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Impact: Raven follows his rules
By
CHRIS SOKOL - SLAM! Wrestling
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Stop the presses! Raven has a match on Impact? "You have got to be kidding me!" That's right, the man from the Bowery is partaking in a little rasslin' action on Spike TV. Larry Zybysko has placed Raven in a match that he's quite familar with, a Raven's House of Fun match. Will he come out victorious? Read the report and find out!
Our evening began with Don West talking to the crowd from
the parking lot for some unknown reason. Nevertheless, Samoa Joe happened to
walk by, not saying a word, but sporting a taped wrist with "AJ" written on it.
As Joe walked by, Bobby Heenan walked in, telling West that he was at Impact
because of the big Chicago White Sox ceremony on Thursday's special. It would be
nice for somebody to pick Heenan up and use him regularly.
Match One - "The Canadian Destroyer" Petey
Williams vs Austin Aries vs Alex Shelly vs Chris Sabin
The combatants separated themselves, with Williams and
Shelly teaming up, as Aries and Sabin formed a somewhat special bond. Shelly was
in the ring for a majority of the match, even tagging out Williams as he was
gaining momentum. Shelly walked Williams through a handshake and told him to hit
the bricks, very funny. Shelly hit some monsterous kicks to the face, almost
knocking Aries out cold. Shelly then took his legs, wrapped them around Aries'
head and proceeded to bounce up and down, banging his head on the mat each time.
Very unqiue. All four men went at it at this point, with Shelly being sent to
the floor, Aries taking the Canadian Destroyer and Williams taking the Cradle
Shock. The X Division is the flagship of TNA, let's see where it takes
them.
Winner Via Pinfall - Chris Sabin
Morphoplex Move of the Night - The Cradle
Shock - Does Petey Williams own Morphoplex? The move of the night
always features him in some capacity.
In a secluded lockeroom area, Terry Taylor is shown
standing by with America's Most Wanted, who are watching a tape of Team 3D's
funeral, laughing all the way, as they toast each other with beers. Taylor gets
no sympathy out of them, only trash talk. As they basically tell Team 3D that
they are going through some tables. Taylor tries twice to grab a beer, but to no
avail as he is thrown out of the lockeroom.
Match Two - Abyss w/ Father James Mitchell vs Kenny King
Ouch again! King tries to get something going, but it's
physically impossible. He gets thrown up in the area, almost hitting the
ceiling, before crashing down. He recieves The Shock Treatment and a Black Hole
Slam.
Winner Via Pinfall - Abyss
Mitchell then joined Abyss in the ring and called out
Sabu. The lights went out, and when they came back on, Sabu was standing in the
ring with a chair wrapped in barbed wire. Abyss kicked the chair away and the
two began brawling. They went into the crowd and out the back doors into the
area where fans wait in line to be let in. Abyss hesistated before taking the
barbed wire chair and cracking Sabu with it, busting him open. Mitchell
whispered to "The Monster" before Abyss went and set up some guardrails on the
concrete, chokeslamming Sabu on top of them.
TNA aired a piece on Rhino, who talked about his personal
problems stemming from Wrestlemania 21 on. He talked about his divorce and
missing his family. Really touching.
Jeff Jarrett came out and called Mike Tenay to the
ring. While in the ring, Jarrett complained about the Rhino piece, saying that
TNA management was giving Rhino a sympathy vote. Jarrett continues on, talking
about how Gail Kim won't answer his phone calls after what Jackie Gayda did.
Tenay questioned Jarrett's relationship with Gayda, but Jarrett snapped and
refused to answer. Jarrett continued to ramble from there, until Christian Cage
made an appearance. Cage ran down Jarrett with several insults, even referring
to him as "Slapnuts." The debate boiled down to Christian and Jarrett going at
it in the middle of the ring. Christian went for the Unprettier, but Jarrett
bailed. From behind, Bobby Roode appeared and hit Christian with a Northern
Lariat. Gayda came down and got into it with Jarrett, as AMW tried to smooth
things over. A good segment, Christian's mic skills are second to none in
TNA.
In the promo area, Terry Taylor spoke with the 4 Live Kru
and "Bullet" Bob Armstrong. Armstrong talked about how great the 4 Live Kru can
be if they stay together. BG James shouted some words at Team Canada, letting
them know that they will see the difference between a team and a
family.
"The Living Legend" Larry Zybysko walked out and
confronted Raven about signing his release papers. Raven wanted none of it and
told Zybysko off. Zybysko again mentioned Raven's "girlfriend" before leaving,
which really got Raven fired up. Zybysko went in the back and came out with
Raven's opponents...
Match Four - Raven's House of Fun Match - Raven
vs The Diamonds in the Rough (Simon Diamond, "Primetime" Elix Skipper and David
Young)
Raven got in a little offense at the very beginning,
but the numbers game took over, as Raven was cut up with a pizza cutter and
stapled in the head. Cassidy Riley made an appearance and took control for Raven
with some kendo stick shots, but he too was disposed of. Throughout the match,
Zybysko and the Diamonds tried to get Raven to sign the release papers,
culminating in Raven spitting in Zybysko's face. That act earned Raven a trash
can shot to the head and a further beatdown. The Diamonds then took Raven, threw
him through the ropes to the floor, through a table and piled on top of him for
the pin.
Winners Via Pinfall - The Diamonds in the
Rough
In the backstage area, Samoa Joe is shown beating down
"The Phenomenal" AJ Styles, throwing his bloody towel over the fallen
champion.
Good set up for Turning Point, which should be another
solid TNA PPV. The look is getting more and more professional, as TNA is
starting to really assume that "WCW role." The Heavyweight title scene is
getting real hot now, almost where the X Division title scene was a few months
ago. With many different stars gaining momentum, it will be interesting to see
who leads the company from here.
Chris Sokol is from Long Island, NY and wants to
send his well wishes to Kenny King who was completely decimated at the hands of
Abyss.
