I wasn't able to find Victory Road 2007 on YouTube, so I'm skipping that one and heading right to the next TNA pay-per-view event: this one...
Hard Justice begins with an X-Division-based tag team match as The Motor City Machine Guns take on former X-Division Champion Jay Lethal and Sonjay Dutt with the team of Triple X (Christopher Daniels and Senshi) rounding out the triangle match. Two months earlier, Daniels was feuding with Sting and now he was right back to being just another guy in the X-Division. As I've written about before, both TNA's bookers/producers and Daniels himself have reason to own the failure of the gimmick he was working here. As the commentators note, this is a super fast-paced match...but that doesn't make it good. They get plenty of time and the final few minutes do pick things up quite a bit from a match that felt a little meh, but this was unmemorable for the most part despite all three teams busting out seemingly every move in their arsenal. (2.5/5)
After some backstage stuff, its time for Raven vs. Kaz. This match gets a little over a third of the time that the previous match received but I daresay it was better and more interesting. Raven wasn't in the prime of his career here, but he still knew how to build a match - especially a match like the one here that was wild from the beginning and involved two his flunkies taking a bunch of the big bumps (in this case, "Havok" and "Martyr," aka Matt "Michael Shane" Bentley and Johnny Devine. Kaz's wrestling is solid here, though he would become even better as the years progressed, including when he donned the Suicide mask a year or so later. I also find it a little funny that Kaz, who wrestled briefly for the WWE when they were seemingly contemplating revamping their cruiserweight division, would actually be considered only a somewhat smaller-than-average heavyweight now as he stands 6'1 and weighs 210 lbs according to Wikipedia (for sake of comparison, that puts him basically at the same stats as Dolph Ziggler and Kofi Kingston and not too far off from Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins). Anyway, this entertained me because Raven builds his matches around stories and not just high spots and wildly-intricate sequences. (3/5)
The storyline leading up to the next match is...not good. James Storm was a beer-drinking redneck, a gimmick well-established by this point. His opponent, Rhyno, revealed in an interview with Mike Tenay that he was a recovering alcoholic, which is why when Storm doused him with beer, the Man Beast "snapped." I'm not a fan of alcoholism-related content in my wrestling not because it touches a nerve or is something I think should be considered "off limits" - though, in probably should be - but because I can't recall a single time in wrestling history when it has been treated respectfully, creatively, or well. And so Storm and Rhino have a "barroom brawl" that is just your classic ECW-style brawl, only with more "booze" and beer being slung than in a Sandman match. At one point, Rhino takes a sip of beer and the commentators essentially turn on him - claiming that this single beer is enough to turn him into an unfocused, sloppy mess. Its heavy-handed and, while I'm no doctor or scientist and I'm sure it is medically possible for a serious, chronic alcoholic to be inebriated after one drink due to serious kidney or liver issues, Rhyno was never portrayed as such. This would've been much more fun if they had just made it a straight-up Number One's Contender match or something along those lines instead of trying to make it "personal." At over 10 minutes, it also runs just a tad too long for such a thin concept. (1.5/5)
Homicide saves the day in the next match as his team with "Super Mex" Hernandez (aka the Latin American Exchange) take on The Voodoo Kin Mafia (aka the New Age Outlaws). The crowd chants "DX Rejects" at the very start, which had to hurt Billy...err, Kip James, and BG James (formerly known as the Road Dogg). They then break into a "187" chant in support of Homicide, who is definitely the strongest worker of the bunch. The VKM are backed up by Roxxi Laveaux, a valet I don't remember at all. The match goes under 6 minutes and the heels get a cheap, dirty win to prolong this feud. It's not terrible because it doesn't go long enough to be terrible and it is clear that the VKM knew the crowd was fully behind their opposition and didn't do too much annoying shtick, really letting the babyfaces shine for the majority of the sub-6 minute contest. (1.5/5)
Bobby Roode vs. Eric Young is next in a match billed as Ultimate Humiliation (the loser will be tarred-and-feathered). These two had been feuding for months by this point, but their in-ring work together was routinely good and Eric Young had gotten over with the TNA faithful as an underdog babyface. Roode, meanwhile, was coming into his own as a cocky heel who was deliberate and methodical in the ring. This bout isn't quite as good as their Slammiversary bout - which was more emotional as it had less silly stakes - but the in-ring action might've been a touch better as it was also a more condensed match and the finish wasn't as predictable. Despite losing, Young does not end up tarred-and-feathered because Gail Kim prevents it. This leads to Bobby Roode accidentally hitting Traci Brooks with a big right hand, an act of male-on-female violence that gets glossed over a little and not treated as all that big of a deal in order to get to the much-less-controversial act of Young pouring a little bit of "tar" (chocolate syrup?) on her and then a handful of feathers. (2.5/5)
The next match was more of a "mauling" than a match as Black Reign (Dustin Rhodes' latest alter-ego) bloodied and beat down Chris Harris in under 5 minutes. As far as introducing a new character, this was alright and one could never argue they didn't make Rhodes look as strong as possible in his new persona. The problem is that Rhodes, at this point in his career, was not in the best ring shape, was still wearing gear heavily-indebted to his Goldust persona, and this wasn't enough of a reinvention (or at least one that was interesting enough). I'm a big fan of Dustin, but won't defend some of his lesser ideas and this was one of them, a character that was meant to be spooky but wasn't, a concept that was supposed to be original but felt like something we'd seen before and better (arguably by Dustin himself in the WWE). This is more of an "angle" than a match, but I commend Harris for doing everything he needed to do to try to get this over. It doesn't help that Sonjay Dutt, who runs out at the end to protect Harris, is smiling the whole time like an idiot. I hope he got chewed out backstage for that. (1.5/5)
A bit of a tag team dream match followed as The Steiner Brothers took on Team 3-D. This match was supposed to happen months earlier, but Scott Steiner suffered an injury that caused this bout to be cancelled. At the previous pay-per-view, which was unavailable on YouTube, The Steiners cost Team 3-D a chance at winning both the TNA World Championship and the X-Division Championship. I was not expecting much out of this match as Bubba Ray was not in great shape (I liked that he took a crack at the Steiners being "out of shape" in his pre-match promo) and their matches against LAX from earlier in the year weren't all that great, plus Scott Steiner had also only been so-so (his match with Kurt Angle earlier in the year was especially disappointing) and was coming off an injury. However, I was pleasantly surprised by how much this worked despite my misgivings. I was not a fan of the way Team 3-D were heeling it up earlier, backing off and acting cowardly, but that's heel shtick for you and its wrestling 101 (I would've preferred they had given this match a bit more gravitas and done something more akin to the acclaimed Steiners vs. Luger & Sting match from roughly 15 years earlier, a battle between two teams that refused to back down). The crowd ate it up, though, and the Steiners were clearly the favored team with the live crowd so it made total sense for Team 3-D to play the shitheels. I liked that when Team 3-D gained the advantage, they went right to attacking Scott Steiner's scarred rib cage. Smart heeling there. Speaking of Scott Steiner, his Frankensteiner from the corner on D-Von looked terrific and earned the "That Was Awesome!" chant that followed. Plus, the match only went 11 minutes, not overstaying its welcome in the slightest. This wasn't the epic battle that these teams could've pulled off 10 years earlier, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I believe many fans would've expected out of two teams that were several years past their prime. (3/5)
Mike Tenay is in the ring for our next segment - the TNA debut of Adam "Pacman" Jones. Jones was a young, controversial NFL player who was suspended in his 2nd year in the league for various off-court incidents - fights, disorderly conduct, public intox, a shooting case in Las Vegas over NBA All Star Weekend. While suspended from the NFL, Jones got signed by TNA but...was not allowed to have any physical contact or wrestle due to a decree by the Tennessee Titans. Thank god, he was a good promo. Oh. Wait. He wasn't. He wasn't a good promo at all. Well, at least he looked intimidating. Say what? He was only 5'10? And weighed under 200 pounds? And had no real "It" factor aside from his rap sheet? Ron Killings comes out and gets cheered because the Tennessee fans loathed Jones for all the bad publicity he brought to the Titans. I'll give credit to TNA as they make it clear that Jones is not allowed to be touched as they could've tried to do a bait-and-switch thing with him. Oh, that would happen later? Great. This is easily one of TNA's biggest fumbles.
The next match is one of those classic overwrought TNA stipulation matches as its time for the first-ever Doomsday Chamber of Blood match, a.k.a a six-man First Blood cage match that must end in a pinfall between Christian's Coalition (Christian, AJ Styles, and Tomko) and the babyface trio of Sting, Abyss, and Andrew "The Punisher" Martin, who had made his TNA debut a few weeks prior (and was as 'roided out as he'd ever be). It is unreal seeing the former Test here and learning he was only in his early 30s because he looked like a grizzled, freakish monster. I was also surprised to learn that this was his first and only match in TNA as I would've thought he'd have stuck around at least a few months longer. I hate to speak ill of the dead - especially someone like Test who has one of my favorite "under-the-radar"/hidden gems against Lesnar from a King of the Ring tournament a few years before this - but Martin does not come across as a very big deal here. To be fair, nothing really stands out about this match overall. AJ takes some good bumps, as expected. Tomko and Abyss have some good exchanges that make it clear that the match they had two months prior was not a fluke and that they actually do have great chemistry. Christian's heel work is terrific. Sting gets to play the hero at certain points, but, as crazy as it is to say in 2024 when he's actually one half of the AEW World Tag Team Champions (and deserves to be), his role is pretty minimal and he's kept out of the fray for minutes on end. This isn't a bad match, really, but it isn't very good and the stipulation actively works against it. A six-man cage match shouldn't also need a literal guarantee that multiple guys are going to bleed. These guys could've worked the exact same match without the First Blood-then-a-pinfall stipulation and it would feel much less like they were checking boxes and working through an overly-scripted performance. Sloppy due to bad production, bad camera work, and a dumb format. Oh, and, at one point, they cut to the back to show that Pacman Jones has been attacked and needs to be stretchered out of the arena. (1.5/5)
Main event time - Samoa Joe vs. Kurt Angle in a Winner Takes All The Gold match for every single title in TNA (Angle's TNA World Championship and IWGP Championship and Joe's X-Division Championship and TNA World Tag Team Titles). This match is a mixed bag. The storyline coming into this was that Angle, now thoroughly a heel, was going through a rough patch with his wife, Karen Angle (who had shown up with her new boyfriend). Throughout the evening, Angle had been going nuts over Karen showing up with a new man and there was one particular scene with "Dr." Kevin Nash that popped me. He comes out to this match looking extra glum, nearly teary-eyed, and I must say, Angle's acting was surprisingly good. Joe, meanwhile, comes out with a grand entrance, backed up by a foursome of Samoan slap dancers. All the work in the ring between Angle and Joe is terrific, but there is an equal amount of emphasis - on commentary, via camera work, whenever Angle goes to the outside - on Karen Angle and her boyfriend drinking champagne and smooching at ringside. I can understand the opinion that Angle and Joe needed to spice things up for this match after having multiple contests against each other over the previous year. But isn't that why this one was for every single title? Was that not enough of a draw? Joe and Angle do enough, especially in the closing minutes, to make this better than average and easily the best match on the show and I will admit, having not followed TNA at the time and not remembering where this storyline went, I was fooled by the finish (until it actually was executed and Karen's poor acting and timing made it clear that the swerve was coming)...but it is still considerably lesser than any of the other matches they've had together that I've seen. (3/5)
Tallying up the Kwang Score, I was a bit surprised at how not bad this show scored (a not-so-terrible 2.22-out-of-5). This show was widely panned when it happened as many fans were the opposite of receptive to Adam "Pacman" Jones joining the company (and not even being able to be involved in any physical action), the Russo-rific booking of the main event (and Samoa Joe being made to look foolish), the continued awfulness of the Voodoo Kin Mafia, and the shrug-inducing "reveal" of the Black Reign character. Still, there are some good moments on this show. TNA's best workers and performers - Angle and Joe, Christian and AJ, Homicide, the X-Division stars in the opening contest - all shine when they're on-screen. The Steiners/Team 3-D match isn't as bad as it could be. Raven and Kaz put together a good, exciting, and interesting match that stands out. This show is not the complete debacle that some have painted it as.
FINAL RATING - High Risk Maneuver
No comments:
Post a Comment