It's no secret that I have been quite the critic of TNA. I sometimes see myself as the frustrated father, hoping to see my child succeed but always seeing him/her fall short. However, nothing that I have criticized comes close to what fans witnessed last night.
Going into this show, I had hopes for mediocrity. Sure, the wrestling could be decent and make this a fun show, but with most of the stories being established literally days before the show, it's kind of hard to get excited for it. It was a show with out a purpose, but given what happened, it may be a show that becomes infamous.
There were some developments before the main event I'm alluding to, so let's Rate the Booking for everything, though I will warn you that my overall opinion of the show is largely centered around the main event.
Tommy Dreamer vs. Bully Ray - Fans were treated to a hardcore match here, which basically meant that some old, chubby men were hitting each other with various items that for some reason were around the ring. Oddly enough, one such item was a blow up doll. Yes, this was a comedy match, which in a way makes it better. Let's be honest, nobody wants to see these two men open up a Pay Per View in 2011, let alone try to be taken seriously. By making this a bit comedic, it salvages it a little bit. The end of the match was booked well, with Devon hitting 3D on Ray with Dreamer in a nice moment for fans. This match shouldn't have opened the show, but it certainly wasn't the worst thing on the card. Decent opener, and at this point, there was hope for the show.
Knockouts Tag Team Titles: Angelina Love/Winter(c) vs. Sarita/Rosita - These titles still exist? Why? Anyway, the only real reason these titles are around is to further storylines. Last time they changed hands, Winter subbed for Velvet Sky to further that tension. Now, months later, NOTHING HAS CHANGED!! Winter and Velvet still don't like each other and we see the same backstage segments about it every week. This match was largely centered around that story, and the possible benefactors were the Mexican cousins. Basically, the matched was eh and the booking was something a bit confusing. Velvet tried to help the champs but they lost anyway, leading to the champs blaming her despite seeing that she did nothing wrong. We'll see how the settle this, but it didn't come off looking great. It was the right idea to further the tension, but it was executed very poorly.
Hernandez vs. Matt Morgan (First Blood Match) - I've never been a fan of these matches, but we got one. These guys have never had a good match together, and this was no exception. From a booking perspective, it was pretty lame too. In typical Russo fashion, we got an unclean finish (an unintentional double entendre, I assure you!) where Hernandez squirted fake blood onto Morgan, leading the refs to declare Hernandez the winner, despite Hernandez actually having a cut. I feel bad for wrestlings refs sometimes, because they are always made out to be incredibly stupid. This was very lame, and the match was something no one cared about. Throwaway stuff and the terrible finish makes this completely useless. Remember when Morgan was awesome and on the verge of getting the title a few months ago? Yea, now he's doing this. It's a shame.
X-Division Title (Ultimate X Match): Kazarian(c) vs. Max Buck vs. Jeremy Buck vs. Robbie E - This match was created years ago to be a spotfest and that's what you got. If you enjoy cruiserweights and spots, it's fun. Actually, this match had a bit more psychology with the brothers helping each other out. That's unique if nothing else, and it brings something different to the table. What was also different was Robbie E trying to use a ladder which is literally the only thing you can't do in Ultimate X. If they are trying to make him look pathetic, they are succeeding. Anyway, Kazarian retained which was the right decision, and this brings some fun to the show, so no real complaints. Of course, it would be better to promote this more than 3 days in advance, but what can you do?
Tag Team Titles: Beer Money(c) vs. Ink Inc. - I went out on a limb with this one and predicted that the challengers would go heel and steal a win and the titles. I was half right.........sort of. Beer Money retained, which does nothing for the tag team division other than kill it, but for some reason, Shannon Moore turned heel after the match. Had it been the whole team, you add a heel team to the mix. Now, you seemingly have a team that just broke up, leaving only three decent tag teams in TNA. No, Gunner and Murphy don't count due to being awful. This was a good match, but the future of the tag team division was seriously jeopardized due to the results. I sincerely hope that TNA has a plan to reinvigorate the division with new teams, because looking at it today, it doesn't look good.
AJ Styles vs. Matt Hardy - Best booked match on the card. AJ got the win, which will probably lead to AJ vs. Flair at Lockdown. While I don't want to see that at all (who wants to see Flair bloody for 20 minutes?), that's probably where they are going. Still, AJ had to win here, and Matt did a decent job in the match. Simply put, this was kept simple and it worked. I seem to say that a lot, yet TNA continues to convolute things. Maybe they should read my stuff and take the hint? I think so.
#1 Contender's Match: RVD vs. Mr. Anderson - Didn't Mr. Anderson just win a match like this over RVD and Angle like 3 weeks ago? Yes, yes he did. Thus, this is incredibly stupid and lacking continuity before it even starts. As for how it goes, meh. These guys aren't great together. We're here to talk about the booking though, and that's even worse. A double countout? I get that TNA probably wants a triple threat at Lockdown, which given how the main event went, is probably the best move at this point, but isn't there a better way to accomplish that than a simple double countout on Pay Per View. It's just an underwhelming ending for fans, and the fact that other matches on this show have already had screwy finishes makes this just another in that line. Fans booed the hell out of this, and for good reason. It wasn't good and the end was awful.
TNA World Title: Sting(c) vs. Jeff Hardy - If you don't know by now, I'll give you the short details. Jeff apparently came out in no condition to wrestle and the match was literally a minute long with the only contact being Sting hitting his finisher. I will be giving my complete thoughts on this entire situation in a separate article, so let's focus on the booking here. If Jeff showed up high and in no condition to wrestle, conceivably he showed up when the show began. This gave TNA plenty of time to change the main event but they didn't. I feel bad for the people who paid for this show, because they were subjected to an awful main event where not only was it short, but the challenger tried to show up the legend he was facing by kicking out of his finisher. Then, he stood up after it, essentially no selling, and started throwing a fit. The whole thing was a mess and never should have happened. Someone else, ANYONE ELSE, should have been thrown out there to at least give the fans a decent main event match. This was unacceptable and TNA officials have a lot of explaining to do.
There was an old saying about WCW which went "the inmates run the asylum". I wouldn't doubt if this was this case here. If Jeff was not in condition to wrestle (I have included the video so you can see that he isn't), TNA officials need to put their foot down and not let him go out there. It seems they tried to let him go, but Sting wouldn't do it. The Bischoff thing was to "call an audible" and make this short, but that shouldnt' happen. Put your foot down backstage and end it before it begins. This is embarassing for both Jeff and the company and it's a sad day for wrestling fans. I've held this heavy on my heart since it happened and it sucks that it did.
The show was ok until the last two matches. The main event picture is a mess right now, and that's not a good sign for a company. The other issue is that this show was thrown together in a few days, thus rendering most of the matches as meaningless. Some stories were advanced, and that's fine, but it wasn't a great show. Given the ending, it's an absolutely awful show and I hope it doesn't become infamous as it pertains to Jeff's life. I sincerely hope strict action is taken and he gets help, but on the other end, TNA itself needs to look itself in the mirror and realize that they did bad business last night. The show meant nothing and the ending screwed the fans over more than almost anything in wrestling history. This is not good for TNA and they have like 24 hours to figure a lot out. They need to figure out how to make the other stories move and they need to figure out this main event scene. I do not envy them right now.
I will be posting a full article on this situation as we get a little more information. Keep checking back here for the latest on the Jeff Hardy situation as I will surely be on top of this. Until then, check out the main event and judge for yourself.
Written by:
