TNA IMPACT! TAPING SPOILERS FROM ORLANDO, FLORIDA
by Mike Johnson @ 7:30:00 PM on 4/26/2005

TNA is currently in the midst of taping their next three episodes of Impact! Richard Trionfo called in the following results from Orlando, Florida at Universal Studios:

TNA Impact! for 4/29:

*Shocker pinned Petey Williams. Mike Tenay interviewed Shocker.

*Mike Tenay and Don West discussed Chris Candido's leg injury at the PPV.

*Sonjay Dutt pinned Buck Quatermaine

*The Outlaw pinned Batts. 3 Live Kru came out and confronted the Outlaw, setting up Konnan vs. Outlaw for the following episode.

*Dusty Rhodes announced a 20 Man "Gauntlet for the Gold" for the 5.15 Hard Justice PPV with the winner getting a NWA championship bout at the June PPV. Dusty also announced that Tito Ortiz would be the special referee for NWA champion Jeff Jarrett vs. AJ Styles at Hard Justice.

*NWA champion Jeff Jarrett came out, angry, and said that the special referee won't make a difference and he would defeat Styles at the PPV.

*The Naturals defeated America's Most Wanted to win the NWA Tag Team championships in what was said to have been a good match. Chris Candido is managing from a wheelchair and interfered to set up the win. They announced a rematch for the Hard Justice PPV.

Notes: TNA is currently in between tapings. There is a report that Tito Ortiz is backstage and will appear later on, but PWInsider.com doesn't have that confirmed. Hacksaw Duggan is at the show and made an appearance before the live crowd riling them up in between the first and second hour. The crowd is said to be really hot and nothing like they were at the PPV on Sunday.

The Gauntlet for the Gold doesn't sound good at all

Shocker/Petey

AMW/Naturals

Not bad. It looks like I may actually have to try and DVR these ones. Especially Shocker/Petey......

Episode 2 - Airing 5/6:

*Abyss defeated Cassidy Riley.

*Christopher Daniels did commentary for...

*Shocker pinned Sonjay Dutt. Daniels teased getting in the ring, then left.

*Raven cut a promo. It's Raven vs. Jeff Hardy at Hard Justice.

*Konnan defeated The Outlaw, DQ when Outlaw hit Konnan with a chair. The rest of 3 Live Kru came out and had a standoff with Outlaw.

*Chris Sabin (with Tracy Brooks) defeated Michael Shane (with Trinity). After the match, Shane superkicked Sabin. He was going to superkick Tracy, but Sabin pulled her out of the way.

Episode 3 - Airing 5/13

*Elix Skipper defeated Eric Young, X-Division champion Christopher Daniels, and Jeff Hardy in a Four-Way non-title elimination match. Raven attacked Hardy, who was eliminated without being defeated. Skipper pinned Young. Skipper pinned Daniels but they then put over that the time limit had expired before Skipper had gotten a 3 count.

*NWA Tag Team champions The Naturals defeated Buck Quartermaine & Lex Lovett

*Abyss won a Gauntlet for the Gold to earn the #20 position in the Hard Justice gauntlet. Bobby Rude will be #1 in the Gauntlet because he was the first eliminated. Trytan returned in the bout. it came down to Abyss vs. Lance Hoyt. The Naturals got involved and caused his elimination. America's Most Wanted saved Hoyt.

Having a gauntlet match to determine who gets the last number in another gauntlet match, and thus giving away the exact gimmick you (ideally) want to use to draw a number on PPV is ridiculously retarded.

On the plus side, Chris Candido air time and AMW/Naturals, which is great because those two teams combined are way better than the sum of their parts and have awesome chemistry. Plus Christopher Daniels and the best rack in the business Traci Brooks.

I find that the exact same things are the highlight of every TNA taping, at least in my opinion. I can't help buy think that is really rotten. I have guys in WWE I am a big mark for, but they aren't the sole highlight every week. Who'd have thought Viscera would be a highlight of Raw this week, but he was. With TNA on the other hand, it's the same things every week, who did Daniels wrestle, who did Candido wrestle, how much tit did Traci show and were there any decent X Division scrambles. They have very poor roster depth in my opinion. WWE is all over them when it comes to that, because JBL might have a great segment one week, MNM the next, Carlito the next, Viscera the next, whatever -- not so much that there is more good stuff in WWE, but the stuff that IS good has way more diversity. Anyone else see this?

Looks like JJ will retain with help from Tito. Boring.

I really hope they do Daniels/Shocker instead of Daniels/Skipper 2.

I agree, Daniels/Shocker would be excellent.

That is the plan, apparently that's what the X Division guys were fighting for in the cage scramble deal.

I agree, to a point. I don't think it's the depth of the roster, but the booking of the roster. The only people that get as much camera time as Jarrett are Young, Lovett and Quartermain. I don't watch half the matches on Impact because it's them vs. someone. And they don't impress me at all.

I think they need to give more interview time to guys. And not in-ring interviews, or segments like the Daniels-Skipper one a few weeks back. Segments where one wrestler sends a message to another. I have no attachment to most of the wrestlers, and it's because they don't have a character that I can discern. I'm just supposed to know who they are and what they're about.