TNA Bound For Glory 2016

I recorded this on my Sky+ Box back in November and, because I've got to make room for the 100+ unwatched episodes of Corrie I need to catch up on, I thought it best to get it watched.

Trevor Lee vs DJZ

This is for DJZ’s X Division title and does a pretty solid job of being a hot opener without being blowaway great. Lots of nice little touches, like Lee buying time by positioning himself behind the ref, preventing DJZ springboarding into the ring and allowing Lee to hit a big kick on the apron. They start slowly, but the pace starts to quicken and they take it in turns to hit some big dives in a fun spot; DJZ winning in the spectacular stakes. I did like the little underlying story of Lee constantly avoiding DJZ’s attempt at a rolling DDT, until DJZ is able to hit him with an insane Canadian Destroyer variant, leaving Lee loopy for the DDT and the DJZ victory.

10 Man Gauntlet

Winner of this gets a TNA World title shot whenever they want it. This was better than the previous years effort, which featured too much comedy and too many old guys running riot. Here, there were a few good underlying stories – Rockstar Spud trying his best to survive, scurrying around the ring and trying to strike up partnerships until his attempt to befriend Tyrus backfires. The Bromans have a fun brief face-off with the Tribunal and even a comedy spot of Grado getting thrown out right away makes sense as the heels spend too long mocking him, giving the faces time to recover. Jessie Godderz seems to hurt his hamstring, but still hits a boss springboard punch on Tyrus. Eli Drake picks up the win. This was fine.

Moose vs Mike Bennett

Wasn’t hugely taken with this. The omens are bad when Bennett looks to be falling short on a big flip dive, requiring Moose to hurry to catch him. I did enjoy Moose catching a Bennett crossbody and flinging him into a ringpost. There’s a brief moment where Bennett works the knee, but this lasts for a minute and is never referred to again. The end sequence just sees them taking it in turns to hit moves, before a rolling elbow wins it for Moose. Not great.

Eddie Edwards vs Aron Rex

This is the final of TNA’s tournament to crown their first Grand champion. The rules of the match are that there are 3 rounds of 5 minutes, with judges scoring each round. If there isn’t a winner after the three rounds, the judges scorecards will determine the winner.

So basically, we’re getting a 15 minute Damien Sandow match here, because you know the first title match is going to go to the limit to put over the gimmick. But you know what? This wasn’t bad. I had my doubts early on when Rex does a flip bump after Edwards hits an enzuigiri to the shoulder, but there was a fun little story running through this. Edwards takes the first round quite comfortably, showing more aggression, hitting a pair of nice dives and being in solid control when the round ends. The second round sees Rex having to up his game, knowing he’s a round down. Rex shows some nice aggression of his own here, hitting some vicious blows whilst holding Edwards in a headlock. Rex also goes after the knee of Edwards, which slows him down the rest of the match. At one point there’s a lighting issue, meaning TNA have to quickly put spotlights on both guys so the match can continue. When the light comes back, Edwards actually seems staggered for a few seconds, giving Rex the opening to avoid a top rope move. Don’t know if that was an audible, but it worked really well.

The scorecard is tied going into the final round, and Edwards is shown to have more guts than brains, hitting a top rope codebreaker with the bad knee, and jarring it when landing on his feet from the top. I did also like Edwards seeing a rolling elbow coming so, as soon as Rex completes his 360, Edwards levels him with a clothesline. As predicted, this goes the full 15, and Rex wins on the scorecards. This was a lot better than I’d have guessed.

The Broken Hardys (Matt, Jeff & Reby) vs Decay (Abyss, Crazzy Steve & Rosemary)

Aw man, I really feel like I’m going to get exposed as a grumpy old cynic, but this really was a load of old shit. Decay hitting a triple mist on Reby to take her out of the match both made sense (because she’s not a very good wrestler) and didn’t make sense (why wouldn’t they eliminate one of the actual threats to start?). This basically felt like a meaningless hardcore spotfest which everyone would shit over if it didn’t feature the Hardy Boys putting a terrible art-school level movie in the middle of it. I mean, Rosemary hits a coast-to-coast dropkick to send a dustbin into Matt’s face 3 minutes in, and it’s barely mentioned. There’s a long backstage film, where Abyss and Matt have a badly-lit, badly-shot brawl where Abyss’ punches still look like shit, whilst Jeff turns into some unbearable character after getting dowsed in water from the lake of rejuvenation. Things improve slightly back at the ring – liked Steve hitting a big cannonball into the steps on Jeff and Abyss chokeslamming his partner onto Matt looked good – but this was basically an average XPW match with some big stars pratting about, and it goes on and on for twenty minutes. By the time Jeff hits a swanton from a ladder to put Steve through a table to win, I was barely hanging on. This was rubbish.

Gail Kim vs Maria

This was only 5 minutes, but also felt like it went on too long. The story is that Maria is trying to get out of the match due to an injured arm, but her assistant Allie outs her by revealing the doctor had cleared her to compete. Maria instead blindsides Gail to start, but this feels like it should have been Gail making a comeback right away and pinning Maria for the belt. “Cowardly boss wins title and tries to avoid defending it” storylines should be paid off by the boss getting squashed, but here we get a few minutes of crap Maria offence (cracking spinebuster though, it has to be said), and then a messy finish involving Mike Bennett and Maria’s arm brace. Gail earns the win with Eat Defeat, but this wasn’t much fun.

Lashley vs EC3

In maybe the best moment of the show, Lashley spears EC3 out of the ring during his ring introduction, then stands in the middle of the ring posing whilst Jeremy Borash does HIS introduction. What a man. The story here is that EC3 has injured ribs already going into the match, but I actually wish they’d not mentioned that, as it makes his inconsistent selling feel more problematic. Liked EC3 getting the advantage outside the ring following a suicide dive, but Lashley hits a huge spinebuster on the ramp, then justs hurls EC3 up it towards the entrance. Both moves looked great. I like EC3, but he wasn’t great here – a few moves just came across as sloppy, especially a TKO on the stairs, and his rib selling becomes quite annoying when he does things like hit a frog splash – that would really hurt – and doesn’t acknowledge it. Lashley though, he’s a beast and looks like it, whilst at the same time being convincing enough in his selling to put EC3 over as a viable threat. That’s not always easy, but Lashley did that here. The end was pretty good, as EC3 tries to hit the 1%er off the top, but gets shoved down and bulldozed by a second rope spear to keep the TNA title on Lashley. 

TNA Against All Odds 2009

One thing I've noticed is that I do seem to review a lot of TNA shows on this blog. This isn't a deliberate choice, more that, due to having a Lovefilm account and having Challenge TV, I get a lot of easy access to TNA shows, and I'm pretty much happy to watch any wrestling I can. This show was sent to me by Lovefilm last week, a show from the midst of the Main Event Mafia\TNA Frontline feud. The result? A mixed bag of a show that never really gets great...

Alex Shelley vs Eric Young
This was the evolution of a smarter, non-cowardly version of EY, and he looks good in the opening stages, outsmarting Shelley and hitting a big dive. Shelley is great as a smug dick here, and after EY hits the guard rail on a failed top rope dive, Shelley zones in on the ribs of his opponent, which is logical strategy on a larger guy. It also gives him an edge, in that he has an area to aim for to abruptly stop Young gaining momentum. I love the big bump EY takes, diving into, then over, the ringpost from the apron. Even when locking on a cobra clutch, Shelley holds Young over his knee to also impact the ribs. I don't think EY looks quite as crisp as he does nowadays, as he's clearly one of the elite performers in TNA today, but his selling adds to the match, with just little subtle winces as he feels the ribs hurt. EY gets to kick out of a lot here, but it feels consistent with the new confidence he's showing. This more confident side costs him however, as he gets into a row with the ref and rolled up for the win. Fun match.

Scott Steiner vs Petey Williams
Steiner rightly dominates to start, as Williams stupidly tries to match strength with him. When he uses his speed instead, Williams has more luck, but he sadly suffers from having offence that looks like it wouldn't hurt at all (or "a case of the Ziggler's" as I call it). In comparison, Steiner hurls Petey from the top rope with a swank overhead suplex like it was nothing. This is a borderline squash, as Steiner decimates Williams, then repeatedly picks him up rather than just pinning him. Petey comes back with the campest leaping forearms I've ever seen, but you just know Steiner isn't taking the Canadian Destroyer so it's simply a case of when Steiner will pick up the victory. Petey does get a great nearfall after feigning jamming his shoulder into the ringpost, which is a nice spot. Petey tries to springboard out of the ring to hit a rana, but Steiner just powerbombs him to the floor. Petey is allowed to make the ropes during the Steiner Recliner, but the fucking Steiner Screwdriver is enough to kill Wiliams off for good.

Chris Sabin vs Brutus Magnus
Losing the first name was the wisest thing Magnus could have done. Well, along with losing the stupid gladiator get up. He does some nice chaining of holds in the initial stages that he doesn't do so much nowadays. I remembered Magnus being much greener than he looks here, but he looks crisp on offence, and there is a nice little sequence from a Snake Eyes to a kneedrop that looks good. He's a little restholdy in places, but you can see the start of a good wrestler here, and it may be fair to say he should be better today than he is, based on his performance here. Sabin helps, bumping big for a powerbomb and peppering the match with highspots to keep the crowd in it. Magnus wins with his twisting Samoan drop (Tormentum) and this was perfectly ok.

ODB vs Awesome Kong
Jim Cornette comes to the ring before the match starts to make the Kongtourage (Raisha Saeed, Sojo Bolt and Rhaka Khan) leave the ringside area or Kong loses the title. It's quite fun seeing a knockouts power match, with ODB favouring impact over finesse in the opening stage, before Kong cuts her off. Things slow down a bit when Kong goes on offence, and one thing the match loses from ODB's comparative size is the fun cat-and-mouse element you get from most of Kong's TNA run. They do build up nicely to a slam spot with two failed ODB attempts meaning the successful third gets a huge pop. However, Kong swiftly hits the Implant Buster for the win. Felt like a decent TV match rather than a PPV encounter.

Shane Sewell vs Booker T
This was during Sewell's "wrestling referee" gimmick, that lasted not very long. On commentary, they put over how focused Sewell is, whilst Booker is paying him no attention, so Sewell has to pull off the upset here, right? Booker pretty much dominates to start off, so maybe he was right to be cocky, as Sewell gets nothing in. Bookend only gets 2, and Sewell starts to hulk up. Unlike the Williams comeback, Sewell looks intense enough and his offence looks effective enough to cause Booker some problems, but Sharmell grabs his leg to allow Booker to hit the Ax Kick for the win. Match was barely anything, and seemingly only existed for AJ Styles to come out at the end and beat up Booker.

Matt Morgan vs Abyss
For maybe ten seconds this seemed quite good, with a fun shoulder barge exchange, but the second Morgan throws some pathetically weak blows, it goes downhill. He punches like a giant Jenna Morasca. Abyss seems shocked when the ref wont let him bring a steel pipe into the ring, as if he'd totally forgotten the rules of wrestling. We get treated to some of the least inspired crowd brawling ever, typified by Morgan chosing to simply sit down on the stairs as his method of selling a blow to the head. They return to the ring and Abyss, like a fucking idiot, throws some weapons into the ring, then again acts shocked when Rudy Charles grabs a steel chair from his hands. IT'S NOT NO DQ, YOU STUPID TWAT. Morgan's run on offence at least involves a bit of wrestling, and I did dig his top rope cross body. I don't mind big men showing some agility if it makes sense to do so, and Morgan hurling his body weight at Abyss to down him does make sense. Morgan leaping off the top for no other reason than to get caught in a chokeslam, not so much. Ref bump leads to a big pop, as the crowd now knows weapons are getting involved, with Morgan hitting a few chair shots. Abyss hits the shittest chokeslam ever on Morgan. Two absolutely awful Black Hole Slams get the win for Abyss. This was wank, but apparently Morgan went into the match just removed from surgery, so this was maybe to be expected.

Beer Money vs Lethal Consequences
Strange to think the least interesting guy in this match is the only one to make it to WWE TV, albeit as the world's most irritating face wrestler. I'd forgotten about the Beer Money boozer cruiser, such a great addition to the act. Lethal Consequences clear the ring early using their quickness, though they aren't especially dynamic for a cruiserweight team. We get some token "gay" comedy on the heels and Beer Money are having to dumb down into "clumsy comedy" mode to keep LC looking competitive. Beer Money getting on offence makes things way more interesting, as they're the crisper, more capable team. Creed is nursing a shoulder injury, so BM wisely zero in on this, and use offence which not only works the arm, but could conceivably earn them a pinfall, which is a hard balance to strike. The hot tag comes when Lethal decides he's had enough of waiting, and clears house before rolling Creed into their corner. Feels like that shouldn't really count. Lethal gets a few closes falls on BM, but you never really feel like there is any danger of the titles changing hands, and a few minutes later, Beer Money pick up the win following a chainshot to Lethal's head. Decent tag action, but no more than that.

Sting vs Kurt Angle vs Brother Ray vs Brother Devon
This is a fatal fourway featuring 2 members of the Main Event Mafia (Sting and Angle) and 2 from the Frontline (Team 3D).This match really shows how weak the Frontline faction was, as their best hope for the world title is a tag team that no-one believes will win. The dynamic is enough to keep things interesting though, as Team 3D are a tight unit, whilst Angle is clearly quite happy to screw over Sting to take the title for himself. This leaves Sting feeling like an island out there. Amusingly, 3D don't break up each other's pin attempts and indeed, having cleared the ring of Sting and Angle, Ray lies down for Devon, before Kurt breaks up the count. Should have just put on an armbar and tapped out instead. They do start to fight properly, losing their advantage of cohesion, and get beaten down, leading to a pedestrian brawl outside the ring. The MEM members lock in a dual Scorpion Deathlock and Ankle lock on 3D, but even more fun is the dual submissions by 3D. Partly because Ray's figure four is so bad, that Tenay has to cover by calling it a "figure four variation", but also because Kurt crawls over whilst stuck in a Boston crab to try and pin Sting (still in the figure four), which is wonderfully dickheaded. This gives Angle a bit of an opening to work over Sting's leg, though this doesn't last long until all four are in the ring, exchanging finishers and power moves, before Sting isolates Ray for the match winning Scorpion Deathdrop. Match result was never in question, but this was way more fun than expected.

TNA Hardcore Justice 2014

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.

Jeff Jarrett: King of the Mountain (Disks 3 & 4)

It's taken me months to work through them, but here's the second half of the Jeff Jarrett King of the Mountain set. The set ends with a few bonus matches from the early days of Jarrett's career, which is a nice touch.

Jeff Jarrett vs Monty Brown
They give this a really nice build-up for a TV match. Love the way the opening moments shows Brown countering each Jarrett attempt to out-wrestle him with sheer power. Brown has injured ribs though, so JJ takes advantage of an opening to ram Brown's ribs into the guard rail on the outside. Back inside, Jarrett continues to focus his attack on these ribs. It also gives Jarrett a way to logically stop Brown's comeback attempts, jamming his shoulder into the ribs as Monty runs the ropes. Brown fires back with a nice butterfly suplex. A swank running powerslam gets two, before Brown hits a big powerbomb for two. Brown no-sells a guitar shot to a HUGE pop and a Stroke only gets two. Brown nails the Pounce on JJ, but has to battle off some Scott Hall interference (with another Pounce) which allows JJ to nail two chair shots for the win. Really good TV match, where they protected Brown and, if anything, made him look more invincible.

Jeff Jarrett vs Kevin Nash
Jarrett is banned from using the guitar here, otherwise he loses his title. Jarrett launches himself around the ring early on, bumping big for Nash and feeding himself to big shots. Jarrett wisely goes to Nash's legs to try and chop him down to size, but this doesn't last too long before Nash is beating him on the outside. They end up brawling around the Impact Zone, including Nash throwing JJ into the catering table. Nash looks pretty driven here, which is nice to see. Jarrett turns the tide and grabs a CELLO to attack Nash with. Absolute genius. JJ goes right for the knee here, as there seems to be no DQ with Jarrett closing the cello case around Nash's leg. I like the logic of JJ going to the legs, firstly to take away the height advantage of Nash, but also as Jarrett uses a figure-four as a finisher, which he locks on. Nash comes back with a few power moves, but Jarrett can regain control with one blow to the injured leg. The ref gets bumped before Nash powerbombs Jarrett onto the cello (nice touch) before Billy Gunn runs in a nails Nash with a chairshot for two. Sean Waltman comes out to destroy Jarrett with a bronco buster and the X-Factor, but this only gets two. BG James stops Gunn from hitting Nash with the title belt, but this again only gets two. Stroke gets two. As overbooked as this is, the false finishes are very effective. A low blow and another Stroke gets the win for Jarrett. Kevin Nash was motivated here, and the result was maybe his best match in years.

Jeff Jarrett vs Rhino
Crowd is hot for Rhino here. Jarrett tries to work over the arm of Rhino early, but Rhino powers out of an armbar, then hits a suprising plancha outside the ring. We gets some brawling in the crowd, which is Rhino's domain, so he dominates. Lovely overhead shot on the ramp as Rhino batters JJ with punches. This is a nice change from some of the other Jarrett matches, as Rhino is a machine he can't outfight, so he's going to have to find another way to take over. He does this by luring Rhino to a high scaffold before hitting him with a chair to send him crashing off through a table. However, he keeps trying to fight Rhino outside the ring, and Rhino is soon able to re-establish control, goring JJ through a table down the entrance ramp. Team Canada comes out to beat Rhino up, hurliing him down the entry tunnel to try and give Jarrett the countout victory. Spinebuster gets a very close two. Token ref bump as Rudy Charles gets gored leads to more Team Canada interference. JJ guitarshot only gets two. The appearance of Jackie Gayda of all people leads to Rhino hitting a gore for two. Finally, the final run in comes from Scott D'Amore, who nails Rhino with a hockey stick. This leads to JJ hitting a Stroke from the second rope onto some chairs for the win. Started brilliantly, but more overbooking lead to this becoming painfully predictable again.

Jeff Jarrett, Abyss & America's Most Wanted vs Rhino, Ron Killings & Team 3D
Shockingly, this starts with a huge brawl all over the Impact zone. Things are kept just the right side of chaotic. We finally get into the ring, with Jarrett's heel team taking over following an Abyss chokeslam on Ray. This advantage doesn't last long, as Ray and Rhino soon batter both AMW members. Gail Kim prevents a gore on Rhino, leading to Tenay rather ungallantly yelling for Rhino to "GET HER!!". Thankfully, Abyss stops Rhino piledriving her with a big boot to take control. Strange to think people thought Chris Harris would be the breakout star of AMW, as even here James Storm looks far more comfortable and polished in the ring. The heel team keep control on Rhino, albeit not in a particularly interesting manner, before miscommunication between AMW member leads t the hot tag to Killings. Killings has the most energy and explosive offence on the team, so he's a good choice for the role. Chaos ensues, with finishers, interference from Gail Kim and Jackie Gayda, Harris getting handcuffed to a turnbuckle and ref bumps, before Jarrett hits the Stroke on Truth to end a match that lagged in the middle, but was terrific by the end.

Jeff Jarrett, Scott Steiner & America's Most Wanted vs Sting, AJ Styles, Ron Killings & Rhino
I always found the TNA Lethal Lockdown matches to be a bit of a mess, so it'll be interesting to see how this goes. At least the heels won the coin toss here, which they didn't always do, stupidly. Styles and Chris Harris start, and Harris looks a lot better than he did in the singles match vs Jarrett on the earlier discs. He looks more confident and more fluid as a worker. AJ splashing Harris into the cage repeatedly is pretty fun. Ref Earl Hebner decides to count a pinfall after a Styles Clash, so Harris is forced to kick out. Storm is out next, and AJ dropkicks the cage door, missing Storm, but wiping out Gail Kim. Rhino evens the numbers up and he comes in firing on all cylinders. He's the perfect choice for two minutes of fired up offence to pop the crowd before the next heel comes out. Jarrett is next, and he gets met by Styles and Rhino outside the cage, which is smart of them as it cuts off the numbers game. However, once in the cage, it's 3-on-2 and the heels dominate. Killings is next out and we get a crazy tower of doom spot with AJ taking the highest bump from the cage top. Steiner is out last to pick up the remains in his TNA debut. It's suplexes all round for the face team. It strikes me that TNA were much smarter in their choice of debut match for Steiner than the WWE were - the last entrant in a multi-man match versus working a 20 minute main event style match. Sting enters last as the cage roof gets lowered down. Love Sting stacking up all four heels in the corner for a pair of Stinger Splashes. I like the touch that the weapons don't become available until all the men are in the match as it adds something new to the match at that point. Styles and Storm end up on top of the roof, where Styles hits a splash from the lighting rig to put Storm through a table. Great spot. In the ring, we get a string of finishers, before Harris nails Sting with some handcuffs and locks on a Scorpion Deathlock. His cockiness backfires, as Sting counters his own finisher and locks in his own for the tapout. Ok, that was a whole heap of fun.

Jeff Jarrett & Scott Steiner vs Sting & Samoa Joe
This is from the period where Joe was the most over guy in TNA, and on the verge of a face turn. Sting dominates both heels to start, looking energised and nailing a double top-rope clothesline. The air of anticipation when Joe tags in to face Steiner is palpable. Their section together is pretty great, with Joe taking Steiner's offence, but looking more angered than hurt. Jarrett gets a bit cocky after nailing a few moves on Joe, but he gets planted when attempting to charge into the corner. Sting tags in and looks so energetic, really motivated and in great shape, but gets caught by the heels double-teaming. The heat segment on Sting is pretty brief, but the Joe hot-tag is awesome, as Jarrett and Steiner both make Joe look unstoppable. A JJ lowblow allows him to hit the Stroke on Joe for two, but a top rope version is blocked by Joe, and the musclebuster gets the win. A bit brief, but a fun tag match, with the heel team putting Joe over as a killer.

Jeff Jarrett vs Christian Cage vs Sting vs Abyss vs Ron Killings
Another King of the Mountain match, with Cage the defending champion. We get some early dives, with Christian, Truth and Sting(!) all leaping to the outside. Sting takes out Jarrett with a Stinger Splash, then lets Truth pin him with a missile dropkick. They're working a story of Sting only being focused on stopping Jarrett winning. Cage soon pins Abyss with a roll up. Released from the penalty box, Jarrett goes after Cage with real abandon outside the ring, before teaming with Abyss to set up a stack of tables outside the ring. Hmm. He then takes advantage of an opening to hit the Stroke on Truth onto the guard railings to get himself a pin. With Truth in the penalty box, Sting/Abyss and Cage/Jarrett pair off to fight in the crowd. Truth gets released and, with everyone in the crowd, has to blatantly waste time when faced with an obvious opportunity to win the match. Earl Hebner gets bumped, before Abyss tires of working for Jarrett and hits a Black Hole Slam on him to send JJ back to the penalty box. However, as he cimbs the ladder, Sting pushes him off it onto the stack of tables outside the ring. Sting locks a Scorpion Deathlock on Cage, but releases it when he realises Jarrett is making an attempt to climb the ladder. Sting gives the belt to Cage, in order to stop JJ winning the match, but Larry Zybysco gives Cage a low blow. Sting hurls Larry out and nails the Scorpion Deathdrop on JJ, but with no ref to count he has to use Earl Hebner's limp hand to give himself the three count. Sting and Cage fight on top of the ladder over who gets to win the title, before Earl Hebner, of all people, turns heel and pushes the ladder over to give Jarrett the win (in a hailstorm of garbage). At the end, Jim Cornette appears to take the belt off Jarrett, which is a bit of a cliffhanger for a DVD that wont get resolved. Better than the first KotM match on the set, as the big spots were set up better and there was a better overall story.

Jeff Jarrett vs Samoa Joe
This is a "fans revenge" match, with 18 fans at ringside with straps to whip the competitors. Brilliantly, JJ comes to the ring with several layers of clothes on as protection. Joe pretty much obliterates JJ to start, but Jarrett just avoids falling to the floor for a whipping. They wisely build up to the whip spots as Jarrett keeps managing to avoid landing outside, before eventually he hits and takes a whipping. JJ throws Joe out, and hilariously no-one hits Joe. Jarrett manages to get himself a strap, which he uses to wear out Joe, which is a nice way to give him the momentum without making Joe look weak. Joe manages to fire back and takes Jarrett's tops off before sending him to the floor. You get a really great sound of leather repeatedly hitting JJ's skin. Joe ties Jarrett to the top rope, and the fans swarm in to take free shots on Jarrett. JJ goes for the guitar, but Joe ducks and locks in a Kokina Clutch. Jarrett only just makes the ropes. Ref bump leads to a Stroke onto the guitar for just 2. Top rope Stroke is blocked, and Joe nails a musclebuster for the win. Fun match.

Jeff Jarrett vs Sting
Sting has put his career on the line here, so no surprises for guessing who wins. Kurt Angle is ringside as special enforcer. Jarrett is one step ahead of Sting in the early going, which they play up on commentary as ring-rust on Sting's part. However, JJ spitting in Sting's face backfires, as it only causes Sting to get angry and wail away on him. They brawl outside the ring, though both guys act like idiots at points by ignoring their opponent to get into a face-to-face with Angle. Action back in the ring is fine, though marred by a little sloppiness by Sting. We look to be heading to a double countout after a mid-ring collision, but Angle gives Rudy Charles the Angleslam on 9, and takes over as ref to ensure a winner. Both guys are suddenly perfectly healthy after this happens, and Sting gets 2 on the Scorpion Deathdrop. Jarrett then gets 2 on the Stroke. Sting tries to splash Jarrett, but gets only knees, primarily because his torso lands nowhere near Jarrett's body. Jarrett gets an anklelock on Sting, possibly proving his MMA credentials years before he bragged about them. JJ nails Sting with a guitar, only for Sting to no-sell and lock on a Scorpion Deathlock for the win. Felt a bit too short and sloppy for a PPV main event.

Jeff Jarrett, Sting, Kurt Angle, Samoa Joe & Rhyno vs Christian Cage, Tomko, AJ Styles, Scott Steiner & Abyss
Jarrett has turned face in time for his return to enter this Lethal Lockdown match. Whoever gets the pin earns a title shot against Cage. We start with Styles and Angle. They showed the JJ return angle where he interfered in a match to give his team the entry advantage, but they explain on commentary that this had been reversed by Jim Cornette, so the heels have the edge. Styles dominates after Angle runs headfirst into the cage, but manages to pop off an Angleslam just in time for the entry of Abyss. AJ wisely lets Abyss work Angle over. Rhyno comes in to even the numbers up, and looks pretty good with bursts of power offence. Tomko is next in and he helps to bloody up Rhino. The two minute intervals don't really give enough time to build up any sense of peril for the faces, shown by Joe coming in next and just killing everyone. Joe looks terrific on offence here. Angle gives Tomko 5 German suplexes just because. Steiner takes over when he gets in, and it's getting a little predictable that we get two minutes of uninterrupted offence from each new guy, who then turns straight to defence when a new wrestler comes in. Steiner hits a top-rope Frankensteiner on Rhino, which is an awesome display. Sting comes in, two minutes of reasonable looking offence from him. They do hit a mental looking tower of doom spot, which is pretty great. Christian comes in, but he gets dominated by Sting. Even Don West picks up on Cage being the first person not to clean house. Jarrett is the last man in, with his guitar collapsing on his way to the ring. The lid comes down, and Jarrett throws weapons to his team-mates. Nice touch to show that he can be trusted after his turn. Styles and Angle climb to the roof of the cage, which doesn't bode well. There's some pretty fun brawling spots at this point, with Rhino managing to gore Tomko through the cage door being a highlight. Tacks end upin the ring, and Cage gets chokeslammed into them. At this point, Angle punches AJ off the roof of the bloody cage, landing onto men at ringside. Mental spot. Abyss fills a guitar with tacks (of course he does) but the cruel hand of irony means that Jarrett gets hold of it and nails him with it. JJ completes his face turn by beseeching Sting to cover Abyss for the win to get the title shot. Started slow, but it got spectacular by the end.

Jeff Jarrett vs Kurt Angle
This is Jarrett's first match back after taking time off due to the death of his wife. Mick Foley is the ringside enforcer. Jarrett has been of for two years at this point, so the crux of the story is seeing how Jarrett can fare after so much time off. He works over Angle on the outside, but he launches into a strut back inside the ring and gets his head taken off with a clothesline. They seem to be building this up as a match of survival for Jarrett, as Angle tries to ground Jarrett with JJ getting a few hope spots due to Angle's over-enthusiasm. An Angle corner charge meets only the steel post, but Angle comes back with a slick belly-to-belly suplex. Jarrett has to use his experience to keep in there with Angle, and a little trip leads to a figure-four for Jarrett. Angle gets his own submission locked on with the Anklelock, cruelly pulling JJ away just as he gets to the ropes. I like the use of JJ's selling here, with Angle pouncing to Angleslam him whilst Jarrett is pulling himself up to his feet. Only gets a two, and the leg injury from the figure four means he takes too long getting to the top for moonsault, which he misses. A ref bump leads to the Stroke, which only gets two with Mick Foley counting. Foley tries to stop Angle using a chair, but gets levelled with it instead, and Angle also nails JJ with it. Foley ain't too happy with that, so he gives Angle the mandible claw. Jarrett nails Angle with a guitar and Foley counts three for the feelgood win. Loved this.

Buddy Landell & Bill Dundee vs David Johnson & Jim Jamison
This is Jarrett's first TV appearance, as he's the referee for the contest. This is pretty much pure squash, with the heels even throwing Johnson into his corner to let him make a tag. Landell is particularly vicious pumelling Jamison in the corner. Dundee slams Jamison on the concrete floor just because he can. Landell picks up the win with an elbow. Landell beats up Jarrett after the match, and Jerry Jarrett gets taken out trying for the save. Jeff gets a few fired-up blows in, before another wrestler makes the save.

Jeff Jarrett vs Tony Falk
This is Jeff's debut in-ring. Falk levels the smaller JJ to start, and throws Jarrett through the ropes. This is his big mistake, as JJ comes in with a sunset flip to win. Afterwards, Landell and Dundee come back and beat the tar out of Jarrett. Jos Le Duc makes the save for Jeff.

Jeff Jarrett vs Hector Guerrero
Jarrett's hair has grown out a bit here. JJ wears Hector out with a headlock, causing him to flop to the mat. Jarrett maintains control, albeit not in a particularly exciting way. Plenty of armdrags. Hector takes over with a punch to the eye, and retains control with some cheap shots to Jarrett. Nice double-underhook suplex gets two for Hector. German suplex gets two. JJ looks good with his comeback, being a bit more fired up than his earlier offensive spell. Jarrett levels Guerrero with a 5lb bag of flower to give Guerrero the DQ win. Got pretty good by the end.

Jeff Jarrett vs Jerry Lawler
This is for the CWA title, held by Lawler. JJ shows great fire, recovering from a hiptoss to level Lawler with a clothesline. Jarrett locks a headscissors on Lawler and brilliantly stops an escape attempt by ramming Lawler's head into the mat. Great height on a Thesz press gets two for Jarrett. They hit mutual dropkicks, before a crossbody by Jarrett takes out both Lawler and the ref. This lets Dundee nail Jarrett with a loaded fist to give Jarrett the win.

Jeff Jarrett & Bill Dundee vs Gary Young & Cactus Jack
Jarrett and Dundee are now teaming up, might not have hurt to give a little pointer as to why they're now friends. Jarrett is noticably improving with each appearance, and looks great taking care of Young. A lithe Jack takes an insane bump on a missed corner charge, flying out to the floor. The heels take over on Jarrett after a Cactus knee to the back, but the heat section doesn't last long, with the tag to Dundee made moments later. It all breaks down and manager Downtown Bruno nails Dundee as he pins Young to give the faces the win. Pretty good fun.

TNA Hard Justice 2007

Having not done as much writing on the pro-wrestling as I'd have liked last year, it's nice to get this one published early for the year. I got this from Lovefilm as a random show, so looking forward to seeing how well it's aged

Jay Lethal & Sonjay Dutt vs the Motor City Machineguns vs Christopher Daniels & Senshi
Only two men are allowed in the ring at any time.This is a prime example of the hot opener, with all the offence looking super slick and fun enough to pop the crowd. Lethal ends up as face-in-peril and I love the way the Guns and Triple X have to rely on blind tags to get in the match, keeps it realistic that they wouldn't just tag each other in. Daniels shows a bit of character by posing whilst standing on Lethal's back as he's drapped across the middle turnbuckle. Dutt gets the hot tag, but the Guns just decide to come in too. At this juncture, it turns into a spotfest, so they don't try to pretend there are rules. I like Shelley locking an abdominal stretch on Dutt outside, as it means it makes sense for him to be there when Lethal levels him with a suicide dive. Rad dive sequence ends with Dutt nailing a swanky top rope Asai moonsault on everyone. Even Skipper gets involved, taking advantage of a distracted Earl Hebner to nail the ropewalk rana on Sabin. We get a lovely combo of moves by Dutt and Lethal on Daniels, which culminates in a standing Shooting Star Press by Dutt for two. After everyone gets in the ring, nailing spot after spot, Lethal picks up the win...with a small package on Daniels. Really fun opener, maybe not one you'll remember in a weeks time, but super enjoyable and it sent the crowd wild. Job done.

Raven vs Kaz
Kaz left Serotonin to set this up. It's pretty fun to start with, as Kaz nails all three members with a kendo stick, and the other Serotonin members bump like loons for it. Havok tries to take Kaz out with a huge dive, but nails everyone BUT Kaz. In ring, Raven hits a victory roll(!) for two 2. Kaz takes an insane bump on a kneelift, as it sends him over top rope. Raven seems pretty slow here, taking his sweet lazy time between moves. There is some dissension in the ranks as Raven shows his anger with Martyr, after he accidentally takes out Havok when aiming for Kaz with a superkick. Kaz hits a massive clothesline to send himself, Raven and Martyr over the rope, which followed by a nutty rana off the apron on Havok. Kaz is doing everything he can here to get over. Kaz reverses the Evenflow to nail a dropkick to the face to win. Decent enough, certainly put Kaz over huge.

Rhino vs James Storm
This is a bar-room brawl, instigated by Storm taunting Rhino's past addictions to alcohol. This is pretty good to start, though the mass slugfest in the crowd makes it hard to see what is happening. Thankfully, they soon get to Storm's silly looking "bar" set up by the ring, where Rhino pretty swiftly gives into his addictions and necks a beer. No willpower there. This causes Rhino to just explode, as he levels Storm with crutch and a barstool. Next, he backdrops Storm onto the bar as West and Tenay lament Rhino falling off the wagon. To hammer home the point, he opens a bottle of vodka and has a big swig. Storm is just getting massacred, as this is all Rhino. Maybe Rhino should have got pissed more often, could have been world champion. Jackie Moore saves and Rhino is briefly slowed down by being thrown out of ring onto a ladder. He fires back with an ace snap belly-to-belly suplex, though he is starting to show subtle signs of being drunk. A moment of hesitation causes Rhino to gore a table as the Cowboy moves, which gets two for Storm. Storm clobbers Rhino with a one man conchairto, then smashes a beer bottle over his head for three. Interesting booking, which started with Storm getting destroyed, but Rhino giving into his demos ultimately cost him the match. Really nasty brawl too.

Voodoo Kin Mafia vs LAX
This is from the odd period where Roxxi was added to the act as a voodoo practicioner, as if this linked to BG and Kip James in anyway bar their McMahon-baiting name. VKM use a combination of their smarts and strength to dominate Homicide early. Nice release Northern Lights by Kip James is the highlight of their offence. The heat section on Homicide is pretty brief, and whilst Hernandez shows good energy on his hot tag, a face of powder from Roxxi lets Kip hit a Fameasser for the win. However, Hector Guerrero comes into the ring to show the ref the powder on the ring apron, and Homicide wins with a rollup on Kip. Short and inoffensive.

Eric Young vs Bobby Roode
This is an Ultimate Humiliation match, with the loser getting tarred and feathered. They show a promo video beforehand, where Roode already tarred-and-feathered EY on an episode of Impact, so that seems odd. EY gets a brief flurry of offence, before a distraction by Ms Brooks lets Roode level him outside the ring. Roode's dominance of Young is pretty fun, Roode being pretty explosive on offence and EY bumping nicely for him. Young also has a natural connection with the crowd, which helps him earn sympathy. Love Roode lowering his kneepad before hitting a kneedrop from the 2nd rope. EY has some surprisingly crisp punches and shows some real strength to hoist both Roode and Brooks onto his shoulders for an attempted DVD. Some Brooks distraction and a pair of brass knucks give the win to Roode, after a pretty fun match.

Postmatch sees Gail Kim make the save for EY, and Ms Brooks ends up tarred and feathered. Special word to the kick to the Roode bollocks by EY - Christ!

Chris Harris vs Black Reign
In 2014, Dustin Rhodes is one of the best workers on the planet. In 2007, he was substantially porkier and wrestling in a Poundland Goldust costume. It's no surprise to learn that he wasn't so impressive. I do enjoy his outsmarting Harris by coming out of the other entrance ramp and attacking from behind (Harris must be some kind of idiot, as he wait ages for Reign before the blindside attack). As you'd expect, Reign still has impressive punches and him wailing away does look pretty great, with the satisfying sound of fist on skin. Harris is busted open and has had zero offence, as Dustin takes out two referees. The idea here is pretty cool, but the execution, especially the outfit, is lacking somewhat. Harris wins by DQ after attacking the third ref, but looks nothing like a winner after getting cuffed to the ropes and attacked by Black Reign's spiked weapon. I admit, I liked this more than I expected too, especially how vicious Dustin was, but the cheapness of his look ruined the effect.

The Steiner Brothers vs Team 3D
This is the match I've been looking forward to most on the show. No matter that these two teams are past their best, this is TNA bringing a proper tag team dream match to life. Looking at Brother Ray here, it's remarkable how much he slimmed down for his current role as Bully Ray, as he was huge. Though a bit slower and a bit bulkier than their prime, the Steiners still are able to throw 3D around early. The turnaround comes when Ray grabs Scott by the arm and yanks his recently injured shoulder over the ropes. 3D wisely focus their offence on this injury, with the livid purple scar acting like a target. The heat section is actually a bit short, but I did love the fresh Rick hitting suplexes on both Team 3D members. Scott joins in with a top rope belly-to-belly on Devon. 3D get two after a Doomsday Device on Scott, but it's a top-rope Frankensteiner on Devon that brings the crowd to it's feet. The top rope Steiner Bulldog on Devon gets the win. A bit sloppy in places, but a total crowdpleaser of a match.

Christian Cage, AJ Styles & Tomko vs Sting, Abyss & "The Punisher" Andrew Martin
Martin is better known as Test. The winner of the pinfall gets a world title shot, and the match is held in a cage with barbed wire around the top. To add to the overbooking, you can't get pinned unless you are bleeding. Christian's Coalition attack Abyss before his partners can emerge, but Martin and Sting (arriving after the lights go out) make the save. We get some average brawling outside the cage to start, then the Coalition lock Sting outside the cage to leave it 2-on-3. Cage attacks Abyss with some glass to make him bleed. The Coalition dominate in the ring, but Sting climbs the cage with wire cutters and is able to get in past the barbed wire. Styles and Cage nailing Abyss with dual frog splashes was pretty cool. Cage, like a beautiful coward, escapes the cage through the gap Sting created, leaving his team 2-on-3 down. Styles is swiftly Black Hole Slammed onto the broken glass by Abyss for the win. Pretty pedestrian affair, and not particularly violent for all the hype about the violence.

Kurt Angle vs Samoa Joe
This is for Joe's X Division and tag titles, as well as Angle's IWGP and TNA titles. Joe looks to be in great shape here, and I dug the ceremonial Samoan dancers he had for his entrance. The story here is that Kurt is upset that Karen Angle has left him, and his mind isn't on wrestling. Joe dominates early, and Kurt isn't helped by Karen arriving at ringside with a new beau. Joe is confident and remains one step ahead of Angle: when Kurt pulls the straps of his singlet down to stop Joe pulling it, Joe pulls it down even further on a sunset flip to expose Angle's backside. The facewash on Kurt looked brutal. I also love Joe reversing an Angle German suplex into a sickening release version of his own. The height Joe gets on his leaping enzuigiri whilst Angle is on the top rope is impressive too. It's ridiculous how good he used to be when in shape and motivated. Angle looks a step behind him at all times here, though that may be due to the story of the match. Joe is able to reverse every big move Kurt goes for, until an Angle Slam gets two. Kurt hasn't gotten much offence in at this point, so it doesn't feel like a ruined finisher. Joe only getting two on a musclebuster feels less defendable, however. An anklelock/Kokina Clutch reversal series feels a little forced. A ref bump leads to Angle tapping to the clutch with no consequence, before Karen "shockingly" passes Kurt a chair to level Joe with and consolidate all the titles. This was decent rather than good, as it felt a bit laboured due to the angle, and the ending was both predictable and made Joe look like a fool.

TNA Slammiversary 2013

Kenny King vs Chris Sabin vs Suicide

This is an Ultimate X match for King’s X Division title. This is essentially a spotfest to warm up the crowd, but it’s a pretty good one. A couple of spots look a bit too contrived and require a bit too much co-operation, but everything was crisply executed. I liked a few of the details in the match too, such as how early on Suicide sent both opponents to the floor as if to set up for a dive, but instead ran for the corner to try and climb the structure. Similarly, I enjoyed Sabin realising both men were down, thinking about going for the belt, then suplexing Suicide onto King to make sure both men were incapacitated. This was the first time I’d seen TJ Perkins as Suicide, and he was great, with his series of feints and fakes before hitting a top rope dropkick to the floor being exceptionally good. No-one manages to make it to the cables in the first 5 minutes of the match, which allowed the tension of the match to build up. This had a rather abrupt ending, with King going for Suicide’s mask to stop him getting the title, before Sabin appeared from nowhere to down him and grab the title himself, but this was a fine opener,

Magnus, Samoa Joe & Jeff Hardy vs Mr Anderson, Garrett Bischoff & Wes Brisco

With all due respect, there isn’t a great array of talent on the heel side here, so it’s impressive that this is a perfectly decent 6-man tag. For example, there is no greater mismatch in this bout than Joe against Bischoff, but that segment was plenty of fun, due to both Joe’s onslaught and Bischoff’s surprisingly good selling. Magnus and Joe show their chemistry with some double-teaming on Anderson, but Magnus soon becomes face-in-peril after Anderson yanks his arm over the top rope. The heels wisely stick to an easy formula by using quick tags and focusing on the injured arm of Magnus, so this is all fun. The hot tag to Hardy comes a bit prematurely, but we at least get a hot finishing sequence, as Joe chokes out Anderson on the ramp, a distraction that leads to Brisco low-blowing Magnus and rolling him up, only for Hardy to strike with a Swanton during the pinfall. This gets three for the faces. Of note: Jeff Hardy looks surprisingly good with a beard.

 
Jay Bradley vs Sam Shaw

This really didn’t belong on PPV and did neither guy any favours as the crowd was dead for them, though they did rally a bit behind Shaw at the end. Shaw seemed to work like a poor man’s RVD, with some generic flippy offence, but I did quite like Bradley, whose offence at least looked like it hurt, as he slowed down proceedings with some measured blows. The Boom Stick lariat won the match for Bradley.

Devon vs Abyss

This was supposed to be Devon vs Joseph Park, but Devon and Knux destroyed him in the back, leading to Abyss coming out in his stead. Oddly, the majority of the match is spent with Devon dominating Abyss, until he misses a diving headbutt. Abyss wins with a chokeslam and a Black Hole Slam, but this feels like it should have been a 30 second squash. Having Abyss selling almost all match takes away any monster aura he may have.

Bad Influence vs Chavo Guerrero & Hernandez vs Bobby Roode  & Austin Aries vs James Storm & Gunner

I’ve long felt that Gunner is underrated (check the No Surrender 2011 review if you need proof), so I’m glad to see him getting a bit of a push at last. There was some nice continuity early on, with Roode wanting no piece of Storm and goading him about his choice of partner, yelling “He’s no Bobby Roode”, but cowering away when Gunner gets in. This broke down quickly, with team taking it in turn to clear the ring of each other. I did love Guerrero and Hernandez sprinting down the ramp to nail Bad Influence with flying shoulderblocks. Curiously, the only wrestler to really play face-in-peril is Hernandez, the largest guy in the match, as Roode, Aries, Kazarian and Daniels take over on him. Bad Influence are the first team eliminated, as Roode turns the ref round so he catches Daniels hitting Chavo with a belt for the DQ. Brilliantly, Aries swiftly pins Chavo seconds afterwards. This leaves Aries/Roode vs Storm/Gunner. The Storm/Roode segments are as good as you’d expect. Gunner gets isolated by the heels, who blitz him with a corner dropkick, spinebuster and 450 in quick succession, but he kicks out. This is played up huge, rather than just a finisher no-sell, which makes Gunner look great. Storm superkicks Aries into the Gun Rack, and Austin taps to give Storm & Gunner the titles. Decent little match, I suspect there’s a great match between the final two teams in the coming months.

Taryn Terrell vs Gail Kim

During the opening minutes of this match, where Terrell was throwing some terrible looking forearms, I feared for the worst. Well, that soon went out of the window as these two just went Hell for leather. It started with Terrell hitting a crossbody from the top onto Gail, who was holding a steel chair. It continued when Kim went hurtling across the ring into a chair propped up in the corner, sending her flying from the ring. Terrell added to the insane bumps with a missed dive sending her onto the entrance ramp. Finally, they decided to share the honours for brazen madness by both leaping from the ramp to oblivion (as it looked from the camera angle) as Taryn hit an Ace Crusher on Kim for the win. Just an absolute spectacle, and both wrestler deserve a load of credit for what they were willing to do. For Terrell to enter the match to a minimal reaction and to leave to “This is awesome” chants shows they were doing something right.

AJ Styles vs Kurt Angle

I’d not seen much of the “new” AJ before this match, and I was quite impressed. He seemed to be laying in his blows a lot more stiffly than before, and his kicks in particular looked good. I also liked the initial story work, with AJ targeting the injured leg of Angle, with his springboard dropkick to the leg looking great. At first, Angle sells the leg well, taking his time getting up again after levelling Styles with a clothesline. Soon, however, Kurt stops selling the leg all together, and just goes through a usual Angle match, which I’d have quite enjoyed if they’d just gone for that instead of focussing AJ working the leg early on. By the time Kurt nails AJ with 3 German suplexes, you’d forget he even had a leg injury. Even more bizarrely, they kill off AJ’s new Calf Killer submission by having Angle escape it, despite his “injured leg”. The end comes when AJ misses a springboard 450 and Angle downs him with a double-leg for the pin. The action was fine, but the decision to work an opening around a body part then totally ignoring it seems ridiculous.

Bully Ray vs Sting

Before the match, Bully threatened to hit Sting with a piledriver, which they hyped up as the deadliest move in wrestling. I loved Sting taking the fight to Bully right off, nailing the Stinger Splash at the bell. I also loved Sting whipping Bully with the title belt, which looked nasty. Tazz does a great job of putting over the danger of the piledriver, talking about how it affected his own career. Sting is busy wasting Ray with a chair, when an odd Brooke Hogan appearance distracted him and gave Bully the advantage. Bully hits the piledriver as threatened, which gets 2. A powerbomb through a table also gets 2. Bully then removes the canvas to leave only bare boards in the ring for a second piledriver, but Sting just kicks out. Bully is great at selling the shock here, and this really showed Sting’s desire to win. Sting suddenly hits the Scorpion Death Drop on the boards, but Aces & 8’s attack to stop him winning. Sting tries to fight them off (with Garrett Bischoff taking a huge bump to the entrance ramp), but Bully nails him in the head with a hammer as he dives from the top rope to win. Really fun match, even with the ending, as it really highlighted how dangerous Aces & 8’s are as a faction. I would have had an issue with no TNA wrestlers coming to help, but they seem to be making that part of an angle, so at least they acknowledge how odd it seems. Pretty darn fine PPV on the whole.

TNA Joker's Wild Tag Team Tournament 2013

So, these new monthly One Night Only PPV's are free to us here in the UK and with the latest Joker's Wild show bringing back happy memories of WCW's Lethal Lottery, I thought I'd check it out. Overall? Not a bad show for free, and I suspect I'd feel the same if I'd paid $15. The show sees randomly drawn tag-teams compete, with the winning team entering a 12-man gauntlet for a $100,000 cheque.

James Storm & Christian York vs Gunner & Crimson

This was a pretty standard tag team match, though I do think the team of Gunner and Crimson have potential together. They looked pretty cohesive, with Gunner splashing York in the corner leading straight to a Crimson t-bone suplex being particularly choice. The commentary from Taz and Tenay worked well at putting over Storm in this environment, highlighting how he’d won the TNA tag titles 11 times, as well as noting that it was Storm who ended Crimson’s undefeated streak. Yorks offence looks a little convoluted at times, especially when Gunner has to assist him in hitting the rolling kick he hits for the hot tag. Storm is a really good hot tag wrestler, as he’s got offense that is suitably flashy but also looks like it might hurt. I really liked him holding Gunner after hitting a codebreaker, in order for York to add a top rope stomp on Gunner’s prone body. A Storm superkick on Gunner ends this.

Jessie Godderz & Mr Anderson vs Douglas Williams & Kid Kash

Godderz’s character work here is excellent. His egotistical, overenthusiastic goof act works really well as he’s desperate to tag in, using one arm ringer, then tagging straight out again. However, his enthusiasm gets the best of him, leading to the veteran team to really take him to town. Kash especially takes great pleasure in beating Godderz down. I loved the spot where Jessie could have made the hot tag, but instead woozily tells Anderson “I got it” before getting battered again. Kash and Williams get insane elevation on a back bodydrop. Kash’s springboard moonsault on Jessie is just beautiful, but only gets two. The hot tag comes when Jessie just kind of falls into Anderson, who tags in and cleans house, but Jessie stops him as he attempts a fireman’s carry roll on Kash. Anderson, fed up with his goofy partner, nails a Mic Check on Jessie, then reverses a Kash roll up to win for his team. Loved the dynamic of the exasperated Anderson, the goofy Godderz and the no-nonsense veterans here, surprisingly entertaining.

Samoa Joe & Christopher Daniels vs Chavo Guerrero & Rob Van Dam

Daniels is overjoyed to have Joe as his partner. Daniels works good early segments with both Chavo and RVD, with RVD’s leg submission/pin combo looking good. The RVD/Guerrero team dominate both Joe and Daniels early on, until Daniels nails Chavo from the outside. Despite Joe being a face, he has a similar attitude to Daniels and doesn’t seem offended by his partner’s blatant cheating. They work well together. They work a decent, lengthy heat section on Chavo, until Daniels ego costs them, as he stops Joe hitting a musclebuster, allowing Chavo time to recover and make the tag to RVD. RVD attempts the 5* on Joe, but interference from Chavo and Daniels gives Joe time to recover, and he plays possum, suddenly leaping up to hit the musclebuster on RVD for the win. Perfectly watchable, but a little flat in places.

Robbie E & Zema Ion vs Bobby Roode & Joseph Park

The team of Robbie and Ion seem perfectly suited together. The team of Roode and Park less so. Park pulls the best “sad face” when Roode lambasts him. I love the initial stages of the match where Roode dominates and pretends he’ll tag Park in, before refusing to do so. Eventually, he does tag in Park, but soon starts to regret his decision (Roode yelling “Tag me back in, you moron” got a legit laugh from me). E and Ion work over Park after an Ion distraction leads to a Robbie attack on Park’s leg, and look pretty good doing it. An Ion 450 hits Park’s back as he tries to move, in an awkward looking spot, but Ion hitting Poetry In Motion on Park only busts him open and puts him in a rage-trance. Park destroys his opponents, hitting a Black Hole Slam on Robbie, before coming out of his trance. I love Roode blind tagging in to cover Robbie and claim the glory for himself. Not a great match, but plenty of fun.

Hernandez & Alex Silva vs DOC & Devon

Taz on commentary implies that Ace’s & 8’s rigged the draw for this one. I actually thought Silva looked pretty impressive here, taking offence well and hitting some nice underdog offence. I liked Hernandez elevating him into Devon in the corner too. Soon, Silva gets isolated, and DOC gets great height on a legdrop, which looks awesome. This is a basic tag formula match, complete with heat section and a false tag, but it’s done well enough. Silva lands on his feet on a suplex and tags Hernandez, who blitzes his opponents with some power moves. Silva blind tags himself back in again before Hernandez leaps from the ring onto Devon with a swank tope. This leaves Silva with DOC, and again Silva has a nice period of underdog offence, before DOC wipes him out with a big boot and a chokeslam. Thought Silva looked plenty promising here.

Matt Morgan & Robbie T vs Al Snow & Joey Ryan

The underlying story here is that Snow and Ryan still hate each other from Gut Check, and that Morgan and Ryan don’t want to fight. This leaves Snow to work the bulk of the match, and he’s really off the pace here. He works a section with Robbie T that is really clumsy looking. I was initially inclined to blame Robbie for this, but his later section with Ryan is alright, so I feel Snow is more at fault. Also, as veteran, he should really have advised T to do something more exciting during a painful 5 minute chinlock. Snow should surely know better. This does pick up towards the end, where Snow and Terry conspire to leave Ryan and Morgan in the ring, as the two friends don’t want to fight. This leads to Ryan, hilariously, raining down on Morgan with futile blows, only for a Carbon Footprint to give the win to Morgan and Terry. Not very good, and I can’t help but blame Snow for that.

12 Man Gauntlet for $100,000 (James Storm, Christian York, Mr Anderson, Jessie Godderz, Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels, Bobby Roode, Joseph Park, DOC, Devon, Matt Morgan & Robbie T)

The gauntlet starts with Storm and Roode, which gives some reliably solid action. The next two entrants are Devon and DOC, which means that the ex-Beer Money members set aside their differences to eliminate DOC. There are a few entries that come with little consequence, as Godderz, York and Park all enter. I do love the fact that Storm and Roode fight each other just to get the chance to strike Godderz in the corner. Anderson comes in and nails Godderz, allowing Park to eliminate him. Daniels and Joe enter, but no eliminations take place until Robbie T comes in, eliminating York, Daniels and Anderson in quick succession. Morgan is the last entrant, and he too goes on a spree, throwing Park, Joe and Robbie out. This leaves a final four of Morgan, Devon, Storm and Roode, which soon becomes three as Morgan misses the Carbon Footprint on Storm, who bundles him out. Knux comes to the ring and pulls Roode outside under the middle rope, but his interference on Storm backfires as Devon gets eliminated. Roode sneaks back in and thinks he’s won as he throws Storm over the top, but Storm skins the cat, and nails a codebreaker and a superkick for the win. Not much to enjoy here, as the eliminations were pretty much grouped together, though the ending was fun. Pretty enjoyable show on the whole though, hopefully this becomes an annual thing.

TNA Turning Point 2011

Robbie E vs Eric Young
This is for the TV title and is pretty much just played for comedy. Luckily, both characters are so enjoyably goofy that the comedy works, whilst both guys are good enough workers that the match ends up being pretty entertaining. They even manage to make a ridiculous early spot involving EY doing a headstand in the corner look logical. Robbie E takes control following a huge clothesline from Robbie T on the outside (I’d just like to add at this point how much I love the addition of Rob Terry as Robbie’s bouncer. The dynamic is great, Terry is definitely improving as a worker and they’d be my choice as next tag team champs. Plus the new cordon entrance is ace). Robbie being on offence allows us to run the whole gamut of brilliant facial expressions from the challenger, especially the look of demented glee when he thinks he’s going to get the pin on EY. Robbie may go a bit too long with the chinlocks, but they lead to a Young comeback that shows just what a good wrestler he actually is, first reversing a Robbie dive into a nice belly-to-belly suplex, then hitting a fantastic top rope elbow that puts CM Punk’s to shame. EY hits both Robbies with a dive from the top rope to the floor, but gets clotheslined to the leg by Big Robbie as he gets into the ring, leading to a nasty bump and the Robbie E cover for the win. Plenty of fun here.

Mexican America vs Ink Inc & Toxxin
The MA team consists of Hernandez, Anarquia and Sarita, with the rules stating that MA can lose the tag titles if any of them get pinned. You know how there has been news recently that TNA wanted Jesse Neal to go to OVW to develop his skills? This match shows why, because he is outright bad at points here. His strikes barely graze the Mexican boys, and he almost falls over Hernandez at one point. This is in direct contrast to Shannon Moore who works a pretty fun, smooth section with Anarquia, whose bumping and stooging here is terrific. MA have a pretty nice double team move where Hernandex holds up Neal outside the ring to allow Anarquia to dropkick him through the ropes to the floor. Sarita and Toxxin gets their moment in the sun, and both look pretty good out there, enough that you feel a one-on-one match would be worth a 5 minute spot on Impact. Anarquia comes in and even bumps around for Toxxin, who somehow manages to conspire with Neal to blow the moment where they reveal the tattoo they gave Anarquia a month ago. They’ve built this up for weeks, and now the audience STILL have no idea what is supposed to be on his back. Anarquia, bless him, sells it anyway, and Sarita nails Toxxin with a belt shot to win. Really poor match up, and you can lay 80% of that on Neal.

Austin Aries vs Kid Kash vs Jesse Sorenson
Last time I wrote about TNA, I talked about how Sorenson looked promising, but bland and green. Here, I thought he was terrific. He’d still benefit from developing a little character, but his work here was really good, looking believably competitive against two veterans, which is even more impressive considering this is essentially a two-on-one match. Kash especially takes great pleasure in chopping the shit out of him, to the extent that Sorenson is bleeding from the chest by the end. Sorenson makes the most of his hope spots, hitting a nice tope on both men early on, before getting overwhelmed by the numbers. It’s probably redundant to talk about how awesome Aries is, but he really is magnificent. I especially loved him leaving the hard work to Kash in the ring, chiming in with the occasional chop or boot to put Sorenson down again. Unfortunately, Kash keeps forgetting “the plan”, and the arguments give Jesse a chance to take over. He hits Michael McGillicutty’s swinging neckbreaker better than McGillicutty himself and really looks like he could pull off the upset. Kash hits him with the Money Maker, but Aries, sneaking round the ring, puts Jesse’s foot on the rope to break the count. Then, whilst Kash argues with the ref, Aries creeps in and rolls him up for three. All round good stuff, and a really well worked three way.

Rob Van Dam vs Christopher Daniels
This is No DQ, but Daniels cuts a good promo pre-match, making a gentleman’s agreement with “Bob” to make it a straight up wrestling match. Then RVD outwrestles him, which is exactly how the match should work, making the heel look like a fool. Daniels does get to take control, working RVD’s head and neck over, before hitting a Death Valley Driver for two. Daniels gets frustrated as RVD takes control again, and makes to walk out before Van Dam stops him. Daniels takes a nice bump, getting hiptossed onto the ramp, before RVD hits the barricade legdrop from the ramp. This is pretty much the first thing RVD does which mixes up his usual offence, as he’s been pretty much going through the motions to this point. Daniels breaks the gentleman’s agreement, using first Earl Hebner then a steel chair as a weapon, hitting a uranage on the chair for two. He goes to get a screwdriver from under the ring, but stupidly leaves RVD in the ring with a chair, leading to a Van Daminator and a 5 Star Frogsplash for the RVD win. Story was good, ring work was passable.

Crimson vs Matt Morgan
I bet Matt Morgan finds it frustrating that people ask him “if he could beat Crimson everywhere he goes” as Tenay nonsensically claims early on here. They try some of the typical Battle of the Giants spots early on – the duelling shoulderblocks, the test of strength – but nothing gets a reaction until Morgan hits a decent discus clothesline. This match is really plodding. A weak brawling section outside is terrible, and Morgan hits his corner elbow barrage like he’s terrified of cracking some eggs. Crimson did one thing that really impressed me, hitting Morgan with a Cobra Clutch legsweep, which he then rolls through with to wear Morgan out on the mat, but everything else is really poor. He even manages to blow his own finisher. An “epic” strike exchange starts off ok, but they they start throwing pathetically light blows at each other, before pushing the ref away for a wretched double DQ. That they continue brawling afterwards with the same blows that couldn’t burst a bubble is the dogshit icing on a terrible cake.

Scott Steiner & Bully Ray vs Abyss & Mr Anderson
The pre-match promo from Steiner and Ray is terrific, terrific stuff. The heel team is infinitely more fun than the faces, with Bully a magnificent shit-talking heel throughout the match. Seeing how Bully Ray has gotten himself into really good shape (dig his calf flexing on the entrance ramp!) really highlights how average Anderson’s physique is. The match as a whole is pretty average, but what is really entertaining is how into Steiner the fans are, and how much he tries to stop them. Every “We want Steiner” chant is met with either a “Shut up!” or the finger. Seriously, it’s amazing to watch. The heat section on Anderson goes on for age, which is wise to keep Abyss looking strong. Abyss works really well here as a hot tag wrestler, looking like a beast and rampaging through Steiner and Ray. The match end when Steiner gives the fans what they want with a Frankensteiner off the top on Anderson, but walks into a Black Hole Slam for the win. Forgettable tag, but the Steiner chants were hella fun.

Velvet Sky vs Gail Kim
This is for the Knockouts title. Velvet attacks to start, but Gail soon takes over with some vicious kicks. Gail hits an ace diving corner charge and maintains her advantage. Velvet is spirited in her comeback, but her offence looks really low-impact, to the extent you can’t imagine it would put Kim down. Sky hits a sitout Pedigree, but Karen Jarrett distracts the ref to allow Madison Rayne to sneak in and botch her finisher on Velvet for a two count. More Rayne interference allows Gail to hit Eat Defeat to win the title. This was passable.

Jeff Hardy vs Jeff Jarrett
This is more angle than match, but it’s a fun little deal. After months of chastising Hardy and refusing to give him another shot, Hardy beats Jarrett in seconds following a Twist of Fate. Following this, Jarrett finds himself forced to beg Hardy for another shot at him, which Hardy accepts. A slightly longer match follows, which Hardy wins again with a small package off a figure four attempt. Jarrett bludgeons Hardy with a chair after the match and drags him into the ring to demand Earl Hebner counts a pinfall on Hardy, only for Hardy to reverse the pinfall into a crucifix to win his third match of the night.

AJ Styles vs Bobby Roode
AJ comes into the match with a bum ankle, so that this match turns out as good as it does is a miracle. Roode is already bringing the stalling back into his act, which kinda makes sense with his desperation not to lose his world title. Taz and Tenay actually have a good exchange on commentary about how Roode is having to get used to wrestling singles after his lengthy tag run. Styles takes command early on, but Roode manages to take control after using Brian Hebner as a weapon, pushing him into Styles. AJ fires back, and sprints to the top turnbuckle for a suplex in a cool spot (even moreso with his ankle issues), but his attempt at getting the Styles Clash is reversed into a crossface by Roode, which looks really good. The battle for the Clash comes up again a little later in the match, where AJ realises he’s not going to be able to hook Roode into it properly, so instead changes it into a shortlift powerbomb, which is a nice touch of realism. Roode is really developing the heel mannerisms nicely, managing to low-blow both Styles AND Hebner at the same time, before begging off from Styles when he doesn’t manage to maintain control. Roode gets sent outside, but manages to avoid a suicide dive, where AJ lands with a sick thud. Back in, a Roode Fisherman suplex gets two, before Roode manages to reverse a third Clash attempt into a roll-up for the win, whilst grabbing a handful of tights. It sort of lacked something, but the story it told worked really well and AJ, bar the occasional grab of his leg, showed no real ill effects of his injury. The rematch next month should be terrific.

TNA Destination X 2011

Kazarian vs Samoa Joe
The crowd here are VERY pro-Joe, with a smattering of boos everytime Kaz gets some offence in. Joe dominates the vast majority of the match after Kaz makes the poor decision to attack him at the bell. Joe beats him up inside the ring and out, including casually moving out of the way when Kaz tries a dive from the apron. Kazarian does a good job of fighting from underneath, landing occasional blows to show he’s still alive, but it’s not until he nails Joe with a high springboard dropkick that he gets some real offence in. Kaz loses a strike exchange with Joe, so wisely decides to use his speed to stay ahead, nailing Joe with a few springboard moves. Joe regain control though, and nails his still-impressive suicide dive. Joe locks in the Kokina Clutch, but Kaz makes the ropes. A second attempt, delayed by Joe arguing with the ref, is reversed by Kaz and leads to a victory roll for the Kazarian win. Decent opener, with Joe getting to look like a killer, but Kaz getting the win by surviving.

Douglas Williams vs Mark Haskins
Haskins is the mystery opponent for Williams, an opponent none of the crowd have heard off. Still, this shouldn’t give them the right to be total dicks, which unfortunately, they are. For despite putting in a good performance, they shit all over Haskins. The opening sequence is particularly fun, with Williams slightly dominating on the mat, but still falling prey to a couple of pinfall attempts. Williams is larger and more experienced, so it makes sense he controls much of the match, but Haskins does some really nice stuff. I especially like the way that, when Williams hits him with a forearm to break a hold, Haskins replies with a straight headbutt. Haskins also takes a nasty looking bump on the ring apron. Haskins does slip a couple of times (which the crowd shit on him for), firstly in the middle of an otherwise smooth sequence of offence whilst trying a springboard clothesline, and secondly when trying for a Shooting Star Press, though this plays into the finish: having wasted a few seconds by slipping, he misses the SSP and Williams rolls him up for 3. A pretty good match, a terrible crowd.

Generation Me vs Eric Young & Shark Boy
Pretty much pure filler, though it does provide a timely reminder of just how good Eric Young is. He works a terrific sequence with Max Buck, before GenMe take over on Sharky. GenMe’s double-team offence is pretty fun, but this is just short fun and, after another excellent display by EY, Max falls prey to a Chummer and a wheelbarrow cutter for the win.

Robbie E vs Alex Shelley vs Amazing Red vs Shannon Moore
I’m going to be honest from the start here: Robbie E has swiftly become one of my favourite guys to watch in TNA. For an average-decent worker saddled with a goofy lower-midcard gimmick, he’s really making the most of it to become really fun to watch. He’s a really good seller, as well as using the goofy D-Von Dudley “seizure” sell when he takes harder bumps, which he does plenty of here. I also appreciated a bit early on where Shelley smugly pushes Red, who is tied up in the corner, only for Red to spit back at him, showing a bit of hate in what could otherwise be simply a spotfest. Moore is a bit dull, but wins me over by stealing the Finlay “apron grab” spot to stop some Robbie E offence. This isn’t quite as non-stop as previous Ultimate X matches, but is still pretty fun. Robbie earns some bonus points with me by stopping midway across the cables for a quick fistpump. He gets knocked down from the cables, prompting another seizure-sell, and Red and Moore both climb up looking to grab the X. Moore actually climbs to the top of the X rigging and kicks down to knock Red off the cable, but this has given Shelley ample time to make his own way to the centre and he drags Moore down to claim victory for himself. Not the best Ultimate X, but as the PPV wasn’t sold around this match (which they often are), it’s not as important. This felt more like a fun, midcard match than a show-stealer, but is still worth a watch.

Rob Van Dam vs Jerry Lynn
The first few minutes of the match consists of very little offence, more a series of reversals and counters to put over how well these two know each other. This ends in a total stalemate, which allows Lynn to show just a little frustration. RVD opens the ropes to let him back in following a trip to the outside, but Lynn attacks him on a handshake to become the defacto heel for the match. This makes sense to me, giving the match a bit of intensity rather than it being an exhibition. Also, as RVD has to wrestle here every week, making Lynn the heel is the right thing to do. Lynn hits a nice cannonball from the apron, which is pretty nuts for a man in his 40’s with a bad back. RVD regains control and looks for the 5*, but Lynn recovers quickly and sends him off the top to the barricades. Lynn’s continued frustration leads to him grabbing a chair and a nice spot where Van Dam ducks the chair shot, but Lynn uses his familiarity with him to avoid the legsweep and drop a leg on RVD’s head, sending him face first to the chair. Lynn tries another chairshot, but this time RVD hits the Van Daminator and the 5* for the win. It’ll come as no surprise to learn that 10 years of injuries and knocks have slowed the pace of this match-up down, but this was still plenty good and Lynn looked especially good considering how worn down he is.

Austin Aries vs Zema Ion vs Low-Ki vs Jack Evans
I always struggle to write up matches like this, so don’t expect too much play-by-play. This is a terrifically fast match up where stuff is going on at all times, but crucially is all arranged in a way that make perfect sense. The added bonus is that the spots are all really crisp. No-one really gets an advantage to start, until Aries manages to hit flying nail-rakes on all three guys. Because the winner gets a TNA contract, we get a lot of quick pinfall attempts getting broken up, the best example being a rolling bridge from Low Ki on Aries, which gets broken by Evans leaping from off-screen onto the exposed Low Ki. There is also a terrific moment where Low Ki is outside and the other three all want to hit a dive on him. Evans gets cut off by Ion, who in turn gets cut off by Aries. Aries then tries a dive himself, by which time Low Ki has recovered and greets him with a big kick to the head. Aries is subtly positioned as the heel through his arrogance and posturing. After 10 minutes of action, we get to the ending sequence which includes Ion hitting a 450 splash on Low Ki, Evans getting knees to the back while attempting a 630 on Ki, before Aries hits Low Ki with a brainbuster for the win. I like the fact that they didn’t use the least known guy (Ion) as the guy to drop the fall, instead putting him on a level with the other three. Very fun match.

Brian Kendrick vs Abyss
Kendrick bounces like a pinball off Abyss on a crossbody attempt right at the start, putting across pretty clearly the size difference. Abyss soon dominates and actually gets to look like a monster for a change, while Kendrick keeps trying to fight back, which nicely shows his fighting spirit. The whole Sun Tzu bit is slightly silly, but it does provide a realistic opening for Kendrick to make his comeback, dropkicking Abyss and busting him open. Kendrick shows some real fire on his comeback, including a nice suicide dive, but Abyss smoothly reverses a Sliced Bread attempt into Shock Treatment. A slightly telegraphed ref bump leads to Kendrick hitting Sliced Bread before the inevitable chicanery. Bischoff comes down, only to get knocked out by Kendrick, before Gunner, Scott Steiner and Bully Ray come down to beat up Kendrick. The X Division guys come to make the save, and Kendrick reverses a chokeslam into a victory roll to win the X Division title. I actually enjoyed this and feel the interference didn’t hurt Kendrick here: he clearly had Abyss beaten before the ref bump and he’s the one who got beaten up by Immortal while the X Division guys never touched Abyss.

AJ Styles vs Christopher Daniels
Following the RVD/Lynn match, we get another face/face respect match. Jeremy Borash makes a nice point on commentary, highlighting how both guys have children named after the other one. Like RVD/Lynn, both guys know each other very well and a nice sequence where both manage to evade a dive attempt by the other highlights this. Also, neither guy hits any high impact offence in the opening parts of the match, instead trying to outwrestle the other. As you’d expect, there are some very smooth sequences, including AJ rolling out of the ring to escape a hold, only to be met straight away with a Daniels suicide dive. Daniels gets a little more aggressive than AJ when he gains the advantage, hitting three back suplexes in a row. AJ takes this a a cue to start hitting a bit more vigourously, nailing a pescado to Daniels’ back, where Borash highlights how AJ will know about the broken bone in Daniels’ back. It’s in ways like this that the match slowly evolves from exhibition to full-on match and, while it may not reach the classic status TNA hoped for, it’s still a great main event. The end sees a BME attempt meeting AJ’s knees, leading to a Styles Clash for two. Daniels then gets knees up on a springboard 450 attempt, but Angels Wings only gets two for him. Styles manages to knock Daniels from the top rope and hit a spiral tap for the win (a move, Borash points out, won him his first X Division title. Seriously, get JB back every month). A fitting way to end what has been, surprisingly, a really good PPV.