TNA No Surrender 2005

NOTE - This review was (mostly) completed all the way back in 2022 but never uploaded because I had not seen the main event until today. 

TNA No Surrender 2005

Orlando, FL - July 2005

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into this show, Raven was the NWA World Champion, the NWA World Tag Team Champions were The Naturals (Andy Douglas and Chase Stevens), and the X-Division Champion was Christopher Daniels.

The show begins with a fun tag match between America's Most Wanted and the team of Alex Shelley and Michael Shane (with Traci Brooks at their side). Before watching some of these earlier TNA pay-per-views, I was unfamiliar with much of AMW's work and didn't get why people sometimes referred to them as one of the best tag teams of the 2000s. A match like this certainly helps explain things as they work a quality old school tag match and keep up with the rapid pace pushed by their X-Division opponents. Alex Shelley was so smooth and crisp even back then, though Michael Shane wasn't bad either. Not a match I'd seek out or anything, but it is smartly worked and a perfectly fine way to start a pay-per-view. (2.5/5)

A Super X-Cup Qualification match follows - Sonjay Dutt vs. Mikey Batts vs. Shark Boy vs. Elix Skipper. This match seems mostly designed to get over Dutt, but everyone else gets some time to shine too. Elix Skipper botches one of his signature moves, but I kinda like seeing that happen because it shows just how high-risk his rope-walking and high-flying could be. The crowd loathes Mikey Batts and, because I don't know anything about him or any of the build for this match, I'm left wondering if he was actually considered "bad" or if he was just a natural unlikable heel who maybe deserved more (a little bit of research reveals that he actually got hired by the WWE not long after this, but left when he turned down getting a Harry Potter-inspired gimmick). The craziest move of the match might be the finish, which sees Sonjay deliver his finisher and nearly land 100% onto Batts' face. It looks absolutely gnarly. Another average match. (2.5/5)

Next up - Sonny Siaki and Apolo taking on Simon Diamond and his newest client, David Young. Yup. Siaki and Apolo had great physiques, Diamond was an okay promo, and David Young was a wrestler that was already a 10+ year veteran by this time but was essentially working an "underdog rookie" gimmick because...well, I'm not sure. This match was clearly put on the show to space out some of the X-Division action and it meets that purpose. It doesn't overstay its welcome either and I'll even give credit to the finish that cements the fact that David Young was, despite being in TNA for 2 years by this point, still not able to keep track of who the legal man in a tag team match is. Inoffensive, but not really good either. (1.5/5)

Samoa Joe came into TNA not too long before this (if I'm not mistaken) and was on an absolute tear. His opponent on this night is Chris Sabin, who was fairly established as he was a former X-Division Champion by this point. Joe dominates the first half of this match and looks terrific doing it, but I love the way Sabin fights back and doesn't die despite taking so many huge hits. As much as Joe was clearly the guy getting the big push at this time, he's equally unselfish and takes an awesome bump into the guardrail off of a Sabin dropkick during his babyface comeback. The second half of the match is more even, but Joe never really loses control and the story is more about how much punishment Sabin is able to take until he just can't go any longer. Meltzer gave this 4-and-a-quarter stars and while I wouldn't go that far, I'll go close. Sometimes something really simple works because of execution, performance, and every dot connecting. Maybe not an all-time classic, but certainly a match that is worth seeking out if you're a fan of either man or just curious about what made Samoa Joe stand out as "the future of wrestling" in 05' and 06'. (4/5)

The next match isn't quite as exciting, but I was surprised by how hot the crowd was for it - Team Canada (Bobby Roode, Eric Young, and A-1) taking on Lance Hoyt and the Naturals (Chase Stevens and Andy Douglas), who were also the NWA Tag Team Champions at the time. Like the previous match (though not as good), this is a really simple match that exceeded my expectations mostly because of how well everything is executed and how well the competitors tell the story without adding anything unnecessary. Jimmy Hart was the Naturals' new manager, but gets thrown out of the match when he is erroneously caught holding the Canadian flag and one of the Team Canada pretends he'd been struck by it. The heels also draw classic heat by working over Chase Stevens until Lance Hoyt, who was much more over with this crowd than I ever thought he was, comes in for the hot tag. Speaking of Chase Stevens, he comes across in this match as a star-in-the-making and I'm a bit surprised he never really got much of a singles run in TNA or elsewhere. Again, it can't be overstated how hot the crowd was for this, to the point that I wondered if maybe there had been some "sweetening" of the audio. A good, solid match. (3/5)

Another tag grudge match follows as 3LiveKru's Konnan and Ron "The Truth" Killings take on "The Outlaw" Kip James and Monty Brown. The story here is that when The Outlaw (Billy Gunn) showed up in TNA, he wanted to resurrect his tag team with 3LiveKru's BG James (Road Dogg), but rubbed Konnan and Killings the wrong way. Anyway, Kip James gets busted open very early as it seems like everyone involved opted to just go ahead and make this as fun and lively and action-packed as they could...even knowing that it wouldn't go longer than 7 minutes. This almost feels like its just the 2nd quarter of an old school ECW brawl, eschewing any sort of "build," delivering 3-4 really good high spots (most courtesy of Killings), and then basically "going home." I'd also be lying if I said I didn't like the number of ref bumps in this match, which might be some sort of record in such a short bout. After the match, BG James shows up and his ex-partner Kip tries to have him hit Killings with a chair but BG won't do it. For what this was, this was perfectly fine - maybe even better than I expected because they kept it so short. (2.5/5)

I wouldn't go as far as Dave Meltzer - who gave this match a very strong 4-star rating in 05' - but the next match, AJ Styles vs. Sean Waltman (with Jerry Lynn as special guest referee), would likely be in the running of one of Waltman's last good-to-great matches. This felt like a "big" match, but I wish we would've seen Waltman heeling it up a bit more as Styles was definitely more over with the crowd and Waltman's psychology is so good that its surprising he didn't play into the crowd's disrespect a bit more. Styles and Waltman both get to kick out of eachother's finishers, which I'm not sure was necessary. I also didn't like the finish - which saw Jerry Lynn cost Waltman the match for no real reason - as this deserved to end in a cleaner way and they still could've used some sort of post-match angle to build towards the Lynn/Waltman feud that came after this. Because AJ went on to have such a ridiculously good career, this doesn't even rank in his top 20 matches and probably not even in his top 30, but its worth checking out if you're a fan of either guy or were curious about AJ's evolution from the early 2000s through today. (3/5)

The X-Division Champion, Christopher Daniels, defends the title against Team Canada's Petey Williams in the next contest. This wasn't technically a heel/heel match, but Daniels was not your average happy-go-lucky, fun babyface or an underdog you wanted to root for or even a cagey veteran like modern day Randy Orton. No, Daniels was the Fallen Angel and he was, like Dean Malenko, a no-nonsense grappler who didn't court audience approval but had his fair share of fans just based on his technical ability and high-flying. He was a tweener, but not a "cool" tweener like Samoa Joe either. Petey Williams, meanwhile, was a heel just from being in Team Canada, but, by the end of the match, had at least a little crowd support because of how good his offense was. I wouldn't rate this as highly as the Joe/Sabin match, but, again, part of the issue is that the story here is a bit harder to sell as neither guy was a true "fan favorite" and really this was all about two ultra-talented X-Division guys just doing whatever it took to win. Move-for-move, this is still an incredible spectacle that shows just how far ahead of the curve both Daniels and Williams were, but it does suffer from that lack of a clear heel/face dynamic or character-driven story. (3/5) Main event time - Raven vs. Abyss in a Dog Collar Match for Raven's NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Abyss didn't waste anytime grabbing a chair from the outside to use his against the champion, wedging it into the corner. Raven grabbed one of his own and then another and another, flinging them into the ring recklessly. Abyss swiped them away but then Raven surprised him by pulling on the chain, pulling Abyss into the chair in the corner! Great spot. Now in control, Raven beat down on Abyss with the chain and then pulled out a table from under the ring (much to the crowd's delight). Raven wrapped his fist in the chain and went for a punch, but struck the post. Abyss goozles him and attempts a chokeslam but Raven fights out of it and gets rolled into the ring instead. Abyss grabs a chair and sets it atop Raven. Raven holds it into place, telegraphing an Abyss splash from the middle rope. Still looks painful as all hell. Abyss follows it up by stacking up some chairs in the center of the ring and putting Raven on top of them. He goes back up to the 2nd rope but this time Raven dodges it and Abyss lands on the chairs butt-first. Abyss gets up first and tries to choke Raven out with the chain. Raven bashes him with a chair to break free and then slams him on the skull with one more for good measure. He grabs a staple gun and staples a bill to Abyss's forehead (which was already bleeding)! He does it a second time and Tenay goes wild! Abyss goes to the outside, as does Raven, but Abyss pulls on the chain and Raven goes into the post. Raven is busted open and Abyss tries to capitalize with some big right hands on the floor, the two making their way towards the entrance. Abyss sets up a table with the help of his manager James Mitchell and then sets up a few more. Abyss brings Raven up the ramp and onto the stage. He goes for a chokeslam but Raven fights out. Low blow by Raven! Raven shoves him back and Abyss goes through the tables off the stage! Cool spot. Abyss pulls on the chain, though, and Raven goes through a table too! Abyss gets up first and wraps the chain around Raven's mouth and Mitchell taunts him on the house mic. Abyss drags Raven towards the ring and then pulls out yet another table, setting it up against the ring apron. Raven charges Abyss through it and both men end up in a heap. Back in the ring they go and Raven delivers some punches and then the discus clothesline and a bulldog out of the corner. Evenflow DDT only gets 2, though. Raven clotheslines Abyss over the top rope and then wraps the chain around his neck! Abyss looks like he's got no way out of this, but Mitchell breaks it up by knocking Raven out with his cane. Abyss takes the collar off and goes for a cover, but he only gets 2. Abyss goes to the outside and grabs a bag of thumbtacks from under the ring. He rips off Raven's shirt and then spreads the tacks across the mat. I like the extra step there. Abyss puts Raven up to the top rope but in comes...Cassidy Reilly? Reilly with a low blow to Abyss. Reilly goes to the top rope but gets shoved off and goes through a table! That was cool. Abyss goes back to Raven in the corner and starts hitting him with some big right hands and Raven crumbles to the corner but then springs up and powerbombs him into the tacks! Abyss kicks out at 2, though! Raven goes for the DDT again but Abyss counters it into a Black Hole Slam for another nearfall! Abyss has tacks going through his shirt, but also on the back of his arms. He sets up another pile of tacks but Raven DDTs him into the tacks! Raven went into a bunch of tacks himself but manages to make the cover to retain the championship. Wow. That was fun with some really well-executed spots and a near-perfect layout. One of the best Abyss matches I've ever seen and maybe even one of the best Raven matches too. (3.5/5)

With a Kwang Score of 2.83-out-of-5, No Surrender 2005 is a solid show featuring some very good performances out of Abyss (I'm as surprised to type that as you are to read it), Samoa Joe (much more motivated here than he was in his later years in TNA), Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, the almost-always-great AJ Styles, and Chase Stevens of all people. Fans seeking a show loaded with stars-of-the-time will probably want to look elsewhere, but there is some fun to be had seeing where some of TNA's future main eventers started to build their reputations. FINAL RATING - High Risk Maneuver