Greetings and welcome to Headlines & Scrutiny for the latest and most in-depth news, reviews, and analysis on Ring of Honor and Total Nonstop Action. I’d like to plug the TNA/ROH blog that is fully up and running on the site at http://www.thebalrogslair.com/tnaroh/. In the past week, results have gone up, news has gone up, and a great column on ROH has gone up. You are encouraged not only to check back as often as you can, but to participate by adding questions or comments to the posts, that I will respond to. As usual, you can also email me here at trevor@thebalrogslair.com.
In part one of this weekend’s report, I will be dealing with the entire TNA update for the week. In the second part of this report to come, a complete update, including my full report on both weekend ROH shows, will be included.
Last Wednesday TNA on PPV (7/21):
A. Monty Brown over Mark Anthony
B. Alex Shelley over Johnny Curtis
C. Team Canada over Jared Steele, Matt Catalano, Arrick Andrews, and Johnny Dotson
1. Christopher Daniels and Prime Time (xXx) over Abismo Negro and Mr. Aguila (Team Mexico) in 8:53 when Daniels pinned Negro. Pretty good match. This makes XXX #1 contenders to the tag titles.
2. Big Vito over Irish Pat Kenney in a Sicilian street fight in 7:20. Remember the WWF in 1999 and how they had those hardcore matches with no heat with trash can lid shot, kendostick shot, trash can shot, and a lot of forgettable wrestling in between? TNA is bringing it back. Trinity provided the distraction for Kenney while Vito hit him in the head with the trash can. Kenney defended himself with the Irish whip but Trinity came in for the low blow. Long story short, there was a stare down between Vito and Heavy-D, who was not wearing a SS shirt tonight.
3. D-Ray 3000, Shark Boy, and Mike Posey over David Young (0-87), Johnny Swinger, and a missing Glenn Gilberti in 7:23. Mike Posey looks like the average indy wrestler. This was a comedy match with no comedy and didn’t look great. Young got on the mic and blamed his loss on Gilberti and Posey, and said that next week he would fight Posey and if he loses, he quits. An incoherent Goldylocks put up money for another contract and D-Ray 3000 unwittingly accepted.
4. Abyss over Sabu in a falls count anywhere match in 11:35. Sabu tried to do a move from the balcony on to Abyss but the lights went out and Raven tied a noose around his neck and put him through the table, allowing Abyss to get the win.
5. Chris Sabin and Jerry Lynn over Kazarian and Michael Shane in 7:22. In the card that was sent to me and that reprinted in the TNA/ROH blog on the website, the match advertised was A.J. Styles and Jerry Lynn vs. Michael Shane and Frankie Kazarian. Unlike RAW, people decide whether or not to buy these shows based on the card that was announced. So instead of providing the match they’ve been advertising for days, they did a worked injury on Styles and took him out of the match, replacing him with Chris Sabin. That’s lame. That said, it was a good match. I like the team of Kazarian and Michael Shane and hopefully the goal of their team surpasses the disposal of A.J. Styles. Styles provided the distraction so that Lynn could get the pin. They all brawled afterwards. Styles announced that both get their shot at the title (which they earned last week) next week in an Ultimate X match, which sounds like a great match.
Raven did an interview. “Fight or flight, Sabu. Fight or flight! Fight or flight? Fight or flight?” He said his only consolation was that The Sheik was dead so he didn’t have to see the way Sabu has turned out, although it didn’t come off that badly. Then was the Jeff Hardy contract signing. All of the hullabaloo of the last few weeks makes me wonder if there was something I missed about Jeff Hardy. The crown gem of this was hearing Dusty say his famous “wined and dined with kings and queens and slept in alleys and dined on pork and beans” line, although even that didn’t have the same punch. Jeff Hardy is like the prodigy of Michael Jackson and he does have his own band. After a while, it was revealed that Hardy would get a shot at the title as part of signing with TNA. Monty Brown interrupted because he and Pounce deserved a shot at the title, essentially. Dutch Mantel, the booker, is high on him and he will be continued to be pushed at this level, despite his lack of talent in the ring. That’s what a good look will get you, even if you have little charisma, mic ability, or wrestling ability (I was actually thinking of Luger there, but the same goes for Brown, except he has more charisma). Hardy gets a pop (a lot of the time, at least) and thus the push. Jeff Jarrett came out. When Jarrett and Hardy were in the WWF together, they were barely mid carders. The king of the mountain is still wearing a tuxedo and white gloves, like he’s headed to a bell concert. Jeff Hardy couldn’t take him talking and started fighting Jarrett as Brown went back and forth doing nothing until the Pounce made its appearance.
They went to the Kid Kash interview. They’ve turned Kash’s legitimate comments into a worked shoot type deal. He talked about preferential treatment to A.J. Styles mainly, why someone with “4 years in the business” gets everything. Kash was asked why he’s better and he said to look at the history books, how he was champion everywhere, how he was the best everywhere, and how he’s always had legit attitude issues, but he didn’t mention that last one. He called himself the most well rounded guy in the business. Then he said if you put A.J. and America’s Most Wanted in front of a mic you get nothing. He ended up walking out leaving Tenay and Dallas (his bodyguard) there to look stupid. Here’s the deal, it doesn’t matter how much your audience does or does not know about promo ability and how the business really works, this is a fantasy world. So from the moment that the people at the beginning tell you not to illegally tap into the feed of the show to when they air the graphics at the end, it is this promotion’s job to create a fantasy world. Attempting to get heel heat on talking about someone’s promo ability goes against the grain of that and should be stopped immediately, especially when the discussion revolves around someone in the company upon whom dollars rely. Until the people that write TNA come out of the fantasy world, they can start to present it with a level of consistency.
6. Chase Stevens and Andy Douglas (The Naturals) over Chris Harris and James Storm (America’s Most Wanted) in 15:26 of a cage match. All four juiced in this excellent match. Great camera shots. Team Canada interfered when a few guys had been knocked on the outside of the cage. Andy Douglas had powder that he threw in Chris Harris’ face and got a nearfall. James Storm was knocked out on the outside. The Naturals used a chair on the head of Harris repeatedly leading to the win.
thumbup (0k image) It’s very hard to complain about Jeff Jarrett on weeks like these. The booking was very questionable in some spots (especially that Sicilian street fight), but this was definitely a thumbs up show by the end, and an improvement from the last few weeks. The wrestling was a big component to that: the first match, Sabin-Lynn/Kazarian-Shane, and the awesome main event. The lackadaisical and uninteresting booking of the main heavyweights in the company took a backseat, and the main thing was a confrontation between Ron Killings (who has made great improvements on the mic) and Monty Brown (who is an enigma on the mic, and fruitless in the ring). There was also another meeting later, between Brown, Jarrett, and Jeff Hardy, detailed above. In all honesty, I think they have been doing a good job handling Jeff Hardy. Finally, I think the booking of the main event was masterful, and while its hard to call it a success, it was very well put together and executed.
This is the latest card for next Wednesday:
—A.J. Styles vs. Michael Shane vs. Kazarian in an Ultimate X match for the X Division championship. Kazarian and Shane have vowed to remove A.J. from the X Division by force and A.J. is giving them the opportunity.
—Jeff Hardy vs. Monty Brown. Monty Brown made the challenge last Wednesday, and I assume the winner of this match will be the #1 contender, although Ron “The Truth” Killings fits in there somewhere.
—The Naturals vs. Triple X for the tag straps. Triple X won the #1 contendership on Wednesday.
—America’s Most Wanted vs. Team Canada. Team Canada screwed America’s Most Wanted out of the win in their title match in the cage on the PPV.
—David Young (0-87) vs. Mike Posey in a match where Young vows to quit, if defeated
—Abyss and Alex Shelley vs. D-Ray 3000 and Shark Boy, money vs. contracts
And results from Impact on Fox Sports Network:
*A.J. Styles over Jerelle Clark in 2:55.
*Abyss and Alex Shelley over Team Mexico in 5:28. The angle was that Abyss and Shelley got the pin at the same time but the ref coulted Shelley’s and he got the glory and Abyss was stuck in the background.
*Monty Brown over Antonio Banks in 1:44. Brown is way too limited to be getting the push that he is. But in WWE, a man who used to be considered an unsuccessful jobber is champion. The difference? WWE has money.
*Team Canada over Chris Sabin, Sonjay Dutt, The Amazing Red, and Mikey Batts in 4:49. Sabin, Dutt, Red, and Batts could all use real characters so that we care about them as well as enjoy their athleticism. TNA Impact should better use the opportunity afforded them by this TV show to do some character-building. *Raven over Romeo in 1:51. Sabu came out and Raven and Sabu started fighting and were split up. *Jeff Jarrett over Shark Boy in 4:15.
thumbup (0k image) The wrestling on this show was greatly improved from last week. They’ve scaled back greatly on the world title feud, which is good because it took up too much time anyway and wasn’t that great. Last week the main event was the tag title match, which delivered, and this Thursday it’s the Ultimate X match, which is what they should’ve been doing from the beginning, but I’m not complaining. They are making a lot of moves right now that will pay dividends down the line, and it’s a good change of pace. Not that they aren’t throwing money down the sink with this current schedule, but many of the booking decisions that have been made of late have surprised me with their lucidity and long-term aim. There was a Dusty Rhodes segment with Jeff Hammond and they talked about nothing. They also introduced Joe Williams (Univ. Of Iowa) and Daniel Cormier (Oklahoma State) who are representing the US in freestyle wrestling.
6/25 Impact did an estimated 0.1 cable rating and 7/2 did a 0.33. WWE Velocity the next day drew a record low for WWE on cable with a 0.33, but with Spike having better penetration, it’s a higher number of viewers than Impact.
Jonny Fairplay is filing charges against Florida promoter Ron Niemi, according to the Pro Wrestling Torch, stemming from a bar fight incident weeks ago. The last we saw of Fairplay, who has been a gigantic waste of money, was a promo a few weeks ago challenging reality TV stars to a fight… Sean Waltman is in drug rehab, a stay which is being personally funded by Vince McMahon and Triple H… TBL Poll: Have you seen an episode of TNA Impact? Yes (46%). No (17%). No, but I’d like to (37%)… There is a lot of debate within the company about whether to move the Wednesday show to the better looking Orlando set, but I’m definitely worried that move would kill the city. Debate continues and no date or decision has been made yet… Due to injuries, Jerry Lynn has been working as an agent lately.
Matchmaker
Trevor Hunnicutt
THunnicutt@aol.com
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