TNA Impact 3/8/2012

Tonight, Garrett Bischoff teams up with Jeff Hardy to take on Gunner and Kurt Angle. Also, a former TNA World Champion returns to television to aid AJ Styles against Daniels and Kaz!

Total Non-Stop Action presents Impact
Date: 3/8/2012
From: Orlando, FL

Garrett Bischoff arrives to the building saying he doesn’t care that he was warned by Flair last week and that he isn’t going anywhere.

The show starts off with Ric Flair, Eric Bischoff and Gunner making their way down to the ring. Eric announces that he is going to take care of family business tonight and that he had a meeting with Sting tonight. Sting has allowed Gunner to find a partner to wrestle Garrett and a partner of his choosing later tonight. Eric thanks Flair for giving Garrett a warning last week and feels that Flair did that out of love and respect. Eric thinks that Garrett is going to have a very difficult time finding a tag team partner. Kurt Angle comes out and says he would be happy to give his services to teach Garrett a lesson. He hates Garrett because he doesn’t respect his father. Angle notes that he respected his father and he became an Olympic Gold Medalist. Angle assures Eric that he is going to make Garrett and his partner tap out.

Backstage, we see Sting acting crazy as he paints his face. He feels alive even though he is a little unhinged. Eric Young comes out and wants to find out who Sting is talking to. Sting ends up giving Eric Young and ODB a tag team title shot. Sting means the Knockout Tag Team Championships. Sting puts paint over Young’s face to make him remember he is a warrior.

Opening Contest: TNA Knockout Tag Team Championship Match
[champions] Gail Kim & Madison Rayne vs. ODB & Eric Young
This is an unlikely match and is kind of stupid, considering Young isn’t exactly a knockout, so how is he qualified for this match? Anyway, the finish of the match saw Rayne hit Young with one of the championships and that caused Young to land on top of Kim for the three count. Yes, we have ourselves new tag team champions. After the match, Eric Young proposes to ODB. It wouldn’t be right if there wasn’t a wedding every year in wrestling, thanks TNA! Actually, ODB proposes to Young and he says yes, so there you go.

Earlier in the day, a man in a suit arrived to the building to have a meeting with TNA officials. Apparently, his name is Mr. Park. Yep, if you guessed Abyss’s brother, you’d be right.

Backstage, Bully Ray is confident that James Storm will not make it to Lockdown and that Sting will make the right decision tonight.

Second Contest: TNA X-Division Championship
[champion] Austin Aries vs. Zema Ion
As expected, this match didn’t have a clean finish since they are wrestling each other at the Victory Road pay-per view next Sunday. Ion tried to cheat his way to victory, and actually does. He tried to spray Aries in the face with his hairspray, but Aries was able to block it. Aries would get the spray and managed to spray Ion in the face. Of course, the referee would get up in time to see this and disqualified Aries.

Backstage, Mr. Park asks Velvet Sky if she knows where his brother, Abyss, is. She has no idea.

Bully Ray comes out to the ring and mentions how he kicked a chair into James Storm’s face and believes he should be the new number one contender. Sting makes his way out to the ring. Sting ends up giving Ray a match against Roode.. tonight! Oh, and it will be next!

Backstage, Bobby Roode is none to happy about this and tells Sting he can’t defend his championship tonight. Sting gives Roode some relief that the title isn’t on the line, because he is saving that for Lockdown. Anyway, the match is still on!

Third Contest: TNA World Champion Bobby Roode vs. Bully Ray
Roode tried to get Ray not to do this, but that never works and they fight. Late in the match, Ray hit a Rock Bottom but couldn’t put the champ away. Roode fought back with a spear but got a two count. Roode has had enough of this and grabs Ray’s chain. He tries to hit Ray with it but Ray kicks the chain into Roode’s face! Ray acts like he is going to hit Roode with it, but James Storm runs out and chases Ray away from the ring. That allows Storm to hit Roode with the Last Call. After the match, Storm grabs the championship and holds it over Roode to end the segment.

Backstage, Garrett Bischoff is confident in his partner that he is going to choose, but he isn’t going to tell us yet.

Backstage, Crimson and Matt Morgan are talking when Mr. Park enters the scene. Morgan actually laughs at him because he thinks it funny that Abyss’s brother is this guy. They have no idea where Abyss is. Crimson tells Morgan that it doesn’t matter that he cost them the titles, they just need to go forward. Morgan agrees and they head to the ring.

Fourth Contest: #1 Contenders Match
The Shore vs. Matt Morgan & Crimson
This should be a surprise to no one. The former champions take care of business over the fist pumping team of Robbie E and Robbie T. Late in the match, Morgan hit the Carbon Footprint Robbie E and is pinned by Crimson who blindly tags himself in. They will get another shot at the tag titles at Victory Road.

Earlier in the day, AJ Styles says that he knows how to deal with Daniels and Kaz. He believes they won’t like what he has in store for them tonight.

AJ Styles makes his way out to the ring and he talks about saying that he can’t be more proud that he has been with TNA for all 10-years that it has been around. He is cut off by Christopher Daniels and Kaz as they appear on the stage. Daniels believes he is the new face of Impact Wrestling and notes that he was Styles ally and had returned to the company to watch AJ’s back. Daniels says that Styles got fortune and fame while Daniels got punished and fired! Styles chimes in to say that when Daniels was fired it was one of his better memories of Daniels in TNA. Kaz says that Styles is gullible and trusts people with stuff he shouldn’t. That’s why people turn on him. Styles says he just sees lying backstabbing pricks. Styles reveals he is going to associate himself with… and then ASSHOLE plays and Mr. Anderson appears from the back! They brawl with Daniels and Kaz. They send Daniels over the top to the floor and Kaz is held back by Daniels while the babyfaces stand tall in the ring.

Main Event: Gunner & Kurt Angle vs. Garrett Bischoff & Jeff Hardy
Naturally, the heels are none to happy about this but how can they be surprised about it, really? Hardy is worked on early by Angle and Gunner while Garrett is stuck on the apron. After a commercial, Angle continues to control Hardy with an overhead belly to belly suplex. After a long time of being beaten down, Hardy nails Gunner with the Whisper In The Wind! Hardy is worked on some when Garrett gets distracted by soon Hardy is able to back kick Angle and tags in Garrett. Garrett cleans house with a flapjack on Angle and dropkicks Gunner off the apron and plants Angle with a modified diamond cutter for a two count! Garrett ducks under a double clothesline attempt and knocks them both down with one of his own. Hardy leaps off the top and pins Angle with the Swanton Bomb!

Final Thoughts:
The last several weeks Impact had been a pretty good show. This week I’d consider it to be an average episode, really. They did a fine job at advancing some of the angles into Victory Road but it just felt kind of “bleh” to me. First off, the wedding between ODB/Young will probably be funny but I’m not all that interested in how that plays out. Eventually, the comedy act is going to reach it’s limit and begin to hurt the show. Are they teasing a Crimson heel turn? I’m sure sure if that’s the best choice for him, personally. I’m glad that Mr. Anderson has returned to television. However, it is rather random to me that he is inserted into the Daniels/Kaz/Styles feud. The main event was okay, but I thought that Garrett probably should have been the guy who got beaten down and Hardy be the man to make the comeback. Anyway, it wasn’t an awful program, it was just less quality then what they had been producing the last several weeks.

Thanks for reading.