The previous show - Bound for Glory 2010 - wasn't available in-full on YouTube, so I had to skip ahead to this show. At Bound for Glory, the heel stable of Immortal was formed, made up of Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff, Jeff Jarrett, Abyss, and the new TNA World Heavyweight Champion, Jeff Hardy. It was a huge angle, but I wasn't a regular viewer of TNA back then so I don't really remember any of it.
The X-Division Championship is on the line in the opening contest as Robbie E. (managed by Cookie) challenges Jay Lethal. Robbie E.'s gimmick was an amalgamation of every Jersey Shore male cast member while "Cookie" is indie vet Becky Bayley doing an impression of Snooki. Good solid wrestling to start things off with Jay Lethal getting to shine. Robbie takes a good bump to the floor from a back body drop and then another from a chest chop on the outside. Lethal hits a pretty missile dropkick from the top rope and follows it up with a cartwheel-into-another-dropkick. Robbie counters the Lethal Combination, giving him his first bit of real offense, which is far less impressive and smooth than anything Lethal did. Lethal takes an awesome front bump into the corner from an Irish Whip and then takes a spear to the gut in the same corner. Robbie applies an Abdominal Stretch and, minutes later, a body lock on the mat. Lethal fights back with a series of strikes and then a flying forearm and a couple clotheslines. Lethal Injection! Lethal gets the visual pin from a sunset flip but Cookie distracts the ref. Lethal tosses Robbie out of the ring and dives through the middle rope! Lethal unloads a series of right hands and then a chest chop and Robbie looks out on his feet. Lethal rolls him back in the ring but then gets into it with Cookie on the apron. Lethal Combination! Lethal calls for the elbow drop but Cookie pulls on his leg. Robbie hits the top rope and he crotches himself. Reverse Neckbreaker by Robbie E and we have a new TNA X-Division Champion. This was a very straight-forward, "simple" match but Jay Lethal was so smooth and showed great fire here, enough to carry it beyond my expectations. (3/5)
Next up, Mickie James vs. Tara. I'm not going to try to figure out what the story was leading to this match as Tara's motivations and connections to The Beautiful People/Madison Rayne are probably not worth investigating too much. The real story here is that James and Tara were regarded as the best women's wrestlers in the WWE when they were there but didn't get an opportunity to really show what they could do. This is a bit of a mess of a match. There were parts of it I really liked - the fighting was intense, they took a nasty bump to the floor from the top rope, the crowd-brawling was great - but then it ended with a letdown DQ. The post-match pull-apart was well done, though there was some needless clothes-tearing that undercut things as Tazz and Tenay made lame sexualized comments about what they were seeing. This ended just as it was getting good. (2/5)
In the build to the next match, Team 3D had announced that they were retiring as a team (leaving the door open to go into singles) but wanted to go out having one last match against the best tag team in TNA, The Motor City Machine Guns, for the TNA World Tag Team Championships. A simple premise that these teams delivered on as this might be Team 3D's best TNA match that I've seen. The Guns brought the energy and the combo moves and Team 3D did a good job keeping up with them and, towards the end, getting a ton of sympathy from the crowd. Brother Ray got some color midway through the match, which allowed the Guns to look particularly vicious and dangerous. I loved Sabin's ridiculous counter to getting tossed into a table. I bit on the 3D false finish, fully thinking that the Dudleys might win the titles in their last match. (3.5/5)
Rob Van Dam vs. Tommy Dreamer in an "EV 2.0"-rules match followed (basically "Extreme Rules"). I wasn't super into this for the first half, but things got considerably better in the second half as they started to bust out the more hardcore spots, including a ridiculous moment when Dreamer got sent back off the top rope, got his foot caught in a rung of a ladder that had been positioned between the ropes, and got a chair dropkicked into his head. Dreamer suffers what looks to be a legit hand injury from hitting a splash on RVD at one point, but this whole match featured both men taking some ugly bumps. I think they went out there to give the crowd a really physical hardcore match - likely because what else were they really capable of? - and they accomplished that. If you're not into too guys, both years past their prime, trying to turn back the clock by punishing each other, this is not for you. (3/5)
Another EV2.0-related match followed as Fourtune (AJ Styles, Bobby Roode, James Storm, Doug Williams, and Frankie Kazarian, with Ric Flair as their manager) took on Sabu, Stevie Richards, Raven, Rhyno, and (briefly) Brian Kendrick. Kendrick got injured super early, though Tazz posited on commentary that he may have "quit" on his team, planting seeds that Kendrick may actually turn on EV2.0 and join Fourtune? Anyway...with Kendrick out, Stevie Richards is basically forced to work the majority of the match for his side as Raven and Sabu weren't exactly at their peak in-ring abilities and Rhyno needed to be saved for the eventual hot tag when he could destroy everyone with his power moves. The Fourtune guys are fine, but none of them stay in the ring or get enough spotlight individually to stand out any more than anyone else. I liked the sequence when everyone hit one of their signature moves. I would've dug more interaction between Sabu and AJ Styles just because they're clearly the biggest stars of their respective sides. I guess Sabu and AJ had a ladder match earlier that summer, but I've never seen it. May have to seek it out. Any which way, this wasn't anything special. (2/5)
"The Pope" D'Angelo Dinero vs. Abyss in a Lumberjack Match followed. Its a bit unfair to Pope and Abyss that I watched this match after watching a Misawa & Kobashi vs. Kawada & Taue match because, well, their work was never going to really measure up. This is the kind of match that suffers because of poor design and booking more than anything that Dinero or Abyss do in the ring (though, its not like either guy was a world-class worker). The match goes under 15 minutes but feels like at least 20 because so much time is spent waiting for some sort of "twist" or hardcore spot or actual utilization of the lumberjacks. I'll give them some credit - when Abyss does finally end up outside the ring in the final minute of the match, the fact that the lumberjacks don't attack him all at once and he barely fights them does make some sense considering the revelation that, surprise surprise, Eric Bischoff has paid "The Congregation" off to turn on The Pope. That being said, it is a long back-and-forth match before that revelation and the action isn't good enough to warrant its runtime. The more I watch Abyss, the more I'm convinced of AJ Styles' awesomeness because nobody else seems really capable of pulling anything good out of the guy unless there are loads and loads of tables, tacks, and chairs involved. And, even then, his matches can be pretty bad. (1/5)
I expected Abyss/Dinero to be not-so-hot, but I had higher hopes for the next match: Samoa Joe vs. Jeff Jarrett. Jarrett had turned heel on the previous show and so Joe was out to get revenge here. Their only previous 1-on-1 encounter was a 2006 PPV match that I don't believe I've ever seen. Anyway, Joe gets to beat down Jarrett for most of this, but its far from a squash and Jarrett does get some offense in. We get a big ref bump after about 10 minutes and then Gunner and Murphy (who were Hogan's "security") run out and attack Joe. Joe falls prey to the number game and then Jarrett chokes him out with a billy club. Sure, it took 3 men and a weapon to put Joe down, which, theoretically, makes him look strong, but he still gets choked out and nobody from backstage runs out to help him (which makes him look like he has no friends or allies despite Jarrett, Jeff Hardy, Bischoff, and Hogan all seemingly having lots of enemies, including The Pope, who just got screwed by Bischoff 10 minutes before this). Dreadful booking and mediocre, uninspired "action" before the lame finish. Nothing to enjoy here. (1.5/5)
Backstage, Eric Bischoff is celebrating with Pope's "Congregation," including Dinero's brother. I must admit, I liked Eric Bischoff as the evil heel "boss" during this time from the little bit I did see.
Main event time - Matt Morgan vs. Jeff Hardy for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. Mr. Anderson was supposed to be in this match, but got legitimately injured due to a chairshot to the head that caused a concussion. Anderson being the first challenger would've made a lot more sense than Morgan, who turned babyface in the build-up by leaving Fourtune and booting Bischoff in the face, but TNA's hand was forced. Anyway...for whatever reason, the crowd is 50/50 because, well, Jeff Hardy is Jeff Hardy and Matt Morgan was not popular. Hardy working as a heel - he was calling himself "The Antichrist of Wrestling" because why not - allows him to show a different side of himself and, to his credit, he does change his approach considerably, playing the overwhelmed, cowardly weasel in the opening minutes. Hardy spits in his face and slides into the ring, but Morgan isn't easily outsmarted and pulls him out and onto the floor. I liked it. Morgan makes a mistake by going for a leg drop and Hardy takes over, working on the big man's left knee. Hardy grabs hold of Morgan's leg and applies a half-crab, but Morgan reaches the bottom rope. Hardy refuses to release the hold at first and then shoves the ref, doing every trick he can to get sympathy for the challenger. Hardy does his signature dance in mocking fashion too. Hardy applies a headlock and Morgan wrestles out of it, hitting some strikes and clotheslines and then ripping off Hardy's shirt. Morgan hits the discuss lariat but only gets 2. Morgan sells some leg damage and pulls Hardy up. Hardy hits a DDT for 2. Hardy goes to the second rope, flips off the crowd, and goes for a flying nothing. Morgan catches him and hits him with a big chokeslam for 2! Hardy hits a low blow - right in front of the ref - and then delivers a Twist of Fate for 2. Taz calls it a "Twist of Hate," which seems like something Hardy might've fed him before the match. Hardy hits some blows but walks into a Carbon Footprint! 1...2...Hardy puts his foot on the referee's shoulder and, for whatever reason, the ref stops the count. Awful. That looked like shit. Morgan is pissed. Morgan brings him up and Hardy hits the Twist of...Hate...again! He only gets 2 this time. Hardy gets in the ref's face. Morgan is wobbly but he lands some uppercuts and puts Hardy on the top rope. Hardy elbows him and hits the Whisper in the Wind. Another Twist of Fate and this time he got him. Clean as a sheet. This match started out strong with Jeff Hardy doing some smart heel work, but then fell apart a bit as it went on. Morgan's offense lacked snap and the referee was made to look like a goober, especially with the awful non-kickout described above. (2/5)
Earning a pretty pitiful Kwang Score of 2.25-out-of-5, this show starts out decently enough with a better-than-I-expected X-Division Championship match, a heated Tara/Mickie James match, and one of the better Team 3D matches I've seen from their TNA run. The Van Dam/Dreamer match is also surprisingly strong due to the hard work and creativity that Dreamer brought to it. But, from there, the show dips considerably, with only brief moments - Jeff Hardy's heel work, maybe a moment or two of the EV2.0/Fourtune and Samoa Joe matches - that even approach the border of decent.
FINAL RATING - High Risk Maneuver
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