March 2007 - Orlando, FL
Destination X starts off - like the previous pay-per-view (uh-oh) - with LAX taking on Team 3-D in a non-title "ghetto" street fight. I disliked their match from the last show and this was only a slight improvement. Much of that credit would go to "SuperMex" Hernandez, who delivers an awesome dive early on, and holds his own during the extended crowd brawls and the various false finishes towards the end of the match. I'd be curious to hear what Bubba and Devon would say about their work during this stretch; I don't think they were particularly motivated or inspired or eager to do anything but rest on their laurels and do garbage brawling. Neither guy was in "career shape" either, both basically sleepwalking through 80% of this. Johnny Rodz shows up and seeing a 65 year old man - who was also essentially a jobber during his WWWF/WWF heyday decades earlier - take out a whole crew of masked wrestlers is just too ridiculous. However, things do get noticeably better when Devon's brothers (not sure if that was in kayfabe or not) show up to even the odds and we get a whole bunch of wildness, including a top rope splash from Bubba that gets a huge pop and a series of good near falls. But, a good 5-6 minutes of a 15-minute match is still just only 1/3rd good. Then again, that's still better than their last match, plus anytime Alex Shelley is involved in something, it tends to be more watchable. (2.5/5)
This is followed by a Double Bullrope match pitting Jacqueline Moore and "Cowboy" James Storm against Petey Williams and Gail Kim. Chris Harris returned at the last pay-per-view so one would expect him to be involved here, but no, this is pretty straight-up. Kim spends most of the match punishing Moore on the outside of the ring which allows the in-ring action to be fought mostly between Storm and Williams. While this does make for better action, it also makes this much more straight-forward and arguably less creative than it could've been. For example, while I'm not usually a fan of male/female violence - especially when it is unearned - a little bit more interaction between Kim and Storm or Williams and Moore before the finish might've added some heat and made this feel "bigger." (1.5/5)
A Crossface Chicken Wing match between Austin (Aries) Starr and Senshi (Low Ki) followed. When Senshi first came to TNA, he was treated as a serious threat in the X-Division and a badass, but by this point, his stock had clearly fallen - I'm guessing because of his backstage attitude and ego. Going back and forth with Starr doesn't make Senshi look like a killer, which basically destroys his gimmick (and may explain why Senshi/Low Ki might've had a point when it came to believing he deserved better). This is a fine match but really nothing special and it doesn't effectively get either guy over. In a sense, its move for moves sake and too even and there's nothing particularly interesting about the way these characters bounce off eachother because Senshi is maybe too serious and Starr isn't silly enough. The inclusion of Bob Backlund also makes the whole thing read as undercard fodder. Again, the wrestling itself is undeniably crisp and full of sequences and maneuvers that were ahead of their time...but to what end? (2/5)
After some backstage stuff with AJ and Christy Hemme and whoever else, its time for the Voodoo Kin Mafia (aka the New Age Outlaws) to take on Hemme's mystery team...The Heartbreakers (Antonio Thomas and Romeo Roselli). This could've been good, but they decided against it. The Heartbreakers were not an established team (as far as I remember), but a strong showing here would've put them on the map. They're not a great team or anything, but neither were the Outlaws, whose act was incredibly tired at this point and has aged like mayonnaise in the sun in the years since. Thomas and Roselli were WWE rejects, but they're not horrible in the ring and maybe could've amounted to something if they'd been given an opportunity to do more than just job out to two guys that were still doing shtick from 10 years earlier. There's an awful "athletic cup" spot with Christy that is cringey and Lance Hoyt shows up for what should be a heel turn but surprisingly isn't. Not worthy of pay-per-view and barely worthy of TV. A 9-minute match that feels at least 3-4 minutes too long. (1/5)
In yet another rematch from Against All Odds, Jerry Lynn challenged Chris Sabin for the X-Division Championship in a 2-out-of-3 Falls Match. This was the third rematch on the show and it wouldn't be the last. On one hand, long-term storylines and feuds with multiple chapters can be great, but I'm just not sure this feud had the legs it needed to carry on for months and months (Lynn and Sabin had also wrestled in a 3-way with Christopher Daniels at Final Resolution 2 months earlier). There were some very good spots in this match - Jerry Lynn's crossbody into the crowd was excellent, some of Sabin's signature offense - but I'm not a fan of Sabin's unnatural overacting cocky heel gimmick and Jerry Lynn, while a terrific wrestler, has never been someone I've connected with as a performer. The run-in ending doesn't make things any better as Christopher Daniels returns in a Sting mask, costs Lynn the match, and then takes out Sabin too. (2/5)
Our forth rematch is next as AJ Styles takes on Rhino in an Elevation X match (a scaffold match for fans of ol' school NWA). Scaffold matches are always a risky endeavor, not just for the talent involved but for the viewer. There's simply not that much can be done 30 feet in the air on a narrow strip of scaffolding that wouldn't result in someone potentially crippling themselves. And so, matches like these tend to be judged primarily on the heat from the crowd and the eventual finish because the actual action tends to be a bit slow and lackluster. This match benefitted from featuring AJ Styles, who was among the best high-flyers in the sport at the time, and Rhino, whose huge size and style made seeing him on top of a scaffold a sight to behold. The crowd was also very into this - its not every day you see a match like this and the audience treated it with respect, gasping at some of the teases that Styles and Rhino threw at them. I really liked AJ Styles' heel work here as he spit in Rhino's face and hit under the scaffold at one point, basically needling the Man Beast into losing his concentration and potentially falling to certain injury. AJ busts out the baby powder to try to blind Rhino, but ends up getting it thrown into his own face. I wish they would've done a wild spot here of a blinded AJ basically stumbling his way off the scaffold - which, again, could've meant paralysis but maybe AJ could've found a way to make it look good while still taking something of a protected bump? - but instead we see Rhino hit an underwhelming Gore and AJ, after hanging over the ring for a minute, eventually dropping to the ring. Again, a match like this has to be judged on its finish, which wasn't very memorable. Fine for what it was, but nothing worth seeking out. (2/5)
Next up - something of a dream match as Kurt Angle took on Scott Steiner. Both guys had respectable, legitimate wrestling backgrounds so I was expected to see some amateur-style wrestling to start things off even if the real story of the feud coming in was that Steiner felt slighted by Angle coming in and landing a bigger contract than him. Instead, this is wrestled a bit more conventionally - sure, there's loads of suplexes and Steiner gets in his signature taunts, but there are also noticeable gaffes (including a back suplex from Steiner that looks like it could've crippled the Gold Medalist). The finish is an absolute disaster, though, as Steiner and Angle end up in the corner for what looked like it was going to be a sunset flip powerbomb spot only for Angle to do the sunset flip, Steiner opting not to take the bump, but then falling back for a very weak-looking pin. I'm curious if they botched what was meant to somehow be a Frankensteiner? Or if Steiner just decided he didn't wan to take the sunset flip-powerbomb? I usually love when matches end with a move other than a finish because I dig the unpredictability, but this was ugly and the audience chanted "That Was Weak" to let it be known after the match. (2/5)
The crowd is not much kinder to the next match either as Sting takes on Abyss in a Last Rites match (the cheesiest version of a casket match possible). Despite Sting and Abyss having a physical match and Sting bleeding a gusher from a candlestick shot, the crowd abhors the lame "lowering of the casket" moment and chants "Fire Russo" instead of paying respect to the performers (there was also a "Boring" chant which is ridiculous; this match may have been bad, but it wasn't boring). The phony tombstones are a bad prop and the use of dry ice and changing the lighting of the match is not my cup of tea - not here, not for Bray Wyatt, not for Sin Cara, not really for anyone - but there's been so, so, so much worse over the years that I didn't find this all that offensive. I dug the chokeslam on the closed casket and, at one point, Sting took one of the phony tombstones and placed it on Abyss' head and bashed it with a bat, which was a cool visual. With a better finish, something actually hardcore and not involving the foam tombstones, I would have no problem calling this at least average and maybe even above it just for the effort, but for what it was, this was a weird mix of goofy and gory. (2/5)
Main event time - Samoa Joe challenging Christian for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. This match had real "Big Fight Feel" as it was established that Christian would be going it alone (plus Samoa Joe got a special entrance featuring fire dancers). I'm a bit of a mark for both of these guys so I was into this one from beginning to end. Even admitting that, I don't see how anyone wouldn't call this the clear Match of the Night. While the finish was a bit overbooked with X-Division guys showing up to support Joe, a ref bump, a chair shot, a low blow, and then Christian winning with his feet on the rope, the back-and-forth between these two was very good and the crowd was more alive for this than any other match of the night, including the scaffold match. Its crazy to say this but I think these two could probably work an even better match now in 2024 - though it probably wouldn't be as physical. Joe is terrific as the clear should-be winner who controls much of the match and seems to have the champion beat at multiple points while Christian is equally brilliant at playing the crafty heel who uses every trick in the book to hold onto his title (without relying on Tomko or Steiner or AJ to help him). I must admit to biting on a few of the false finishes as I wasn't 100% sure who won this match (having not followed TNA very closely at any time but knowing that, at some point, Joe would eventually win the big one). As much as I enjoyed this match, I'm not sure it necessarily hits the "must watch" level, but it was close. (3.5/5)
With a Kwang Score of 2.06-out-of-5, this is a sub-average show with only one match (the main event) that is worth checking out if you're a fan of TNA or of the wrestlers involved. The opener is decent but inessential and everything else is "mid" at best. The Voodoo Kin Mafia/Heartthrobs match would've been fast-forward material on a bad episode of Impact and the scaffold match is underwhelming. I could see some people digging Sting/Abyss just for the lunacy of it, but the crowd shits on most of it which kinda kills the fun.
FINAL RATING - DUDleyville
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