Keith Watanabe * NET 2.0

This was one of the better Impacts that I could remember.  The last match was something that really was needed and the booking was tighter than usual.  Again, too much Kurt Angle but my guess is that he's got some contract that has him obligated to appear so many times for each TV show (why else would you want to pay someone that much money for sitting around?)

The women's division continues to be the best booked thing in TNA.  Yes, this is fact for me.  They keep it simple, it's mostly fresh faces, there are characters but nothing outrageous or too stupid (i.e. Rellic, Dustin, Abyss, etc.), they're letting the girls get up on stage and wrestle.  Besides Kim, Jackie and Kong, the remaining women mostly look too fresh and need a lot more polish.  Then again the women's division has only been around for two months so it has a long way to go before these girls get enough experience to start moving up from 2* matches to 3+* matches.  It would be nice to see them reach the level of the X-Division in terms of ability; then that would be a huge credit to TNA.  I think bringing over some Japanese women veterans and one or two young girls would help the division to get over.  I'd make a go for Aja Kong (don't know if she's still any good), Takako Inoue, or Mayumi Ozaki for veterans and Ayako Hamada and Apple Miyuki for "newer" girls.  TNA ought to sign at least two of them for a one year contract and see how it goes.

If I were TNA, I'd have Gail Kim win over Kong, but barely in their first outting.  Then Kim should go over all the major women in TNA (Jackie, ODB, Roxie, etc.) while Kong does the same.  Then have another match say in the summer to see where they both are.  Kong has already beaten Kim so there's no question that it can happen a second time.  The summer match would be the tie breaker.  By then hopefully, more of the girls will be experienced and that Kim improves.  Right now, she's good but not excellent.  Execution is still off at times and I worry that she needs more experience to get her moves down.

Christian continues being the Man.  Loved the mini-match he had with Jay Lethal (I hate his nickname; it's just stupid).  If you watch his matches closely, he'll put  small things in here and there that you either don't remember seeing him do or that he has added recently.  Here, he did a nice gutbuster.  It looked damn good.  Also, the tongue licking thing a few weeks ago was such a great character move.  Now that he's getting into the ring with some really good talent like Lethal, Kaz, Joe, etc., he's really shining and has become a truly complete wrestler.  I don't know how he'll fare against Booker, which leads me to....

Booker T showing up at Impact.  Well, the big thing is whether he'll be plain, old Booker T, or we'll see something new from him.  He's a good heavyweight in WWE, but I'm skeptical of him in TNA.  I'd like to see him show us some new stuff in TNA.  Christian has definitely improved over the past two years.  Kurt Angle even showed something new (450 or whatever that move was).  Even Sting takes it up a notch now and then.  Booker T needs to make that statement too to demonstrate to the fans and the locker room that he's not just riding on the past, but can have very good matches in TNA that rivalry his feud with Chris Benoit.  Otherwise, critics will jump on him saying that he's just using his legacy and not contributing much else besides name value.

AJ Styles is also becoming a complete wrestler. Before he was just the guy he threw out all the cool spots.  Now, he's got character, he shows more charisma in the ring than ever and he's selling better.  His alliance with Christian Cage did wonders for him.  His pairing with Tomko was a great idea.  But he's getting there and a lot of his earlier criticisms are going to wear out as he becomes a more complete wrestler.

Jay Lethal though needs the same makeover.  Sure the gimmick he's taken up gave him a bit of personality, but it's mostly just a oneliner, his voice and three moves.  But eventually he's got to ditch the gimmick as a crutch and make it on his own.  The match with Christian/AJ showed a huge weakness with him, which is his inability to sell.  He's got good moves but his selling makes his matches lack and emotion.  He had a very good technical match with Sonjay Dutt, but it was an exchange of moves that led to nothing.  One thing that Lethal didn't pick up was Randy Savage's selling.  The guy could sell very well and had good facials to mix with his matches that gave his matches emotion.  Lethal is young and will improve, but this is the area he needs to work on the most.

The Dudley's are really smart guys in terms of the way they handle their character.  People criticize them because of their lack of selling, etc. but they really know how to take online criticisms are use it to their advantage.  Not just being dominant but using their dominance for improving business will give them longer staying power in the business. 

Back the main event.  Very good.  This is the type of thing that TNA needs to pull off, say every 2 weeks.  A good 30 minute match that allows certain wrestlers to do more than spot-spot-spot type of matches.  Even if there is too much Kurt Angle, a good 20-30 minute match will shut most internet critics up because they'll remember the long match more than the stupidity of the non-wrestling content of the show.