TNA Tag Team Champions were LAX (Hernandez and Homicide).
After a nifty Law and Order-inspired video package to start the show, the X-Division Champion, Petey Williams defended the title against Consequences Creed (aka Xavier Woods). Man, I wish they had called some audibles here. Petey was mega-over with the New Jersey crowd and I'm not sure why, but I'd reckon it's because his Steiner-inspired taunts finally added the missing flavor that his in-ring work needed. Williams was so good in terms of technique and Creed is no slouch in this either. I loved the action and the big spots looked not just well-executed but also impactful. This felt like a real struggle from beginning to end with no breaks in the action apart from Williams' heeling it up. Unfortunately, the crowd would not get behind Creed so the final minutes were hard to watch. First, Creed had to take out Rhaka Khan and, while male-on-female violence can often work when the woman is a straight-up heel with no redeeming qualities (see every time Sensational Sherri ever got involved in a match), it comes off much different when the crowd is actively rooting for the valet/manager's client. The crowd didn't necessarily boo the spot, but it certainly didn't cheer it either. Then, Sheik Abdul Bashir (who had debuted in the company as Daivari but was now going under this alias for a reason I don't know) showed up to cost Creed the match. Again, the crowd was so behind Williams that this elicited apathy from the crowd and not sympathy as the focus of the post-match went from the guy people were rooting for to the guys that people did not care about. Had they called an audible and re-worked some of this match in real time - allowing Creed to maybe do some subtle heel work, axe the Rhaka Khan spot, hold off on the Bashir run-in - and replaced that with a few more minutes of back-and-forth action leading to a clean Williams victory, this would be a borderline "must watch" match...but the final minutes prevented that from happening. (3/5)
Samoa Joe and Kevin Nash are backstage. Nash says he has Joe's back and that he needs to focus on Booker T rather than worrying about Sting.
Back to the ring we go for a six-woman tag: The Beautiful People and Awesome Kong vs. ODB, Taylor Wilde, and Gail Kim. Traci Brooks was the special guest referee. People are wearing rose-colored glasses when they talk about how good the Knockouts Division was around this time period. While, yes, Gail Kim and Awesome Kong were great performers and had some really good matches and ODB could be entertaining and Taylor Wilde and Angelina Love weren't too shabby (Roxxi wasn't bad either), it's not like they were consistently delivering classics either. Plus, the amount of "envelope-pushing," "X-rated comedy" spots in some of these matches does not age well. For example, ODB spraying perfume on her own crotch and then the heels acting like they're too grossed out to even touch the bottle despite the bottle never actually touching her crotch. Then, there's also the issue of the disparity between the performers at times. Gail Kim is very fluid, very quick, and very skilled...but paired up with Madison Rayne, things get a little herky-jerky. I was a bit more impressed by Taylor Wilde here than I was in the last match of hers I saw. ODB isn't a worker I love, but she was over. Awesome Kong was good here, but I prefer her in a singles role just because of how deserving she was of having that spotlight. Traci Brooks did a good job as a referee ,actively preventing Angelina Love from applying illegal chokes. Not a bad match, maybe a touch long, but inoffensive. (2/5)
The TNA Tag Team Champions, LAX (Homicide and Hernandez) defended their titles against Beer Money in the next match. LAX got a cool intro with rapper Filthee (never heard of him and who now goes by Brickman Raw?) performing their theme song as they made their way to the ring. Hernandez was mega over. Good brawling to start before this turns into a more traditional tag match with Homicide playing the face in peril. I would've liked to see them milk the hot tag more than they did as they really could've milked that moment for a much bigger reaction. There's a great spot when Hernandez launches Homicide out of the ring with a Border Toss onto Beer Money, but the whole match is worked well. There's one timing issue when Roode is a half-second too late to break up a pin attempt and Storm has to kick out that even the commentators had to make note of. I liked the finish; simple heel trickery that leads to a screwy finish can work in the right context and it absolutely did for this match. A solid outing. (3/5)
Sonjay Dutt vs. Jay Lethal in a Ball & Chain match was next. Jay Lethal was performing in front of his hometown crowd, which ends up being...kinda sad. This is a chain match that will end when one guy strips the other of his tuxedo or makes a pinfall. Why a match would necessitate two separate ways to win is beyond me. I really liked the first half of this match as Dutt and Lethal brought the goods and the intensity. I liked the way Lethal tied up Dutt to the post at one point, a really underused tactic in a match like this. Unfortunately, things went off the rails once Lethal tried to hang Dutt outside of the ring. Dutt sells it brilliantly and it does come across as maybe "too far," which leads to So Cal Val storming off. That was the climax of the match and should've led to the finish in short order. Unfortunately, Dutt and Lethal overstay their welcome, continuing the match for several more minutes and drawing chants of "Boring" and "Fire Russo" for their efforts. Lethal looks particularly pissed, and again, I wish somebody would've called an audible here and had them wrap this up much sooner. It's not that Dutt and Lethal don't do some cool stuff in the last few minutes, it's that the audience is making it clear that they're no longer interested. Lethal eventually gets the win with an elbow drop, which, if that was the intended finish all along, means they could've done without the tuxedo element. I get that you want the visual of two guys brawling it out in tuxedos because of the storyline...but it would've made just as much sense for Sonjay to compete in the tux as a mind game and for Lethal to come out in jeans and a tee-shirt because his sole focus was on beating the shit out of the guy that tried to see his fiancee. The actual action was good, but everything surrounding it was not and the match running too long after its key storyline moment was not a good decision either. (1.5/5)
Christian Cage and Rhyno took on Team 3D in a New Jersey Streetfight next. Very much an ECW tribute match when I wish it would've featured more of the action these guys busted out in the TLC environ. Crowd-balling to start with lots of weapon shots, people getting soaked with beer, etc. etc. Christian was the MVP, taking an unreal back drop in the early moments and then launching himself from the top of a ladder with a frog splash to lead to the finish, which was, unfortunately, marred by Rhyno not being able to actually put Bubba through the table that was set up in the corner. It seems that they wanted to build towards one big table spot instead of doing multiple and because that spot didn't work out perfectly, the crowd was left unsatisfied and booed it. A forgettable hardcore match in which nobody, especially not the Dudleys, seemed to be working particularly hard to do something original, innovative, or outside of their comfort zone. After the match, Abyss shows up to save the babyfaces from a 3-on-2 (by this point Johnny Devine had come down to help the Dudleys). (2.5/5)
Kurt Angle vs. AJ Styles in a Last Man Standing is up next. This is a very solid match that is hurt considerably by the stipulation. If there previous match was meant to be a "table setting" in which Angle and Styles show how evenly matched they are technically despite how personal their feud had become (I mean, Angle was accusing AJ of having an affair or attempting to have an affair with his wife), then in the weeks before this match, they'd made it clear that this match was going to be an all-out war and that we'd likely see one or both men bloodied by the end of it. Once again, though, Angle and Styles delivered a 20+ minute battle of pure pro-wrestling that betrayed the storyline and, this time, because of the Last Man Standing stipulation, I find it to be a far more egregious sin. Now, that's not to say that Styles and Angle half-assed it or that the match didn't feature some excellent action - I loved Angle dumping Styles into the guardrail with a suplex and the top rope DDT finish was devastating - but having to pin or submit your opponent and then not have them answer a 10 count makes much more sense when there's a real "anything goes" vibe. This was more like a regular - albeit very good - wrestling match where it could've ended sufficiently with just one guy finally scoring a pinfall over the other and it probably would've landed better with me. After the match, Angle sells the finish like he has been legit paralyzed, which is not the kind of thing I'm super into. I don't mind seeing guys pretend to need to be stretchered out, but Angle went for a level of realism that is eerily close to hubris. AJ attacked Angle again as he was being helped by EMS workers, but then got hit with a Stinger Death Drop on his way out of the arena by Sting. (3/5)
Main event time - Samoa Joe defending the TNA World Heavyweight Championship against Booker T, who was in physical possession of the title, in a Six Sides of Steel - with Weapons! - match. Joe and Booker did just enough to make this decent and I liked that they didn't focus on Sharmell on the outside, a production move that marred their last match. Joe got some color, which was a good way to get over the physicality, but it still felt like a very standard "hardcore" match with only a few memorable moments - Joe hitting a jumping kick while he and Booker were on the top rope, Booker scissor kicking a chair into Joe's face. The finish of the match was a bit much as Booker seemed to have the match won, the lights went out, and then when the lights came back on, Joe hit Booker T with a guitar shot to the skull. This was clearly designed to make us believe that Jeff Jarrett had magically appeared to aid Joe in screwing Booker and, to be fair, it was an intriguing ending even if wasn't the most satisfying conclusion to this feud. (2.5/5)
With a Kwang Rating of 2.5-out-of-5, Hard Justice 2008 was a decent show helped considerably by a surprisingly strong opener, Tag Title match, and a solid Angles/Style match that was hampered by its stipulation. As a whole, though, its hard to recommend catching this one unless you're a TNA fanatic.
FINAL RATING - High Risk Maneuver
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