IMPACT 5/20/10

TNA opens with Eric Bischoff coming out to the ring. He is out to name the top 10 contenders to the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. He names the 3 criteria. First, the fan voting, second, career win-loss record and previous championship record and the third is the TNA win-loss record and championship record. Bischoff announces the top 10 contenders.
10. Samoa Joe
9. Rob Terry
8. Desmond Wolfe
7. The Pope D’Angelo Dinero
6. Abyss
5. Mr. Anderson
4. Jeff Hardy
3. AJ Styles
2. Kurt Angle (Angle doesn’t come out when his name is announced.)
1. Sting
Sting comes out and makes his way down to the ring. Bischoff congratulates Sting on being #1 Contender and tells him that at Slammiversary, he will have an opportunity to face Rob Van Dam, but tonight, Sting will face Jeff Hardy. Sting takes the mic and says he’ll do the same thing to Hardy he did to Jarrett on Sunday. Sting smashes the Top 10 Contender posters with his bat. Sting goes after Bischoff with the bat. Abyss comes to the ring, but gets caught with the bat. Hardy hits the ring and takes the bat from Sting. Hardy tosses the bat to the side and takes of his shirt. Sting takes off his jacket and they stand face to face. Hardy slaps Sting and Sting answers with a low blow. Sting picks up his baseball bat, but RVD comes out. Hardy clips Sting from behind and hits the Reverse of Fate. Hardy goes up top, but Sting rolls out of the ring and backs away from the ring.

In the back, Bischoff is holding his leg. Morgan comes in and complains about Joe attacking him last week on Impact. Hogan tells Morgan he’ll get a rematch, but “good luck finding a partner.”

Roxxi is back again. They show the video of the injury that put Roxxi out. Roxxi’s opponent is Madison Rayne. Roxxi gets a series of quick covers on Madison and goes to an arm lock. Roxxi backs Madison into the corner and hits her. Roxxi misses a kick and gets hung up on the middle rope. Madison goes after her and slams her to the mat. Madison gets a 1 count, but Roxxi fights back. Madison goes to a modified chin lock pulling on Roxxi’s nostrils and raking her eyes. Madison chokes Roxxi on the ropes. Madison catches Roxxi with a kick to the head and covers for 2. Roxxi counters an attack from Madison and hits the VooDoo Drop. Roxxi covers for the 3 count and the pin.

Move of the Match: This has to go to the VooDoo Drop from Roxxi.

Chelsea says she doesn’t know if she can handle being with Abyss for 30 days. Wolfe says she’ll be fine. He tells her that Abyss will have to answer for anything he does to her and to remember that while she may be with Abyss for the next 30 days, she is still his girl.

Kurt Angle is in the back. He is asked why he didn’t come out when they named him the #2 Contender. Angle doesn’t answer, but simply walks away.

Angle comes out to the ring. Angle says that over the past month, he noticed a lot of changes. Angle says when he came to TNA he was one of the best. Angle talks about the new wrestlers, and the wrestlers who have elevated themselves. He says he is no longer one of the elite, but is just another name on the TNA roster. Angle says he would wrestler for free because what matters to him is not the money, but the competition. Angle says he’s accomplished everything possible in Wrestling. Angle says he’s going to start from scratch. He says he’s going to take himself out of the top 10 and is going to wrestle each of the top 10 superstars. He promises the fans will see some of the greatest matches of all time. He says that is real; “It’s damn real.”

Christy is in the back with Flair and Beer Money. Flair says he doesn’t care who Lethal’s partner is tonight. Flair says Lethal’s imitation of his was an insult. Flair blames Lethal for AJ losing the title at Sacrifice. Kaz comes in and says he’d like to speak to Flair. Flair says it’s ok. He tells Beer Money to focus on Lethal and gets Christy to leave.

Rob Terry is in the back. He says the doctor’s have told him his knee is injured in 4 places, but nothing is going to stop him from facing Orlando Jordan tonight.

Orlando Jordan vs. Rob Terry. Jordan immediately goes after Terry’s injured knee. Terry tosses him off, but Jordan goes after it again. Terry takes down Jordan with a clothesline. Jordan goes back to the knee, but Terry backs him into the corner. Jordan charges Terry, but gets caught with a huge back body drop. Terry hits a short arm clothesline and covers for 2. Jordan goes back to the knee with a kick and a chop block. He continues the attack on the knee. Jordan pulls of Terry’s knee brace. Jordan falls back putting pressure on the knee and locks in a kneebar on Terry. Terry tries to reach the ropes, but can’t the referee calls for the bell and makes the X signal. He tries to force Jordan to release the hold and Jordan only releases the hold after 2 other referees come out.

Move of the Match: This has to go to the kneebar from Jordan.

Jordan goes back after Terry afterwards and locks in the hold again.

They show Lethal talking about his tribute to Ric Flair and Flair taking it the wrong way. Rob Van Dam comes in and offers to be Lethal’s partner because Lethal kept Flair from interfering at Sacrifice.

Hardy talks about how Sting inspired him to wrestle. He says he always wanted to be in a match with sting, but he never envisioned anything like tonight.

Jesse Neal confronts Brother Ray about Sunday. Ray wants to know what gives Neal the right to come in and get in his face. Neal says that maybe Ray is jealous. Ray says he has no reason to be jealous. Neal tells Ray to keep his distance. Ray tries to attack Neal and Devon and Moore separate the 2.

Beer Money, Inc. vs. Jay Lethal and Rob Van Dam. Roode nails Lethal from behind and follows up with a series of shots in the corner to start the match. Lethal fights back with a pair of chops. Lethal catches Roode with the hip toss and hits his cartwheel into a dropkick. Roode elevates Lethal to the apron, but Lethal catches him with a shoulder block. Lethal goes up top, but Roode distracts the referee and Storm pushes Lethal off. Roode tags in Storm and they double team Lethal. Storm goes after both of Lethal’s legs and follows up with knees to the head. Storm drops Lethal with a big clothesline and covers for 2. Roode is tagged back in and Beer Money hits a big double back body drop. Roode chokes Lethal. He brings Lethal back to the corner and tags Storm back in. Storm shoots Lethal off. Lethal ducks the clothesline and hits the slingshot back elbow. Roode and RVD are both tagged in. RVD clotheslines both members of Beer Money. He nails Storm with the spin kick in the corner and goes for a windmill on Roode, but Roode counters. RVD fights back and goes up top. He hits the side kick to Roode and covers, but Storm breaks it up at 2. Beer Money double teams RVD. Lethal makes the blind tag. RVD hits Storm with the spinning kick and Lethal hits Roode with a missile dropkick. Lethal hits the Lethal Combination, RVD hits Rolling Thunder and Lethal locks in the Figure Four Leg Lock on Roode while RVD takes out Storm. Roode taps out and RVD and Lethal win.

Move of the Match: A number of good moves, and I liked the tag team aspect of the Lethal Combination followed by Rolling Thunder, but this has to go to the Figure Four Leg Lock.

Flair comes out and he and Lethal brawl on the ramp. RVD greets the fans at ringside. Sting blindsides him with a chair from the crowd. He nails RVD with the chair again and makes his way to the back.

Jeff Hardy is in the ring. He says he’s made a living from walking to the beat of a different drum. Hardy dares Sting to try to figure him out in the next hour. He says the Creatures of the Night will take Sting beyond his wildest imagination.

In the back, TNA Security comes to get Wolfe and Chelsea so Wolfe can present Chelsea to Abyss.

Abyss comes out to the ring. Abyss says that Wolfe has something (or should he say “Someone”) that he owes him. Chelsea is led out. Wolfe says that if Abyss thinks for one second Wolfe will let him take Chelsea, Abyss is sorely mistaken. Wolfe low blows Abyss and attacks security. Wolfe pulls a glass bottle out of Chelsea’s bag and breaks it on the ring post. He threatens Abyss with it and cuts his arm. Chelsea tries to calm Wolfe down and he threatens her with the glass. Wolfe threatens Abyss again, but Chelsea again tries to stop him. Abyss knocks the bottle out of Wolfe’s hand and nails him with the Black Hole Slam. Abyss takes Chelsea out of the ring and when she tries to stay at ringside, he picks her up on his shoulder and carries her out.

The Band is out in the ring next. Young says he understands the boos because he has everything and everyone else has nothing. EY says he is the newest member of the Band and the Band is here to make the big bucks. He says they’ll take everything and leave nothing on the table. He says there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

Ink Inc. is out because Shannon Moore is facing off against EY. Young goes after Moore almost immediately. Moore floats over in the cover and hits a pair of arm drags. Moore hits an inverted atomic drop and follows up with a punch. Moore hits the jumping leg drop and backs EY into the corner. EY fights back, but when he shots Moore off, Moore hits EY with a crossbody for a 2 count. Moore hits EY, but EY answers with a powerful shoulder block. EY follows up with an elbow drop and covers for 2. EY pulls Moore to his feet and hits a scoop slam. EY hits a diving elbow, but only gets a 1 count. EY chokes Moore on the ropes and the referee backs Moore up. The referee prevents Nash from hitting Moore with the title belt, but that allows EY to hang Moore up on the ropes. EY takes Moore down with a snapmare and gets him in an armlock. Moore fights back and hits the Springboard into the wheelbarrow bulldog. Moore follows up with a clothesline, a dropkick and a spinning kick. Moore fights out of the corner with a back elbow and hits the Halo on EY for a 2 count. Brother Ray comes out and Jesse Neal goes after him. Devon tries to break up the fight. Moore is shot off and Hall nails him with the title from outside. EY hits Moore with the piledriver for the 3 count.

Move of the Match: There were a lot of great moves and the piledriver is sick, but I’m going to give this to the springboard into a wheelbarrow bulldog.

After the match, Neal goes to check on Moore, and Ray comes running back down to the ring and attacks Neal from behind. He nails Neal with a kick to the back of the head. Devon tries to calm Ray and Ray tells Devon to stay off of him. Brother Ray and Brother Devon argue.

8 Man X-Division Battle Royal. Winner becomes the new #10 in the contender’s list. This is supposed to be an 8 man, but only 7 are in the ring. A lot of fast paced action in this match. Amazing Red nails Homicide with an arm drag and dropkicks him into the ropes, but he doesn’t go out. Red goes for the Red Eye on Kazarian, but Kaz holds onto the ropes and slams Red to the match. Kaz makes the first elimination by throwing Red over the ropes. Generation Me double teams Sabin, but they send him through the middle rope, so he is not eliminated. Shelley gets caught with an enzuigiri from Jeremy, but recovers and throws Max out to the apron. Meanwhile, Kaz is fighting Homicide on the other apron. Max knocks Shelley down, but Sabin leaps off Shelley’s back and dropkicks Max off the apron, eliminating him. Sabin and Shelley double team Jeremy, but he sends Shelley to the apron and catches him with a springboard dropkick to eliminate him. Sabin clotheslines Jeremy over the top and eliminates him. Sabin then skins the cat back into the ring. Flair comes out to ringside at this point, presumably to watch the match. Kaz goes after Sabin. Sabin gets sent to the apron and as he tries to springboard back in, Kaz catches him with a kick and eliminates him. Homicide attacks Kaz from behind. Kendrick suddenly slides into the ring and sends Homicide out over the top rope. Kaz and Kendrick fight and Kaz drops Kendrick with a back body drop. Kendrick tosses Kaz over the top, but Kaz lands on the apron. Kaz comes back in and hits a springboard back elbow. Kaz tosses Kendrick out of the ring to win the battle royal.

Move of the Match: Obviously as an X-Division battle royal, there were a lot of great high speed impact moves, but this has to go either to Sabin using Shelley to hit the dropkick on Max, or Jeremy’s springboard dropkick to Shelley.

Up next is Sting taking on Jeff Hardy. Sting and Hardy lock up and Sting backs Hardy into the corner. The referee backs Sting up, but he takes a pair of cheap shots in the corner. Hardy fights back and hits the mule kick. He follows up with a running forearm, but Sting rolls out of the ring. Hardy gets tired of waiting for Sting to come back in and nails him with a dropkick. Hardy tries to spring out onto Sting, but Sting moves. Sting picks Hardy up and drags him to the ramp. Sting slams Hardy’s leg across the ramp. He does it again and brings Hardy back into the ring. Sting won’t let Hardy get up and when he does, he sets Hardy up in the corner and repeatedly kicks him in the knee. Sting hits a Stinger Splash to Hardy’s back. He goes for another, but Hardy moves. Hardy hits a back elbow. He hits the inverted atomic drop, follows up with the double leg leg drop and hits a low dropkick for a 2 count. Hardy goes for Whisper in the Wind, but Sting moves. Sting goes for the Scorpion and locks it in. Hardy fights his way to the ropes. Sting pulls Hardy off the ropes, but the referee gets knocked out of the ring in the process. Mr. Anderson hits the ring and hits the Scorpion Death Drop on Sting. Hardy covers and the referee slides back into the ring and makes the 3 count. Anderson comes into the ring and raises Hardy’s hand. Jeff pushes Anderson and wants to know what is going on. Anderson calls for his mic, but Sting hits him with the bat. Sting hits both Hardy and Anderson with the bat and stands in the ring as TNA ends.