moves themselves in a not very interesting match)

6 or above- Good

7 or above - Very Good (IMO, all main events should be at least this high)

8 or above- (****- definitely worth going out of your way to see)

8.5 or above Awesome (****1/4)

9 or above- Outstanding (****1/2

9.5 or above- Amazing (****3/4)

10 PERFECT (*****)




1. How can you do a nostalgia/reunion/last hurrah show and call them “2.0”? That means the are something new. But the nostalgia show/last hurrah that Tommy and Dixie were talking about goes completely against this. They aren’t doing a new ECW. They are finishing off the old one.

2. You can’t portray the ECW angle as a sort of genuine shoot that transcends kayfabe, and transcends TNA, and then still play out a TNA angle (in this case, the Bubba-Devon feud) in it. It just doesn’t work, artistically.

3. Hogan is also apparently part of the “EV 2.0” and Dixie Carter mutual admiration society. He just missed last week’s meeting. Speaking of which, why haven’t Hogan and Bischoff been at Impact? They were brought in to run the company… you would think that they would actually try and be there.

4. Why is it that when Abyss is supposedly at his craziest (the guy was eating raw meat in the ring two weeks ago!), he is cutting his most coherent promos? This seems very backwards.

5. Hogan tells Abyss to “find some nice, comfortable couch in some shrink’s office, and get your head checked out, brother.” That didn’t work out too well for Abyss the last time. And Ironically, Stevie is in the ring with Hogan, now.

6. The TBP segment was eh.

7. HOLY SH*T! A referee ACTUALLY CAUGHT someone who was grabbing the tights! What’s more amazing is that this is the same moron who made the horrendous call at Victory Road.

8. Angelina vs. Sarita might well be the best 4 minute match I have ever seen. 5.25/10!

9. Great. TNA has decided to undo all of the development in Eric Young’s character over the last year. He is back to being a joke again.
Okay. Apparently this s all because EY took a bump on his head a few weeks ago o X-Plosion. Next time, TNA, show us the X-Plosion footage BEFORE the segment!

10. Orlando Jordan takes a page out of Kevin Steen’s playbook, and makes SoCal Val chew his used gum. Equal parts creepy, disgusting, and kind of funny.

11. EY is now carrying a mannequin to the ring. Oh dear.

12. Not going to lie… I found the EY stuff with the mannequin in the ring to be pretty funny. For that reason, I can’t really give EY & OJ vs. Ink Inc. a real rating. Instead, I will just call it “enjoyable.”

13. Apparently it will Flair vs. Lethal in a Street Fight next week. That will be a Street Fight on 3 of the 4 Impacts between Victory Road and Hardcore Justice. Not good.

14. Flair tells the ladies that Beer Money is “handful, after the match, too”- how would Ric know this… unless…

15. Booby Roode is AWESOME on the mic!

16. Kaz takes whole bunch of shots at WWE in his 15 second promo. When you are putting on the product that TNA is right now, you can’t make fun of anybody.

17. AJ Styles- “This is no longer the Global Title! That doesn’t draw ratings! Fortune draws ratings. Therefore, this… is the Television Title”- If you aren’t calling it the Global Title because that doesn’t draw ratings, and Fortune does draw ratings, should you be calling it the “Fortune Title?”

18. Kurt coming out of the trap door with a suit on looks really stupid.

19. Kurt vs. AJ is coming up at some point (I assume on the “TV PPV”)! YAY!

20. Once again, MCMG & Beer Money manage to tear the house down in less than 10 minutes. 7. 5/10 (in 8 minutes) – on the downside, they won because Storm hit Roode with the beer bottle. Can we PLEASE have a clean finish in this series?

21. Morgan comes out to Anderson’s music:
Taz- “Now he’s yelling at the microphone
Tenay- “I think he’s yelling at the guy who’s supposed to drop the microphone.”
Taz owes Tenay a lunch or something, because Tenay saved him another stupid announcer quote

22. Morgan jumping and grabbing the mic was fun. As was him exaggerating his height (“damn near 8 feet tall) and weight (480 ¼ pounds)

23. When Anderson calls for the mic, it comes. Obviously he is much stronger in the Force than Matt Morgan.

24. Morgan says he’ll give Anderson the first shot for free, so Anderson low blows him, then attacks him. Morgan regains control, then chokes Anderson with the microphone cord until Jeff makes the save, then the two babyfaces beat up the heel. Security gets involved, which leads to Morgan cheap-shotting Anderson. Apparently there are only two security guys on duty tonight (props to Taz for commenting on this, since we have seen an army of security guys in the past).
-Hell, maybe they don’t need more than these guys, as these two seem to be doing an astonishing job of throwing Hardy and Anderson around. That’s right. One security guard each is throwing two of TNA’s top babyfaces around.

25. Here come the road agents! AL SNOW! D’LO!
-D’Lo gets in one of the security guy’s faces. Tenay says that he thinks that TNA security overstepped their bounds”- this actually would explain why only two guys are out here…
Only at a wrestling show is “doing your job competently” overstepping your bounds if you are a security guard. (I am not counting this as a stupid announcer quote, because it is obvious that this is something that Tenay was told to say to get the angle over, and the way that he phrased it wasn’t stupid).

26. Apparently these security guard have names! And a backstory! They have apparently been trying to get into the wrestling business for 10 years, but had to settle for becoming TNA security. But tonight they get to wrestle against Jeff.

27. Rob Terry squashes Kaz. Way to push Flair’s new stable, TNA! None of these guys can win without cheating.
- I do have to give Taz props for saying “that is no ham-and-egger Rob Terry Just beat,” as it helps Kaz save face (albeit a very small amount) and puts Terry over even more.

28. “Bischoff’s blockbuster announcement is next”- the announcement so important it hasn’t been mentioned since the first segment, OVER AN HOUR AGO (and consequently, I forgot about it). Great hype, TNA. Keep it up.

29. Now we get a handicap match- Jeff & Anderson vs. Morgan & the security guards.

30. Morgan didn’t even wrestle in this match, and walked out for no reason. The match, while only 4 and a half minutes long, was very even- which is surprising considering that Taz is talking about how green these guys are, and how Jeff and Anderson should have a huge advantage… yet the match is back and forth. So two of TNA’s top babyfaces can’t dominate a couple of newbies? (actual wrestling 5/10- but the two newbies going toe-to-toe with Anderson and Hardy makes me want to penalize it. A lot.)

31. Christy asks Hogan for some inside info on Bishcoff’s announcement. You know… the one that is coming up next. Show some patience Christy. You’ve already waited over an hour for it. You can’t wait another five minutes?

32. Hogan answers Christy saying that we’ve “been hearing bits and pieces of it.” – Ummm… we haven’t heard anything. It was only announced tonight, and has barely been mentioned. All we know is that Bischoff is making an announcement.

33. Bischoff says we’ll get PPV quality wrestling right here on Impact on August 12th. Judging off most of TNA’s recent PPVs, that’s not much of an improvement.

34. Abyss says that They demand that the main event of August 12th be Abyss vs. RVD in a Stairway to Janice match. Bischoff caves in out of fear.

35. Abyss is about to murder Bischoff, but RVD (who hasn’t even been MENTIONED on tonight’s show) makes the save. RVD gets the upper hand, but misses a high risk move, and the road agents need to come out and save him.

36. Al Snow grabs Janice and gives it to Tommy.

37. Props to TNA for starting the match during the commercial.

38. Next week, it will be MCMG vs. Beer Money in an Ultimate X match. WTF! Only knowing the two matches that are already announced for last week, from the Impact before Victory Road, through next weeks show (5 weeks of TV) TNA will have given away the following:
4 Street Fights (Flair vs. Lethal, Sarita vs. Taylor, MCMG vs. Beer Money, Tommy vs. Abyss)
2 Ladder Matches (Beer Money vs. MCMG, Williams vs. Buck)
1 Cage match
1 I Quit match
1 Ultimate X match

And that’s summing they don’t have any other gimmick matches next week.

39. Why does TNA keep a wooden board with barbed nailed into it under the ring? This match was made on the spot at the beginning of the show, and the announcers and crowd have seen it the entire time since then, so it’s not like Tommy or Abyss put it there during the show.

40. Abyss vs. Tommy was okay 7/10. The minimum acceptable for a main event.

41. Great way to end the show. First teasing having Raven save Dreamer (which would have been a GREAT moment)… as well as the Raven-Abyss staredown (with their history together)…then the turn. At first I thought “Wait? Raven went through all of this trouble (the whole ECW thing) JUST to hurt Tommy?” But then I realized that sounds EXACTLY like something that raven would do.



His show was surprisingly good where it was god, and was the usual bad booking where it wasn’t (hell… and even where it WAS good).

Stupid Announcer Quotes:
1. Tenay “a Weapons, Hardcore, No Disqualification match”- (This statement has been brought to you by the Office of Repetitions & Redundancies Department)- as opposed to hardcore matches in which you can be disqualified, or aren’t allowed to use weapons.

2. Taz tries to put someone (this time, OJ) over by calling him “credible.”

3. Taz- “Correct me if I’m wrong, Nike, but this is not the first time we’ve seen great match from these two teams”- Like last week. And the week before that. And at the PPV, and pretty much every time they (especially MCMG) have been on TV the last few months. Taz seems to have gotten a hold of Tenay’s memory loss pills.

4. Tenay “We’ve been talking about Hardcore Justice, the huge Pay-Per-View that’s coming”- No you haven’t. This also hasn’t been mentioned since the first segment. This PPV is so big that they don’t talk about it for over an hour.

5. Tenay “we turn hundreds of fans away at every TNA Pay-Per-View event”- This is a lie. They couldn’t evens ell out half of the arena for Lockdown, and they give tickets to Impact away for free to fill up the building. If fans aren’t showing up for free tickets to Impact, then they aren’t going to pay for tickets to a PPV.

6. Tenay- “Just wanted to remind you about Eric Bischoff’s blockbuster announcement. It’s coming up next.” You said that before, but instead we got a match. Why should I believe you this time?