I've reviewed a couple of these TNA One Night Only PPV's in the past, and I've always been glad we don't have to pay for them in the UK. The few I've seen have been too bitty and filled with short matches to be any good. This, however, had a card that looked pretty promising and it lived up to my expectations. Though it's not too grand a claim, this was easily the best of the PPV's I've seen so far.
Ethan Carter III vs Tommy Dreamer
I loved Carter stating hardcore is synonymous with the letters E...C...III. This is a tables match. Crowd loves some Dreamer, and he dominates proceedings until ECIII drops him crotch first on a guardrail. Carter tries a pinfall, but Earl Hebner has to remind him this is a tables match. ECIII is only in control briefly before a missed elbow lets Dreamer take over. Dreamer looks pretty good here on offence. Dreamer sets up a table outside the ring, but his attempt to suplex Carter through it gets blocked. Carter gets hung in a tree of woe inside the ring, before Dreamer dropkicks the table into his face, followed by a DDT. However, Dreamer takes a little too long to set up the table and ECIII reverses an Irish whip into the 1%er. Dreamer gets up but makes the mistake of charging Carter near the table, leading to a spinebuster through the table for the win. Pretty by the numbers, but both guys looked good here.
Chris Sabin vs Austin Aries
This should be good. They're billing this as an X-Division Escape match, which just means it's a cage match. I love Sabin trying to quickly escape following minor moves like a hiptoss or armdrag. Aries looks to be trying a similar tactic, only to leap off the top rope onto Sabin when he sees him coming. Aries really milks the build up of the Pendulum elbow, but still manages to hit it. Sabin takes control after blocking an escape attempt and powerbombs Aries into the cage in a nice spot. Sabin continues to use the cage as a weapon, dropkicking Aries into the walls. The thing I find with cage matches is that it's easy to transition from one guy to the other on offence, as the aggressor often stops attacking their opponent to try and escape, which gives the opponent a chance to take over. It happens here as Aries catches Sabin on the top rope and tries to climb out over him, before instead hitting a top rope standing Frankensteiner in a swank spot. Aries locks on the Last Chancery to wear Sabin out, but Sabin grabs his leg in desperation to try and stop him escaping the cage. This leads to Aries trying a brainbuster, but Sabin breaks and again uses the cage, which he rams Aries into head-first. Aries manages to get the brainbuster and NEARLY escapes before Sabin is able to stop him. Sabin uses his belt to tie Aries to the rope, but Aries escapes just before Sabin can win, and Sabin ends up crotched on the top rope, leading to an Aries victory. Really fun match here.
Bobby Roode vs Samoa Joe
This is to determine who gets the advantage in the Lethal Lockdown match later in the night. I love Roode goofily stooging to start as he gets outstriked by Joe. Joe dominates with his usual offence befoe Roode starts working over Joe's neck, hitting a blockbuster, a seated necksnap and working over a headlock. Joe isn't looking as motivated as he does nowadays, and there is no real change from his usual offence. We get a ref bump from Roode breaking the Kokina Clutch, and Roode fakes getting hit with a bin to draw the DQ win. I especially loved Roode waving at Joe from the mat from behind the referee. This was ok.
Velvet Sky vs Lei'D Tapa
I have low expectations here. This is a streetfight, and Sky tries a hit-and-run tactic on the larger Tapa, peppering her with some milky kicks. Tapa pretty much dominates the early going, using basic power offence to ram Sky into the ring steps and the apron. Tapa disappears to the back and gets a chair, before pulling some terrible scary faces. Tapa sets up a chair in the corner, but stupidly decides to charge at Velvet despite knowing this chair is behind her. Sky batters her with some timid chair shots, but Tapa shrugs them off, kicks a chair into Velvet's face and hits the TKO for a win. I liked the booking more than the wrestling, they made Tapa look like a monster here.
Eric Young & Joseph Park vs Bad Influence
This is a Full Metal Mayhem match. EY tells Park pre-match that he knows that he's Abyss and is going to make him bleed to psyche him up for the match. Bad Influence rush to the ring to stop this, pretty wisely, and give us one of the running themes of the match: EY wanting his partner to bleed and Bad Influence wanting to prevent that, This is tornado rules, but the heel team isolate one member of the opposition to keep an face-in-peril structure to the match. There are a few really nice moments in the match, with a Young dive to the outside onto both Daniels and Kazarian looking particularly choice. I also liked Daniels baseball sliding a ladder into EY on the outside, leading to a spot later where Young again tries to bring a ladder into the ring, but this time avoids both heels trying a baseball slide and instead nailing them both with it. The end sees Kaz threaten a Flux Capacitor from the top of a tall ladder on Young, only to get pushed off and EY nail a picture perfect elbow from the top of the ladder to win. After the match, Park starts to bleed. Uh-oh...
Bully Ray vs Mr Anderson
This is originally due to be a stretcher match, but Anderson rejects that, as being on a stretcher means Ray will get medical attention, and he doesn't want that. Instead, this is a last man standing match. Despite these words, this never really feels that heated, even with Bully making Anderson bleed and smearing the blood all over his own face. Some of Anderson's selling is also way too goofy, though he does look good making comebacks with litle spurts of offence. The spot where Ray and Earl Hebner get into a blazing row is also pretty incongruous for a heated brawl. There is some nice usage of weaponry, with Anderson nailing a rolling firemans carry, then a senton onto a guard rail for a count of 8. Hebner gets bumped, which predictably leads to Anderson downing Ray for more than a ten count (with a Mic Check onto the guard rail), but Bully hits a low blow and kicks Anderson into the ring steps in time for Hebner to recover and count Anderson out for ten. Both had good moments here, but this didn't really work.
Team Angle (James Storm, Samoa Joe, Kurt Angle & Abyss) vs Team Roode (Jessie Godderz, Robbie E, Bobby Roode & Magnus)
I've listed the team members above in the order that they entered the match. I was pleased to see Godderz start with Storm, as he's ever improving and got the chance to look good in the opening section. He wrestles like his character, a preening jerk who will get angry if things aren't going their way, which I love to see. Joe looks far more motivated here than in his earlier match, and his section killing both Broman's is pretty fun. The middle section sort of dragged, as we got some unispired brawling, but the last two guys bringing in weapons is a nice touch and helps make the final part of the match even more interesting. Team Angle has a mystery man as their last member, which turns out to be Abyss, paying off the earlier angle nicely, and I loved Robbie E timidly brandishing a cheese grater as Abyss got in the ring. Joe had some fun with the weapons here, joining up with Storm and using a kendo stick to send a dustbin into the groin of the Bromans, before just punting a bin into Roode's face. A little run of finishers culminated in a great ending: Robbie E decided to run in fear from Abyss, only to walk directly into a Last Call superkick from Storm and get nailed by a Black Hole Slam by Abyss directly onto barbed wire. This got the win, as well as some magnificent selling of the spot by E. This ended up being really fun by the end.
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