Yep, once again it's that time of the month where I bring you up to date with all the action from the previous months Impacts and PPV. I know this catch-up is very late, I haven't been well - But I won't bore you with my personal problems. The usual caveats apply, I call it how I see it. The only bias is my own, If you don't like my opinion or how I say it then edon't read it. I do and will use colourful language, If I feel the need to swear then I will. Real people generally do. I only talk about what I feel is relevant to the advancement of TNA so you won't find me mentioning certain storylines or angles if they bore me. Now it's on to the catch-up!
Impact 6th December - Due to certain issues I didn't have this edition of Impact to review. Feel free to make up your own review. Maybe Kurt Angle admitted he was gay? Kevin Nash actually did something entertaining? Miss Brooks covered up her breasts? Jay Lethal didn't look like an utter c**t with a s**t gimmick for a change? I did a bit of searching and thanks to Rapidshare I actually managed to find this show to review so here goes with a real review (but I still bet my made-up one was a miles better show!).
Tag Match - Rellik & Black Reign vs LAX. What an odd match-up. LAX aren't hardcore workers but here they are working with 2 of hardest in TNA. Not that anything hardcore happened in this match, it was a pretty dull affair with Homicide getting the pin off Rellik with a roll-up.
Non-title Knockout Womens Match - ODB vs Gail Kim. I really do like ODB, not only can she wrestle, she's a great character! She's off her fricking head but she's got bags of character. The whole "slightly drunk" thing is a bit iffy if you ask me but it certainly seems to work for her. This was a decent enough match but it really didn't need the crappy cheat finish with ODB using the hipflask to hit Kim & get the pin.
Winner Takes Possession of Case #3 (from Feast or Fired) - Chris Daniels vs Senshi with Elix Skipper as special guest referee. Not a great match considering the abilities of the 2 men involved. Daniels got the pin and won the case.
Robert Roode joins Kurt Angle's Alliance.
6 Man Tag Team Ladder Match for possession of the X Division title belt - Team 3d & Johnny Devine vs Jay Lethal & The Motor City Machine Guns. This whole c***py storyline about Team 3d having Jay Lethal's belt is utter S**T! This is an issue that could be solved in seconds. Give Lethal one of the replica belts that TNA sells. Claim the belt Team 3d have isn't the real one.
Matter solved, none of these c***py storyline matches needed. With the amount of "things on a pole" or "things up a ladder" matches increasing like crazy at the moment it shows how truly involved Russo is with the show. Far too involved. With Team 3d still running as heels they are certainly doing a really good job of putting both Jay Lethal & The Motor City Machine Guns over. I was a bit annoyed about the very bad camera angle showing exactly where Chris Sabin's springboard clothesline actually hit Devon (on his arm) as he took him off the ladder. Either a badly positioned cameraman who should know better or an idiot director. Lethal actually undid the belt but Brother Ray hit him with a kendo stick when the ref was distracted and gave the belt to Johnny Devine who was given the win for his team.
10 Man Tag Match - Robert Roode, Christian Cage, AJ Styles & Tomko & Kurt Angle vs Kaz, Eric Young (neither of whom really deserve to be in a match like this if we're honest), Booker T, Kevin Nash & Samoa Joe. Nash got the win for his team in this overly long pretty mediocre match. Kaz & AJ Styles were the best workers in this by a country mile. This show also demonstrated exactly how long a "2 Hour Impact Show" actually is. 1 hour and 25 minutes long.
Wow, you Americans either have too many commercials or a really f**king short attention span?
Impact 13th Dec 07 - The show kicks off with Christian Cage coming out to bore us on the mic. Kurt Angle does likewise.
4 Way Feast, Fired Or $50,000 match - Chris Daniels vs BG James vs Petey Williams vs Scott Steiner. This is a carry on from the last PPV where 3 men win a title shot and 1 gets fired. As extra incentive they offer a 50 grand prize or swap your case for someone else's. Overall this was a decent enough match, Williams showing his stuff as usual. Steiner took the win & traded cases with Petey Williams. Petey's traded case held the World Heavyweight Title shot.
Rellik vs Kaz - not one of Kaz's best matches, Rellik had a decent enough match showing he actually can wrestle. All the s**te with Black Reign afterwards was pretty pointless though.
TNA Knockout Tag Team match - Velvet Sky & Angelina Love vs Ms Brooks & Jackie Moore. Playing on the angle that Jackie was drunk, this was going to be very 1 sided. Sky took some pretty nice bumps, Brooks is getting better with each match taking some pretty good bumps herself. Angelina Love took the eventual win which they worked well for. It also looks like their setting up a Booker T vs Robert Roode match.
James Mitchell comes out to bore us on the mic with some Abyss storyline s**te which was an obvious set-up for Judas Mesias to jump him when the lights went out.
Chris Harris vs Booker T - well this was a foregone conclusion before the bell rang with Booker getting the obvious win.
Back to the Feast Or Fired angle and inside BG James's case was a Tag Team Title shot.
Lumberjack Strap match - Johnny Devine vs Jay Lethal (still using the worst gimmick in TNA). Lethal getting the win from a nice elbow drop.
Back to Feast Or Fired again and the contents of the last 2 cases Scott Steiner got the X Division Title shot and Chris Daniels got fired. Like anyone believes that for even a femto second? Expect to see him back in some capacity very soon.
Handicap match, initially booked as a tag match but because Christian Cage couldn't find a partner he faced Kurt Angle & Robert Roode alone. Cage got the best of this match even on his own but Roode took the eventual win for his team.
Impact 20th Dec 07 - The show starts with Eric Young's Christmas at home. (Was that WWF Legend Bushwhacker Luke as "Uncle Leo"?).
Matt Morgan comes down to bore us on the mic.
8 Man Tag Team Christmas Chaos Cage Match - Lance Hoyt & Jimmy Rave & James Storm & Robert Roode vs LAX's Homicide & Hernandez & Scott Steiner & Booker T. LAX got the best of this match but it was pretty obvious being the new guy that Booker T was going to take the win with a pin on Jimmy Rave. Booker hasn't lost a match yet.
Double North Pole Match - Chris Sabin, Alex Shelley & Jay Lethal vs Team 3d & Johnny Devine. Basically it's a "something on a pole" match so Russo had been hard at work doing f**k all as usual. They can either win an Ultimate X Match or a Plate Glass Table Match. After some help from some midgets Alex Shelley pulled down the Ultimate X Match for the win.
Santa's Workshop Knockout Streetfight Match - ODB vs Roxxi Laveaux vs Jackie Moore vs Christy Hemme vs Miss Brooks vs Awesome Kong vs Angelina Love vs Velvet Sky vs Gail Kim. Basically its a 9 woman hardcore weapons match with a festive twist. Kim & Kong were out of the ring & gone within seconds of the opening bell. ODB gave yet another good show of herself. Kong made her way back and took out everyone in the ring getting the win off Christy Hemme with the Awesome bomb. Kim finally made it back after the bell to level Kong with a chair but security had to break it up.
Silent Night, Bloody Night 4 Way Match - Rellik vs Shark Boy vs Black Reign vs Abyss. A match where Shark boy performed a lot better than expected to be honest but it was always going to a case of James Mitchell distracting Abyss for Judas Mesias to jump him. Rellik got the eventual win off Shark boy.
Grab The Reindeer Ladder Match - AJ Styles vs Kaz, basically whoever gets the reindeer costume 1st, the loser has to wear the costume. With Kaz getting a big push recently and AJ jobbing to everyone left, right and centre I predicted a win for Kaz. Styles pulls some wicked moves showing his classic style. Kaz got the predicted win and AJ had to wear the Reindeer suit.
Impact 27th Dec 07 - Senshi vs Judas Mesias. Well this was always going to be a squash match wasn't it? How have WWE not sued TNA for Mesias totally stealing & ripping off Gangrel's gimmick? I didn't expect this to be long and it wasn't. Mesias getting the predicted win.
Christian Cage comes down to bore us on the mic.
Robert Roode vs Booker T - yet another match between these 2 which was most likely going Bookers way yet again. This one never got started with Kurt Angle jumping Booker and Booker getting a beatdown off them both. Booker decides to make it a tag match later in the evening. Who died and made him Jim Cornette?
Non-title Tag Match - Tomko & AJ Styles vs Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley. As a non-title match I predicted The Motor City Machine Guns to win. Which went exactly the way I called it, Shelley & Sabin taking a very deserved win.
Tag Team Knockout match - Roxxi Laveaux & Jackie Moore & ODB & Angelina Love & Velvet Sky & Gail Kim. The women are now getting more and better matches to showcase their talent Even though this was a light team versus a heavy team both teams had different skill sets but were still equally matched. Love & Sky are really establishing themselves as quite a tagteam now, ODB improves every time I see her. Roxxi I still haven't seen enough of and needs to make more of the chances they are giving her. Roxxi did make a nice sit-out powerbomb on Kim but Kim got the eventual win for her team.
Elix Skipper vs Samoa Joe - After being told to fight or be fired Joe came out but he sure wasn't dressed to fight but he did. The ref DQ'd Joe after throwing him around so Skipper got the win on paper.
Tag Match - Robert Roode & Kurt Angle vs Booker T and his mystery partner who turned out to be Christian Cage which wasn't very surprising. Another thing that wasn't surprising was Bookers team winning with Cage taking the win off Roode with the unprettier.
Impact 3rd Jan 08 - Tag Team division Gauntlet match - A Basic Battle Royale but with tag teams. Lance Hoyt & Kip James start things off. Next in is Brother Devon. Next in is Alex Shelley. Next in is Homicide who eliminates Kip James. Next in is Jimmy Rave. Next in is BG James who eliminates Devon. Next in is Brother Ray. Next in is Chris Sabin who eliminates BG James. Last in is Hernandez. Brother Ray eliminates Alex Shelley. Chris Sabin eliminates Brother Ray. During the commercial break (I keep saying they have them at F**KING AWFUL times and am only proved even more right by this one!) Lance Hoyt eliminates Hernandez and Jimmy Rave eliminates Homicide. Then we switch to a classic match and Alex Shelley gets the win off Jimmy Rave.
Womens Knockout Gauntlet Match - Exactly like the last match except its the women and its just a singles match. Angelina Love & Miss Brooks start things off. Next in is Jackie Moore. Next in is Velvet Sky. Next in is Christy Hemme. Next in is ODB who eliminates Miss Brooks. Next in is Roxxi Laveaux. Last in is Awesome Kong who eliminates Christy Hemme, Velvet Sky & Angelina Love. Working together Roxxi, ODB & Jackie eliminate Awesome Kong. Roxxi Laveaux eliminates Jackie Moore and its her vs ODB to a pinfall. ODB went for a quick pin but Roxxi turned things around. Both women made some nice moves but ODB won using sheer weight to get the pin.
X Division Gauntlet Match - Just like the previous match except with the X Division guys, Sonjay Dutt & Petey Williams kick things off. Next in is Shark boy. Next in is Elix Skipper who eliminates himself jumping at Sonjay Dutt, silly t**t. Next in is Johnny Devine who eliminates Shark boy. Last in is Senshi. Johnny Devine & Sonjay Dutt eliminate Johnny Devine together. Senshi eliminates Sonjay Dutt leaving Petey Williams vs Senshi for the pinfall. Williams takes the win off the Canadian Destroyer.
Heavyweight Gauntlet - Again, exactly the same as before, this time the Heavyweight men. Booker T & James Storm start things off. Next in is Robert Roode. Here Booker had a whole minute of 2 on 1 to cope with depending on who the next man in was really. Next in was Eric Young. As a heavyweight? X Division perhaps but never has EY been a Heavyweight contender. Another break taken at a bad time during which Black Reign, Rellik, Kaz & Chris Harris entered the match (So the break was at least 5 minutes long. During a match like this? What drugs are you on TNA schedulers?). Next in as Kaz was eliminating James Storm was Scott Steiner who eliminated Robert Roode. Next in was Judas Mesias as Steiner eliminated Chris Harris, Judas Mesias eliminated Kaz. Next in is Kevin Nash. Next in is Abyss, Judas Mesias eliminates Scott Steiner & Eric Young. Abyss eliminates Judas Mesias & himself. Next in is Samoa Joe. Last in is Christian Cage. Black Reign eliminates Booker T (making that Bookers 1st match he hasn't won or been on the winning team). Samoa Joe eliminates Rellik as the camera's are watching totally the wrong action by focusing on Cage and Angle (who isn't even involved in this match) on the entry ramp. Kevin Nash eliminates Black Reign then eliminates himself leaving Cage vs Joe to the pinfall that Cage steals from a very sneaky & fast roll up.
Final Resolution PPV Jan 6th 08 - Tag Match - Lance Hoyt & Jimmy Rave vs LAX. Not a match that really belonged on a PPV, this really should have been settled on tv. LAX get the win and the "man" (who was obviously a woman) who's been slap jacking Christie Hemme is finally revealed to be a female. It looks like the womens division just gained another body. Let's hope she can work as well as she looks.
Black Reign vs Kaz. Yet another match that didn't belong on a PPV. Kaz could have worked a much better match than this. Kaz isn't a hardcore wrestler. He wasn't hardcore as part of Seratonin and he still isn't as a singles worker. Kaz won a pretty easy and scrappy match.
TNA Knockout Womens No DQ Title Match - Awesome Kong vs Gail Kim. This match was always going to favour Kong and I wondered if Kim was going to use outside interference from some of the other women to win it. It went straight out of the ring and on the whole was the squash match it looked like it was going to be. Really this should have been stopped as soon as Kong powerbombed the ref. I know it was no DQ but that should only apply wrestler to wrestler. Kim gets the unlikely win using 2nd ref Rudy Charles to get a roll-over.
Judas Mesias vs Abyss - This Abyss storyline just isn't interesting enough to merit a PPV match. Mesias might look good but he doesn't seem to have the moves or skillset to belong in a PPV match. Mesias isn't any good unless he's jumping someone from behind or with several other people helping him. Abyss on the other hand has had good PPV matches with many people, he was carrying Mesias for most of this match whilst Mitchell was backstage. Mesias took the win after interference by Mitchell. The very cheap c**p attempt to make us believe Mitchell was going to set Abyss on fire? I think not, especially not after that PPV TNA had where the building was partially set alight by a misfiring pyro. Check your PPV history next time before you try to pull a piece of b**ls**t like that on us James Mitchell. W**ker!
Mixed Tag Match - Robert Roode & Miss Brooks vs Booker T & Sharmell. It was nice for them to finally find a way to use Sharmell in a wrestling capacity as I'd been hoping to see her work in-ring since her and Booker arrived. Roodes ability to sell certain moves in this match was truly awful. He looked like a rank amateur in places. Roode didn't seem to want to be hit by Booker's knee lifts to the chest and didn't seem to know how to sell them either. Booker was more than happy to show Roode how to sell a knee lift to the chest though. Sharmell finally got a chance in-ring but there was no real skill from her or any wrestling moves done. Sharmell got the pin after Miss Brooks was bumped back to the mat after hitting Roode. It looks like hopefully and finally Miss Brooks & Robert Roode are done after he knocked out Sharmell. It's time to hook him up with the crazy superfan, their perfect for each other.
6 man Tag Team Ultimate X Match for possession of the X Division belt - In yet another bit of bad organisation the ring wasn't already set up for this match which I found very surprising. Team 3d & Johnny Devine vs The Motor City Machine Guns & Jay Lethal. 3d get the win after using a ladder to get to the belt while the ref was "knocked out".
Tag Team Championship Match - AJ Styles & Tomko vs Samoa Joe & Kevin Nash. Joe was filling in for Scott Hall who by now must have burnt all his bridges with TNA. Joe got to a point where he was in trouble & Nash stepped off the apron leaving Joe alone to fight the tag champions in what was now a handicap match. The ref was allowing a truly blatant double team for far too long not even attempting to make the illegal man leave the ring at any point & Joe had no chance with Tomko getting the pin to retain the belts for his team.
Heavyweight Title Match - Kurt Angle vs Christian Cage. Basically this matches outcome solely depended on where AJ Styles decided his true friends were as his allies. Cage really didn't deserve this title shot (I can't even remember how he got it to be honest) and neither of these guys is entertaining enough to carry this match. Cage has been a heel too long to suddenly be a face and Angle has pretty much been a heel since he started in TNA. The match was far too long and drawn out with too much mat based wrestling. Leaving AJ out to finally come out in the last 30 seconds of the match to turn on Cage and earn Angle the win was not a good idea. As the main event this was very weak indeed and the womens matches made this look very bad.
My predictions for this year:-
Kaz will win a belt, X Division or Heavyweight but that would be a very short run.
Jeff Jarrett will finally return & we will see more of the women having tag matches leading hopefully to a possible tag belt for them.
Sting may finally retire as hopefully will Kevin Nash.
Robert Roodes superfan will either dye her hair black or wear a black wig and ambush Miss Brooks outside the Impact Zone taking her place, Roode won't notice until she helps him to a win and she reveals who she really is and he hires her and fires Miss Brooks finally leaving her free to work in the Womens division under a new image and go back to being Tracey Brooks.
Booker T will win the Heavyweight title or possibly the Tag title with Scott Steiner.
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Thursday, November 15, 2007
My TNA Monthly Catch-up, Nov - Dec 07
Once again it's that time of month where I review the previous months Impacts & PPV.
I call it how I see it, I only talk about stuff I feel is relevant to the advancement of TNA as a brand and if its s**t I'll say so. I don't apologise for my use of bad or colourful language, I'm a real person - That's how we speak.
If you don't like my views then don't read them. If you do like my views or want to comment on anything I've said then feel free to feedback. I generally respond to people who feedback on my posts. Onto the review.
Impact 15th Nov 07 - Jim Cornett tells West & Tenay they can't mention 2 of the participants from the last PPV. I assumed he meant Booker T & Scott Hall.
Show opens with Kurt Angle coming out to bore us on the mic. Nash interupts him & they fight, Nash getting beaten down by Kurt's cronies. The X-Division make the save.
Tag Match - Lance Hoyt & Jimmy Rave vs LAX. This was a pretty decent match. I still want to see Jimmy Rave with a better partner than Hoyt (someone like James Storm, Chris Harris or Petey Williams). Rave gets the win from the roll-up.
More from Team 3d in their heel turn which is getting old.
Mixed Tag Match - Robert Roode & Miss Brooks vs Gail Kim & Chris Harris. Roode took the win from a chair shot & hopefully Miss Brooks is now a solo wrestler.
A bit more b**ls**t storyline with Team 3d & it seems Havok is now no longer part of Seratonin (when was he part of the X-Divsion ever?).
Hall & Nash come out to the ring for a chat to us.
3 way match - Rellik vs Black Reign vs Abyss. This was more of a 2 on 1 with Rellik & Reign working together. Abyss got the win off Rellik with the Black Hole Slam. Unsurprisingly with Rhyno making the save this looked like a set-up for a future PPV tag match.
Womens match - Awesome Kong vs Alexa Jade. Another squash match where another girl jobs to Kong, this gets neither woman over. Kong won off the sit-out powerbomb. Why are they bothering with Kong, not even ODB is big enough to be an even matchup for her. The post match run in from Gail Kim definately put her over big time.
Cornette's 2 new signings are announced as Booker T & Sharmell. Booker looked very happy coming down to the ring.
TNA World Heavyweight Title - Kaz vs Kurt Angle. Kaz was never likely to win this as the odds of Angle dropping the belt at a house show are very low indeed. Kaz worked well as he pretty much always does & Angle put him over very well too. Angle took the predictable win.
Samoa Joe is revealed as Hall & Nash's partner.
Impact 22nd Nov 07 - TNA Turkey Bowl, 3 way Match which is basically a guy from the Heavyweight division, a guy from the Tag division and a guy from the X-Division all competing in a knockout match with the eventual winner getting $25,000 and the loser has to wear a turkey suit (Ala The Gobbledy Gooker, didn't TNA Spanish Announcer Hector Guerrero once wear that suit?).
1st Semi final - Brother Devon vs Abyss vs Chris Sabin. Devon jumped Sabin before Abyss ever made it to the ring Devon got the best of this match at the start but all 3 guys worked well & looked ok. Rellik & Black Reign distracted Abyss who was saved by Rhyno, leaving Sabin & Devon to finish the match. Sabin got a great win after a failed run-in from Brother Ray.
TNA Turkey Bowl 2nd Semi final - Johnny Devine (dropping the "Havok" name after his run with Team 3d last week) vs Kip James vs Samoa Joe. Joe sold well for Kip & Devine at the start & Joe took the win from the Muscle Buster off Devine.
TNA Turkey Bowl 3rd Semi final - AJ Styles vs Jay Lethal (still running TNA's worst gimmick ever) vs Christian Cage. Cage was a no-show by the bell so AJ & Lethal went 1 on 1. Both guys are good workers & made a decent match before Cage decided to join them. During another badly timed commercial break Styles was run out of the ring by Cage. Lethal worked Cage well enough but it was a pretty scrappy match by Cage. AJ Styles got a win that I actually predicted when I saw the previous winners as we already had an X Division guy & a Heavyweight guy so obviously the Tag guy was going to win.
3 way Womens match - Velvet Sky vs Angelina Love vs ODB. It's clear from this bit of booking that TNA management still don't trust the women or take them seriously enough. ODB's main role was to put the other 2 girls over & let them show their talents. Both Love & Sky worked really well & looked stunning too. I did hope this wasn't going to be a squash match but sadly it was with a predictable win for ODB but the other 2 girls gave a great match.
TNA Turkey Bowl final - Chris Sabin vs Samoa Joe vs AJ Styles. On the face of it this sounded like an AWESOME match but with the way their running AJ's character I predicted Sabin to win & AJ to get the Turkey suit. As a 3 way match I did wonder how they were going to decide who "lost" this, My assumption was whoever got pinned was "the loser". All 3 of these guys are excellent workers & made for a very good fast paced match. Samoa Joe got the win from AJ so I at least did pick the correct loser.
Impact 29th Nov 07 - Show opens with new signings Booker T & Sharmell coming down to bore us on the mic.
Mixed Tag Match - Eric Young & Gail Kim vs Christy Hemme & Jimmy Rave. Kim & Hemme did ok to showcase themselves, Young & Rave worked pretty well too. Kim got a good win for her team.
Some storyline c**p involving Young afterwards.
An Anything Goes Big Boy Street Fight Tag Match - Sonjay Dutt & Jay Lethal vs Team 3d. 3d got the eventual win after Johnny Devine interfered.
Rellik vs Rhyno. Sorry, but never did I ever believe for even a femto second this would stay a 1 on 1 match. Rhyno got the win & my prediction came true after the win was called with a run in by Black Reign & a save by Abyss.
Special Challenge Match, Robert Roode vs Booker T - as an Impact debut Booker couldn't really expect a big name to work with but this was always going to be Booker winning before the match even started. Roode had a decent enough match & also put Booker over very well. A predictable win to Booker off the "axe kick" formerly known as the Book-end.
8 Man Tag Match - Christian Cage, Aj Styles, Tomko & Kurt Angle vs Kaz, (have they been recycling Shane Douglas' old TNA wardobe for Kaz?), Scott Steiner, Abyss & Samoa Joe. Just about everyone got to hit their finisher in this match with Joe winning off the muscle buster.
Turning Point PPV 07 - 6 man Tag Team Tables Match. Team 3d & Johnny Devine vs Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley & Black Machismo. On the face of it this seemed to be a foregone conclusion of 3d winning as the heavier team with expertise in tables matches. The X Division guys were the more cohesive unit working better together as a team. After a c**p ref knockout (all referee knockouts are c**p by the way) 3d got the win.
TNA Knockout Womens Tag Match - Roxxi Laveaux & ODB vs Velvet Sky & Angelina Love. A very well worked match with Love & Sky getting the better of it & the eventual win.
James Storm vs Eric Young. This match did NOT belong in a PPV. An overly long dull match with Young getting the win.
Feast Or Fired - Basically a classic Russo inspired "something on a pole" match with 4 cases, 1 contains an X-Division title shot, 1 contains a Heavyweight title shot, 1 contains a Tag title shot & 1 says "Your Fired" so it's also got that "Loser leaves TNA" twist as well. Triple X vs Sonjay Dutt vs Sharkboy vs Petey Williams vs Lance Hoyt & Jimmy Rave vs Chris Harris vs VKM vs LAX vs Scott Steiner. Idle gossip had already told us that Senshi was leaving so we knew who was going to get the "Your Fired" case. West & Tenay told us the contents of these cases weren't going to be announced until the following weeks Impact so WHAT WAS THE F**KING POINT OF THIS MATCH? Petey Williams got case #4 (most likely an X-Division title shot), BG James took case#1 (almost certainly the Tag title shot), Senshi got case #3 (which must have been "Your Fired") and case #2 went to Scott Steiner (almost certainly the Heavyweight title shot).
TNA Knockout Womens Championship Match - Gail Kim vs Awesome Kong. Kong had a new ring outfit & wore something under it having learnt from her previous PPV clothing failure/breast flash. This was never going to be pretty & on the face of it seemed to be yet another in Kong's serious of squash matches. Kim retained the belt after Kong pushed the ref getting herself dq'd.
Tag Match of 10,000 thumbtacks. Black Reign & Rellik vs Abyss & Raven (replacing Rhyno who was out after Rellik injured his neck in a match we obviously never saw on tv). Raven seems to have slimmed down a bit more for this match. This was never going to pretty & we weren't going to see much actual wrestling, mainly brawling harkening back to the classic days of ECW. The annoying & extremely loud woman screaming ABYSS! made this match hard to bear. Raven put Black Reign into a table of thumbtacks from the top turnbuckle (effectively ending his match) & fell through another table very hard himself leaving Rellik & Abyss to duke it out. Abyss got the win for his team after putting Rellik into thumbtacks in the ring with The Black Hole Slam.
Tag Match - Robert Roode & Christian Cage vs Booker T & Kaz. Booker getting his 2nd ppv appearance since coming to TNA. Kaz made the best of this match as well, working well as he usually does. Roode had one of his better matches & even Cage gave a decent account of himself in the ring for a change. Booker got the win for his team after Roode mistakenly hit Cage with the chair.
Samoa Joe shoots on Scott Hall's no-show.
Joe also shoots big time before the match starts, especially against Hall & Nash.
6 Man Tag Team Grudge Match - AJ Styles, Tomko & Kurt Angle vs Kevin Nash, Samoa Joe & Eric Young replacing that unreliable drunken f**k Scott Hall. I think when Joe said "fire me, I don't care" he genuinely meant it!. All the work from Joe was going to be his hardest, likewise all the work from Eric Young. This was a new side to Eric Young with him doing moves I've never seen him attempt before. Joe, Nash & Young made the 2nd half of this match with Joe getting the win with the Muscle Buster off Tomko of all people.
I call it how I see it, I only talk about stuff I feel is relevant to the advancement of TNA as a brand and if its s**t I'll say so. I don't apologise for my use of bad or colourful language, I'm a real person - That's how we speak.
If you don't like my views then don't read them. If you do like my views or want to comment on anything I've said then feel free to feedback. I generally respond to people who feedback on my posts. Onto the review.
Impact 15th Nov 07 - Jim Cornett tells West & Tenay they can't mention 2 of the participants from the last PPV. I assumed he meant Booker T & Scott Hall.
Show opens with Kurt Angle coming out to bore us on the mic. Nash interupts him & they fight, Nash getting beaten down by Kurt's cronies. The X-Division make the save.
Tag Match - Lance Hoyt & Jimmy Rave vs LAX. This was a pretty decent match. I still want to see Jimmy Rave with a better partner than Hoyt (someone like James Storm, Chris Harris or Petey Williams). Rave gets the win from the roll-up.
More from Team 3d in their heel turn which is getting old.
Mixed Tag Match - Robert Roode & Miss Brooks vs Gail Kim & Chris Harris. Roode took the win from a chair shot & hopefully Miss Brooks is now a solo wrestler.
A bit more b**ls**t storyline with Team 3d & it seems Havok is now no longer part of Seratonin (when was he part of the X-Divsion ever?).
Hall & Nash come out to the ring for a chat to us.
3 way match - Rellik vs Black Reign vs Abyss. This was more of a 2 on 1 with Rellik & Reign working together. Abyss got the win off Rellik with the Black Hole Slam. Unsurprisingly with Rhyno making the save this looked like a set-up for a future PPV tag match.
Womens match - Awesome Kong vs Alexa Jade. Another squash match where another girl jobs to Kong, this gets neither woman over. Kong won off the sit-out powerbomb. Why are they bothering with Kong, not even ODB is big enough to be an even matchup for her. The post match run in from Gail Kim definately put her over big time.
Cornette's 2 new signings are announced as Booker T & Sharmell. Booker looked very happy coming down to the ring.
TNA World Heavyweight Title - Kaz vs Kurt Angle. Kaz was never likely to win this as the odds of Angle dropping the belt at a house show are very low indeed. Kaz worked well as he pretty much always does & Angle put him over very well too. Angle took the predictable win.
Samoa Joe is revealed as Hall & Nash's partner.
Impact 22nd Nov 07 - TNA Turkey Bowl, 3 way Match which is basically a guy from the Heavyweight division, a guy from the Tag division and a guy from the X-Division all competing in a knockout match with the eventual winner getting $25,000 and the loser has to wear a turkey suit (Ala The Gobbledy Gooker, didn't TNA Spanish Announcer Hector Guerrero once wear that suit?).
1st Semi final - Brother Devon vs Abyss vs Chris Sabin. Devon jumped Sabin before Abyss ever made it to the ring Devon got the best of this match at the start but all 3 guys worked well & looked ok. Rellik & Black Reign distracted Abyss who was saved by Rhyno, leaving Sabin & Devon to finish the match. Sabin got a great win after a failed run-in from Brother Ray.
TNA Turkey Bowl 2nd Semi final - Johnny Devine (dropping the "Havok" name after his run with Team 3d last week) vs Kip James vs Samoa Joe. Joe sold well for Kip & Devine at the start & Joe took the win from the Muscle Buster off Devine.
TNA Turkey Bowl 3rd Semi final - AJ Styles vs Jay Lethal (still running TNA's worst gimmick ever) vs Christian Cage. Cage was a no-show by the bell so AJ & Lethal went 1 on 1. Both guys are good workers & made a decent match before Cage decided to join them. During another badly timed commercial break Styles was run out of the ring by Cage. Lethal worked Cage well enough but it was a pretty scrappy match by Cage. AJ Styles got a win that I actually predicted when I saw the previous winners as we already had an X Division guy & a Heavyweight guy so obviously the Tag guy was going to win.
3 way Womens match - Velvet Sky vs Angelina Love vs ODB. It's clear from this bit of booking that TNA management still don't trust the women or take them seriously enough. ODB's main role was to put the other 2 girls over & let them show their talents. Both Love & Sky worked really well & looked stunning too. I did hope this wasn't going to be a squash match but sadly it was with a predictable win for ODB but the other 2 girls gave a great match.
TNA Turkey Bowl final - Chris Sabin vs Samoa Joe vs AJ Styles. On the face of it this sounded like an AWESOME match but with the way their running AJ's character I predicted Sabin to win & AJ to get the Turkey suit. As a 3 way match I did wonder how they were going to decide who "lost" this, My assumption was whoever got pinned was "the loser". All 3 of these guys are excellent workers & made for a very good fast paced match. Samoa Joe got the win from AJ so I at least did pick the correct loser.
Impact 29th Nov 07 - Show opens with new signings Booker T & Sharmell coming down to bore us on the mic.
Mixed Tag Match - Eric Young & Gail Kim vs Christy Hemme & Jimmy Rave. Kim & Hemme did ok to showcase themselves, Young & Rave worked pretty well too. Kim got a good win for her team.
Some storyline c**p involving Young afterwards.
An Anything Goes Big Boy Street Fight Tag Match - Sonjay Dutt & Jay Lethal vs Team 3d. 3d got the eventual win after Johnny Devine interfered.
Rellik vs Rhyno. Sorry, but never did I ever believe for even a femto second this would stay a 1 on 1 match. Rhyno got the win & my prediction came true after the win was called with a run in by Black Reign & a save by Abyss.
Special Challenge Match, Robert Roode vs Booker T - as an Impact debut Booker couldn't really expect a big name to work with but this was always going to be Booker winning before the match even started. Roode had a decent enough match & also put Booker over very well. A predictable win to Booker off the "axe kick" formerly known as the Book-end.
8 Man Tag Match - Christian Cage, Aj Styles, Tomko & Kurt Angle vs Kaz, (have they been recycling Shane Douglas' old TNA wardobe for Kaz?), Scott Steiner, Abyss & Samoa Joe. Just about everyone got to hit their finisher in this match with Joe winning off the muscle buster.
Turning Point PPV 07 - 6 man Tag Team Tables Match. Team 3d & Johnny Devine vs Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley & Black Machismo. On the face of it this seemed to be a foregone conclusion of 3d winning as the heavier team with expertise in tables matches. The X Division guys were the more cohesive unit working better together as a team. After a c**p ref knockout (all referee knockouts are c**p by the way) 3d got the win.
TNA Knockout Womens Tag Match - Roxxi Laveaux & ODB vs Velvet Sky & Angelina Love. A very well worked match with Love & Sky getting the better of it & the eventual win.
James Storm vs Eric Young. This match did NOT belong in a PPV. An overly long dull match with Young getting the win.
Feast Or Fired - Basically a classic Russo inspired "something on a pole" match with 4 cases, 1 contains an X-Division title shot, 1 contains a Heavyweight title shot, 1 contains a Tag title shot & 1 says "Your Fired" so it's also got that "Loser leaves TNA" twist as well. Triple X vs Sonjay Dutt vs Sharkboy vs Petey Williams vs Lance Hoyt & Jimmy Rave vs Chris Harris vs VKM vs LAX vs Scott Steiner. Idle gossip had already told us that Senshi was leaving so we knew who was going to get the "Your Fired" case. West & Tenay told us the contents of these cases weren't going to be announced until the following weeks Impact so WHAT WAS THE F**KING POINT OF THIS MATCH? Petey Williams got case #4 (most likely an X-Division title shot), BG James took case#1 (almost certainly the Tag title shot), Senshi got case #3 (which must have been "Your Fired") and case #2 went to Scott Steiner (almost certainly the Heavyweight title shot).
TNA Knockout Womens Championship Match - Gail Kim vs Awesome Kong. Kong had a new ring outfit & wore something under it having learnt from her previous PPV clothing failure/breast flash. This was never going to be pretty & on the face of it seemed to be yet another in Kong's serious of squash matches. Kim retained the belt after Kong pushed the ref getting herself dq'd.
Tag Match of 10,000 thumbtacks. Black Reign & Rellik vs Abyss & Raven (replacing Rhyno who was out after Rellik injured his neck in a match we obviously never saw on tv). Raven seems to have slimmed down a bit more for this match. This was never going to pretty & we weren't going to see much actual wrestling, mainly brawling harkening back to the classic days of ECW. The annoying & extremely loud woman screaming ABYSS! made this match hard to bear. Raven put Black Reign into a table of thumbtacks from the top turnbuckle (effectively ending his match) & fell through another table very hard himself leaving Rellik & Abyss to duke it out. Abyss got the win for his team after putting Rellik into thumbtacks in the ring with The Black Hole Slam.
Tag Match - Robert Roode & Christian Cage vs Booker T & Kaz. Booker getting his 2nd ppv appearance since coming to TNA. Kaz made the best of this match as well, working well as he usually does. Roode had one of his better matches & even Cage gave a decent account of himself in the ring for a change. Booker got the win for his team after Roode mistakenly hit Cage with the chair.
Samoa Joe shoots on Scott Hall's no-show.
Joe also shoots big time before the match starts, especially against Hall & Nash.
6 Man Tag Team Grudge Match - AJ Styles, Tomko & Kurt Angle vs Kevin Nash, Samoa Joe & Eric Young replacing that unreliable drunken f**k Scott Hall. I think when Joe said "fire me, I don't care" he genuinely meant it!. All the work from Joe was going to be his hardest, likewise all the work from Eric Young. This was a new side to Eric Young with him doing moves I've never seen him attempt before. Joe, Nash & Young made the 2nd half of this match with Joe getting the win with the Muscle Buster off Tomko of all people.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
My TNA Monthly Catch-up, Oct - Nov 07
As per usual, the views contained within are my own, I call it how I see it. I talk about stuff I feel is relevant to TNA (so you might find I don't even mention certain sections of the show) and if I hate something I'll say so. I do use some colourful idioms and have been known to swear so if that offends you or you don't like my views then don't read this. On to this months catch-up.
Impact 18th Oct 07 - Show starts with Kurt Angle coming down to bore us on the mic.
Fight For The Right Tournament (FFTRT) - Chris Sabin vs Alex Shelley. This was going to go 1 of 2 ways. As hard as they could against each other or 1 guy laying down for the other. Thankfully it was the former until Brother Ray came out after less than 2 mins to call the match c**p and they pull a b**ls**t beatdown and we have both men out. 3d aren't cut out to be heels and this gimmick sucks big donkey c**ks.
Womens Match - Talia Madison vs Awesome Kong. Well this was only ever going to be short. Kong learnt her lesson from the PPV and was wearing a bra in this match. A predictable win for Awesome Kong in a crap match where neither women got over.
Tag Match - James Storm (who seriously needs a new gimmick) & Robert Roode vs Chris Harris & Rhyno. Another weak match where Storm took the win from his team after a c**p distraction of the ref.
FFTRT - Kaz vs Lance Hoyt. Kaz got the better of this match and took the win.
The Disco Inferno vs Abyss. I thought Disco was going to job here & he did, with Abyss getting a very quick win.
FFTRT wildcard match - Samoa Joe vs Christian Cage. Taking the spots of Shelley & Sabin, neither of these guys deserve this shot and the bracket should have been left empty for someone to get a by. Cage took the win with help from Roode.
Impact 25th Oct 07 - 8 Man Tag Match - VKM & AJ Styles & Tomko vs LAX & The Steiners.- LAX took the win for their team.
FFTRT - James Storm vs Eric Young. Young is still carrying on a gimmick that Norman Smiley worked to death in WCW, can he PLEASE stop?. This was a decent enough match with Storm getting a pretty easy win.
4 way X Division match - Sonjay Dutt vs Sharkboy vs Petey Williams vs Havok. I expected 3d to interfere in this as the match followed their interview. Which is exactly what happened. More s**t ideas & this is not what TNA needs.
TNA Heavyweight Championship - Sting vs Kurt Angle. Very poor for a title match. Angle gets a c***py win.
Womens Match - Angel Williams vs Awesome Kong. Another squash match, Williams jobbing to Kong. I don't know why they bother with her as no-one is getting put over by working with her.
FFTRT - Robert Roode vs Junior Fatu. Fatu gets the win after help from Samoa Joe.
Impact 1st Nov 07 - Show starts with Kurt Angle coming down to bore us on the mic.
FFTRT - James Storm vs Kaz with Kaz getting quite a fast win. Team 3d bore us on the mic in their continued heel turn that's still s**t. Finally the X Division fight back & 3d gets theirs.
Womens Match - Awesome Kong vs Christy Hemme with Lance Hoyt & Jimmy Rave. This is Hemme back against Kong for the 1st time since Kong injured her in the womens gauntlet @ the last ppv. Kong takes yet another predictable win.
Mixed Tag Match - Robert Roode & Miss Brooks vs Samoa Joe & Gail Kim. I must admit I half expected a run-in from Awesome Kong here. Brooks is still improving, at her best to date in this match but Kim was selling like crazy for her. Joe worked the better of the 2 men and Kim got the win for her team.
FFTRT - For some reason Junior Fatu wasn't taking part (I believe someone said he'd been fired?). Christian Cage vs Chris Harris. Despite Cage bringing the ladder down with him it only came into play once and Cage took the win with the help of the ropes.
Tag Title Match - Tomko & AJ Styles vx LAX. This was a reasonable enough match with Tomko & Styles retaining the titles.
Impact 8th Nov 07 - FFTRT Finals - Christian Cage vs Kaz. The only real advantage Cage has over Kaz is his experience. Cage takes the undeserved win in a match he shouldn't have even been taking part in. Matt Morgan subbing for Jim Cornette declares this a no-contest and rematches Kaz & Cage at Genesis in a ladder match.
Tag Match - Team 3d vs Jay Lethal & Abyss. After their little exchange tonight, I can see there might be something in So Cal Val becoming Lethal's valet filling a "Miss Elizabeth" role. Despite being the lightest guy by a country mile, Lethal gave a very good acount of himself against Team 3d. With Black Reign distracting Abyss from the match this looked bad for Lethal left on his own against 3d with Devon taking the win. Shelley & Sabin made the save on Lethal. Angle comes out to bore us on the mic.
Takedown Challenge - The person who gets the most takedowns in 5 mins is the winner. AJ Styles vs Scott Steiner. The ropes were down for this one. 1st, 2nd & 3rd takedowns came after AJ used powder in the face of Steiner. Steiner took 4 back quickly before the match was thrown out when Tomko intefered with Rick making the save.
6 man Tag contest - James Storm, Robert Roode & Kurt Angle vs Eric Young, Samoa Joe & Sting. With a good line up this was a pretty decent and even match. Sting took the eventual win using the Scorpion Leg Lock for his team. Kevin Nash calls out that old drunken lush Scott Hall. We haven't seen Hall in TNA for about 3 yrs since he fell off the wagon and he looks like shit. We get them both chatting and Hall says he's not Stings partner.
TNA Genesis PPV 07 - Shop Of Horrors No DQ Match - Black Reign vs Abyss. Abyss took the eventual win.
Tag Match - Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley vs Team 3d in what will hopefully be the end of 3d's heel turn as it's an awful idea. This one started on the ramp before 3d had a chance to catch their breath. Ray & Devon sold well and Shelley & Sabin were being put over very well. Sabin took an excellent win and both teams looked very good here.
Womens Knockout Championship 4-way Match - Roxxi Laveaux vs Angel Williams vs ODB vs Gail Kim. Kim retained the belt in a decent enough match that showcased the other 3 pretty well too.
X Division Title Match - The 2 worst gimmicks in TNA go head to head with Sonjay Dutt (getting a long overdue push) vs Jay Lethal and the "So Cal Val as his valet" angle is looking even more likely. I am happy that Dutt's Guru persona is starting to go now and we're seeing him working without a c***py gimmick that he never needed in the 1st place. This was a decent showcase for Dutt to show the fans how good I've been telling you he actually is for quite a long time now. Both guys worked well and both of them were over. Lethal got the win but I'd have preferred to have seen Dutt get the win. The run-in by 3d was utterly pointless as I thought their heel run was done with after their loss to Shelley & Sabin.
Tag Championship Title Match - AJ Styles & Tomko vs The Steiners. I didn't expect much from this as it featured mainly power wrestlers. Styles took the win for his team with the help of a chair.
Grudge Match - Robert Roode vs Samoa Joe. Miss Brooks is yet another gimmick that has long since run it's course and is being flogged to death. Why they don't just bring in the "fan" who keeps appearing at ringside with her signs so Brooks can permanently join the womens division as a solo worker, I don't know. Joe got a good win from the muscle buster.
Fight For The Right Final, Ladder match - Kaz vs Christian Cage. This was yet another chance for Kaz to show his skills and get himself further in this current push he's getting that he does deserve. I would like to see him tag with Petey Williams though. Cage actually had a good match for a change and was over for the 1st time in a very long time since he was a face. Cage had to talk Kaz through the inverted ddt off the top of the 2 ladders as he clearly wasn't sure about it.
When the contract fell it was VERY quick thinking on the ref's part to then make the clipboard the important thing. Kaz gets himself a title shot at the next ppv in an excellent match.
TNA Heavyweight Championship - The belt is being placed on the line in this very weird tag match. Kevin Nash & Kurt Angle vs Sting & Booker T as Sting's mystery partner and he is very welcome to TNA in my opinion. Booker landed himself not only a main event but a title shot in his very 1st match so he can't be unhappy at that. Nash can't be unhappy either at also getting a title shot & main event as his 1st match back in as an active wrestler. Booker looked good, worked well & clearly enjoyed himself. Nash gave a decent account of himself as well. We also have Sharmel with Booker (so you can add her to the womens division as well) and Angle took the eventual but very scrappy win after interference from Tomko, Styles & Karen Angle.
This last months Impacts have been some of the worst I've seen since I started watching TNA. The PPV wasn't brilliant but it was rescued from sheer c**pness by the X Division matches yet again.
Impact 18th Oct 07 - Show starts with Kurt Angle coming down to bore us on the mic.
Fight For The Right Tournament (FFTRT) - Chris Sabin vs Alex Shelley. This was going to go 1 of 2 ways. As hard as they could against each other or 1 guy laying down for the other. Thankfully it was the former until Brother Ray came out after less than 2 mins to call the match c**p and they pull a b**ls**t beatdown and we have both men out. 3d aren't cut out to be heels and this gimmick sucks big donkey c**ks.
Womens Match - Talia Madison vs Awesome Kong. Well this was only ever going to be short. Kong learnt her lesson from the PPV and was wearing a bra in this match. A predictable win for Awesome Kong in a crap match where neither women got over.
Tag Match - James Storm (who seriously needs a new gimmick) & Robert Roode vs Chris Harris & Rhyno. Another weak match where Storm took the win from his team after a c**p distraction of the ref.
FFTRT - Kaz vs Lance Hoyt. Kaz got the better of this match and took the win.
The Disco Inferno vs Abyss. I thought Disco was going to job here & he did, with Abyss getting a very quick win.
FFTRT wildcard match - Samoa Joe vs Christian Cage. Taking the spots of Shelley & Sabin, neither of these guys deserve this shot and the bracket should have been left empty for someone to get a by. Cage took the win with help from Roode.
Impact 25th Oct 07 - 8 Man Tag Match - VKM & AJ Styles & Tomko vs LAX & The Steiners.- LAX took the win for their team.
FFTRT - James Storm vs Eric Young. Young is still carrying on a gimmick that Norman Smiley worked to death in WCW, can he PLEASE stop?. This was a decent enough match with Storm getting a pretty easy win.
4 way X Division match - Sonjay Dutt vs Sharkboy vs Petey Williams vs Havok. I expected 3d to interfere in this as the match followed their interview. Which is exactly what happened. More s**t ideas & this is not what TNA needs.
TNA Heavyweight Championship - Sting vs Kurt Angle. Very poor for a title match. Angle gets a c***py win.
Womens Match - Angel Williams vs Awesome Kong. Another squash match, Williams jobbing to Kong. I don't know why they bother with her as no-one is getting put over by working with her.
FFTRT - Robert Roode vs Junior Fatu. Fatu gets the win after help from Samoa Joe.
Impact 1st Nov 07 - Show starts with Kurt Angle coming down to bore us on the mic.
FFTRT - James Storm vs Kaz with Kaz getting quite a fast win. Team 3d bore us on the mic in their continued heel turn that's still s**t. Finally the X Division fight back & 3d gets theirs.
Womens Match - Awesome Kong vs Christy Hemme with Lance Hoyt & Jimmy Rave. This is Hemme back against Kong for the 1st time since Kong injured her in the womens gauntlet @ the last ppv. Kong takes yet another predictable win.
Mixed Tag Match - Robert Roode & Miss Brooks vs Samoa Joe & Gail Kim. I must admit I half expected a run-in from Awesome Kong here. Brooks is still improving, at her best to date in this match but Kim was selling like crazy for her. Joe worked the better of the 2 men and Kim got the win for her team.
FFTRT - For some reason Junior Fatu wasn't taking part (I believe someone said he'd been fired?). Christian Cage vs Chris Harris. Despite Cage bringing the ladder down with him it only came into play once and Cage took the win with the help of the ropes.
Tag Title Match - Tomko & AJ Styles vx LAX. This was a reasonable enough match with Tomko & Styles retaining the titles.
Impact 8th Nov 07 - FFTRT Finals - Christian Cage vs Kaz. The only real advantage Cage has over Kaz is his experience. Cage takes the undeserved win in a match he shouldn't have even been taking part in. Matt Morgan subbing for Jim Cornette declares this a no-contest and rematches Kaz & Cage at Genesis in a ladder match.
Tag Match - Team 3d vs Jay Lethal & Abyss. After their little exchange tonight, I can see there might be something in So Cal Val becoming Lethal's valet filling a "Miss Elizabeth" role. Despite being the lightest guy by a country mile, Lethal gave a very good acount of himself against Team 3d. With Black Reign distracting Abyss from the match this looked bad for Lethal left on his own against 3d with Devon taking the win. Shelley & Sabin made the save on Lethal. Angle comes out to bore us on the mic.
Takedown Challenge - The person who gets the most takedowns in 5 mins is the winner. AJ Styles vs Scott Steiner. The ropes were down for this one. 1st, 2nd & 3rd takedowns came after AJ used powder in the face of Steiner. Steiner took 4 back quickly before the match was thrown out when Tomko intefered with Rick making the save.
6 man Tag contest - James Storm, Robert Roode & Kurt Angle vs Eric Young, Samoa Joe & Sting. With a good line up this was a pretty decent and even match. Sting took the eventual win using the Scorpion Leg Lock for his team. Kevin Nash calls out that old drunken lush Scott Hall. We haven't seen Hall in TNA for about 3 yrs since he fell off the wagon and he looks like shit. We get them both chatting and Hall says he's not Stings partner.
TNA Genesis PPV 07 - Shop Of Horrors No DQ Match - Black Reign vs Abyss. Abyss took the eventual win.
Tag Match - Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley vs Team 3d in what will hopefully be the end of 3d's heel turn as it's an awful idea. This one started on the ramp before 3d had a chance to catch their breath. Ray & Devon sold well and Shelley & Sabin were being put over very well. Sabin took an excellent win and both teams looked very good here.
Womens Knockout Championship 4-way Match - Roxxi Laveaux vs Angel Williams vs ODB vs Gail Kim. Kim retained the belt in a decent enough match that showcased the other 3 pretty well too.
X Division Title Match - The 2 worst gimmicks in TNA go head to head with Sonjay Dutt (getting a long overdue push) vs Jay Lethal and the "So Cal Val as his valet" angle is looking even more likely. I am happy that Dutt's Guru persona is starting to go now and we're seeing him working without a c***py gimmick that he never needed in the 1st place. This was a decent showcase for Dutt to show the fans how good I've been telling you he actually is for quite a long time now. Both guys worked well and both of them were over. Lethal got the win but I'd have preferred to have seen Dutt get the win. The run-in by 3d was utterly pointless as I thought their heel run was done with after their loss to Shelley & Sabin.
Tag Championship Title Match - AJ Styles & Tomko vs The Steiners. I didn't expect much from this as it featured mainly power wrestlers. Styles took the win for his team with the help of a chair.
Grudge Match - Robert Roode vs Samoa Joe. Miss Brooks is yet another gimmick that has long since run it's course and is being flogged to death. Why they don't just bring in the "fan" who keeps appearing at ringside with her signs so Brooks can permanently join the womens division as a solo worker, I don't know. Joe got a good win from the muscle buster.
Fight For The Right Final, Ladder match - Kaz vs Christian Cage. This was yet another chance for Kaz to show his skills and get himself further in this current push he's getting that he does deserve. I would like to see him tag with Petey Williams though. Cage actually had a good match for a change and was over for the 1st time in a very long time since he was a face. Cage had to talk Kaz through the inverted ddt off the top of the 2 ladders as he clearly wasn't sure about it.
When the contract fell it was VERY quick thinking on the ref's part to then make the clipboard the important thing. Kaz gets himself a title shot at the next ppv in an excellent match.
TNA Heavyweight Championship - The belt is being placed on the line in this very weird tag match. Kevin Nash & Kurt Angle vs Sting & Booker T as Sting's mystery partner and he is very welcome to TNA in my opinion. Booker landed himself not only a main event but a title shot in his very 1st match so he can't be unhappy at that. Nash can't be unhappy either at also getting a title shot & main event as his 1st match back in as an active wrestler. Booker looked good, worked well & clearly enjoyed himself. Nash gave a decent account of himself as well. We also have Sharmel with Booker (so you can add her to the womens division as well) and Angle took the eventual but very scrappy win after interference from Tomko, Styles & Karen Angle.
This last months Impacts have been some of the worst I've seen since I started watching TNA. The PPV wasn't brilliant but it was rescued from sheer c**pness by the X Division matches yet again.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
My TNA Monthly Catch-up, Sept - Oct 07
Ok, it's that time of month again where I review the previous months Impacts & PPV. I call it how I see it and if you don't like the views expressed, don't read it! I only talk about stuff I personally find interesting or feel is of benefit to TNA (so I won't mention interviews or video inserts) and if I don't like something I'll say so! This month's catch-up is late due a postal strike, ok?
Impact 13th Sep 07 - Show kicks off with Karen Angle boring us on the mic, joined by Sting doing likewise. Sting gets a beatdown from Kurt.
Black Reign (Dustin Rhodes) vs Sharkboy who jobs, sells everything & totally puts Dustin over as Black Reign gets a very quick win & Sharkboy is saved from worse by Eric Young.
Non-title X Division match, Chris Daniels (with Senshi & Elix Skipper) vs Jay Lethal. Both men worked hard, sold well, Lethal's superkick hit nothing but air (bad camera man there!) with Daniels taking the win.
Cornette introduces Junior Fatu (still wearing a Rikishi jacket!).
Non-title submission cage match (If Abyss submits he leaves TNA, sounds like a Russo made match?). Abyss vs Kurt Angle. Angle went straight for Abyss and his bad leg from the ppv. There was the ususal and predictable Ref bump which was pointless as nothing happened while he was down. I assume the chair came in during the commercial break? The match was a no contest once Judas Mesias cut through the ring and choked Abyss out as Angle bailed out.
Impact 20th Sept 07 - Judas Mesias vs Eric Young in a squash match. Mesias gets the quick & predictable win & Young put him over really well. Sharkboy tries to return the save from last week only to be beaten down. Rhyno finally saves them both.
AJ Styles (with Tomko) vs Ron Killings (With T**tman/Spacman/A**ehole Jones). Both men gave a decent account of themselves in an even match, Killings took the win with an assist from his partner.
Karen Angle comes out to bore us on the mic & we're treated to her "arrest" as this storyline gets ever worse under the helm of Russo.
Christian Cage vs Junior Fatu (formerly WWE's Rikishi, doing well in TNA to get a main event as his 1st match). Fatu had the best of the match, Cage sold well and put him over big time. Fatu gave a nice superkick, an amazing Samoan drop only to be beaten by Cage with a rollover/small package combo with the help of a handfull of trunks. Styles got the 1st stinkface in TNA and Cage got the 2nd only to be saved by Tomko but Samoa Joe saved Fatu from the triple beatdown and we may now have a Samoan tagteam being created.
Judas Mesias attacks Sting backstage as the show ends.
Impact 27th Sept 07 - Tag team match - Team 3d (still running as heels) vs Sonjay Dutt & Sharkboy in a squash match. With heavyweights against X Division this was only ever going 1 way. Brother Ray getting the win off Sharkboy with the 3d.
Tag Team match - Lance Hoyt & Jimmy Rave (WHO?) with Christy Hemme vs Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin (I still refuse to use their team name). Sabin & Shelley were the better team here with Hoyt refusing to sell the side head scissors from Sabin (homo!) with Sabin taking the very deserved win they both worked very hard for off Hoyt. Team 3d make a beatdown on them and Sharkboy failed to make a save only to take the chairshot across the chest (not his neck).
5 way knockout ladies match - Miss Brooks (still with Robert Roode) vs Jackie Moore (with James Storm) vs Roxxi Laveux (with VKM) vs Christy Hemme (with Lance Hoyt & Jimmy Rave) vs Gail Kim (with Chris Harris). Moore & Brooks went straight for Kim as a double team but this was everyone in the ring at once versus everyone else. Laveux threw Brooks out (I think genuinely hurting her spine on the apron as she fell) which started a brawl amongst the men outside (this was totally unnecessary, the women were putting on a REALLY GOOD match and this spoilt it, detracting and distracting from it). Laveux got the win thanks to an assist from Kip James (she could have easily won that one clean) earning herself the 10th entry slot into the womens event at Bound For Glory.
Not an official match but Sting vs Judas Mesias which started backstage, Angle came out to join in on Sting who was saved by Rhyno only to be beaten down. Abyss came out to make the save on Rhyno & Sting and take revenge on Mesias.
Impact 4th Oct 07 - Making history as Impact transmits its 1st 2 hour long show.
Black Reign (now working for James Mitchell) vs Rhyno. This wasn't a promising opening match for the 1st 2 hour Impact but it was 2 big guys with strength & speed giving a half decent match. Although slow (to almost dead) in places it was ok, but not what I'd have booked to open a show this important. Rhyno got the win off Raven's interference. Raven & Black Reign gave Rhyno a beatdown who was saved by Abyss who in turn was saved by Sting.
C**p storyline involving Sting's son & Angle.
More on Team 3d's heel push as they beatdown Jay Lethal & Sonjay Dutt from backstage, down the ramp to the ring. Sharkboy hurt again, Dutt taking a huge top rope sit-out powerbomb.
Special contest, Jackie Moore (with James Storm) vs Gail Kim, Kim getting a very good and clean win with no outside help at all.
Tag Team Championship Match - Team 3d vs Team Pacman. Jones got his most in-ring time to date in this match and still managed not to wrestle. This was a DQ after VKM interferred & The Steiners returned.
A Fight For The Right (10 man) Gauntlet Preview Match - Battle Royal style rules, 2 men start & someone comes in every 60 seconds, elimination only by going over the top rope & touching the floor - match starts with James Storm vs Kaz. Next in was Robert Roode followed by Petey Williams (can someone PLEASE make him & Kaz a tag team? They'd be amazing!), next in was Eric Young followed by Jimmy Rave. Next in was Chris Sabin followed by his tag partner Alex Shelley (giving them a bit of an unfair advantage really) who eliminated Petey Williams. Chris Sabin eliminated Jimmy Rave & next in was Lance Hoyt who eliminated Chris Sabin & last in was Chris Harris who was eliminated by Robert Roode during a commercial break (during a match like this, ARE YOU KIDDING?). Alex Shelley was eliminated by Lance Hoyt who was eliminated by Robert Roode & Eric Young working together. Kaz eliminated Robert Roode & James Storm eliminated Kaz. Down to the last 2 of James Storm & Eric Young with a pinfall or submission to get the win with Eric Young taking the win.
8 Man Tag Team Match, Senshi & Chris Daniels with Elix Skipper with Christian Cage & AJ Styles vs LAX with Junior Fatu & Samoa Joe. This was another match to further the idea that Samoa Joe & Junior Fatu can be a tag team. As a match it was pretty even but nothing special at all considering the level of talent involved with only the final 5 minutes giving any real action. Samoa Joe got the win off the muscle buster.
Impact 11th Oct 07 - X Division Non-title match - Jay Lethal vs Havok (of Seratonin). Lethal got the win but was WAY over selling his injured midsection.
Angle comes out to bore us on the mic about the C**P storyline involving Karen & Sting's son.
Non-title Tag Match, Elix Skipper & Senshi vs Team Pacman. Killings is clearly enjoying being a champion (pretty much defending both belts on his own every time) but I'm sure he'd be happier with a partner whose allowed to actually fight and have his back. Killings got the eventual win in a scrappy match.
TNA Knockout Public Battle Royal - Christy Hemme, Jackie Moore, ODB (One Dirty Bitch, somebody new), Talia Madison (another new face), Angel Williams (yet another new face) & Roxxi Laveux were all introduced (why?) for the match of Gail Kim vs Amazing Kong (yet another new person & she's not called Kong for nothing!). Kim gave a decent account of herself in what was pretty much a squash match. Kong took the win with a violent sit-out powerbomb.
B**ls**t chat insert from Christian Cage. Petey Williams vs Robert Roode (with Miss Brooks), Roode took a quick win in a poor match.
No DQ Tag Team contest, Raven & Black Reign vs Rhyno & Abyss. Raven & Black Reign jumped Rhyno before Abyss ever got to the ring. Abyss took a wicked Raven effect DDT into the thumbtacks. Raven took a good gore into a table. Black Reign got the win after Abyss gave Rhyno a Black Hole slam by mistake.
6 Man Tag Team Match, With Matt Morgan as Special Guest Enforcer - LAX & Junior Fatu vs Team 3d & Kurt Angle. With another badly taken commercial break taken in this match (Message to TNA - You DON'T take a break during your main event!). In an overly long match Angle takes the eventual win for his team.
Bound For Glory PPV 07 - Ultimate X Tag Team Match to become #1 contenders for the Tag Titles. Elix Skipper & Senshi vs LAX. The highlight of this match was Elix Skipper's crossbody block from the top of the podium. The match was overly long and eventually won by LAX.
Fight For The Right match - 16 wrestlers start outside the ring in a reverse Battle Royal, The 1st 8 to enter the ring then go into a standard Battle Royal with the final 2 in a standard match. The 1st 16 are Jimmy Rave, Lance Hoyt, Havok, Sharkboy, Petey Williams, Kaz, Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, Sonjay Dutt, Kip James, BG James, James Storm, Eric Young, Robert Roode, Chris Harris & Junior Fatu. 1st in is Junior Fatu, 2nd and 3rd in are Kaz & Robert Roode, 4th is Alex Shelley, 5th in Eric Young, 6th in is Chris Sabin, 7th in is Lance Hoyt & 8th in is James Storm without fighting. 1st out earning 8th seed is James Storm eliminated by Eric Young. 2nd out earning 7th seed is Junior Fatu eleminated by Chris Sabin. 3rd out earning 6th seed is Chris Sabin eliminated by Kaz. 4th out earning 5th seed is Kaz eliminated by Rover Roode. 5th out earning 4th seed is Lance Hoyt eliminated by Robert Roode. 6th out earning 3rd seed is Alex Shelley eliminated by Eric Young. Last 2 men are Robert Roode & Eric Young. Young got the win off a good & fast small package and 1st seeding leaving Roode with 2nd seed.
Tag Team Championship - AJ Styles & Tomko vs Team Pacman with Rasheed Lucius "Consquences" Creed (dressed like Apollo Creed) who I know knothing about. Now this match should be a forfeit to Tomko & Styles as Jones isn't in the ring fighting. Don't the rules state both champs fight or forfeit the belt? Creed has some moves and clearly is a wrestler. Killings was the better worker for his team but Creed held his own pretty well against the more experienced men. Styles as always was the better man for his team. Tomko took the win for his team off Killings so we have new Tag Champs (who CAN at least be fighting champs!) & I get the feeling Ron's new tag team will be "Truth & Consequences" with Jones leaving TNA very soon.
X Division Championship - Jay Lethal vs Chris Daniels. Wow. For a main title match this was awful! Much too long and nothing special at all, Lethal got the win in a match that could have been much better as both men have much more to offer than they did.
2 out of 3 tables Match - The Steiners vs Team 3d. 3d scored 1st putting Rick through a table in the ring early on, Scott equalised with a Frankensteiner on Brother Ray off the top turnbuckle. Rick got the win off Devon with a bulldog off the top rope thanks to help from Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin.
TNA Knockout Championship Gauntlet match - 2 women start the match with another coming in every 60 seconds with standard Battle Royal rules applying until 2 women are left then it's standard match rules. 1st in was Miss Brooks, 2nd in was Jackie Moore. 3rd in was new face Shelly Martinez, 4th in was Awesome Kong (having changed her name since last week), 5th in was ODB, Kong eliminated Shelly Martinez. Jackie eliminated Miss Brooks (no shock there as I think she was still carrying the back injury) then Kong eliminated Jackie. 6th in was Angel Williams, 7th in was Christy Hemme. 8th in was Gail Kim, Kong was eliminated by everyone (with a MAJOR costume failure and revealing WAY more than she would have wanted), 9th in was Talia Madison & as Christy Hemme was carried out Angel Williams was eliminated by Kim & ODB working together. 10th & last in was Roxxi Laveux. Kim eliminated Talia Madison & Roxxie eliminated ODB, technically we WEREN'T down to the last 2 as Christy Hemme was never eliminated (unless Kong threw her out & I don't think that happened, I think they classed her as eliminated due to being injured & unable to continue). Both Roxxi & Gail impressed with good moves but the win eventually went to Gail Kim.
Must Be A Winner match with Special Enforcer Matt Morgan, Samoa Joe vs Christian Cage. The match wasn't much to talk about with Joe providing the better work. Matt Morgan had nothing to do until Tomko & Styles (rather predictably) came down to interfere. Joe took the eventual win in a weak match.
Monsters Ball 4 way match with no DQ, anything goes & weapons are legal. Raven vs Black Reign vs Rhyno vs Abyss. Yet again Raven & Rhodes jumped Rhyno before Abyss reached the ring. A decent enough hardcore match worthy of old school ECW. Highlights were Raven dropping an awesome elbow from the balcony onto Abyss on a table possibly breaking his wrist. Rhyno goring through a wall. Abyss giving Raven a Black Hole Slam into glass & thumbtacks. Abyss got the win from Raven right after that.
World Heavyweight Championship - Sting vs Kurt Angle. All the crappy storylines had been building up to this one so expectations were very high indeed. For the main event and biggest title this was a very scrappy matchy. Decidedly unspectacular with neither man offering anywhere near their best. With a c***py break after a rundown from Karen Angle (slowing down an already slow match, why?) a clothesline from Kevin Nash (setting up his comeback to the ring, no doubt). Angle knocking out the ref in desparation (instant DQ for touching an official and belt lost under TNA rules), Nash knocking out the 2nd ref (Angle DQ'd again for outside interference and belt lost) . Sting gets the win when the 3rd Ref finally shows up (not that he hadn't legally already won the belt twice in this match).
Impact 13th Sep 07 - Show kicks off with Karen Angle boring us on the mic, joined by Sting doing likewise. Sting gets a beatdown from Kurt.
Black Reign (Dustin Rhodes) vs Sharkboy who jobs, sells everything & totally puts Dustin over as Black Reign gets a very quick win & Sharkboy is saved from worse by Eric Young.
Non-title X Division match, Chris Daniels (with Senshi & Elix Skipper) vs Jay Lethal. Both men worked hard, sold well, Lethal's superkick hit nothing but air (bad camera man there!) with Daniels taking the win.
Cornette introduces Junior Fatu (still wearing a Rikishi jacket!).
Non-title submission cage match (If Abyss submits he leaves TNA, sounds like a Russo made match?). Abyss vs Kurt Angle. Angle went straight for Abyss and his bad leg from the ppv. There was the ususal and predictable Ref bump which was pointless as nothing happened while he was down. I assume the chair came in during the commercial break? The match was a no contest once Judas Mesias cut through the ring and choked Abyss out as Angle bailed out.
Impact 20th Sept 07 - Judas Mesias vs Eric Young in a squash match. Mesias gets the quick & predictable win & Young put him over really well. Sharkboy tries to return the save from last week only to be beaten down. Rhyno finally saves them both.
AJ Styles (with Tomko) vs Ron Killings (With T**tman/Spacman/A**ehole Jones). Both men gave a decent account of themselves in an even match, Killings took the win with an assist from his partner.
Karen Angle comes out to bore us on the mic & we're treated to her "arrest" as this storyline gets ever worse under the helm of Russo.
Christian Cage vs Junior Fatu (formerly WWE's Rikishi, doing well in TNA to get a main event as his 1st match). Fatu had the best of the match, Cage sold well and put him over big time. Fatu gave a nice superkick, an amazing Samoan drop only to be beaten by Cage with a rollover/small package combo with the help of a handfull of trunks. Styles got the 1st stinkface in TNA and Cage got the 2nd only to be saved by Tomko but Samoa Joe saved Fatu from the triple beatdown and we may now have a Samoan tagteam being created.
Judas Mesias attacks Sting backstage as the show ends.
Impact 27th Sept 07 - Tag team match - Team 3d (still running as heels) vs Sonjay Dutt & Sharkboy in a squash match. With heavyweights against X Division this was only ever going 1 way. Brother Ray getting the win off Sharkboy with the 3d.
Tag Team match - Lance Hoyt & Jimmy Rave (WHO?) with Christy Hemme vs Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin (I still refuse to use their team name). Sabin & Shelley were the better team here with Hoyt refusing to sell the side head scissors from Sabin (homo!) with Sabin taking the very deserved win they both worked very hard for off Hoyt. Team 3d make a beatdown on them and Sharkboy failed to make a save only to take the chairshot across the chest (not his neck).
5 way knockout ladies match - Miss Brooks (still with Robert Roode) vs Jackie Moore (with James Storm) vs Roxxi Laveux (with VKM) vs Christy Hemme (with Lance Hoyt & Jimmy Rave) vs Gail Kim (with Chris Harris). Moore & Brooks went straight for Kim as a double team but this was everyone in the ring at once versus everyone else. Laveux threw Brooks out (I think genuinely hurting her spine on the apron as she fell) which started a brawl amongst the men outside (this was totally unnecessary, the women were putting on a REALLY GOOD match and this spoilt it, detracting and distracting from it). Laveux got the win thanks to an assist from Kip James (she could have easily won that one clean) earning herself the 10th entry slot into the womens event at Bound For Glory.
Not an official match but Sting vs Judas Mesias which started backstage, Angle came out to join in on Sting who was saved by Rhyno only to be beaten down. Abyss came out to make the save on Rhyno & Sting and take revenge on Mesias.
Impact 4th Oct 07 - Making history as Impact transmits its 1st 2 hour long show.
Black Reign (now working for James Mitchell) vs Rhyno. This wasn't a promising opening match for the 1st 2 hour Impact but it was 2 big guys with strength & speed giving a half decent match. Although slow (to almost dead) in places it was ok, but not what I'd have booked to open a show this important. Rhyno got the win off Raven's interference. Raven & Black Reign gave Rhyno a beatdown who was saved by Abyss who in turn was saved by Sting.
C**p storyline involving Sting's son & Angle.
More on Team 3d's heel push as they beatdown Jay Lethal & Sonjay Dutt from backstage, down the ramp to the ring. Sharkboy hurt again, Dutt taking a huge top rope sit-out powerbomb.
Special contest, Jackie Moore (with James Storm) vs Gail Kim, Kim getting a very good and clean win with no outside help at all.
Tag Team Championship Match - Team 3d vs Team Pacman. Jones got his most in-ring time to date in this match and still managed not to wrestle. This was a DQ after VKM interferred & The Steiners returned.
A Fight For The Right (10 man) Gauntlet Preview Match - Battle Royal style rules, 2 men start & someone comes in every 60 seconds, elimination only by going over the top rope & touching the floor - match starts with James Storm vs Kaz. Next in was Robert Roode followed by Petey Williams (can someone PLEASE make him & Kaz a tag team? They'd be amazing!), next in was Eric Young followed by Jimmy Rave. Next in was Chris Sabin followed by his tag partner Alex Shelley (giving them a bit of an unfair advantage really) who eliminated Petey Williams. Chris Sabin eliminated Jimmy Rave & next in was Lance Hoyt who eliminated Chris Sabin & last in was Chris Harris who was eliminated by Robert Roode during a commercial break (during a match like this, ARE YOU KIDDING?). Alex Shelley was eliminated by Lance Hoyt who was eliminated by Robert Roode & Eric Young working together. Kaz eliminated Robert Roode & James Storm eliminated Kaz. Down to the last 2 of James Storm & Eric Young with a pinfall or submission to get the win with Eric Young taking the win.
8 Man Tag Team Match, Senshi & Chris Daniels with Elix Skipper with Christian Cage & AJ Styles vs LAX with Junior Fatu & Samoa Joe. This was another match to further the idea that Samoa Joe & Junior Fatu can be a tag team. As a match it was pretty even but nothing special at all considering the level of talent involved with only the final 5 minutes giving any real action. Samoa Joe got the win off the muscle buster.
Impact 11th Oct 07 - X Division Non-title match - Jay Lethal vs Havok (of Seratonin). Lethal got the win but was WAY over selling his injured midsection.
Angle comes out to bore us on the mic about the C**P storyline involving Karen & Sting's son.
Non-title Tag Match, Elix Skipper & Senshi vs Team Pacman. Killings is clearly enjoying being a champion (pretty much defending both belts on his own every time) but I'm sure he'd be happier with a partner whose allowed to actually fight and have his back. Killings got the eventual win in a scrappy match.
TNA Knockout Public Battle Royal - Christy Hemme, Jackie Moore, ODB (One Dirty Bitch, somebody new), Talia Madison (another new face), Angel Williams (yet another new face) & Roxxi Laveux were all introduced (why?) for the match of Gail Kim vs Amazing Kong (yet another new person & she's not called Kong for nothing!). Kim gave a decent account of herself in what was pretty much a squash match. Kong took the win with a violent sit-out powerbomb.
B**ls**t chat insert from Christian Cage. Petey Williams vs Robert Roode (with Miss Brooks), Roode took a quick win in a poor match.
No DQ Tag Team contest, Raven & Black Reign vs Rhyno & Abyss. Raven & Black Reign jumped Rhyno before Abyss ever got to the ring. Abyss took a wicked Raven effect DDT into the thumbtacks. Raven took a good gore into a table. Black Reign got the win after Abyss gave Rhyno a Black Hole slam by mistake.
6 Man Tag Team Match, With Matt Morgan as Special Guest Enforcer - LAX & Junior Fatu vs Team 3d & Kurt Angle. With another badly taken commercial break taken in this match (Message to TNA - You DON'T take a break during your main event!). In an overly long match Angle takes the eventual win for his team.
Bound For Glory PPV 07 - Ultimate X Tag Team Match to become #1 contenders for the Tag Titles. Elix Skipper & Senshi vs LAX. The highlight of this match was Elix Skipper's crossbody block from the top of the podium. The match was overly long and eventually won by LAX.
Fight For The Right match - 16 wrestlers start outside the ring in a reverse Battle Royal, The 1st 8 to enter the ring then go into a standard Battle Royal with the final 2 in a standard match. The 1st 16 are Jimmy Rave, Lance Hoyt, Havok, Sharkboy, Petey Williams, Kaz, Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, Sonjay Dutt, Kip James, BG James, James Storm, Eric Young, Robert Roode, Chris Harris & Junior Fatu. 1st in is Junior Fatu, 2nd and 3rd in are Kaz & Robert Roode, 4th is Alex Shelley, 5th in Eric Young, 6th in is Chris Sabin, 7th in is Lance Hoyt & 8th in is James Storm without fighting. 1st out earning 8th seed is James Storm eliminated by Eric Young. 2nd out earning 7th seed is Junior Fatu eleminated by Chris Sabin. 3rd out earning 6th seed is Chris Sabin eliminated by Kaz. 4th out earning 5th seed is Kaz eliminated by Rover Roode. 5th out earning 4th seed is Lance Hoyt eliminated by Robert Roode. 6th out earning 3rd seed is Alex Shelley eliminated by Eric Young. Last 2 men are Robert Roode & Eric Young. Young got the win off a good & fast small package and 1st seeding leaving Roode with 2nd seed.
Tag Team Championship - AJ Styles & Tomko vs Team Pacman with Rasheed Lucius "Consquences" Creed (dressed like Apollo Creed) who I know knothing about. Now this match should be a forfeit to Tomko & Styles as Jones isn't in the ring fighting. Don't the rules state both champs fight or forfeit the belt? Creed has some moves and clearly is a wrestler. Killings was the better worker for his team but Creed held his own pretty well against the more experienced men. Styles as always was the better man for his team. Tomko took the win for his team off Killings so we have new Tag Champs (who CAN at least be fighting champs!) & I get the feeling Ron's new tag team will be "Truth & Consequences" with Jones leaving TNA very soon.
X Division Championship - Jay Lethal vs Chris Daniels. Wow. For a main title match this was awful! Much too long and nothing special at all, Lethal got the win in a match that could have been much better as both men have much more to offer than they did.
2 out of 3 tables Match - The Steiners vs Team 3d. 3d scored 1st putting Rick through a table in the ring early on, Scott equalised with a Frankensteiner on Brother Ray off the top turnbuckle. Rick got the win off Devon with a bulldog off the top rope thanks to help from Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin.
TNA Knockout Championship Gauntlet match - 2 women start the match with another coming in every 60 seconds with standard Battle Royal rules applying until 2 women are left then it's standard match rules. 1st in was Miss Brooks, 2nd in was Jackie Moore. 3rd in was new face Shelly Martinez, 4th in was Awesome Kong (having changed her name since last week), 5th in was ODB, Kong eliminated Shelly Martinez. Jackie eliminated Miss Brooks (no shock there as I think she was still carrying the back injury) then Kong eliminated Jackie. 6th in was Angel Williams, 7th in was Christy Hemme. 8th in was Gail Kim, Kong was eliminated by everyone (with a MAJOR costume failure and revealing WAY more than she would have wanted), 9th in was Talia Madison & as Christy Hemme was carried out Angel Williams was eliminated by Kim & ODB working together. 10th & last in was Roxxi Laveux. Kim eliminated Talia Madison & Roxxie eliminated ODB, technically we WEREN'T down to the last 2 as Christy Hemme was never eliminated (unless Kong threw her out & I don't think that happened, I think they classed her as eliminated due to being injured & unable to continue). Both Roxxi & Gail impressed with good moves but the win eventually went to Gail Kim.
Must Be A Winner match with Special Enforcer Matt Morgan, Samoa Joe vs Christian Cage. The match wasn't much to talk about with Joe providing the better work. Matt Morgan had nothing to do until Tomko & Styles (rather predictably) came down to interfere. Joe took the eventual win in a weak match.
Monsters Ball 4 way match with no DQ, anything goes & weapons are legal. Raven vs Black Reign vs Rhyno vs Abyss. Yet again Raven & Rhodes jumped Rhyno before Abyss reached the ring. A decent enough hardcore match worthy of old school ECW. Highlights were Raven dropping an awesome elbow from the balcony onto Abyss on a table possibly breaking his wrist. Rhyno goring through a wall. Abyss giving Raven a Black Hole Slam into glass & thumbtacks. Abyss got the win from Raven right after that.
World Heavyweight Championship - Sting vs Kurt Angle. All the crappy storylines had been building up to this one so expectations were very high indeed. For the main event and biggest title this was a very scrappy matchy. Decidedly unspectacular with neither man offering anywhere near their best. With a c***py break after a rundown from Karen Angle (slowing down an already slow match, why?) a clothesline from Kevin Nash (setting up his comeback to the ring, no doubt). Angle knocking out the ref in desparation (instant DQ for touching an official and belt lost under TNA rules), Nash knocking out the 2nd ref (Angle DQ'd again for outside interference and belt lost) . Sting gets the win when the 3rd Ref finally shows up (not that he hadn't legally already won the belt twice in this match).
Thursday, August 16, 2007
My TNA Monthly Catch-up, Aug - Sep 07
Before I start this months catch-up I just want to say to Greg "I dont watch this show but I f**king hate it with no justifiable bias at all" Zoidberg, THIS is how you come up with a review of a wrestling show. You actually watch it. And just for you Greg this month I'll be doing an Abyss Watch of exactly how much on-screen (Wrestling ONLY!) time per show Abyss gets to prove how right or wrong you are. Oh and the announcers SHOUT because they don't wear headphones so they can't tell how loud they are because they're trying call the action over the crowd noise right behind them, ok? They also don't use the sports-style directional mikes which can be spoken directly into and blot outside noise out.
I call it how I see it, I talk about what I feel is relevant so don't expect to read much about that t**t Pacman (AKA T**tman) Jones.
Impact 16th Aug 07 - Show starts with T**tman Jones boring us on the mic.
#1 Contender for the X-Division Championship - Chris Daniels vs Jay Lethal. In a match that was mostly Chris Daniels kicking Lethal's ass, Lethal really needs to rethink this lame gimmick that was shit when it was announced. Daniels sold like a bastard to put Lethal over and his previous heel turn seems to have died off. Lethal got the very undeserved win in a push over talent that's far better than he'll ever be.
Cornette making Team T**tman Tag contenders from no-where? Ok, they've been doing this a lot recently and this is now the 4th or 5th time a team that weren't even contenders were put up for the belt.
1st blood #1 contender match for the Heavyweight title. Christian Cage vs Abyss. The opening was mainly Abyss on top but Abyss punching the chair into Cages face genuinely did hurt Abyss's hand. Joe helped Abyss out removing a barbed wire baseball bat that AJ Styles had tossed in. Abyss got the win after cutting opening Cage with a chair. Total Abyss Air Time? 7 mins 2 seconds
Impact 23rd Aug 07 - Mixed Tag Match - Robert Roode & Miss Brooks vs Kaz & Gail Kim. Kaz in another match to further his face push. Kaz is a good worker and has some excellent moves and can not only carry a match he can sell one too. This was mainly Kaz & Roode, Brooks & Kim were in the ring for all of 2 minutes, Kim took the win but Brooks is improving well in the run up to the womens division being formed.
Ron Killings vs Eric Young. Young's dumb & innocent character is now getting very old having been carried over from his Team Canada days and he's well overdue a heel turn or new persona. This match was mainly Killings doing a good job of a bad match Young actually used to be a decent worker and seems to have forgotten a lot about how to wrestle. Killings got the win in his move to heel and Team T**tman rip-off the old NWO black & white with the spray paint.
Handicap Match - The Steiners vs Kurt Angle. This should have been a decent match with a combo of strength & technical wrestling but it wasn't. It was a mainly strength event with Scott still not yet having found his full fitness after his surgery. Angle got the win after Team 3d did a run-in to assist Angle and get revenge on The Steiners. Total Abyss Air Time? None apart from a James Mitchell video insert.
Impact 30th Aug 07 - Tag Match - Team 3d vs Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley (I refuse to recognize their official team name). Scott Steiner came in to take on both of Team 3d and this is yet another attempt to push The Steiners as faces despite the fact that Scott has always been a heel in TNA until recently. I must congratulate Scott Steiner on his amazing acting and his ability to sell the trachea injury. The match never happened.
Shelley & Sabin still wanted a match and invited anyone to come out.
VKM Vs Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley - Kip was wearing yet ANOTHER one of his old Mr Ass outfits Sabin & Shelley gave an excellent display of themselves before BG got a the pin. Kip then invites anyone out to fight them.
VKM vs LAX vs XXX vs Eric Young & Sharkboy. This match just WOULD NOT happen in WWE, it's too tightly controlled. Unfortunately it wasn't a match we were destined to see as they were too concerned about the Kurt Angle storyline, someone in TNA needs to be fired for that. When they favour a b**ls**t storyline over an really good wrestling match? F**kwits!
4 way match to determine Kurt Angle's tag partner. Christian Cage vs AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe vs Sting - This is a 4 way that wouldn't have been out of place in a PPV and here are TNA giving it away for free! Styles & Cage were always going to work together in this match and mostly did, Cage is sticking with the cowardly heel persona still which is getting old (but then the face persona wasn't believable either). Joe made a great pele on Styles (incredible agility for a big guy), Styles put a wicked aerial inverted DDT on Joe from the top rope. Styles & Cage gave nice series of holds & pins to give Sting & Joe a breather. Styles made a wicked standing pele on Sting. If TNA are going to do a 2 hour show then they truly need to fix when they go to a break as they had 3 commercial breaks during this match! Is the American attention span genuinely that short? Sting was put down by intereference from Tomko as per usual. Sting got the win from the scorpion deathlock on Styles and becomes Kurt Angle's tag partner and half of the tag team champions. Total Abyss Air Time? None at all.
Impact 6th Sept 07 - Kaz vs Tomko. Tomko isn't much of a worker and Kaz really carried him well in this match. Kaz made Tomko look a lot better than he is, selling a lot that he really didn't have to. Tomko got the pin off the tree slam, Kaz putting him over very well.
Raven vs Samoa Joe.A pretty short match with a few interferences by AJ Styles, Joe got the win off the rear naked choke hold. I assume the 2 Samoans that came to help Joe were jobbers.
Jay Lethal & Abyss vs Sting & Kurt Angle. In a non-title match to get these 2 guys warmed up for Hard Justice, Angle & Sting got their 1st run together. Sting sold well for Lethal in the initial tie up. Abyss wanted Angle, Sting tagged him in. Angle sold well for Abyss who was using a more technical style as opposed to his usual power style. In places this match was a touch on the slow side. Abyss was being put over well by Sting & Angle (ahead of the James Mitchell & new protege comeback to set him as a face there, I assume). Abyss made the win for his team with a well done Black Hole Slam which Angle sold well. Total Abyss Air Time? 12 mins 3 seconds in an really good evenly fought match.
No Surrender PPV 07 - Tag Team Championship. Team T**tman vs Sting & Angle. Angle in his 1st of 3 matches tonight. I know Killings wanted a push but this match was realistically going to be a handicap match for him as T**tman was never going to get in the ring to fight. T**tman wouldn't tag in earning himself some cheap (and s**t) heat. T**tman actually jumped off the apron and suckered Angle into chasing him for Killings to take him out. T**tman eventually did tag in after Angle olympic-slammed Sting, thinking he'd slapped Karen Angle and T**tC**pMan got the pin without doing anything for his team and Team T**tS**tC**pMan win the belts.
James Storm vs Rhyno - With Rhyno having been out since the last PPV (btw, how the hell did he get a PPV match without ever having fought in the previous month? How did he earn this?) he came straight back into this trainwreck of a match. Before the bell even rang they were in the crowd a good 5 mins plus, including a nice slam by Storm putting Rhyno on the entrance ramp. And with about 8 mins having passed from entering the arena the bell finally went. This match was mainly James Storm with Rhyno taking a lot of punishment. Storm pulled a nice superplex, missed a superkick, Rhyno got the win from the Gore.
Robert Roode vs Kaz - They've been playing out a storyline recently with people coming to defend Miss Brooks so this is looked like it might be a conclusion to that. Roode has never really used his ability in 1-1 contests and Kaz is a very good singles worker and put Roode over well whilst showing his own abilities. This looks to be a precursor to pushing Kaz for one of the main belts with Miss Brooks as his manager. The suplex where both men went over the top rope to the floor was pretty cool. Kaz made a nice enziguri and both men put several good series of moves together. Kaz made a great flying overhead dive onto Roode outside the ring and Roode was putting Kaz over like no tomorrow. Kaz hit a great slingshot DDT and nailed a wicked mad reverse piledriver (WAY oversold by the colour guys, btw). Roode sold a top rope faceplant well, and Roode took the win from The Payoff after Kaz missed a top rope legdrop. Very good match!
X-Divsion Championship - Jay Lethal vs Kurt Angle appearing in his 2nd of 3 matches tonight, Kevin Nash told Lethal to lie down in an interview before the match started. I couldn't see that happening to be honest. Angle decided to take the technical and slow route to the win here, not wanting to tire himself out before the main event with Abyss. Lethal was outclassed by the heavier, bigger and better talented veteran Angle. Lethal should been using speed and agility but Angle stopped him doing that by taking him down and keeping him on the mat. This match turned around 3 times with neither guy on top but Lethal took the eventual win after turning around the ankle lock into a small package.
1 Fall No DQ match - Chris Harris vs Black Reign (AKA Dustin Rhodes). This was the rubber match from the last PPV and Harris kicked it off before the bell with a huge crossbody block off the top rope onto Rhodes who was still on the floor outside the ring. In a costume that makes him look like a cross between an evil Zebra and a Satanic Badger, Black Reign is clearly enjoying this new persona. Harris used a nice classic Rhodes style bulldog on Black Reign. The ref blocked the use of the weapon by Rhodes (why? this was no DQ so anything was legal) and Harris got the pin from that.
10 Team Tag Team Golden Match (over the top elimination), a wrestler enters every minute. AJ Styles & Chris Daniels kicking things off for their respective teams. Next in was Homicide for LAX. Next in was Chris Sabin. Next in was Havoc for Seratonin. Homicide was eliminated by Daniels off a back body drop. Next in was Petey Williams. Styles eliminated Sabin. Next in was Brother Devon. Next in was Jimmy Ray (apparently returning to TNA but I've never heard of the f**ker!). Next in was Brother Ray for Team 3d, Devon eliminated Havoc (who'd literally only just stood up from the effects of the Canadian Destroyer from Petey Williams when he entered!), Styles made a great pele on Brother Ray!. Next in was Raven who was eliminated by Devon and the was the end of Team Seratonin and their bid to win. Next in was Shark Boy who was eliminated by Brother Ray, and next in was Sonjay Dutt. I am seriously hating his guru gimmick, he is far too talented to be used like that. Devon eliminated Jimmy Ray and Brother Ray eliminated Petey Williams. Next in was BG James for The VKM. Next in was Hernandez for LAX. Next in was Tomko joining his team mate Styles. Brother Ray eliminated Devon (by accident, aiming for Tomko) and then Tomko eliminated Brother Ray ending Team 3d's hopes.
In next was Elix Skipper joining his team mate Daniels. Next in was Alex Shelley and he eliminated BG James, and then in next was Lance Hoyt who eliminated Elix Skipper. In next was Kip James eliminating Sonjay Dutt ending his teams hopes, and the final man in was Eric Young having earnt the final spot in an on the road show prior to the PPV. Tomko eliminated Hernandez who had been fighting with him pretty much since they both got in there only to be eliminated by Eric Young as he was leaning over the ropes! Kip James eliminated Lance Hoyt with a neat drop kick only to be eliminated by Chris Daniels who also eliminated himself as they both went over the top rope and off the apron onto the floor together, Eric Young being eliminated by Alex Shelley & AJ Styles working together. Then their partners rejoined them and this became a standard tag match so back came Chris Sabin to join Alex Shelley and Tomko to join AJ Styles. Shelley & Sabin put together a group of very fast moves against Tomko double teaming him a lot. Styles nailed Sabin with a wicked standing overhead pele (he can't half do that move when it counts!). Styles took the pin after series of reversed small packages with the help of a handfull of trunks, meaning he and Tomko become the #1 contenders for the tag belts.
A seriously high quality match.
Grudge Match - Christian Cage vs Samoa Joe. Is it just me or is the title "Instant Classic" an oxymoron? This wasn't going to be a pretty match after Cage and his posse had abused Joe's Samoan Dancers who had tried to come to Joe's aid last week. Joe gave a lot more to this match than Cage did. Cage gave a so-so performance, I don't think he worked hard to earn his wages here The middle section of this match was unremarkable with Cage's 2nd wind, the weird reversed DDT by Cage on Joe off the top rope was Cage's best move of the whole match. Query, why did the ref push Cage's feet off the ropes instead of making Joe break the hold? Joe knocked out the ref which got him a DQ and he gave a kicking to some jobbers dressed as security. Matt Morgan finally stopped Joe taking it out on Cage. Expect Cornette to suspend Joe for at least 2 months for this one (no doubt he's got some indy work he needed the time off for).
World Heavyweight Championship - Abyss vs Kurt Angle in his 3rd and final match of the night. Having already lost 2 titles this wasn't looking good for Angle. He did bring his Japanese belt to the ring again so he was at least going to leave this match with 1 title. Hebner said there would be no interference (did anyone bother to tell James Mitchell that?). This wasn't elegant or well put together and neither man carried the other or put the other over very well. I got VERY bored watching this match, I don't take either of these 2 guys seriously as a well matched pair for competing but Angle did start to pull a few moves in the later part of the match. At more than 17 mins into the match I was amazed by this time that James Mitchell hadn't shown yet.
Angle hit a nice and very long moonsault to take the upper hand again. Abyss was doing a good job of selling Angle and pulled that Black Hole Slam out of no-where. Angle took the eventual win after the ankle lock had been on for several minutes. One of TNA's best PPV's this year.
And At NO POINT during this PPV was either announcer shouting. Total Abyss Air Time? 25 mins 20 seconds
I call it how I see it, I talk about what I feel is relevant so don't expect to read much about that t**t Pacman (AKA T**tman) Jones.
Impact 16th Aug 07 - Show starts with T**tman Jones boring us on the mic.
#1 Contender for the X-Division Championship - Chris Daniels vs Jay Lethal. In a match that was mostly Chris Daniels kicking Lethal's ass, Lethal really needs to rethink this lame gimmick that was shit when it was announced. Daniels sold like a bastard to put Lethal over and his previous heel turn seems to have died off. Lethal got the very undeserved win in a push over talent that's far better than he'll ever be.
Cornette making Team T**tman Tag contenders from no-where? Ok, they've been doing this a lot recently and this is now the 4th or 5th time a team that weren't even contenders were put up for the belt.
1st blood #1 contender match for the Heavyweight title. Christian Cage vs Abyss. The opening was mainly Abyss on top but Abyss punching the chair into Cages face genuinely did hurt Abyss's hand. Joe helped Abyss out removing a barbed wire baseball bat that AJ Styles had tossed in. Abyss got the win after cutting opening Cage with a chair. Total Abyss Air Time? 7 mins 2 seconds
Impact 23rd Aug 07 - Mixed Tag Match - Robert Roode & Miss Brooks vs Kaz & Gail Kim. Kaz in another match to further his face push. Kaz is a good worker and has some excellent moves and can not only carry a match he can sell one too. This was mainly Kaz & Roode, Brooks & Kim were in the ring for all of 2 minutes, Kim took the win but Brooks is improving well in the run up to the womens division being formed.
Ron Killings vs Eric Young. Young's dumb & innocent character is now getting very old having been carried over from his Team Canada days and he's well overdue a heel turn or new persona. This match was mainly Killings doing a good job of a bad match Young actually used to be a decent worker and seems to have forgotten a lot about how to wrestle. Killings got the win in his move to heel and Team T**tman rip-off the old NWO black & white with the spray paint.
Handicap Match - The Steiners vs Kurt Angle. This should have been a decent match with a combo of strength & technical wrestling but it wasn't. It was a mainly strength event with Scott still not yet having found his full fitness after his surgery. Angle got the win after Team 3d did a run-in to assist Angle and get revenge on The Steiners. Total Abyss Air Time? None apart from a James Mitchell video insert.
Impact 30th Aug 07 - Tag Match - Team 3d vs Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley (I refuse to recognize their official team name). Scott Steiner came in to take on both of Team 3d and this is yet another attempt to push The Steiners as faces despite the fact that Scott has always been a heel in TNA until recently. I must congratulate Scott Steiner on his amazing acting and his ability to sell the trachea injury. The match never happened.
Shelley & Sabin still wanted a match and invited anyone to come out.
VKM Vs Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley - Kip was wearing yet ANOTHER one of his old Mr Ass outfits Sabin & Shelley gave an excellent display of themselves before BG got a the pin. Kip then invites anyone out to fight them.
VKM vs LAX vs XXX vs Eric Young & Sharkboy. This match just WOULD NOT happen in WWE, it's too tightly controlled. Unfortunately it wasn't a match we were destined to see as they were too concerned about the Kurt Angle storyline, someone in TNA needs to be fired for that. When they favour a b**ls**t storyline over an really good wrestling match? F**kwits!
4 way match to determine Kurt Angle's tag partner. Christian Cage vs AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe vs Sting - This is a 4 way that wouldn't have been out of place in a PPV and here are TNA giving it away for free! Styles & Cage were always going to work together in this match and mostly did, Cage is sticking with the cowardly heel persona still which is getting old (but then the face persona wasn't believable either). Joe made a great pele on Styles (incredible agility for a big guy), Styles put a wicked aerial inverted DDT on Joe from the top rope. Styles & Cage gave nice series of holds & pins to give Sting & Joe a breather. Styles made a wicked standing pele on Sting. If TNA are going to do a 2 hour show then they truly need to fix when they go to a break as they had 3 commercial breaks during this match! Is the American attention span genuinely that short? Sting was put down by intereference from Tomko as per usual. Sting got the win from the scorpion deathlock on Styles and becomes Kurt Angle's tag partner and half of the tag team champions. Total Abyss Air Time? None at all.
Impact 6th Sept 07 - Kaz vs Tomko. Tomko isn't much of a worker and Kaz really carried him well in this match. Kaz made Tomko look a lot better than he is, selling a lot that he really didn't have to. Tomko got the pin off the tree slam, Kaz putting him over very well.
Raven vs Samoa Joe.A pretty short match with a few interferences by AJ Styles, Joe got the win off the rear naked choke hold. I assume the 2 Samoans that came to help Joe were jobbers.
Jay Lethal & Abyss vs Sting & Kurt Angle. In a non-title match to get these 2 guys warmed up for Hard Justice, Angle & Sting got their 1st run together. Sting sold well for Lethal in the initial tie up. Abyss wanted Angle, Sting tagged him in. Angle sold well for Abyss who was using a more technical style as opposed to his usual power style. In places this match was a touch on the slow side. Abyss was being put over well by Sting & Angle (ahead of the James Mitchell & new protege comeback to set him as a face there, I assume). Abyss made the win for his team with a well done Black Hole Slam which Angle sold well. Total Abyss Air Time? 12 mins 3 seconds in an really good evenly fought match.
No Surrender PPV 07 - Tag Team Championship. Team T**tman vs Sting & Angle. Angle in his 1st of 3 matches tonight. I know Killings wanted a push but this match was realistically going to be a handicap match for him as T**tman was never going to get in the ring to fight. T**tman wouldn't tag in earning himself some cheap (and s**t) heat. T**tman actually jumped off the apron and suckered Angle into chasing him for Killings to take him out. T**tman eventually did tag in after Angle olympic-slammed Sting, thinking he'd slapped Karen Angle and T**tC**pMan got the pin without doing anything for his team and Team T**tS**tC**pMan win the belts.
James Storm vs Rhyno - With Rhyno having been out since the last PPV (btw, how the hell did he get a PPV match without ever having fought in the previous month? How did he earn this?) he came straight back into this trainwreck of a match. Before the bell even rang they were in the crowd a good 5 mins plus, including a nice slam by Storm putting Rhyno on the entrance ramp. And with about 8 mins having passed from entering the arena the bell finally went. This match was mainly James Storm with Rhyno taking a lot of punishment. Storm pulled a nice superplex, missed a superkick, Rhyno got the win from the Gore.
Robert Roode vs Kaz - They've been playing out a storyline recently with people coming to defend Miss Brooks so this is looked like it might be a conclusion to that. Roode has never really used his ability in 1-1 contests and Kaz is a very good singles worker and put Roode over well whilst showing his own abilities. This looks to be a precursor to pushing Kaz for one of the main belts with Miss Brooks as his manager. The suplex where both men went over the top rope to the floor was pretty cool. Kaz made a nice enziguri and both men put several good series of moves together. Kaz made a great flying overhead dive onto Roode outside the ring and Roode was putting Kaz over like no tomorrow. Kaz hit a great slingshot DDT and nailed a wicked mad reverse piledriver (WAY oversold by the colour guys, btw). Roode sold a top rope faceplant well, and Roode took the win from The Payoff after Kaz missed a top rope legdrop. Very good match!
X-Divsion Championship - Jay Lethal vs Kurt Angle appearing in his 2nd of 3 matches tonight, Kevin Nash told Lethal to lie down in an interview before the match started. I couldn't see that happening to be honest. Angle decided to take the technical and slow route to the win here, not wanting to tire himself out before the main event with Abyss. Lethal was outclassed by the heavier, bigger and better talented veteran Angle. Lethal should been using speed and agility but Angle stopped him doing that by taking him down and keeping him on the mat. This match turned around 3 times with neither guy on top but Lethal took the eventual win after turning around the ankle lock into a small package.
1 Fall No DQ match - Chris Harris vs Black Reign (AKA Dustin Rhodes). This was the rubber match from the last PPV and Harris kicked it off before the bell with a huge crossbody block off the top rope onto Rhodes who was still on the floor outside the ring. In a costume that makes him look like a cross between an evil Zebra and a Satanic Badger, Black Reign is clearly enjoying this new persona. Harris used a nice classic Rhodes style bulldog on Black Reign. The ref blocked the use of the weapon by Rhodes (why? this was no DQ so anything was legal) and Harris got the pin from that.
10 Team Tag Team Golden Match (over the top elimination), a wrestler enters every minute. AJ Styles & Chris Daniels kicking things off for their respective teams. Next in was Homicide for LAX. Next in was Chris Sabin. Next in was Havoc for Seratonin. Homicide was eliminated by Daniels off a back body drop. Next in was Petey Williams. Styles eliminated Sabin. Next in was Brother Devon. Next in was Jimmy Ray (apparently returning to TNA but I've never heard of the f**ker!). Next in was Brother Ray for Team 3d, Devon eliminated Havoc (who'd literally only just stood up from the effects of the Canadian Destroyer from Petey Williams when he entered!), Styles made a great pele on Brother Ray!. Next in was Raven who was eliminated by Devon and the was the end of Team Seratonin and their bid to win. Next in was Shark Boy who was eliminated by Brother Ray, and next in was Sonjay Dutt. I am seriously hating his guru gimmick, he is far too talented to be used like that. Devon eliminated Jimmy Ray and Brother Ray eliminated Petey Williams. Next in was BG James for The VKM. Next in was Hernandez for LAX. Next in was Tomko joining his team mate Styles. Brother Ray eliminated Devon (by accident, aiming for Tomko) and then Tomko eliminated Brother Ray ending Team 3d's hopes.
In next was Elix Skipper joining his team mate Daniels. Next in was Alex Shelley and he eliminated BG James, and then in next was Lance Hoyt who eliminated Elix Skipper. In next was Kip James eliminating Sonjay Dutt ending his teams hopes, and the final man in was Eric Young having earnt the final spot in an on the road show prior to the PPV. Tomko eliminated Hernandez who had been fighting with him pretty much since they both got in there only to be eliminated by Eric Young as he was leaning over the ropes! Kip James eliminated Lance Hoyt with a neat drop kick only to be eliminated by Chris Daniels who also eliminated himself as they both went over the top rope and off the apron onto the floor together, Eric Young being eliminated by Alex Shelley & AJ Styles working together. Then their partners rejoined them and this became a standard tag match so back came Chris Sabin to join Alex Shelley and Tomko to join AJ Styles. Shelley & Sabin put together a group of very fast moves against Tomko double teaming him a lot. Styles nailed Sabin with a wicked standing overhead pele (he can't half do that move when it counts!). Styles took the pin after series of reversed small packages with the help of a handfull of trunks, meaning he and Tomko become the #1 contenders for the tag belts.
A seriously high quality match.
Grudge Match - Christian Cage vs Samoa Joe. Is it just me or is the title "Instant Classic" an oxymoron? This wasn't going to be a pretty match after Cage and his posse had abused Joe's Samoan Dancers who had tried to come to Joe's aid last week. Joe gave a lot more to this match than Cage did. Cage gave a so-so performance, I don't think he worked hard to earn his wages here The middle section of this match was unremarkable with Cage's 2nd wind, the weird reversed DDT by Cage on Joe off the top rope was Cage's best move of the whole match. Query, why did the ref push Cage's feet off the ropes instead of making Joe break the hold? Joe knocked out the ref which got him a DQ and he gave a kicking to some jobbers dressed as security. Matt Morgan finally stopped Joe taking it out on Cage. Expect Cornette to suspend Joe for at least 2 months for this one (no doubt he's got some indy work he needed the time off for).
World Heavyweight Championship - Abyss vs Kurt Angle in his 3rd and final match of the night. Having already lost 2 titles this wasn't looking good for Angle. He did bring his Japanese belt to the ring again so he was at least going to leave this match with 1 title. Hebner said there would be no interference (did anyone bother to tell James Mitchell that?). This wasn't elegant or well put together and neither man carried the other or put the other over very well. I got VERY bored watching this match, I don't take either of these 2 guys seriously as a well matched pair for competing but Angle did start to pull a few moves in the later part of the match. At more than 17 mins into the match I was amazed by this time that James Mitchell hadn't shown yet.
Angle hit a nice and very long moonsault to take the upper hand again. Abyss was doing a good job of selling Angle and pulled that Black Hole Slam out of no-where. Angle took the eventual win after the ankle lock had been on for several minutes. One of TNA's best PPV's this year.
And At NO POINT during this PPV was either announcer shouting. Total Abyss Air Time? 25 mins 20 seconds
Thursday, July 19, 2007
My TNA Monthly Catch-up, Jul - Aug 07
On time this month ;-) The views expressed in this catch-up are my own. Some stuff I won't discuss because it's utter s**t and offers nothing to further TNA or help wrestling. I call it how I see it, you don't like my views then don't read them Welcome to Smarkdom ;-)
Impact 19th Jul 07 - Impacts opening titles appear to have changed! Show opens with Triple X (Senshi, Chris Daniels & Elix Skipper) vs Seratonin with Raven filing in for Kaz/Kazarian who has now left them. Pretty even match, Senshi took the win for Triple X.
Lance Hoyt (& Christy Hemme who appears to be getting sluttier by the week) vs Kip James (with BG & Roxie), Kip won from The Famouser in a match that wasn't much to talk about.
Revenge match - Christian Cage & James Storm (who needs a new gimmick pretty soon, the whole cowboy thing is so old now) vs Rhyno & Chris Harris. Storm took the win with help from Dustin Rhodes and a chair. Weak match, hopefully this Storm/Harris feud will be over soon
Oh, and a load of storyline b**ls**t occurred. Who cares?
Impact 26th Jul 07 - No DQ match - Robert Roode vs Sting, this match never promised much, It was too long and very dull. Sting took the win.
Tag match - Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley vs LAX. Another overly long match with nothing to offer. Homicide took the win for his team. Suddenly Team 3d have become hated in the Impact Zone? When did that happen then?
Lots of storyline and folks shooting the breeze not worth talking about.
No DQ Match - AJ Styles vs Abyss. A lot of outside interfence and general b**ls**t from what started as a decent enough match. Whoever cut Abyss under the ring really f**ked up the blading as he was pouring blood from his head. Styles took the win in the end.
Impact 2nd Aug 07 - Tag Match - Team 3d vs Chris Harris & Eric Young. Team 3d as heels aren't very good but took the win in this excuse for a match.
Tag Match - Triple X vs Sonjay Dutt ( I hate his Guru gimmick!) & Jay (Needs a better gimmick) Lethal. Daniels took the win in this AWFUL match and TNA gets worse by the match.
Ladder match with stipulations - Christian Cage & AJ Styles vs Abyss & Sting. We finally saw the 1st appearance of Andrew Martin (Test from WWE) helping out Sting & Abyss, fighting with Tomko. Abyss got the contract & win for his team & Martin was kicking ass & looking good!
Impact 9th Aug 07 - Show opens (and we get a look at Matt Morgan with Cornette) and Cornette announces some stuff for the upcoming PPV.
Some b**ls**t about a bloke called Pacman, his opening words were very true. "You don't know me". No, I don't have a f**king clue who you are and don't give a f**k either.
6 Man House of Fun Match - Raven, James Storm & Robert Roode vs Kaz, Chris Harris & Rhyno. These matches are normally PPV only so it promised a lot! A pretty fast paced match, Kaz as usual gave an excellent account of himself (he just gets better every time I watch him, put a belt on him soon?) . Roode took the eventual win off Kaz.
Tag Match - Kip James & Brother Devon (in an unusual 1-off get together) vs Homicide & Rick Steiner (whilst Scott is still recuperating from his surgery no doubt). The Steiners are now filling a face role even though Scott has never been a face in TNA. Rick Steiner looked very out of shape in this match, very ring rusty but still taking some decent bumps. Kip took the win from the famouser off Homicide.
Hard Justice PPV 07 - 3 Way X Division Tag Match - Jay Lethal & Sonjay Dutt vs Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley vs Chris Daniels & Senshi (part of Triple X and Elix Skipper came down with them). As always with the X Division guys this was a fast paced match, lots of good moves throughout. Sonjay Dutt giving a great account of himself (lose the S**T gimmick please?), he makes a real good sell and was getting everyone over. Elix Skippers ropewalk hurricanrana was f**king awesome! Lethal finally took the win off a small package. Awesome for an opening match!
Raven vs Kaz - With the remnants of Seratonin behind him Raven certainly had the edge in numbers here. This pretty much started on the outside but managed to stay in the ring. Kaz took the win, no shock there really. He's getting his gradual push at the moment. I see him teaming with Chris Harris soon, perhaps.
Bar Room Brawl (No DQ, Anything goes rules) - James Storm (with Jackie Moore) vs Rhyno. This went right into the crowd in seconds, Rhyno must have felt like he was back in ECW. I guess drinking the beer during this match might be the start of a heel turn for Rhyno. This match was pretty weak despite the no dq factor, neither man made anything of it. Storm took the win. Very scrappy match indeed for a PPV.
Tag Match - VKM vs LAX. Kip had been going through his old ring clothes by the looks of it, he was wearing an old Mr Ass outfit. Kip took the win. Hector Guererro helped get the match restarted and LAX won. Konnan has been replaced, it seems.
Ultimate Humiliation Tar & Feather Match - Robert Roode vs Eric Young. Despite Roode being the bigger and heavier guy and the better wrestler it was obvious Young was going to win this after the storyline his character has been going through. In a total turn-around Roode took the win! With an assist from Gail Kim, Miss Brooks got tarred and feathered. Can her breasts GET any bigger?
Chris Harris vs Black Reign (aka Dustin Rhodes) - They've taken the Goldust gimmick and turned it to the dark side, using a black & white outfit instead of Gold. Rhodes was pretty much unrecognisable in the Black Reign outfit and facepaint. Harris won by dq after Rhodes hit 2 referee's. Personally I think Rhodes f**ked something up during the match and they had to take this one home earlier than expected.
Tag Team Grudge Match - The Steiners vs Team 3d. With 3d as the heels, the Steiners looked like pre-match favourites. Scott looked pretty good for a man who's had some pretty hard surgery and hasn't been in the ring for a while. Rick was looking a lot better in the ring than the last match I saw him in, the rust is coming off quickly and he's finding his old school self. Loved seeing Scott do the Frankensteiner on Devon (not easy on such a big guy!). The Steiners got the obvious (and easily predicted) win.
A bit of b**ls**t where Ron Killings did a sell job to get some nobody I've ever heard of (Pacman WHO?) over.
Doomsday Chamber Of Blood Match - Christian Cage, AJ Styles & Tomko vs Sting, Abyss & Andrew Martin going under his new name - The Punisher. Rules are you can only pin a man if he's bleeding. Tomko was cut 1st, Abyss was cut open by Cage with "glass". AJ Styles took a good blackhole slam onto the glass and Abyss got the fall and the #1 contender spot for next months PPV.
Main Event, Winner Takes All Match - On the line, the X Division Belt, Tag Championship Belts, TNA World Heavyweight Belt & Kurts IWGP (Japan) belt all on the line. With a b**ls**t side story about Kurts ex-wife (is that his real wife? doubtful) I had Angle pegged to win this as the pre-match favourite. Whoever described Joe as "an indy nobody" in one of these groups hasn't got a f**king clue about wrestling outside of the WWE. He almost certainly doesn't know Joe worked for WWE once as well. The fact that Joe had Angle tapping out but the ref was "knocked out" (that c**p is so old it's unreal), Angle got the win and ALL the titles off a b**ls**t chair shot with his wifes help.
Best match of the night, pretty much like last month. The X Division guys stole the show, Kaz is coming along well. Dutt did injure himself (that f**kwit Daniels moved during his moonsault out of the ring and caught Dutt in the lower ribs, totally Daniels' fault) and was holding his ribs for the remainder of that match.
Impact 19th Jul 07 - Impacts opening titles appear to have changed! Show opens with Triple X (Senshi, Chris Daniels & Elix Skipper) vs Seratonin with Raven filing in for Kaz/Kazarian who has now left them. Pretty even match, Senshi took the win for Triple X.
Lance Hoyt (& Christy Hemme who appears to be getting sluttier by the week) vs Kip James (with BG & Roxie), Kip won from The Famouser in a match that wasn't much to talk about.
Revenge match - Christian Cage & James Storm (who needs a new gimmick pretty soon, the whole cowboy thing is so old now) vs Rhyno & Chris Harris. Storm took the win with help from Dustin Rhodes and a chair. Weak match, hopefully this Storm/Harris feud will be over soon
Oh, and a load of storyline b**ls**t occurred. Who cares?
Impact 26th Jul 07 - No DQ match - Robert Roode vs Sting, this match never promised much, It was too long and very dull. Sting took the win.
Tag match - Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley vs LAX. Another overly long match with nothing to offer. Homicide took the win for his team. Suddenly Team 3d have become hated in the Impact Zone? When did that happen then?
Lots of storyline and folks shooting the breeze not worth talking about.
No DQ Match - AJ Styles vs Abyss. A lot of outside interfence and general b**ls**t from what started as a decent enough match. Whoever cut Abyss under the ring really f**ked up the blading as he was pouring blood from his head. Styles took the win in the end.
Impact 2nd Aug 07 - Tag Match - Team 3d vs Chris Harris & Eric Young. Team 3d as heels aren't very good but took the win in this excuse for a match.
Tag Match - Triple X vs Sonjay Dutt ( I hate his Guru gimmick!) & Jay (Needs a better gimmick) Lethal. Daniels took the win in this AWFUL match and TNA gets worse by the match.
Ladder match with stipulations - Christian Cage & AJ Styles vs Abyss & Sting. We finally saw the 1st appearance of Andrew Martin (Test from WWE) helping out Sting & Abyss, fighting with Tomko. Abyss got the contract & win for his team & Martin was kicking ass & looking good!
Impact 9th Aug 07 - Show opens (and we get a look at Matt Morgan with Cornette) and Cornette announces some stuff for the upcoming PPV.
Some b**ls**t about a bloke called Pacman, his opening words were very true. "You don't know me". No, I don't have a f**king clue who you are and don't give a f**k either.
6 Man House of Fun Match - Raven, James Storm & Robert Roode vs Kaz, Chris Harris & Rhyno. These matches are normally PPV only so it promised a lot! A pretty fast paced match, Kaz as usual gave an excellent account of himself (he just gets better every time I watch him, put a belt on him soon?) . Roode took the eventual win off Kaz.
Tag Match - Kip James & Brother Devon (in an unusual 1-off get together) vs Homicide & Rick Steiner (whilst Scott is still recuperating from his surgery no doubt). The Steiners are now filling a face role even though Scott has never been a face in TNA. Rick Steiner looked very out of shape in this match, very ring rusty but still taking some decent bumps. Kip took the win from the famouser off Homicide.
Hard Justice PPV 07 - 3 Way X Division Tag Match - Jay Lethal & Sonjay Dutt vs Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley vs Chris Daniels & Senshi (part of Triple X and Elix Skipper came down with them). As always with the X Division guys this was a fast paced match, lots of good moves throughout. Sonjay Dutt giving a great account of himself (lose the S**T gimmick please?), he makes a real good sell and was getting everyone over. Elix Skippers ropewalk hurricanrana was f**king awesome! Lethal finally took the win off a small package. Awesome for an opening match!
Raven vs Kaz - With the remnants of Seratonin behind him Raven certainly had the edge in numbers here. This pretty much started on the outside but managed to stay in the ring. Kaz took the win, no shock there really. He's getting his gradual push at the moment. I see him teaming with Chris Harris soon, perhaps.
Bar Room Brawl (No DQ, Anything goes rules) - James Storm (with Jackie Moore) vs Rhyno. This went right into the crowd in seconds, Rhyno must have felt like he was back in ECW. I guess drinking the beer during this match might be the start of a heel turn for Rhyno. This match was pretty weak despite the no dq factor, neither man made anything of it. Storm took the win. Very scrappy match indeed for a PPV.
Tag Match - VKM vs LAX. Kip had been going through his old ring clothes by the looks of it, he was wearing an old Mr Ass outfit. Kip took the win. Hector Guererro helped get the match restarted and LAX won. Konnan has been replaced, it seems.
Ultimate Humiliation Tar & Feather Match - Robert Roode vs Eric Young. Despite Roode being the bigger and heavier guy and the better wrestler it was obvious Young was going to win this after the storyline his character has been going through. In a total turn-around Roode took the win! With an assist from Gail Kim, Miss Brooks got tarred and feathered. Can her breasts GET any bigger?
Chris Harris vs Black Reign (aka Dustin Rhodes) - They've taken the Goldust gimmick and turned it to the dark side, using a black & white outfit instead of Gold. Rhodes was pretty much unrecognisable in the Black Reign outfit and facepaint. Harris won by dq after Rhodes hit 2 referee's. Personally I think Rhodes f**ked something up during the match and they had to take this one home earlier than expected.
Tag Team Grudge Match - The Steiners vs Team 3d. With 3d as the heels, the Steiners looked like pre-match favourites. Scott looked pretty good for a man who's had some pretty hard surgery and hasn't been in the ring for a while. Rick was looking a lot better in the ring than the last match I saw him in, the rust is coming off quickly and he's finding his old school self. Loved seeing Scott do the Frankensteiner on Devon (not easy on such a big guy!). The Steiners got the obvious (and easily predicted) win.
A bit of b**ls**t where Ron Killings did a sell job to get some nobody I've ever heard of (Pacman WHO?) over.
Doomsday Chamber Of Blood Match - Christian Cage, AJ Styles & Tomko vs Sting, Abyss & Andrew Martin going under his new name - The Punisher. Rules are you can only pin a man if he's bleeding. Tomko was cut 1st, Abyss was cut open by Cage with "glass". AJ Styles took a good blackhole slam onto the glass and Abyss got the fall and the #1 contender spot for next months PPV.
Main Event, Winner Takes All Match - On the line, the X Division Belt, Tag Championship Belts, TNA World Heavyweight Belt & Kurts IWGP (Japan) belt all on the line. With a b**ls**t side story about Kurts ex-wife (is that his real wife? doubtful) I had Angle pegged to win this as the pre-match favourite. Whoever described Joe as "an indy nobody" in one of these groups hasn't got a f**king clue about wrestling outside of the WWE. He almost certainly doesn't know Joe worked for WWE once as well. The fact that Joe had Angle tapping out but the ref was "knocked out" (that c**p is so old it's unreal), Angle got the win and ALL the titles off a b**ls**t chair shot with his wifes help.
Best match of the night, pretty much like last month. The X Division guys stole the show, Kaz is coming along well. Dutt did injure himself (that f**kwit Daniels moved during his moonsault out of the ring and caught Dutt in the lower ribs, totally Daniels' fault) and was holding his ribs for the remainder of that match.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
My TNA Monthly Catch-up, May - Jun 07
Yes folks, it's catch-up time again. This is where I review the previous months TNA Impacts & PPV. I call it how I see it, the only bias is my own & if you don't like my views then don't read them.
Impact 17th May 07 - TNA kicks off with Kurt Angle coming down to bore us on the mic and we now have the new TNA Belts this week as the NWA decide to take their ball home because they don't want to play with the big children any more.
X Division Tag match - Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley vs Jerry Lynn & Tiger Mask. A good well paced match where Shelley got the win for his team after a double team on Tiger Mask.
Open Challenge 1st Blood Match - Chris Daniels who is carrying on with his imitation of Sting vs Raven in his 1st match for a while. Daniels got the win using part of a kendo stick.
King Of The Mountain Qualifier Match 1 of 5 - Kurt Angle vs Rhyno. A good match of technical wrestling, Angle won off the Olympic Slam.
Impact 24th May 07 - The show kicks off with Team 3d calling out The Steiner Brothers to the ring.
Tag Match - Basham & Damaja vs Kip James & Lance Hoyt stepping in for BG James still out injured against Christy Hemme and The Basham Brothers. Hemme's team win again after Hoyt left Kip to carry Hemme from ringside to prevent interference.
Tag Match - LAX vs Christian Cage & Tomko. Not much to say about this match, Cage got the win for his team.
King Of The Mountain Qualifier Match 2 of 5 - Samoa Joe vs Sting. Anywhere else this would have been a ppv match but TNA gave it you for free. Joe wins after Chris Daniels tried to offer Sting help in the form of a basball bat but after Sting threw the bat away Daniels hit Sting in the back with it. I see Sting vs Daniels at the PPV.
Impact 31st May 07 - Rhyno vs Chris Daniels.You knew after last week Sting wasn't going to be far from this match and he didn't let us down and put the beat-down on Daniels before he even reached the ring.
Rhyno then issues an extreme challenge to anyone in the back and LAX come out in another reference back to the previous weeks show. Hector Guerrero (from the Spanish Announcers desk) joins Rhyno (as he'd had his back last week) and it looked like it was going to be a tag match. In the end Hernandez goes 1 on 1 with Rhyno but it quickly became 2 on 1 with Homicide joining in too. Rhyno got the win off Homicide from the gore. Chris Harris came down to make a save but was hit by Konnan.
Kaz vs Chris Sabin in a non-title match. Sabin took the win but Kaz gave a good account of himself in this match.
King Of The Mountain Qualifier Match 3 of 5 - Aj Styles vs Tomko. Styles took this one with the help of Cage.
Impact 7th June 07 - Roobert Roode vs Jerry Lynn. Roode took it with a Perfect plex.
Special Contest - Miss Brookes vs Gail Kim. This was never going to be a pretty match as Brookes isn't a wrestler but can take bumps as she had to as a manager. A fair few bad no-sells by Brookes but Kim got the obvious win off a roll-up.
King Of The Mountain Qualifier Match 4 of 5 - James Storm vs Chris Harris. Former tag partners face off. This was an awesome match that turned into a hardcore match really quickly. This ended up being a double count out with both men dq'd.
Impact 14th June 07 - 8 Man Tag Match, Basham & Damaja (with Christy Hemme) & The Steiner Brothers vs VKM & Team 3D - A pretty weak match, Kip James had this until Damaja distracted the ref allowing Christy Hemme to spray Kip in the eyes so Basham took the easy win off a roll-up.
King Of The Mountain Redemption Match, Tomko, Rhino & Sting vs Samoa Joe, AJ Styles & Kurt Angle - Tomko never made his spot because someone jumped him backstage, Styles & Joe & Angle had been told by Jim Cornette if they got pinned here they lose their spot on the PPV. Another poor match, Christopher Daniels came out to apparently replace Tomko near the end so Sting tagged him in but Daniels hit Sting with The Last Rights which allowed Angle to pin Sting for the win.
King Of The Mountain Qualifier Match 5 of 5, Christian Cage vs Abyss - AWFUL match with run-ins from Tomko & AJ Styles, in the end the win went to Cage after Abyss got DQ'd for using a chair.
Slammiversary PPV 07.
Tag Match, LAX vs Rhino & Senshi ) Not a great match, Rhino took the win off the Gore on Homicide.
X Division Championship, Jay Lethal vs Chris Sabin - A pretty fair match, Lethal hit The Lethal Combination then a Crossbody Block to become new X Division Champion.
Tag Match, "Cowboy" James Storm & Ron "The Truth" Killings vs Jerry Lynn & Frank Wycheck - Yet another TNA gimmick match with someone from sport no-one outside America has heard of, Wycheck plays for the Tennessee Titans NFL team. Piss poor match with a ton of interference where Wycheck took the win off a Piledriver on Storm.
Alex Shelley vs Bob Backlund - This was pretty much all ground based technical wrestling, Backlund took the win off a Bridge even though Chris Sabin tried & failed to interfere. Its a shame that the post match beatdown involving Kevin Nash, Jerry Lynn & Jay Lethal was more entertaining than the actual match.
Tagteam Grudge Match, Damaja & Basham (with Christy Hemme) vs VKM - Poor quality match, Kip was getting double teamed so BG hit a spear on Basham allowing Kip to take the win off a Small Package on Damaja.
Freedom Match, Robert Roode (with Ms Brooks) vs Eric Young - Extremely poor match where Roode took the win after nailing Young in the head with a chair. Jim Cornette orders the match restarted, gets another chair for his trouble but Young took the win off a roll-up & Eric Young is free.
Tag Team Championship, Team 3D vs Rick Steiner & Road Warrior Animal - Animal got a HUGE pop & replaced Scott Steiner who was having neck surgery at the time. It was a pretty fun match to watch but sad too as both Rick & Animal gassed out pretty quickly, Team 3D took the win after hitting 3D's on both Steiner & Animal to retain their titles.
Christopher Daniels vs Sting - This one went from pillar to post with Daniels getting serious heel heat & loving it but Sting got the win off The Scorpion Deathdrop.
No DQ Match, Tomko vs Abyss - The stipulation stated there must be a winner but with no DQ there was always going to interference. Abyss kicked out of a slam into thumbtacks, Tomko kicked out of a Black Hole Slam but after taking a bump into the glass they fought up the ramp to the top of a lighting gantry where Abyss pulled Tomko off in a big fall (about 20 feet) into a platform (for which read "covered pile of boxes") below then dropped an elbow off the gantry "onto" Tomko. They both make it back to the ring & Abyss hits another Black Hole Slam putting Tomko into the glass to take the win.
King Of The Mountain Match, Chris Harris vs AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe vs Christian Cage vs Kurt Angle - Rules are as follows, you pin someone or make them submit to qualify then you are able to climb up to hang the belt, 1st person to hang the belt wins the title. If you are pinned you spend 2 minutes inside the penalty cage.
1st man to become eligible was Chris Harris after nailing Styles with the Catatonic, 2nd man to become eligible was Angle nailing Harris with the Olympic Slam off a ladder as Harris was trying to hang the belt. 3rd man to become eligible was Cage after pinning Angle once Joe choked him out but Joe hit a wicked Facebuster off the top of the ladder to stop him hanging the belt.
Styles took a wicked bump when Joe threw him off the top of the penalty cage through an already vacated announce table (makes ya wonder how they knew he was coming, eh?) & Harris front suplexed Cage off the cage top as well as then clotheslining Angle after diving off the cage, Harris speared Cage off the ladder allowing Kurt Angle to hang the belt to become new TNA Heavy Champion.
Impact 17th May 07 - TNA kicks off with Kurt Angle coming down to bore us on the mic and we now have the new TNA Belts this week as the NWA decide to take their ball home because they don't want to play with the big children any more.
X Division Tag match - Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley vs Jerry Lynn & Tiger Mask. A good well paced match where Shelley got the win for his team after a double team on Tiger Mask.
Open Challenge 1st Blood Match - Chris Daniels who is carrying on with his imitation of Sting vs Raven in his 1st match for a while. Daniels got the win using part of a kendo stick.
King Of The Mountain Qualifier Match 1 of 5 - Kurt Angle vs Rhyno. A good match of technical wrestling, Angle won off the Olympic Slam.
Impact 24th May 07 - The show kicks off with Team 3d calling out The Steiner Brothers to the ring.
Tag Match - Basham & Damaja vs Kip James & Lance Hoyt stepping in for BG James still out injured against Christy Hemme and The Basham Brothers. Hemme's team win again after Hoyt left Kip to carry Hemme from ringside to prevent interference.
Tag Match - LAX vs Christian Cage & Tomko. Not much to say about this match, Cage got the win for his team.
King Of The Mountain Qualifier Match 2 of 5 - Samoa Joe vs Sting. Anywhere else this would have been a ppv match but TNA gave it you for free. Joe wins after Chris Daniels tried to offer Sting help in the form of a basball bat but after Sting threw the bat away Daniels hit Sting in the back with it. I see Sting vs Daniels at the PPV.
Impact 31st May 07 - Rhyno vs Chris Daniels.You knew after last week Sting wasn't going to be far from this match and he didn't let us down and put the beat-down on Daniels before he even reached the ring.
Rhyno then issues an extreme challenge to anyone in the back and LAX come out in another reference back to the previous weeks show. Hector Guerrero (from the Spanish Announcers desk) joins Rhyno (as he'd had his back last week) and it looked like it was going to be a tag match. In the end Hernandez goes 1 on 1 with Rhyno but it quickly became 2 on 1 with Homicide joining in too. Rhyno got the win off Homicide from the gore. Chris Harris came down to make a save but was hit by Konnan.
Kaz vs Chris Sabin in a non-title match. Sabin took the win but Kaz gave a good account of himself in this match.
King Of The Mountain Qualifier Match 3 of 5 - Aj Styles vs Tomko. Styles took this one with the help of Cage.
Impact 7th June 07 - Roobert Roode vs Jerry Lynn. Roode took it with a Perfect plex.
Special Contest - Miss Brookes vs Gail Kim. This was never going to be a pretty match as Brookes isn't a wrestler but can take bumps as she had to as a manager. A fair few bad no-sells by Brookes but Kim got the obvious win off a roll-up.
King Of The Mountain Qualifier Match 4 of 5 - James Storm vs Chris Harris. Former tag partners face off. This was an awesome match that turned into a hardcore match really quickly. This ended up being a double count out with both men dq'd.
Impact 14th June 07 - 8 Man Tag Match, Basham & Damaja (with Christy Hemme) & The Steiner Brothers vs VKM & Team 3D - A pretty weak match, Kip James had this until Damaja distracted the ref allowing Christy Hemme to spray Kip in the eyes so Basham took the easy win off a roll-up.
King Of The Mountain Redemption Match, Tomko, Rhino & Sting vs Samoa Joe, AJ Styles & Kurt Angle - Tomko never made his spot because someone jumped him backstage, Styles & Joe & Angle had been told by Jim Cornette if they got pinned here they lose their spot on the PPV. Another poor match, Christopher Daniels came out to apparently replace Tomko near the end so Sting tagged him in but Daniels hit Sting with The Last Rights which allowed Angle to pin Sting for the win.
King Of The Mountain Qualifier Match 5 of 5, Christian Cage vs Abyss - AWFUL match with run-ins from Tomko & AJ Styles, in the end the win went to Cage after Abyss got DQ'd for using a chair.
Slammiversary PPV 07.
Tag Match, LAX vs Rhino & Senshi ) Not a great match, Rhino took the win off the Gore on Homicide.
X Division Championship, Jay Lethal vs Chris Sabin - A pretty fair match, Lethal hit The Lethal Combination then a Crossbody Block to become new X Division Champion.
Tag Match, "Cowboy" James Storm & Ron "The Truth" Killings vs Jerry Lynn & Frank Wycheck - Yet another TNA gimmick match with someone from sport no-one outside America has heard of, Wycheck plays for the Tennessee Titans NFL team. Piss poor match with a ton of interference where Wycheck took the win off a Piledriver on Storm.
Alex Shelley vs Bob Backlund - This was pretty much all ground based technical wrestling, Backlund took the win off a Bridge even though Chris Sabin tried & failed to interfere. Its a shame that the post match beatdown involving Kevin Nash, Jerry Lynn & Jay Lethal was more entertaining than the actual match.
Tagteam Grudge Match, Damaja & Basham (with Christy Hemme) vs VKM - Poor quality match, Kip was getting double teamed so BG hit a spear on Basham allowing Kip to take the win off a Small Package on Damaja.
Freedom Match, Robert Roode (with Ms Brooks) vs Eric Young - Extremely poor match where Roode took the win after nailing Young in the head with a chair. Jim Cornette orders the match restarted, gets another chair for his trouble but Young took the win off a roll-up & Eric Young is free.
Tag Team Championship, Team 3D vs Rick Steiner & Road Warrior Animal - Animal got a HUGE pop & replaced Scott Steiner who was having neck surgery at the time. It was a pretty fun match to watch but sad too as both Rick & Animal gassed out pretty quickly, Team 3D took the win after hitting 3D's on both Steiner & Animal to retain their titles.
Christopher Daniels vs Sting - This one went from pillar to post with Daniels getting serious heel heat & loving it but Sting got the win off The Scorpion Deathdrop.
No DQ Match, Tomko vs Abyss - The stipulation stated there must be a winner but with no DQ there was always going to interference. Abyss kicked out of a slam into thumbtacks, Tomko kicked out of a Black Hole Slam but after taking a bump into the glass they fought up the ramp to the top of a lighting gantry where Abyss pulled Tomko off in a big fall (about 20 feet) into a platform (for which read "covered pile of boxes") below then dropped an elbow off the gantry "onto" Tomko. They both make it back to the ring & Abyss hits another Black Hole Slam putting Tomko into the glass to take the win.
King Of The Mountain Match, Chris Harris vs AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe vs Christian Cage vs Kurt Angle - Rules are as follows, you pin someone or make them submit to qualify then you are able to climb up to hang the belt, 1st person to hang the belt wins the title. If you are pinned you spend 2 minutes inside the penalty cage.
1st man to become eligible was Chris Harris after nailing Styles with the Catatonic, 2nd man to become eligible was Angle nailing Harris with the Olympic Slam off a ladder as Harris was trying to hang the belt. 3rd man to become eligible was Cage after pinning Angle once Joe choked him out but Joe hit a wicked Facebuster off the top of the ladder to stop him hanging the belt.
Styles took a wicked bump when Joe threw him off the top of the penalty cage through an already vacated announce table (makes ya wonder how they knew he was coming, eh?) & Harris front suplexed Cage off the cage top as well as then clotheslining Angle after diving off the cage, Harris speared Cage off the ladder allowing Kurt Angle to hang the belt to become new TNA Heavy Champion.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
My TNA Monthly Catch-up, Apr - May 07
It's that time of the month, for my TNA monthly catch-up. I review Impacts & PPV how I see em, the only bias is mine. I talk about what I find interesting, you won't find me talking about s**t like Jay Lethals c**p gimmick. If ya don't like my views, don't read it. On to the action then.
Impact 19th April 07 - Show starts with Jeff Jarrett coming to the ring to bore us on the mic. Why is he still being called "King Of The Mountain" even though he isn't the champion?
A bit of shit involving Angle & Sting and a backstage interview.
4-way 1 fall contest - Chris Daniels vs Rhyno vs AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe. Funny because I thought 4-way meant all 4 in the ring at once so they took a bit of a liberty there. Daniels took the win from Rhyno after twatting him with a baseball bat in his attempt to become more like "Crow" Sting.
Chris Harris vs Robert Roode - The start of the match was delayed as Jackie Moore jumped Gail Kim. Roode cheated the win with the help of a pair of handcuffs.
Tag Team title match - Christian Cage & Abyss vs Team 3d. After a pretty even match Team 3d took the win from Abyss with the 3d. The show ends with Team Cage giving Abyss a beat down.
Impact 26th April 07 - Sting vs Kurt Angle (winner to meet Cage at Sacrifice) - This was a pretty even match until it was thrown out when Team Cage interfered when both men were outside the ring.
4 corners singles suicide stampede match (Winners to meet Sabin in a 3 way match at sacrifice) - Everyone else apart from Kaz of Seratonin was already in the ring when this started, everyone else being Sharkboy, Senshi, Petey Williams, Jerry Lynn, Jay Lethal, Sonjay Dutt & Alex Shelley. West & Tenay were too wrapped up in the Cage/Sting match that they weren't even calling this match and didn't bother to bring us up to speed as to who was who's partner or even who was standing at ring-side. Jay Lethal took the pin for him and Sonjay Dutt.
Tag Team title match - Team 3d vs Tomko & Steiner. Hang on, since when are these 2 f**kwits tag partners or even contenders? LAX and VKM would be in line for title shots way before these 2 d**kheads. Team 3d get the win after a bit of interference from LAX.
NWA World Title match - Sting vs Christian Cage. This one started on the ramp and Team Cage couldn't interefere as it'd cost Christian the belt. This went pretty even until Kurt Angle interefered and the ref threw the match out.
Impact 3rd May 07 - Show opens with some c**p between Sting & Angle picking up from the previous week.
Tag Team Match - Team 3d vs Rhyno & Samoa Joe. Team 3d against yet another newly formed team to get some mileage out of the NWA title. Another pretty even match until Chris Daniels interfered and got his just deserts from everyone involved.
More crap involving Eric Young & Robert Roode.
Jackie Moore vs Gail Kim - Essentially this was a hardcore match where neither woman wanted to be involved. It was over so fast I had the feeling the ref told them to end it when the bell rang at the start of the match. Gail Kim took the win in a very scrappy match.
No DQ Tag match - AJ Styles & Christian Cage vs Kurt Angle & Sting. Crap match which couldnt be over quick enough for me, both Sting & Angle being given the fall setting up the 3-way for the title at Sacrifice.
Impact 10th May 07 - 3 way dance. Homicide vs Brother Devon vs Scott Steiner - This was supposed to be a preview of the up-coming tag match on the PPV but it wasn't really. No real alliances were formed that were going to stand but outside interference allowed Homicide to get the win off Devon.
Christie Hemme finally gets herself a decent team in one of the Bashams and Damaja whoever he was (turns out he's the other Basham).
Tag Match - Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin vs Jay Lethal & Sonjay Dutt. Yet another warm-up match previewing talent due to be involved in Sacrifice. 6 man tag match - Samoa Joe, Chris Harris & Rhyno vs Chris Daniels, AJ Styles & James Storm. A very boring finish where Storm got the win.
Sacrifice PPV 2007 - X Division Title 3-way - Jay Lethal vs Sonjay Dutt vs Chris Sabin. In an excellent match where everyone got to show their talent Chris Sabin retained his title in a hard fought match. This could well be a heel turn for Sonjay Dutt.
Robert Roode vs Jeff Jarrett - No titles were on the line here, just a plain old fight. This is a part of the attempt to reinvent Jarrett as a face which I am never going to take seriously. Neither man really did much here in a match that just killed time. Roode took the win with a Perfect plex.
Chris Daniels vs Rhyno - Another card filler which most people most likely used as a bathroom break. Daniels won using the baseball bat.
Damaja & Basham vs VKM. It ended up being just Kip James, BG had been taken out. Basham took the win for Christie Hemme finally managing winners.
Texas Death Match - Chris Harris vs James Storm. Pretty back & forth with lots of blood and Chris Harris finally getting his revenge.
4 way X Division match. Tiger Mask vs Alex Shelley vs Senshi vs Jerry Lynn. Won by Jerry Lynn. Very dull, actually.
3 way Tag Team title match - LAX vs Scott Steiner & Tomko vs Team 3d. For teams that had a fair amount of bad blood between them this match didn't offer much. Plenty of power moves as their all big chaps but Devon made the pin on Tomko as Team 3d retained the belt. Tomko gave Scott Steiner a slapping afterwards but Rick Steiner came down to make the save on his brother. It looks like these 2 are back together as a tagteam and about time too.
AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe - Another card filler. Went both ways with Joe pulling AJ's trick of pretending to be injured then getting the win while AJ was offguard. Both these guy can and have previously offered a lot more and this wasn't either man trying his hardest or at his best.
NWA Heavyweight Title match - Sting vs Kurt Angle vs Christian Cage. This is a title shot that Angle didn't deserve and this storyline totally sucks donkey c**k through a straw for breakfast. Cage was always going to be the 5th wheel in this match. Highlights included Angle giving Sting a german suplex onto the ramp outside the ring, Angle giving Cage 8 consecutive german suplex's in a row, Angle Superplexing both Sting & Cage, and the big query of who actually won the title. Rudy Charles had made the 3 count on Sting pinning Cage before the other ref (who had no business being there or making a title call) said Sting tapped out to Angle's anklelock. Don't be surprised to see Sting vs Angle after Jim Cornette declares the belt vacant.
Impact 19th April 07 - Show starts with Jeff Jarrett coming to the ring to bore us on the mic. Why is he still being called "King Of The Mountain" even though he isn't the champion?
A bit of shit involving Angle & Sting and a backstage interview.
4-way 1 fall contest - Chris Daniels vs Rhyno vs AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe. Funny because I thought 4-way meant all 4 in the ring at once so they took a bit of a liberty there. Daniels took the win from Rhyno after twatting him with a baseball bat in his attempt to become more like "Crow" Sting.
Chris Harris vs Robert Roode - The start of the match was delayed as Jackie Moore jumped Gail Kim. Roode cheated the win with the help of a pair of handcuffs.
Tag Team title match - Christian Cage & Abyss vs Team 3d. After a pretty even match Team 3d took the win from Abyss with the 3d. The show ends with Team Cage giving Abyss a beat down.
Impact 26th April 07 - Sting vs Kurt Angle (winner to meet Cage at Sacrifice) - This was a pretty even match until it was thrown out when Team Cage interfered when both men were outside the ring.
4 corners singles suicide stampede match (Winners to meet Sabin in a 3 way match at sacrifice) - Everyone else apart from Kaz of Seratonin was already in the ring when this started, everyone else being Sharkboy, Senshi, Petey Williams, Jerry Lynn, Jay Lethal, Sonjay Dutt & Alex Shelley. West & Tenay were too wrapped up in the Cage/Sting match that they weren't even calling this match and didn't bother to bring us up to speed as to who was who's partner or even who was standing at ring-side. Jay Lethal took the pin for him and Sonjay Dutt.
Tag Team title match - Team 3d vs Tomko & Steiner. Hang on, since when are these 2 f**kwits tag partners or even contenders? LAX and VKM would be in line for title shots way before these 2 d**kheads. Team 3d get the win after a bit of interference from LAX.
NWA World Title match - Sting vs Christian Cage. This one started on the ramp and Team Cage couldn't interefere as it'd cost Christian the belt. This went pretty even until Kurt Angle interefered and the ref threw the match out.
Impact 3rd May 07 - Show opens with some c**p between Sting & Angle picking up from the previous week.
Tag Team Match - Team 3d vs Rhyno & Samoa Joe. Team 3d against yet another newly formed team to get some mileage out of the NWA title. Another pretty even match until Chris Daniels interfered and got his just deserts from everyone involved.
More crap involving Eric Young & Robert Roode.
Jackie Moore vs Gail Kim - Essentially this was a hardcore match where neither woman wanted to be involved. It was over so fast I had the feeling the ref told them to end it when the bell rang at the start of the match. Gail Kim took the win in a very scrappy match.
No DQ Tag match - AJ Styles & Christian Cage vs Kurt Angle & Sting. Crap match which couldnt be over quick enough for me, both Sting & Angle being given the fall setting up the 3-way for the title at Sacrifice.
Impact 10th May 07 - 3 way dance. Homicide vs Brother Devon vs Scott Steiner - This was supposed to be a preview of the up-coming tag match on the PPV but it wasn't really. No real alliances were formed that were going to stand but outside interference allowed Homicide to get the win off Devon.
Christie Hemme finally gets herself a decent team in one of the Bashams and Damaja whoever he was (turns out he's the other Basham).
Tag Match - Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin vs Jay Lethal & Sonjay Dutt. Yet another warm-up match previewing talent due to be involved in Sacrifice. 6 man tag match - Samoa Joe, Chris Harris & Rhyno vs Chris Daniels, AJ Styles & James Storm. A very boring finish where Storm got the win.
Sacrifice PPV 2007 - X Division Title 3-way - Jay Lethal vs Sonjay Dutt vs Chris Sabin. In an excellent match where everyone got to show their talent Chris Sabin retained his title in a hard fought match. This could well be a heel turn for Sonjay Dutt.
Robert Roode vs Jeff Jarrett - No titles were on the line here, just a plain old fight. This is a part of the attempt to reinvent Jarrett as a face which I am never going to take seriously. Neither man really did much here in a match that just killed time. Roode took the win with a Perfect plex.
Chris Daniels vs Rhyno - Another card filler which most people most likely used as a bathroom break. Daniels won using the baseball bat.
Damaja & Basham vs VKM. It ended up being just Kip James, BG had been taken out. Basham took the win for Christie Hemme finally managing winners.
Texas Death Match - Chris Harris vs James Storm. Pretty back & forth with lots of blood and Chris Harris finally getting his revenge.
4 way X Division match. Tiger Mask vs Alex Shelley vs Senshi vs Jerry Lynn. Won by Jerry Lynn. Very dull, actually.
3 way Tag Team title match - LAX vs Scott Steiner & Tomko vs Team 3d. For teams that had a fair amount of bad blood between them this match didn't offer much. Plenty of power moves as their all big chaps but Devon made the pin on Tomko as Team 3d retained the belt. Tomko gave Scott Steiner a slapping afterwards but Rick Steiner came down to make the save on his brother. It looks like these 2 are back together as a tagteam and about time too.
AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe - Another card filler. Went both ways with Joe pulling AJ's trick of pretending to be injured then getting the win while AJ was offguard. Both these guy can and have previously offered a lot more and this wasn't either man trying his hardest or at his best.
NWA Heavyweight Title match - Sting vs Kurt Angle vs Christian Cage. This is a title shot that Angle didn't deserve and this storyline totally sucks donkey c**k through a straw for breakfast. Cage was always going to be the 5th wheel in this match. Highlights included Angle giving Sting a german suplex onto the ramp outside the ring, Angle giving Cage 8 consecutive german suplex's in a row, Angle Superplexing both Sting & Cage, and the big query of who actually won the title. Rudy Charles had made the 3 count on Sting pinning Cage before the other ref (who had no business being there or making a title call) said Sting tapped out to Angle's anklelock. Don't be surprised to see Sting vs Angle after Jim Cornette declares the belt vacant.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
My TNA Monthly Catch-up, Mar - Apr 07
Did ya miss me last month? Nope? Like I care! Ok. Yeah, I know, last months update is WAY overdue. Sorry about that, I won't give excuses why. In life s**t happens and I won't bore you with it unlike certain bleating s**tewads. We'll just cut right to the review. THE CAVEAT! This review is from my Point of View, I call it how I see it. If you don't agree that's not a problem, don't read the review. I won't talk about backstage interviews or c***py gimmicks in the ring that don't advance TNA in any way. It might mean a short review but I only watch THE WRESTLING!
Petey Williams vs Robert Roode. Roode got the win after a long hard match.
Jackie Moore vs Gail Kim. Kim wins with the pin from an amazing jump off the top of the cage.
Senshi vs Austin Starr, guest ref Bob Backlund. A pretty dull mat based match where neither man did much very exciting. Senshi won in this long, boring match.
Blindfold match - James Storm vs Chris Harris. You know a fed is scraping the bottom of the barrel for ideas when they pull out the very boring blindfold match. You always know at least 1 person will remove the hood and it was predictable who took it off 1st. Storm cheated the win off a superkick without his hood on.
Wrath Of X - Jerry Lynn vs Chris Daniels in his on-going heel turn which I'm quite enjoying as Daniels is always a brilliant heel. Daniels eventually got the win in this decent evenly fought match.
NWA Tag Team title match Electrified Cage Match - Team 3D vs LAX. Obviously everyone watching knows there's sod all voltage going thru that cage and West & Tenay are the only ones thinking there are. To be honest, after the HUGE build up this match got I was really surprised that not a great deal actually happened during this match. With all the play on an electric cage it wasn't used anywhere near enough, the border toss on Devon looked pathetic. I think the fans were getting bored and restless (couldn't quite make out exactly what they were chanting but it didn't sound excited or happy). Team 3d got the win and finally the titles after totally screwing up the 1st attempt at the 3d.
Main event Lethal Lockdown with special guest Harley Race as the keeper of the cage keys. Starting for Team Cage Aj Styles, and for Team Angle, Kurt Angle. Joining them for Team Cage next was Abyss. Joining them next from Team Angle was Rhyno. Joining them next from Team Cage was Tomko. Next in was Samoa Joe from Team Angle. In for Team Cage next was Scott Steiner. Team Angle's next man was Sting. The final man in for Team Cage was their Captain Christian Cage. The final man in for Team Angle was Jeff Jarrett. Jarrett passed the weapons to his team once the Lockdown started. Loved the gore by Rhyno on Tomko thru the cage door!
Angle & Styles were duking it out on top of the cage. Cage got a backfull of thumbtacks. Angle punched Styles off the top of the cage onto a whole bunch of competitors outside on the floor. Jarrett gave Abyss a guitar full of tacks over the head. Jarrett gave Sting the win by offering him the pin on Abyss. What an AWESOME match, s***ting on the competition from a very great height.
Impact 15th March 07 - Show opens and Jim Cornette tells us about an up coming event for the next PPV stolen right from the Dusty Rhodes big book of wrestling.
Kaz vs Jerry Lynn vs Jay Lethal in a 3-way X-division match. Jay Lethal gets the win.
Homicide, Hernandez & Alex Shelley vs Team 3d & Brother Runt. LAX get the win with some outside help.
Impact 22nd March 07 - Seratonin vs Rhyno, Samoa Joe & Kurt Angle. Team Angle get themselves a pre Lockdown warm-up match. Joe took the win for Team Angle with the muscle buster.
Eric Young vs Austin Starr, Starr getting the win after interference from Robert Roode.
James Storm vs Jerry Lynn. Lynn had been jumped by Chris Daniels prior to the match so this was never going to happen.
Chris Harris comes out with Gail Kim who gets called a slut for her trouble. Kim and Jackie Moore have a mini cat fight and the ref's can't break it up. TNA is in a sad state when the women over a few minutes are more entertaining than the men over the whole night.
AJ Styles & Christian Cage vs Sting & Abyss. Sting & Abyss work together pretty well as a tagteam until James Mitchell lures Abyss away and Steiner uses a "steel pipe" which looked like cardboard to clock Sting & Styles gets the win.
Impact 29th March 07 - Sonjay Dutt, Sharkboy, Alex Shelley, Austin Starr, Jerry Lynn & Petey Williams. Sharkboy elminates Alex Shelley. Jerry Lynn eliminates Sonjay Dutt. Austin Starr eliminates Sharkboy. Petey Williams eliminates Austin Starr. Jerry Lynn gets the win in a good match.
Eric Young vs James Storm. Storm took the win with help from Jackie Moore.
Match for Tomko - Abyss vs Kurt Angle, Angle makes a clean good win, Tomko knocks out Angle & signs for Team Cage anyway.
Impact 5th April 07 - No DQ 8 mile street fight - Rhyno vs Tomko. Rhyno gets the win from the gore in the ring after a mainly out of ring match where Abyss tried to interfere and failed when he hit Tomko with a chair.
VKM vs LAX. LAX got dq'd in the non-title match and Team 3d made the save after The Latino Nation pulled the numbers game on VKM.
Austin Starr vs Senshi. Bob Backlund threw in the towel for Senshi when he was in some sort of modified leg lock.
Cornette announces the card for Lockdown.
Impact 12th April 07 - Jay Lethal vs Chris Sabin. Lethal gets the win in his new gimmick which I refuse to comment on.
Gail Kim & Petey Williams vs Robert Roode & Jackie Moore. Roode got the win with help from James Storm as the 2 women spent the whole match kicking the c**p out of each other.
Lethal Lockdown advantage match - Aj Styles for Team Cage vs Samoa Joe for Team Angle. A decent match with good moves and tactics. Joe gets the win after Jeff Jarrett makes his comeback and joins Team Angle (oh dear, this spells trouble!)
Lockdown Pre-show - VKM vs Havok & Kaz of Seratonin. Kip wins against Christy Hemme's team. Yep, only 1 match in the pre-show.
Petey Williams vs Robert Roode. Roode got the win after a long hard match.
Jackie Moore vs Gail Kim. Kim wins with the pin from an amazing jump off the top of the cage.
Senshi vs Austin Starr, guest ref Bob Backlund. A pretty dull mat based match where neither man did much very exciting. Senshi won in this long, boring match.
Blindfold match - James Storm vs Chris Harris. You know a fed is scraping the bottom of the barrel for ideas when they pull out the very boring blindfold match. You always know at least 1 person will remove the hood and it was predictable who took it off 1st. Storm cheated the win off a superkick without his hood on.
Wrath Of X - Jerry Lynn vs Chris Daniels in his on-going heel turn which I'm quite enjoying as Daniels is always a brilliant heel. Daniels eventually got the win in this decent evenly fought match.
NWA Tag Team title match Electrified Cage Match - Team 3D vs LAX. Obviously everyone watching knows there's sod all voltage going thru that cage and West & Tenay are the only ones thinking there are. To be honest, after the HUGE build up this match got I was really surprised that not a great deal actually happened during this match. With all the play on an electric cage it wasn't used anywhere near enough, the border toss on Devon looked pathetic. I think the fans were getting bored and restless (couldn't quite make out exactly what they were chanting but it didn't sound excited or happy). Team 3d got the win and finally the titles after totally screwing up the 1st attempt at the 3d.
Main event Lethal Lockdown with special guest Harley Race as the keeper of the cage keys. Starting for Team Cage Aj Styles, and for Team Angle, Kurt Angle. Joining them for Team Cage next was Abyss. Joining them next from Team Angle was Rhyno. Joining them next from Team Cage was Tomko. Next in was Samoa Joe from Team Angle. In for Team Cage next was Scott Steiner. Team Angle's next man was Sting. The final man in for Team Cage was their Captain Christian Cage. The final man in for Team Angle was Jeff Jarrett. Jarrett passed the weapons to his team once the Lockdown started. Loved the gore by Rhyno on Tomko thru the cage door!
Angle & Styles were duking it out on top of the cage. Cage got a backfull of thumbtacks. Angle punched Styles off the top of the cage onto a whole bunch of competitors outside on the floor. Jarrett gave Abyss a guitar full of tacks over the head. Jarrett gave Sting the win by offering him the pin on Abyss. What an AWESOME match, s***ting on the competition from a very great height.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
My TNA Monthly Catch-up, Feb - Mar 07
Yep, it's catch up time again. This is my review of the TNA Impact shows and this months PPV. I call it how I see it, the only bias is mine. My reviews vary from everyone else's, I won't go into the minutae of the show and If I think something is b**ls**t I won't even mention it, hence some reviews are shorter than others.
Impact 15th Feb 07 - The show opens with Scott Steiner boring us on the mic. Kurt Angle gives us a few words too. Angle puts the hurt on Steiner, Cage & Tomko but is outnumbered. He's saved from a beatdown by Samoa Joe & the rest of the locker room.
LAX vs Sharkboy & Norman Smiley. You knew where this was going before the bell rang. Predictable win for LAX.
Armwrestling match - Gail Kim vs Jackie Moore. Kim wins (surprisingly) and the post match cat fight is much better entertainment. Petey Williams saves Kim from a double team and Chris Harris saves him.
14 man gauntlet match. Sting & AJ Styles start it off. Rhyno joins them a minute later. During the break James Storm, Chris Sabin & Kip James entered the match (yes, they had a commercial break during a match, stupid, isn't it?) with Abyss next in and he eliminates Sabin. Kurt Angle is next in and he eliminates James Storm. Tomko is next in and he eliminates Styles & Rhyno. Samoa Joe is next in and he eliminates Kip James. During another break Robert Roode, BG James and Eric Young joined the match, last man in is Scott Steiner who eliminates BG James. Samoa Joe eliminates Abyss. Steiner eliminates Angle, Sting throws out Roode and is thrown out himself by Steiner. Tomko exits Eric Young. Joe hip tosses Steiner out from the apron and Joe takes the win from Tomko with the Muscle Buster.
Impact 22nd Feb 07 - AJ Styles comes out to bore us on the mic. LAX vs Team 3d (with big cousin Steve) in some sort of leather strap lumberjack style match., Team 3d get the win off Hernandez with the 3d.
Robert Roode, Eric Young & James Storm vs BG James, Kip James & Lance Hoyt in a 6 man tag match. Storm gets the win off Hoyt for his team.
5 way ladder match to find the X division Number 1 contender, Jay Lethal, Senshi, Jerry Lyn, Sonjay Dutt & Austin Starr. Jerry Lynn gets a decent win.
Impact 1st Mar 07 - Chris Sabin, Austin Starr & Alex Shelley vs Jerry Lynn, Senshi & Jay Lethal. Nice action filled match with lots of good moves. Senshi eventually took the win off Austin Starr for his team with a little aid from Bob Backlund.
Scott Steiner vs Chase Stevens. Stevens jobbed in a VERY short 1 move match.
Alex Shelley comes out to bore us on the mic.
Tomko vs Samoa Joe. Tomko gets the win with help from Cage.
Impact 8th Mar 07 - Kurt Angle starts the show by boring us on the mic.
The VKM with Lance Hoyt vs Seratonin. Hoyt gets the win for his team.
TNA welcomes Hector Guerrerro who will now be part of the Spanish Announcement Team.
Robert Roode, Eric Young & James Storm vs Petey Williams, Jay Lethal & Sonjay Dutt. Storm gets the win for his team.
Scott Steiner, Christian Cage & Tomko vs Samoa Joe, Kurt Angle & their mystery partner who turned out to be Rhyno. This ended up being a no-contest after a run in from Abyss.
Destination X PPV 07 - Non-title Ghetto Brawl, LAX vs Team 3d with Johnny Rodz. The win finally came for LAX after help from Alex Shelley and The Latino Nation, It was great to see Johnny Rodz back in action again.
Double Texas Bullrope match - James Storm & Jackie Moore vs Petey Williams & Gail Kim. My main issue with this match was they weren't proper bullropes as there were no cowbells in the middle. Jackie helps Storm to the win off Williams with a low blow in a pretty good match.
Cross Face Chicken Wing Submission Match - Austin Starr vs Senshi. Basically this was an X Division match with only 1 way to win. Both these guys impressed me throughout this match, I hope RVD does come to TNA as him vs Senshi would be excellent. Senshi gets the win after a nice roll-up into the middle of the ring.
Tag Team Match - Kip and BG James vs Christy Hemme's mystery team The Heartbreakers Antonio Thomas and Romeo Rozelli. The new guys gave a good account of themselves against VKM. BG makes the win for his team after a decent match and a bit of help from Lance Hoyt.
X Division Title Match, Best 2 out of 3 falls - Chris Sabin vs Jerry Lynn. Lynn won fall 1 off a Tornado DDT. Sabin won fall 2 with help from the ropes and super blind ref Earl Hebner. Sabin got fall 3 and the win with help from Chris Daniels in a Sting mask.
Elevation X match - Rhyno vs AJ Styles. Styles was 1st up to the catwalk and Rhyno took his time climbing up. Rhyno got the win after Styles spent most of the match hiding under the scaffold and taking his own ring chalk in his face, Rhyno then gored him and Styles was sent to the canvas.
Scott Steiner vs Kurt Angle - This match reminded why I don't like the modern Steiner. He doesn't wrestle much, he just relies on power. I would have liked to have seen more classic mat work from Steiner. Neither Steiner or Angle wanted to sell the final sunset flip but Angle got the win.
Last Rites Match - Sting vs Abyss. This was a slightly reworked angle on the casket/coffin match to close the opponent in a "death bed". Sting was truly busted open with a candle stand. I loved the "Fire Russo" chants from the crowd which went unremarked on by West & Tenay who obviously value their jobs but not their impartiality. I wasn't too sure why the crowd were chanting "Boring" during the match? I was amazed Hebner didn't try and end this one early as Sting was bleeding a lot. Sting took the win after smashing Abyss in the head with another candle stand and supplexing Abyss through a tombstone.
NWA Heavyweight Championship - Samoa Joe vs Christian Cage. With no Tomko to interfere and Scott Steiner leaving Cage to his own devices could the title stay around Cage's waist? TNA's creative department showed their uselessness again with having no clue what to do with a huge star like The Great Muta. At least this month the main event actually was the main title belt on the line unlike that previous 2 months PPV's. For a main event this was a truly weak match with neither man giving their all considering this was for the big prize. Joe was the crowd favourite, and they were enjoying the action even if I didn't, they weren't doing very much.
Where was Rudy Charles when Joe had Cage on his back for a 5 count? Did Cage step on Rudy Charles left ankle on purpose when he was "knocked out"? Cage took the win with the aid of the ropes, this was a very weak main event and TNA now need to raise their game.
Impact 15th Feb 07 - The show opens with Scott Steiner boring us on the mic. Kurt Angle gives us a few words too. Angle puts the hurt on Steiner, Cage & Tomko but is outnumbered. He's saved from a beatdown by Samoa Joe & the rest of the locker room.
LAX vs Sharkboy & Norman Smiley. You knew where this was going before the bell rang. Predictable win for LAX.
Armwrestling match - Gail Kim vs Jackie Moore. Kim wins (surprisingly) and the post match cat fight is much better entertainment. Petey Williams saves Kim from a double team and Chris Harris saves him.
14 man gauntlet match. Sting & AJ Styles start it off. Rhyno joins them a minute later. During the break James Storm, Chris Sabin & Kip James entered the match (yes, they had a commercial break during a match, stupid, isn't it?) with Abyss next in and he eliminates Sabin. Kurt Angle is next in and he eliminates James Storm. Tomko is next in and he eliminates Styles & Rhyno. Samoa Joe is next in and he eliminates Kip James. During another break Robert Roode, BG James and Eric Young joined the match, last man in is Scott Steiner who eliminates BG James. Samoa Joe eliminates Abyss. Steiner eliminates Angle, Sting throws out Roode and is thrown out himself by Steiner. Tomko exits Eric Young. Joe hip tosses Steiner out from the apron and Joe takes the win from Tomko with the Muscle Buster.
Impact 22nd Feb 07 - AJ Styles comes out to bore us on the mic. LAX vs Team 3d (with big cousin Steve) in some sort of leather strap lumberjack style match., Team 3d get the win off Hernandez with the 3d.
Robert Roode, Eric Young & James Storm vs BG James, Kip James & Lance Hoyt in a 6 man tag match. Storm gets the win off Hoyt for his team.
5 way ladder match to find the X division Number 1 contender, Jay Lethal, Senshi, Jerry Lyn, Sonjay Dutt & Austin Starr. Jerry Lynn gets a decent win.
Impact 1st Mar 07 - Chris Sabin, Austin Starr & Alex Shelley vs Jerry Lynn, Senshi & Jay Lethal. Nice action filled match with lots of good moves. Senshi eventually took the win off Austin Starr for his team with a little aid from Bob Backlund.
Scott Steiner vs Chase Stevens. Stevens jobbed in a VERY short 1 move match.
Alex Shelley comes out to bore us on the mic.
Tomko vs Samoa Joe. Tomko gets the win with help from Cage.
Impact 8th Mar 07 - Kurt Angle starts the show by boring us on the mic.
The VKM with Lance Hoyt vs Seratonin. Hoyt gets the win for his team.
TNA welcomes Hector Guerrerro who will now be part of the Spanish Announcement Team.
Robert Roode, Eric Young & James Storm vs Petey Williams, Jay Lethal & Sonjay Dutt. Storm gets the win for his team.
Scott Steiner, Christian Cage & Tomko vs Samoa Joe, Kurt Angle & their mystery partner who turned out to be Rhyno. This ended up being a no-contest after a run in from Abyss.
Destination X PPV 07 - Non-title Ghetto Brawl, LAX vs Team 3d with Johnny Rodz. The win finally came for LAX after help from Alex Shelley and The Latino Nation, It was great to see Johnny Rodz back in action again.
Double Texas Bullrope match - James Storm & Jackie Moore vs Petey Williams & Gail Kim. My main issue with this match was they weren't proper bullropes as there were no cowbells in the middle. Jackie helps Storm to the win off Williams with a low blow in a pretty good match.
Cross Face Chicken Wing Submission Match - Austin Starr vs Senshi. Basically this was an X Division match with only 1 way to win. Both these guys impressed me throughout this match, I hope RVD does come to TNA as him vs Senshi would be excellent. Senshi gets the win after a nice roll-up into the middle of the ring.
Tag Team Match - Kip and BG James vs Christy Hemme's mystery team The Heartbreakers Antonio Thomas and Romeo Rozelli. The new guys gave a good account of themselves against VKM. BG makes the win for his team after a decent match and a bit of help from Lance Hoyt.
X Division Title Match, Best 2 out of 3 falls - Chris Sabin vs Jerry Lynn. Lynn won fall 1 off a Tornado DDT. Sabin won fall 2 with help from the ropes and super blind ref Earl Hebner. Sabin got fall 3 and the win with help from Chris Daniels in a Sting mask.
Elevation X match - Rhyno vs AJ Styles. Styles was 1st up to the catwalk and Rhyno took his time climbing up. Rhyno got the win after Styles spent most of the match hiding under the scaffold and taking his own ring chalk in his face, Rhyno then gored him and Styles was sent to the canvas.
Scott Steiner vs Kurt Angle - This match reminded why I don't like the modern Steiner. He doesn't wrestle much, he just relies on power. I would have liked to have seen more classic mat work from Steiner. Neither Steiner or Angle wanted to sell the final sunset flip but Angle got the win.
Last Rites Match - Sting vs Abyss. This was a slightly reworked angle on the casket/coffin match to close the opponent in a "death bed". Sting was truly busted open with a candle stand. I loved the "Fire Russo" chants from the crowd which went unremarked on by West & Tenay who obviously value their jobs but not their impartiality. I wasn't too sure why the crowd were chanting "Boring" during the match? I was amazed Hebner didn't try and end this one early as Sting was bleeding a lot. Sting took the win after smashing Abyss in the head with another candle stand and supplexing Abyss through a tombstone.
NWA Heavyweight Championship - Samoa Joe vs Christian Cage. With no Tomko to interfere and Scott Steiner leaving Cage to his own devices could the title stay around Cage's waist? TNA's creative department showed their uselessness again with having no clue what to do with a huge star like The Great Muta. At least this month the main event actually was the main title belt on the line unlike that previous 2 months PPV's. For a main event this was a truly weak match with neither man giving their all considering this was for the big prize. Joe was the crowd favourite, and they were enjoying the action even if I didn't, they weren't doing very much.
Where was Rudy Charles when Joe had Cage on his back for a 5 count? Did Cage step on Rudy Charles left ankle on purpose when he was "knocked out"? Cage took the win with the aid of the ropes, this was a very weak main event and TNA now need to raise their game.
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