Bound For Glory 2005
Date: October 23, 2005
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Attendance: 900
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Don West

It’s the biggest show of the year (I think it was back then at least) and the main event is Nash vs. Jarrett. In theory at least, as Nash has come down with his latest life threatening illness and has to back out. Therefore we’re going to shuffle the card around and have a ten man Gauntlet for the Gold with the winner immediately getting a shot at Jarrett. There’s a celebrity guest referee for the main event in UFC legend Tito Ortiz. Let’s get to it.

The opening video is about how this started a year ago at Victory Road and how hard they’ve all worked in the year since then. We actually see their voiceover guy who is a large black man. Tonight is their night.

Samoa Joe vs. Jushin Thunder Liger

Joe gets the full tribal entrance. Liger gets the streamers and offers a handshake but we cut to a shot of the NJPW owner so I don’t know if Joe shook it. The fans are behind Joe here and he runs Liger over a few times. Out to the floor and Liger takes over, hitting a big dive onto Joe. Back in Joe hits knees in the corner and the fans are split. A kick sets up a knee drop for two. Tenay talks about Monday Nitro as Joe hits a powerslam for two.

Now the fans are just chanting for Liger. I’m not sure why as Joe has been doing his usual stuff and isn’t acting like a heel or anything. Could it be because the fans change their minds faster than they can change a tire? Liger gets in a Liger Kick and hits a suplex for two. Considering the size difference that’s not bad. Frog Splash gets two. Liger’s palm thrust is avoided and Joe hits a kick to the head to take over. Joe’s superplex is countered into a powerbomb for two. A pair of palm thrusts get the same. Liger goes up but gets caught in the MuscleBuster and the Clutch ends this.

Rating: D+. That’s it? The match was ok but for something that they were building up as close to a dream match, I’d expect more than a seven minute match with Joe barely having to break a sweat. I’m glad that they brought in Liger who people at least know rather than some Japanese guy that about 1% of their audience could name. That’s a plus. The match was pretty lackluster though.

Clip from Fanfest this weekend. The fans saying they don’t want soap operas is amusing today.

We see two fans who won a contest and get to train at the NJPW Dojo before joining the Impact roster. I don’t recognize them.

Simon Diamond fires up the Diamonds in the Rough.

Diamonds in the Rough vs. Apolo/Sonny Siaki/Shark Boy

The Diamonds are Elix Skipper, David Young and Simon Diamond. Shark Boy and Diamond get us going. Diamond takes him down with some kicks and a clothesline for two. Sharky comes back but the Dead Sea Drop is countered. He bites the tights of Diamond and we’re in comedy match territory. Off to Skipper who is taken down almost immediately by a drop toehold. Things speed up a bit so it’s off to Apolo.

Apolo is more of a power guy and gets two off a Diamond Cutter. A spinning half nelson slam looks to get a pin but Diamond distracts the referee. Young comes in with some cheating and the Diamonds take over. Skipper stays in and hits a kind of spear for two. Apolo comes back with a one man 3D to put both of them down.

Double tag brings in Siaki and Young but everything breaks down. Apolo hits a TKO on Young (he LOVES Cutters apparently) and Shark Boy dives on Skipper. Young takes both of them out with a spinning dive and Apolo dives on everyone but Simon. Skipper and Siaki go inside and Elix throws Siaki to Young for the spinebuster and the pin.

Rating: D+. Just a six man here. Apolo was a guy that had some potential to him but he wound up going back to Puerto Rico (I think) soon after this. The Diamonds were a lower midcard heel team that never really went anywhere. This wasn’t much for the most part but fill in matches like this were regular for TNA in these days.

We get some clips from the pre-show, one of which being of an X-Division fourway and the other of Larry Z yelling at Raven, resulting in Rhyno yelling at Raven and goring him. This is about both of them wanting the world title shot later tonight.

Jarrett laughs about Nash having chest pains and says he doesn’t care who he faces tonight. Jeff either just got out of the shower or it’s about 200 degrees in the back. He says screw all of his potential opponents. Monty Brown comes in and wants Jeff to say screw him too. He can smell the fear in Jarrett. This goes on for awhile.

Lance Hoyt vs. Monty Brown

Hoyt fires off some shoulders to start and “hits” a flapjack (Brown rolled through it for some reason) and they head to the floor. Brown sends him into the steps and back inside but due to Monty yelling at the crowd, Hoyt hits a dive (literally bouncing off Brown as they hit the floor). Back in the ring and Monty chops away in the corner. Hoyt punches away in the same corner, and it’s punches > chops in this case. Brown is face first down on the mat but as Hoyt goes up, Brown is playing possum. Nice job.

Back to the floor and Monty suplexes him onto the mats. Back in, Hoyt hammers away but Brown throws him down with a belly to belly. Lance gets up and hits a big boot and his moonsault, which still can’t get a pin. I never remember that getting a win actually. Hoyt goes up but jumps into the Alpha Bomb (fallaway slam position but Brown throws them up into a powerbomb) for two. Hoyt hits either a Rock Bottom or a chokeslam for two. And never mind all that Hoyt offense because a Pounce ends it.

Rating: C. I kind of liked this actually. Brown was a power guy and he didn’t need to be anything more than that. On the other hand you have Hoyt who was agile and good, but for some reason they refused to let him beat anyone significant. This was a decent power match but again it really didn’t need to be on PPV. There was no reason given for this match happening that I caught either.

Quick video on Global Impact.

3 Live Kru says they’re together and will fight tonight. Billy Gunn pops up to offer his help to take out D’Amore. Truth likes the idea as does BG but Konnan says no and storms off.

3 Live Kru vs. Team Canada

It’s Roode, Young and A-1 here. Eric and Konnan get us going as Tenay gives us a history of the New Age Outlaws. Konnan speeds things up and counters a headscissors into an Alabama Slam. Roode tries to come in but only manages to get caught in a three man What’s Up. Roadie and Truth hit some punches and dance some more then stomp on Roode a bit.

It’s Roode vs. Truth now with a hip toss getting two for the rapper. The annoying fans are shouting/singing something. Now they’re chanting USA for the team with a Cuban on it. Kip James is sitting on the stage, drawing a New Age Outlaws chant. A-1 comes in to choke on Truth in the corner. Those dastardly Canadians double and even triple team and it’s off to Roode. Truth hits his spinning forearm and tags in Road Dogg who cleans Canadian house. Shaky knee gets two on Roode. In the calamity, D’Amore’s distraction lets Roode get in a hockey stick shot and Young pins BG.

Rating: D. These teams feuded FOREVER and it never seemed to end. It wound up being about the Outlaws and to be fair, that’s probably the best possible outcome. The Canadians would just kind of float around for awhile until I think they broke up right around June of 06. The Kru would break up soon enough after this.

Post match the Canadians hold Konnan for Billy to hit him with a chair but he beats up all of the Canadians with it. Konnan isn’t sure what to do now but the Kru celebrates despite losing.

Shane Douglas asks Larry Z who is getting the shot tonight. Larry says he has a lot of options but is waiting for a word from upper management.

We recap the #1 contender’s match for the X Title. It’s Ultimate X which Williams has had some success in. Bentley and Sabin are in there due to needing two more spots filled in here.

Petey Williams vs. Chris Sabin vs. Matt Bentley

Ultimate X, #1 contender’s match. Petey goes up but Sabin pulls him down and the faces (I think?) beat on him a bit. Williams counters a suplex from Sabin into one of his own but Bentley comes in with a kick to slow Petey down again. Wheelbarrow suplex puts Williams down again and Bentley goes up. Petey takes Matt down again but Traci’s (Bentley’s chick) rack distracts him. Matt goes up but Sabin pulls him down.

It’s Sabin vs. Bentley at the moment while D’Amore coaches Williams. Sabin picks Williams up and puts him in Razor’s Edge position, throwing him at Bentley in the corner. Sabin tries to climb but barely gets started before Bentley makes the save. We’re way too early in the match for a potential win anyway. Petey sends Bentley to the floor and hits a SWEET slingshot rana to put him down even further.

Everyone is back in now and Bentley hits a neckbreaker on Sabin and a cutter on Williams at the same time. Matt goes climbing but Sabin follows him and hooks a powerbomb to take both guys down in a painful looking move. Sabin gets caught in the Tree of Woe so Petey sings O Canada. Bentley pops up and dropkicks him off and out to the floor before going up. Sabin gets out of the Tree and shoves him down, before diving on both guys when the X was there for the grabbing because Sabin is an idiot.

Sabin goes up and Bentley dives at him with a shoulder block. That knocks Sabin down, but it knocks the X down as well. We more or less stop the match so that the crew can put the X up again with a ladder. The fans chant USE THE LADDER. Sabin and Bentley go up for the X but knock each other off. The X falls and Petey catches it, so TNA says screw the rules, Williams wins.

Rating: D+. The match was good, but there’s really no excuse for the ending. Put it up there again and have someone get it immediately or whatever, but COME ON. This was just freaking stupid and it makes the company look inept because they can’t get their own signature match right. Invest in some better tape guys.

We recap the tag title match. AMW interfered at a house show to get the title off of Raven and onto Jarrett again and then Jarrett helped AMW destroy Team 3D. Look up the funeral for Team 3D. It’s absolutely hilarious. AMW beat down the Naturals as well for the titles so tonight it’s about revenge as well as the belts for them.

Tag Titles: America’s Most Wanted vs. The Naturals

I can never remember which one is Stevens and which one is Douglas. It’s a big brawl on the floor to start with the Naturals in control. Ok Douglas has the bandage on his head. Got it. Storm gets powerbombed into the railing which looked SICK. The challengers get Harris in the ring and beat him down in the corner. Storm is walking out on the match. The Naturals go back and get him because it’s about revenge more than the titles. I can live with that if it’s done right and it has been here.

We’re over three minutes into this and there has been no tagging or one on one in the ring at all so far. Harris gets choked by both Naturals on the floor until they get bored and Douglas goes after Storm. Gail finally does something and distracts Douglas, allowing Storm to send him into the Ultimate X structure. Douglas’ cut is busted open now. Five minuets in now and they’re in the ring but it’s still 2-1.

Ok it’s FINALLY Storm vs. Douglas. Eye of the Storm gets two and Harris comes in without a tag. Stevens comes in after Douglas was in trouble for about a minute. Douglas is bleeding pretty good though so that likely has something to do with it. A Naturals double team gets two on Storm. The move that would later be named the Last Call misses and Stevens hits a kick of his own for two.

Gail throws in some powder to Harris but Chase Stevens knocks it into the Wildcat’s face. Harris hits the Catatonic (spinning Rock Bottom, his finisher) on Storm. The Naturals hit the Death Sentence on Harris but it only gets two. Gail breaks up the Natural Disaster (double team elevated Stunner) so Douglas goes to the floor and grabs her by the hair. The distraction lets Harris handcuff Douglas to the barricade. Stevens his an enziguri on Storm but Harris busts a bottle over Stevens’ head and the Death Sentence retains the title.

Rating: B. WOW. This was only about ten minutes long but they flat out DO NOT STOP the whole time. It’s a wild brawl and I bought into the revenge that the Naturals were wanting the whole way. The biggest criticism of the Naturals is that they have no charisma, but man they were bringing it here and the match WORKED. Very good stuff. AMW would hold the titles for over eight months until the dream team of Styles and Daniels took them away.

We recap the Monster’s Ball feud. It’s Abyss vs. Rhyno vs. Sabu vs. Raven. This is when they still had the idea that each guy was held without food, water, light or human contact before the match. That was a bonus deal for these matches in the early days but it was dropped I think after this one.

James Mitchell says that Abyss (who is behind him despite the rule being that he has to be released right before the match) will be ready because he’s used to being put through torture.

Rhyno vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Sabu vs. Abyss

WHOA WHOA WHOA. Rhyno was at the preshow remember? So they can’t even get their own rules straight. This is Monster’s Ball, which means it’s a wild brawl where anything goes. The power guys jump Hardy to start but Sabu pelts the chair at Abyss to get him off. Rhyno gets knocked to the floor and Sabu dives onto him as Hardy dives at Abyss. This is falls count anywhere. Abyss gets knocked to the floor and Hardy dives on him too.

The announcers say that they were released when the PPV began this evening. That’s fine for Abyss, BUT RHYNO WAS ON THE FREAKING PRESHOW!. All four go into the crowd and Sabu’s eye is busted open. Jeff dives off a balcony and takes Abyss down. They all get back to ringside and Hardy and Abyss go back into the ring. Sabu tries a dive off the apron but Rhyno moves to send Sabu crashing onto the floor.

Whisper in the wind puts Abyss down but the Twist is countered into Shock Treatment which gets one for Sabu. Rhyno hits Abyss and Sabu with a chair and then hits Abyss again. Hardy uses Sabu as Matt for Poetry in Motion so Sabu beats him down. If someone tried to make me into Matt Hardy, I’d probably do the same. Now it’s Rhyno again with a kendo stick to kill everyone. The Gore is countered into a chokeslam onto a chair for two.

Hardy pulls out a ladder which winds up being rammed into his chest by Abyss. Abyss sets up a table near Hardy by the stage and then another next to it. Sabu sets one up between the ring and the barricade as a platform. Jeff chairs Abyss down and Sabu hits a triple jump dive through Rhyno and through the table. Hardy climbs up on top of the set and dives over the stage through Abyss through the table. If he went too short on that, he would literally be dead.

Back in the ring Sabu loads up the triple jump moonsault but Rhyno hits him with the stick to break it up. The fans think this is awesome. The Gore hits a chair in the corner and Sabu hits the triple jump moonsault for two. Abyss and Hardy crawl back to the ring with Abyss setting up a table in the corner. Sabu throws a chair at him but gets thrown to the floor and through a table for his trouble. Here come the tacks but Abyss gets Gored through the table. Hardy prevents a cover but walks into the Rhyno Driver (middle rope piledriver) for the pin.

Rating: B. This was another wild brawl and in this case it worked very well. That Swanton was absolutely incredible but at the same time REALLY scary. Rhyno looked good but the match was really a group effort. Much like the TLC matches, sometimes you just throw people out there and tell them to be violent and it works. That’s what happened here.

Larry says there’s a ten man Gauntlet For The Gold for the title match and the participants will all have competed earlier tonight. Shane thinks that’s unfair to Jarrett.

We recap the Iron Man match between Styles and Daniels that Styles won in overtime. Daniels said he could beat any three X Division guys that Styles picked in 15 minutes. The first two went down so the third was Styles which resulted in a brawl. The result: Iron Man II.

X-Division Title: AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels

AJ is defending and it has a thirty minute time limit under Iron Man rules. Daniels jumps AJ before the bell and we’re off quickly. He controls for the opening minute and they trade chops, won by AJ. A backbreaker puts Daniels down and onto the floor but Daniels blocks AJ’s dive. Daniels hits some palm strikes but Styles dropkicks him down. Back to the floor and Daniels is knocked into the crowd. AJ dives over the barricade and both guys are down.

They head back inside and AJ controls with a headlock. Five minutes in and the fans say both guys are awesome. The headlock stays on for a few minutes but you have to burn some time in a match like this. Daniels rolls out of it and hooks an armbar. AJ fights out of it and sends Daniels into a few corners. A hard kick puts Daniels down as it’s been almost all AJ so far.

Bridging Indian Deathlock goes on and Daniels is in big trouble, so he bited AJ’s hands to escape. Ten minutes in now. Daniels heads to the apron but AJ clotheslines him back into the ring. Springboard forearm is countered into a high collar suplex to put both guys down. Daniels takes over and twists AJ’s neck around a bit. That can’t feel good. A tilt-a-whirl backbreaker gets two and it’s off to a neck crank by Daniels.

AJ grabs a cradle out of nowhere for two and then another one for another two. Koji Clutch out of nowhere has AJ in trouble. AJ tries to power out of it but goes right back down. Another power out attempt works and AJ makes the rope. Slingshot moonsault gets two on the champion. We’re halfway through and it’s 0-0. AJ escapes a backbreaker and hits his moonsault into a reverse DDT.

Hammerlock belly to back suplex gets two as does a pumphandle gutbuster. That’s a new one. AJ tries a moonsault but gets caught in a Death Valley Driver for a very close two. Daniels puts him on the middle rope and flips him forward into a mat slam for two. AJ counters a neckbreaker into one of his own for a slightly delayed two. AJ tries the moonsault DDT again but gets caught in a spinning powerbomb for two. BME STILL doesn’t get a fall as it only gets a two count.

Ten minutes to go and AJ puts on a torture rack and then spins it out into a slam for two. AJ dives into the corner but Daniels moves and knocks Styles to the outside where he lands on the steps. A BIG suicide dive destroys AJ but Daniels can’t follow up due to exhaustion. As they come back in, AJ hits the Pele to knock Daniels back to the floor at 8 minutes to go. Another BIG flip dive takes Daniels out and both guys are down.

Seven minutes to go and both guys are down on the floor. As they get back in, Daniels blocks a suplex back inside and hits a belly to back suplex from the apron to the floor. That was pretty awesome, much like this match. Six minutes left and it’s still zero to zero. They’re both back in with five minutes to go. Scratch that as Daniels kicks AJ out of the ring before he was all the way in.

With about 4:25 to go they slug it out in the middle of the ring with AJ taking a slight advantage. Four minutes left. AJ has a big bruise on his leg. Small package gets two for the champion. Pele misses and Daniels rolls him up for two. AJ does the same and gets the same. Daniels hits a German suplex but AJ pops up and hits a discus lariat before collapsing. Under three minutes to go now.

AJ falls on top for two and we have two minutes left. Daniels channels his inner Piper and pokes AJ in the eye. That gets him nowhere because AJ gets to the apron and hits a springboard cross body for two despite a handful of tights. 90 seconds left and they trade forearms. The fans are split here. One minute to go and Daniels blocks a suplex. AJ kicks him in the head again but it only gets two. Daniels kicks him in the head but the Angel’s Wings are countered into a suplex for two. AJ hits the Clash with two seconds left for the only fall and the win. WOW that was a hot ending.

Rating: A. The only way to make this better would have been to say AJ loses the title in a tie. Still though, GREAT match here and pretty easily the best match I’ve ever seen these two have. That’s some pretty awesome timing too with AJ getting the pin literally with two seconds left. I know I complain about AJ and Daniels a lot, but back then it was great, with this being the best I’ve ever seen from them.

Gauntlet For The Gold

This is kind of like the Royal Rumble as everyone comes in after I think a minute and it’s over the top eliminations. The winner gets Jarrett immediately thereafter. Joe and Truth are the first two entrants. Oh ok these two go for two minutes and then every entrant is one minute. Got it. Truth dances for about 20 seconds to make fun of the Polynesian dance stuff earlier.

There’s no contact until 46 seconds in when Joe punches him in the face. Off to some Facewashes and the running boot. Truth pulls himself to the top and hits a Blockbuster. Downward Spiral puts Joe down and #3 is Sabu who can barely walk. He falls through the middle and bottom rope but has a chair. He BLASTS Truth with it and hits the triple jump moonsault on the same. Air Sabu hits Joe. Remember that there are only one minuet intervals from now on.

Joe throws the chair at Sabu’s legs and Lance Hoyt is in at #4. Joe no sells Hoyt’s punches but can’t no sell a big boot. Abyss is #5 who cleans house and has a staredown with Joe. They chop it out and Abyss grabs him for a chokeslam. Joe grabs HIM for a chokeslam, which is why Joe is awesome. And then Truth breaks it up because he likes to annoy me. Jeff Hardy is #6 and Sabu is busted open. No one has been eliminated yet.

Monty Brown is #7 and he’s limping for some reason. He Pounces Sabu and throws Hardy to the apron, but Hardy pulls him along with him to eliminate both guys. Abyss is almost out but he fights everyone off. #8 is Rhyno who also can barely walk. All of the Monster’s Ball people are in this. Rhyno easily clotheslines Hoyt out and we have five in and two still to go. Kip James (who didn’t wrestle earlier) is #9 and he cleans house. Fameasser to Abyss and AJ is somehow #10, meaning no Raven which is a surprise.

So we have Kip, AJ, Abyss, Joe, Sabu, Truth and Rhyno. AJ goes right after Abyss because he’s just that kind of guy. Apparently Sabu went out off camera somewhere so it’s down to six. Joe pounds on Kip and is the big crowd favorite. Things slow down a bit until AJ hits a big jumping kick to the head of I think Truth. Truth is put onto the apron but he hangs on. Kip charges like an idiot and goes out to get us down to five.

Pele puts Truth down and everyone is down. Abyss talks to Truth, calling him Ronnie. AJ throws Truth over but Kip holds him up from hitting the floor. And never mind as he goes out anyway. So it’s Rhyno, Abyss, AJ and Joe. There’s a solid tag match in there somewhere. AJ somehow explodes on Joe with forearms but gets caught in the choke next to the ropes. Abyss eliminates them both and apparently you win by over the top. Usually it’s a one on one match when it gets down to two. Gore to Abyss and Rhyno tosses him for the quick win.

Rating: C-. Considering that these guys had all fought tonight this wasn’t half bad. AJ had to be gassed after having to stop for about 10 minutes and then start up again. Raven belonged in there instead of freaking Billy Gunn but I think that was part of his feud with management so it made sense I guess. Still though, it was relatively short and the minute time limits weren’t so bad because there weren’t that many people in it.

NWA World Title: Rhyno vs. Jeff Jarrett

Tito Ortiz is guest referee. Jarrett brings out a casket for no apparent reason. He jumps Rhyno before the belt even comes off and hits a dropkick to put Rhyno down. Out to the floor and Rhyno gets rammed into the announce table and then the casket. Back in a top rope clothesline puts Rhyno down again. He’s had zero offense at all so far. Another top rope clothesline puts the challenger down again so Jeff goes up a third time. Rhyno catches him in chokeslam position but instead throws Jeff into the air and kicks him in the balls.

Gail Kim comes out as the Gore misses. Gail goes up but jumps into the arms of Tito. She tries to slap him so she gets placed on the apron. Guitar shot misses but the second one hits Rhyno square in the face. Rhyno is busted open but it only gets two. Jarrett yells at Ortiz and AMW comes out. There’s another guitar but Ortiz drills both members of AMW. Rhyno Gores Jarrett down and pins him out of nowhere in I think his second offensive move of the match.

Rating: C. The match was nothing great but at the same time, this was Rhyno’s third match of the night and second in a row, plus there was no story to the match but that’s certainly beyond TNA’s control in this case. The match only ran about six minutes and Tito didn’t have much to do with it but again I’m assuming it made more sense with Nash in there. All things considered, this wasn’t bad.

Post match AMW runs in to beat Rhyno down as Tito is gone. The 3 Live Kru runs down for the save so Team Canada comes in as well. The casket is brought into the ring and Rhyno takes another guitar shot to the head. They shut him into the casket and Jarrett holds up the belt. Team 3D returns and cleans house along with the Kru. Only Eric Young is left so he gets the 3D and gets thrown into the casket. Rhyno and company celebrate to end the show. This was a REALLY bad choice for an ending, but again I’m assuming it was for Nash where it would have made better sense. That being said, DON’T DO IT IN THIS CASE.

Overall Rating: B+. This worked really well overall and when you considered the ending of the show had to be completely rewritten because of Nash’s life threatening medical condition of the month, it was solid. Rhyno’s title reign wound up meaning nothing because he lost the title at the next taping, but for a nice surprise ending it worked pretty well.

The middle part of this show, as in from the tag titles through the Iron Man, is EXCELLENT and the opening part isn’t that bad. The Ultimate X match is solid other than the awful ending and the longest of the first four matches is 7:15 long so they hardly cripple the show. Very good show and I can see why people were so hyped about TNA at this point.

Remember to like this on Facebook and follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

Impact Wrestling
Date: May 24, 2012
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

It’s Open Fight Night II and the world title is going to be on the line tonight. There are four candidates and presumably we’ll have a fourway match to determine Roode’s opponent. Other than that, we have (I think) another Gut Check Challenge deal, which hopefully has a better outcome than last time. Let’s get to it.

We open with Hogan in his office with the four possible opponents for Roode. He shows them a copy of the script for tonight and says that according to what it says, he’s supposed to explain the concept of Open Fight Night. This devolves into a debate about what would happen if Roode becomes the longest reigning world champion. Hogan talks about the evolution of the company and how they need to change the way things are done.

They need to explain why they should get the title shot tonight. You know, instead of competing for it in the ring. Ray talks about how he’s the most legit because people fear him because of a possible shoot. Hulk asks Angle if that’s true and Angle says Ray doesn’t intimidate him. AJ says that he’s been around longer than anyone else including Roode.

Angle says that he beat AJ in their last match so he should get the shot (that makes sense). Kurt asks Jeff why he should get the shot. Is it because everyone loves him? Jeff: “Your son does.” Hogan says that Roode has to be stopped because he’s taking over the company. He thinks that AJ, Jeff and Angle can beat him but he knows Ray can beat him, so Ray is out of the running. Ray says Eric was right about Hogan and leaves, taking us to the opening sequence.

Here are Gail and Madison to open the show. Gail talks about how great she is. We look in the back to see mostly men and Angelina watching. ODB is there too but I wasn’t sure what category to put her in. Madison is checking her hair in this. Gail says she’s the most important woman in the company but there’s a blemish on her resume. She doesn’t like the Knockout Tag Titles being on a man and a thing though. So tonight, she and Madison are calling out ODB and Eric for the titles.

Eric Young/ODB vs. Gail Kim/Madison Rayne

This is non-title. Gail and Eric start and trade wristlocks. Eric picks her up and literally drops her before tagging in ODB who chest bumps Gail down. She knocks Madison to the floor and we take a break. Back with Gail working on ODB as Madison looks bored. Madison comes in for some covers and a lot of screaming. ODB spears her down and makes the tag. Time to strip and Eric slams both girls. ODB tells him to put his pants on and it’s back to her. Running powerslam gets two on Gail but the Bam is escaped. ODB loads up a fallaway slam but Madison trips her up and holds her feet for the pin at 9:46.

Rating: D+. You know, it’s AMAZING how much more bearable Young is when he’s not being all zany. Then he took his pants off and it was the same stuff we’ve seen a million times from him. The match wasn’t bad, but is there a reason it wasn’t for the titles? If you’re going to challenge a champion, challenge them for their belts.

Hogan is on the phone and someone says they’re coming.

Here’s RVD who has a small cut under his right eye. He has unfinished business so Gunner, get out here.

Gunner vs. Rob Van Dam

We get an explanation of why this match is happening: Gunner hurt Van Dam in JANUARY. On one hand, points for giving it some closure. On the other hand, did anyone really remember that? Gunner throws in a chair to start things but the referee kicks it into the corner. He takes Van Dam down but when he whips him into the corner, van Dam comes back with a spin kick. Van Dam hits one of the longest Five Stars I’ve EVER seen for the pin at 2:50. This was a step above a squash.

Here’s D-Von who says he’s a fighting champion. Joseph Park is watching in the crowd. D-Von credits Garrett Bischoff for eliminating him last week and offers him a TV Title match tonight.

TV Title: Garrett Bischoff vs. D-Von

D-Von takes him down with a headlock but misses a headbutt to give us a stalemate. And here are the Robs for the DQ at 1:50.

Garrett and D-Von clear the ring. Seriously, with the roster they have is there NO ONE but E and T that can fight D-Von?

Time for another elimination. Hulk talks about Angle having a game face and being Olympic crazy. Jeff has a lot of fans that love him. Angle says that if you want the athlete, pick AJ. If you want the popular one pick Hardy. If you want the best, pick him. That’s a good line. Somehow this results in Jeff’s elimination because his victories have been too close.

We get the same video from Sacrifice which is the news reel kind of deal about Abyss and Joseph Park.

Here’s Ray, who apparently sent a text to Tazz saying that he was livid. He’s tired of hearing about Joseph Park but he hears he’s here tonight. Park is in the crowd eating a box of popcorn. Ray calls him in for a fight but Joseph says that he’s not a fighter. Park says he’s never been in a fight and that he’s intimidated. The fans chant YES. Park talks about how he’s defended people that are guilty and not-guilty. The fans chant guilty and Chris talks about how in Article X of the US Constitution (which doesn’t exist) Ray is entitled to a trial by a jury of his peers. The fans can be the jury and they decide guilty, so Ray takes him out.

Joey Ryan, the Gut Check contestant tonight, talks about growing up a wrestling fan.

Austin Aries vs. Joey Ryan

Ryan looks like Ben Stiller trying to look like a 70s action star. His tights say Hollywood and he slaps Aries before heading to the floor. Aries dives on him and they head back in. I think Ryan is supposed to be a 70s actor or something. Aries takes him down with a spinning forearm but Ryan comes back with a pumphandle suplex for two. Aries hits the running dropkick in the corner followed by the brainbuster for the pin at 4:06.

Rating: C. Not bad but WAY better than Silva. Ryan has charisma but his ring work is only ok. Since apparently wrestling doesn’t matter as much as talking to Hogan anymore though he should be fine. Apparently he’s a bigger deal on the indy circuit so that’s probably why I’ve only heard his name in passing. Not bad but I’d like to see these Gut Check guys WIN. It might actually make me believe they belong.

Moment #6 is Sting beating Hogan at BFG and Hogan Hulking Up to save it.

It’s 10:20 and Roode is coming out for the main event. AJ and Angle come out first to determine who the #1 contender is. Hogan comes out and says it doesn’t matter who he picks because either is a great choice. Hogan picks AJ because he knows Roode better.

TNA World Title: AJ Styles vs. Bobby Roode

It’s 10:25 so this has the potential to be the longest Impact match in…..dang years probably. AJ sets for his drop down/dropkick spot but Roode avoids the kick. AJ sends him in again and this time it knocks Roode to the floor as we take a break. Back with AJ getting knocked to the floor and sent shoulder first into the post. Roode has apparently demanded a celebration if he wins tonight, because he’ll secure the longest reign in title history. I knew they weren’t giving this 35 minutes.

Roode works on the arm for a good while until AJ breaks the hold and sends him to the floor. There’s a HUGE chest extending dive to the floor as AJ is looking at……someone the camera doesn’t bother to show us. Roode uses the distraction to hiptoss Styles onto the steps which gets two in the ring. Hogan is watching in the back and we take another break. Back with Roode hitting a suplex and knee drop for two. Roode stays on the shoulders but AJ fights out of the hold with a right hand.

Styles tries a springboard move but Roode drops him onto the top rope throat first. Roode walks into a shoulder block and the springboard forearm gets two. Missile dropkick gets the same. The Clash is countered but AJ counters the catapult into a moonsault, but gets speared down for two. Crossface goes on but AJ rolls through for two. Bridging Indian Deathlock has Roode in trouble but he makes the rope. AJ tries to speed things up but gets caught in a spinebuster and fisherman’s suplex for two. Pele puts Roode down but AJ looks to the entrance again, making the 450 hit knees. Fisherman’s suplex pins Styles at 21:30.

Rating: B. Good stuff here and for awhile I was thinking there was a chance AJ could win. On a side note, it says a lot that I didn’t remember what Roode’s finisher was until about halfway through the match. I really would have liked to see a match determine who fought Roode but this is a talking company so it doesn’t really matter. This was very good though.

Daniels and Kaz were on the stage, but we didn’t see them until after the match.

Roode says it’s time to celebrate and wants his champagne. He wants another glass though and calls out Hogan. After a break we get confetti and Roode rolls around in it. Hogan comes out and drinks some champagne. He says he was proven wrong and Roode has done some impressive things. Hogan’s surprise guest is Sting, who is back after being gone again. Sting pops up behind Roode and beats him up. Starting next week the show is live and at 8pm. Next week, Roode can’t run away because at 8pm at the start of the show, it’s a lumberjack match with Roode vs. Sting.

Overall Rating: B-. It was certainly better than last month’s Open Fight Night, but the problem again here is nothing has actually happened in the first two shows. Yeah Sting is back, but that could have happened on any episode. Also is that where we’re going again? Sting vs. Roode? The main event was good and the Gut Check guy was ok, but they need to either have the Gut Check guy win once or have someone win a title on these specials, because otherwise they’re going to lose their appeal fast. Good show overall though.

Results
Gail Kim/Madison Rayne b. ODB/Eric Young – Kim pinned ODB while Rayne held her feet
Rob Van Dam b. Gunner – Five Star Frog Splash
D-Von vs. Garrett Bischoff went to a no contest when Robbie E and Robbie T interfered
Austin Aries b. Joey Ryan – Brainbuster
Bobby Roode b. AJ Styles – Fisherman’s Suplex

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Flair, spending too much money and partying too much? You don’t say!

Can’t blame Shelley. He’s basically been made to sit around since Sabin got hurt and now that he’s back they’ve been a guest on Hogan’s Reality Show and that’s about it. He can make far more money in the WWE midcard anyway.

Thoughts on this?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rob Van Dam vs. Bully Ray

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

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

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

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

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

Battle Royal

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anderson looks at a video and thinks Jeff kicked out.

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

Mr. Anderson vs. Jeff Hardy

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

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

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

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

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

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

Slammiversary video.

Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe

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

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

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

The four challengers surround Roode to end the show.

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

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

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This is one of the things that people have said that TNA needs for years now. I’m not sure if that’s going to make it better but it definitely makes it more interesting.

Thoughts on this?

Sacrifice 2012
Date: May 13, 2012
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

Time for another filler PPV from the boys in Orlando. The card here is better than the Victory Road show but it’s definitely a B show at best. The main event is Roode vs. RVD for the title and we’ll likely get more developments in the return of Abyss story as well. To be fair though, that’s one of the most interesting stories they’ve had in awihle. Let’s get to it.

The opening video is about how Roode is angry about recent events.

Tag Titles: Samoa Joe/Magnus vs. Kazarian/Christopher Daniels

The announcers talk about how awesome Magnus is. He and Daniels start with the British guy in control. Daniels gets in an elbow in the corner but a cross body is countered into a suplex in a cool power display. Off to Joe and Daniels runs away, bringing in Kaz. A big elbow puts Kaz down and it’s off to Magnus. The champions use some good teamwork to beat on Kaz but Daniels trips up Magnus to shift control.

Magnus plays Ricky Morton with a British accent. Both challengers work on him a little bit at a time until it’s chinlock time from Daniels. Joseph Park is in the audience. Kaz hooks a double chickenwing but Magnus fights up and hits a shoulder block to escape. There’s the tag to Joe who cleans house and creates heel miscommunication. Release Rock Bottom puts Daniels down out of the corner.

Daniels breaks up the champions’ finishing move with a boot to Joe’s face. A DDT gets two on Joe as does the STO. Magnus gets in a shot to allow the champions to hit the finishing sequence on Daniels but Kaz pulls Magnus to the floor. Joe goes for the save and Magnus goes back in, but the challengers hit a Total Elimination on Magnus for the surprise pin and the titles at 10:54.

Rating: C. Pretty good opening but the ending was pretty surprising. I guess there’s a reason to give the titles to Daniels/Kaz, but the division is still pretty weak given the roster of tag teams at this point. Joe and Magnus were getting good together and I’m sure they’ll get a title shot again but odds are on AJ finding a partner and going after them.

Tenay and Taz plug their social media stuff.

We recap Brooke vs. Gail. In short: Gail is a wrestler, Brooke is a model who looks good in a bikini but she wants to prove she can fight. Brooke has three wins in a row over Gail coming into this.

Knockouts Title: Brooke Tessmacher vs. Gail Kim

Gail jumps Brooke to start but Tessmacher tries Eat Defeat twice to send Gail running to the floor. Gail gets in a kick to the ribs to take over and follows with a shoulder block to the ribs. The champion hits a backbreaker and bends Brooke over the knee in a submission hold out of the same position.

It’s about 99% Kim until Brooke gets a flying forearm to get herself a breather. A facejam out of the corner puts Gail down and a top rope elbow gets two. The champion tries a quick Eat Defeat but Brooke hits one of her own which knocks Gail to the floor. Back inside that gets two. And then Gail rolls her up with feet on the ropes to retain at 6:50.

Rating: C-. Not bad here but Tessmacher continues to be just barely better than your normal terrible women’s wrestler. Anyone that believes she’s out there because of anything other than how she looks in her wrestling outfits is delusional. Still though, I’d have switched the title due to how long Gail has had the title and how stale her title reign has gotten.

Kaz and Daniels say that AJ got where he is by whistling Dixie. Kaz and Daniels are where they are because they beat people up. Daniels says his championship is proof. This is just beginning with AJ and you may now worship them.

TV Title: D-Von vs. Robbie E vs. Robbie T

Officially it’s a triple threat. D-Von punches T to the floor and then punches E down. A Rock Bottom gets two on E but T pulls the champion to the floor. E gets back up and tells T to stand down because he’s got this. Powerslam gets two for E. D-Von comes back and knocks E to the floor but T catches him with a shot to the back. Powerslam gets two as E makes the save. Extra and Terrestrial get in a shoving match, allowing D-Von to roll up T to retain at 5:40.

Rating: D+. This feud MUST be over now right? It’s been going on for like four months now and for the life of me I don’t get why it’s continued this long. Are there really no other people that can get in on the TV Title hunt? Nothing to see here but hopefully it ends this feud once and for all.

T teases attacking E post match but they’re ok.

We recap Anderson vs. Hardy. Basically they both wanted to be #1 contender but got in a fight instead. RVD got the shot so these two need something to do.

Mr. Anderson vs. Jeff Hardy

Feeling out process to start resulting in some armdrags by Hardy into an armbar. They head to the floor with Jeff in control and Anderson going into various metal objects. Jeff tries a running attack off the steps but Anderson moves. Jeff blocks the contact into the railing though and therefore doesn’t lose control. Back in Anderson kicks him down but gets caught by a jawbreaker from Jeff.

Jeff tries the slingshot dropkick in the corner but Anderson gets his own feet up to block it. Clothesline gets two as does a flying armbar. Hardy rolls to the apron and tries to fight back but gets caught by a neckbreaker through the ropes for two. Anderson hooks the arm again but Jeff fights to his feet. Another neckbreaker is countered and Jeff hits a Mic Check to put both guys down.

Anderson is up first but Jeff meets him with right hands. Hardy loads up Whisper in the Wind but Anderson moves forward to send Hardy crashing down. Twist of Fate from Anderson gets two but the Kenton Bomb misses. The Swanton connects but only for two. In a really strange ending, Hardy tries his legdrop between Anderson’s legs but Anderson shoves Hardy’s legs back and rolls him up for the pin, but I was almost sure Hardy kicked out. Either way it gets the pin at 11:40.

Rating: C-. This was supposed to be a big main event style match but it didn’t work at all for me. Anderson is just so uninteresting in the ring and for the life of me I don’t get why he went over Hardy here. I guess the ending is going to be a selling point later on as Hardy pretty clearly kicked out and he protested after the match, but we’ll have to wait for Impact for that.

Aries says he isn’t worried about Ray tonight. He thinks better is better than bigger, and that the bullying stops tonight.

We get a video from the end of Impact where Abyss returned.

Joseph Park is in the crowd and is having a great time. He says he didn’t see Abyss return on Thursday because he was recovering from Ray attacking him. Abyss might appear tonight too.

Crimson comes out to brag about beating Morgan on Thursday. He issues an open challenge and here’s who he gets.

Crimson vs. Eric Young

I didn’t hear a bell and it’s time for COMEDY! Eric locks up with the referee and does Ultimo Dragon’s handstand in the corner. A clothesline puts Crimson on the floor, although I never heard a bell. Crimson throws him to the floor to take over and a suplex gets two. There’s the cravate and Eric gets shoved down. ODB gets in and gets shoved down which ticks Eric off. And there go his pants. He slams Crimson down and drops a top rope elbow for no cover. Eric goes to check on ODB but Crimson shoves him into the wife and Red Sky gets the pin at 4:00.

Rating: D. What does anyone see in either of these guys? Eric IS NOT FUNNY. He does the same stuff every single week and it just isn’t funny. Hey look: he can take his pants off and lock up with a referree. COMEDY! Crimson is the most uninteresting undefeated name this side of Tatanka as it’s clear they have no idea what they’re doing with him.

Ray says that he doesn’t do Twitter and plugs his MySpace page. He’s too big for Aries to beat too.

We recap Aries vs. Ray, which is victim vs. Bully with the victim fighting back.

Bully Ray vs. Austin Aries

Ray goes into a nearly Memphis level of stalling until Aries jumps him. Taz uses the time to actually offer some veteran analysis, talking about how it’s possible for a smaller guy to use leverage moves against bigger guys like Ray. Aries pounds away on him but gets shoved down. Ray tries to stomp him but Aries bites the calf to escape. Aries goes up but a big boot knocks him into the barricade in a cool looking bump.

Oh man Aries has some bad looking bruises on his back which Tazz calls busted blood vessels. Ray slams him down and puts on a bearhug before hitting a HARD chop to the chest. Aries pops up and says hit me again which Ray does. Aries tries to come back but gets chopped down again. Ray says stay down but Aries comes back with chops. A running elbow in the corner hits Ray but he comes back with a modified powerbomb for two. Ray sends him into the ropes and hits a wicked one man 3D but it only gets two.

Here comes Joseph Park to the front row and Ray comes out to get in his face. He pulls Park over the railing and into ringside but Aries takes Ray down with a suicide dive. Back in the ring a missile dropkick sends Ray into the corner and Aries somehow pulls off the brainbuster for two. Ray tries a superbomb out of the corner but falls on his face, allowing Aries to throw on the Last Chancery for the tap at 13:17.

Rating: B. Good match here and it’s good that they gave Aries the win. There was no need to have Ray get a win here and for awhile I was thinking they were going to go with him. On a side note, that one man 3D is a great finisher for Ray as it looks devastating. Anyway, good win for Aries here but he needs to get rid of that belt soon. It’s not helping him anymore and it kills the division a little more every day he has it.

We recap the pictures being revealed on Monday.

AJ says he isn’t here to talk about pictures.

We recap Angle vs. Styles. Angle beat Styles because AJ was distracted by Daniels and the photos he had and Angle didn’t want to win that way. This is his rematch.

AJ Styles vs. Kurt Angle

Angle is pretty much a tweener now as he doesn’t really have an allegiance to either side of the spectrum. AJ takes it to the mat which goes to a standoff. Now Angle takes it to the mat and AJ bails. Angle has lowered his kneepad and tells AJ to shoot for the leg. AJ outsmarts him though and kicks Angle in the face as Angle drops down into defense. Angle hooks a bearhug and tries a suplex but Styles counters into a Styles Clash attempt which is countered into an ankle lock attempt which doesn’t work.

Angle takes over with a headlock which lasts for awhile. Styles comes out of it and drops a knee. Styles Clash is broken up again and they head to the floor. AJ counters a suplex by landing on his feet and takes Angle down with a clothesline. In the ring AJ misses a jumping attack in the corner and Kurt suplexes him down. AJ fights out of a body vice but runs into a backbreaker for two.

Off to a chinlock as this match slows way down. AJ gets up and both guys try cross bodies. Styles speeds things up and hits an AA into a backbreaker for two. Springboard forearm gets two. Angle blocks the Clash but gets sent to the floor. AJ hits the springboard forearm to the floor and both guys are down. Kurt suplexes him from the apron into the ring for two.

A belly to belly superplex is countered but Angle runs the ropes and hits the superplex for two. Angle Slam is countered with the Pele and the Styles Clash gets two. Kurt reverses a German into a release one of his own to put both guys down. Styles gets a spinning rollup for two but Kurt pulls off an Angle Slam. That gets two and Kurt is frustrated. Kurt pushes A+B at the same time and gets two off a Styles Clash. The moonsault misses and AJ hits his springboard 450 for two. AJ sets for something else and here are Kaz and Daniels for the interference, allowing Angle to hit another Slam for two. Ankle and grapvine end this at 20:45.

Rating: B. First and foremost, AJ and Angle had a good match. No one paying attention should be surprised at this at all. That being said, I do not want to ever see Christoper Daniels vs. AJ Styles again. I don’t care what the angle is, I don’t care what new twist they put on it, I don’t care how it turns out. I’m tired of seeing it and there’s no reason to put them together anymore. They’ve feuded on and off for over seven years now and I’m not interested in seeing it anymore.

Angle saves Styles from the double beatdown. There’s Slammiversary I’d assume.

Angle’s moonsault at Lockdown against Anderson is the #8 moment in TNA history.

Roode doesn’t feel right because he doesn’t have his belt with him. It’s above the ring and he doesn’t like it.

We recap Roode vs. RVD. RVD won a match to get the title match then won another one to make it a ladder match. That’s about it.

TNA World Title: Rob Van Dam vs. Bobby Roode

Ladder match. The belt looks higher up than it usually is. Van Dam knocks him to the floor to start and goes for the ladder, but Roode breaks it up. Van Dam comes back and hits the spinning kick to the back of Roode on the barricade. Van Dam goes for the ladder again but gets caught in a DDT for Roode to take over. Rob comes back with a flip dive to the floor to put Roode down. This is pretty slow paced to start but it’s not bad.

The ladder gets set up in the corner and Roode goes face first into it. Now it gets placed on the middle rope and Roode slingshots RVD’s face into it. Roode’s suplex onto the ladder is blocked and Van Dam suplexes Roode onto the ladder instead. A Lionsault onto Roode onto the ladder puts both guys down. Van Dam sends him back first into the ladder and puts him in Van Terminator position.

Instead he surfboards the chair into the ladder into Roode which puts Van Dam down as well for some reason. Van Dam gets another ladder and goes up but Roode knocks him off. Rob bumps into the ladder to knock Roode off and the ladder hits Roode in the head. I think he’s ok though as he clotheslines Van Dam down and hits the spinebuster onto the ladder. Van Dam comes out of nowhere with a monkey flip to send Roode into the ladder in the corner, followed by Rolling Thunder.

The challenger has a nasty cut and lump on his elbow. Bad elbow and all he kicks Roode onto a ladder but the Five Star misses Roode and hits the ladder. Roode goes up and Van Dam tries to pull a Shelton Benjamin and jump onto the ladder but he misses and ties his leg up in it. Somehow he manages to climb up to chase Roode, only to get shoved off and hit his head on the chair from earlier. Roode retains at 15:28.

Rating: C+. This was fine but it was nothing great at all. I don’t think most people expected RVD to take the title here, as he was the veteran in this kind of match coming into his own match so of course he had no chance. The match was entertaining enough for a B-Show main event, but Van Dam was nothing but a placeholder to be another guy for Roode to beat.

Overall Rating: B-. This was pretty much what I was expecting: a decent show where nothing significant happens at all (on paper at least). That’s what plagued Lockdown (among other things): nothing changed. TNA has been in the same place for awhile now and that’s not a good thing. They need to shake things up a little bit, and I think that’ll happen at Slammiversary. It was an entertaining show but it’s nothing I’ll remember three days from now.

Results
Kazarian/Christopher Daniels b. Samoa Joe/Magnus – Total Elimination to Magnus
Gail Kim b. Brooke Tessmacher – Rollup with feet on the ropes
D-Von b. Robbie E and Robbie T – Rollup to Robbie T
Mr. Anderson b. Jeff Hardy – Rollup
Crimson b. Eric Young – Red Sky
Austin Aries b. Bully Ray – Last Chancery
Kurt Angle b. AJ Styles – Ankle Lock
Bobby Roode b. Rob Van Dam – Roode pulled down the title

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The show is officially later tonight and as usual I can barely remember most of the card.I’ll go with Roode to retain.  It’s a filler main event, but I don’t see any reason for him to lose the title.

Anderson over Hardy.  I flipped a coin.
AJ to lose to Angle due to being all messed up.

Now I have to look at the list of matches because that’s all I can remember.

The Robs take the title somehow because this feud hasn’t gone on long enough.

I’ll take the tag champs to retain.  They’re facing Daniels/Kaz.  I don’t remember hearing about it either.

Tessmacher to take the title.

Finally I’ll go with Aries over Ray because of Abyss.

Overall the show is 100% filler, although it looks better than Victory Road, but that isn’t saying much.

Thoughts/Predictions?

Impact Wrestling
Date: May 10, 2012
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

It’s the go home show for Sacrifice and I don’t think much has been announced for the show. It’ll probably be more about RVD vs. Roode which hasn’t been built up all that well for the most part. I mean the material is there but it hasn’t really grabbed me yet. Either way the match is set for Sunday and it should be entertaining enough. Let’s get to it.

Here’s Roode to open the show and say his usual stuff. I’m sure you know this speech by now. He took out Anderson, Hardy and RVD last week because he’s the champion and that’s what he does. He’ll be the longest reigning champion in 14 days and no one can stop him, especially not RVD on Sunday.

Cue RVD for a brawl with Roode going to the floor. RVD holds up the belt and Anderson comes out to beat up Roode too. Hardy comes in and it’s a 3-1 beatdown. Hardy and Anderson get in a fight because that’s what they do. Cue Hogan who has an idea for a fatal fourway tonight with everyone in the brawl in it. If Anderson or Hardy win, they get the RVD’s title match. If Roode wins, he can pick which of the three he wants to face. If RVD wins, he gets to pick the stipulation. RVD says cool let’s do it. Well at least it plays up to the Sacrifice name. Too bad this is IMPACT and not Sacrifice.

Ray isn’t worried about the tiny man known as Austin Aries. He says he’s going to take care of Aries tonight so stay tuned.

Gail is panicking about her match with Brook while Madison gets ready. Madison wants to look perfect for some guy but won’t say who.

Velvet Sky vs. Brooke Tessmacher

Velvet sends her to the corner and shakes her hips. Brooke sends her to the corner and shakes her hips. Ok then. They do some basic stuff until Brooke knocks her into the corner and uses her hips to ram Velvet’s face. Velvet comes back and hits a basement dropkick but In Yo Face is countered. Brooke hits a drop toehold to send her into the buckle and that belly to back mat slam for the pin at 3:42.

Rating: D-. This was REALLY bad with both girls missing a lot of stuff. It looked like their stuff was missing too, which is what can usually be covered up by people with more talent than this. Also I get tired of the hip stuff quickly. We get it: you know how to shake your hips. Now do something else.

Gail comes out and Brook Eats Defeat.

AJ has no comment on the secret thing and is focused on Angle this Sunday.

Hardy is ready for the main event.

Matt Morgan vs. Crimson

Bully Ray jumps Morgan with the chain before Morgan can get into the ring. He adds in a chair shot to the head and says that’ll be Aries in a stoic voice. No match as Morgan is taken out on a stretcher.

Post break and Morgan is still being taken out. Crimson gets on the mic and says that week after week Morgan claims to be the man to break the streak. He makes the referee ring the bell and count to ten.

Crimson vs. Matt Morgan

Ten count, 39 seconds.

RVD talks about Greek mythology and choosing the life of the hero instead of the long peaceful one.

X-Division Title: Zema Ion vs. Austin Aries

Aries takes over to start with a seated dropkick and it’s out to the floor. Aries misses a double ax off the top rope and hits the barricade. Ion hits a big flip dive which gets two back in the ring. Backbreaker gets two. A middle rope moonsault gets knees so Aries clotheslines him to the floor. Suicide dive takes Ion out and back in, a Tajiri handspring leads to a back elbow on the mat for two. A pair of dropkicks sets up the brainbuster to retain at 4:16.

Rating: C. The match was fine but it was basically a squash. Aries has zero competition and hasn’t for months, which makes these matches pretty dull as there’s no drama at all. It’s good that he’s moving up to the regular midcard but they need to get the title off of him. It’s not that hard to do it either but for some reason they keep waiting on it.

Kaz is worried about revealing the secret but Daniels says it’s ok.

RVD is ready for the win tonight and he’ll win the title on Sunday.

Quick recap on the latest incarnation of Daniels vs. AJ.

Daniels and Kaz are in the ring and Daniels invites AJ out to set the record straight. Cue AJ who says that this is a mistake but Kaz cuts him off. Kaz says that he protected AJ and then saw what was in the envelope and he stopped realizing why he was protecting AJ. Kaz opens the envelope and it’s a photo of AJ and Dixie Carter holding hands. AJ says so what so we get another of AJ with his hands on her face. The third is of them kissing. Daniels drops the pictures and leaves AJ stunned.

TV Title: Robbie E vs. D-Von

D-Von clears the ring of Big Robbie to start and hits a Thesz Press with punches. Headbutt keeps E down but T pulls D-Von to the floor. That goes badly for the big guy and E gets clotheslined as he tries to jump D-Von. Spinebuster ends this in 1:13.

Robbie T powerslams D-Von post match to keep this feud going another week.

We go to Tennessee to hear from Storm about how he has no excuse to lose. He’s put a lot of work into everything on his farm and in wrestling and he’s never second guessed himself until now. He didn’t get the job done at Lockdown and it kills him.

If RVD wins, it’s a ladder match. Apparently this was revealed earlier.

Joseph Park needs help finding the ring.

D-Von challenges the Rob’s to a handicap match at Sacrifice.

We recap the Abyss Is Missing story and how Joseph is looking for him.

Here’s Joseph in the arena and he has issues getting in the ring. He says everyone here knows who he is and what he’s doing. Every lead he’s had has said find Bully Ray so he’s not going away. Joseph says that he might buy a ticket and come to Sacrifice on Sunday to watch the show. Why bother? You’ve walked into every show here for months now.

Ray comes out and yells, saying this isn’t a court room and that Joseph needs to get out. Joseph says that Ray lost to Abyss in Abyss’ last appearance, plus he lost to D-Von two weeks ago. Then last week a guy half of Ray’s size named Austin Aries beat Ray down. How is that bully thing working out for you Ray? Ray shoves Joseph down and leaves as Park smiles.

Anderson is looking forward to not having his match on Sunday.

We get a great moment in TNA history which is Hogan arriving and throwing The Band out.

Angle is ready for AJ.

We run down the Sacrifice card.

RVD is ready for Sacrifice.

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

If Rob wins, Roode vs. Van Dam is a ladder match. If Roode wins, he gets to pick his opponent on Sunday. If Hardy or Anderson win, they get RVD’s spot. Everyone jumps Roode to start but Anderson shoves Hardy off. They fight to the floor so it’s RVD vs. Roode with the champ hitting a suplex as we take a break.

Back with Roode getting two off another suplex. Anderson comes back in and gets his spinning neckbreaker for two on RVD. Van Dam comes back with the split legged moonsault for the same result. He loads up the Rolling Thunder but Roode catches him in the spinebuster for two in a nice counter. Rob superkicks Roode into the corner but his monkey flip to Jeff is countered. Whisper in the Wind gets two on RVD. Rolling Thunder hits Hardy but Roode throws Van Dam to the floor. Twist of Fate and Mic Check to Roode followed by Anderson spearing Hardy to the floor. Five Star pins Roode at 8:30.

Rating: C-. That’s the longest match of the night and it ran less than nine minutes, about four of which were spent in a commercial. I don’t think anyone thought anybody but Van Dam was going to win here which is ok, but they should have set up the stipulation way earlier than this instead of waiting for three days to go before the PPV.

Post match RVD puts up a ladder and here’s Abyss on the stage. He whispers to the camera and says Joseph is getting too close to the fire and to back off before he gets burned.

Overall Rating: D+. This show didn’t work for me for the most part. There was WAY too much talking and a lot of this felt like they were getting ready for TV later instead of the PPV on Sunday. That’s a major problem this company has: they book for TV instead of their major shows which doesn’t make much sense.

Why would anyone want to pay money (which is what TNA”s goal is: to make money) if the focus is on TV instead of the PPVs? Some of the matches got built somewhat ok, but adding a ladder stipulation to the title match three days early is a bad idea as you had a month you could have built that up with. Either way, not a good show heading into a filler PPV.

Results
Brooke Tessmacher b. Velvet Sky – Belly to Back Mat Slam
Crimson b. Matt Morgan via countout
Austin Aries b. Zema Ion – Brainbuster
D-Von b. Robbie E – Spinebuster
Rob Van Dam b. Jeff Hardy, Bobby Roode and Mr. Anderson – Five Star Frog Splash to Roode

Hard Justice 2006
Date: August 13, 2006
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Attendance: 900
Commentators: Don West, Mike Tenay

This is at the other end of the spectrum for TNA as the next show in 2005 was Unbreakable and that’s the last TNA show I’m going to be doing. The show looks very different now and in a good way for the most part I think. The main event here is Jarrett vs. Sting for the title (shocking) and there’s also AJ/Daniels vs. LAX which is usually good. Let’s get to it.

The opening video is about how good and evil are eternal rivals which is what they’re trying to push Jarrett vs. Sting as. They’ve feuded on and off over the years but eternal rivals? No. Just no. What this has to do with justice is beyond me.

Eric Young vs. Johnny Devine

Johnny is part of Paparazzi Productions. This is when Eric is all paranoid about getting fired so he’s trying to get all the fans he can behind him, meaning he’s got a parade of people after him chanting DON’T FIRE ERIC! Devine says Eric is going to choke under the pressure. Eric knocks him back and then gives him a hug as we get going. Devine punches him down and drops a few knees to the head.

We get a pretty sweet move as Devine is sent into the corner and tries to jump over Eric off the bottom rope but instead shifts in mid air into a reverse DDT. Then things get interesting as a legitimate fire breaks out in the rafters and the ring fills up with fire extinguisher spray. You can see the flames through the fog which is a little scary.

Devine suplexes him down and misses a springboard moonsault. The idiot fans chant “You can’t see us.” Eric gets a good powerbomb as the smoke is clearing out. Top rope elbow gets two. A sunset flip by Eric is countered but he gets Devine in a wheelbarrow position and flips him into a neckbreker for the pin.

Rating: C. All things considered, this wasn’t bad. Young had become a hit with the fans at this point as the paranoid guy that everyone loved, as opposed to now when he’s done the same schtick for over a year without ever really changing anything. The fire extinguisher stuff wasn’t their fault and to their credit they kept right at it which was impressive.

Earl Hebner runs out and chokes Mark Johnson for some reason. He’s mad about being fired and says that if he’s going down, Jarrett’s going down with him. Ok then.

We run down the rest of the card.

We see Jarrett arriving earlier with his second, Scott Steiner. Sting and Christian got here earlier today too.

We recap the four way tag match which is AMW, the James Gang, the Naturals and Bentley/Kazarian which I think is a #1 contenders match. I don’t think this needs much of a recap. All of them want the titles and have been fighting over who should get it.

First though we have to replace the mat because of all of the fire extinguisher stuff on it. What’s the right word for that anyway? Foam? Spray? Anyway Don and Mike talk about the fourway to fill in time.

Now we recap Sting’s career in TNA. He came back in January of 2006, had a tag match and said he was gone. Jarrett said he didn’t think Sting was gone so he sent the Pararazzi to film Sting at home, which ticked Sting off. He came back as Steve Borden to beat up Jarrett and then a month later as Sting. Steiner came in the next month to beat up Sting so Sting brought in Joe to beat up Jarrett but for some reason they switched his friend to Christian and sent Joe to the midcard again. Jarrett got the title back at Slammiversary and this would all set up tonight.

We come back to a sign saying technical difficulties, please stand by.

Here’s the same Sting video that just aired.

Tenay and Borash are in the back and we’re told that the fire marshall has evacuated the building and are testing everything before we continue the PPV. We look at the fire breaking out in the opening match. West comes in and says the people are being allowed back in now. To be clear, this isn’t something that can be held against TNA. It was an accident and who knows whose call it was that the building had to be cleared out. That could be building policy, local or state law or maybe even something else.

Tenay and West hype up the rest of the card to fill in more time. Eric Young comes up and wants to make sure that he’s not being blamed for the fire. Monty Brown says he’s going to blaze everyone in his triple threat match. This is about as good as they’re going to get for filling time which is ok. Also points to Brown and Tenay for doing this on the fly. It drags on too long and Brown runs out of insults. The fans are coming back in as Tenay helps Brown out by saying the winner could get a possible title match. Shane Douglas comes up to complain about life in general. His team is with him and he talks about them a bit at the end.

JB is with Alex Shelley who is replacing Kevin Nash in the X-Division match tonight. Nash has a bad neck apparently. Devine wheels in Nash in a wheelchair and a neckbrace. Nash tells Shelley to go to war and takes the brace off to give Shelley his dog tags. As little sense as this whole angle would wind up making, it was pretty funny.

Alex Shelley vs. Chris Sabin

The winner is #1 contender to the X Title. Feeling out process to start and it’s exactly what you would expect from the Guns in a singles match against each other. Shelley charges into a boot in the corner and Sabin hits a missile dropkick for two. Sabin loads up a Jackknife and does the Wolfpac sign before hitting the powerbomb. Shelley comes back with a bulldog and a Lionsault for two.

Sabin sends him to the floor and hits a suicide dive to take both guys down. Back in the ring and Sabin goes off with the kicks, followed by a springboard guillotine legdrop for two. Sabin loads up a tornado DDT but Shelley comes back with a middle rope atomic drop. Into a modified crossface but Sabin makes the rope.

Sabin gets Shelley into the Tree of Woe and hits the hesitation dropkick followed by a freaky spinning DDT for two. Sabin loads up something in the corner but Alex rolls off the corner and rolls forward into a Backstabber off the middle rope. Cool. Shellshock gets two and Nash puts a chair in the ring. Sliced Bread onto the chair is countered and Sabin kicks it into Shelley’s face. Cradle Shock gets the pin.

Rating: B-. As you would expect, these two put on an entertaining match. It’s easy to see why these two would be put together as a team because they compliment each other so well. The Nash stuff was part of a bigger story which I’m still not sure I get all of but it was entertaining which makes it ok.

Mitchell and Abyss aren’t worried about Brother Runt and say he’s doomed. Runt has been listening to Raven apparently and Raven has been telling Runt fairy tales.

We recap Runt vs. Abyss. The Dudleys had left for awhile to heal up and told Runt to stay out of trouble. Naturally he picked a fight with Abyss because that’s the kind of thing Runt does.

In case it wasn’t mentioned earlier, the four way tag match is canceled. The announcers haven’t said that yet but I don’t have time to wait on them.

Abyss vs. Brother Runt

Runt has a mohawk and looks like Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver, which Tenay and West keep calling Taxi. Runt is no Judd Hirsch. He starts fast with forearms and a headbutt to the ribs but Abyss kicks him down and throws him over the top and into about the third row. On the floor Runt comes back with a Dudley Dog onto the barricade. Raven is watching from somewhere. Runt throws in some chairs but Abyss wedges the first one between the ropes. Runt’s head goes into the chair for Abyss to take over.

Abyss splashes him in the corner as Raven is still watching, apparently from next to the stage. Abyss loads up a superplex but Runt gets in a shot with Abyss’ chain to knock him to the ring. Acid Drop (Dudley Dog, same thing) gets two. The referee goes down and Abyss gets his bag of tacks. Abyss rubs Runt’s face into the tacks and stomps on the back of Runt’s head, sending it into the tacks. Ok that’s not bad. Runt comes back but gets gorilla pressed onto the tacks. Black Hole Slam onto the tacks ends this.

Rating: D. Was there a point to this? I’ve never gotten the appeal of Runt challenging whatever monster there is but I suppose it was to set up Raven vs. Abyss later on. Abyss threw him around all match long and then beat him up with the tacks in some decent looking violence. Pretty boring match though.

Rhyno says he was looking for Joe and Brown during the confusion earlier. He’s here to destroy both of them no matter where he needs to go.

We recap Rhyno vs. Joe vs. Brown. Rhyno was offered a contract with the new ECW but he turned it down. He threw out an open contract for a fight at Hard Justice which was accepted by Joe and Brown. It’s falls count anywhere which is going to be stretched to mean hardcore.

Samoa Joe vs. Monty Brown vs. Rhyno

Big brawl to start and Brown is sent to the floor where Rhyno dives on him. Joe dives on both of them and stands tall. Brown brings in a trashcan but Joe takes it from him. In a cool sequence he hits Brown in the back with the can and with Brown bent over, Joe punts it into Brown’s face. Joe gets sent into the crowd and Rhyno follows him with a kendo stick. They go over to that wall that you always see in the Impact Zone but Brown dives onto both of them to take over.

Rhyno and Joe ram each other into the wall enough times to crack it and boards are falling off of it. Brown beats on Joe with said boards before Rhyno takes Brown up above the wall. Joe pops up with a crutch and then a chair to the back of both of them. He superkicks Brown back a bit and they stumble further into the crowd. Joe poses long enough for Rhyno to hit him in the head with a trashcan lid.

Brown comes in with one of his own but gets suplexed by Rhyno for his troubles. There’s a suplex for Joe but he blocks the Gore. A suplex gets two on Rhyno for Brown. Rhyno knocks Brown upside the head again and pulls some more weapons from under the ring. They go into the ring with Joe still down. As I say that, Joe comes back in and cleans house on Brown, hitting a backsplash for two.

Joe goes off on Rhyno but walks into a spinebuster onto a chair. They go to the corner with Rhyno looking for a superplex. Joe pulls him down with a sunset bomb onto the chair for two. Brown is back in now and takes Joe to the floor. He loads up a table but can’t suplex Joe off the ramp through the table. Instead he hits a swinging neckbreaker on Joe on the stage. Rhyno runs in with a trashcan lid shot to both of them. There’s a table set up off the stage but Rhyno misses a Gore off the stage and crashes through it. Brown goes down to pin him but walks into an STO off the ramp through the table by Joe for the pin.

Rating: A-. That’s probably high but DANG this was a wild brawl. They didn’t stop for over thirteen minutes and some of those weapon shots were HARD, especially the ones with the trashcan lid by Rhyno. Joe would keep running through everyone and wouldn’t lose until December to this Angle dude. He would beat Jarrett (non-title of course) next month. Brown would have one more match until he left for WWE.

Larry Z says Earl Hebner has been thrown out. He says he had nothing to do with the controversy at Slammiversary. Mark Johnson comes in and wants an explanation but Larry says it was Johnson’s fault.

We recap Gail vs. Sirelda. Sirelda is the lastest Chyna wannabe who beat up Gail on behalf of AJ and Daniels, so tonight it’s girl vs. whatever Sirelda is.

Sirelda vs. Gail Kim

Gail is looking great tonight. She jumps Sirelda to start but gets powered into a corner and slammed ala Ultimate Warrior. Sirelda loads up a chokeslam but Kim easily escapes. She guillotines Sirelda on the top rope and a knee drop gets two. The fourway tag is officially announced as canceled. There’s a Tarantula from Gail but her high cross body misses. A bad looking World’s Strongest Slam gets two and Sirelda loads up a superplex. Gail knocks her back and hits a bad Blockbuster for the pin.

Rating: D-. This was really bad but Gail looked smoking out there so I’ll give it some points for that. Sirelda wasn’t around long and given how awful she was in this match I’m not really surprised by that. Nothing to see here and I think this ended the mini feud between these two. If it didn’t then it should have.

Scott Steiner goes on a semi-famous rant, talking about how Christian is a surprise as Sting’s backup. That’s strange because Scott Steiner is from a highly educated university and has to dumb himself down for these fans.

We recap the X Title match which is Senshi defending against Williams who won a five way and Lethal who is in the match because he tried hard in a match against Jarrett.

Senshi vs. Jay Lethal vs. Petey Williams

Williams knocks Lethal to the floor and follows him out with a rana off the apron. Senshi dives out to the floor, takes out both guys and lands on his feet. It’s Lethal vs. Senshi at the moment. Williams comes back in and walks into a Liger Kick from Senshi. Lethal back up now but he misses a moonsault out of the corner. Senshi shoves Lethal into Williams and Williams kicks Lethal down.

Petey puts Lethal in the Tree of Woe and does the O Canada spot. Senshi kicks Williams down and loads up the Warrior’s Way but Lethal comes back in for the save. Lethal’s superplex is broken up and Senshi dives onto Williams. Lethal stays up there and dropkicks both guys down, drawing a Lethal chant from the crowd. Both guys are slammed by Jay and he hits stereo low dropkicks to the face.

Lethal’s slide through Senshi’s legs for a sunset flip attempt is broken up by a kick and they all try to roll each other up. Jay gutwrench suplexes Senshi down but gets caught in a Sharpshooter by Williams. Senshi breaks that up with a kick to Petey for two but gets caught in a release German for two from Lethal. Swan Dive to Petey misses and there’s the Canadian Destroyer to Lethal. Senshi kicks Williams down and pins Lethal to retain.

Rating: B-. Another good three way here as they had some great counters in there at the end. Senshi was a guy that I’ve always found uninteresting and Williams only had one move and Lethal was pretty dull without the Savage stuff, but they combined for a decent match here. I think Sabin would take the title off Senshi.

Konnan says LAX’s revolution continues tonight. Daniels and Styles are handpicked champions and LAX won’t stand for that.

We recap LAX vs. Styles/Daniels. It’s pretty much exactly what I just explained: LAX is leading the Latin revolution against TNA and they’re starting by taking the tag titles.

Tag Titles: LAX vs. Christopher Daniels/AJ Styles

Daniels and Hernandez start things off and it’s power vs. striking. Daniels escapes a suplex and hits a headscissors followed by a leg lariat to send Hernandez to the floor. Off to Styles vs. Homicide and Tenay is WAY too excited about it. They trade armdrags and slug it out with rights to the head. Homicide snaps off a rana but AJ nips up into one of his own to send Homicide out to the floor.

Hernandez tries to come in but the champs double team him out to the floor. It’s back to Styles vs. Homicide now but a Hernandez distraction allows Homicide to hit a neckbreaker for two. SuperMex comes in legally now and hooks onto AJ’s head with a neck crank. Back to Homicide for a chinlock of his own. AJ tries to set for a springboard but Hernandez breaks that up. Homicide hits a tope con hilo through the ropes to take AJ out again.

Daniels tries to come in but it just allows Konnan to get in more offense. Hernandez gets the tag and chokes a bit before it’s back to Homicide. AJ comes back with a front suplex to drape Homicide over the top rope which is good for the tag. Daniels cleans house on both challengers, hitting a combination bulldog/enziguri. Split legged moonsault gets two. Homicide goes to the floor but Daniels drops down on him as well. Hernandez dives over the top to take them both out but AJ hits a HUGE off the top rope shooting star to take everyone out.

Everyone is down until AJ gets up and throws Homicide back in. A faceplant gets two because AJ gets up to take out Hernandez. Daniels is back up and a double team cross body gets two on Homicide. LAX hits a kind of Steiner Bulldog for two on Daniels. Homicide sets for a tornado DDT but AJ blocks it until Hernandez comes over for the Tower of Doom. AJ gets up and hits the moonsault into the DDT for two on SuperMex. Everyone is down and AJ hits the Pele on Hernandez. Release Rock Bottom puts Daniels down but Konnan crotches Styles. LAX sets for double finishers but the champions escape and hit High Low to retain on Homicide.

Rating: B. These two teams had some excellent chemistry together and their future matches would get even better. This won feud of the year in TNA I think and I certainly can understand why. Daniels is always tolerable when he’s not facing AJ so this was a much more enjoyable performance from him.

Christian says he thinks Jarrett started the fire to get out of his match. He’s not going anywhere and tonight, Jarrett loses the title. As for Steiner, he can come after Christian anytime. Sting gets the title tonight to cut the cancer out of TNA.

We get a shortened version of the Sting vs. Jarrett video from earlier.

NWA World Title: Sting vs. Jeff Jarrett

Christian and Steiner are the respective seconds. We almost get in a fight with the big match intros but after them we’re ready to go. The fans chant steroids at Steiner. Feeling out process to start but Sting quickly goes for the Scorpion twice in less than a minute. Out to the floor and Jeff is thrown over the announce table. Sting hits him with a fan. As in a cooling machine, not a person.

They’re in the crowd now as is the custom for a Sting main event match. All Sting so far. Sting throws Jarrett back into the ring after an extended crowd beating but as the the referee (one of three) is with Christian, Steiner hits Sting in the knee with a chair and suplexes Christian. Jeff goes right for the knee and Sting is in trouble. There’s the Figure Four and of course it’s on the wrong leg.

Jarrett makes the eternal mistake of slapping Sting which lets Sting turn the hold over and eventually make a rope. They slug it out and Sting isn’t selling the knee. Stinger Splash misses but the Stroke is countered into the Death Drop for two as Steiner pulls the referee out. Christian goes after Roidzilla with a chair but gets ejected for trying to use it. A regular splash from Sting gets knees to put him down.

Steiner throws in the belt and distracts the referee but Christian trips him up and throws the belt to Sting. Jarrett is clocked but Steiner’s distraction lets Jarrett recover and put his foot on the ropes. They collide and Steiner hits Sting with a chair, knocking his head into Jarrett’s crotch. Christian and Steiner get in the ring for a fight but Steiner is thrown out. Wasn’t Christian ejected? Either way he hits Jarrett with the chair and is ejected again as a result.

Steiner is in the ring behind the referee but doesn’t actually do anything. Now he gets ejected as well so it’s FINALLY even. Sting and Jarrett are both getting up but Sting misses a dropkick. Jarrett hooks the Scorpion on Sting but Sting Hulks Up and powers out of it. Scorpion to Jarrett but Jeff makes the rope. Stinger Splash hits the referee and Jarrett hits the Stroke, but there’s no one to count. Cue Steiner again with a guitar but Christian comes in with the bat. He cleans house with it but turns on Sting as he comes off the top, hitting him with the guitar. Jarrett gets the easy pin to end the show.

Rating: C. WAY overbooked here as almost all Jarrett vs. Sting matches wind up being. How hard can it possibly be to have Jarrett vs. Sting? I mean….IT’S JEFF JARRETT VS. STING. Do you think they can have a good match on their own? This might as well have been a tag match and it didn’t set up Christian vs. Sting for some reason. Instead we got Joe vs. Jarrett next month and Sting vs. Jarrett again at BFG.

Overall Rating: B-. This show was a bit of a mess, but it was a fun mess. The fire messed up a lot of stuff but it happened early enough in the show that it didn’t change much (other than the promos which mentioned it all night). There were some good matches here and the main event, while overbooked beyond all need, was entertaining enough and let Christian do his obvious turn. Pretty good show but it had some holes in it.

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Sacrifice 2005
Date: August 14, 2005
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Attendance: 775
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Don West

We’re in a weird place here in TNA’s history as they don’t have a TV deal due to Spike not being ready to take them on yet. They were off TV from June through September which made it hard to build up PPVs. They did however have Impact airing on their website which helped a little. The main event tonight is a tag match between Raven/Sabu and Jarrett/Rhyno, the latter of whom debuted at No Surrender. If Raven pins Jarrett, Jarrett doesn’t get a title shot for a year but if Jarrett pins Raven, he gets a shot at the next PPV. Let’s get to it.

The opening video is about how there’s a battle raging everywhere and the winner will be those willing to sacrifice….something.

Diamonds in the Rough vs. Chris Sabin/Shark Boy/Sonjay Dutt

The Diamonds were a low level heel stable of Simon Diamond, Elix Skipper and perennial loser David Young. Simon, the leader, says Skipper is going to shine. Young and Shark Boy start things off as we hear about how Young actually won a match recently. Neckbreaker gets two for Sharky. There’s the bite on the back of Young’s tights but Skipper comes in with a clothesline to shift momentum.

Off to Simon for some rolling suplexes. Hardy isn’t here yet and he’s already no showed a PPV. If he misses this one, he’s fired. Shark Boy hits a kind of facebuster and brings in Sonjay off a tag. Cross body gets two as things speed up. And never mind as Skipper hits a backbreaker to put Dutt right back down. Back to Young as Dutt is playing Ricky Morton for awhile. A freaky kind of facebuster gets no cover so Sonjay manages to counter into a slingshot rana.

Off to Sabin as I don’t think it was long enough of a beatdown for a Morton label. We hear about how Dutt and Sabin are both getting better after losing to Joe. Ok then. Things break down and Skipper kind of walks the top rope for a rana on Dutt. Young hits his spinebuster for two on Dutt as Sharky saves. Shark Boy hits a dive to the floor so it’s down to Skipper and Sabin in the ring. They trade rollups and Sabin cradles him over for the pin.

Rating: C. Not a bad little tag match here to get things going. It got a little sloppy in the middle though as the Diamons just weren’t that good. Skipper was good at walking things but he slipped a little at the end which made it look pretty bad. Nothing special to it but it did its job well enough I guess.

We recap the pre-show which contained the announcement that Impact is coming to Spike on October 1. We get a video of that announcement….and Jarrett interrupts the announcement. This is where the stipulation that I mentioned in the intro is announced.

The Naturals are teaming with AMW tonight and Jimmy Hart (Naturals’ manager) says it’ll be ok. Jarrett comes up and says be with him when he wins the title. They don’t appreciate it but Jarrett says they have to hang together because TNA management is coming for him. Jimmy calls him paranoid.

Alex Shelley vs. Shocker

Rematch from Slammiversary. Apparently this is the third match in a series which has been split so far. Feeling out process to start but Shelley wraps him up into a leglock. Shocker takes him down and puts on a Brock Lock which quickly ends because of a grabbed rope. Shelley charges at Shocker but gets sent to the floor. Shocker tries a flip dive but he lands on his feet, which allows Shelley to pop him in the face.

Shocker drops him back first onto the apron and we head back inside. Back in and it’s time for chops by Shocker. A big boot puts him down and Shocker puts on a SICK twisting figure four and Shelley is in trouble. He gets the rope and his leg is just fine, as he hits a tornado DDT for two. Gah that gets on my nerves. Shocker takes him right back down into a modified Koji Clutch.

Shelley pops out of that too and hooks something like a diving dragon screw leg whip but Shocker rolls through that too. Slingshot elbow drop gets two for Shocker. They exchange seated dropkicks, with Shocker no selling A KICK TO THE FACE. He tries a rollup but Shelley counters and puts his feet on the ropes for the pin.

Rating: D+. I can’t stand it when people just won’t sell stuff. Two leg holds don’t get sold and on top of that Shocker popped up from TWO FEET IN HIS FACE. That’s one of the things in wrestling that drives me crazy. I can get over it when they get hit, hit something of their own and collapse, but Shocker was right back up. It drives me crazy in ROH and it’s annoying here.

Mitchell talks about big men and how none of them can compare to Abyss. They’re ready for Lance Hoyt tonight. Somehow that took two minutes.

Now we recap Hoyt vs. Abyss. Abyss was sent to take out Raven and happened to beat up Hoyt who was with Raven at the time. Cue a PPV filler match.

Abyss vs. Lance Hoyt

Hoyt starts fast and pounds away in the corner. They were in the process of pushing him as a midcard guy, which resulted in him losing almost every major match he was in. We get the ten punches in the corner and Abyss is knocked over the top to the floor. There’s a plancha on top of that and Hoyt is in control. Hoyt pounds on him on the outside but Abyss sends him into the steps and back inside.

They trade chops in the corner and Abyss misses a charge, sending him into the corner. It’s a good thing I’m paying attention, because the announcers are talking about BG and Kip James. Hoyt misses a bit boot and Abyss hits a middle rope splash for two. The fans can’t decide who they want to cheer for here. Now Hoyt’s shoulder goes into the post and Abyss….cowers I think.

He focuses on Hoyt’s arm and shoulder but Hoyt comes off the middle rope with a clothesline to take over again. A big shoulder block puts the Monster down as does a chokeslam. Hoyt’s big move, the moonsault, gets two and there goes any chance he had to win this match. Black Hole Slam gets two and Abyss FREAKS. A chair gets brought in and Hoyt kicks it into his face for two. Now we get REAL proof of how stupid TNA is, as Hoyt, who is 6’9, hits a Van Terminator (the coast to coast dropkick) which looked pretty good. It gets two. WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU LET HIM USE THAT MOVE AND NOT HAVE IT GET THE PIN??? Another Black Hole Slam gets the pin.

Rating: C+. As awesome as Hoyt looked here (which was pretty good actually), TNA manages to screw this up again by not letting Hoyt GET THE PIN. Abyss is a monster so a loss here isn’t going to kill him, and they’ve pretty much made Hoyt’s huge offense looks weak as he can’t get a pin. For the life of me I don’t get the thought process of this company.

We recap the Kru vs. Outlaw feud which is Kip James wanting to reform the Outlaws but the Kru saying BG is loyal to them. BG is guest referee tonight due to some complaint that there’s an unsafe working environment for the referees or something.

Monty Brown/Kip James vs. Konnan/Ron Killings

Brawl on the floor to start and it heads into the ring. I’m assuming this is part of the match as I never heard a bell. The Kru clears the ring with a kick by the Truth. Kip takes a modified What’s Up (Dudleys’ move, not some obscure Killings’ move) and the brawl goes back to the outside. We finally get started with Truth vs. Brown after Kip puts Truth down with a tilt-a-whirl slam.

Monty does the BG James shake but doesn’t drop the knee. Off to Kip who gets two off a kick to the back. A big boot allows Kip to pose and then get two. Monty comes in again for a floatover suplex. It’s chinlock time which is quickly broken, but a knee to the ribs gets two for Brown. They hit the ropes and collide so it’s time for a double tag.

Konnan cleans a few rooms and messes up a facejam on Brown. There goes the shoe but he accidentally hits BG. Fameasser doesn’t work and Konnan gets a chair. BG won’t allow it but he won’t let Kip use it either. Kip shoves him and gets punched. Konnan uses the chair and BG counts the pin. The Kru reunites post match.

Rating: C-. This was ALL angle which is fine. Konnan was much better as a mouthpiece than he was in the ring so I wasn’t thrilled with him here. The rest of it was ok, but man did Brown fall far from where he was a few months ago. The Kru would add Kip in a few weeks and then disband at the end of the year.

Christopher Daniels vs. Austin Aries

Aries was brought in via a fan vote which is an interesting idea. Daniels is X Champion but this is non-title. Before the match Daniels talks about Jarrett (of course) and how Jarrett has said everyone is going to be replaced. At first he thought that was crazy but then he sees Austin Aries being brought in so Daniels has to defend his turf. Aries is just a guy in trunks here but his ROH heritage is talked about.

Daniels jumps Aries to start as we hear about the other options on the poll: Jay Lethal, Roderick Strong and Matt Sydal (Evan Bourne). Aries takes him to the mat as the fans are split. A jumping middle rope back elbow gets two for Aries. They trade front facelocks and go to the floor. Aries hits that suicide dive of his to take over and we go back inside. Slingshot corkscrew splash gets two.

Austin tries to jump over Daniels in the corner but Daniels catches him in a shoulderbreaker for two. Daniels is coming up on the record for the longest reign as X Champion, which would be broken by the guy he’s wrestling at the moment. There’s a hard whip into the corner as Daniels is in control. Daniels works over the back and a tilt-a-whirl slam gets two. The fans are getting behind Aries more and more.

Split legged moonsault to the back gets two. Daniels takes forever to load up the Angel’s Wings and Aries escapes it. Aries escapes a suplex and returns a slap from Daniels. They slug it out and here comes Aries. Pendulum Elbow gets two. A running dropkick in the corner gets two. Daniels hits a Downward Spiral out of nowhere to break the momentum. BME misses and Aries kicks Daniels HARD in the face. 450 hits for two, but at least it was just touching a rope for the break. STO gets two with the feet on the ropes for Daniels. Here comes the brainbuster but Daniels reverses into the Angel’s Wings for the pin.

Rating: B-. As is always the case, I like Daniels WAY more when he’s not against Styles. Aries looked good here and he’d be back at Unbreakable before heading back to ROH for the next few years. It’s kind of surprising that he was never into the main two companies until then. Good match here but why wasn’t this for the title?

AMW says it’ll be about them vs. the Naturals and if they have to team up to take out Team Canada, that’s fine with them. Jarrett comes in again and asks for help but Storm goes off on him. AMW would join Planet Jarrett in about a month and help him win the title at a non-TNA show.

We recap Waltman vs. Lynn. Waltman injured Lynn and Lynn came back to referee a Waltman match against Styles. Lynn wouldn’t let him use a chair and it cost Waltman the match. Waltman is like 4 inches taller than Lynn. These two had the hottest feud on the indies in the early 90s which is what got Waltman his job in the WWF.

Sean Waltman vs. Jerry Lynn

This should be awesome despite Waltman’s beer gut. This is their first match in over ten years and Lynn’s first TNA match in over a year. They shake hands and it’s time to go. Lynn takes him to the mat and slaps the back of his head a bit. Waltman goes for the shoulder which was injured to put Lynn on the shelf. They slap hands again and it’s time for a test of strength.

Waltman takes him down with a wristlock and they try it again. This time Lynn takes him down with a run up the corner into an armdrag. Waltman hits a spin kick to put Lynn back down and take over. Lynn avoids a charge and sends Waltman to the floor, followed by a big old dive. Lynn charges at him for what looked like a headscissors but Waltman catches him and rams the shoulder into the post.

Waltman works on the shoulder a bit and they trade chops. A slick rollup with the legs gets two. Shark Boy is watching on the stage as Waltman hits the chinlock instead of staying on the arm. Now Chris Sabin is out to watch too. Sean wakes up and hits a shoulderbreaker for two. Sonjay Dutt is watching now. The Bronco Buster misses and Lynn sends him to the floor with a headscissors. He sets for a dive but Waltman sends him out to the floor onto the shoulder.

A dive over the top takes Lynn down but Waltman can’t follow up immediately. They go to the apron and Sean tries to suplex him in. Lynn counters into a suplex to the floor but he hurts his shoulder again. Back in and Jerry hits a missile dropkick as things speed up. Lou Thesz Press hits and Lynn hammers away. A standing rana by Waltman is countered into a powerbomb for two.

Both guys are spent here and for once I can understand it. If nothing else Lynn’s cardio can’t be all that great. Cradle Piledriver is countered by a low blow and the X-Factor gets two. Waltman is frustrated and the fans are all behind Lynn here. Lynn rolls through a top rope cross body and gets two. Standing tornado DDT gets the same. Lynn loads up a tombstone but Waltman counters into one of his own but it only gets two. Waltman tries a slam of some kind but Lynn rolls through into a victory roll for the pin.

Rating: B. Good match indeed as these two have reached a point where they can have a good match with each other out of pure memory. As always, Waltman is way more interesting when he’s against a smaller guy like Lynn. I think it was the giant killer thing that got on my nerves with him.

Waltman hugs him post match and of course turns on him because that’s what Sean Waltman does. He hits a shoulder breaker as Tenay overreacts like only he can. Waltman drapes the shoulder over the railing and hits it with a chair. The other X guys come out for the save as I guess they were looking for a good Turkish restaurant or something.

Team Canada says that they’re at a disadvantage but Eric needs to calm down. D’Amore is healing from some injury so they have his hockey stick instead.

We recap the Naturals/AMW vs. Team Canada. In essence it’s two teams that want to fight but Team Canada won’t leave them alone. Kind of a weak feud but it’s better than nothing.

Team Canada vs. America’s Most Wanted/The Naturals

Team Canada is Roode/Young/A-1/Williams. The Naturals are tag champions and AMW’s big rivals. Douglas and Young start things off and we get Canadian miscommunication. Off to Stevens and we get American communication. Petey comes in off the top but jumps into a punch to the ribs. Storm comes in for the Eye of the Storm on Williams but Roode gets in a shot to the back to break the momentum.

Williams comes in as we’re in the leg work period. Storm hits a clothesline and tags in Harris who cleans house. A delayed vertical suplex gets two on Eric and it’s off to Chase again. Stevens tries to jump over Eric in the corner but jumps into a low blow. Back to Canadian control with the chinlock by Roode. Young comes in again and Stevens punches him in the corner.

A Canadian poke to the eye lets Young go up but Stevens stops him. A big kick to the head sends Young down off the top and out to the floor. Hot tag brings in Douglas who cleans house. Back to Stevens and they hit the Natural Disaster on Young as everything breaks down. It’s time for the Parade of Finishers and Harris hits a HUGE dive to take out all four Canadians and Stevens at once.

Back in the ring Roode sets up a German superplex (there’s one you don’t see every day) but Harris powerbombs Roode down and brings Stevens with him. Hockey stick is brought in by Eric but it can’t connect. Storm throws Young to the floor with a nice hiptoss but Roode grabs a rollup for the surprise pin.

Rating: C. This was fine. With so many people in there it could only get so good but it keeps the Americans feuding and gives the Canadians a reason to get back into the tag title hunt. That dive by Harris was pretty cool too. When he didn’t have a huge gut on him he could go pretty well. Decent little match.

Samoa Joe says nothing so Shane Douglas gets in his face and demands respect. Are you kidding me? Joe says the respect Shane gets is not getting slapped in the face.

We recap the Super X Cup which is an X-Division tournament with the winner getting a shot at Daniels at the next PPV. In other words, it was a way for Joe to run through a bunch of guys in a row and face AJ in the finals.

Super X Cup Finals: AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe

The first of many meetings. Daniels is sitting in on commentary. Joe tries to take him to the mat but AJ gets out. The fans are split of course. They trade kicks to the thigh and AJ gets the worst of that. AJ slams him down and drops a knee for two. Joe hits a hard kick and a wicked running knee smash to send Styles to the floor. There’s the suicide dive and AJ is in trouble.

Back inside AJ hooks a headlock. This is being treated like a clash of the titans and it’s working really well so far. Joe tries a high kick but Styles does a standing backflip to avoid it. Into the corner goes Joe but AJ charges into a release Rock Bottom. A running knee to the head gets two. Joe hooks a chinlock as this has to slow down a bit. AJ tries to speed things up but Joe hits his powerbomb into the crab into the STF sequence.

AJ comes back with the dropdown into the dropkick and the moonsault into the reverse DDT for two. Styles goes up and they slug it out on the top with Joe getting knocked down. He tries the Clash but can’t get him up. A slingshot Swanton gets two. Joe goes WAY old school with a Texas Tumbleweed (rolling rollup. It’s a Terry Funk move) and a HARD clothesline for two. The fans are way into this and I can’t blame them. This is getting awesome.

They trade forearms and AJ goes off on him, knocking him into the corner. Joe charges right back at him with strikes to knock AJ into the corner but AJ hits a big kick to the head to put both guys down. AJ sends him into the corner and manages a torture rack but the referee gets bumped. Daniels comes in and hits an STO on Styles. Dang it TNA QUIT OVERDOING IT! Joe stares him down and AJ clotheslines Daniels to the floor. The distraction lets Joe hit the MuscleBuster and the Clutch gives Joe the win.

Rating: A-. OH MAN Daniels brought this thing down. I was getting WAY into this match at the end with those near falls but then Daniels has to interfere and screw it up. Now to be fair that set up the threeway at Unbreakable, but dang man these two were tearing the house down. I was totally buying the idea of Styles giving this everything he had and Joe being the new hot deal that no one could stop. And then they screwed it up with Daniels. I’d love to have a clean ending for once in this company, but it’s a Russo company so that’s not going to happen.

Raven talks about how Jarrett needs the title but it’s Raven’s destiny to be champion.

We recap Raven/Sabu vs. Jarrett/Rhyno. Raven won the title at Slammiversary and Jarrett can’t take it. Rhyno came in and Raven needed help, so he brought in Sabu. This was also tied into the idea of Jarrett saying that there would be another Black Wednesday. He’s referring to a day where WWE cut 17 midcard guys and the Dudleys’ contracts expired. This would lead to the resurgence of Planet Jarrett which had EVERYONE in it.

Raven/Sabu vs. Rhyno/Jeff Jarrett

If Jarrett pins Raven, he gets a title shot. If Raven pins Jarrett, Jarrett doesn’t get a shot for a year. Raven and Jarrett start things off and it’s off to Rhyno in just a few seconds. They head to the floor and Raven hits a Russian legsweep into the barricade. West asks what happens if anyone else gets a fall and Tenay has no idea. Off to Rhyno vs. Sabu and Rhyno gets caught in the camel clutch very quickly.

Everything breaks down quickly and Jarrett is thrown over the announce desk. Raven busts out a pizza cutter to slice on Jarrett’s head. There are some trashcan shots to the head as Jarrett is busted open. In the ring Sabu hits a rana on Sabu followed by one off the middle rope. Jarrett gets in a chair shot to Sabu for two. Rhyno gets one of his own for the same result. Jeff is just covered in blood.

Sabu hits a flip dive to take Rhyno down and there’s the tag to the champion. Raven cleans house on both guys and hits the DDT on Rhyno but Jarrett makes the save. Jarrett tries the guitar but Cassidy Riley, a really interesting idea as he loved Raven and wanted to be just like him, even down to dressing like him, comes out to take it away. Stroke gets two on the champ.

It’s Rhyno vs. Raven now and Rhyno bites on his head to bust him open. Jarrett comes in for a figure four but Raven turns it over. The drop toehold onto the chair is broken up as Raven grabs the chair and pelts it at Jarrett. Tag to Sabu as things break down again. Sabu hits the triple jump legdrop on Rhyno for two. Out to the floor where Sabu dives on Rhyno again.

Back in the ring the drop toehold sends Raven into the chair for two. DDT takes down Jarrett but Rhyno makes the save. Sabu saves a pin after a Gore but the referee goes down too. A running chair shot takes down Rhyno but there’s no referee. There’s a table at ringside and Sabu sets to send Rhyno through it, but here’s Abyss to put Sabu through it instead. Jeff Hardy comes out (wasn’t he supposed to be here earlier?) and gives Jarrett the Twist and Swanton but it only gets two for Raven. There’s a table in the corner now and as Raven is setting for the DDT, Rhyno gores him through it for the pin.

Rating: C+. This was fun and I’m glad they went with the hardcore stuff, but there was no way they could follow Styles vs. Joe. Also the run-ins got annoying but that was obvious coming in. This would set up Rhyno vs. Raven at Unbreakable in what I remember being a decent match, which again didn’t stand a chance to be remember after what closes the show. Still though, pretty fun match here, but the stipulation didn’t mean much of anything.

Overall Rating: B+. This is one of the better shows I can remember TNA having. There’s your great match and it set up the next show pretty well, and on top of that there was almost nothing bad on the whole thing. They pushed Joe to the moon, back when the X-Division actually meant something. Very good show here and that’s a very nice surprise.

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