6 Man Tag Team Elimination Match - Sonjay Dutt, Jimmy Rave & Kiyoshi vs Eric Young & LAX.
Dutt & Homicide kicked this match off but Young & Rave replaced them in moments which got the crowd going. Kiyoshi looked REALLY unwilling to sell the catapult off Hernandez and it was left to Homicide to sell the move using the backsplash. The split screen stuff with Cornette backstage shows how little faith TNA really had in the wrestlers in the opening match, it was thoughtless & rude to those involved and even more so it was disrespectful to the PPV fans who'd paid good money to watch wrestling, not some tiny screen you could barely see. Homicide sold well for the whole heel team, Kiyoshi flubbed a fall over the ropes but Raves slam of Young onto the apron was a great looking and well sold move.
I'm not enjoying Hernandez's new moustache (A cross between Al Snow, HHH & A-Train), can anyone tell me who that Jeff Jarrett look-alike in glasses with grey hair was at ringside, is that his father? (he was visible helping one of the camera crew around the 14-15 minute mark, from later views of him I assume he is one of the people who takes the ring stills) Business picked up a bit and the pace of the match improved with a lot more good moves being pulled and everyone getting a chance to showcase themselves. Young was eliminated by Dutt (with the help of his feet on the ropes) and Homicide was eliminated by Rave (thanks to a handfull of shorts and a decent roll up) a few minutes later. Dutt sold a nice looking Crackerjack off Hernandez before Super Mex (I finally called him that) eliminated Kiyoshi with The Border Toss then moments later eliminated Dutt with a hard looking sit out power bomb. Hernandez took the win with a great splash off the top turnbuckle to win the match for his team.
X Division Championship - Alex Shelley vs Chris Sabin.
Basically this is The Motor City Machineguns versus each other and I guess this is their reward for having jobbed to all those teams and people for the last few months and now one of them is going to be X Division Champion. I was surprised to see so much technical mat based stuff from these guys, I was expecting fast and high flying from the get go so I was disappointed. The match pretty much stank until Shelley hit the somersault kick on Sabin who was half through the ropes closely followed by a nice lionsault. Sabin's kick to the head looked good and the heat was definately increasing between these guys. Sabins springboard DDT was great but Shelley's kickout from the Cradleshock was very badly flubbed and the title should have gone to Sabin right then. After a fairly decent match everybody must have felt totally robbed by the incredibly weak schoolboy by Shelley to win and Alex Shelley is the new X Division Champion.
Sheik Abdul Bashir vs Shane Sewell.
What? Their not calling THIS a grudge match? WTF Russo? If ANYTHING was a grudge match then this f**ker is the dictionary definition, isn't it? I was rather annoyed at West & Tenay continually referring to "The Referee Shane Sewell", guys you were AT the Impact when Cornette canned him. He's the wrestler Shane Sewell and for this match only. As fun as it is to see a ref wrestle its hardly a new idea (my brain recalls Dangerous Danny Davis for one), I assume Sewell used the figure 4 to get a cheap pop from the local fans. Bashir's forearms were shown to be painfully wide of the mark (bad camera angle, poor show Mr Director!), fortunately this wound up shortly after with Sewell taking the win off a Sunset Flip. Another poor Bashir match.
Tag Team Championship - Abyss & Matt Morgan vs Beer Money vs Jay Lethal & Consequences Creed.
Hopefully Robert Roode is 100% fit here but I am very unhappy that TNA haven't yet stolen my team name and started calling the champions Lethal Consequences. It's truly brilliant, isn't it? This is a 3 way tag match and anyone can tag another person in from a different team. Creed & Roode started things off, the match didn't have a great start but picked up after Jaqueline got involved with both Creed & Lethal making great looking dives onto Roode & Storm. Its not every day you get someone as big as Matt Morgan making a cross body block off the top turn buckle to the floor but his was great too, although from that point onward Roode looked unsure on that bad leg and you did see him grab it when they showed the repeat of Morgans jump. Roode was even limping slightly when he came in to help double team & suplex Abyss, likewise he was limping after the backdrop from Creed even to the point where the ref actually went and checked on him.
Creed sold the double teamed assisted DDT from Roode & Storm (that looked great!) & Lethal made a painful flub of the Lethal combination (probably due to Roode's leg being unable to support his full weight in that position properly). Roode didn't make a much better job of his snap neckbreaker on Morgan (the camera angle didn't help sell it any either). The finish was sloppy (they'd clearly run out of ideas) with Abyss hitting Morgan with the title, Lethal hitting the big flying elbow on Roode then Storm hitting Lethal with the Superkick before rolling Roode back onto Morgan whilst Jacqueline distracted the ref until she saw their chance and left Rudy Charles to make the 3 count for Roode pinning Morgan & Beer Money regain the Tag Titles.
6 Woman Knockout Contest - ODB, Roxxi & Taylor Wilde vs Raisha Saeed, Rhaka Khan & Sojourner Bolt (now collectively known as The Kongtourage).
The winner of this will eventually get a title shot against whoever the champion might be at that time. Considering TNA literally had to pull this match out of thin air at the last minute it wasn't a bad line up, Wilde & Bolt got it going. Bolt was selling ok for Wilde but the Hurricanrana looked painful and Wilde didn't appear to tuck her head in and may have hurt her neck there. Khan was looking better than normal (I love seeing people fight her, its like watching a Giraffe get beaten up) although she seemed super unwilling to have any part in taking a fall away slam from ODB.
Bolt barely made a save (people were really flubbing last minute saves tonight, are they putting something in the water at TNA?) and I'm not sure but I think Roxxi got a seriously painful looking back full of guard rail from Wilde's top rope cross body block on her, Khan & Bolt. This allowed ODB time for a small package to take the win and she earns herself a title shot. Despite various reports of being injured, Awesome Kong did come out to the ring although she did grab her back when ODB pushed her so she wasn't 100% but ODB sold a chokeslam to try and subdue the injury ideas.
Grudge Match - Kurt Angle vs Jeff Jarrett.
Jarrett started this by just trying to beat the hell out of Angle, nothing elegant or subtle, just pure unfettered violence. This was pretty dull until Angle's bad landing on his ankle and Jarrett's even worse landing on his head. Jarrett bladed under the colour desk and Angle did the same just off camera on the entrance ramp a few moments afterwards and they knew this one had to get done quickly as Jarrett had cut himself too deeply and was having trouble seeing. The Angle Slam off the stage through the table pretty much missed it and Jarrett took most of the fall onto the concrete floor and it was shades of New Jack vs Vic Grimes in old ECW.
The simple fact that either guy (especially Jarrett) was able to go back to the ring and continue shows how dedicated these workers are but I was annoyed that we were really late into the match before anyone (for anyone read West & Tenay) decided to mention this was a no DQ match. Jarrett made the most stupid cover allowing Angle to make a roll over and take the win.
TNA World Heavyweight Championship - Rhino vs Sting.
They'd been playing some no-show angle for most of the PPV until some of the MEM said they'd beaten Rhino up and left him so when Rhino came out holding his back, head bandaged and face bloodied you knew he'd already been told to sell and job to Sting. I'll be honest, I really didn't want to watch this and didn't. They had already cheapened the match with the bulls**it injury angle. Sting took the win and retains his title, no shock there.
6 Man Tag Match - Booker T, Scott Steiner & Cute Kip vs Brother Devon, AJ Styles & Mick Foley making his debut in TNA. Kevin Nash wasn't appearing due to a staph infection in his elbow (which Booker seemed to find very funny indeed) so Kip was standing in for him here. Kip & AJ had a nice short run together, I had a chuckle at West & Tenay insisting Kip James was the tag team specialist of their team, I assume they conveniently forgot about Harlem Heat & The Steiner Brothers very successful tag careers?
Styles did his usual job of selling well for the MEM before hitting an almost Pele on Booker then an actual Pele on Kip a few moments later. The crowd were right to boo Rudy Charles and his decision to end the match having counted everyone out calling no winner which gave Booker a wry smile. Cornette came out, got himself a cheap pop & ordered the restart of the match which Booker shot down but Foley rubber stamped it as a hardcore match and things got going again.
Devon took a trash can shot, Styles beaned Steiner likewise while West & Tenay did a very bad job of concealing their commentary scripts after Foley was back dropped onto their announce table by Booker. Foley called for a table where Kip was laid out, Booker crotched Foley on the announce desk but Styles dived off the top rope frog splashing onto Kip in possibly the best and craziest move of the entire night.
Steiner & Devon were the only 2 not involved and carried on in the ring (with Devon taking a moment to glance over & check Styles was ok) with Devon flubbing his initial attempt to climb onto the top turnbuckle and eventually managed. Booker hit Devon with the axe kick when he wasn't looking only to get a mouthfull of Socko after his spinaroonie, Steiner broke up the mandible claw with a trashcan to Foleys back. Foley came back hitting a great looking DDT into the chair on Steiner rolling him over to make the pin and win for The Frontline over The Main Event Mafia. It was pretty clear Styles was still winded and in pain when they were celebrating in the ring so hopefully he isn't banged up too badly.
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