The show starts by showing a video on the whole situation surrounding Sting, Dixie Carter, Bobby Roode and Hulk Hogan. From that, Dixie is shown backstage. She says she gave Hogan a week to think about it, and he’s agreed to meet her off site to chat about this.

Bobby Roode comes down to the ring with security. He opens telling the fans, those who messaged TNA to get him fired can “kiss his World Title”. He says how the company is nothing without him, and how he won the war against Sting. He tells James Storm the security is out there for his safety, so he doesn’t do something stupid. This brings out the Cowboy who makes fun of Roode having mall cops with him, while asking what kind of a man lays hands on a woman. Bully Ray appears and attacks from behind. Storm fights back and goes to hit the Superkick but Roode gets out the ring. Storm suggests a 2 on 1 match, they agree to it.

Madison Rayne is in her locker room and Gail Kim turns up. Gail tells her she knows all this has been tough on their friendship, but she’s got her a gift. Turns out it’s a new tiara which Madison loves. Gail says how she knows Madison will beat Velvet tonight. Looks like all is right with these two.

Opening match sees Madison Rayne taking on Velvet Sky, and Mike Tenay and Taz say how great it is to have Velvet back on TV…umm, she only missed 1 week of TV. Enjoyable back and forth match, which saw Velvet pick up the win with her “In Yo Face” finisher. Surprised she won, and also surprised no appearance from Gail Kim. Velvet’s interviewed afterwards by Christy Hemme, and says she’s never had a rematch for her title, and is putting Gail and the Knockouts division on notice.

We cut back to Bully Ray and Bobby Roode, and Bully says they’ve both been humiliated by James Storm, and that Roode should be worried. Mentions how Storm beat 2 guys last week, and that they are better than Kazarian and Daniels, so should take care of Storm tonight.

We see the meeting between Dixie Carter and Hulk Hogan on a park bench. Dixie says she finds it ironic asking Hulk to come back after all that’s happened, and says she never trusted Eric Bischoff. Hogan says he got rid of Eric because he could see the path he was going down, and didn’t want to go there himself. Hogan tells her he’s made peace with everyone, but she replies he hasn’t with her. Dixie recommends helping get TNA out of the problems with Bobby Roode. Hogan replies by saying he feels the ship has gone too far without him, but for what Dixie has done for his family, he’ll think about it. She invites Hogan to the show, and he responds by saying he’ll have an answer for her by the end of the night.

A video is shown on the problems between Crimson and Matt Morgan, before we cut to Kurt Angle. Angle says he won’t give Jeff Hardy a rematch, because Hardy’s a big crybaby…but if Hardy can beat Mr Anderson, he’ll grant a rematch at Lockdown. If he loses, “the Kurt Angle bus rolls out of town”.

It’s time for Crimso…nope, change of plans as Austin Aries comes down to the ring. He says it isn’t his scheduled time, but it doesn’t stop others turning up when they’re not due to. Says how he has a problem, and it’s not lack of competition, but Bully Ray. Also says he may be small, but he has a set of balls as big as both of Bully Ray’s calves. Aries discusses how he stands up for himself just like James Storm, before suggesting teaming with Storm later on in the show.

As soon as it comes back from the break, the match between Crimson and Matt Morgan began. Felt a more aggressive match than we’ve seen from these 2 before. The brawl went to the outside, where both men got counted out, and continued fighting backstage. Guess we’ll see them fight at Lockdown.

Joseph Park is in the TV truck asking about Abyss as usual. Nobody knows anything here. These segments are the same each week, need to have someone know something, even if it’s a tiny bit of info. Just feels useless seeing the same “I don’t know” stuff.

Mr Anderson battled Jeff Hardy, with Anderson trying to stop Hardy from getting high….no, not like that, I mean aerial moves. The best part of this segment was actually the announcement of the Motorcity Machine Guns being back next week! Kurt Angle cost Hardy the match, hitting him with a low blow when both the ref and Anderson’s attention was elsewhere, and Anderson hit a Mic Check once Hardy was back in the ring.

Longnecks and Rednecks video premiere, which was just James Storm’s theme and a video based around a country bar scene, with some clips of Storm wrestling. Okay video.

Dixie Carter’s back at the Impact Zone, while Eric Bischoff is shown walking through the backstage area.

Eric Young and ODB are shown with a wedding planner in a posh house. Funny segment, in which EY thinks he’s wearing the wedding dress, and ODB blows her nose on it. Finishes with ODB getting annoyed and getting rid of the planner, saying she doesn’t need this posh crap. The couple talk, and they’ll get married in a steel cage in the ring 3 days before Lockdown.

Eric Bischoff is in the ring, and there’s actually people chanting for him. He talks about how it’s great to be him, before calling Garrett out. He offers him a chance to walk away, if not, he’ll face Gunner at Lockdown. Garrett re-iterates he’s going nowhere and will see Gunner at Lockdown. Uggggggh.

A video package of James Storm working out is followed by Hulk Hogan shown appearing at the Impact Zone.

Main event time, as Austin Aries teams with James Storm to take on Bully Ray and Bobby Roode. Aries was in for the majority of this match, outsmarting both opponents until rushing into a big boot from Bully. The BR duo worked over him, till he hits the hot tag to Storm who takes down Bully, but before he can properly get at Roode, he’s attacked. Storm hits Closing Time on Bully, but when Roode goes to spit beer at Storm, he ducks, and gets Bully, before Storm hits the Last Call and gets the win. Good main event, glad to see Aries with a top showing, and Storm looking strong again.

Dixie Carter is back out and calls out Hulk Hogan. She tells him she believes in him and so do the fans. Well…a few fans actually looked bored, so doubt they care or believe in him. Hogan repeats how he isn’t proud of what happened before, and feels his time with TNA should be done. This brings out Sting, who like Bobby Roode, said he was staying home. Sting isn’t alone, as AJ Styles, Jeff Hardy, Matt Morgan, James Storm, Mr Anderson, Garrett Bischoff and Devon are with him. Sting says the writing is on the wall that Hogan will stay, and Hogan asks “if I do, will it be a clean slate and will you watch my back Jack?” (bitches be crazy Hulkster? Sorry, Big Bang Theory reference there). Sting says he will, and Hogan agrees to take over, before they all congratulate, high five and hug him.

As usual with TNA, some good stuff, and some not so good stuff. I don’t understand why have 2 segments with Dixie and Hogan, when they just seemed to repeat themselves? Cut the first segment, pop another match in, and have Hogan and Dixie talk in ring about him taking over. Gunner and Garrett Bischoff hasn’t been interesting at all, so they extend the feud, and then they put Angle in the mix, and straight back out of it. I didn’t get that, especially as no one defeated the other guy during their two matches. On the plus side, the rest was enjoyable, with Aries and Roode standing out in both their segments and the main event, the Knockouts match was good, and I even enjoyed the brawl between Morgan and Crimson.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

@GoofyVillain of @TheTopRope crew