klunderbunker
Welcome to My (And Not Sly's) House
Final Resolution 2005
Date: January 16, 2005
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Attendance: 875
Commentators: Don West, Mike Tenay
We go way back in time for TNAs third three hour PPV. The basic idea at this point is Jeff Jarrett and thats about it. Hes defending against the winner in a triple threat between Monty Brown, DDP and Nash. We also have Ultimate X with Petey Williams, Chris Sabin and AJ. Other than that there isnt much as the company was still figuring this monthly PPV thing out. Lets get to it.
The opening video is about reaching immortality and how you do that by winning championships. AMW gets Team Canada for the titles tonight. DDP and Nash want to be immortal by beating Jarrett.
Is there a reason why the first PPV of the year is called FINAL Resolution?
Jeff Jarrett says he doesnt care who it is tonight because hes earned the right to be called King of the Mountain.
3Live Kru vs. Christopher Daniels/Kazarian/Matt Bentley
Kru is Konnan, Ron (R-Truth) Killings and BG James (Road Dogg). Konnan vs. Daniels to start us off as its X-Division vs. not X-Division I guess. The fans are all behind Daniels as I guess this is face vs. face but Im not really all that sure. Konnan looks all fired up here as he cleans house, taking Daniels down with the rolling clothesline and its all Kru here. Off to Truth and Bentley with Truth pounding away with relative ease.
James and Truth dance around a bit and stomp on Kazarian a bit. Kaz gets beaten down by James as I dont think I saw a tag. The referee wont allow a tag because Bentley was out of his corner. The X guys, who I think are heels here, take over on James with Daniels hitting a dropkick. The powers of double teaming shall not be denied! Kaz hits a slingshot dropkick ala Jeff Hardy and its off to Bentley again.
Daniels and James slug it out in the middle but James grabs a powerbomb to counter a rana and both guys are down. Off to Kaz and Truth who cleans house. Axe kick which is more with the heel than the leg but whatever. Everything breaks down and eventually everyone but Konna, James and Kaz are left in the ring. Daniels misses a moonsault to the floor, taking out Kaz instead. Back in and Truth adds a side kick to end Bentley and were done.
Rating: C. Not bad for an opening six man here as the fans were always into the Kru. I dont remember seeing Konnan moving so fast in years so I guess he was still happy at this point. Im not sure what the point of the X guys being in there was but the Kru needed three guys to beat up on I suppose and XXX was broken up so Daniels had nothing else to do.
Traci and Trinity hit on Dusty some more and theres mention of a clue hidden somewhere. Johnny Fairplay is there too and he wants to find the clue. Its so idiotic as they make Survivor jokes.
Elix Skipper vs. Sonjay Dutt
The crowd is WAY more into this than before. They speed things up right off the bat as Dutt moves all around Skipper and sends him to the floor on a double rotation headscissors. Skipper sends him into the crowd so Dutt pops up and dives on Skipper instead. Back in the ring and Sonjay has a Fujiwara Armbar which Skipper taps to which means nothing apparently because its not the scripted finish I suppose.
Springboard missile dropkick takes down Skipper for two. Time to work on the arm as the fans seem to be behind Sonjay but I cant tell what the other chant is for. Dutt goes up but Skipper walks the ropes and dropkicks Dutt into the railing on the floor. Skipper completely misses a spin kick and it looks horrible. I mean that was BAD. Skipper is actually selling the arm here which is rather awesome.
Skipper hammers away but cant get the Play of the Day. Dutts comeback means nothing though as Skipper gets his knees up and a gutwrench suplex for no cover. They go up to the corner and Sonjay gets a sunset bomb to put both guys down. Dutt speeds things up again and gets a backdrop suplex for two. Tornado DDT gets the same but Dutt cant get his Hindu Press off the top and a big spinning Rock Bottom ends Dutt seconds later.
Rating: C+. This was very fast paced and flashy but there was a total and complete lack of a story going on in it. This was more of a collection of spots than a match, but I guess thats what the point here is. Skipper is a poor mans Shelton but he can only do so much here. Fun match, nothing to it though.
Trytan is coming. He went nowhere.
Page and Nash plan a double team for the triple threat later. Page doesnt know if he can trust Nash so Nash says hell prove it by not going after Page at all in the match until Brown is gone.
We recap Dustin Rhodes vs. Kid Kash which is old school vs. new school and thats about it. Dustin is a cowboy. Yeah we get it.
Dustin Rhodes vs. Kid Kash
Dustin has this stupid country/banjo theme going on. Size/power vs. speed here as we head to the floor quickly. Why is Dustin Rhodes so boring? Kash fights back but cant get a superplex and might have hurt his knee on the landing. The referee checks on him and the fans dont buy it. The referee talks to JB but Kash is fine and hits Dustin low to take over. Kash goes to the knee and Dustin can barely get to his feet.
Off to a very old school spinning toe hold as I guess Kash is channeling his inner Funk. The referee gets distracted by something shiny and Kash gets another low blow in. Back to the toe hold which isnt really on the toe but the name works I guess. Dustin tries to fight back again but its that bad leg acting up again. Must be about to rain. Irish Whip results in a collapse and Kash works on the knee even more.
Frog Splash onto the knee (instead of you know, on the chest for a pin) sets up a figure four which is still better than the one Dusty uses. Its actually on the proper knee as well which stuns me even further. Dustin tries a sleeper but Kash reverses into one of his own. The problem is that Kash is 8 inches shorter than Dustin so they have to go to the mat with it. That doesnt go that well either as Dustin fights back, still limping.
Dustin hammers away as the leg is getting better in a hurry. He tries an atomic drop but it messes up his knee again, almost making him tap out. Kash goes up and hits a cross body which is rolled through for a close two. Curtain call doesnt work and Kash gets something resembling a dropkick for two. And never mind as Dustin grabs a bulldog out of nowhere for two.
Rating: C+. This was WAY better than I was expecting here. Kash did the knee work very well here and Dustin sold the knee like a veteran. If there had actually been a better story to it then this would have been a lot better. Good stuff overall here and I cant believe Im saying that. True though and a good little match.
Fairplay continues to be stupid as apparently this clue thing is about not getting voted out of TNA. He finds the clue in Dustys hat.
We recap Monty Brown vs. Jarrett and company which was basically Jarrett is awesome and beats up everyone. Dusty set up the triple threat for the shot that night, bringing in Kevin Nash who had been part of Jarretts Kru (they already established thats how they spell it in this company). Brown and Page were just kind of there also. The Ousiders threatened Page until Nash more or less turned face due to Jarrett accidently hitting Hall in a big slugout.
We recap Raven vs. Erik Watts who Page was friends with but he turned on Page also. There was a thing with Watts which I dont think was ever explained. Raven called him out for the thing (thats what they call it) so Watts turned face again after being heel about a day to fight Raven.
Raven vs. Erik Watts
Tenay manages to summarize the entire feud in a few seconds by saying that Raven tries to stir up trouble by playing both sides against each other and then they started talking to each other and Ravens plan failed. Heres your match as a result. Watts brings a chair with him and promptly gets his head kicked off as Raven takes over to start. Drop toehold sends Watts to the floor and we head out there for some brawling.
A few Russian legsweeps send Watts into the railing as its all Raven to start. Back in the ring and Raven has one of the worst missed knee shots Ive ever seen as its more like his pelvis that hits Watts. Tenay fills in some time by saying how great the TNA merchandise is as we head back to the floor. Watts gets an elbow back in and hits a reverse dropkick. He was on the top with his back to Raven and kicked backwards like a dropkick into the chest. Cool move.
Raven tries to leave which fails completely because hes being a coward and we dont take kindly to cowards in these parts. Raven takes the legsweep into the railing ala Raven as the bigger man (Watts) takes over. Ravens eggs get crushed against the railing and we go back into the ring. Chokeslam, Watts finisher gets no cover because its chair time instead. Just like any good heel Raven gets a low blow in as the referee takes it away and were back to even.
Now Raven gets a chair and wedges it between the ropes in the corner and hits a drop toehold into it right in front of the referee which isnt a DQ. Why? Its TNA I guess. The chair is set up in the middle of the ring so they use it a few times with Watts coming out in control. Superkick puts Raven down and Erik pounds away and a Buckle Bomb gets two. Raven counters a chokeslam into .an ankle lock? Really?
Doesnt last long but Raven did an ankle lock. Wow indeed. Superkick takes Watts down as does a clothesline. The fans say use the chair. They dont get their wish though as Watts tries a chokeslam but it looks more like an STO. A regular chokeslam finally ends this. Match was REALLY sloppy.
Rating: D+. Match wasnt awful but Watts was just kind of there other than for the chokeslam at the end. Not much of a match and as they pointed out, Watts hadnt been in the ring for a good while. Their solution: give him ten minutes against Raven who wasnt that good at this point. Weak match with the sloppiness hurting it a lot.
Raven begs for forgiveness post match and of course drills Watts as he turns around.
Roddy Piper is here to referee the next match. Why? Because hes Roddy Piper I guess.
Jeff Hardy vs. Scott Hall
Holy trainwrecks in real life Batman! As best I can tell this is fallout from Jarretts team against Hardy. Hall is in a red and black Elvis outfit. Hall cost Hardy the world title at Victory Road so their blowoff is here because they needed to have a six man tag at Turning Point. Ah apparently this was supposed to be Hector Garza (luchador that was given a BIG push) but he was legit deported so Hardy is the replacement. Really shows the faith they had in Hardy doesnt it?
Oh and Jarrett, Hall and Nash are collectively known as the Kings of Wrestling. Dont you love TNAs originality? Piper checks everything and actually finds a foreign object. When do you ever see that? He finds another one in the form of a fork. Must be for the buffet. Theres a chain in Halls collar. The bell rings (for the second time) and Hall wants to frisk Piper. There are some handcuffs which I guess are for personal time later.
Hardy hammers away and pretends to surf on the back of Hall for some reason. Hardys first WWF match was against Hall apparently. The longest setup ever for the Whisper in the Wind sets up something like a leg to the head to take Hall down. Scott takes over and catches Hardy in the fallaway slam for two. Piper cheats on the count, going much faster for Hardy than for Hall.
They go to the floor and Hall gets hit by a plancha and sent into the steps. Back in and Hardy hits his double leg low blow. Tenay thinks Hall is having trouble getting up. Id bet pills and Ill give 2-1 on it. Hall takes over as this is borderline bad comedy. Its a modified deathlock/armbar by Hall who pulls on a few strands of hair at a time. This is awful if you cant tell.
Chokeslam gets a slow two. Down goes Piper and Hall grabs a pair of brass knuckles out of the corner. Piper gets up, pokes him in the eye like the Three Stooges (which the name fits perfectly here I guess) and Hardy gets the Twisting Stunner to set up the Swanton to end this. This was even sloppier than before if you can believe that.
Rating: D-. Well they dont disappoint I guess. This was sloppy, it was weak, they mostly hit what they were going for, and Hall looked terrible. I know this was just a replacement match but at the same time arent you supposed to be good at your job if youre a replacement? Hardy was junk in TNA and Hall would be gone after this match.
Jeff says hes going after Hardy and tries to go after Hall again, but Piper says he has a shot at the title now and to get out while he can. Piper leaves and Abyss returns to destroy Hardy.
Trinity hits on some guy, asking if he knew where the clues were. Trinity comes in and gets rid of Traci and hits on the guy instead.
We already recapped the triple threat so here it is.
Monty Brown vs. Diamond Dallas Page vs. Kevin Nash
This is under elimination rules. Browns theme sounds like a cover of Down with the Sickness. Nash has some weird instrumental stuff that sounds like R&B while Page has a cover of his famous cover. At least Page has the decency to wear a shirt out there. Nash chills in the corner and lets the other two go at it. Cutter doesnt work early but he has the fans .only about half behind him as they like Monty also.
Shoulder puts Page on the floor as we hear about Brown having a Nikita Koloff poster on his wall as a kid. That would make him one of two people to have that poster but nice name drop if nothing else. This is kind of a handicap match but not really as Brown shifts off to Nash while Page chills in the corner. Big old side slam by Nash gets two. Headlock is countered into a suplex by Brown so Nash chills for a bit.
Apparently you can be eliminated by going over the top. What kind of a stupidly pointless rule is that? You cant do a rollup and have to go out over the top? Really? Page takes Brown down with a discus lariat for two and LOUDLY calls a bunch of spots to him. DDT gets two on Page but Big Sexy saves. They finally start working together but Nash tries to double cross Page and is sent to the floor to get us down to one on one. Ah so it was so Nash wouldnt have to get pinned. Now it makes sense.
Diamond Cutter out of NOWHERE gets two as Nash pulls Page out because hes a jerk. Page gets sent into the post which gets two for Brown in the ring. Page gets a rollup out of the corner for two and another lariat gets two. Brown takes over with a wide variety of clotheslines and a fallaway slam for no cover. Powerslam gets two. Page tries a Diamond Cutter out of nowhere but gets reversed into the Pounds (Period) to end this and send Brown to the main event.
Rating: C. Match was ok and FAR better with the one on one stuff. Nash was kind of a third wheel here and I pretty much fail to see why he was there. Brown vs. Page wasnt bad though as Page always had his matches worked out so well that it was hard for him to have a bad match against anyone competent, which Brown was for the most part. Decent here, but kind of unnecessary.
Brown shakes his hand post match.
We recap AMW vs. Team Canada. AMW won the cage match at Turning Point and then won a tag match on Impact (which used to air on Fridays at 4pm on Fox Sports Net) over the champions. Team Canada says theyre awesome, AMW says theyre awesome and its Canada vs. America. Not much of a story but its really all theyve got here.
Tag Titles: Americas Most Wanted vs. Team Canada
The Canadians are Bobby Roode and Eric Young. They have that rock version of O Canada which is always awesome. Roode looks weird with the lack of mustache. Granted its even weirder to see Harris have a flat stomach. Big brawl to start in the aisle as Tenay yells about Coach DAmore being fat. Harris vs. Roode and Storm vs. Young at the moment in the matching brawls.
Storm (also cleanshaven) gets a headscissors to Young on the ramp which looked pretty cool. Finally into the ring and its Harris vs. Young to start us off. Harris sends him flying to the floor and GOOD NIGHT THAT IS A HUGE KNOT ON YOUNGS HEAD! AMW double teams Roode and toss him into Young. Then they do the same thing, tossing Young onto Roode on the floor. Now its a matched set.
Beer Money explodes and its all AMW. Hurricanrana takes down Roode for two. The Canadians finally double team a bit and its a spinning neckbreaker from Roode to take him down. The heels do an old school clap while the referee isnt looking in place of a tag. I love little things like that from heels. Suplex by Roode gets two and we hit the chinlock. Young gets two off a backbreaker.
Back off to Roode but Storm has enziguris all around. Roode makes a diving shot to keep Storm from tagging out though in a nice touch. Storm gets some steam going but Young takes him down with a clothesline and the beating continues. Off to a Roode chinlock again and Storms counter fails again. Enziguri misses but he manages to send Roode into the post and hot tag to Harris!
Bulldog takes down Young but a full nelson is broken up by Roode. Harris is like works for me and hits Roode with a full nelson slam instead. Delayed vertical suplex gets two on Young. Powerslam to Roode gets two and they load up the Death Sentence, only for Young to make the save. Young tries for a rana and its Tower of Doom time, but Young settles for a release belly to belly to Storm as he throws Storm onto Roode which results in a two. Awesome looking move there.
Everyone is down now and Storm manages to get a superkick out of nowhere for a long two. DAmore breaks up the pin and AMW double stalks him and manages to find the handcuffs that Piper dropped earlier. Thats kind of awesome and makes a ton of realistic sense. They chain him to the structure and AMW hits a Hart Attack on Young for a LONG two.
Time for another attempt at a Death Sentence but heres Johnny Devine, the other member of Team Canada to break it up. Eye of the Storm hits Young but Devine drills Storm with a hockey stick for a VERY close two. Crowd is WAY into this. Spinebuster gets rid of Devine and Roode comes in again. XXXs Powerplex gets two on Roode as even I thought that was the pin.
Harris Catatonic (spinning Rock Bottom) hits Young but Devine slides in a chair which Harris is clotheslined into for two as Harris somehow gets his foot on the rope. Devine accidently pops Young with the chair without looking and Harris grabs a rollup for the pin and the titles. AWESOME MATCH!
Rating: A-. The interference helps a lot here actually as AMW was better than any combination of the Canadians but they eliminated DAmore with the handcuffs and then Devine managed to screw over his own team, meaning that the advantage never really was countered but rather neutralized. This was an awesome match as AMW was on fire at this point and absolutely deserved the belts.
Johnny Fairplay has the Clue but the girls beat him up for calling them bimbos and fight over the clue. It rips in half (its a piece of paper that says clue) so they both sprint to Dusty with it. Theyre assigned to go find tag teams and whoevers wins gets to be his secretary. This would result in the Harris Brothers vs. two fat guys named Phi Delta Slam in two months.
We set up the belt for Ultimate X.
We recap the Ultimate X match which is made up to be absolutely epic which is the best thing about the old school days: the X guys were treated like equals to the main eventers. You have AJ as the original star of the division, Sabin as a guy that has won the match before and Williams as the champion.
X-Division Title: Petey Williams vs. AJ Styles vs. Chris Sabin
Williams is the longest reigning champion at this point. Basic three man match to start with no one having a long advantage. Theres just this and the world title left though so they have a ton of time. They double team Petey for a bit and Sabin hits a running dropkick in the corner. Sabin and Williams head to the floor so AJ dives on both of them to take them out. Why mess with what works?
Back into the ring and Sabin and AJ get up on the top where Sabin jumps up and dropkicks AJ into the structure. Sabin has a clear run at the belt but DAmore pulls him down. That gets him tossed but lets Williams get the advantage due to the distraction. He sends AJ into the railing and beats up Sabin in the ring. Sharpshooter goes on Sabin so AJ climbs across the ropes, only to have Williams let Chris go and make the save. This is better than it sounds.
AJ gets put in the Tree of Woe and Petey stands on his balls so he can sing O Canada. Thats a signature spot actually despite how weird it sounds. AJ dropkicks him down and Sabin is back in now. Petey makes a run at the belt but Sabin is on AJs shoulders so Petey grabs a Doomsday rana to put everyone down. Everyone not named Sabin goes up and its time to play some chicken.
Petey wraps his legs around the ropes and Sabin pulls down AJ like an idiot. Petey cant get the belt and falls off to put all three guys on the mat. Sabin goes up but has to snap off a rana to take AJ down. In ANOTHER awesome spot, Petey goes for the Canadian Destroyer but Sabin counters into the Cradle Shock but Petey counters into a reverse DDT but AJ hits his moonsault into a reverse DDT to Petey who reverse DDTs Sabin at the same time.
Before they have time to be sore AJ goes up and in what was a highlight reel moment for a long time, Sabin gets a dropkick to AJs chest to send him flipping forward and crashing down flat on his back. He jumped to do it but the bump looked great. Styles and Williams fight up the scaffold and Williams bends AJs arm through the scaffold which is a new move, especially when AJ HANGS BY HIS ARM. FREAKING OW MAN!
Cradle Shock puts Petey down and its time to go up. AJ saves into a Styles Clash attempt by Sabin pulls on the arm. AJ is like screw it and pulls him up into a powerbomb and then the Clash to put everyone down again. Styles goes for the belt but his bad arm drops him down and Petey pops up for a Destroyer to kill AJ dead.
Down goes Sabin to a tornado DDT and its time for the Destroyer again. That doesnt work and a Border Toss into the buckle has Petey more or less dead again. Sabin and Williams are both up before Styles and both climb, wrapping their legs around the ropes. They get the belt down but AJ is like boys, let me show you how its done. He gets a springboard off the ropes and pulls it out of the air to get his fourth X Title. SWEET ending.
Rating: A. Somehow this was better than the tag title match. This should be TNAs answer to the TLC match but theyve managed to turn it into a throw on match. Anyway, awesome match here as they let three guys go out there and just do it which is the right thing to do. Great match and totally fun the entire time. AJ is awesome. What a shock.
Jarrett is going to the ring and makes fun of Nash who says hes coming for the title.
NWA World Title: Jeff Jarrett vs. Monty Brown
This is a rematch from Impact where Brown got ripped off. Security has to hold them apart so JB can do the intros. Brown is mad over. Nothing of note to start and Jarrett gets to start. Jeff gets that dropkick of his as the first big move. Time for more strutting and Jarrett makes fun of Brown a bit. Jarrett rams into him and that gets him nowhere at all.
Gorilla press plants Jeff as its pretty clear this isnt going to end clean. Brown gets him in a slam position but a thumb to the eye .does next of nothing to him as he slams Jarrett for two. Clothesline misses though and Monty is on the floor. LUCHA JARRETT but he gets caught (kind of) in mid air. To the floor and its time for brawling of course. Into the crowd they go and Jarrett pops Monty with a chair a few times. Remember that in TNA a DQ can change a title.
Back to ringside and its another chair shot to the ribs of Brown before they head to the announce table. After all that a belt shot isnt allowed for some reason. Back in the ring and Jeff puts on a sleeper to eat up some time. Monty grabs one of his own but Jarrett uses the magical powers of experience to break out of it. Figure Four doesnt work and Monty avoids the running hip to someone in the 619 position.
They hit the ropes a few times and hit heads to send both guys down. They slug it out with Brown taking over because he has more experience punching. I mean, what else does he actually do? Alpha Bomb (slam into a powerbomb) gets two. Spinning neckbreaker (called the Circle of Life apparently) gets two. Stroke is blocked and we have a ref bump. Guitar shot puts him down after he stands around for a few seconds but it only gets two.
The referee is holding his knee still so Jarrett grabs the chair. Brown puts him in an electric chair and blocks a shot to the head before dropping backwards to put both guys down. Jeff gets two off that as I guess he didnt block the whole thing. Pretty weak belt shot puts Monty down again but he power kicks out at two. Brown makes his comeback but the Pounce kills the referee again.
Jarrett has a second guitar but Brown counters with a chokeslam for no cover because theres no referee. Guitar shot looks to kill Jarrett dead but theres STILL no referee. At least its from a finisher and not like a punch. A second referee comes out for a two count but Jarrett gets part of the guitar in for two. Stroke hits, Brown gets up before the cover, Stroke hits, Brown gets up before the cover, low blow, Stroke, pin.
Rating: B-. This was an ok main event brawl but at the same time there wasnt a ton of chemistry out there. It hurt that Brown can only do a few things and the idea was that he cant be taken down by anything. The match wasnt all that bad but after the other two matches it really paled in comparison. Good stuff though.
Overall Rating: B+. Good show here as you have two GREAT matches and some other good stuff in there too so its hard to complain for the most part here. Good stuff here in TNAs third show. Its so unreal to consider how far they went from this point to even a year later. Good stuff with the last hour and a half or so being absolutely awesome. The first half is decent but not as great. Good work overall though to put it mildly.
Date: January 16, 2005
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Attendance: 875
Commentators: Don West, Mike Tenay
We go way back in time for TNAs third three hour PPV. The basic idea at this point is Jeff Jarrett and thats about it. Hes defending against the winner in a triple threat between Monty Brown, DDP and Nash. We also have Ultimate X with Petey Williams, Chris Sabin and AJ. Other than that there isnt much as the company was still figuring this monthly PPV thing out. Lets get to it.
The opening video is about reaching immortality and how you do that by winning championships. AMW gets Team Canada for the titles tonight. DDP and Nash want to be immortal by beating Jarrett.
Is there a reason why the first PPV of the year is called FINAL Resolution?
Jeff Jarrett says he doesnt care who it is tonight because hes earned the right to be called King of the Mountain.
3Live Kru vs. Christopher Daniels/Kazarian/Matt Bentley
Kru is Konnan, Ron (R-Truth) Killings and BG James (Road Dogg). Konnan vs. Daniels to start us off as its X-Division vs. not X-Division I guess. The fans are all behind Daniels as I guess this is face vs. face but Im not really all that sure. Konnan looks all fired up here as he cleans house, taking Daniels down with the rolling clothesline and its all Kru here. Off to Truth and Bentley with Truth pounding away with relative ease.
James and Truth dance around a bit and stomp on Kazarian a bit. Kaz gets beaten down by James as I dont think I saw a tag. The referee wont allow a tag because Bentley was out of his corner. The X guys, who I think are heels here, take over on James with Daniels hitting a dropkick. The powers of double teaming shall not be denied! Kaz hits a slingshot dropkick ala Jeff Hardy and its off to Bentley again.
Daniels and James slug it out in the middle but James grabs a powerbomb to counter a rana and both guys are down. Off to Kaz and Truth who cleans house. Axe kick which is more with the heel than the leg but whatever. Everything breaks down and eventually everyone but Konna, James and Kaz are left in the ring. Daniels misses a moonsault to the floor, taking out Kaz instead. Back in and Truth adds a side kick to end Bentley and were done.
Rating: C. Not bad for an opening six man here as the fans were always into the Kru. I dont remember seeing Konnan moving so fast in years so I guess he was still happy at this point. Im not sure what the point of the X guys being in there was but the Kru needed three guys to beat up on I suppose and XXX was broken up so Daniels had nothing else to do.
Traci and Trinity hit on Dusty some more and theres mention of a clue hidden somewhere. Johnny Fairplay is there too and he wants to find the clue. Its so idiotic as they make Survivor jokes.
Elix Skipper vs. Sonjay Dutt
The crowd is WAY more into this than before. They speed things up right off the bat as Dutt moves all around Skipper and sends him to the floor on a double rotation headscissors. Skipper sends him into the crowd so Dutt pops up and dives on Skipper instead. Back in the ring and Sonjay has a Fujiwara Armbar which Skipper taps to which means nothing apparently because its not the scripted finish I suppose.
Springboard missile dropkick takes down Skipper for two. Time to work on the arm as the fans seem to be behind Sonjay but I cant tell what the other chant is for. Dutt goes up but Skipper walks the ropes and dropkicks Dutt into the railing on the floor. Skipper completely misses a spin kick and it looks horrible. I mean that was BAD. Skipper is actually selling the arm here which is rather awesome.
Skipper hammers away but cant get the Play of the Day. Dutts comeback means nothing though as Skipper gets his knees up and a gutwrench suplex for no cover. They go up to the corner and Sonjay gets a sunset bomb to put both guys down. Dutt speeds things up again and gets a backdrop suplex for two. Tornado DDT gets the same but Dutt cant get his Hindu Press off the top and a big spinning Rock Bottom ends Dutt seconds later.
Rating: C+. This was very fast paced and flashy but there was a total and complete lack of a story going on in it. This was more of a collection of spots than a match, but I guess thats what the point here is. Skipper is a poor mans Shelton but he can only do so much here. Fun match, nothing to it though.
Trytan is coming. He went nowhere.
Page and Nash plan a double team for the triple threat later. Page doesnt know if he can trust Nash so Nash says hell prove it by not going after Page at all in the match until Brown is gone.
We recap Dustin Rhodes vs. Kid Kash which is old school vs. new school and thats about it. Dustin is a cowboy. Yeah we get it.
Dustin Rhodes vs. Kid Kash
Dustin has this stupid country/banjo theme going on. Size/power vs. speed here as we head to the floor quickly. Why is Dustin Rhodes so boring? Kash fights back but cant get a superplex and might have hurt his knee on the landing. The referee checks on him and the fans dont buy it. The referee talks to JB but Kash is fine and hits Dustin low to take over. Kash goes to the knee and Dustin can barely get to his feet.
Off to a very old school spinning toe hold as I guess Kash is channeling his inner Funk. The referee gets distracted by something shiny and Kash gets another low blow in. Back to the toe hold which isnt really on the toe but the name works I guess. Dustin tries to fight back again but its that bad leg acting up again. Must be about to rain. Irish Whip results in a collapse and Kash works on the knee even more.
Frog Splash onto the knee (instead of you know, on the chest for a pin) sets up a figure four which is still better than the one Dusty uses. Its actually on the proper knee as well which stuns me even further. Dustin tries a sleeper but Kash reverses into one of his own. The problem is that Kash is 8 inches shorter than Dustin so they have to go to the mat with it. That doesnt go that well either as Dustin fights back, still limping.
Dustin hammers away as the leg is getting better in a hurry. He tries an atomic drop but it messes up his knee again, almost making him tap out. Kash goes up and hits a cross body which is rolled through for a close two. Curtain call doesnt work and Kash gets something resembling a dropkick for two. And never mind as Dustin grabs a bulldog out of nowhere for two.
Rating: C+. This was WAY better than I was expecting here. Kash did the knee work very well here and Dustin sold the knee like a veteran. If there had actually been a better story to it then this would have been a lot better. Good stuff overall here and I cant believe Im saying that. True though and a good little match.
Fairplay continues to be stupid as apparently this clue thing is about not getting voted out of TNA. He finds the clue in Dustys hat.
We recap Monty Brown vs. Jarrett and company which was basically Jarrett is awesome and beats up everyone. Dusty set up the triple threat for the shot that night, bringing in Kevin Nash who had been part of Jarretts Kru (they already established thats how they spell it in this company). Brown and Page were just kind of there also. The Ousiders threatened Page until Nash more or less turned face due to Jarrett accidently hitting Hall in a big slugout.
We recap Raven vs. Erik Watts who Page was friends with but he turned on Page also. There was a thing with Watts which I dont think was ever explained. Raven called him out for the thing (thats what they call it) so Watts turned face again after being heel about a day to fight Raven.
Raven vs. Erik Watts
Tenay manages to summarize the entire feud in a few seconds by saying that Raven tries to stir up trouble by playing both sides against each other and then they started talking to each other and Ravens plan failed. Heres your match as a result. Watts brings a chair with him and promptly gets his head kicked off as Raven takes over to start. Drop toehold sends Watts to the floor and we head out there for some brawling.
A few Russian legsweeps send Watts into the railing as its all Raven to start. Back in the ring and Raven has one of the worst missed knee shots Ive ever seen as its more like his pelvis that hits Watts. Tenay fills in some time by saying how great the TNA merchandise is as we head back to the floor. Watts gets an elbow back in and hits a reverse dropkick. He was on the top with his back to Raven and kicked backwards like a dropkick into the chest. Cool move.
Raven tries to leave which fails completely because hes being a coward and we dont take kindly to cowards in these parts. Raven takes the legsweep into the railing ala Raven as the bigger man (Watts) takes over. Ravens eggs get crushed against the railing and we go back into the ring. Chokeslam, Watts finisher gets no cover because its chair time instead. Just like any good heel Raven gets a low blow in as the referee takes it away and were back to even.
Now Raven gets a chair and wedges it between the ropes in the corner and hits a drop toehold into it right in front of the referee which isnt a DQ. Why? Its TNA I guess. The chair is set up in the middle of the ring so they use it a few times with Watts coming out in control. Superkick puts Raven down and Erik pounds away and a Buckle Bomb gets two. Raven counters a chokeslam into .an ankle lock? Really?
Doesnt last long but Raven did an ankle lock. Wow indeed. Superkick takes Watts down as does a clothesline. The fans say use the chair. They dont get their wish though as Watts tries a chokeslam but it looks more like an STO. A regular chokeslam finally ends this. Match was REALLY sloppy.
Rating: D+. Match wasnt awful but Watts was just kind of there other than for the chokeslam at the end. Not much of a match and as they pointed out, Watts hadnt been in the ring for a good while. Their solution: give him ten minutes against Raven who wasnt that good at this point. Weak match with the sloppiness hurting it a lot.
Raven begs for forgiveness post match and of course drills Watts as he turns around.
Roddy Piper is here to referee the next match. Why? Because hes Roddy Piper I guess.
Jeff Hardy vs. Scott Hall
Holy trainwrecks in real life Batman! As best I can tell this is fallout from Jarretts team against Hardy. Hall is in a red and black Elvis outfit. Hall cost Hardy the world title at Victory Road so their blowoff is here because they needed to have a six man tag at Turning Point. Ah apparently this was supposed to be Hector Garza (luchador that was given a BIG push) but he was legit deported so Hardy is the replacement. Really shows the faith they had in Hardy doesnt it?
Oh and Jarrett, Hall and Nash are collectively known as the Kings of Wrestling. Dont you love TNAs originality? Piper checks everything and actually finds a foreign object. When do you ever see that? He finds another one in the form of a fork. Must be for the buffet. Theres a chain in Halls collar. The bell rings (for the second time) and Hall wants to frisk Piper. There are some handcuffs which I guess are for personal time later.
Hardy hammers away and pretends to surf on the back of Hall for some reason. Hardys first WWF match was against Hall apparently. The longest setup ever for the Whisper in the Wind sets up something like a leg to the head to take Hall down. Scott takes over and catches Hardy in the fallaway slam for two. Piper cheats on the count, going much faster for Hardy than for Hall.
They go to the floor and Hall gets hit by a plancha and sent into the steps. Back in and Hardy hits his double leg low blow. Tenay thinks Hall is having trouble getting up. Id bet pills and Ill give 2-1 on it. Hall takes over as this is borderline bad comedy. Its a modified deathlock/armbar by Hall who pulls on a few strands of hair at a time. This is awful if you cant tell.
Chokeslam gets a slow two. Down goes Piper and Hall grabs a pair of brass knuckles out of the corner. Piper gets up, pokes him in the eye like the Three Stooges (which the name fits perfectly here I guess) and Hardy gets the Twisting Stunner to set up the Swanton to end this. This was even sloppier than before if you can believe that.
Rating: D-. Well they dont disappoint I guess. This was sloppy, it was weak, they mostly hit what they were going for, and Hall looked terrible. I know this was just a replacement match but at the same time arent you supposed to be good at your job if youre a replacement? Hardy was junk in TNA and Hall would be gone after this match.
Jeff says hes going after Hardy and tries to go after Hall again, but Piper says he has a shot at the title now and to get out while he can. Piper leaves and Abyss returns to destroy Hardy.
Trinity hits on some guy, asking if he knew where the clues were. Trinity comes in and gets rid of Traci and hits on the guy instead.
We already recapped the triple threat so here it is.
Monty Brown vs. Diamond Dallas Page vs. Kevin Nash
This is under elimination rules. Browns theme sounds like a cover of Down with the Sickness. Nash has some weird instrumental stuff that sounds like R&B while Page has a cover of his famous cover. At least Page has the decency to wear a shirt out there. Nash chills in the corner and lets the other two go at it. Cutter doesnt work early but he has the fans .only about half behind him as they like Monty also.
Shoulder puts Page on the floor as we hear about Brown having a Nikita Koloff poster on his wall as a kid. That would make him one of two people to have that poster but nice name drop if nothing else. This is kind of a handicap match but not really as Brown shifts off to Nash while Page chills in the corner. Big old side slam by Nash gets two. Headlock is countered into a suplex by Brown so Nash chills for a bit.
Apparently you can be eliminated by going over the top. What kind of a stupidly pointless rule is that? You cant do a rollup and have to go out over the top? Really? Page takes Brown down with a discus lariat for two and LOUDLY calls a bunch of spots to him. DDT gets two on Page but Big Sexy saves. They finally start working together but Nash tries to double cross Page and is sent to the floor to get us down to one on one. Ah so it was so Nash wouldnt have to get pinned. Now it makes sense.
Diamond Cutter out of NOWHERE gets two as Nash pulls Page out because hes a jerk. Page gets sent into the post which gets two for Brown in the ring. Page gets a rollup out of the corner for two and another lariat gets two. Brown takes over with a wide variety of clotheslines and a fallaway slam for no cover. Powerslam gets two. Page tries a Diamond Cutter out of nowhere but gets reversed into the Pounds (Period) to end this and send Brown to the main event.
Rating: C. Match was ok and FAR better with the one on one stuff. Nash was kind of a third wheel here and I pretty much fail to see why he was there. Brown vs. Page wasnt bad though as Page always had his matches worked out so well that it was hard for him to have a bad match against anyone competent, which Brown was for the most part. Decent here, but kind of unnecessary.
Brown shakes his hand post match.
We recap AMW vs. Team Canada. AMW won the cage match at Turning Point and then won a tag match on Impact (which used to air on Fridays at 4pm on Fox Sports Net) over the champions. Team Canada says theyre awesome, AMW says theyre awesome and its Canada vs. America. Not much of a story but its really all theyve got here.
Tag Titles: Americas Most Wanted vs. Team Canada
The Canadians are Bobby Roode and Eric Young. They have that rock version of O Canada which is always awesome. Roode looks weird with the lack of mustache. Granted its even weirder to see Harris have a flat stomach. Big brawl to start in the aisle as Tenay yells about Coach DAmore being fat. Harris vs. Roode and Storm vs. Young at the moment in the matching brawls.
Storm (also cleanshaven) gets a headscissors to Young on the ramp which looked pretty cool. Finally into the ring and its Harris vs. Young to start us off. Harris sends him flying to the floor and GOOD NIGHT THAT IS A HUGE KNOT ON YOUNGS HEAD! AMW double teams Roode and toss him into Young. Then they do the same thing, tossing Young onto Roode on the floor. Now its a matched set.
Beer Money explodes and its all AMW. Hurricanrana takes down Roode for two. The Canadians finally double team a bit and its a spinning neckbreaker from Roode to take him down. The heels do an old school clap while the referee isnt looking in place of a tag. I love little things like that from heels. Suplex by Roode gets two and we hit the chinlock. Young gets two off a backbreaker.
Back off to Roode but Storm has enziguris all around. Roode makes a diving shot to keep Storm from tagging out though in a nice touch. Storm gets some steam going but Young takes him down with a clothesline and the beating continues. Off to a Roode chinlock again and Storms counter fails again. Enziguri misses but he manages to send Roode into the post and hot tag to Harris!
Bulldog takes down Young but a full nelson is broken up by Roode. Harris is like works for me and hits Roode with a full nelson slam instead. Delayed vertical suplex gets two on Young. Powerslam to Roode gets two and they load up the Death Sentence, only for Young to make the save. Young tries for a rana and its Tower of Doom time, but Young settles for a release belly to belly to Storm as he throws Storm onto Roode which results in a two. Awesome looking move there.
Everyone is down now and Storm manages to get a superkick out of nowhere for a long two. DAmore breaks up the pin and AMW double stalks him and manages to find the handcuffs that Piper dropped earlier. Thats kind of awesome and makes a ton of realistic sense. They chain him to the structure and AMW hits a Hart Attack on Young for a LONG two.
Time for another attempt at a Death Sentence but heres Johnny Devine, the other member of Team Canada to break it up. Eye of the Storm hits Young but Devine drills Storm with a hockey stick for a VERY close two. Crowd is WAY into this. Spinebuster gets rid of Devine and Roode comes in again. XXXs Powerplex gets two on Roode as even I thought that was the pin.
Harris Catatonic (spinning Rock Bottom) hits Young but Devine slides in a chair which Harris is clotheslined into for two as Harris somehow gets his foot on the rope. Devine accidently pops Young with the chair without looking and Harris grabs a rollup for the pin and the titles. AWESOME MATCH!
Rating: A-. The interference helps a lot here actually as AMW was better than any combination of the Canadians but they eliminated DAmore with the handcuffs and then Devine managed to screw over his own team, meaning that the advantage never really was countered but rather neutralized. This was an awesome match as AMW was on fire at this point and absolutely deserved the belts.
Johnny Fairplay has the Clue but the girls beat him up for calling them bimbos and fight over the clue. It rips in half (its a piece of paper that says clue) so they both sprint to Dusty with it. Theyre assigned to go find tag teams and whoevers wins gets to be his secretary. This would result in the Harris Brothers vs. two fat guys named Phi Delta Slam in two months.
We set up the belt for Ultimate X.
We recap the Ultimate X match which is made up to be absolutely epic which is the best thing about the old school days: the X guys were treated like equals to the main eventers. You have AJ as the original star of the division, Sabin as a guy that has won the match before and Williams as the champion.
X-Division Title: Petey Williams vs. AJ Styles vs. Chris Sabin
Williams is the longest reigning champion at this point. Basic three man match to start with no one having a long advantage. Theres just this and the world title left though so they have a ton of time. They double team Petey for a bit and Sabin hits a running dropkick in the corner. Sabin and Williams head to the floor so AJ dives on both of them to take them out. Why mess with what works?
Back into the ring and Sabin and AJ get up on the top where Sabin jumps up and dropkicks AJ into the structure. Sabin has a clear run at the belt but DAmore pulls him down. That gets him tossed but lets Williams get the advantage due to the distraction. He sends AJ into the railing and beats up Sabin in the ring. Sharpshooter goes on Sabin so AJ climbs across the ropes, only to have Williams let Chris go and make the save. This is better than it sounds.
AJ gets put in the Tree of Woe and Petey stands on his balls so he can sing O Canada. Thats a signature spot actually despite how weird it sounds. AJ dropkicks him down and Sabin is back in now. Petey makes a run at the belt but Sabin is on AJs shoulders so Petey grabs a Doomsday rana to put everyone down. Everyone not named Sabin goes up and its time to play some chicken.
Petey wraps his legs around the ropes and Sabin pulls down AJ like an idiot. Petey cant get the belt and falls off to put all three guys on the mat. Sabin goes up but has to snap off a rana to take AJ down. In ANOTHER awesome spot, Petey goes for the Canadian Destroyer but Sabin counters into the Cradle Shock but Petey counters into a reverse DDT but AJ hits his moonsault into a reverse DDT to Petey who reverse DDTs Sabin at the same time.
Before they have time to be sore AJ goes up and in what was a highlight reel moment for a long time, Sabin gets a dropkick to AJs chest to send him flipping forward and crashing down flat on his back. He jumped to do it but the bump looked great. Styles and Williams fight up the scaffold and Williams bends AJs arm through the scaffold which is a new move, especially when AJ HANGS BY HIS ARM. FREAKING OW MAN!
Cradle Shock puts Petey down and its time to go up. AJ saves into a Styles Clash attempt by Sabin pulls on the arm. AJ is like screw it and pulls him up into a powerbomb and then the Clash to put everyone down again. Styles goes for the belt but his bad arm drops him down and Petey pops up for a Destroyer to kill AJ dead.
Down goes Sabin to a tornado DDT and its time for the Destroyer again. That doesnt work and a Border Toss into the buckle has Petey more or less dead again. Sabin and Williams are both up before Styles and both climb, wrapping their legs around the ropes. They get the belt down but AJ is like boys, let me show you how its done. He gets a springboard off the ropes and pulls it out of the air to get his fourth X Title. SWEET ending.
Rating: A. Somehow this was better than the tag title match. This should be TNAs answer to the TLC match but theyve managed to turn it into a throw on match. Anyway, awesome match here as they let three guys go out there and just do it which is the right thing to do. Great match and totally fun the entire time. AJ is awesome. What a shock.
Jarrett is going to the ring and makes fun of Nash who says hes coming for the title.
NWA World Title: Jeff Jarrett vs. Monty Brown
This is a rematch from Impact where Brown got ripped off. Security has to hold them apart so JB can do the intros. Brown is mad over. Nothing of note to start and Jarrett gets to start. Jeff gets that dropkick of his as the first big move. Time for more strutting and Jarrett makes fun of Brown a bit. Jarrett rams into him and that gets him nowhere at all.
Gorilla press plants Jeff as its pretty clear this isnt going to end clean. Brown gets him in a slam position but a thumb to the eye .does next of nothing to him as he slams Jarrett for two. Clothesline misses though and Monty is on the floor. LUCHA JARRETT but he gets caught (kind of) in mid air. To the floor and its time for brawling of course. Into the crowd they go and Jarrett pops Monty with a chair a few times. Remember that in TNA a DQ can change a title.
Back to ringside and its another chair shot to the ribs of Brown before they head to the announce table. After all that a belt shot isnt allowed for some reason. Back in the ring and Jeff puts on a sleeper to eat up some time. Monty grabs one of his own but Jarrett uses the magical powers of experience to break out of it. Figure Four doesnt work and Monty avoids the running hip to someone in the 619 position.
They hit the ropes a few times and hit heads to send both guys down. They slug it out with Brown taking over because he has more experience punching. I mean, what else does he actually do? Alpha Bomb (slam into a powerbomb) gets two. Spinning neckbreaker (called the Circle of Life apparently) gets two. Stroke is blocked and we have a ref bump. Guitar shot puts him down after he stands around for a few seconds but it only gets two.
The referee is holding his knee still so Jarrett grabs the chair. Brown puts him in an electric chair and blocks a shot to the head before dropping backwards to put both guys down. Jeff gets two off that as I guess he didnt block the whole thing. Pretty weak belt shot puts Monty down again but he power kicks out at two. Brown makes his comeback but the Pounce kills the referee again.
Jarrett has a second guitar but Brown counters with a chokeslam for no cover because theres no referee. Guitar shot looks to kill Jarrett dead but theres STILL no referee. At least its from a finisher and not like a punch. A second referee comes out for a two count but Jarrett gets part of the guitar in for two. Stroke hits, Brown gets up before the cover, Stroke hits, Brown gets up before the cover, low blow, Stroke, pin.
Rating: B-. This was an ok main event brawl but at the same time there wasnt a ton of chemistry out there. It hurt that Brown can only do a few things and the idea was that he cant be taken down by anything. The match wasnt all that bad but after the other two matches it really paled in comparison. Good stuff though.
Overall Rating: B+. Good show here as you have two GREAT matches and some other good stuff in there too so its hard to complain for the most part here. Good stuff here in TNAs third show. Its so unreal to consider how far they went from this point to even a year later. Good stuff with the last hour and a half or so being absolutely awesome. The first half is decent but not as great. Good work overall though to put it mildly.