TNA Hard Justice 2005

SONNY SIAKI & APOLO vs. TEAM CANADA (Petey Williams & Eric Young) (w/Scott D’Amore) - 4.5/10

MIXED TAG TEAM MATCH:
Chris Sabin & Traci vs. Matt Bentley & Trinity - 4.75/10

Trinity hits Sabin with top rope hurricanrana, resulting in chants of “LET’S GO LITA!” The double turn was random, but was for the best.

SLAMMIVERSARY VIDEO PACKAGE - Good

TEAM CANADA PROMOS - Great

DUSTY RHODES & TITO ORTIZ - Okay

RAVEN PROMO - Love it! “they’re going have to get a stretcher for the stretcher then their going to load you in an ambulance and I’m going to blow that up.” Just plain old awesome Raven rambling. For some reason, though, they bleeped out Waltman’s name.

RAVEN’S HOUSE OF FUN:
Raven vs. Sean Waltman - 6.75/10

Lots of violence here. At one point in the match Raven had Waltman handcuffed around the ring post and was beating him with a Singapore Cane. Waltman wouldn’t give up, so Raven went to go get a chair. While Raven is getting the chair, Dusty Rhodes comes out with a referee who just happens to have the key to the handcuffs and randomly decided to let Waltman out. Other than that, a great match.

DDP & RON KILLINGS BACKSTAGE - Good.

RON “THE TRUTH” KILLINGS & “DIAMOND” DALLAS PAGE vs. KIP JAMES & “THE ALPHA MALE” MONTY BROWN - 2/10

Was going fine until Phi Delta Slam came out and randomly attacked DDP right in front of the ref, who did nothing about. DDP hits them with Diamond Cutters, then hits Kip with a low-blow… again right in front of the ref, and again, no DQ.

MIKE TENAY INTERVIEWS THE NATURALS- meh.

NWA WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH:
The Naturals(c) vs. America’s Most Wanted - 6.5/10

A good match, aside from one spot where they were on the outside for WAY too long and weren’t counted out.

TNA X-DIVISION TITLE MATCH:
Christopher Daniels(c) vs. Shocker - 6.75/10

A rare overshoot by Daniels with the BME, but other than that botch, a great match.

20 MAN GAUNTLET FOR THE GOLD FOR A SHOT AT THE NWA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE - 7.25/10

SICK One And Only by Kip James to Mikey Batts. Good stuff with Hoyt and the Canadians. I was super-pissed when Hoyt was eliminated. The stuff with BG James and Kip James was also good.

NWA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH WITH TITO ORTIZ AS THE SPECIAL GUEST REFEREE:
Jeff Jarrett(c) vs. AJ Styles - 7.5/10

Tito Ortiz might be the worst referee in history. When Monty Brown interferes, rather than call for a DQ, Tito yells at Monty and starts to chase him off. While this is happening, AJ went for a pin on Jarrett and with busy dealing with Monty, Rudy Charles came down to count the pin.

ONE!...

TWO!...

Tito pulls Rudy out of the ring, stopping the count on a perfectly legal pin telling Rudy Charles that he, Tito, will be the only referee this match. Later, when Jarrett hits AJ with a low blow, Tito does nothing, but when Jarrett insults him… then Tito decides to get involved, striking Jarrett leading to the finish. Worst. Referee. Ever.

Tito aside, Jeff and AJ told a very good story and despite how tainted it was, AJ’s victory (and the end of Jarrett’s almost year long title reign) still felt like a big moment.

BONUS MATCHES FROM THE COUNTDOWN SHOW:

WINNER QUALIFIES FOR THE GAUNTLET FOR THE GOLD: Shark Boy vs. David Young- 4/10

Final Thoughts
Overall, a decent show from TNA, but nothing special. A must-buy for AJ fans, but skippable for everyone else. Oh, if you are interested, in the pre-show, most of the time that JB is speaking, standing next to him is a woman who it took me embarrassingly long to recognize as a much younger and not red-headed SoCal Val. So if you are into Val (and wouldn’t we all like to be) but don’t like red-heads, you should pick this up. I was also annoyed by the fact that matches are listed out of order on the jewel case.