Hardcore Justice 2012
Date: August 12, 2012
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Taz

It’s the last stop before we start heading towards BFG which means tonight is all about getting points in the BFG Series. Well that and the world title match with Aries defending against Roode which is the final encounter, as no one is eligible for a rematch due to a pre-match agreement. TNA has done a good job lately of making us wonder who is going to win all of these matches tonight so let’s get to it.

The opening video is about how tonight is all about violence and the Series and the title is in there somewhere too.

Tenay says the TV Title is on the line tonight too so I guess we have a bonus match. Word on the street says it’s Kaz challenging D-Von.

Gunner/Kid Kash vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr./Hernandez

This is probably the right choice for the opener as I don’t think anyone really cares about this for the most part but it should be fine from a technical standpoint. The villains jump Chavo and Hernandez before the bell and the fans seem to be behind Chavo. The fans’ pick starts with Kash and Chavo quickly hits the Three Amigos to take over. He goes up but Gunner knocks him down to slow Chavo down.

The heels use some nice double teaming moves, including a double slingshot suplex for two. Kash spends a little too much time bragging and Chavo snaps off a headscissors to take him down. There’s no tag to SuperMex though as Chavo and Kash stumble into the ropes for some reason. Off to Gunner with a right hand to take Chavo down followed by a backdrop. Back to Kash who hooks a cool neck scissors (only way I can think of to describe it) on Chavo.

Hernandez is getting annoyed on the apron but Chavo is stuck in the corner. Kash hooks a camel clutch but Chavo escapes into an electric chair. Gunner breaks up ANOTHER tag attempt. When that hot tag hits the place is going to erupt. Chavo hits a European Uppercut but goes after Kash instead of making the tag. That’s not very veteranly of him. They clothesline each other down and NOW we get the hot tag to Hernandez.

SuperMex cleans house and throws the evil tag stoppers around like they’re small men being thrown around by a large Mexican American. Gunner breaks up a pin attempt off a shoulder block so Hernandez clotheslines them both down at once. Gunner is knocked to the floor and SuperMex dives over the top to take Gunner out. Chavo tagged himself in as Hernandez was diving and after Kash is taken down by a slingshot shoulder block, the Frog Splash pins Kash at 9:37.

Rating: C+. This was perfectly fine for an opener. I don’t think most people really cared about the match but they worked the tag formula to perfection and it still works to this day. Chavo tagging himself in could lead to some friction so maybe there’s something to build off from this. Good stuff here though and a fine opener.

The people in the Series say they’ll win.

Bound For Glory Series Leaderboard

James Storm 66

Samoa Joe 54

Kurt Angle 48

Mr. Anderson 40

Jeff Hardy 35

Rob Van Dam 35

Christopher Daniels 33

Bully Ray 28

Magnus 21

AJ Styles 16

D’Angelo Dinero 9

Robbie E 5

Bound For Glory Series: D’Angelo Dinero vs. Rob Van Dam vs. Mr. Anderson vs. Magnus

This is Falls Count Anywhere and it’s for 20 points. Dinero is jumped in the back by Aces and 8’s before the match so I guess we have a three way instead. Apparently someone is late to the show but I didn’t catch the name. Anderson is fine with Dinero being out because it’s one less guy to worry about. They play to the crowd to start but Van Dam gets jumped by Magnus and knocked over the top rope to the floor.

Anderson clotheslines Magnus down but can only get a one count. Van Dam comes back in and monkey flips everyone in sight. Well everyone who isn’t a referee that is. Magnus and Van Dam go to the floor but Anderson breaks up the spinning legdrop off the apron. Anderson sends Magnus into the apron for one on the floor. Magnus gets a chair as I assume this is hardcore and not just falls count anywhere.

Anderson knocks the chair away from Magnus but his DDT onto the chair is broken up. The two of them brawl up to the stage on the floor but Van Dam pelts a chair at Magnus to break it up. Now he hits the spinning leg to the back of Anderson who was on the barricade next to the ramp. Magnus gets in a shot to Van Dam’s knee and puts on a Texas Cloverleaf on the stage, only to have Anderson clothesline him in the back of the head to break the hold.

Back to the ring and Anderson and Magnus hit a double clothesline to take each other down. Van Dam stumbles in to try the Five Star but Anderson crotches him. They load up a Tower of Doom but Anderson breaks it up. He tries the superplex on RVD but gets knocked down and Five Starred but Magnus breaks up the pin. Magnus suplexes RVD on the ramp and asks for an expletive chair. RVD goes up the ramp with the Brit following with the aforementioned chair. Apparently no one has watched tape because YOU DON’T HOLD UP A CHAIR IN FRONT OF VAN DAM! Van Daminator gets the pin on Magnus at 9:06.

Rating: B-. I was digging this although I’m not wild on them taking Dinero out. My best guess would be it’s someone trying to take people out of the Series because they’re low in the standings, but wouldn’t you want to take out the people with the most points so you could move up? Maybe it has nothing to do with the standings. Either way, another good match here in a show that feels like it could be awesome.

Security can’t find Aces and 8’s.

Madison Rayne says she doesn’t need help to win titles so Earl Hebner won’t mean anything. If only that were true.

TV Title: D-Von vs. Kazarian

D-Von is defending. Kaz stalls on the floor to start but D-Von launches him into the ring. They head to the floor and a drink is knocked into the camera. D-Von is in full control and hits Kaz in the head with a bottle of water. Kaz tries to run up the steps but slips a bit, giving D-Von a heads up and letting him slam Kaz when he dives at the champ. Back inside and Kaz gets in his first offense in the form of a clothesline.

A springboard reverse elbow sets up a springboard legdrop for two. Off to a chinlock which doesn’t last long, but it gives the announcers enough time to talk about the planets for some reason. D-Von starts a comeback with some chops but gets poked in the eye to stop that cold. A spear out of nowhere takes Kaz down so hard that he stands on his head for a bit.

D-Von starts his comeback with the shoulders and a headbutt for no cover. Another shoulder gets two and D-Von has his goofy look. Kaz misses a charge in the corner and D-Von hits the neckbreaker out of the corner for two. A crucifix gets two for Kaz but Fade to Black is countered into the spinebuster for the pin to retain at 8:34.

Rating: C. Given the rumors of D-Von leaving soon, this might have been a way to throw the fans off and make them think D-Von would be leaving. Maybe that’ll happen on Impact or maybe it won’t happen at all, but either way this was fine for what it was. It was a comedy match in a way at first but it turned into your usual TV Title match. D-Von losing the title soon will likely be a good thing for it though as there’s nothing to most of his matches. Not that they’re bad though.

We recap Earl Hebner and Madison. The hot chick has a crush on the old man and he’s helped Madison win some matches. Tonight it’s a title match. Gee I wonder if that’ll mean anything.

Knockouts Title: Madison Rayne vs. Miss Tessmacher

Tessmacher is defending. They shove each other around to start and Earl is refereeing. WHY WOULD STING LET HIM DO THAT? Madison takes over by sending Tessmacher into the corner and then launches her across the ring by the hair. That has to hurt like no other. Tessmacher comes back with some clotheslines but walks into a northern lights suplex for two. The real comeback starts with some clotheslines but that mat slam of Tessmacher’s is countered. The champ slams her down by the hair and hits a top rope elbow for two. Out of nowhere Madison grabs a rollup and uses the ropes for the pin and the title at 5:30.

Rating: D. This was your usual Knockouts match: not that good but the girls look good in their little outfits. Hebner didn’t cheat at all in this which makes the sights of Madison kissing him COMPLETELY POINTLESS. Yes I get that it could mean something later, but WHY DID I HAVE TO SEE THAT HAPPEN INT HE FIRST PLACE??? Not a terrible match but man alive I do not care about women’s wrestling at all in either company. It’s just dull all around.

Bully Ray, with his back to the wall, shows JB a Dead Man’s Hand he found on his car. He tells Aces and 8’s to bring it on and says he’s going to Bound For Glory.

We recap the history of Aces and 8’s.

Bound For Glory Series: James Storm vs. Robbie E vs. Bully Ray vs. Jeff Hardy

Another 20 points on the line here and this is a tables match. I believe it’s one fall to a finish. Storm is still being accused of being behind Aces and 8’s but there’s no concrete evidence. Ray tells everyone to go after Storm but Robbie wants nothing to do with it. Robbie is promptly chopped in the chest and punched in the face for his disagreements. Jeff and James throw him to the floor but they get their heads taken off by Ray.

Ray beats on Robbie a bit and brings in the first table of the match. Hardy breaks up an attempted suplex through said table but Robbie moves the table to avoid a double suplex to Ray. Unfortunately he doesn’t move it well enough and Ray’s arm knocks off a piece of the table. That doesn’t count though because we can’t have a three minute match so we keep going.

Robbie comes in and takes over, putting Jeff on the table but he stops to fist pump. Storm breaks the attempt up and tries a superplex on Robbie, but Jeff turns it into a Tower of Doom. Ray moves the table but lets Robbie get destroyed anyway. Smart man there. Storm moves the table so Hardy can’t be backdropped through it and the Cowboy is the only one standing.

Storm takes too long setting up a table in the corner and Rob gets in a shot to the Cowboy’s back. Hardy gets back up and knocks Robbie down again to take over. There’s a table set up on the floor with the Jersey Shore dude placed on it but Robbie T comes out as a distraction. Since Hardy isn’t the smartest guy in the world, he dives over E on the table to take T out instead. Storm and Ray are fighting off camera as Jeff is placed on a table on the floor. Robbie dives off the middle rope but Hardy moves, sending Robbie crashing through the table.

Back in the ring Storm beats up Ray and hits an enziguri in the corner, only to have his head taken off by a Ray clothesline a second later. There’s a table set up in the corner and Ray sets to drive Storm through it but here are Aces and 8’s. They don’t get in but the distraction lets Storm kick Ray down. The masked men give Storm a thumbs up but he doesn’t care.

Hardy comes back and jumps Storm as the match continues. The table is set up in the middle of the ring and Hardy hits Whisper in the Wind (not through the table). Last Call is blocked and Hardy hits the Twist of Fate. He puts Storm on the table but Aces and 8’s distract Jeff. Storm hits the superkick on Jeff but Ray comes back in and kicks Storm down before powerbombing Hardy through the table for the win at 9:45.

Rating: C. This was pretty entertaining but it was more about the storyline than the match which is fine. The signs seem to point to Storm being in charge of the attacks but there’s no direct evidence so far and Storm may be being framed. Ray getting the win is interesting, even though he may be leaving soon. Could it be a red herring? The fact that I don’t know for sure makes this much more fun.

Ray seems to have a bad elbow due to the inadvertent crash through the table earlier.

Austin Aries talks about how Roode seems obsessed with having a rematch clause. Tonight he’ll take care of everything that he has to, and if that includes Aces and 8’s so be it.

We recap the X Title match. King jumped to TNA and wants to be champion because if not, it was a failed risk.

X-Division Title: Kenny King vs. Zema Ion

King is challenging. Feeling out process to start with King finally taking over with a headlock. A backslide gets two as does La Majistral. Back to the headlock and then out to the floor with King hitting a sweet flip dive off the apron. They head back inside for a second but King is knocked back outside where the champ hits a flip dive of his own. Ion hits a neckbreaker for two and it’s off to a chinlock.

That only lasts a few seconds as Ion chokes instead. Now we get a longer lasting chinlock followed by a DDT for two. King comes back with an atomic drop and things speed up a bit. A high collar throw puts Ion into the corner and out to the floor. King hits a BIG corkscrew dive to the floor which gets two back in.

The modified F5 is broken up but King puts on a half crab of all things. A kick similar to Trouble in Paradise misses and a flipping backbreaker gets two for Ion. King hits a knee to the head for two and knocks the hairspray out of Ion’s hand. They head to the corner and King sets for some kind of sunset flip but gets countered into something like a shoulderbreaker for the pin by Ion to retain at 11:03.

Rating: D+. Ion is really freaking boring. At the end of the day all he has is big hair and that’s nothing interesting at all. I get that they want to wait on Sorensen to come back and take the title from him in a big moment, but do we have to sit through him as champion that long? Nothing to see here and Ion winning was a letdown as he was shown up in this match.

Joe tells Aces and 8’s to bring it and that he’s winning tonight.

Bound For Glory Series: AJ Styles vs. Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe vs. Christopher Daniels

20 points and it’s a ladder match. AJ immediately jumps Daniels and beats on him until Angle pulls Styles off. Angle jumps in and stomps on Daniels until Joe wants a turn. All three guys take their shots at Daniels who finally tries a BME, only to miss completely. Joe takes over but AJ knocks him to the floor and hits a big flip dive. It’s Styles vs. Angle in the ring but Daniels gets the ladder and hits AJ in the knee with it to take over.

The ladder is brought in but Joe slams Daniels onto it and goes for a climb. Angle and AJ come back in and knock the ladder down with Kurt taking over. Daniels jumps Angle from behind and sets the ladder up, only to get buckle bombed by Joe. The Samoan goes up but Angle makes the save and hits the overhead belly to belly to take Joe down. The fans chant USA despite all four guys being American.

Angle stomps on Styles but AJ shoves the ladder into his face to change control again. The Pele takes Joe down and AJ pounds on Daniels in the corner. Joe gets back up and cleans house, throwing around everyone in sight. He loads up the MuscleBuster on Styles but Angle comes in and grabs Joe for a German while he’s still holding AJ. Since that would probably kill AJ, he falls out and lands on Joe instead. Daniels hits an STO on Angle and goes for a climb but Kurt grabs the ankle to break it up.

AJ knocks everyone down and goes up, only for Daniels to shove him off the top and out to the floor in a scary landing. Joe and Angle bring Daniels down and it’s time for some suplexes. It turns into “can you top this” on Daniels which is always fun. There’s an Angle Slam and then Angle starts thinking. Daniels is put inside the ladder so that his head is coming through one hole and his legs are through another. The beating continues until Kurt climbs up. Daniels grabs his leg so Joe sets up another ladder and climbs as well. AJ pops in out of NOWHERE with the Shelton Benjamin leap and grabs the envelope to win at 16:18.

Rating: B. The stuff with Daniels was great and the match was good, but other than the ending there was nothing that stood out as great. Thankfully there was no Clair involvement here as she drags down almost everything she’s involved in. Good match here though and Daniels sold like a master.

Roode says he’ll win and that Aries is a fluke.

We recap the world title match. Roode was champion forever and Aries got the title match because he was X-Division Champion. He won the match to prove he could hang with the big boys and Roode has been furious since. Tonight it’s the final match and there are no rematches for either if they lose.

TNA World Title: Austin Aries vs. Bobby Roode

After some big match intros we’re ready to go. Roode is challenging if that last paragraph was too tough for you. Aries grabs a quick Last Chancery and Roode bails to the floor. Roode stalls and hides on the floor and the match slows down a lot. The fans call Roode a coward and he’s walking away. The referee reminds him that there’s no rematch so Roode asks for time. When that’s denied he slips in and back out, so Aries dives on him in a great looking jump.

Aries knocks Roode around the ring a bit and goes to the apron again for another dive. This time Roode moves and Aries crashes into the barricade ribs first. Back inside and the challenger keeps up his advantage with a belly to back suplex and a knee drop for two. Roode wraps up Aries from behind to squeeze on the ribs a bit followed by some shoulders into the ribs. Aries grabs a sunset flip for two but a gutbuster stops him cold.

Back to the body vice for a bit before Bobby puts Aries up in the Tree of Woe. Aries finally escapes and hits an atomic drop and clothesline to send Roode to the floor. Aries loads up the suicide dive but Roode moves before it’s launched. Unfortunately for Roode he moves into position for a double ax off the top. Back in the ring and there’s the Last Chancery from the champ. Aries switches that off to a Crossface instead but Roode reverses into one of his own.

Aries finally makes the rope and we’re back where we started. They chop it out and Aries hits a missile dropkick for two. The brainbuster is countered into Roode’s spinebuster for two and both guys are needing some air. Aries goes up and after knocking Roode off the top, he fires the 450 but Roode gets the knees up.

Since this is a TNA PPV main event, the referee gets speared down by mistake, followed by a spear to Aries as well. Another referee comes in and counts two off the spear. The second referee doesn’t last long though as he gets crushed in the corner by Roode. The brainbuster hits Roode but the delayed cover means it only gets two. Aries goes up again but gets crotched. Roode hits a superplex but Aries hooks Roode’s feet for a kind of small package. Both referees count and it’s a double pin at 22:55.

Rating: B+. Good match here and I’m assuming it sets up a blowoff match at No Surrender, which at least gives that show something else to see with the world title. The No Rematch clause is at a kind of standstill here because you can’t really have a rematch if no one lost the match. I like this better than giving it to either guy, especially since the matches have been good and a trilogy is better than…..what do you call a series with just two entries?

We get the traditional arguing post match….and we’re going to restart it? Apparently so and Aries loads up the suicide dive, only to ram his head into the belt that Roode was holding at the time. HOW IS THAT NOT A DQ? Either way it only gets two. Roode goes to pick Aries up and gets rolled up for the pin after maybe a minute of restart time.

Overall Rating: B. This was a good show but there’s nothing on it that I would call great. That being said, it’s still better than I expected, although it wasn’t the runaway surprise I was expecting. The Series is a bit more interesting now and there were only a few matches that were weak, but nothing major changed here other than the main event with Roode basically out of the title picture now. This was a good show overall but it could have been a bit better.

Roode panics to end the show.

Results

Chavo Guerrero Jr./Hernandez b. Gunner/Kid Kash – Frog Splash to Kash

Rob Van Dam b. Mr. Anderson, D’Angelo Dinero and Magnus – Van Daminator to Magnus

D-Von b. Kazarian – Spinebuster

Madison Rayne b. Miss Tessmacher – Rollup while holding the ropes

Bully Ray b. Jeff Hardy, James Storm and Robbie E – Ray powerbombed Hardy through a table

Zema Ion b. Kenny King – Shoulderbreaker

AJ Styles b. Christopher Daniels, Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle – Styles pulled down the envelope

Austin Aries b. Bobby Roode – Rollup

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

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

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

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: May 17, 2012
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

It’s the first show after Sacrifice and Roode is still champion, which isn’t something that should surprise you. Other than that, not a lot changed at the PPV. The only real change is that we have new tag team champions in the form of Daniels and Kazarian. We should begin building up for Slammiversary too. Let’s get to it.

Here’s Roode to open the show. Gee I wonder what he’s going to be saying. It’s the same promo you’ve always heard from him with him talking about how he’s the best and no one can stop him. Next week he’s going to have The It Factor’s Celebration Of Domination, which is a party of some kind. First of all though, he needs Hogan out here. Cue the guy who is somehow still the NEW GM, about six weeks after getting the job.

Roode has demands for Hogan for next week. He wants a redecorated dressing room and five bottles of chilled champagne plus only green M and M’s. Also he wants gold confetti flown in from Canada. Hogan takes the list and talks about some great champions. He talks about how Roode brought stability to the show, but he hasn’t broken the record yet. Next week is Open Fight Night, and the world title will be on the line.

Hogan talks about taking a poll in the back of people that might want a shot next week. The locker room empties out and apparently they all want a shot next week. Hogan says we need to get this down to four men, so tonight there will be four singles matches. The winners will advance to some kind of competition next week and the winner will get a title match later next week. The matches are Ray vs. RVD, Hardy vs. Anderson (nice job on screwing the PPV fans again guys), Angle vs. Joe, and a battle royal.

We get a clip of Abyss saying Joseph is getting too close to the fire.

Rob Van Dam vs. Bully Ray

Rob is very banged up from the ladder match and Ray goes after the bad arm. Van Dam kicks his way out of it as usual and Rolling Thunder gets two. Ray goes after the knee but Rob kicks away again. He goes up top and tries the top rope kick, but hurts his knee in the process. Bubba Cutter (called a 3D by Tenay) gets the pin at 3:22.

Rating: C-. This was a short match and it felt even shorter. That being said it wasn’t really that bad as the leg injury from the PPV played in here, which is a good thing. Ray moving on is a good thing as I find him more interesting than Rob, who is more or less just there because of his past work. Ray using the Cutter is a good thing.

Post break Bully Ray rants about……the Kardashians? Apparently they’re about anti-bullying now and he wants to fight them. Joseph Park comes in and apologizes for interfering on Sunday. He thinks Ray is the fire that Abyss was talking about. Ray says stay away.

We see a segment from MMA Uncensored of King Mo, an MMA fighter, announcing that he’s signing with TNA and fighting for Bellator at the same time. There’s some MMA analyst and Dixie Carter there too. Not much is said.

Gail rants to Madison about having to be in a triple threat match tonight. Madison says there’s no guy she likes, even though she admitted to there being one recently. Brooke and Velvet come up after Madison leaves to fix her hair. They make fun of Gail for cheating and say one of them will win the title.

Battle Royal

This is a qualifying match as well. Aries gets an entrance pre-break. After a break AJ, ODB and Eric Young get entrances as well. Also in there are guys like Magnus, D-Von, Crimson, Garrett Bischoff and others. ODB and Eric hit a double clothesline on Crimson and all three go out. The Rob’s and Gunner are in there too. I think that’s everyone. There are eight more I think. Magnus goes to the apron and Aries dropkicks him out. Madison is watching from the apron and is all smiley but we’re not sure at whom.

After a few minutes of nothing going on, Robbie E puts out Robbie T. T is annoyed but D-Von puts out E anyway. So it’s Gunner, Garrett, D-Von, AJ and Aries as we take a break. Back with all five still in. AJ and Aries work together on Gunner and D-Von kills Garrett with a shoulder. Garrett low bridges D-Von to eliminate him, probably getting a title match later.

AJ Peles the tar out of Garrett and eliminates him. Gunner gets dropkicked down (not eliminated) and it’s AJ vs. Aries in a showdown. Aries hits a spinning forearm and it’s time for counters. A Superman forearm staggers Aries and AJ goes to the apron, but Aries charges. That lets Gunner knock Aries to the floor but AJ dumps Gunner to advance at 10:56.

Rating: C+. Fun stuff here and AJ is the perfect placeholder or even a potential winner for next week’s fourway. The Garrett push is likely to continue with a TV Title shot next week. The stuff at the end was good too as they treated AJ vs. Aries as a big deal, which to be fair it kind of is. Aries still needs to drop the title soon though.

We recap the AJ/Dixie photos stuff from the last few weeks.

Back with AJ in the ring. He says he’ll win the title next week but now it’s time to discuss the pictures. Nothing happened and they’re just business partners. They’re both married but it’s not like that. Things aren’t as they seem, but here are Daniels and Kaz. They imply that AJ has slept his way to the top and have video to prove it. They pull out an iPad and show AJ and Dixie going into a hotel room together.

We get a video from Genesis 2006 and Joe’s first loss, which was to Angle.

Joe comes up to Angle and they talk about the past. Angle slaps Joe and it’s on in the back with Angle getting a beating. Other wrestlers break it up.

Anderson looks at a video and thinks Jeff kicked out.

Moment #7 in TNA history is the Unbreakable triple threat.

Mr. Anderson vs. Jeff Hardy

Slow feeling out process to start until Jeff sends him to the floor. Jeff tries a dive of some kind but Anderson grabs the feet and slams him into the mat. Jeff comes back with a slingshot clothesline for two. Anderson hits his neckbreaker for the same. Anderson tries a kick to the head but Jeff chop blocks him to slow things down. A rollup by Jeff is countered into one by Anderson for two. Whisper in the Wind gets two. Anderson hits the Regal Roll but Jeff rolls back on him for the pin at 6:04.

Rating: C-. Not a terrible match here but these two just aren’t interesting at all together. Anderson is possibly moving towards a heel turn but it’s still nothing that’s going to make me care about him. This was better than their PPV match, but the chemistry was still severely lacking.

Video on Joe winning the world title from Angle at Lockdown 08.

Knockouts Title: Gail Kim vs. Brooke Tessmacher vs. Velvet Sky

Gail keeps trying to escape but gets double teamed and sent to the floor. The good girls trade small packages and that’s about it. Gail comes back in for a Boston Crab on Brooke but Velvet hooks a dragon sleeper at the same time on Gail. Gail tries an Octopus hold on Brooke but Velvet rolls her up for two. Kim doesn’t let go and rolls Brooke up for two. A top rope missile dropkick by the champ puts all three girls down. In Yo Face to Brooke but Gail throws Velvet to the floor and pins Brooke with a rollup at 4:42.

Rating: C. They tried some new stuff here and for the most part it worked, but at the end of the day it’s still the same girls that are only ok in the ring and Gail is still boring as champion. This was entertaining enough though and that’s the whole point. And they’re still better than the Divas.

Slammiversary video.

Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe

Joe knocks him to the floor but Angle double legs him down easily. Joe speeds things up and hits his usual strikes and drops his knee for two. The Facewash keeps Angle down in the corner as Roode comes out to do commentary. We take a break and come back with Angle in control. He knocks Joe down for two and hooks a chinlock.

Joe comes back with the powerslam but walks into the Germans to give Kurt control again. The Slam is countered into the Clutch which is countered into the ankle lock which is countered by Joe sending Angle into the corner. Angle hits the Slam for two, which really shouldn’t surprise anyone at this point. There’s the ankle lock again but Joe sends him into the corner. They go to the corner and Angle headbutts him away. A sunset flip into a rollup off the top gets the pin for Angle at 12:26.

Rating: B-. Good match but not quite as good as most of their matches. By not quite, I mean not even close. Joe is a guy you can throw into a place like this and it’s good to see him getting wins and being in big spots again, but he’s still nothing compared to what he used to be. Still though, this was built up as a big match and it mostly delivered.

The four challengers surround Roode to end the show.

Overall Rating: B-. Pretty good show here tonight but they’re using the single angle idea again here, which isn’t something I’m usually a fan of. In other words, this was almost all about next week and if that’s not your thing, too bad because this wasn’t a show for you. Still though the wrestling here worked and that’s all that matters for the most part. We have a big match set for next week’s Open Fight Night, which hopefully is better than the first. Good show.

Results
Bully Ray b. Rob Van Dam – Bully Cutter
AJ Styles won a battle royal last eliminating Gunner
Jeff Hardy b. Mr. Anderson – Crucifix
Gail Kim b. Brooke Tessmacher and Velvet Sky – Rollup to Tessmacher
Kurt Angle b. Samoa Joe – Rollup

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Impact Wrestling
Date: April 26, 2012
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

This is the first of the Open Fight Nights, which means that anyone that challenges anyone else will automatically get their match. There’s a guaranteed title match as well as a guaranteed TV Title match which will be the case every week. Other than that we’ll continue the build towards Sacrifice and the main event between RVD and Roode. Let’s get to it.

We open with Hogan talking to the champions (minus ODB and Young) and saying they could be challenged tonight too. Tonight Joe and Magnus will be defending against….some team that Hogan will announce just before the match. He might even tell them as the opponents are on the way to the ring.

D-Von comes out and says that since he has to defend against someone every week, tonight it’s going to be against the guy that everyone wants to see get beaten up: Bubba. Yes Bubba, not Bully. He has to accept because it’s a challenge on Open Fight Night. Ray comes out and runs his mouth first, saying that he doesn’t want to be in a ring with D-Von. Ray says no, so D-Von chases after him and throws him into the ring

TV Title: D-Von vs. Bully Ray

D-Von throws him into the ring and Ray begs off like a true bully. Thesz Press puts Ray down and D-Von goes up, only to get crotched as we take a break. Back with Ray dropping elbows and we get a clip of him holding up the belt during the break. D-Von comes back with right hands but Bubba clotheslines him down for two. Bubba sets for a charge but runs into the spinebuster for the completely clean pin at 9:45, most of which was in a commercial.

Rating: D+. The match was nothing interesting and for the life of me I don’t get the idea of pushing D-Von this hard. He hasn’t been bad, but man alive there are a lot more people that could be pushed besides him. Nothing to see here for the most part and if this is what open fight night is going to be like, it doesn’t seem like something that’s going to be all that interesting. It’s early yet though.

Flair is going to have a party for Eric (uncensored) Bischoff later tonight.

Kaz and Daniels come in to talk to Angle and ask for a thank you for the AJ victory last week. Angle yells at them and says stay out of his matches. Daniels also mentioned that AJ’s world will come crashing down in a few weeks.

Here’s JB who says that since it’s Open Fight Night, he wants to call out Eric Bischoff for being a jerk to JB, who has more seniority than anyone in the company. Eric went on a rant on Facebook or Twitter about JB recently and this is the payoff. Here’s Eric, marking his time away from Impact at one full week. Eric takes a picture of JB and Borash goes into a rant about Eric getting drunk and talking about employees behind his back.

As Eric talks, Ray comes in with a low blow to JB. Eric says he’s going to post something on his Twitter, and demands that a referee come in. he rolls up JB and has the bell rung. You know for a guy that isn’t on the show anymore, he’s around a lot anymore.

Anderson remembers Bischoff and talks about how he’s a hypocrite. Mexican America’s music is loudly playing during most of this. Pay no attention to the graphic saying “earlier today”.

Here’s Mexican America who says they can beat anyone.

Anarquia vs. Kurt Angle

Anarquia tries to have Hernandez do this and jumps Angle from behind. Angle Slam, Ankle Lock, 49 seconds.

We get a profile on the guy that is getting the Gut Check Challenge for a contract. It’s former OVW TV Champion Alex Silva. One of the judges (out of three plus Hogan) is Al Snow.

Alex Silva vs. Robbie E

Remember it’s not win and you’re in. Silva has to impress the judges, of which we only know two. Silva starts fast but gets caught by Robbie pretty fast. Powerslam gets one for Silva and then they cut to the crowd in probably a botch edit, followed by an implant DDT by Robbie for the pin at 2:18. Way to push these new guys right off the bat guys.

Dixie remembers the lies Eric told her.

Hogan has all of the potential tag team contenders in his office (Kaz/Daniels, Guns, Anderson/Hardy, ODB/Young) and wants to hear why each should get a title shot. The Guns say they’re dedicated more than anyone else and Hogan respects that. Hogan wants Hardy and Anderson to get along so Anderson kisses Hardy on the cheek. As for the Knockout Champions, Eric gives a speech of his own. Hogan can’t make a pick now but he eliminates the Guns from the running.

Here’s Tessmacher with something to say. She says last week she beat Gail and it’s being called a fluke. Brooke is here to prove it wasn’t just a fluke and she wants a match with Gail right now.

Gail Kim vs. Brooke Tessmacher

Brooke keeps trying to jump her but Hebner keeps stopping her. Gail jumps Tessmacher and we’re ready to go. This is non-title by the way, as I guess you can’t challenge for titles, which I thought they said you could last week but whatever. Tessmacher sends her into the corner but gets clotheslined down immediately. Tessmacher makes her comeback with some dropkicks but misses a charge and hits her throat on the ropes. Gail holds the belt in front of Brooke’s face and says she’s nothing. Kim goes up but misses a missile dropkick, allowing Brooke to hit a mat slam out of a belly to back suplex position for the pin at 3:57.

Rating: C-. Considering the great shots we got of both of these two, there’s no way you can really call this a failure. Tessmacher is out there because she looks great in a swimsuit and there’s nothing wrong with that at all. Gail needs some new challengers and Brooke is fine for that role.

Daniels and Kaz say they’ll get the title match tonight. Also if AJ doesn’t show up next week, they’re going to let the cat out of the bag.

Video on Rob getting the title shot last week and Roode has a quick response to him.

Silva and Snow are in the back and we’ll get the decision next week from Snow and the judges. Roode comes in and says he doesn’t need to introduce himself and Silva agrees. Roode doesn’t like the idea of the Gut Check deal because he had to work so hard to get the contract here. He says always be ready and hits Silva in the stomach.

Back to Hogan’s office for another elimination as this is a freaking reality show now. He throws out Eric and ODB for not being serious enough. He tells both remaining teams to go to the ring.

Garrett isn’t sorry his dad is getting fired.

Ray is on the phone with some chick when Joseph Park comes up to see him. It only took him about three months to find him too. Ray doesn’t like to be touched. He has nothing to say to Park but gets a business card, which he says to shove. Park laughs and needs a good dentist.

Tag Titles: Samoa Joe/Magnus vs. ???/???

The contenders are Hardy/Anderson and Kaz/Daniels. Hogan picks Hardy/Anderson because Kaz/Daniels aren’t legit or something.

Tag Titles: Samoa Joe/Magnus vs. Jeff Hardy/Mr. Anderson

Joe and Anderson start us off and it’s a stalemate. Anderson slaps Hardy on the chest for a tag and it’s Magnus on the other side. They have about the same result so it’s time for more communication issues with Hardy and Anderson. Back with Joe pounding on Anderson and tagging in Magnus. Anderson takes Magnus down and begrudgingly tags in Hardy. The champs double team Jeff and Joe gets two off a Magnus boot. Hardy hits the Whisper in the Wind and makes the hot tag to Anderson. He cleans house but gets caught in the Clutch as Jeff is on the floor, good for the tap at 10:53.

Rating: C+. Well this was a waste of buildup from a show. They spent the whole show building this title match up and while it was ok, there was nothing great about it and nothing happened. That’s the issue with the whole show: nothing is really happening on it and it’s getting annoying.

Here’s Flair, Gunner, Kaz, Ray and Daniels for the Bischoff party. The fans chant goodbye and Flair tells them he’ll move the party. He says if you know wrestling, you know Eric Bischoff. He asks Eric to come out and praises him for awhile. Gunner gets to thank him for a lot of stuff, Ray calls Eric the wind beneath his wings, and Flair gives him a Rolex.

Cue Garrett and some faces including RVD, Aries and the Guns along with JB. They say it’s time to induct Eric into the shed of shame, which is a portable toilet. The guys go to the ramp for a brawl and Garrett grabs Eric, throwing him in the Port-A-Potty. They chain it shut and turn it over to mess Eric up. Eric comes out of it to end the show. Oh and this got more time than any match tonight.

Overall Rating: D. This was just another episode of Impact but a lot more boring than usual. As always, WAY too much camera time for Hogan and Bischoff. If you look at the show, Ray was in I think four segments, Kaz and Daniels were in about five, Hogan was in something like ten, and NOTHING actually changed here. No titles changed hands, we don’t know about Silva (nothing special) and nothing was advanced for the PPV. This didn’t work for me at all.

Results
D-Von b. Bully Ray – Spinebuster
Kurt Angle b. Anarquia – Ankle Lock
Robbie E. b. Alex Silva – Implant DDT
Brooke Tessmacher b. Gail Kim – Face First Mat Slam
Samoa Joe/Magnus b. Jeff Hardy/Mr. Anderson – Coquina Clutch to Anderson

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Bound For Glory 2006
Date: October 22, 2006
Location: Compuware Sports Arena, Plymouth Township, Michigan
Attendance: 3,600
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Don West

This is the biggest show of the year for TNA and they’re not in Orlando for once. The main event here is Sting vs. Jarrett because that’s what they decided it should be, despite the fans screaming for Joe for months. Joe is in a pointless Monster’s Ball match instead of anything important. I watched this show and remember thinking there was a chance that Joe could run in somehow but it didn’t happen. Also tonight Angle is the guest referee is in the main event because who needs to have the biggest acquisition the company has ever had wrestling on the biggest show of the year? Let’s get to it.

The opening video is about Henry Ford and how Detroit rose up because of people like him. It’s about following your dreams or something. The voiceover guy talks about how this is all about overcoming obstacles and achieving your dreams or whatever. As usual it goes way too long.

The set looks more like the old weekly PPV sets.

Battle Royal

This is officially the Kevin Nash Open Invitational X-Division Gauntlet Battle Royal. In other words, it’s a sixteen man Royal Rumble for only X-Division guys. Nash comes out in a suit with a bowling trophy. The first entrant is the debuting Austin Starr to face #2 Sonjay Dutt. Every sixty seconds someone else comes in. As usual it’s a regular match once we get down to two. The fans are split so Nash talks about being a legendary high flier.

Maverick Matt is in at #3. His minute has absolutely nothing happening so here’s Lethal in at #4. He speeds things up a bit and gets a chant in his name. Lethal and Dutt are semi-regular partners so they take over the match. Austin knocks Lethal down and does his strut. Nash: “I like this Starr guy. I hope he does better than Glacier.” A-1, not a small guy for the most part, is #5.

Spinebuster takes Lethal down and A-1 is told he can’t wrestle. Everyone is still in and here’s Zach Gowen at #6. He’s the one legged guy from WWE in 2004. He spends thirty seconds getting to the ring and we get a Johnny Ace reference for some reason. Nash: “You two dudes are dynamic.” Kaz is #7 as we still haven’t had an elimination. Matt and Kaz, former tag partners, throw out Dutt.

Sirelda, a REALLY weird looking chick that is another attempt to recreate Chyna, is #8 and she beats up various men. Starr kicks her low and A-1 hits a BIG clothesline to put her out. Kaz and Matt knock him out immediately as Shark Boy is #9. The fans love Sharky and nothing happens until Shelley, getting the pop of the night so far, comes in at #10. He spits water in Kaz’s face and the fans cheer for him even more.

D-Ray 3000 is #11. He’s a blaxploitation character who hung out with Shark Boy. They team up for a Bushwackers battering ram and throw out Matt. By my math we’ve had eleven entrants and four eliminations so far. #12 is Johnny Devine and he throws out Gowen in seconds. Elix Skipper is #13 and he takes down Shelley and Lethal on his entrance with a double clothesline. Kaz tries a springboard move like an idiot and Starr puts him out.

Short Sleeve Sampson, as in one of Hulk Hogan’s Micro Championship Wrestling guys, is #14. D-Ray and Shark Boy go out at the same time. Starr holds up the midget time after time over the ropes but won’t toss him. #15 is SCREAMIN NORMAN SMILEY!!! Smiley and Samson hit stereo Big Wiggles before Shelley throws Samson onto Shark Boy. Samson chases Slick Johnson around the ring until Petey Williams is the final entrant at #16.

Johnson comes into the ring and shoves Smiley and Skipper out despite not being in the match. Ok so we have Shelley, Devine, Williams, Lethal and Starr. Williams throws out Johnston to get rid of that stupidity. Williams charges at Petey and gets sent to the apron, only to hit his slingshot Codebreaker. There’s the Canadian Destroyer but Shelley throws Williams out. Starr dumps Devine and Shelley to get us down to a one on one match with Starr vs. Lethal for the win.

Lethal hits a quick release Dragon Suplex for two. He goes up but Austin knocks him down and hits the brainbuster for the win. The one on one part lasted maybe a minute.

Rating: C. This was what it was. Having the one minute intervals was a good idea because most of these people aren’t important enough to warrant two minutes without anyone new being put in there. The match itself probably ran longer than it should have to open the biggest show of the year, but it was fast paced enough to work I guess.

Post match Shelley yells at Nash while Starr gets his trophy.

We get a clip of LAX beating down AMW and Gail Kim taking the Border Toss.

AMW yells about LAX but tonight they’re in a fourway match which has nothing to do with LAX. Sure why not.

The Naturals vs. Team 3D vs. James Gang vs. America’s Most Wanted

The Naturals are the #1 contenders and managed by Shane Douglas. Why they’re not challenging for the titles tonight is beyond me but whatever. The James Gang is the New Age Outlaws. All of the teams other than AMW has something to say but nothing really gets said if you get what I mean. Harris vs. Stevens starts us off with Stevens speeding things up quickly. Harris dropkicks him into the corner so Ray can tag himself in.

One fall to a finish here. Ray beats up both members of AMW but BG tags himself in, resulting in a mirror image of the Flip Flop and Fly elbow. D-Von and Kip come in and slam each other into the mat. I’m barely able to keep up with this match as they’re coming in and out at will. Storm and Douglas go to the corner and Storm falls into the Tree of Woe. Harris climbs up and Stevens comes in for a four man Tower of Doom to take them all down, even with Storm still caught in the Tree.

Catatonic to BG is countered and he hits the Pumphandle Slam for two. Eye of the Storm takes down Stevens but D-Von takes him down, only to walk into a standing tornado DDT from Douglas. We’re in the parade of finishers here. Stevens sets for a superplex on D-Von but Bubba comes in to hit a Doomsday Device. What’s Up to Douglas and they set for the tables but Stevens makes the save. Natural Disaster (elevated Stunner) takes out D-Von for two. Stevens runs into Douglas and walks into the 3D for the pin.

Rating: D. What a mess! The James Gang and AMW fell into a black hole for the last two minutes of that and there’s no way to keep track of most of what was going on here. This would have been much better as an elimination match, but for all intents and purposes that’s what happened at the end anyway. Bad match with WAY too much stuff going on. Also does this make 3D the #1 contenders? They beat the Naturals who already were, but I doubt that’s what’s going on.

Shane Douglas comes back again post match and yells at the Naturals.

JB is outside Joe’s locker room but finds Jake Roberts instead. Roberts is refereeing the Monster’s Ball match for some reason. He doesn’t say much but I think he’s drunk. No real indication for why, but I figured I’d play the odds.

We recap the Monster’s Ball match. Joe stole the world title belt (See? It was right there) and Abyss agreed to go get it in exchange for the first title shot. Abyss got the belt but Raven and Brother Runt (Spike Dudley) beat Abyss up before he could deliver it to Cornette. This is what the hottest guy arguably in wrestling at this point was doing for the biggest show of the year. Not being in the world title match, but fighting Spike Dudley. This company deserved to be stuck in mediocrity like it always was.

Samoa Joe vs. Brother Runt vs. Raven vs. Abyss

This is Monster’s Ball which basically means hardcore. Jake Roberts is guest referee. This is also the third match in a row that isn’t a simple one on one or tag match. Everyone jumps Joe to start and knock him to the floor. Raven and Runt team up on Abyss with Runt being knocked to the outside. Runt brings in a chair and Raven hits his drop toehold on Abyss into the chair but Joe comes back in to make people care. Joe hits the Facewash on Raven but walks into a chokeslam.

Abyss runs over the ECW guys and throws Runt into the crowd from the ring to emulate Bigelow’s famous spot. Raven clotheslines Abyss to the floor and dives on him, which Abyss shrugs off without even leaving his feet. Joe hits a BIG corkscrew dive onto all three to put them all down while landing on his feet. Raven pops up and hits Joe with a Silence of the Lambs style mask of his.

They go up the ramp and Joe is knocked through a table off the ramp. Runt and Abyss climb up part of the set and Runt is chokeslammed onto a platform which doesn’t have much give at all. Something happens which results in Abyss landing on Runt but the camera is zoomed in on Roberts. The replay shows that it was kind of an elbow drop. Nice production work there guys.

Raven throws Joe through another table in a vain attempt to make us believe he won’t win. Is there a point to Roberts being referee at all here? He hasn’t done anything. Abyss gets two on Runt but Raven saves. Abyss drops an Earthquake splash down for two on Raven. Joe comes in to break up Shock Treatment by pounding on Abyss. He misses the backsplash but kicks Abyss low instead.

Powerslam onto a chair gets two. Raven drop toeholds Joe to the floor but Abyss knocks him down and loads up the tacks. Jake pulls out his bag but Raven jumps him and loads up a DDT on Jake. Abyss pours out the tacks but Joe pulls down the ropes to prevent Raven from going into the tacks via the Black Hole Slam. Joe knocks Abyss to his knees and hits the senton backsplash to put Abyss’ face into the tacks. Raven breaks up the choke but Jake DDTs him so that the MuscleBuster can give Joe the pin.

Rating: D. I know this is a sweeping statement, but this might be the most questionable choice in TNA history. Why in the world was Joe in this match? Jake added NOTHING here. He counted slow and I guess he didn’t hurt anything, but what difference did it make to have a guest referee? The match was your usual garbage but no one bought anyone but Joe having a chance here. Also did Runt fall into the same hole the James Gang and AMW fell into in the previous match?

Jake puts the snake on Raven post match.

Eric Young is panicking over possibly losing in the loser gets fired match. His opponent, Larry freaking Zbyszko, comes up and says he’s already got Young beaten.

We recap Larry vs. Young. Larry was a boss in the company but got corrupt and cost Eric a match for his job. Cornette reinstated him in a loser gets fired match. This is your first one on one match of the night and we’re over an hour into the show. Let that sink in for a minute.

Larry Zbyszko vs. Eric Young

The fans are totally behind Eric here. They want Larry fired so he stalls as usual. Eric points at Larry and the fans boo, then he point at himself and the fans cheer. No contact about a minute and a half in. They lock up and Larry hits the spinning back kick and the abdominal stretch. Eric reverses and the referee takes a shot. Eric Young vs. Larry Zbyszko is getting a referee bump. Larry pulls out a foreign object but gets hit low. Eric gets the object and hits Larry for the pin.

Rating: F. If you don’t get why this is an F, you’re on your own.

Video on Senshi accompanied by Mortal Kombat, which is sponsoring the show.

Here’s Jim Cornette to fill in some time. He can barely talk (I don’t know how to handle this) due to being sick so he sounds like he has a stable of horses in his voice. Cornette says he should be in intensive care but there was no way he was missing this. If Joe interferes in the main event tonight, he’s removed from the roster. That draws out Angle who wants to fight someone right now.

Kurt says he doesn’t need a buffer between himself and Joe…and here’s the fat Samoan himself. They start brawling on the floor but security makes the save. WHY IS THIS MATCH NOT ON THIS SHOW??? They both break through security and Joe shouts at Cornette to let him fight tonight. This company seriously made my head hurt at times.

We recap Senshi vs. Sabin. There’s no real story here, other than Sabin is the challenger. If there’s another story to it, the recap doesn’t mention it. I think it’s a rematch.

X-Division Title: Senshi vs. Chris Sabin

Joe has been ejected from the arena. Every time this story gets stupider the harder my head shakes. They fight over a lockup to start and both guys hit various forms of kicks which results in Senshi taking over. A big kick gets two. They slug it out and Sabin fires off some forearms but walks into a double boot in the corner for two. Senshi hooks a body scissors on the mat to slow things down.

That doesn’t last long so Senshi slams him for two. They chop it out and Senshi comes back with the kicks. They go into the corner and Sabin pounds on his back but Senshi stops him cold with a standing Liger Kick. Senshi tries to get a running start but Sabin takes him down with a springboard missile dropkick. Sabin kicks him to the floor and hits a great suicide dive to the outside. Back in Sabin hits a running enziguri and puts Senshi in the Tree of Woe (popular position tonight) and hits the hesitation dropkick for two.

Sabin loads up Cradle Shock but Senshi counters into a dragon sleeper, but it’s quickly broken. Another Liger Kick misses and Sabin hits a springboard DDT for two. These near falls are getting really close. They go to the corner with Senshi trying a rolling sunset flip but instead of covering he jumps to his feet and hits a standing double stomp for two. A springboard back kick gets the same.

Senshi misses a charge in the corner and Sabin hits a HUGE running boot to the face which might have knocked out a tooth. Cradle Shock gets two with the referee messing up his count and stopping a half second before the kickout happened. They go to the corner again with Senshi looking to superplex him, but instead he walks backwards on the middle rope to fire off some HARD kicks. Warrior’s Way gets a delayed two as Sabin gets his foot on the ropes. There’s a modified dragon sleeper but Sabin won’t tap. Senshi pulls back to fire off elbows to the head, but he stops for a second and Sabin rolls him up for the pin and the title.

Rating: A-. Good stuff here again as the X Division was on fire at this point. The idea here was them hitting each other with everything they had and getting bigger and bigger and then Sabin using a basic hold to get the pin and it worked very well. Sabin played off the fact that Senshi was going to be very intense and therefore he’d miss something easy like that. That’s psychology at work and it’s a rare thing to see in a match like this, but it worked here.

Christian cuts off JB and rants about Rhyno talking about growing up on the streets of Detroit, but no one cares about him. Christian gave Rhyno a concussion but that’s nothing compared to what’s coming to him tonight. He won’t get invited to Rhyno’s house for dinner this year, but it doesn’t matter because his aunt’s food sucked.

We recap Christian vs. Rhyno. They’re old friends but Christian lost the world title and snapped over it. Christian gave him a Conchairto which gave him a concussion, then he hit him in the head again with another chair. Tonight is Rhyno’s chance to get even.

Christian Cage vs. Rhyno

This is an 8 Mile Street Fight which should be good. Rhyno comes through the crowd and goes straight through the entrance to meet Christian in the parking lot. Christian gets slammed onto a car and thrown into whatever Rhyno can find to throw him into. They climb onto a zamboni machine and Rhyno gets in the driver’s seat. He drives the machine with Christian on top into the arena. Rhyno climbs up to pound on Christian who falls off the machine.

Christian gets away down by the ramp and picks up a fake street lamp, only to get it ripped out of his hands and rammed into his chest. This is total domination so far. Rhyno throws in four chairs and hits Christian with a street lamp before Christian can get to one of the chairs. He loads up the Gore but Christian takes his head off with a chair shot. Rhyno shrugs that off and they go into the crowd with Christian running away even more.

After ramming Christian into some hockey glass they go back to the ring and Rhyno sets up a table at ringside. Back inside and Rhyno suplexes him down and puts up another table in the corner. Christian picks up an 8 Mile Road street sign and CRACKS Rhyno in the head with it. This is the first breather Christian has had. He goes to the floor and pulls out a ladder as Rhyno is busted open and might have another concussion. Christian charges with the ladder but Rhyno drop toeholds him into the ladder.

DDT gets two for Christian and they’re both spent. Rhyno is gone from the concussion and a ladder shot to the head makes it even worse. Christian goes under the ring again and comes up with a straightjacket and another chair. Rhyno gets tied up in the jacket and Christian grabs a pair of chairs to set up the Conchairto but Rhyno moves. Using just his legs and his head he tries a comeback and manages to get Christian down. The referee unhooks the jacket and they fight to the apron in front of the table.

Rhyno PILEDRIVES HIM THROUGH THE TABLE to put both guys down again. THAT gets two so Rhyno loads up the Gore, but Christian moves to send him through the table. It gets two, as does an Unprettier onto the metal part of the broken table. With no idea what else to do, Christian piles up everything on top of Rhyno and hits about eight chair shots onto the pile to crush Rhyno, which FINALLY gets the pin.

Rating: B+. I don’t say this that often, but that was AWESOME. I’m not a fan of the street fights, but this one was really intense with a feeling that someone had to do something big to get the win. The piledriver was awesome, as were the kickouts from Rhyno. Christian finally just pounding the tar out of Rhyno with everything he had until Rhyno couldn’t move an inch was a great finish. Loved this.

Konnan rants about raising the violence tonight and how they’re not sorry for what they did to Gail. They fight Styles/Daniels for the titles in a cage tonight.

We recap the tag title match and the idea is that Konnan says that putting a cage up doesn’t matter because they’re used to borders. Daniels got kidnapped in a way and beaten down three on one. The idea is that LAX is this rapidly growing powerful team that has to be stopped before they become unstoppable. They’ve traded the titles a few times as well so this is the final blowoff match.

Tag Titles: LAX vs. Christopher Daniels/AJ Styles

Styles and Daniels are the champions. The champs run in and the brawl is on. Unfortunately they have to tag in this which really takes away the violence aspect of it. I wouldn’t bet on it lasting long though. AJ and Homicide start with the dropkick spot putting the murder inspired one down. Off to Daniels as the champions hit a combination clothesline/belly to back suplex for two.

Styles comes back in for a backbreaker for two. AJ gets sent into the cage and it’s off to Hernandez. Styles moves around quickly and manages a tag but gets sent into the cage anyway. Homicide’s torndado DDT is countered but SuperMex takes his head off with a clothesline. The challengers look like they’re setting for a Doomsday Device but Hernandez drops him backwards and Homicide hits a top rope elbow for two. Nice change of pace. AJ is busted but we didn’t get a shot of him until now.

Konnan slides in an object to Homicide which goes into Daniels’ head. It appears to be a fork but Hebner doesn’t see it. Off to Hernandez to give Daniels a neck rub. Homicide gets a bottle of tequila from somewhere and spits some into Daniels’ face. They go up top and Daniels hits a sitout hiptoss for two to break the momentum. There’s the tag to AJ who hits the backflip into the reverse DDT for two. Everything breaks down as you would expect it to and Daniels clotheslines Homicide over and over.

The champions go high low on Homicide and are firmly in control. Hernandez has his face rammed into the cage and AJ hits the Pele on Homicide for two. Now Homicide gets the fork put in his head. AJ has no problem with the referee seeing that but Homicide hid it earlier. Hernandez starts going on another rampage but walks into a Pele to put everyone down.

AJ goes to the top of the cage (I think you can only win by pin/submission), drawing a please don’t die chant. The others catch him and try a Tower of Doom but AJ can’t get into position so he stays on top. That’s good as I was legit scared of him taking that bump from there. Instead he hits a HUGE cross body to Hernandez off the cage for two. Homicide hits a cutter on AJ but walks into an STO from Daniels.

Hernandez runs over Christopher and goes to the top of the cage also. He misses his splash and if he’s still alive I’ll be stunned. Daniels tries the Angel’s Wings on Hernandez but Homicide got a coat hanger from Konnan to choke him out. Konnan gets it back and chokes him from outside the ring. Hernandez breaks up the Clash and the Gringo Killa gives LAX the titles back.

Rating: A-. Another great match here with them finally saying screw this tagging stuff and letting it all hang out there, which is what you’re supposed to do in a big match. That dive by AJ was incredible but for some reason, probably fear, Hernandez’s didn’t get much of a reaction at all. Still though, great match but somehow it isn’t as good as the Ultimate X match they had the month before.

We recap Sting vs. Jarrett which is like a year long feud with a ton of twists and turns in it. In short: IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN JOE. Joe beat Jarrett the previous month but that was just about revenge or honor or something. There’s no need for this to be Jarrett vs. Sting and the only people that wanted it to be are likely named Jarrett. Oh and Angle is guest referee. Sting hasn’t even been on TV for two months to make sure the match has even less build for it. Oh and it’s title vs. career.

NWA World Title: Sting vs. Jeff Jarrett

Oh wait Angle is guest enforcer. Sting’s big transformation after missing for two months: he has red tights. Tenay thinks the bat is a tribute to the Detroit Tigers. Someone smack him for me. I’m already annoyed enough that Joe isn’t in there but now I have to listen to Tenay’s stupid theories? After big match intros we’re finally ready to go. Feeling out process to start for some reason, after they’ve fought each other about a thousand times.

Jeff controls to start for no apparent reason, arm dragging and hip tossing Sting around with ease. Sting starts to Hulk Up…and Jeff throws him around again. Now Jeff drops him with one punch. Jeff dropkicks him to the floor and OH MY GOODNESS ARE YOU THIS FREAKING STUPID??? Why in the world would you have THE MOST BORING WORLD CHAMPION IN YEARS dominate one of the most charismatic wrestlers in history like this?

Back in Jarrett spits on him and Sting FINALLY takes over on him like he should have from the opening bell. Powerbomb of all things puts Jeff down and a clothesline puts him on the floor. Jeff shoves Angle who shoves right back and Sting starts hammering Jarrett outside. Sting gets whipped into the barricade but Jeff gets his chair taken away by Angle. They fight up the ramp with Sting hitting a suplex to keep Jeff down. Angle takes the chair from Sting too and Jeff’s chair shot takes Kurt out.

DDT on the ramp puts Sting down and Jeff hooks a sleeper back inside. Sting fights out of that and they screw up some spot involving Sting getting behind Jeff. Cross body puts both guys down. Angle comes in and hits the Slam on the referee so that it’s not a double countout. They slug it out and the Splash sets up the Death Drop for two. Stroke hits for two. Jeff tries a tombstone which Sting reverses into a dangerous looking one of his own.

Sting goes up so that Jeff can hit him low, but he can’t hit a Stroke off the top. Sting’s splash off the top hits knees and there’s the Figure Four. Sting turns it over so Jeff lets it go and hooks an ankle lock to taunt Kurt. It gets reversed and Jeff is sent to the floor so Sting gets the bat. Angle tries to stop him and Jeff gets the guitar. Jeff breaks it over Sting’s head…and Sting yells at him. Scorpion quickly ends this.

Rating: C-. Not much here as it seemed like they didn’t know if they wanted to do an old school Sting match or an Attitude Era style brawl. Either one would have been ok but mixing them really didn’t work. At the end of the day, no one wanted to see Sting get the title again because we had seen it before and the fans were all behind Joe. Naturally since this is the NWA, they don’t care what the fans want and go with the old guys instead. The match wasn’t anything that good either.

Sting celebrates to end the show.

Overall Rating: B. As it is, this is a good show. With an ending the the fans wanted to see, it would be one of the best TNA shows ever. Sting’s title reign wound up meaning jack as he lost the title four weeks later to Abyss, a guy Joe beat in the Monster’s Ball earlier tonight. Joe wouldn’t the title for another 18 months because we needed to go through FOUR Angle reigns and a long Christian reign that no one wanted to see. This is also around the time that TNA’s hot streak started to die off. What a coincidence no? Anyway, very good show that could have been excellent if TNA would actually pay attention.

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Genesis 2006
Date: November 19, 2006
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Attendance: 900
Commentators: Don West, Mike Tenay

We just looked at the rematch of Joe vs. Angle, so now let’s look at the original. That’s the main event obviously, in Angle’s TNA debut match. As I said in the previous show, this isn’t something that makes you think big show. What’s even stupider is that Angle was at the previous show, Bound For Glory, as a guest referee while Joe had a pointless Monster’s Ball match. Then again this is TNA so logic is pretty much thrown out. Let’s get to it.

The opening video talks about how it’s a new age, comparing this to the first steps on the moon. Now we have opera music. It’s all about Angle vs. Joe of course with a little bit about the world title match and even some about LAX. They’re on the poster so they do need some coverage. As always, this video goes on WAY too long, running almost three and a half minutes. Dave Penzer being heard we’ve fifteen seconds from going live is a nice touch.

Kazarian/Maverick Matt/Johnny Devine vs. Voodoo Kin Mafia

The three guys that would become Seretonin are in their new look now but have only been talking about their redeemer who would later be revealed as Raven. The Mafia is now at WAR with WWE. Tenay flat out says they’re going after Vince and it would only get worse. The fans chant that DX sucks. Anyway, Roadie, the guy only famous for being in DX, starts off with Matt.

BG (Road Dogg) gets taken into the corner and the heels alternate on him to take over. They tease the white shirt wearing Kip to allow more triple teaming. They’re flying through this match so it’s not going to last long. BG gets in a shot and hot tags Kip. Kip cleans house and uses a Pedigree as Tenay talks about the War. Devine jumps off the top but gets caught in the cobra clutch slam for the pin.

Rating: D+. Nothing to see here but anything that furthers this idiotic angel isn’t a good thing. As I said in the Turning Point review, I have no idea what they thought they were proving with this thing, but it would result in them “invading” a house show which they claimed was the same thing as DX invading WCW in 1998.

BG says the ground war begins on Thursday. Tenay: “I know where I’m going to be Thursday night! Watching Impact on TV!” These jokes write themselves.

We run down the rest of the card in TNA tradition.

Kaz and Matt bring back Devine whose head is now covered. And here’s Raven in a white suit. West sounds like he’s seeing a bluejay in a park. Devine gets on his knees so he can be beaten with a kendo stick.

Shane Douglas and the Naturals talk about beating up Team 3D and putting them through a table. Tonight they’re facing….Jay Lethal and Sonjay Dutt.

The Naturals vs. Sonjay Dutt/Jay Lethal

The X guys have Jerry Lynn with them. The Naturals are Chase Stevens and Andy Douglas for those of you unfamiliar, which is probably a lot of you. They shout about Team 3D for most of the match. Stevens tries what would have been an AWESOME sunset bomb to the floor but Lethal saves himself. The Naturals are rammed together and sent to the floor so the X guys hit stereo dives to take them out.

Back inside and the smaller guys hit some incredibly fast paced double teaming on Stevens who plays the heel in peril. There’s a rarity for you. Off to Douglas (no relation to Shane) who hits Lethal low to take over. Off to a seated abdominal stretch on Lethal. Back up and a jumping knee to the face puts Lethal down for two.

Stevens comes in and stops Jay’s comeback with a wheelbarrow suplex for two. Hot tag to Dutt and he speeds things way up. What was supposed to be a seated senton hits Douglas and Lethal hits the Lethal Combination for two on Chase. Shane interferes so that a missile dropkick/powerbomb combo can get the pin. The powerbomb was awkward but it worked.

Rating: C-. The match was fine but I have no idea what the point of it was. The Naturals talked about Team 3D for awhile but they were nowhere in sight, so what was the point of the reference? Shouldn’t the return of Team 3D happen here for the beatdown after this match happened on Impact? I don’t get it but whatever. Also, it’s better than a bikini contest. Not a bad match, just not interesting.

LAX rants about Petey Williams stopping the flag burning on Impact. Konnan goes on an anti-military rant for some reason and says no one can stop them from burning a flag tonight because they have rights.

We recap Daniels vs. Sabin. Daniels is the honorable champion, Sabin is the whiny punk challenger. That’s about it.

Daniels says that he and AJ are cool after Daniels took the title from him on Thursday.

X-Division Title: Chris Sabin vs. Christopher Daniels

This is Daniels’ first defense. Sabin slaps him in the face a few times to get on Daniels’ nerves. Daniels grabs a wristlock and Sabin spins out of it but winds up slapping the champ again. Daniels tries the same thing but with a right hand instead of a slap, but Sabin blocks it and pokes Daniels in the eyes. The match turns into a fast paced gymnastics routine resulting in Sabin bailing to the floor.

Back in it’s another counter routine, resulting in Daniels having his foot on the back of Sabin’s head and driving it into the mat. Daniels tries a sunset flip but when he goes for the shoulder to the ribs to set it up, Sabin kicks him in the face and dropkicks him to the floor. A double ax to the floor has the champ in trouble. This is a chess match with neither guy being able to get an extended advantage.

Sabin drops him throat first over the barricade which gets two back in. I think we have our first advantage here. A running one footed dropkick to the back of a seated Daniels’ head gets two. Off to a nerve hold and Daniels rubs Sabin’s hand in a manner that needs a bad romance song. The champion tries a spinning springboard cross body but Sabin ducks. West compares Sabin to Kobe Bryant for some reason. The analogy of raw talent followed by attitude makes sense, but I don’t remember Bryant ever choking Kevin Garnett over the middle rope with his knee.

Sabin puts him in the Tree of Woe and hits a hesitation dropkick. Now he throws in some chairs while telling West to shut his mouth. Here’s Styles to pull out the chairs and tick Sabin off. With Daniels still in the Tree of Woe, Sabin tries a baseball slide but Daniels pulls himself up in a situp. Sabin slides to the floor and Daniels comes off the top with a HUGE dive to take Sabin out.

STO puts Sabin down and he puts Sabin up on the top. A kind of sitout slam off the top gets two. Release Rock Bottom looks to set up the BME but Sabin kicks him in the head to break the momentum. A springboard DDT gets two for Sabin. I can’t say Chris because it might get a bit confusing so I’m sorry for constantly using the same two names. Roaring Elbow misses for Sabin and Daniels hits a running enziguri.

He tries a rana but gets caught in a sitout powerbomb for two. Sabin goes up for another DDT but jumps into a Death Valley Driver. BME hits but only gets two. Angel’s Wings is countered and Sabin hits a dragon screw leg whip. Cradle Shock is countered into a crucifix for two. Sabin loads up something that looks like the start of a Razor’s Edge but Daniels rolls out of it and hooks Sabin’s feet for the rollup pin.

Rating: A-. I don’t usually like Daniels matches but I was WAY into this one. The long running string of counters and both guys knowing each other so well was really working for me. Sabin could fly with the best of them and that’s what he did here. Styles coming out didn’t really need to happen but it only lasted about ten seconds so it wasn’t a huge deal. Really good match here and maybe the best Daniels match I’ve ever seen.

Jerry Lynn comes out post match to demand Sabin shake Daniels’ hand but it’s not happening. Ok yes it is….and there’s the Cradle Shock out of it instead.

We get a clip from Paparazzi Productions where Shelley and Starr say they can give Nash at least 90% out there tonight. Nash says if they follow him, they could have careers like those of Don Kernoodle, George South, Reno Riggins, Lazer Tron, Nelson Royal, George Scott, Porkchop Cash and Italian Stallion. Funny stuff but it probably went over the head of most of the audience.

Paparazzi Productions vs. Ron Killings/Lance Hoyt

No idea why this match is happening but it’s probably something like a squash match with some extra time. Nash is on commentary and talks about defending his X Title in Japan last night after messing up a 375 but winning anyway. Truth and Shelley start things off. They go to a test of strength with Shelley taking the hands down to the mat and stomping on Truth’s fingers.

Killings comes back with his gyrations so Shelley imitates Rick Rude right back at him. Off to Starr who dances some more. This needs to get going. Truth misses a charge and Aries (Starr) dances again. Truth hits the first big move in the four minutes this match has been running in the form of a powerslam. Off to Big Lance for some double teaming. Big boot gets two. One armed flapjack puts Austin down.

Hoyt loads up a moonsault but Shelley breaks it up and Lance is put in the Tree of Woe. With Truth trying to come in and distracting the referee, the Paparazzi hit a double neckbreaker while Hoyt is still upside down. Shelly holds the knees down so Starr can hit a slingshot hilo for two. They work on the knee for a bit and a slingshot corkscrew splash gets two.

Shelley comes in and does the jump into the boots spot (missing the feet almost entirely) and there’s the tag to Truth. The fans aren’t all that thrilled here. Truth causes heel miscommunication and hits his suplex into a Stunner spot for two on Shelley. Hoyt comes back in for a modified What’s Up (appropriate no?) and everything breaks down. Hoyt loads up a DVD but the Paparazzi take out the knee. Starr tries a suicide dive to Truth who is on the concrete. Shelley frog splashes the knee and calls for the camera. The delay lets Hoyt roll him up for the pin.

Rating: D+. The match wasn’t bad but there was too much dancing for my taste. I don’t know if this was supposed to be a comedy match that just wasn’t funny or what but it didn’t really work. It wasn’t all that bad, but again I don’t think the real idea of what they were going for with Nash and the X guys ever made much sense.

We recap Christian vs. AJ. Christian debuted a year ago at this show and has never been pinned or submitted despite losing the world title. The loss in King of the Mountain made him turn heel. AJ got tired of his whining so here’s a match between them.

Christian says he doesn’t make mistakes and talks about AJ jumping him during the preshow because AJ needs an advantage to have a chance. Christian faces his challengers like a man and JB rolls his eyes. Cage doesn’t like that but cuts himself off from yelling. AJ is #1 on Christian’s hit list and we hear about how awesome Christian has been lately.

Christian Cage vs. AJ Styles

I miss Christian’s ridiculous costumes. AJ is looking extra jacked here for some reason. The fans are split as you would expect. They lock up and roll around the ropes as they jockey for position. They fight over control on the mat now using technical stuff which is always fun to see. Since no one can really get an advantage there, AJ slaps him in the face. AJ does the drop down into the dropkick and Christian is getting frustrated.

Christian shoulder blocks him down and it’s a stalemate. The crowd is extra loud for this one. Now AJ runs him over with a shoulder of his own for two. The fans chant CLB and Christian takes over a bit, using an elbow and some chops. Full nelson attempt fails and the Unprettier gets the same result. AJ sets for the Clash but Christian bails to the floor. He goes for a chair but Slick Johnson stops him.

Back in AJ hits a flapjack for two as things speed up. Christian heads to the floor again to slow things down but AJ hits a huge dive to take him out. His legs hit the railing as well though with a sick sound. Back inside that gets two and Styles is wincing from the leg. Christian slides back outside again and gets kicked into the barricade, but as AJ tries a slingshot dive, Christian hooks his feet to send AJ crashing legs first into the apron and shift momentum.

Off to a chinlock with Christian’s knee in AJ’s back, followed by the reverse DDT into a backbreaker for two. I’m not sure why he’s working on the back instead of the knee. Back to the chinlock and Christian puts him on the mat. AJ does the always cool nipup into the rana for two. He misses a splash in the corner though and walks into a belly to back suplex for two. Back to the chinlock but AJ elbows up and hits the fireman’s carry flip onto the knee.

A Low Down misses and both guys are down. Now Christian goes up but AJ snaps off a rana to put both guys down again. They slap it out and AJ starts his comeback. Dropkick sets up a knee drop for two. The springboard into the DDT gets two and Styles goes up. He jumps over Christian but runs into a spear for two. Unprettier and Styles Clash are both countered but the Pele connects for two. AJ tries a springboard rana but gets caught in a powerbomb for a pair of twos. Christian throws in a chair but Daniels runs out to pull it out. It’s a tug of war and AJ tries a sunset flip, but Christian drops down onto him for the pin.

Rating: B. This was a pretty solid match and the ending played into the angle from earlier and also would further the angle that AJ was going into around this time. Christian basically got a clean win here as the chair had been dropped by the time the cover happened. As usual, at the end of the day just putting on a good wrestling match is the best thing you can do.

Daniels and AJ almost get into a fight but the X guys and Rhyno come out. Rhyno wants a mic and says that he and Christian used to be friends but started fighting, and it started just like this. He wants a handshake but AJ says if he needs a psychiatrist, he’ll call Dr. Phil.

AMW says they’re not worried about LAX and says that Gail Kim is a tough mamacita. LAX wants to burn a flag and AMW isn’t cool with that. Gail looks REALLY good in blue. Storm says a lot of racist things and their match is up next.

We recap the tag title match which is what I just explained.

Tag Titles: LAX vs. America’s Most Wanted

LAX has the titles. Konnan says TNA and Cornette can’t stop him from burning the flag tonight or there’s going to be a lawsuit. AMW jumps them and the brawl starts on the floor. I think the match has started but I’m not really sure. AMW double teams Homicide in the ring and throws him on top of Hernandez on the floor. Things settle down with Harris vs. Hernandez. Harris pounds him down but can’t hang with the power so it’s off to Homicide.

Hernandez comes back in very quickly and hooks a one arm chinlock. The champs tag very quickly as Homicide chops on Harris so Hernandez can choke him on the floor. Off to a Homicide chinlock which sounds like police jargon. Harris comes back with a spinebuster and both guys are down. Storm (looking really strange without the beard) starts a USA chant before he gets the hot tag.

Hernandez throws him over the top but Storm skins the cat and comes back with a headscissors. James has to fight both of them at once and Harris saves him from the Border Toss. Harris comes in and hits something like a hybrid between a Thesz Press and a shoulder block to take SuperMex down. Suplex gets two. Homicide runs in for a tornado DDT to take Harris down.

Storm comes in but I don’t think there was a tag. That brazen cheater. AMW loads up the Death Sentence but Hernandez makes the save. He goes up top and grabs Harris by the throat, throwing him over his head in a choking belly to belly superplex for two. Hernandez hits a powerbomb to set up a Homicide frog splash for two.

Gringo Killa is escaped and AMW hits something like a Hart Attack for two. Enziguri from Storm to Hernandez and Harris adds a top rope clothesline to take the big guy down. Death Sentence hits but Konnan has the referee. Homicide comes in with the blowtorch for the flag to the back of Storm’s head for the pin to retain the titles.

Rating: B-. This was much more of a brawl than a match and based on the story, that’s what it should have been. AMW wasn’t going to be around much longer but they were still a name, so having them put over the hot new team of LAX was probably the best thing they could have been used for. Fun stuff here.

Post match LAX goes to beat up Gail but Petey Williams comes out for the save as AMW gets back up. Jim Cornette comes out and says the titles are stripped. That would be overturned and the belts would be returned on Thursday. The title reign was considered one continuous run. Since this is Cornette, it takes a few minutes to get through that, including a big patriotism speech. The fans HATE this decision too. If they don’t give up the belts by Thursday, they’re fired.

Mitchell says he’s going to send Abyss into Sting’s mind to break his will.

We recap the world title match. Sting won the title from Jarrett last month and promised to bring honor to the title, because that’s what Sting does. Abyss is on a monster rampage through the company and it’s up to Sting to stop him. The Monster won the Fight for the Right tournament, which very well may have been the dumbest idea in TNA history. It’s better that you don’t know, but it involved a battle royal where you got in the ring, then got out of the ring, then had a regular match, triple threats and a singles match, including a title match in there somewhere I believe.

Mike says Sting has the decided experience advantage. How is that a decision? It’s fact.

NWA World Title: Sting vs. Abyss

Mitchell, Abyss’ manager, has stolen Sting’s bat to show how personal this is. Sting is actually in regular tights here instead of his usual garb. He jumps Abyss before the big match intros and hits him with the bat to send him to the outside. They go into the crowd and Sting sends him into the wall. All champion so far. Back to ringside and AS ALWAYS, Sting’s splash to an opponent laying on the railing misses.

Abyss hits him in the back with a chair and sets up a table next to the stage. Make that two tables and a pair of conveniently placed barbed wire boards. Sting fights back on the ramp and they brawl back to ringside. They haven’t been in the ring yet at all other than about 10 seconds. Now they get in and Abyss hooks a neck crank. Sting fights him off and hits a pair of Stinger Splashes before going for the knee.

Sting goes up and knocks a charging Abyss down, followed up by a top rope splash for two. Abyss gets up a big boot and Mitchell hands him the belt. Sting avoids the shot and here’s the Scorpion. Abyss makes the rope and Sting grabs the belt, only to walk into a Black Hole Slam for two. A chokeslam is broken up but the referee gets bumped. Abyss gets the bag of tacks but Sting gets the bat. A bat shot takes Abyss down and the Death Drop should get the pin but Mitchell pulls the referee to the floor.

Now Sting gets the bag of tacks and pours them out, but because this is a wrestling match he gets chokeslammed down onto them for two. Sting Hulks Up and drop toeholds Abyss face first into the tacks. He hooks the WORST Scorpion ever and Abyss taps but Mitchell has the referee. Mitchell goes into the Scorpion and the guys head to the floor. Sting hits Abyss with the chair and then wraps the repel cord (why is that there?) around Abyss’ leg. He pulls the cord up to hang Abyss upside down so he can beat him with a chair while Abyss is defenseless, including one to the face. I really don’t need to see Abyss’ underwear.

Sting lets him down and they go up the ramp towards the boards on the table. The referee yells at Sting and gets clotheslined….AND THAT’S A DQ. Not the HANGING OF ABYSS AND BEATING HIM WITH A CHAIR, not chokeslamming Sting onto tacks (still in his back), not the bat, but THAT? Oh and the title changes hands on a DQ in TNA, which I don’t think has been mentioned in years but that’s the rule. It never happened before or again that I remember, but it’s the rule.

Rating: D+. What a MESS. As I said, the ending was completely insane and while the title change makes sense, THAT’S WHY THEY DQ HIM??? Not for throwing Abyss through the tables like Sting did, but for hitting a referee? Also, great way to make the monster look like a monster here. I get what they were going for with Sting losing his vow of honor and all that, but man the execution didn’t work.

Abyss is unconscious but gets the belt anyway.

We recap the Angle vs. Joe feud, which is Angle coming in and wanting the best. He headbutted Joe and busted him open to establish this match. Angle was a guest referee at BFG because Jarrett had to be the world champion at the biggest show of the year. Joe jumped Angle at that show. Oh and this isn’t Angle’s first TNA match, as he faced Abyss on a special two hour show. The idea is that Joe is the best in TNA and undefeated. This could have been a long built match, but I can kind of see the idea here. I don’t agree with it, but I can see it.

Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe

The fans immediately chant this is awesome, which is kind of annoying. Feeling out process to start and Kurt goes straight for the ankle. Joe blocks the hold pretty easily and pounds him down onto the ropes. Kurt snaps off the belly to belly and clotheslines Joe to the outside. Joe grabs him in a powerbomb position, pulls him to the outside and swings him into the barricade.

Back in Angle misses a charge, hitting the post shoulder first. Out to the floor and Joe hits the suicide elbow before sending Angle into the steps. Pretty one sided so far. Kurt’s all nice and busted now. That’s a good thing too as he had a big annoying bandage on his head before that. Joe goes right for the cut and rips away at it. Powerslam gets two. Angle gets in some uppercuts but walks into a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker for two.

Kurt’s head is flowing very solid here. Joe loads up the MuscleBuster but Kurt comes back with a front facelock into a tornado DDT, getting two. They slug it out and Joe misses a charge, setting up the Rolling Germans. He tries to release the last one but drops him on his face instead. That gets two and Kurt is all fired up. Joe armdrags his way out of the Slam and hits the MuscleBuster for two.

Angle rolls out of the Clutch and hits the Slam for a very quick two. There go the straps and he hooks the ankle lock. Joe rolls through but can’t break the hold. He pulls Angle down into the Clutch and Kurt is in trouble, but he manages to grab the foot and hook the ankle lock again. The fans are WAY into this. Joe rolls out to send Kurt into the middle rope, but he walks into another Olympic Slam. Kurt puts the straps back up so he can take them back down. Oh MAN he’s serious here. Angle hooks the ankle lock with the grapevine and Joe has to tap.

Rating: B. That’s it? Don’t get me wrong the match was good but this was only about thirteen and a half minutes. Why in the world would you make this match run that short? There are over six minutes left in the show and they cut it that short? It couldn’t be Kurt’s cardio as he was a full time guy less than six months earlier. Good match, but WAY too short.

Joe grabs a mic and says Angle was the better man today. He says if Angle is half the man he thinks he is, Kurt will give him a rematch. Joe sticks out his hand but Angle walks away. Joe says we’ll have to do this the hard way.

West and Tenay talk for a few minutes to end the show.

Overall Rating: B. For a traditional B-level show, this was a really good show. There’s some weak stuff in there but the majority of the big matches worked (odd DQ decisions aside). It wasn’t the home run main event they were hoping for but it was good enough and set up two rematches. This is definitely one of their better shows and is probably worth checking out. Good show.

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Turning Point 2006
Date: December 10, 2006
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Attendance: 900
Commentators: Don West, Mike Tenay

Wrestlemania is over so it’s time to go back to TNA land. This is the final PPV of 2006 but as usual I’ll be going backwards for the next few shows. The main event here is Angle vs. Joe II after they hotshotted the first match in their series, which we’ll get to next time. The other main event is Abyss defending the world title against Sting and Christian, which I think is the same match that happened next month at Final Resolution. Let’s get to it.

The opening video….is a puppet show? I think it’s supposed to be Christmas themed but it’s really weird and turns into a highlight reel of the feuds. It’s 2006 so TNA didn’t have this down yet. Now there’s a fire extinguisher putting the video out. Ok then.

Senshi vs. Alex Shelley vs. Sonjay Dutt vs. Austin Starr vs. Jay Lethal

This is the opening match of the Paparazzi Championship Series which is something that I don’t think anyone really got the definitive idea behind. This is an elimination match and Nash, the guy who started the whole thing, is on commentary. Starr is Aries with longer hair. Nash talks about bringing Jerry Lynn into the X-Division back in Mexico City in 61. Only two in the ring at a time and Lethal starts vs. Shelley.

Shelley crawls on his knees as Tenay explains the PCS as best as he can. Shelley goes into the ropes and gets the rope kicked into him. He tries to show the wound to Starr who isn’t that interested. The winner of this gets 5 Series points, the runner up gets 4 and so on down the line. Shelley takes him to the mat and tags in Starr who gets dropkicked. Lethal tags in Dutt who elbows him down for two.

Alex comes in again and takes over for a bit, only to get punched down by Lethal. Dutt and Lethal are a semi-regular tag team so the chemistry makes sense. Nash accuses Dutt of being on steroids in a funny bit. Dutt walks the ropes but Starr crotches him from the apron. Nash: “What do you think feels worse: that or a paper cut?” Senshi comes in and is SERIOUS. He’s the wild card in this as he’s not affiliated with either “team”.

Dutt sends him to the floor and sets for a dive but Starr takes his head off with a clothesline. Starr sets for a dive to the floor but Shelley tags himself in and they yell at each other. Lethal dives on Senshi as they argue and the heel team decides on stereo suicide dives, but Shelley stops so Starr can dive alone. Back in Dutt DDTs Shelley for two. Nash talks about winning silver in the 68 Olympics in two man synchronized swimming as Dutt DDTs Shelley and puts him in the camel clutch for the submission.

Down to four now and Jay comes in to fight his partner. Dutt runs to the ropes and Senshi tags himself in. Lethal doesn’t see it so Senshi can kick his head off for the pin to get rid of Lethal. Off to Starr with the Pendulum Elbow. Jumping elbow gets two. Senshi comes in and fires off a bunch of kicks for two on Dutt. It’s basically a handicap match at this point. Dutt avoids a charge in the corner and hits a missile dropkick for two on Starr.

He takes Senshi down as well and a Lionsault gets two on Starr. There’s the camel clutch to Starr but Senshi makes the save. Brainbuster is countered and Dutt gets some two counts, but the second brainbuster attempt works, setting up the 450 to pin Dutt. Down to two now and they slug it out. Senshi hits a springboard enziguri for two. Starr escapes a move called the Crusher and loads up the 450 but Shelley comes out for a distraction. Senshi rolls up Starr for the pin.

Rating: C+. Not bad here as all five guys were pretty good. There’s nothing great in the whole thing but it was entertaining enough. The PCS thing went on for awhile and got funny after awhile, but I don’t think it ever really accomplished anything. I guess it was a BCS parody, but it went on WAY too long.

Eric Young is worried about his bikini contest with Tracy. JB tells Eric to man up.

We recap the Roode vs. Young feud. Roode wants the fans to love him so he wants to sign Young to work for him.

Time for the bikini contest. Brooks looks good, Eric wears a t-shirt with a bikini on it. Roode protests so Eric takes the shirt off to reveal Spongebob boxer briefs. Those don’t count so he takes those off to reveal a Spongebob Speedo. WHAT IS THE POINT OF THIS??? Young wins and Roode jumps him. Roode yells at Brooks, telling her to do whatever it takes to sign Young or she’ll be the one that gets fired.

We go to the back where the interviewer is going to talk to “Michael Hickenbottom and Paul Levesque”, known as Dumb to the Extreme. Big Fat Oily Guy comes up to visit them. I HATE this stuff. It’s not funny, it’s not original, and NO ONE BUYS IT. But that didn’t stop TNA from doing this for MONTHS.

Quick recap of the X-Title match. It’s Sabin vs. Daniels with Lynn as referee. Lynn mentored Sabin and now is worried about what he’s created.

X-Division Title: Chris Sabin vs. Christopher Daniels

This is the second match and we’re 40 minutes into this show. But hey, we got SPONGEBOB! Jerry Lynn is guest referee and was disrespected by Sabin lately. Feeling out process to start and Sabin controls with a headlock. There’s no hair to grab to cheat so he grabs the ear. Daniels speeds things up and takes him to the mat with an armbar. He rams Sabin’s face into the mat a few times for good measure.

Suplex sets up a slingshot moonsault for two. Sabin counters with an amateur based stomp to the foot and a drop toehold to put Daniels in 619 position. A springboard missile dropkick puts Daniels on the floor as the challenger is in control. They go to the ramp with Daniels having his back worked over. Back in the ring Daniels is sat down in the ring and Sabin hits a running single boot to the back of the head. Cool move. It was like a one footed dropkick.

Off to a neck crank which Daniels breaks pretty quickly and hooks a backslide for two. The fans chant for the Fallen Angel but Sabin chokes him between the ropes. Legdrop to the back of the neck gets two. We get a dueling chant which is about 95/5 in favor of Daniels. STO gets the champ a break and he pounds away. Tilt-a-whirl backbreaker gets two. Out to the floor again and Sabin goes back first into the barricade.

Something like a baseball slide puts Sabin down and Daniels drops an elbow from the top to the floor for two. Back in Sabin dropkicks him down and hits a pretty sweet springboard tornado DDT for two. Daniels comes back with a Blue Thunder Bomb for two. A Death Valley Driver gets two. Downward Spiral sets up a Koji Clutch but Sabin gets a rope. Release Rock Bottom sets up the BME and it’s over.

Rating: B-. I was getting into this more during the end, but Daniels dominated him at the end and took some of the drama out of it. Good match though and Sabin was always good for a watch in his solo stuff. Daniels against someone other than AJ is ALWAYS an upgrade and the fans were into him a lot here.

Lynn demands that Sabin shake Daniels’ hand but when Sabin won’t do it, Daniels gets in Lynn’s face and earns himself a slap for some reason. This feud went on for a good while.

We run down the rest of the card almost an hour into a show.

Here’s Cornette for an announcement of some sort. He brings out some baseball players, one of whom has a book. One of the EVIL players rips some pages out of it, until Lance Hoyt makes the save. This drew a loud WE WANT WRESTLING chant.

We recap AJ vs. Rhyno, which was the start of AJ’s heel turn and subsequent dive into being a clueless schmuck. Rhyno had said he was trying to help him and AJ didn’t like it.

Rhyno says he sees selfishness in AJ, which he used to see in himself. AJ jumps him during the promo and we lose the camera so we go to a shot of the crowd. Ok now they’re brawling outside. Their match is next but this is just pre-match brawling. They head into the arena with Rhyno throwing him into a wall as they brawl in the crowd. AJ comes back and pounds away but Rhyno punches him down the steps. This is what we call padding because there are only six matches plus the bikini deal, so they don’t have enough wrestling to fill in a three hour show. AJ tries a charge but gets backdropped to ringside. Hey a bell.

AJ Styles vs. Rhyno

AJ pounds on him and whips him into the corner so hard he rolls forward. Off to a surfboard hold and AJ does his drop down into a dropkick sequence. Styles knocks Rhyno to the floor but won’t dive on him because the fans would like it too much. Instead he slides to the floor and tries a springboard off the barricade, only to jump into a belly to belly onto the concrete. Back in a spinebuster kills AJ for two.

They slug it out and we finally hear about how this is about AJ growing up poor and wanting to shake that mantle off himself, which Rhyno can relate to but AJ didn’t want his help. Rhyno throws him to the floor and AJ hurts his knee. The match stops now as the medics take a look at AJ. He says he can finish but the knee buckles. The referee goes to make the match stoppage announcement…and Styles rolls in rolls Rhyno up for the pin.

Rating: C+. This was going really well until the stoppage in the middle of it for the knee injury. The fans thought it was awesome and while I’m not sure I agree with that, it was certainly a good match but the run time (seven and a half minutes, with two or so being spent on the injury) hurts it a lot. Still pretty fun though.

AJ dances on the ramp.

More stupid DX nonsense with “Vince” here. This actually makes my eyes roll.

Rhyno and AJ brawl even more. This filler stuff is REALLY getting annoying.

We recap the flag match, which is American’s Most Wanted vs. AMW for national supremacy I think. LAX points out that they’re American citizens with the right to burn a flag, which AMW doesn’t care for.

LAX says they’ll win and get to hang their flag and have the Mexican national anthem played.

LAX vs. American’s Most Wanted

LAX has the tag titles but this is FOR HONOR. You win by hanging your country’s flag, even though both teams come in with the other’s flag. But EVEN THAT is overly complicated because the flags are already hanging in the corners. I think you have to steal the others’ flag and replace the one in your corner with that one. Brawl to start but Gail Kim, AMW’s chick, hits a GREAT moonsault to the floor to take out LAX. Storm goes for the American flag, which I guess is how you win.

James gets put in the Tree of Woe but Homicide can’t drive a chair into his face. Harris won’t free him though as he needs to dive on Hernandez. Yeah apparently you have to steal your own flag (as in the one that represents your country, not the own flag you brought with you, so it’s your flag but not YOUR flag) and put it in the corner that’s designated yours’. There’s a ladder involved for some reason, despite the fact that you could stand on the top rope and get the flag.

LAX is dominating as Homicide hits Three Amigos for a big reaction. Gail offers a distraction and Harris superplexes Homicide down. Hernandez pulls down the Mexican flag and now we’re told that you have to hang the flag above the ring like it’s in a ladder match. Could this be any more overly complicated? Well yeah actually it could but it’s pretty annoying. Gringo Killa is loaded up but Gail comes in and ranas Homicide. You know the good guys are pretty big cheaters in this match.

Now Gail, the Canadian-Korean, takes the American Flag but gets stopped by the Cuban most famous for his success in America as a Mexican import. Now Petey freaking Williams, who is in the middle of this somehow, comes in to try a Destroyer on Konnan but Hernandez makes the save. SuperMex dives onto Storm but mostly misses. Harris and Homicide go up and start to hang the flag but Storm comes up with a beer bottle. He breaks it over the head of Homicide but the glass gets in Homicide’s eyes, allowing Hernandez to come in and hang the flag to win.

Rating: D+. The match was ok, but SWEET GOODNESS did they overly complicate things here. There were three run-ins and they didn’t bother to explain what in the world Petey had to do with this. This match was just ok but the overbooking really hurt things. If they’re this short on time, why in the world are they leaving these matches at like ten minutes?

Gail yells at Storm post match. Konnan brags about winning and says this is about having class. The Mexican national anthem is played and we just kind of sit here and listen to it. That’s all it is for about two minutes. LAX stands there saluting while the Mexican national anthem plays. Like I said, there’s filler and then there’s this show. This is ridiculous.

Video on Samoa Joe.

Storm rants about Chris Harris quitting instead of really being hurt. This would be their split. Storm wants an apology by Thursday.

Here’s the Voodoo Kin Mafia to waste even more time. The announcers say this is for, and I quote, “The next really bad skit in their series.” They’re dressed like “Shawn and HHH”. After doing the DX intro, they bring out “cheerleaders”, with Tenay and Mike saying spirit more time than should be legally allowed. They bring out Fat Oily Guy for a dance and that’s it. Oh wait, no it’s not because Road Dogg wants to talk.

He says that sometimes people have issues differentiating between parody and reality TV. “Surprise surprise, we’re not Hickenbottom and Levesque.” Yes they’re actually saying this. They claim that Vince is mad about the parodies they’ve been doing which I don’t buy for a second, but this is TNA so who cares? They claim this is like when they went to WCW in Atlanta and then going to a house show.

This is REAL remember. The fans chant SCREW YOU VINCE and this is freaking stupid. Now they’re talking about Vince’s balls and issue a million dollar challenge: they offer Vince a million dollars to have a fight (“no angles, no spots, no finish”) with Vince’s two guys, meaning Shawn and HHH. If Vince doesn’t accept, he’s gutless. They’re FINALLY done after spending ten minutes on this nonsense.

This was one of the DUMBEST segments I’ve seen in years. TNA is so obsessed with catching WWE and making them look stupid that they have no idea how bad it makes them look. Yes, Shawn and HHH were reunited as DX at this point and had a pretty goofy feud with Vince and Shane over the summer. And you know what? IT DREW RATINGS AND MONEY. Road Dogg and Billy Gunn are standing in a ring complaining about them stomping on DX’s legacy, as if ANYONE has cared about the New Age Outlaws in the past 6 years prior to this show. There’s a reason you’re in some minor league people.

Second, they would wind up claiming victory when no one showed up for their challenge (the same night as a WWE PPV). Do they honestly think ANYONE cares about this nonsense? Did TNA really believe they were going to get fans, as in the smarks they cater to, to believe that Shawn Michaels and HHH or Vince McMahon were going to appear on a show that at this point was pure minor league level stuff? Is that what I’m watching a PPV to see? A “shoot challenge” from a couple of washed up has-beens?

Third, why in the world are we wasting PPV time on it? This show is already WAY short on wrestling, with tons of brawls and segments already because this company can’t manage to put on seven matches. There are six matches on this card, one of which goes past fifteen minutes. Based on what I can find, this show has about SEVENTY FIVE MINUTES of wrestling on it, with the whole broadcast running about 170 minutes.

That translates out to about 44% of the show being used on wrestling. Think about that. We’re getting an hour and fifteen minutes of wrestling, but we have time for a bikini contest, two brawls, this nonsense, and who knows what else. This is a great example of why no one took this company seriously for years and why a lot of people still don’t.

We recap the world title match. Sting wants Abyss to be his own man and calls him Chris, Mitchell says Abyss is an animal, Christian is involved because you can’t have a title match without there being three people in it more than two straight months.

Christian says he’ll get the title back while Sting and Abyss are having their soap opera. Tomko knows what Abyss’ secret is too.

NWA World Title: Christian Cage vs. Sting vs. Abyss

Abyss beat Sting for the title last month by DQ, in I think the only time that rule (which to be fair was established as a regular rule but has since been taken away) ever came into play. Tomko and Abyss stare it down before the match but nothing comes of it. Sting fights them both to start and sends Abyss out to the floor. Christian gets thrown out there too so Sting dives onto both of them. The guy will do some big spots when asked to.

Tomko throws Sting into the steps and Christian takes over for a bit. He goes back inside and runs into the champion who throws him around like a monster is supposed to. A corner splash puts Christian down and Sting is back in. Total control for Abyss at the moment as he stomps on Sting. Christian ducks a charge though and hits a tornado DDT for two. The Canadian goes after the knee of Abyss and knocks Sting to the floor.

Abyss tries a gorilla press but Christian escapes and gets to the corner. That doesn’t work that well as Abyss tries to load up a superplex but Sting comes in to make it a Tower of Doom. Stinger Splash to Abyss and Sting shrugs off some Christian chops. Stinger Splash to both guys in the same corner but Christian goes to the eyes to break up the Scorpion. Rollup gets two for Sting on Abyss. Abyss gets knocked to the floor and Tomko kicks him in the face. Unprettier is countered and Sting hooks the Scorpion. Sting, ever the idiot, goes after Mitchel and lets the hold go. That guy never learns.

Tomko throws in the belt but Sting avoids the shot and slingshots Christian into Abyss to keep the champion on the floor. Death Drop gets two as Tomko pulls the referee out. Tomko comes in to stomp Sting but Abyss jumps him. A clothesline puts Tomko on the floor and Abyss throws Christian over the top to the outside. Here comes a chokeslam to Sting but Mitchell wants to throw in tacks.

The fans chant for Chris (Abyss, not Christian) and he doesn’t want to use the tacks. He pours the tacks out but tries to chokeslam Christian instead, only to have Tomko kick his head off. Abyss gets kicked into the tacks and Sting tries to talk to him. Since this isn’t overbooked enough, Christian brings in a chair to pop Sting and a Black Hole Slam lets Abyss retain. They were trying to pull the referee out again there.

Rating: D+. This is where TNA loses me again. It’s a Russo problem more than anything else: there’s a decent match in there somewhere, but you can’t find it because of all the other stuff. We had in a 12 minute match, tacks, a chair, a ref bump, an attempted ref bump, a psychological therapy session, Tomko interfering, Mitchell interfering, and maiming. Why can’t it be three guys fighting for a title? Why is that such a bad thing? TNA comes off like it has a severe inferiority complex so it throws all this other stuff out there because it’s ashamed of what their regular product looks like. This was a good example of that.

Angle says this is the last match he’ll have with Joe. After tonight everyone will know he’s the best.

Angle talks about wrestling a guy from Iran and losing because he never thought he’d see him again. They did have a rematch though, in the gold medal match. Joe deserves a rematch. No one has ever hurt Angle like Joe did and Joe wants to hurt him again. The back and forth verbal servicing goes on for a few minutes, because Heaven forbid two people in TNA don’t like each other or don’t spend five minutes praising the other first.

Samoa Joe vs. Kurt Angle

The fans chant you tapped out at Joe, because they turn on their favorites at the drop of a hat. Now they say Joe’s Gonna Kill You. Now they’re split. This crowd needs therapy. They go to the corner quickly and then Angle takes him down with a wristlock. Kurt tries a half crab which goes nowhere. Joe comes back with a short arm clothesline and chops in the corner, followed by punches and kicks.

Angle starts to come back but gets backdropped over the top to the floor. Joe follows him to the outside and they slug it out, only to have Angle take over and hit a dive to the floor. Joe gets his head rammed into the steps a few times HARD. Angle goes inside but Joe is like screw that and comes back, only to get stomped down again. They go to the mat and Joe grabs a keylock.

Angle counters that and sends Joe into the steel cable in the corner to take over. Belly to belly stops a brief Joe comeback. Off to a body vice and Angle is in control. That doesn’t last long as Joe comes back with right hands and a release German suplex to put both guys down. Angle counters the Clutch and it’s Rolling German times. There’s the ankle lock but Joe rolls through. Angle rolls through the MuscleBuster into an ankle lock and Joe is in trouble.

Joe rolls out of it again but Angle immediately comes back with the Slam for two. Ankle lock goes on but Joe rolls around well enough that he pulls Angle into the Clutch. Angle counters THAT into the ankle lock. Joe does the same counter he did before into the Clutch again and Kurt is in trouble. THAT gets countered into the ankle lock with the grapevine.

Joe makes the rope which puts him in a short list of people that have escaped the grapevine. Angle changes up to going for a pin, in this case off a belly to belly superplex. Joe counters the Slam and down goes the referee. Joe hooks the Clutch again and Angle taps but there’s no referee. He goes to get the referee and Angle kicks him low. Angle goes to the floor and gets a chair but it hits the rope and bounces into Angle’s face. Joe pulls him into the Clutch and Angle taps for the win.

Rating: B+. Was there any need for the chair ending? Really? Either way it doesn’t mean much but Angle tapped like he should have so it doesn’t matter. This was a good match though and they had the crowd going really strongly by the end. The problem here though is that this is the second match and it happened at Turning Point after the first one at Genesis. It falls a little lower based on that. Still very good though and a great main event.

We take a long look at the match we just saw.

Overall Rating: D. The main event really is good and is worth checking out, but that’s really all that saves this show from being really bad. The problem here is that there are so many things standing in the way of it being a passable show. Stuff like the Voodoo Kin Mafia stuff and the TON of stalling and six matches on the whole card really makes this show look bad. More importantly than that though, it makes the company look like they have no idea what they’re doing and it makes them look like they’re incapable of filling up a three hour show. That’s a really bad sign, but at least they would improve…eventually.

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