Some thoughts on last night’s TNA Impact:

The best reason to watch TNA continues to be Christian Cage, but his babyface turn – if indeed that’s what this is supposed to be – continues to suffer from bad booking.

Doing a slow, gradual turn is fine in some instances, but once Kurt Angle and his henchmen jumped Cage and laid him out – which happened three weeks ago – then Cage should have become a full-fledged babyface. The way the show is being written, it’s hard to tell whether Cage is supposed to be a good guy or a bad guy. The only reason I know that he’s still a heel is because it says “heel” next to his name on the TNA script for next week’s show that was leaked on the Internet.

It’s OK for Cage to be a lone wolf, and he doesn’t have to suddenly become soft-spoken and humble and shake hands with all the other babyfaces, but this story line would be more effective if the fans were cheering Cage and jeering Angle rather than jeering both of them. If anything, Cage’s promo on last night’s show seemed to turn A.J. Styles babyface.

History has shown the fans aren’t usually emotionally invested in matches between two wrestlers that they love to hate. It’s Basic Booking 101. The most successful angles pit a clearly defined good guy against a clearly defined bad guy. If someone watched Impact for the first time last night, they wouldn’t know who was good and who was bad. Oh well, at least next week viewers can follow along with the script to help fill in the blanks. …

Comedy definitely has a place in wrestling, but TNA goes a little overboard. Angle, Christian and Styles all have good comedic timing, but there’s too much funny business in their angle, and funny business won’t sell pay-per-views. …

Jim Cornette and Brother Ray had an outstanding verbal confrontation in Cornette’s office. They are two of the best at delivering intense promos. The segment would have been perfect had it ended when Team 3-D tried to get physical and Matt Morgan stepped in. Of course, after Team 3-D left, Cornette and Morgan started arguing, which ruined it. Cornette and Morgan haven’t been allies long enough for viewers to care that they aren’t getting along. Wrestling is all about conflict, but if no one gets along, it has a numbing effect. …

In another Cornette-Morgan vignette, Morgan received a letter from “corporate” praising him for the booking of all the gimmick matches on last week’s show. It was also noted that the show did a good rating (by TNA standards). I guess that’s Vince Russo’s way of thumbing his nose at all the critics. Perhaps Russo should wait until the show cracks a 1.5 rating – you know, what WWE’s “C” show does – before he starts patting himself on the back. …

At the end of that segment, a sloppy-looking fan in jeans and a T-shirt walked in and propped his feet up on Cornette’s desk. Oh, sorry, that was Samoa Joe. He’s still disgruntled. Yawn. …

Speaking of wrestlers’ attire, the tights that Styles wore during the tag-team match between him and Tomko against The Motor City Machine Guns looked too similar to what the Guns were wearing. It’s not that big of a deal, but little things like that don’t happen in WWE. …

I love the ODB character – and so do the fans at the Impact Zone. She needs to be turned babyface sooner than later. …

So, Booker T. asked Cage to be his partner against Angle and Robert Roode. Didn’t Booker tell Cage two weeks ago that he would never team with him? That makes Booker either a liar or a flip-flopper, neither of which is a babyface quality. …

The Dustin Rhodes/Black Reign split personality story line is just plan ludicrous.