Written by: Bob Colling
National Wrestling Alliance/Total Non-Stop Action present Impact
Date: 4/8/2006
From: Orlando, FL
Opening Contest: Abyss vs. AJ Styles: AJ kicks Abyss away in the corner and delivers a few kicks to the knees of the big man. Styles goes for a German suplex after a sling shot into the ring and dropkicks Abyss. Abyss is taken down with a hurricanrana. Styles looked to dive to the floor, but Abyss got to the apron and almost press slams Styles to the floor. AJ wiggled free and bites the hand to avoid a choke slam, but runs into a clothesline. Abyss viciously chops Styles in the corner to keep the advantage. Abyss press slams Styles as the show goes to commercial.
AJ floats over and kicks Abyss down. Styles hits a springboard elbow strike and nearly wins on the pin attempt. Abyss drives AJ into the corner back first and goes for the Shock Treatment, which he hits! AJ gets his foot on the bottom rope. Abyss misses a middle rope splash and Styles hits the Pele kick! Styles goes to the top rope and is tripped by Father James Mitchell. Abyss press slams AJ from the top and goes under the ring to get something. It’s the bag of thumbtacks! We see Christian Cage arrive with a crowbar.
Cage makes it to the ring incredibly fast (poor editing) and hits Abyss with the crowbar. The referee throws the match out, though Abyss should have won by disqualification. Cage is held back by officials. (*1/2. Nothing all that great as this was designed to continue the Cage/Abyss feud, which is heating up nicely, by the way.)
NWA World Champion Christian Cage has a microphone and enters the ring. Cage talks about Lockdown and meeting Abyss at the event. He responds by accepting the challenge! He asks Abyss if he is prepared to die in the steel cage, because he is!
Backstage, Jeremy Borash is with Team 3D. They will be wrestling Team Canada in an anthem match at Lockdown. Brother Ray notices that Borash is in a good mood despite what has been happening lately. He says it will take more than the five Canadians to take them out. If they are going to get buried, they should be buried under the US flag. Ray completely insults Canada strong here. Brother Devon chimes in with his testify to end the segment.
Second Contest: Bob Armstrong vs Konnan in an arm wrestling contest: The referee sends Homicide and the James Gang to the backstage area so that it can be just Konnan and Bob. Konnan decides to stall for a little while. Bob pulls Konnan back to the table and is about to win until Hernandez comes over and attacks Armstrong with the slapjack. This is the return of Hernandez to TNA. The James Gang run down to the ring to save Bob. That’s it.
Backstage, Jeremy Borash is with Larry Zbyszko. Larry talks about the Lockdown pay per view event. He announces that Daniels will wrestle Jushin Liger in TNA. Slick Johnson enters the room and says he needs to be the referee for the Joe/Daniels match next week. Larry wants to know who the new guy in TNA management is, but Johnson walks away.
Third Contest: Norman Smiley & Shark Boy vs. David Young & Elix Skipper: Simon Diamond is on commentary for the match. Sirens are going off and here comes Jeff Jarrett and his associates. Steiner, James Storm and Chris Harris destroy Norman Smiley and Shark Boy. Steiner smashes a chair across Norman’s arm, which was placed across the guard railing. That was an entertaining ass kicking segment.
Main Event: Alex Shelley vs. Roderick Strong vs. Chase Stevens: Shelley misses a slingshot cross body to the floor as Strong works over Stevens in the ring with chops. Stevens battles back with strikes in the corner. Shelley misses another slingshot into the ring. Chase clotheslines Strong for a near fall. Stevens knocks Strong off the apron and Alex hit a spinning heel kick. Strong hits a back breaker on Stevens out of the corner for a near fall. Strong and Shelley are working on Stevens as they hit a senton splash and moonsault for a near fall. Stevens drop toe holds Shelley into the middle turnbuckle. Chase low blows Strong, who knocks Shelley off the apron by running the ropes. Stevens dropkicks Shelley in midair.
Stevens with an Alabama Slam on Strong for a near fall. Stevens with a flipping neck breaker on Shelley and goes to the top rope. Strong dropkicks Chase on the top turnbuckle. Strong hits a superplex and locks in a Boston Crab until Shelley hits a Slice Bread and pins Strong to win the match. (**. It was okay as Shelley and Strong worked some fun double team moves on Stevens, but really aside from that it wasn’t overly exciting or anything.)
Sting makes his way down to the ring to cut a promo. He asks the fans if they knew why he came back to wrestling, because he loves wrestling and the fans. Sting also loves Impact and Spike. He thinks Final Resolution was bittersweet because Jarrett put everything important on television. Sting thinks that Jarrett is a little bitter. He is back to get his hands on Jarrett’s throat and he was satisfied doing so. He admits that he got one upped when Jarrett brought people from the past back, like Scott Steiner. That just knocked some rust off his body. Sting asked for a special match from TNA at Lockdown. Sting wants Jarrett to wrestle him in the ring, next week. Any person who gets in his way, Sting will knock them out and rip Jarrett’s heart out of his chest. That brings out Jarrett and his army. Rhino, Ron Killings, AJ Styles and the entire babyface roster comes out to make the save. Sting taunts Jarrett to close the program.
Final Thoughts:
A boring episode this week. Aside from the Christian/Abyss stuff, I wasn’t interested in a lot of the show.
Thanks for reading.