TNA Against All Odds predictions

[Guest LooneyTune]

Benoit was able to get a better match out of Nathan Jones than he did out of Billy Gunn. That's scary.

 

So... how smart is the TNA booking now?

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

Slapnuts!, I want you to defend this show. PLEASE defend this show. And not a cop-out defense like "well, WWE has bad shows all the time," or "even the greatest companies make bad decisions." I want you to literally go through every match and every booking decision and defend each one the best you can.

 

Join us, Slappy. Join us in our song:

Dusty Rhodes, he fucking sucks

Doo-dah, doo-dah

Dusty Rhodes, he fucking sucks

Hum, da doo-dah day

 

I'm not a happy boy

Because you've ruined this sport

Dusty Rhodes, you fucking suck

Hum, da doo-dah day

[razazteca 0]

They seriously need to change Dusty's "office" from the pickup truck to an actual room or just have him only make his announcements in the ring. And why is it whenever Dustin Rhodes takes off the Goldust costume his character goes to shit.........they better find a way to transition the Dark City character Platinium or was it se7en into TNA. Also Dusty needs to bring back the classic catchphrases like "In public if you will" and "Clubbin"!

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

I just think TNA needs to get rid of Jeff Jarrett and Dusty Rhodes and find somebody that knows what the fuck they're doing.

[Guest MikeSC]

KazariShane, the only heel tag team TNA has with the slightest amount of credibility and actual talent as tag partners (I dislike The Naturals, for some reason), loses to a has-been and a NASCAR driver. A fucking NASCAR driver.

At the risk of offending you, I think Hammond is a NASCAR commentator, not a driver.

 

So, not only is he involved in LESS of a sport than pro wrestling, he only TALKS about it.

Goldust loses all motivation he had in the ring during his AWESOME 2002-2003 WWE run, and no-sells everything one of the only legends in TNA throws at him.

WWE is the ONLY company that can use him. His WCW stint in 2001 was horrendous, while his WWE run in 2002-3 was pretty good.

In the coup disgrace, Jarrett retains AGAIN (though this was a lose-lose situation for all of us, as we'd bitch even if Jarrett lost the belt) after using a CELLO for a weapon and having BILLY FUCKING GUNN, the only man to ever have a DUD with CHRIS BENOIT, run in, setting up for a suck-ass main event at Destination X.

Well, Dusty wants to use "names" to "generate PPV buys".

 

I'm just wondering when he'll start ACTUALLY doing it.

Hurrah, Dusty. You're going to successfully book ANOTHER promotion into the shitter, just like you did with JCP. For somebody that loves everything NWA, you sure do like killing it a whole lot.

He's hoping to attract Flair --- so he can job him to JJ.

-=Mike

[Guest Fitzy]

KazariShane, the only heel tag team TNA has with the slightest amount of credibility and actual talent as tag partners (I dislike The Naturals, for some reason), loses to a has-been and a NASCAR driver. A fucking NASCAR driver.

What did you expect? Them to actually win? That TNA would actually do something right with them? I think not. They have never been able to do anything good with Michael Shane and Frankie Kazarian. They are stuck in horrible feuds and matches that aren't meant to go anywhere. When they have good matches (them vs. the Naturals on Impact was going quite good until Kid Kash and Lance Hoyt and among others interfered) things go wrong.

 

They have come along way since they began teaming. I hated them for a little while, as Michael Shane kind of bored me, but his work got much better and he finally removed the rest holds (something Randy Orton should learn from), and look what it did for him. He became a good wrestler. Frankie Kazarian has always been good, but I hated when he was put into this team as I felt it was going to go nowhere (it still is really going nowhere, but at least the work is solid).

 

I don't see why they are not feuding with America's Most Wanted. These two teams could have solid matches. The Naturals are also a really good team. My second favorite team in wrestling right now (behind AMW). Shane and Kazarian would be in my top five, though, too.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

MIKE!!!! Where the flying FUCK have you been, man?

 

So Hammond is a NASCAR commentator...making the loss to him and BG all the more damaging to KazariShane.

 

Yes...why ISN'T KazariShane feuding with AMW? I mean, I know that the feud would be horribly booked in AMW's favor, meaning that KazariShane would lose every somewhat major match, with wins only coming from interference and cheating galore (note to Dusty/Jeff/whoever: XXX got over as a heel team in '03 by winning with as little interference or cheating as possible, and they were more over than even AMW was, so take note of it) on Impact, if even that, but at least it's better to lose to the kayfabe'd greatest tag team on the planet (anybody that knows me knows I hate AMW) than to lose to a former Jeff Jarrett manager and a guy that thinks he's driving in the middle of the ring.

[Jingus 0]

After reading this whole thread...

 

 

...I goddamn near died laughing.

[BUTT 0]

Keller gave the main event **3/4.

[Guest LooneyTune]

Keller gave the main event **3/4.

...words cannot describe the feeling I have in my stomach right now. **3/4!? He's basically saying it was better than everything on WWE Armageddon last year.

[BUTT 0]

Goldust loses all motivation he had in the ring during his AWESOME 2002-2003 WWE run, and no-sells everything one of the only legends in TNA throws at him.

WWE is the ONLY company that can use him. His WCW stint in 2001 was horrendous, while his WWE run in 2002-3 was pretty good.

Well, Dustin Rhodes is simply not an interesting character, and his in-ring work certainly does nothing to make up for that. WWE was still dumb to let him go, however.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

It's actually kind of weird. Of all the sites I've hit up for reviews...none of them have been that negative on the Main Event.

 

pwinsider, the Torch, the Observer site (not Meltzer), and 411 all thought it was better than it should have been...and better than any of us saw it.

[Guest MikeSC]

Goldust loses all motivation he had in the ring during his AWESOME 2002-2003 WWE run, and no-sells everything one of the only legends in TNA throws at him.

WWE is the ONLY company that can use him. His WCW stint in 2001 was horrendous, while his WWE run in 2002-3 was pretty good.

Well, Dustin Rhodes is simply not an interesting character, and his in-ring work certainly does nothing to make up for that. WWE was still dumb to let him go, however.

Oh, WWE cutting him was idiotic. He was one of the more effective faces they have.

 

Then again, they also have Hurricane languishing on RAW when he actually might be able to bring a spark to the CW division --- so it's not unheard of.

It's actually kind of weird. Of all the sites I've hit up for reviews...none of them have been that negative on the Main Event.

 

pwinsider, the Torch, the Observer site (not Meltzer), and 411 all thought it was better than it should have been...and better than any of us saw it.

The gift of lowered expectations, I suppose.

 

I just wonder what would have happened if WWE tried so lame a finish.

-=Mike

[Guest LooneyTune]

Nash and Jarrett are barely capable now of having that good of a match with the best wrestlers now, but they can suddenly work an equally good match with each other that is seriously over-booked?

[Guest FromBeyondTheGrave]

What the fuck kind of main event was that? A nWo/DX reunion show?

[Guest LooneyTune]

The nWKli-X is running wild on Total Nonstop Action (of course, when the main event features people who rely on punching and kicking, it's not really nonstop)

[Matt Young 0]

I didn't get to see the PPV, but the ending wasn't nearly as bad in practice as it sounded on paper.

 

Video of the last 4+ minutes

[Guest MikeSC]

I didn't get to see the PPV, but the ending wasn't nearly as bad in practice as it sounded on paper.

 

Video of the last 4+ minutes

Umm, yeah, it actually came across horribly in practice. A total jumbled mess.

 

And nice of TNA to immediately stick two guys who couldn't draw flies in the WWE, Gunn and XPac, right into the ME mix.

-=Mike

[Fökai 0]

Prediction for Destination X main event: Jarrett and TAFKA Gunn win, align themselves with a heel-turned 3 Live Kru to leech off their heat, which sets up:

 

Jarrett/Outlaws/Killings/Konnan

 

v.

 

Nash/Hall/X-Pac/Rhodes/Rhodes

 

...at their next PPV, which, in a mysterious turn of events, will not be broadcast on pay-per-view.

[Precious Roy 0]

I'm not even going to complain about the main-event booking, because what's the point? As long as Jarrett is the focus of the show we'll get shit like this, and with Jarrett-Nash, hey, it could have been worse? And as misguided as it is, and destined to fail, at least they have some sort of logic in trying to play off DX, the nWo and The Kliq, flawed to the teeth, but logic none the less.

 

But when you job your best young heel team, a team that's actually blossomed in-ring and out despite low expectations, that has far more potential than the Naturals or Team Canada IMO, to a fucking NASCAR ANNOUNCER.........I mean, what the FUCK?! It's bad enough having this guy in a PPV match, but at least you could argue that it puts heel heat on Shane/Kazarian when they dismantle him. But this guy pins Kazarian with a fucking ELBOW DROP?!?! And are they teasing a split here with the mistaken superkick? Does any of this make any sense to ANYONE?!?? A split doesn't matter when you haven't done a god damn thing to make people actually care about this team. I used to be very down on Shane when he was involved with Douglas, and apathetic towards Kazarian, but they've really grown on me since teaming up, and to bury them like this.....let's just say shit like this is why I stopped supporting TNA financially. It's the SAME EXACT bullshit that went down in WCW.

 

As for someone complaining about Skipper going over Williams....I'd say that's the least of your worries at this point. Petey has already had a ton of exposure in the X-Division, he got pushed real hard and can afford some losses now, and it makes sense to push Skipper as a single after breaking up XXX. Plus this match was for a spot in Ultimate X, Petey was in the last two, and IMO they're going with Styles/Daniels/Skipper in this next one, which is a good thing, a very fresh matchup, rather than a Williams/Styles retread. Shit, at least they're doing one thing right in this god forsaken company.

[Guest Fook_Theta]

Got to disagree with MikeSC on this one.

 

Other than the last two spots(lowblow and stroke, and stroke getting hit), that wasn't too bad of a match between gassed out Nash and Triple-J. I'll admit having a hot fucking crowd helps make it watchable. Billy Gunn did some fairly good selling, so although he'll likely rehash a bunch of shit from WWE, atleast he's somewhat enthusastic about being in the ring again. Poor fucking Waltman doing his same tired old character though. Should have had him come out in a BIG DAVE BATISTIA suit for something different.

 

That couldn't have been the worse title defense Jarrett has put on.

 

edit: Ruh roh. Was the crowd noise piped in?

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

I actually liked the ending.

 

But listen...

 

1) Billy Gunn looked bored. "he sold" ? Sold what? A punch from Nash? Oookay. He can't work though...I enjoyed it only for the "YOU KNOW WHO THAT IS!" tired line that I've missed since the Monday Night Wars and TNA's attempt to try to recreate it with WWE hasbeens.

 

2) Syxx-Pac's run-in was cool, 'cause everyone thought it'd balance things and help Nash win the title. Well, it didn't, and Syxx Pac as a face should be...interesting. If he can work, thumbs up.

 

3) Jeff Jarrett's finisher SUCKS. This match would be getting a small, small, little more praise if he had taken Nash out (pass out) with the Figure Four.

 

4) If Nash's ring-work can be kept to a minimum via tags and 6-mans, keep him around. The crowd loves him.

 

5) Don't reform the Outlaws. Don't have them wrestle each other. But they have to...

 

6) If I'm booking the next PPV, it looks like this:

 

Destination X

 

"SUPER X CUP TOURNAMENT" - 7 Matches

 

1. AJ Styles Vs. Chris Sabin

2. Christopher Daniels Vs. Elix Skipper

3. Kid Kash Vs. Sonjay Dutt

4. Outside Talent (Evans, Guerrera, Quackenbush, Generico, etc.) Vs. Williams

 

Styles def. Sabin

Daniels DRAW Skipper

Kash def. Dutt

Outside Talent (must be a face) upsets Kazarian. Kazarian flips and brutalizes the star.

 

TNA officials let Daniels and Skipper both in again due to the injury.

 

5. Styles def. Daniels

6. Skipper def. Kash

 

- The battle rages on -

 

WAR GAMES

 

Diamond Dallas Page, Monty Brown, Kevin Nash, Syxx Pac, and Scott Hall

 

Vs.

 

Jeff Jarrett, Mr. gAss, Konnan, BG James, and Ron Killings

 

Everyone has SOMETHING on the line. Page pins Jarrett to earn a title shot in April.

 

7.

 

Elix Skipper upsets AJ Styles to win the tournament.

__________________________

 

Chancy booking, yes, but now, for April you've got:

 

DDP Vs. Jarrett - World Title

 

AMW Vs. Outlaws - Tag Titles

 

Konnan & Killings Vs. Nash & Syxx Pac

 

AJ Vs. Skipper - X Title

 

Kazarian Vs. Outside Talent - Revenge Match

 

Daniels Vs. Sabin

 

Monty against a new signee (Train?)

[Guest Fook_Theta]

From the DVDR boards:

I didn't see the telecast, but I was there live.

 

I would be shocked if there was crowd noise pumped in.

 

To most of the fans there, Styles-Daniels WAS the main event.

 

The majority of people there are pseudo-smart marks who love both guys. On top of that, there are like 70 6-12 year old girls in love with AJ Styles who go to every TNA show. The whole match they were alternating "LEt's go Angel, let's go AJ" chants. A huge amount of people left after that match.

 

The most bizarre thing was Nash/Jarrett. They were chanting "Drop the title" and dying to see the change. Once Jarrett hit the first stroke, you could hear a pin drop. Everyone died. Once Jarrett made the pin, NOBODY MOVED. There was dead silence. The PPV is off the air, they're starting to clean up, and everyone is just standing still, completely depressed, pissed off at themselves for letting TNA fool them again.

 

After the show, no one hung around to make plans for dinner, no one chatted it up, no one was interested in talking. Everyone filed out, and aside from a few people were in near silence just heading to their cars. It was surreal.

I thought about making a new thread, but eh. I am very displeased if they were smart enough to have sound que up crowd noise, but weren't smart enough to book a match that would elicit actual cheering/jeering.

[Guest MikeSC]

Got to disagree with MikeSC on this one.

 

Other than the last two spots(lowblow and stroke, and stroke getting hit), that wasn't too bad of a match between gassed out Nash and Triple-J. I'll admit having a hot fucking crowd helps make it watchable. Billy Gunn did some fairly good selling, so although he'll likely rehash a bunch of shit from WWE, atleast he's somewhat enthusastic about being in the ring again. Poor fucking Waltman doing his same tired old character though. Should have had him come out in a BIG DAVE BATISTIA suit for something different.

 

That couldn't have been the worse title defense Jarrett has put on.

 

edit: Ruh roh. Was the crowd noise piped in?

I'm sorry, but the finish was indistinguishable from any of a large number of overbooked finishes. It gets REAL old, real quickly. And that the "big surprises" were such ho-hum people as Waltman and whatever the hell Gunn's real name is doesn't help things.

 

Rhodes, wisely, tried to mask the glaring defects in the ME by booking a chaotic finish that might be confused with quality.

 

And, if you haven't seen a shitload of similar finishes, it probably was a good finish.

 

I've seen too many of these. It was pure dime-a-dozen for me.

-=Mike

[Guest LooneyTune]

TNA is the master company for shit finishes. They've used double pin spots every few weeks it seemed on weekly PPVs, they've had countless run ins finishes (a grand record of 11 during Jarrett/Raven), random losers making surprise appearences (OMG! It's MABEL!)...

 

I've seen every possible bad finish, but when a Cello, Billy Gunn, X-Pac, and B.G. James are all running in and making appearences, it has to rank up there.

[Matt Young 0]

You've got to admit that having Jarrett get around the "no guitar" stip (although I thought the use of a guitar was always a DQ if he was caught, anyway) by going for the cello was sheer brilliance.

[Guest LooneyTune]

I'll admit, bringing a Cello as a foreign object has to be one of the funniest weapons since New Jacks "Hulk Hands".

[Open the Muggy Gate 0]

Alright...now Jarrett has kept the gold, and Abyss has the next shot... ABYSS NEEDS THE TITLE. He signed that extension so there might be a chance he actually gets that belt. GIVE THE BELT TO ABYSS TNA.

[BHK 0]

*enters TNA folder for first time*

 

*looks at Yesterday's card*

 

 

You sure this isn't WCW? Actually, more importantly, did the ring have a seizure?

[RedJed 0]

Wow, surprise surprise, alot of posters return to the TNA folder to bash on the show that they havent even seen - even though it admittedly wasnt nearly as good as the last two other ppvs they put on. It pisses me off though that you guys only comment when TNA does bad shit but when they put on good stuff, we hear a small amount of talk from both of you (ie stuff from the last ppv, etc). Whats up with that? I tend to agree with alot of stuff both of you are saying right now, but I just think its fucked up that you guys only post about TNA negatively all the time and when they do something good, you dont even really comment, or moreless its just that it just couldnt be true that *gasp* TNA did something right. It's the exact same thing as these people you say that praise TNA all the time as far as the bias goes. You wont allow to even accept ANYTHING positive that the company did in the past, current does or the potential for some in the future.

 

The pre-show had the return of the Harris Boys, which is never a good thing. They have to be one of my least favorite tag teams EVER. They totally buried and squashed Batts and Clark, ironically my favorite team in TNA. The other team was Phi Delta Slam, which I havent seen any work from, but might end up a good team in the division - time will tell. Candido is now aligned with the Naturals as well which might make for an interesting pair.

 

Opener was certainly decent, as both guys worked hard and I thought this would lead to another deal where all the guys on the show would work hard. Incidentally, it didnt happen that way. *** Skipper winning might open up the chance for a Skipper-Daniels match for a shot at the X title next month, or maybe both of them in Ultimate X (since they are planning on bringing that back for the next ppv in a 4 way).

 

Tag with Hammond was weak - agreed with many that Kaz/Shane needs to be used MUCH better than this. Fans werent into this either which says alot since that crowd there can handle just about anything. DUD

 

Raven-Rhodes was a totally weak match. Rhodes didnt even attempt to have a decent match and Raven didnt seem to really be trying. Everything seemed in slow motion, even the after match angle which had ZERO intensity. -*

 

The tag title match was also a letdown. These two teams just dont blend well at all, as evidented from their series of matches they had last year on the weekly ppvs. Maybe if Kash had a better tag partner? Just basic stuff here - they tried with some decent nearfalls at the end but it just didnt flow at all. **

 

Abyss-Hardy was yet ANOTHER letdown. At this point the ppv was really losing me. Hardy worked like shit (which doesnt surprise me since he would be losing the match?) and missed all of his big table bumps, ultimately just hurting himself more. The big spot on the stage even was made to look bad due to Hardy's weak "jump" off the stage. Tenay selling the hell out of it as the best thing ever reminded me of Tony S. in WCW days. The finish was the goofiest ever and I can't believe they actually booked it that way. Hardy was about to get the contract above the ladder and Abyss looked like he was going to do a big spot with him on the ladder but then instead just pulled him ever so slightly off the ladder. Then he slowly irish whips Hardy into the ropes (not throws him over it) and Hardy out of nowhere does this goofy jump over the ropes into 1 table out of 4 that were stacked. It just looked ridiculously bad. He then no sells the bump and starts to kick all the rest of the tables in half. This was one of Hardy's worst matches I've ever seen in terms of a higher profile one. 1/2*

 

Tag match with DDP and Brown was standard fare with nobody really stepping up to make this even a *** match. I felt like this was an Impact main event or something, and thats even streching it. I dont understand it but nobody had their working shoes on here. ** 1/4

 

Styles-Daniels wasnt anything "wow" to me until 10-15 minutes left, then it started to really pick up. The overtime period would have been nice to have extended a little bit other than having it end after a minute into it. But generally, this was the glaring high note of the show and should have been main event. Both guys busted their ass and the visual of the end of the 30 minute period with Styles bleeding like crazy in the submission was very cool. With that said, something was still missing here, and it wasnt up to par with what I think alot of people expected out of this, including myself. Perhaps part of it was that at this point the show was really dragging and it was harder to get into. *** 3/4

 

Main event shockingly was better than I expected (I thought it didnt have a chance to go over **) with Jarrett really carrying Nash big time to a semi-decent 15-20 minute entertaining match - in most cases comedy fare because it was so corny. Most of the match was spent with crowd brawling and some in the backstage too. The cello spot, as weird as it sounds, was actually kind of funny/creative (I cant believe I just said that) as it was hilarious when the cello's handle broke right when Jarrett pulled it out of the case. And then Jarrett attacks Nash's knee with the case, that appeared to be nothing but pure mesh/soft cloth. The near falls at the end were actually very believable but much like last month with Brown, the match's finish fell flat after all of the good near falls. I have to give both guys credit though as they tried to make this work and at least half succeeded as I thought this was going to be one of the worst ppv main events of all time and it definately wasnt. Xpac and Gunn coming in I could care less about, especially with Gunn, as he seems like the ultimate WWE hasbeen reject. ** 3/4

 

Basically, Rhodes booked himself in a corner with the main event, as Nash winning doesnt exactly sound appealing although the crowd wanted it, but I think they would respond to just about anyone in this way as they just want the belt off Jarrett. And of course Jarrett continuing to hold the belt is also a bad move. What they HAVE to do now is build up the next challenger as the guy who needs to beat Jarrett as its been drawn out so long with people wanting to see the belt off JJ that it's borderline ridiculous. I'm sure some in TNA see the crowds dying to see the belt off him as some sort of sign that he's drawing, but he's not. Best idea would be to do a King of the Mountain match next month and give the belt to Brown, as was the original plan (ironically enough, what Jarrett and Mantel wanted to do) before Rhodes came in. So basically any finish to this main event would have produced the same result. A babyface needs a run at the belt and NOW. Or at very worst, give the title to Abyss and have him do a run as a monster heel. Something has got to give.

 

I hope the next ppv is mostly all X division as they need that to get back on track after this lackluster effort from most on this show. With all of this said, this was still better than the average WWE ppv, so take that as you will. The Rumble was probably better than this slightly, but other than that, this still stood up better than any WWE ppv since SummerSlam.