Slammiversary 2012
Date: June 10, 2012
Location: College Park Center, Arlington, Texas
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Taz

It’s the ten year anniversary show and the main event is Sting challenging Roode for the title. Other than that we have a guest appearance by Christian, likely as the first member of the TNA Hall of Fame for basically publicity reasons. The rest of the show is pretty much a regular PPV, but they’ve surprised me before with these bigger shows. Let’s get to it.

The opening video is about what you would expect: they started with a dream, they’ve come a long way, they’re here now. It’s interspersed with big moments in their history.

The crowd is HUGE, looking like a real PPV style crowd.

Here’s Hogan to open the show. The ring looks smaller than usual here. Hogan welcomes us to the show and says that this is a celebration of ten years. He says the next ten years are going to be even more awesome because this company is shooting to the moon. Tonight we’re going old school and opening with Joe vs. Aries. How exactly is that old school? Oh it’s for the title. So the weight limit is gone? SWEET.

X-Division Title: Austin Aries vs. Samoa Joe

That ring is 15 feet wide AT BEST. Aries is defending of course. They fight over a wristlock to start and it’s a standoff. The fans are split here but the Aries chants sound a bit louder. Aries gets in some kicks at the leg and we hit another standoff. Joe comes back with kicks of his own and down goes the champion. Aries will have none of that and dropkicks him to the floor, but Joe blocks the suicide dive with a kick to the head.

Back into the ring and Joe crushes him in the corner and hits an enziguri. Facewash connects and Aries is in trouble. Snap powerslam gets two. Joe charges into a boot but hits his own big version of it to take Aries down again. The backsplash hits knees and Aries fires off more forearms. Joe tries the suicide elbow but Aries dodges, slides in and hits the suicide dive to take over.

The dueling chants are getting louder here. Back in and Joe gets taken into the corner by a missile dropkick. The running dropkick in the corner is caught in a powerslam for two. They slug it out but Aries can’t hit the brainbuster. A rana is caught in a powerbomb followed by the Boston crab/STF/Rings of Saturn (used to be a Crossface) sequence that he hasn’t busted out in years.

Joe loads up the MuscleBuster but Aries forearms his way out of it. They go up but Joe gets knocked off, letting Aries hit the 450 for two. They fight from their knees and Aries gets caught in the Clutch but he kicks backwards into a cover for two. Aries charges into the release Rock Bottom out of the corner and Joe is all fired up. The MuscleBuster is countered again, this time into kind of a crucifix slam for no cover. Aries goes off with the forearms in the corner and hits the brainbuster for the pin at 11:44.

Rating: B+. Now THAT is how you do an opener. They beat the tar out of each other here and it was almost old school Joe out there, other than him being unbeatable and all that jazz. Still though, this was a good win for Aries and if they’ve taken away the weight limit on the division again, things are going to go up for it. That’s what they’ve needed to do for a long time.

Kid Kash vs. Hernandez

For the life of me I don’t get why this is on the card. When was the last time either of these guys was on TV at all? Kash tries to speed things up but he gets run over with ease and knocked to the floor. Hernandez throws Kash around with ease so Kash bites him on the nose. He hooks an armbreaker on SuperMex which is broken pretty quickly. We get a bad looking sequence with Kash not really selling a clothesline and then BADLY botching a rana. Tornado DDT puts Hernandez down but he pops up and hits the slingshot shoulder to put both guys down. Kash heads to the floor so Hernandez dives over the top to crush him. I miss that spot from him. Border Toss is escaped so Hernandez goes up, shoves Kash off and hits a top rope splash for the pin at 5:52.

Rating: D+. This wasn’t horrible but what in the world was the point of this? There were no other people that they could have put out there for this? Hernandez hasn’t been on TV as a singles guy in months and Kash shouldn’t be on TV ever for my money, so I don’t know why this match was taking place at all. Odd choice and it wasn’t anything good either.

Moment #3 is AJ Styles winning the first X Title.

Garrett Bischoff/D-Von vs. Robbie E/Robbie T

The TV Title feud continues. E and Garrett get us going and Bischoff slams him down with relative ease. Off to the current OVW Champion as we get dueling WE WANT D-VON/YOU CAN’T WRESTLE chants. Right hands have no effect on T so Garrett tries some clotheslines, only to get pulled down to the floor by E. Madison is out watching again, looking GREAT in a red dress.

The fans still want D-Von but it’s Garrett getting worked over in the corner. The Rob’s hit a double team side slam/elbow drop combo and it’s chinlock time. Garrett comes back with a flapjack and D-Von finally gets in. House is cleaned and a Rock Bottom puts E down. A shoulder block gets a cover but T makes the save. Garrett low bridges T and hits a dive, as D-Von spinebusters E for the pin at 5:58.

Rating: D+. Nothing but a basic formula tag match here that needed to be on Impact rather than the PPV. The fans flat out do not care about Garrett but I guess this is better than him being in the main events of PPVs. Now, can we PLEASE find D-Von someone to feud with not named Garrett or Rob? It can’t be that hard.

Garrett and D-Von dance for no apparent reason.

Daniels runs down his accomplishments in TNA and drinks a toast to himself and Kaz while saying how great they are. “You have permission to worship us now.”

Mr. Anderson vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Rob Van Dam

This is happening earlier than I expected. The winner gets a title match on Thursday. Either there’s some lighting issue or Van Dam’s face is green. Jeff flips a coin or something and goes after Van Dam as a result. He takes down everyone but Anderson gets in a knee to slow him down. Jeff sends both guys into the corner and hits a double splash, followed by a dropkick out of Poetry In Motion at Van Dam.

Hardy headscissors Anderson out of the corner but walks into a neckbreaker from the same person for two. Van Dam hits some shoulders into the ribs of Anderson in the corner and a running kick to the head of Hardy. After some control by Van Dam, Hardy goes up but gets caught in the Tower of Doom, but he crotches himself on the top. After disposing of Van Dam, the superplex hits Hardy. A Five Star attempt misses and everyone is down.

We get a three way slugout from their knees, followed by a spin kick from RVD to Anderson, followed by a rollup to Hardy for two. Another spin kick puts Hardy down and Anderson gets monkey flipped onto Hardy’s body for two. Anderson backslides Van Dam and Hardy covers Van Dam at the same time but it only gets two. That was a smart move though. Van Dam is knocked to the floor and he pulls Anderson out with him, allowing Hardy to hit a HUGE dive on both to put everyone down on the floor.

Hardy and Van Dam head into the ring and Whisper in the Wind gets two. Jeff’s suplex is countered so he hits a Twist of Fate instead. The Swanton hits but Anderson pulls the referee out to the floor. Hardy gets sent to the floor and Rolling Thunder is countered into the Mic Check by Anderson for the pin at 11:28. That came out of nowhere.

Rating: B. The match was incredibly energetic and fast paced, although I’m very surprised that Hardy didn’t win here. Anderson winning was a surprise though which is a nice touch, although the ending didn’t have any real build to it. That can work though as it’s nice to break up the formula once in awhile. Good match here again.

Crimson talks about how great and perfect he’s been for over 470 days. He doesn’t care who he’s facing tonight.

Crimson vs. ???

Crimson runs down Texas a bit and says he’ll fight a Maverick, a Ranger or a Cowboy if he has to. The opponent is…..JAMES STORM? Oh yeah the streak is done. The match starts fast and Crimson is quickly clotheslined to the floor. Storm has the old trenchcoat too. We get some hard chops in the corner but Crimson comes back with a shot to the head. There goes the coat and Storm is in some trouble. Storm shrugs all that off, hits the Codebreaker which has another name that I can’t remember, seems to go into a seizure, and hits the Last Call to end the streak at 2:09.

Aries says he wants to be in the main event. That gets a good reaction from the crowd.

Hogan joining TNA is the second moment.

Here’s Dixie for the HOF stuff. There are four matches left (tag titles, Ray/Park, Knockouts and world title) and it’s 9:15 so there’s a lot of time for the remaining matches. She thanks everyone that helped get us here from her parents to the Jarretts to the fans. Dixie brings out the locker room and AJ looks like he’s about to cry. The first inductee into the Hall of Fame is….Sting? It should be Jarret but I’m FAR more ok with this than it being Christian. We get a video and testimonials from the other wrestlers and Sting goes to the ring.

The fans chant YES, which I’m not sure how to take. The formal induction won’t be until Bound For Glory. Sting says he’s honored and starts a chant for the crowd. He says that tonight it’s Showtime.

Knockouts Title: Gail Kim vs. Miss Tessmacher

Ok…..there is ZERO reason for Tessmacher to lose here. I mean, it’s her home state, she’s been built up perfectly, the champion has gotten stale and says the same things over and over……she’s screwed isn’t she? Tessmacher speeds things up to start and they head to the floor. Back in and she tries a victory roll but gets hot shotted instead. Shoulder breaker gets two.

Gail works on the arm before shifting to a headscissors for a bit. Tessmacher makes her comeback but gets bulldogged back down. A horrible looking neckbreaker puts Tessmacher on the apron and then into the barricade. Back in and Eat Defeat is countered so Gail tries Tessmacher’s finisher. Brooke (screw Hogan’s daughter) countered into a rollup for the pin at 7:05.

Rating: D. I REALLY do not like that ending. Tessmacher got dominated for almost the entire match and then caught Gail in a mistake to win the title. That doesn’t make her look better or anything, but rather just that it makes the win look like a fluke. Still though, anyone being champion instead of Gail is a good thing.

Brooke celebrates post match.

Bully runs down Texas and talks about how great New York is. He has Park right where he wants him and it’ll be an assault tonight. Ray can’t be held responsible for his actions due to the contract.

We recap the Park vs. Ray story which I’m sure you’ve heard of already. In short, Joseph is Abyss’ brother and is looking for him. Abyss popped up and said that Joseph needed to stay away from the fire. Ray got annoyed by Joseph and challenged him to a fight tonight. The fight is happening. Ok then.

Joseph Park vs. Bully Ray

Park comes out in a workout suit. He takes off the glasses and Ray offers him the first shot. A right hand misses as does a second. Ray offers to put his hands behind his back but spits in Park’s face too. Park gets in a single slap and down he goes. The fans think New York sucks. Ray goes and gets a chair but Park trips the rope as he comes back in to send Ray down. Park picks up the chair but isn’t sure what to do with it. Instead he looks at the fans and gets hit in the back for his mistake.

A chair to the back puts Park down and the sweat is dripping. Another chair shot to the back puts Joseph on the floor and there’s a water bottle to the head. Back in and the middle rope backsplash misses to give Park a chance. He seems pretty ok two minutes after two chair shots to the back. Park pounds away in the corner and Ray is in trouble. And never mind as Ray kicks his head off to take him down.

Ray brings in a table and kendo stick, drawing the second ECW chant of the night. The thing is dead people. Let it go. Joseph punches Ray in the balls to block a kendo stick shot before clocking Ray in the head for two. Park goes under the ring and Abyss comes out (with his hood up to hide short hair). Ray sees him and panics before getting chokeslammed through the table. Abyss goes back under the ring, Park pops out and gets the pin at 10:28.

Rating: C-. Ok, what were you expecting here? They’re not really even trying to hide that it’s Abyss anymore. Either that or these fans are REALLY gullible. Park winning was probably the only option they had here and while the ending was bad, they couldn’t do much else. Decent comedy match here.

Roode says he’ll keep the title.

Cue Hogan again for some reason. He tells the fans to give it up for Park and that he has a surprise for us. Hogan brings out Christian Cage to no real buildup or fanfare. Tenay of course makes it sound like it’s someone here every week because that’s how he rolls. The fans ask Christian to come back. Christian says he’s been asked if he was really appearing here tonight all week, and yeah, he is. The fans chant YES of course.

He remembers there being more corners in this ring. Things might change, but the fans never change. They should stand up and give themselves a round of applause. He presents the #1 moment in TNA history and it’s…..Sting returning. No. Just NO. That’s it for Christian. He isn’t seen again and he doesn’t say anything else as we move on to the package about the tag titles.

We recap the Styles/Angle vs. Kaz/Daniels feud. The idea is that Daniels thinks AJ is sleeping with Dixie and has shown some circumstantial evidence to destroy AJ, so tonight AJ and Angle are teaming up to go for the tag titles.

Tag Titles: Kazarian/Christopher Daniels vs. Kurt Angle/AJ Styles

The match starts fast and AJ gets double teamed. It’s Styles vs. Kaz to get us going with Kaz rolling him up quickly before walking into a spin kick. Out to the floor and AJ does his slide under the barricade into the forearm spot. Daniels tries to interfere but Angle takes his head off with a clothesline. A knee to the face puts Kaz down and it’s off to Angle. Double suplex gets two. Off to Daniels who takes Angle down but he walks into a belly to belly.

Off to AJ who Daniels over his knee and goes for the Styles Clash but Chris runs to the apron. Kaz comes in and puts AJ on the ropes. Daniels interferes and Kaz hits a sweet bicycle kick to the face, catching AJ by his knee in the ropes. Daniels chokes a bit as AJ’s knee is done at the moment. Kaz comes in and gets hiptossed into a legdrop onto AJ for two. A suplex is blocked into a neckbreaker and both guys are down.

Double tag brings in the bald guys and Angle is all fired up. He snaps off an overhead belly to belly on Daniels and a German on Kaz. Angle Slam gets two on Daniels due to Kaz making the save. Kurt is like cool man and Germans them both at once. Ankle lock to Daniels is broken up by Kaz again and Daniels is back up. Angel’s Wings is countered and it’s off to AJ with the flying forearm. Moonsault into the reverse DDT takes down Kaz but it’s combined with a regular DDT to Daniels. Kaz distracts AGAIN before hitting a kick to the face of Styles.

Daniels busts out Last Rites but Angle makes the save. Things slow down a bit and AJ loads up a superplex on Kaz but gets shoved off. Angle runs the corner for the belly to belly and it’s down to Daniels vs. Styles. They slug it out and the release Rock Bottom sets up the BME, but Daniels lands on his feet. Unfortunately he lands in perfect position for a release German. Angle hits a top rope splash of all things for two but Daniels pulls the referee out. AJ hits a HUGE shooting star over the top to take out Daniels on the floor. Back in the ring Kaz tries Fade to Black but Angle reverses into the ankle lock for the tap at 14:26.

Rating: B+. Another good match here but it really doesn’t give us a bunch of resolution. Dixie wasn’t involved here, which to be fair is probably the best possible outcome, but it doesn’t really matter much. The match itself was great and it seems like they’re building to yet another final blowoff between Daniels and AJ, which is annoying but it’s what’s coming. AJ getting another title is fine by me.

We recap the main event which is being built up as way bigger than it probably really is.

TNA World Title: Sting vs. Bobby Roode

Roode stalls before the bell and stalls again after the bell. After a chase Sting sends Roode into the barricade and then does it again for good measure. Roode goes into various other hard objects and it’s all Sting so far. The champ (Roode in case this is like 2020 by now or something) guillotines Sting across the top rope and stomps away. Sting blocks a punch and makes a comeback but charges into a boot for two.

Off to a sleeper by the champ which is countered into one by Sting, but Roode escapes with a jawbreaker. Roode goes up but Sting punches him down and busts out a superplex. Scorpion goes on but Roode finally gets to a rope. Roode goes to the floor and they head up the ramp. Back to ringside and Sting ACTUALLY HITS THE SPLASH ON THE BARRICADE. Roode gets put in the Scorpion on the announce table but the tap out there doesn’t count. For no apparent reason there’s a six pack of beer by the table and Roode gets one out. It goes upside Sting’s head and it gets the pin at 9:52.

Rating: C+. I’m not a big fan of Sting’s main event matches. Or is it Roode that I’m not a fan of? Either way, this was a pretty dull main event but after the love fest that this show was for Sting, he had to lose at some point here. Roode needs to lose the title soon as there’s nothing left for him to do with it and he’s reaching boring levels by this point. Maybe Anderson takes it Thursday, but at the end of the day that’s better than another Sting win.

Post match Sting snaps and takes Roode up the ramp before hitting the Death Drop off the stage through some tables.

Overall Rating: A. If TNA was looking to hit a home run with this show, they certainly did it. The Sting stuff was a bit of overkill but all in all, this worked incredibly well. You get three very good to great matches and it felt like a celebration of TNA rather than just another PPV. The crowd looked great, the wrestlers looked fired up, and we still have places to go off this. Great show here and one of their best ever if not their best ever.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

Slammiversary 2006
Date: June 18, 2006
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Attendance: 900
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Don West

It’s the anniversary show again with the main event therefore being the King of the Mountain match. It’s Christian defending this year and since Jeff Jarrett is in it, I think you know what’s going down here. Tonight we also have the debut of the new face of TNA management in the form of Jim Cornette. Other than that there isn’t much else to talk about so let’s get to it.

The opening video is about the King of the Mountain match which is almost always at least interesting. We hear from all five people in the match tonight, all of whom say that they’re going to win and that it’s their time. Jarrett thinks Sting and Christian are going to explode and he’ll be able to step in and take the title.

Team 3D vs. James Gang

This is called a Bingo Hall Brawl. There aren’t intros or anything like that as they’re fighting in the tunnel before we have time for any. This is an open challenge of some kind but the story isn’t really explained. Billy and Ray have a chair duel, resulting in BG James interfering and letting Billy crack Ray with the chair for two. D-Von makes the save and the Dudleys hit the reverse neckbreaker for two.

They brawl into the crowd and over into the LAX area which causes LAX to beat up both teams for some reason. Ray sets up a piece of barricade across a pair of chairs at ringside. BG dives off the steps and over the rail to take out D-Von but Ray blasts him in the head for his efforts. They all go into the crowd and Billy blasts both Dudleys with a trashcan lid. Ray is back at ringside and throws in a trashcan full of weapons.

Everyone is in the ring now and Ray finds….a bra? He chokes Kip (Billy) with it before pulling out the cheese grater. That goes over Kip’s head and we’ve got blood. D-Von and BG hit each other with trashcans and everyone goes down. Team 3D loads up What’s Up but BG gets up a trashcan lid to block the head. Billy hits a Fameasser to Ray onto a trashcan for two.

The fans think this awesome and while that might be a stretch, it’s certainly not that bad. Billy goes for some punches in the corner but he gets caught in a Doomsday Device for two as BG makes the save. Now the fans want tables which of course get loaded up. The fans want fire too but that’s a bit too much to ask apparently. Instead they have to settle for a 3D for Kip through the table for the pin.

Rating: C+. Solid opener here as the fans were way into the violence here, which is what the point of an opener is. The fans think it was awesome and again I think that’s too much of a stretch, but the match was certainly good for what it was supposed to be. Naturally it was because of something WWE was doing at the time (restarting ECW) but that goes with the territory.

Post match Ray rips the WWE, saying that’s how it’s done.

We run down the rest of the card which is something I’ve never gotten.

Jeff Jarrett talks about overcoming the eyes time after time in his life and how that’s what he’s going to do tonight as well, just like Joe Montana or Reggie Jackson or Michael Jordan. Jarrett lists off everyone else in the match and talks about how he’s going to overcome them as well. Larry Z pops up and says Jarrett won’t like who the new face of TNA management is going to be.

We recap Rhyno vs. the Canadians. This is fallout from Abyss beating Rhyno because of the Canadians. Rhyno challenges Bobby Roode and any member of Team Canada that he chose. Naturally he picked Coach D’Amore. For some reason this gets the music video treatment.

Scott D’Amore/Bobby Roode vs. Rhyno

D’Amore runs his mouth about being better than Rhyno pre-match. He tells Roode to stand back and let D’Amore do all of the work here. Uh….k? Here’s Rhyno and D’Amore runs up the other ramp which is funny for some reason. Roode runs as well so we can stall before we start. D’Amore is already blown up after running that far so Roode has to start. The Canadians have to tag here.

Rhyno chases Roode to the floor but gets distracted by D’Amore, allowing Roode to clothesline him in the back of the head to take over. Back in and D’Amore does jumping jacks. Rhyno gets up but Roode hits him again before Rhyno can kill the Coach. Off to Roode who rams him into the buckle for two. D’Amore gets in some more cheap shots but almost gets caught in a piledriver. Roode makes I think the third save in five minutes and comes in legally.

Scratch that as the Coach comes back in to drop a leg. This has been pretty boring so far and I don’t see it getting any better by the end of the match. Roode comes in again to continue the wide array of stomping we’ve got going on. Rhyno snaps off a belly to belly but gets put right back down for more stomping. D’Amore takes off his shirt and goes up for the moonsault but Rhyno moves. Roode comes off the top but jumps into a punch. D’Amore hits Rhyno with the hockey stick but for some reason he tries to put him in a Death Valley Driver. A spinebuster and the Gore pin D’Amore.

Rating: D-. What a boring match. Nothing happened here and the offense by the Canadians was terribly uninteresting. The Gore to the fat guy (who wasn’t that fat really) was kind of cool to see but other than that, there was nothing at all to see here. Rhyno was in a limbo at this point and would be that way for a few more months.

Samoa Joe isn’t worried about Scott Steiner tonight.

Senshi vs. Shark Boy vs. Alex Shelley vs. Sonjay Dutt vs. Petey Williams vs. Jay Lethal

Elimination rules and the winner gets a title match this week on Impact. In what is probably a good thing, people have to tag here so there are only two people in the ring at once. Shark Boy and Petey get us going with Sharky grabbing the arm to start. Petey escapes and tries the Tree of Woe O Canada deal but Shark Boy bites his way out of it. They head out to the floor where nothing happens so Shark Boy tags in Lethal. This is before he’s Black Machismo so he’s just a 20 year old guy who is talented.

Jay works on the back and things speed up a bit. Petey hits a knee to the ribs and dropkicks the knee out. Off to Senshi who chops away, only to get chopped right back. A dropkick gets one for Lethal. Senshi comes back with the kicks before tagging in Shelley to a good reaction. He hooks a necktie choke and bends Lethal over the his knees. Lethal backflips out of it but Shelley backflips out of that and hits a kind of Backstabber to put Jay back down.

Jay gets in a low dropkick and it’s off to Dutt to start the flips. A standing swanton followed by a standing moonsault gets two. Dutt goes up top, only to get crotched by Shelley, who follows that up by dragging the crotch along the top rope for some rope burns. Alex stays on Dutt but taunts Sharky. This draws everyone in and it’s a triple suplex in a fairly cool looking spot. We get down to Dutt vs. Shark Boy with the masked man hitting a slingshot splash for two.

The Dead Sea drop is countered so he hits a regular neckbreaker instead. Shark Boy tries a top rope elbow but crashes, allowing Dutt to hit a standing shooting star to eliminate Shark Boy. Shelley vs. Dutt now and it’s a loud enziguri to Dutt. Dutt no sells that and hits a neckbreaker to put Shelley down. Dutt goes up but gets launched onto the middle rope, where Lethal tags himself in.

Lethal comes in with a springboard dropkick to Alex but Shelley comes back very quickly. A brainbuster looks to set up a swanton bomb but Jay avoids it and eliminates Shelley with a dragon suplex. Everyone comes in now and Senshi is sent to the floor. Petey hits a slingshot rana to the outside so Lethal dives onto the Canadian. Dutt hits a huge moonsault press onto all three to put all four down.

It’s Lethal vs. Petey in the ring with Jay kicking Petey’s head off. Petey shrugs that off and kills Lethal with the Destroyer to get us down to three. Dutt comes back in as it’s him, Senshi and Petey to go. Senshi and Williams team up on Dutt for a bit but Williams accidentally drills the bald guy in the face. An enziguri gets two for Dutt on Williams as Petey is in trouble. Senshi comes in and clotheslines Williams down because he’s not a nice guy.

Senshi goes up but Petey stops him, starting a fight on the top. Williams tries the Destroyer off the top but Senshi hangs on. Dutt takes Williams down and the Warrior’s Way gets us down to Senshi vs. Dutt. Both guys go up again and Dutt hits a rana to take Senshi down. A low dropkick gets two as does a floatover DDT. Senshi takes him down and hits a standing Warrior’s Way (double stomp) for two. Dutt trips him down and goes up top but his 450 hits knees. A HUGE running dropkick puts Dutt down and Senshi puts him in the Tree of Woe. The Warrior’s Way from that position is more than enough for the pin.

Rating: B-. This was your usual mindless X-Division match and that’s fine. This ate up almost half an hour and it was certainly entertaining. Senshi was the new hot thing in the division so putting him over like this was certainly the right idea. There isn’t much to say here as this was exactly what you would expect from this kind of a match, but it was pretty good.

Shelley is with Nash and apologizes for the loss, but he thinks there were knives and guns involved. Nash isn’t worried about his X-Division match tonight with Sabin. Today is Father’s Day and he talks some trash about Sabin’s papa.

We recap Nash vs. Sabin which is part of the Paparazzi Productions feud, which I still don’t think anyone involved could actually explain to you. Nash talked about how he was going to take over the X-Division, making Sabin stand up for its defense. This feud didn’t make a ton of sense but it was pretty funny.

Kevin Nash vs. Chris Sabin

Nash hits a hard knee to the ribs and Sabin goes flying. A pair of elbows miss and Sabin goes for the knees. So this is your basic small guy vs. giant match isn’t it? Sabin comes back with some fast strikes and Nash bails to the floor. He calls out Shelley for backup and we continue the stalling. Nash takes over again and pounds Sabin down into the corner, allowing Shelley to take the turnbuckle off. Sabin goes up for a middle rope dropkick, getting two.

He tries the Cradle Shock and you can join me in rolling your eyes if you like. That injures Sabin’s back so Nash bends Chris over his knee. The Jackknife is countered into a seated senton for two. Sabin loads up Cradle Shock again but this time Shelley grabs Nash’s foot to break it up. That ticks Sabin off so he dives onto Shelley for good guy revenge. Back in and a dropkick gets two on the big guy as does a guillotine legdrop. After another distraction by Shelley, Nash gets up, hits the big boot and Jackknifes Sabin for the pin.

Rating: D. This was another dull match that didn’t really accomplish anything. Sabin was more of an annoyance to Nash rather than a credible opponent, which doesn’t help the division at all. That being said, it lets Nash brag some more which is the right idea at the end of the day. I still do wish the story made any kind of sense though.

AMW says they’re not worried about Daniels and Styles tonight. They laugh off the notion that they’re disrespecting the titles because they’re the best thing that’s ever happened to the titles. Storm says sorry about your luck.

We recap the tag title match. Daniels and Styles have had the titles won time after time but AMW cheated to win the title each time. Tonight it’s the last chance and the challengers say they have a way to keep Gail out of things.

Tag Titles: Christopher Daniels/AJ Styles vs. America’s Most Wanted

AMW has the titles of course. Gail is looking great in all white tonight. Storm hides something behind the steps before the match starts. Styles and Storm start us off, which is a potential PPV main event today. Storm takes him down with a shoulder block so Styles starts jumping around to take over. There’s the dropdown dropkick and Storm is in trouble. The challengers start tagging in and out quickly as they work over Storm’s arm.

It’s off to Harris vs. Daniels for a battle of arm control. Daniels gets him down and steps on the head of Harris just to be evil, although in a friendly way of course. Storm comes in and we get some homosexually suggestive positions as a result. AMW gets sent to the floor and Styles hits a huge flip dive over the top to take them both down. Daniels brings Storm back in for a slingshot elbow drop for a delayed two.

Back to Styles and the perfect double teaming begins. Styles slides through Harris’ legs to ram his face into the apron. Styles goes back in to face the legal Storm but everything breaks down on the floor. Gail gets involved out there and AMW takes over again. AJ tries to use the barricade as a launch pad but Storm takes the legs out and sends AJ’s chest into the steel.

Back in and it’s Storm vs. Styles before a quick tag brings Harris back in. With Harris doing nothing he brings Storm back in for some kicks to the head for two. Back to the Wildcat who chokes away. I’m starting to get why Storm was the successful one after the team broke up. AJ gets spun around and almost makes a tag out of it, only to get caught in a spinning mat slam by Storm.

Styles counters the reverse tornado DDT and hits the Pele to put both guys down. There’s the double tag and Daniels speeds things up. The slingshot moonsault gets two on Harris as Storm messes up his save. A Blue Thunder Bomb puts Harris down but Gail makes the save. Sirelda, a Chyna wannabe, makes her debut and lays out Gail.

Back to the match, AMW tries a double team move off the top but AJ makes the save, allowing Daniels to hook a victory roll for two. Storm throws in a chair for Harris to blast Daniels to two. Hot tag brings in AJ with the springboard forearm followed by a pumphandle gutbuster. Spinal Tap misses and Harris blasts AJ in the face with the brass knuckles.

Daniels makes the save and AJ hits a slingshot splash for two. Back to Daniels but Angel’s Wings is broken up. The Last Call is blocked by a low blow and Angel’s Wings hits the second time but Harris elbows the referee. Storm brings in the beer bottle but it hits Harris in the head. A frog splash from AJ followed by the BME gives the Dream Team the titles.

Rating: B-. Another good match here and it would start a pretty solid reign for the new champions. AMW would slowly slip into a funk and be broken up by the end of the year. AJ and Daniels were a solid team though and they had some awesome matches against LAX, which was the whole idea of putting them together in the first place.

Sting says he’s been around for awhile and he knows how to multitask. If he has the chance to get the title, he’ll take it but more importantly, he wants to keep the title away from Jarrett.

Tenay is in the ring and we get a video of the first four years of TNA. Tenay brings out the new face of TNA management: Jim Cornette. Cornette praises TNA and says how great the tag title match was. He’s here for Panda Energy and to protect their investment and won’t back down. Somehow that took almost ten minutes.

Scott Steiner isn’t worried about Joe.

We recap Samoa Joe vs. Scott Steiner. This isn’t the time with the machete either. Joe is undefeated here and Steiner wants to break the “half breed’s” streak. Joe debuted a year ago at Slammiversary and he’ll be undefeated for a year after tonight. This is the Joe that had an attitude and a chip on his shoulder and you knew he was going to run over anyone that he faced.

Scott Steiner vs. Samoa Joe

Joe is the X Champion here if that means anything. Steiner grabs the arm to start and easily flips Joe over. They go to the mat but Joe pulls guard (I’ve been watching some MMA lately) and Steiner lets him up. Steiner hiptosses him over and poses so Joe spits in his face. Joe gets all fired up and lays in the chops and kicks to take over. Scott snaps off a release belly to belly and takes over again.

Joe takes him down into the corner and we get the Facewash. Steiner thinks he can hide on the floor but the suicide elbow sends him into the barricade. Back in and Steiner clotheslines him down and we get the push-up elbow. Another belly to belly puts Joe down, followed by a powerbomb but Joe grabs a triangle choke. He can’t keep it on all the way though due to the suplex and powerbomb hurting his neck.

Joe snaps off right hands in the corner but charges into a release Rock Bottom, which is one of Joe’s moves. They go to the floor and up towards the stage with Steiner picking up a chair. Naturally that winds up going upside his own head but Steiner shrugs it off and puts Joe against the post and cracks his head with the chair. The referee says they have a ten count to get in for some reason. Steiner cracks him with the chair again and gets nine.

Back in and Joe fires off the palm strikes to take over. An atomic drop sets up the running big boot followed by the senton backsplash for no cover. Now Steiner charges into the release Rock Bottom. A slam attempt by Steiner is countered into a Blue Thunder Bomb for two. Steiner comes back with some clotheslines but gets caught in the Clutch. Steiner fights up and breaks the hold then does it again, the second time with a low blow. A half nelson suplex puts Joe down. The Recliner is countered into an electric chair position and Steiner charges into a powerslam for the surprise pin.

Rating: C+. This was a pretty good power match as Joe gets another win over a big enough name. That’s all you need to do at times and it was another good building block for him. He wouldn’t really do anything for way too long which is where they screwed up with him, but it was TNA so they weren’t going to be considered geniuses back then.

Christian, the world champion, says that he’ll be the first champion to retain in the King of the Mountain match. If he had a dime for every time someone said he would lose, he’d have at least 51 dimes. The NWA World Title is like a drug and tonight he’s going to keep it from Jarrett.

We recap the world title match, which is really just based on qualifying matches.

NWA World Title: Christian Cage vs. Ron Killings vs. Jeff Jarrett vs. Sting vs. Abyss

King of the Mountain, which has some complicated rules. It’s a reverse ladder match, meaning you have to hang the title above the ring to win it. However to be eligible to do that, you have to gain a fall over someone else. If you pin or submit someone, they go to the penalty box for two minutes. After the big match intros we’re ready to go.

Big brawl to start with only Truth and Jarrett left in the ring. Christian gets back in and dances with Truth for some reason, getting himself punched in the face for his efforts. It’s Christian vs. Jarrett in the ring at the moment but they quickly go to the floor with the Canadian diving onto Jeff. The other three go into the ring and Abyss’ double chokeslam attempt is broken up.

Truth knocks Abyss to the floor and hits a huge dive to take everyone down. Sting goes tot he top of the penalty box and dives on all of them because he’s just that awesome. Sting vs. Jarrett in the ring now and Jarrett gets hit with the splash, followed by a missile dropkick from Truth, who gets the pin. Sting stood back and let him get the pin. Truth is now eligible and Jarrett is in the box for two minutes.

There are two tables set up next to the box. Truth tries to bring in a ladder but Christian launches it into his face for a two count. Abyss gets into the ring and sets for a gorilla press on Christian but Cage slips down the back and rolls Abyss up to become eligible as well. Jarrett gets out about two seconds after Abyss goes in so we’ve got four active people now with Christian and Truth both eligible.

Truth gets slammed by Sting and Jarrett crushes Christian with the ladder on the floor. Something that might have been the Death Drop on Truth gets two and Abyss is freed. He throws Christian into the barricade and now there are four tables in a 2×2 stack on the floor. Everyone but Christian is in the ring now with the good guys taking over. Sting and Abyss knock each other to the floor and Jarrett Strokes Truth off the apron into the barricade for the pin to become eligible.

The four people left fight into the crowd and Sting cracks Abyss with a chair to the head and then does it again. Christian tries to throw Jeff over the end of the balcony but Jeff fights back to prevent death. Sting throws Abyss into a wall as Christian and Jeff are back at ringside. Abyss throws Sting into the same wall as earlier and Truth is out of the box. There’s no one near him so…let’s look at the crowd.

Killings grabs the ladder and goes up but he takes forever but Abyss makes the save. Everyone is in the ring now and Jarrett/Abyss beat on everyone else with a ladder. Truth gets launched to the floor but Sting and Christian dropkick the ladder into the evil ones. Christian crushes Jarrett between the ladder but Abyss makes the save, sending both guys out to the floor in the process.

Truth goes up again but Abyss shoves him off again. The ladder swings back and falls on Hebner so there’s no referee. Jarrett goes for the title but Abyss objects and hits the Black Hole Slam. A second referee comes out to count the pin, meaning only Sting isn’t eligible. In a TERRIBLY contrived spot, Abyss sets the ladder next to the ropes, only for Sting to shove him through the four tables.

Christian and Sting stare each other down and they slug it out. A Stinger Splash hits and he puts on the Scorpion but Jarrett comes out of the box early. He hits Sting with the belt and loads up the guitar shot, only for Christian to steal the guitar. The Death Drop puts Jarrett down and he puts the Scorpion on Jarrett, telling Sting to go up. Larry Z hits Christian low and gets drilled by Sting.

Another Death Drop puts Jarrett back down but there’s no referee to count. Sting does the Austin thing and slaps the mat three times with Hebner’s hand. Sting goes up but Christian stops him. EARL HEBNER shoves the ladder over as Jarrett goes up and hangs the belt (he never went into the box) to win in a Montreal angle. Larry even gets Earl out of there to complete the stupidity.

Rating: B. Other than the STUPID ending, I liked it. Montreal is easily the most controversial moment in wrestling history and is probably the most famous ending to a show ever. I personally hate it because we’re nearly FIFTEEN YEARS LATER and I still have to sit through reenactments of it. The match was pretty fun, but Jarrett winning was just a way to set up Sting vs. Jarrett again.

Post match another referee steals the belt from Jarrett and gives it to Cornette to end the show.

Overall Rating: B-. This show worked for the most part, although there were some weak matches in there as well. There’s more good than bad though which is all that matters at the end of the day. This was a hit or miss time for TNA but you could see the great elements they could have in there with guys like AJ and Daniels and Joe, but that usually goes without saying. Good show here though.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

Sacrifice 2006
Date: May 14, 2006
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Attendance: 900
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Don West

Another show here in Orlando with Christian as the world champion. Tonight he defends against Abyss in a Full Metal Mayhem match, which is the TNA version of a TLC match. Abyss took the belt itself at Lockdown even though Christian is still champion. Other than that it’s another chapter in the Sting vs. Jarrett saga, in this case Sting/Joe vs. Jarrett/Steiner. Let’s get to it.

The opening video is about how everyone has troubles in their lives and how everyone has to make sacrifices.

We open up with a scoreboard update for the World X Cup. This is one of those things that I never quite got into but a lot of people loved. The idea is that you have four teams of four X guys competing in a round robin style tournament for national supremacy. America has five points, Mexico has two points and Japan and Canada have zero each. This is the last match of the second round and I guess it’s for one point.

World X Cup Second Round: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Petey Williams

Actually this is worth three points. Petey takes him to the mat and the fans are all over him. To be fair he’s fighting a legend so it’s understandable. I think they botch an elbow drop spot as Liger dropped the elbow but Williams took over anyway. A headscissors puts Liger to the apron but he low bridges Williams to the floor. Liger adds a huge dive to take over again.

Team Japan acts all evil and pounds on Petey on the floor. Back into the ring and Liger hooks the surfboard which is one of his signature holds. He drops Petey down into a dragon sleeper and now the annoying fans have to do the dueling chants. A frog splash by Liger hits knees and Petey hits a spinwheel kick to put Liger down again.

Liger tries a palm thrust but walks into an enziguri and tornado DDT for two. Petey loads up the Destroyer but Jushin comes back with a palm thrust and the Liger Bomb for two. A member of Team Japan interferes with a low blow. Liger follows with the Crash Thunder Buster (wheelbarrow facejam) for the pin.

Rating: C+. This was pretty good and a solid choice for an opener. Liger is one of the few guys from Japan that people actually know a bit here in America so his appearances are actually worth something. Having people go out there and just saying they’re from Japan or Mexico or wherever doesn’t really mean anything. Liger could still go in his late 30s or early 40s so this worked pretty well.

The PPV froze at the end of the match. Such is life in TNA.

Updated World X Cup Standings:

America – 5

Japan – 3

Mexico – 2

Canada – 0

We’ll be back to this later on.

We run down the card for the rest of the show.

AMW with Jackie (Gayda) and Gail say they’re not worried about tonight. Jackie is here against her will. Storm threatens Jackie to not cost them anything tonight. The girls are barred from ringside. Jackie says she’s pregnant and Gail fires her.

We recap AMW vs. Styles/Daniels. The idea is that AMW is the undefeatable team so a dream team has been put together to fight them. They already had one match but Gail cheated to keep the belts on AMW.

Tag Titles: America’s Most Wanted vs. Christopher Daniels/AJ Styles

Styles and Daniels jump the champions to start and Daniels/Harris go to the floor so AJ can hit the dropdown dropkick on the Cowboy. Daniels comes in and we’re ready to go. He takes Storm down and cranks on the arm but it’s off to Harris who runs Daniels over. The challengers double team Storm and Harris’ full nelson slam is countered into a bridging Indian Deathlock with a chinlock but the Cowboy makes the save.

Styles comes in legally now and the challengers tag in and out quickly to work on the arm. AMW finally starts cheating and get Daniels into the corner to take over. The champs cheat like true heel champions would do with choking and face pulling before Harris hooks a chinlock. A back elbow gets two on the Fallen Angel. Daniels counters an Irish whip to send Storm’s shoulder into the post and it’s hot tag to AJ.

AJ speeds things way up with his headscissors but Storm makes the save. Daniels gets tagged back in for some reason and we get a Tower of Doom with Daniels on top. Oh scratch that as he shoves the Tower down and hits a top rope cross body for two on Harris. I wish AMW would have their names on their trunks because when their backs are to the camera it’s very hard to tell them apart.

Daniels throws Harris into the crowd and AJ dives from the top rope over the barrier and onto Harris. The match kind of breaks down a bit and everyone is on the floor. A fan has a box of cereal for some reason. Back in and Daniels breaks up the Death Sentence before putting Harris into a fireman’s carry. AJ hits the Pele before the DVD hits to kill Harris dead. BME misses but the Last Call does as well. Harris hits his spear to take Daniels down for two.

It’s Storm vs. Daniels legally now but Daniels hits a double clothesline to bring in Styles. AJ goes up high with a double clothesline of his own but he charges into a boot from Storm. AJ loads up a superplex but Harris makes the save, resulting in a Doomsday Device into a reverse tornado DDT by Storm for two. That looked awesome.

Daniels comes back in for the save and the challengers hit a BME/Frog Splash combo for two on Storm. Styles tries the Clash but the Cowboy escapes with a low blow and the superkick for two. Angel’s Wings hits Storm for two as Harris makes the save. This is getting awesome. Daniels, Harris and the referee get knocked to the floor and something falls from the rafters into the ring. It’s a nightstick and Gail Kim is seen in the rafters. AJ hits the Clash on Storm but Harris blasts him in the back of the head with the nightstick for the pin to retain.

Rating: B+. This was getting awesome at the end but we had to have Gail Kim interfere to end the thing. This would set up another match at Slammiversary which wasn’t as good but it gave us the title change which we needed. Still though, this was the old school idea of putting four guys out there and giving them fifteen minutes to have a great match. As usual, it worked.

Larry Z is with A-1 and says that all of his problems are because of Raven. A-1 is going to take out Raven for him tonight. A-1 has no idea what’s going on and thinks Larry’s name is Barry. He leaves and Slick Johnson comes in and says we’re going to find out who the face of TNA management is next month. Larry has no idea who it’s going to be but Johnson says he knows. He suggests it’ll be Piper but that’s just a joke. It might be Vince Russo but that’s also a joke. The third joke is Ultimate Warrior. I think we get it by this point. Johnson still won’t tell.

We recap the Larry Z vs. Raven feud which has gone on forever. Larry was told that someone was going to be the new face of TNA management on the same day that his biggest rival, Raven, was reinstated. Team Canada offered A-1 to take Raven out for some reason.

Raven vs. A-1

Larry sits in a chair in the ring before the match starts. Larry gets in his face so A-1 hits Raven with said chair to get an early advantage. A-1 rams him into the corner a bunch of times as Larry sits in on commentary. They head to the floor and A-1 rams him into the post a few times to stay on the back. Raven’s back goes into the barricade as the beating on that thing continues.

Back into the ring and A-1 fires off shoulders in the corner. A corner splash/forearm puts Raven down again as we’re still waiting on Bird Boy’s first offense. A-1 kicks him down but Raven FINALLY gets in some right hands in the corner. A clothesline out of the corner buts A-1 down and he fires off some kicks. An Edge-O-Matic puts Raven down but Larry’s distraction lets A-1 get in a cheap shot. A charge misses and the Raven Effect gets the pin.

Rating: D. This was a really dull match, but that could be said about almost any match in this Raven vs. Larry feud. It just kept going on and on with nothing ever really being accomplished. We got matches like Raven vs. Kanyon out of it which didn’t make anyone interested in the match or anything like that, but who cares about stuff like that?

Larry calls Raven back to the ring and they have a weak brawl.

Jarrett and Steiner say Sting hasn’t one-uped them but rather the opposite. Jarrett says that Sting is desperate for picking Joe as his partner when Joe isn’t trustworthy. Steiner says that Sting’s mistake will result in pain.

We recap Rhyno vs. Roode. Team Canada cost Rhyno a match with Abyss for some reason that isn’t quite explained here. Rhyno has vowed to go through all of the Canadians to get to Coach D’Amore.

Bobby Roode vs. Rhyno

The is power vs. power and they fight over a lockup to start. A shoulder block puts Roode on the floor but Rhyno doesn’t follow up. Roode comes back in and slaps Rhyno in the face, which gets him punched and backdropped for his troubles. They go to the floor for a slugout which goes to Roode. Back in and Rhyno goes to the middle rope but a disitraction by the Coach lets Roode knock Rhyno to the floor.

Back in and Bobby pounds away at the Man Beast’s head before choking away a bit. Neckbreaker gets two. There’s the Hennig neck snap for the same result and it’s off to a neck crank. The jingoistic fans chant USA so Roode hits a belly to back suplex and a middle rope kneedrop for two. Off to a chinlock which stays on the neck. Like any good stupid heel, Roode slaps Rhyno in the face a few times which fires Rhyno up.

Roode takes him right back down by sending him into the corner and it’s back to the chinlock. Rhyno fights out of it and speeds things up, running over Roode with clotheslines and elbows to the face. A spinebuster gets two for Rhyno and Roode goes to the apron. He goes up top but gets superplexed back down for a close two.

Roode comes back with a spinebuster of his own and it’s hockey stick time. Since that gets taken away, Roode has to settle for getting two boots into the face of a charging Rhyno. The Northern Lariat is countered into a belly to belly but D’Amore gets in a hockey stick shot so that the Lariat can hit for the pin.

Rating: D+. This wasn’t bad but it was pretty boring. I never quite got the point of the feud between Rhyno and the Canadians but it didn’t last long. It was more like a way to bridge the gap from Rhyno being world champion to his next big feud, which would wind up being Christian Cage. Still though, nothing great here but Roode would get much better over time.

Team 3D talks about how you always remember where you were when big things happen (this leads to an argument about OJ Simpson but we’ll skip that). Ray remembers being in Hartford, Connecticut in 2000 and winning their first WWE Tag Titles after beating the New Age Outlaws. Tonight it happens again.

We recap Team 3D vs. the James Gang. The argument is that the match six years ago ended with a pipe shot and also about the Dudleys getting big in a bingo hall while the Outlaws were headlining MSG.

Team 3D vs. James Gang

Roadie says that he isn’t a mark so he doesn’t remember his wins and losses. Ok then. Kip and D-Von start us off with D-Von hitting a jumping clothesline for two. With nothing of note in the first minute and a half, it’s off to Ray vs. BG. They trade armdrags and no one can really get a distinct advantage. BG fires off an armdrag and dropkick to send Ray into the corner. He yells at Ray about being fat so Ray hits a dropkick of his own to shock BG.

They trade the dancing punches and both hit their big punches at the same time. If this is supposed to be some big and epic clash of legends it really isn’t working. D-Von pulls BG out to the floor and crotches him on the post before coming in legally. D-Von beats on BG for a bit before it’s back to Bubba for a neckbreaker, getting two. Off to a chinlock as BG is in some serious trouble. Ray misses a charge in the corner and BG clotheslines D-Von down.

Hot (I guess?) tag brings in Kip who cleans house. He hits a Stinger Splash on Bubba and everything breaks down. The James Gang is in control but Bubba throws Kip over the top and out to the floor. Doomsday Device gets two on BG and the double neckbreaker gets the same on Kip. Fameasser to D-Von misses but BG brings in a pipe like the one mentioned in the match in 2000. A shot to the back of D-Von is enough to end this.

Rating: D+. Was this supposed to be some big battle? It was ok I guess but it felt like they were going on pure reputation rather than actually having a good match. It wasn’t a bad match or anything but I don’t get if this was supposed to be a big and great match or a revenge match or what. Either way, it was just ok at best.

Mitchell says Christian has nothing to live for other than the world title, and tonight Abyss is taking that from him too. Abyss is going to take the title in the match that Christian is best known for. Mitchell will make sure to come visit Christian in the morgue.

We see the ending of the Liger vs. Petey match because the feed went out earlier. That’s nice of them.

The newest Knockout, Christy Hemme, comes out to present the World X Cup to the winning team.

World X Cup Final Round: Gauntlet Match

All sixteen participants in the match are in this. It’s a two minute starting period followed by one minute intervals after that. It’s over the top rope eliminations until we get down to one on one when it becomes a singles match. The teams that make it to the final match receive two points apiece and the winner of the match gets an extra three. If the two finalists are from the same team, their team receives seven points and automatically wins the tournament. In the event of a tie, the captains will face each other in a singles match….on Impact.

We start with Minoru Tanaka (Japan) and Puma (Mexico). Tanaka offers a handshake to start but as Puma shakes it, Tanaka Mists him to take over. A springboard missile dropkick puts Tanaka down and an enziguri staggers him. Tanaka gets in a suplex but covers out of instinct. #3 is Petey Williams (Canada) and he joins forces with Minoru to double team Puma. That lasts a good 20 seconds before Petey turns on Puma.

#4 is Chris Sabin (USA) and things speed up again. Sabin whips all three guys into the corner but only hits Tanaka with a forearm. A double clothesline takes the other two down and Hiroki Goto (Japan) is #5. He hits a spin kick to take down Sabin and teams up with his teammate to clean house. #6 is Incognito (Mexico) who seems to wrestle in slow motion. He knocks Petey to the floor and hits a suicide dive but neither guy went over the top so everyone is still in. Before I forget, Incognito is currently known as Hunico in WWE.

#7 is Johnny Devine (Canada) and he puts Incognito down in the corner for some running knees. #8 is Sonjay Dutt (USA) to continue the pattern the entries have taken. All eight are still in at the moment. The Americans double team Williams but Devine makes the save. And never mind as Dutt snaps off an inverted rana to send him flying. In at #9 is Black Tiger (Japan) and he runs over Dutt very quickly.

Tiger hooks an ankle lock on Williams but Devine makes the save. Magno is #10 (Mexico) and he comes in with some springboard flips. It’s impossible to tell what’s going on as there are too many people in the ring at the moment. Eric Young (Canada) is #11 as two people go through the ropes, as in not being eliminated. We get a LOUD Eric chant as we’re told that Incognito and Dutt are both out with Dutt having an injured ankle.

#12 is Alex Shelley (USA) and house is cleaned. He hits a complicated double team move on the Canadians and a spin kick Devine. Sabin and Devine go out in a big rush of offense as Liger (Japan) is #13 and the final member of Team Japan. Magno charges into a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker from Liger and they go to the top rope. Liger gets superplexed down and Shocker (Mexico) is #14. Magno charges at someone and is backdropped out.

Black Tiger goes up top but gets powerbombed down and eliminated as we see Tyson Dux (Canada) in at #15. Dux sends Puma to the apron but he gets back in. Shelley throws out Goto and Jay Lethal (USA) is #16 and the final entrant. By my count we have eight people left: Young, Minoru, Shelley, Lethal, Puma, Dux, Liger, Shocker and Williams. Lethal dropkicks Minoru out. That leaves Japan with just Liger.

Shocker charges at Dux and gets monkey flipped to the floor. Dux and Young go at Liger and get palm strikes to the chest for their efforts. They combine to eliminate Liger, eliminating Japan entirely from the gauntlet and the competition. Lethal immediately puts Young out and we’re down to five: Dux, Lethal, Shelley, Williams and Puma. There goes Dux and we’re down to four. The Americans double team Williams but Shelley misses a charging knee to eliminate himself. Lethal goes to the apron but jumps back in, right into a spin kick from Puma to get us down to two.

Puma hits a fast brainbuster and remember that it’s now a regular one on one match. The Canadian Destroyer hits out of NOWHERE and the Canadians in the form of Williams wins, meaning it’s Williams vs. Sabin for the Cup on Impact (Sabin would win the match and the Cup).

Rating: B-. That’s as high as I can possibly go with this. The match wasn’t bad at all but it’s the walking definition of throw A LOT of stuff out there and have them do flips and dives with the hope that the crowd likes it. I don’t really know what else there is to say about this. I don’t see the need in having it go over to Impact and not ending it here, but I guess it gave them something else to do on Thursday. Not a bad match, but it was only going to be able to be so good if that makes sense.

Post match Kevin Nash comes out and Jackknifes Puma to show what he’s going to do to the X-Division. He brags about how Puma got in no offense on him and says a medium big man can beat an X-Division guy any day. Size does matter you see.

Samoa Joe says he doesn’t need to be Sting’s friend to beat up Steiner and Jarrett.

We recap the tag match. Basically Steiner is Jarrett’s top flunkie and they offered Sting a tag match. There was this stupid game show thing with guys like Rick Steiner, Lex Luger and I think Buff Bagwell being partners that Jarrett/Steiner turned down. It wound up being Samoa Joe. See, THIS is how you push someone: put them in the main event or tip feuds and have them seem like they belong there.

Scott Steiner/Jeff Jarrett vs. Sting/Samoa Joe

Jarrett and Sting get us going after some stalling. Sting takes him to the mat and rams his head into the mat in a simple yet effective move. Steiner comes in and charges into a big boot and a Vader Bomb of all things. Sting moves to send a cheating Jarrett into Steiner before taking them both down with a double clothesline off the top. Off to Joe for the showdown with Steiner.

They stare each other down and Joe pie faces him. Joe pounds him into the corner but gets suplexed down which seems to shock him. They slug it out in the corner but Steiner takes his head off with a clothesline. The elbow sets up the pushups which ticks Joe off enough that he fires off forearms and an enziguri to slow Steiner down. Jarrett hits a knee to the Samoan’s back and Joe is in trouble.

Jeff comes in legally and struts a lot but he charges into the release Rock Bottom. Off to Sting who cleans house and powerbombs Jarrett down for two. He loads up the Death Drop but has to put Jarrett in an STO of all things. The Scorpion on Steiner is broken up as is one on Steiner. Jarrett DDTs him down and Steiner hits a belly to belly for two. Jarrett comes back in and uses a Garvin Stomp followed by a front facelock. Riveting stuff from Double J there.

Sting fights up and gets the tag but Steiner has the referee. The classics always work. Speaking of the classics, the guys collide and Sting’s head falls onto Steiner’s balls. Double tag brings in Joe and Jarrett and the snap powerslam gets two on Jeff very quickly. Joe cleans house on Scott and hits the backsplash for two. He runs over both guys at once with a double clothesline and everything breaks down.

Joe throws both guys into the same corner followed by Joe hitting a leg lariat to take them both out. The Stinger Splash hits but the second sends Sting over the top to the floor. The Stroke hits Joe but he takes too long to cover, only getting two. Sting beats up Steiner on the floor as Jarrett tries the middle rope Stroke. Joe punches out of it and the MuscleBuster gets the pin.

Rating: C+. This was your usual main event tag match and it wasn’t half bad. Joe getting the win was fine but at the same time he never got near the world title picture this year, which made little sense after he beat Jarrett again on PPV when Jarrett was world champion. This would be the main event feud that ran all summer and it was pretty decent, although I still didn’t like the way it ended.

Joe finally shakes Sting’s hand post match.

Joe leaves and Steiner blasts Sting with a chair. Joe doesn’t see it but he should have been able to hear it, although he doesn’t turn around. Instead he keeps walking and lets Sting get beaten down. Sting takes a guitar shot which Joe hears. He turns around and looks at Steiner and Jarrett standing tall, then walks away. A bunch of guys run out for the save, including the James Gang and Daniels plus others.

We recap the world title match, which is Full Metal Mayhem. Nothing is said here so I guess there’s no point in recapping it.

Christian says simply stealing a title belt doesn’t make you a champion.

NWA World Title: Abyss vs. Christian

This is basically a TLC match and Christian is defending. Christian immediately takes him down but can’t overcome the power soon afterwords. Abyss goes for a ladder but Christian dropkicks it back into his face. Back into the ring and Abyss throws him to the apron, only to have the ladder see-sawed into his face. They head to the floor with Christian pounding away on Abyss’ head.

Out into the crowd and they go to that wall that the people in every big TNA brawl fight to. They head back into the ring and the ladder is set up in the corner. Abyss misses a splash onto said ladder so Christian puts it up in front of the challenger. He tries a charge at the ladder but Abyss throws it back at him, knocking Christian down. Abyss wedges a chair between the ropes, and due to the law of wrestling #1, goes crashing into it for his trouble.

Christian goes up and gets his hand on the belt but Abyss makes a pretty easy save. They fight over a German onto the ladder but after neither can get it to go, it’s Christian that is sent crashing into the ladder. Abyss goes outside and sets up a pair of tables next to the ring. Now there’s a table set up in the ring as well but Christian gets in a boot to the ribs to break things up.

Abyss puts him on the ladder but misses a cross body kind of move onto the climbing instrument. A frog splash onto the ladder misses but so does a chain shot against the post. Christian chokes him with the chain but gets flipped through one of the tables at ringside. Abyss goes up but Christian makes the save with a chair. They both fall off the ladder with Christian hitting the top rope. Abyss lays out the tacks but walks into an Unprettier onto the ladder. Mitchell takes a Rock Bottom into the tacks and Abyss is put on the table. He has a chance to go for the belt but drops a frog splash through Abyss, then grabs the title.

Rating: B-. This was ok but it never hit the level that a lot of these matches hit. This felt like something you would see on a TV show, meaning that while it was good there was nothing above the usual level of violence or carnage. For a B level main event it was fine, but it’s absolutely nothing you’d ever want to see a second time unless you were completely obsessed with Christian or something.

Overall Rating: C-. This show was really nothing that great. If I was watching it live I likely would have said it wasn’t bad but I would have been a bit disappointed. By no means is it a bad show but there’s nothing on it worth going out of your way to see. This was before TNA really hit its stride so for the time, this was a pretty good show. It hasn’t really aged that well, but in just over six years it can only age so much anyway. Overall not bad, but it’s just ok at best.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

Final Resolution 2006
Date: January 15, 2006
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Attendance: 900
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Don West

This is another of those shows where not a ton happens but it’s supposed to be a big deal. Sting is back tonight and it’s in the form of a tag match. This didn’t work when Rock came back at Survivor Series and it’s not likely to work for me here. Other than that there isn’t much here because the main event guys are all in the main event. Let’s get to it.

The opening video is about how Sting is coming. Jarrett and Brown say it’s 2006 so it doesn’t mean as much as it used to. There had been signs that he was coming back and he finally did at the beginning of the year. The main event is Sting/Christian vs. Jarrett/Brown.

Alex Shelley/Austin Aries/Roderick Strong vs. Chris Sabin/Sonjay Dutt/Matt Bentley

Recipe for this match: take six fast paced guys and give them ten minutes to pop the crowd. Sabin and Shelley get things going. Chris is freshly blonde here and things speed up to start. Sabin takes him to the mat and hits a pair of kicks to the back. Dutt comes in and Sabin powerbombs him down onto Alex for two. Shelley bites Dutt’s thumb to escape and it’s off to Strong.

I’ve always been a fan of Strong but the more I see of him the less interesting he comes off as. That’s saying a lot as he never was anything of note in the first place, but there’s just NOTHING there. Dutt spins around a lot and it’s off to Bentley to work on the arm. Traci is looking very bouncy tonight which is never a bad thing. Aries comes in and gets suplexed right down for two.

Dutt tries his rope walk but Aries crotches him as the heels take over. The heels hit a sick triple team top rope double stomp (only Shelley stomped) on Dutt as Dave Hebner is here watching things. Aries comes in and hits a springboard knee to the back for two. Dutt is sent to the floor as Jerry Lynn is also here watching. He’s an agent at this point but he inspired a lot of these guys.

Shelley comes in and hooks a Rings of Saturn with a leg trap. That’s not normal human bending by Dutt. Back to Strong who slugs Dutt down but Sonjay hooks a tornado DDT for the tag to Sabin. A standing rana takes down the freshly tagged in Shelley. We go to the Tree of Woe and Sabin hits a pair of dropkicks. Sabin takes down all three guys at once but Shelley escapes Cradle Shock.

Bentley drops a top rope elbow on Alex as everything breaks down. Strong hits an Irish Curse on Bentley but Sonjay takes him down. Aries breaks up the Hindu Press but he goes to the floor where Sabin dives onto him. Strong breaks up Bentley’s superkick and Traci gets on the apron. Bentley superkicks Strong down but it allows Shelley to roll Matt up for the pin.

Rating: C. This wasn’t their best match but it was fine with the dives and such. There was nothing of note here though as we had seen most of this stuff before. All six guys were moving well out there and the dives were good, but the ending was pretty weak with no big move or spot for it. Still though, nothing wrong with this and it was fine for what they were going for.

We recap the split of 4 Live Kru and the fallout after that. Konnan is the one that went insane because of Kip James having to force his way in because Kip has nothing to do without BG James. It’s almost like he’s a guy that got over in a tag team but had no ability to get over on his own. Konnan beat up BG’s dad because he’s a bit nuts.

Diamonds in the Rough vs. James Gang

It’s Elix Skipper/David Young and this is the return match for the James Gang. BG and Skipper start things off. Skipper shoves him down and it’s a very slow start. Skipper suplexes BG over and works on the arm for a second. BG comes back with the dancing punches and shaking knee drop for two. David and Kip come in for a few collisions that go nowhere.

The Diamonds try some double teaming but get caught in a double Japanese armdrag by Kip. They get sent to the floor and the Gang beats on them on the floor. The fans chant for the Outlaws but BG walks into a spinebuster from Young for no cover. There’s a reason the guy lost like 86 matches in a row. Skipper pounds on BG for a bit before it’s back to Young who covers, only to have Kip distract the referee. David misses a moonsault and it’s hot tag to Kip. Skipper clotheslines him down and everything breaks down. Young breaks up the pumphandle slam but Kip hits the cobra clutch slam for the pin on Elix.

Rating: D. You know there’s a running theme with these New Age Outlaws matches: they’re not that good. These guys were never known for their in ring work and it’s pretty clear why. The matches just aren’t any good with the action being generic the whole way through. There was nothing to this and it was a horrible return for the James Gang or whatever they’re called this month.

Daniels says Joe hasn’t gotten to him yet and tonight it’s about what they both believe in. Joe believes no one in the X-Division can stand up to him. Daniels believes there’s a big difference between unbeatable and unbeaten.

AJ Styles vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi

This is a match for the sake of a match. Tanahashi is basically the superman of NJPW at the moment (2012) and he’s a rising star at this point (2006). AJ is Mr. TNA for 2005. Remember that as it’ll come into play later. Feeling out process to start as they head to the mat. That goes nowhere so the fans chant for both guys. AJ gets armdragged down as Tenay talks about the history of Japanese guys in America.

They trade armdrags and Tanahashi takes over with an armbar. AJ is like screw that and dropkicks him to the floor. He sets for a dive but Tanahashi moves. AJ catches himself on the apron and we stop for some staring. Back in and Styles drops a knee for two. Tanahashi hits a release German for the same. Off to an abdominal stretch so Tenay can list off Tanahashi’s wins so we can have a reason to think something of him.

Styles gets caught in a sleeper and then its dragon cousin. A dragon sleeper swing gets two. That looked awesome. A middle rope elbow misses and Styles hits an enziguri to put both guys down. Tanahashi escapes a brainbuster but for some reason he puts AJ on the apron. There’s the springboard forearm for two. Hiroshi gets a knee up in the corner and hits a full nelson slam for two.

AJ misses a spin kick and Tanahashi takes him down with an enziguri. Tanahashi tries a belly to back superplex but AJ counters into a crossbody while in mid-air. Shannon Moore runs in with AJ’s plaque but it hits Tanahashi by mistake. AJ Pele’s him down and hits the Styles Clash on Tanahashi for the pin.

Rating: B-. Good match here but the ending holds it down a lot. Moore was doing his punk thing at this point and they put him with Styles for a few weeks until everyone realized that no one cared about Shannon Moore. The match was going really well as Tanahashi really is good, but again there’s no story to the match so it’s hard to care about it at all.

Moore steals the plaque again.

We recap Raven vs. Larry Z which went on forever. Raven won the world title but then he got screwed out of the title at a house show in Canada. Larry refused to grant him a rematch so Larry kept trying to make Raven retire. Raven has a mystery opponent tonight.

Raven says that Larry is an idiot and says he wants the title back. Someone is getting hurt tonight and Larry better pray that it’s Raven.

Sean Waltman vs. Raven

This is Raven’s Rules and if Raven loses he’s fired, but if he wins he gets a title match. Raven shoves his shopping cart into Waltman’s ribs and chases after Larry. They head into the ring and Waltman gets in a kendo stick shot as Larry watches from the floor. They hit each other with trashcan parts at the same time to put both guys down. Raven is busted open but goes after Larry again. Larry’s security holds Bird Boy back so Waltman can dive on him to take over again.

Sean rams the cart into Raven a few times and they go up the ramp. Raven grabs a trashcan lid to blast Waltman in the head to take over. Waltman gets put in the shopping cart and shoved off the stage in a big crash. Back to ringside and Raven pulls out a table. There’s a ladder in there too but the referee goes down. Raven hits the DDT but there’s no referee to count the pin. Larry comes in for a very slow two.

Waltman gets a belt from somewhere and pops Raven with it to take over. Bronco Buster on the ladder misses and Raven gets two. Raven sets up the table and the ladder for a DDT off the ladder. Well at least that’s what he was planning but Larry grabs his foot. Pac hits an X-Factor off the ladder through the table for the pin. Raven had his foot on the rope but Larry counted anyway despite seeing it.

Rating: C. Nothing to see here but it had some fun brawling spots. The ending looked good and it got Raven off of TV, which I believe was due to a legit medical condition he had. The shopping cart stuff was good and Raven sold like a madman as usual, so I can’t complain much here. Just like the six man though, there’s nothing new here which is what holds it back.

Larry gloats post match. Raven leaves very sadly.

Ron Killings says he has two of the fastest wins ever over Bobby Roode and he’s going to do it again tonight. Konnan comes up and wants to know why Killings won’t call him back. Killings isn’t happy with him but Konnan says think about it.

Raven leaves the building and Larry gives him his bag. Jackie Gayda comes up and SWEET GOODNESS those things are huge. She implies Larry screwed her over too but won’t say over what.

Bobby Roode vs. Ron Killings

Killings beat Roode twice in about 40 seconds so Roode jumped him and won the third match. This is the fourth in the series. Truth grabs a very fast rollup for two which scares Roode to death. He tries it again and gets another two so Roode heads to the floor. Back in and Roode hooks a hammerlock which is quickly broken up. Roode bridges into a backslide for one followed by a pinfall reversal sequence which results in a standoff.

Roode goes to the floor again so Truth dives on him to speed things up a bit. Truth goes after D’Amore and gets rammed into the post for his troubles. Back into the ring and there’s an abdominal stretch by the Canadian. D’Amore does what any good manager would do and offers a hockey stick to help with the hold. The hold is broken so Killings grabs another rollup for two. Roode hits a running knee lift and then a reverse bearhug on the mat. Killings escapes and hits a top rope missile dropkick to put both guys down.

Truth comes back again with his dancing punches and a spinning forearm for two. The splits into the side kick gets another two. Roode breaks up a superplex and hits a top rope cross body for two. Killings may have a bad arm. Konnan comes out for no apparent reason and the distraction lets Roode hit the Northern Lariat for the pin.

Rating: D+. When your whole match is based around the idea that one of the guys might get a rollup for a pin and that’s the majority of his offense, you’re going to have to pull off something special to have a good match. This didn’t do that at all really and it felt like something that belonged on Impact. That was one of the major issues with TNA back in the day: they weren’t quite ready to have full three hour PPVs due to only having an hour a week of TV, so a lot of the matches on the PPVs didn’t have a ton of story to them, such as this one.

Konnan (in a Boston Bruins jersey for some reason) says to listen to him instead of the people. Cue BG James but Homicide runs in to help Konnan beat him down. Killings walks away. Kip comes out to clear the ring before he can do their hair.

Mitchell says Sting arriving means that the war begins tonight. Rhyno will be going into battle with Abyss but he’s too distracted to beat the monster. There was something going on with Rhyno’s daughter at this point but it isn’t really made clear here.

We recap Rhyno vs. Abyss. Basically Rhyno was feuding with Team Canada when D’Amore made a deal with Mitchell for Abyss’ protection. I’d assume it was in exchange for money but it was never specifically said.

Rhyno vs. Abyss

Rhyno goes right after him on the floor and the fight starts fast. They head inside, only for Abyss to get clotheslined back to the floor. Rhyno slingshots out onto Abyss but Abyss shrugs it off and pounds him down. Abyss hits him with a chair a few times and wedges the chair in the ropes back inside. To my great shock, Abyss doesn’t wind up going into it, thus violating a wrestling law. A quick neck crank gets Abyss nowhere but a big boot gets him two. So the big boot is better than a neck crank. Got it.

Back to the crank as the match slows WAY down. Rhyno fights out of it and hits a bad TKO to escape. A few chair shots to the head stagger Abyss and another one puts him down. Mitchell hooks the leg to avoid the Gore and Abyss clocks Rhyno with the chain for two. Black Hole Slam is countered into a spinebuster for two. Rhyno tries the Rhyno Driver (middle rope piledriver) but Mitchell interferes again. A chokeslam is broken up but the Black Hole Slam onto the chair gets the pin.

Rating: D+. Not much here as this felt like it was about five minutes instead of the nearly ten that it got. This wasn’t a No DQ match or anything like that, but for some reason the referee didn’t seem to mind. Rhyno had absolutely nothing to do after he got out of the title picture so let’s just let him do hardcore stuff I guess.

Shane talks about how the Dudleys went through the fires of various companies, in case you forgot they were there. Bubba lists off various teams that are great, all of whom have held the NWA tag titles I believe. D-Von says don’t screw with us.

We recap AMW vs. Team 3D. In short, the Dudleys have held all tag titles but the NWA versions, so they’re here to get them. AMW gave Team 3D a huge beatdown a few weeks ago so this is also about revenge.

Tag Titles: America’s Most Wanted vs. Team 3D

We get big match intros and we’re ready to go. D-Von and Storm get things going in what would be a very different match today. Storm takes him down to the mat with a headlock but gets hiptossed and dropkicked down. Harris jumps D-Von from behind and the champs take over. Scratch that as D-Von hits a double clothesline to take over again. Off to Ray as things speed up. One thing you can never say about Ray is that he’s dull. The guy knows how to keep people fired up.

Harris clotheslines Ray down for two and it’s a standoff. They go to the corner and Ray fires off his chops. The middle rope backsplash misses (duh) and it’s back to Storm. Ray is like screw that and cleans house before bringing D-Von back in. A spinebuster gets two on Storm, and What’s Up Cowboy? The Dudleys go for a table because disqualifications mean jack in this company, but AMW dropkicks it into their faces.

Harris takes D-Von down with some tape to the throat and it’s off to Storm for a chinlock. Back to Harris but he gets sent into the post shoulder first. Hot tag brings in Ray and house is cleaned. Side slam gets two on Harris and heel miscommunication lets Ray hit a DDT for two on Wildcat. Everything breaks down and AMW hits a modified Hart Attack for two o Ray. They loads up the Death Sentence but D-Von makes the save.

Ray returns the favor by breaking up a superplex and the Doomsday Device gets two as well. Harris makes the save and gets two on Ray off a big boot. Storm grabs a chair but accidentally clocks Harris into the reverse 3D for two. Bubba shoves Storm off the top through a table and a rollup gets a VERY close two on Harris. Gail hands (not slips, hands while in the ring) Harris powder but Ray knocks it into the referee’s eyes. 3D gets the pin and the titles, but remember that the referee is blind.

Rating: B. This was getting good at the end, but that powder looks like Instant Dusty to me. TNA did a good job at pushing its tag teams at this point and making them seem to be like something that actually mattered. This was a good example of that as the fans were wanting to see the title change here, and that’s what they got.

Oh of course it isn’t, as the Canadians come in, beat up the Dudleys and put Harris on top of Ray as the referee gets his vision back, calling the win for AMW. I’m sure ALL FOUR CANADIANS DESTROYING THE DUDLEYS didn’t shake the ring or anything at all either right? Dusty Finish as you likely saw coming.

Jarrett and Brown say that they’ll win tonight because Christian and Sting both think they’re going to be the savior of TNA. Brown says the time is up on Sting and he has to come to the Serengeti. Brown was way more engaging here.

We recap Daniels vs. Joe. Joe came in and took over the X-Division and destroyed Daniels, badly injuring him. Tonight Daniels wants respect, revenge and the title. See how easy it can be?

X-Division Title: Samoa Joe vs. Christopher Daniels

Joe is champion if that doesn’t come through some how. Daniels has to use speed here and Joe misses a charge. He flies around as fast as he can and takes Joe down with a pair of ranas. A dropkick misses though and Joe gets him in the corner. Daniels tries a side roll but Joe hooks a freaky Rings of Saturn kind of hold on Daniels. Christopher makes the rope but Joe walks out of the way of a Lionsault press. I’ve always loved when Joe did that.

Joe drops a knee for two which is a lot more when you’re his size. Daniels gets an elbow up in the corner but walks into a powerslam to put him right back down. A Codebreaker out of nowhere puts Joe down, followed by an STO and the slingshot moonsault for two. A Death Valley Driver (good one too) out of the corner gets two. Joe powerbombs him half to death for two, followed by a triangle choke into an STF.

Daniels escapes so Joe pounds him on the head in the corner. Daniels tries to powerbomb him out but Joe ranas him and kills Daniels with a clothesline for two. Joe is getting frustrated and charges into a release Rock Bottom and the BME for two. Joe goes to the floor and Daniels BLASTS him in the face with a kick. A slingshot elbow to the floor hits Joe but it hurts Daniels too. Daniels throws Joe back in but gets kicked right back out.

The champ sets up a chair on the floor and it’s the Ole Kick. Remember that Daniels had a bad concussion a few weeks before that. Daniels is busted open now and Joe stomps away at the bad head. Here’s AJ to play cheerleader but it just makes Joe hammer away even more in the corner. Daniels comes back with palm shots and forearms but Daniels can’t stay on his feet.

A running enziguri gives Joe control again and he follows it up with a Punk knee in the corner. There’s the MuscleBuster and the Clutch but Daniels gets his foot on the rope to stun Joe. Joe brings in the chair and hits another MuscleBuster on the chair. The fans want him to do it again, because they’re evil people. Joe hits two punt style kicks to the head and then drives in knees. AJ finally throws in a towel to end this.

Rating: B+. This was more about story than the match but the match itself was good too. There was a poster for Summerslam 1993 with a picture of Yokozuna and the tagline: “Somebody has to stop him.” That’s what TNA had here with Joe as no one could beat him and the question became who was going to finally be able to beat him. That wouldn’t be for nearly another year but dang it was awesome at the time. Good stuff here as I was getting into the beating at the end.

We recap the main event. The idea is that Jarrett is evil and Sting/Christian want to stop him. This would go on for like 10 months so tonight is the first step.

Christian says he’s someone you can trust and you can call his brother or Chris Jericho and ask them if you don’t believe him. “On second thought, that’s a bad idea.” He says he’ll win the world title soon, which is true.

Monty Brown/Jeff Jarrett vs. Sting/Christian Cage

Sting has different music here and it’s not working nearly as well. Brown and Christian start things out as the fans chant for….Christian instead of Sting. Ok then. A quick rollup gets two for the Canadian and it’s quickly off to Jarrett. Christian makes fun of the strut and Jarrett makes sure to block a tag. Christian gets one anyway and Jarrett stalls. They lock up and do some very basic stuff before Sting dropkicks him to the floor.

Back in and Sting blocks a ram into the buckle and bulldogs Jarrett down. Brown gets one of his own and Christian tags himself in. A Gail distraction lets Jarrett hit Christian low and toss him to the floor. Gail adds a rana on the floor so that Monty can drop Christian on the rail. Back in and Christian is in trouble as we get to the main part of the match. Jarrett and Brown take turns on him for a bit until Jarrett puts on a front facelock.

We get the classic “referee misses the tag” and it’s back to Brown for some two counts. Brown sends him to the apron but Christian bites his way out of a superplex. There’s the frog splash but Christian can’t cover immediately so it only gets two. Jarrett breaks up the tag and Sting has to chase him away. The heels bring in chairs but their Conchairto misses and Christian hits a double DDT to take them both down.

There’s the hot tag to Sting and he cleans house. Stinger Splash hits Jarrett but Brown takes out the referee with a missed clothesline. The Deathlock goes on Jarrett and he taps but there’s no referee. In a cool counter, Brown hits a fallaway slam on Christian into Sting to break it up.

Sting and Christian almost get in a fight due to the title belt but they make up in about 8 seconds and clean house. Team Canada runs in but Sting and Christian hit Death Drops to take them out. Christian jumps Brown as Jarrett hits a belt shot on Sting for two. Sting Hulks Up but both he and Christian miss Stinger Splashes. Sting crushes the guitar with the bat and the Death Drop pins Jarrett.

Rating: C+. Not bad here but the ending was a little more overdone than it needed to be. It did need to be overbooked but not that much I wouldn’t think. This would be the start of a VERY long story with Sting leaving immediately after this until he came back as Steve Borden for one night and then back as Sting on a full time basis. He would go after Jarrett and things would go from there until Angle arrived. This was fine for what it was though.

Christian leaves Sting alone in the ring with the bat so he can have the spotlight to end the show.

Overall Rating: C. This wasn’t one of their best shows ever. For some reason the main event and Sting returning was the #1 moment in TNA’s first ten years which is baffling. At the end of the day, it’s just nothing that great. I get that Sting coming back to wrestling is a big deal…..but he had been in TNA before. He had four matches in 2003, so this wasn’t all that big of a deal. As for the rest of the show, it’s just ok. It’s not bad, it’s not great, but it was ok so we’ll go with right in the middle.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

Destination X 2012
Date: July 8, 2012
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Jeremy Borash

This is a rare bit for me as I’m watching the replay instead of the live broadcast due to having to take care of some stuff. This is the X-Division show which will have a series of four matches followed by an Ultimate X match between the winners for the title. Also we have Aries vs. Roode for the world title. This has the potential to be awesome or horrible and all points in between so let’s get to it.

The opening video is pretty awesome with the X-Division being spolighted, until they talk about Ultimate X. Scratch that, because it isn’t Ultimate X. It’s #Ultimate X. I don’t use Twitter and therefore I am SICK of seeing a hashtag in front of everything. Just getting something trending doesn’t make you cool, no matter what WWE wants you to believe. It looks silly and if Twitter dies in a few years, these videos are going to look ridiculous. The rest of the video is good though, focusing on Roode vs. Aries.

JB is on commentary instead of Tazz. That’s strange.

Rubix vs. Mason Andrews vs. Lars Only vs. Dakota Darsow

The winner of this gets the last spot in the tournament. Rubix is Chikara’s Jigsaw and Mason Andrews is PWG’s Scorpio Sky. The two of them start off fast and we get a good sequence, resulting in Andrews being sent to the floo. Rubix headscissors Only down before heading to the floor. Lars and Darsow go at it and this isn’t going to be pretty. Only takes over with some armdrags but Darsow hits a knee to the chest and some legdrops for two. Rubix pops in with a top rope cross body on Darsow for two as things stay fast paced to start. Darsow comes back with a falcon arrow for two as everyone is in the ring again.

Only and Darsow head to the floor while the two competent guys go at it in the ring. Andrews hits a huge dive over the top to take out both guys, followed by a flippier dive from Rubix to all three of them. Back in and Andrews grabs a Fujiwara Armbar on Rubix as Kid Kash, the guy who gets the winner, watches in the back. Geez that guy is still kicking around? Only takes all three down again and gets two on Rubix. Darsow is sent to the floor and Andrews charges into the boot of Andrews.

Dakota crotches Lars and we get the Tower of Doom for two on Only. Rubix pops back in with a Coast to Coast dropkick for another two, this time on Darsow. The fans seem completely behind Rubix here. Everyone takes their shots at each other as things speed up again. Only escapes a fireman’s carry from Andrews but a jumping knee misses. Andrews hits a TKO on Only to advance.

Rating: C+. This was a flipping showcase and there’s nothing wrong with that as an opener. Rubix or Andrews were clearly the right choices here so I’m fine with having Andrews take this one. It’s not a classic or anything but for an eight and a half minute opener to an X-Division show, there wasn’t much wrong here.

X-Division Title Tournament Semi-Finals: Mason Andrews vs. Kid Kash

This starts immediately and Kash jumps Andrews from behind, sending him to the floor. Andrews gets sent into the post and is in trouble early. Back in for some punches as we’re told that Kash has to have security around him all the time, because you just don’t know what he’ll do. Well those 40 year old kids are hard to predict. Andrews’ comeback is quickly taken down and it’s time for kicks from Kash.

A kind of powerslam gets two on Andrews as does a middle rope elbow. This has been total dominance so far, but not the good kind of dominance like Ryback. This is the “why am I supposed to care about Kid freaking Kash?” kind of dominance. Kash fires off more kicks and works on the arm a bit. Back to the floor again with Kash yelling at a fan. That’s the extent of the “action” out there so it’s back inside for a Kash moonsault which hits knees.

Andrews makes his comeback with some clotheslines and a missile dropkick for two. A running knee to the face gets the same and we get a pinfall reversal sequence minus any actual pinfall attempts. The Moneymaker (double underhook piledriver) is countered and Andrews rolls him up for the pin.

Rating: D. I really didn’t like this, although that likely has a lot to do with me not liking Kid Kash at all. He doesn’t interest me at all and I don’t care for his insane guy that could snap at any moment character. Andrews is good in the ring but he’s a bit plain. To be fair though, this was his third match in TNA so it’s hard to complain much here. Andrews has potential though.

Joe says that he picks Aries in the main event. His strategy tonight is to get to the world title through the BFG Series. Angle is nothing more than a means to that end.

Time to look at some tweets because that’s what wrestling is really about anymore.

X-Division Title Tournament Semi-Finals: Douglas Williams vs. Kenny King

Williams still has a job? King is the top story of the week as he’s out of ROH due to jumping to TNA on Thursday. King takes him to the mat to start with a headscissors as the announcers talk about him being a male stripper. That’s not quite as interesting as him being a female stripper but it’s good enough to fill in some time on the mics I guess. Williams is fine on the mat and wraps up King’s legs to take over.

King grabs a few rollups for two and it’s a standoff. The fans are being King here which isn’t really that surprising. Douglas fires off right hands to the face so King heads to the floor. Williams goes after him but King goes into the ring and dives out with a dive to take over. Back in and they head to the mat again with King grabbing a headlock. Williams takes him right back down with a hammerlock. This is fun stuff so far.

They fight over an armbar with King in control for a few seconds. Williams takes him down again and hooks a camel clutch which is quickly broken. Douglas pounds away in the corner but Rolling Chaos Theory (a sick rolling German suplex out of the corner) is broken up. King comes back with an atomic drop and an enziguri to put both guys down. Kenny hits a bit spinwheel kick for two and a spinebuster gets the same. Williams goes up and knocks Kenny to the floor in a big crash. Douglas drops a knee to King to keep King down, just not enough for a countout.

The crowd is quiet here, which is why the Impact Zone sucks: they have bad taste. This has been a good back and forth match and it gets even better with King hitting a springboard Blockbuster for two. They go back to the corner and King shoves Williams off this time. Just like on Impact, King hits the reverse F5 for the pin to advance. That’s the right choice.

Rating: B. I was really enjoying this and both guys were working well out there. Williams is a guy that can be used to make anyone look good, which makes me wonder why he’s hardly ever on TV. They’re smart to push King here, even if he doesn’t win the title, as he is coming over from another company. If you want more people to come there, you need to make them think they’ll be rewarded for it.

Daniels says tonight is about a beating. He’s done well the past year as he’s standing here as a champion unlike AJ. Daniels talks about AJ using Clair and Dixie to get where he is and then he ran away. Based on that, he knows there’s no way AJ is winning a last man standing match.

X-Division Title Tournament Semi-Finals: Sonjay Dutt vs. Rashad Cameron

Cameron is indy guy Sabian. I missed that before. They speed things up to start and it’s a fast standoff. Dutt pounds on the afro and dropkicks Cameron down for two. Sonjay is sent to the floor where Cameron hits a big flip dive to take over. That gets two back in the ring and Dutt snaps off a rana. Out to the floor and Cameron slams Dutt into the apron to break up what probably would have been a moonsault of some kind.

Back in and Cameron gets two again off the counter. He starts to get frustrated so it’s off to a bodyscissors to give him a chance to breathe. Dutt escapes and sends Cameron into the ropes in 619 position before dropping a leg across the back of his neck. A springboard splash gets two and things speed up again.

They trade armdrags and Cameron hits a headscissors off the top. They head to the mat and it’s Cameron hooking a cross armbreaker to take over. Sonjay escapes that too and grabs Cameron in Diamond Cutter position but backflips into a reverse DDT. Dutt goes up and hits the moonsault stomp for the pin to advance.

Rating: C+. That finisher of Dutt’s is incredible. Cameron has some charisma to him and would work well as a heel in the newly refurbished X-Division. This was a solid enough match that ate up about nine minutes which was exactly what these qualifying matches needed to do: hold the fort until we get to the bigger stuff later on tonight. Good match here.

We talk about Jesse Sorensen a bit and how he got hurt. This is followed by a video on Sorensen who says that he barely remembers any of this. The doctor says Jesse should be able to get back in the ring eventually. He hopes to make a full recovery. Good video to have on a show like this.

Sorensen is here and talks about how he remembers being taken out of the arena with the fans chanting his name. It’s those same chants that made him able to come out here again, because this is what God put him on the earth to do. After a lot of cheering, Sorensen says that he hopes Ion wins the title tonight so that Sorensen can take it from him and cash in next year to become World Heavyweight Champion.

X-Division Title Tournament Semi-Finals: Zema Ion vs. Flip Cassanova

Ion stares down Sorensen as he comes through the curtain. That could be an incredible moment when they have their match. Hopefully this match is short though as Cassanova was downright dangerous on Impact. Ion kicks him in the head to start and clotheslines Flip down. Ion misses a clothesline and Cassanova sends him to the floor, followed by a flip dive.

That gets Cassanova nowhere so Ion pounds him right back down. Cassanova gets sent to the floor for a baseball slide to send him down again. Back in and Flip kicks Ion down and hits a namesake moonsault for two. The flip dive that he won with on Impact misses here and Ion ends this with a modified Gory Bomb.

Rating: D+. This was just a step above a squash. Now hopefully we never see Cassanova and his dangerous self for a LONG time. He didn’t have the chance to screw much stuff here and for the sake of Ion, that’s a very good thing. Ion looked decent here, which is about how he’s looked the entire time he’s been around: not bad but nothing great.

Sonjay, King and Andrews say they’ll win. Roode comes in and yells at them because it’s his moment, not theirs.

Bound For Glory Series: Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe

Angle is far higher up the rankings due to making Pope tap out at a house show. Joe fires off some kicks but Kurt ducks and they head to the corner. Joe hits a shoulder block but Angle rolls out of the Clutch. Angle rolls him down again and it’s a standoff. Kurt takes him down in a front facelock but Joe powers him into the corner and fires off right hands. Joe hits the Facewash and Angle is in trouble.

Angle gets knocked to the floor and there’s the suicide elbow. As they head back in, Kurt kicks Joe in the chest and stomps him down in the corner. Joe comes right back and sends Angle into the opposite corner and hits an enziguri, but the MuscleBuster is broken up by a headbutt. Kurt pulls off a middle rope dropkick and both guys are down. He puts Joe in a chinlock followed by the overhead belly to belly.

There’s a small cut on Angle’s forehead. Off to another chinlock by Kurt, this time while sitting on Joe’s back. Joe counters that and goes up, only to have Angle run the ropes. Kurt gets shoved off though and Joe hits a middle rope leg lariat for two. A big boot puts Angle down and a backsplash gets two. A snap powerslam gets a third two count for Joe and it’s off to an armbar. Kurt blocks most of it and counters into the ankle lock.

Joe quickly breaks that, only to get caught in Rolling Germans. This has been pretty awesome so far and it’s getting better now. Another MuscleBuster is broken up and there’s the ankle lock again. Joe rolls out of that one as well and Angle charges into the release Rock Bottom out of the corner. This time the MuscleBuster hits, although he dropped Angle on his back instead of the usual head.

That gets two and Angle grabs the ankle lock again. Joe needs to work on his facials as he looks annoyed rather than in pain. Either way he spins around and counters into the Clutch. Angle stays in that for a good while but fights up and hits the Angle Slam for two. There go the straps and you know it’s serious now. Another Angle Slam is countered into another Clutch and Angle is in trouble. He doesn’t tap but the referee calls for the bell.

Rating: B+. I was really getting into this and I stayed in it the whole way through. The legacy these two have against each other is enough for a story which is a good place to be in. I liked this better than almost any of their other matches, which is a surprise as I wasn’t expecting anything near this. Also Joe winning is a very nice surprise and hopefully a sign that he’s on the verge of becoming a bigger player again.

That puts Joe in first place in the Series.

We recap this chapter of Styles vs. Daniels. Daniels claimed that AJ had an affair with Dixie Carter but it turned out that nothing was happening and that Dixie and AJ were covering for a girl named Clair who was in rehab. Daniels then claimed that AJ slept with Clair when she was unconscious and is the father of her unborn baby. I’m still not wild on this angle.

Christopher Daniels vs. AJ Styles

Last Man Standing here. Daniels immediately stalls on the floor which goes on long enough to tick AJ off. Styles chases him out and back into the ring, where Daniels spits in his face. Styles chases him to the floor again and they finally get going. It’s a slugout won by Daniels but Styles sends him into the barricade to take over. Back into the ring and AJ snaps off that gorgeous dropkick to take over.

Daniels begs off so Styles stomps on his hand. A suplex puts Daniels into the corner but he comes back with chops. Daniels head fakes Styles out of the corner and drills him in the face to take AJ down. Chris throws in a chair but pulls AJ to the floor first. That doesn’t last long so they head back in with Styles missing a springboard corner dive using the chair to launch at Daniels. Daniels hits the release Rock Bottom onto the chair but AJ is back up almost immediately.

They head to the floor again and Daniels yells at some fans. Fan: “Do a BME Daniels!” Daniels: “I did one on your mom last night.” AJ is busted open and Daniels pounds away at the skull. Daniels suplexes him on the floor but AJ comes back with some chops. Not that they matter as Styles charges into a big boot and they head back inside. Styles gets in a shot and loads up the springboard forearm, but he hits the chair, driving it into Daniels’ face.

Both guys are down now with Daniels on the floor and Styles in the ring. AJ is up first and sends Daniels head first into the steps on the floor. Now Daniels is busted too so AJ blasts him in the head. Daniels starts backing up the ramp and they go to the stage. Styles gets a running start but they clothesline each other. There haven’t been many counts in this so far. AJ wins a slugout with a Pele but tells the referee not to count because he’s not done.

Daniels breaks up a Styles Clash with a backdrop on the stage. AJ gets up on a piece of the stage and hits the moonsault into the reverse DDT for a seven count but as the count is going on, Kaz comes out and shoves Styles off the stage and out to the floor. AJ makes it up by nine so Daniels finds a table under the ring. Daniels loads up the Angel’s Wings off the stage through the table but AJ escapes and shoves Kaz off the stage. Another Pele puts Daniels down so AJ picks him up and hits the Clash off the ramp and through the table. Daniels is out for the ten while AJ is up at 9 and down at 11, but it’s good for the win.

Rating: B. Another good and solid match here, bad storyline aside. This is a feud that has been done to death for years now but we got a good match here. It never quite hit a level that would make it great, but the ending move was good enough to make it a solid entry in the never ending series. Hopefully this ends it for at least a few months, because it’s never going to end forever.

We get some tweets from various people, some of whom are TNA people.

Aries dominates an online poll with 71% saying he wins the title.

Aries says he’s looking forward to the Ultimate X match, but the division is in his rear view mirror. Instead he’ll be looking ahead and he sees Bobby Roode. He says Roode wins his matches with belt shots but Aries wins them with brainbusters and tonight he’ll prove that he’s the best in the world.

We recap the semi-final matches from earlier in the night.

X-Division Title: Mason Andrews vs. Kenny King vs. Sonjay Dutt vs. Zema Ion

It’s Ultimate X and the title is vacant coming in. Ion puts in some hairspray and goes for a quick win, only to be brought down just as quickly. He runs to the corner but dives at the three guys instead. That goes just as badly as Ion dives into three dropkicks at the same time. Things start speeding up and Dutt is the only one left. He goes up but King breaks it up. Ion breaks up the breaking up and it’s Andrews vs. Ion at the moment.

King comes back in and counters an Andrews DDT by suplexing him into Ion who was in the Tree of Woe. King and Dutt slug it out on the apron and a cartwheel kick knocks Dutt to the floor. Kenny goes for the belt but Dutt takes him down with a springboard dropkick. Dutt fires off a standing shooting star but hits his arm on the rope in the process. Keep that in mind. Ion makes a run for the belt but Andrews and King make the save. The two saviors go to the corner and Andrews suplexes King down.

Dutt is being takes out of the match because of his arm/elbow/shoulder. Ion goes for the belt but gets brought down into an atomic drop from Andrews. King and Ion go to the floor with Andrews hitting a flip dive over the top to take both guys down. Andrews goes for the title but King hits a springboard spear to take him down in a good looking spot.

Here’s Dutt again, after having his arm/elbow/shoulder being popped back into place. King and Andrews go for the belt but they knock each other down. Ion and Dutt go up top onto the structure which makes my fear of heights cringe. They slug it out up there and slip down onto the cables, but Ion sprays Sonjay with the hairspray. That knocks Dutt down and Ion wins the title.

Rating: B-. This was pretty good and I can live with Ion as the champion. Unfortunately his main feud is going to be months away as Sorensen isn’t going to be ready for a long time. As for now that, he’s ok I guess but King probably would have been the best choice. Still though, decent match and a solid performance from Dutt as he worked through injury. That’s probably the first feud too, which should be good.

Ion dedicates this to all of his haters and all of his critics. He also dedicates it to his greatest inspiration: Jesse Sorensen. Ion says he’s pretty now and all that jazz. This should have been an awesome heel promo but these two IDIOTS will not stop chanting “transition”. We get it: you’re smarks, you think you know something, and you got on TV. Nice job of distracting the audience and making the new champion look like less of the focus than you are. People like that get on my nerves and they’ll probably be so happy with what they did because that’s the highlight of their year.

We recap Aries vs. Roode. Aries has dominated the X-Division for almost a year now but he’s no longer satisfied with it. Now he wants to be world champion, but he agreed to give up the title in exchange for a guaranteed title match here, which is going to be the tradition every year for this show.

TNA World Title: Austin Aries vs. Bobby Roode

Feeling out process to start without a lot of offense either way. After about a minute and twenty seconds they lock up and Roode grabs the arm. Aries grabs the arm to counter but gets run over. They’re still in slow mode and that’s fine. A rolling cradle gets two for Aries and he hooks an STF. They hit the mat and Roode slaps him in the back of his head a few times. Now Aries takes him down to the mat and hits a slingshot tope for two.

Roode hooks a headscissors on the mat which is quickly broken up and they head outside. Aries hits a top rope ax handle to the floor but his missile dropkick misses back inside and Roode takes over. Roode hooks a chinlock but a knee drop misses. Aries fires off with kicks and tries the Last Chancery but it doesn’t go on right. Roode goes to the floor but avoids the suicide dive, sending Aries into the barricade.

Roode hooks a bodyscissors back in the ring followed by a hard whip into the corner. He talks a lot of trash to the downed Aries and hits a combination F5/Samoan Drop for two. Off to a body vice on the mat and Aries is cut on the nose. Aries makes a comeback and fires off forearms and chops in the corner. They slug it out and a discus forearm puts Roode down. A clothesline puts Roode on the floor and there’s the suicide dive which connects this time.

This time the missile dropkick hits as well but Aries charges into a powerslam out of the corner. Aries comes back again and tries the Last Chancery again, but Roode is pretty bad at selling it. Roode counters into a Crossface but Aries counters right back into the Chancery. Aries gets in another shot to the head and goes up for the 450, but Roode moves. Aries rolls through it anyway but walks into the spinebuster for two.

The champion sends him shoulder first into the post and goes back to the Crossface. That stays on for a long time but Aries makes the rope. Roode is frustrated now so he grabs the belt, only to have it taken away by the referee. That allows the champ to hit a low blow for two. Roode argues with the referee and gets shoved into the corner, allowing Aries to hit the corner dropkick.

Aries tries the brainbuster but Roode escapes and the ref is bumped. Roode hits a belt shot for a VERY close two. The fisherman’s suplex is countered into a small package for two and Aries punts Roode in the head. He grabs the brainbuster out of nowhere for the pin and the title in a huge shocker.

Rating: B+. Another good match to close the show here, but the point of this was in the surprise. This felt like a big moment and it was the right call to pull the trigger here. This show was designed around the X-Division and having the longest reigning champion win the world title here was the right way to make the X Title look like it can be something comparable to the world title. Good match too.

Aries celebrates with confetti to end the show.

Overall Rating: A-. This was another great PPV from the boys in Orlando. This didn’t feel as big as Slammiversary but for a B show, this was very solid. The main event was a great touch with Aries winning the title. Even if it’s a month long reign it got the job done and that’s all that counts at the moment. Very solid show here with some excellent matches and a show long theme. Good stuff again.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

Against All Odds 2006
Date: February 12, 2006
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Attendance: 775
Commentators: Don West, Mike Tenay

We’re back to Orlando as we finish off this company’s PPV series with this set of three shows. The main event here is Christian getting his first world title match against Jarrett, which is probably the best option they had at the moment. We also have Daniels vs. AJ vs. Joe because this is TNA and that’s how we roll around here. Other than that the card looks pretty interesting, so let’s get to it.

Christian arrived earlier.

Coach D’Amore and Eric Young were there waiting when Jeff got there. They have a tape about Jackie Gayda, the contents of which were never revealed. Eric Young doesn’t think Sting is really gone. The Coach yells at him.

The opening video is about Christian coming here to be in on the new thing. Tonight is his shot. Jarrett doesn’t think Christian deserves a shot and that he’s a midcarder getting this show because Sting bailed on TNA.

Austin Aries/Roderick Strong vs. The Naturals

Good choice for an opener. This is a rematch from Impact where the artificials (as in not naturals) cheated to win. It’s a brawl to start but the Naturals hit stereo atomic drops and clotheslines to take over. Let’s see if I can remember which Natural is which for once. Aries and I think Douglas start until it’s off to Stevens. It’s so strange to see Aries getting destroyed like this. The fans chant for him but he gets double teamed down for two.

Dang it Tenay say which Natural is which already! Stevens (I think) hits a Downward Spiral for two and it’s off to Douglas. Douglas throws Aries into Strong which sends them both to the floor. Stevens hits a Shooting Star off the top to take everyone out. That was awesome looking but the fans don’t seem to care for some reason. I think Aries hurt his knee on that. Stevens goes back in, only to slide to the floor and take out Strong. That allows Aries to hit the suicide dive and yeah he’s limping.

Back in and Stevens gets double teamed with some punches. Strong stays in and it’s time for a backbreaker. Strong is called the Messiah of the Backbreaker so that might explain why I thought you needed to know that move. Back to Aries who keeps Steven on the mat in a nice move. Chase (Stevens. The other is Andy Douglas) hits a jawbreaker on Strong but can’t get to Douglas. Aries hits the dropkick in the corner for two and the knee seems fine.

A bottom rope elbow gets the same and it’s off to Strong. Aries comes in quickly but he goes up (with the knee looking shaky again) and gets crotched. There’s the hot tag to Douglas who hits a jumping high knee to Strong. A rana out of the corner gets two on Aries. Douglas holds Austin up for a powerbomb forever, allowing Strong to chop block him to break it up.

Aries and Strong hit a clothesline/German combo for two on Douglas. A dropkick from Aries gets the same as everything breaks down. The Naturals load up the Natural Disaster but Strong makes the save. Aries tries the rollup with the rope grab that won them the first match but the referee breaks it up. Natural Disaster (elevated Stunner) gets the pin on Aries.

Rating: B-. This was perfectly fine for an opener. It was fast paced with some nice high spots and a good finish that tied back into the match that set it up. I don’t get why the fans didn’t care, but I guess it was because the teams don’t matter much. That being said, screw them because this was a solid opener and I was getting into it at the end.

We run down the rest of the card as is the custom for TNA.

Larry insists that the best man will win the main event tonight.

AMW says they’ll keep the titles over Sabin/Dutt. Team Canada is there too and Gail is forced to apologize to Coach D’Amore for saying Coach couldn’t get the Jackie tape. Larry is there too for some reason and says that if “anyone interferes in the main event, they’re fired.” Remember that line.

Alex Shelley vs. Matt Bentley vs. Jay Lethal vs. Petey Williams

One fall to a finish here. Bentley has Traci with him and we get the eternally stupid Bentley Bounce. Can we just watch Traci bounce instead? Bentley and Williams start things off as the fans chant for Lethal. It’s a feeling out process to start with Williams taking over. He goes to do the O Canada deal but Traci offers a curvy distraction. Lethal and Shelley come in and the fans get loud for the first time tonight.

We get a gymnastics routine resulting in them both trying dropkicks at the same time. They chop it out and Lethal hits a dropkick to the back of the head for two. A modified northern lights suplex gets the same for Jay as Shelley tags out with his foot. I guess that doesn’t count so Alex hooks a modified Koji Clutch on jay to take over. Shelley hits a slingshot hilo for two on Jay but Williams tags himself in to face Lethal.

Petey hits a dropkick to the back and slams Jay down. Off to a camel clutch but Shelley comes in to argue about Williams getting the win. That allows Jay to tag in Bentley as this is coming off more like a tag match than a fourway. Bentley cleans house but gets crotched by Petey. A Tower of Doom is broken up and Lethal grabs a bridging German for two on Shelley, but Bentley drops a top rope elbow to break it up. Williams counters a suplex and hits a rolling neckbreaker for two on Bentley.

Lethal comes back in and goes off on Shelley but Alex gets a drop toehold to break it up. Bentley comes back in and things speed WAY up as he and Shelley do a too fast to call sequence. Jackie Gayda comes out and goes after Shelley (Shelley filmed the tape that has been brought up multiple times tonight). She beats him up in the aisle as Bentley backdrops out of the Canadian Destroyer. Lethal dives on Bentley and steals the pin while he’s still down.

Rating: C+. This was fine but after we already saw one match similar to this, there wasn’t as much interest in seeing another one. Still though it was fine and a good use of about ten minutes. Also the fans were into Lethal which is more than can be said for anyone in the opener, save for Aries when he did the suicide dive. Decent match here but nothing that I’ll remember in about ten minutes.

Rhyno says he grew up in Detroit, the murder capital of the world. If he can survive that, he can survive Mitchell and Abyss. Larry comes up and says don’t interfere in the main event. Rhyno says spread your word yourself.

We get a video narrated by Truth who says mistrust led to the split of the Kru. Konnan wants him to join LAX despite not being Latino. LAX beat up BG James’ papa and tonight there’s a tag match for revenge. This gets a music video treatment for some reason.

James Gang vs. LAX

This is Homicide and Machete, a mostly indy wrestler who is most famous for being on this team and wrestling in Puerto Rico. Konnan says he beat up Bob Armstrong because BG did something wrong. The James Gang is of course the New Age Outlaws. LAX including Konnan jumps the James Gang before Kip can do his thing. BG and Kip (seriously, WHO PICKED THE NAME KIP?) send them to the floor and LAX caucuses.

Tenay tries to explain the name changes (although we were never told how Bob Armstrong’s son is named BG James) as Homicide starts with Kip. They stare each other down and then botch a tilt-a-whirl slam from Kip. I think Homicide was distracted by the ponytails. Off to BG for some dancing punches on the tagged in Machete, getting two. Kip comes back in and gets chopped back as well as having his Cobra Clutch slam broken up by Homicide.

Kip gets sent to the floor and Konnan sends him into the barricade to give LAX control. Back in and Homicide charges into a boot but Konnan cheats again to keep the advantage with LAX. Kip gets a clothesline and there’s the tag to BG with zero reaction at all. Everything breaks down and BG hits the pumphandle slam on Homicide out of nowhere for the pin. This wasn’t even six minutes total.

Rating: D. I’m not sure what the point of this was. The match was short and not that good, and it didn’t really accomplish anything. The ending had no build and the match had no heat at all, so I’m not sure what it accomplished. The James Gang just didn’t work at all in TNA as they were basically trying to be the Outlaws, but they were older and it didn’t work anymore.

LAX beats up the James Gang until 66 year old Bob Armstrong comes in for the save.

Slick Johnson goes to see Larry (who has Dave Hebner with him). They argue about who should be referee.

Tag Titles: America’s Most Wanted vs. Sonjay Dutt/Chris Sabin

Sabin and Dutt won some tournament to win this shot. Sabin might have an ankle injury coming into this. Dutt and Storm start and the fans want the Cowboy killed. Dutt starts with his usual flipping offense and a cross body for two. Sabin comes in with some of the same double team offense that he and Shelley would use as the Guns. Sabin gets in a kick to the ribs of Storm but Harris trips him up and wraps the bad ankle/leg around the post.

AMW starts in on the leg and it’s off to Harris. He takes off the knee wrap and puts on a leg lock. Sabin gets up and tries to fight out of the champions’ corner, only to be taken right back down by the leg. Storm comes back in with a chinlock and a Backstabber for two. Back to Harris as the leg work continues. The referee checks on Sabin’s knee but Storm jumps him anyway.

Sabin misses an enziguri and kicks Storm off so he can make the hot tag. Off to Sonjay who speeds things way up. A rana and low dropkick get two on Storm. A springboard double dropkick puts the champs down as does a springboard moonsault press for no cover. Sabin saves Sonjay from a Hart Attack and Dutt counters the Catatonic into a sloppy rollup for two. The champs bring in a chair and Sabin hits a tornado DDT on Harris onto said chair. A springboard splash by Dutt gets two on Harris but Storm puts the knee into the barricade. Hindu Press misses and the Last Call sets up the Death Sentence to retain.

Rating: C. This was pure formula and there’s nothing wrong with that at all. The division was kind of weak at this point as Team 3D was busy fighting some incarnation of Team Canada so AMW needed some opponents tonight. Sabin was the guy you called when you needed a filler for a match on the card and he filled that role very well.

Post match AMW cuffs Dutt to the ropes but Sabin makes the save with a chair.

Jarrett says the pressure is on Christian, not him. Monty Brown comes up and gets cut off by the champ. Jarrett demands respect because Brown is going to say the same thing he always says. They shake hands and say they have a deal.

We recap Rhyno vs. Abyss. This is falls count anywhere and they’re fighting because that’s what these guys did around that time. There never was a real reason for these matches other than proving who the toughest was. The video basically says they’re here to fight and that they’ll both win.

Rhyno vs. Abyss

Rhyno charges into the ring and we’re ready to go. They head to the floor quickly due to a Rhyno clothesline and it’s time to hit the crowd. In a funny bit, Rhyno tries to dive off the apron over the railing and onto Abyss but he realizes that would be a good chance of dying so he dives off the barricade instead. Abyss takes over and throws him into that wooden wall that is always used in brawls.

They head back to ringside and Rhyno grabs a trashcan full of your usual weapons. Abyss gets in a series of Singapore cane shots as the fans do that stupid OH ABYSS chant from this period. Rhyno is busted open but comes back with some trashcan lid shots. He finds a trophy and baseball bat, but instead of crushing Abyss’ skull, he puts the trophy between Abyss’ legs and hits the trophy with the bat.

They head to the floor and Abyss counters a suplex into one of his own on the ramp. Abyss sets up some tables next to the stage so you can guess what the finish to this is going to be. Abyss pokes him with a pipe or something to keep Rhyno down and sets up the third of four tables. He loads up a powerbomb but Rhyno escapes. Rhyno sets for the Gore but Abyss big boots him to the floor.

They head into the back and find a parade float and a car. Abyss finds a ball bat but Rhyno knocks it away and takes it back into the arena. Back at ringside and Rhyno throws a table into the ring. Mitchell hands Abyss a staple gun and it gets fired into Rhyno’s head. Abyss brings in ANOTHER table to go along with the one Rhyno set up in the corner. This one is set up regularly in the ring, but Rhyno comes back with a belly to belly.

Rhyno tries the Gore but charges into a chokeslam through the table for two. Mitchell hands in a bag of tacks but Rhyno gores him into the corner for another two count. With no more weapons to use in the ring they head up into the audience again and get to the end of the bleachers. Abyss throws Rhyno through the wall and kicks his way through the rest of it. Rhyno goes low to break up a chokeslam off the bleachers and hits the Gore through the previously set up stack of tables. Abyss is left somewhere in the carnage and Rhyno gets the academic pin.

Rating: B. There was nothing new here, but sometimes there’s nothing wrong with having two big guys break a lot of stuff. That’s what they did here and it worked well. This is Abyss’ bread and butter and Rhyno isn’t too shabby at it either. Good stuff here with the ending being a nice big spot. Can’t ask for much more than that.

Joe says he may not adhere to the Code of the X-Division or whatever but it doesn’t matter. Daniels and AJ aren’t fighting for friends and family tonight, but rather against him, which is much worse.

Rhyno and Abyss are helped up.

We recap the X Title match. The idea is that AJ and Daniels are the old guard when Joe came in and ran through everyone to take the title. He destroyed Daniels and left him bloodied, so tonight it’s a threeway. Daniels didn’t like being saved by AJ so they’re at odds. Joe says it’s all about the title and not being friends or anything like that.

X-Division Title: Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels

Joe is defending and brings out two towels: one with Daniels’ blood on it and a clean one for AJ’s. Nice touch. Daniels and AJ jump Joe but Daniels jumps AJ to take over. Joe runs over the Fallen Angel and hits a knee drop but he walks into a slam from Styles. This is very fast paced so far. AJ dropkicks them both but can’t suplex Joe. Instead the champ hits a SICK release Gordbuster to Styles to take over again.

Daniels comes back in and monkey flips AJ into a rana position on Joe, but Joe counters into a Boston Crab. AJ and Joe go to the floor but Joe slaps a charging Daniels to break up his dive. AJ sends Joe into the barricade and hooks the bridging Indian Deathlock on Daniels back inside. Joe finally breaks it up and hooks the STF on Styles. Daniels grabs a Koji Clutch on Joe at the same time but everyone breaks it a few seconds later.

Daniels’ slingshot elbow gets two on Styles but Joe runs Daniels over and hits the Facewash. This is VERY fast paced so far. AJ charges at the champ but gets caught in the release Rock Bottom. While Joe is busy with Daniels on the apron, AJ charges at Joe but hits Daniels instead. Joe dives onto both of them to keep control and we head back inside. AJ sweeps the champ’s legs and Daniels hits a knee to send Joe to the floor.

A quick rollup gets two for AJ and Joe is back in. Daniels gets suplexed down and Joe hits a leg lariat for two on Styles. A running boot to Daniels’ face and a backsplash get two for Joe. Snap powerslam gets the same results with the same people. A cross armbreaker is quickly broken up by Daniels getting to the ropes so Joe tries the MuscleBuster instead. Styles kicks Joe in the head to break it up but he walks into a Downward Spiral by Daniels.

Daniels hits a release German out of nowhere on Joe followed by a release Rock Bottom. The BME only gets two and Joe was out closer to two than three. Daniels tries Angel’s Wings but AJ dives over him and tries the Clash but Daniels blocks it. Joe clotheslines Daniels down for two but Styles escapes the Buster.

It’s clotheslines all around from Styles and one of them gets two on Daniels. A spinning torture rack powerbomb gets two on Chris and the backflip DDT gets the same on Joe. Daniels breaks up a Clash attempt on Joe before hitting a DVD on Joe of his own. Styles goes up but Daniels distracts him. Joe nails Daniels and hits the Buster to retain and stay undefeated.

Rating: B+. Not as good as Unbreakable but that’s an unfair standard to hold them too in a rematch. Still though, very good stuff here with all three guys nailing it and working hard and fast. This is one of those combinations that almost always works, but this was back when it was still pretty fresh, making it much more interesting.

We recap Team 3D vs. Team Canada. Team 3D has been destroyed by almost all of the heels so far, but Team Canada cost them the titles last month. The fans got to vote for who they wanted Team 3D to face so here’s the obvious match.

Team 3D says they’re mad and if ticking them off was an Olympic sport, Team Canada would have a gold medal. Ray talks about how all of the fans want Team Canada’s blood all over the arena and various places the Canadian flag can go.

Team 3D vs. Team Canada

It’s Roode/Young. Team 3D run in from behind to get an early advantage. It’s a brawl on the floor to start with the Dudleys in full control. Ray backdrops Roode onto the ramp and dents it in the process. Young gets chopped from the floor up to the apron by Ray. We get down to Ray vs. Roode in the ring and they’re the official starters. Ray hits a wicked release German suplex on Roode and it’s off to Eric and D-Von.

A side slam/legdrop combo gets two on Young but Roode low bridges D-Von to give the Canadians control. The cut that D-Von had on his head coming in is busted open again and the Canadians hammer away on it. There’s blood on the Tag Team of the Year plaque that the Dudleys won last night. Off to a chinlock as Roode shouts ASK HIM. Is that a Canadian thing?

Eric hooks a camel clutch, followed by a top rope knee from Roode, followed by a top rope elbow from Young, all for two. Back to the camel clutch, this time from Roode and now from Young. The Canadians are tagging in and out very fast. We get the Arn Anderson drop down onto the knees to give D-Von a breather and the hot tag to Ray.

Ray comes in with a cross body off the top (!) to take out both Canadians. House is cleaned and a side slam gets two on Young. A flapjack gets two on Ray and Roode misses a hockey stick shot. A low blow hits though and there’s the stick shot. Eric only gets two off that and then walks into the Lariat from Roode as Ray ducks. 3D pins Young.

Rating: D+. Nothing to see here as from what I can tell the blood part of the angle was set up last night. Good enough to pass I guess but for the life of me I have no idea why the Dudleys didn’t get their titles for so long. The match was decent enough I guess but there was nothing that was required viewing at all.

AMW comes in to beat down the Dudleys and they almost put Ray through a table, but Ron Killings comes in for the save and puts Young through the table instead.

After a recap of the show so far, Christian asks everyone how they’re feeling tonight. He’s nervous tonight because the culmination of a 12 year career is tonight. Tonight everything is answered: was it smart to leave WWE? Is Christian just a midcarder? Has Jarrett passed his white jeans phase? After all the cliches are over, Christian will leave as world champion because that’s how he rolls. Really good promo here from Christian.

We recap the world title match, which is pretty much summed up by Christian’s promo.

NWA World Title: Jeff Jarrett vs. Christian Cage

Zbyszko and Hebner are here. That would be Dave Hebner as Earl will be refereeing. Total references to Montreal in the first minute: 4. Jarrett is defending of course. Gail is looking good too. Feeling out process to start with Christian getting a pair of twos off a pair of shoulders. Jarrett takes him to the mat and slaps him in the back of the head to get on the challenger’s nerves.

A sunset flip out of the corner gets two for Christian so Jeff heads to the apron. They both wind up out there and Christian hits a reverse DDT onto the apron to take over. Christian tries a big dive but lands on the barricade. Jeff slams him into the barricade and Christian is in big trouble. They head over to the announce table and the beating continues, followed by a slingshot into the table. This has all of the old TNA brawling favorites in it.

Back into the ring and Jarrett hooks a chinlock but Christian breaks it in seconds. And never mind as Jeff hot shots him onto the top rope. Hebner gets involved because he’s Earl Hebner and since he did something eight and a half years ago, he has to do something here. To be fair he did stuff like that before Montreal but get over it already. Gail snakes in for a rana that gets two for Jarrett.

Christian comes back with a powerbomb out of nowhere and hooks a figure four. Jarrett makes the rope so Christian yells at Hebner some more, allowing Jarrett to hit an enziguri. Jeff hooks a Sharpshooter and my head begins to hurt. Christian breaks the awful looking Sharpshooter and puts on one of his own (again with the freaking Montreal stuff!) but Jeff breaks it pretty quickly. Christian gets sent into the corner on the counter and both guys are down.

The challenger wins a slugout and runs Jarrett over a few times. Tornado DDT gets two. Jarrett slides through Christian’s legs and hits Earl’s ankle to take him down. Gail interferes again (wasn’t there some rule about anyone that interferes is FIRED?) and Jeff hits a top rope Stroke, but there’s no referee. Jarrett pounds away but walks into the Unprettier. Slick Johnson slides in to count two as everything starts going nuts as it is known to do in TNA main events.

Johnson (thankfully in full pants here) tells Gail to get down as Earl is unconscious despite being hit in the ankle and not in the, you know, head. Jeff hits Christian low so Jeff hits the referee before there can be a DQ. Why would you do that? Gail throws in a chair but Christian dropkicks it into Jarrett’s face. No referee so Christian chases Gail a bit. That gets him a guitar shot to the head which gets two. Another Gail rana attempt is countered into a powerbomb and the Stroke is countered into the Unprettier to give Christian the pin and the title.

Rating: C. You know usually I would list off the things that we had to sit through to get to the title change, but SWEET GOODNESS MAN there were too many things to remember here. This was a total mess which somehow had plot holes in it. On top of everything, WHERE WAS LARRY? He was there to open the show but he was gone for this. That makes no sense. Anyway, WAY overbooked and not even that good in the first place.

Fans fill the ring to end the show.

Overall Rating: B. This was a solid show with almost nothing being truly bad. The James Gang match was bad but it wasn’t even six minutes long. This was somewhere between a major show and a B level show but it was still good stuff overall. TNA was on a roll at this point and Christian coming over and becoming world champion was a part of that. Good show here.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

Impact Wrestling
Date: July 19, 2012
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

It’s Open Fight Night again and Roode is calling out Aries tonight. Why he would do this when he has a world title match at the next PPV is a bit of a mystery but that’s wrestling for you. We also might get an update on the Aces and 8’s faction which is a pretty cool idea. We haven’t had masked me in awhile so that’s kind of a cool thing. Let’s get to it.

After the standard opening recap, we have another recap of the Aces and 8’s beatdown last week.

Hogan is shown in the hospital, which is due to a legit back surgery.

Theme song hits. Get your reinforcements.

Bound For Glory Series standings:

James Storm 43

Samoa Joe 37

Kurt Angle 27

Jeff Hardy 21

Mr. Anderson 16

Rob Van Dam 14

Magnus 14

Christopher Daniels 12

AJ Styles 7

D’Angelo Dinero 7

Bully Ray 0

Robbie E 0

Tonight the high scorers get to do the callouts.

Here’s Storm to talk about Aries being the new champion and wanting the title shot no matter who it’s against. He hasn’t forgotten about Roode either, because the title is just business while Roode is personal. As for Aces and 8’s, if this was the wild west, he’d be the sheriff because he’s the Cowboy. While he doesn’t have a star on his chest, he has a set of balls. Hogan gets a shoutout but Storm wants Angle tonight.

Bound For Glory Series: James Storm vs. Kurt Angle

And there’s no Kurt. The music plays again and it’s Aces and 8’s in the back destroying Angle. We go to a break with Angle out cold and Tenay wondering if the guy in an American flag t-shirt with no hair that looks exactly like Angle is in fact Angle.

Bound For Glory Series: Samoa Joe vs. D’Angelo Dinero

I’m not going to bother listing the quick callouts that happen unless anything significant is said in them. Dinero tries to knock Joe into the corner but Joe pounds him with elbows and an enziguri to take over. Joe pops him in the face but gets sent into the corner and out to the floor. Back in and Pope hits a powerslam for two and it’s off to the Rings of Saturn. Pope starts pounding away and gets caught in a cross armbreaker for the tap at 3:20.

Rating: C. See how easy it is to push Joe as a submissions master? It goes this fast and Joe continues to dominate the Series. Pope is still floundering and it’s still pretty dull to see him out there as he’s nothing more than a jobber at this point. Still though, they need people like that in the Series to keep things interesting. This wasn’t bad though and Pope looked good.

Roode denies having any connection to Aces and 8’s despite being the last guy seen with Hogan before the attack. He’ll prove Destination X was a fluke later too.

Bound For Glory Series; Jeff Hardy vs. Robbie E

Jeff says he has someone in mind to call out but Robbie E interrupts. T jumps Hardy to take over but Hardy realizes he’s Jeff Hardy and takes over with his usual stuff. T interferes again to send Jeff out to the floor. That gets two for E but Jeff comes back again and hits the Whisper in the Wind for two. A plancha to the floor misses as T shoved E out of the way. Jeff fights T up the aisle and E wins by countout at 2:49.

ODB and Eric Young are in the back and Eric is back. It turns into a plug for his fish show.

We recap Clair/Daniels/Kaz with Clair saying that AJ is her baby’s papa.

Daniels rants a lot as does Kaz, saying that AJ is a coward.

Smoe guy named Sam Shaw comes out for Gut Check and while he’s talking, here are Aces and 8’s. There are six of them this time. The beating continues as they go to a break.

Post break Shaw is helped up.

Bound For Glory Series: Mr. Anderson vs. AJ Styles

Anderson works over the arm and hits a hiptoss to take over. He hooks an armbar but AJ counters into a headscissors. They stay on the mat for a bit until a stalemate takes us to a break. Back with Anderson holding a headlock but AJ comes back with the drop down/kick sequence. AJ grabs the arm but gets elbowed in the face and a neckbreaker puts Styles down for two. Anderson hooks a cravate for a submission attempt but Styles rams him into the buckle to escape. Springboard forearm gets two for AJ.

Mic Check and Clash are countered as we’re getting close to fifteen minutes here. Regal Roll gets two for Anderson but the Mic Check is countered again. AJ goes up but Mr. snaps off a superplex with AJ landing on his arm. That only gets two for both guys as we have less than two minutes left. Pele out of nowhere (missed by the announcers) sets up the Clash but Anderson counters and they hit the mat with Anderson getting a pin out of nowhere at 13:38.

Rating: C+. This wasn’t really hitting on all cylinders but it worked well enough all things considered. Anderson needs some points and having him get a clean pin over Styles isn’t going to hurt anything at all. Besides AJ has bigger things to worry about right now, and here she comes to continue the soap opera portion of your show.

Clair comes over the rail and yells about the night that AJ came to the hotel but AJ doesn’t remember it. She says Styles was drinking that night too but Styles says this was all in her head. Clair has pictures of them in bed together with AJ looking very drugged/drunk.

Back and we look at the pictures again with AJ looking stunned in the back.

Bound For Glory Series: Rob Van Dam vs. Christopher Daniels

Some MMA guy is on commentary here because when you watch wrestling, you think MMA. Van Dam fires off some kicks but Daniels comes back with an elbow to the face. Daniels gets caught in an abdominal stretch, only for Daniels to fall backwards into the ropes. Back in after a quick run to the floor and Daniels hits the slingshot elbow for two. The MMA guy at least is interested here and sounds like a wrestling fan.

Daniels drops a knee to the back and puts on a chinlock with a knee in the back. Van Dam escapes and superkicks Daniels down, followed by a monkey flip. Five Star misses so RVD hits the walk over kick to take Daniels down. Rolling Thunder misses and Daniels rolls Van Dam up with feet on the ropes for the pin at 4:13.

Rating: C. Not bad again here and the announcer wasn’t that annoying for the most part. Daniels is doing a great job at being completely evil and that’s the right thing for him to do. RVD is fine for a warm body in the Series, which means that he’ll wind up in the middle of the standings and will get some wins here and there. This was fine.

Austin Aries says he can trump anything Roode can do. He finds playing cards on the floor and says he can trump Aces and 8’s too.

It’s Brooke Hogan time! She does a phone interview to talk about her dad’s injuries and how her dad doesn’t know what he’s in for. Nothing of note is said here.

Joseph Park offers his legal services to Garrett Bischoff as a way to talk about what happened last week when Park snapped. Park says that was all him.

Bound For Glory Series: Magnus vs. Bully Ray

Ray jumps Magnus in the aisle but Magnus fights back. Magnus sends him into the barricade and heads into the ring for the bell. Ray kicks him in the chest to take over but I think he was aiming for the face. Ray chops him in the corner and slams him down, but the splash misses. Magnus makes his comeback and throws on a Texas Cloverleaf but Ray makes the rope. Falcon’s Arrow gets two for Magnus. He misses a middle rope elbow though and it’s the Bully Cutter for the pin at 4:45.

Rating: D+. Nothing to see here but Ray finally gets some points. Magnus has everything you need to be something good but for some reason he’s never risen above the level of a jobber. Unfortunately we didn’t get any Joseph Park stuff here but this got the job done well enough I guess.

Chavo Guerrero Jr. debuts next week.

Here’s Roode to call out Aries. That’ll be after a break though.

Austin Aries vs. Bobby Roode

Non-title of course, because why would you think of asking for a title match in a match where you have to accept said challenge? Aries snaps off an armdrag followed by Roode getting sent into the corner. The fans sound like they say they want t-shirts. Roode sends him to the apron but Aries counters and hits a slingshot hilo for two. Roode goes face first into the apron so Aries dives on him on the outside as we take a break.

Back with Aries in trouble as Roode hits a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker for two. A spinebuster gets the same and it’s time for a chinlock. Aries fights up but walks into an elbow to the face to put him right back down. Aries gets up again and they slug it out but the spinning forearm gets caught in an armbar. Last Chancery goes on but Roode breaks out and hits the spear for two.

Roode loads up a superplex but Aries knees him in the head to escape. A missile dropkick puts Roode down but the brainbuster is countered into the Crossface. Aries hits the discus forearm and clotheslines Roode to the floor, followed by the suicide dive. And here are Aces and 8’s for the DQ at 13:42.

Rating: C+. This was pretty good and I guess this is supposed to prove that Roode is behind this, but that would make no sense as they appeared before he lost the title. Aries getting beaten down is a nice touch as it shows that it’s a company wide problem, but it doesn’t answer any questions. This was the only ending they could go with though, as if Roode won then Aries is a fluke but if Aries won, why watch the PPV match?

Roode gets beaten up too and it’s a big beatdown to end the show.

Overall Rating: C. This show has really slowed down a lot in the last few weeks, but there was still some good stuff tonight. Aces and 8’s is still an interesting idea but with these random attacks, they’re not really going anywhere yet. That’ll change when Hogan and Sting get back or when someone mounts an attack against them. As usual though, the problem with Open Fight Night is that nothing of note happens from it. These matches could happen on any show and the calling out means nothing at all. Not a horrible show but it was nothing great at all.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

Impact Wrestling
Date: July 12, 2012
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

It’s the beginning of the Age of Aries which is more astrology than I ever expected to use in this show. Aries beat Roode for the title on Sunday in a big upset but it worked very well. Also the people that attacked Sting are here tonight which should be interesting. TNA continued its roll on Sunday and hopefully they can get a new Impact streak going tonight. Let’s get to it.

Bully Ray vs. Joseph Park

This is the rematch after their match at whatever show that was. Slammiversary I believe? This is anything goes and Abyss is barred from the building. We start with some comedy stuff as Park puts his hands up like he did at the PPV, but Ray has had enough of the attorney and beats him down. He even tweets something during the match. Ray heads to the floor and gets some weapons in a trashcan. Park takes Ray down but takes too long getting a chair ready and Ray takes over.

Park makes a comeback with some rights and lefts but he gets caught by a big boot to the head. Ray heads to the floor and pulls out a bag of something. Ah it’s the classic bag of tacks and Ray asks for the mic. He says this is what he should have done to Abyss a long time ago. Park comes back with a cheese grater to the balls and a kendo stick shot to the head for two. He hits something like a chokeslam onto the tacks for two and Ray gets the chain. A shot to Park’s face with that gets the pin at about 6:00 (I missed the opening bell).

Rating: C. This was the only possible outcome they could have here. Park winning once on a fluke with Abyss helping was one thing, but when it was one on one there wasn’t much else they could do. This was exactly what you would expect it to be and there’s nothing wrong with that. Fun match and the right continuation for the feud.

The shot busted Park open and he freaks out about it. Ray charges at Park and runs into the Black Hole Slam. Park wakes up and doesn’t believe what just happened. Tenay: “Ray just brought out the monster in Park.” Subtle Mike.

Sting is in the back with the Dead Man’s Hand from last week. That should be interesting.

After a break Ray wants to know who that was. He beat Joseph Park, but who was that.

Here are the updated BFG Series Standings:

Samoa Joe 37

James Storm 36

Jeff Hardy 21

Kurt Angle 20

Magnus 14

Mr. Anderson 9

D’Angelo Dinero 7

Rob Van Dam 7

AJ Styles 7

Christopher Daniels 5

Bully Ray 0

Robbie E 0

Bound For Glory Series: Samoa Joe vs. Rob Van Dam

Van Dam has fewer points so he goes for a fast submission. Joe will have none of that and stands Van Dam up, taking his head off with a clothesline. Van Dam heads to the floor but gets caught in a dragon screw leg whip back inside. Joe fires off kicks and rolls into a heel hook. Snap powerslam sets up a cross armbreaker but RVD makes a fast rope. Van Dam makes a comeback and hits Rolling Thunder. Joe takes him down and puts on a modified figure four, but RVD counters into a small package for the pin at 4:54.

Rating: C+. This was another fun little match. Van Dam needs some points to get back in the tournament and a small package win over Joe is a fine way to do that. The idea of the match was that Joe was so focused on the submission that he left himself open to be pinned. That’s a basic idea but it worked very well. Good stuff here and it did a few good jobs at once, which is hard to do.

Clair says she has nothing to say.

Hogan is looking for someone.

Here are Daniels and Kaz for a chat. Kaz says that AJ thinks this is ending but it’s just the beginning. They’ve been feuding HOW MANY YEARS now and it’s just beginning? Daniels agrees that what AJ did at the PPV was wrong, but that’s what you have to expect from Styles. He has Clair come out and talks about how she’s gone through a lot, which made her make mistakes. Clair reached out for someone, and that someone wound up being AJ.

Cue Styles who tells Daniels to let it die. Daniels says that there’s something that Styles doesn’t know. He says that he (Daniels) and Clair have talked about this and that there’s something Clair wants to admit. Clair keeps trying to talk but AJ keeps cutting him off. Clair finally gets in and says that Daniels is right about AJ being the father of the baby. AJ says no he’s not and we go to a break.

AJ has no idea what’s going on.

Anderson talks about his match with Angle.

We recap the X Title tournament on Sunday with Ion getting the title. When Sorensen comes back and beats him, the roof is coming off the Impact Zone.

Dakota Darsow says he doesn’t like Ion and what he did on Sunday. Of all the people in the tournament, you pick THIS GUY to put on first?

Zema Ion vs. Dakota Darsow

Non-title. Ion points to his neck so Darsow goes after him. Darsow takes over for a second but gets sent to the apron. In a cool counter, Darsow hits a slingshot spear through the ropes to take Ion down again. Ion hits a Stunner on the top rope and a jumping DDT to take Darsow down and the snap Gory Bomb gets the pin at 2:22. Just a step above a squash.

Ion snaps Darsow’s arm post match. SWEET. Ion says that if Sorensen doesn’t want to see his friends get hurt anymore, he needs to realize that Ion is dangerous. When have Darsow and Sorensen been friends on camera?

Here’s Aries to celebrate his title win. He says this was a great moment for the wrestling industry and actually asks the fans to chill with the cheering so he can talk. It wasn’t in a rude way though. He talks about how wrestling has down cycles and then it booms. TNA is about to lead wrestling into the next boom. He’s gotten congratulations from a lot of people, including celebrities, NFL players, and world champions from other organizations. This is the most important title in wrestling now because he holds it.

Cue Roode who is so angry that he can barely speak. He tries to yell at Aries about having all of this now but he can’t get the words out. There goes his jacket and he shouts the word YOU a lot. He finally calls Aries a fluke and Aries says he may be a fluke, but he’s the champ. Roode freaks out and leaves. Good stuff here.

Sting and Hulk are in the back talking about the attack when D-Von and Garrett come in and says they’re offering protection in case the guys jump Sting again. All Sting has to do is say the word. Hogan says thanks but we’ve got it covered.

Angle talks about his match later tonight.

Madison talks about how she likes Hebner.

Knockout Title: Gail Kim vs. Miss Tessmacher

Brooke Hogan is on commentary because I haven’t suffered enough today. Gail takes over to start and works on the arm of the champ. She hooks a belly to back suplex with a hammerlock slam at the same time. Gail hooks some kind of a hold on the arm, followed by Cattle Mutilation of all things. Tessmacher makes her comeback with a facejam out of the corner and that Russian legsweep into a clothesline gets two. A rollup gets two for Gail and she stomps away. Tessmacher knocks her down and hits a top rope elbow off the top to retain at 5:12.

Rating: D+. These girls are getting worse again. Tessmacher is someone who has charisma and looks good in those shorts of hers, but there’s no skill in the ring that I can see. She’s about as good as you can get at this point in her career as she was a model and dancer up to this point, but her matches are nothing to see. Gail was her usual self here.

Clair says she has proof that AJ is the father.

Magnus talks about calling out James Storm next week.

Bound For Glory Series: Kurt Angle vs. Mr. Anderson

Anderson takes him to the mat to start which is surprising. Angle gets put in an armbar but Kurt quickly breaks it. He takes over with a belly to belly as we take a break. Back with Anderson hitting a suplex to put both guys down. He hits a neckbreaker but Angle rolls the Germans. Angle Slam is countered and there’s the Regal Roll to Angle. That gets two and the Mic Check misses. Angle Slam gets two and there’s the ankle lock, which stays on for a LONG time. Anderson finally rolls out of it and there’s there Mic Check for two. With the bad ankle hindering him, Anderson walks into the Angle Slam for the pin at a time I didn’t get.

Roode rants to Hogan and Sting and it’s going to be Roode vs. Aries next week and if Roode wins, he gets the rematch for the title at Hardcore Justice.

Here’s Sting to close the show. He says it’s great to be back in the Impact Zone and calls out Hogan for his assistance. And there’s no Hogan. The music plays three times and there’s no Hulk. We cut to the back where Brooke is running off what appeared to be four masked guys who have jumped Hulk. Hogan says it’s his leg and the guys jump Sting in the arena. There are five of them here.

Overall Rating: C+. I wasn’t feeling this one. There was way too much focus on Sting and Hogan here and Aries, the guy leading the company into the new era, was on for what, six minutes? That’s not a good sign as while the Sting story is interesting, it’s not what the focus should be on in this company. Decent show overall and WAY better than last week, but it looks like the focus is shifting to the old guys again and that’s the last thing they want to do at this point.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

Impact Wrestling
Date: July 5, 2012
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

It’s the final show before Destination X and we’ll mainly just be driving home the stories for the show. We’ll likely get more on the AJ/Dixie/Clair/Daniels/Kaz story which isn’t really clicking all that well. Other than that we also have the other two X-Division tournament qualifying matches which can bring in some new blood to the division. The main event tonight is Hardy vs. Storm which should be good. Let’s get to it.

We open with the voiceover guy explaining the Park vs. Ray story so far. Actually he’s also explaining the AJ/Dixie thing.

Here’s Ray to open the show. He has a huge announcement: he’s going live on Twitter. After his first tweet, he wants Joseph Park out here right now. Cue Park so Ray can accept the challenge for I assume next week. Park talks about precedent and how Park already beat Ray once, so he can do it again. Ray gets in his face but Park says that everyone is fed up with Ray and his bullying and he’ll win again. It’s next Thursday and anything goes. Ray pulls out a paper which is a restraining order against Abyss. If Abyss shows up, he’s going straight to jail. Ray jumps him and walks out. Nice change of pace here.

Aries and Hogan are in the back. Hogan says that Aries has to relinquish the title tonight and Aries says he’ll do it at the end of the night.

After a break we get ANOTHER recap of the AJ/Dixie thing.

Dixie is in the back with the agents and apparently she hasn’t talked to Clair (she was sitting next to Clair last week when everything happened) or AJ and has no comment.

TV Title: D-Von vs. Crimson

Crimson grabs a pair of quick two counts and make it three, the third try having his feet on the ropes. That gets him nowhere so he hammers D-Von into the corner. A low clothesline gets two and D-Von starts his comeback. Crimson takes his head off with a clothesline for another two which was really sloppy. Crimson walks into the spinebuster for the pin at 2:02. As usual, D-Von comes, he goes, the match ends and we move on to the next week.

Here’s Madison Rayne and she likes……Earl Hebner. Oh sweet goodness.

Here’s Sabin for a statement after his latest knee injury. He talks about how his dream is turning into a nightmare. He went home and talked to his family and they weren’t sure if he could keep doing this. His doctor isn’t sure either….and here’s Bobby Roode. Roode says that this is heartbreaking, but it’s also pathetic.

Just like every other X-Division guy, Sabin is complaining about his little injuries, just like he did last year and just like Sorensen is doing about his broken neck. Aries is giving up his title for one big score, but it could all go away from him, just like this. And with that, Roode kicks the leg out from under Sabin. He stomps away until Aries makes the save. Pure evil from Roode here.

X-Division Title Tournament Qualifying Match: Dakota Darsow vs. Flip Cassanova

Cassanova is Flip Kendrick. He does exactly what his name says and flips A LOT. Cassanova hits a standing 450 moonsault, landing in a sitting position on Darsow’s (Demolition Smash’s son) chest. Out to the floor and Flip hits a big spinning flip dive moonsaut. Cassanova has some freakishly skinny legs. Darsow kind of sucks in this as he’s looking completely off. His nose is also busted. Cassanova hits a springboard clothesline and a 630 dive off the top for the pin at 4:08.

Rating: F. This was BAD. Cassanova is one of those guys that flies all over the place but it looks like a mess most of the time. The ending looked horrible and I’d be stunned if Darsow wasn’t legit hurt. I can easily see why Darsow isn’t in FCW anymore. This was absolutely terrible and easily the worst match on TNA in months.

There’s no Knockout Title match tonight for no apparent reason. It’s a tag match instead.

We recap the end of the Gut Check segment last week.

Gail Kim/Madison Rayne vs. Tara/Miss Tessmacher

Madison jumps Tessmacher to start and sends her to the floor. Back in and Gail takes over as we get some great shots from behind of Tara. Madison comes back in and beats on the champ a bit more before it’s hot tag to Tara. House is cleanted by Gail breaks up the Widow’s Peak. Tara whips Madison into Gail and the Peak hits this time. Back to Tessmacher so that legsweep into a clothesline can get the pin at 2:57. Another bad match here and stupid booking as the right idea would be to have Gail pin Tessmacher to set up next week’s match. This advances nothing.

Storm talks about losing at Lockdown. He can’t live in the past anymore.

Here’s AJ to address the situation from last week (which we see for the third time in less than an hour. He talks about how Daniels had a big fake story last time, so how is he going to prove it this time? Cue Daniels and Kaz who say that while AJ might not get this, he does get junkies pregnant. AJ says he’ll use his redneck hands to rip Kaz’s head off. Daniels says he has proof but AJ cuts him off.

AJ says this started last year at Destination X when AJ won and Daniels couldn’t handle it. Now it’s a year later and Styles wants another match at Destination X. It’s a last man standing match and since Daniels isn’t a man, he doesn’t stand a chance. That’s it apparently, as we won’t be hearing from the girls at all. Next.

We look at a camera filming Hogan talking about Sunday when a guy comes in with an envelope, saying that this is the end for Hogan. He hands Hogan an envelope which Hogan opens to see playing cards: two pair, aces and 8’s, which is famously known as the Dead Man’s Hand. It also says see you next week. The guy leaves and that’s it.

Video on Jeff Hardy who wants to win the BFG Series.

X-Division Title Tournament Qualifying Match: Kenny King vs. Lars Only

King is one half of the ROH Tag Team Champions. Only looks like a rocker or something. Apparently the title match will be Ultimate X. King hits a Japanese armdrag and makes fun of Only’s guitar playing gimmick. Only speeds things up (he’s a TINY dude) and hits a cross body to the back and a kick to the head for two. Actually there’s going to be 8 people in the tournament and the four winners of semi-finals will be in Ultimate X. Ok then.

They head to the floor and Kenny hits a flip off the apron as Tenay talks about male strippers. Back in and a kind of Pele gets two for King. Only avoids a legdrop and sends King back to the floor. Lars takes Kenny down with a kind of 619 around the post into a bad rana. A HORRIBLE looking modified Stunner gets two for Only. Lars tries a tornado DDT but King escapes and hits a reverse F5 (same starting position but Lars landed on his back) for the pin at 5:12.

Rating: D+. Lars is REALLY bad. This has been one of the worst in ring nights from TNA that I can remember in a very long time. This didn’t work for the most part at all but King was light years ahead of Only out there. If nothing else he doesn’t look to be Mysterio’s size but with none of the talent.

King says on Sunday a King will be crowned.

Video on Aries who is getting ready for his match on Sunday. He always finds a way to win, usually with brainbusters. He can win on his own merits, unlike Roode who needs beer bottles.

Aries hugs King in the back and they chat a bit. King leaves and a guy asks Aries if he’s going to relinquish the title tonight. Aries says of course he is.

Here are the BFG Series standings:

James Storm 36

Samoa Joe 27

Magnus 14

Kurt Angle 10

Mr. Anderson 8

D’Angelo Dinero 7

Jeff Hardy 7

Rob Van Dam 7

Christoper Daniels 5

Bully Ray 0

Robbie E 0

AJ Styles 0

Bound For Glory Series: Jeff Hardy vs. James Storm

Feeling out process to start and it’s a standoff about a minute in. Hardy runs from the Last Call and Storm runs away from the Twist of Fate. Tazz tries to explain that the Twist is faster than the kick which is kind of head scratching. We’re three minutes into this now and there’s been barely any contact. Storm hides on the floor so Jeff dives at him but only hits ropes. They lock up and we take a break. Great.

Back with Hardy having his chinlock broken up. This match is almost going in slow motion. They’re not doing anything of note which I hope isn’t what they call an epic match feel. Storm makes his comeback but Hardy takes him right back down and hits the legdrop between Storm’s legs for two. Storm goes to the corner and hits a kind of mat slam out of the corner for two. Hardy is holding his arm. He sends Storm to the floor and hits a dropkick through the ropes.

Hardy dives onto Storm but gets caught in a Codebreaker which the announcers seem to miss. Back in and Storm clotheslines him down but misses a corner splash. Hardy hits the slingshot dropkick and there goes the shirt. Swanton misses so Storm goes up and hits a top rope elbow for two. Last Call misses and there’s the Twist for the pin at 14:07.

Rating: D+. If this was supposed to be their big epic main event, it really didn’t work. The stuff before the break was Storm running away like a heel would and the stuff after the break was nothing better. TNA main event matches have a real problem with building drama and it was no exception here. Hardy avoided the kick and hit the Twist out of nowhere. It wasn’t horrible or anything but it was nothing great. Just kidn of there.

They shake hands post match.

We recap the history of Angle vs. Joe because they have a match on Sunday. Scratch that as it’s just Angle debuting and fighting Joe.

We run down the card, which is Angle vs. Joe, the title match, AJ vs. Daniels, four X matches and the Ultimate X match. Based on what we saw tonight…..oh dear.

Bound For Glory is in Phoenix.

Angle vs. Anderson is the main event next week.

Here’s Hogan for the closing segment with five minutes left. Hogan says he isn’t used to the fans being this loud….and here’s Roode. Roode says Hogan has been suckered in by this Option C thing and it’s been nothing but false promises from Hogan. On Sunday he’s killing the X Division and it’s on Hogan’s hands.

Cue Aries who says Roode has a tendency to do this a lot. Aries says the options tonight are to give the belt to Hogan, or wait for Sunday to beat up Roode, or Option C: beat up Roode now. There goes the jacket and they get in each others’ faces and Roode backs down. He swings the belt but Aries ducks and blasts Roode with the X Belt to end the show.

Overall Rating: D. The streak of hot shows didn’t end tonight. It was shot through the head and dismembered tonight. This show was awful with bad matches throughout and a pretty weak build up for the PPV on Sunday. Aries vs. Roode looks good but other than that, I have no desire to see anything on the show. This didn’t work at all and I really hope it’s a one off problem so it doesn’t end their great streak forever.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

Impact Wrestling
Date: June 28, 2012
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

Back to the Impact Zone for another live show. The main thing tonight is a tag title rematch from the PPV which was great in the first place so hopefully it’ll be the same here tonight. Other than that we have the fallout from Gut Check which isn’t anything of note so far. Also we’ll build up more towards Destination X. Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of last week’s events.

Dixie and AJ say they’re ready to move on.

Bound For Glory Series: Mr. Anderson vs. Rob Van Dam

Anderson has 9 points coming in while Van Dam has zero. They’re already tweeking the rules as all matches are now fifteen minutes. That’s probably a very good idea as the matches last week were really short. They go to the mat for some near falls off small packages to start. Anderson hits a snap suplex for two but Van Dam comes back with a bridging Indian Deathlock with a chinlock as well.

They go to the mat and Van Dam hooks some freaky hold with Anderson getting all tied up. It’s hard to describe actually but it’s kind of like an abdominal stretch on steroids. Russian legsweep gets two for Anderson as does a northern lights suplex for Van Dam. A cartwheel into a moonsault gets two for RVD as well. The split legged moonsault hits knees so Anderson hits his neckbreaker for two again. Van Dam grabs a crucifix rollup out of a fireman’s carry for the pin and seven points at 5:57.

Rating: C+. Anderson’s matches have a style that I don’t usually care for but it worked pretty well here I guess. Van Dam was fine out there and it looked about as good as it was going to. Adding the extra five minutes seems to be a good idea, but it’s not like the other matches couldn’t have done this as well. Still though, not bad here and a good opener.

Here are the updated standings:

Storm 36

Joe 17

Angl 10

Dnderson 9

RVD 7

Pope 7

Magnus

Jeff Hardy 7

Christopher Daniels 5

Bully Ray 0

Robbie E 0

AJ Styles 0

Here’s Aries to talk about his path to get here. He’s graduated from the X Division and has beaten up heavyweights, but he still respects the title. That’s why he came up with Option C and it’s why he’s facing Bobby Roode for the world title at Destination X. But what happens to the title? There’s going to be a tournament at the PPV and it’ll have old and new faces of the Division.

Cue the world champ who says that what he’s holding is the real title. It’s the real world title because he’s made it that way. There are 12 people waiting for a shot at this at Bound For Glory because the title matters so much. Aries gets his shot because of Hulk Hogan and because of Hulk Hogan alone. Option C is a failure, now get out of his ring. Aries says this is his ring, and if Roode wants him out of it, make him get out. Roode bails.

We get a clip from the end of the show last week with Clair admitting she’s an addict.

Clair and Dixie are in the back and Clair says that she met Dixie at a party. She says she has no idea who Kaz and Daniels are but she can’t believe they would use her to get at Dixie and AJ.

Kaz yells at Daniels who he really has no reason to be with anymore. Kaz says this ends tonight and walks out on Daniels. See? It’s not hard to be logical.

X-Division Tournament Qualifying Match: Sonjay Dutt vs. Rubix

No idea who Rubix is but he’s in a mask so it might be someone I’ve seen before. He’s got long limbs. This is one of four qualifying matches so it’s a four man tournament at the PPV. Rubix flies around a bit and sends Sonjay to the floor for a suicide dive. Back in and Sonjay hits a springboard splash for two. Rubix hits a German for two but gets caught in a tornado DDT. A moonsault into a double stomp (FREAKING OW MAN) gets the pin for Sonjay at 3:15.

Rating: C+. Take two guys, give them a few minutes, have them fly around and fire up the crowd a lot. Dutt was around back in the day to do lots of flips and there’s nothing wrong with that. He never won the X Title so it’s cool to see him here like this. Good little match here but the amount of time they had hut it a lot. SICK finish though.

We hear from the Gut Check people who talk about Taeler. They aren’t sure about her but they think she’s been through a lot. Apparently her cancer diagnosis was a false one.

We get a clip from last week with Joseph Park and Ray having another confrontation.

Bound For Glory Series: Samoa Joe vs. Bully Ray

Ray gets in his face so Joe gets right back in his face and it’s a standoff. Ray stalls some more as you would expect him to. They ram into each other a few times but Ray drops him with an elbow smash. There’s a suplex and a falling headbutt for no cover for Ray and we take a break. Back with Joe making a comeback by running at Ray a few times. He slugs Ray in the head but a double clothesline puts both guys down.

Joe tries a suplex but hurts his shoulder in the process. Ray goes after it as the fans chant for the fat boy. Allow me to adjust that statement: they chant for the fat Samoan. Ray works on the arm for awhile but Joe takes it to the floor. That goes badly for him as well as the arm gets rammed into the steps. They’ve been going almost ten minutes here so the time is starting to become a factor.

Ray misses a splash and Joe pounds away with right hands. An atomic drop puts Ray down and the senton backsplash gets two. By my math they’re over 11 minutes in now as Ray hits a Rock Bottom for two. Ray’s middle rope splash misses and he rolls to the floor. Joe hops out and gets his head kicked off….but here’s Joseph Park. He pops Ray with a right hand and Joe grabs the choke for the tap at 13:00.

Rating: C+. Pretty good stuff here with Joe making a big jump up in the standings. Actually scratch that as he’s still in second but he’s a lot closer now. Park continuing his story and having more confidence now is a nice touch as he continues to be one of the most interesting characters on the show. I was thinking this would be a draw so a surprise is always nice.

Park says he’s Joseph Park but Ray is a bully. He talks about being bullied his whole life and it stops tonight. He’s tired of Ray imposing his will on everyone and the people are sick of it too. Park says that in two weeks, he’ll fight Ray again and he’s bringing the fight to Ray.

Tazz and Tenay say to go to the website to listen to the full unedited version of Dixie and AJ’s phone call from a few weeks ago.

Back to Dixie and Clair with Dixie explaining the photo. It was the time that AJ explained how bad it was to Dixie and she kind of snapped. They were going to the hotel to see Clair after she got out of rehab too. The call about Serg was about his birthday. I CALLED THAT ONE WEEKS AGO!

Kaz pleads his case to Daniels and says he can’t tag with him tonight. He wants the tag match but not with Daniels. Hogan says prove that you’re a new man when you’re out there tonight with Daniels. Please, not tag champions that hate each other.

Madison goes up to Garrett and looks very nervous. She says she has a crush on someone and asks what he’s like. It’s not Garrett apparently but she whispers the name in his ear. Garrett says good luck with that and leaves.

Brooke gives Tessmacher a campaign with Direct Auto Insurance. Gail comes up to complain and talks trash. Hogan continues her bad acting and tells Gail that she gets her rematch next week.

X-Division Tournament Qualifying Match: Rashad Cameron vs. Mason Andrews

Cameron has a BIG afro while Mason looks almost identical to Percy Watson. They speed things up to start and Andrews sends him to the floor. He hits a HUGE dive but trips on the rope and hits Rashad in the head. If he wasn’t out cold I’m amazed. Back in they speed things up again and Cameron dropkicks him out of the air for two. Apparently Mason is Scorpio Sky from PWG.

They go back and forth a bit with Andrews hitting a jumping knee to the head and a springboard cross body for two. Cameron knocks him to the floor and hits a BIG flip dive. Back in he goes up but gets ranaed down for two. Andrews is almost sent into the corner but as he turns around Cameron hits a jumping Downward Spiral (think R-Truth’s Little Jimmy) for the pin at 4:04.

Rating: C. Not bad here but the sloppiness hurt it. Again the idea of throwing people out there and having them fly around is the best idea you can go with at times. I just hope this lasts beyond the PPV unlike last year where Destination X happened and then it stopped happening. Bringing in some new faces for it doesn’t hut at all though.

Cameron says this is the beginning of the Rashad Cameron movement.

Hogan is on the phone and talking about Sting. Storm and Hardy are with him and want to know what’s going on with Sting. Hogan doesn’t quite know what’s going on. Storm says he’s ready and Hardy says he’s feeling the Series. They fight next week.

Gut Check time. Taeler says last week she gave it her best and she’s ready to shine. The fans chant YES and Tazz agrees with them. Snow says he’s been around Taeler a lot and here’s Joey Ryan to yell at Tazz. He’s in the front row and yells a lot but we can’t really hear what he’s saying. Security gets him out as the segment grinds to a halt. Ok back in the ring now and Snow says no. Taeler gets 30 seconds to convince Pritchard. She says someone gave every one of them a shot and that’s all she wants. Bruce says he isn’t sure if she’s ready yet but he’ll give her a yes anyway.

Angle says the old AJ is back and that’s a great thing. AJ says he’s ready. He gets Daniels at Destination X in a last man standing match.

Tag Titles: Kurt Angle/AJ Styles vs. Kazarian/Christopher Daniels

Daniels and Kaz are challenging but Kaz doesn’t like Daniels all that much right now. He and AJ start and AJ takes him down followed by a kick to the back. Off to Angle and Kaz tags out, almost by slapping the taste out of Daniels’ mouth. Kurt charges into a boot and Daniels hits his slingshot elbow. Off to Kaz who covers off that elbow for some reason. Daniels yells at Kaz and tags himself back in but runs from AJ. The challengers argue on the floor as we take a break.

Back with Daniels in control of AJ and hitting his running STO for two. Angle comes in and cleans house. He fires off Rolling Germans on Kaz and does the same to Daniels. Kaz grabs a TKO for two on Kurt but gets caught in the ankle lock. That gets broken up quickly and everything breaks down. AJ clotheslines Kaz down but gets caught in a Blue Thunder Bomb. Angle gets sent into the referee by Daniels so Chris grabs a chair. Kaz pulls it away and lets AJ hit the Pele. Kaz tells AJ to finish this, but then hits AJ in the back with a chair, giving Daniels the pin and the titles at 11:34.

Rating: B-. So Kaz is evil for the sake of being evil. I guess that works, but would this count as two turns in the same show? Eh it’s fine as it’s better with AJ and Kurt not being champions again as the titles weren’t really fitting on them. This was nowhere near as good as the Slammiversary match but it was fine for a TV main event.

Daniels says Clair didn’t tell all of the truth because her baby’s daddy is AJ. Let the soap opera continue.

Overall Rating: B-. Another good show this week although there are some holes in it. It’s personal taste but I can’t stand the Gut Check stuff. I don’t like reality TV at all so I’m definitely not the right audience for it. Bringing in new people for the X Division is a good thing as that division is dying for a lack of depth right now. This was another good show though as the positives far outweigh the negatives.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews