It’s time to head over to the Impact Zone once again as we take a look at the latest of TNA’s One Night Only shows, Joker’s Wild, shown this past Wednesday night on Challenge here in Britain.
The format of this show borrowed a little from something WCW did many years ago, a tournament format featuring six tag team matches, with the teams drawn at random, with the winners going on to a Royal Rumble-like gauntlet battle royal thing.
Match one saw James Storm and Christian York taking on Gunner and Crimson.
This was a pretty decent opener. Storm and York looked good early on before the bad guys took control and centred their attack on York. As a team Crimson and Gunner looked decent, and it left me wondering what had happened to Crimson’s career, considering the way he was pushed for over a year.
Anyway, I digress. York eventually made it back to his corner, and although Gunner almost got the in after Crimson took his man down with a spear the Cowboy took the win after York pushed Gunner into a Last Call Superkick.
Match two saw Jessie Godderz and Mr. Anderson facing Doug Williams and Kid Kash.
We certainly had an interesting story in this one with Godderz, the least experience man in this match, wanting to prove himself against his more illustrious opponents and his more illustrious partner.
Things went well for their team when Anderson was in the ring, not so though when Godderz was. Kash and Williams looked like they’d been teaming for years as they took Godderz apart, but when the youngster had the chance to tag out he chose to stay in the ring. It didn’t do him much good as he ended up taking even more punishment.
Eventually Anderson tagged himself in, but even then Godderz wanted to take the glory for himself. Anderson soon had enough of his partner, taking him out with the Mic Check before countering Kash’s roll-up with an inside cradle for the pin.
Match three saw Christopher Daniels and Samoa Joe going up against Chavo Guerrero and Rob Van Dam.
This was definitely the most star-studded of the tag matches. With these four as our protagonists you just knew you were going to get a quality match. Both teams put together some nice sequences early on, but when Guerrero began to take the brunt of the punishment Daniels and Joe looked pretty decent as a unit, a sort of X Division dream team if you will.
Guerrero soon got the hot tag to RVD after taking Daniels down with a body block, and after much high impact action Joe took RVD down with his Muscle Buster for the winning pin.
Match four saw Robbie E and Zema Ion taking on Bobby Roode and Joseph Park.
Before the match began Park suggested a new name for his new venture with Roode. Needless to say that the former World Champion was having none of it. He was also reluctant to let Park have any involvement in the match, but after the initial exchanges Roode eventually let him in.
Park went on to become the night’s biggest punching bag as E and Ion double up on him to good effect. The big man had one comeback moment, but it wasn’t long before they took Park out again.
Then, as the boys began to pose in the middle of the ring, Park saw his own blood and invoked the spirit of his missing brother as he took Ion out with a choke slam and E down with a Black Hole Slam.
Park then snapped back into it, and as he began to wonder what had happened Roode took the blind tag and pinned E for the three count.
Match five saw Hernandez and Alex Silva taking on Devon and Doc.
Hey, wasn’t it lucky that two of the Aces & Eights guys got picked as partners? Anyway, back to the matter at hand. This one was okay, but it wasn’t the best match on the card. Silva looked pretty good, and Hernandez did his usual thing early on, but it wasn’t long before the guys in leather took control so they could pound on Silva for a while.
Silva eventually made it back to his corner so Hernandez could come back in and do some more of his stuff. That didn’t last long though as Silva tagged himself back in so he could take Doc down with a top rope dropkick while big Super Mex flew over the ropes and took out Devon.
It didn’t give Silva much of an advantage though as Doc quickly got to his feet and took him down with a choke slam for the winning pin.
Match six saw Rob Terry and Matt Morgan going up against Joey Ryan and Al Snow.
This was definitely the least enjoyable of the tag matches. Before the match began Ryan reminded Morgan of some plan they’d come up with. A few moments later he argued with Snow before he tried to head for the hills. Snow followed him up the ramp, grabbed hold of him and threw him back into the ring.
A few moments later the two big men began to target Snow, and once again Terry looked quite limited in the ring. Snow looked okay, but he also looked like someone who shouldn’t give up his day job.
Then came the segment in which Ryan and Morgan tried to implement their plan. Whatever it was they just didn’t want to face each other, but with Snow and Terry reluctant to help out their partners the two cohorts had no choice but to face each other.
Lots of stalling followed as they tried to get their partners to tag back into the match, but with neither man having any success Ryan attacked Morgan with some of the weakest shots I’ve seen outside of a U.K. Pitbulls match.
Seconds later Morgan apologised to his friend before taking him down with the Carbon Footprint for the winning pin.
Then it was on to the Joker’s Wild gauntlet battle royal thing, with the winner getting a big cardboard cheque.
Beginning with James Storm and Bobby Roode this mini Royal Rumble proved to be quite entertaining. All twelve men acquitted themselves well as the alliances made earlier on quickly became rivalries.
The main sights in this one featured a brief Beer Money reunion as they eliminated Doc, as well as Rob Terry and Matt Morgan doing their best Terminator impressions as they eliminated almost everyone in sight.
The last two in the ring were the first two men who had entered the match. Roode thought he’d eliminated Storm until the Cowboy skinned the cat and pulled himself back into the ring. A few moments later, having taken Roode over the top rope, he knocked him down to the floor with the Last Call Superkick to win the big cardboard cheque. Personally I think they should have given him a title shot.
In conclusion – so how did TNA’s One Night Only rate second time around?
I really enjoyed this show. Although the basic concept had been done before it worked out pretty well. The majority of the tag matches were well played out and well executed, and the gauntlet proved to be the icing on the proverbial cake.
However, the illustrious commentary team of Mike Tenay and Taz annoyed the hell out of me again. They were just so off-putting for the entire show I just felt turning the sound down at times.
As for my match of the night this time around the no-prize goes to the Guerrero/RVD versus Daniels/Joe encounter. That’s something I’d like to see again sometime. I doubt if I will though.
So with all of that being said there’s only one more thing left to do, and that’s to give this show the thumbs up. Although Tenay and Taz get the big thumbs down.
By day I’m an unemployed retail worker, and at weekends I volunteer at a local museum, but by night I’m the author of The Two Sheds Review, Britain’s longest running professional wrestling and mixed martial arts blog. Visit my site at www.twoshedsreview.vze.com. It’s been online in one form or another since June 2000!
