Here’s a review from Joe Collins…I have to say, his description of the Fight For The Right tournament doesn’t even begin to cover how ridiculously confusing and overbooked the whole mess was. If you want to do Sting v. Abyss, just do Sting v. Abyss. The rest of the show, particularly trying to turn Jarrett FACE and the short LAX-Naturals match, wasn’t much better.
I’m going to give this a try. No promises if I can do this more than a week at a time, but I figured after the big show and all maybe they’ll be some pretty good follow-up.
Clips from all the Bound for Glory matches open the show. They then announce they’re going to blow their wad with Kurt Angle right away, as it’s Angle v. Samoa Joe for the first time at Genesis.
New NWA World Champion Sting comes out to celebrate, but Christian Cage is in the ring to run him down. There’s some kind of 18-man tournament to determine the new #1 Contender for the championship (to get the shot at Genesis), but Cage believes he shouldn’t have to compete in this tourney. Cage thinks Sting is scared & terrified. Cage wants to a title shot at Genesis (since he never lost it and he never received a rematch). Sting agrees to give him a title match, but not a Genesis, when Sting wants to give him one. Sting then bats him, quoting Tony Montana before he does it. Sting/Cage is a natural main event for Genesis, but this is TNA so it won’t happen. Crowd chanted for Samoa Joe half-way though the exchange.
Jeremy Boash lets us know that Kurt Angle will be in the IMPACT ZONE to address the fans for the first time (didn’t he do that last week?). Samoa Joe interrupts… I forget what he said but I’m pretty sure it was implied that IT’S ON with him and Angle at some point tonight.
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Match 1 (NWA World Tag Team Championship):
The Naturals (w/ Shane Douglas) v. LAX (w/ Konnan)
The promote the burgeoning LAX/AMW feud in pre-match clips, which tells you exactly what kind of shot AMW has in this one. And in fact, the America’s Most Wanted attacks LAX and Konnan before the start of the match. But, when they toss them into the ring security jumps Chris Harris & James Storm and drags them from the ring.
Match is so exciting the commentators are plugging Angle/Joe at Genesis and a Jeff Jarrett interview later tonight. This was a nothing match, going about three minutes and ending after Homicide KILLS Chase Stevens DEAD with the Gringo Killers and Hernandez nails Andy Douglas with a border toss and Homicide covers for the pin. ½*
Post match, Shane Douglas dresses down the Naturals, smacks Chase Stevens, and Naturals both smack him back, giving Douglas a bloody lip. And Douglas smiles.
Paparazzi Productions: Alex Shelley asks Kevin Nash if he likes Austin Starr more than he likes him. Kevin, “He’s not better, he’s different.” Johnny Devine is now out of Paparazzi Productions, and I guess Austin Starr is in (and is also clearly Kevin’s favorite). If this leads to a Shelley face turn, I might be all for that.
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LAX is heaving featured in the Genesis commercial.
Don West and Mike Tenay show off the World Series program with an interview from AJ Pierz… Perize… um, the guy from the White Sox that was at Against All Odds.
Here’s the deal with the Fight for the Right tournament:
Stage 1 − 18 men in a reverse battle royal on the floor. In a reverse battle royal, instead of being in the ring and getting tossed to the floor, you start on the floor and are trying to get over the top rope and in the ring. The seven guys who make it into the ring will move right into stage 2.
Stage 2 − The 7 guys that make it in go into a regular battle royal. Five men will be tossed, setting up a bracket (along with the loser of stage 3).
Stage 3 − The last two guys in Stage 2 go at it in a one-on-one match, the winner getting a bye to the finals, and the loser joining the rest of the guys who were tossed out in stage 2.
Stage 4 − The six guys eliminated in stages 2 and 3 wrestling in a mini-tournament, ending in a triple-treat match.
Stage 5 − The winner of the battle royal v. the winner of the triple threat match.
If Dusty Rhodes is reading a description of this, he’s going “Damn, that complicated.”
Match 2 (Fight for the Right Stage 1):
18-man reverse battle royal
OK, so I’ve already lost track of this thing. So far Robert Roode and Chris Sabin are in. The Fallen Phenoms work together and enter together to be the third and fourth entrants. Abyss makes it in while D-Von keeps Christian Cage from getting in. Lance Hoyt just kind of walks in and there’s one slot left. Cage almost makes it in, but Rhyno (not a participant)runs in and takes him out, and Ron Killins gets the last slot. The fact that they managed to come up with an even more pointless concept than a regular battle royal boggles my mind. The other guys in it were Shenshi, Kip James, Jay Lethal, Raven, Brother Runt and Chris Harris, I think. Absolutely NOTHING INTERESTING happened here. DUD.
Also, right at the end of the match LAX ran in to keep up the fight with AMW. Ink that match for Genesis, too, I guess.
Stage 2 is NEXT!
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Match 3 (Fight for the Right Stage 2):
So it’s Abyss, Lance Hoyt, Christopher Daniels, Ron Killings, Chris Sabin, Robert Roode, and AJ Styles here. Commentators tell us that when TNA goes primetime on 11/16, the main event will be Christian Cage v. Rhino in a barbed-wire steel cage match. So that’s pretty cool.
Killings is eliminated first (by Sabin or Roode) and is the seventh seed. Sabin tries to hit a tornado DDT on Roode, but he reverses and dumps him to the floor as #6. If this whole thing doesn’t result a Styles/Daniels match somehow I’ll be pissed. Most interesting stuff so far is a Fallen Phenoms/Abyss exchange where the former tag champs nail him with a seat double-team. Roode floors Styles, knocking him out for a bit, and he tangles with Daniels. And of course, Roode knocks out Daniles, then Styles knocks out Roode, making Daniels #5 and Roode #4 (thus, no Styles/Daniels match). But, Styles did knock out Roode with an Pele while Roode was sitting on the 2nd rope, so that adds ¼* to the match. Abyss and Styles tangle for about a minute, and Styles goes over via a Abylss hip-toss, making him seed #3, and leaving Abyss and LANCE HOYT of all people as the remaining two guys in the ring. ¼* (Yes, the Pele bumped the match up from a DUD).
Oh, and just so where clear, whenever above I talked about how two guys were wrestling, that WAS the ONLY THING going on in the ring; everyone else was on the ground selling how grueling this match was (or something).
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Best of the X-Division Volume 2 and the Sting DVDs are plugged. I’ll be getting one.
Match 4 (Stage 3 Fight for the Right):
Abyss v. Lance Hoyt
Don West tries to sell this as a Cinderella story for Hoyt, but you’ve got to be kidding me here. He walked into the ring in stage one out of nowhere, didn’t eliminate anyone in stage 2… and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t stand a chance here. Just as a type that, Hoyt hits a big boot and a springboard moonsault for a near fall. And after seeing that, I’m wondering why in the name of God they aren’t pushing this guy to the MOON. Abyss dodges a boot and catches Hoyt with back breaker for a near fall. James Mitchell distracts the ref, and Lance Hoyt hits a Van Terminator on Abyss! HOLY CRAP. For some reason, they took a “smart” camera angle (showing the move from over Abyss’s shoulder, in case Hoyt doesn’t hit the move), then replayed it from the main camera. AWESOME. But, I mean, it’s a TAPED SHOW, just show it from the main camera. Then, out of nowhere, Abyss hits the Black Hole slam for the win. ¾*.
So, Abyss gets a bye to the finals, and the other matches are Sabin v. Killings, Daniels v. Roode, and Styles v. Hoyt. The winners of those matches go at it in a triple threat. None of those matches looks all that promising, except Styles/Hoyt (maybe). Then, the winner of that match faces Abyss in the tournament final, probably on 11/16.
I think the idea here was to showcase any many guys as possible for the new eyes that might be watching tonight after the big show on Sunday and the Kurt Angle signing, but instead it was just confusing and dull. Sometimes simple is better, and plain-old 20 man battle royal would have served the same purpose, and also f they give the win to Abyss right here (which I assume is the plan), they would’ve had 4 weeks to build to the match.
Interview with Jeff Jarrett right after Bound for Glory, who calls Sting the better man and cries, talking about going home and reflecting on how great he’s career has been, how he carried the company for four years on his back. He does hope Sting’s up to the task. This is all being designed to turn Jarrett face. The commentators now have respect for Jarrett.
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Clips from the Kurt Angle/Samoa Joe pull apart at Bound For Glory.
Here’s Kurt Angle for the main event interview. You can tell Russo is booking when your main even is an interview two weeks in a row. Some in the crowd chant for Angle. I missed last week’s pop, but this week’s pop was kind of anemic. Angle tells us that he quit WWE, he wasn’t fired or released. He quit to wrestle for the best audience in the world, the TNA crowd. He leads a TNA chant. What are they putting in the Kool-Aid in Orlando? Anyway, Angle claims that being the best in the world. Crowd starts a “Joe’s gonna kill you!” chant, and they might be right. Angle reacts to the chant smartly, admitting he IS afraid of Joe, but fear is an excellent motivator; it motivates him to break ankles. When he calls Joe a bleeder, Joe runs in and we get another pull-apart between the two. There’s like 20 security guys trying to keep them apart, and when that fails the face locker room empties to keep them apart.
Post-match “Adrenalin Rush” highlights package ends the show.
Comments:
I want to go to bed, but I think doing Angle/Joe this early is a huge mistake. I mean, yeah, it’s a dream match, but who wins and where do you go from here? I kind of think they needed to have the answer to that question before they booked the match, and I don’t think they have it right now. They’re also building to Sting/Abyss (it seems), but Sting/Cage makes much more sense.
Anyway, this show sucked pretty bad, most of the time devoted to a terrible concept match. The interviews were OK, and I like the build to Angle/Joe, even if I do think it’s a bad idea to do this soon.
