my thoughts on the TNA Genesis Pay Per View
The pre show kicks off with Christy Hemme interacting with fans followed by Eric Young doing his usual crowd spot and then squaring off against Robert Roode in the 'Rood Open Challenge'. Blah match that saw Roode get a pin with feet on the ropes. The pinfall as then overturned, that match restarted, fast forward 20 seconds and Young gets a clean pin.
Backstage Konnnan, Homicide, and Hernandez do a heel promo with Christy Hemme regarding their desire to burn the American flag.
Post match, saw Christian Cage burst out of the back and cut a heel promo. The big problem with this was that Christian was just involved in a barbed wire cage match with Rhino three days prior and was not at all selling any injuries from the match. For TNA to put on a 'six sides of steel barbed wire match', have Christian take big bumps and bleed, then have him look completely flawless three days later is absurd. No continuity and takes away from the 'intensity' of the six sides of steel match. AJ Styles runs out and attacks Christian, fight to the back.
Moving along
Genesis begins with The Voodoo Kin Mafia (Road Dogg + Billy Gunn) against Frankie Kazarian, Maverick Matt, and Johnny Devine in a handicapped match. Kazarian, Matt, and Devine come out glammed up carrying kendo sticks. "Maverick Matt" (ie Matt Bentley, Michael Shane) almost looked albino. The match was very blah. Spots included Road Dogg attempting a kick up (on his back attempting to flip up to his feet) and failing. He then tried it again and needed an assist from the reff to reach his feet. This was followed by Billy Gunn hitting a sloppy pedigree on Matt and then do Shawn Michael's 'sweet chin music' stomping spot. Gunn hit a reverse DDT on Devine fo rthe pin. This was followed by Voodoo Kin Mafia addressing Vince McMahon, Shawn Michaels, and Triple H saying the 'ground game starts on Thursday, you aint seen nothing yet'. Honestly, I think I've seen enough of Road Dogg and Billy Gunn. Road Dogg's a nice dude, I will say that, but for once, I think I have to side with WWE on this one. Gunn and Road Dogg were given so many chances in WWE and they failed. It got to the point where neither one of them, despite constant repackaged gimmicks were over. How quickly fans forget Billy Gunn's romance with tag partner Chuck Palumbo and Road Dogg's 'getting rowdy' campaign. Road Dogg's constant stints in rehab probably didn't help either.
Match 2 has The Naturals with Shane Douglas at ringside defeating Sonjay Dutt and Jay Lethal. Lethal and Dutt carried this match and hit some great spots. The Naturals have zero creativity in matches, although the finish was pretty creative. Chase Stevens puts Dutt on his shoulders and Douglas goes to hit a missle dropkick on Dutt...the problem was Douglas hit more of Stevens then Dutt. Ugh.
Backstage Christopher Daniels cuts a promo about respect directed at Chris Sabin, and mentions he's still friends with AJ Styles but his career and championship comes first...oh the deep foreshadowing.
Match 3 - Daniels pins Sabin to retain the X Division title. Sabin got crowd heat in the heel role and hit some good spots. His suspended dropicks are great. Early on in the match Sabin brings a chair into the ring, AJ runs out and takes the chair away. Sabin kicked out of Daniels' BME. Daniels was over with the crowd throughout the match. The finish saw Daniels reverse a flipping facebuster into a rollup for the pinfall. Post match saw Jerry Lynn enter the ring and tell Sabin to respect Daniels by shaking his hand. Sabin shakes his hand then hits the Cradle Shock on Daniels while Lynn has his back turned. Lynn looked like he aged another few years since the last time he was on tv.
Backstage segment with Kevin Nash, Alex Shelley, and Austin Aries..err Austin Starr. Nash is shown with his arm in a sling and gray hair. The gray hair on Nash looked very much like his old Oz character in WCW.
Match 4 - yet another tag match. This time it's Ron Killings and Lance Hoyt (also doing the rapper ish gimmick) getting the win over Alex Shelley + Aust Starr. Would have loved to see Austin utilized more in this match. The finish saw Shelley hit a frog splash on Hoyt, Shelley asks Austin to set up the video camera, he turns around and Hoyt rolls him up into a pin. Ah another rollup win. Nice. Also not really following why TNA likes to randomly change people's names (ie Michael Shane into Matt Bentley for example). Don West still called Austin 'Austin Aries' three times during the match.
Match 5- Christian vs AJ Styles. I'm sorry, both of these guys are great talents, perhaps my expectations for this match were too high, but this match didn't deliever. It was like both guys were in slow motion. Perhaps if Christian was selling 'injuries' from his six sides of steel match with Rhino this past Thursday, it would have made sense. Maybe I was expecting more of a Teddy Hart vs Trent Acid esque style match here. Christian brings a chair into the ring..Christopher Daniels runs out to remove it which turns into a tug of war for the chair. Styles went for a roll up, Cage lets go of the chair and gets the pin. Post match, AJ turns heel on Daniels. Lethal and Dutt try to break up the ruckus, Rhino enters as the 'problem solver' talking about how he lost his friend Christian due to a similar situation and the two should just get along. Rhino also was not selling any damage done to him in his six sides of steel cage match on Thursday. Styles refuses to shake hands with Daniels. Didn't see that one coming.
Match 6. LAX with Konnan vs America's Most Wanted with Gail Kim for the tag titles.
Oh where to begin with this one. Let's start with LAX. One..the name 'LAX' is ridiculous. Not only is it the name of Los Angeles' airport, but it's also the abreviation for lacrosse. Two.. the LAX gimmick is basically a Latino gang style clique...ok..but then why does each member rock different color bandanas? Three...Konnan's involvement results in backlash as it's like The Filthy Animals all over again...or the Konnan's 2003 TNA Latino faction The Authentic Luchadores. Four..the inconsistencies with LAX members; Apollo, Machette, .. Five..the flag burning angle. I don't know what it's going to take for promoters to realize that anti America angles are overdone and never pan out into anything good. They result in one of three things; scenario A in cases like Frenchy Martin's "USA IS NOT OK" campaign or :cough: TNA's Team Canada...the fans just don't care.... scenario B in cases like Muhammad Hasaan, the character has to be literally killed off after networks threaten to pull the show because the envelope is pushed too far, or scenario C like in the instance of Rikishi's running over of The Rock "for his people", it just blows up in the company's face. Did TNA forget about Don Harris' swastika t shirt debacle from 2002? Homicide is one of the most talented indy wrestlers in the world today, to utilize him like this is horrible. Regardless, let's roll the dice and see where this one goes...
The match goes back and forth. Homicide smacks James Storm with a blow torch, followed by Hernandez covering him for the pin. Post match Homicide goes after Gail Kim, Petey Williams runs in to break it up. Petey, AMW, and Gail are all playing faces in this match apparently trying to strand up for the integrity of the American flag....however the American flag layed in the ring while all four stood there for a good five minutes. Last time I checked, it was considered distasteful to let the flag touch the ground. TNA commissioner Jim Cornette (you know the same guy that's the commissioner in Ring Of Honor) enters and goes off on LAX citing their bad taste. Cornette adds that TNA management and the fans didn't like hearing they wanted to burn the American flag. He said others who didn't like to hear that is the veterans of the U.S. and the soldiers who defend our right to do what we want. Cornette said TNA has found that LAX is no longer fit to represent the NWA World Tag Team Titles and that they are now stripped of the titles. It was also never mentioned that in the state of Florida (where the show was), 'public mutilation of a flag' is a misdemeanor applying to anyone who 'mutilates, defaces, or tramples upon or burns with intent to insult any flag, standard, colors, or ensign of the United States or of Florida.' The end result... the fans chanting 'bullshit'. Shocking.
Match 7. Sting vs Abyss for the NWA title. This match probably would have been more over if it was the last match, as Angle vs Joe had enough heat to stand on its own without being the last match. It was also never mentioned that champion Sting also held the NWA title in 1990 after beating Ric Flair. This match was a straight brawl. Spots included Sting getting chokeslammed into thumbtacks, Abyss getting pushed into a wall barrier in the crowd, Abyss tapping to the Scorpion Death Lock while the reff was knocked down, Abyss getting tied up and hanged upside down in Sting's entrance harness and hit repeatedly with a chair, Sting kicking out of the Black Hole Slam, Sting pushing the reff and then pushing Abyss off a ledge onto two tables covered in barbed wire. The result; Sting loses the match and title by DQ for shoving the reff. Abyss new champ.
Match 8. Samoa Joe vs Kurt Angle. The crowd was torn between the two but seemed to favor Joe. This was a good match. Two problems though. Problem one is that the 'dream match of the decade' was only 13 minutes long. Problem two is that Joe cleanly tapped to Angle. Don't get me wrong, this match needed a clean finish, however for Kurt Angle to jump ship from WWE..have two matches..and make current TNA champ Abyss tap on Thursday and then end Joe's TNA winning streak with a tapout three days later...ugh....it's not only pushing Angle to the moon, but it's totally taking away from TNA's talent and almost saying, 'hey this WWE guy is far superior to our top guns'. Joe should have won this. Even if there was a spot where Angle tapped to the rear naked choked while the reff was knocked out to be followed by Joe tapping to Angle for the win...but to have Joe lose cleanly to Angle like this...it makes the WWE look good.
