TNA Against All Odds Reactions

[Styles]

Being away at college again and without PPV, I have not yet seen the show, but am hoping to. I've already read the results, but will withold opinion until I watch it myself, but it seems the concencus opinion is that TNA has offered up yet another greatly recieved PPV (Nash vs. Jarrett getting positive ratings!?!). So, if you saw the show, or didn't, vote and give your thoughts, I'll add mine when I see it probably in a couple days.

 

EDIT: Shoot, the 3rd option should say "fell" below not "well" below. Oh well, same concept I guess.

[Styles]

Here are some responses from the Torch:

 

Matt Guerra of Bayonne, N.J. (8.0): Best match: Abyss vs. Jeff Hardy. Worst match: Raven vs. Dustin Rhodes. This PPV was not as good as the other TNA Sunday night PPVs, but it was still far better than anything the WWE is doing. It was nice to see Billy Gunn and X-Pac, but what the heck are they gonna call Billy Gunn? His real name is Monty Sopp, I wouldn't keep that. As for X-Pac/Syxx-Pac, he looked a little skinnier then when he left the WWE but he looked good. I thought Nash was going to win the title so Jarrett keeping it lowered my overall score. Jarrett just isn't doing it for me with the title anymore. It was nice to see the interaction with B.G. James and Billy Gunn. WWE would have acted like they never knew each other (like they always seem to do with Christian and Edge; remember when they were brothers? WWE doesn't) I can't wait for the next TNA PPV... Ultimate X, baby!

 

Zach Lloyd of Thomasville, N.C. (8.5): Best Match: Nash vs. Jarrett. Worst Match: Hammond/James vs. Kazarian/Sabin. This was my first TNA PPV and it certainly won't be my last. From the very beginning I was impressed and it had an element of surprise that can't be found in the WWE. The match between Primetime and Williams was great. It got a little slow after that, until the Full Metal Mayhem match, which was just insane. I liked the Brown/DDP vs. Team Canada match, but where was Hall? I thought he was working with Team Canada? Did I miss something? I don't consider myself an "internet" wrestling fan, which I guess is why I thought the Iron Man match was boring at times, but overall good. I loved the main event, especially the run-ins. Great job TNA.

 

Mike Omansky of New York (6.5): Best match: Styles-Daniels. Worst match: Rhodes-Raven. A good effort overall. The first hour was pretty much a throwaway, but the balance of the show was well done. Jarrett-Nash was surprisingly better than expectations. The Iron Man Match was the show-stealer. America's Most Wanted delivered another strong performance.

 

Corey Baird (7.0): After hearing glowing reviews for the last three TNA Sunday night shows I decided to give the promotion one more chance. Now maybe the company just had an off night, but what I saw was, with a few exceptions, fairly underwhelming. From the hokey James Earl Jones voiceovers that opened the show, to the horrible acting of Jarrett's lawyer, to the neckcar "celebrity" that made me long for the wrestling of Jay Leno, to the incessant screaming of Don West and Mike Tenay, to the requisite Keith Mitchell blown shot of Billy Gunn interfering... amateur hour. Let's not forget Jeff Hardy's temper tantrum either, a display of unprofessionalism that would make Bob Holly proud. For those who missed it, the finish of the match called for Hardy to be thrown through four stacked tables. The tables didn't break as planned and rather than sell the impact of the fall Hardy jumped to his feet and spazzed out, kicking and jumping on the remaining tables until they broke. All of that said, this show was saved by the incredible contest between A.J. Styles and Christopher Daniels. I used the word contest because that's exactly what it was, a "can you top this" contest between two great athletes. These guys get it. Their match had everything - intensity, drama, psychology, high spots; it was everything you could ever ask for in a professional wrestling match. The main event that followed it was surprisingly watchable, probably the best Kevin Nash match in years. It's too bad that Jarrett retained, he's holding the company back in so many ways.

 

And from the Observer:

 

 

Best Match: AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels

Worst Match: Jeff Hammond & BG James vs. Frankie Kazarian & Michael Shane

 

The streak is dead. One great match a PPV does not make. The Koji Clutch

in the final seconds of the Iron Man match with Styles bleeding all over

Daniels' leg was a great visual. There's only one word for Jeff Hammond

pretending to drive an invisible car before dropping an elbow: WrestleCrap.

Maybe unfairly but a cello seems less manly than a guitar. Perhaps Jarrett

should just rotate and use a new instrument every PPV. Maybe a harp next

month? He could put it in his repertoire along with his signature spot: the

ref bump.

 

Thumbs in the middle.

 

Nathan Pipkin

 

Thumbs UP.

Best Match: Styles Vs. Daniels

Worst Match: Jarrett Vs. Nash

 

Overall another great PPV from TNA. Everyone always seems to put their

best effort forward come PPV time. Im not going to be buying No Way

Out, and I am very happy with the fact that I spent my 30 bucks on

this PPV instead. I have to say though that Jarrett keeping the tile

is a mistake. I dont get it. They set it up and get the crowd really

into it but then always screw the crowd over. They don't have the

audience that the WWE does and I think its time that they finally give

the few people that actually buy the PPV's what they want to see. Im

not saying that I want to see Nash as the champ. But what I want to

see is something different. It's been 4 PPV's and the same friggin

thing everytime. Do they not realise that? It's different if Jarrett

screws someone over on Impact, but this is PPV. They want us to buy

the next one, but for god sake I dont want to see the same thing

again. And how do I know that im not going to? The first 4 and only

PPV's have ended with Jarrett the champ. What will it take to change

it? I dunno, I guees im just ranting, I just find it so pathetic that

a company that wants to try and attract an audience is doing so by

pissing them off at the end of every PPV they run.

 

Oh and note to Dusty, your son is not Tommy Dreamer and having him get

beaten by Raven is not going to make a single person care about him.

But you know what I think might work? Raven in a spot other than this

feud.

 

I loved the PPV but the main event just made me shake my head in

frustration. So much talent on the card, and so many good matches, but

its the small, careless stuff that makes the shows miss something.

 

John McKinnon

 

Thumbs up....Best Match: Iron Man.......Worst Match: Rhodes vs. Raven.....Against All Odds overall was a pretty damn good Pay-Per-View. It was better than most, if not all WWE Pay-Per-Views, but the fact that Jeff Jarrett is still the NWA Champion truly amazes me. The fact that Dusty Rhodes sat in a room with people and everyone agreed that it would be good to keep the title on Jarrett makes me scratch my head. Kevin Nash might not be a better champ, but Orlando was just craving a title change, and TNA didn't give it to them. The appearences of drugged-out Sean Waltman and Billy Gunn was cool to see, but Jarrett as champ still makes me wonder what is going through Jarrett's head. Iron man match was great, DDP & Monty vs. Team Canada was good, Abyss vs. Jeff Hardy was an excellent car crash, and Nash vs. Jarrett was more entertaining that I thought it'd be. Really good PPV, but I can't stand Jeff Jarrett as champion anymore.

 

David Zimmerman

 

Thumbs up.

 

Best match: Styles-Daniels

 

Worst match: Rhodes-Raven

 

Good effort overall. Jarrett-Nash better than expected; America's Most

Wanted also strong.

In what seems to be a pattern for TNA ppv, the first hour was a throwaway.

 

-- Mike Omansky

[razazteca]

There's only one word for Jeff Hammond

pretending to drive an invisible car before dropping an elbow: WrestleCrap.

He did the same thing on IMPACT! Can somebody please tell me what the build up to this match was.

[Styles]

More positive feedback to the Observer:

 

More TNA PPV feedback

 

Against All Odds, Thumbs Up

Best Match, AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels

Worst Match, James and Hammond vs. Kazarian and Shane

 

Dave, if I thought Final Resolution was a Home Run I'd say that Against All Odds was a solid double. I enjoyed the Iron man match even though I knew that they'd go longer than 30 minutes before the opening bell rang. It was good but it wasn't something I'd tell people to go out of their way to see like Ultimate X VI, or 6 sides of steel.

The only thing I found truly horrible was the BG James and Jeff Hammond match. Even Nash and Jarrett wasn't as bad as I was expecting it to be although they would've had a difficult time being worse than I was expecting. Everything else was solid enough that overall I felt like I got my moneys worth. That's all I ask of a Pay Per View anyway.

I wanted to comment on Destination X though. I hope this Pay Per View gives a strong feature to the X-division if not exclusively then at least to a great degree. A friend of mine suggested they have singles matches where the winners would move on in to the Ultimate X match.

Speaking of Ultimate X when Mike Tenay said it would return next month I had a thought cross my mind. I love the Ultimate X match, I think that if you look at the gimmick type and even some of the spots that they've done in this match there is a sound psychological reason for a lot of them. However, this is I think the third Ultimate X match they will have done since November and I'm wondering if it might be a bit much? I don't think it needs to be as rare as Hell in a Cell or the Elimination Chamber but I don't want it to be diluted to the point like its a WCW cage match circa 2000. I think bringing it out maybe 2 or 3 times a year is just fine, but they should let a fair amount of time pass before doing it. I know time isn't necessarily something this company has a lot of but I'd have waited until the third anniversary show in June before I brought that gimmick back.

So Against All Odds was a good show but I've also got to say I think they could do a better job of naming these Pay Per Views. I'll also end by saying that I'm in the chorus of many that think its time for Jarrett to drop the title.

 

Casey Trowbridge

Huron, SD.

 

Thumbs up

 

best match was the iron man, worst was the Jeff Hammond tag

 

I thought this was another solid PPV from TNA. I was really pleased with the Iron Man, surprised at how good the AMW match was also, plus liked the main event with the exception of the ending. While I'm no fan of Kevin Nash, I thought this was about as good a match as he's capable of having. Sure the cello deal was pretty dumb and the fact Jarrett retained kind of sucked, but then again you can't put the title on a guy who is so injury prone. It was your basic Undertaker title match style bout and no worse than what WWE puts on in their big man title bouts.

 

My thoughts on the Jeff Hardy match were mostly positive, but what was with that bump at the end? Looked like he was supposed to come off the ladder, realized he couldn't do it, and then took a weaker bump into the tables. I also felt him breaking the tables up was a real life temper tantrum as he should have been selling the fall at the end of the match. The negatives were the Rhodes-Raven match and Ravens current role, as well as the ridiculous running "pit stop" Hammond does. He should throw in a "meep meep" while he's doing that car driving routine. Lame.

 

Marcos Cortest

 

 

TNA Against All Odd's '05: Thumbs Up

Worst Match: BG James/Jeff Hammond vs. Kazarian & Shane

Best Match: AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels

 

This was another awesome PPV presented by TNA. The opener of Elix Skipper vs. Petey Williams was solid until the ending where things started to get sloppy. I'm not sure if it was intentionally booked to make Skipper look like he was countering everything but it came off like sloppy ring work by Skipper. BG & Hammond vs. Kazarian & Shane wasn't "as" bad as I thought it was going to be. Raven vs. Dustin was nicely booked but they didnt connect well. AMW vs. Kash & Hoyt was tremendous and the best match of the PPV up until this point. AMW really proves each PPV why there the best tag team in the U.S in my opinion. DDP & Monty had a good match with Team Canada. I was hoping this match would still be booked with it's original intention and that was to put Bobby Roode in the spotlight to elevate his career. DDP worked harder than usual and Brown was crisp. Hardy vs. Abyss was your usual TLC spotfest type bout. Hardy did an awesome dive off the TNA entrance set onto Abyss who was laying on a table. They replayed the spot several times. Good match. Styles vs. Daniels in the iron man match was some of the best wrestling thats been showcased on PPV in a long time. Perfect workrate and the fans were into the entire thing. This match is worth the price of the PPV alone. Jarrett vs. Nash for the Nwa title was booked to work around Nash's weaknesses. Nash believe it or not put effort into the match. The ending with Sean Waltman & Billy Gunn interfering had the crowd popping but I have to question the logic in Jarrett keeping the title after taking so much punishment from Nash. It kills Nash off as being a reputable challenger for the title if they have a rematch. If they were going to put the strap on Nash that was the time to do it.

 

Wrestlingobserver.com Reader,

Brian Reinbolt

 

Thumbs: In the Middle

Best Match: Daniels vs. Styles

Worst Match: Raven vs. Rhodes

 

This was the first TNA pay-per-view I have ever

purchased and plan on getting the next. I am starting

to enjoy keeping up with TNA which is a lot more than

I could have said last year. Williams and Skipper

both show a lot of potential, but need to slow things

down. They did way too much. James/Hammond vs.

Shane/Kazarian was what it was. I believe Shane is

one of the most promising young stars in the

promotion. Raven and Rhodes was a poor match. It's

amazing to see how two guys can change over the course

of a few years both in workrate and physical

appearance. Kash/Hoyt vs. AMW was solid. For his

level of experience I thought Hoyt did well and shows

a lot of promise. In the opening moments of the

match, it took only a shove to take Hoyt down while

towards the end it took three clotheslines. Just an

observation. Abyss/Hardy was insane. I have two words

for this match...table placement! Hardy never nailed

a table dead on because the tables were too far away

on two occasions. One of these days someone is going

to half-ass place a table like these were set up

tonight and someone is going to get severely injured.

Hardy is a lucky man. It's a good idea to keep Monty

Brown working with guys like DDP to help improve his

work. He shows loads of potential. Daniels/Styles

was a great match. Imagine this PPV without this

match. It would have been a thumbs down for me.

Nash/Jarrett was alright. The "controversy" leading

up to the match including the contract negotiations

regarding the use of the dreaded guitar reminded me of

something I would have daydreamed about in junior

high, and then shot the idea down in my mind. The

idea of banning a guitar is ridiculous. I agree they

need to get the belt off Jarrett, but who to put it on

I'm not sure.

 

-Matt Duffield

 

Thumbs in the Middle

Best: AJ Styles vs. Chris Daniels

Worst: Dustin Rhodes vs. Raven

 

This was the first time I had the opportunity to watch

a TNA PPV live with my PPV group and not just a tape

of a match later and while this is clearly the weakest

show they've done since the first 3 hour PPV, I felt

it was overall a decent show. Williams vs Skipper was

good but not what I was hoping for with some blown

spot but Williams is the local boy and one of the

people I was watching with tonight trains with him so

we enjoyed it none the less. I just could not get into

Dustin vs Raven. Daniels vs AJ was a good match but

not on the level of Ultimate X or 6 Sides of Steel.

Outside of that, everything seemed to be an average

match - nothing awful, nothing great, mostly

watchable. Nash vs Jarrett was probably the 2nd worst

on the show, but not as bad as it could have been. The

cello falling apart before being used was priceless. I

had not read on the internet that the man we already

know the name of (Gunn) and Waltman would be there,

but I was joking about the Destination-X / D-X PPV

name before they showed up. It also hit me mid-match

that almost 10 years ago to the date I watched Diesel

defend his WWF title against Jeff Jarrett at a house

show at the Palace of Auburn Hills and I probably

enjoyed that match a lot more (although I was younger

and a Diesel mark). I think it's a pretty safe bet

that Jarrett's next title defnese will end with weapon

shots that are kicked out of, a Stroke, and one or two

more Strokes with a ball shot thrown in.

 

Steve Gray

 

and more from the Torch:

 

Pat of Moonachie (8.5): Best: Jarrett vs. Nash. Worst: Don West: This has become the time of year I begin to start watching wrestling regularly. From Royal Rumble through Backlash any disappointed wrestling fan knows the most exciting wrestling they're going to see all year will probably be in these four months. I also decided to give TNA a chance to impress me with one of their Sunday night PPVs and I honestly have to give them a big toe up for the show they gave the fans last night. A lot of the TNA talent is still unknown and many of them don't have presence and charisma like some of the WWE guys, but that can turn out to be a plus for TNA in the future if they let the young guys gain exposure by working a lot with the veterans on the roster. The Styles-Daniels match was very fun to watch; both guys rose to the magnitude of the event, which made their match look like something that could easily be featured on a WWE PPV. Even the Jarrett-Nash main event was much better than I expected. I mean, it looked like something straight out WCW in the good old days, but that's also a good thing considering TNA is still young and trying to attract a mainstream audience. With all the recent mainstream exposure TNA has gotten, it is a good idea to get all the rub and whatever star-power is left in guys like Nash, Waltman, Gunn, Dusty, DDP, and any other veteran willing to come in and contribute to the growth of TNA. The only complaint I have about TNA is the announcing. What I mean is that the duo of Don West and Mike Tenay just isn't working as a team, never has in my opinion. Tenay is okay because he really does know his wrestling history, and that hides his natural dullness. But it seems like in order to make up for that dullness they ask West to go way over the top, and that makes everything they say seem forced and insincere. TNA is not my company, therefore, I won't say who I'd replace at least West with, but it seems obvious to me TNA will never be able to keep the attention of a mainstream audience with West and Tenay as lead announcers.

 

Keith of Baltimore, Maryland (8.0): Best match: Jeff Hardy vs. Abyss. Worst match: Kazarian & Michael Shane vs. Jeff Hammonds & B.G. James. Jeff Hardy really won me over as a fan tonight. His bump off the top of the ring entrance tunnel was unreal. He really seemed to give everything he had tonight, and of course Abyss did not disappoint. I could not care less about Jeff Hammonds. I would have rather seen Kazarian and Michael Shane face 3 Live Kru. Skipper vs. Petey Williams was a great way to open the show. The main event was okay, and last but not least the Iron Man match made up for the main and then some. These two guys put on one hell of a match. I would have made it the best match, but the ending was too predictable. All in all a great show.

 

Kevin of Hollywood Fla. (5.5): Best Match: I think Elix Skipper vs. Petey, but it was so early I forgot it. Worst match: Jarrett-Nash. This show just did not work for me. I think TNA needs a clean end to one of these shows or people will just stop caring. It's like Raw, except Jarrett is nowhere near Triple H's league, and I just paid $30 to see him retain in a even more b.s. way than last month. All the gimmick matches were boring, and the officiating or stipulations killed very other good match, like the handcuffs in the Kid Kash match or the contracts in the Abyss match. They need to decide if their gimmick is a real wrestling federation, treating it as a sport, or a wannabe ECW. Fallen Angel got screwed. Why didn't the ref raise A.J.'s arms when he was choked out? At least if the arm didn't fall three times it would've made the ref look like he knew what he was doing. I may be in the minority, but I think the Royal Rumble blew this show out of the water. WWE still has it when they really put their mind to it, TNA needs to stop booking in circles.

[Styles]

There's only one word for Jeff Hammond

pretending to drive an invisible car before dropping an elbow: WrestleCrap.

He did the same thing on IMPACT! Can somebody please tell me what the build up to this match was.

Well, the on screen buildup was, 3Live Krew was working out in the ring with Hammond before the show, just showing him some moves and stuff, and Kazarian and Shane interupted them and started making fun of Hammond because they were pissed that when he was on commentarry he called their match "a carwreck". So, 3LK backed up Hammond the next week on Impact, and he started talking about how he drove fast cars and wrestled steers and so he's not afraid of a couple of punks, and 3LK said they'd be his "Pit Krew".

And then he took off his shirt to show his muscles, but he still looked like an pasty old man, so the crowd groaned and so next time he was in the ring he wore a shirt and beat TNA's designated loser David Young. And that's basically the buildup.

The behind the scenes reason was they felt since he hosts a NASCAR show, they'd get some crossover, but it seems TNA will never let their facination with NASCAR personalities die, and realise that there is no cross over. Anyway, let's never speak of this again, it's over.

[2GOLD]

I wonder if Jeff Hammond is aware the name "Pit Stop" has already been used for a finisher by the Nasty Boyz?

[RedJed]

I dont know what to pick since I felt it was more like "I ordered it and I thought it could have been much better but I still enjoyed it." With that said though, I think I was spoiled with two ppvs before that were f'n great and it was hard to match those.

 

But it didnt really meet my expectations (since they were kind of high from the past two ppvs) but then again they didnt fall well below either. It was a mixture of below average to decent matches along with a few that surprised me either positively (Nash/Jarett) or negatively (Raven/Rhodes)

[Guest LooneyTune]

On paper, the only matches worth watching are Styles/Daniels and (for some reason) Nash/Jarrett, with everything else being painfully average, with the exception of (maybe) Skipper/Petey depending on who you ask.

 

I'll honestly and openly say I want to get the DVDs of the last 2 PPV's (so I don't get the "TNA Hater" comments), because I didn't expect either show to be any good, and they proved me wrong and spat on me afterwards. But this show really has too much filler that goes nowhere until the final 2 matches (With the Main Event probably being good in a train wreck sort of way)

 

Edit: The poll is pretty much split, which is a good sign. The show wasn't too bad, but it wasn't near the quality the previous two were.

[Corey_Lazarus]

I've already read the results, but will withold opinion until I watch it myself, but it seems the concencus opinion is that TNA has offered up yet another greatly recieved PPV (Nash vs. Jarrett getting positive ratings!?!).

You didn't read the thread about it here, did you?

[The Decemberists]

I got to watch it last night and thought it was pretty good - although not as good as the previous sunday PPVs.

 

The Iron Man was awesome, and most of the undercard was alright, special mention to Jeff Hardy going through all the Sabu spots he could remember.

 

And, although I probably shouldn't, I even enjoyed Nash/Jarrett for some reason, and was pretty into the chance of Nash winning the title towards the end. But why Tenay had to mention about Gunn and Syxx being former DX members I don't know. TNA really need to stop taking history from WWE/WCW so much and try and build up their own.

 

Looking forward to the next one though, which is more than I can say for No Way Out.