Photos - https://plus.google....089363251203681

P.S. I'm not in any of the pictures.

Good crowd at the Jackson Convention Complex. The fans were into the show. It wasn't a full house, but about 3/4 full. Jimmy Jay ran the show. I'm not sure where Don West was. Also, Bobby Roode was advertised, but not there. They announced that footage would be taped to air on television.

1. MMG vs. Joe/Magnus
Winners Joe/Magnus w/ Joe's Cochina Clutch on Sabin
Good match. Sabin looks completely healthy. Teams embraced after match. Joe/Magnus posed for JB on ring apron.

2. Velvet Sky vs. Angelina Love
Winner - Velvet Sky via In Yo Face
One of Velvet's better matches. Angelina tried to pin with her feet on the ropes. Earl would have none of it.

3. Robbie E vs. Garrett Bischoff
Winner Garret Bischoff via Diamond Cutter
Garrett wins the match as well the dance-off. Robbie E is very entertaining. Garrett is working the Hogan style where he gets beat down most of the match, but does like Hardy and turns things around at the end to pull off the win. Ugly version of the Diamond Cutter, but he is better than what we have been seeing on television. He needs to work a fued with someone like Robbie E.

4. RVD vs. Mr. Anderson
Winner RVD - Five Star Frog Splash
Crowd heavily in favor of RVD, although several cheered when Anderson asked if there were any assholes in the building, to which Anderson said, "I am your leader." RVD controlled most of the match, but it was a good back and forth with action outside the ring.

5. Kurt Angle vs. Daniels
Winner - Kurt Angle via Ankle Lock
Daniels has new theme music, and it's pretty good. I loved his old theme, but the new one is actually very good with lyrics. Not the wrestling clinic I was expecting, but very good for a match that was not televised. Daniels is a pro and way underrated. He cut a promo about Velvet Sky, but said she couldn't have him.

6. Jeff Hardy vs. Bully Ray
Winner - Jeff Hardy via Twist of Fate
Man, I love Bully Ray. Really heeled it up. Told a 10-year old that he could beat him up. Got into it with Hebner Jr., but was later backed into a corner by Hebner Jr. I got photos of the calves! What can I say? The people love Jeff Hardy. Hardy pulled out a new D-Von shirt during the match, and threw it into the crowd.

After the show fans could get their picture taken in the ring w/Jeff Hardy.

- It's the May return of Open Fight Night and TNA Gut Check! Don't miss the special broadcast!

- General Manager Hulk Hogan has already announced World Heavyweight Champion Bobby Roode will defend his title on the broadcast as part of Open Fight Night! The question is, who will get the shot - Bully Ray, Jeff Hardy, AJ Styles or Kurt Angle? One of these 4 men will earn the opportunity to compete for the World Title and try to prevent Bobby Roode from becoming the longest reigning TNA Champion in history!


- Which newcomer will get a shot at joining the TNA roster as part of the monthly TNA Gut Check?

- We also understand that GM Hulk Hogan has invited a special guest to come to Thursday's Impact. Who could it be?

- Plus, which superstars will get challenged on Thursday's broadcast? It's Open Fight Night - so expect plenty of wrestlers to throw down the gauntlet and demand a fight!

Click Here To Discuss Next Weeks Episode Of IMPACT WRESTLING

WrestleShark interview with Rob Van Dam
Full interview available at wrestleshark.com

On how he feels after his Ladder match at TNA's Sacrifice and whether or not he has new respect for Bobby Roode:
"Pretty rough. [Laughs.] A little bit banged up but I enjoy having those kinds of matches. I enjoy showing how tough I am. I'm not out just to impress the fans, I'm out to impress the whole industry. So, I enjoy that. Walking around limping or whatever the next day -- that's part of the reward.
... No, I wouldn't say [my opinion of Roode has changed]. I already knew he was a good wrestler. I feel like now we've been through one pretty decent battle together. So, I respect him for having been down that road with me. It was a pretty rough night that will probably stand out in both of our careers because matches like that do. So, it doesn't really change my opinion of him."

On whether or not he was injured at the pay-per-view:
"No, I guess my elbow got skinned or something. [Laughs.] No. Like I said, I'm just banged up. When I'm injured, that's when I can't work and that almost never happens.
It's happened twice in my career; when I had to give up the TV title in ECW when I broke my ankle and when I had to get knee surgery in WWE. I took a full year out. Those were pretty good injuries that'll stand out for me.
With the other stuff, there are just too many factors involved with politics, bulls--t, story lines and blah, blah, blah. [Laughs.]"

On TNA's upcoming tour of the United Kingdom:
"The U.K. tour that's coming up in January. Glasgow, Nottingham, Manchester and London. I am listen among the stars that's going to be there. So, it's something I'm looking forward to. Last year, I was looking forward to going and at the last minute, I got taken off the tour.
So, I'm still apologizing to all my fans in the U.K. for not being able to make it out there to England. Or the U.K./London I don't know. The U.K. and London are the same thing to us over here. I don't think it is, technically, though. Is it? [Laughs.]
But, anyway, according to this list, we have the biggest names going over there. I mean -- Hulk Hogan. Come on. Hulk Hogan, Sting, Kurt Angle, AJ Styles, Bobby Roode, Samoa Joe, Velvet Sky, James Storm, Gail Kim, Mickie James, Matt Morgan, Bully Ray, Crimson, Gunner. That's pretty much coming loaded. And I've heard that Dixie's been really excited about the business that we've been doing over there and the response the fans have had.
So, I know that this is really a high priority to her -- getting over there more often and making our shows bigger. I heard a rumor that we're going to be having some steel cage matches over there which is the first time TNA has done that in history. So, I feel the excitement already. Even though it's in January, I'm looking forward to it already."


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- Brooke Hogan will be doing media appearances in New York City next week. According to PWInsider, TNA hopes that her reality show name and allure will get the company some attention with the media.
Brooke Hogan signing with TNA has already gotten some press with TMZ.com.

- MMA fighter Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal revealed details on his TNA schedule when he debuts later this year in an interview with Sherdog.com:

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As to his character, Lawal said:

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- There's a lot of excitement within TNA about the product going live this summer. According to PWInsider, one TNA wrestler had the following to say about the move:

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- Bruce Prichard and Al Snow were at the latest OVW TV Taping looking at talent. King Mo is expected to head there to train as a wrestler as soon as he's physically cleared.

- Christopher Daniels sent out the video of AJ Styles and Dixie Carter via Twitter after Impact Wrestling aired at this link.

- Velvet Sky will star in a new music video that Montgomery Gentry filmed this past week in the Impact Zone.

- Next Friday, Syfy will premiere a new show, "Insane or Inspired?" at 10:00 p.m. EST immediately following WWE Smackdown. Syfy noted in a press release that Brooke Hogan, who signed with TNA in an executive role this week, will appear on an episode.

- TNA is running a "Fan of the Week" promotion on their website. You can check out the full details at this link.

- The company has released new T-Shirts for Jeff Hardy and James Storm, plus an official TNA gym bag.

- TNA announced the following Gut Check tryouts for next month:
*Saturday, June 16, 2012 - Houston, TX
Time: 1:30-3:30 p.m. Central
Bayou Music Center
520 Texas Ave.
Houston, TX 77002
DEADLINE: Monday, June 4, 2012 12 p.m. Central
*Saturday, June 23, 2012 - Oshawa, ON
Time: 1:30-3:30 p.m. Eastern
General Motors Centre
99 Athol St. East
Oshawa, Ontario L1H 1J8
DEADLINE: Monday, June 11, 2012 1 p.m. Eastern


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Report by StephenB


If you had VIP tickets that were $50, you got to get in early, get front row/area seats and they had a meet n greet at ringside. The wrestlers that took part in this were Samoa Joe, Daniels, Robbie E, Angelina Love, and Magnus.

The first match of the night was good.

* Samoa Joe & Magnus defeated MCMG via submission by Samoa Joe
The crowd was pretty dead all night. MCMG had the main pop and there were X-Division chants throughout the crowd.

* Velvet Sky defeated Angelina Love via pinfall
Velvet had a way bigger reaction from the fans, although Angelina seemed to have the older aged part of the crowd over.

* Garrett Bischoff defeated Robbie E. via pinfall
About a minute into the match Robbie E. gets the mic, cuts a promo about how everyone came to see him and the fist pump. He informs Bischoff that he could help him become almost as big of a star as he is by helping him learn to dance so some cheesy song cuts on and he starts dancing around the ring getting a big reaction from the fans. Once he is done Garrett dances to the same song, but in the middle of the song starts beating up Robbie E. and eventually won the pinfall.

Intermission, with Tara doing an autograph signing at the merchandise stand.

* Kurt Angle defeated Daniels via submission
Daniels comes out to this god awful song I've never heard before and is dancing around for some reason. He cuts a great promo on the fat people in the crowd, how he brought gifts for everyone.. A physique for the fat men to aspire to get, and he brought as much sexual desire for the ladies as the plane would let on him... This caused massive heat and some AJ Styles chants broke out and he responds by saying AJ is to busy sleeping with Dixie to come to this awful state. Angle comes out and literally the entire time they were wrestling the fans were cheering ANGLE ANGLE ANGLE ANGLE... or maybe it was just me screaming the entire time, and fans would occasionally join in.

* Jeff Hardy defeated Mr. Anderson via pinfall.
Anderson comes out first gets a pretty decent pop, fans were cheering "ANDERSON" for about a minute. Hardy comes out to a bigger pop.

* Rob Van Dam defeated Bully Ray via pinfall.
Before I start this I would just like to say that Bully Ray is by far, BY FAR, the best heel in the business, certainly in this decade.
Bully comes out gets massive heat, more of a reaction than did Anderson and almost on the Hardy level except it was heat and he hadn't even made his way down to the ring yet.. He comes down arguing with fans and staring down little kids scaring them. He cuts a great promo about how starting this summer Impact will be LIVE every Thursday, and that now everyone gets to see him more. He gathers up all the security guards and yells at them for letting this group of fat ugly girls front row, he told them no fatties, and proceeded to say they were not only the ugliest girls in Hattiesburg, but that he had ever seen... it was hilarious!
RVD comes out gets about as much of a pop as Hardy... and ends up beating Bully super quick via 5 star frog splash.

Rob stayed and for $20 you could go into the ring and take a pic with RVD. I've been to 2 previous Impact shows and this one had the shortest line yet... Angle nand Beer Money a year or 2 ago had a way bigger crowd, as did the Jeff Hardy one about 6 or 7 months ago was bigger as well.

They had a new guy chanting about deals all night, its usually Don West, this time it was some new guy.

Earl Hebner apparently just reffed his 100,000th match so they were having special deals on "Yeah, I screwed him" Hebner shirts, where he was at the merchandise stand signing the shirts.

They had a deal where you could pay $20 for a "Cross The Line" action figure set with Kurt Angle and Mr. Anderson, and with that you could get backstage and meet them.

Overall, it was a good show. Knockouts put on a pretty damn good match.


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According to PWTorch, the 5/17 edition of Impact Wrestling did a 1.08 rating with 1,476,000 viewers.

On cable TV Thursday night, Impact Wrestling ranked #22 in overall viewers, #20 in males 18-34, and #11 in males 18-49. The m18-34 ranking was slightly below the yearly average and the m18-49 was slightly above the yearly average.

MMA fighter and Professional Wrestler Josh Barnett recently spoke with the UK Mirror concerning his upcoming final match for the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix. The former UFC World Heavyweight Champion, who has two fights left in his Strikeforce contract and a turbulent relationship with the UFC, noted the following on whether he would accept an offer similar to the one given to King Mo:

“Anything is an opportunity. I have a manager; they work out all the deals for me. I like being given a stage and being given the opportunity to go out there and shine, but I’m part of Showtime right now and Strikeforce and I’ve got another fight with them for sure and I’m really looking forward to doing great things here.”

Barnett on occasion does pro wrestling primarily in Japan. He most recently worked for Antonio Inoki's IGF.

TNA has canceled two Impact Wrestling TV tapings on May 28th and May 29th.

When TNA Impact Wrestling goes live on 5/31, the West Coast will not receive it until it replays locally at 8 PM Pacific. No plans currently for a live broadcast followed by a replay, which is how TNT used to handle Monday Nitro back in the day.

Fans will be required to line up by 6 PM at Universal Studios in Orlando prior to the Impact Tapings. Fans inside the theme park and those on the promotion’s VIP list will be allowed in first. If there are seats left, the tapings will then be opened to a general seating line outside the theme park near the Blue Man Group Theater. Doors for the tapings will open at 7 PM.

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TNA president Dixie Carter just posted on her Official Facebook Page the poster for Destination X this year:

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Zombie Hamlet, a comedy movie, has released the first trailer. The movie features Hulk Hogan in a brief role as himself.

PWinsider.com is reporting that Kid Kash is still with TNA. Kash has also been training for a June MMA bout. As we reported earlier there are rumors Kash could be fighting for Bellator as part of the TNA Bellator crossover.

TNA wrestler Gunner posted the following message on his official Twitter page:

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