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Brian Kendrick challenged Doug Williams in an Ultimate X match for the X-Division Championship in the opening contest. The story here was that Kendrick was focused on winning the championship via submission with a cobra clutch and that Doug Williams was scared of heights. One half of this set-up was delivered upon as Kendrick continuously worked to choke out Williams. Williams, meanwhile, didn't seem afraid of heights except for the few times he remembered he was. At just 10 minutes, this match seemed like it was only getting started when it ended and felt like a real waste of time to even set-up the Ultimate X structure. There was one good spot - Kendrick getting shoved off one of the climbing poles and landing neck-first on the top rope - but the rest of this was rather dull. They focused a ton on the story, but by doing so, they wasted any opportunity they had to do something innovative or fresh with the Ultimate X stipulation. I'm also not sure why TNA kept these two working together for weeks on end when their chemistry wasn't all that great. Disappointing. (1.5/5)
Next, Brother Ray vs. Jesse Neal vs. Brother D-Von. This is a continuation of the storyline feud between Bubba and Team 3-D's protege, Neal. When the match starts, Ray sneak attacks Jesse Neal as he's making his entrance and when it is time for D-Von to come in, a camera shows that he is locked in his lockerroom, shouting for help. Of course, the camera man doesn't help him because...In the ring, Ray is in full control until the ECW Alumni show up in the stands - Tommy Dreamer, Rhyno, Stevie Richards, and Raven - which allows Neal to hit a spear onto Ray for 2. D-Von makes his entrance and there is a tease of a reunion with Ray, which is weird because one would assume that D-Von figured Ray was the one who locked him in his dressing room, but they end up coming to blows. This leads to Neal hitting another spear, this time onto an unsuspecting D-Von, and Bubba ends up getting the W. At under 6 minutes, this wasn't long enough to ever be boring. They added every bell-and-whistle they could, from the "Where's D-Von?" intro to the arrival of the alumni to a super stiff chairshot from Bubba (that is somehow not captured by the camera) to the final "Whose side is he on?" tease, and it effectively kept the crowd engaged. (2/5)
The TNA Knockouts Championship was on the line next as Madison Rayne defended her title against Angelina Love in a battle between two former best friends/stablemates (as Love was once the leader of the Beautiful People). Angelina Love is putting her career on the line in this match as ending careers has become part of Rayne's gimmick. Both women perform very suggestive entrances. The wrestling was not good, which could be expected, but the booking was even worse as a mystery woman shows up on a motorcycle (why?) wearing a motorcycle helmet, attacks Angelina Love and the referee (causing a DQ), and then the title changes hand inexplicably and Madison Rayne has a tantrum for about 30 seconds before leaving on the motorcycle with the woman who just cost her her TNA Knockouts Championship. Why would the title change hands on a DQ? Why would Madison Rayne not be super pissed at the mystery woman? How does a victory like this help Angelina Love whatsoever? (0.5/5)
Another sub-10 minute match follows as AJ Styles and Kazarian team up to take on a mystery tag team of Rob Terry and Samoa Joe. The story coming into this match was that Ric Flair was starting a new stable - Fourtune - and that Styles and Kazarian wanted to be a part of it but had to earn their spot. Joe is very over with the crowd. Styles and Kazarian do some fun stuff as a team, playing up their disdain for each other in the early part of the match before finally coming together as the match goes on and they realize that they have to get along to survive. Desmond Wolfe shows up and attacks Joe on the outside to prove his value to Flair. This leads to the heels having the numbers advantage and allows them to steal a victory. This felt like a TV-worthy match and a not a PPV one, but it was easily the best match on the show by this point (even if that is faint praise). (2.5/5)
A cage match followed as Hernandez took on Matt Morgan in a grudge match. I've generally been positive on this feud and storyline and have enjoyed Matt Morgan's heel work...but this was just badly produced and one has to wonder who was the agent behind this mess. The work itself isn't awful - though it is uninspired and Hernandez' "dies" early on, showing minimal spirit in his selling - but the psychology is counterproductive. I don't even hate the two times Hernandez goes for the Border Toss and can't get Morgan up. At one point, Morgan clearly has the match won but chooses not to take the victory out of arrogance. It buries Hernandez as having essentially lost the match in 4 minutes while also making Morgan out to be an idiot. Then, later on, Hernandez has the match won but decides to do a splash from the top of the cage for a pop, a move that also makes him look dumb. The crowd is flat and not into this match either. Pretty bad stuff. (1.5/5)
Ric Flair didn't come out of retirement to compete in the next match - he'd already done that on an Australian tour against Hulk Hogan and had wrestled in multiple tag team matches on TV by this point during his TNA run - but this was his first major PPV singles match since WrestleMania XXIV. His opponent was Jay Lethal, who Flair had been feuding with for several months by this point because Lethal had the audacity to imitate him. I wasn't expecting much out of Flair, but he was better than decent here, taking some big bumps early on and generally keeping up with his much younger, much more agile opponent. There are some fun moments in this match too as Lethal hits a Muta-inspired handspring back elbow and does the classic Flair turnbuckle spot. We also get to see Flair's ass, another throwback comedy spot. The part I liked least was the finish, which saw Flair submit to his own trademark hold. With all the references to classic Flair matches, I would've preferred for them to have gone with an inside cradle like the one Savage used to beat him at WrestleMania VIII (if I recall correctly) or a Stinger Splash or even a Sweet Chin Music superkick. Not nearly as bad a match as one might've expected considering Flair's age. (3/5)
The TNA Tag Team Championships - which were vacated due to issues with “The Band,” specifically Scott Hall running into legal issues and Walkman also having heat with TNA that led to him being fired as well - were up for grabs in the next match as the Motor City Machine Guns took on Beer Money. The wrestling was good. Both teams have great double-team moves in their arsenal. There were defined stakes and commentary played up both teams’ credentials. Still, something was just a little flat for me. The crowd didn’t seem to be fully invested and I found the initial false finish - with the father-son duo of Earl and Brian Hebner counting conflicting falls - was predictable as soon as Earl showed up. It was an unnecessary “twist” in a match that probably would’ve delivered a bigger “feel-good ending” if they’d just gone with a straight-up clean finish. Not terrible or anything, but not as good as I’m guessing the teams were hoping it’d be. I was surprised to see that Meltzer gave this 4 stars. (2.5/5)
Kurt Angle vs. D'Angelo Dinero was next. This was part of Angle's quest to "earn" his spot as the number one contender. Dinero was given a huge spotlight at the February PPV (Against All Odds?) and won a TNA World Heavyweight Championship shot, but he lost title match at Lockdown to AJ Styles and then didn't seem to do much of consequence. 5 months later, he and Angle get enough time to put on a decent match but decent is about as good as it gets. There's nothing memorable that really happens and it doesn't have the star-making vibe that Angle/Jay Lethal had a few years earlier or even the Angle/Matt Morgan match that was arguably Morgan's career match. This was solid, but nothing more than that. (2.5/5)
Main event time - Rob Van Dam putting the TNA World Heavyweight Championship on the line against Abyss, Jeff Hardy, and Mr. Anderson. What's been weird about Van Dam's title run - at least based on watching just the PPVs from this time - is how little "meat" there is to his storylines. Its an interesting tact, much closer to what he did in his ECW years than when he was in the WWE and every storyline has to have some element of personal animosity. This is Rob Van Dam as the cool, laid-back champion who is willing to defend the title against anybody who challenges him...but that means you don't get much in terms of emotion to invest in. That lack of emotion is why this match is fine in terms of in-ring action, but didn't really grab me. The portion of the match that seemed to get the biggest reaction was the interplay between Anderson and Jeff Hardy, which is no surprise considering that their characters have been intertwined for months by this point and there was history to play off of. The rest of the match wasn't as intriguing or suspenseful, though, to their credit, there are some good false finishes in the final minutes. Ho-hum stuff and another reason why putting the World Title on Van Dam so quickly upon his arrival - and taking it off of AJ Styles, who was a better, more versatile worker even back then - was such a poor decision. (2/5)
With a Kwang Rating of just 2-out-of-5, Victory Road 2010 is the lowest-rated TNA PPV I've reviewed since...the last Victory Road in 2009. On paper, that show had some intriguing matches on its card - Styles vs. Nash, Foley vs. Angle, Joe vs. Sting - but didn't deliver. This show is similar, loaded with a number of big name talents that weren't around a year prior (Anderson, Hardy, RVD) and featuring more than a few matches that had potential to be good (Hernandez/Morgan, Angle/Dinero, Beer Money/MCMG) but didn't pan out. Lethal/Flair is the only matches that exceeds expectations only because expectations for a Ric Flair match in 2010 were understandably low. Overall, a weak show with nothing worth checking out.
FINAL RATING - DUDleyville
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