This Saturday’s Impact on Spike TV will feature:
*AJ Styles vs. Shannon Moore – Street Fight
*Chris Sabin & Sonjay Dutt vs. The Diamonds in The Rough
*The James Gang vs. Kenny King & Buck Quartermaine
*Shark Boy & Ron Killings & Lance Hoyt vs. Team Canada
*Also scheduled to appear are Christian Cage, Abyss, Monty Brown, Jeff Jarrett, Christopher Daniels, and Larry Zbyszko.
TNA has officially signed Jay Lethal to a deal.
Raven was not backstage at Impact in order to sell his current storyline.
After his appearance at the PPV last weekend, there are no additional plans to use Sean Waltman right now. It was described to me as the door not being closed on using him, but
TNA understandably wants to be cautious given his past track record.
Former WCW star Norman Smiley was backstage at tonight’s Impact taping in Orlando, Florida. He’s been around in recent weeks but I haven’t heard that the company is bringing him in.
There’s discussion of possibly bringing in former WWE star Matt Morgan. Morgan is a hell of a talker, although the WWE creative team never bothered to let him do anything beyond stutter during his last run on the Smackdown roster. His work on the mic while in Ohio Valley Wrestling as “The Blueprint” was really good. Beyond that, he does have a really unique large look and some untapped potential. He would make an interesting acquisition.
Lex Lovett worked the Impact tapings tonight doing a male cheerleader gimmick. While that may sound similar to WWE’s Team Spirit (and Lovett did work house shows for WWE doing the gimmick while they were testing it), outside the business, Lovett and his wife are professional cheerleading instructors. In college, he was also a cheerleader at the University of South Florida. His wife worked as his valet at the tapings under the ring name Alexa.
Announced thus far for the 2/12 TNA Against All Odds in Orlando, Florida at Universal Studios:
*NWA champion Jeff Jarrett vs. Christian Cage
*Team 3D vs. Winners of online fan poll (America’s Most Wanted or Team Canada)
*TNA X-Division champion Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels
*The James Gang vs. Konnan & Homicide
As noted earlier today on PWInsider.com, Sting will not be wrestling on the PPV. TNA began a storyline at tonight’s taping to explain his absence from the PPV.
The Saturday 1/15 edition of TNA Impact on Spike TV scored a 0.8 rating, down slightly from recent weeks. The show scored a 0.8 among Males 18-49 and a 0.9 in Males 18-34. The average audience of the show was 942,000 viewers. We haven’t heard any numbers for the Monday night replay, since ratings were delayed due to the holiday.