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.