Impact Wrestling
Date: October 31, 2013
Location: Maverik Center, Salt Lake City, Utah
Commentators: Tazz, Mike Tenay

It’s Halloween night and the main story is the TNA World Champion left in a nice car last week, apparently not wanting to sign a contract and taking the title with him. Since this is TNA, you can see the brackets for the tournament being filled out as we speak. I’d assume we’re heading for a champion vs. champion match because that’s what WWE did a few years ago and if WWE can do it, TNA can as well, albeit with more mistakes and stupidity. Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of AJ literally driving away from TNA and Dixie with the title in hand to end last week’s show.

Here’s Dixie to open the show, talking about how she served AJ the world up on a plate but he just walked away with his nose in the air. From here on out, AJ is no longer world champion and is just like everyone else that buys replica belts. The title is officially stripped and the car is a present to AJ for all his work.

Therefore, we need a new world champion so we’ll be holding an eight man tournament over the next few weeks for the vacant title. Seven of the entrants are former world champions, so here are James Storm, Samoa Joe, Kurt Angle, Jeff Hardy, Austin Aries, Bobby Roode and Chris Sabin. Everyone gets a video bio of their accomplishments. There’s a spot left so here’s Bully Ray to interrupt.

Before he can say anything though, Dixie announces a gauntlet match for the final tournament spot. Ray gets in the ring and says he’s been forgotten but the fans tell him he tapped out. He blames Earl Hebner and Ken Anderson for the losses, but the lights go out and here comes Anderson. Ken slowly stomps on Ray in the corner as we take a break.

During the break Anderson was taken away by security where Brooke yelled at her. Bully jumps him from behind and whips Anderson with the chain. He yells that Anderson is nothing without the club so stay out of club business.

Garrett Bischoff is asked what he thinks of this and says it’s club business. Knux comes up and says he needs Bischoff’s help in his match tonight.

Tag Titles: Bro Mans vs. James Storm/Gunner

The challengers jump the Bro Mans in the aisle before Gunner sends Robbie into the corner to start the official beating. A splash crushes Robbie and a slingshot suplex gets two. Off to Storm for a double back elbow and a knee drop to give James a two count. Jesse comes in and takes a big chop in the corner to mess with his blood vessels.

Back to Storm who gets two off a back elbow to the jaw followed by Storm getting the same via the Eye of the Storm. Things break down a bit with Gunner being sent out to the floor and Storm backdropping Jesse onto the back of his head. Robbie pulls his partner to the floor to avoid the Last Call before tripping up Storm on a suplex attempt and holding the foot down to give Jesse the pin at 4:15.

Rating: D+. Not much to see here but it’s good to have the Bro Mans get a win like this. They’re the kind of team that is going to have to cheat all the time to keep the belts and it’s just going to make the reaction even bigger when they lose the titles. I’m not wild on Storm and Gunner but they’re good enough for stuff like this.

Sting goes in to see Dixie who is willing to lift the ban on Sting getting a world title shot for tonight only. He can be in the gauntlet but has to start first. Sting leaves without saying yes or no.

We get a recap of Abyss returning last week, leading to Bad Influence dressed up as Sherlock Holmes and Watson. They promise to solve the Abyss mystery and unveil the monster tonight.

Norv Fernum vs. Ethan Carter III

Bernum is the guy Carter squashed at BFG and weighs about 104lbs. Carter tosses him around to start before putting on a standing chinlock. Fernum comes back with some flying shoulder blocks but can’t knock Carter down. Norv scores with a missile dropkick but walks into the bulldog driver (which might be called the 1%) for the pin at 3:10.

Rating: D. Yeah it was a squash, but I’m digging Carter’s character. The turnaround from his character in WWE is reminding me of Rick Rude when he jumped to WCW. In the WWF he was a glorified comedy guy but in WCW he was nothing short of a killer. Carter has gone from Derrick Bateman who was nothing to Carter who looks solid in the ring and has a great look. Well done TNA.

Bobby Roode asks the doctor how Angle can be cleared in just a week. He wants Angle checked again.

Bad Influence run into ODB and Eric, with the latter promising a surprise for them later.

Gauntlet Battle Royal

Sting starts out with Kazarian as this is over the top only with two minute time intervals. They start with a WOO off until Sting rams him into some top turnbuckles. A backdrop puts Kaz down and a suplex does the same. Kaz comes back with some shots to the ribs but can’t put him out in the corner. Knux is in at #3 and we take an early break. Back with Eric Young coming out and no eliminations so far. It’s been way more than two minutes since the break so screw the clock I guess.

Eric cleans house on the heels and pounds away in the corner as Sting gets back up. Kaz pulls at the beard to slow Eric down as Taz rips into Utah and all the wives the people around here have (his words not mine). Knux tries to put Eric out but he “pulls some of the pubic hair out” (again Tazz’s words) to escape. Christopher Daniels is #5 and saves Kaz before he even gets to the ring. Daniels comes in and pounds away on Eric as Bad Influence takes over. Sting suplexes both of them down and we take our second break in than eleven minutes since the opening bell.

Back with Manik in at #6. They’re clearly not doing anything during the break as the guys are in virtually the same positions as when the cameras went off. Manik cleans house and saves himself by headscissoring Kaz down. No eliminations so far and the ring fills up even more with Magnus at #7, the last entrant. Magnus cleans house but gets taken down by a cross body from Knux of all people. Manik escapes a pumphandle slam and catches Knux in a hurricanrana for the elimination.

Kaz hits a springboard elbow to eliminate Manik a few seconds later. Tazz says Aces and 8’s suck. Eric goes up but gets crotched down and kicked in the head by Kaz for an elimination. We’re down to Mafia vs. Bad Influence with Sting clotheslining Kaz down before Magnus hits a Snow Plow on Daniels. Sting gets his eyes raked so the double teaming of Magnus can begin, only to have the Mafia come right back with a clothesline to eliminate Kaz. Magnus sneaks up on Kaz and Sting with a double elimination for the win at 19:40. I’m pretty sure there was no extra action during the commercial though.

Rating: C-. This was pretty lame with just seven people and no real need for the match to go this long. Magnus winning the way he did extends his heel turn a bit more which is the right idea, but I can’t picture him winning the tournament to set up an eventual champion vs. champion match.

Angle has been advised to take the night off but will wrestle anyway.

Dixie has a surprise for us later: the Wheel of Dixie.

Knockouts Title: ODB vs. Gail Kim

ODB spears her down to start and pounds away on the champion in the corner. A splash sets up a Bronco Buster attempt but Gail bails to the floor. Gail loads up Eat Defeat on the floor but gets caught in a fallaway slam instead. ODB looks to go after Gail’s enforcer Lei’D Tapa but gets dropkicked into the announce table instead. There’s the Figure Four around the post as Tenay announces Turning Point for free on November 21.

Back in and Gail puts on a headscissor choke, only to have ODB counter into a half crab. Gail gets to the rope but a Thesz Press gets two for ODB. A front suplex out of the corner puts Gail down but Tapa distracts the referee. Gail grabs a rollup and a rope for the retaining pin at 6:25.

Rating: D+. I am so over the Knockouts as a whole. It’s the same five or so girls having the same feuds with the same dull stories (calling them stories is a stretch. It’s more like Knockout A is champion and Knockout B wins a contenders’ match) resolved in the same dull matches. Nothing to see here and ODB continues to get on my nerves.

Bad Influence has solved the mystery of Abyss.

Back from a break with Daniels and Kaz in the ring to explain their findings. With British accents, Daniels and Kaz say they’ve figured out the on again off again monster Abyss. Apparently it’s under the ring, which is certainly not a ripoff of when Santino dressed up like Sherlock Holmes and was told to solve the mystery of the Raw GM and it wound up being under the ring.

It’s a pumpkin under the ring though, which apparently has more brains than the entire Knockouts roster put together. This brings out Eric Young dressed as Joseph Park in a decent imitation. He has no proof that Halloween is a real holiday but it’s the big guy’s favorite holiday. Eric has a message for bad Influence so he punches them both, earning himself a beatdown. Abyss comes out for the save and crushes Bad Influence before helping Young up in the corner.

Here are the world title tournament brackets.

Hardy

Sabin

Roode

Storm

Angle

Aries

Magnus

Joe

As simple as this sounds, the wheel of Dixie will determine what the gimmick is for Sabin vs. Hardy. It’s Full Metal Mayhem, which is basically TLC.

Kurt Angle vs. Bobby Roode

This would be the third Bound For Glory rematch of the night. Roode was inducted into the EGO Hall of Fame to mock Angle, but since Angle declined the induction into the TNA Hall of Fame, the whole thing is kind of worthless now. Angle takes him into the corner to start but Roode bails to the floor to escape the ankle lock. Back in and Roode chops away but gets caught in a belly to belly. Roode bails to the floor again and has to rake Angle’s eyes to break up another suplex.

Back from a break with Roode working on the ribs with an abdominal stretch. Angle escapes and puts on Rolling Germans, getting up to about five of them this time. Roode fights up but has to escape the ankle lock. There’s the Crossface but Kurt tries to grab the ankle lock to counter. Roode rolls back and puts the hold on again, only to have to let go to escape a cradle and get it on for a third time. Angle rolls backwards again and puts on the Angle Slam for two but his shoulder is almost gone.

There’s the ankle lock but Roode rolls through into a cradle for tow. Roode comes back with an AA into a neckbreaker for a close two as this starts getting better. Angle gets the ankle lock again with the grapevine but Roode is too close to the ropes. Roode goes up but Angle runs up the ropes for the big Angle Slam for two. Angle stops moving and the match is stopped at 16:23.

Rating: B. Good match for the most part here until the storyline finish, which was again, THE SAME THING WE SAW AT BFG. Is this company really that creatively bankrupt that they can’t come up with something else? Like Roode dropping him in the fisherman’s suplex and Angle being knocked out that way? ANYTHING else? Good match until the ending though.

Angle is shaking badly to end the show.

Overall Rating: C. The show wasn’t bad tonight but it was yet another rehash of Bound For Glory with over half the matches being rematches from the PPV. The tournament will help things out but they need something new to light a fire under this company. Maybe the changes behind the scenes will help out but they rarely have before. Not a bad show this week but nothing that set the world on fire.

Results

Bro Mans b. Gunner/James Storm – Suplex reversal to Storm

Ethan Carter III b. Norv Fernum – Bulldog driver

Magnus won a gauntlet battle royal last elimination Sting and Kazarian

Gail Kim b. ODB – Rollup

Bobby Roode b. Kurt Angle via referee stoppage

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Impact Wrestling
Date: October 25, 2012
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Jeremy Borash, Todd Kenely, Mike Tenay, Taz

It’s Championship Night or whatever the latest gimmick show these guys have going on is called. I’m not a big fan of having I think three title matches less than two weeks after BFG, but since the shows themselves aren’t worth watching, they need a gimmick to draw in fans. There’s a world title match tonight with an opponent for Hardy to be announced. Let’s get to it.

We open with Hogan and Hardy in the back. Hogan is picking Hardy’s first challenger tonight and Hardy is ready for anyone. Hardy leaves and we get a really stupid voiceover from Hardy, talking about all of his potential opponents. He doesn’t care who he faces here.

X-Division Title: Rob Van Dam vs. Zema Ion

We’ve got split announcers tonight, with Kenely (not sure who he is) and JB doing the first hour and the usual boys doing the second. Ion tries a quick rollup for two but it’s a standoff. Rob gets a gorilla press of all thigns and a pair of moonsaults for two. Ion heads to the floor and Rob is sent into the barricade when he follows. Ion charges into a kick in the ring but Rob misses a dive to the floor. Zema hits a flip dive over the top to take the champ out. Back in and Ion misses a majorly flippy dive so Rob kicks him in the face and hits Rolling Thunder for no cover. The Five Star retains the title at 4:33.

Rating: C-. Van Dam is a good pick for the title because you’re going to get at least a watchable match out of him and a win over him will mean something. Thankfully this should get him past Ion who was champion because….I’m not sure why he was champion, but it might be because he’s still around when everyone else from the X-Division revival

As Van Dam celebrates, Matt Morgan takes his head off with the Carbon Footprint. Joey Ryan has the X Title and poses with it. Morgan says this is what Hogan wanted.

Austin Aries is listening to the people trying to get the title match. The options are Angle, Anderson, Storm and Ray. Aries gets a shot anyway so he doesn’t care. We get some good jabs at Hogan’s “acting” and Aries says he’s going to use these guys for his personal amusement once they’re eliminated.

Here are Daniels and Kaz who don’t like the lack of tricks they’ve been getting for all the tricks they’ve been through. Daniels was left alone last week because Hogan screwed with Kaz’s travel. Kaz thinks the new champions are here in this country illegally. Daniels takes the mic from him and says that it’s not really Championship Thursday is it Suburban Commando? It’s a crime that everyone else is getting a shot but not them.

Daniels accuses Dixie of pandering to a Latino audience and says they should wear sombreros and drink tequila. Maybe they should call themselves Dos Stereotipicos. Daniels has a petition to get another title match. Well that’s better than the auto rematch clause. Cue the champions who say they’ll help with the petition. Hernandez has his title wrapped a chain around his neck. The brawl is on and the champs clear the ring in about a second. I think we have a rematch made. Kaz: “GIVE ME THAT CLIPBOARD BACK! THAT’S AN EXPENSIVE PEN!”

Hogan eliminates Anderson for nothing having enough fire. Aries tries to interview him. “Was it not taking enough vitamins? Not saying enough BROTHERS?” Aries says Anderson would be an easy opponent than him and throws a drink in Anderson’s face. The fight is on and Aries is down off a WICKED PAPER POSTER SHOT TO THE HEAD! A match is made and Anderson laughs. Then, to further the stupidity, we hear the director yell CUT. I mean…..really?

D-Von is with Aces and 8’s. The President has said no masks can come off. There are some women here to entertain them apparently, but first they have to take someone out. A member throws a dart at a bunch of pictures of wrestlers but we don’t see who it hit.

TV Title: Robbie T vs. Samoa Joe

Geez enough with the Robs getting title shots! Joe pounds away in the corner to start but T comes back with a spin kick to take him down. Joe puts on the Clutch and after a meaningless Robbie E distraction, Joe puts the hold on again while jumping on T’s back. Terry falls back on him but in an AWESOME moment, Joe sits up and with an INSANE look on his face, puts the hold back on and gets the tap at 2:28. Look up that ending. It looked great.

We recap Tara taking the title from Tessmacher along with Jesse from Big Brother. Did I mention I can’t stand reality TV?

Back to Hogan’s office and Ray apparently isn’t focused enough. He’s going to find D-Von and take care of him, basically eliminating himself.

Anderson yells at a guy in a headset and apparently it’s Anderson vs. Aries next. I know this because the announcer said it’s Anderson vs. Aries next.

Mr. Anderson vs. Austin Aries

They start immediately and Anderson yells mean things at Austin. Anderson takes his shirt off as Aries chills on the floor. A fireman’s carry goes nowhere and things slow down. Aries puts brass knuckles in Anderson’s tights but the referee takes them away. That was kind of odd. The fans chant cheater and Anderson pounds him into the corner again. Anderson gets sent to the floor and there’s the suicide dive as we take a break.

Back with Aries still in control but the fans are cheering for the cheater now. Anderson tries to fight back with some elbows and a clothesline that spins Aries inside out. Anderson’s spinning neckbreaker takes Aries down but the Regal Roll is countered again. The double rotation kick sends Aries to the floor and Anderson adds a plancha.

The fireman’s carry is loaded up again but Aries takes out the referee. Aries steals the knuckles from Aries and Anderson gets them. The referee takes them away and Aries knocks him cold with another pair. Aries pulls Anderson on top of him to feign a pin attempt before putting on the Last Chancery for the pin at 11:49.

Rating: C-. This was an awkward match, likely because Anderson is so unorthodox in the ring. Not a horrible match but it was missing by a half beat. Aries is doing some cool stuff and I like him way better as a heel. I like Anderson way better off my TV, but I guess he’s better in this role than another, but it’s not like it’s a great improvement.

Brooke and Tara/Jesse do their usual stuff. Brooke tells Jesse that ODB has an eye on him. Isn’t ODB married?

Tenay and Taz take over in what is supposed to be a big deal I think. We recap the show up to this point.

Knockouts Title: Miss Tessmacher vs. Tara

Tara is defending and gets jumped before she can get in the ring. After more of a beating, a Jesse distraction lets Tara take over with some cheap shots. Tara slams Tessmacher’s face into the mat a few times but stops for a kiss. From Jesse unfortunately. More kissing occurs and Tara misses her slingshot somersault legdrop. Tessmacher comes back and hits her Stinkface before hitting an X Factor out of the corner. Tara grabs Terrell and Jesse lowbridges Tessmacher. Widow’s Peak retains the title at 3:57.

Rating: D+. Annoying non-celebrity aside, Tessmacher contines to do nothing at all for me. She’s just there and is exactly the same character she was a year ago. Also she’s just not that good in the ring, period. Her looks are great but mix up the outfits a bit already. Tara continues to be annoying with Jesse so it’s a success on that front. Hopefully this feud is done now.

Post match more making out occurs until Brooke comes out to shake her head. Apparently ODB is calling out Jesse next week on Open Fight Night.

Joseph Park goes in to talk to Hogan about fighting Aces and 8’s. Hogan says Park has had one match (he’s had two) and also he’s worried about Park’s liability. Park has a piece of paper. Hogan: “What’s that?” Park: “It’s a piece of paper.” He goes on to say it’s a letter of indemnification which means if he gets hurt fighting Aces and 8’s, it’s no one’s fault but Park’s and there’s no legal responsibility for anyone else.

Here’s Ray who again thanks Sting for letting him be his partner. Not much shocks Ray anymore, but the D-Von reveal did. Ray wants an explanation from D-Von but gets the whole group instead. They get in the ring and D-Von says they’re not friends or a team or anything anymore. D-Von says this has nothing to do with Ray anymore and it’s all about Hogan. Apparently this is because Hogan said that he wanted D-Von re-signed to the company, but Hogan and Dixie never called. In other words, if you don’t follow TNA online and follow Hogan on Twitter, this whole story makes VERY little sense.

D-Von says it’s over but Ray says it’s over when he says it’s over. Ray says D-Von is lying and he talks about the Guns coming back from 3D like two years ago and how they should have retired as champions. Years ago D-Von said they’re rich so screw the fans. D-Von says yeah he said it, so Ray wants to fight one on one right now. D-Von says it’s on his time but Ray says he’ll call him out next week on Open Fight Night.

Ryan says he wants the X Title and Morgan says Hogan started this.

It’s also Gut Check next week. The wrestler is Christian York. He wrestled on the first TNA show and in ECW.

Hogan says he’s got something big planned for Storm in the future but tonight Angle has the title shot.

TNA World Title: Kurt Angle vs. Jeff Hardy

Jeff has two belts here: the vanity belt around his waist and the real one over his shoulder. We get some big match intros and we’re ready to go. Jeff takes him down with an armbar followed by the slingshot dropkick in the corner. Jeff goes to the corner but gets shoved out to the floor as we take a break. Back with Hardy escaping a chinlock and they clothesline each other.

Hardy starts speeding things up and kicks Angle to the floor. There’s a big clothesline off the apron and back inside for Whisper in the Wind for two. Angle comes back with Rolling Germans for two. The Slam is countered into the Twisting Stunner for no cover. Hardy goes up for the Swanton but Angle throws him off the top for two. Angle busts out a powerbomb for two and puts on a quick ankle lock, but Jeff kicks him off. The same kick puts Angle down but the Swanton misses.

The Angle Slam gets two so Jeff hits two straight Twists and the Swanton for just two. Jeff charges at Kurt and gets backdropped to the floor. Angle is spitting up blood. There go the straps as Hardy is thrown back in. Another Slam is countered into a rollup for the pin at 14:29 to keep the belt on Hardy.

Rating: B. When you need a solid match, call Kurt Angle. He’s great in spots like this where you need a main event and have no one else to throw in there. His resume is good enough to buy as a challenger no matter what he’s been doing lately. Either way, good stuff here and a very solid TV main event.

Post match Aries jumps Hardy and says the rematch is at Turning Point. Aries is so confident he’ll win that he takes the belt with him. The original, not the stupid one.

We cut to the back to see Angle getting destroyed by Aces and 8’s to end the show.

Overall Rating: C. I liked the show, but man alive was it exhausting. There’s WAY too much stuff going on here between all of the title matches and the backstage stuff and the reality show stuff with Hogan and it’s all just too much. TNA is the opposite of WWE in that respect as while WWE has too much time on their hands, TNA doesn’t have enough and you get shows like this where there’s so much stuff going on that you can’t get a chance to breathe.

Still though, this was WAY better than last week and I feel better about where they’re going now. One more note: slow down on the gimmick shows. We’re going from Championship Thursday to Open Fight Night next week. Space them out or cut one. Back to back is too much, and there’s likely another gimmick that I can’t think of.

Results

Rob Van Dam b. Zema Ion – Five Star Frog Splash

Samoa Joe b. Robbie T – Koquina Clutch

Austin Aries b. Mr. Anderson – Last Chancery

Tara b. Miss Tessmacher – Widow’s Peak

Jeff Hardy b. Kurt Angle – Swanton Bomb

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of Complete Monday Nitro Reviews Volume I at Amazon for just $4 at:

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Impact Wrestling
Date: October 24, 2013
Location: Maverik Center, Salt Lake City, Utah
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

Bound For Glory has come and gone, boring the hundreds and hundreds of people who bought it and the dozens who actually attended. The main development is AJ Styles defeated Bully Ray to win the world title. Actually every title changed hands at the show, with the Bro Mans, Gail Kim and Chris Sabin all taking home gold. This is kind of the beginning of a new year for TNA so hopefully they can come up with something better than what we’ve been seeing lately. Let’s get to it.

The opening video recaps the events of Bound For Glory, including all the title changes and Kurt Angle declining the induction into the Hall of Fame.

AJ vs. Ray II for the title tonight.

Here’s a very happy Dixie Carter to open things up. There’s a big set in the ring with AJ shirts and merchandise and a big WELCOME BACK AJ STYLES banner. Dixie gets Vickie Guerrero style heat as she says that she made a mistake recently and this is her apology. She always looks to the future and sucks up to Styles for a few minutes, talking about how he’s a legend and her world champion. Dixie introduces AJ and here’s the new champion.

Dixie keeps sucking up to AJ and talks about the slump he’s been in for several months now. She’s ready to pay though so it’s all good. Tonight AJ gets a fancy private dressing room which is almost as nice as Dixie’s. It comes complete with fillet mignon, caviar and champagne. Dixie shows off a watch for AJ which is apparently off of Craigslist. There’s one thing left though: a black sports car which AJ can drive with his new long hair flowing in the wind.

AJ talks about all the stuff Dixie has but still won’t join Team Dixie. First of all he’s a truck guy so the car doesn’t do much for him. He won’t separate himself from the boys that built this company. This mess could have been settled months ago when Dixie bet against him and lost. Dixie offers to cancel the rematch tonight with she and AJ going on a trip on her private jet instead. This brings out Bully and Brooke to protest after a break.

Bully doesn’t like the idea of the title match being canceled but AJ cuts him off. He definitely isn’t taking that trip to Dixieland and doesn’t think the whole rematch idea applies to wrestlers with no contract. However, he’s here in Salt Lake City to defend the title so it’s on. Bully calls AJ’s title win lucky because there was no way AJ can beat him clean.

Ray says that he kicked out of the Spiral Tap but Earl Hebner didn’t call it for some reason. Apparently God is a bully too and if he’s a bully, he’s Bully Ray. AJ says Aces and 8’s, all three of them, won’t be able to beat him tonight and he’ll be celebrating in the crowd with his fans tonight. He says they’ll know what his name is, so Ray drops him with one punch and beats on AJ with part of the set. Ray loads up a powerbomb through the table but here’s the returning Anderson for the save. Anderson beats on Bully in the corner and sends him running away.

After another break Anderson is still in the ring and says he really missed all the fans. They didn’t seem to miss him but he wants to know if Ray missed him as well. The fans don’t quite think so but Anderson spins his head around to show how good his neck feels. Anderson talks about being gone for so long and how tired he’s getting of everything, much like the agents in the back and the fans here tonight. It’s really gotten that bad in the five weeks he’s been gone?

The fans chant YES and here’s Dixie with a bunch of security to arrest Anderson. Anderson: “You’re into handcuffs?” He talks about getting arrested several times but thinks we should have some fun with it this time. Anderson punches two security guards (who are nice enough to sell for him) until voluntarily being taken away in the cuffs.

Video on the Knockouts Title match from BFG which saw Lei’D Tapa reveal an alliance with Gail Kim to win her the title.

Brooke/Gail Kim vs. Velvet Sky/ODB

ODB pulls Brooke in to start and hits a quick Bronco Buster, sending Brooke out to the floor. She pulls ODB to the floor and stomps away a bit before sending ODB back in for more of the same from Gail. The champ quickly leaves and it’s back to Brooke for more forearms and stomping. ODB shoves Brooke off the middle rope and it’s hot tag to Velvet. She cleans a few rooms of the house with a flying headscissors and a running neckbreaker as everything breaks down. Everyone heads to the floor and it’s Tapa sneaking in to kick Velvet in the face to give Gail the pin at 3:35.

Rating: D-. And most of that is because of how good Brooke looks in her new outfit. Tapa can’t even do a big boot properly as she hit more of the shoulder instead of Velvet’s head. Gail as Knockouts Champion is nothing new, which is the continued problem with the entire division: it needs some fresh faces. Tapa simply isn’t going to work in that regard based on what we’ve seen so far.

The Bro Mans celebrate their tag title win by spraying their hair.

Ethan Carter III vs. Dewey Barnes

Dewey is another jobber, this time from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, home of Cody Deaner if I remember correctly. Carter takes him to the mat with ease and pounds away in the corner. Dewey comes back with a few shots to the face and a missile dropkick, only to be caught in the bulldog driver for the pin at 2:38. Same match he had at Bound For Glory.

Post match Ethan says he’s a Carter so the world needs him.

We recap Magnus beating Sting on Sunday.

Magnus is with Sting in the back and says he didn’t show Sting the right amount of respect. Sting is wondering if he passed the torch or lit a new fire under Magnus. They shake hands and everything seems cool.

We get a video from the Hall of Fame induction dinner, Angle declining the Hall of Fame induction and Angle vs. Roode.

Here’s Angle with something to say. He talks about how great it was to hear people praise him at the dinner, but he couldn’t accept the induction at BFG. One day though, he’ll have proven himself worthy of the spot which he’ll then accept. As for the match, it took a toll on his body and yes he knocked himself out on the last move, but here’s Roode to interrupt before Kurt can go any further.

Roode talks about evening the score from two years ago when Angle beat him in the main event of Bound For Glory 2011. He’s lived with that feeling of failure for two years but now it’s Kurt’s turn to feel the exact same thing. On Sunday, the It Factor beat the Olympic gold medalist. Angle says Roode is a bad man but he’s not better than Kurt. Angle wants a rematch RIGHT NOW but Roode hands him a paper instead. Apparently Kurt has torn knee cartilage and isn’t cleared to wrestle, but Kurt says he’s cleared to fight. The brawl only lasts for a few seconds before security breaks it up.

Bully tells Bischoff and Knux to make sure Anderson doesn’t make bail.

Dixie is on the phone in her office and says she needed something done yesterday.

It’s time for the Bro Mans’ celebration of being the new tag champions. They have punch, shrimp, confetti and a DJ. Robbie thinks this is a great party and declares Sunday the biggest night in Bro Man history. The fans think the new champions can’t wrestle but here are Storm and Gunner before the party goes on too long. Storm says this is a party and starts drinking the champagne while gunner eats the protein bars.

The fight is about to start but here’s Bad Influence to object. Kaz says they need to become three time tag team champions but Daniels wants to talk about the kind of beverages at this party. Beer is the drink of the lower class, champagne is for posers and the drink of a man is an appletini. Storm steals the drink and Gunner throws it in Daniels’ face, triggering the brawl. Cue Part and Young to join the brawl, but Daniels makes the mistake of shattering a bottle over Park’s head, drawing blood. Park chases off the bad guys and the good guys get to stand tall.

Angle vs. Roode next week. How TNA can be sure Angle can be cleared that fast isn’t really clear but at least they’ve got the right idea.

TNA World Title: Bully Ray vs. AJ Styles

They have a ton of time here with nearly half an hour left in the show. AJ has heavily taped up ribs. Bully interrupts the big match intros so AJ punches him in the face to get things going. The champion scores with his drop down into the dropkick sequence and gets two off a kick to the head. Bully starts thinking and lifts Styles into the air to drop him ribs first down onto the mat as we take a break.

Back with Ray mocking Hogan and easily stopping an AJ comeback by going to the ribs. A big backdrop puts AJ down again but he comes back with some shots to the head. Ray sends him to the apron but Styles scores with the springboard forearm for two. AJ foolishly tries a fireman’s carry and gets caught in a Samoan drop for two. Ray misses the middle rope backsplash but AJ misses the springboard 450 to hurt the ribs even worse.

AJ is loaded up onto the ropes but he shoves Ray back, right into the referee. Styles grabs the Calf Killer for the tap out but there’s no referee. Ray hits a chain shot to the throat and the Bully Cutter is good for two. Ray gets the chain again but the referee is starting to get back into it. Cue Anderson to snap Ray’s throat across the ropes, allowing AJ to get a crucifix for the pin at 13:28.

Rating: C+. I liked this better than Bound For Glory because it wasn’t so insane and told a better story, but did anyone not know Anderson was coming back? It’s good to give Ray a new feud and as long as it gets him away from the Aces and 8’s schtick he’ll be in much better shape. Not a great match here but it worked well enough.

Post match Anderson and Ray get pulled apart. Dixie pops up on screen with a contract for Styles, telling him not to go anywhere. After the break here’s Carter with the contract and a speech ready of course. She offers AJ the contract and reminds AJ how sweet she is. The car is a signing bonus for Styles for date nights with his wife.

AJ says it’s a great contract from a horrible human being who uses wrestlers like him to pad their bank account and buy themselves fancy cars. Styles rips up the contract and says it wasn’t about the money but rather about the respect. Dixie is going to pay by having AJ take the title and leaving with it. He’s taking the title with him to the people who deserve a champion. Oh and he’s taking the car too. Styles walks to the back and heads to the car which is already running despite him having the key. He drives off to end the show.

Overall Rating: D+. TNA needed to hit a home run tonight to make up for Bound For Glory but instead we got a decent single. This more or less did nothing new as everything seems focused on Bound For Glory rematches in the coming weeks. That’s a major problem when almost everything you had for BFG wasn’t well received. This show was a lot of nothing with WAY too many recaps and nowhere near enough action. Where was the X-Division? You know, that thing that sucked up most of the midcard talent for the PPV? TNA needs something fresh and they need it in a hurry. This wasn’t a horrible show, but it didn’t help things.

Results

Brooke/Gail Kim b. Velvet Sky/ODB – Kim pinned Sky after a big boot from Lei’D Tapa

Ethan Carter III b. Dewey Barnes – Bulldog driver

AJ Styles b. Bully Ray – Crucifix

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Monday Night Raw
Date: October 23, 2000
Location: Hartford Civic Center, Hartford, Connecticut
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

It’s the night after No Mercy and the big story is Kurt Angle shocked the world by beating Rock to become the new WWF Champion. Angle has only been around for about a year at this point and is still a goofy character so this was a pretty big surprise. Other than that Austin didn’t quite get his revenge on Rikishi for nearly killing him eleven months prior but you know that’s not over. Let’s get to it.

We open with an In Memory graphic for Yokozuna. Ignore them incorrectly listing him as a three time world champion.

Here’s a bandaged up Rikishi to open things up. He wants to know where Steve Austin is despite knowing that Austin was arrested for trying to crush Rikishi with a car last night. Rikishi talks about the crime that was committed last night but he’s talking about Rock losing the WWF Title. Rikishi was down there to help Rock and even though they lost the battle last night, they’ll win the war. He asks Rock to come down here to hear what Rikishi has to say so here’s the Brahma Bull.

Rikishi apologizes for last night and that he didn’t mean for Rock to lose the title. Rock says that the two for them have done a lot together over the years, but Rock wants nothing to do with him or his apology. Not that it matters as Rock will be the WWF Champion again on his own, meaning without Rikishi’s help. Rikishi understands that Rock is upset, but he’s starting to hurt the big man’s feelings.

That doesn’t really sway Rock who says Rikishi can wipe himself with his feelings. Rock talks about Rikishi having a stomach ache from eating so many hamburgers and hot dogs and suggests Rikishi leave for good. Rikishi says he’ll be there for Rock whether he likes it or not, so Rock says he has to do what he has to do. A Rock Bottom lays the fat man out.

Trish pitches a Women’s Title match against Lita if it’s under bra and panties rules. Commissioner Mick Foley goes over the rules and accepts the idea.

Women’s Title: Lita vs. Trish Stratus

Lita is defending and remember that this is bra and panties. Lita tackles her down to start and takes it into the corner before this becomes a catfight. This is about two years before Trish was even remotely good in the ring so this isn’t going to be anything more than what you would expect. Trish rips off Lita’s top so Lita does the same to Trish. The champ is about to fall out of her top before suplexing Trish down, hitting the moonsault and completing the stripping to retain.

This brings out the furious Right to Censor to complain about how bad women like Lita and Trish are for America. Steven Richards brings out the newest member of the RTC: Ivory, dressed in something a Puritan would find too conservative. She’s in a white collared blouse and a long black skirt while ranting about the clothing women wear today being too revealing. Trish laughs the ideas off and we’ve got a new monster heel Diva.

Michael Cole is in the back with the new WWF Tag Team Champions, Los Conquistadors. This is a little complicated but I’ll get to the explanation later. Anyway, Edge and Christian come up to them to congratulate them on their win and prove that they’re two different teams. Remember that, as it becomes important later.

Here’s Benoit with something to say. He’s noticed that talent, will and determination are useless. Being the best technical wrestler in the world today doesn’t mean a thing. HHH may have beaten him last night but the only game that won last night was HHH getting help from his wife last night. Starting tonight, things are different because no one and nothing will stop him because his time is now. Prove him wrong.

Chris Benoit vs. Road Dogg

Benoit drives him into the corner to start and stomps Roadie down with ease. A backbreaker gets two but Benoit misses the swan dive, allowing Road Dogg to hit a few left hands. Dean Malenko comes out for a distraction though and the Crossface gets a quick submission. Basically a squash.

Cole tells Rikishi that no one wants him here but he says he’ll be here all night no matter who likes it.

HHH doesn’t like that people thought his era was over. Last night he proved Benoit wrong by showing he’s a better technical wrestler than Benoit is. Coach asks HHH about Stephanie helping Angle win the WWF Title last night but HHH says that’s his own business. However, Angle put Stephanie in harm’s way, so now it’s time for HHH to take it out on Angle.

We get a clip from last night of Austin trying to run over Rikishi and getting arrested last night.

Crash is in charge of the APA’s office while they’re out hurt. Test and Albert come in and kick him out.

Jericho gives a stagehand a Fozzie CD and plugs an upcoming performance on Heat. He turns around and spills his coffee on Kane, saying he hopes he didn’t burn him. You don’t talk about burning Kane and the Canadian is destroyed.

European Champion William Regal is in the ring and calls most of the fans uncivilized. He’s in the capitol of Connecticut which produces more handguns which kill more people than any other stage. Cue Jericho to interrupt, apparently not dead at Kane’s hands. He does have a bad left arm though.

European Title: Chris Jericho vs. William Regal

Jericho gets the mic to insult Regal but decides Willy isn’t worth it and charges in to get us going. The bell rings and Jericho fires off chops followed by a spinwheel kick and a clothesline for two. Regal avoids a charge to send Jericho shoulder first into the post and gets two of his own off a spinning powerbomb. A tiger bomb is countered into a suplex by Jericho but Regal goes after the bad arm to take him down. They slug it out a bit but Regal blocks a clothesline by going after the arm again. Regal loads up a neckbreaker but the not very nice Jericho kicks Regal low. There’s the Lionsault but Kane comes in for the DQ.

Kane lays out Jericho with a chokeslam and lights up the corners of the ring.

T&A (Test and Albert) can’t figure out how the initials for Test and Albert Protection Agency should be spelled.

Stephanie and Angle arrive and are greeted by paparazzi.

Here are Stephanie and Kurt for their first public appearance with the title. Stephanie gives him a long winded (I’m as shocked as you are) intro before confetti and balloons rain from the ceiling. The balloons are popped as Angle talks about how America is falling apart. For most people it’s overcoming poverty but for most people here it’s about overcoming being born in Hartford, like Stephanie has done. Angle brags about winning the gold medal in Atlanta but that wasn’t enough for him. Most people would just give up, but he’s not most people.

Four years later (it was three) he came to the WWF and now he’s proven that he’s the best in this company as well. Two months after he got here, he won the European Title and tourism grew by 38% in Europe. We get an over the top highlight package with Angle narrating. He won the Intercontinental Title two months later, becoming the first Eurocontinental Champion in history. “Well except for D’Lo Brown who doesn’t count.” Then he won King of the Ring, sending sales of crowns and scepters up an amazing 40%.

Last night was the crowning achievement though by winning the WWF Title. Angle’s rookie year really is incredible and I can’t think of a better one in wrestling history. Angle has a poem for us called What Makes A Guy Super Great. He gets about two lines down until Foley interrupts. JR: “THANK GOD!” Mick asks for an ovation for Angle on his title win, but says there’s something he didn’t get last night: a celebratory hug.

Stephanie was unable to give him one due to being unconscious from a Rock Bottom. Mick is one heck of a hugger, so he’d be willing to offer his services. Foley gets all teary eyed and announces Angle’s first title defense……….right here in Hartford, Connecticut….against HHH and the Rock in a triple threat. Awesome segment here with Angle at his very best. Goofy Angle is one of my favorite characters ever and this was some of his best work.

Chyna goes looking for Eddie but finds the two women she caught him in the shower with last week. She shuts the door and a lot of violence can be heard. Chyna leaves and the bodies are shown laid out everywhere. One of those girls is Victoria/Tara.

Too Cool vs. Tazz/Raven

Tazz and Raven formed a short lived ECW tag team around this point because there was nothing else for them to do. Scotty kicks Raven in the face to start and Grandmaster adds a middle rope dropkick to take Bird Boy down again. Tazz walks into a powerslam and Raven is kicked out to the floor. The distraction lets Tazz suplex Grandmaster down and the heels take over.

Raven bulldogs him down for two and it’s already back to Tazz as the announcers ignore the match to talk about a cookbook. Raven jumps into a boot to the face and it’s off to Scotty to speed things up. A superkick gets two on Tazz and everything breaks down. Raven accidentally hits Tazz and Grandmaster hits Raven with the guillotine legdrop. Tazz makes the save and Raven returns the favor by breaking up Worm with a DDT to Scotty for the pin.

Rating: D. Just a match here really and as basic as you could ever get. Just throwing people together into a team because they used to work for another company doesn’t really work that well. They wouldn’t o anywhere as a team as there’s just nothing interesting about them together.

Christian isn’t sure which glasses to wear in the match tonight. Pete Gas from the Mean Street Posse of all people comes in and asks to see Edge.

After a break Edge comes back into his dressing room and finds the place wrecked and Christian put through a table. Apparently the Dudleys attacked him and injured his shoulder. Edge says it’s just Los Conquistadors so he’ll win the titles himself.

Billy Gunn vs. Val Venis

Chyna is with Billy here so Eddie comes out before the match. Billy stops her from killing him, allowing Val to jump the Gunn (I’m here all week) and get things going early. A knee drop gets two for Venis and he peppers Billy with forearms. Billy grabs a quickly broken sleeper but gets countered into a blue thunder bomb for two. They clothesline each other down before Billy hits a Stinger Splash and a Jackhammer, only to have Steven Richards break up a Fameasser. Richards is pulled in for a bit but the Fameasser hits for the pin anyway.

Rating: D. Why Billy Gunn kept getting pushed is beyond me. He was athletic but there are some people that just don’t work as a singles guy. Billy just didn’t have it, but I’d be curious to know how much of that is because of his nickname. You can only get so far with his name and gimmick and he crashed into that ceiling far before this.

Stephanie isn’t sure whose corner she should be in tonight. She asks HHH what he wants but he says he just wants her safe.

Video on Jerry Lawler at Las Vegas Outlaws cheerleader tryouts. I think you can figure this one out.

Tag Titles: Edge vs. Los Conquistadors

Edge looks confused as the champions come to the ring. We’ll say Uno starts but is easily punched down. Uno grabs a quick small package for two and Edge is furious. Los Conquistadors both come in and hit Poetry in Motion as the fans suddenly get it. A Twist of Fate and the Swaton connect for the pin to retain the titles.

Post match the champions of course unmask as the Hardys. Cue Mick Foley to wonder how the Hardys can be the Conquistdors when they wrestled the Conquistadors last night. Foley has some footage from earlier which shows Edge and Christian admitting they were in the Conquistadors costumes last night. The problem with that is Edge and Christian weren’t allowed to challenge for the tag titles, but since they fooled him, the tag title change from last night stands. Unfortunately for Edge and Christian, tonight’s title change (there was a change?) stands as well, meaning the Hardys are YOUR Tag Team Champions.

Rikishi tells Cole to tell Rock that he’s helping him get the title back.

WWF Title: The Rock vs. HHH vs. Kurt Angle

Stephanie is in the back with Kurt and tells him to wait before going to the ring since he’s the champ. He finally gets in and the challengers both deck him in the face for making them wait. Kurt clotheslines HHH down but celebrates too long, allowing Rock to drop him with a clothesline of his own. HHH is knocked to the floor and Kurt pounds away on Rock in the corner while he has a chance. Rock comes back with a quick Samoan drop but HHH dives in for the save.

Now it’s Rock being sent to the floor to give us another mini-match. HHH stomps the champion down in the corner and gets two of his own off a neckbreaker. Angle comes back with a gorgeous German suplex but Rock pulls him out to the floor. Everyone goes outside and Rock and HHH get into a contest to see who can slam Kurt head first into the announce table the hardest. Stephanie tries to break it up so Rock stares her down, causing HHH to get in Rock’s face. Angle has the ring bell but Rock ducks and HHH gets blasted in the side of the head instead.

That leaves Rock vs. Kurt in the ring for a bit with Rock hitting a DDT but the referee is checking on the Game. Kurt suplexes Rock down for the same result as a stretcher is brought out for HHH. Angle hits the Olympic Slam out of nowhere and Hebner FINALLY slides back in to count two. HHH gets off the stretcher and stumbles back to the ring for a quick Pedigree on Kurt. Rock saves and clotheslines HHH down before hitting a Rock Bottom on the champion. This time it’s HHH with the save but Angle breaks up a Pedigree with a belt shot to the face. Rikishi comes out to beat up Angle and that’s a DQ somehow.

Rating: C+. This picked up at the halfway point but why did we have a DQ when Rikishi came in but not for a bell or title shot to HHH’s head? Either way, good stuff here as Angle fits this role perfectly: the guy who isn’t all there at times but can be a killer in the ring. Good stuff here.

Post match here’s Austin to go after Rikishi. He clotheslines Angle on the way down the ramp before pounding away on Rikishi, only to have Kurt come back in to go after Austin for the clothesline. I like that as it’s better than just having Angle come in for no apparent reason. Rikishi escapes and a Stunner to Angle ends the show.

Overall Rating: B-. The key difference between today’s shows and this episode is how many different ideas there were back in 2000. You don’t see the same finishes or repetitive matches or the same stories being used over and over again until we get to a PPV to shake things up. There’s an idea to everything going on and instead of using a batch of jobbers over and over again, you get some fresh matches. It makes the show WAY easier to sit through and far more enjoyable as a result.

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Bound For Glory 2013
Date: October 20, 2013
Location: Viejas Arena, San Diego, California
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

We’ve finally reached the biggest show of the year and while it hasn’t been the greatest build in the world, the night should have some solid wrestling to make up for it. The main event tonight is the winner of the Bound For Glory Series AJ Styles challenging Bully Ray for the world title. Other than that we have a five way Ultimate X match and potentially the return of Hulk Hogan, who may or may not have signed a new contract. Let’s get to it.

Tag Team Gauntlet

It’s a four team gauntlet match with the winning team getting the tag title shot on the PPV. We start with Bad Influence vs. Hernandez/Chavo Guerrero. The Bro Mans will be fourth due to Robbie E. winning a four way on Impact. Eric Young and Joseph Park will be third due to winning a drawing earlier tonight. Hernandez cleans house to start and Bad Influence bails to the floor. We finally get down to Daniels running into a big boot from Hernandez in the corner and take a quick break.

Back with Hernandez hitting an over the shoulder face plant to stop Kazarian’s momentum, allowing for a double tag to Chavo vs. Daniels. Chavo gets two off a headscissors and everything breaks down. Hernandez runs over Bad Influence and hits the big shoulder to run over Kazarian. Daniels low bridges SuperMex to the floor but walks into Three Amigos from Chavo. Not that it matters though as Kaz comes back in to distract Chavo, giving Daniels a rollup with a handful of trunks for the pin at 7:30.

Young and Park are in next but get jumped on the way in. Park runs over Kazarian and slams him down, only to have Daniels chop block him down to give Kazarian control. Bad Influence double teams the big man as the fans chant for Young. Kazarian can’t quite get a sunset flip but avoids a seated senton from the big guy.

We take another break and come back with Eric getting the hot tag and pounding away on Daniels in the corner. Young flips over the corner and does Daniels’ strut down the apron before coming back for a belly to belly and a near fall. Kazarian makes the save and gets sent to the floor, allowing Daniels to hit a release Rock Bottom but miss the BME. Park hits a Samoan Drop on Daniels to give Young the pin at 16:50.

Bad Influence jumps Park and Young post match and sends Park into the Ultimate X structure. The referee calls for help as Park is injured and Young is out cold in the ring. Here come the Bro Mans with special guest Mr. Olympia Phil Heath. It’s basically a handicap match here with Young getting double teamed for a big, only to make a comeback with right hands and forearms. A slam puts Robbie down and Eric drops a top rope elbow for two. The numbers finally catch up with Eric though and a double flapjack sets up a Hart Attack for the pin and the title shot at 22:00.

Rating: C-. Nothing special here but I liked the length of the match. Far too often in these things the falls last about 2 minutes each and are completely unrealistic when you compare them to normal wrestling matches. Having the shortest be seven and a half minutes made this far better. Also anything that keeps Chavo and Hernandez off my screen is a good thing.

The opening video for the PPV is the usual thing you would expect: talking about how this is the culmination of the entire year and everything leads to this night.

X-Division Title: Samoa Joe vs. Manik vs. Chris Sabin vs. Austin Aries vs. Jeff Hardy

This is Ultimate X, meaning there are four towers around the ring with ropes connecting them in an X shape. You have to climb up and crawl across the ropes and pull down the belt to win. Manik is defending coming in but Sabin has been in 16 of these matches. Chris bails to the floor to start, only to have Aries follow him out and send Sabin into the structure. Hardy and Manik head outside as well until Sabin goes in, only to be pounded down by the Samoan. Aries comes back in and sends Joe to the floor to take over.

Jeff starts to climb the structure but hops down to the apron, only to pull Aries down a few seconds later. Manik takes Hardy down and slaps a Sharpshooter kind of move on Sabin, only to have Aries make the save. Austin goes up again but Jeff pulls him down and hits a falling powerbomb facebuster (think a powerbomb but falling backwards instead of forward) before pulling out a ladder. Joe dives through the ropes to knock the ladder into Joe, only to be taken down by Sabin.

Manik drops Sabin but here’s Aries with a huge dive of his own to take everyone out. Aries goes for the belt but the champion comes back in for a save. Manik sends Aries to the floor but here’s Sabin almost immediately. Joe sends Aries back in and pounds away on him in the corner but Austin comes right back with a kick to the head. Hardy and Joe take dropkicks in the corner from Aries but Joe escapes the brainbuster. Aries gets caught in a quick spinning joke but Manik is going for the title, only to be pulled down into a low blow from the Samoan.

Sabin dropkicks Joe into the ropes but Jeff comes in with the Whisper in the Wind to put Chris down. Now the ladder is set up in the middle of the ring but Joe slams Jeff’s head into the top to knock him down. Aries dropkicks Joe down but Manik springboards up to the ropes and then the ladder, only to have Sabin shove the ladder and both of them over. Hardy hits the Twist of Fate to take Sabin down but can’t follow up. Sabin sends his girlfriend Velvet Sky in to make the save but it’s just a distraction for Sabin to go up and win the belt at 12:00.

Rating: C+. The match was fun but that’s a pretty lame ending. I know it’s a heel move from Sabin, but it was Hardy that brought the ladder in to start. The ending was really lackluster and the match lacked a lot of the drama that these matches had. I don’t think there was even one near finish which made it feel like it came out of nowhere.

We’re going to be seeing great AJ Styles moments tonight with the fist being Styles winning the first X-Division Title in 2002.

Here’s Bad Influence to fill in some time because there are only six matches tonight. Kazarian says that it’s a shame they’re not on the card tonight. Daniels says they’re the stepchildren of this company despite the fact that they ARE TNA. They beat Chavo and Hernandez earlier, Young and Park are a fisherman and a lawyer so they shouldn’t count, and since this company is obsessed with multiple people in matches, let’s make the tag title match a threeway.

This brings out Eric Young who says he isn’t looking for a fight because he already beat them tonight. He says he’s a scientist and the two of them did something earlier tonight which created a monster. They should run but instead Young gets double teamed. Cue the returning Abyss to clean house. Bad Influence is taken out and Abyss helps Eric up. Remember when Park and Young beat Bad Influence on the preshow? Well they just did it again here, just not in an actual match.

James Storm and Gunner say they’re ready to defend the titles against the jokes that are the Bro Mans.

Tag Titles: Bro Mans vs. James Storm/Gunner

Robbie E. and Jesse Godderz still have Mr. Olympia Phil Heath with them. The champions run the goofs over to start and send them out to the floor so Gunner can backdrop Storm over the top onto the Bro Mans. We officially start with Storm throwing Jesse around with a hiptoss before it’s off to Gunner. An elbow to the face and a slingshot suplex get two each on Jesse before Robbie gets in a shot from the apron to take over. Robbie comes in and pounds away on Gunner before getting two off a dropkick.

Gunner comes back with a jumping knee to the face but Jesse runs in to knock James off the apron. Robbie drags Gunner back into the challengers’ corner before bringing Jesse back in. Gunner comes right back with a quick fallaway slam and the hot tag brings in Storm. James cleans house and gets two on Robbie off a running neckbreaker. The Bro Mans get their act together and load up a double superplex on James, only to have Gunner pull James off into an electric chair.

Robbie is taken down by a front suplex, allowing James to drop a top rope elbow for two. Storm has a nasty cut on the side of his leg and Robbie scores with a quick Edgecution for two. Gunner loads up Robbie in the Gun Rack but Robbie makes the save, only to get caught in a powerbomb. Storm adds a Backstabber but Jesse makes the save at the last second. James hits the Last Call on Jesse but Robbie throws in a title belt for a distraction, allowing the Bro Mans to hit the Hart Attack for the pin and the titles at 11:48.

Rating: C. This was better than I was expecting but it’s not like it means anything long term. The tag division means nothing at all and if time has proven one thing, it’s that one team can hardly ever breathe life back into belts that a company isn’t interested in pushing. The near fall off the superkick was really good but other than that it was your basic tag match.

Video from the Hall of Fame induction last night including Sting with a bare face in a rare sight.

Here’s Sting to induct Angle into the Hall of Fame. Sting talks about how so many people respect Kurt because of what he does in and out of the ring. Kurt comes out and thanks everyone before pausing for a THANK YOU ANGLE chant. Sting says it’s time to induct him, but Angle says that he has to decline. He’s setting a new standard for the industry because what’s he’s accomplished before will be nothing compared to what he has in the future. He’ll join Sting one day though. The fans are stunned and Sting doesn’t look pleased.

AJ Styles won the world title at No Surrender 2009.

Dixie gets a phone call and says she wants all of AJ’s merchandise on sale. Ethan Carter, Dixie’s nephew, comes up behind her for his debut. Apparently Dixie has a match for him tonight and they have a family motto: “The world needs us. We’re the Carters.”

Knockouts Title: ODB vs. Brooke vs. Gail Kim

ODB is defending. Brooke looks GREAT in a leather version of her usual attire. Gail is knocked to the floor to start with Brooke taking over on ODB in the corner. Brooke gives her a Stink Face but ODB pops up and sends her into the corner for a Bronco Buster. Gail comes back in, only to be knocked back to the floor a few seconds later. Brooke works on ODB’s back and gets two off a quick neckbreaker.

Gail pops back up and grabs the figure four around the post, only to have ODB make the save with her chest. ODB chops Brooke but gets rolled up for a quick two. Off to a half crab on Brooke but Gail makes another save. The challengers both go up but have to shove off a double superplex attempt, followed by Gail hitting a missile dropkick on ODB. Brooke adds a top rope elbow (WAY too popular of a move tonight) for no cover.

Back up and ODB gets two on Gail via a delayed vertical suplex. The referee gets taken out as ODB somehow gets both girls up in a fireman’s carry at the same time. Brooke falls off but ODB slams Gail onto her….and here’s Tapa. She runs over ODB and takes her out, only to powerbomb Gail on top of ODB for the pin and the title at 10:33.

Rating: D+. This could have been on any given Impact and that’s the problem with this show: nothing feels special at all so far. Gail is champion again. So? She’s been champion before, just like everyone else in the division. Nothing to see here other than Brooke looking great.

Gail hugs Tapa to reveal a ruse.

The Bro Mans celebrate.

Bobby is shocked at Angle turning the induction down and is going to prove why he’s the better man tonight.

We recap Angle vs. Roode, which is all over Roode being inducted into the EGO Hall of Fame, ticking off now non-Hall of Famer Kurt. This is Angle’s first match back from rehab.

Kurt Angle vs. Bobby Roode

Angle has a bad shoulder coming in. Feeling out process to start with Angle taking it to the mat but having to bail to the floor to avoid the Crossface. Back in and Angle tries the ankle lock but Bobby rolls through to send Angle back to the floor. Bobby takes over on the floor but Angle takes him down with a suplex. Back in and Roode scores with a quick hotshot to put Kurt back on the floor before going after the neck even more.

Roode takes him back inside and works the neck with clotheslines and shots to the back of the head. We hit the chinlock for a bit before Kurt fights his way up and rolls the Germans for the first time in several months. A belly to belly gets two but Roode armdrags out of the Angle Slam. Roode scores with the spinebuster for two but Angle slips out of a fireman’s carry and grabs the ankle lock.

Bobby slips out of the hold again and sends Kurt shoulder first into the post before loading up the Crossface. Kurt fights up and gets a quick ankle lock, only to have Roode roll over into the Crossface again. Angle almost tape but turns it over into traded rollups for two each. Back up again and Angle tries a clothesline, only to get caught in the Crossface for the third time.

Angle fights up again and gets an Angle Slam for a VERY close two. Both guys are down now with Angle holding his arm. They slap it out from their knees with Angle getting the better of it before grabbing more Rolling Germans. Roode shoves the referee away so he can kick Kurt low to take over again.

Roode busts out an Attitude Adjustment of all things (I’m shocked no one has stolen that move yet) for two but Kurt is able to slap on the ankle lock yet again. Roode tries to kick Kurt away like he did earlier but Angle holds on and hooks the grapevine. Bobby is no Brock Lesnar and can’t make the rope so he passes out, but as the referee lifts the arm it falls onto the rope for the break. Kurt is ticked off so he loads up Roode into a SUPER ANGLE SLAM but he can’t follow up. Roode gets to his feet at nine and falls into a cover for the surprise pin at 21:00.

Rating: B+. This is the kind of match the show needed. Roode winning is the right call and the stuff at the end was really solid. The opening part of the match was dull but at least the right guy won to avenge the loss he had two years ago. Angle didn’t need the win at all so Roode winning is definitely the right call.

Post match Angle still isn’t moving so medics come out to check on him. Angle won’t let them put a neck brace on and gets off a stretcher to walk out on his own.

AJ beat Sting at Bound For Glory 2009.

Bully says tonight is about the Aces and 8’s being reborn. There are a bunch of guys whose faces we can’t see with Ray implying it’s all the old members coming back tonight.

Ethan Carter III vs. Norv Fernum

Carter is former WWE talent Derrick Bateman. Fervum is apparently a local guy and looks to weigh about 150lbs. Carter runs him over to start and forearms his way out of a wristlock. A t-bone suplex takes Fervum down and it’s off to a one arm camel clutch. Norv fights up and hits some shoulder blocks and a pair of dropkicks followed by a top rope cross body for two. Ethan hits a quick Bulldog Driver to end Fervum at 3:28.

Rating: D-. Carter has a good look but this wasn’t needed on a PPV at all. That’s the problem with this whole show as I mentioned earlier: this doesn’t feel like anything special. We’ve had a promo with a return earlier and now an added squash match just to pad in the time. That’s not a good sign at all.

Magnus says this is the new biggest night of his life and he’s not going to leave without until he knocks the door down. He has everything to lose tonight and it makes him feel more dangerous.

We recap Sting vs. Magnus. Magnus blew the BFG Series finals and thinks he can’t do it, so Sting is going to give him a chance tonight.

Sting vs. Magnus

Feeling out process to start with Sting sending Magnus out to the floor in frustration. Back in and Magnus sends him into the corner for some shoulder blocks. We hit a body scissors as Magnus is being rather aggressive here. Back up and Magnus drives in shoulders to the ribs but gets caught in a backdrop so Sting can pound away. There’s a quick Stinger Splash and we’re already in the Scorpion Deathlock less than five minutes in.

Magnus kicks away and a double clothesline puts both guys down. The Brit hits a quick Stinger Splash of his own and gets two off the falcon’s arrow. Sting kicks away from the Cloverleaf and hits another Stinger Splash before putting on the Deathlock again. As usual Sting doesn’t sit down on it at all so Magnus is able to crawl over to the ropes. Stinger Splash number three lands on an uppercut and Magnus hits a Scorpion Death Drop on his own to set up the top rope elbow.

Sting kicks out at two and is able to avoid the second top rope elbow, putting both guys down again. Magnus fires off some hard forearms but Sting says bring it. Sting gets taken down into the Cloverleaf with Magnus actually cranking on the hold….for the submission at 11:02. I NEVER remember Sting tapping before.

Rating: C. Not a great match but the ending couldn’t have been better for Magnus. Sting gave up in the center of the ring without a bit of cheating at all. Good match here and the ending was the perfectly right call, but the match didn’t feel like it had a middle part which hurt it a bit.

Magnus leaves without shaking Sting’s hand.

AJ won the BFG Series this year.

Bully quotes Guns N Roses by saying welcome to his jungle. He doesn’t want AJ to die though. Instead he wants AJ to have to go back to Georgia and tell his family why he lost tonight. More greatness from the champion here.

We recap AJ Styles vs. Bully Ray, which is almost all about AJ vs. Dixie. AJ won the title shot in the BFG Series but the main story is about Dixie Carter not wanting a hick like AJ as the world champion. She’s promised tonight is his last night in the company.

TNA World Title: AJ Styles vs. Bully Ray

This is No DQ and No Countout. AJ’s music is the full dark theme this time and doesn’t break into Get Ready To Fly. After the big match intros we’re ready to go. Ray talks a lot of trash to start and slams AJ down with ease. AJ is thrown around again and his wristlock is broken up by a HARD clothesline. Ray shouts about smelling fear on AJ for years now, which motivates AJ into a dropkick.

Styles hooks the Calf Killer out of nowhere, drawing out Garrett Bischoff for a distraction for the break. It’s going to be one of those matches isn’t it. Garrett slides Ray the hammer but AJ kicks it away and grabs the hammer for himself. Ray blocks it with a chop and hits an even harder one for good measure. AJ says hit me again and Ray is stunned, allowing Styles to fire off some right hands. Ray chops him again but AJ says bring it. AJ goes after the leg but as he goes up, here’s Knux for another distraction. Styles dives at him but gets caught in a chokeslam to give Ray two.

Ray yells at Earl Hebner for the near fall so Earl yells back, only to have Ray miss a shot and take out Knux by mistake. Ray punches AJ down and then kicks him to the floor with the hammer going out too. The champion gets the hammer but AJ kicks him in the head, knocking Ray to the table. AJ grabs the hammer but throws it down and rams Ray into the table instead. Styles loads up a springboard 450 but Ray moves, sending AJ crashing through the table in a SCARY landing.

With Earl seeing if AJ can remember what planet he’s on, Taz hands Ray a box cutter so he can cut up the ring like he did at Slammiversary. The wood under the mat is revealed as AJ is trying to crawl back into the ring. Ray calls for someone to come out to the ring and here comes Dixie. She looks scared but Ray tells her to get a chair. Dixie demands one from security but AJ springboards in with the forearm to drive the chair into Bully’s head.

There’s the springboard 450 but Dixie tells Earl to count slowly. After about 20 seconds Earl gets to two and Ray kicks out. Ray backdrops out of the Styles Clash to send AJ back first into the wood but doesn’t cover. Ray’s middle rope backsplash actually connects but AJ is up at two. The fans aren’t really caring that much about these near falls. Bully blasts him twice in the back with the chair but AJ rolls out of a powerbomb and Peles Ray down. AJ blasts Ray in the head with the chair and there’s the Spiral Tap for the pin and the title at 20:34.

Rating: C. This wasn’t so much about would AJ win but how would he win. I do however have one question: can we PLEASE have a main event not be overbooked? These two have shown they can have a good match together without all the nonsense, but apparently that’s not allowed anymore. It doesn’t work when we saw this at Slammiversary and the luster was kind of gone here. Also, where were the extra Aces that Ray had? Where did Garrett go? At this point though, I’d take anything decent as a main event and that’s what this was: decent but not great.

A long highlight package of the main event and AJ celebrating in the crowd ends the show.

Overall Rating: D+. That’s being really generous too. The main events were decent to good, but this show can be summed up in four words: not bad, seen better. That’s the problem with everything tonight: everything on this show has been done better before. TNA is just such a mess at this point and nothing on here made me want to see what’s happening going forward. AJ vs. Dixie does nothing for me and the reaction to Dixie as the top heel has been bad to say the least.

The build coming into this show was pretty dreadful with almost none of the matches feeling like they meant anything. The X Title and Knockouts Title matches were thrown together, the Tag Title match was literally made tonight and the World Title was secondary to AJ vs. Dixie. The wrestling was passable for the most part but the biggest show of the year should blow the doors off instead of just being passable. This show just didn’t work tonight and I really don’t like where TNA looks to be going in the near or far future.

Also, this sums up TNA right now.  This is during Sting vs. Magnus (thank KJ):

Results

Chris Sabin b. Manik, Samoa Joe, Jeff Hardy and Austin Aries – Sabin pulled down the title

Bro Mans b. James Storm/Gunner – Hart Attack to Storm

Gail Kim b. Brooke and ODB – Kim pinned Brooke after a powerbomb from Lei’D Tapa

Bobby Roode b. Kurt Angle – Roode pinned Angle after Angle hit a top rope Angle Slam

Ethan Carter III b. Norv Fernum – Bulldog driver

Magnus b. Sting – Cloverleaf

AJ Styles b. Bully Ray – Spiral Tap

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No Mercy 2002
Date: October 20, 2002
Location: Alltel Arena, North Little Rock, Arkansas
Attendance: 9,074
Commentators: Michael Cole, Tazz, Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

This was requested by someone and I can’t remember who. In name only this seems like a weak card but it’s actually pretty stacked. We have HHH vs. Kane in a title unification match, the match of the year with Edge/Mysterio vs. Benoit/Angle for the first Smackdown tag titles and Hell in a Cell with Lesnar vs. Taker. Let’s get to it.

Nothing special in the opening video. THERE WILL BE NO MERCY! Yeah that’s all they’ve got.

Raw Tag Titles: Chris Jericho/Christian vs. Booker T/Goldust

The Canadians have the titles. Four separate entrances here which is kind of odd. Christian and Jericho just won the belts this past week on Raw. Booker vs. Christian starts us off. Christian is a glorified lower card guy at this point having been more or less completely left in the dust by Edge despite him having a title and Edge not at the moment. It sounds odd but it’s completely true.

Flying hips to the face of the Canadians keep Goldust in control. Jericho gets a middle rope dropkick as that first little bit was kind of quickly done and not in a good way. The fans are way behind Booker T. Goldust avoids a Christian dropkick and gets a rollup for two followed by a powerslam. No tag though as I guess he’s playing the face in peril here. Before I finished that sentence Booker comes in.

Apparently Booker and Jericho are feuding at this point so there’s your reasoning for the match I guess. You knew it wasn’t just because they’re both good tag teams right? Booker dominates for the most part here as he’s the hottest thing in the match and would get a title shot at Mania.

Back over to Goldust who hits Shattered Dreams on Christian and continues to abuse the balls of Christian by getting a drop toehold onto Jericho to send him into his partner’s crotch. Axe kick to Jericho gets two as Christian saves. Booker gets the missile dropkick and it’s Spinarooni time. Jericho goes for his running springboard dropkick but the ropes break. Well doesn’t that suck. Jericho bulldogs Goldust onto a title belt and hits a moonsault off the top to retain.

Rating: C-. You can’t hold the ropes breaking against them here but this match wasn’t very entertaining. It’s ok but it really is a Raw match with a bit more time on PPV. It wasn’t much at all with Goldust and Booker being a glorified comedy team as this is a backdrop for the Booker vs. Jericho feud which I’m never a fan of. Not terrible though.

Funaki, Smackdown NUMBER ONE announcer, is with Al Wilson. This was during the Dawn Marie marries Al Wilson to tick off Torrie. This resulted in Al “dying” and Dawn making out with Torrie in a lesbian/semi-incest angle that was insanely hot but irritating at the same time. This is WAY too long as they show a bunch of clips but they have to fix the ring so we have hot women to look at I guess. It results in a Bill Clinton joke of all things.

Torrie Wilson vs. Dawn Marie

They’re not even called Divas all the time yet. Sweet GOODNESS Cole looks toolish here. The girls look great though. Torrie drills her to start and it’s on early. This is when the girls were just AWFUL in the ring. It’s this era and the next 2-3 years where the bad stereotypes come from. Torrie kept getting ring time and looked like a rookie in her first match for the better part of three years.

Dawn drops a head into the crotch of Torrie and Tazz wonders if that actually hurts. This is just freaking terrible. Rolling catfight spot as this is going nowhere at all. They can’t even do clotheslines right. YOU STICK YOUR ARM OUT. Why is this getting extended time??? Finally Torrie wins with a swinging neckbreaker.

Rating: D-. Girls looking this hot can’t be a failure. That’s all it’s got going for it though and I want to get away from it as fast as I can.

RVD says Flair is awesome and lists off some catchphrases of Naitch. He even struts and woos and does his own version of the limousine riding bit. It’s MUCH funnier than it sounds and it helps that Flair is a walking cartoon character.

In the same shot we see Brock and Heyman showing up and they have no comment. There’s also a decent looking woman named Tracy that is accusing Taker of being a cheater in his marriage. Actually that’s true but who cares about reality?

Ric Flair vs. Rob Van Dam

Flair is heel here and Evolution isn’t quite formed yet but would show up on February 3 of the following year (no I’m not that big of a geek. That’s my birthday). At Unforgiven (JR says Vengeance) Flair turned heel and hit RVD in the stomach with a sledgehammer to save HHH’s title. They go at it on the floor for a bit and Flair’s shoulder goes into the post before the bell rings.

Or has the match started already? Top rope dropkick hits Flair as the bell rings. Ok so it hadn’t started yet. Flair is only 53 here so he’s still a young dude in theory I guess. Flair takes out the knee and we’re officially in the Flair Formula. The main talking point is that Van Dam said he flies coach in the prematch promo. Lawler will not shut up about it and it’s kind of annoying. Yes Lawler is getting annoying. I’m stunned too.

The standard Flair beating goes on for a LONG time. And now we’re talking about the Tracy girl. Well sure why not. We get to the Figure Four after maybe three minutes and naturally it doesn’t end the thing since Flair is a heel and he loses the ability to win with a submission. Van Dam makes his comeback as this is borderline predictable.

Ross slips in his more time on the canvas than Rembrandt line as Flair is slammed off the top. Rolling Thunder gets two as Flair gets a foot on the ropes. And then there’s the Five Star to actually end it. It’s kind of weird to see Flair just jobbing cleanly like that. Most odd indeed.

Rating: D+. You’ve seen it once and you’ve seen it 1000 times. And yes I know how ironic that is given the last thing I said about the ending. This again belonged on Raw and not here but that’s typical for the most part. This went nowhere for the most part as Flair at least is almost good for putting someone over. Pretty weak match though.

Show is talking to Stephanie and Bischoff comes up to complain about it. Show wanted to leave Raw but Eric wouldn’t let him. He would be there by Survivor Series and a heel under Heyman’s leadership.

Since the IC Title dies tonight we get a video package on the history of the title. Cool stuff.

Cruiserweight Title: Tajiri vs. Jamie Noble

Noble is champion here. Tajiri was the referee in a Noble/Nidia match on Smackdown for no apparent reason so Noble beat him up afterwards. Tajiri gets a baseball slide before the bell rings as that’s a running theme lately. Asai Moonsault hits and that’s about the extent of Tajiri’s offense for awhile.

Nice electric chair by Noble gets two. Pretty much domination by the champion so far. Tazz and Cole imply these three are in a three way relationship or something but that never went anywhere. The commentary is far more sexual in nature than what you would be used to in WWE today.

Jamie gets knocked off the top rope as he tries a suplex so Tajiri gets to miss a moonsault now. He does get a tornado DDT but doesn’t cover for no apparent reason. Both guys down now. Both guys up now. Tajiri unleashes that martial arts rush which is always awesome. Handspring elbow has Jamie in big trouble. German suplex gets two.

There’s the Tarantula and Jamie is reeling. Big kick misses and the Tiger Bomb is countered. There’s the kick and Nidia kisses the referee so he can’t make the count. And there’s the Tiger Bomb for two which is surprising. Tajiri goes for a victory roll but Nidia trips him so Jamie can dive into it for the Owen Hart at Mania X pin.

Rating: C. Not bad here and at least they allowed Tajiri to get in more offense than it looked like he was going to get. It’s nothing great or anything like that but this was definitely watchable and the whole thing worked pretty well. It’s a shame no one cared about this or it might have been interesting.

Tajiri kisses her post match. Noble kisses her too. Tajiri kicks the living heck out of him while he does though.

Benoit is looking for Eddie and says that Angle is kicking Chavo’s teeth in at the moment. Eddie goes off to find him and Benoit follows. Eddie finds the door they’re behind and makes noises with his mouth. Eddie thinks Benoit is faking so that Angle can take him down.

It’s clearly Chavo yelling but Eddie says that sounds like a little girl. And then Angle throws Chavo through the door. This was…..uh yeah. Apparently they did the same thing on Smackdown and Angle was suckering Eddie in. Out of context this is nuts but that makes sense.

We recap the monster Kane face push that resulted him in being the IC Champion and getting the shot at HHH here because it’s winner take all since WWE decided there was going to be one title per show for no apparent reason at all. Kane talked about being all happy for the first time in his life. And then, HHH asked Kane about Katie Vick.

Yes it’s THAT Katie Vick. The idea was that there was some chick that Kane knew (despite allegedly being burned horribly and never knowing anyone but Paul Bearer). He drove her home one night and they wrecked, killing her. Then HHH went to a funeral home and simulated sex with a mannequin while wearing a Kane mask, implying that Kane raped her corpse. This might be the lowest the company ever got.

Raw World Title/Intercontinental Title: HHH vs. Kane

Since Lesnar had gone to Smackdown as the Undisputed Champion the World Heavyweight Championship had been made for HHH as the Raw title. That was last month so the ending is pretty clear here. We hear the stupid line of that title dating back to 1904 (it was 1905 until they decided it was 04 when HHH got it) which is complete nonsense.

In short, the NWA Title was unified with a title that dated back to 1905. That title LOOKS like the NWA Title so it has the same lineage. That’s the extent of the WWE’s logic. Lawler says Kane needs Liquid Courage to face HHH. Well it would certainly help him with his covers. And now onto the match.

Kane pushes him around to start and then drills HHH. An amusing thing here is that Lawler keeps calling Kane the Animal. Batista was either already on Smackdown or would be debuting any week now. I think he’s already there though. All Kane so far. He beats on HHH for about the first three minutes more or less non stop. HHH gets a bad reverse neckbreaker to take Kane down. Naturally he sits up to take care of that.

Facebuster buys HHH some time and he sends Kane to the floor. Back in the ring and HHH hits another neckbreaker. Make that three. Dang he sticks to stuff he likes doesn’t he? Ross says if Kane wins he’ll be the first masked World’s Heavyweight Champion. I guess they’re pushing that whole separate titles thing. Spinebuster puts Kane down again.

HHH keeps up the offense on the neck and throat with a slingshot up into the middle rope to keep Kane down even longer. Off to a sleeper now and Kane is reeling. Down he goes as Lawler makes death jokes. Those are pretty creepy actually. This match is pretty plodding and not much is going on here at all. Sidewalk Slam by Kane gets no cover as he’s broken the sleeper and is in control again.

Top rope clothesline hits and here’s Ric Flair because a title match can’t be clean right? Down goes the referee and Flair won’t leave. What a shocker. Belt to Kane’s face gets a two without much drama at all. Hurricane, Kane’s partner, comes out and beats up Flair but walks into a Pedigree. Kane sits up and it’s on again.

HHH comes off the middle and top rope and neither of them work. Chokeslam is blocked and down goes the referee again. To the floor now and HHH takes a chokeslam through the Spanish Announce Table. Flair comes in with the sledgehammer but Kane stops it. HHH gets a low blow and a hammer shot but walks into a chokeslam. Flair (again) breaks up the pin and takes a chokeslam as a result. Back in and HHH hits the Pedigree to retain and retire the IC Title.

Rating: D. This more or less is what would happen in Raw World Title matches for the vast majority of the next year and a half. HHH would get dominated by a big guy but then Flair and the sledgehammer would come into play and HHH would of course retain. Kane more or less was done for a good while after this as he didn’t get to do anything because it was world title or nothing. That was the stupid part of the whole thing but it took about 9 months for them to realize it. The match sucked due to all of the garbage in it though.

Stephanie talks to the Tracy girl about the Undertaker thing and she admits Heyman made the whole thing up and she’s just going along with it. They had a relationship before he married Taker. This is “confidentially between the two of them.” I guess the camera means nothing.

We recap the tag team tournament and basically the two teams have been flying through the whole thing and are unstoppable. If Benoit and Angle fight they’re both suspended for a year.

Smackdown Tag Titles: Rey Mysterio/Edge vs. Chris Benoit/Kurt Angle

This was the undisputed match of the year so this more or less has to be awesome. Edge is about as hot as possible here and Rey is pretty new here. Yeah he had been around only three months or so here. Edge is just straight up awesome here and the whole thing is just greatness. Angle vs. Rey to start us off. We have what, about 25 world titles in there? Angle takes him to the mat and slaps him in the back of the head to be a jerk.

Kurt is really the only heel in this match. He literally throws Rey into his own corner because he wants a grownup apparently. Rey won’t tag out though because he wants Angle. They had a great opener at Summerslam so this works for me. Rey can’t get out of much of anything so he steps on Kurt’s foot and hits him with what can only be called an FU.

He busts out the speed and slaps Angle in the back of the head just like Kurt did earlier. The announce table being in pieces is funny for some reason. Here’s Edge to a big old pop. This is before Edge hurt his neck so he’s a totally different worker here. Off to Benoit now. Expect a LOT of play by play here as if the reviews I’ve heard are any indication there isn’t going to be much to make fun of.

The Canadians do a much more technical sequence and it’s a lot more entertaining than you would think a side headlock should be. Edge gets a knee to Benoit’s ribs and focuses on them for a while. Flapjack and a rollup get two. And there’s a knee from Kurt as Edge hits the ropes to give Benoit an advantage. They try the same thing again but Edge spears him this time.

Benoit and Angle double team Edge in a very nice sequence. Back to Angle now. The fans are all over him which is always good to hear. Better for them to be making noise at all than to be bored. Rear naked choke to Edge and Rey is getting antsy. Tazz adds in something by saying Angle is making sure Edge is facing his partner to mess with his head. Nicely done Mr. suplex machine.

Edge gets a big boot but walks into a belly to belly for two and here’s Chris again. Here are the rolling Germans as Edge is getting the tar beaten out of him. Benoit goes a little heel by drilling Rey to keep him from making the save. Benoit goes up for the headbutt and down he comes off a big old superplex.

There’s the big tag to Rey and he cranks things WAY up. The good thing is that he’s in there against two guys that can do the same thing. He sets Benoit for a Bronco Buster but goes with a running dropkick instead. HUH-FREAKING-ZAH! Rey and Benoit crank things up ever more but Benoit gets a counter and hooks up the Crossface until Edge finally saves.

Edge vs. Angle on the floor along with Benoit and Rey in the ring. 619 is blocked by Benoit but Edge hits a missile dropkick to drive Rey onto Benoit for a long two. This is all happening at a very fast pace. Rey goes up but Angle JUMPS from the mat to the top for the HUGE belly to belly off the top for another long two. Benoit’s face is like WHAT at that.

Angle in now vs. Rey as things slow down a bit. Rey starts a bit of a comeback but gets caught in a quick suplex and crashes for two. Back to the short and crazy Canadian now. After more of a beating Rey gets a headscissors to send Benoit into the post and we get double tags to bring in Edge vs. Kurt. Edge-O-Matic gets two and everyone is back in again.

Spear in the corner to Benoit and there’s the Bronco Buster. I withdraw my former HUZZAH! Spear in the corner again to Angle and Edge sits him on the middle rope. Rey runs at Edge who throws him into the air for a big old rana. Benoit looks to save with the diving headbutt but it crushes Angle and only gets two. Angle busts out a German from nowhere for two. He shouts at Edge to go to the middle which Edge does.

In a VERY nice spot, Rey runs at Edge who belly to bellies him into Angle to take down the bald one. That’s what he gets for calling spots that loudly. Benoit saves the spear and grabs the Crossface and Edge is in trouble but he gets a rope. He won’t let go so Rey hits a 619 out of somewhere. Angle Slam takes out Rey and Angle locks on the ankle lock.

Edge kicks off and grabs a small package for two. Spear gets two as Benoit saves and Rey takes out Benoit. Rey gets a running start at Edge again and Edge catches him and gives him a very nice launch into a moonsault to take out Benoit. SICK counter out of the Edgecution by Angle into the ankle lock. Edge counters that into an ankle lock of his own but Angle is all like OH NO YOU DIDN’T and counters into an ankle lock for the tap out and the titles. Sweet goodness as Cole says he’s going to applaud them for it.

Rating: A+. OH YES. Now this is what you get when you have two teams out there that are young and moving as fast as they can to make something look awesome. Smackdown was supposed to be the wrestling show back then and it certainly was.

These four plus Brock and Eddie were known as the Smackdown Six and were more or less there to have great matches every week. This is another fine example of it and it worked like a charm. Great match with some INSANE counters and saves and double teaming. Go watch it. Like now.

A doctor tells Taker that he shouldn’t give Taker a shot in the broken hand/wrist that he has. Nice to see him getting this maybe 15 minutes before the match starts.

Women’s Title: Trish Stratus vs. Victoria

Sweet merciful goodness Trish looks amazingly good tonight. She’s in her standard stuff but the blue with the long blonde hair and the big smile is WORKING. Victoria is currently known as Tara in TNA. Total bring the crowd down match after the awesome match they just had. Victoria is a bit more hardcore than the rest of the Divas. Trish was pretty good in the ring by this point and can more than carry herself.

You can tell that Trish has talent as she’s not afraid to go after Victoria here and clearly looks comfortable out there doing what she’s doing. When you watch the Divas today for the most part they clearly have to stop and make sure they’re doing everything right. With Trish like most of the male wrestlers, you can see she’s mostly going on instinct which is the better way of doing things.

Victoria in control here as she hits a front flip slingshot legdrop and then botches the living heck out of a monkey flip to the extent that Trish landed on Victoria rather than hitting the mat. Victoria throws on an old school backbreaker which is the kind where they throw the other girl over her shoulder and pulls down. A big spinning sideslam gets no cover so Trish gets an electric chair drop for two. Chick Kick gets two before a neckbreaker and rollup end it.

Rating: D. This was just there but the sloppiness of it hurt things. Trish was getting a lot better but still wasn’t as great as she would get. Victoria wasn’t a character yet and was just a bit nuts and said that Trish slept her way to the top of the fitness modeling world. She would get the title the next month in a hardcore match. This was pretty much nothing.

Post match Victoria kicks the blonde’s head off.

We get a clip of Rikishi being thrown off the top of the Cell in 2000. Rikishi is at the World (WWE nightclub/restaurant) and says the match is no joke. He predicts Taker wins it.

The Cell is lowered.

We recap Taker vs. Lesnar. They had a match at Unforgiven where Taker lost by DQ when he threw Brock through the set. In short he just didn’t want to put Lesnar over so they gave them two matches in a row. Lesnar has been champion for two months here so this is his second major title defense. Brock broke Taker’s hand and we threw in that Tracy chick who meant nothing apparently. This gets the music video treatment.

Smackdown World Title: Brock Lesnar vs. The Undertaker

In the Cell remember. Taker keeps lunging at Brock and gets taken to the mat for his trouble. Big powerslam gets two for the champion and there’s the cast to Lesnar’s ribs after he misses a charge in the corner. Brock tries to escape but can’t get out so he hammers on the arm instead. He goes with an armbar which isn’t something you often see in a Cell match.

Taker blasts him in the head with it which is a double edged sword. Actually it’s a hard cast but you get the metaphor. Brock is busted BAD. Heyman is all freaked out. Brock is bleeding but there’s been worse in ECW so I guess he’s mellowed. They hit the floor and Taker beats the tar out of him and covers on the floor for two. You can do that? I don’t remember that before.

More cast shots which all of a sudden don’t hurt him. I guess he’s lucky that the shot he got kicked in sometime between the first big shot with it and this set of them. Lesnar gets put in place for the apron legdrop but Taker goes up and drops a knee (I think) from the top instead for two on the floor again. Heyman shouts at Brock to get away from Taker. Taker kicks Heyman through the cage in a nice shot.

He follows that up by grabbing Paul’s tie and pulling on it to slam him into the cage. Taker gets out of the way of a charging Brock who crashes into Heyman too. Dang he’s taken a beating tonight. Brock gets a good shot in though and sends him into the cage. Heyman is busted open too. He slips his belt in and ties Taker up with it so Lesnar can annihilate him a bit. Heyman shouting YOU’RE GONNA DIE is great stuff.

Lesnar, a 300lb beast, swings a chair about ten times to drill Taker’s hand each time. So in other words, Taker is probably in need of major surgery now on it. Let’s see if it hurts at all. Brock gets the cast off or at least tries to. Heyman sounds demonic out there. There goes the cast completely as they’re actually in the ring now.

In a cool spot, Brock sits him on the top rope and uses the top of the cage to lift himself up and throw kicks at Taker. Taker blocks a superplex despite being more or less dead. He knocks Lesnar to the mat and manages to drop an elbow off the top with the right hand and seems to be just fine. Shocking isn’t it? I’m not used to seeing Taker’s bare hand. Taker kicks Brock into the cage and has momentum again.

Taker dives through the ropes and more or less completely misses but Brock sells it anyway. Cole thinks Taker’s broken right hand could be a weakness for him. Wow indeed. Steps to the head take Taker down again and busts him open. More steps to the head and Taker is more or less done. His face is COVERED in blood.

Back in the ring Brock gets a big spinebuster for two. ZERO pop for the kickout. And naturally Taker is able to throw big right hands and is “running on adrenaline” apparently. Oh give me a break. The blood on the camera is always a nice touch. Old School is blocked and Brock takes over again. Tazz: Undertaker has never been pinned or submitted. What the heck is this guy on?

F5 is reversed into a chokeslam for two which gets a bigger pop than the kickout did a minute ago. Brock goes for a Last Ride and is reversed. DDT gets two. Sweet GOODNESS Taker is bleeding badly. Brock does the punches in the corner which Taker counters with the Last Ride for two as Brock’s bloody hand grabs the rope.

In something SICK on the cover, Taker’s blood drips onto Brock’s face. That’s not good at all and really isn’t safe in the slightest. That’s a big reason as to why the blood policy is a good thing. Taker goes for the Tombstone and Brock is like screw this let’s end it and counters it before literally throwing Taker onto his shoulders for the F5 to retain. We then get what is supposed to be an iconic scene as he grabs the title and climbs to the top of the Cell where he holds it over his head to end the show.

Rating: C. Hard one to call here as the match itself is more or less crap. It’s about 27 minutes long and at least 15 of that is spent on the floor. Taker’s hand thing was eye rolling levels of stupid as all of a sudden a shot is able to heal 5 chair shots from Brock Lesnar to a broken hand. Brock looked great here, but the main reason this is a decent grade is the blood.

If you like bloody matches, RUN out and find a copy of this show. Taker’s blood is absolutely insane as you can’t see his face and it looks like there’s a hole in his forehead. It’s a big brawl but Taker was really looking bad out there, both from how his face looked to how he was working. I didn’t like the match, but the blood was insane.

Overall Rating: D+. This isn’t quite a one match show but it’s very close. The tag match is required viewing, but other than that there isn’t anything absolutely worth seeing. The Cell match is a very case by case basis of whether or not you should watch it. Other than that though everything here is very hit or miss and nothing you couldn’t find anywhere with relative ease. This show isn’t terrible, but it’s not very good. Tag title match is absolutely worth seeing though. Other than that, not really worth it.

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Bound For Glory 2010
Date: October 10, 2010
Location: Ocean Center, Daytona Beach, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Taz

So here it is. This is the show that they have spent MONTHS building to. This is their Wrestlemania and by far their biggest show of the year. We get a new champion tonight and find out who THEY are. Even I’m excited and I’ve made no secret that I’m a big critic of this company. Tonight is the final match for Abyss apparently which I don’t buy at all. Let’s get to it.

Main event is no time limit, no count out and no DQ. That makes me nervous.

There’s and entrance ramp as well as three video screens. The production values are rather solid here, especially by TNA standards.

Tag Titles: Motor City Machine Guns vs. Generation Me

Good choice for an opener. Shelley and Max (does it matter?) start us off. Naturally it’s insanely fast paced to start us off. The Guns get all tricky and destroy Max in the corner. A big elbow Poetry in Motion move gets two on Max. The heels are getting dominated here for the most part as we hear a lot about Shelley’s neck.

Double DDT out of the corner to Shelly and he’s in big trouble. Shelley keeps fighting and manages to get out with a big double stomp off the top. Hot tag to Sabin as this isn’t bad at all so far. The Guns and everything else go completely insane and Sabin hits Punk’s springboard clothesline to Jeremy for a close two. Tenay is right that no one has tag wrestling like this.

The Guns are just straight up fun to watch. I’m not sold on making this the opener though as this is something that probably should have been used to fire up the crowd in case they get bored later on. Max gets two and is legit shocked that Sabin kicked out. They go for the DDT again but Shelley makes the save.

Elevated Sliced Bread is blocked and Jeremy takes out Sabin with a big dive. A Piledriver like move is broken up by Sabin at two. Very fast paced match naturally. This is too fast to call. We actually get a tag. Are you kidding me? They set for More Bang For Your Buck but a nice counter sets up a running German off the top by Sabin. Skull and Bones on Max ends this.

Rating: B. Very fast paced and fun match. Do I need to explain this one again? It’s an insanely fast paced tag match to open up a show. That’s PPV 101 but I worry that this might be the high point of the show. We get the awesome Motor City music twice though and the Guns keeping the belts is a good thing so I’m happy.

Tara and Madison go nuts on Christy about hair dye or something. Tara is grateful to Madison for life apparently.

We recap the Knockouts Title situation which I think you all know by now. It’s all about the Beautiful People and that’s about it. This again becomes all about them and nothing else. Keep in mind Mickie James is the referee here.

Knockouts Title: Angelina Love vs. Madison Rayne vs. Velvet Skye vs. Tara

Mickie looks good. I could go without the hardcore country thing though. One fall to a finish here and tags are required. Angelina vs. Madison to start us off. Off to the regular Beautiful People now which is the only match left in that division I suppose. Madison comes in and gets in Mickie’s face but that goes nowhere.

This is another match that is going too fast to really keep track of. Tara vs. Velvet at the moment. How in the world did Hefner think Tara didn’t look good enough for Playboy? Octopus Hold from Velvet to Tara which blows my mind a million ways to Monday. The tagging thing is of course abandoned soon.

Widow’s Peak doesn’t go on as Angelina makes a save. And then she rolls up Velvet with some tights being pulled to give her the title. We get the BROKEN song so I’m very happy. Madison goes off on her and Mickie kicks her all around the ring. So it’s Tara vs. Mickie now? Ok then.

Rating: D+. Pretty much just a mess here and only a way to get the title on the show. This wasn’t much at all but you had five hot women and you get to add Mickie to the division now which is definitely not a bad thing at all as it was dying for some fresh blood. Nothing very good here but I’ve seen worse.

Eric Young babbles about some code. Yeah I don’t care either.

We recap the “feud”. Yeah I don’t care either. Let’s get this over with.

Eric Young/Orlando Jordan vs. Ink Inc

Eric has the TNA rule book while Orlando is in a white suit with a beekeeper mask. And now Eric has fake tattoos or something. I give up. Jordan and Neal start us off because someone has to. Let the gay jokes begin.

Taz recommends that Shannon avoid the crotch of Orlando. I give up. Total meh match here as it was boring on Impact and it’s boring here. This is really just an outlet for Taz to make gay jokes about Orlando which aren’t incredibly funny. Eric gets crotched on the top rope.

Orlando vs. Shannon at the moment. Eric is fooling with the rule book because it’s been a few seconds without “comedy.” We talk about the German broadcast team for no apparent reason. Eric starts cheating by pretending to tag in and Taz is just like “screw it’. Eric tags himself in to fight Orlando. We get a Midnight Rocker reference which makes Taz laugh. Eric causes Orlando to get caught by Shannon for the pin.

Rating: D. Just move on please. I hate comedy matches, especially when they lack comedy.

Jeff says he’s going to win with the Twist of Fate and Swanton Bomb.

X–Division Title: Douglas Williams vs. Jay Lethal

This is the return match apparently from Impact a few weeks ago when Lethal won it in the first place. Non-British tights for Williams here. What would the Bulldog think? Fast paced start until Williams gets a hold on Lethal to take over. And so much for that. Tenay talks about the new tights because that’s interesting I guess?

Apparently his family crest is on it. No mention of Fourtune here which is kind of odd. Williams takes it to the mat and we stay there for awhile. Williams is getting back into the style of hating the X Division style that worked so well for him in the spring and early summer.

Lethal cranks up the speed to make things work a bit better. Taz likes suplexes and you can hear it in his voice. It changes when Williams uses a few of them. He even throws in some analysis of them for fun. Hey he sounds like an analyst. I thought this was 10/10 not 10/31.

Chaos Theory out of nowhere gets two. Dang I love that move. Williams gets all ticked off and takes him up top and sets for a rana. Lethal gets a SWEET counter where he rolls through it perfectly into a sunset flip for the pin to retain. He celebrates in the crowd which is always a nice touch.

Rating: C+. Nothing special here but the ending was rather good. This felt like a decent Impact match but it was totally tacked on here with no particular rhyme or reason. Dang I need to stop listening to Shinedown. This wasn’t bad but it was just kind of thrown on there to get the match on the card.

And while he’s in the crowd SHORE attacks him. Like the idiot that he is, he says he’s winning the title and taking it back to Jersey. You know, where Lethal is from.

We recap RVD vs. Abyss which is a bit early on the card I’d think for it. I can’t imagine this is where THEY are revealed. That’s just way too early for it I’d think but who knows? The idea here is RVD isn’t at 100% but he wants revenge no matter what.

Rob Van Dam vs. Abyss

Monster’s Ball here which means anything goes. And remember this is his last match EVER! He brings Janice and Bob, which are the names of Dixie Carter’s parents in what I’d assume is a rib, and puts them on the announce table. Abyss says RVD is done and THEY are coming. And remember this is once a century. You know, like EVERY OTHER DATE.

RVD of course kicks the heck out of him to start to a HUGE RVD chant. Van Dam is in a t-shirt here for some reason. There’s a barbed wire table at ringside. Total dominance so far by Van Dam who is on fire. He gets taken down by an elbow of all things. Given the shirt I’d bet on RVD going into barbed wire.

Chokeslam is countered and of course Abyss eats barbed wire. This would be more effective if we hadn’t seen it just three days ago with bigger stars. And of course he’s up again just a few seconds later, dodging a splash that send RVD into the wire. Abyss busts out a regular table as we talk about THEY.

Trash can to the head of Van Dam as Abyss tries to make a barbed wire platform between the railing and the ring. Oh never mind it’s just a regular table. Abyss winds up on it and RVD hits Rolling Thunder onto it. Cool spot. Too many dead spots here though as we hit a spot and then stop to look for more stuff to use in the next one.

RVD sets up Coast to Coast but gets shoved off and RVD winds up in barbed wire. Sick looking bump. The match more or less stops as the referee is thinking about stopping it. Instead we throw him back into the ring and Abyss gets…nothing. Ok then. Instead we get the Hogan ear taunt.

Van Dam comes back and sends him into the barbed wire board in the corner. Now it’s Abyss in trouble. RVD goes for the Five Star but Abyss moves and RVD has a tummy ache. And now It’s time for Janice. Well of course it is. RVD counters though and gets a pair of shots with Janice to the gut of Abyss and the Five Star. Abyss is bleeding from the mouth.

Rating: B-. Fun hardcore match with everyone beating the tar out of each other. Ok so maybe saying everyone for two people is a stretch but you get the concept. This worked fine for what it was with lots of weapons being used and all that jazz. They’re dragging this angle out for all it’s worth and more though so points for that….I think. Fun match.

Abyss says here WE come. Oh great.

We recap the handicap match with the whole Deception thing. This is the other major angle and Hogan is VERY hurt keep in mind. Yeah I don’t buy it either.

Jeff Jarrett/Samoa Joe vs. D’Angelo Dinero/Kevin Nash/Sting

Joe vs. Pope start us off. Oh and Joe is fighting for Hulk’s honor despite having zero connection to him. Nothing special so far and we hit the floor. It more or less has broken down with Jarrett fighting Pope and the old guys vs. Joe. And so much for that as we get back to Nash vs. Joe.

The entrance ramp really does look good. Pretty basic match so far. Joe gets beaten on for a good while but FINALLY gets a shot in on Nash to get away. He goes for the tag and there goes Jarrett for your swerve. Nash says I told you and Joe is in trouble. Now it really is 3-1. Jackknife to Joe ends it.

Rating: D+. Just the match that no one cared about to build to the swerve. Pay no attention to the fact that we’ve been building up Sting vs. Jeff for months and now it’s all cool. I’ll allow him an explanation but dude, this was supposed to be the explanation, not more questions. Whatever man.

Anderson says he’ll win.

Here’s 3D for their major announcement. Yep they’re retiring, but they want one more match, and of course they want the Guns. They’re retiring either way. Nice. This is solid I think and it’s good that they’ll retire this way.

We recap Fourtune vs. EV 2.0. If there is ANY justice in the world, EV loses here. Naturally it’s more about Flair vs. Foley than anyone else.

Fourtune says exactly what you would expect them to say. Regular vest for AJ thank goodness.

Fourtune vs. EV 2.0

This is a one ring WarGames match. A man from each team starts and after a set amount of time (5 minutes I think) there’s a coin toss and another guy comes in from the winning team. That goes on for two minutes then a guy from the losing team comes in. Two more minutes of that and then the winning team gets the advantage again. Alternate until all 8 are in and then we lower the roof, complete with weapons. No pins or submissions until everyone is in.

EV has Dreamer, Sabu, Rhyno, Richards and Raven. Yeah ten people in there great. Foley is with them. Flair brings out AJ, Storm, Roode, Kaz and Morgan. Fourtune has the advantage so screw the coin flip idea. Flair is in an undershirt. Oh dear.

The old guys go at it before the match starts and we try to figure out who starts the match. Kaz and Richards to start. Again Taz wants to say ECW and can’t do it. Kaz beats the tar out of him to start. And he continues doing so. Well that’s what you get for sending in Richards as your leadoff man.

Stevie gets a Downward Spiral into a modified Koji Clutch but AJ comes in seconds later to make it 2-1. Richards is of course in WAY over his head and gets destroyed. Figure four on Richards and he’s almost dead. Dreamer is in next. How in the world is this guy feuding with AJ Styles?

Dreamer spits mist or something at AJ as Richards gets back into it. All of Fourtune is in blue which is a cool idea I guess. Roode goes in third as this is going to take awhile to just get everyone in. Flair punches Dreamer through the camera hole. I love that thing as it gives you far better shots.

Sabu comes in and hooks a seated crossface chickenwing on AJ which we’ll call a camel clutch for fun I guess. This is REALLY slow now with EV controlling. Dreamer is bleeding fairly badly. Storm is in so it’ll be Morgan and Raven or Rhyno in last. Storm turns the tide and we get BEER MONEY!

With nothing left in the other minute here’s Raven who looks stupid with blonde hair. He cleans some house and shoves a snot rag in someone’s face. Ah ok it was Roode. Dreamer gets his crotch stepped on for fun. Dude seriously, Raven is your hot tag in essence? Roode is busted open.

Sabu is busted too. Morgan comes in as the final member of Fourtune. He drills Richards and drills Sabu back first into the cage. Dreamer takes the elbows in the corner as the advantage does the same thing it’s done the whole time so far. Raven is bleeding too so every member of EV who is in the match is busted.

Big time Gore to Storm and here comes the roof. This is where the advantage is supposed to come for EV I guess. Flair and Foley get into it of course as is their custom. EV takes over and there are bigger weapons on top of the cage such as a table, a ladder and something else that I can’t make out.

Raven and Morgan beat the heck out of each other as EV is mostly in control. Morgan goes for the Carbon Footprint and misses, hitting the door which doesn’t move at all. Kaz gets drilled into the door and there it goes. Richards and Kaz go up and we set up the ladder up there. This always scared the living heck out of me.

Sabu dives through the door to take out Morgan and maybe Storm. Richards sets up the table on top of the cage and Kaz goes up the ladder and here’s Kendrick on top of the cage too. Kaz goes through the table and Kendrick appears to be meditating or something. In the ring Dreamer drills AJ in the leg and drops him on a chair, winning the match. Yes, EV won the match and everything seems to be fine with it. WELL OF COURSE THEY ARE.

Rating: D+. Not much here as there were a lot of very slow spots. Also the Kendrick thing just did nothing for it. The weapons were ok but the ending felt kind of tacked on. This never got to the level that they wanted it to get to and that hurt it a lot. This was one of the weaker matches they’ve done with this gimmick and I think a lot of that is due to the participants.

Oh yeah. DID I MENTION EV 2.0 JUST FREAKING BEAT FOURTUNE and that TOMMY DREAMER PINNED AJ FREAKING STYLES??? And people wonder why this company can’t be taken seriously.

Music video about the main event.

TNA World Title: Mr. Anderson vs. Kurt Angle vs. Jeff Hardy

Hardy has new music. Nothing all that special as again you can barely understand it. He’s called challenger #1. Who exactly is he challenging if no one has the title? Anderson is in gray tights which is odd. It’s 10:33 and we’re just starting. Think they’re cutting this close? No big match intros either which is weird also.

Angle is knocked to the floor and Anderson gets a neckbreaker on Hardy for two. Angle pops in and goes for Anderson’s knee. Big old belly to belly as it’s all Angle here. Then Hardy saves and it’s all Hardy. Little theme going on there. Angle Germans Hardy who Germans Anderson to take both of them over in a cool spot.

It gets two on Hardy as we keep going. 10:37 and no sign of THEY which scares the heck out of me. Hardy sends Angle up and over and might be hurt. I don’t buy it but whatever. Hardy goes over the top in a dive to take out everyone. Back in and Angle is ok, hooking a chinlock on Hardy after a cover gets two.

Running German to Hardy and he’s up seconds later. Ok then. Hey we went a full two hours and 40 minutes before we got a shot of Dixie. Angle is busted open a bit. Angle busts out some Germans on Anderson as Hardy is down. Hardy gets some of the same. Ankle Lock on the face painted one.

Anderson tries to save and winds up in the ankle lock. Angle locks the ankle lock on BOTH of them at once. That looks awesome. Naturally it doesn’t work but it looked cool while it was on. Anderson gets that rolling fireman’s carry slam from the middle rope on Angle so that Hardy can cover both for two.

10:45 now as this has somehow been going 12 minutes. Angle Slam gets two on Hardy. Top rope Angle Slam on Anderson but Hardy gets the cover for two. The fans think this is awesome and it’s not bad. Twist of Fate to Anderson and the Swanton hits. Angle saves into the ankle lock and Hardy is in trouble.

Jeff kicks off and sends Angle into a Mic Check for a VERY close two. Pinfall reversal sequence gets a lot of two counts. Angle is the only one left and hits the moonsault on Hardy for two again as Anderson is still down. Angle and Anderson go at it and block each others’ finishers.

And there goes the referee. Oh blast it. Everyone is down and here comes Eric with a chair. And here it comes. This is what TNA has spent the last 4 months building to. And what a shock: HULK IS HERE! Or at least his music is here. Yep there he is but on crutches. He needs help getting into the ring which I don’t buy.

Hulk looks ticked at Eric who throws the chair out and wipes his hands. Hardy stumbles to his feet on the floor and gets in. Both Bischoff and Hogan have crutches and Hogan gives Jeff his. Angle is up. Hardy pops Angle with the crutch and Hogan points at Jeff. Yes, it appears that Jeff Hardy, the most popular star in the world, is part of They. Twist of Fate to Anderson, and Hardy is world champion.

Rating: B. Ending aside obviously, this was a solid main event. It felt like a big match, but then again I would prefer a singles match for the title. That’s the traditionalist in me talking but if there is a match to end the biggest show of the year, only on very special occasions (this isn’t one of them) should it not be one on one for the world title.

Here comes Jeff Jarrett and Abyss. The fans throw trash in for no apparent reason. Hogan and Abyss hug, and THEY are revealed. Yes, it was Hogan and Bischoff with Hardy all along. RVD comes down and yells at Jeff and is of course laid out. Massive posing ends the show.

Overall Rating: B-. This one took me a very long time to reach as it’s now almost 330 Monday afternoon as I write this. This show, without a doubt, was not boring. The ending was a legit shock and I think lived up to most of the hype, but we’ll get to that later.

As for the rest of the card, there are two important things here. Number one, Lethal vs. Williams was the only standard one on one match. Number two, expect to see a lot less wrestling in the near future. Nothing was incredibly bad, but not a lot really stood out.

What I saw in this card was a great example of an old school WCW card: the opening stuff was great, then the stars come on and things go downhill a bit. For instance, Fourtune loses? Why? I understand the whole heels win at the end so faces have to win something, but dude, Tommy Dreamer beat AJ Styles at the biggest show of the year in 2010. The theory may work fine but when you put it into action that doesn’t mean it works.

And now for the big reason this show has perplexed me so: the main event. The match itself was rather good and considering my disdain for triple threats that’s saying a lot. As for the angle, the best thing I can say about it is that it was shocking. I didn’t see Hardy turning. Hogan and Bischoff I did and I have the LD posts to prove it.

The common issue with the turn is that it makes no sense. It does make sense to a degree but it’s one of those things that you have to suspend a lot of disbelief, think about a lot of things, ignore a lot of things and just accept parts of. That’s rarely good and I don’t think it’s good here.

The big comparison has been to Vince and Austin at Mania 17. Not really as in that it was simple as JR put it: “Steve Austin has sold his soul to the devil himself to win the WWF Title!” There. That’s it. That’s your explanation. There is no conspiracy, there is no hidden meaning, there is nothing but Austin saying he’s not good enough to beat Rock on his own and is taking the shortcut to get what he wants.

This is a huge conspiracy that is going to require a lot of explanation and in which something is going to get fouled up. I’ve said this many times: I don’t want to have to have a pencil and paper and a flow chart to understand an angle. TNA should not be more complicated than Lost.

Now after all that is said, the show was still good I thought. The ending was good. The shock was good. Impact is going to be through the roof for a few weeks. That being said, the real ratings are going to show through in a few weeks. They’ll be most interesting. I was VERY intrigued last night and while I think it came off as a letdown, the PPV has to be viewed as a success, despite Hogan managing to be the focus of the end of ANOTHER major show and angle.

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Bound For Glory 2009
Date: October 18, 2009
Location: Bren Events Center, Irvine, California
Attendance: 2,400
Commentators: Taz, Mike Tenay

Since we’re 5 days from THE BIGGEST TNA SHOW EVER I figured a show was called for. This is from about a year ago and it’s AJ’s trial by fire more or less. He won the title at No Surrender but needs to beat Sting to solidify his reign. Other than that this card looks ok but it also looks like a run of the mill TNA PPV. We’re in California here which is a new thing for the company. However, they’re at about 40% full so it’s not exactly something to write home about. Let’s get to it.

This is TNA’s biggest show of the year so they have a theme song here. Also this is 9 days before Hogan and Bischoff signed. Everyone talks about how important this show is to them. They’re trying to make it seem big if nothing else so points for that. Oh and it might be Sting’s last match. Yeah right.

Some guy named Zakk Wylde plays the national anthem.

X–Division Title: Chris Sabin vs. Alex Shelley vs. Amazing Red vs. Suicide vs. Daniels vs. Homicide

This is Ultimate X and the Guns got in by winning a tag match earlier. Suicide is played by Kaz here. Dinero was supposed to be in this too but had a legit family emergency. Red has Don West with him. This is Red’s first Ultimate X match. That’s rather surprising. And there’s a rather scary close up of Homicide. Red and Suicide (how did he and Homicide never team together?) go to the floor as the spots begin.

Daniels stops a huge dive by Red to kill the crowd. Daniels has won four straight of these matches apparently. Red hits a SWEET Rana off the top to Daniels to the floor, taking out about 3 other people. The Guns take over with some of their awesome team stuff. No real attempts at going for the belt until Homicide heads up there. Suicide trumps Homicide though and everyone crashes.

This turns into the Guns vs. everyone else as Daniels takes a missile dropkick Doomsday Device. Everything goes insane again and you can’t really follow much of anything. Homicide, a heel here, goes up but Daniels stops him. Daniels and Sabin play a little chicken but both crash as well. SICK tornado DDT by Sabin. Red gets a leaping Downward Spiral to take out Daniels as this has been rather fun.

There’s the required Tower of Doom spot that never gets old with the big move being Suicide hitting a moonsault on Daniels. To give you an idea, Suicide was on the top rope. Red got behind him for a German. Red was powerbombed off by Sabin. Red suplexed Suicide off and Suicide flipped into a moonsault press onto Daniels. Ok so onto is a stretch but you get the concept.

The crowd isn’t really feeling this outside of big spots, which isn’t great but it’s also not horrible. They know their chants though I suppose. Best Moonsault Ever to Sabin. Daniels, Suicide and Red go up to the top of the structure, as in 7 feet about the X, getting a please don’t die chant. They’re above the height of being on top of the Cell. Daniels almost falls as this is terrifying.

Daniels thankfully drops down as does Suicide. Red is laying on top as the Guns go for the traditional way. Suicide and Daniels go down and Daniels lands on his head. Tazz half kayfabe shouts CHECK HIM, and I couldn’t agree more. Red drops down and gets the belt. I’m legit worried about Daniels after that fall. Don West comes out to celebrate.

Rating: B. I was trying to figure out if it should be minus or plus but this is fine. I’ve never been wild on having big gimmick matches like this to open the show. I get having an X match here but not the big gimmick matches like these. Save these for the middle of the card where the crowd needs a boost. Still though this was solid and the spots were great. Daniels’ fall was scary though. Fun match and did exactly its job though.

Lauren is with the Beautiful People, who are getting the Knockouts Tag Title shot tonight. The belts are like a month old here and Velvet is ridiculously hot as the evil chick. This is Lacey, Velvet and Madison if you’re not sure.

Taylor and Sarita, the champions, say they’ll keep the belts. Sarita insults them in Spanish and it’s fun to be able to understand it.

Tenay and Taz run down the card. I never get this.

Knockout Tag Titles: Beautiful People vs. Taylor Wilde/Sarita

Velvet and Madison here. Lacey makes out with the referee and is allowed to stay at ringside. Hebner comes out and throws her out anyway. We botch an armdrag to start as Taylor just kind of falls down. Ah now things are a bit better. Typical match of the genre but Sarita hits a NICE missile dropkick to Velvet. Taylor gets a German into a bridge for the pin.

Rating: D+. Just a quickie to have the new titles on the show. This wasn’t anything bad and nothing too offensive, but dang these belts would get meaningless very fast. They need to just drop them already and get some fresh blood in the division. Allegedly Mickie is on the way so that should help a lot.

We recap the Legends Title feud which is Eric Young leading World Elite and wanting the title which Nash holds. This was just an awkwardly put together feud and it never clicked at all. Oh and there’s a World Elite vs. Mafia feud with a bounty on Young’s head or something. Like I said it just never clicked at all.

Nash and Young might have an alliance. Young talks a lot and Nash just kind of says whatever.

Legends Title: Kevin Nash vs. Eric Young vs. Hernandez

Nash has the title here if I forgot to mention that. Hernandez went from being the hottest thing in the world to this. In a year the Legends Title went from Legends to Global to TV. Hernandez, still in the khaki shorts here, beats up both guys to start us off. BIG shoulder block puts Young on the floor. This is basically Hernandez beats up two guys until we get to the conflict between the heels match.

Solid heat on Young. Match is far from that though. And there’s the issue between the heels as Young insists it was just instinct. Hernandez hits a pretty weak missile dropkick to Nash as this is just a boring match. It’s not really horrible but it’s just totally not interesting at all. Big dive by Super Mex to try to make this more interesting.

This has zero flow to it at all and it’s hurting badly. Young hits a big elbow on Hernandez and pulls Nash’s straps down. He sets for the Jackknife and Young rams Hernandez’s head into Nash’s balls for the pin. Pay no attention to Nash’s shoulder being WAY up.

Rating: D-. Not a bad match exactly but just not interesting at all. This was a weird one as they were trying but the styles just totally did not mesh. Like I said it’s not horrible but it’s just there. No flow or story being told really and while the ending was somewhat creative it just never amounted to anything and didn’t work at all.

The teams in the tag title match are arguing but Douglas Williams says worry about Team 3D. And hey there’s a Wrestlemania reference. There’s a Full Metal Mayhem match tonight which they say is the same as a TLC match.

IWGP Tag Titles/TNA Tag Titles: Beer Money vs. British Invasion vs. Team 3D vs. Main Event Mafia

Since this is TNA they can manage to screw up a TLC match. Both tag titles are on the line here and any team can win any of them. The Mafia, Steiner and Booker, are TNA tag champions and the Invasion are the IWGP champions. The thing was that TNA decided that since EVERYONE watches Japanese tag wrestling that there was nothing wrong with having two sets of tag titles because these other belts are SO famous. I really hated this idea, as in far more than most TNA ideas which should tell you a lot.

Thankfully soon after this TNA would WAKE UP and realize no one cared about the IWGP belts because THIS ISN’T JAPAN. Big brawl to start while Beer Money hides in the corner which is smart. We get into the heart of why I hate this immediately as Taz and Tenay talk about how prestigious the IWGP belts are. That’s all well and good but there’s one flaw: your belts are supposed to be the top titles. If they weren’t you wouldn’t call them WORLD tag titles. It was like TNA was saying “yeah we’re a big deal but we pale in comparison to Japan.” I hated it.

Steiner and D-Von go off to fight and it’s a big mess that’s hard to call. I wouldn’t have put two big multi-man climb up to get an object matches on one show but I get what they were thinking here. Ton of weapons go everywhere and of course there isn’t much in the way of flow but there isn’t supposed to be here. DWI for Booker. Steiner busts out the corner Frankensteiner which is nothing like the original one but is an easier way to avoid having to do the harder spot.

Booker might be legit hurt. Steiner does nothing but suplexes, showing his level of awesomeness. Steiner goes up after the TNA belts (at least he didn’t go for the others first) but the ladder is too short and he gets shoved off. Booker has a stretcher brought out for him as Steiner takes What’s Up. Eh with that many steroids in him he probably didn’t feel a thing.

The Brits bring in tables as Booker is wheeled out. Dudleys just END the English dudes with chair shots. And the guitar player from earlier gets a chair shot on Magnus. Williams goes through a table in the ring as we’re in the “everyone but three people lay down while the three guys do spots” and D-Von hits What’s Up on Williams. BIG Table chant. Double chokeslams (from the Dudleys?) put Beer Money down and through tables.

Steiner pops back up and brings in a ladder. And then he falls off a ladder thanks to 3D. The team not the move. The Dudleys go up at the same time like idiots and here’s Rhyno of all people, since you know 8 people in one match aren’t enough, and blasts them with chairs but not before D-Von gets the IWGP Titles down.

Beer Money and the Brits both go up, resulting in a bad looking suplex on Magnus from both guys. Beer Money has an open shot but has to do their taunt first. Storm gets some beer and then a front flip powerbomb to take Magnus out again. Cool looking spot. Roode is about to get the TNA belts but Rob Terry of the British Invasion comes down to throw him through a table and help Magnus get the belt to end it.

Rating: B. Another fun match much like Ultimate X earlier. There were a lot of people here and I think too many teams. That and having two sets of tag titles made this a bit too much of a mess and the lack of a huge spot kind of slowed it down from being great. That being said this was a fun match and did the job it was supposed to do: get the crowd going. It’s not up to the levels of the great TLC matches but it was good. I still wish they didn’t have two multi-man grab the title matches at one show though but what can you do?

Recap of the Knockouts Title match which more or less is just a three way feud with nothing special to it at all.

Knockouts Title: Tara vs. ODB vs. Awesome Kong

ODB has beaten both of them already so we’ll just do it one more time I guess. Should be noted that this is the 5th match on the card, the fifth title match and the fifth match that isn’t a standard one on one or tag match. Think they’re overdoing anything here? Tara’s legs are awesome if nothing else. I never got the appeal of the ODB character at all.

Kong jumps both girls immediately but Tara goes right for her. And so much for that theory as Kong just crushes them. Middle rope splash misses both of them though and we get the rather sexy shirt rip off from Tara. She’d wear these tiny shorts and a Tapout shirt which she’d rip off to more or less reveal a half shirt. The faces fight over who gets the pin as it’s pure formula stuff here but FAR better than the Legends Title match.

Tara hooks the Tarantula but Kong makes the save, which isn’t really a save as you can’t get a submission there but you get the point. Tara gets into it with some fan that might be legit but I’m not sure. Upon further review it was Randy Couture’s wife who had wanted to do an MMA fight with Tara. All planned but TNA messed up the shot and didn’t see it. Why does this not surprise me?

Back in the ring Kong hits the middle rope splash on ODB, covering the entire front row in silicone. It gets two though as Tara makes the save. Implant Buster gets two as ODB kicks out on her own. Saed comes out and throws in a chair but Kong says no. She goes for a powerbomb on ODB and Saed slides the chair in again but ODB reverses into a face plant to the chair for the pin. Nice ending.

Rating: C-. Not a great match or anything but FAR better than the other one. There was a story and flow here rather than in the Legends match where nothing had any purpose it seemed. Everything worked here and while it’s not great it’s certainly watchable. Not bad here and definitely ok.

Morgan says tonight is personal and business.

Samoa Joe vs. Bobby Lashley

Hey look it’s another non-traditional one on one match as this is a submission match. Joe is in the Mafia here and Lashley is the MMA guy so this actually makes sense for once from a gimmick match perspective. Lashley has taped up ribs for some reason. Ah ok Rhyno jumped him on Impact. And yet he’s fighting Joe here. Well of course he is.

Joe might be a bit slimmer here but it’s hard to tell as the tattoo on his face takes away from his face a bit. Naturally we get the JOE’S GONNA KILL YOU chant because he’s a heel. Lashley hits a SICK spinebuster and goes after the arm. The problem with wrestling today is that with the advent of MMA and how fast people tap to holds it’s a BIG stretch to have people survive like 30 seconds in arm bars and leg locks.

Suicide dive to take out Lashley as Joe is far more popular than he’s supposed to be. Joe works the ribs as we’re told about the work he’s done on Lashley’s ribs recently. Thanks for talking about that in his entrance rather than Rhyno there guys. Abdominal stretch goes on as Taz is actually helpful here with his submission knowledge. Quick powerslam by Joe as he’s wildly over here.

Lashley blocks part of an armbar and gets some ground and pound in to HUGE boos. A full nelson slam from Lashley takes Joe down and we’re back to even. Lashley is REALLY bad on offense with some of the worst strikes I’ve ever seen. Joe thankfully takes over and beats the tar out of him. And then Lashley gets an STO (reverse stroke for you non-WM 2000 and No Mercy fans) into a side choke for the win. Joe blacked out or something.

Rating: D. They were trying for the MMA thing here and it just didn’t work in the slightest really. Lashley was just not that good at making what he’s capable of really doing look fake if that makes sense. This just didn’t work for me at all as it came off as sloppy and Lashley trying to get one big move in which he did. I’m not an MMA guy so I’m the wrong audience I guess, but this didn’t work at all for me.

Foley talks about fighting Abyss and makes limited sense. Apparently he doesn’t want Abyss to overshadow him and Abyss is going to have to earn it. Ah ok Foley wanted to make him his protégé and them beat the heck out of him just because I guess. Foley is heel here and we actually get a reference to Abyss being world champion. It’s Monster’s Ball also and if Abyss uses tacks he’s disqualified or something.

Mick Foley vs. Abyss

Stevie Richards is referee and is the doctor again. LOUD pyro for Abyss. Foley jumps him on the ramp and is all casual about hitting him with the barbed wire bat. I like that. I’m reading his book at the moment and haven’t gotten to this part if it’s in there. Almost immediately Foley goes up the set, climbing a tower. Abyss follows and gets knocked through part of the ramp.

Foley climbs down as Stevie says Abyss is done. Foley gets a running start and drives the bat into Abyss as he’s still in that hole in the ramp/stage. Foley, the face, of course gets cheered. Stevie is the cheerleader dude here as the match just kind of stops until Abyss climbs through the stage. We have a barded wire board from somewhere and he makes a platform with it between the guard rail and the ring.

And there’s another board that’s just like the first. Double armed DDT to Abyss to the board. Richards beats up Abyss too because EVERYONE loved that angle. Foley gets a bat shot into Abyss’ arm to open it up. His head is busted too. Foley goes into the wire board now then Abyss does the same. Make that a sandwich as the other is under him. Naturally it only gets two.

Foley busts out the tacks and Abyss sets to chokeslam him onto them but he’s not allowed. Down goes Stevie and here’s Daffney to give Foley a freaking Taser. And just to make it more stupid it explodes as Foley jabs him with it. They TOTALLY botch it as Abyss misses his kickout and Foley gets three and Abyss raises his shoulder at what would have been four so the referee says he kicked out anyway.

Crowd totally boos that out of the building as Stevie pulls the referee out when Abyss goes for the pin. Daffney goes through the platform they made earlier to get a HOLY CRAP chant. Stevie tries to beat up Abyss and goes into the tacks for his trouble sans shirt. Chokeslam for Foley and we get the Over the Edge 98 finish as Abyss slams Richards’ hand down for the pin.

Rating: C-. Totally violent but overbooked. Also the botch messed things completely up as it was clearly three and everyone knew it. These matches are fine once in awhile but does it really prove anything? This was a far cry from the Edge or Orton matches and it just didn’t work that well for me. Granted I’m not a fan of hardcore so it’s not my style anyway.

Angle says he’s awesome and that he had AJ beat but the time limit ran out.

Basically Angle stung Morgan along to get his help in winning various matches then screwed him over to make Morgan a ticked off monster that was suddenly awesome. Then he got dropped down to a midcard team with Hernandez for his efforts because Hogan came in and liked Abyss more, but that’s a bit later on. Oh and Morgan more or less cost Angle the title at No Surrender. Oh and Dixie Carter has to say something for no apparent reason other than she’s Dixie Carter.

Matt Morgan vs. Kurt Angle

This is the semi-main event on the show, we have 45 minutes of TV time left, and this is the first standard one on one match on the card. Also this has a fifteen minute time limit. Dude seriously? Say it’s got an hour or something as you know it’s only going fifteen but dude that’s the time limit a TV Title match with PN News and Steve Austin in 1991 would get.

Angle is still the leader of the Main Event Mafia here and has never won at Bound For Glory. The dueling chants begin immediately as Angle, the leader of the top heel stable in the company, is over here. TNA fans even in other cities are annoying. Morgan controls with power early as he’s getting to show off here. He goes to the top and hits about as good of a cross body as you would expect from a guy that big and who doesn’t go to the top that often.

Angle goes for the legs to take down Morgan. Figure four goes on and Morgan’s leg is almost on Angle’s face. Taz actually OFFERS SOME INSIGHT by saying that since Angle’s legs are shorter and Matt’s are longer it’s easier for Angle to get extra leverage. Well gosh, Taz worked a similar style to Angle, so this is almost like…HIM BEING AN EXPERT ON THE SUBJECT!!! WHAT A CONCEPT!

One of the guys from Boys to Men is here. TNA needs to either upgrade their celebrities or not have them acknowledged. Also, PICK A BETTER TIME TO SHOW THEM! You know, like during an entrance, not when Matt breaks a hold. Fall away slam hits Angle and his leg seems fine now. Chokeslam gets two. Hellevator is blocked into Rolling Germans from Angle.

Angle Slam, say it with me, gets two. Straps go down and the cheers go up and there’s the ankle lock. It doesn’t work but Angle counters a powerbomb into the ankle lock. Hellevator gets two. Yeah these finishers are kind of not working so far. Ankle lock is the counter to a tombstone and Morgan gets out again. Big clothesline gets two for Morgan. Loud Morgan sucks chant starts up for no apparent reason.

Morgan goes up and does it slowly which you don’t do against Angle. The running suplex isn’t great but it works. Angle Slam and a Frog Splash of all things (good one too) get two. Taz says this is his evolution into a star. That’s rather amusing. And Angle gets a victory roll for the pin. There was no more build than that. The match just kind of ended. They shake hands after the match with nothing screwy about it.

Rating: B-. Good match but not a classic/career making match like they were looking for I don’t think. The idea was to stretch Angle to a degree where he could barely win and I never got that impression here. It was definitely a solid match but it just never got to the level that they wanted it to I don’t think. You can’t say it failed to make Morgan as Hogan arriving changed everything including Morgan.

TNA World Title: Sting vs. AJ Styles

You’ll see a huge difference in the main event here than you would at most other shows from this company recently. There isn’t much of a story here. AJ was going to leave the business, Sting gave him an awesome pep talk, AJ won the title but felt he owed Sting a title shot and wanted the respect. Basic booking and a match between two guys that are solid in ring wrestlers. What an idea.

Also, how much does it say that in a year AJ has gone from main event to feuding with Tommy Dreamer? This is the awesome AJ as well, as in pre Flair and when he was the best in the world. They shake hands to start us off which is nice to see. In the last three years Sting has been 3-0 at Bound For Glory with three straight world title wins. That’s rather impressive.

Feeling out process to start of course. Long one too as we’re at about 3 minutes of it now. AJ controls early and gets a knee drop for two. Sting sends him to the floor and then holds the ropes open for him. They’re doing a slow build here but there isn’t a ton of time left in the show to do that with really. Sting takes over with a backdrop as that somethow might be the biggest move done so far. It’s not bad mind you, just a different kind of match.

Ah there we go as AJ goes for a big dive off the apron but Sting moves and AJ eats steel. Stinger Splash hits steel also and the guardrail is bent a bit. Sting gets a tombstone for two in the ring. Springboard Forearm (my favorite move in TNA) gets two. A series of counters leads to the Death Drop hitting. Sting’s leg is over AJ but there’s no count. Splash sets up another Death Drop for two.

Scorpion Deathlock goes on and it’s one of the best ones I’ve ever seen Sting do. They slug it out and Sting Hulks Up. We head to the corner and AJ gets a Pele and a springboard splash….for the pin? Uh…yeah I guess he does. That ending was TOTALLY anti-climactic as Sting was making his comeback and going all superhuman and then AJ just beat him. I was really getting into this and then it just ended. Odd.

Rating: B. Solid match that would have been classified as great until the ending which just did not work. AJ should have gotten the clean pin and he did but this match was BEGGING for another 5-8 minutes. I don’t get why they just ended the show that fast as we have five minutes left in the video so it’s not like they were lacking for time. I don’t get it but the match we got was rather good.

AJ calls Sting back to the ring (after the first microphone doesn’t work) and says this is his time. The fans chant please don’t go as this was possibly his retirement match which obviously didn’t happen but the idea was nice anyway. Also they never said it was his retirement match either so it’s in no way false advertisement whatsoever.

Sting says this is about AJ but if he’s going to lose he’s glad he lost to someone like AJ, putting him over huge. The fans chant one more year and Sting says he’s not sure if he was going to retire or not and says this isn’t kayfabe but that some of the stuff fans have said to him have made him wanting to stay forever. And then his music plays as I guess we’re out of time? Odd ending where things seemed rush.

Overall Rating: B. I rather liked this show actually and thought it came off pretty well. This is another excellent example of what TNA is capable of when they just go out there and wrestle. Hogan and Bischoff coming in have really hurt this company’s product as instead of just in ring work where this show is strong we now have everything being about swerves and angles with wrestling being a far backseat.

I’d love watching Impact if it was stuff like this, but it’s changed for the worse. Hey though, we have Hogan now so everything is all well and good right? Good show this year though.

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Bound For Glory 2008
Date: October 12, 2008
Location: Sears Center, Hoffman Estates, Illinois
Attendance: 5,000
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Don West

It’s another installment in the biggest series there is for TNA, this time from two years ago. The main event is Sting vs. Joe for the title. We’re 9 days away from the debut of the Main Event Mafia so things are kind of in flux at this point. Other than that there is some decent stuff here, including Jarrett vs. Angle. I guess some things never change. This is an ok looking card on paper. Let’s get to it.

The opening video is about Chicago and the gangster theme they have tonight. The basic idea of the Mafia is there but they haven’t officially been made yet.

Steel Asylum

The winner gets a title shot later. There are ten men in this: Jay Lethal, Sonjay Dutt, Chris Sabin, Alex Shelley, Curry Man, Shark Boy, Super Eric, Petey Williams, Johnny Devine and Jimmy Rave. This is during the Prince Justice Brotherhood mini-era so I wouldn’t expect anything of quality. You have to climb to the top to escape. The winner gets an X Title shot later on at some undesignated date.

Naturally with 10 guys in there it’s almost impossible to keep track of what is going on. This turns into a mini-handicap match between the Guns and the Prince Justice Brotherhood and given that Eric is the best of the three characters, this is more or less one sided. Now we get a ton of running clotheslines, as in like 15, on various people.

The Guns get a triple suplex on the Brotherhood which at least makes sense from a friendship perspective. This is also during the Lethal/Dutt feud which means we get some shots of Val at her absolute hottest which is saying a lot. This is the living definition of a spot fest as there is no story or anything which is because there are WAY TOO MANY PEOPLE.

This match would work with like 5 people in it. That would work very well but it’s TNA so let’s just double everything because that’s not going to hurt a thing right? There’s a referee on top also which works to an extent but at the same time it makes me think “really?” Everyone busts out finishers as we crank it up a bit.

The Guns take over almost completely and I think they’re heels at this point. Sliced Bread is countered into the Destroyer from Williams. Double Stunner from Shark Boy (Stone Cold that is) on Sabin and Williams as we bust out more finishers including a botched Divine Intervention (over the shoulder Piledriver) on Rave. Curry Man shows off some surprising strength with a gorilla press on Dutt where he throws him into the corner.

He goes up but Lethal and Dutt make the save. In a cool looking spot, Lethal and Dutt hang upside down just by their ankles and slug it out. Translation: Lethal beats the heck out of him but you get the concept. Lethal climbs out on his own to end it as apparently everyone else is taking a nap.

Rating: C+. These matches are hard to grade because there’s really no form of flow or stories to them. The best you can do is grade the spots and the ending and in this match both of those were pretty good so this is an ok grade. It’s not a great match or anything really close to it due to the WAY too high amount of people in it, but what can you do about that I guess? Decent match and decent opener though.

We run down the card. Can someone explain this to me? Why do we need to waste time on this?

We go to Cornette’s office where he’s WAY too happy about it being Bound For Glory. Foley, who is brand new here comes in and Cornette tries to get him to come to Impact when they’re live in Vegas. The Beautiful People come in to complain about M&Ms. This is funny stuff with Foley vs. them.

Recap of Beautiful People vs. the three random people they’re fighting.

ODB/Rhaka Khan/Rhyno vs. Beautiful People/Cute Kip

Traci Brooks is referee here and comes out to a cover of Rag Doll by Aerosmith. Just Skye and Love at this point. This is a Bimbo Brawl apparently. You know because 6 person tag is just too hard to say I guess. Kip gets in the face of a Detroit Tiger who is in Chicago just because I guess. ODB and Velvet start us off.

West tries to convince us that Rhyno and Kip are very similar physically. And people wonder why he was replaced. Genders can intertwine here apparently. Basically the Beautiful People keep trying to get various shots in, none of which work. Everyone keeps hiding from Khan other than Kip. Both of them go for chokeslams. She grabs his balls as this is going absolutely nowhere.

Khan is really bad in the ring to put it mildly. Why does ODB think she’s hot? Makeup box to ODB’s head sends her to the floor. ODB spanks herself to get fired up for…a tag. Thankfully the guys come in as the girls just aren’t that good at this point. Fameasser is blocked as Rhyno just stands up and Gores Kip to end it.

Rating: F+. And that’s only for Velvet. This was just boring as all goodness with six minutes of the girls doing nothing, leaving Rhyno as the best person in there. Let that sink in for a bit. Just a bad match that never did anything at all of note. At least it was short I guess.

Consequences Creed says Bashir needs to leave if he hates America so much.

X–Division Title: Consequence Creed vs. Sheik Abdul Bashir

We spend like a minute introducing some army sergeant after Bashir is introduced. I get that these people are cool, but why does TNA insist on giving them lots of camera time so often? It’s cool that he’s here, but did he need a full entrance to be the ring announcers for Creed? Creed is billed as the great American challengers I guess. He looks like Apollo Creed from Rocky if that means anything.

Tenay gets way too excited for America here, especially when Bashir is from Minnesota. Brawling on the floor now which gets Sheik two in the ring. The fans do the standard xenophobic chant. Basic match here for the most part. I don’t know if it’s the online video I’m watching or what, but the ring looks huge. Sleeper goes on and Creed is in trouble. Since this is after 1987 though and not a Ziggler match, the hold doesn’t work.

Creed makes his comeback and hits a few moves for two. He hits a jaw breaker and nips up before heading to the top. It takes too long though and the crotch is bruised. A top rope rana gets two and then Bashir gets a rollup and grabs the rope for the pin. Are you kidding me???

Rating: D. Nothing that special here but the ending just completely ends any chance this had of being a good match. You build this dude up as awesome and have the whole army thing going on, and then he loses at the biggest show of the year? Eric Young would win the title two months later. For the life of me I do not get the booking idea here. Do we really need to have the evil foreigner keep the belt here? I mean dude….REALLY?

Foley is with JB, telling his some story about the Cell match. And here are Saed and Kong to see Cornette. Apparently Foley is in charge. The Rock is referenced somehow and this is kind of pointless. Foley suggests a visit from Yerple The Clown, who he calls. I love Foley.

We recap the Knockouts Title match, of which there isn’t much of a story at all. There are two challengers for Taylor Wilde and that’s it.

Knockouts Title: Taylor Wilde vs. Awesome Kong vs. Roxxi

Roxxi is in these ugly red plad pants. She would get much better looking with a bit more hair and as a blonde. She and Taylor take out Kong and then go at it themselves. A rollup on Kong gets two for Taylor but Roxxi saves. She then gets her head knocked off by Kong. This isn’t much here but they’re moving out there. These Press off the top gets two for Roxxi.

Kong gets a cross body on Roxxi and gets crushed. Implant Buster gets two as Taylor makes the save. Both small girls are down and Kong goes up top. Taylor kicks her off and after a brief scuffle a German suplex gets the pin to retain for Taylor.

Rating: D. Total Impact match here with like five minutes of stuff here and nothing of note. Taylor should have probably defended one on one with Kong here but that’s neither here nor there I guess. The Beautiful People would rise up as the new contenders soon enough but this wasn’t much at all. Weak match.

AJ comes in to talk to Foley and welcomes him. The Dudleys come in and run down AJ for no apparent reason other than they’re jerks. There are a bunch of masks on the wall for some reason. Bubba is in Foley’s flannel shirt so he gets jokes from Foley. And of course we get ECW and WWE references. Foley gets on them for constantly talking about winning 20 tag titles. Cornette gets back and says nothing of note.

Tag Titles: Matt Morgan/Abyss vs. Beer Money vs. Team 3D vs. LAX

This is Monster’s Ball and Beer Money have the belts. Steve McMichael of all people is the guest referee. He looks OLD too. The intros here are freaking ridiculous. Basically this is a four way street fight/hardcore match but I’m not sure if the pins have to be in the ring or not. WAY too many people in the ring here.

You know at this point, is Mongo the most successful singles wrestler in there? Ah that’s right Abyss is a former world champion. Not that we’re ever told that anymore or anything though. Bunch of high spots including a tope con hilo from Homicide. We break out the weapons and its really nothing special at all. Homicide has a fork for no apparent reason and stabs D-Von’s head with it.

Abyss is on his anti-weapons thing here. Cheese grater comes out as I feel like I’m on Emeril or something. That doesn’t sound bad actually as I’m a bit hungry. Bubba suplexes Hernandez from the middle rope and the fans want tables. Blockbuster by Roode which makes me smile a bit. Total weapons thing starts up here as Mongo steals the tacks from Storm.

Mongo is FAT. We get a football sequence complete with helmet and football and Beer Money goes down of course. Morgan does a big dive to the floor to take out a bunch of people. This is such a huge mess. Johnny Devine comes out and pops Abyss with a kendo stick a few times. Table and lighter fluid are brought in on the stage. Abyss goes through it off a double chokeslam from the Dudleys.

Homicide in control now. I’ve never seen this ring genius or whatever that he’s supposed to be. Sweet goodness Mongo counts slow. Sit out powerbomb by Hernandez gets two. Elevated Gringo Cutter gets two due to Jackie getting the save. Apparently the Dudleys and Morgan have like died or something. Ah there’s Morgan. Border Toss to Morgan as Bubba brings in a table.

Supermex makes the save for Homicide though as this is probably getting close to the end. Mongo helps lay out the tacks on the table and Hernandez hits a 3D on the table on the tacks but Beer Money runs in to steal the pin.

Rating: B-. It certainly was violent, but it was just a big long weapons match. This is the longest match of the night, getting over twenty minutes. Mongo hurt this a lot as he counted so slowly that it appeared that he was shortchanging everyone with the cadence of his counts. This was pretty good but at the same time it was nothing we hadn’t seen before. Also having 8 guys out there was just too much. Still fun though.

Recap of Booker vs. Christian vs. AJ. This is about respect apparently and is more or less the groundwork for the rise of the Mafia.

Booker T vs. Christian Cage vs. AJ Styles

This is a three way WAR apparently. Booker and AJ start while Christian just kind of lets them. That’s rather smart. AJ takes care of this by setting for the forearm but in a perfect movement, backflips into a moonsault instead. If he hadn’t floated over Christian and more or less crashed it would have been even better. Booker vs. Christian now after a briefcase shot from Booker. On Impact he would reveal the Legends Title inside the case.

Booker misses a clothesline and kind of falls down, allowing Christian to hit/walk into a double clothesline. AJ pops up again and hits the springboard forearm to Booker. He gets to show off here with an insane move as he leapfrogs Booker and while in the air backflips over Christian so Christian and Booker collide. All Styles here as he’s just completely awesome at this point.

Axe kick misses and AJ gets a cross armbreaker of all things. I’ve never seen him use that before. Book End gets two. And now, we break dance. Christian hits the jumping elbow from the middle rope (called a forearm by the genius known as Tenay). AJ backflips out of a suplex and in one motion hits a Pele on Booker. He’s absolutely stealing the show here.

Tower of Doom is blocked but AJ misses Spiral Tap. Everyone is down and we go to the corner now off a slingshot. We set up another Tower of Doom spot but AJ fights out of it. He gets caught in a slightly modified Unprettier off the middle rope. Top rope axe kick ends Christian though as Booker gets the pin.

Rating: B-. AJ absolutely stole the show here, blowing everyone away with his insane spots and moving out there. The problem here again became that we had to have people lay around again and the triple man spots didn’t work that well. Still though they kept this moving well enough that it came off rather well. AJ again was the best thing here though.

We recap Jarrett vs. Angle. It’s more or less the same feud but Angle doesn’t like Foley being called a huge acquisition. Foley is the enforcer here which means he stands outside and does nothing of note until the very end.

Kurt is with Lauren (good night she’s gorgeous) and says this isn’t one on one.

Jeff breaks down in tears to talk about what he’s going through at the moment. There is WAY too much emphasis on his daughters here.

Jeff Jarrett vs. Kurt Angle

This is Jeff’s first match in two years and we’re told about his little girls every 9 seconds of course. Angle flips Foley off almost immediately. He’s on the floor for the majority of this match as he’s just an enforcer. Who he’s enforcing against or what he’s enforcing are anyone’s guess but that’s a constant question in wrestling. Big THANK YOU JEFF chant.

Feeling out process to start as Angle tries to embarrass Jeff. I think 2005 did that about as well as possible Kurt. Angle dominates on the mat of course which is what I think everyone expected. He hits a European Uppercut in the corner which is called a German by West because he’s a stupid man. Jarrett hits a pescado to take Angle down on the floor.

Spending a lot of time on the mat here which is probably an attempt to balance out the lack of cardio that Jeff likely has. We get some dueling chants as Jeff fights out of a chinlock. Someone needs to win with one of those once just for the pure shock value of it. Angle’s shoulder hits the post and Jarrett is too spent to do anything about it.

Jarrett starts a comeback but can’t finish him. He goes for a middle rope suplex but Angle blocks and tries a belly to belly to the floor. Since that would more or less kill Jarrett, Angle gets a top rope suplex instead. A nice counter sets up the figure four and Angle is in trouble. Foley has done absolutely nothing in the nearly fifteen minutes we’ve been going so far.

Rolling Germans have Jarret in trouble. Ankle Lock is on and Jeff is about to tap. Angle Slam gets two and a moonsault misses. According to Tenay the figure four is the reason the moonsault missed. I’m pretty sure it was actually Jeff rolling out of the way but what do I know? Stroke gets two but the referee is out so Foley counts two.

Kurt goes to get a chair and Foley says no way. Yes let’s tell one of the most intense men in the history of the sport that hates your guts not to use a chair he has in his hands. Foley gets his skull caved in for the 150th time which he should get a set of steak knives for I think. Chair to Jarrett gets two as Foley stops it. Socko to Kurt and a guitar shot ends it with Foley making the count.

Rating: B. Solid for the most part here and considering that it was Jeff’s first match in so long, this was pretty good. Foley didn’t need to be there like at all but it fit in with the story so I can live with that. Tenay SHOUTS at Jeff’s kids in Nashville that they all love them and this was for you. WOW yeah that wasn’t overkill at all Mikey.

Recap of Sting vs. Joe which is about Sting being the old guard and Joe not respecting him. Announcer: Sting paved the way for men like Joe. Sting: I paved the way for you Joe! This was actually well set up for the Mafia angle.

We get a video about Sting as he’s on the way to the ring. The tale of the tape thing listed him as 6’3 and this lists him as 6’2. Little things like those are what makes us say TNA is a stupid looking company. I know it’s not a big deal, but it’s something that shouldn’t have been screwed up. It makes them look sloppy which is not good at all.

Video on Joe says nothing of note. He’s the heel by default here.

TNA World Title: Sting vs. Samoa Joe

We get their weights for the third time in four minutes in the big match intros. Also I love that JB says standing in the corner to my left when he’s pacing from corner to corner. Joe is ready to go. Joe puts him on the floor seconds into this with a backdrop. Suicide dive with the elbow and Sting is in trouble early.

We’re out into the crowd and it’s more or less even. They go up near the top of the arena as it’s nothing but punches and chops so far. Joe gets a running start from a luxury box and jumps over the guard rail with a dropkick and crashes on the stairs. That was very awesome. The fat apparently kept his back safe though as we head back to the ring. No rematches no matter what apparently either.

They’ve been in the stands for like four minutes out of the six this has been going on. They were in the ring about 5 seconds literally. Sting with a cross body off the hockey boards to take Joe out which was cool looking too. Joe is bleeding from the nose and it might be broken. Sting gets the little Stingers crotched on the boards and an Ole Kick puts him down. You don’t kick a guy when his balls are in need of repair! It’s got to be illegal in some way.

FINALLY we go back to the ring and, get ready for it, WE GO INSIDE IT! This has been going like 8 minutes and we’ve been in the ring all of 15 seconds. Not a fan of that style more often than not. The fans are behind Joe now as I guess the TNA crowd thing is like a virus. Muscle Buster is blocked by a freaking jumping tornado DDT out of the corner and a Frog Splash for Sting gets two. I haven’t seen him use that in YEARS.

Joe gets a powerbomb into an STF as they’re moving very fast out there. Off into a crossface as he channels his inner Benoit. Ok make that the Rings of Saturn. This is like something out of a video game. Sting steals the Muscle Buster which Joe no sells completely. Wait why? It’s not like it’s a move you can learn the block for. You get dropped on your head which isn’t something you pop up from.

Sting matches the idiocy by popping up after a Scorpion Death Drop. See, it’s not like they even got covers. Both guys were up before the other one. If either of those moves end the match then the grade is dropping BIG time. You don’t no sell getting dropped on your freaking head! Joe getting booed a bit now as this really is a split crowd.

Joe has a thing going on at this point where he would win by TKO or knockout since he would beat the people and the referee would count them out which is how he beat Booker at Victory Road. He gets to 8 here on Sting but keeps pounding on him. And here’s Kevin Nash. Well of course he’s here. It’s a major match so we have to have more old people in it.

Sting goes for the bat but Nash steals it from him. He had been the mentor to Joe for like ever so it fits to have him out there. Again though, just because it fits doesn’t mean that it’s a good idea. Referee jumps out of the way of Sting so Nash pops him with the bat. Scorpion Death Drop ends this.

Rating: C. Not bad here but it didn’t really feel like a mega match. It was barely discussed all night which kind of made it feel less important. There was far more emphasis on the Jarrett/Angle match which I think is something I complained about when I watched this live. Sting winning set up the Mafia angle even more so for once this was a good idea. TNA tends to like setting up groups after their big PPV and this is no exception. Decent match.

Overall Rating: B-. This show was ok. It’s nothing great but there was nothing too terribly bad. It’s not a classic and it didn’t really feel like the biggest show of the year, but there’s enough stuff here to make it better than average. The Angle/Jarrett match was built up too highly I think and it overshadowed the main event, but then again it’s a better match. This worked and it set the stage for the Mafia’s dominance so yeah I’d think this was good for a major show.

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Bound For Glory 2007
Date: October 14, 2007
Location: Gwinnett Center, Duluth, Georgia
Attendance: 4,000
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Don West

Well doing more BFG isn’t intentional but it’s better than no show. TNA shows are rather hard to find so this is all I’ve got at the moment. Again it’s the biggest show of the year and in this case the main event is Sting vs. Angle. Anyone else noticing a pattern of these shows? There’s a weak Monster’s Ball match and the rest looks completely unspectacular if there has ever been an unspectacular major show. Let’s get to it.

The opening video is just a generic thing about being the next immortal icon and they use Hogan’s name. I give up. Angle is defending tonight if I forgot to mention that. I know I did but it sounds a bit better than I didn’t feel like typing it. I’m filling in space here if you didn’t get that.

Triple X vs. LAX

Senshi (Low Ki/Kaval) and Elix Skipper representing Triple X here. This is Ultimate X and for the #1 contender spot. Think that’s enough Xs in this match? XXX goes for the X almost immediately but LAX (see what I mean?) makes the save and it’s a big brawl to start. These matches are hard to call for the most part as they’re pretty all over the place. With just four guys though it’s far easier to do.

It’s so weird seeing Kaval out there over three years ago like this. Homicide gets a chance to make a run but Senshi makes the save. Both teams are pretty much just beating each other up here to wear them down (wouldn’t that cancel the beating up part?) so they can go up (I guess that gives up the advantage again) and pull the X down (are you getting my boredom here?)

Homicide gets his signature tope con hilo to take out Senshi. Hernandez goes up and JUMPS halfway across the cables and almost gets there that way. That guy is freaking scary. A lot of near grabs for both teams here but LAX is clearly the more dominant team here. Skipper goes all the way up to the top of the structure and hits a MASSIVE cross body to Homicide in the ring.

In a cool looking spot, Skipper and Homicide both do the look up at the ceiling crawl and hit a double neckbreaker to bring the other guy down. That was a new one. I’m not a fan of that overhead shot. Granted that might be the constant camera cuts that TNA is obsessed with. In a painful and STUPID looking spot, Homicide is put in the Tree of Woe as Senshi does the Warrior’s Way onto him.

If you’re Homicide, WHY WOULD YOU SIT UP? You know his finisher is the double stomp so why would you give him the right positioning for it? Mike Tenay says we’re in the ATL. My head hurts again. Skipper stops Hernandez from diving over the ropes which would have been cool to see. Border Toss by Hernandez to send Skipper flying to the other two guys on the floor. Hernandez gets the X with ease just afterwards.

Rating: B-. Bunch of big spots in there which were nice and the match worked pretty well. Hernandez is shown off as the mega star of the team which makes sense as he’s by far the bigger deal. This was a pretty good match but as usual with these matches it would help to have them be for the titles rather than a shot at a later date at said titles. But Pacman Jones is a tag champion at this point so we can’t have that match. Such is TNA.

We see Angle and Karen getting here earlier separately and at different times. Nash gets here too.

Running down of the card wastes some time.

Christian cuts off Tomko and AJ to talk about not being in the Fight for the Right Tournament. He should be in it and due to Joe he isn’t. AJ is happy to be home. He’s an idiot here. Tomko is actually serious.

Fight For the Right Tournament Stage One: Reverse Battle Royal

Dang it. Ok so this one might just hold the record for most ridiculous TNA concept. This is the beginning of a HUGE #1 contenders tournament. The winner of this match is the #1 seed in said tournament, which he would wind up losing anyway, making this COMPLETELY POINTLESS.

Anyway there are 16 people in this and you start on the floor. The first eight to get into the ring make it to part two. When those eight are in there’s a battle royal. When there are two left in the ring, they have a one on one match and the winner is the #1 seed. The other seeds are determined in the order you were eliminated.

Somehow this is slightly less complicated than the previous year’s tournament where the winner of the battle royal advanced to the finals and 6 other guys had qualifying matches to set up a triple threat where the winner met the battle royal winner to get a title shot. And people wonder why this company is loathed by so many people.

ANYWAY, the 16 people are Jimmy Rave, Lance Hoyt (Vance Archer), Havok (Johnny Devine), Shark Boy, Petey Williams, Kaz, Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, Sonjay Dutt, Kip James, BG James, James Storm, Eric Young, Robert Roode, Chris Harris and Junior Fatu (Rikishi, who was there like a week).

Fatu gets in first. This is so stupid. I know there are issues with getting ring time in this company but this is ridiculous. Kaz and Roode are in. Shelley is in fourth. Hoyt accidentally drops Young in and there’s Sabin. Hoyt goes in seventh and Storm just beats Harris in to give us the 8th guy. Let’s get this over with. Young puts Storm out seconds in, making him the #8 seed in the tournament. Naturally he would win his first round match as he had to do the least wrestling, making it easier on him. See what I mean by flaws in the system?

Young goes after Rikishi who was supposed to be a huge deal I guess. He chokeslams Roode and stacks up four people in the corner for the splash. Stinkface to Hoyt as this is boring. The Andre treatment takes care of him though. He would make the semi-finals of the tournament and then leave the company.

The Guns go nuts with an insane double submission on Roode and Young. They move Young’s legs so he has an Indian Deathlock on Roode before putting a crossface on Roode and an abdominal stretch on Young. It doesn’t accomplish anything but it looks awesome. Think of it as a Divas match.

Shelley is gone. Kaz hits his slingshot DDT on Sabin and then dumps him too. We’re down to Hoyt, Kaz, Roode and Young. Kaz is out as well. Hoyt like an idiot goes for a moonsault and gets thrown out because he’s a freaking idiot. The final two….ok make that three as Sabin is still in there I guess, are Sabin, Roode and Young. And scratch Sabin….who apparently is Sabin as they apparently misspoke earlier. I give up. Roode vs. Young is the final.

Roode is a power guy still here and isn’t in a tag team. The tournament sets up Sabin vs. Shelley which is of course good but means nothing compared to them in the X Title final years later. These two had been feuding and were stablemates years ago. And then Young rolls up Roode in a small package to end it. Young would lose to Storm in the first round and Kaz would beat Christian to win the tournament.

Rating: F+. This was perhaps the most overdone match in history. Seriously, is it that hard to have a battle royal to determine who the #1 contender is? Couldn’t they just have a tournament with a random draw? Apparently not as they decided to just combine them and throw in a one on one match too. This is what we mean by overbooking. You don’t have to do a big complicated thing when a simple thing would work fine and in this case much better. Stupid match and VERY stupid concept.

We recap AJ/Tomko vs. Team Pacman. In other words, a man that was banned from the NFL for being involved in a shooting that paralyzed a man is a tag team champion in TNA. To his credit he bought 1500 tickets to the show and gave them away as prizes to kids in Atlanta schools who got good grades and had good conduct.

Ron Killings, as in R-Truth, says that the NFL has stopped Pacman from wrestling so they have a replacement named Consequences Creed. Pacman talks like an idiot about going for a ride or something.

Karen and Kurt argue even more.

Tag Titles: Team Pacman vs. AJ Styles/Tomko

Keep in mind Team Pacman doesn’t actually have Pacman in this. Creed is the guy that dressed like Apollo Creed and is named for Truth and Consequences. AJ and Creed start us off here. Creed hits a forearm in the corner and that’s about all he’s got as far as interesting stuff goes. He’s cool to watch to a degree but at the end of the day he’s a guy dressed up like a fictional character with a stupid name.

Truth vs. Tomko now. Tomko is an IWGP tag champion at this point. Thanks for again informing us about things that have zero to do with TNA. Truth is doing the exact same stuff he does today in WWE. This is a rather boring match as it’s pretty clear that Pacman is losing here as he can’t wrestle so the appeal is gone. Granted that would imply it was there in the first place so take that for what it’s worth.

Everything breaks down and we get a big melee. AJ gets thrown into the corner and is down. Truth vs. Tomko at the moment. Pacman tries to get involved and is just annoying. Creed takes Tomko out but AJ hits a BIG shooting star to the floor and wipes out all the non whites in this thing. Pacman pulls out a bunch of money and throws it in the air so what when Truth gets a rollup Hebner picks up the money instead of counting. AJ and Tomko hit their double team finisher for the titles on Truth.

Rating: D. Just boring as all belief here with zero drama. Thankfully Pacman was gone after this as no one liked him and he made TNA look freaking stupid. This was just idiotic and such a waste of talent like AJ and even Truth just wasting him like this. Pacman was a waste of money and a total eye rolling moment who didn’t ever get to wrestle due to the NFL. At least this was the end of him for the most part.

Karen whines even more and says Angle keeps the title tonight because it’s the money. She goes up to Kevin who is hitting on some blonde. She tries to get Nash to talk to Kurt which doesn’t work. Oh and there’s the required Scott Hall reference.

We recap Daniels vs. Lethal where Lethal is defending. He’s Black Machismo here too.

X-Division Title: Jay Lethal vs. Christopher Daniels

Lethal won the title beating Angle who had all three titles including both tag belts and had three title matches at one PPV. You know, because he wanted to help the young guys. And now we talk about the Angles and Sting for later tonight. Nice slingshot rana by Lethal and a WEAK suicide dive hits Daniels on the floor. Their hands touched and that’s about it.

They’re having some weird issues with making contact with each other. They’re doing this very odd style here and not much is going on here. Lethal gets a crucifix for two. They’re just kind of doing moves out there with nothing special going on at all. Daniels can’t beat him and starts to snap which is an old standard for wrestling but it usually works and is here kind of.

Top rope rana by Daniels is shoved off. The big elbow misses too though and Daniels gets two off of the miss. They’re clearly almost at the end here and the fans think it’s awesome. No, it really isn’t. Lethal gets the Lethal Combination (backbreaker and Downward Spiral) off the top for the pin to retain. Cool ending to a weak match.

Rating: C-. This just didn’t do it for me at all. It was ok at best but it just came off as uneventful. I have never gotten the appeal of Daniels or his style whatsoever. They had this weird non chemistry going and it wasn’t working for me. Not a horrible match but at the same time it didn’t do much.

The Steiners talk about Team 3D. They’re actually doing this. Rick looks AWFUL.

The recap talks about how Scott got very sick and was literally on his deathbed in Puerto Rico but came back as a face. He can’t have a wrestling match so we get a 2/3 tables match.

Steiner Brothers vs. Team 3D

They point out that the Steiners now reside in Atlanta to HAMMER in the face push. Big brawl to start as you have to get two table put throughs out of three to win this. Well it’s better than a regular table match. I’m not sure how but it prevents winning on a fluke I guess. Rick thankfully is in a shirt as we get the Steiner pose. The Dudleys try to leave and that goes nowhere.

Beer to the face of D-Von as they’re in the crowd. Granted this isn’t so much a waste of time as you can go through a table anywhere. Big brawl in the stands where not a lot is going on as there are no tables in sight. Scott and Bubba are brawling as are the other pair. There’s the first table brought in but it’s not set up yet. We’re back around the ring now.

In the ring now and Rick goes through one on a 3D. Scott is on the floor and there aren’t any eliminations it seems which I like better. Scott fights out of a super bomb and hits a Frankensteiner where he does nothing and Bubba has to jump for the flip, hitting the back of his head on the edge, more or less breaking through the table with his neck. FREAKING OW MAN.

It’s tied up at one here as D-Von misses a splash. How was Steiner a world champion in WCW? I think you can count him as another example of a guy making money and getting as far as he did because WCW was in the place it was rather than his talent. Bubba whips Scott with a big leather belt as Rick has apparently disappeared.

Scott is put on a table and it just kind of collapses which doesn’t count as it’s not a guy being put through it which makes sense. Scott has his beard braided which looks very stupid. The Dudleys put him on another table and go for his injured throat. The Guns run down for the save. D-Von misses a chair shot and the Steiner Bulldog ends it.

Rating: D+. Well they were trying out there but it didn’t work that well. The two old teams going at it were supposed to comprise a dream match but it didn’t work. Why should I want to see either of these teams rather than the Guns who had a run in here? It’s more old guys that aren’t worth much doing their thing. That’s rarely a good thing and this was no exception. Having the 2/3 thing was a nice little twist though and it helped it a good deal.

We talk to the new Knockouts who were brought in for the first Knockouts Title match. There were five total: ODB, Talia Madison, Shelly Martinez and Angel Williams. Angel later added ina to her first name and Talia changed her name to Velvet Skye. The girls run away as Kong is behind JB and makes a scary face.

We get a weak recap which more or less is just a slideshow of the girls in the match.

Knockouts Title: Gauntlet Match

This is a ten girl match where you have a regular gauntlet but it’s over the top until we get to the final two. Yep we’re having two battle royals. Kong debuted at Impact so she’s brand new here. We start with Ms. Brooks and Jackie. Good night WHY DOES SHE ALWAYS STAY AROUND? No one cares about her at all and she was always there. Quit shaking your chest because NO ONE WANTS TO SEE THEM.

Brooks gets a big boot to the side of the head of the annoying one but gets caught in a German suplex. Shelly Martinez is in third. Oh…these girls can’t do much. Kong comes in fourth and it’s on. Kong takes like 40 seconds to get to the ring out of a minute.

ODB comes in fifth as Jackie puts out Brooks but Kong just goes off, getting rid of Jackie (GO KONG!) and Martinez. Angelina Love (Angel Williams at this point) has the music, the looks and the stage pose already as she’s 6th. Christy comes in and is still amazing looking Kong beats the tar out of her with a rack where Christy’s feet almost hit her head. A Batista Bomb hits as Gail Kim is eighth.

Everyone gangs up on Kong as the medics take out Christy to eliminate her for the most part. The three in the ring get rid of Kong whose shirt flies up as Talia Madison (Velvet Skye) is ninth. Roxxi who is a voodoo chick with hair at this point is last. Love apparently went out off camera so we have four left: Roxxi, ODB, Gail and Velvet.

Gail puts out Velvet as we get a GREAT shot of her. ODB is out also and we have our one on one match. Gail gets an insane looking submission hold on Roxxi which was like a sideways Octopus Hold. Gail looks sexy in those shorts to put it mildly. They really make her look good. Roxxi botches a jackknife pin for two. Gail hits Finlay’s Celtic Cross to end it and win the title.

Rating: C-. Again, is there a reason to mix things up like they did here that I’m just not getting? Why not have an actual tournament rather than this weird hybrid thing? It wasn’t bad I guess but at the same time this just didn’t work like they wanted it to. This could have been a lot better as a simple one on one match but this just didn’t do it for me like they wanted it to. Not horrible though.

Nash tries to talk to Angle who is just getting ready with about 45 minutes before the match starts. Great to see him preparing like that. Nash can’t get him to drop the match and he won’t have his back tonight. Again more old guys talking about stuff that doesn’t make sense.

We recap Joe vs. Christian which is about respect apparently. And naturally we have something thrown in there as Matt Morgan is the guest referee.

Christian Cage vs. Samoa Joe

Morgan is the bodyguard of Cornette so that’s why he’s here. Not sure if that makes sense but whatever. Christian is a heel here if you’re wondering and has never been pinned or tapped in the company. Joe gets the big Samoan entrance with the fire dancing as he had on occasion. Long feeling out process to start us off as Christian plays the cowardly heel perfectly.

Finally Joe gets his in the corner and gets a lot of Face Washes but misses the running boot. He hits what we would call the Rough Ryder off the middle rope for two. All Joe so far. Joe chops him on the back which is something you don’t often see. Christian appears to be out cold on the apron. Joe is like screw it and hits a big old suicide dive to almost end Christian. ALL Joe for the first five minutes.

Morgan of course has had nothing to say so far. Joe kicks Christian into the barrier which more or less explodes as Christian FINALLY gets a counter to hit a DDT onto the floor and Joe is in trouble. He fights out of everything but still winds up on his back. Christian misses the splash and they slug it out. I think they’re going for the epic encounter here but it’s really not clicking like they want it to.

Morgan won’t let Christian leave so Joe again is like forget this and hits the flying fat man spinning corkscrew plancha to crush Christian. THIS is the Joe that was the hottest thing in the world when Kurt showed up to challenge him. Clutch and Unprettier are both reversed and Joe gets a Buckle Bomb. Christian gets a powerbomb out of the corner with feet on the ropes for two. This is rapidly getting awesome.

Clutch is countered again and we head up to the corner. A headbutt sends Christian to the floor and Joe is down in the ring. And here’s Tomko because we have to overbook this. Tomko goes at it with Morgan so AJ can sneak down. He goes for the forearm but Morgan makes the save. Morgan chases both of them off with a chair but Christian gets a low blow and the Unprettier for two.

Christian hooks on the Clutch but it only gets two arm drops and here comes the fat man. Muscle Buster hits and there’s the Clutch from the master of it and Christian taps for his first clean loss in the company.

Rating: B+. I really liked this as it was a rather competitive match. Both guys were out there working hard and this looked like a match that belonged on the biggest show of the year. I really liked the lack of actual interference as it tends to taint a match like this. This came off very well and it came off like a major match should. Good match.

And now let’s make sure to forget about the two guys that just had the match of the night to talk about Nash and Sting more. Why is Nash getting like four segments here when he’s not even wrestling tonight? He talks to Sting whose son Angle pushed or something. Nash says Angle is all he has and that’s all he can do to get back to the spotlight as he’s too banged up. This is idiotic.

We have to have the Monster’s Ball recap now because it’s a tradition here. I’m REALLY not a fan of having this here now as it’s such a letdown after seeing a very good match like we just did. Don’t believe me that it’ll be weak? Look at the lineup.

Raven vs. Rhyno vs. Black Reign vs. Abyss

Yeah it’s just a bit hardcore match in between the two big wrestling matches. Don’t you love the way this company books things? It just sounds like a stupid match. We get going before Abyss is here and scratch that as he’s here now. Raven takes down Abyss and here come more of the weapons. Rhyno puts a trash can between Reign’s legs and hits it with a golf club.

This match really is taking me out of the show as all of a sudden the match comes off as uninteresting and totally unimportant. Granted it might feel like that because that’s the situation. Rhyno misses a Gore and goes through some kind of wall and Rhyno is in trouble. Raven is busted open and drops a big elbow off the balcony onto Abyss to put him through a table.

Basically it’s down to Reign and Abyss who is more or less dead. Ok scratch that as Raven is back. Shattered Dreams to Raven and they cut away from the impact. Abyss brings in the tacks/glass but Goldie blocks him. Rhyno is back in now as almost everyone is busted open. Gore to Reign but Raven knocks out everyone with weapon shots.

Raven busts out the bag of stuff and here’s James Mitchell to yell at Raven. There are the glass and the tacks and of course since Raven laid them out he winds up going into them, this time through the means of the Black Hole Slam. And now the match is over. I still don’t care at all.

Rating: D. It came, it happened, you know what to expect here, Abyss gains nothing and the other three still mean nothing. Take us to the main event to get me back into this show now.

We talk about how both have history in Atlanta. Sting it’s more from a company based in Atlanta but whatever. This is nothing special but it gives a theme to stuff though. No mention of the son though.

TNA World Title: Sting vs. Kurt Angle

I guess Nash couldn’t make it to the match. What do you mean he was never in this? He’s gotten more camera time than anyone else tonight so how can he not be in the match? Angle is defending remember. Not that it means anything for the most part but figured it needed to be pointed out. Bit match intros are still fun no matter how many times we’ve heard them.

Big heat on Angle so he’s got that going for him at least. They feel each other out to start. One time they need to feel each other up to start just for a change of pace. They trade arm work and Sting keeps offering clean breaks. Sting outwrestles him a bit and Angle hits the floor to clear his head. His hip might be a bit hurt. Lot of feeling out process here so far with no one really getting an advantage at all.

They hit the floor and Angle’s bald head hits the table. Angle’s shoulder hits the post but he manages to get a German to get out of the Death Drop. Another belly to belly puts Sting down. Double clothesline puts both guys down though and we wait for Nash. Sting wins a striking contest as they crank it up again. Sting hits a spinebuster (???) for two.

A pair of splashes hit and a bulldog puts Angle down. Sting, ever the idiot, doesn’t go for a finisher but rather goes up top against Kurt Angle. After he comes crashing down Angle gets the Slam countered and we hit the Rolling Germans for two. Ankle lock goes on but Sting gets a Bret Hart caliber counter to hook the Scorpion. That was AWESOME looking.

And here’s Karen to screw things up because we have to have more people in the main event than usual. Nash comes in and lays out Sting as Karen is taken out. Angle Slam hits for two as the Nash/Karen thing proves to be relatively pointless. A top rope Sting splash misses as Angle gets the knees up for two.

Kurt goes up and busts out a 450! He completely misses Sting as in his toes didn’t even hit Sting but who cares about that as it looked COOL! Ankle Lock goes on but Sting rolls him into Nash. And down goes the referee as Sting hits the Death Drop. Why do they have to overbook it???

Another referee comes out and Nash breaks it up again. Dang it go away! He comes in and beats up Sting so Sting beats up both of those two. Angle gets the bat but Sting hits him with it instead and crotches Nash. Death Drop FINALLY ends this. And then he lost the title back to Angle TWO DAYS later and Angle held it until April when Joe won it. Yep that’s TNA for you.

Rating: C+. This was good but definitely not great. The Nash and Karen stuff was just a waste of time. What did Nash add to this match at all? The overbooking hurt what was otherwise a good match. Sting winning to end Angle’s very long reign was the right choice, although having him lose it the Impact after the followup show was stupid. Although then again this is TNA. Decent match though but not great at all.

Overall Rating: D+. Well it’s not horrible. That’s about as high as I can give it though as there were parts on here that were just bad. The biggest issue I have here: there were FIVE gimmick matches out of nine total and you could argue that Joe vs. Christian was one as well given the enforcer. That’s just WAY too high and is bordering on a WWE gimmick PPV. There were good moments here but they’re outweighed by the bad which drags this down. Not the worst show ever but not a great one at all.

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