Written by: Bob Colling
National Wrestling Alliance/Total Non-Stop Action presents Impact
Date: 6/1/2006
From: Orlando, FL
Matches:
1.) NWA Tag Team Champions America’s Most Wanted defeated the Naturals in a non-title match
2.) Jay Lethal defeated Alex Shelley
3.) Jeff Jarrett defeated Raven in a King of the Mountain qualifying match
Angle Developments/Notes:
1.) Jeff Jarrett comes out and demands to know if he’s wrestling tonight and who he’s wrestling. Mike Tenay says that Jarrett will find out when everyone else finds out. Jarrett thinks that Tenay and Don West know what’s going on. Jarrett brings out Scott Steiner, who is pissed, too. Steiner wants to find out right now and yells at both Tenay and West. Steiner grabs West and knocks him down to the floor. Steiner rolls West into the ring! Steiner is choking West in the ring and demands answers. The show is stopping until they get answers. They want Larry Zbyszko and Steiner wants a piece of Sting tonight.
Sting’s music hits and Sting makes his way down to the ring. Sting hammers away on both Jarrett and Steiner. Jarrett bails up the aisle, but there’s Raven! Raven hammers away on Jarrett on the floor. Raven gets Jarrett in the ring and Jarrett bails to the floor. Sting clotheslines Steiner over the top to the floor. Sting and Raven stand tall to open the show!
2.) Stevens and Storm kickoff the non-title match. Stevens shoulder blocks Storm and Douglas enters to drop Storm over Stevens knee. Harris enters and is met with double flapjack as we go to commercial. Douglas hammers away on Storm in the corner, but Harris clotheslines Douglas from the apron. Harris elbows Douglas to the mat and chokes Douglas in the corner for a moment. Storm comes off the middle rope to deliver a strike to the midsection. Storm dumps Douglas over the top rope and hits a spinning over the shoulder slam for a near fall. They collide in the middle of the ring. Stevens enters and cleans house with right hands on the champs. Harris accidentally clotheslines Storm in the corner and Douglas nails Harris with a knee strike. Douglas hits a neckbreaker on Storm. Gail Kim is on the apron, but Styles and Daniels take her off and Styles shoves Kim down. Daniels tosses Stevens the nightstick, but he doesn’t want it. Storm decks Stevens with a bottle and wins the match. (*1/2. Not too bad of a match, really. They weren’t given a lot of time by any means, but this clearly continues the angle between AMW and Daniels/Styles.) After the match, Shane Douglas was looking on from the aisle but walked away. AMW handcuffed Douglas to the ropes and Stevens is bloodied.
3.) Jeremy Borash interviews Alex Shelley about his production company and what he’s done with it. Shelley is associated with Kevin Nash now. Shelley says what he does with his video camera has nothing to do with him. Kevin Nash says he can make Shelley a star. Shelley lost his tripod but Nash says he has his tripod… right here.
4.) Shelley stomps on Lethal’s hands to start the match, but Lethal fires back with right hands and a heel kick moments later. Lethal drops Shelley with a back suplex for a near fall. Shelley kicks Lethal’s arm away and slams Lethal’s arm onto the mat. Shelley wrenches on Lethal’s arm over the middle rope. Shelley takes Lethal over with a fisherman suplex for a two count. Shelley continues with an arm breaker and switches to a bridging hammerlock. Shelley keeps control with a kick to Lethal. Shelley yanks Lethal’s arm over the top rope. Shelley nails Lethal with a running double knee strike. Lethal elbows Shelley and hits a middle rope heel kick. Lethal takes Shelley down with a head scissors and clotheslines. Lethal hip tosses Shelley and hits a seated dropkick. Shelley misses a kick, but hits a step up kick. Nash gets on the apron. Lethal sends Shelley into Nash’s arm and wins the match with a rollup.(**1/2. I enjoyed the action here even with it being a short match. The finish is fine as it protects Shelley and gives Lethal a good win.) After the match, Nash decks Lethal with a clothesline. Shelley chokes Lethal on the mat. Shelley delivers a few more kicks while having an arm bar on Lethal. Chris Sabin runs into the ring and sits Shelley in the tree of woe, but Shelley bails to the floor with help from Nash. Sabin wants Nash to man up. Sabin notes that his back isn’t turned this time and that’s why Nash ran. Sabin is free June 18th and challenges Nash to a singles match! Sabin wants to prove to Nash what Nash’s wife has been saying for years… “size doesn’t matter!”
5.) Samoa Joe asks why he wouldn’t walk into the big dog yards and go in there and kick ass. Joe says that Sting wanted him there to have his back bell to bell. Joe held up his side of the deal and is pissed that Sting came back and derailed his rise up the ranks in TNA. Joe says that Scott Steiner is out of his mind if he thinks he can punk Joe. Joe thinks that Steiner knows he can’t take a guy like him. Joe can’t wait for Steiner wanting to fight him one on one.
6.) Jeremy Borash interviews Team 3D and mentions the parody that James Gang did last week. They say it was pretty funny last week and the parody eight years ago was funny. Bubba and D-Von are laughing about the various things they did. D-Von and Bubba are making fun of each other and Bubba resents a fat joke. Bubba notes he has a thyroid problem. Bubba says that they crossed the line by insulting the arena and south Philadelphia. They think that the James Gang are jealous of them being in ECW. Bubba says it’s like saying their mothers are whores… but he can’t speak for D-Von’s. D-Von doesn’t like that and Bubba jokes that he and Borash will get off D-Von’s mother. Bubba says they will defend the bingo hall’s honor.
7.) Backstage, Larry Zbyszko is talking with Christopher Daniels and AJ Styles. They want another match against AMW and Zbyszko mentions they lost three times already. They blame interference and promise that they will not hear from them after Slammiversary. Slick Johnson says the new face of TNA is not waiting for the PPV and will be here either this week or next even!
8.) Jeremy Borash goes to the Spanish announce table, but Konnan wants Borash to go away because this is their border. Konnan gives Homicide permission to stab Borash if he crosses the line.
9.) NWA World Champion Christian Cage says he’s going to be the first champion to retain the title in the King of the Mountain. Cage has beaten Jarrett once and he’ll do it again. He respects Sting but Sting is trying to take his title. This is the Christian Cage era now.
10.) Jarrett looks for Raven with a chair and is met with trash can lid shots by Raven in the crowd. Raven continues to beat on Jarrett with the lids. Jarrett crawls to the aisle and smashes Raven with the lid. Jarrett tosses Raven into the ring and delivers several stomps to keep control of the contest. Jarrett tosses a chair at Raven in the ring but misses a clothesline. Raven jabs Jarrett followed by a discus clothesline causing Jarrett to bail to the floor. Raven dumps Jarrett into the crowd and delivers a few elbow strikes and jabs in the crowd. Raven tosses Jarrett over the railing and sets a table up by the stage. Raven leaps off the stage and misses an elbow drop going through the table instead. We go to commercial.
Jarrett whacks Raven with a chair shot on the side of the head. Jarrett whacks Raven over the back with the chair again and slams Raven face first onto the announcers table. Jarrett tosses relish at Raven as they are at a fake food area. Jarrett jabs Raven in the gut with a chair. Jarrett leaps off a chair and misses an attack hitting the wall. Raven runs into Jarrett with a splash. Raven suplexs Jarrett through a table. Raven sends Jarrett into the railing rib first and tries for another chair shot, but misses a few times. Raven is choking Jarrett with a chain as they go through the tunnel back to the arena. Raven hip tosses Jarrett down the aisle. Raven has a steel chair and again jabs Jarrett in the midsection. Raven sends Jarrett chest first into the corner and delivers a clothesline followed by a knee strike. Raven goes for the DDT on the chair, but Jarrett counters. Raven splashes Jarrett and the referee in the corner. Jarrett sends Raven into the referee again. Raven back elbows Jarrett and lands on top of Jarrett.
Gail Kim slides the guitar into the ring to help Jarrett. Raven puts a sleeper on Jarrett and we see that Jarrett is bleeding from the mouth. Jarrett gets free and puts a sleeper on Raven. Raven drop toe holds Jarrett face first onto the chair! Raven has the guitar, but Larry Zbyszko grabs the guitar and gets decked by Raven. Jarrett low blows Raven and has the guitar. Zbyszko stops Jarrett and Raven nearly pins Jarrett with a rollup! Zbyszko and Jarrett shove each other. Raven has the guitar and hits Zbyszko on accident. Jarrett plants Raven with the Stroke to win the match and advances! (***. I enjoyed the brawling as that is exactly what you need to do with Raven. The finish is fine since it allows the issues between Raven and Zbyszko to continue.)
Final Thoughts:
I thought this was a really fun and good episode of Impact. The hour flew by and there was quality action along with worthwhile promo work. Good stuff, TNA.
Thanks for reading.