In order to keep trying to bring you a better opinionated blog I will mix it up a bit and do things a little bit different. I will be trying different styles in the following pay per views so please bear with me.
Opening Thoughts:
Coming off TNA’s last two pay per views I was not really looking forward to tonight. Gimmick pay per views have never been my favorite thing but at least it would add something to the matches. Well, I have to admit that while there were some bad matches tonight, mainly the Knockout’s match and the Angle/Jarrett match which I will discuss later, I am going to go ahead and say I enjoyed the pay per view. This is not something I say often about TNA but I think they did enough tonight. Maybe it was the gimmick, maybe it was the fact that the venue was not the Impact Zone, but regardless TNA had a solid offering. Let’s go match by match shall we?
X-Division Xscape Match:
I have to say that as critical as I have been of TNA’s product in the past, one thing that always delivers is the X-Division. It is always a pleasure to watch actual wrestling action. The eight man tonight were on point and were very fluid in a match that could easily had been a convoluted mess. It would be unfair for me to highlight any one man because honestly every competitor did a phenomenal job. The ending was a little weak as TNA does too many non-clean finishes but needless to say I loved the match and it was a great opener.
Eric Bischoff Promo:
Typical Bischoff promo but I have no complaints, well a little too much Hogan praise but I guess it served to kill a bit of time.
Scott Steiner Backstage Promo:
Why does he always sound drunk? I have never been a fan of him but he always seems to get a pop. Not much to say other then it set up the match.
Ink Inc. Vs, The British Invasion Vs. Scott Steiner & Crimson Vs. Orlando Jordan & Eric Young
The match was solid and it had a good pace. Steiner got a nice pop and moved fairly well. It is hard to pin point specific actions when there are so many men inside a cage but it was another solid match and everybody did their part. Well, let me rephrase that because while I have no ill-will towards Orlando Jordan, I find nothing entertaining about him or his character. Other than that I was pleasantly surprised but happy that for once I was enjoying a TNA pay per view.
Madison Rayne Backstage Promo:
Boring but I guess it served to foreshadow that Rayne would lose her title but I though their would at least be a fight…. I thought wrong.
Mickie James Vs. Madison Rayne (C): Hair Vs. Title:
Ummmm, lame. This is no way to blow off a feud. Terrible booking by TNA. I understand the fact that Mickie was not going to lose her hair but after getting run over you’d think they would sell that a bit more. Why make the match a squash? It’s not like I was excited to see this two go at it again but if you are going to have a title match at least make it worth something.
Matt Morgan Backstage:
Damn, Matt is a huge, huge man. He does a good job of always selling his intensity and as I have said before I am a fan of The Blueprint.
The Pope Vs. Samoa Joe:
I thought the match was decent. It was slower than the previous matches but it had the intensity that the match needed to have as it told a good story about how the two men felt about each other. We also finally got a clean finish which is always good to see. There was some good, heated, exchanges and both men had their moments on top. Joe looked in shape and Pope finally got the chance to show what he has without having to do dirty tactics. I have been down on The Pope for some time now but he has very good qualities and I hope he continues to regain his good form and as much as I would love to say the same about Joe, I believe he hit his prime a few years ago but he can still be a solid mid-carder.
Mexican-America Backstage:
Served the purpose and the faction itself looks like a realistic group. No complaints here.
Hernandez Vs. Matt Morgan:
I said awhile ago that I was very excited to see a Hernandez-Morgan feud and while their “First Blood” match was a joke I had high hopes for tonight’s re-match. Tonight was a little bit better but it wasn’t great. The end of the match was well done and the feud can still continues, which I hope it does. Though, like I sad, I want Morgan to get a run at the title as he has the look and the ability to carry the strap.
Kurt Angle Vs. Jeff Jarrett: 2 Out Of 3 Falls Match:
I am really tired of this feud. The storyline is stale and tonight’s match was very anti-climatic. It was very slow apart from the end, had botches, dangerous at that, and it was just plain boring. The end sequence was a clutter with so many people interfering. Why did we need Steiner and that dude from Immortal? Why did Karen have to assist Jarrett? Why does TNA always have to have clutter finishes so frequently? I really hope this is the last match these two have together but obviously it’s just going to continue with another gimmick match somewhere down the road. Kurt Angle should be having a last run at the World Title not facing Jarrett pay per view after pay per view. As far as Jarrett goes he needs to retire. He has never drawn money and the faster he leaves my television the better.
TNA World Tittle Match: RVD Vs. Sting (C) Vs. Mr. Anderson:
Coming in into this match I really had no idea what to expect. TNA has disappointed us in the past with their main events but this match on paper had promise. I don’t know about you guys but the early stages of the match seemed very awkward, almost as if they didn’t know how to work with each other. RVD seemed in slow motion, Anderson was non-existent and Sting was doing as little as possible. The match did picked up the pace and it started to look like it would be a good match but as soon as that happen, Hogan came out. The whole pipe thing was meaningless and it was just a very cheap way to end the match. To be fair the match was better than TNA’s last two World Title offerings but it really isn’t saying much. To my surprise however this wasn’t even the main event, why? I have no idea.
Lethal Lockdown Match: Immortal Vs. Fortune:
This match should not have been the main event folks. It wasn’t that the match was bad but it was just way too scattered. I understand an 8 men match with weapons would be conducive to that but this was just not main event material. There was that one spot with Daniels which was pretty cool and Kaz continues to prove that he is the best wrestler TNA has but other than that it was just glorified violence. It was nice to see AJ make the save but it did little to the match. I personally think TNA booked the wrong main event but given their recent pay per views it wasn’t all that bad.
Closing Thoughts:
I am afraid to say TNA can build upon this because I said the same after Genesis and the next two pay per views were awful but I will go out on a limb and say, no, I will hope TNA can finally turn it around and move its product further. With WWE’s refusal to promote itself as a wrestling company anymore, TNA, who has great wrestlers can hopefully recapture fans of professional wrestling. I am one of those fans, TNA… I’m waiting.
0 comments:
Post a Comment