New Kids vs. Fabulous Ones

Tony Williams of the New Kids dropkicks Stan Lane down to start as Cornette is running his mouth on commentary. Referee Miller is kicked down by Lane the Karate Master so it’s off to Christopher. Brian superkicks Steve Keirn down for two and Cornette is losing it. He goes to manage as Keirn can’t figure Christopher out. A backdrop finally puts him down so it’s off to Lane who gets caught in a quick sunset flip for two. Off to Tony who is slammed down with ease.

Jim is back on commentary to make the match that much better. The New Kids keep trying for a fast win because they can’t go man to man vs. the Fabs. Keirn slams Tony’s head into a chair on the floor and it’s back inside. Tony gets between Stan’s legs and makes the tag to Christopher. The Fabs double team him again and it’s back to the outside. Keirn is illegal and piledrives Miller for the DQ. It was a DQ at times and at times it wasn’t so it’s hard to keep up with.

Rating: C-. Not much of a match but this is how you give someone a rub. The New Kids weren’t proven yet so having them hang in there with a famous team like the Fabulous Ones and even pick up a win here is a great way to make the New Kids look a lot better. The Fabs couldn’t pin them which is a major key. Not a great match, but a good rub.

Christopher would become a big deal as a heel in 1993. Here’s a match from that period on February 13, 1993.

Brian Christopher vs. Jeff Jarrett

Luger and two other guys that I don’t recognize are here with Christopher. Brian says there’s no need for Lex to be here for this one but then he changes his mind. Ok then. There are no apron curtains. That’s not something I’ve seen outside of a tiny indy company. Lex sits in on commentary for this. There can’t be more than 150 people at this. Ever heard me say someone is stalling like a man from Memphis? Here’s a good example of something like that.

First contact: 63 seconds in. Christopher keeps shouting to Lex how awesome he is but in a sucking up way, not an evil way. Second contact: 100 seconds in. We’re over two minutes in and we’ve had two tieups and that’s it. Ok from what I can find, Christopher is also the Texas Champion. Jeff finally has enough and pops Brian in the face with a right hand. We finally get going as Brian hits a clothesline and stomps a bit. To be fair, Memphis was far more based on egging on the crowd than the in ring action.

A backbreaker gets two for Christopher. He misses an elbow though and Jeff grabs a rollup for two. How weird is it that these two would reach their biggest successes as totally different characters? Christopher as a dancing idiot and Jarrett as a self-obsessed heel. One of the guys that came out with Christopher grabs Jeff’s leg but he manages a DDT to Christopher anyway. Not that it matters as the other guy comes in for the DQ.

Rating: C-. These matches are hard to rate as there isn’t much action in them, but like I said there isn’t supposed to be. These were two fairly big names and two acts that were over as a face and a heel, which is really all you can ask for. At the same time though, there’s barely any wrestling and it was all set up for the ending, which is ok, but it’s still nothing to see.

After several more years in Memphis, Christopher would debut in the WWF as Jerry Lawler’s mentee. He would enter the fledgling Light Heavyweight division and have a match at In Your House 17.

Scott Putski vs. Brian Christopher

Putski is the son of WWF Hall of Famer Ivan Putski while Christopher is the son of Jerry Lawler. However Lawler hasn’t admitted to this yet, but instead is saying he’s a big fan of Christopher and has helped him win matches. An immediate Jerry’s Kid chant starts us off, which Lawler writes off as a reference to Jerry Lewis’ Labor Day marathon. Putski gets in the first shot and drives Christopher into the corner before tossing him out to the floor.

Back in and Brian grabs a headlock before clotheslining him down with ease. Scott comes back with a hurricanrana for two but gets caught in a full nelson leg sweep faceplant (the Skull Crushing Finale or Chris Jericho’s Breakdown) gets two. Jerry: “That’s my boy!” JR: “What?” Putski falls to the floor and Brian follows with a nice dive to take him out again. The fall seems to have injured Scott’s knee and Brian wins by countout.

Rating: D. I’m thinking there was something to that knee injury as there was no reason to end the match so soon. It didn’t last that long and I have no idea why this was on a pay per view. Putski is a good example of a guy who had a great look but had the big problem of being his father’s son. His dad Ivan was a popular wrestler and there was no way Scott could live up to his reputation.

Brian would enter a tournament for the restored Light Heavyweight Title, making the finals at In Your House 19.

Scott Putski vs. Brian Christopher

Putski is the son of WWF Hall of Famer Ivan Putski while Christopher is the son of Jerry Lawler. However Lawler hasn’t admitted to this yet, but instead is saying he’s a big fan of Christopher and has helped him win matches. An immediate Jerry’s Kid chant starts us off, which Lawler writes off as a reference to Jerry Lewis’ Labor Day marathon. Putski gets in the first shot and drives Christopher into the corner before tossing him out to the floor.

Back in and Brian grabs a headlock before clotheslining him down with ease. Scott comes back with a hurricanrana for two but gets caught in a full nelson leg sweep faceplant (the Skull Crushing Finale or Chris Jericho’s Breakdown) gets two. Jerry: “That’s my boy!” JR: “What?” Putski falls to the floor and Brian follows with a nice dive to take him out again. The fall seems to have injured Scott’s knee and Brian wins by countout.

Rating: D. I’m thinking there was something to that knee injury as there was no reason to end the match so soon. It didn’t last that long and I have no idea why this was on a pay per view. Putski is a good example of a guy who had a great look but had the big problem of being his father’s son. His dad Ivan was a popular wrestler and there was no way Scott could live up to his reputation.

Light Heavyweight Title: Brian Christopher vs. Taka Michinoku

This is a tournament final to determine the new champion. The title had actually been around for years but was only defended in Mexico and Japan while never being mentioned in American. Christopher plays to the crowd before we get going but scores with a quick slam to take over. An armdrag puts Taka down again as the Jerry’s Kid chant starts up again. Taka flips out of a German suplex and takes Brian down with a pair of kicks to the face and a clothesline to send him out to the floor. A HUGE springboard dive off the top takes Christopher out again and fires up the crowd a bit.

Brian crotches Taka on the top rope as they come back in and a dropkick sends Michinoku back to the floor. Taka avoids a dive off the apron to send Brian into the barricade but misses a cross body back inside to give Christopher control again. Now it’s Brian’s turn to miss a charge, allowing Taka to hit a tornado DDT for two. A hurricanrana sends Brian to the floor again and a top rope moonsault takes him out. Lawler goes to help his son back inside but Taka dropkicks Christopher right back down.

Back inside and a pair of dropkicks put Brian down again but Taka gets caught in a full nelson legsweep. There’s a sitout powerbomb by Christopher but he poses too much, allowing Taka to grab a rollup for two. A missile dropkick to the back of Taka’s head puts him down again and a backbreaker gets two.

Brian stays cocky by slapping Taka in the face over and over (Jerry: “Just like I slapped Andy Kaufman!”) before clotheslining him down for two. Now the release German suplex connects but Brian takes forever to cover. Instead it’s a powerslam to put Taka down but Christopher misses the top rope legdrop, allowing Taka to hit the Michinoku Driver for the pin and the title.

Rating: C. Really basic match here but it made sense to put the belt on Taka at first. Christopher was just a guy who happened to be in the weight division and never fight the style at all. The match wasn’t bad or anything but the division never worked nearly as well as the company hoped it to.

Christopher would soon hook up with his long term partner Scott Taylor to form Too Much. Interestingly enough, they were going to get the Billy and Chuck gimmick but Christopher wouldn’t go for it. Instead they got to fight Al Snow and Head at King of the Ring 1998.

Too Much vs. Al Snow/Head

Yes Head, a mannequin head, is Snow’s partner. Too Much would later be known as Too Cool. We kept hearing about Snow wanting to stay but it wouldn’t work. Snow kept getting in trouble but blaming it on Head. That’s smart at least. This is in the video recap but I don’t feel like going back and editing this to make it right. Head stole the crown and they get a meeting with Vince if they win tonight.

Scotty looks weird with short blonde hair. Christopher looks stupid no matter what. Snow is in the back and Lawler talks to them and he makes fun of them and it goes nowhere. This is pre cool music but post peak of Snow’s powers. There are however a bunch of guys with Styrofoam heads bobbing them back and forth though. Jerry is announced as the guest referee to make it three on one. Oh sorry. Three on two.

Snow’s talented enough to count I guess. Oh oddly enough, Snow used to be a character called Avatar, a genie. How sad is it that Snow is more talented than all three heels combined by about 100 miles? Taylor tags in Christopher, only a master sexay at this moment I guess. Lawler has his crown on by the way. More or less this was designed to let Snow show off, which really was a good idea and something they needed to do more often.

Snow reaches for a tag and Christopher bites his hand. I’m not sure if I want to see him in the indys or not. He was terrible in the mainstream so how bad were they in a territory based company. Ross wonders who picked Lawler as the referee. My guess would be a combination of the writing team and Vince McMahon but what do I know?

I love that wheelbarrow suplex that Snow likes to use. Snow tags in Head and Ross has lost it. Snow covers Taylor as Lawler goes to the announce table and grabs something. Christopher covers head with a bottle of Head and Shoulders for the pin. Oh it was to make sure that the shoulders were down.

Rating: D+. Well it was a cute idea I guess and Snow got to show off out there, but seriously, Too Much being on my screen more than 5 minutes just makes my head hurt so this just failed completely for me. This wasn’t much and it was really just a comedy match so take it for what it is I guess.

The team wouldn’t do much for the rest of the year and then would miss a good chunk of 1999 due to injury. One of their first major matches back, now with Brian as Grandmaster Sexay and Taylor as Scotty Too Hotty, was at Survivor Series 1999.

Team Too Cool vs. Team Edge/Christian

Too Cool, The Hollys
Edge/Christian, Hardy Boys

This is just after the Hardys and the Canadians had the first tag team ladder match which would launch them into stardom soon after. Too Cool is still stupid here, as opposed to later on when they would be stupid and WAY over. The Hardys have Terri with them which wouldn’t last long. Edge and Scotty get things started as Jerry talks about Scotty’s pants. They chop it out in the corner before things speed up a bit and Edge spinwheel kicks him down.

Off to Crash vs. Matt with Matt getting two off a suplex. Crash gets crotched on the top and punched to the floor. Grandmaster sneaks up on Matt for a sunset bomb to the floor. We unleash the dives as everyone small enough to hits a big dive to take out everyone that was already on the floor with Jeff capping it off. Back in and Christian powerslams Crash for two. The Hollys hit a Hart Attack on Crash Christian for two of their own and Hardcore is in.

We’re promised an update on Austin at the end of this match because THIS MATCH of all things is more important than a guy being hit by a car. Off to Grandmaster whose bulldog is countered and he goes flying so far that he kicks the camera, giving us a cool visual. Off to Hardcore vs. Edge who starts spearing a lot of people. Grandmaster stops to dance and is immediately speared down. In the big melee, Hardcore rolls up Edge for the pin. Fifteen seconds later, Scotty hits a top rope DDT to eliminate Matt, making it 4-2.

Jeff and Scotty do a fast pinfall reversal sequence before Scotty hits the not yet popular Worm. A sitout powerbomb by Scotty with Grandmaster assisting gets two as does a middle rope missile dropkick from Sexay. Too Cool hits the second Hart Attack of the match which gets two on Jeff. Everything breaks down but the Hollys get in an argument. Terri gets on the apron for a distraction which lets Christian hit both of Too Cool low. Jeff hits a 450 on Scotty for the elimination.

So it’s Crash/Grandmaster/Hardcore Holly vs. Jeff and Christian. JR goes on a rant about Austin as Christian and Jeff try some Poetry in Motion, but Hardcore comes off the top with a missile dropkick in a SWEET looking counter. Grandmaster adds a guillotine legdrop for the elimination. Christian immediately hits a reverse DDT on Grandmaster to get us down to Christian vs. the Hollys.

JR continues to brood and want an update about Austin. Jerry needling him makes me chuckle as he’s awesome at being a jerk. Crash beats on Christian for a bit before it’s off to Hardcore again. Back to Crash who gets caught in the Unprettier/Killswitch for the pin. Christian tries a victory roll on Hardcore but Bob (Hardcore for you schmucks out there) falls on top for the final pin.

Rating: C+. The problem here was that the pairing that this should have been based around, Edge and Christian and the Hardys, were on the same team rather than getting to tear the house down against each other. The other two teams didn’t mean anything and the ending of this sucked. Once the Dudleys got involved with the brother teams, it was all gravy for almost two years.

Too Cool would get Rikishi as their big enforcer around this time. The act was so popular that they moved pretty far up the card, including main eventing the February 7, 2000 episode of Raw in a major ten man tag.

HHH/X-Pac/Chris Benoit/Dean Malenko/Perry Saturn vs. Cactus Jack/The Rock/???/???/???

Before the bell rings, Rikishi and Too Cool come out to even the odds. It’s a wild brawl to start and I’m not even going to try to call it. Rock and HHH are fighting on the ramp as Benoit and Cactus head into the crowd (DANG that could have been an awesome feud). Stephanie is on commentary and the fans are blowing the roof off the place. Grandmaster and X-Pac get things going and Sexay misses a middle rope knee drop.

Off to Saturn and Scotty, the latter of whom has a bandage around his head. He loads up the Worm (with five hops instead of four) but Malenko interferes before Scotty can cover. A big old suplex puts Scotty down and Dean comes in legally. Scotty gets in a shot and brings in Rikishi who runs Dean over. Off to Benoit who charges right into a Samoan Drop. He can’t suplex Rikishi but Benoit pounds on his back and is all like oh yeah boy you’re going and suplexes Rikishi down.

Jack comes in and pounds Benoit down into the corner. This is one of the hottest crowds I’ve ever seen. Jack goes for HHH and they head to the announce table. Saturn and Pac have to save HHH from death and we head back inside. HHH stomps Jack down in the corner and shoves the referee away. Off to Pac who almost immediately walks into a neckbreaker to take him down.

Hot tag brings in Rock and it’s spinebusters all around. Pac takes a Rock Bottom for two as HHH saves. Saturn kicks Rock down but Rock is having none of this Bronco Buster nonsense. Grandmaster hits the Hip Hop Drop but Pac gets up and kicks the goggles off Sexay’s head. HHH comes in again with the flying knee and it’s off to Saturn and Benoit for some double teaming.

Benoit suplexes Sexay down for two and it’s back to HHH. The heels are tagging incredibly fast. Grandmaster hits a double DDT out of nowhere on Benoit and HHH. There’s the hot tag to Cactus but the referee didn’t see it. Everything breaks down and HHH hits the Pedigree on Grandmaster followed by the Swan Dive from Benoit for the pin.

Rating: B. This seems like a match where the crowd reaction carried it to a higher level which is fine. It’s certainly better than I remember but it’s not as good as I’ve seen some people make it out to be. Anyway, you could see the great matches coming and this would give Too Cool a nice push, resulting in their only tag title run a few months after this.

The feud with the Radicalz continued at Wrestlemania 2000.

Radicalz vs. Too Cool/Chyna

This would be Saturn/Malenko/Guerrero. They’re brand new at this point and Dean is already Light Heavyweight Champion. Too Cool was their first feud and it was a big enough deal that Too Cool rode it to a tag title reign in a few months. Eddie and Scotty start things off and Scott has his hat knocked off almost immediately. A tilt-a-whirl backbreaker puts Eddie down and it’s off to Chyna, sending Guerrero running off to Dean.

Malenko loads up a fast powerbomb but Scotty clotheslines him down to break it up. Chyna and the Grandmaster suplex Malenko down and it’s time to dance. Back to Eddie to face Grandmaster with Sexay hitting a quick suplex. Saturn breaks up the top rope legdrop though and the Radicalz take over. Perry comes in legally now and steals Grandmaster’s dew rag, somehow making him look even more ridiculous.

Eddie comes back in and allows Grandmaster to make a tag to Scotty. That goes badly for the non Radicalzas Scotty charges into a hot shot followed by the slingshot hilo for no cover. Grandmaster comes back in sans tag and throws Eddie to the floor as things fall apart. Scotty loads up a double Worm on Saturn and Malenko but an Eddie distraction lets them get back up. There’s no one in the ring at the moment until we get back to Scotty vs. Eddie. Perry comes back in and superkicks Hotty down.

A top rope elbow hits Scotty but again there’s no cover. Instead it’s back to Guerrero who goes up but takes too long, allowing Scotty to crotch him. A superplex puts both guys down and there’s the hot tag to Chyna. She cleans house with handspring elbows and a double low blow to Saturn and Malenko. Eddie decks her though, breaking part of her outfit in the process. Chyna escapes a powerbomb into one of her own, grabs Eddie’s crotch and slams him down before finishing him with a sleeper drop.

Rating: D+. This didn’t work for me for the most part but the main story of Chyna vs. Eddie was advanced which is the right idea. This would wind up meaning nothing (in a way) though as Chyna would fall victim to the Latino Heat the next day, starting a summer long relationship between the two. I guess that crotch grab changed her mind.

Remember that Tag Team Title run I mentioned? It started on Raw, May 29, 2000.

Tag Team Titles: Too Cool vs. Edge and Christian

Christian cranks on Grandmaster’s arm to start but Brian fights back with a missile dropkick. Off to Scotty for some dancing and a double clothesline. Time for the Moonwalk but Christian takes Scotty down with a spinwheel kick. Edge comes in and tries a powerbomb but Scotty botches the hurricanrana counter.

Instead he has to settle for a small package for two before it’s off to Grandmaster to clean house. His powerbomb on Christian works just fine before he and Edge fall to the floor. Scotty hits the Worm on Christian as Edge brings in a title belt. He’s knocked to the floor though and here’s Kid Rock’s midget friend Joe C. with a low blow, allowing Grandmaster to hit Edge with the belt for the pin and the titles in a big upset. The celebration is as low key as you can imagine.

Rating: D+. The match was nothing to see and I’m really surprised by how bored they seemed to win the belts. The title reign wouldn’t last all that long but this was a good example of the company listening to the crowd and giving someone popular a push. Too Cool winning the belts for a month wasn’t a stretch and the fans loved it. Everybody wins.

The title win would be the apex of the team’s run as they would fall down the card soon after and never recover. Scotty would get hurt so Grandmaster would have to fight on his own, including this match at Insurrextion 2001.

Grandmaster Sexay vs. Eddie Guerrero

This is one of Grandmaster’s final appearances with the company for reasons of suck I guess. Eddie lost the European Title to Matt Hardy of all people. It’s not like being European meant anything with only Regal and Bulldog being European. Eddie would be gone soon for drugs anyway so there we are. This is a very hot crowd with one Phoenix being in attendance. Yeah he was the other request.

Eddie doing the Sexay dance is hilarious to say the least. I think Eddie was supposed to be champion here as he lost it like a week earlier. Grandmaster, how do you freaking suck so much? Your dad is a legend and you’re just a freaking joke. And that’s being nice. He’s like an annoying indy gimmick that isn’t sure what his gimmick is. The crowd is ALL OVER Eddie. That’s not bad. Grandmaster misses a…something and gets rolled up with Eddie using the ropes to win from nowhere. That was really abrupt.

Rating: D+. Uh what the heck was that? Seriously it felt like it was 3 minutes short or something. Also, what the world is the idea of using these two in a match? It’s just random as but whatever. Not bad I guess. Then again this is one of those British house shows called a pay per view so it’s to be expected.

Christopher would hit the indies, including main eventing the first WWA PPV, the Revolution in a tournament final for the World Title.

WWA World Title: Brian Christopher vs. Jeff Jarrett

I’ve complained about Christopher enough so far. Christopher makes gay jokes about Jarrett to start but says he wants to death. Jarrett tosses him around to start and there’s the strut. Christopher comes back with a clothesline to send Jeff to the floor….and then he lowers his pants. A neckbreaker puts Jarrett right back on the floor as we’re firmly in a Memphis formula: do a move, play to the crowd a lot, then do another move and play to them more.

They fight into the crowd, and by fight I mean punch once and walk a lot, and we lose track of them. Brian gets a drink thrown in his face and Jeff chokes him a bit. We finally get back to ringside with Brian shaking off everything that’s been done to him so far. A charge misses in the corner and Brian gets crotched. Naturally, Jarrett poses. A cross body gets two for Brian and it’s off to a sleeper from Jeff.

After nearly two minutes of that, Brian hooks his own sleeper for a few seconds. A kick puts Jeff down and an enziguri (clearly missing by about six inches) gets two. Tornado DDT gets two more and they head to the floor. Brian superkicks a referee by mistake and we head back in. Christopher “hits” a guillotine legdrop for two from a replacement referee…and the referees start fighting. Jeff wins with a guitar shot and Stroke on the belt (there was a referee brawl in between the moves).

Rating: D. Standard match that really was a big brawl with some wrestling moves thrown in. In other words, the WCW main event formula minus five run-ins. Christopher was never believable as a main event threat here because HE’S FREAKING BRIAN CHRISTOPHER. Nothing to see here but it was probably the best match of the second half of the show.

It would be off to TNA after this with Brian appearing on the second show.

K-Krush vs. Brian Christopher

They keep swapping between calling his Brian Christopher and Brian Lawler. Christopher does his Too Cool dance to the ring and the NASCAR guys with him look at him like the idiot he looks like. Krush is the evil one here which I doubt was clear coming into this. He jumps Christopher to start but Brian comes back with a neckbreaker. A bulldog out of the corner gets two for Brian but a second results in him getting crotched on the middle rope.

Krush suplexes him down to take over again, getting a delayed two in the process. He does the backflip into the splits into the side kick spot that he uses today for two. Off to a chinlock as this is going nowhere. Brian fights up, I guess doing what you would call Cooling Up. An enziguri puts Krush down as does a Stunner but Krush hits an atomic drop to put him down. The NASCAR guys shake the ropes to crotch Krush and he falls right into position for the guillotine legdrop from Christopher for the pin.

Rating: D. This felt like a random match between two former WWF guys, and that’s not something interesting. At the end of the day, why in the world am I supposed to care about the guy best known as K-Kwik yells at some NASCAR drivers? Christopher without his Too Cool partners isn’t interesting either, at least not outside of Memphis. Nothing to see here.

And again at the tenth show.

Brian Lawler vs. Slash

Apparently this is a scheduled match for later but we’re getting it now instead. Slash knocks him to the floor and throws Lawler into the barricade before peeling back the mats. He loads up a piledriver on the floor but Lawler backdrops him down to prevent presumably death. Lawler knocks Slash down and we head up the ramp for a bulldog on the ramp by Lawler. Brian tries to get a chair from a fan but the fan won’t give it up.

Back in and Slash grabs a superplex for two, followed by what we would call the Eye of the Storm. Lawler comes back with a floatover DDT but stops to dance instead of covering. There’s an enziguri from Brian and there’s even more dancing. Both guys hit the other low (in front of the referee who is cool with this I guess) before Slash puts Lawler on top. Brian knocks him down and hits the guillotine legdrop for the pin.

Rating: D. This didn’t quite work because Lawler is really hard to care about. I have no idea if he’s a face or if he’s a heel here and the lack of clarity is really annoying after awhile. Also, the dancing thing is dead but he keeps doing it anyway because it used to work a few years ago. Slash and the Disciples of the New Church continue their free fall as well.

After several more years in the indies, Christopher would fall off radar for a good while. He would eventually return to the WWE on Old School Raw, January 6, 2014.

3MB vs. Too Cool/Rikishi

This is as obvious of a match as you can get. Grandmaster and Jinder get things going with Grandmaster scoring with a quick dropkick. Off to Scotty who is still in good shape but gets punched down by McIntyre. Drew misses a charge in the corner and the bulldog sets up the WORM. Slater robs us of our gratification though and 3MB takes over again. The announcers spend the entire match arguing over whether Too Cool can be called the Hip Hop Twins, thereby making the whole thing about them instead of the legends.

Scotty clotheslines McIntyre down and makes the hot tag to Rikishi who looks incredibly slow. He does manage a superkick to Mahal for two but Slater makes the save. Rikishi clotheslines two Band members down and the Hip Hop Drop takes out McIntyre. Mahal tries a sunset flip on Rikishi but gets sat on for the pin at 5:24.

Rating: D+. The match sucked and the commentary was annoying, but this is exactly what modern nostalgia should be about. Too Cool is an act that’s old enough for people to reminisce but not old enough that they embarrass themselves in the ring. Nobody is hurt, the fans get to have a fun moment and everybody wins. Good stuff.

This appearance got Too Cool a surprise spot on the first NXT special called Arrival.

NXT Tag Titles: Ascension vs. ???

There’s an open challenge from Ascension tonight and their opponents are…….TOO COOL??? That’s a rather bizarre choice to put it mildly. Viktor slaps Sexay down to start and doesn’t approve of the dancing. Off to Konor for a hard legdrop and even harder shoulder blocks. Viktor slams Sexay down and puts on a chinlock before driving in elbows. I think the fans say they want water and then gum. Sexay finally fights up and makes the hot tag to Scotty whose offense has very little effect. He gets the bulldog and loads up the Worm, only to have Viktor pop up and run him over. Fall of Man ends Scotty at 6:40.

Rating: D. This was WAY too long and Too Cool was the totally wrong choice for the challengers here. They’re a fun team who had a month long title reign FOURTEEN YEARS AGO. This is the problem with nostalgia: it’s fun to push every now and then, but when it’s pushed over teams that deserve the shots more, you’ve got a problem.

Brian Christopher is a guy who tried to get out of his dad’s shadow but only succeeded to a degree. His run in Too Cool is definitely the high point of his career and the crowd ate the act up. Brian’s talking in Memphis was great stuff but at the end of the day that act just didn’t work outside of the territory. Still though, he certainly wasn’t terrible and could fly well enough to get by.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of on the History of Survivor Series at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

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These aren’t as detailed as the others but I’d assume they’re works in progress.

http://taimapedia.org/index.php?title=LOLTNA_History

We’re only a few weeks away from Slammiversary and the interesting thing is MVP has injured his knee in a match in England. However, everything tonight has been taped in advance, so unless something taped has been added in, it’s going to be interesting to see if he can make the title match or not. As for tonight, I’m sure we’re going to be bombarded with stuff about the trio which still needs a name. Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of the Trio’s dominance until Samoa Joe made the save to end last week’s show.

The trio is looking for Samoa Joe.

Samoa Joe comes out with something to say. Joe talks about MVP looking for him, so here he is to make things easy for the boss. Cue the trio with King saying he’s tired of Joe trying to be a tough guy. Joe gets right in MVP’s face and tells him what the mouthpiece can do with his mouth. MVP says time is money and Joe is wasting his. Joe calls MVP a scumbag and a liar but MVP yells at him for bailing after losing a gauntlet match. Unlike Joe, MVP did his job. Joe wants to fight all of them tonight but here’s Austin Aries to interrupt. Aries wants in on this fight, so MVP makes Aries vs. Joe for tonight, loser leaving TNA.

Bram is ready for his fight with Willow tonight. However, he doesn’t think Magnus will ever be ready.

Willow vs. Bram

Willow hammers away in the corner to start but Bram takes over on the floor. Back in and an elbow to the jaw puts Willow down for some trash talking stomps. Willow nails three straight dropkicks including the slingshot version in the corner. They head outside again and Willow hits a big dive to take over again. Poetry In Motion off the steps has Bram in trouble but he sends Willow into the steps to put Willow down. Bram rams him into the steps and throws Willow back inside before pulling out that crowbar. Magnus tries to talk him out of it but Magnus blasts Willow with it instead for the DQ at 4:58.

Rating: C. This was more angle than match but the high spots were good. Bram is a solid guy out there and has a great look to him so I can’t complain all that much. Willow isn’t really all that extreme and is pretty much just Jeff Hardy with a stupid looking mask, making the whole thing stupid.

MVP gets in an argument with the Wolves before putting them in a match against each other. If they don’t do it, they lose the belts.

Mr. Anderson is imitating James Storm at some bar.

Davey Richards vs. Eddie Edwards

Richards still has bad ribs. Kenny King is watch the match from the stage and doesn’t seem pleased. The Wolves starts very tentatively as they don’t want to hurt each other but King demands that the Wolves start showing some teeth. They trade modified surfboards followed by a half crab from Edwards. Eddie finally rolls him up for the pin at 4:20.

Rating: D. This wasn’t supposed to be much of a match, but I’m really not sure what it was supposed to accomplish. Given how King was talking you would think he’d get beaten up after the match, but did they really need to fill in six minutes on this whole thing just for that kind of a payoff?

King says that’s not good enough and wants to see someone get beaten up. I think you can figure it out from there, but in case you can’t, King gets taken apart.

Dixie Carter freaks out on MVP for putting Aries and Joe in a contract match. MVP says don’t worry about it.

We recap Brittany telling Madison how she really felt.

Madison tells Brittany to stay out of her title match this week.

Robbie E. is scared of the clown in the Menagerie. Apparently he had a bad experience when he was ten years old and it still freaks him out today.

MVP tells the referee that there must be a winner in Joe vs. Aries.

Joe went home because MVP was another power hungry villain. Aries comes in and says Joe did go home. He says he saw MVP for what he was months ago and got sent home as a result. Tonight they’re both in trouble but only one can win.

The BroMans are in the ring and Robbie is still freaking out over the clowns. This brings out the Menagerie to laugh at the BroMans and scare them to death with the balloons. DJZ and Crazy Steve get in a horn off and the Menagerie cleans house.

Bully and Eric Young tell the referee to do the right thing tonight. Referee Brian Hebner says he has to put food on his table and leaves. Ray says they’ll do what they have to do.

Gunner and Samuel Shaw play Go Fish in the psych ward.

Austin Aries vs. Samoa Joe

Loser is gone. Joe hammers away to start and hits an early Facewash in the corner. Aries fights out of the MuscleBuster and gets two off a rollup but Joe is too big to be taken up in the brainbuster. Instead Joe sends him into the corner for the enziguri but Aries rolls out of the corner Rock Bottom. There’s the Last Chancery but Eric Young comes out to pull Brian Hebner to the floor. He does the same when Joe puts on the Clutch and Bully Ray punches Hebner out. Joe and Aries are ticked off and we’ll call this a no contest at 5:30.

Rating: C-. You can barely grade this due to the ending, which is the biggest problem with the whole thing: this is the second match of the night that hasn’t had enough time to go anywhere and has been about the trio angle instead of anything else. That story is dominating everything and it’s getting annoying in a hurry.

Speaking of which, here’s the trio to say that MVP runs TNA. Ray says MVP has a god complex and should come fight. After some trash talk, we get the following match made for tonight: Bully Ray/Eric Young/Austin Aries/Samoa Joe vs. MVP/Kenny King/Samoa Joe/Bobby Lashley/Ethan Carter III, and let’s make it first blood because why not.

Anderson makes fun of cowboys again.

Now Anderson is in the arena as the most stereotypical cowboy ever. James Storm finally comes out and says he doesn’t take kindly to a man cheating in a drinking contest. Storm wants to fight but not tonight. Anderson comes out and the fight is on with Storm getting the better of it and nailing Last Call. A challenge is made for Slammiversary.

Gunner brings Shaw his sketchbook as part of his therapy. After a break, Gunner looks at drawings of Shaw in Christy’s shadown, Shaw’s house and Shaw’s mom. There’s an unfinished drawing of what looks to be Gunner, who asks Shaw to finish it now.

Knockouts Title: Madison Rayne vs. Angelina Love

Angelina is defending and heads outside at the bell. The chase is on with Angelina chasing after Velvet for some reason until Madison catches the champion in the ring. A Velvet distraction lets Angelina dropkick Rayne to the floor and here’s Brittany to check on her. Back in and Madison nails some clotheslines to take over followed by the mat humper. Not that it matters as Velvet sprays hairspray into Brittany’s eyes to give Love the pin at 4:00.

Rating: D+. Yes believe it or not, this was the exact same thing we’ve seen from the Beautiful People since they reunited. I’m assuming we’re leading towards Brittany being hurt by Madison not wanting her and join the Beautiful People as a result, but it’s not exactly thrilling stuff getting there.

After a break, Madison wants to know why Brittany didn’t help her. Brittany logically points out that she did exactly what Madison told her to do.

Ethan Carter III/MVP/Kenny King/Bobby Lashley vs. Eric Young/Samoa Joe/Bully Ray/Eric Young

First blood for no apparent reason. Aries and King get us going as you have to tag in a match where it’s about blood. A quick Last Chancery is broken up by Ethan so Aries takes him over to the corner for a tag off to Young. Carter runs away from Ray but Bully wants MVP. They slug it out with Ray getting the better of it via a big boot to the face so it’s quickly off to King. Ray catches him in a front facelock and brings in Joe. King runs off as well so we get Lashley vs. Joe in a showdown. That sounds interesting so let’s take a break.

Back with Joe hitting the running enziguri in the corner on Lashley and bringing in the World Champion. Eric gets taken down in the corner and the heels stat their shots to the head. They show some nice thinking by going after the forehead with punches and kicks followed by a hard elbow from MVP. All four villains get in some shots to Young’s head with Ethan asking if Eric is ready to bleed.

Young finally breaks free and makes the tag off to Joe who clans house. Lashley spears him down but gets caught by an Eric missile dropkick. Everything breaks down and we get the secondary finishers a go-go. Aries dives off the top to take out MVP and King but Ethan plants Ray with a spinebuster. Ray grabs the chain and blasts Carter in the head for the blood and the win at 14:45.

Rating: D+. I have no idea why this was a first blood match. It’s not terrible but there was no reason to not have this be a regular match and have Ray pin King. The match didn’t do anything of note though and doesn’t advance the story for the most part. Considering there are only two matches set for Slammiversary, this wasn’t the most logical match.

As the winners celebrate, we cut to the back to see the trio destroying Ethan. Dixie breaks it up and gets in MVP’s face, saying the same blood in Ethan flows through her. MVP doesn’t care so Dixie says if he wants a war, he’s got one. This REALLY felt like something to make us sympathize with the Carters and that’s about as bad of an idea as they could have.

Overall Rating: D+. The more I watch TNA, the more it becomes apparent that this main event scene is a disaster. There are WAY too many people running around in it as you have the eight in the main event tonight, plus the Wolves and Dixie. That’s WAY too much for one angle and it’s bogging things down. It doesn’t help that we have to sit through the long series of segments over and over again every week because almost nothing else gets significant time.

Look at the Wolves for example. Their match was set up in about 30 seconds, it didn’t even last five minutes, and it was never mentioned again. It’s clear that their match wasn’t a priority at all and that they were on the card so we would remember they exist and happen to be champions. The angle needs to split into stand alone stories (Joe vs. Lashley and Ray vs. Carter would work fine) to let the main event breathe a bit.

On top of that, Eric Young feels like he’s just there because he’s World Champion. I know that that’s obvious, but he feels like a supporting character in what’s really Bully and Aries’ fight with the trio. It would make sense to get the title off of Young soon and get the real big names into the feud. Young has been fine in the role, but he’s just not a World Champion caliber guy.

Finally, there is some hope for TNA: the midcard stuff actually has my interest. I’m curious to see where the Gunner/Shaw stuff goes and the Storm vs. Anderson match should be good. Adding Brittany into the Beautiful People stuff is at least something different and Bram/Magnus as a ruthless team is good stuff. There are some solid stories in TNA if you can get past half the roster being in one story.

Results
Willow b. Bram via DQ when Magnus interfered
Eddie Edwards b. Davey Richards – Rollup
Austin Aries vs. Samoa Joe went to a no contest
Angelina Love b. Madison Rayne – Rollup
Bully Ray/Eric Young/Samoa Joe/Austin Aries b. Ethan Carter III/Bobby Lashley/MVP/Kenny King – Chain shot to Carter

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A monster, a monster, he’s turned into a monster. It’s Abyss.

Abyss vs. AJ Styles

From March 17, 2004 and this is a ladder match for the #1 contendership. The brawl is on immediately and AJ hits the Pele (called a bicycle kick here) to stagger the monster. AJ tries to hit the ropes but Abyss hits a HARD clothesline to take his head off. A chop that would make Big Show cringe puts AJ down and Abyss goes to get the ladder. Abyss shoves AJ down with the ladder from the floor but AJ just rams into Abyss to knock him back to the floor. Styles goes up the ladder but hops down and moves the ladder closer to the ropes. It takes too long to set up though and Abyss shoves the ladder down.

Both guys are back inside now and Abyss whips Styles hard into the ladder. The monster climbs up VERY slowly so AJ makes an easy save before bulldogging him onto the ladder. A springboard dropkick sends Abyss to the floor and Styles follows out with a dive. Now it’s AJ going up but Abyss blasts him in the back with a chair before wedging it between the ropes in the corner. Shock Treatment puts AJ down again and Abyss pulls out another ladder. This one stays outside though as he bridges it between the ring and the barricade.

AJ blocks a chokeslam by biting Abyss’ fingers but the monster throws him head first into the chair in the corner to knock Styles loopy. Abyss throws in some more chairs but AJ counters a powerbomb into the Styles Clash (really a pancake due to the legs not being wrapped around Abyss’ arms but close enough) in a very surprising power display. AJ goes up the ladder for a 450 splash, drawing a well earned THIS IS AWESOME chant.

They both climb again but AJ slows Abyss down with some kicks to the head. AJ can’t reach the contract so he busts out a sunset powerbomb to put Abyss through two chairs set up in the corner. Cue Raven to distract AJ for no explained reason, allowing Abyss to shove the ladder over, sending Styles FACE FIRST into the bridged ladder. Abyss easily gets the contract. Apparently Raven was trying to get Russo’s attention or something.

Rating: B+. They had my favorite match ever in TNA so it’s no surprise that I liked this too. It’s the David vs. Goliath formula which is going to work almost every time, especially when you have two people that can work at a high level. The ending felt abrupt but the big spots almost all worked here. Really good stuff, as expected.

Abyss would appear on the first episode of Impact from June 4, 2004.

Shark Boy vs. Abyss

Sharky goes after Abyss and bites his way out of a chokeslam. A high cross body is caught in an easy slam before the Black Hole Slam ends this quick. Total squash for Abyss.

The most famous match type of Abyss’ career has always been Monster’s Ball. He would be in the first incarnation at Victory Road 2004.

Abyss vs. Monty Brown vs. Raven

This is the original Monster’s Ball match, which originally was far different. The idea here is that the guys have been locked up without light or food for 24 hours. This aspect has since completely disappeared due to reasons of sanity and now it’s just a regular hardcore match. The announcers say that Raven has the advantage here as he’s smaller and crazier which makes sense, at least in the lack of food and light idea.

We have a table set up inside of 30 seconds. Abyss is dominating here for the most part. It’s really more of an intense triple threat rather than a hardcore match and now we have chairs coming in. Raven really is underrated in the ring. I love what Brown does by just chucking a chair at Raven’s head. That’s awesome. Naturally we have a ref bump because they’re required I suppose.

Now we move to the big spots of the match as we have Brown sitting on the top rope and Abyss busts out the tacks. Since he’s the only one wearing a shirt you know that he’s the guy that’s going to wind up going through them. Yep, Raven comes in to powerbomb him while he’s trying to suplex Brown. That wasn’t predictable at all. Not a bit. Raven gets two off of it and then we set up another stupid spot as the table is set up in the corner and Raven gets Pounced (a spear/tackle) through it. It was a mess of course.

Rating: D+. These things are going to happen and while I can’t stand them, I get that there’s a point to them. There is a market for these I guess and at least they’re keeping it shorter. There’s really no way to make these good without going too far, but this was really lackluster even for one of these.

It’s back to the AJ feud with my favorite TNA match ever. From Lockdown 2005.

Abyss vs. AJ Styles

For the few of you that might be wondering, this is my favorite TNA match ever. AJ is YOUNG looking here which is saying a lot as he’s still young today but here he looks like he’s about 19. He’s a two time world champion here though which is never mentioned anymore for no apparent reason. Abyss is listed at 350lbs here again but he’s a LOT slimmer looking here.

He still has the chains here which were a nice touch for him. I have no idea why but they are. AJ dives through the door to take down Abyss before he gets in. Abyss tries to whip him into the railing but AJ baseball slides UNDERNEATH the railing and jumps up onto it and hits a rana to take down Abyss. That was freaking awesome and happened inside of five seconds.

All AJ to start as we’re still on the floor. Abyss had more or less been unstoppable recently since splitting from his stablemate Alex Shelley (let that sink in for a bit) so this is a major showdown and seeing Abyss reeling is odd to see. Abyss fights him back and whips him into the railing again so this time AJ channels his inner Morrison and double jumps up to a platform into the crowd, spins around and jumps over FIVE ROWS of fans to his the forearm on Abyss. This is one of the most awesome performances I’ve ever seen and we’re maybe three minutes into this.

AJ dives at Abyss on the railing ala Sting but instead of crashing into it clears the railing by a good foot and hits the ground in the crowd. Abyss pounds on him a bit but AJ just kicks the heck out of him to escape for a bit. West talks about Kenny Chesney for absolutely no apparent reason.

They open the door of the cage after about six minutes of brawling. The difference between this and the stupid stuff before: this was INCREDIBLY entertaining and the fans were way into it as opposed to Jarrett and Waltman walking around and occasionally hitting each other with something. AJ and Abyss never stopped moving and the fans were into it because of it. The difference here: hard work works better than walking around hitting each other with weapons.

AJ punches Abyss HARD but gets the cage door slammed into his arm and then his face where he snaps down to the floor. It looked like he got hit by a bus or something as fast as he hit the ground. Great selling there. AJ is busted open and Abyss pounds away even more. AJ finally in the cage now as Abyss looks under the ring for the bag of tacks. About eight and a half minutes in they’re in the cage together.

Abyss chokes him with the chain and we play tug of war. AJ simply will not quit and keeps hammering away to no avail though. With the chain on the top turnbuckle, Abyss launches AJ over his head in kind of a forced leapfrog and his head slams into the chain. The fans think this is awesome and for once they’re right. They stop for a bit for the a neck crank and AJ sells the heck out of it too.

AJ charges again but Abyss grabs him in a gorilla press and LAUNCHES him up to just let him crash down. He tries it again but AJ counters into a DDT onto the chain. Two punches and an enziguri takes Abyss down as does a headscissors. AJ hits a moonsault press but Abyss just lets him bounce off which was cool looking. AJ sends him into a chair into the corner that Abyss set up and gets a German suplex for two that looked very good.

He goes for the Styles Clash but Abyss is way too big for that. Chokeslam is countered into a rollup for two. AJ gets another running start but walks into the Black Hole Slam for a VERY long two. Dang Abyss looks awesome (what am I saying?) when he really uncorks that thing. Yep there are the tacks. Black Hole Slam into them are countered as is a powerbomb.

AJ gets the Styles Clash (ok more like a falling face first slam but we’ll give it to him) into the tacks for two. Wow I would have bet on that being the ending. You know if I didn’t know the ending already. Abyss is ROCKED here which was unthinkable until this match. AJ goes to the top of the cage and Abyss can’t catch him. His solution: throw the referee at the cage to knock AJ off. That was awesome.

Abyss climbs up as AJ is barely hanging on. He goes up with the chain and might be thinking to hang him as he had on Impact. Yep that’s what he’s going for. AJ is on the outside and Abyss on the inside and yep he’s hanging him. AJ gets the chain off somehow and Abyss grabs the chokeslam. AJ bites his fingers and opens those things up! AJ jumps off the top of the cage and hits a freaking sunset flip powerbomb onto the tacks from the top of the cage to get the pin as Abyss is DEAD.

Rating: A+. OH YES! AJ was absolutely amazing here and it was definitely Abyss’ best match ever. This was just a total war for twenty minutes with AJ never stopping and taking it to Abyss much like Flair did back at Starrcade 93 to Vader. There was no gimmick here as it was just a big old fight in a cage with weapons brought in for fun. AJ would get the title the next month….and then lose it to Raven the next month because the world was clamoring for more Raven and less AJ. Uh…sure. He wouldn’t get it back for over four years.

Abyss would enter into a Gauntlet for the Gold at Hard Justice for a title shot at some point in the future.

Gauntlet For The Gold

Roode is #1 and the surprise entrant Zach Gowen is #2. Get the joke from earlier now? Roode steals the prosthetic leg. West: “Put it back!” but Gowen comes back with one footed dropkicks and a reverse DDT. Eric Young comes in at #3. The intervals are only a minute long which includes their time coming to the ring. Remember at this point it’s over the top to eliminate people.

Roode gets a pretty evil one legged giant swing on Gowen. Cassidy Riley is #4. Ok now the clock doesn’t start until he gets to the ring. He helps against the Canadians and Gowen hits a leg lariat on Roode. Here’s Skipper at #5 and the clock is under Young rules again. Skipper takes a lariat from Roode but hits a nice moonsault to take him down. The ring is getting a little full now so everyone has something to do.

Shark Boy comes in at #6 to a nice reaction. Thank goodness he’s not Stone Cold yet. He won a match on the preshow to get in. Sharky hits a neckbreaker on Young but Gowen takes him down. Shark Boy bites Gowen hard enough that Gowen goes out. So we have our first elimination. #7 is another Canadian in the form of A-1, the big power guy. He cleans house with clotheslines and stomps on Riley.

#8 is Chris Sabin. In a Matrix style move, he sets for a tornado DDT on Young but with his feet in the air, he kicks EVERYONE ELSE in the chest in a big circle before hitting the DDT. That was cool. Petey Williams is #9 to put the Canadians at full strength. He tries a Destroyer on Sharky but gets backdropped to the apron. Shark Boy goes after him and is eliminated by A-1. Eric puts out Riley to get some people out of the ring.

Sonny Siaki is #10 and he goes after the Canadians. Skipper gets REALLY stupid and tries to walk the ropes. Roode is like boy you’re stupid and clotheslines him out. Lance Hoyt is #11 and he has his own cheering section. Young is easily tossed out by Hoyt and Team Canada is down to three. Sabin can’t get Williams out and Bentley is #12. He superkicks Hoyt but is taken out by Sabin who goes out at the same time. They fight on the floor as the Canadians put out Siaki.

Here’s Jerelle Clark at #13. He’s just an X-Division guy. There are five people in at the moment: Roode, A-1, Williams, Clark and Hoyt. The Canadians help Williams on a Destroyer to put Clark out. Mikey Batts is #14 and he fires off some kicks to take down the Canadians. He’s another X-Division guy. He and Hoyt team up on Canada as The Outlaw Kip James is #15.

A HUGE cobra clutch slam kills Batts and the fans want to see it again. #16 is Trytan but Hoyt hits a big boot before Trytan even gets in. Batts is gone. Trytan is chokeslamming everyone in sight and hits a spinebuster on Hoyt. Ron Killings is #17 and gets powerslammed very quickly. As Trytan poses, all three Canadians team up to throw him out.

Apollo is #18 and he cleans house. He and Kip chop it out but Apollo charges and is low bridged out. BG James is #19 but the Canadians break up the staredown between the Outlaws. Hoyt kicks Roode out but Roode helps A-1 to get rid of Hoyt. The Outlaws team up on Petey and A-1, tossing them both out. Abyss comes in at #20 and knocks both Outlaws out to get us down to the final two.

So it’s Truth vs. Abyss for the shot and it’s a regular one on one match, meaning over the top doesn’t mean anything anymore. Abyss throws him to the floor anyway and tries to hit him with a chair but it’s taken away by the referee. Back inside now and Abyss pounds on Killings in the corner. Truth speeds things up and hits a leg lariat and a headbutt for two. Abyss gets a big boot and brings in the chain but that gets taken away.

Instead he’ll use a chair because the referee takes forever to put the chain in the corner. Truth gets the chair and hits Abyss twice in the head for two. We actually get a ref bump in this match. Is this really needed? Truth checks on him and walks into a chokeslam onto the chair for a very delayed two. Abyss tries to Earthquake down onto the chair onto Killings but Truth crotches him on the chair instead. Not that it matters though as Killings jumps into the Black Hole Slam and it’s over.

Rating: C+. This wasn’t a horrible battle royal and the one minute intervals keep things moving fast enough. I’m not sure how much I like the one on one match at the end but it’s not a terrible idea I guess. Still though, like most non-Rumbles, this wasn’t a very interesting battle royal. Not awful though.

Abyss is a hardcore guy, so here’s a hardcore dream match from Genesis 2005.

Abyss vs. Sabu

No DQ. Abyss has a chair and his chain. Sabu of course has….nothing. He had his arm covered but when he pulled the towel off there was no barbed wire (there had been at an earlier show). Abyss bails to the floor and Sabu dives on him to take over early. Sabu sets up a table but Abyss takes over and sends him back in. Abyss beats on him VERY slowly as I’m assuming they have a lot of time here.

Sabu is bleeding from the nose. For some reason Abyss goes up, only to be ranaed down. Sabu sets up a chair but it goes upside his head for his efforts. Abyss wedges the chair between the ropes but due to the law of wrestling, he goes head first into it. Triple Jump Moonsault almost totally misses and it’s out to the floor (complete with an F Bomb from Sabu) where Abyss is driven through the table with a slingshot flipping legdrop.

Abyss gets up first and picks up his bag of tacks. As he’s laying them out though, Sabu pulls out a barbed wire chair. Mitchell pulls it away, but Sabu hits some clotheslines in an attempt to put Abyss into the tacks. Abyss is like screw that and chokeslams Sabu into the tacks but it only gets two. He loads up a Frog Splash but lands on tacks, which gets two for Sabu. Camel clutch goes on but Abyss makes a rope. Sabu gets the chair but Abyss knocks him down. Powerbomb onto the chair is countered by a Black Hole Slam onto the chair (FREAKING OW MAN!) gets the pin. Abyss wasn’t scared of it at all.

Rating: C-. It was very violent and the ending was sick, but it’s nothing we haven’t seen a million times before. Abyss being scared of the barbed wire went nowhere at all which didn’t help anything here. The match wasn’t that bad but it’s just another hardcore brawl with some sharp stuff involved.

Next up was a feud with NWA World Champion Christian Cage, culminating in a Full Metal Mayhem match at Sacrifice 2006. Abyss stole the title itself before challenging to become champion.

NWA World Title: Abyss vs. Christian

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

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

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

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

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

Next up was a WAY too long feud with Sting, where Sting tried to help bring out the person behind the mask. This involved James Mitchell being revealed as Abyss’ father and a bunch of strange matches, including this one at Destination X 2007.

Sting vs. Abyss

This is a Last Rites match which means a casket match but the casket is above the ring and you have to have it lowered and then pull them to the ceiling where somehow it signifies their death and ascension or something like that. And people wonder why Russo is made fun of. Keep in mind that Abyss was world champion about two months earlier after just having been an unstoppable monster. This is what we’re getting instead.

Still on the floor as this is just a big brawl so far. As always the splash on the railing misses and Abyss takes over with a chair shot to the back. Into the ring for the first time and there are candles on the corner. Plastic ones mind you but still dude, candles? Scorpion Death Drop puts Abyss down for no cover but he was down for all of a second. One of the candelabras goes into Sting’s face and he’s busted open.

Abyss calls down the casket and the lights go all blue. LOUD fire Russo chant starts up as Sting is pouring blood. Half of the casket is shut and it becomes a regular casket match now. There’s a tombstone. The one made of rock, not the Piledriver. Scorpion goes on and Abyss taps which means nothing. Chair shot puts him down as Sting is bleeding a ton.

The fans chant boring as Sting puts the stone over Abyss’ head and breaks it with the bat. Sting gets out and Abyss shoves him into the corner with his hand around the throat. Abyss chokeslams Sting onto the casket, crushing it. The fans chant TNA, showing that it doesn’t take much to sway their emotions.

Abyss sets up a pair of chairs back to back and puts a tombstone over the top of them. He puts Sting on top for a suplex through it but Sting grabs the candelabra and blasts Abyss in the head with it, knocking them through the tombstone. Sting puts Abyss in the casket to win it before collapsing onto it and having both of them raised into the air. This is what we’re talking about by matches and angles that no one but the booker gets and he doesn’t care what the fans think.

Rating: F+. The FIRE RUSSO chants were right. There were candles, tombstones and a broken casket. On top of that they had only a weak match at best. Sting’s blood was impressive but at the same time it’s nothing we haven’t seen before. Weak match overall and rather stupid to say the least. This feud went on forever and seemingly never stopped.

Sting and Abyss would soon join forces (because wrestling says they have to) and feud with Christian’s Coalition, including this match at Hard Justice 2007.

Andrew Martin/Sting/Abyss vs. Christian Cage/AJ Styles/Tomko

There’s barbed wire around the top of the cage and you win by pinfall, but the person being pinned has to be bleeding first. Abyss gets beaten down until bald Test makes the save. The lights go out and Sting appears in the ring, clocking Tomko with a chair. No one is in the ring at the moment. Ok so it’s Abyss vs. Styles now. Well they had my favorite match ever in TNA in a cage so no complaints there.

Tomko is busted so he could be pinned now. AJ gets a jumping enziguri to put Abyss to the floor again. Styles dives out of the cage to take Abyss out again. So….you know what, screw it. I’m not playing dumb on this one. GET IN THE FREAKING CAGE LIKE YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO YOU IDIOTS! Three minutes in we’re told that whoever gets the fall is the #1 contender. Well sure why not.

Test beats up Christian but Christian isn’t bleeding yet so no cover. And now we cut to the back to watch Pacman freaking Jones get loaded into an ambulance. In the middle of the second main event of all times. OH COME ON ALREADY. NO ONE FREAKING CARES TNA. This is shown for 23 seconds, which could be worse but it was 23 seconds too long. Guess what the announcers are going to talk about for awhile now.

Everyone is in the ring now I believe. Oh wait Sting isn’t. Tomko breaks up a double chokeslam and Sting is trying to get in. That fails and they manage to lock him out of the cage. Abyss is busted open from his head and arm. Total heel beatdown here but Sting has wire cutters. Sting gets in and here comes the comeback. Tomko cracks Sting with a chari and AJ hits a top rope splash on Abyss as does Christian, getting two. Test kicks a chair into Tomko’s head and there’s glass on the mat. Christian escapes which doesn’t mean anything here. Black Hole Slam onto the glass gives Abyss the pin on Styles.

Rating: C. For this big bloody war, this wasn’t much. Then again we didn’t see the complete version because we couldn’t wait five minutes to see Jones get loaded up into the ambulance of course. Not bad but Lethal Lockdown is a lot better than this was. Having only six people in there was a good thing though as it wasn’t too crowded in there.

Father Mitchell would come back with his other son, Judas Mesias, who challenged Abyss in a very bloody feud. From Against All Odds 2008.

Judas Mesias vs. Abyss

This was taped three weeks ago and is in the Impact Zone down in Orlando. There aren’t any ropes but rather barbed wire. Abyss pushes over a cameraman on the way to the ring. For some reason that made me chuckle. The fans are behind Abyss here. Well that’s good since he’s the face. The lack of ropes makes things look really weird here.

Abyss does the arm pose and Mesias looks at him. It’s weird seeing the face tower over the heel like he does here. They fight to try to push the other into the wire but neither has any luck. Mesias hits a dropkick and Abyss hits wire, cutting his arm a bit. Mesias goes in also, but in his case it’s side first. Drop toehold sends Abyss into the wire. This is going to be one of those matches where all we’re doing is sending people into the wire isn’t it?

Abyss slides under the wire as the fans chant who’s your daddy. He finds a chair wrapped in barbed wire and the fans want blood apparently. Abyss puts the chair on the chest of Mesias but it goes into Abyss’ crotch. That has to hurt a bit no? Barbed wire chair to Abyss’ head. BIG cut over the eye of Abyss.

Mesias brings in a barbed wire board with a slight bit of help from Mitchell. They’re on the floor now with Mesias in control. Abyss finds another board and Mesias is bleeding from the side. The new board is set up between the railing and the table like a platform. Abyss tries to chokeslam Mitchell through it but gets blocked by Mesias and it’s back into the ring. Chokeslam onto the barbed wire is blocked but a gorilla press drop isn’t and Mesias is all cut up.

Abyss’ arms are a mess. There’s ANOTHER barbed wire board being brought in by Abyss. Mesias gets up on the apron so Abyss chokeslams him down onto the board that was set up like a platform. Time for Abyss to go after Mitchell now and it’s a Black Hole Slam for the manager. Mesias pops up somehow and it’s a Black Hole Slam for him too.

Abyss gets hit low to shift the momentum again. Mesias more or less tackles Abyss into the boards for Abyss’ first major bump of the match. They slug it out and Mesias thinks it’s smart to charge at a guy whose finisher is a swinging slam. It connects onto one of the boards and this is over.

Rating: C+. Well they got the violence stuff pretty well I guess. All things considered this was pretty good. Thankfully this feud was OVER after this as I couldn’t take much more from it. Tenay saying that Abyss could be added to the list of hardcore legends like Funk, Brody, Cactus Jack and the Sheik is a big nauseating but you get the idea. Better than you would expect but just what you would expect if that makes sense.

In 2008, Kurt Angle started feuding with Jeff Jarrett. Jeff won the first match and Angle wanted to go again, but Jeff said Angle had to beat Abyss first. From Turning Point 2008.

Kurt Angle vs. Abyss

This is Falls Count Anywhere. I kind of dig Angle’s music. Angle needs to stay away from the red and white stripe singlet. It just doesn’t work for him. Abyss is in the prison suit thing and looks even stupider. It’s all monster to start as you would expect.

We’re in the crowd now and all Abyss can do is throw punches it seems. Angle gets a chair out of the front row. Great to see that someone got up and left in one of the biggest matches on the card. Angle does the running front flip off the stage onto Abyss that you see on a ton of TNA highlight reels.

It doesn’t really matter as Abyss is dominating maybe 8 seconds later. West says Angle kicked Abyss in the nuts. That sounded odd. They go through a wall and are under the stage. Always good to see Angle do new stuff. The cameras lose them so we completely stop for a bit as they come through the other side of the wall.

We’re back in the ring now as this has been your standard hardcore match so far. Angle Slam gets two of course. Why does everyone put the chair between the ropes like that? Angle gets chokeslammed for two. Angle actually hits the moonsault. It’s just finisher to finisher now.

Speaking of which there’s the ankle lock for just a second and it goes into the Black Hole Slam. I hate this part of matches most of the time. We head to the Spanish announce table and Angle goes up the scaffolding behind it. And there goes Abyss down through the table for the pin

Rating: B-. Not bad and it was intense, but this was really just your run of the mill hardcore match. Angle looked solid here but there was very limited drama. That forward flip though was great looking. The in ring stuff kind of sucked though and Abyss is just so limited it’s not even funny. Fun match though.

After all the violence, Abyss finally found a friend in Matt Morgan. They would team up and dominate a few weak teams, eventually getting a Tag Team Title shot at Final Resolution in December 2008.

Tag Titles: Beer Money vs. Matt Morgan/Abyss

Beer Money has Jackie with them and no one cares about her at all, period. Storm has the Boozer Cruiser thing too and I still hate it. Big brawl to start of course with everyone in there at once. Everyone runs around and Abyss goes to the back for a bit. Morgan dives off the top to the floor to take out Beer Money in a cool spot as Abyss is back, accomplishing nothing with his leaving.

I really hope the bell rang already and I just missed it so that the time so far has been taken off the time of this match. And there’s my answer as this is all pre-match stuff. Great. Beer Money try to run and that gets them nowhere. Standard you have until ten or the titles are forfeited jazz. Abyss and Storm finally officially start us off which is apparently the meat of this feud.

Storm cracked Abyss with some bottles and the monster is ticked off about it if you’re curious about the details for some odd reason. We get word that the X Title is held up AGAIN. Sweet goodness man just have the freaking title match and have it stick. This is what we mean by overbooking if you’re curious.

Morgan beats up Storm for a bit and asks the crowd if they want to see Storm vs. Abyss. Didn’t we see that like two minutes ago or is my memory going already? Beer Money has the titles here if I forgot to mention that. Storm runs from Abyss so we get Roode instead. I prefer Rick but this is fine I suppose. Roode is in trouble so Storm goes off to get some beer.

The fans are all over Beer Money here. Morgan sets for the Carbon Footprint and that twat waffle Jackie gets involved which thankfully isn’t a DQ. Storm finally comes in for a bit and works over Morgan’s knee for awhile. Half crab goes on for awhile as Beer Money does the referee isn’t looking so we’ll pretend we tagged and swear we did and get away with it because the referee is biased against faces technique.

Abyss finally comes in and we get Storm vs. Abyss which apparently has been built up for three or four days! Shock Treatment to Storm gets a long two. Storm tries to get a shot with the bottle but Abyss intercepts it. Jackie interferes and Storm gets a shot with brass knuckles to end it. Not huge on this one at all.

Rating: D+. It’s watchable I suppose but it wasn’t interesting at all and no one really cared in the slightest. Abyss vs. Storm was allegedly the selling point of the match and that never happened at all really. The ending was overdone to no end which should shock no one at all. It’s ok I guess but it felt thrown together which is never really good at all.

As is almost always the case in wrestling, the team split, leading to another violent feud. Here’s a big match between them at Lockdown 2009.

Doomsday Chamber of Blood: Matt Morgan vs. Abyss

I’d assume it’s a first blood match. Oh ok you win by pin or submission but they have to be bleeding first. Mike makes sure to inform us that this is NOT a first blood match though, even it’s about bleeding first. Morgan had turned heel again and turned on Abyss. Is anyone really surprised by that? Morgan has a chair to start but it gets knocked back into his face.

Lots of punches to start. This is during the Dr. Stevie period for Abyss and him being all insane and whatnot like that. Basic big man match to start as the fans say they want blood. I’ve always wanted someone to come out with a needle or something and get a tiny poke with it to make the guy bleed and take credit for a win like that. Abyss can’t bring himself to use a chair and he’s in trouble because of it.

Morgan throws weapons out of the ring to protect himself, drawing great heat. I see no barbed wire at all mind you. The chair to Abyss’ head busted him open so Morgan threw them out as he had the stuff he needed already. That makes sense actually. Morgan gets a decent dropkick. Fans are rather bored here but not entirely. This gimmick match overload is starting to wear on them though.

He busts out the bag of glass, making the whole idea of him throwing the chair out TOTALLY POINTLESS. The fans want Stevie. Morgan can’t manage to shove glass into the head of the monster. Abyss comes back and rams him into the cage a bunch and gets a chokeslam but he can’t pin him due to the lack of laceration. Morgan misses a cross body and down goes the referee.

Abyss gets some glass and jams it into Morgan’s head which would likely kill him but who cares about that? He covers Morgan and here’s a second referee for the two count. Abyss goes to the floor and gets the chair. There has been NO barbed wire which was advertised. Dr. Stevie is revealed to be Stevie Richards to the shock of NO ONE and his distractions lets a Carbon Footprint gets two.

The fans chant ECW as you can feel Vince’s lawyers smile from here. Yes they actually made not only a PPV but a major angle out of this. After Stevie steals the chair, Abyss goes under the ring and gets a bag full of tacks. THEN WHY DID HE GO FOR THE CHAIR IF HE KNEW THOSE WERE THERE???

Stevie STORMS, yes STORMS I say, the ring and beats up Abyss which gets him nowhere. Sweet goodness could they not overbook a single match? And then Morgan jumps him and gives him a chokebomb into the tacks for the easy pin. Well I’m glad to see they got the important plot point of STEVIE RICHARDS in this.

Rating: D+. I saw no barbed wire in there which was promised. The rest of this was nothing special in the slightest. Again they overdid it for the sake of the live crowd and having no one care about the actual match due to them just wanting Steven. This wasn’t anything great at all and was just another Abyss weapons match which we’ve seen a thousand times.

Time for another hardcore dream match, but Abyss is fired if he uses thumbtacks.  From Bound For Glory 2009.

Mick Foley vs. Abyss

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

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

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

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

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

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

Time for a trip to Mexico as Abyss was brought in as a mercenary at Triplemania XVIII.

Cibernetico/Abyss vs. El Zorro/Vampiro

Cibernetico is one of the top faces in the company (or was at this point). Abyss and Vampiro I think you know. El Zorro is a heel and part of the Foreign Legion and after this show would win the world title. This is a hardcore match. Despite being a foreigner Abyss isn’t part of the Foreign Legion for some reason.

Cibernetico’s entrance is in a word, epic. I think he’s supposed to be a cyborg or something. He’s clearly one of the most popular people in the company. This is that odd kind of hardcore where you have to tag in and out. Yeah I know just go with it. Cibernetico and Zorro start us off.

The tights of Cibernetico says Main Man. At least there isn’t a target saying “goes here” underneath it. The partners just come in for no apparent reason with Abyss going off on Vampiro. This is during Abyss-A-Mania but it doesn’t seem to be that bad at this point. Zorro has a kendo stick as the announcers argue some more. Zorro beats on Cibernetico with a chair in the ring while the other guys are out on the floor.

Vampiro sets up a table but can’t get a moonsault through it. Abyss can’t get his powerbomb through it either so it all evens out. Cibernetico hits the floor and now it’s turning into a regular hardcore match. Vampiro and Konnan point at each other for some reason but the wasted time lets Abyss get his hands on Vampiro. Abyss is thrown at the table which collapses but doesn’t break.

Konnan gets in Vampiro’s face again for no apparent reason. Everyone but Abyss is in the ring now and it’s a 2-1 beatdown. I’m not sure what the deal is with two referees. Maybe Gorilla Monsoon is secretly commissioner here or something. Cibernetico dumps Vampiro (to be with Abyss I guess) but has a kendo stick tossed into his leg.

Abyss is back in now but can’t get a double chokeslam. He settles for a double clothesline instead and down goes the Foreign Legion. Abyss……moves……very……very……slowly. The Foreign Legion hits the ring, in the form of Christopher Daniels, Kozlov, Chessman, Nosawa (Japanese guy) and Hernandez. Cibernetico is like screw that and beats them up on his own.

Zorro takes him down and hammers away with the kendo stick. Cue Abyss who hits Shock Treatment and Zorro is more or less dead. Hernandez misses a chair shot and hits Vampiro by mistake. Konnan grabs Vampiro and throws powder in his face. A chokeslam from Cibernetico ends this.

Rating: C+. Not bad here. They got rid of the tagging after about a second and things got a lot better. Decent little match here and the Foreign Legion losing is a good thing for a change tonight. Cibernetico is a guy that it’s easy to get behind so I can see why he’s one of the most popular there. Decent match all around but a bit rushed.

Soon after this, Abyss would start saying that THEY were coming. He would also get a World Title shot at Victory Road 2010.

TNA World Title: Mr. Anderson vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Rob Van Dam vs. Abyss

Everybody goes for Abyss to start and it doesn’t work. The crowd is odd here for some reason. This goes nowhere as Abyss just gets up. Hardy and Anderson get him down for like a second and we’re into the usual formula here to an extent. Yep we’re in the formula. That’s fine though as it’s really the only way to do this.

We’re mostly just killing time thus far. The crowd seems a bit dead for some reason but maybe it’s just been a long show. Van Dam hits a split legged moonsault on Anderson for two as Hardy saves. Abyss is gone for the moment so I’m waiting on his return to break up a pin. Instead we get a Tower of Doom with RVD taking the big bump from it. The fans chant TNA for a heel doing a big move. That sums things up pretty well.

Everyone is in the ring now and RVD is in control. I have no idea why everyone is trying to beat Abyss. He’s supposed to be unhurtable but they keep going for him. The fans chant for Anderson. This is really just a bunch of near falls with moves on the side. It’s not bad, but it’s the hazard of multiple man matches. Mic Check on Abyss gets two. Black Hole to Hardy gets two. Abyss looks stupid counting the pin.

Anderson and Hardy finally go at it and it gets NOTHING. This crowd is just out of it. Remember who these fans are too. Abyss is on Hardy who is on Anderson so RVD hits the Five Star for the pin. Wow that was anticlimactic.

Post match Abyss beats up RVD and gets the nail board which misses everything. The show ends with Abyss holding the board and RVD looking at him. Yeah that was stupid.

Rating: D. This just didn’t do it for me. It could have been worse, but at the same time there just wasn’t anything at all special here. The ending to both the match and the show just completely sucked, but what did you really expect? I see no reason at all for RVD to retain there, so of course he did. Whatever.

After feuding with Van Dam for a little while longer, Abyss would be revealed as one of the major stars who combined to form Immortal. This earned him a TV Title shot at Genesis 2011.

TV Title: Abyss vs. Douglas Williams

Yeah because this is EXACTLY what the people wanted to see. Williams has a hurt hand here. Sunset flip can’t hit early on as this is power vs. technical here. Abyss rams the hand into the post to take over. Williams slaps away but can’t do anything of note. Chokeslam can’t hit but Abyss puts him down anyway off a big boot. The fans want AJ.

Here’s the majority of this match: Williams tries to fight, Abyss hits him in the hand, Williams gets another shot in. A jumping back elbow from the second rope sets up a top rope knee drop for Williams for two. Running knee in the corner is countered into a big chokeslam for two. Abyss goes to the floor and finds Janice. It’s merely a ruse though as AJ comes down to clock Williams with the belt. Janice hits the floor again and a Black Hole Slam gives Abyss the TV Title. Get on to something else now.

Rating: C-. Match was ok I guess but dang dude this Immortal thing is getting to be such complete and utter nonsense it’s unreal. Abyss is a champion now and that’s all fine and good apparently. I’m not interested in this storyline at all and I know very few people that are, but TNA insists it’s good so that’s what we’re going to get. Oh joy indeed.

After vacating the title due to an injury, Abyss was sent after the X-Division Title on Impact, May 19, 2011.

X-Division Title: Abyss vs. Kazarian

Bischoff gives Abyss a pep talk before the match, basically saying kill him and also quoting Sun Tzu. Power vs. speed since the beginning as the announcers talk about how this could be the last X Division Title match ever if Abyss wins the belt. Abyss takes him down with power and cranks on the neck but Kaz fights back, only to walk into a chokeslam attempt. That doesn’t work and Kaz gets a springboard dropkick to take Abyss down.

Kaz cranks things up with a rana, an elbow and a legdrop, all off the ropes and resulting in a two count. Chokeslam is countered again into a victory roll for two but Kaz gets caught in Shock Treatment to shift the momentum right back to Abyss. Vader Bomb totally misses and may have hurt his knee. Kaz charges into a big boot as Abyss was apparently faking and the Black Hole Slam gives Abyss the only title he’s never won at 5:05. Tazz says the internet is burning up because of that. Abyss quotes Sun Tzu post match.

Rating: C+. Just a David vs. Goliath match but with a nice little twist of Abyss outsmarting Kaz when he couldn’t beat him with just straight power. I’m thinking this might actually be the beginning of the end for the division as there really isn’t much of a point to the thing at the moment. The TV Title is fine for a midcard title and despite the whole no limits thing, it’s almost always been seen as a Cruiserweight Title. Anyway, not a bad match but nothing of note at all.

Despite being handed titles, Abyss would leave Immortal in late 2011. They wanted him back though and sent Bully Ray to accomplish the goal. This led to a match at Genesis 2012 and if Ray wins, Abyss has to rejoin the team.

Bully Ray vs. Abyss

This is Monster’s Ball, which basically means hardcore. Ray immediately hits the floor and walks around for a bit. He grabs a chair and feels all mighty, but Abyss gets one of his own. Here’s a chair duel and Abyss shrugs off a chair shot. Ray walks into a chokeslam which he pops up from and a big boot takes Abyss down for a good 1 second. Abyss cracks him with a chair to take over and goes to get a staple gun and cheese grater.

Ray gets in a chain shot but a trashcan is no sold. With more weapon shots, Ray grabs a kendo stick. Abyss hits the floor and finds Janice, making Ray run to the back. Abyss follows and then they’re back already. They weren’t off camera for two seconds. Back at ringside and Abyss goes into a barbed wire board. Abyss’ arm is bleeding. He throws Ray in and grabs a pair of bags.

He doesn’t open them yet and instead it’s a cheese grater to the balls. Bag #1 has thumbtacks. Ray kicks him low, shouts about how his balls hurt, and gets a table. According to wrestling law #1 though, Ray goes through it via a chokeslam for two. There are two barbed wire boards in the ring now but Ray Rock Bottoms Abyss onto one for two.

Ray slams the other board on top of Abyss and hits the backsplash off the middle rope. Ok that was kind of awesome. Since it’s TNA though, it only gets two. Ray gets Janice but walks into a chokeslam onto the tacks….for two. Bully gets a boot up in the corner and grabs a kendo stick. He beats Abyss down with it via about 12 shots but for some reason hits the ropes. That’s enough for a Black Hole Slam onto the barbed wire for the pin at 15:28.

Rating: B-. Pretty fun and very violent hardcore match. The key to this one: we hadn’t seen it in awhile which made it have more, pardon the pun, impact. The no selling at the beginning was pretty fun and the big spots worked, but at some point it got kind of ridiculous. To be fair though, that’s the point. At least Immortal didn’t get a new member though so that’s a plus.

Later in the year, Abyss disappeared. Soon after this, Abyss’ brother Joseph Park would debut and say he was looking for the missing monster. Park of course became a wrestler and had a match against Aces and 8’s member Doc at Turning Point 2012.

Doc vs. Joseph Park

Doc is Luke Gallows remember. Park is always amazing in this role given how inept he can make himself look. He tries single leg takedown but Doc just laughs at him. Some wild right hands miss Doc until one accidentally catches him, ticking the biker off. They head to the floor where Park does a lot of running but manages to send Doc into the steps. Back in and Doc loads up a studded belt around his fist but the referee takes it away. Then we stop, because it’s hammer time. That of course gets taken away and Park pounds away.

The next three minutes or so are just Doc beating on Park with basic stuff and there’s only so much you can say about punches. Park starts a comeback but gets hit in the head with the belt to bust him open. He goes into a rage and hits the Black Hole Slam before turning back into Park. Park grabs a chair to whack Doc in the back with for two, but that’s all he’s got as Doc chokeslams him down for the pin at 11:01.

Rating: D. This was WAY too long and that’s where it died. At the end of the day, the joke with Park has been going on for months now and the fans clearly get it. Once the fans get what’s going on, the joke stops being as funny, which means it’s probably time to pull the plug on it, or at least move things forward. The match was bad though as it should have been about five minutes shorter.

Over time, Park would start freaking out if he saw blood. These moments got him a TV Title shot at Slammiversary 2013.

TV Title: D-Von vs. Joseph Park

Park doesn’t show up due to the beatdown from earlier tonight so D-Von talks some trash about the Boston Celtics. D-Von demands a ten count for Park to get out here….and there’s still no Park so D-Von retains.

D-Von of course makes the eternal mistake of running his mouth, saying that if Abyss was here, he’d take a beating like Park would have. You all know what’s coming next.

TV Title: D-Von vs. Abyss

Abyss cleans house of Knux and kicks D-Von in the face as the bell rings. Knux interferes from the floor to let D-Von get in a forearm to the face and take over with some very basic offense. Knee drops and right hands abound but a middle rope splash misses the monster. Abyss hits a splash in the corner followed by a chokeslam and the Black Hole Slam for the pin and the title at 3:49.

Rating: D. The match was barely there but it was the right result. D-Von has done nothing at all with the title in the six months he’s held it so maybe Abyss will actually defend the thing. If nothing else the split personalities deal is interesting when you add in a title. Nothing to see here, but that wasn’t the point of the match.

Park would start teaming with Eric Young and the pair had some success. They were in a gauntlet match at Bound For Glory 2013 with the winning team getting a Tag Team Title shot later in the show.

Tag Team Gauntlet

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

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

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

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

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

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

We’ll wrap it up with their battle after the inevitable split. Young has since figured out that Park is Abyss, because that somehow took over a year to discover. From Impact, February 6, 2014.

Eric Young vs. Abyss

This is Monster’s Ball, meaning anything goes. They’re fighting in the back with Young actually in control and bringing Abyss through the entrance. Abyss comes back with a big right hand and some forearms to the back and the opening bell rings. Young crawls over to a trashcan full of weapons and blasts Abyss in the back with a pipe to get the advantage, only to have Abyss backdrop him on the floor. It’s table time but Young hits a quick dropkick to get a breather.

Young goes for the mast but Abyss slams him into the apron to get a breather. They head inside for the first time with Eric coming off the top, only to jump right into Abyss’ hands. A hard clothesline drops Young again and Abyss goes outside to get a chair. The chair is placed on Eric’s ribs but he manages to turn it on its side to crotch a charging Abyss. Eric is sent into the corner and out to the apron where he comes back with a missile dropkick for two.

Just as Eric gets some momentum he gets sent face first into the chair in the corner and a chokeslam gets two. Abyss goes outside and gets his bag of tacks before loading up a superplex, only to have Young counter with a sunset powerbomb into the tacks for two. Eric goes up top but Abyss punches him off the top rope and out through the table in a huge crash. Back in and Young somehow gets his foot on the ropes to break the pin so Abyss pulls out the big weapon: Janice, the baseball bat full of nails. Young rips the mask off to save himself and reveal Joseph Park, earning himself the Black Hole Slam for the pin at 9:41.

Rating: B-. That might be a bit high but I was digging this match. It wasn’t the best hardcore match I’ve ever seen or anywhere close to it but Young was working well out there. I can tolerate him much more easily when he’s not being over the top and stupid which is what we got here. Abyss is a fun character too as there’s something awesome about a guy who just breaks stuff.

Abyss is a guy that has found his niche as TNA’s hardcore guy, but there’s a much more interesting character hidden beneath all the scars. He’s gone from being a monster to a complex character to a lawyer to the same old character he was before. There’s still a benefit to having him there but he relies on doing the same stuff over and over again.

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So you might remember around Christmas 2013, TNA released a bunch of their DVDs on their Youtube page for free and said it was just for that weekend. It’s now six months later and they’re all still available for free. I might as well take advantage of it and throw some stuff out there, starting with this one. I’m pretty sure the title speaks for itself. There are ten matches on the set and I’ll be doing all of them fresh here. Let’s get to it.

This was released in November 2008.

This whole thing runs seven hours in length with the documentary eating up a lot of that. Expect a lot of stuff to be condensed into a few sentences for the sake of time and space. I won’t leave anything out, but if Kurt talks about the Olympics for ten minutes, it’s going to be summed up as “LONG discussion of the Olympics” unless something major pops up.

We open with the announcement of Angle’s signing from No Surrender 2006. The fact that they announced Impact going to prime time first and THEN gave the major surprise made this even better. It was a genuine shock that people didn’t see coming and that’s what you shoot for with something like this. What a lot of bookers don’t get though is it needs to be something people actually WANT TO SEE, rather than just shock for shock’s sake.

Angle talks about the fans thinking the silhouette was of Goldberg and then lost their minds when they saw his face. I’ll buy that one.

We go to Impact where Samoa Joe has been told to give up the NWA World Title belt (he wasn’t champion) but he ripped up the documents telling him to do so. This brought out Kurt Angle for his Impact debut. Keep in mind that this was when Joe was undefeated and THE TNA guy. Without saying anything, Angle headbutts Joe and nails an Olympic Slam. He picks up the belt but a bloody Joe is back on his feet to lay out Angle with an enziguri. In the melee, Jeff Jarrett comes in to take his belt back. Security has to come out and separate the guys from brawling.

Angle’s family talks about him growing up and how generous he is. Kurt cried whenever he lost at a sport as a kid. Being better than his brothers motivated him to become as good as he was.

Then his dad fell off a building he was working on and died. Angle talks about how hard his dad worked and how he (Kurt) modeled his life after that.

This immediately transitions back into the Joe vs. Angle feud as we head to Genesis 2006 for Angle’s (important) first match in TNA.

Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe

Joe has been undefeated for eighteen months in TNA. Angle has a big bandage on his head after a match with Abyss. Kurt grabs a single leg to start but Joe is immediately in the ropes. Some kicks to the ribs set up Angle’s overhead belly to belly and a clothesline puts Joe on the floor. That’s fine with the Samoan as he grabs Angle by the legs and pulls him to the floor, swinging him into the barricade. Quite the counter.

Back in and Angle misses a charge into the post and falls back out to the floor. The suicide elbow drops Kurt again and Joe rams him face first into the steps for good measure. They’re actually nailing the big match feel so far. Kurt’s head is busted open as the bandage has come off. Joe of course kicks at the cut and digs away with his fingers. That’s quite the savage as he rubs Angle’s blood over his chest.

A powerslam puts Angle down for two and a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker gets the same as Joe is in full control. He tries the MuscleBuster too early though and Angle counters with a tornado DDT for two. Joe misses a charge into the corner though and it’s time to roll some Germans. They both the release though and Joe is dropped (thankfully not on his head) for two.

The Angle Slam is countered into an armdrag and Joe nails a running knee in the corner. An enziguri sets up the MuscleBuster for a close two and both guys are down. Angle rolls out of the Koquina Clutch and grabs the Slam for two. The fans want someone to make the other tap and Angle takes down the straps.

Kurt hooks the ankle lock but Joe finally rolls over and pulls Kurt down into the Clutch. Angle counters that into the ankle lock and Joe is in trouble. He rolls through to send Angle into the corner but misses a charge, setting up the Slam. Angle does a favorite of mine by putting the straps back up so he can take them down agani, setting up the ankle lock with a grapevine to make Joe tap out.

Rating: B-. It’s good but this didn’t hit the levels they were shooting for. The fact that it was only thirteen and a half minutes hurt it a bit as they needed some extra time to make this a big better. It’s good, but having this match so soon in Angle’s run but it wasn’t the worst decision in the world.

The fans tell Joe that he tapped out and Joe says they’re absolutely right. Angle was the better man tonight but if Kurt is that much of a man, he’ll give Joe a rematch. Joe holds his hand out but Angle won’t shake it and walks away.

Kurt’s brothers talk about Angle hitting another level in athletics in about 9th grade. Losing drove him to work that much harder and he became unbeatable. He played an amazing game of football right after his dad died which made Kurt realize how important his father was to him.

That brings us to college where he focused on wrestling instead of any other sport. This goes into a long discussion of how awesome Angle was in college.

We transition back to his professional career as Angle talks about his sister dying before a match with Samoa Joe.

Christian talks about how awesome Angle vs. Joe was.

Angle talks about giving Joe a rematch because the man he beat for the Olympic gold medal was against a man that beat him before.

Joe talks about needing one more chance, which he got at Turning Point 2006.

Samoa Joe vs. Kurt Angle

Angle is mostly heel now. Kurt takes him into the corner to start before an armbar puts Joe on the mat. Off to the leg instead but Joe makes it into the ropes. Back up and Joe just LEVELS Kurt with a clothesline and hammers away in the corner. Kurt is sent to the floor but comes up with right hands before running inside and diving over the top to take out Joe.

They slug it out on the floor before heading back inside for even more brawling. Joe is in trouble on the mat but comes up with something like a Kimura. Angle reverses and they fight in the corner until Joe hits his throat on the ropes. The overhead belly to belly gets two for Kurt and we hit the body vice on the mat. Joe fights up and plants Angle with a release German suplex.

Some clotheslines have Angle in trouble but he counters the Clutch into Rolling Germans. Joe pops back up again with a suplex of his own but Angle rolls through the MuscleBuster into the ankle lock. That gets rolled through as well so it’s the Angle Slam for two. They hit the mat again with Angle getting caught in the Clutch. Angle slips out of that as well and puts on the ankle lock again but Joe counters THAT into the Clutch. AGAIN Angle counters into the ankle lock with the grapevine but Joe actually crawls over to the ropes. I think that’s one of about three time that hold has ever been escaped.

Angle takes him into the corner but Joe fights out of a belly to belly superplex. Kurt will have none of that though and runs the corner for the superplex and two. Joe blocks a charging Angle with an elbow but the referee gets bumped. Angle gets caught in the choke and taps but there’s no one to see it. Why Joe would release the hold is beyond me but it’s a common wrestling mistake. Angle hits the Samoan low and grabs a chair. The chair hits the rope though and winds up knocking Angle right back into the Clutch for the submission.

Rating: B+. I liked this much better than the previous one but the last segment hurt things. The low blow and chair didn’t need to be in there but it did tell a nice story of Angle not trusting his own abilities and losing as a result. Setting up a trilogy made the most sense for these two though so Joe had to get the win.

Back to the family to discuss Angle’s rise through the amateurs, including winning the World Championships and gearing up for the Olympics. Kurt was losing a lot at the time and actually quit for awhile. That didn’t even last two months and Angle came back with even more intensity. He would tire guys out and win his matches easily which was the strategy he used going into the Olympics. Angle knew he would retire if he won the gold medal.

We look at Angle’s training regimen and it’s INSANE, with Angle running up steep hills and jumping rope for long stretches of time day after day.

This brings us to the broken neck at the US Open. Angle could barely stand but found a doctor to clear him. They couldn’t use Cortisone because it’s a steroid so they pumped him full of Novocaine (the stuff used for dental work) before every match. A chiropractor tried cracking his neck but it kept taking away the feeling in Angle’s arms. He only had four shots per match at the Olympics but won anyway.

We get into a discussion of Dave Schultz, Angle’s coach and the king of amateur wrestling in America. Then Schultz got shot and killed, so Angle started coaching himself. Kurt won the gold medal and Bruno Sammartino of all people comments on it. We jump back for a LONG discussion of Angle’s gold medal match. Kurt won on a judges’ decision and it’s a cool story to hear about his rollercoaster of waiting to find out.

Discussions of Angle’s charity work and celebrity status after the gold medal. These are like 5-10 minutes long each.

Back to professional stuff for…..another Samoa Joe match. This time it’s a thirty minute iron man match at Final Resolution 2007.

Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe

The winner gets a World Title match at Against All Odds. Feeling out process to start as the fans are totally split on who to cheer for. Kurt takes him down and cranks on a headlock but Joe nails a shoulder block to send Angle outside. Back in and another shoulder puts Angle out again as we’re three minutes into the match. Kurt gets in again and nails a running shoulder to put Joe down this time.

Things slow down a bit until Joe takes Kurt’s head off with a clothesline. The corner enziguri gets two and we hit a seated abdominal stretch by the Samoan. Angle quickly gets up and hits the overhead belly to belly to take over again. Off to the chinlock on Joe to kill some time. Joe finally rolls over into the ropes and comes back with a snap suplex as we’re ten minutes in.

Angle is sent outside but Joe mostly misses the suicide elbow to put both guys down on the floor. Back in and the powerslam gets two on Angle but he rolls through the MuscleBuster, only to get caught in the Clutch for the first fall with about seventeen minutes to go. We keep going after a quick rest period and Angle takes over with a big right hand. Back to the chinlock as we hit fifteen minutes left in the match.

Joe fights up and has to armdrag out of the Angle Slam attempt. A big running knee to the face takes Kurt down but he grabs the ankle lock with the grapevine to tie the match up with fourteen minutes left. Joe tapped out almost immediately to prevent further damage. A European uppercut gets two for Angle and we’re back in the chinlock. Back up and Joe can’t armdrag out of the Slam again and it’s back to the ankle lock with the grapevine. Joe has to tap again to make it 2-1 with eleven minutes to go.

Under ten minutes now with Angle stomping away at the bad leg in the corner. Joe fights back and hits a running knee to the face in the corner, setting up the MuscleBuster but AGAIN Angle rolls through for a two count. The Slam connects for two and there go the straps. Joe rolls him into the buckle though and nails the MuscleBuster to tie it up with seven and a half minutes left.

A Joe’s Gonna Kill You chant starts up but Angle takes out the bad leg. We hit the grapevined ankle lock again but Kurt switches back to a normal one, allowing Joe to roll through to escape. Kurt grabs a rollup out of nowhere though to make it 3-2 with five minutes to go. They head outside for some brawling as we have four minutes on the clock. Neither guy gets an advantage so they head back inside for the release Rock Bottom out of the corner from Joe.

Three minutes left. Angle slips down to the floor and wraps Joe’s bad leg around the post twice in a row. Back in and we hit two minutes. Joe nails another MuscleBuster but Angle gets his foot on the ropes at two. Joe kicks away from the ankle lock with a minute left. Angle blocks a Clutch attempt but Joe is right back on him. Thirty seconds to go. Joe puts on an ankle lock of his own with a grapevine but Angle holds on without tapping out for a three to two win.

Rating: B-. This wasn’t as good as the second match as the chinlocks get a bit tiring. They make perfect sense but they’re dull to sit through. The general problem with these matches is you have to wait until the very end for the real drama. It’s not a bad match or anything and it’s a good way to close out the series, but Turning Point was much better.

Angle talks about life after the Olympics and not knowing what he was supposed to do. This leads to a long discussion of Angle being a local celebrity in Pittsburgh and how much the city loves wrestling. Being a sportscaster didn’t work all that well and there’s a long story of how big a disaster his first night was.

Kurt was named Iron Man of the Year by a Pittsburgh beer company and met his wife through the promotional campaign. Another long discussion of his family life follows.

Angle lost at Against All Odds, won the title at Sacrifice, got stripped of it due to it being a double pin, and would got another shot in the King of the Mountain match at Slammiversary 2007.

TNA World Title: Chris Harris vs. Kurt Angle vs. AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe vs. Christian Cage

Title is vacant coming in. The rules here are a bit complicated. It’s a reverse ladder match as you have to hang the title above the ring to win. Before you can do that though, you have to become eligible by getting a pinfall or submission on someone else. If you get pinned or submit, you have to go to a penalty box at ringside for two minutes. Officially Angle has never won the title coming in, even though he won last month. Harris is a surprise entrant. After full entrances for everyone and Big Match Intros we’re finally ready to go.

It’s a huge brawl to start with Cage and goofy Styles (horrible time for him) double teaming Harris. AJ tries to lay down so Christian can be eligible but Angle makes the save. Instead it’s the great AJ dropkick to put Harris down as Angle and Joe fight on the floor. Styles tries a rollup on Christian for two and Christian is livid. Joe breaks up AJ’s moonsault attempt and sends him hard into the barricade.

Back in and Joe nails a running boot to Christian’s chest to put him down but Harris throws Joe through the ropes and onto Angle. Harris can’t hit the Catatonic on Christian but settles for a full nelson slam. AJ tries a tornado DDT but gets caught in the Catatonic to make Harris eligible and send Styles to the box. Joe throws a ladder over the top rope to take out Christian and Harris, giving us Angle vs. Joe. Again.

Joe tries the Facewash on Angle but gets caught in Rolling Germans for his efforts. Christian comes back in and gets caught in the ankle lock and the Clutch at the same time. AJ gets out of the box to make the save as Harris comes back in as well for a big brawl. Christian tries to suplex Harris onto the ladder but gets crotched instead, followed by AJ’s moonsault into a reverse DDT on Harris for two. Styles cleans house but the Clash to Angle is countered into the ankle lock. AJ nips up into a hurricanrana before sending Harris throws AJ over the top onto Chrisitian on the ladder in a big crash.

Harris tries to climb up and hang the belt but Angle brings him down with the Slam for the pin to be eligible. Joe catches Christian in the release Rock Bottom out of the corner and an Island Driver (modified White Noise) takes AJ down. The MuscleBuster gets two as Angle makes the save and there goes the referee. Angle taps out to the Clutch and thankfully Joe doesn’t break the hold. Christian breaks it up with the ladder and steals the pin. Harris is out of the box, Angle goes in and Christian is now eligible.

Joe and Christian go up the ladder with the Samoan taking him down with a huge Diamond Cutter onto the title. Harris goes up the ladder instead but he has to knock Joe down with a belt shot. The same thing happens to Christian but AJ springboard dropkicks the ladder over for the save. Angle is out of the box. Joe and AJ climb on top of the box (just above the top rope) with AJ low blowing out of the Clutch. Joe flips AJ over and through a table on the floor for a HUGE crash.

Now it’s Harris vs. Christian on the cage with Harris getting the better of it. He dives off the cage to take Angle down with a clothesline but has to beat people up before climbing the ladder. Ladder shots put Christian and Kurt down but Christian is up for the save. Christian goes up top but Angle puts on the ankle lock on the ladder. That doesn’t last long as they fight up top until Harris spears Christian down. Angle is all alone and hangs the belt for the win and the title.

Rating: B. It’s a total mess but it’s TNA’s total mess. I can’t imagine people would complain about Angle winning the title as he’s the biggest star in the company and had to really win the title eventually. The fact that Joe wasn’t even eligible for the title is kind of a downgrade for him but he’d have his day eventually.

Joe offers a handshake post match but gets kicked in the gut and Slammed.

We get into a discussion of Angle entering pro wrestling in 1998 after turning it down in 1996. Angle signed for the lowest deal the company offered, knowing he’d make a million dollars in a year. He would train for months, including with Dory Funk Jr. and fellow student Christian, and soon become a top star.

Jeff Jarrett talks about Angle training in Memphis.

Mick Foley talks about Angle’s early years in the WWF and seeing potential in him. After his first contract expired, Angle was given the same kind of contract that Undertaker, HHH and Austin had at the time. This leads to Angle praising Vince.

We completely skip over most of his WWF career and get to him jumping to TNA in roughly two minutes. Makes sense. Angle talks about having four broken necks in his career which messed him up for awhile.

This leads to a discussion of Angle getting addicted to the pain pills and his marriage falling apart as a result.

Now we talk about the neck injury in 2003 and Angle losing feeling in his arms. He kept coming back in a few months and it kept making things worse. This led to him thinking he needed to retire but moving into more marketing and appearance stuff. Then he went on a huge rant against Vince about wanting a release, nearly leading to a fight. Kurt started crying and left the room so Vince said they’d release him for six months to recharge before coming back on the same deal. Vince pointed out that Angle wouldn’t get far on just a gold medal, and that ticked Angle off. Angle is sorry for a lot of the bad stuff he did as he was leaving.

I kid you not, it’s time for another Angle vs. Joe match. From Hard Justice 2007.

TNA World Title/X-Division Title/Tag Team Titles/IWGP Title: Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe

Yes it’s for EVERY TITLE IN THE COMPANY plus a Japanese title. Joe is X-Division and Tag Team Champions (by himself) coming in while Angle has the TNA and IWGP World Titles. Karen is scheduled to be at ringside despite having a lot of problems with Kurt around this time. There are empty chairs for her and a guest at the moment so the mystery is on. Joe gets a full island dance troupe to bring him to the ring. It takes three referees to hold up all of the belts but the IWGP Title isn’t even mentioned. Kurt is looking far skinnier here and clearly is distracted by the empty chairs.

Kurt cranks on a headlock to start but gets taken down by a hard shoulder, sending Angle to the floor to clear his head. Karen and some guy show up with champagne and the distraction is on in full. Back in and Joe easily shoves Kurt down so he lowers the straps to make things serious. We go back to silly though as Joe’s sunset flip results in the singlet being lowered for the Flair spot.

Angle goes back outside to argue with Karen and the guy, earning him a glass of champagne to the face. Back in and Joe takes over by sending Angle shoulder first into the post. There’s the Facewash for good measure but Angle grabs a German suplex out of nowhere to put both guys down. Another suplex gets two and we hit the reverse chinlock on the Samoan. Now Angle rolls the Germans but Joe reverses into a release German of his own to counter.

The snap powerslam and enziguri in the corner get two each for Joe. The release Rock Bottom gets the same but Angle snaps into the ankle lock. Joe rolls through but gets caught in a quick Angle Slam for two. The running belly to belly gets two more for Angle but he stops to yell at Karen.

The extra time lets Joe avoid the moonsault and it’s the MuscleBuster for two. Angle has to bite his way out of the Clutch and it’s off to the ankle lock, only to have Joe counter back into the Clutch. A rope is grabbed but the referee goes down. Angle taps to the Clutch but Joe lets him go. Karen gets up with a chair, it’s a swerve, Angle knocks Joe cold and wins all the titles.

Rating: B-. The swerve was about as obvious as you could ever imagine, but the decision is the stupid part. Angle is literally champion of EVERYTHING now which is overkill no matter what. Yeah it’s only going to last a little while, but man alive this got on my nerves back in the day and it’s still annoying today. The match itself was good but the first half was spent with Angle yelling at Karen.

We talk about Angle coming to TNA with various people saying how might lighter of a schedule it was for him. Basically everyone says Angle is amazing, the nicest guy you could ever meet and the best wrestler ever. This just keeps going until Angle starts talking about the fans being passionate. He says their fans care more because they chant TNA and he’s never heard a fan chant WWE. That could be because WWE is about the wrestlers and not the company which is how wrestling has worked for like, ever, and chanting for the company doesn’t usually do all that well but what do I know?

Everyone agrees that Angle made the right choice and they talk about the surprise at No Surrender. Even Sting didn’t know that Angle was coming in until right near the debut. People talk about how excited they were. Don West’s voice is very different than it is on air. This is a segment that could have been trimmed down as it’s been over fifteen minutes since the last match ended.

Angle calls the next match his favorite in TNA. They show the ending before they air the match though which is kind of annoying. I know the ending but how many people watching would have?

X-Division Title: Kurt Angle vs. Jay Lethal

From No Surrender 2007, one of Angle’s three matches that night. He and Sting lost the Tag Team Titles to R-Truth and Pacman Jones earlier in the night because TNA does some stupid things at times. This is nearly at the peak of Black Machismo so Lethal is way over. Angle goes to the ropes to escape a wristlock before easily sending Jay across the ring with a hiptoss. Back up and Jay hits a cartwheel into a dropkick followed by a middle rope ax handle for two.

Kurt gets tired of the goofy offense and nails a buckle bomb to take over. After a suplex we’re off to the chinlock followed by a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker for two on Jay. Frustration starts to set in so we’re back to the chinlock. Back up and Jay speeds things up, only to have a double clothesline drop both guys. Lethal grabs a headscissors for two and Angle is looking tired. He’s not tired enough to grab a release German though and Angle is on his second wind.

Lethal elbows him right back out of it but Kurt is able to run the ropes for the superplex and a very near fall. The ankle lock is quickly broken and a small package gets two on the champion, but he rolls the Germans to take over again. Jay armdrags out of an Angle Slam and hits the Lethal Combination and top rope elbow for a VERY close two. Lethal is frustrated now but gets two off a powerbomb counter. Angle destroys Jay with another German and there go the straps. The Slam is countered but Kurt grabs the ankle lock, only to have Jay counter into a rollup for the pin and the title in a HUGE upset.

Rating: B-. Good match here with a major shock to end things. I can even live with the World Champion getting pinned as it was Angle’s second match of the night so he wasn’t coming in fresh. This was a great rub for Lethal and the best thing that could have happened to him at this point.

We hear more about how brilliant Angle is. I’m not sure how much of a compliment that is coming from Dixie Carter. Bruno Sammartino says he only watches wrestling to see Kurt Angle. Now that means something.

Long discussion of Angle’s conditioning and intensity.

Discussion of how entertaining Angle is on the mic. Foley talks about being a Kurt Angle fan back in 2000 because of how entertaining he was.

Kurt is professional too. Trivia for you: his first match as a pro was against Christian.

Angle defended the title against Sting at Bound For Glory 2007.

TNA World Title: Sting vs. Kurt Angle

The match is in Atlanta so we get a video on both guys having history in Atlanta. Feeling out process to start with the fans almost entirely behind Sting. He cranks on the champion’s arm before taking Angle down to the mat with a nice headlock takeover. A hiptoss sends Kurt out to the floor before he heads back inside for a beating in the corner. All Sting in the first four minutes or so.

They head outside again where Sting sends him ribs first into the barricade and then the announce table. Back in again and Angle misses a charge, sending him shoulder first into the post. Not that it matters as Angle snaps off a release German and the Angle Slam for two. We hit the chinlock for a bit before Angle snaps off a release belly to belly. Back to the chinlockery but Sting quickly fights up and hammers away with right hands and clotheslines.

A spinebuster gets two on the champion and there’s the Stinger Splash. Another one sets up the bulldog but Sting takes too long going up top, allowing Angle to run the ropes for the belly to belly. Angle Slam is countered into a sunset flip for two but Kurt comes back with Rolling Germans. The ankle lock goes on but Sting rolls through into the Scorpion. Karen Angle comes in for the distraction, allowing Kevin Nash (Angle’s buddy) to lay Sting out, setting up the Angle Slam…..for two.

Sting shoves Angle off the top and tries a splash but only hits knees. Angle slams him down and goes up, for a 450 SPLASH, only to have his knee hit Sting in the chest. Sting is up at two but gets caught in the ankle lock but Sting rolls through. The referee gets taken out as Sting hits the Death Drop, but Nash takes out the replacement referee. Sting clotheslines both of them down (with Nash clearly going down before Sting’s arm connected) but Angle gets the baseball bat. It’s easily taken away though and both villains go down, followed by a Death Drop to Angle for the pin and the title.

Rating: B-. This was supposed to be a huge match for TNA but the same TNA formula stuff and some of the botches hold it down. It’s still good, but it felt like they were trying to have a good match instead of actually having a great match. Also it doesn’t come off like the main event of the biggest show of the year at all.

Then the rematch from eleven days later on Impact.

TNA World Title: Sting vs. Kurt Angle

Sting is defending and takes Angle into the corner to start. Kurt comes back with a shoulder and bounces around a bit. Now it’s Sting with some shoulders and a headlock to put Angle on the mat. After a few moments of that, Kurt takes the champion into the corner and kicks away before being caught in the same headlock again. Back up again and Angle nails an uppercut and Sting is suddenly in trouble, only to come back with a big spinebuster.

A suplex gets two for Sting and he rains down ten right hands in the corner. Cue Kevin Nash, who has been having issues with Angle. I’m SURE nothing will go screwy there at all. We come back from a break with Angle getting two off an overhead belly to belly. Sting scores with a DDT and some clotheslines, including one to send Angle to the floor. Angle goes into the steps and Sting nails Nash for no apparent reason.

Back in and Sting hits a Stinger Splash but misses the second one, allowing Angle to hit a quick German suplex. The ankle lock is quickly broken up and the Scorpion goes on but Nash comes in, forcing Sting to break it up. The Angle Slam connects but the referee is down. Another refree comes in and counts the pin to give Angle the title.

Rating: C-. Well that was one of the most worthless title changes ever. This was far less interesting than the Bound For Glory match and the whole thing didn’t work all that well. Angle as champion continues to be the same idea that TNA goes with and it was getting rather dull at this point.

Angle flips Nash off post match.

We hear about Angle’s wife being in the company and making things easier for him.

Joe talks about being a rival but respecting Angle. This leads to a discussion about their rivalry, because about an hour and a half of matches between them isn’t enough. Angle likes AJ Styles and Christian too. This leads to a discussion of Angle always having great matches and deserving to be the first TNA World Champion after the NWA left.

Then Angle went to Japan to defend the IWGP World Title against Yuji Nagata on January 4, 2008, which aired on the Global Impact special. Yes I know it’s a different IWGP World Title.

IWGP World Title: Yuji Nagata vs. Kurt Angle

Angle jumps him from the bell and the fight is quickly on. A release belly to belly sends Nagata flying but he comes back with an identical one of his own. They trade headlock takeovers as the announcers (Tenay and West again) talk about the history of sports events in the Tokyo Dome. Nagata tries a crossface but Angle is quickly on the floor before it can go on. Back in and they trade strikes with the far more popular Nagata taking over.

Angle will have none of this being on defense thing and suplexes Yuji down for another two but gets caught in a quick chinlock. That doesn’t last long either as Angle is quickly up and taking out Nagata’s leg to send him to the floor. Back in and Angle slaps on a figure four to make Yuji scream. Nagata finally crawls over to the ropes so Kurt bends the knee some more in the middle of the ring.

Another figure four attempt is countered and Nagata slaps on his signature armbar. We take a break and come back with Angle rolling Germans as Tenay and West swap out for the Japanese announcers. That lasts all of three seconds, making it more pointless than most stuff TNA does. Nagata rolls some vertical suplexes and puts Kurt in another crossface. Angle uses the old Benoit counter by grabbing the ankle lock while still in the hold to put Nagata in even more trouble.

That’s countered right back into the crossface but Angle fights up and hits the Angle Slam for two. The moonsault misses though and Nagata hits a running knee in the corner to fire up the crowd. A belly to belly superplex gets a very close two on Angle and it’s back to the crossface. With that not working, Nagata switches to a kind of Rings of Saturn rollup for two. They slug it out with Angle nailing a clothesline but going down as well. Nagata gets two off a release suplex but Kurt puts on the ankle lock and sits down like a Boston crab before putting on the grapevine to make Nagata tap.

Rating: B. I was digging that Boston crab ankle lock thing. Other than that the match was solid stuff and a good big match for a supershow like this. The crossfaces were getting repetitive in there but at least there was a story of both guys working on a body part and then following it up. That’s a rare thing to see anymore.

They shake hands post match.

We get a clip of the post match press conference with Angle saying he hurts people in the ring.

Kurt talks about considering MMA after leaving WWE. He met with Dana White and was offered a deal but was told he couldn’t wrestle anymore. Angle had already signed with TNA though so it wasn’t going to happen. Everyone knows he would have been awesome though. Another promotion gave him two and a half months’ notice to fight but that wasn’t enough time for him to be ready. Then a third wasn’t able to pay him enough. Angle talks about wanting to fight but needing the right money.

Jeff Jarrett goes into a long answer to “would Angle be a successful fighter?” before saying he doesn’t know. This was basically ten minutes of repeating the same lines over and over again: “Kurt would fight and be awesome because he was a gold medalist but the money wasn’t right. He might fight one day.” Repeat about seven times, including once by the voiceover guy.

We haven’t had this one in awhile.

TNA World Title: Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe

In a cage at Lockdown 2008 with Angle defending and Joe’s career on the line. They haven’t had a PPV match in awhile so we get a recap of their whole history. This is treated more like an MMA fight with Angle in black shorts instead of his usual singlet and MMA fighter Frank Trigg on commentary. Before the match, Angle has Karen thrown out from her front row seat.

They even start by standing in MMA stances before trading leg kicks. Joe gets a leg bar but Angle is almost immediately in the ropes. Down to the mat with Angle hammering away at Joe’s guard as this is getting old fast. Joe gets the better of some mat grappling before it’s back to the stupid MMA stances. Angle finally snaps off a suplex and puts on a side choke until Joe makes the ropes.

Off to a front facelock from the champion before a quick German suplex gets two. A shot to the knee puts Joe down again and we hit the figure four. It’s about time we got to some wrestling. Joe finally turns it over but Angle is right next to the ropes. Angle cranks on the leg again but Joe chops his way out of it. That’s fine with Kurt as he slaps on a quickly broken headlock. Seriously a headlock in a cage match?

Back up and Joe nails a clothesline to put Kurt down but he has to shake his knee a bit. Kurt goes to the middle rope but gets caught by the enziguri. The MuscleBuster is countered and Angle hooks the ankle lock. Joe rolls out and gets two out of the release Rock Bottom out of the corner. The powerbomb into the Walls of Jericho into the STF into the crossface has Angle screaming.

Kurt grabs the ankle to finally escape but Joe pulls Angle back down into the crossface in the middle of the ring. Angle finally rolls over to get the ropes but Joe puts it right back on. Another rope is grabbed and the Angle Slam gets two. The champion puts on the ankle lock but he spins one too many times and gets pulled into the Clutch, only to use the referee’s shirt to make it to the ropes. Another Angle Slam attempt is countered and Joe sends him face first into the cage (first time it’s been used) and the MuscleBuster FINALLY gives Joe the title.

Rating: B. This got much better once they stopped the stupid MMA stuff and had a wrestling match. There was no need to have a cage here as it was only used once towards the end, which could have been replaced by a kick or something like that. It’s a good match and a good moment, but at the end of the day this was too overdone for what it needed to be.

Kurt says he has at least three years to go (this was about five years ago) and wants to have the best retirement year ever.

People see him on creative or coaching in ten years.

One last “Kurt is great” bit wraps us up.

Overall Rating: B+. There are some things that you have to allow here, but the majority of this was excellent. The documentary was really good stuff with pretty much everything you could ever want to know about Kurt Angle’s TNA run all in one place. They had a nice selection of people talking about him with Bruno being a great choice. The major issue with the documentary though is there’s no connection between what they’re talking about and the matches. They just show up with no real rhyme or reason and it gets a bit annoying at times.

The other problem is weighing in tonight at 280lbs and comes to us from the Isle of Samoa. That introduction takes place in six out of ten matches and five of the nine one on one matches. That’s WAY too much and I can’t imagine there’s nothing else they could have run. You didn’t need the third matches in their original series for instance.

The whole pairing just got way too repetitive and I’d love to see Angle vs. other people. The set came out in late 2008 so that has a lot to do with it, but with the selection they had at the time, there had to be something else to throw in there. They had some really good matches in 2008 to pick from so there really is no excuse.

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After last week, the only hope that I have is that the focus is spread out a little bit, rather than having almost everything being about the new trio. We’re coming up on Slammiversary with Eric Young defending against MVP, but now we also have to deal with Dixie Carter not being ok with MVP’s actions. Let’s get to it.

We open with a video on the trio’s dominance and desire for power with a lot of clips from last week.

Here’s Bully Ray to say that he’s obsessed with six people here in TNA. They all have bullseyes on their backs and he promises to put them all through tables. There are six tables standing up next to the ramp with names on them: Lashley, EC3, Kenny King, MVP, Spud and Dixie Carter. Ray heads to the ring and calls out anybody for a fight right now. He gets MVP in wrestling gear but the boss is walking slow. MVP says this isn’t happening tonight and there’s no fun in coming to the ring for a fight. Well, at least not on his own.

King and Lashley come out as well but EC3 and Spud slide into jump Ray. The trio gets in as well and Ray is in big trouble. EC3 and Spud bring the Spud table to the ring but Eric Young, Austin Aries and the Wolves come in for the save. The heels leave but Spud gets caught. Aries wants a six man tag and Ray wants it next. As a preview, Ray hits a middle rope powerbomb to drive Spud through the table.

MVP/Bobby Lashley/Kenny King vs. Wolves/Austin Aries

This is joined in process in a big brawl on the floor as we come back. It’s Lashley throwing Aries around to get us going legally before choking away. Aries comes back with some kicks to the leg as Edwards and King come inside for brawling as well. Aries escapes the powerslam and low bridges Lashley to the floor. King is sent outside the same way, followed by Richards (with his heavily taped ribs) sending MVP out to join them. The Wolves hit stereo dives and Aries comes off the top to take out Lashley as we take a break.

Back with King in trouble but MVP throws in a kick from the apron to put Edwards in trouble. Lashley comes in off the tag and throws Eddie around with ease. He drives shoulders in the corner before it’s back to MVP for a hard lariat and two. King comes back in but Edwards flips out of a German suplex and makes the tag to Aries.

Austin fights hard but gets caught in a running powerslam from Lashley. Aries escapes the Royal Flush though and nails the brainbuster on King. Back to Richards who goes up and rips the tape off his ribs, only to have the double stomp hit King’s shoulders. Lashley spears him down though and MVP hits a Drive By for the pin on Richards at 14:50.

Rating: C. Not bad but the injury was clearly going to be the focal point of the match. I’m kind of surprised they had this match here instead of swapping some people in for a big match at the pay per view. I’m really hoping Dixie’s team doesn’t hook up with the trio but it certainly looks like we’re heading that way.

Bram tells Magnus to be out there for his match.

EC3 is worried about going through a table but Dixie says don’t worry about it because she has business with MVP.

Tigre Uno vs. Bram

Bram runs Tigre down to start and growls at him with some freaky eyes. Uno fights out of a choke but gets clotheslined down for his efforts. An Impaler DDT gets the pin on Tigre at 2:08.

Post match Magnus has to stop Bram from killing Tigre with the metal rod. Bram says the old Magnus would have ripped the mask off and beaten him senseless. Magnus says maybe Bram needs a better opponent. Maybe someone a little crazy. Maybe a former World Champion. Maybe….it should be Willow.

Anderson asks Gunner what’s up with him and Shaw. Gunner says Anderson knows what it’s like to be in the military and Shaw just needs someone to talk to. They’re a team tonight.

Brittany wants Madison Rayne’s help against the Beautiful People tonight. Madison tells her to not have the match and Brittany reluctantly agrees.

Gunner/Mr. Anderson vs. BroMans

The BroMans jump Gunner and Anderson to start and it’s Gunner in early trouble. Double teaming ensues and Robbie gets two off a middle rope knee drop. Gunner comes back with a bad looking fall away slam and it’s off to Anderson to clean house. Everything breaks down and the Mic Check sets up a top rope headbutt from Gunner for the pin on Robbie at 3:14.

Rating: D. Just a glorified squash here as Anderson vs. Gunner seems to be an upcoming story, even though Anderson vs. Storm was set up over the last few weeks. The BroMans have gone from Tag Team Champions to jobber tag team in just a few weeks, even though there’s almost no one to challenge the Wolves.

Post match the Menagerie comes out to freak out the BroMans. The goofy guys (the BroMans if that’s not clear) get destroyed.

Gail Kim agrees to be Brittany’s partner.

Here are Dixie and Ethan to call out MVP. The trio comes out and Dixie offers some help, but MVP says he’s got power and a title shot, so why does he need the Carters? Dixie threatens to go to Dallas and tell the board what kind of abuse of power MVP has been showing. So the board of directors doesn’t even watch the show? MVP says he has a ton of money, which Dixie calls dirty. MVP says he’d love to play a game of money chicken and see who blinks first.

Eric and Bully come out with weapons but Ray says don’t do it and wait for the time and place. MVP says it won’t go well for the champion and Eric should just lose the title and go fish. Bully wants to go now but Eric stops him. “Time and place. Where were you a few seconds ago when you said that?” MVP makes Ray vs. Eric with EC3 as the referee. Ray says no but MVP threatens to fire him.

Ray says go ahead but Dixie asks who is going to pick up the pieces and fight her and MVP? Eric doesn’t have the ego or stomach to fight this war. Also, isn’t Bully from New York, because New Yorkers don’t quit. Ray says he’ll never quit until Dixie is gone. All the people want Dixie out of here forever and promises to put all five people in the ring through tables.

We look at EC3 injuring Angle’s knee a few weeks back. Earlier today, Angle said the knee rehab is going well even though he’s still in a cast. He thanks the fans for their support.

Beautiful People vs. Brittany/Gail Kim

Brittany comes out and then runs up the ramp to point at Gail during her entrance. Angelina pops Brittany with forearms and a shoulder to start before running shaking her hips a bit. Velvet comes in for some choking in the corner but Brittany trips her up for two. The Beautiful People take her back into the corner for some double teaming before Brittany finally dives over for the tag. Brittany tags herself in and says she has this, only to miss a Tajiri handspring into a moonsault. Angelina kicks her head off with the Botox Injection to give Velvet the pin at 5:40.

Rating: D+. Totally basic match here but the problem is the story. As I’ve been saying for weeks now, this is the same stuff we’ve been seeing forever with the Beautiful People and it hasn’t been interesting in forever. It’s like they’re just completely out of ideas and they’re doing the same stuff over and over again.

Ray says if he beats Eric he’ll be #1 contender. They respect each other though, because that’s just what you do in TNA.

After a break and Brittany is still in the ring. She calls Madison down for a talk and asks her why she wouldn’t team up against the Beautiful People tonight. Madison says this is getting weird for her. The issues with the Beautiful People have been going on for years and there are some things that only her and the Beautiful People know about. She won’t be responsible for Brittany being dragged into that. Brittany says she’ll accept responsibility and only wants to be with Madison.

Madison asks what Brittany just said and Brittany gets close to her and repeats it. Rayne shoves her away and says this just went a bit too far. Brittany needs to keep her distance but that’s too far. Brittany freaks out and asks why Madison doesn’t like her. Cue the Beautiful People who say that’s the real Madison Rayne and they made her that way. Madison says she’s not like either of them and that she’s coming for the Title next week.

The trio wants to do business with EC3 and he’s kind of interested.

Bully Ray vs. Eric Young

Non-title. King is guest ring announcers, EC3 is guest referee, Lashley is guest enforcer and MVP is guest timekeeper because this idea hasn’t been done to death before. Lashley is holding Eric’s title. Ray actually starts with an armdrag but Young nails a pair of his own before dropkicking Ray to the floor. King gets in a cheap shot but Young comes out to stand guard.

Back with the guys still being tentative and not wanting to fight each other while also having to watch the trio on the floor. Ray finally gets tired of dealing with it (and we’re running out of time) and kicks Carter in the face. The trio comes in and beats both guys down for a no contest at roughly 10:00. I’m not going to rate this as a lot of it was during the break and there was barely any wrestling at all.

Samoa Joe returns for the save and does the always awesome side step of a King dive. A MuscleBuster to King ends the show.

Overall Rating: D. Do you remember back in the Aces and 8’s clubhouse when they threw darts to pick out their next targets? TNA feels like they’ve put every old booking idea on a dart board and throw darts to pick what they put on the shows. This week’s show was better than last week’s as they had some other stuff get focus, but at the same time it had the same lack of energy that TNA constantly deals with.

Above all else though, the moment they lost me this week was when Dixie Carter said Ray didn’t have the ability to fight this war. I actually said out loud, “Why does it have to be a war?”. We just got done having a nearly two year war against Aces and 8’s, and now that team’s leader is on the other side of a war? Why do we need to do this same thing again? Between that and the two heel groups seeming to merge or at least have common goals (albeit with issues between the leaders), it feels like we’re doing the same thing that people complained about for over a year. Why would I want to watch that again?

Results
MVP/Kenny King/Bobby Lashley b. Wolves/Austin Aries – Drive By to Richards
Bram b. Tigre Uno – Impaler DDT
Gunner/Mr. Anderson b. BroMans – Flying headbutt to Robbie
Beautiful People b. Brittany/Gail Kim – Sky pinned Brittany after a Botox Injection from Love
Eric Young vs. Bully Ray went to a no contest when Kenny King, Bobby Lashley and MVP interfered

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