Tastycles' Against All Odds review
I'm not sure I really understood Sidious' moderator comments, but I think it is ok to put this here. I was away when this first aired, so I apologise for the delay.
8 Card Stud Tournament quarter final Desmond Wolfe vs D'Angelo DiNero
These two start off slow in what is ultimately quite a long match for the first round of a tournament. They eventually get going at quite good pace, with each man getting in a fair amount of offense. I was eating a pot noodle during this match, so I haven't written very much, but there wasn't anything particularly noteworthy about it, except to say that it was a decent enough opener, and I'm going to give it 7.8 out of 10
8 Card Stud Tournament quarter final Hernandez vs Matt Morgan
I am not expecting good things from this match, but fortunately, it is Hernandez who get the lion's share of the early portion of the match, after Morgan does the sort of thing that anyone can do, which is playing to his strengths.
It doesn't last long though, as Morgan gets in the world's slowest elbow, before we see some sort of bizarre crossbody from Hernandez, which I expect was botched in some way. Morgan whips Hernandez into the corners a few times and then hits a side slam on Hernandez, before actually doing something vaguely good as he hangs Hernandez on the top rope before hitting a leg drop, and then getting back to being boring.
Hernandez starts to come back into the match a little bit, and he hits a shoulder block from a sling shot, and then begins to hit a few moves, before holding an unbelievably long delayed vertical suplex, which was impressive. Morgan rolls out of the ring, and Hernandez hits a splash out of the ring.
The referee is about to count Hernandez out, but Morgan stops him from doing so, before then throwing Hernandez into the ring post and then grabbing the tights for a win. Which obviously doesn't make any sense, as he'd just win by count out if he wanted to win.
******ed finish aside, this wasn't actually that bad, especially as Morgan matches go, because he didn't have to sell anything. Very strange ending though, so I give it 6.3 out of 10
8 Card Stud Tournament quarter final Mr. Anderson vs Kurt Angle
I think it was strange to have this match in this round, but we did. We start with Angle putting Anderson in a hold, before Anderson starts to work on his neck. However, it doesn't last that long, as Angle hits a couple of big moves and then dominates until he accidentally crashes into the ring post.
Anderson starts to taunt Angle before using something to cut his head open while the ref can't see. He's in control and hits a DDT, before continuing to beat down on and taunt Kurt Angle. He holds Angle in a hold for about a week, until Angle starts mounting a fight back. Angle hits a suplex or four before attempting an Angle Slam, but Anderson then gets back into it.
Anderson undoes the top turnbuckle, as the referee does one back up that he'd already exposed. However, it doesn't work and Angle hits an Angle Slam, but he kicks out. Angle runs into the exposed turnbuckle, and then gets hit by a mic check and Anderson wins.
Anderson finishes up by spitting in his face. This match was quite entertaining, but it was too slow to be a wrestling classic and it wasn't violent enough for it to be a brutal brawl. As a result, I can't give it more than 7.4 out of 10
8 Card Stud Tournament No DQ quarter final Abyss vs Mick Foley
This match was made no DQ beforehand, which is perhaps unsurprising. The match starts off reasonably slow, as you might think, with the focus being on the barbed wire baseball bat that Bischoff had said had to be used. Abyss didn't want to use it, but Foley is willing to. Foley ***** Abyss with a chair and dominates, using the ringside furniture. He gets the bat, but Abyss quashes his attack.
Abyss then takes over in control, until Foley hits a neckbreaker. And then starts to beat down on Abyss in the corner. Foley gets a bag of thumbtacks, which one of them has inexplicably brought to the ring. Abyss won't chokeslam him onto the tacks, even though he could have done. He steals Mr. Socko of Foley, but Foley hits a double arm DDT before he can use it and then steals the refs sock, and they try to give each other the claw. Foley wins out though, but he stops before the ref calls Abyss knocked out, but before Foley can use the bat, Abyss gives him a black hole slam onto the tacks to advance.
You've seen one hardcore match between these two wrestlers, you've seen them all. The Abyss dynamic made it a little bit more interesting, and the double mandible claw was interesting, but this really wasn't that thrilling, and I give it 6.4 out of 10
The Nasty Boys vs Team 3D
I cannot begin to tell you how much I am not looking forward to this. The Nasty Boys were shit in 1993, and I can't imagine that ten years out of the limelight has made them any better. Apparently, this is going to be all four people in the ring at the same time. Well, not for that long, because after a bit of a punchathon, the Nastys get thrown out of the ring.
Eventually, they return, and it starts to work like a proper tag match. The referee didn't see it necessary to do anything for the first three minutes of this match whilst they did nothing. We get underway, and Sags runs into Brother Ray in the corner. That's enough for them though, as they then cease doing any moves at all.
Brother Ray fights back, but the Nastys then leave the ring. This is their strategy according to the commentators, slowing down the pace. Except they aren't slowing down the pace, they're leaving the ring, and the ref isn't counting them out. Devon takes Knobs out, but then gets pulled out of the ring by Sags. Which Brother Ray eventually breaks up after about a month. Before Knobs hits dun dun duuun an elbow drop.
They then have another little rest before Ray gets a hot tag. He whips both Nastys to the same corner, but it looks shit, because Knobs, the second one, is hardly moving. 3D hit a Wassup, then they 3D Sags, but Knobs does something to Ray with a helmet, given to them by Jimmy Hart who comes from nowhere to help. Jesus Christ, will TNA give anyone a job now? I'm sure Jimmy Hart can offer something, but this smacks of a surprise for the sake of it.
At least it gave this match something interesting. Nobody in the world is iterested in seeing these two teams have a shit, slow, boring regular match, which is what we got here. All the Nastys are good for is violence, and 3D are in their element there too. This piece of arse should have been on Impact with a brutal match hardcore match on the PPV instead. That isn't what they did, and this was toilet, and the fact that it was the longest match of the night to that point so I'm giving it 2.1 out of 10
8 Card Stud Tournament semi final D'Angelo DeNiro vs Matt Morgan
We begin with Morgan throwing his weight around a little bit and dominating the early running of the match. Morgan isn't the world's greatest offence man, but he's much better at it than he is at selling, so it is most definitely a good thing that this match began in the manner that it did.
The Pope eventually manages to stop the onslaught and then repeatedly hits Morgan in the head. This continues, and Morgan gives no indication that his head hurts. Indeed, he is totally fine about 20 seconds after this onslaught begins, as he hits a huge clothesline on Dinero before a load of headbutts. He tries to give him a unning big boot in the corner, but he gets hung up before a DDE, which doesn't have the same ring to it as the Elijah Express, and they should probably change the move's name.
Another match that wasn't that good, nor that bad. It was basically a squash that ended the wrong way around, which doesn't really help a guy you are trying to push, and it doesn't really do anything for Morgan either, so I can't give it any more than 5.7 out of 10
Mr. Anderson vs Abyss
It doesn't take very long for this match to spill out of the ring, which is probably unsurprising given that it's an Abyss match. However, that doesn't last very long, and we get back into the ring. Anderson counters a corner splash and starts to work on Abyss' knee, though not before attempting to demask him.
We then have quite a surprisingly good wrestling match on our hands with Anderson and Abyss taking it in turns to look like they might win. In the end, it is Anderson that gets the win, but it was quite a good match, on the whole, and sets up the battle of the rejects in the final. I give this match a solid 7.8 out of 10
Samoa Joe vs AJ Styles (Special Referee match for TNA World Championship)
The entrances are preceded by some sort of weird backstage segments, and AJ comes out in a Flairesque ring robe, which is taking the whole thing a bit far in my eyes. After what must have been about 6 years of pre match crap, we finally get started.
When we to get started, Joe is in firm control, and he starts taking it to AJ. Joe is looking a lot better compared to 6 months ago, and he appears to have regained his mojo a little bit. He is on top for a while, before, AJ then starts to work on his knee and legs. However, before he can lock in the figure four, Joe boots him out of the ring, before hitting a suicide dive.
AJ trues to suplex Joe onto the concrete but it doesn't work, and they continue to fight both outside and inside the ring. They start to give each other knife edge chops in the corner, which is essentially lessening one of the best movesets in the world to that of a man in his fifties. Well done TNA.
Finally, AJ tries to do something cool, but Joe counters and comes off the top rope. The match really steps up a notch there and both men start getting quite high octane. Flair wraps Joe's leg around the ringpost, which is unfortunate. We carry on in this manner for a while, before AJ actually hits the figure four.
Bischoff has done absolutely nothing to this point, but he finally shouts at Flair because he added leverage to the move. Joe dumps AJ out of the ring, and the match continues. AJ begins to use his own moveset rather than Flair's and the match really picks up. Joe eventually hits the muscle buster, but Flair pulls Bischoff out of the ring. Bischoff punches Flair, but Joe then gets rage at him for not being there. AJ hits the pay lay then the Styles Clash, and Bischoff gives a slow count, but AJ still wins.
This match was definitely a saving grace for the event, and it was a good match. However, them trying to turn AJ into Ric Flair has a reasonably likely chance of neutering him, which won't be a good thing. AJ can be the next Flair without turning into him. Still, it was good enough for 8.4 out of 10
D'Angelo Dinero vs Mr. Anderson
Anderson immediately tells the ref to start counting Pope out because he isn't there thanks to his beat down. He makes it out, but Anderson repeatedly goes out to meet him and periodically breaking the count. He starts to taunt Dinero a few times, but eventually Dinero is able to fight back, but it isn't a long lasting comeback, as Anderson throws him into the ring ropes.
This type of match can often drag on, but fortunately, they seemed to get the balance about right of how long it should take for the beatdown to commence and then the actual match to begin. They re enter the ring, and Pope gets in a fair amount of offence in, which is a good thing, because the super man comeback only works for a limited few. They also manage to successfully get over that Dinero isn't on top form at the same time, which isn't easy.
The finish to the match was very good. Anderson got himself over a little bit more, but he was kicked out of, before the Pope manages to avoid a Kenton bomb and then he hits the DDE for the win. The match itself wasn't full of great moves or working, but the story of the match was built expertly, so I give it 8.1 out of 10
Production and Extras
We start with an irate Ric Flair being good at being a heel. It is refreshing to see him in a non wrestling role, he really suits it. I am not looking forward to his imminent ring return. Then we get quite a nice video package bigging up both the tournament and the main event, which fits its role nicely. Then we go to the Impact Zone, but they don't call it that, which is important, and we're left with Tenay and Taz, who are starting to build a chemistry together.
After the first match, we then get an interaction between Ric Flair and Bischoff, which is solid and pretty good. It's followed by an interview with the tag team champions, which is neither of those things, but it is by no means as bad as I was expecting.
We then get a quite lengthy highlights package about what has happened to Kurt Angle over the past couple of months. We then get an interview with Kurt Angle and Christy Hemme, which is pretty good, and a Mr. Anderson promo before his match, as ever.
After that match we get a good segment with Foley and Abyss alonside Bischoff. All three of them perform well, especially Abyss, but the fact that their match was made a no DQ match kind of proves the lack of faith in either man to put on a decent match
We get an interview with the Nasty Boys and a video package, which are both a lot better than their match. After the dross match, we get Joe and Bischoff talking backstage, setting up the final match.
Later, we get an interview with Borash and Mr. Anderson, who is on absolutely tip top form, anddoes exceptionally well. Afte that match we see AJ for the first time, and while I think he's a good heel, he's a better face, and there is something very unsettling about a guy who has been wholesome trying to be a big time Charlie all of a sudden. After that we get a video package. I was literally about to say that TNA had come a long way since every match was preceeded by a tale of the tape sort of thing, but we get one right at the last, although it's a little more tarted up than it usually is. The main event is also announced by Borash which is another unwelcome throwback. That being said, at least it isn't that Love Sponge cunt.
Immediately before the match, we see Hogan for the first time, chatting to Bischoff. It is becoming increasingly the case that he is taking centre stage over Hogan, which is a good thing, unless it means Hogan going back to a ring role, which I truly don't want to see.
Before the main event, we get a recap of the tournament, which was probably unecessary, to be honest with you. Before getting interviews with each of the two finalists. Mr. Anderson is first up, and he is proving his worth as a mic worker. Top five in the business right now easily. Then we get Pope's interview, which is very good, all the better because he doesn't overuse the pimp language. Then he is inexplicably attacked by Waltham and Hall, who tell Hogan not to turn his back on the Wolfpac, which is a much better name than The Band, so hopefully they can use it.
All in all, the production of this event was a lot slicker than previous TNA events, and it is probably the influence of Bischoff that has allowed for that. There was a lot of improvement, but they probably could go further by getting rid of certain things like the tales of the tape, and they probably don't need quite as much going on backstage. It has something of a TV feel about it when they do that.
Tournaments often present a problem because they require a lot of matches, and we often get sub par 3 minute PPV matches. This wasn't the case here, and it was really well played by the company. Why there is a need to make the Nasty Boys and Hall and Waltman a big deal is absolutely beyond me, but they obviously want to go somewhere with it.
They will probably never get more than a 7.5 as long as PPVs are held in the same arena looking exactly the same as the weekly TV show, but they have solved pretty much all of the other major issues, and the timing this month was much better than last time, despite the fact that there was one more match. They used the three hours wisely, and I give the production 7.2 out of 10
Overview
TNA's certainly heading in the right direction, and 7 of the people in the tournament are the people they should be pushing, and Foley isn't bad to be keeping around. The lower card matches were unspectacular, but they weren't abysmal except for the tag match, and the two main event level matches were actually very servicable. Can they improve? Yes, and I think they need to consider exactly who they want on PPVs in the future. This was certainly better for not having tag title, knockout and X division matches with no direction being shoehorned in, and if they had made the Nasty Boys match a no DQ, then we would have probably been celebrating a really good PPV, but alas, no. It was still better than the Royal Rumble though.
This PPV scores 69 out of 100
I'm not sure I really understood Sidious' moderator comments, but I think it is ok to put this here. I was away when this first aired, so I apologise for the delay.
8 Card Stud Tournament quarter final Desmond Wolfe vs D'Angelo DiNero
These two start off slow in what is ultimately quite a long match for the first round of a tournament. They eventually get going at quite good pace, with each man getting in a fair amount of offense. I was eating a pot noodle during this match, so I haven't written very much, but there wasn't anything particularly noteworthy about it, except to say that it was a decent enough opener, and I'm going to give it 7.8 out of 10
8 Card Stud Tournament quarter final Hernandez vs Matt Morgan
I am not expecting good things from this match, but fortunately, it is Hernandez who get the lion's share of the early portion of the match, after Morgan does the sort of thing that anyone can do, which is playing to his strengths.
It doesn't last long though, as Morgan gets in the world's slowest elbow, before we see some sort of bizarre crossbody from Hernandez, which I expect was botched in some way. Morgan whips Hernandez into the corners a few times and then hits a side slam on Hernandez, before actually doing something vaguely good as he hangs Hernandez on the top rope before hitting a leg drop, and then getting back to being boring.
Hernandez starts to come back into the match a little bit, and he hits a shoulder block from a sling shot, and then begins to hit a few moves, before holding an unbelievably long delayed vertical suplex, which was impressive. Morgan rolls out of the ring, and Hernandez hits a splash out of the ring.
The referee is about to count Hernandez out, but Morgan stops him from doing so, before then throwing Hernandez into the ring post and then grabbing the tights for a win. Which obviously doesn't make any sense, as he'd just win by count out if he wanted to win.
******ed finish aside, this wasn't actually that bad, especially as Morgan matches go, because he didn't have to sell anything. Very strange ending though, so I give it 6.3 out of 10
8 Card Stud Tournament quarter final Mr. Anderson vs Kurt Angle
I think it was strange to have this match in this round, but we did. We start with Angle putting Anderson in a hold, before Anderson starts to work on his neck. However, it doesn't last that long, as Angle hits a couple of big moves and then dominates until he accidentally crashes into the ring post.
Anderson starts to taunt Angle before using something to cut his head open while the ref can't see. He's in control and hits a DDT, before continuing to beat down on and taunt Kurt Angle. He holds Angle in a hold for about a week, until Angle starts mounting a fight back. Angle hits a suplex or four before attempting an Angle Slam, but Anderson then gets back into it.
Anderson undoes the top turnbuckle, as the referee does one back up that he'd already exposed. However, it doesn't work and Angle hits an Angle Slam, but he kicks out. Angle runs into the exposed turnbuckle, and then gets hit by a mic check and Anderson wins.
Anderson finishes up by spitting in his face. This match was quite entertaining, but it was too slow to be a wrestling classic and it wasn't violent enough for it to be a brutal brawl. As a result, I can't give it more than 7.4 out of 10
8 Card Stud Tournament No DQ quarter final Abyss vs Mick Foley
This match was made no DQ beforehand, which is perhaps unsurprising. The match starts off reasonably slow, as you might think, with the focus being on the barbed wire baseball bat that Bischoff had said had to be used. Abyss didn't want to use it, but Foley is willing to. Foley ***** Abyss with a chair and dominates, using the ringside furniture. He gets the bat, but Abyss quashes his attack.
Abyss then takes over in control, until Foley hits a neckbreaker. And then starts to beat down on Abyss in the corner. Foley gets a bag of thumbtacks, which one of them has inexplicably brought to the ring. Abyss won't chokeslam him onto the tacks, even though he could have done. He steals Mr. Socko of Foley, but Foley hits a double arm DDT before he can use it and then steals the refs sock, and they try to give each other the claw. Foley wins out though, but he stops before the ref calls Abyss knocked out, but before Foley can use the bat, Abyss gives him a black hole slam onto the tacks to advance.
You've seen one hardcore match between these two wrestlers, you've seen them all. The Abyss dynamic made it a little bit more interesting, and the double mandible claw was interesting, but this really wasn't that thrilling, and I give it 6.4 out of 10
The Nasty Boys vs Team 3D
I cannot begin to tell you how much I am not looking forward to this. The Nasty Boys were shit in 1993, and I can't imagine that ten years out of the limelight has made them any better. Apparently, this is going to be all four people in the ring at the same time. Well, not for that long, because after a bit of a punchathon, the Nastys get thrown out of the ring.
Eventually, they return, and it starts to work like a proper tag match. The referee didn't see it necessary to do anything for the first three minutes of this match whilst they did nothing. We get underway, and Sags runs into Brother Ray in the corner. That's enough for them though, as they then cease doing any moves at all.
Brother Ray fights back, but the Nastys then leave the ring. This is their strategy according to the commentators, slowing down the pace. Except they aren't slowing down the pace, they're leaving the ring, and the ref isn't counting them out. Devon takes Knobs out, but then gets pulled out of the ring by Sags. Which Brother Ray eventually breaks up after about a month. Before Knobs hits dun dun duuun an elbow drop.
They then have another little rest before Ray gets a hot tag. He whips both Nastys to the same corner, but it looks shit, because Knobs, the second one, is hardly moving. 3D hit a Wassup, then they 3D Sags, but Knobs does something to Ray with a helmet, given to them by Jimmy Hart who comes from nowhere to help. Jesus Christ, will TNA give anyone a job now? I'm sure Jimmy Hart can offer something, but this smacks of a surprise for the sake of it.
At least it gave this match something interesting. Nobody in the world is iterested in seeing these two teams have a shit, slow, boring regular match, which is what we got here. All the Nastys are good for is violence, and 3D are in their element there too. This piece of arse should have been on Impact with a brutal match hardcore match on the PPV instead. That isn't what they did, and this was toilet, and the fact that it was the longest match of the night to that point so I'm giving it 2.1 out of 10
8 Card Stud Tournament semi final D'Angelo DeNiro vs Matt Morgan
We begin with Morgan throwing his weight around a little bit and dominating the early running of the match. Morgan isn't the world's greatest offence man, but he's much better at it than he is at selling, so it is most definitely a good thing that this match began in the manner that it did.
The Pope eventually manages to stop the onslaught and then repeatedly hits Morgan in the head. This continues, and Morgan gives no indication that his head hurts. Indeed, he is totally fine about 20 seconds after this onslaught begins, as he hits a huge clothesline on Dinero before a load of headbutts. He tries to give him a unning big boot in the corner, but he gets hung up before a DDE, which doesn't have the same ring to it as the Elijah Express, and they should probably change the move's name.
Another match that wasn't that good, nor that bad. It was basically a squash that ended the wrong way around, which doesn't really help a guy you are trying to push, and it doesn't really do anything for Morgan either, so I can't give it any more than 5.7 out of 10
Mr. Anderson vs Abyss
It doesn't take very long for this match to spill out of the ring, which is probably unsurprising given that it's an Abyss match. However, that doesn't last very long, and we get back into the ring. Anderson counters a corner splash and starts to work on Abyss' knee, though not before attempting to demask him.
We then have quite a surprisingly good wrestling match on our hands with Anderson and Abyss taking it in turns to look like they might win. In the end, it is Anderson that gets the win, but it was quite a good match, on the whole, and sets up the battle of the rejects in the final. I give this match a solid 7.8 out of 10
Samoa Joe vs AJ Styles (Special Referee match for TNA World Championship)
The entrances are preceded by some sort of weird backstage segments, and AJ comes out in a Flairesque ring robe, which is taking the whole thing a bit far in my eyes. After what must have been about 6 years of pre match crap, we finally get started.
When we to get started, Joe is in firm control, and he starts taking it to AJ. Joe is looking a lot better compared to 6 months ago, and he appears to have regained his mojo a little bit. He is on top for a while, before, AJ then starts to work on his knee and legs. However, before he can lock in the figure four, Joe boots him out of the ring, before hitting a suicide dive.
AJ trues to suplex Joe onto the concrete but it doesn't work, and they continue to fight both outside and inside the ring. They start to give each other knife edge chops in the corner, which is essentially lessening one of the best movesets in the world to that of a man in his fifties. Well done TNA.
Finally, AJ tries to do something cool, but Joe counters and comes off the top rope. The match really steps up a notch there and both men start getting quite high octane. Flair wraps Joe's leg around the ringpost, which is unfortunate. We carry on in this manner for a while, before AJ actually hits the figure four.
Bischoff has done absolutely nothing to this point, but he finally shouts at Flair because he added leverage to the move. Joe dumps AJ out of the ring, and the match continues. AJ begins to use his own moveset rather than Flair's and the match really picks up. Joe eventually hits the muscle buster, but Flair pulls Bischoff out of the ring. Bischoff punches Flair, but Joe then gets rage at him for not being there. AJ hits the pay lay then the Styles Clash, and Bischoff gives a slow count, but AJ still wins.
This match was definitely a saving grace for the event, and it was a good match. However, them trying to turn AJ into Ric Flair has a reasonably likely chance of neutering him, which won't be a good thing. AJ can be the next Flair without turning into him. Still, it was good enough for 8.4 out of 10
D'Angelo Dinero vs Mr. Anderson
Anderson immediately tells the ref to start counting Pope out because he isn't there thanks to his beat down. He makes it out, but Anderson repeatedly goes out to meet him and periodically breaking the count. He starts to taunt Dinero a few times, but eventually Dinero is able to fight back, but it isn't a long lasting comeback, as Anderson throws him into the ring ropes.
This type of match can often drag on, but fortunately, they seemed to get the balance about right of how long it should take for the beatdown to commence and then the actual match to begin. They re enter the ring, and Pope gets in a fair amount of offence in, which is a good thing, because the super man comeback only works for a limited few. They also manage to successfully get over that Dinero isn't on top form at the same time, which isn't easy.
The finish to the match was very good. Anderson got himself over a little bit more, but he was kicked out of, before the Pope manages to avoid a Kenton bomb and then he hits the DDE for the win. The match itself wasn't full of great moves or working, but the story of the match was built expertly, so I give it 8.1 out of 10
Production and Extras
We start with an irate Ric Flair being good at being a heel. It is refreshing to see him in a non wrestling role, he really suits it. I am not looking forward to his imminent ring return. Then we get quite a nice video package bigging up both the tournament and the main event, which fits its role nicely. Then we go to the Impact Zone, but they don't call it that, which is important, and we're left with Tenay and Taz, who are starting to build a chemistry together.
After the first match, we then get an interaction between Ric Flair and Bischoff, which is solid and pretty good. It's followed by an interview with the tag team champions, which is neither of those things, but it is by no means as bad as I was expecting.
We then get a quite lengthy highlights package about what has happened to Kurt Angle over the past couple of months. We then get an interview with Kurt Angle and Christy Hemme, which is pretty good, and a Mr. Anderson promo before his match, as ever.
After that match we get a good segment with Foley and Abyss alonside Bischoff. All three of them perform well, especially Abyss, but the fact that their match was made a no DQ match kind of proves the lack of faith in either man to put on a decent match
We get an interview with the Nasty Boys and a video package, which are both a lot better than their match. After the dross match, we get Joe and Bischoff talking backstage, setting up the final match.
Later, we get an interview with Borash and Mr. Anderson, who is on absolutely tip top form, anddoes exceptionally well. Afte that match we see AJ for the first time, and while I think he's a good heel, he's a better face, and there is something very unsettling about a guy who has been wholesome trying to be a big time Charlie all of a sudden. After that we get a video package. I was literally about to say that TNA had come a long way since every match was preceeded by a tale of the tape sort of thing, but we get one right at the last, although it's a little more tarted up than it usually is. The main event is also announced by Borash which is another unwelcome throwback. That being said, at least it isn't that Love Sponge cunt.
Immediately before the match, we see Hogan for the first time, chatting to Bischoff. It is becoming increasingly the case that he is taking centre stage over Hogan, which is a good thing, unless it means Hogan going back to a ring role, which I truly don't want to see.
Before the main event, we get a recap of the tournament, which was probably unecessary, to be honest with you. Before getting interviews with each of the two finalists. Mr. Anderson is first up, and he is proving his worth as a mic worker. Top five in the business right now easily. Then we get Pope's interview, which is very good, all the better because he doesn't overuse the pimp language. Then he is inexplicably attacked by Waltham and Hall, who tell Hogan not to turn his back on the Wolfpac, which is a much better name than The Band, so hopefully they can use it.
All in all, the production of this event was a lot slicker than previous TNA events, and it is probably the influence of Bischoff that has allowed for that. There was a lot of improvement, but they probably could go further by getting rid of certain things like the tales of the tape, and they probably don't need quite as much going on backstage. It has something of a TV feel about it when they do that.
Tournaments often present a problem because they require a lot of matches, and we often get sub par 3 minute PPV matches. This wasn't the case here, and it was really well played by the company. Why there is a need to make the Nasty Boys and Hall and Waltman a big deal is absolutely beyond me, but they obviously want to go somewhere with it.
They will probably never get more than a 7.5 as long as PPVs are held in the same arena looking exactly the same as the weekly TV show, but they have solved pretty much all of the other major issues, and the timing this month was much better than last time, despite the fact that there was one more match. They used the three hours wisely, and I give the production 7.2 out of 10
Overview
TNA's certainly heading in the right direction, and 7 of the people in the tournament are the people they should be pushing, and Foley isn't bad to be keeping around. The lower card matches were unspectacular, but they weren't abysmal except for the tag match, and the two main event level matches were actually very servicable. Can they improve? Yes, and I think they need to consider exactly who they want on PPVs in the future. This was certainly better for not having tag title, knockout and X division matches with no direction being shoehorned in, and if they had made the Nasty Boys match a no DQ, then we would have probably been celebrating a really good PPV, but alas, no. It was still better than the Royal Rumble though.
This PPV scores 69 out of 100