411’s TNA Impact Report 05.07.09

A pretty cool video package opens the show with talk of rage, anarchy and turmoil mixed in with clips of the recent activity in TNA including Mick Foley’s title win, Samoa Joe and AJ Styles’ quarrelling and Bobby Lashley’s appearances, as well as the brewing trouble between Mick Foley and Jeff Jarrett. The video promises that the anarchy will grow as the Main Event Mafia goes to war in a ten-man tag team main event against Daniels, Jeff Jarrett, Mick Foley, Samoa Joe and AJ Styles

After the usual Impact opening, we have lasers, we have pyro and we have nausea-inducing camera trickery!!! We are LIVE-ish from the Impact Zone in Orlando, baby!! Mike Tenay asks what the unpredictable Mick Foley will have in store for the show tonight, as well as who will step up to sacrifice their way into the fatal four-way TNA World Championship match at Sacrifice. The Main Event Mafia’s music hits and much like every other week, they make their way down to the ring with Kurt Angle taking the lead and Sting bringing up the caboose on the arthritis train. Don West talks up the solidarity of having Sting and Angle on the same page and Angle says that he made it perfectly clear last week that if you mess with the Mafia, you get the thorn of the rose. He says that with Sting’s help, he walked into Mick Foley’s office, looked him in the eye and kicked his ass. Angle says that the only reason he didn’t steal Foley’s job was because he wanted to leave Foley with a shred of dignity. Angle says he’s going to be in the main event at Sacrifice for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, talking about his offer to give up leadership of the Main Event Mafia if he gets pinned and that whoever pins him will assume his “Godfather” role in the MEM. Angle says that he’s here to address the rumors that have been going around about a ten-man tag match tonight that the Mafia will be involved in. Angle asks why Foley would put a match of that magnitude on free TV and also asks why Foley wouldn’t tell the Main Event Mafia about the match. Angle says that Foley may book the matches, but the Mafia runs the show and he says that if the Mafia will be in the ten-man tag match, Foley needs to get his fat, crazy ass out to the ring to tell them what’s going on.

Mick Foley’s music hits and he’s out with his TNA World Heavyweight Championship over his shoulder and Daniels by his side. Foley says that it’s not a rumor and that there will be a ten-man tag match tonight as the main event. Foley tells Angle that he’d give away the match of that magnitude because they need a show of power. Foley says that he felt like he was immune from the Mafia until last week and that Angle was dead-set on getting retribution for the steel chair shot from two weeks ago. Foley says that after that, Angle, along with Sting, who Foley thought was going to be gone for a long, long time, they set him up and took him out. Foley says that there was a big difference between what happened two weeks ago and what they did to him last week. Foley tries to bring up his stitches again and Angle shuts him up by talking about winning the Olympic gold medal with a broken neck….again. Foley says that at Sacrifice there will be an even bigger price to pay and then talks about the ten-man tag again, saying that he might be the guy that rocketed TNA into the stratosphere, but it was guys like Daniels that laid down the foundation so he could fly. Foley lays out their team, with a mixture of cheers and boos for Samoa Joe and Jeff Jarrett. Angle promises that if they come out to fight tonight, it’ll be their funeral. Foley talks about a funeral and says that after he’s defeated Kurt Angle at Sacrifice, he’ll walk out as the TNA World Champion, and he’ll walk out as the “Godfather” of the Main Event Mafia.

Jeff Jarrett’s music hits and he and AJ Styles come out to the ramp, with Jarrett saying that the next decision that Mick Foley makes will be over his dead body. Foley says that they need a show of force and solidarity, saying that “they” built this place and that while tempers have flared, the relationship can still be repaired. Foley says that it was always business and never personal between them, and Jarrett tells him that this is business before telling Foley to kiss his ass. Angle stops Jarrett and says that before they start kissing each other’s asses, they might want to get ready for the ten-man tag tonight, asking “Can’t we all just get along?” before laughing into the camera. We head into the backstage area with Joe getting dropped off by his mommy at the Impact Zone. Lauren asks him who dropped him off, but he just blows her off and walks away. I wonder if he’s mad because she forgot to give him his juice box.

Random Impact Observation #1: These opening segments are usually hit or miss and this week it was a bit of a miss as there was too much going on and things got a bit messy talking about Foley/Angle, Jarrett/Foley, Sting/Foley, Sting/Angle, etc. etc. without anything about Styles, Daniels or Joe, the guys that they should be trying to elevate. Sometimes these long talk segments help TNA, but tonight things felt a little long and lost the point before it was all over.

Random Commercial Observation #1: When is a sponge not a sponge? Ummmm…is that supposed to be a trick question? Cause that sure looks like a goddamn sponge to me…

Mike Tenay welcomes us back and we go to last week’s footage of the Motor City Machine Guns confronting Christopher Daniels about the likelihood that he is Suicide. Even with how great that segment was last week, the video highlights make it look even better this week.

Match One:
Consequences Creed w/”Black Machismo” Jay Lethal vs. Suicide

This one is non-title so expect the Guns to get involved somehow. Suicide surprises Lethal and Creed by coming up from behind, sending Lethal out of the ring in retreat. The bell rings and we’re underway with Suicide getting a go-behind into a reversal by Creed. Suicide reverses and takes Creed down with a low kick into a double-legdrop to the back of the head for a two-count. Headbutts from Sucidie and he whips Creed into the corner, following in with a flurry of clotheslines into an STO. Another two-count as Don West crows about how familiar that move looks. Of course, Tenay plays dumb and calls it a judo move instead of acknowledging that Daniels uses the same move. West calls him on it and calls it bullshit as Creed and Suicide trade punches. Suicide with a whip into the corner, Creed reverses, Suicide goes up top and Creed takes him down with a punch to the gut that gets a two-count. Nice touch during the pin attempt as Lethal is on the outside yelling “Is that you, Daniels?” in full-on Savage mode. Tremendous. Right hands from Creed and he hits a HUGE spinning neckbreaker into another two-count. Jabs from Creed and he hits his big splits clothesline before taking over with a jumping elbowdrop to the back that gets two. Another right hand frmo Creed and Suicide reverses an Irish whip into the corner, following him in with a swinging Russian legsweep that puts both men down. Creed with more punches that rock Suicide, but Suicide comes back strong with a big dropkick. Suicide hits that weird middle turnbuckle smash deal and follows it with a Finlay roll for a two-count. Suicide looks like he’s setting him up for the Wrist-Cutter, but Creed blocks it and hits a beautiful enziguri for a long, LONG two-count. Creed rams Suicide into the buckle and whips Suicide in, but Suicide reverses. Suicide hits the knees to the chest into the double-knee jawbreaker!! There’s the cover and there’s the 1…2…3!!!

Winner: Suicide (pinfall, double-knee jawbreaker) **1/2

(This one was a decent little match, but nothing earth-shattering. These two work well together and I wouldn’t have minded getting to see Suicide defending in a one-on-one against Creed before the change-over back to Kazarian, but I’m guessing that’s not going to happen. Solid opener to start the show though.)

We head to the executive offices and Matt Morgan is in Mick Foley’s office, asking to be booked into a match with anyone on the TNA roster. He says that he wants to have the opportunity to prove himself to the Main Event Mafia and Foley says that the best way for him to be recognized is to take out one of the Mafia’s security team, either Rocco or Sal. Foley calls himself a problem solver and Borash asks why Foley would want to have someone like Morgan end up with the Mafia. Foley says he might tweak the match a little bit and then does the bit where he tells JB he has an important call before picking up the phone and asking to be connected to someone…anyone.

Random Impact Observation #2: I’ll say this about Foley’s new crazy character. It doesn’t really fit into the whole main event scene in TNA, but it’s definitely entertaining.

We head into the backstage area with Lauren and she’s got The Beautiful People with her. Velvet Sky seems freaked out about her stretcher match with Awesome Kong tonight and asks if Love remembers what happened to Madison Rayne last week. Sky says she’s a little bit scared and Love says that she has nothing to be afraid of because she beat Kong to become the TNA Knockouts Champion. Love tells her she just has to stay out of Kong’s way and Sky asks just where in the hell she’s supposed to go. Love tries to console her, but also looks like she’s knowing Sky is dead.

We head from there to a sit-down interview with Mike Tenay and the Main Event Mafia. He asks Kurt Angle about his vision for the Mafia and if they’ve realized it. Angle says that they’re a family and that sometimes egos flare and guys get in fights, but that’s what family is and they love and respect each other. Angle says that when all of the guys involved are after the same prize, the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, those problems can come up. Tenay asks what’s left for the Mafia and Angle says that they have yet to hold all of the title in TNA at once and that that is a goal. Tenay asks about the Sting/Angle drama that is seemingly resolved and how it’s been replaced by drama between Nash and Booker’s wimmins. Angle gets ready to answer, but Sting cuts him off, saying that he has to speak up. He tells Tenay that there’s a bunch of strong-willed individuals in this group and that they realize that they work out their differences because they want to reach their goals. Nash talks about how Sharmell and Jenna worked as a team during last week’s main event and how it speaks for itself. Sharmell doesn’t exactly look like she agrees with him, but doesn’t say anything. Tenay asks Angle about putting up his leadership role to get into the match at Sacrifice and Angle says that it shows how much the title means to him and that he has to go out to avenge Sting. He asys that if he can show Sting how much he loves him by beating Mick Foley’s ass and winning the championship, that’s going to be their vengeance. Mike moves on to Scott Steiner, asking about his relationship with Jeff Jarrett. Steiner says that relationship is history and that what Jarrett did to him is personal. He says that the Mafia thing is not going to be over until they run TNA.

Lauren’s backstage with Taylor Wilde, asking about if she’s ever seen Awesome Kong in this frame of mind before. Lauren says that she doesn’t think she ever has, and they start babbling about the fact that Taylor has a secret admirer and how she’s going to go out on a date with him next Tuesday. She asks Lauren to come with her and they flap their gums about what she’s going to wear before we head to commercial.

Random Impact Observation #3: That was a completely useless minute of programming and it would have been much better if they would have ended the segment with Steiner saying that they’re going to run TNA. It would have made it a lot more powerful than just having those two blonde twits yammering away.

We come back to get Jeff Jarrett’s reaction to tonight’s ten-man main event. JB asks Jarrett about Mick Foley and how he’s lost his mind. Jarrett says he’s not going to fall into the trap and he’s going to deal with Mick on his own watch, not on JB’s or anyone else’s. Jarrett tells him to get out and JB asks about Foley booking matches with security guards instead of talent and Jarrett tells him to get out again. JB asks what happened to Jarrett’s office and he practically throws him out of the dressing room.

Match Two: Handicap Match
Main Event Mafia Security vs. Matt Morgan

Morgan has a weird new robe with DNA strings on it and he makes an entrance that looks like it’s a take-off on Chris Masters’ old entrance with the pyro and the robe removal. The bell rings and Morgan locks up with Sal, throwing him across the ring before flexing his pecs. Sal takes over with a side headlock, but Morgan shoots him off and drops him with a HUGE shoulderblock. He throws Sal into the corner with a headbut and there’s the tag to big Rocco. They hit the lock-up and Morgan pushes Rocco back into the corner for a reverse elbow and another to follow before he beal throws Rocco across the ring by his shirt. Rocco with a whip into the corner, but Morgan floats over it and goozles Rocco for a big time chokeslam!! Morgan sets Rocco up for something, but Sal breaks it up and takes Morgan down with some forearm shots. Sal puts Morgan into the ropes and hits a reverse elbow before taking Morgan down with a single-leg. Tag to Rocco and Sal tries to hold him in place for a top-rope splash, but Morgan kicks him off and sends Rocco down with a MASSIVE TOP-ROPE SLAM!! Clotheslines put down both MEM Security members and Morgan sends them both into the corner before sending Rocco to the outside with a HORRIBLE-looking dropkick. Sal gets whipped in and CARBON FOOTPRINT!! 1…2….3…8….12…100…It’s all over!!!

Winner: Matt Morgan (pinfall, Carbon Footprint on Sal) *1/2

(Morgan looks like he’s back to 100% after the shoulder problems and this was a good chance for him to showcase his power moves. Solid match from Morgan, even if it amounted to little more than a glorified squash match.)

JB is back in Mick Foley’s office and apparently Mick asked for him. Foley talks about seeing his reflection in the TNA belt before saying he’s going to tweak tonight’s main event. JB says he’ll even put up a tweet on Twitter about his tweak and Foley tells him to shut up. Foley talks about how Jeff Jarrett’s guitar has caused more problems than anything lately and that Jarrett’s guitar is banned from ringside. He tells JB that he has to go tell Jeff Jarrett personally and that he’s to be left alone from now on because he’s going to turn off the monitor and get ready for tonight’s main event.

After the break, Lauren has Eric Young and Jethro Holiday with her, asking them about tonight’s match with Beer Money Inc. Young says that he did what he’s done every single time. He took scraps and made them into something great out of it. Lauren asks if he’s taking things too personally, but Young shuts her down saying that they made it personal. He talks about having PPV wins over Roode and Storm and how he knows their weaknesses better than anyone. He plans on exploiting those weaknesses tonight and when Lauren asks Jethro for his comments, he blows a snot bubble on her. Bahhhahahahahahahahahaaaa!! Serves her right for being a part of that nonsense with Taylor earlier. Team 3D’s music hits and they make their way to the ring with all of their belts and with the trophies and novelty check for $100,000 set up near the announce table. Brother Ray starts a “3D” chant and before that gets too far out of hand…..

Match Three: Team 3D Tag Team Invitational Semifinal Match
Beer Money Inc. vs. Eric Young and Jethro Holiday

Beer Money’s entrance cuts off Team 3D’s pandering to the crowd, thankfully. Brother Ray talks about Lockdown and how Beer Money made Team 3D better that night before calling them the tag team of the future. Roode and Young start things out…TEAM CANADA EXPLODES!! They work some go-behinds and reversals, with Young getting a schoolboy for a two-count. Young follows with a crucifix for another quick two-count. During the action, Brother Ray goes off on a bit of a rant, calling him and Brother Devon the “Last of the Mohicans” and that tag team wrestling might wither and die once they retire and that they put on this tournament to throw the rest of these lesser teams a bone. Ok, that’s not an EXACT quote, but it’s pretty much what he implied. Right hand from Young and he whips Roode into the ropes. Roode reverses, but Young gets a sunset flip for a two-count. Tyoung drops Roode with another punch, but Storm hits him with an enziguri from the outside right into a spinebuster from Roode that gets two. Storm stomps away at Young in the corner and whips him in for a reverse elbow before hitting his jawbreaker/uranage combo for a pin attempt that gets two. Double-suplex from Storm and Roode…….BEEEEEEEEEEEEER!!!! MOOOOOOOOOOONEEYYYY!!! Roode stomps at Young on the mat and drops a heavy elbow for a two-count. Reverse chinlock from Roode now and Young tries to get the crowd on his side before powering out. Roode takes him down with a forearm to the back and whips him across intot he opposite corner, where Young does a Flair Flip. Young powers back in with a shoulderblock to the gut before slipping under Roode and dropping him with a belly-to-belly suplex!! Holiday reach for the tag….tag to Storm…HOT TAG TO HOLIDAY!! Right hand on Roode, right hand on Storm, reverse atomic drop on Storm!! Holiday ducks a Roode clothesline and he takes down Storm!! Regular atomic drop into a back bodydrop on Roode by Holiday and he drops Storm with a bulldog for a two-count. Roode breaks it up and Beer Money hits a clothesline into a backcracker double-team!! There’s the cover!!! 1….2…Holiday JUST kicks out!! Double-Irish whip by Beer Money leads to a blind tag to Young. Young takes down Beer Money with a double-springboard dropkick before slamming Storm in the middle of the ring. Young hits a MASSIVE TOP-ROPE GUILLOTINE LEGDROP!! He tries to make the cover, but the referee is tied up with Holiday and Roode in the other corner. Young tries to get Holiday out of the ring and nearly gets decked for his trouble. Young turns right around into the LAST CALL!! Beer Money sets Young up for the DWI!!! The get the pin and they get the three-count!!

Winners: Beer Money Inc. (pinfall, DWI on Young) ***

(That was a hot tag match and action from beginning to end. You had to figure that Beer Money would win, but Holiday and Young managed to have me believing that they might be able to pull it off, especially after that crazy top rope legdrop from Young. Great job by all four guys and it shows what professionals Young and Holiday are to work so well together as a team (outside of the miscommunication in the finish of this one) after being thrown together on short notice like they were.)

In the back, Lauren has Awesome Kong and Raisha Saeed. Saeed calls this phase two of Kong’s path of revenge and that the only one left will be Love for the “ultimate sacrifice”. Kong grabs the microphone and says “dumb blonde…..dead blonde”. That’s what I like about Kong. Short and sweet.

Match Four: TNA Knockouts Stretcher Match
Velvet Sky w/Angelina Love vs. Awesome Kong w/Raisha Saeed

Random Impact Observation #4: I’m glad that they didn’t use the usual camera angle on Sky’s entrance into the ring. It would definitely not look as hot since she’s probably already shit herself.

Kong chases the two blondes out of the ring immediately on her entrance with Love continuing to try to give Sky advice on the outside. Referee Earl Hebner sends Raisha Saeed and Angelina Love to the back, the same way that it happened last week. Kong tries a clothesline to start the match, but Sky ducks it and hits some forearms to the chest. Kong shrugs her off and backs her down, forcing Sky to try to run away. Short-arm clothesline by Kong and she sets up for an Awesome Bomb, but Sky crawls away. Sky off the ropes, but Kong drops her with a clothesline and picks her up for the IMPLANT BUSTER!!! The scream from Sky as she was up in the air was a nice touch. Implant Buster NUMBAH TWOOAHHH!!! Crowd screams for another one and Kong picks her up and HITS A THIRD IMPLANT BUSTERROOO!! She rolls Sky onto the stretcher, but stops the referee’s count at three. FOURTH IMPLANT BUSTER!! FIFTH IMPLANT BUSTERRRROOOOAHHH!!!! Kong throws her onto the stretcher and the referee gets up to seven before Kong pulls her off and KILLS HER WITH AN AWESOME BOMB!! Mother of God, this must be what a women’s prison looks like!! Earl Hebner counts to ten and yells for the bell faster than he ever could have in Montreal and the TNA security take away the pancake that was formerly known as Velvet Sky.

Winner: Awesome Kong *1/4

(Wow. That was even more impressive than last week’s beating, and that’s saying something. Sky is an absolute champ for taking that many implant busters in a row. Fun for what it was, but you knew what was going to happen before the bell even rang.)

Random Commercial Observation #2: Man, how fitting was that commercial for the Lord’s Prayer cross after we just saw a beating that would rival the Romans. I know that it’s not the case, but it’s funny to think that someone working for Spike could have set things up like that to have it run right after that mugging. Sky certainly could have used one or ten or forty of those before her match.

After the commercial break, we head back to Dr. Stevie’s office and Abyss is with him. Abyss says he spends nights up wondering if “the guy” is an imbecile or a complete genius. He asks Dr. Stevie what he thinks of Michael Scott and Dr. Stevie tells him to stop talking about The Office because he has a surprise for him. He brings in Daffney and Dr. Stevie says that she’s going to help him to get well. He says that he wants Abyss to transfer his aggression onto Daffney and Dr. Stevie says that he’s had a very interesting conversation with TNA management and that Daffney will be in a first-ever, TNA Knockouts Monster’s Ball match at Sacrifice and that he needs to transfer his aggression to Daffney for that match. He asks if Abyss will be in Daffney’s corner for that match as well, and when Abyss doesn’t answer in time, Dr. Stevie takes off his belt and wraps it around his fist. From there, Abyss says he’s going to be in her corner, calming Dr. Stevie down for the time being.

Back into the Impact Zone, Consequences Creed and Jay Lethal are out and Creed has a microphone to call out Daniels because they have something to say to him. Daniels is out now, with a confused look on his face. Creed says that they don’t know each other that well. but that he respects him for it. Lethal says that they have a question for him and Creed cuts him off, saying that Daniels is a revolutionary in the business and one of the reasons that guys like Creed can do what he does in the X-Division. They ask what’s been going on with him the past couple of months and Lethal comes right out and calls Daniels “Suicide”. Creed says that they can’t stand the Guns just as much as Daniels can’t, but they think that they’re onto something. Lethal calls him “Kabuki” and a “Shape-shifter”. Creed says that everyone knows that Daniels is Suicide and they just want to hear him say it. Daniels asks if that’s what they called him out for and then says that if he had concentrated on how to beat Suicide instead of who’s under the mask, he might not have gotten beat tonight. Daniels warns them not to call him out again and Lethal gets the microphone, calling him “Kim Chee” and then talking about how Savio Vega used to be Kwang. Lethal says again that Daniels is Suicide and Daniels says that there’s no time for jokes and that as far as TNA goes, Lethal is the biggest joke there is. Lethal drops the sunglasses and the Macho act, saying that Daniels is a jerk before laying a slap in on him. Creed tries to break up the trouble and the Motor City Machine Guns’ music hits. Alex Shelley says it’s a family show and they need to keep things family-friendly. He says that the morons in the crowd and the families at home play video games and that much like life, they’re not very good at them, but that every time they’ve gone toe-to-toe with the Machine Guns it’s been face-to-face. He calls out Daniels, saying that he’s attacked them from behind dressed up as a video game character and that he stole the X-Division title from him. Shelley even adds that the title is a lot less sexy now. Shelley says that what they do to video games is beat them and he says that it’s game over for Daniels because next week they’re going to unmask Suicide and expose Daniels for who he is and that they’re going to give the people what they really want…tickets to the Guns’ Show.

JB is in the back again in Jeff Jarrett’s locker room and JB says he’s got the thing with Foley figured out before pulling out some notes. Jarrett calls it stirring the pot as JB runs down the list of things that crazy Foley’s done in the past few weeks. Jarrett asks what he wants him to say or do. Should he say that Foley’s lost his mind or that he’s a freaking idiot? Sting comes in and says that he’s going to tell Jarrett what he should do. He talks about not complaining after not being given a rematch after losing to Foley at Lockdown and talks about the upcoming four-way at Sacrifice. Sting says that if he can pin Foley tonight, he wants into the four-way at Sacrifice because he wants hims a piece of Mick Foley’s ass. Jarrett agrees and says that if Sting makes it into the match at Sacrifice, he has to remember that he’s going to have to sacrifice something to earn his way into the main event at Sacrifice. Sting says he’ll make the ultimate sacrifice to the sacrificial gods of sacrificing if he can main event the Sacrifice pay-per-view in the Fatal Four-Way Sacrifice match at Sacrifice. God, that word was starting to lose it’s meaning they were saying it so much.

Lauren is in the backstage area with Angelina Love and Angelina is FREAKING out. She gets a phone call and she’s talking to someone, saying that they need to come to Impact next week because she needs someone to protect her from Awesome Kong now that Rayne and Sky have been “killed” by the “beast”. Tenay and West are at the desk and West hits the usual hard shill for the house show circuit before we get a video package featuring the beginnings of the Main Event Mafia and the path of destruction they’ve left in their wake. I liked these in the beginning, but they’re starting to get on my nerves when they get shown twice a week every week. I get that it’s helping to set up tonight’s ten-man tag match, but it’s still a little annoying.

Match Five: Ten-Man Tag Team Match
Booker T, Scott Steiner, Kurt Angle, Kevin Nash and Sting w/Sharmell and Jenna Morasca vs. Jeff Jarrett, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Mick Foley and Daniels

Samoa Joe makes his way out first for the TNA team, ensuring that he’s actually going to show up for the match this time, which is a bonus. Daniels comes down the ramp next, asking the camera “Who built this house?” You did, sir. You did. Jarrett enters without his guitar, but Mick Foley shows up to the ring with a barbed wire bat!! We’re heading into the ring for the main event after the commercial break!!

We come back from commerical and the action is already underway with Scott Steiner kicking down Samoa Joe in the corner before nearly chopping his titty off. Joe ducks under a clothesline and hits a beautiful overhead suplex into some quick jabs. Irish whip and Joe drops him with a reverse elbow before tagging in Daniels. Slam from Joe and Daniels heads up top for a flying bodypress that gets a two-count. Daniels is on Steiner and whips him into the ropes, but telegraphs a back-bodydrop and takes a shot to the back before getting chopped down. Tag to Angle and he works over Daniels’ arm with a standing armbar, but Daniels tries to roll out of it. Angle takes him down with it and tries for a pin, but Daniels reverses into a roll-up for a two-count. Daniels with a trip takedown on Angle and he covers for a two-count before eating a HUGE European uppercut. Another from Angle and he whips Daniels into the ropes, but Daniels reverses and drops Angle with a heel kick. Tag to Styles and he comes off the second rope, driving Angle’s chest into Daniels’ knees as Daniels lays on the mat. He follows that with a turnbuckle smash, but Angle rakes the eyes to break the momentum. Tag to Booker and they work over Styles before Booker lands some knees to the face from the clinch. Styles ducks under a kick and stuns Booker with a right hand before dropping him with a scoop slam. Styles with a kneedrop to the head and he covers Booker for a two-count. Reverse chinlock by Styles, but Booker gets to his feet and hits Styles in the gut to break it. He sends Styles into the ropes and Kevin Nash hits a forearm to the back of the head, sending Styles into a spinning heel kick from Booker that gets a two-count and we head to a commercial as Booker tags in Nash.

After the commercial, Nash is still working over AJ, tagging in Sting, who whips Styles in for a clothesline that misses. Styles hits a big dropkick, but Sting keeps on him, raking the face before tagging in Angle. Angle with a kick to the gut and he stands over Styles, picking him up and eating a pair of punches to the gut before sending Styles to the mat with a kneelift that gets a two-count. Don West is great when Mike Tenay talks about him questioning Jeff Jarrett’s torn hamstring….”How can you question it now. He’s got tape on it. I mean, my God, that’s gotta make it official. You can’t question the tape!!”. Fantastic. Tag to Booker and he drops Styles with a kick before we get a TNAEROOOONIE!! Tag to Steiner and he takes Styles down with some punches before ramming Styles into the top turnbuckle. Belly-to-belly from Steiner gets a two-count on Styles with a save from Joe. Tag to Angle again and he stomps on Styles while laying the shit-talk on him. Angle sets him up for the Angle Slam, but Styles floats over, ducking under a clothesline into the Pele!! Both men are down!! Angle makes the tag to Sting….Styles HOT TAG TO FOLEY!! Right hands from Foley on Sting followed by a kick to the gut into a neckbreaker. Angle sneaks in from behind and folds Foley in half with a German suplex!! Jarrett’s in and hits the Tennessee Pedigree on Angle. Nash makes the save and tries to hit the Jacknife on Jarrett, but Joe drops him with a dropkick. Nash rolls to the outside and Joe follows with a suicide dive through the ropes!! Styles and Daniels hit a double-slingshot splash from the inside to the floor on Booker and Steiner!! Angle grabs the barbed wire bat and Jarrett saves himself with a low blow on Angle. Jarrett has the bat, but Foley grabs it away from him, yelling that it’s his bat. Jarrettshoves Foley and Foley tries to take down Jarrett with the bat!! Jarrett ducks under it and hits a low blow on Foley!! STROKE ONTO THE BARBED WIRE BAT!! STING SNEAKS IN!! 1….2….3!!! Sting’s going to Sacrifice!!

Winners: Booker T, Scott Steiner, Kurt Angle, Kevin Nash and Sting (pinfall, Sting on Foley) **3/4

(I liked the match and I would have gone a little higher on the rating, but it was essentially a lot of a minute for this guy, a minute for that guy and all of the quick tags kind of hurt the flow of the match a little bit, at least for me. A bit longer heat sequence on Styles would have been good too, giving him time to really build up the crowd before the finish. Solid effort from all of the guys though and they did a good job of protecting the walking wounded like Jarrett and Nash.)

After the match, Samoa Joe gets in Jeff Jarrett’s grill about the finish and his Stroke on Foley. Jarrett tries to explain that he was going to get leveled with the bat, but Styles, Daniels and Joe don’t look very happy.

We come back from the final commercials to see the finish of the match from a few moments ago before heading into the the ring to hear from Sting. He says he has some good news and some bad news for Mick Foley, saying that the good news is that the deal with Jeff Jarrett means that he’s going to be in the main event four-way at Sacrifice. He talks about how he has to make a sacrifice to get into that match and says that the bad news is that if anyone pins him at Sacrifice, that’s it. If anyone pins him, it’ll be the last time that you ever see Sting wrestle. He lays down the microphone and the ring goes black with a spotlight on the microphone and on the barbed wire baseball bat. Tenay and West freak out over the possibility of Sting retiring and we fade to black!! That’s it from the Impact Zone and we’re out from Orlando!!