We’re coming off of an exciting PPV that saw the debut of Christian Cage. How will TNA follow-up? Will storylines advance? Will characters develop? Will the wrestling appease dirt-sheet writers will unrealistic expectations?
Boo-yah, here we go!!!
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The show begins recapping the debut the pertinent details that you need to know from last Sunday’s PPV. They show Christian Cage, Abyss & Sabu, 3 Live Kru and Shawn Michaels (err…I mean Kip “Look at how lady-like I am” James), Samoa Joe’s attack on Christopher Daniels, and (of course) the main event featuring everybody and their dog.
Now it’s time for some action.
(1) Samoa Joe destroyed Jerrelle Clark until he submitted at 1:59.
It’s interesting that TNA appears to be trying to turn Joe heel, yet the crowd continues to go crazy for him. Having Joe carry a towel down to the ring that is stained with Christopher Daniels’ blood is probably a good way to start down the heel path (as if his beat-down of Daniels last week wasn’t enough). But why make him a heel when he could be so huge as a babyface?
Poor Jerelle, though…he never stood a chance. Joe destroys Clark. DESTROYS.
Once the match is over and the crowd is divided between “Joe Joe” chants and boos, AJ Styles appears on the TNA-Tron to speak his mind. He tells Joe that he’s not happy about the way Joe turned his back on his fans and “stepped over the line” in his attack on Daniels. Because he’s so mad about it, Styles challenges Joe to a title match at the next PPV, Turning Point.
Thoughts:
This match, more than any other match that he has done in TNA thus far, really promoted Joe as a heelish monster. This was some character development that we haven’t really seen up ‘til now. Not only that, but the promo by Styles gave him more character development than I’ve seen since the debut of Impact on Spike. Just a great segment overall and hopefully a good sign of things to come from TNA.
Rating: 5/10
It was a squash match…you expected higher?
Commercial
We return and go to Mike Tenay and Don “Awww…right in the NUTS!!” West, who are talking to us about TNA happenings from last week’s PPV and already announcing matches for the next PPV. Soon, though, they are interrupted by Jeff Jarrett and Gail Kim (sigh). Jarrett wants to know who his opponent will be. Tenay tells Jarrett that Larry Zbysko is in a conference call with TNA management over just that subject. Jarrett gets upset and leaves.
SIGN OF THE NIGHT:
Are you gonna Cowboy Up or just lay there and bleed?
(2) America’s Most Wanted defeated Sonny Siaki & Apollo in 6:59.
I love it…Storm brings a bottle of beer to the ring with him. Classic!
AMW starts things off and attacks the “babyfaces that shall not be cheered”. They soon find themselves on the defensive as Siaki & Apollo perform a couple of double-team moves. AMW is quickly sent to the outside and Spike quickly fades to…
Commercial (What?? A commercial in the middle of a non-main-event match?? We’re only 47 seconds in!! Ugh.)
AJ Styles promo airs before returning to the match.
We come back from commercial and AMW are in control of Apollo. “Pussycat” chants greet Harris as he is tagged in by storm. This distracts Harris and Apollo makes the absolute weakest, poorest, most pathetic “hot tag” in the history of professional wrestling. Siaki comes in to begin the “babyface beat-down” of AMW. He’s throwing kicks and elbows and clotheslines like he was the Rock or something (if you saw him, you’d know what I’m saying…or cookin’…whatever).
Apollo superkicks Harris into Siaki’s double-knee backbreaker but they can only get a two-count from the move. Apollo then decides to launch himself over the rope onto Storm on the outside but is met by Storm smashing him in the head with his beer bottle. Brilliant! Harris then hits Siaki with a pair of brass knuckles as the referee is distracted. One Death Sentence later and it’s mercifully over.
AMW then pull out a table from under the ring and things aren’t looking good for Siaki. Harris then spray-paints “3 D” on the table and attempt to perform another Death Sentence on Siaki through the table.
The music then hits and brothers Ray and Devon run down to the ring to chase off the heels. Ray then grabs the mic and proceeds to tell AMW that at Turning Point it will be Team 3-D vs. AMW for the NWA tag team titles in a tables match. The heels look worried…the crowd seems happy…Don West says “It’s about time” (huh?).
Thoughts:
I didn’t like the match mainly because I think Apollo is abysmal in the ring. He can perform moves but has zero charisma and doesn’t seem to know the psychological aspects of the business (like proper selling, for example). However, like the first match with Joe this match really helped set up AMW as heels and the crowd responded in kind. I don’t mind the use of weapons to win because it really sets up AMW as two guys who will do anything to win.
Rating: 6/10
Meh…it was alright. Putting it into perspective…it was no worse than the Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch vs. the Hurricane & Rosey matches WWE was shoving down our throats for awhile.
Backstage Jarrett and Gail Kim (sigh) is outside of Zbysko’s office with Shane Douglas. Apparently, Larry Z is too busy on a conference call to answer the door or respond to Jarrett’s yelling. He then tells Gail Kim to call Zbysko and…oh who cares? He’s on a conference call!! If he’s not answering the door he’s sure as hell not answering the phone!
Commercial
A recap of the ups and downs of the 3 Live Kru and Kip James is shown.
Shane Douglas is backstage with the Kru and says that TNA has given them time next week to discuss the future of the group. Killings then chastises James for not informing the team about these comments beforehand. James says it’s all about change as he doesn’t want the Kru to become stagnant (uh…somebody tell him it’s too late). Konnan then delivers the line of the night:
“What are you talking about? Have you been painting in an unventilated room? Maybe you need to go back to rehab.”
Ouch.
I would like to describe more about the segment but it’s putting me to sleep. How long has this storyline been going on? I mean, we all want character development and good, strong storylines. But this is killing me! Move on, already. Please.
(3) Rhino defeated Abyss w/ James Mitchell after a GORE at 12:10.
Three matches? That’s it? I guess I shouldn’t complain, though. There was more character development and movement on storylines up ‘til now than any of the previous few weeks on Impact. Considering there’s still a Christian Cage promo to come, that’s some decent time management by TNA.
The crowd in Orlando really loves Rhino and their response to the Rhino/Abyss face-off really makes him appear to be a star. During the initial back and forth, Tenay & West discuss the upcoming barbed-wire match between Abyss and Sabu at the Turning Point PPV. Tenay then takes a blatant shot at WWE:
“Other companies have advertised barb wire matches in the past. They’ve delivered bouts where the barbed wire wasn’t even used. That’s not going to be the case December 11th at Turning Point.”
Abyss is bumping like crazy early and quickly goes to the outside. Rhino then performs a plancha over the top rope and hits Abyss on the outside. While everybody’s impressed we fade to…
Commercial
Promo airs for three of the TNA DVD’s currently available.
Back to the action and Rhino has a rest hold on Abyss. As Abyss escapes the hold, Rhino clotheslines him over the top rope and has pretty much dominated the match from the beginning. James Mitchell then tries to interfere with his cane but is stopped by Rhino. As Mitchell distracts the referee, Abyss grabs Rhino’s legs and “crotches” him into the corner post.
A “Let’s go Rhino” chant breaks out and Abyss reacts like his head is about to explode. Y’know, it’s a pretty good acting job by Abyss but it is almost a little too reminiscent of Mankind’s act at this point. If I knew Abyss’ back story, maybe I’d understand him a little more and not make the comparison.
A big boot by Abyss gets him a two-count and the crowd is hot. Abyss is then caught in a spinebuster but Rhino can only get a two-count, as well. Rhino then grabs a table from under the ring and sets it up in one of the corners. Abyss tries to fight out of the predicament he is in by whipping Rhino hard into a different corner. Rhino comes back with a belly-to-belly suplex.
Rhino then attempts to GORE Abyss through the table but ends up all alone in a pile of splinters after Abyss moves out of the way. However, this blunder only gives Abyss another two-count. As Abyss puts Rhino into a torture rack, the lights go out and Sabu is on the outside of the ring with a chair wrapped in barbed wire. As Abyss begins to freak out, he turns around and is met by a GORE by Rhino, quickly followed by the pin.
Thoughts:
It was a decent match. Not great by any means, but not terrible either.
Rating: 7/10
It was alright. Abyss needs a better partner to work with.
Backstage Jarrett and Gail Kim (sigh) finally have entered the Living Legend’s office with Douglas. Z-Man tells Jarrett that his opponent at the PPV will be Rhino as they face off in their rubber match. Jarrett yells at Z for not giving Raven a title shot or Monty Brown a title shot…claiming “fair is fair”.
Commercial
Christian Cage makes his entrance into the Impact Zone. Cage starts off his promo with a recap of his Genesis promo. If anybody in the back has a problem with it, he doesn’t really care because that’s how he rolls.
Music hits and Monty Brown comes down to the ring. He screeches like a girl and then says, “You can hit the brakes on that garbage.” Funny…I was about to say the same thing about your promo, Monty.
Brown tells Cage he’s no longer up North (which is kinda funny considering Cage is wearing a t-shirt on top of a long-sleeved shirt…must be chilly in Florida). Brown welcomes him to the Serengeti (ugh) and then proceeds to say:
“The quantity of speech is not always indicative of the quality of thought.”
WTF??
Monty Brown…you’re an idiot. Just because Raven’s not on the show doesn’t mean you can talk like him and appear to be original.
After making fun of the way Christian is dressed (and he got a pop from the crowd on that one, too), Brown proceeds to tell Cage what he plans on doing but before he can say “POUNCE” he is interrupted, much to the crowd’s delight.
Cage then throws out a cheap gay joke by telling Brown that even though Brown likes to throw his body around and pounce on men, he’s not there to judge. Cheap? Yes. Did the crowd respond? Absolutely.
Brown is then informed that he should be afraid of losing his spot and unless he’s about to knuckle up, he should find himself somebody else to POOOOUNCE…………period.
Brown doesn’t take kindly to gimmick infringement and begins putting the boots to Cage. Just as Cage is about to make his comeback he is nailed by the Pounce. We fade to black as Brown says:
“And that’s how the Alpha Male roles.”
Burn.
Thoughts:
This segment finally tried to set up Brown as a heel, which hasn’t been done since Impact debuted on Spike. In fact, I thought they were turning him face to go against Jarrett. I guess Cage’s debut changed things up a bit.
Cage, however, didn’t look like the star he should be trying to be. He looked like just another skinny guy off the street. Brown looked the part of star…although if I never hear him speak again it will be too soon.
Rating: 8/10
This set up a match at Turning Point and gave people a reason to watch. It was predictable but still entertaining. Good segment.
Commercial
Overall Show Rating: 6.5/10
***
This was another disappointing show from TNA. The main event was decent but certainly didn’t pick up the slack from the first two matches. Plus, there was absolutely NO reason why Apollo and Sonny Siaki were given 7 minutes with AMW when it should have been over in well under five. That match went way too long for who was involved and it left us with only three matches this week. Sorry, but unless at least one of those matches is up to TNA’s normal standards, I consider that a sub-par show.
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Agree with my thoughts? Disagree? You can give your opinions in two different ways. First, you can send me an e-mail at ZAH@worldwrestlinginsanity.com. Second, you can visit the Message Board, scroll down to the bottom of the page, and enter Zah’s Pit. I’d love to hear from you.
L8R.
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