Orlando, FL - December 2007
Turning Point 2007 begins with a six-man tables match pitting "Black Machismo" Jay Lethal and the Motor City Machine Guns against Team 3D and Johnny Devine. It was fairly obvious from the mere inclusion of Johnny Devine in this match as to who would be getting put through a table, but the action that leads there is perfectly fine. The Guns have some great double-team maneuvers and they do a wonderful job bumping and selling for Team 3D, especially Devon. The match goes much longer than I expected, but it never gets boring and they don't waste too much time getting to the table spots - which don't always get executed perfectly (there is at least one fairly noticeable botch in which Alex Shelley essentially gets shoved into and through a table but the ref and commentators ignore it) - which are plentiful despite the match being designed to end with just one table spot. I still think the Black Machismo gimmick was too one-note and did nothing for Jay Lethal, but that's just me. Not bad at all. (2.5/5)
Another tag match follows as ODB and Roxxi Laveaux take on Angelina Love and Velvet Skye. Too much comedy, too much raunchiness, too little Angelina Love, who was, to my eyes, the most exciting worker of the bunch. I never really got what made ODB so special aside from her trailer trash gimmick, which felt thin and, for lack of better word, trashy in 2007 and still feels that way now. I was a bit surprised to read, over on Cagematch, how highly speak of Laveaux because, based on this match and the handful of other appearances I've seen of her, I don't see what makes her "one of the most underrated wrestlers in TNA history." There are probably fans who like this sort of match, but I'm not one of them. (1/5)
Next up - Eric Young vs. James Storm. Storm's whole gimmick at this point was being a proud beer drinker, while Eric Young was coming out of a lengthy program with Bobby Roode. Young had embarrassed Storm by defeating him in a drinking contest, which led to this match. These two have good chemistry and are both very skilled workers and I liked Jacqueline's involvement on the outside. Still, there was just something "off" about this for me, like they wrestled the match a bit too "straight" considering that the build-up was kind of cartoonish and full of prop comedy. This match could've actually used some of the "looser" feel of the previous match as it was fought like a serious, back-and-forth wrestling contest rather than a match between two guys whose only really conflict was over who could drink more alcohol. (2/5)
The Feast or Fired Match was next - a super-gimmicky multi-man briefcase-on-a-pole match that was really more about telling a story than offering anything resembling good wrestling. You can't go into a match like this expecting to be blown away by the action, but this was lazily booked without any real highlights or storyline progression. At 12 minutes, this didn't overstay its welcome, which is about the best thing you can say about it. Also, because the reveals of the contents of the briefcases doesn't happen until the next episode of Impact, it feels a bit more like an advertisement for the next show rather than a match or segment that deserves to be on pay-per-view. I don't recall who ended up getting fired from this match, but I don't think it was BG James despite being the most deserving after the god-awful VKM/Christy Hemme feud, maybe the worst storyline I've covered in the past few years. (1.5/5)
Awesome Kong challenged Gail Kim for the TNA Knockouts Championship in the next bout. This was a great match. It doesn't go super long, but they make every minute count and Gail Kim puts on a tremendous babyface performance against the monstrous Kong. The finish leaves things unresolved, which is not a good thing, but these two obviously had the kind of chemistry that makes doing a "one-and-done" feud silly. The crowd is also hotter for this than probably any women's match in TNA history and most certainly more than 90% women's matches that were going on in the WWE at the time (especially after Stratus' retirement that year). I was really impressed by how big the reaction was for Kong getting knocked off of her feet, which Don West claimed was the first time ever. True or not, it got that kind of response, a testament to how well this match was worked. A very good match that is worth one's time. (4/5)
After some more nonsense building up to the main event, its time for the Match of 10,000 Tacks - Rellik and Black Reign vs. Abyss and, subbing for Rhyno, Raven. Rellik was played by former WWE/WCW wrestler Johnny "The Bull" Stamboli. This was a bloody, violent, ECW-style brawl but felt tedious at times and didn't hold my attention for its 15-minute duration. I'm not sure why they opted to give this match that much time when they knew it would be so "one note" and that, at this point, Dustin Rhodes was in horrendous shape. Raven had had some good moments - his feud with CM Punk in Ring of Honor being a highlight from just 4 years prior - but he was aging fast and his role here was a bit player when he's always been much better in stories and angles that he could really sink his teeth into. This match was built to lead-up to a big thumbtack spot, but it really wasn't anything we hadn't seen before as Black Reign (who is covered, head-to-toe in a latex suit) went through a table with tacks on it and then, minutes later, Rellik got Black Home Slam'd into a bunch of tacks in the ring to end the match. Not terrible, but not worth digging up. (2/5)
Robert Roode teamed up with Christian to take on Booker T and Kaz in the next contest. Booker T had come into TNA just a few weeks earlier and still seemed motivated here, though he'd gain a pretty bad reputation for phoning it in as the years went on. Kaz and Roode are clearly meant to "get a rub" from being in the ring with Booker and Christian, but the teams just feel a little random. Kaz goes all out in this match, trying and succeeding to steal it with his energy and high-flying, but it doesn't necessarily make for a great tag dynamic with Booker, who is overshadowed in what should be a big match for him. The lack of chemistry is also felt between Roode and Christian. The match goes close to 20 minutes and everyone works hard, but this match needed to feature more character work and tension, none of which was explored until the post-match when Christian and Roode almost came to blows. Again, the in-ring work, especially out of Kaz, is top notch and the TNA crowd wanted to love this match...but it just didn't tell a rich enough story to make it memorable or worth checking out. (3/5)
Main event time - before the match can begin, after the arrival of The Angle Alliance (Kurt Angle, AJ Styles, and Tyson Tomko) and Kevin Nash, Samoa Joe shows up and cuts a "worked shoot" promo on Scott Hall no-showing the event. According to Nash, Big Daddy Cool slapped Samoa Joe in the face after the show for going too far with his "shoot" and Joe, recognizing that responding in kind would probably result in him getting fired (with little chance of getting to the WWE due to Nash being close with Triple H) didn't fight back. In Hall's stead, Joe brings out...Eric Young. There's no doubt that Eric Young, in 2007, was 10000% a better worker than Scott Hall, but when it comes to The Outsiders, even a decade past their WCW peak, there's always going to be interest in what they do - even if it was sure to be very little and potentially even a massive trainwreck considering Hall's addiction at the time. Anyway...this is not very good and feels very lackluster as a main event. Cagematch says the match goes 16 minutes, but I'm guessing at least a third of that is the Joe pre-match promo. Joe and Styles get a little bit of spotlight and I like Joe teasing that he won't help Kevin Nash when's in the Ankle Lock, but there's really nothing else that happens in this match that makes it feel any different than a random main event from Impact. The fact is, even if Hall had made the show, there were no stakes and therefor very little drama to draw from. (1/5)
With an overall Kwang Rating 2.13-out-of-5, Turning Point 2007 is a sub-par show even for TNA's arguably low standard. If you love Eric Young, this is your show, but for everyone other wrestling fan on the planet, there is only one match worth seeking out - Kim vs. Kong - and even that one suffers a bit from an inconclusive finish.
FINAL RATING - High Risk Maneuver
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