TNA Against All Odds 2012

TNA Against All Odds 2012

Orlando, FL - February 2012

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into the match, the TNA World Champion was Bobby Roode, the X-Division Champion was Austin Aries, the TNA World Tag Team Champions were Crimson and Matt Morgan, Gail Kim was the TNA Knockouts Champion (and also one half of the Knockouts Tag Team Champions with Madison Rayne), and Robbie E. held the Television Champion.

After a music video hyping the show and featuring the company's top stars, including Hulk Hogan, the show kicked off with a Number One Contender's match for the X-Division Championship held by Austin Aries - Zema Ion vs. Jesse Sorensen. I'm not going to give this match a rating because it ends before it even gets started as Ion comes off the apron with a moonsault, his knees knock into the top of Sorensen's head, and Sorensen goes down to the arena floor and never gets up. Ion gloats in the ring, the ref gets close to counting him out, Ion breaks the count (trying to buy time for Sorensen), and then the ref checks on him and Sorensen is clearly injured. The neck injury would end up costing Sorensen his career, though he did remain employed by TNA for over a year. 

Trying to fill time (I assume), they go to the back and Bobby Roode cuts a promo. While I've been unimpressed with Roode's matches on these past few shows, his promo is pretty good. We then go back to the ring for Robbie E's Television Championship Invitational. Shannon Moore takes up the challenge and they deliver a solid-if-unremarkable 10-minute match. Moore was a skilled high flier and a solid hand, but his gimmick never clicked or felt "real." This is one of the better Robbie E matches I've seen, though that's still not saying much and I must admit to probably having seen fewer than 8 in my life. Robbie E eventually gets the win due to interference from his bodyguard, "Robbie T" (aka Big Rob Terry). (2.5/5)

The Knockouts Championship is on the line in the next match as Gail Kim defends against Tara. I was optimistic about this match, but this is not good. Most of the drama of the match involves Kim arguing with Madison Rayne, her tag team partner, but their split doesn't really play into the match at all as Kim wins clean in under 7 minutes. Tara does a good job selling knee damage, but losing so quickly in what was played-up as a major title opportunity/defense hurts her credibility considerably. I'm not sure what the TNA producers were thinking in not giving Kim and Tara a bit more time as I'd assume Ion/Sorensen was meant to last longer than 4 minutes. Very underwhelming, forgettable, meaningless match. (1/5)

The TNA Tag Team Champions, Matt Morgan and Crimson, defended their titles against Magnus and Samoa Joe in a rematch from the previous TNA PPV. I really love Samoa Joe but this is the stretch that prevents him from being a top 10-20 candidate for me in the GOAT conversation as he shows so little fire or enthusiasm in these matches. I get that him and Magnus are ostensibly supposed to be heels - though, they do nothing heelish in the match - so his calculated, cold demeanor is maybe purposeful, but as the only guy in the ring who the fans have ever connected with, its kind of up to him to draw them in and make things exciting and interesting. Simply put, a true great will drag a bunch of C- wrestlers to a B match and that's just not the case here (or for much of Joe's matches from these "lost years"). The finish is unconvincing and Crimson is protected for reasons I can't comprehend as Crimson finally getting pinned or submitted was the only dramatic element they had to work with. (1/5)

Alex Shelley challenged Austin Aries in the next match for his X-Division Championship. They got 15 minutes and they worked hard, but this match never clicked with me beyond just being in the average/good range. Shelley and Austin are both smart workers who imbue their work with sound psychology and strategy and I liked the long-form storytelling as we got a bit of mirror work down the stretch and some nice callbacks. That being said, there was an "exhibition" feel to the match that I didn't particularly like with the result never being in question. This match checks a lot of boxes that great matches need checked, but it somehow isn't a great match itself. (3/5)

AJ Styles took on Frankie Kazarian in the next contest. The story coming into this was that Kazarian and Styles, who had been partnered up in the Wildcard Tag Tournament that took place several weeks (months?) earlier, had hit a rough patch because of the influence of Christopher Daniels, who was holding something over Kazarian's head (it had not been revealed yet what that was). Because of the story, Styles is wrestling to beat some sense into Kazarian, while Kazarian is wrestling to just get through the match (and hopefully get a win) without injuring or disrespecting his friend. Kazarian gets over the fact that he's conflicted and deserves some credit for his performance, but melodrama is still a tough sell in pro-wrestling and the crowd seems completely disinterested. At nearly 20 minutes, this was a chore to get through, which is shocking because AJ has pulled better matches out of much less talented opponents. (1.5/5)

Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff pull a Siegfried and Roy here as they magically take a 12-minute match and make it feel like 20+. The story here is that Garrett Bischoff had moved on from being a referee to becoming a wrestler and had been feuding with his old man after Garrett called for the bell in Hogan's "retirement" match against Sting (Hogan would actually wrestle 2 more non-televised matches in 2012) at Bound for Glory a few months prior. Eric Bischoff had remained a heel and was now partnering with the super generic Gunner, who piledrove Garrett on the arena floor, putting him out of action for awhile. After rehabbing the injury, Garrett got together with a new trainer - Hogan - to help him prepare for the grudge match we get on this show, which isn't terrible, but isn't interesting or exciting at all. Neither guy in the ring has a single ounce of charisma or personality and Eric Bischoff's over-the-top heel shtick was the laziest choice they could've gone with for a storyline that actually had some potential. I hate to fantasy book a no-win storyline like this (at the end of the day, Garrett Bischoff wasn't TV ready and Gunner was just flat-out boring, the wrestling equivalent of burnt, dry toast) but instead of Eazy E playing the over-the-top jerk, his motivation for trying to stop his son from getting into the ring should've been that he knew the dangers and that he was "protecting him" and that, when Garrett refused, he was forced to hire Gunner to put an end to Garrett's dream (a motivation that comes across, sarcastically, in Bischoff's pre-match promo but would've been far more realistic than Eric Bischoff actually trying to maim his own child). Anyway, the match goes 12 minutes but is so uneventful and boring that it very much feels like two guys walking through a scripted "rehearsal" of the "easiest" match possible so that they don't embarrass themselves with any actual high spots. Total dreck but I'll give it a half-point for effort. (0.5/5)

Main event time - Bobby Roode defending the TNA World Heavyweight Championship against Bully Ray, James Storm, and Jeff Hardy with Sting serving as the Special Enforcer. This wasn't terrible or anything, but felt like a "B-show" main event. Bully Ray's heel act was more over than Roode's. Jeff Hardy was more over as a babyface than Storm was. I would've liked to see more teasing of an upset victory for Storm or Bully Ray. The story began with Roode trying to get Bully on his side but Bully waiting outside the ring for his moment to strike, leaving the champion to have to deal with Hardy and Storm. As the match wore on, any brief alliances were cast aside. We got some ref bumps and eventually Sting came into the match and was essentially forced to count the pin for Roode after he inadvertently hit Hardy with the title (Roode ducked). They really milked Sting's inner turmoil, which made the fact that Bully Ray and Storm didn't break up the pinfall extra noticeable. Average match. (2.5/5)

Against all odds, TNA managed to put on an even less-recommendable PPV from the previous one I reviewed, Genesis 2012. The main event is an improvement but the rest of the card is a rough viewing with AJ vs. Kazarian being underwhelming, Garrett Bischoff vs. Gunner being the exact level of "not good" one would expect, and Gail Kim vs. Tara being another example of how overrated this era of the Knockouts Division was in hindsight. For the second show in a row, the best match featured Austin Aries, but its hard to get too enthusiastic about watching Aries in 2026. With a Kwang Score of just 1.71-out-of-5, this is the lowest rated TNA show I've reviewed since Sacrifice 2011 and the second-lowest rated TNA show I've ever reviewed.

FINAL RATING - DUDleyville