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Did A.J. Styles see his shadow?

Posted: Feb 4th 2008 By: mikeiles

Oklafan Editor's Note: The following story pertains to the "TNA iMPACT!" show that aired on January 31st.

A stream-of-consciousness look at last night's TNA Impact:

In honor of Groundhog Day, TNA is making A. J. Styles participate in the same lame story line over and over. First, Styles had to choose between Kurt Angle and Christian Cage, and now it's between Angle and Tomko. Here's the larger question: If Styles sees his shadow, does that mean six more weeks of bad television? Actually, the way Styles' character is written, if he saw his shadow he'd probably be afraid of it.

In the very first segment, Angle and Styles already are arguing. Has the Angle Alliance even been together long enough for dissension to mean anything? Also, if Angle was trying to put together a heel faction, doesn't he need more than one member? That reminds me, didn't Robert Roode join the Angle Alliance a while back? Did I miss the scene where Angle booted him out?

The Motor City Machine Guns and Jay Lethal did a funny parody of Team 3-D and Johnny Devine, although I'm not sure everyone watching would remember that Brother Ray used to do a stuttering gimmick.

TNA ruined the parody segment by having Team 3-D and Devine attack TMCMG and Lethal. This is backwards booking if I ever saw it. It makes the babyfaces look ridiculous to have them make fun of the heels and anger them, and then have the heels attack the babyfaces and lay them out (while they're still dressed in their comedy attire). Plus, it was a three-on-three fight. The babyfaces weren't outnumbered and they still were no match for the heels.

Speaking of heels, I thought Brother Ray cut a great promo until he actually used the word "heel." I don't think wrestling vernacular like that should be used in the context of the show.

I think Scott Steiner committed gimmick infringement when he asked Crystal her name and then cut her off by saying, "It doesn't matter what your name is." Hey, maybe Steiner will get a bigger push if he can do a good imitation of all The Rock's catch phrases and moves.

Speaking of gimmick infringement, Jillian Hall is much more entertaining doing the bad singer shtick than Christy Hemme. By the way, I thought Hemme was annoying in WWE, but she's taken it to a new level in TNA.

Steiner turned on tag-team partner Petey Williams. Does that mean Steiner is a heel? More importantly, does anyone care about these guys trading the briefcases back and forth?

I was just thinking that we needed to see more dissension among factions, and then Kip James fired Roxxi Laveaux. And did I actually hear James make fun of how someone else dresses?

Father James Mitchell was awesome on the microphone again and I'm into the Judas Mesias character, but I couldn't be less interested in this story line with Abyss. For the good of the game, please end it soon. ;

TNA obviously has no clue how minor league "Stone Cold" Shark Boy makes it look. And that's all I've got to say about that.

I don't understand what makes Kevin Nash's character a babyface. When a tough-guy babyface is challenged to a fight by a heel, he should respond by saying "Anytime, anyplace" or "Let's do it right now" rather than "Sure, if you give me $100,000."

When Jim Cornette threatened to terminate Styles, I wonder if Styles thought: "That's OK. I bet I can still get that developmental deal WWE offered me several years ago."

I'm glad that Awesome Kong did not cut a promo. Remaining silent adds to her mystique. It was a bait and switch, however, to promote it and then not deliver it.

Usually when wrestlers act as guest referees, they still look like wrestlers by cutting the sleeves off the referee shirt or wearing a super-tight referee shirt. Styles, however, actually looked like a referee. Either that or the guy who sold me my shoes at Foot Locker.

I'm guessing that the "White Sunshine" promo was an attempt to give Kaz some personality. Better go to Plan B.

Cornette forgot to bring a pen to Samoa Joe's big contract signing. Now that didn't seem contrived, did it?

Angle is defending the TNA title against Cage on pay-per-view on Feb. 10, but there doesn't seem to be much of a build for that match. Angle vs. Tomko for the title would be a lot more intriguing. Honestly, how can you have Angle and Cage, the two most entertaining guys in the company, wrestling for the title on pay-per-view and not come up with a compelling story line?

Tags: TNA, A. J. Styles, Jim Cornette