BRM Reviews TNA Slammiversary 2016 (very disappointing)

[Big Red Machine]

TNA Slammiversary 2016 (6/12/2016)- Orlando, FL

FATAL FOUR WAY MATCH FOR THE TNA X-DIVISION TITLE: Trevor Lee(c) (w/Gregory Shane Helms) vs. Andrew Everett (also w/Gregory Shane Helms) vs. DJ Zema Ion vs. Eddie Edwards- 6.5/10
I hate to start a review off on a negative note (I know it seems like I do this all the time, but that’s because a good chunk of my reviews are Raw, Smackdown, and Impact, and they all almost always start with a stupid and/or pointless talking segment), but this match is a microcosm for everything that has gone wrong in the X-Division for the past few years: If you watched all of the TV from the moment Davey Richards got hurt until now, culminating with the DQ finish on the go-home show, you’d think they were building to Eddie Edwards challenging Trevor Lee for the X-Division Title at Slammiversary… which is a darn great idea. Eddie’s tag partner went down, so instead of doing nothing with Eddie, you build him up to have him put over your young, up-and-comer who you are pushing as the champion. It will give us a great match, put Lee over, preserve the other guys in the division so that Lee has some fresh challengers after Slammiversary, give Eddie something different to do for a while, and the loss won’t really hurt Eddie because when Davey returns he’ll just go right back to being one half of the best tag team in the company.
Instead of delivering on what they built up, though, TNA decided to throw two more guys into this match despite the fact that:
1) Doing this creates an awkwardness of Helms having to manage both Lee and Everett
2) Giving these title shots to DJ Z (who just lost one cleanly), and Everett (who has yet to win a single match in TNA) devalues the title and takes the focus away from the Lee vs. Edwards feud.
Given the above issues, why would TNA do this? Because in their minds, putting more guys in there will make it more “exciting” (read as: more of a spotfest) and that’s the way they see the X-Division now: Not as a division with wrestlers and a title that people are supposed to care about, but just as a spotfest opener to get the crowd hot. And if you don’t believe me, consider the following: instead of an actual video package to build up some sort of story going into this match, all this match got was were some random clips of X-Division flips and Josh Mathews tells us that “only the X-Division” can deliver such crazy action.
Well… “TNA Management” just banned Helms from ringside. For some reason, the referee had to tell JB this. You’d think they’d tell the ring announcer, right? Either that or they just made the decision in the few short moments between now and the time Helms came out. Helms was banned because of “recent outside interference,” which presumably refers to him distracting the referee for the finish of the Ultimate X Match two weeks ago, allowing Lee to screw Eddie Edwards out of the title. Once again, this is something that would play perfectly into the match they seemed to have been building towards: Lee vs. Edwards for the title, but makes very little sense with the other two guys also in the match.

The match itself was certainly exciting and action-packed, but it felt like any random X-Division four-way match I’ve seen over the past decade or so, and in this setting, the small package victory felt very anti-climactic. One moment guys were doing moves, then Eddie just rolled Lee up with a small package and won the title. This didn’t feel like the culmination of any sort of story, be it one that has been building for months or one that has only been building since the bell sounded.

EC III PROMO- decent, I guess, although it went on too long.

MAHABALI SHERA & GRADO vs. THE TRIBUAL (w/Al Snow)- 4/10
Al Snow came out in a jacket that said “France” and he started cutting his promo in botched French. Then he switched to English and said Donald Trump was his hero. Just about the only lazy old-school heat tactic he didn’t use is insulting the city, and I’m certain he would have done that, too, if not for last night’s terrorist attack. I’m not trying to say that some of these things don’t work and that they shouldn’t be done anymore, but in this case they really do feel lazy, simply because never before this moment had Al shown any indication that he liked or agreed with Donald Trump or that he thought France was better than the USA in ANY WAY.
In an ironic note, Al’s botched French (which is designed to get heat both by being a language the fans don’t understand and also by having Al come off as an idiot for his obvious mispronunciations), was actually a lot easier for me to understand than most of Grado’s promos in English… and this is coming from a guy who only took three semesters of French, all well over a decade ago, and almost failed one of them.
Because Donald Trump is apparently his new hero, Al says he wants to “make wrestling great again,” ripping off the gimmick that the All Night Express are doing a MUCH better job with in ROH right now (at one of this weekend’s shows they apparently accused Dalton Castle of “human trafficking” due to his relationship with The Boys. BRILLIANT!).
Old-School Al distracted Grado and Shera in the beginning so his guys could jump them from behind, and from there they went right into the heat on Shera while Grado was the guy who got the hot tag. I was 100% certain that these two would be in the opposite roles, but Shera didn’t embarrass himself here, so that’s a step forward. Just when I didn’t think Grado could possibly find another way to annoy me, he kicked out of a double-chokeslam. Anyway, our new heel tag team got beaten up for a while by the comedy dorks, Grado got a visual pinfall on them, and they only by via a distraction… and we’re supposed to take them seriously from now on.
I really hope they don’t stretch this feud out until the next PPV. I’d much rather see Al going after the X-Division, cutting promos on them for being spot-monkeys and not “real wrestlers” while wearing a “Vader was right!” t-shirt.

BRAXTON SUTTER AND JAMES STORM SEGMENT- completely pointless.
So Sutter is walking around backstage just saying high to people and apparently there is a camera following him for some reason, and, for some reason, we are watching that camera instead of the one James Storm is in front of, cutting a promo hyping up Impact on PopTV. Why not start the segment with us watching Storm’s promo and have Sutter just come in and interrupted him? That creates a kayfabe reason for the camera to be there while simultaneously gives us something entertaining to watch instead of Braxton Sutter introducing himself to random backstage workers.
I can only assume that the reason Sutter was introducing himself to people was to show how polite he is and how he follows wrestling etiquette. Of course, that is completely shot in the foot when he decided that he just has to interrupt James Storm’s promo instead of waiting five seconds. They have a pointless exchange, including Storm congratulating Sutter on getting his first victory, saying that it took him a few months before he got his. This is would be quite false, as AMW were pushed pretty much from the second TNA show ever. This ended with them going to talk in private. James doesn’t even finish his promo. This felt like an Impact segment that somehow found its way onto the PPV.

SEGMENT TO ESTABLISH THAT MARIA’S HAND IS BROKEN- bad.
The next match was supposed to be Gail vs. Maria but Maria’s hand is broken so she can’t wrestle. Josh tells us that TNA found this out on Thursday, but they apparently did nothing to change their advertising, even going so far as to leave the video package that aired before this match completely untouched. What a bunch of assholes. If Josh hadn’t made this statement verifying the legitimacy of Maria’s injury, the little pre-match segment they did with Allie criticizing Gail for “faking an injury” (her knee is taped up because of an angle they did on the go-home show) and saying that Maria was the only one who was really injured would have worked much better because they could have played it off as Maria faking an injury to get out of a match (which you really should avoid doing at all costs on PPV, but if there is a legit injury, you really don’t have much of a choice). Because of Josh’s statement, you either have TNA management looking like idiots for believing a fake injury or Gail looking like a jerk for insisting a kayfabe real injury is being faked (which is exactly what Allie did in the beginning of her promo to get heat).
Billy Corgan comes out with the x-rays to prove it. He says that not only did TNA doctors review them, but he brought them to his own personal physician to verify, which is probably a breach of confidentiality. Billy assures us that the match will happen whenever Maria is healed, which was nice of him. Maria says her doctor says it will take a long time, so Gail starts whining about how she “deserves this match.” She even went so far as to say “I EARNED THIS MATCH!” No you didn’t, Gail! This match got booked because Dixie randomly decided to let EC III run Impact for a week and you asked him to make the match for you and he did. That’s not “earning” something. That’s being handed it. As Maria points out, at least Sienna won a match to earn her title shot later tonight.
Billy Corgan then tells us that he’s adding Gail to the Knockouts Title match because it’s Slammiersary. Why is Billy allowed to book Knockouts matches? Isn’t Maria supposed to be the one in charge of the division? Hasn’t that been the whole point of this storyline? And if he can change her matches around, why didn’t he prevent Maria from booking babyfaces in “win or you’re fired” matches several times over the past few weeks?
And, of course, while Billy is making these decisions, he doesn’t bother to ban Maria and Allie from ringside due to their “past outside interference,” even though Gail just brought it up less than a minute ago and they had previously barred Helms from ringside for this very same reason.

TNA KNOCKOUTS TITLE MATCH: Jade(c) vs. Gail Kim vs. Sienna (w/Maria Kanellis-Bennett & Allie)- 5.5/10
Sienna is wearing some sort of peacock-esque accoutrement that makes her look extremely unintimidating. The match started with the two babyfaces teaming up on the one heel. I know that there is nothing against doing this in the rules, but Sienna isn’t that much bigger than either of these two so she doesn’t come across as the insurmountable foe that an Awesome Kong would come across as, so watching the good guys team up and go after her- especially when one of them wasn’t even supposed to be in this match- feels a little unfair. This continued for way longer than it should have, to the point where I said “f*ck the good guys. I want to cheer for the big badass beating up two competitors all on her own.”
Stuff happened, the babyfaces fought the monster, and Gail was about to win when, of course, Allie interfered. Gail went after her and went after Maria, and the referee distracted himself in going after them. This was even more strange because, while I am always a fan of the idea of there being DQs and stuff in three-ways, Josh had earlier told us that there were no count-outs here, so I wasn’t quite sure why there would be DQs and why the ref would go off distracting himself.
While the ref was off doing that, Allie slid Sienna the title belt to use as a weapon but she never got the chance because Marti Belle made her return to TNA’s on-air product by conking Jade in the back with a pipe to take her out, so Sienna just went for the pin. Jade’s first title reign ending so soon (and her being pretty much an afterthought to the Gail vs. Maria feud the entire time) is bound to hurt her a bit, but at this point TNA had already booked themselves into a corner and there was nothing they could do about that other than try to do a finish that kept her strong (obviously she could have gotten the win, but that clearly hasn’t been the direction they wanted to go in). I was thinking that Maria and Allie would screw her out of the title in order to more closely align her with Gail, but I will admit that I am quite intrigued by this development with Marti. The finish they did keeps Gail vs. Maria hot and sets up Gail vs. Sienna while also giving Jade something to do so that the Gail vs. Maria feud can finish off before Jade returns to go after the title Marti screwed her out of. It was probably the best finish they could have done, all things considered.
The execution was also pretty good as Sienna saw Marti coming and ran to intercept her by trying to take her out with the belt, but she swung and missed. Needing to duck this shot but Marti in perfect position to nail Jade with the weapon, at which point she got out of the ring while Sienna looked confused and then tossed away her own weapon to go for the pin. Rather than the standard “swerve for the sake of a swerve” where one guy fakes going after someone, only to surprisingly turn around and hit the other, this had everyone acting perfectly logically. Sienna went after Marti because she assumed she was out here to help her former Dollhouse compatriot. Marti ducked the shot and then went after her target and left because she had no beef with Sienna; only with Jade. Sienna looked confused to show us that she had no idea this would happen. Pretty much perfect execution (although they probably should have given Marti a bigger pipe, both to make it look more brutal and to make it more clear what she hit Jade with).

JB INTERVIEWS BOBBY LASHLEY- A promo would have been fine, but spending so much time on Lashley bullying JB was just a waste of PPV time- especially when it all could have been avoided by JB simply acquiescing to Lashley’s egotistical and arrogant, but not totally unreasonable request to hear how JB would announce him as the new world champion after he won tonight’s match.

Josh Mathews (or whoever is telling him to do this) needs to knock it off with this selective history bullsh*t. It’s one of the things that annoys people the most about TNA, so why would you copy it. In the same sentence Josh will put over that James Storm was “on the very first Slammiversary” and will then proceed to only recognize Storm’s seven TNA World Tag Team Championships, completely ignoring his further seven NWA World Tag Team Championships, all of which were won in TNA, and, in fact, were top tag team titles in TNA on that “very first Slammiversary” that Josh mentioned earlier in this sentence.

JAMES STORM vs. BRAXTON SUTTER- 4.25/10
Before the match, Storm cut a GREAT promo to set this match up, although his promo made the earlier segment completely 100% pointless. And, to be honest, with nine matches scheduled for this show (and Drew vs. Lashley, Hardy vs. Hardy, and EC III vs. Bennett all need at least eighteen minutes of actual match time, not including entrances and post-match), plus a the need to spend time explaining why Gail vs. Maria isn’t happening, this match (and the earlier segment) really shouldn’t have happened on this show, either. Yes, you can argue that it’s thematic to have Storm cut that promo on TNA’s anniversary show, but I would argue that it’s just as thematic to wait until either this week’s or next week’s Impact to do it, as those shows are both closer to the anniversary of the actual first show where Storm himself was given a chance. If you do that, you can not only free up time on this show for matches that need it, but, it will also let you do this match on a show where the match can actually get the time it needs to make Sutter not look like an undercard dork who can’t even last seven minutes against James Storm.
Oh. But look. Storm now respects Sutter so much that he is willing to share beer with him, something so special we have seen Storm do it with total strangers many times.

ELI DRAKE PROMO- fine.

MORE HALL OF FAME “HYPE”- this time it was a clip of Dixie introducing Kurt. It felt 100% identical to the previous one. I know that that is going to happen with something like this, but it came across as really pathetic here. There are only two reasons I am even mentioning this here. There first is because Josh told us that the newest inductee would be revealed this week on Impact, meaning that they are wasting time on one of their few live, relevant PPVs of the year in order to hype up something on their free weekly TV show. That’s never good in the first place (especially on a show that needs all the time it can get for the reasons I laid out above), but it’s not like they’re even hyping up something that anyone gives a sh*t about.
Aside from maybe Dixie Carter, everyone considers the TNA Hall of Fame to be a complete and total joke. It’s so meaningless that last year they decided to induct a f*cking referee (who hadn’t even done any sort of exemplary job in TNA) over a bunch of wrestlers who had been with the company since its first year of business and had been world champion for them. I was wracking my brain trying to think about who even makes sense as an inductee this year, and the first three names that popped into my head were AJ Styles, Eric Young, and Bobby Roode, all of whom are in TNA right now. To be fair to TNA, I did eventually come up with a few deserving candidates this year (Gail Kim, James Storm, Jeff Hardy), which brings us to the second reason I want to talk about this, which is to make my prediction as for who it will be: James Storm (and that being said, having Storm as the TNA Hall of Fame inductee would have been a fantastic reason for him to cut the promo he did earlier that set up for the Braxton Sutter match, so this would be even more reason for that to have happened on Impact and not on Slammiversary).

TNA KING OF THE MOUNTAIN TITLE MATCH: Eli Drake(c) vs. Bram- 3.5/10
Speaking of time restrictions, this match spent WAY too much time stalling early on. The absolute worst of it was when Drake was on the outside and rather than start to count Eli Drake out, Hebner kept trying to stop Bram from going out to get him… even when Drake had grabbed his title and made it abundantly clear that he was walking out of the match. I don’t mean to keep harping on this point, but if there was any match on this show that should have started with a brawl on the ramp, it was this one. They could have both saved time and started out hot and heavy so that they could do the most in the time they were given (and even did those spots on the ramp they clearly wanted to do because they did them when Bram went to stop Eli from walking out).
Once they got back towards the ring, Earl stopped doing any sort of counting, content with merely yelling at the wrestlers ineffectually. Once Eli Drake got back into the ring after Bram took a big bump onto the floor, Earl proceeded to lecture Eli instead of doing his f*cking job and counting Bram out. Then he went back to the ropes and just kind of watched Bram, not counting at all. This got so ridiculous that Eli Drake went over to yell at Hebner to do his damn job, and instead, Earl just yelled at Eli some more. This man is the only TNA Hall of Famer still with the company in any capacity. Bram made it back in right before the count of ten, even though he should have been counted out at least three times over if there was a competent referee. Way to make your babyface look good there, TNA.
So they did some brawling and even tried to hit a few wrestling moves as well before Bram hit Eli with his finisher but Eli was right ear the ropes and managed to roll out to the floor, and Earl, of course, repeated his earlier incompetence, trying to stop Bram from getting Eli instead of counting Eli ou-
WAIT! DUH! It all makes perfect sense now! A hall of fame is supposed to honor the legacy of the people who most embody the best qualities of the institution in question, so of course Earl Hebner got inducted. After all, what could possibly be more TNA than absolute and total incompetence?
Bram got Eli back into the ring and went for the cover but Eli kicked out. Eli then got up and hit Bram with some sort of striking combination that I not only didn’t know was named “Blunt Force Trauma” but is also apparently his finisher. Then he pinned Bram and won. That was pretty anti-climactic.

MIKE BENNETT PROMO- great

ETHAN CARTER III vs. MIKE BENNET (w/Maria Kanellis Bennett)- 6.75/10
Okay… someone needs to teach these TNA referees how count-outs work. While these two were brawling on the floor, the referee did his job and counted. He got to about seven before Bennett managed to drop Ethan with a big strike and roll into the ring… and this, for some reason, made the referee RESTART HIS COUNT. The same thing would happened just a few moments later as well. How f*cking hard is it to count someone out of the ring correctly? If your name is “Hebner” it’s apparently impossible.
They tried to do a TKO onto the apron, which sounds quite ridiculous when you think about it. When you see it in execution, it looks even worse. It looked like Bennett didn’t get hurt much at all while Ethan wound up taking a big bump onto the floor while delivering it.
Another big spot they did saw Ethan have Bennett pinned, and before Brian Hebner went down to count, the dastardly Maria slid a chair into the ring, distracting Hebner. Maria interfered in the match? Shocking, I know. Who could have possibly predicted that? After all, she has never interfered before, and certainly didn’t have someone interfere in a match on her behalf just an hour ago, right?
The fans, being much smarter than TNA management or Brian Hebner, chanted “throw her out!” Despite this being the logical and obvious thing to do, our referee did nothing of the sort. Hell… he didn’t even try to get the chair out of the ring. He apparently just stood there, doing nothing (he wasn’t on camera the entire time, which is why I say “apparently”) until Ethan went to go after Maria for costing him the match, at which point he rushed out of the ring to tell Ethan to leave Maria alone. While Hebner was apparently lecturing Maria instead of listening to the fans and ejecting her from ringside like any sensible referee would have done, he has sent Ethan back to the ring, essentially leaving the two wrestlers alone in the ring with a dangerous weapon while he pays attention to something else. ON PURPOSE he did this.
This, of course, led to Bennett hitting his finisher onto a chair, which Ethan kicked out of. Then Ethan avoided a piledriver, hit a wacky TKO that Involved Bennett landing on his feet and taking it like a stunner, stumbling around, and then Ethan hit his finisher for the win. In many ways, that was this match in a nutshell. Guys hit big moves, but there was very little in between them in terms of something to drive a transition in the story. The only “story” that there was aside from one or two instances of Bennett cheating, was just “do big stuff” but none of it ever felt big. One of those times where Ethan got put down on the outside that I mentioned before? That was a freaking DDT onto the floor, with Ethan draped over a guardrail, and just a minute or two later, it seemed completely forgotten about.
They were pushing this as “redemption” for Ethan, but it didn’t feel like that at all. They didn’t even try to play into the finish of the first match, which seems like the freakin’ obvious thing to do at some point, and this didn’t feel epic enough or have any good, prolonged heat segment for this to really feel like Ethan “overcame” much of anything. There was no sense that Ethan was an underdog at any point. Due to the way they did (or rather didn’t do) their transitions, it rarely even felt like he was fighting from behind. He was either taking a move or hitting one. Pinning Bennett or kicking out of a pin. There was no time to let any sort of peril really sink in.

MATT HARDY PROMO- yeah. That’s a good idea. Let’s put one of these over the top, goofy Matt Hardy promos right before the big, scary, blow-off weapons match. He was growling at the end. F*cking growling. Like a dog.

HARDYS VIDEO PACKAGE- great.

FALLS COUNT ANYWHERE FULL METAL MAYHEM MATCH: Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy- 7.25/10
I have no idea where the “Falls Count Anywhere” part of the stip came from.
Matt’s entrance involved piano music that I’m sure I’ve heard before and I’m certain someone with some sort of familiarity with classical music would be able to identify without much trouble. Then Reby came out to introduce Matt. She looked the same, but talked in a more “Broken Matt Hardy” style. Then they went back to the piano music and Matt came out and this was all so lame.
For some reason there was a keyboard under the ring (as in the musical instrument, though I would be equally perplexed as to why a computer keyboard was under the ring). Being me, I feel the need to point out that such an item has many non-metal parts, and thus goes against the rules of Full Metal Mayhem as originally laid out (way back in the Abyss vs. Christian feud of 2006). Matt pulled a section of the guardrail over towards the ring, and set up a “bridge” between the guardrail and the apron, just like you would normally see someone do with a table or a ladder… except that this looked completely stupid, and I couldn’t help but laugh, despite having previously been into this match. Then, when Matt went to go get Jeff, the keyboard fell, and just burst out laughing. There are a bunch of ladders lying around and there are other sections of the guardrail right there… but Matt wanted to put Jeff through a f*cking KEYBOARD?! This is an example of trying to be too creative.
It was also quite dangerous because, as the first falling of the keyboard indicated, the thing wasn’t very stable. Also, as anyone with a brain knew, it’s not going to break in the middle… so when Matt went to powerbomb his brother through this thing, it merely got pushed to the side and did absolutely nothing to break poor Jeff’s fall. It did, however hit Jeff on the way down with enough force to make its cover pop off. I don’t usually criticize things like this for safety because my general feeling has been that if they are willing to put their bodies on the line for my entertainment, that is their choice… but between first being completely taken out of the match by the goofiness of the keyboard, then seeing it fall to illustrate just how unstable it was, and then seeing Jeff take that bump like that… I started to feel bad that Jeff was taking this abuse.
They did a lot of weapons stuff and it was pretty brutal, but at the same time, it’s all stuff we’ve seen a million times before (aside from the keyboard, obviously), and the outcome was never, ever in doubt. Also Jeff’s wasn’t really selling much, which is kind of amazing from someone taking the very real punishment demanded of this match.

DECAY PROMO- Abyss was terrible. Crazzy Steve and Rosemary were fine, if you like goofy, overdramatic promos.

TNA WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Decay(c) (w/Rosemary) vs. The Bro-Mans (w/Raquel)- 3.75/10
Rosemary tried to blow mist into Robbie’s eyes but he ducked and it hit Abyss instead. This was all right in front of the referee, who didn’t even eject Rosemary from ringside despite seeing her try to interfere in a match.
This led to Abyss accidentally chokeslamming Steve. Soon after this Steve ate the Bro Down and Jesse GOdderz put him in the Adonis Crab. He was about to tap but Abyss pulled the referee out of the ring. This was not a DQ. Then Abyss tried to blow mist at Robbie but it hit the referee instead. Apparently getting stuff in your eyes makes you physically incapable of calling for the bell.
Meanwhile, in the ring, Steve is tapping out but Rosemary comes in to hit Jesse with a title belt… but f*cking Raquel comes to make the save. Raquel beats up Rosemary, but for some unexplained reason Jesse decides to pull her off. Jesse and Raquel started fighting, which let Steve nail Jesse with a title belt for a nearfall which was counted by a new referee because I guess getting sh*t in his eyes has completely incapacitated the old one. Jesse kicked out because apparently that’s not good enough to be the finish in this completely pointless match. Instead we had to have Abyss give him a Black Hole Slam, and then have Abyss powerbomb Steve onto him for the pin. This was completely overbooked sh*t. Bro-Mans have never been a successful act together. I can understand bringing them back together because your entire tag team division is depleted and you needed SOMEONE to challenge on this PPV, but you shouldn’t be protecting them! Let Decay get a clean win and then sign some freakin’ tag teams!

DREW GALLOWAY PROMO- By this point I was just screaming that they were wasting time for the only match on this card that I really had any emotional investment in. Maybe it would have been a good promo otherwise.

KNOCKOUTS OR SUBMISSIONS ONLY MATCH FOR THE TNA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE: Drew Galloway(c) vs. Bobby Lashley- 6.75/10
So the first spot in the match is Drew nailing Lashley with the Claymore… and then he just f*cking paces around instead of going for the f*cking pin! About thirty seconds after this I realized that it was because there are no pins. I have left it in this review to point out how bad the announcers are because any competent announcer would have immediately pointed this out.
Drew locked Lashley into a Sharpshooter on the steps… and then grabbed the ropes as if this would somehow give him more leverage. Not only was it stupid in that way, but it was also stupid because he did this right in front of the referee, turning a perfectly legal move which could have won him the match into an illegal one. Also, cheating is what heels do, and Drew is TNA’s top babyface.
Then Drew went and got a table. So are there no DQs in this match? And if so, then why has the referee been counting for rope breaks? Theoretically a submission when someone is in the ropes still can’t win you the match because it is an illegal hold, but with no DQs there is no punishment for leaving the hold locked on for as long as you want, either.
They traded a bunch of big moves and tried to do “big” stuff, but the match really never clicked with me, and the finish felt anti-climactic, coming from a submission we’ve never seen Lashley use before and coming at a time that felt like it was pretty much right in the middle of what seemed like Drew’s big comeback. I really think this match would have been a lot better if they had just let them have a normal wrestling match.

This was a very disappointing show from TNA. It was a show that felt like it could have been a lot more, but was held back by the booking. A combination of too much crap on the card and a lot of overbooking. The important matches didn’t get enough time, they wasted time with stuff that didn’t need to be on the show, and the refereeing was worse than you’ll see at your local indy. This was the first PPV in about two years that they put real effort into hyping up the whole card for and they still managed to f*ck it up the same way they f*ck up everything: pointless overbooking. Will they ever learn?

STUPID ANNOUNCER QUOTES:
1. Al Snow apparently isn’t the only one who can’t pronounce well-known French words correctly, because Josh Mathews pronounced the “L”s in “guillotine.”

2. Josh asks us to “think of the power Maria would then posses” if Sienna won the Knockouts Title tonight.
This whole storyline has been that Maria has all the power and has screwed one past champion out of her belt (Gail) and was now preparing to do the same to Jade while they were totally helpless to do anything about any of Maria’s rulings. But this is TNA so no matter what we’ve seen over the years, they always have to tell us that “the titles give you power.”

[NWK2000]

Has Abyss ever cut a good promo?

[Big Red Machine]

Has Abyss ever cut a good promo?

Yeah. When he is trying to be a big scary, murderous monster. Not when he is being an over the top clown. I think he had some good stuff in 2007-2009 (although his best promos were the ones where he stood and growlded and looked menacing in the background while James Mitchell cut them for him).

[KILLdozer]

Dude! I didn't read hardly any of that. Did everything have to be completely long winded endless rants about everything? Lol

[Big Red Machine]

Dude! I didn't read hardly any of that. Did everything have to be completely long winded endless rants about everything? Lol

Yes it did. If you read them, you might learn something.

[KILLdozer]

Ain't nobody got time for that.

[KILLdozer]

Thanks for being humorously condescending -one and only chance btw . Lol, but I already know all of this shit anyways.

Good guy BRM...

[Big Red Machine]

Thanks for being humorously condescending -one and only chance btw . Lol, but I already know all of this shit anyways.

Good guy BRM...

I rarely take the opportunity to be humorously condescending. I figured I'd try it this once.


Did you see the show?

[cero2k]

Has Abyss ever cut a good promo?

Yeah. When he is trying to be a big scary, murderous monster. Not when he is being an over the top clown. I think he had some good stuff in 2007-2009 (although his best promos were the ones where he stood and growlded and looked menacing in the background while James Mitchell cut them for him).

Joseph Parks

[KILLdozer]

Lmao nah but it doesn't appear to be any different. I'm still laughing that Maria just couldn't overcome the hand injury some way or another to still at least keep the match on the card. She's obviously not of one "those".

[cero2k]

The match itself was certainly exciting and action-packed, but it felt like any random X-Division four-way match I’ve seen over the past decade or so, and in this setting, the small package victory felt very anti-climactic. One moment guys were doing moves, then Eddie just rolled Lee up with a small package and won the title. This didn’t feel like the culmination of any sort of story, be it one that has been building for months or one that has only been building since the bell sounded.

i just realized that the next big show is Destination X. if Eddie stays champ, i'm excited for Option C

[Big Red Machine]

The match itself was certainly exciting and action-packed, but it felt like any random X-Division four-way match I’ve seen over the past decade or so, and in this setting, the small package victory felt very anti-climactic. One moment guys were doing moves, then Eddie just rolled Lee up with a small package and won the title. This didn’t feel like the culmination of any sort of story, be it one that has been building for months or one that has only been building since the bell sounded.

i just realized that the next big show is Destination X. if Eddie stays champ, i'm excited for Option C

Don't be. Option C helped kill the X-Division. Also, if the only reason they put the belt on Eddie is so he can challenge Lashley, then they're morons.

[cero2k]

Don't be. Option C helped kill the X-Division. Also, if the only reason they put the belt on Eddie is so he can challenge Lashley, then they're morons.

i honestly don't care about the division, but either Trevor Lee or Eddie Edwards challenging for the world titles does excite me. Lashley has been having the best matches of his career, so a match with either Eddie or Lee should be great