TNA Final Resolution reaction

[Guest LooneyTune]

Jarrett/Brown is a ***+ match?! Jarrett has only had a handful of 3 star matches in his career, and 1 is against Monty Brown? Either someone slipped something special in Jarrett's coffee, or everyone is a little too generous with star ratings because the matches before it were good.

 

By the way, am I the only one who keeps seeing "TNA Final Solution" in the title, even though it clearly says "Resolution"? Damn my eyes.

 

"Too late!"

Glad to see someone got the joke.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

I enjoyed the show til the ending killed it for me. That kind of finish, no matter how good the loser looks, would kill the crowd and the people at home. Brown beats DDP and Nash in a match earlier, and takes Jarrett to the limit, only to have Jarrett retain for the millionth time is getting old. So I voted I saw it and didn't enjoy it.

[Jingus 0]

Meh. I saw all of these guys wrestle (live in person, and FOR FREE) about a billion times when TNA was still in Nashville, and feel no urge whatsoever to pay good money to see 'em again.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

To be fair, Looney, most of Jarrett's big matches in TNA have been in the ***-***1/2 range. Of course, these same matches were against top-notch opponents like Raven, AJ Styles, Ron Killings, and the like, so take that as you will.

 

And as for the reason I constantly rag on TNA, even when I admit to not watching the shows? Because TNA is WCW: no real upward mobility for the better talents, office political wars, and no true direction to go to. AMW winning again? Terrible booking. There's also the fact that I highly doubt the tag match was over **1/2, if that, because Team Canada, well, sucks, and AMW, well, sucks more. They've never, in the 2 1/2 years they've been teaming together, been able to properly build to a hot tag.

 

As for Kash/Dustin, I'll admit it: I wanna see that match. Then again, I'm also a vocal Kid Kash mark, so take that as you will.

[Styles 0]

Redjed, I agree with everything you said! I agree I thought it was the perfect time to let Monty go over and would have made an already excellent PPV into something really special, but at the same time I'm not so upset about it since it didn't bury anybody and will hopefully lead to the rematch.

 

I would put Jarrett/Brown at ***. Jarrett has has many more than 3 *** matches in his career, some *gasp* in TNA. I agree some people have an incredible bias against TNA and anything they do...if you don't believe us, who saw the show, that it was good, then order it yourself. Which leads me to my 3rd plea for the few people who voted they saw the show and didn't like it to please post and explain yourselves. I'm honestly curious what you didn't like about the show. If no one posts, I'm just going to disregard those opinions...

[RedJed 0]

If I had a PPV connection I might've ordered, but I didn't think it was possible for TNA to put this good of stuff on, considering all of 2004 really sucked.

 

Unless of course, people like it because TNA is on it's death bed soon (trying not to be negative). Lord knows, I was praising WCW from January-March 2001, even though I haven't watched a single Nitro from the Russo booking because of how horrible it sounded. Go Enforcer Road Warrior Animal!

I dont think its that people are all of a sudden enjoying it because its "going under" (which is debatable as these ppvs have gotten suitable enough buy rates that they have considered the past 2 a sucess of sorts) as that just doesnt make sense. If a show sucks, it sucks - if it doesnt, people are going to take note such as is occuring lately.

 

If anything the roster seems to be working harder on these ppvs because I think they know what they mean to the future of the company. If they bust their ass, then people will most of the time at least be happy with what they saw, even if the booking at times is questionable. This is similar to the 2001 WCW in the essence where the workrate also at that same time was turned up with some of the guys in likely knowing things were kind of stagnant and they needed to do something to help (IE Cruiserweight division).

 

FYI, Russo wasnt even booking WCW in 2001, by that point he had been sitting at home collecting paychecks like most of the other real problematic forces in the company were.

[Guest LooneyTune]

To be fair, Looney, most of Jarrett's big matches in TNA have been in the ***-***1/2 range. Of course, these same matches were against top-notch opponents like Raven, AJ Styles, Ron Killings, and the like, so take that as you will.

I should've been more descriptive. With wrestlers who are worse than him he hasn't had many good matches. Almost all of his TNA matches that stand out from "blech" were with (like mentioned), Styles and Ron Killings.

 

Someone probably mentioned it already, but how was Dustin Rhodes' physical condition? Add on any weight since his latest WWE run?

[RedJed 0]

Meh. I saw all of these guys wrestle (live in person, and FOR FREE) about a billion times when TNA was still in Nashville, and feel no urge whatsoever to pay good money to see 'em again.

Are you pissed that they left Nashville?

[Styles 0]

Corey, I honeslty don't understand the AMW hate. They're pretty much the only tag team that over the past 2+ years has put on consistent, good tag team matches. They know the formula and excecute it perfectly. Team Canada has improved a lot since you I believe you stopped recapping the shows. The 4 guys put on a bonafide ****+ tag match.

[Guest LooneyTune]

FYI, Russo wasnt even booking WCW in 2001, by that point he had been sitting at home collecting paychecks like most of the other real problematic forces in the company were.

Didn't I already say that? I thought WCW was crap during 2000 because of Russo and I refused to watch. I started watching after he was gone, and was during the dying days when the shows still weren't that good when looking back at it now.

[Styles 0]

Someone probably mentioned it already, but how was Dustin Rhodes' physical condition? Add on any weight since his latest WWE run?

He looked fine. He's a deceptively big guy. As I said, Kash was working like a horse in this match playing small guy breaking down/bouncing off of the bigger guy but Dustin did his part, sold well and seemed to be trying hard to impress and entertain the fans...

[Fökai 0]

Overall, the show was as good, if not better overall maybe, than Turning Point. If TNA keeps having at least really good ppvs like this, I dont think they will be going out of business anytime soon, but thats debatable.

It's debatable?

[Styles 0]

Well Keller is on vacation or something so he has nothing up and for some reason Meltzer doesn't have a report up, so in lieu of their opinions, here's the first batch of reader responses to the Observer (no I am not amongst them):

 

First TNA Impact feedback

 

Dave:

 

Major thumbs up. Best match was the match of the year Ultimate X battle, which should have closed the show since Brown wasn't going over in the main event. AMW/Team Canada and Dutt/Skipper were also really good matches. Worst was Raven-Watts.

 

New Year's Revolution is to Final Resolution as night is to day. This was an excellent show, even better than Turning Point, and it's unlikely that Royal Rumble will come anywhere close to being as good as this ppv.

 

I believe Brown should have won the title -- it's way past time for getting the belt off Jarrett -- but that's a small complaint when viewed in terms of the ppv as a whole.

 

--David Wolf

 

TNA Final Resolution

 

Thumbs Up

 

Best Match: Ultimate X

 

Worst Match: Raven vs. Erik Watts

 

On a sad note, apparently Erik Watts either overdosed or tried to kill himself last weekend. On an even sadder note, this apparently influenced the booking of FINAL RESOLUTION and got him a victory over Raven, who once drew the highest buyrate for a TNA PPV in its weekly incarnation.

 

It's one thing when HHH buries a promising opponent. But when Jeff "AAA" Jarrett does it, he's only taking money out of the pockets of the saps who trusted him to keep a viable number two promotion going.

 

Who comes out of this card as a strong contender? Jeff Hardy - beaten by Jarrett on their first monthly PPV? AJ Styles, who already had a great feud with Jarrett, but is now X champ? Or do they go with Nash? They ran an Ultimate Warrior teaser. But they wouldn't really go that route, would they? I mean come on, this is 2005! And the booker did have his last run of success BEFORE the Warrior entered the WWF 18 years ago...

 

Jeff Cohen

New York

 

Hey Dave and fellow readers,

 

What can I say about tonight's TNA Pay Per View besides it was the second best pay per view that I have seen in recent memory, with Turning Point being number one. This Pay Per View gets a huge Thumbs UP!!!!!! The best match was a toss up between AMW vs. Team Canada but once I saw the Ultimate X match the choice was an easy one. Having AJ win the X-Division title again was great, so my match of the night has to be the Ultimate X with Sabin, Williams, and Styles. There really was not a bad match on this show but since by law I have to pick one it will be Jeff Hardy vs. Scott Hall. Having Piper as the special guest referee almost made this a good match. However, it seems to my dad and me at least that Scott Hall should no longer be in a wrestling ring since he is so out of shape thus he has to wear those Elvis outfits. My biggest surprise of the night has to be Abyss showing up and attacking Jeff Hardy at the end of his match since all of us believed that Abyss was going to the WWE so having him show up shocked me and the others in my house watching. Once again, TNA puts on a great Pay Per View, I only regret that I haven't seen Victory Road yet but I plan on ordering the Victory Road DVD from TNA. This is a Pay Per View that every wrestling fan should order, and with TNA continuing to put out great PPV after great PPV it won't be long until they get a good TV slot. The only thing that shocked me was that Jarrett retained the championship and I was sure that Monty Brown was going to win it, I just hope Dusty doesn’t have Dustin slotted to take the championship.

 

 

 

John Chagaris

 

Newmarket, NH/Hamden, CT

 

 

Vote:

 

Thumbs in the middle.

 

Best match: Team Canada tagteam

 

Worst match: Dustin Rhodes Match

 

The first half of the card was quite forgettable for the most part. Piper

fine as a face ref -- had more moves than Hall.

 

X match quite good.

 

Worst business move: having Jarrett go over Brown. Monty Brown should have

won the belt, although I got the ending I expected. -- Mike Omansky

[Jingus 0]

Are you pissed that they left Nashville?

Everyone in Nashville except for a few hardcore haterz is STILL pissed at them for leaving, especially since they lied to our faces and denied they were leaving until they actually left, and then lied to our faces again when they claimed they'd return here for the next PPV.

[RedJed 0]

To be fair, Looney, most of Jarrett's big matches in TNA have been in the ***-***1/2 range. Of course, these same matches were against top-notch opponents like Raven, AJ Styles, Ron Killings, and the like, so take that as you will.

 

And as for the reason I constantly rag on TNA, even when I admit to not watching the shows? Because TNA is WCW: no real upward mobility for the better talents, office political wars, and no true direction to go to. AMW winning again? Terrible booking. There's also the fact that I highly doubt the tag match was over **1/2, if that, because Team Canada, well, sucks, and AMW, well, sucks more. They've never, in the 2 1/2 years they've been teaming together, been able to properly build to a hot tag.

 

As for Kash/Dustin, I'll admit it: I wanna see that match. Then again, I'm also a vocal Kid Kash mark, so take that as you will.

To be honest, if you would be watching TNA lately, you would see alot more "upward mobility" made towards certain talent. While I'll be the first to admit they are dropping the ball on Skipper and Daniels currently, you can tell by commentary that they either have something up their sleeve down the road or at least have the intention of doing something here soon. Guys like Garza were being pushed very strong and its just unfortunate what happened with him did in fact happen. While I'll also say alot of the talent could be used better, I do think the company is alot better with Rhodes booking right now than it was with Mantel/Jarrett doing their thing, and I think these last few ppvs have proven that. There is still alot of work to be done, and more than anything what that might take to get it right is more time to actually develop things - meaning more than one hour of TV a week.

 

I'm also not the biggest AMW fan but try and look from it from just an initial perspective - how is it terrible booking when they are one of the only teams that are really over at this point in the company (which yes, is TNA's fault that they can't build up the tag scene better) and they can at least bust their ass in this match to earn the win? See the match for yourself - I think you'll be surprised.

 

As far as an overall direction that you think TNA isnt going for or aiming at, time will tell as how they book the next ppv will be interesting. If they stick with this Monte Brown title chase, a clear direction is there which I would imagine needs to be followed up on next big show. Having the "old reliables" of AMW and Styles as champs again serves to allow for some new and fresh feuds with new contenders, so we'll see how it goes.

[Guest LooneyTune]

The fact someone said "none of the matches were bad" (even though people say Watts/Raven was) disqualifies that person. The last guy doesn't even both listing who fought "Dustin Rhodes Match", but I'll leave it at that (even though the match is getting praise here).

[RedJed 0]

FYI, Russo wasnt even booking WCW in 2001, by that point he had been sitting at home collecting paychecks like most of the other real problematic forces in the company were.

Didn't I already say that? I thought WCW was crap during 2000 because of Russo and I refused to watch. I started watching after he was gone, and was during the dying days when the shows still weren't that good when looking back at it now.

Oh ok sorry for the misunderstanding.

[Guest LooneyTune]

Actually I wasn't sure if I did. I've been trying to post at two places at once and try not to get mixed up. (I accidentally put LISTENING instead of LISTING in my last post... oy)

[Styles 0]

The fact someone said "none of the matches were bad" (even though people say Watts/Raven was) disqualifies that person. The last guy doesn't even both listing who fought "Dustin Rhodes Match", but I'll leave it at that (even though the match is getting praise here).

Watts/Raven, Hardy/Hall and Brows/DDP/Nash were not great but everything else was at least ***. Tag Title and Ultimate X exclipse ****.

[RedJed 0]

Overall, the show was as good, if not better overall maybe, than Turning Point. If TNA keeps having at least really good ppvs like this, I dont think they will be going out of business anytime soon, but thats debatable.

It's debatable?

Sure is - when they are getting positive praise for the move to monthly ppvs and the numbers are showing that they arent bottoming out from it - thats showing alot of people that some momentum may finally be shifting upward. Even if Panda pulls out in x number of months, who's to say they can't find another backer?

[RedJed 0]

Are you pissed that they left Nashville?

Everyone in Nashville except for a few hardcore haterz is STILL pissed at them for leaving, especially since they lied to our faces and denied they were leaving until they actually left, and then lied to our faces again when they claimed they'd return here for the next PPV.

Yeah I thought that was pretty shitty how that was all handled - they should have/could have still kept that loyal fanbase of regulars from the Nashville shows happy by not deciding to make every show from Orlando. I didnt think it would have been much to ask for them to still do some shows, hell, even a house show here and there, back in Nashville.

 

I guess they figured they were struggling so much to get paid attendance there that it didnt really matter what they did after the move, but its still bad business to cut off any market of your fans like that.

[Guest LooneyTune]

If TNA is improving, that might mean buyrates are up, which means the total loss of money is down. Not a big difference, but with recent budget cuts, and possibly good buyrates, Panda Energy will keep funding TNA.

 

I haven't been much in love with TNA recently (I've spent at least $600 on PPV's) and 2004 was a complete downer compared to late 2002-early 2003. I mean COMPLETE downer. Only saving graces were A.J. Styles and Abyss having kickass matches quite often. My Cable network doesn't even get FSN, so I have to watch iMPACT highlights on Xplosion, which makes me bitter even more.

[Jingus 0]

I guess they figured they were struggling so much to get paid attendance there that it didnt really matter what they did after the move, but its still bad business to cut off any market of your fans like that.

It's their own fault for handing out thousands (and I do mean THOUSANDS) of free tickets every week... for a building that only seats maybe 2,000 people maximum. Local indy wrestling in Nashville has mostly been in the shitter ever since TNA came to town, and I think spoiling everyone by letting them see big-name wrestlers every week for free played a major role in that.

[Jingus 0]

EDIT: double post, sorry.

[RedJed 0]

I guess they figured they were struggling so much to get paid attendance there that it didnt really matter what they did after the move, but its still bad business to cut off any market of your fans like that.

It's their own fault for handing out thousands (and I do mean THOUSANDS) of free tickets every week... for a building that only seats maybe 2,000 people maximum. Local indy wrestling in Nashville has mostly been in the shitter ever since TNA came to town, and I think spoiling everyone by letting them see big-name wrestlers every week for free played a major role in that.

They should have never started to hand out comps for the Fairgrounds show - you're right that it started a bad trend for them to never really get a good amount of sales from tickets since nearly everyone knew you could find them for free around town.

 

Does anyone know if they still do this in Orlando, especially with the ppvs now? That would be a shame if they dont, at least, make the crowd there pay $20 per ticket for the ppvs in the least.

 

BTW, I never mentioned how annoying Johnny Fairplay was tonight on the ppv. Looked like that was his send off with the storyline they did tonight, thank god.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

Corey, I honeslty don't understand the AMW hate.

It's very simple: Chris Harris can't sell for shit and the few moves he can pull off, outside of the Catatonic, are pulled off rather poorly. James Storm has no charisma whatsoever when he plays his role seriously, and he's never given the opportunity to show that he carries the team with a singles push, which he deserves more than Harris does.

They're pretty much the only tag team that over the past 2+ years has put on consistent, good tag team matches.

False. In 2003, nobody - NOBODY - could touch the World's Greatest Tag Team (Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin) in terms of a regular tag team having good-great matches. XXX's matches, regardless of the pairing, were regularly better than AMW's in 2003 TNA, and even in 2004 TNA. Local tag team Sabotage (DC Dillinger and Eddie Edwards) put on better matches all-around than AMW does, and they aren't even being carried by great workers (as AMW's best matches involved Christopher Daniels).

They know the formula and excecute it perfectly.

No, they really don't. They tease a hot tag, but don't go for it, and then hit the hot tag before the fans even know what's going on. The finish is almost always the same, with either the Death Sentence being hit after a minute of stalling, or Harris getting cheated so that Storm can be pinned. How is that "executing it perfectly" if their matches are primarily known for the sick bumps of their OPPONENTS and the bloodshed during the brawls?

Team Canada has improved a lot since you I believe you stopped recapping the shows. The 4 guys put on a bonafide ****+ tag match.

I'll believe it when I see it, because the only person on Team Canada that I like at all is Johnny Devine, since he seems to be the only one that knows how to work a damn match. Which pairing of Team Canada was it at Final Resolution?

[RedJed 0]

Young and Roode. Both guys worked hard - Young somehow got a ridiculous goose egg bump on his forehead from some spot.

[Guest Deviant]

I refuse to believe that this card didn't suck. I need to see this now, so hopefully it'll be online soon (because I'm Australian, not cheap). Ultimate X was probably a lot of fun, but other than that I fail to see what could have been THAT good.

 

Team Canada vs AMW #628 could have been ok, but I too hate AMW and am rather indifferent to Team Canada. It should at least be decent considering how familiar they should be with each other by now.

 

And I personally see no way that Raven/Watts, 3LK's match (poor Daniels), the three way, Monty/JJ or Dustin/Kash (becuase Kash sucks dammit, am I the only one that sees that?!?) could have come even close to entertaining me. Dutt/Skipper might have been an okay spotfest.

 

But really, I read that card and thought it was utterly pathetic. I fail to see how it could be even close to worthy of all of this over-the-top verbal blowing it's getting.

[Guest LooneyTune]

Wait, the guy's name isn't "Rude", but "Roode"!? Holy fuck, do I feel stupid. I've been spelling it wrong for over a year... (groans).

[Guest Heppyhack]

Not sure what they are going to do with the world title picture now, but if they dont go with Brown-Jarrett again soon, the company will continue to flounder with the masses not taking them seriously when they have such a lame world title division that only serve to feed the egos like Nash and Jarrett. If they do in fact build the next ppv to those two for the world title, it's not going to get any better.

Not seen the PPV yet thanks to the Wrestling Channel only just having gotten their finger out, but absolutely intending to do so when its available online or on TV here. Got to agree that there's a blind spot with many regarding TNA and just refusing to believe they can be good regardless of output. Turning Point and the last couple of months worth of iMPACT! suggest theyve turned the corner.

 

As for the world title picture - there's an opportunity here for them to use the "Road to the Cage" series they did around a year ago on the weekly PPVs. Nash, Hardy, DDP and Monty named as condenders, and run it as an elimination series each week up to the Feb PPV, building to Brown and Jarrett in a cage, where JJ can't get access to the guitar or anything. Level playing field, Brown goes over. Can also set up a couple of new feuds for the new champ on the back of it.