"iMPACT!": O's and NO's

TNA has been on a downslide all this month. They had a very successful Turning Point pay-per-view and had one of their best "iMPACT!" programs ever the Thursday afterwards.

After that, however, things turned ugly for them, and they continue to get worse. Last night, they showed some signs of stopping the bleeding, but it was still not a very good show.

With that in mind, here are Tha O's and NO's from Wednesday night's "iMPACT!":

Tha O's:

Christopher Daniels in the main event. I mentioned a long time ago that this guy should be integrated into the title picture sometime this year. He's got skills on the stick, he's got good skills in the ring. If used correctly, he could be TNA's version of Shawn Michaels circa 1996. I don't know how many of you have seen him live, but I have seen him live three times, and he is electric in the ring. I think the short promo he had tonight was a segue for him to jump into the
title picture.

The Eric Young/James Storm segment. If not for the actual skit itself, then for what it's implying. A Young/Storm feud would be big time money, and could help elevate both guys to main event status. They're gonna get there eventually, and they're gonna be there for a long time to come when they do.

Konnan's promo. LAX needs to get put over as much as possible right now, because if Konnan does end up out of the picture, no one is really sure how well Homicide or Hernandez can handle the mic.

Mitchell's promo. It's good to see that for the moment, TNA is not gonna take away the brain behind Abyss' brawn. It's nearly impossible for a non-speakeing character to get over without a manager, so yanking Mitchell right now would be a very bad idea.

Tha NO's:

The Abyss/Sting storyline took another craptacular turn tonight. The way the crowd reacted showed that nobody was compelled at all by this. Which is probably because nothing about this promo makes sense. Sting, regarded as one of the best wrestlers of his time, comes to the ring and essentially says "Hey, I'm gonna do the one thing that will really piss you off, and then I'm gonna let you use me as a punching bag".

Then, after Abyss "beats up" Sting all throughout the "iMPACT!" Zone, Mitchell shows up and lights a tacky looking fireball, which made absolutely no sense. And then, the best part of all of it - the cutaway to West and Tenay, who are clearly reading from scripts! This is the all-time lowlight of TNA, bar none.

The Samoa Joe/Kurt Angle/Christian Cage storyline. Cage and Angle have proven countless times in the past that they are more than capable of putting on a great storyline without anyone else being thrown into the mix. TNA needs to let them do that instead of throwing Joe in, whose promos every week basically tell the fans "Hey, Angle wins at Against All Odds". I don't honestly care who the consultant is, either.

VKM...for now. The sketches are horribly tasteless, but it would seem that they are using them as the launching pads for a women's division in TNA. TNA is starting to get more and more women in their company, and there are still more available (Amy Dumas, Ivory, Jazz and Molly Holly just to name three), so a women's division might be a good thing in the future.

Not right now, but a build-up like this one seems to me like a good way to get a full head of steam for it. Maybe they could even have Kip James job to a few women wrestlers too. Getting back to my original point - I like where it would appear to be going, but I don't like where it's at right now.

The Four-Way X Division Match. This is the sort of thing that tag team matches are typically used for. Or, even better, just not have Sabin job to Lynn; that works just as well.

TNA has still got big problems. Looking at past shows, tonight's offering almost looked good by comparison. I've begun to watch archive videos of older episodes of "iMPACT!" just so that I can be entertained by TNA again.

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