My TNA Catch-up, Victory Road PPV 08

From the Reliant Arena, Houston Texas. Were we seeing the beginning of a possible career as a colour commentator for BG James?

World X Cup Match 3rd Round, 12 Man Elimination Tag Team Match. Team Japan (Masato Yoshino, Puma & Milano Collection A.T.) vs Team Mexico (Averno, Rey Bucanero & Ultimo Guerrero) vs Team International (Alex Koslov,Doug Williams & Tyson Dux) vs Team TNA (Curry Man & The Motor City Machine Guns). Yoshino & Curry Man kicked things off. This was fast & frantic, lots of good action, everyone was getting over in a big way. Rey Bucanero made the 1st pin to eliminate Tyson Dux (in a variant of a powerbomb that looked real nasty but Dux sold it really well making it look a lot more painful than it actually was). Next to go was Puma pinned by Averno who we were seeing for the 1st time in the X Cup this year. The Houston crowd were showing their wrestling knowledge by chanting "Fallen Angel" when Curry Man made the save on The Motor City Machine Guns who were both being put in a leglock by Milano Collection A.T, nice to see they know their stuff.

Milano Collection A.T. was next to go after being pinned by Chris Sabin using the Cradle Shock. Averno was next to go after being pinned by Masato Yoshino. Curry Man was eliminated next by Ultimo Guerrero who stopped his Hurricanrana & powerbombed him off the top turnbuckle. Doug Williams was next to go off a twisting Senton by Rey Bucanero. Ultimo Guerrero was next to go after tapping out to Alex Kozlov (For those who didn't see it, he was waggling his hand. I assume thats a Mexican tap out signal). Rey Bucanero was next to go after being pinned by Chris Sabin. The only flubbed moves I saw during this entire match were Alex Shelley's 1st attempt at the jaw breaker on Masato Yoshino (either Yoshino wasn't ready, Kozlov wasn't comfortable in that position or Shelley screwed up the grab. After watching it 3 times, Shelley slipped on Kozlov's back & can thank Yoshino for saving that move) & Alex Kozlov using the ropes for leverage (he totally f***ed that up both times he tried it due to poor ring positioning) which lead to Chris Sabin being pinned by Alex Kozlov.

Kozlov redeemed himself moments later with a somersault suicide dive followed by an awesome Pele which lead to him getting a good 2 count on Yoshino. Alex Kozlov was eliminated by Masato Yoshino after tapping out to some sort of modified head scissors lock which meant Team International scored 1 point. Shelley & Yoshino had a excellent little battle alone at the end but Shelley got the pin to earn Team TNA 3 points & Yoshino earnt Team Japan 2 points. Awesome match & an incredible way to start a PPV.

Knockouts Grudge Match, Angelina Love (with Velvet Sky in tow as per usual) vs Gail Kim. Love jumped Kim as she was waving to the crowd & was on top for a short time. On the whole this was a pretty even match, Sky giving the usual expected interference from outside. Kim was selling & over-selling for Love, putting her over a lot during the course of this match. Somewhere during this match part of Angelina Love's costume broke as half her top was hanging off & she was constantly having to re-adjust her top & kept checking she wasn't falling out of it. Kim got the win off a handcuff backbreaker. I assume Love called to end this early due to the wardrobe malfunction as she was try to retie it when Sky jumped Kim during her post match celebration.

Grudge Match, Sonjay Dutt vs Jay Lethal. I hope after this match is over & done with that at least 1 of these guys gets to drop their awful gimmick as both of them are a lot better than this. Basically this is TNA's reworking of WWF's "Mega Powers Explode" match with Lethal as Randy Savage (mirroring his clothes, gimmick & So Cal Val as valet) & Sonjay Dutt as Hulk Hogan (who even wore a Hogan style Bandana during the ppv match). This was an average match, neither guy was brilliant but it was really brought down by the awful finish with Val distracting Lethal & Dutt taking the win with a lot of help from the ring ropes. Russo at work once again I think.

Tag Team Championship, Fans Revenge Match. Basically this is a leather strap lumberjack match with "fans" acting as the lumberjacks. I assume most if not all the "fans" are going to be jobbers (in fact when they introduced the fans I'm certain I recognised at least 1 of the women as someone who has put themself forward for the Awesome Kong Challenge before). Beer Money vs LAX. Not a great match, not even a fairly good match. LAX took the win & retain the titles. Not a match I'd have put in a PPV, you couldn't even have given this away for free on tv to be honest. It was that bad.

TNA Knockout Title Match, Taylor Wilde vs Awesome Kong. Kong was on top from before the bell, jumping Wilde as she was showing the belt to the fans. A fair to middling match but it didn't really offer anything new, Wilde took the win off yet another roll-up to retain the title. Saeed jumping Wilde post-match to drag her back to the ring for a beatdown was clearly another Russo idea (as it was an incredibly bad one). The only good idea was using Abyss to stop an Awesome Bomb into a chair. Was the Black Hole Slam on Saeed a way to get her off tv so they can use Cheerleader Melissa for future tv shows? I hope so.

World X Cup 4th Round, Ultimate X. I was rather surprised to see that they hadn't bothered to set the ring up before the show started. Team Japan (Naruki Doi) vs Team Mexico (Volador Junior who we were seeing for the 1st time in the X cup) vs Team International (Daivari) vs Team TNA (Kaz). Kaz wasted at least 3 clear-cut chances to win this match that not even the most stupid of marks would have swallowed, West & Tenay were making a lot of an injured arm (when did he do that then?) but there seemed to be no sign of such an injury the 1st 2 times he jumped up to the ropes. If he had been injured even the biggest mark should be asking "Why put a guy with an injured arm in this type of match?". After that, any involvement with Kaz had jumped the shark for me, nice going TNA. They spent all that time building up a series of great matches only to go and piss on them by involving Kaz in this one. I assume that was Russo's idea? Doi & Volador basically saved this match from becoming a farce. Volador Junior eventually got the X, earning 4 points & winning the World X Cup for Team Mexico. Someone in TNA management needs to be hanging their head in shame (or just plain hung until dead) at putting Kaz into this match even with his legdrop on Daivari from the top of the tower he never should have been in this match if his arm genuinely was injured.

6 Man Tag Match Full Metal Mayhem (fan stipulation Tables, Ladders, Chairs & Chains are all legal). Team 3D & Kurt Angle vs Rhino, Christian Cage & AJ Styles. Angle jumped Styles from the darkness before he ever got to the ring. Everybody apart from Kurt Angle had a good match here. Angle isn't a hardcore wrestler & never has been so he always tends to stand out like a sore thumb in these kinds of matches. Rhino gave lots & sold well, Cage gave tons & sold like crazy, Team 3D gave an excellent performance as they normally do (did Devon really hurt his ankle after putting Rhino thru that table? He was limping after he 3D'd Cage thru the table from the apron). I assume Russo sent Johnny Devine out (he's the master of the s**t finish & that would have been one) to cover for Devon as even the backstage were unsure if Devon was actually injured or not (he didn't look injured when he ran across the ring to smash into the table). Having Frank Trigg interfere with the kendo stick was an equally s**t idea for a finish though. I think Rhino & Cage must have been pretty bashed up as neither guy made it back into the ring once they were taken out. Earl Hebner wasn't injured but he was helped out of the ring still holding his ankle.

TNA Heavyweight Title Match, Samoa Joa vs Booker T. After a very long video package & build up (to clear the ring area of debris & bodies I assume) & an even longer set of introductions from Jeremy Borash we could only expect a 19 minute long match at maximum as that's all the time the show had left to run. Joe was getting lots of boos from the Houston crowd so the locals were all supporting Booker T despite the fact he's a well established heel at the moment. Sharmell was overselling for Booker way too hard, the guys in the camera van were obviously looking to put a lot of cheap (and s**t) heat on Joe by using Sharmell that way. Booker was getting good reactions from being dirty outside the ring, Joe did a great blade job after hitting the ringsteps though. Booker never really offered anything at all to this match even with Joe selling everything for him. Booker just didn't work very hard at all & I didn't see anywhere near the level of skill I'd expect from someone with his amount of experience. The worst example of that was Booker's ref bump on Rudy Charles (who sold better for him than any sell Booker had given for Joe in the entire match) but this also slowed the match down at exactly the wrong time.

Sharmell's reaction to Joe's clothesline was WAY over the top (she seriously needs to learn how to reign it in a bit), she was also really over-reacting after Joe hit Booker on the chair too. The guys West & Tenay were referring to as Sharmell's "personal security" had actually already been revealed to us as 2 members of Booker T's "Wrestling School" during one his his video inserts earlier in the PPV so I guess West & Tenay weren't paying too much attention there. Why Slick Johnson was trying to stop Joe is beyond me. With Rudy Charles down he should either have started calling the match or have stopped it for whatever reason he deemed fit. Joe would have been DQ'd after clotheslining Slick & DDT'ing Andrew Thomas so the match can now officially be classed as over with Booker T as winner on a DQ. This was an AWFUL way to finish the last 10 minutes of a match (yes, that's how long they let this c***py idea of Russo's go on for!), eventually it took Sting (who got THE biggest pop of the night) with a baseball ball who appeared to have talked Joe down only for him to run back to the ring. Sting had to hit Joe with the bat, why Booker even bothered to cover Joe was beyond me - the match was already over and done with more than 10 minutes earlier. As was the pointlessness of Sharmell counting 3 or her taking the title & them leaving with it. This has got to be one of Russo's worst ideas for a finish ever. No TNA official made a count on Joe. The match was either Booker's by DQ or it was a no contest but either way Joe keeps the title regardless of who carried it away from the ring that night. On the whole only the opening match was any good, everything else appeared to have been given "The Russo Finish" treatment & stank like week old s**t. This is probably one of TNA's worst PPV's in a long time & it's about time they seriously reconsidered keeping Russo's role in the company. He can't be fired soon enough in my humble opinion.