Michrome

This match is awful, but I wanted to add a qualifier on Joe/Liger. I can understand the short match time if they are going to Joe/Jarrett later in the night. Also, for a 7:30 match, it was really good.

Joe/Liger was a total farce. Excusing it by talking about the shape Liger is in is nonsense, he went 18 with Danielson last year no problem. Really, it's not like they needed the time for anything important...did anyone actually give a shit about that second tag, or the endless video packages?

I think the ironman match is going on last too. I think the best way to do the title match is to have it come out of some sort of brawl situation, where Nash demands the match right there. Might even be a hell of a way to lead into the start of the 3 hours people actually have to pay for.

I may order it. I convinced a few friends to give the first 30 free minutes a try and see if we like it. I'm guessing the 4 way is gonna open the show. Joe/Liger will make or break this show for me.

I thought the show was...okay. No good matches for the second week in a row really hurts, especially when that is supposedly their strong suit when compared to WWE.

No. If you go check out the predictions at the ROH board about 80-90% predicted Strong winning. He is getting a huge push. He was the only one to beat Matt Hardy, even though Daniels and Homicide jobbed to him. Also, every guy Strong pinned except for Aries was via someone else's help. He pinned Joe after Daniels' move, pinned Lethal after Aries' move, and pinned Cabana only because Aries blew the elimination spot.

I still think you're romanticizing a period that really wasn't even good, but I think it's been debated enough. I don't think anything in that period comes remotely close to Joe/Sabin. The increased interest in TNA had little to do with the world title. It was just that they started booking somewhat logically for the first time in company history, and also let Joe do his thing. Raven had 2 shitty world title matches, I don't think Jarrett is much worse, but both suck.

They're called club tickets. There is no club.

Not to be overly negative, but one other thing bothered me....Joe was just another guy in this match. It felt like an AJ/Daniels match with Joe there too to hit his spots. I mean, here you have a guy with an undefeated mystique, and he takes a DVD, a Torture Rack, and then some big spinning slam. He could have just as easily been any other X guy in my opinion. I think this is classic AJ and Daniels, and it's part of what holds them back.

KNK--That's not out on tape.

In my opinion, the following matches from ROH this year were all better than the 3-way: Punk vs. Rave (2/26 ROH) Joe vs. Aries (2/26 ROH) Joe/Lethal vs. Spanky/Punk (3/12 ROH) Dragon vs. Spanky (4/2 ROH) Aries vs. Gibson (4/16 ROH) Joe vs. Lethal (5/7 ROH) Aries vs. Danielson (5/14 ROH) Punk vs. Rave (5/14 ROH) Punk vs. Aries (6/18 ROH) Punk vs. Lethal (7/8 ROH) Joe vs. Aries (7/9 ROH) Punk vs. Strong (7/9 ROH) Styles vs. Strong (7/16 ROH) Punk vs. Gibson (7/16 ROH) Punk vs. Daniels (7/23 ROH) I'm sure those that were totally blown away by the 3 way won't agree with me on a lot of these, but I'm a much bigger fan of well structured, logical singles matches than "can you top this?" 3-way dances. Don't get me wrong, I liked the 3-way, but it really lost its steam post belt spot.

Not MoTY but a great effort. The first 15 minutes was a bunch of really good "can you top this" stuff, and I thought it lost steam after the belt spot. Really great spot style indy matches, but I think I've seen 10 better indy matches this year.

This month's card is kind of underwhelming, as it's kind of the calm before the storm, and they're not doing any big matches yet. I fear an abundance of backstage nonsense to set up angles for the Spike debut. Raven vs. Rhino: This should be a pretty fun main event title match. Nobody thinks Rhino has a chance in hell, so I'm guessing they keep this short, bloody, and to the point. AJ Styles vs. Chris Daniels vs. Samoa Joe: This could go 2 ways. It could be a standard 3-way with some cool spots and a lot of stupidity, or they could put a ton of effort in and try to tear the place down. I'm leaning toward the latter, knowing who's involved. I think if they have a 3-way on par with the ROH debut show 3-way, the crowd will be fucking nuts for it. Something more along the lines of the ROH 1 yr anny show 3 way is more likely though. The Naturals vs. America's Most Wanted vs. Team Canada vs. Waltman/Shelley: This will be yet another rehash of the same dull teams we've seen a million times, barring the new team of Shelley and Waltman. My bet is it comes down to The Naturals and Waltman/Shelley, and Lynn helps the faces retain. Should be a fine match. Sabu vs. Abyss: It's hard for me to care about this. Abyss gets stuck in random matches nearly every month. There will be some sick spots, if Sabu hits everything it could even end up being entertaining. Jeff Hardy vs. Bobby Roode: Why? What a senseless waste of time. From here, it seems like they have nothing else booked. Austin Aries supposedly has a match on this show, maybe they could put him against Jarrett? Hoyt has no match so far, and neither do a ton of X division guys. Overall the show looks like it'll be solid, but skippable. Maybe they'll use the bonus time to run an intriguing angle to pay off on 10/1.

There has been a change. Shocker is unavailable, so it will be Williams vs. Sabin and Strong vs. Aries, which sounds roughly a billion times better and garauntees a buy from me.

I agree with Joe that a long dramatic fight for the ropes is counterproductive. People can make the ropes, but quick tapouts and quick passouts make for a great response whenever he locks it on. Joe is very good about protecting his moves, and it will pay off in the long run in big matches. I think his next step in TNA should be establishing other finishers. Maybe Daniels will be the first to break the Clutch, and then Joe could introduce the Chimera suplex to beat him.

He's more than just another older cruiser. He can't bump like AJ but he's still a far smarter worker. Dragon/Liger was better than any Dragon/Styles. He'll have a very good match with whoever they pair him with.

They've already done the foreign opponent thing for Daniels, doing it again would be really lame, but I guess I can see why they'd do it. I assume Daniels could pin Styles in the 3 way, and then claim he shouldn't have to beat Joe cause he already did. Joe could face Styles for a title shot while Daniels retains against Liger. The problem is, Joe can't lose to AJ or it kills the momentum. If he beats AJ, thats 2 wins already, and it's hard to justify a title shot against Joe if AJ has already lost to him twice. The taint of Z-1 thing was about their guys drawing in Japan. I doubt they give 2 shits about Liger working a guy who has worked 2 Z-1 shows and never toured regularly with the company. Logical booking would be this: Daniels pins AJ in the 3 way, faces Joe at BFG, and Styles works Liger at BFG.

Let's be realistic. They aren't bringing in Liger to work someone that isn't even signed with the company as of yet, and they're not paying to bring him in to face a guy that hasn't had a big match in months for TNA. It will be Liger against either Styles, Daniels, or Joe.

Liger in is interesting. If they move toward Daniels/Joe for BFG, they could also do Liger/Styles to keep AJ in an important match.

It's hard to see Jarrett having another long reign, since he has beaten everyone. Raven, on the other hand, can at least do some interesting title defenses post Jarrett. Brown, Daniels, Dudleys, Nash, and a couple others could at least keep Raven busy for a while, but I guess it all depends on where they're going with Joe. If they want to push Joe to the top title, then a build to undefeated Joe vs. Raven could actually be something really worth watching, even if the actual match sounds terrible.

The Round Robin is the kind of match you do once Joe/Daniels has already been done once. It is simply bad booking to diminish a fresh match by just having it as part of a series. There is plenty for AJ to do...honestly, I wouldn't be shocked if they run an Ultimate X to open the show in that opening 30 minutes, giving AJ the win and a title shot the next month. I don't know what AJ's role is other than to have good matches. That's what he does. TNA has made the mistake over the last year of not elevating X guys besides Sabin, Williams, Daniels, and AJ. It lead to a stale division. AJ working a great, competitive match with Shelley would bring Shelley up a level, something that should be done anyway.

The round robin scenario does not determine a winner which is why it doesn't work. They need to do a singles Joe vs. Daniels at BFG. Styles could still play a major role in the PPV--either in a showcase X match in the "free" 30 minute section intended to win over the PPV crowd, or maybe in a singles match with a guy like Alex Shelley. Either way, I think Joe/Daniels is the way to go at BFG. Doing a RRC cheapens the importance of that big match.

I think you're totally missing the point of the 3-way. There's no way they're putting Joe in there with their main event title guys, it would make them look HORRIBLE. They're delaying the payoff to the Joe push until Bound For Glory, while still keeping him unpinned. After the response to Joe working in the X division on Sunday, they sure as hell aren't moving him out of it. Here's how I see this playing out: 1) Daniels pins AJ in a 3-way at Unbreakable. Somewhere near the end of this match, Joe will have Daniels completely beat only for AJ to make the save. 2) Joe vs. AJ runs on the first ever Spike TV show. They could run it as the main event, or even as the opener to really wow people. Probably the main event. Winner of this match gets an X title shot at Bound For Glory. Joe wins. 3) Joe wins the title at Bound For Glory. Daniels goes onto other things, maybe a short program with Raven.

Just thinking about unbreakable, I'm almost sure they're going to have too many matches again. Raven vs. Rhino Jarrett vs. Hardy AMW vs. Naturals Samoa Joe vs. Chris Daniels Next Chapter of James/Gunn Next Chapter of Lynn/Waltman Likely rematch of sorts with Abyss/Hoyt AJ needs a match Shocker vs. Shelley again At that point we have 9 matches without using any of the X undercard guys. Ideally they should combine a couple. Maybe something like... Raven vs. Rhino Jarrett vs. Hardy AMW vs. Naturals Samoa Joe vs. Christopher Daniels Waltman/Williams vs. Lynn/Styles Abyss/Brown vs. Hoyt/Sabu (Hardcore match) Billy Gunn/Team Canada vs. 3 Live Crew Shelley/Bentley/Skipper vs. Shocker/Aries/Sabin

Just got to watch through the show. Overall it was definitely my favorite TNA show yet, but KNK is right that the matches lacked emotional attachment. TNA's biggest challenge is making the crowds actually care about who wins. Aries/Daniels was exactly what it should have been. Aries is perfect for TNA, and I'm almost sure he's going to get a deal after this showing. He looked to be in great shape. Joe/Styles was not as good as I hoped but still very good. For a match that was supposed to carry the show, they sure didn't give it much time to do so. There were a ton of great spots in here, but if they were more spread out over 20 rather than 15 this could have been great. As much as I hated the interference, giving AJ a visual pin on Joe makes him an instant contender once Joe takes the title. And yeah, he is taking the title, they simply cannot derail his momentum at this point. Top 2 matches for BFG look like AJ/Joe and Raven/Jarrett. BFG is going over the 3 hour mark, so I think they'll get the time they need there. It'll be interesting to see how Joe and Daniels work their match next month. I'm guessing Daniels is the first to reach the ropes in the choke, but loses to another Joe finisher that can make its debut next month: The Chimera combo.