TNA One Night Only: World Cup

Taped March 18, 2013.
Released December 6, 2013
Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida.

Opening Video - I'm sure i just got half of the show spoiled, and saw Rockstar Spud looking at the cup like 5 times.

Team Presentation - It was ok, nothing special happened. Teams this year has a representative per division (X, KOs, Tag, Heavyweights).
Team UK was perfect. British Invasion reunion, a Blossom, and Spud
Team International was ok, Funaki was over as f**k. They decided to put Lei'D Tapa as the international one and not Ivelisse for some reason. Mesias seems to be representing Mexico and not Puerto Rico. Others are Petey Williams and Sonjay Dutt.
Team US AKA Team TNA. King, MJ, Bad Influence, and Storm.
Team Aces & 8s come out without Ivelisse, so it seems we did get spoiled with the opening intro. thank you TNA, thank you. Taz and Tenay even sell it. Also, are we supposed to chant 'USA' for Aces and 8s?

Team UK Hype Video - Beautiful. May i add that Rockstar Spud is the UK version of Sonjay Dutt, they likely have the same father. Never realized how strong presence the UK has in TNA.

Magnus Promo - Good.

Team A&8s (Ken Anderson) vs Team UK (Magnus) - 5.5/10
Nothing special from this match. For some reason Tenay knows exactly what Taz was doing with their club earlier today inside the A&8's Club House. 'You can't wrestle' chants during this match just made me lose all confidence on the crowd for tonight. overall a good opening match, clean finish.

Team USA Hype Video - Just a bunch of independent videos for each member of the team, no voice over, it's the videos they would use on an impact show.

Team USA (Kenny King) vs Team International (Sonjay Dutt) - 6/10
Match starts with dueling chants for Kenny and Sonjay, ok crowd, there may be hope. Good match, much slower that i thought these two would give us. There's a spot that i wasn't sure if Sonjay didn't sell the Pele Kick, or blocked it, but it looked weird. Finish was good, kinda out of nowhere.

Team UK (Hannah Blossom) vs Team International (Lei'D Tapa) - 5.5/10
Taz bringing his Lawler out saying he's gonna focus on Hannah's Blossom. This match reminded me a lot of the Kong vs Wilde feud, you know, with the exception that Kong and Wilde were great wrestlers. Good showing for Hannah Blossom here, and Tapa looked vicious.

Aces & 8's Promo - Good, but DOC looks weird with a Mic for some reason, OH! and Ivelisse has joined Aces & 8s!! (trying to mark out, keeping kayfabe alive)

Team A&8s Hype Video - The same one we've been seeing for the last year since the Bully swerve.

Team A&8s (DOC and Knux) vs Team International (Petey Williams and Funaki) - 6/10
Good babyface in peril, big bad guys vs small underdogs match. Funaki still wears his smackdown looking attire. Match got good, action full for the end, but then we got our typical A&8s finish. yeah, you know which one.

Rockstar Spud Promo - ok

Team UK (Rockstar Spud) vs Team A&8s (Wes Briscoe) - 6/10
let's just say that Rockstar Spud looked like a million dollars here. Just kidding, the match wasn't that bad, it was actually good, or as good as it can get from two guys that are hated by everyone. I personally think the wrong guy went over, specially from that move.

Bad Influence Promo - A-M-A-Z-I-N-G !! this promo made the PPV worth watching. #WarriorPoets

Team USA (Bad Influence) vs Team UK (British Invasion) - 6.5/10
Some great comedy with neither guy from Bad Influence wanting to fight Rob Terry, and Terry just overpowering them. Great match, wish they had some 5 more minutes, but overall good. Finish wasn't that impactful IMO.

Mickie James Promo - not sure if heel or face. But it was good for what it was.

Team USA (Mickie James) vs Team A&8s (Ivelisse Velez) - 7/10
I think Taz could be drunk or high while on the table. I may be an Ivelisse mark here, but this was the best singles match of the night. Glad Tenay wondered why Ivelisse is not part of Team International, Taz goes into this whole story that he got Mesias and Ivelisse on the A&8's side. Ivelisse steals the win with help from the club, which works perfectly for the newcomer taking a pin win on the veteran.

Match from the vault. Victory Road 08, World X Cup Finals
Ultimate X Match - Naruki Doi vs Volador Jr vs Kazarian vs Daivari - Not gonna rate this, it's an awesome match from another show, you should definitely check that whole World X Cup out. #DonWestMarkOut

James Storm Promo - short but good

Team International (Mesias) vs Team USA (James Storm) - 6/10
If Mesias is representing Mexico or Puerto Rico, he shouldn't have to come out with his horrible gray mask. Good match between two big guys. But it felt really lackluster for some reason.

Finals 5-on-5 Elimination Tag Match
Team USA (King, MJ, Bad Influence, and Storm) vs Team A&8s (Anderson, Knux, Briscoe, DOC, and Ivelisse) - 6.5/10
Just the fact a world cup is main evented by TNA vs Aces & 8s makes this tournament look like a load of crap, but at least i get to watch Ivelisse again. Having said that, this was a better match (and likely angle) than any of the TNA/MEM vs A&8s matches from TNA canon. I kinda marked out at Bad Influence confronting Aces & 8s, made me wish i could go back and rewrite that whole angle again and have either Frontline or Fourtune be the ones that take out A&8s. This match also made me wonder why TNA never capitalized on 'Hardcore Country' Mickie James and 'The Cowboy' James Storm as a power couple. Bad Influence bail on Storm and leave him on a 3-1 disadvantage, then he overcomes the odds and wins the whole match. Bad Influence then comes back to celebrate with him, Storm wants the whole attention for himself and takes out BI.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
First and foremost, i have to say that i love the idea of the World Cup, and i'm actually in agreement of making it company wide and not just X-Division. However, I'm quite disappointed that TNA didn't make an effort to get wrestlers from outside, Team UK and Team USA were perfectly crafted (even without Angle), but Team International just seemed like a random grouping of former TNA talent, and A&8s was just plain stupid to have in this show. The show wasn't bad, but it's definitely not something to go out of your way to watch. I would have definitely booked for the UK team to win, but that's just me.

NOTES:

- I haven't been paying attention to Taz for some time, but wow, he was projecting his inner 1998 Lawler during this show, he was creepy as hell.