4/7/11 TNA Impact Recap (The Rise of the Fallen Angel)

A recap of last week’s steel cage match and the return of Christopher Daniels kicks off Impact. Fortune’s music then hits as they make their way to the ring along with Daniels, who is greeted with a “welcome back” chant. Daniels talks about his rocky past with TNA but has made a lot of friends, one in particular being AJ Styles.

Daniels talks about how he and Styles promised to have each others backs and realized it was time to come back to TNA after seeing what Bully Ray did to him. Daniels then begs Fortune to join them as the fourth member of Lethal Lockdown, but he is soon cut off by Immortal’s music as they head towards the ring.

Ric Flair says he doesn’t even know who Daniels is and gives him an opportunity to leave TNA forever. Daniels tells Flair to stick his offer up his ass and tells him that the network wants him here. Hulk Hogan’s music hits as he comes out with Eric Bischoff and Hogan says he makes the decisions and if the network wants him on TV and they will give him a contract. Hogan then books Daniels in a match against Bully Ray.

Ray then gets in Daniels’ face and reminds him that he took out AJ Styles and tells him that he will be laying in the hospital next to him. Daniels then takes a swing at Ray and both sides begin to go at it as Hogan calls for security to come and break it up.

Mr. Anderson is seen backstage where he finds a letter in his dressing room. Anderson opens it up and it is a note from Sting saying that last week was the trailer – this week it is showtime. Anderson tosses the note aside and says he wishes Sting would have sent him flowers as we head into a commercial break.

Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff are in the office where Hogan says he is sick of the network trumping them and wants to know how they are always one step ahead of them. Hogan says he smells a rat and tells Bischoff to find out who is behind it all.

Match 1: Mexican America vs. Tommy Dreamer & Devon
The two sides go at it in the ring until Hernandez is sent out to the floor. Devon and Dreamer then begin to work over Anarquia with quick tags and double team moves. The match then breaks down as Hernandez comes back into the ring. Devon sets up for an inverted DDT on Hernandez but is distracted by Rosita. Devon goes over and plants a kiss on her lips as Anarquia hits Devon with a chair and Hernandez covers for the pin fall.

After the match, Sarita and Rosita remove the floor mats and Hernandez is about to Border Toss Dreamer out to the floor but Matt Morgan runs out and stops him. Hernandez then bails from the ring as Morgan chokeslams Anarquia down to the canvas. Hernandez scrapes his partner off the mat and shares some words with Morgan as he walks up the ramp.

Winter is backstage with Angelina Love and is yelling at her for agreeing to being Velvet Sky’s partner tonight. Winter says she doesn’t care about her and tells Angelina that she will always be there for her. Winter then has Angelina finish her drink as Angelina looks on in a trance-like state.

Match 2: Samoa Joe vs. Murphy
The Pope comes out and joins the announce table for this match and Murphy attacks Joe from behind to get this match started. Joe quickly takes Murphy down and locks him in the rear naked choke to pick up the submission victory. After the match, Joe runs out of the ring and chases Pope to the back.

We see Mr. Anderson head towards the catering area where there is another letter for him. This time it says that Sting wants to finish what they started last week. Mr. Anderson then tells Sting to come out from wherever he is hiding and that he doesn’t like love notes as we head into a commercial break.

Match 3: Sarita & Rosita vs. the Beautiful People (TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship)
Angelina comes out in her trance and stands in the corner as Sarita attacks Velvet from behind. Velvet is able to mount a comeback and holds her own against both Sarita and Rosita. Velvet then holds out her hand to tag but Angelina just stands on the ring apron. Winter then comes out and motions to Angelina as she takes Velvet out with a neckbreaker and begins to attack her partner. Angelina then leaves the ring as Rosita picks up the pin fall to retain the Knockouts Tag Team Championship.

Mr. Anderson is seen walking backstage with a lead pipe and is looking for Sting. He runs into Eric Young and Orlando Jordan who tells him that he is in the rafters. OJ then tells Anderson that he is in to his whole asshole thing as Anderson leaves the locker room. The announce team then hype Jeff Jarrett and a Lockdown promise he has for Kurt Angle as we head into a commercial break.

We return to see Mr. Anderson in the rafters with a lead pipe in his hands. We then see a man walking behind Anderson wearing a black trench coat and it is revealed to be RVD. RVD attacks Anderson from behind and tells him that it is 4:20 and he is about to be smoked. RVD hits Anderson with a series of kicks before locking him in a head scissors and then uses Anderson’s pipe to choke him out. RVD then leaves Anderson in the rafters as we head into another commercial break.

A video package highlighting what has gone down as of late between Mr. Anderson and Rob Van Dam. Anderson talks about not getting a rematch, while RVD says he was never beaten for the title. They both talk about Sting jumping and winning the TNA World Championship and how they both plan on taking it from him. We then see footage of what just went happened in the rafters with RVD beating down Anderson.

Sting’s music hits as the TNA World Champion makes his way to the ring. Sting says he needs to have some company in the ring and calls out Rob Van Dam. RVD comes out and Sting tells him that he came back to TNA for one reason and that was to stop Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff. However, he has been distracted as of late with Mr. Anderson and RVD. Sting says he knows he hasn’t seen eye to eye with RVD in the past and publicly apologizes for what he did in the past, and wants RVD to apologize for using Sting as a pawn in his little game with Anderson.

RVD tells Sting that he respects him and knows not to take him lightly, but something has changed. RVD talks about being in the undercard back in the day when Sting was main eventing shows. RVD says now he is the whole f’n show and Sting will find out what he’s all about at Lockdown. Immortal’s music hits as Hogan and Bischoff come out of the entrance ramp. Hogan praises RVD’s attitude and asks why they should wait until Lockdown and books the two in a match for tonight.

Madison Rayne and Tara are arguing in the back and Madison reminds her that she is in TNA because she allowed her to come back. Madison then tells Tara that she has a job to do and tells her to get on her motorcycle but Tara says she isn’t comfortable doing what Madison wants her to do as they leave on the bike.

Mr. Anderson is walking the hallways and is knocking photos of Sting and RVD off the walls. Anderson then comes up to a photo of Hulk Hogan and gives it a long look.

Match 4: Generation Me & Robbie E. vs. Brian Kendrick/Chris Sabin/Suicide
The match starts as the announce team hype a 9-man X Division Xscape Match at Lockdown. Sabin works over Robbie in the opening moments until he turns it over to Suicide. Max Buck distracts Suicide and Robbie is able to take control of the match. Max is tagged in and continues to work over Suicide as Max and Jeremy show some signs of tension as Max tries to steal the spotlight from his brother.

Suicide is able to take Max down and tags Kendrick into the match. Kendrick connects with a flurry of offense as the match breaks down. Jeremy Buck tags himself into the match and heads to the top rope but his own brother knocks him down and lays him out with a DDT from the top turnbuckle. Kendrick then covers Jeremy for the pin fall as Max looks on and smiles. Max then gets in his brother’s face before removing his Generation Me armband and throws it in his face.

Hulk Hogan is in his office and yelling at Rob Terry and Murphy for dropping the ball and embarassing Immortal as of late. Hogan then tells Gunner to slap the two of them and he does as Terry and Murphy gets in his face. Hogan tells Gunner to remove them from the office as Mr. Anderson walks in. Anderson says he is tired of getting beat up every week and wants to be the referee between Sting and RVD tonight. Hogan agrees to it and shakes Anderson’s hand and tells him to bring the pipe with him.

We head out to the parking lot where it appears that Tara has just run down Mickie James with a motorcycle. Madison Rayne runs off and Tara leaves on her bike as the docu-cam camera man puts down the camera to check on Mickie and we head into a commercial break.

After the break we see a recap of what just happened to Mickie James. We then see agents around her telling Mickie not to move as someone is on the phone and is calling an ambulance.

Match 5: Bully Ray vs. Christopher Daniels (Lumberjack Match)
Matt Hardy, Abyss, Ric Flair, Beer Money and Kazarian are the lumberjacks for this match. The bell sounds as Ray powers Daniels around and taunts Fortune. Daniels is then sent out to the flor where Immortal gets in a few licks before they are chased off by Fortune. Daniels is rolled back into the ring where Ray continues dishing out some punishment. Ray then grabs his chain but the referee takies it away as Daniels begins to mount a comeback.

Daniels takes Ray down with a hurricanrana and connects with the BME but Flair pulls Daniels out to the floor. The referee goes out to the floor and gets in the middle of the lumberjacks as Hulk Hogan sneaks down to the ring, wraps the chain around his fist, and nails Daniels in the head. Ray then covers Daniels for the pin fall. Immortal then celebrates the victory as Fortune tends to Daniels, who is laid out in the ring.

The announce team then say that Jeff Jarrett has demanded that the steel cage be put around the ring as he is coming out next.

Jeff Jarrett’s music hits as he makes his way towards the ring and is telling the crew to hurry up with the steel cage. Jarrett grabs a microphone as we are treated to footage of what happened to Kurt Angle last week and him getting arrested. Jarrett says jail is exactly where Angle belongs and wonders if he violated his restraining order so he wouldn’t have to face Jarrett in a steel cage. Jarrett says it is probably a good thing because Jarrett would have beaten Angle within an inch of his life and ended up in jail himself.

Jarrett then says it is time for his princess to grace everyone with her presence and orders for her music to be played, but Angle’s music hits instead. Angle then repels from the rafters and into the cage. Karen Jarrett comes down to the ring as Jeff shoves the camera man into Angle and quickly scales the cage to get away from Angle. Jeff and Karen Jarrett run up the ramp as Angle stares them down.

After a commercial break, Kurt Angle tells the docu-cam that he didn’t go to jail and the police knew that he was set up. Angle then sends a message to Jarrett that the network have added a stipulation to the match at Lockdown, but doesn’t reveal what it is.

Match 6: Rob Van Dam vs. Sting w/ Mr. Anderson as the special referee
The match starts and RVD connects with a few kicks before hitting the Rolling Thunder for a near fall. RVD begins hitting Sting with some shoulder blocks in the corner but Sting is able to finally move out of the way and RVD hits the ring post. Sting takes control and connects with the Scorpion Death Drop and Anderson gets involved by hitting Sting with the Mic Check. RVD is able to recover and hits Sting with the Five Star Frog Splash and picks up the pin fall victory.

After the match, Anderson and RVD share a few words in the ring. Anderson then asks for the TNA World Championship and knocks RVD out with it. Anderson then gets in RVD’s face and says the title is his as Rob Terry and Murphy come down the ramp and are clapping their hands. The two then put Anderson on their shoulders as Immortal’s music hits. Hulk Hogan then comes out clapping his hands as the announce team wonders how anyone will be able to stop Immortal.

Once Terry and Murphy put Anderson down, he grabs the lead pipe and nails them both with it. Anderson then points at Hogan and says his ass is next as Hogan turns around and calls Anderson a son of a bitch. Hogan says he will get back at Anderson next week as Impact comes to a close.

Quick Results
– Mexican America defeated Tommy Dreamer and Devon by pin fall.
– Samoa Joe defeated Murphy by submission.
– Sarita & Rosita defeated the Beautiful People by pin fall to retain the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship.
– Brian Kendrick/Chris Sabin/Suicide defeated Generation Me & Robbie E. by pin fall.
– Bully Ray defeated Christopher Daniels by pin fall in a lumberjack match.
– Rob Van Dam defeated Sting by pin fall.

Starman’s Thoughts
I was surprised to see how tonight’s Impact came to a close. With the way Anderson’s persona is, it was hard to believe that he would tuck his tail between his legs and join Immortal so easily. However, that doesn’t mean TNA shouldn’t have let it play out for a while longer to at least give the small amount of doubt that Mr. Anderson had sold himself out to Hulk Hogan. Even having Anderson reveal that he is all out for himself next week would have been more effective. This was a wasted opportunity in my mind.

I really missed the backstage promos this week. I thought last week was done well and helped further the current feuds, but this week the backstage segments were the usual TNA fare with the cameras following wrestlers around on spying on happenings from a distance or through a doorway. I thought that both Daniels and RVD had some good mic work tonight, RVD especially seems to be getting more and more comfortable, but I don’t think it really had the same effect as they did last week.

Speaking of Daniels – was he pulling double duty this week? Suicide made an appearance once again in the six-man tag match, and I’m pretty sure that it was Daniels.

Why did Devon kiss Rosita during the opening match? I wouldn’t mind it so much, but that doesn’t seem to me like something Devon would do during the match. It gave them an opening to give Mexican America (which is a horrible name by the way) the cheap victory, but it seemed so out of place. Having Rosita land a low blow on Devon would have been a more logical route to go during this match.

The “motorcycle accident” was horribly done. The only aspect that I enjoyed was the fact that Madison Rayne held the fact that she brought Tara back into TNA over her head to get Tara to do her dirty work.

It was good to see that there was a fire extinguisher sitting up in the rafters. They might need one up there just in case another fire is sparked off by the pyro. You wouldn’t want another Hard Justice situation to happen again.