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. 

Pro Wrestling Chaos - Everyone Must Stand Alone

Mr Bananas vs Bison Brody

 Squash for Brody, who looks impressive in victory. Massive gutwrench suplex looks terrific, before Brody hits a press-slam into a World’s Strongest Slam to win.

Ian Williams vs Grado

Williams is playing the role of snivelling cowardly heel, so it’s fun to watch Grado messing with him. The weedy loudmouth vs the lovable everyman is a perfect dynamic. Williams blocks off Grado’s bionic elbow twice before taking control, so it gets a nice reaction when Grado eventually hits it during his comeback. Williams is fine of offence, if not especially exciting, but he left Grado get sympathy. Williams tries to escape after taking a trio of bionic elbows, but gets blocked off by Gideon. Williams re-enters the ring and Grado nails a F5 to win.

Gideon vs Big Grizzly

Fun big man bout here. Williams has stayed at ringside to assist Grizzly, and is a constant presence during the bout. Grizz has some nice offence in his repertoire, with a big legdrop and Samoan drop both looking impressive. I liked the German suplex Gideon hit during his comeback – it wasn’t based around him improbably picking up the big man, but instead he allowed Grizz to rebound back from the ropes, and took him over using momentum. Still looks impressive without diminishing Grizzly’s size. Dug the finishing stretch too – Williams’ interference allowed Grizz to remove a turnbuckle pad whilst the ref was distracted, but a kendo shot from Williams accidentally hit Grizz, Gideon got into position and flatlinered Grizzly into the exposed buckle and finally hit a GTS to win. Made Gideon look smart to get into position for the turnbuckle flatliner, and helps keep Grizzly’s aura – it took three big shots to the head to keep him down. Good stuff.

Massive Party (Chuck Cyrus & Robbie Caine) vs Steele Dragons (Alex Steele & Eddie Dennis)

Decent enough match, which although maybe not technically perfect, is carried along by the fun nature of the stooging, goofy heels, the popularity and amiability of the Dragons and sticking to standard tag formula. Massive Party are working a meathead partying gimmick, and I dug them having a celebratory dance when a Dennis clothesline doesn’t faze them, only to receive two double eyepokes. Dennis plays FIP, and I dug Steele as the hot tag, using his speed advantage to outsmart Massive Party. Dennis hits his ever-impressive fallaway slam/Samoan Drop combo on the heels, and the stereo dives by the faces looked good. Massive Party get to blitz Steele with a few nice moves in a good finishing sequence, but a Steele superkick into a Next Stop Driver gets the win.

Mike Bird vs Trevor Lee

This was really good. Just felt like these two worked well together, both in character work and in the ring. Bird’s increasing frustration at Lee’s pre-match dancing led to an early strike exchange, with Bird nailing a nasty looking headbutt. Bird lures Lee into charging at him and nails a hot shot to take control, before wearing him down with some basic, but well executed offence. Bird takes too long threatening a clothesline however, and eats a uranage for two. Loved how Lee kept hold of Bird’s arm on the pin attempt and rolled through into a Fujiwara armbar, nice fluid sequence. Also a big fan of Lee’s penalty kick on the apron, he gets a full exaggerated extension on the leg to really emphasise the move. Lee gets the sudden win with a moonsault slam, which feels effective as a flash move to get the pin from nowhere. Could easily have watched another 5 minutes.

Panda Cub vs Flash Morgan Webster

Webster attacks Cub from behind to start, as this one kicks off with some real intensity. Webster in particular just lays in the headbutts to Cub. Hadn’t seen much of Panda Cub before, but I dug him here, nice flip senton and a reverse rana for a really nearfall. Webster is really good at being unlikable, so much so that you wonder how he ever gets booked as (a really likable) face. Cub misses a top rope splash and Webster locks in the Strangler to win. Webster is higher up in the hierarchy than Cub, but he really made him look good in defeat.

Pete Dunne vs Johnny Kidd

This is being fought under Mountevan’s Rules, which means that once a wrestler loses control of a hold, they have to yield and let their opponent back up, with best 2/3 falls rules. Really excellent bout to watch, with the matwork being really crisp. Because punches aren’t allowed, both guys have to be really clever with reversals, and most times a hold is countered it’s due to a shift in body weight or leverage creating space to escape. Have to give credit to the commentary too, really puts across how clever both wrestlers have to be, highlighting how Dunne escapes a bodyscissors by putting his legs over Kidd’s ankles, forcing Kidd’s knees down and giving Dunne room to drive his elbows into Kidd’s knees to escape. Just beautiful stuff, and the pinfalls almost feel irrelevant to the enjoyment of the match (Pete wins the final fall by luring Kidd into the ropes and quickly schoolboying him for the win), as it’s a real treat to watch. I’ve got the Chaos show where Kidd takes on Jack Gallagher under the same rules, and I’m very excited to watch that now. Top stuff.

Wild Boar vs Jeckel

This is for Boar’s King of Chaos title. Jeckel is accompanied by Pariah Khan, kayfabe owner of Chaos, giving him a huge advantage. Thus, even though Boar is on it to start, controlling Jeckel after a suicide dive early on, Khan’s interference allows Jeckel to dominate for the most part, with the ref unable to stop it. Jeckel’s pumphandle slam and 2^nd rope legdrop both looked good, before Boar changes the momentum by rolling into Jeckel’s legs when he’s running the ropes. Really crafty counter, and it’s followed by a big senton from Boar. Jeckel is really condescending to Boar, knowing his advantage with Khan, and seems to be toying with him, which ends up backfiring as a recovered Boar is able to avoid a chairshot and instead hit a big senton which drives Jeckel into the chair face first. Sadly, we get a bullshit ending, as Khan pulls the ref out of the ring, and Jeckel tries a chair sneak attack, only succeeding in hitting the chair into his own head. The ref sees an unconscious Jeckel and Boar holding a chair and disqualifies Boar. Disappointing ending to a decent match.

AAW Windy City Classic XII 26/11/2016

ACH vs Mustafa Ali

This was a solid opener, though not the blowaway showstealer the commentary team were portraying it as. I’d never seen ACH before, and I liked some of the little touches he did, like stopping on a slid reversal of an Irish whip to sucker Ali in, then hit a sneaky kick. He’s got some heft behind him too, so his springboard splash looked painful. Ali is really fluid, loved the rolling ring entry that flows into a neckbreaker. There is one moment where ACH really obviously sets up a dive following an Ali baseball slide: ACH awkwardly clambers over the safety rail, then unsubtly pushes the rail away to make space for the landing. It’s actually all for naught, as Ali manages to hit mainly chairs on his flip dive. That aside, I dug this, and I really liked the feel of the ending sequence. ACH hit a succession of moves and got two counts on each, but rather than getting frustrated or selling shock, he swiftly hit another move, not giving Ali time to recover, and eventually being rewarded with the match winning 450 splash.

The Hooligans, Buck Nasty & Connor Braxton vs The Wet Bandits (Markus Crane & Dan Lawrence), Kongo Kong & Colt Cabana

With big indy 8 man matches, it gives you a chance to check out a load of guys you’ve not seen before and to remember names to look for/avoid on future indy cards, and I got guys for both lists here. Hard to get a grip on the Hooligan’s gimmick, they’re wearing overalls and no shoes like your typical hillbilly wrestler, but those overalls are covered in punk rock patches. The first half of this match is filled with some insufferable cutesy comedy nonsense, led mainly by the Wet Bandits. It’s not until the heel team finally get to work some heat on Crane that things pick up. Loved the nasty looking body shots by the Hooligans and the long flurry of chops and punches they inflict on him in the corner. They also hit a nice 2^nd rope legdrop/standing moonsault combo, which was impressive from such stocky guys. Kong I’d heard a lot about, and I loved him picking up Lawrence, his own partner, as a weapon to hit a rolling senton on three opponents in the corner. Braxton and Kong hit opposing simultaneous fallaway slams/Samoan drops, whilst both holding two wrestler, which is impressive, albeit a little too cutesy. Cabana and Kong hit top rope splashes on the Hooligans to win. Final scorecard: Hooligans and Kong – like to see more of, Braxton and Nasty – seemed fine, Wet Bandits – insufferable. Not too bad.

Kimber Lee vs Mercedes Martinez

This is for Martinez’s Shimmer title. Pretty decent match on the whole, though not without a few stumbles from both. Both played their roles well, with Kimber as face running through a nice, crisp offensive flurry to start, contrasting with Martinez heeling it up with chokes, at one point doing a double bicep pose with her leg draped over Lee’s throat. Mercedes definitely wins the battle of stiffer looking chops too. Lee’s comeback run is pretty nice, getting two off a decent swanton, but Martinez looks to have been playing possum, kneeing Lee when she tries to pick her off the mat, and hitting a Fisherman’s buster for the victory.

Alex Daniels vs Chuck Taylor vs Jake Crist

Daniels has a Ben Affleck-themed gimmick, which seems to involve him yelling Ben Affleck film titles before his moves. He seems like quite easily the best guy in this match, bumping like a maniac and hitting some lovely offence – great kneestrike to the face, loved his running slam into the corner and his strikes looked sharp. Crist’s offence was a bit shitter, he hit this really indy-tastic facebreaker that I didn’t like, but his character work was fun, doing this arsehole over-the-top mocking of Daniels’ agony after giving him a belly-to-back suplex on the ring apron. I realised this match that, though I intensely dislike Taylor, his execution of offence is actually fine, it’s just his irritating facials when selling and stupid noises he makes that puts me off. That said, his finishing Awful Waffle looked arse here. Want to see more of Daniels though.

Heidi Lovelace vs Jessicka Havok

This is an I Quit match. Like Lovelace’s gameplan here, attacking the larger Havok with a dive to the floor before the bell. Havok’s size and power advantage means she’s going to control the bulk of the bout, but Lovelace absorbs the punishment and waits until Havok makes a mistake to try and capitalise. The only thing is, she has to eat a load of punishment, getting hurled into the ringside barriers and getting folded in half with a single-leg crab. But then Havok will miss a charge into the corner, and Lovelace pounces, rolling through a crucifix in a lovely movement into a Rings of Saturn. Havok’s kicks are a bit soft, but this kinda helps explain how Lovelace is able to recover despite taking big shots like a Stretch Muffler tangled in the ropes. Havok sets up a load of chairs in the ring to hit a top rope Air Raid Crash, but again this gives Heidi time to recover, escaping to hit a sunset powerbomb through the chairs and then choking Havok out with a chair on a Camel Clutch to win. Really well laid out match, enjoyed this a lot.

Eddie Kingston, Homicide & Low Ki vs Brian Cage, Drago & Pentagon Jr

This has the feel of a dream match, but takes an interesting twist early on due to what seems to be a legit injury suffered by Low Ki. Ki ends up on the floor outside with Homicide checking on him, putting Kingston at a 3-on-1 disadvantage (during which time he suffers the indignity of Pentagon hitting a top rope stomp to his nuts). With Ki still hurt, Homicide and Kingston manage to isolate Drago, the smallest of their opponents, and look utterly badass in the process, taunting Cage and Pentagon and battling against the odds. Low Ki recovers enough to get into the matched, and one-legged Low Ki, with Homicide’s bandana tied around his leg to offset the pain, headbutting Drago manages to look even more of a hardcase than his team-mates. Kingston’s character work here is excellent, selling every minor outrage as a personal insult. Ki gets isolated, but everything breaks down when Homicide and Kingston come to the aid of their injured comrade. After a big finisher train, Ki hits Drago with a shotgun dropkick and a top rope stomp to win. Lots of fun here.

Zack Sabre Jr vs Trent Baretta

Interesting bout here. Liked the early stages, where Baretta is ever so hesitant to lock up with Zack, so pokes him in the eye to take control. There’s a bit where ZSJ has to lie on the mat for ages after a back elbow so Baretta can hit some terrible comedy move, but then this leads to angry ZSJ just working the shit out of Trent’s neck. Baretta then misses a charge in the corner, jarring his elbow, and he’s really in the ring with the worst possible man for that. Zack does some lovely arm work, including kicking the arm when tied up in the railings, and I love the way he ground his elbow into Trent’s spine to force him to the mat to take more punishment. Baretta’s selling of the arm is inconsistent, and Zack actually sells a neck injury more, suffering a Jig’N’Tonic and a cradle piledriver, both for two counts. In the end, ZSJ ties Baretta up on the mat and gets the submission. Baretta didn’t feel in the same ballpark as Zack offensively, which made it harder to accept 50/50 strike exchanges toward the end, but this was still fine.

Trevor Lee & Andrew Everett vs The Besties In The World (Davey Vega & Mat Fitchett)

This is for the AAW tag titles, held by Fitchett and Vega. Probably the weakest match on the card, unfortunately, just a bit too unstructured and sloppy. It starts with a dance-off, which is never a good sign, and features too much comedy nonsense. A plethora of those double team moves where through some convoluted machinations a wrestler ends up hitting a big move on his partner that never look good. Lee is very much the standout here, loved him running the ropes and suddenly switching direction to hit a baseball slide dropkick at a different angle. He even makes a double rana look decent. Everett hits a big insane dive over the ring post which also looks good. Ultimately, this isn’t very interesting and the end sees Fitchett unrealistically reposition himself to take Everett’s match-winning shooting star press.

Sami Callihan vs Chris Hero

Callihan is the defending AAW champion here. Loved Hero hitting a senton right off the bat here, giving him an early advantage over the winded Sami. Really like how Sami isn’t able to get any sustained offence in the match unless he cheats, only for his sudden cockiness to back fire – he fakes an injury to sneak attack Hero, only to celebrate and get punched in the chops. He takes advantage with an eyepoke, but again takes his time attacking and again Hero takes control. Any time Sami takes over, Hero is only one strike from recovering. It’s not until Sami takes out Hero’s leg that he’s able to get sustained control. A vicious chair shot to Hero’s leg looks nasty, and Hero’s size means that a leg injury is the best way to keep him down. Hero keeps firing back with elbows and kicks, but his leg gives out on another elbow attempt, and Sami has him in trouble. Hero hits a big piledriver, but isn’t able to cover, and Sami is actually in the perfect position to grab Hero’s leg and lock in a Stretch Muffler for the victory. Really good stuff.

TNA Bound For Glory 2015

Those of you who were reading this blog in it's formative days might have noticed I used to review a lot of TNA. In the days when I had minimal internet access and way before I had a load of streaming channels available, I had to basically rely on what I had available which, due to Lovefilm and Challenge TV, was mainly TNA. But until today, I'd not watched any recent TNA in a couple of years. I'd recorded this back in October, but never gotten round to watching it. However, having the house to myself for the weekend meant I worked through some of the stuff on my Skybox, and I decided to give TNA another go...

Tigre Uno vs Andrew Everett vs Manik vs DJZ

This is an Ultimate X match for Uno’s X Division title. Uno actually looks really sloppy at the start, with an attempted tornado DDT on Manik barely connecting. The crack TNA camera crew manage to miss a DJZ dive, before Everett hits all four men with a springboard shooting star to the floor. I like that it Everett who was the first up from that and going for the title, made it look like a wise tactical move. I like that as all four guys have taken some offence, they start going for the title believing the others might be suitably worn down, though Uno deciding against going for the X to hit a 450 to the floor on DJZ seems a bit dumb. The end sees Uno and Everett both at the title and Everett taking a huge bump to the mat to let Uno retain. Nothing spectacular, but a fun opener

Number One Contender’s Gauntlet

This seemed to be basically a “get everyone else on the card” match, and really wasn’t up to much. Too many generic looking wrestlers in black trunks not really doing much. It gets to the point where the arrival of Aiden O’Shea and Robbie E boost things a whole lot, with unique looks and, in Robbie’s case, a sudden burst of energy to the match. You also get the likes of Tommy Dreamer and Al Snow turning up and getting better reactions than the rest of the roster. It’s most glaring during a mid-match comedy spot where everyone does the Sheera Shuffle and the audience simply doesn’t care. Pope entering the match, realising that the only wrestlers not down were Abyss and Tyrus, who were both looking at him, and immediately exiting did raise a smile. The final two are Mr Anderson and Tyrus, which sees Tyrus basically no-sell Anderson’s offence and hit a thumb to the throat to win. Totally skippable.

The Wolves vs Trevor Lee & Brian Myers

This started off pretty evenly, until Lee hits a swank looking moonsault slam on Richards to take control. A large part of this match was fought in classic tag team formula, and when Lee and Myers worked heat on the Wolves, it was really good. Myers isn’t a particularly flashy wrestler, but he’s good at working tag formula, be it grounding his opponent to reduce the chance of them tagging out, or luring Richards into the ring to allow a beatdown on Edwards, grinning over the refs shoulder at Davey. This also led to the second hot tag of the night, as the sight of a recovering Edwards led both Myers and Lee tried to attack Richards on the apron, who dropped down, causing the heels to turn round to a shit looking two person rana by Edwards. I also liked the build of Myers stopping Richards diving on Lee, before Edwards sends Myers outside and the Wolves hit a double dive. Nice pay off. Sadly things do break down a bit in the final minutes, with just a load of moves leading to Richards pinning Lee with a brainbuster, but the meat of this bout was really fun.

Bobby Lashley vs Bobby Roode

Bit of a disappointment this one. I actually thought Lashley looked better than I remembered him, had good movement and some of his offence looked really good. I also liked his game plan of ramming Roode’s shoulder into the ringpost  and concentrating on it with a repeated keylock. However, it was the layout of the match that didn’t work. After Lashley dominated (included impressively plucking Roode out of midair and hitting a powerslam), he then hit a spear for two. Right away, Roode gets up and hits a Roode Bomb for 2. No build, just hoists a massive guy onto his injured shoulder and hits his finisher. From there, we get some awkward submission trading, both guys hitting the other’s finisher then Roode hitting another Roode Bomb for the win. Real anti-climax.

Gail Kim vs Awesome Kong

Match of the night to this point. Kong just plays brickwall to start, with Kim bouncing off her. I liked Kim instead going to the knee of Kong, slowing her down to give Kim time to hit a moonsault. I loved Kim locking a leglock on Kong then, realising Kong might make the ropes, switching to a front facelock. Really great looking nearfall as Kong blocks a top rope rana and instead hits a 2^nd rope splash. On the outside, Kim takes a nutty bump as Kong hits the Implant Buster on some chairs. Getting her back inside means Kong only gets a two from it, so tries for a top rope Implant Buster, which Kim reverses to a top rope Eat Defeat for the win. Really liked this, all logical work.

Eric Young vs Kurt Angle

This is a no DQ match, and the first few minutes of this were really good, some nasty looking brawling on the floor. Then Young hits a piledriver on Angle and it all goes to shit. They work an injury angle, with one doctor telling the ref to call off the match. Instead of doing that, the ref watches Angle get walked to the back, before Young assaults all the medical staff and drags Angle back to the ring. For some reason, the ref decides not to call off this match and allows Young to keep working over Angle’s severely injured neck. Some of Young’s offence looks suitably dickish. Loved him hitting a top rope elbow, then flipping Angle over and hitting an elbow right to the neck. Angle’s offence seems to rely mainly on German suplexes. I did think the end was good, with Angle managing to lock on the Ankle Lock. Young managed to grab the bottom rope, but was told there was no DQ for Kurt holding onto the move, and Angle dragged him back into the middle for the tapout.

EC3 vs Matt Hardy vs Drew Galloway

Main event and match of the night. Really well worked triple threat, and thankfully contained the bare minimum of “one man lies of the floor whilst the other two fight” spots. What it did have was a succession of great looking bumps and big spots that paid off. EC3 started the trend by driving himself and Hardy through the ropes to the floor to reverse a Twist of Fate, before Galloway follows them out with a massive tope. Galloway then reversed an attempted powerbomb through a table by EC3 to a Celtic Cross on the ring steps. Absolutely mental spot. I didn’t like Hardy deciding to try a backslide on Galloway, as it seemed to only happen to allow Drew to reverse to the Futureshock DDT. Another nutty spot as EC3 suplexed Hardy from the apron to the floor, through a table that Galloway was laying on. However, the failure of his big spots to earn him the win would cost EC3. After a double 1%er failed to earn him the win, he snapped, trying to provoke ref Jeff Hardy into assaulting him with a chair. It worked, as Jeff nailed him with the chair, causing Galloway to boot him out of the ring, only for Matt to hit the Twist of Fate to win the title. Really fun three way, and crucially all the big spots hit.