chessarmy
Guest
Hey guys, this is chessarmy and its time to review TNA's Victory Road PPV which aired last night from the Reliant Arena in Houston, Texas. Lets get this thing started
They opened the show with the usual pyro and hype of the crowd. Then we get the introduction for the first match of the night
12 man elimination Tag Team match: Masato Yoshino, Milano Collection AT, and Puma vs Ultimo Guerrero, Ray Bucanero and Averno vs Doug Williams, Tyson Dux and Alex Kozlov vs Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin and Curry Man
This was a very fast paced opener and it got the crowd energized for the PPV. The eliminations weren't too quick, and they gave this match lots of time which is great. Alex Shelley and Masato Yoshino were the final two guys left. They battled back and forth with lots of near falls, but in the end, Alex Shelley was able to get the pin and gain some points for Team TNA. Again, an awesome opener and a great way to start off the PPV
Match rating: **** 1/4
Singles Match: Angelina Love vs Gail Kim
A decent match, Angelina dominated for a little with Kim making the usual babyface comeback. Velvet Sky tried to get involved but Kim whipped her into the steel barricade. Gail Kim ended up getting the victory via a neck breaker. Post match, Beatiful People tried to put the paper bag on Kim but Gail escaped
Match rating: ** 1/2
Singles: Sonjay Dutt vs Jay Lethal
This started out a little slow, but it picked up towards the end. Sonjay Dutt kept screaming "I love you Val" and "help me" throughout the match, causing Val to start to feel some sympathy for the Guru. It was a good match but the end was a little weird, Val went up on the apron to talk to Jay..I guess to tell him to lighten up on Sonjay, but then Sonjay got the roll up and the win. So basically, either Val is turning heel, or Jay Lethal is turning heel because Val cost him the match
Match rating: **
TNA World Tag Team Championship, Fans revenge match: LAX(c) vs Beer Money
They started out the match with a little comedy. Robert Roode got thrown to the outside and the fans whipped him with the belts. Roode quickly ran back inside and hugs Storm. Then later on, James Storm got thrown to the outside and he got whipped. To add insult to injury, Homicide got thrown to the outside but didn't get whipped, instead he drank a little but of James Storm's beer and shared it with the fans at ring side. Overall, it was a pretty good match with LAX getting the win with some type of double team move. Hernandez had either Storm or Roode (I can't remember at the moment) in an electric chair position and Homicide hit the Gringo Cutter from the top rope for the pin.
Match rating: ***
TNA Knockout Championship: Taylor Wilde(c) vs Awesome Kong
Taylor Wilde is hot. Just letting you guys know that. Anyway, Awesome Kong dominated early, she had a camel clutch locked in on Wilde for a while before Wilde finally fought out of it and hit her series of drop kicks including a missile drop kick. The finish came when Wilde reversed a chokeslam attempt into a role up for the pin. Post match, Raisha Saeed attacked Wilde, then Kong tried to awesome bomb Wilde into a chair until Abyss theme hits and The monster saves the day. He ends up hitting a black hole slam on Saeed, it was funny
Match rating: **
Ultimate X for the X Cup: Naruki Doi vs Kaz vs Volador Jr vs Daivari
The hype video for this was awesome btw. The match itself was awesome too, we got too see some fucking awesome spots. Volador hit a moonsault from the top turnbuckle onto Doi on the outside, Kaz hit a leg drop from the top of the scaffold thing onto Daivari which was INSANE! But right after that, Volador Jr quickly took advantage of his opportunity, he climbed up to the X, made his way to the middle and won the World X Cup for Team Mexico. Post match, Willie Urbina did a horrible job of translating and Team Mexico celebrated
Match rating: *** 1/2
6 man tag, full metal mayhem: Team 3D and Kurt Angle vs AJ Styles, Christian Cage and Rhino
This was a crazy match. Even more crazy spots, and yet another very enjoyable match overall. They started it off with your standard no DQ match, a few weapons shots here and there, but later on it really got going. Rhino hit EVERYONE with a gore which was awesome. Team 3D hit a 3D on AJ and Devon hurt his ankle. And then Christian Cage his a cross body on 3D and Angle from the top of the Ultimate X Scaffolding!! It was sick, and I marked out for it much like I did for the Kaz spot earlier. Anyway, the finish came when Frank Trigg hit AJ Styles with kendo stick brought in by Johnny Devine earlier in the match, so Angle took advantage and hit an Olympic slam from the top of the ladder through a table!!!! I don't know why the crowd didn't react to this, but whatever. Angle got the pin
Match rating: ****
TNA World Heavyweight Championship: Samoa Joe(c) vs Booker T
Well, what can I say about this one? THIS was when the shit hit the fan for this PPV. Where to start? Well, the match was going fine. Joe got busted open and was getting the shit kicked out of him early...but thats all fine and good, then Booker T gets busted open later in the match, and then a ref bump happens. Thats when all hell breaks loose. A bunch of referees come down to try and stop Joe from wrestling...for no reason. Its not like Joe was the one getting his ass kicked earlier by Booker, but I guess thats still fine. Anyway, Joe beats up all the refs, then a thousand securities come down and Joe fucks them up, then Sting's music hits. At this point I am so confused that I would rather just turn this shit off and remember the PPV for all the great matches that we saw before this. Anyway, Sting comes down the ramp and tells Joe to stop, Joe instead flips him off so Sting attacks him with the baseball bat. Booker T covers and then SHARMELL does the pin. So basically, Joe is heel, Sting is heel I guess, and Booker is babyface now? This whole match was just confusing and it just didn't need to end like this. If this was just a normal one on one match, something people PAID 30 BUCKS FOR, this PPV would have been fine. Instead, we get left with a bitter taste in our mouths, for what? Why does TNA need to build up iMPACT! on a fucking PPV!? How does that make sense? Don't get me wrong, bad ass Joe is great but why would you want to ruin what could have been a perfectly fine main event just to confuse everyone and send the hometown crowd home angry? We paid money to see this, give us a normal main event!!
Match rating: *
Additional Thoughts: This PPV reminds me of a car race. A driver is going strong on the last lap, he is ahead of everyone else. Then once he finally gets close to the finish line, he fucks up and crashes causing him to lose. This PPV was going to be fucking awesome, we got 3 MOTY candidates on here, but now everyone is going to overlook that because of the shitty dusty finish to the main event. You can't say that this show sucked because of all the solid matches that we got to see. If TNA didn't fuck up the main event, this could have been PPV of the year for both WWE and TNA, but instead, everyone is going to talk about the shitty main event, and how TNA ALMOST put on an fucking amazing show. TNA Victory Road 2008 was good, better than last year's show by a mile, and definitely worth buying the DVD for just to see some of the great matches. If you don't want to spend money, then you have to download this. It was a solid effort by TNA that got ruined because of Vince Russo.
Match ratings:
12 man elimination tag: **** 1/4
Angelina Love vs Gail Kim: ** 1/2
Sonjay Dutt vs Jay Lethal: **
LAX vs Beer Money: ***
Awesome Kong vs Taylor Wilde: **
Ultimate X: *** 1/2
6 man full metal mayhem: ****
Booker T vs Samoa Joe: *
Overall rating: 7 = good
They opened the show with the usual pyro and hype of the crowd. Then we get the introduction for the first match of the night
12 man elimination Tag Team match: Masato Yoshino, Milano Collection AT, and Puma vs Ultimo Guerrero, Ray Bucanero and Averno vs Doug Williams, Tyson Dux and Alex Kozlov vs Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin and Curry Man
This was a very fast paced opener and it got the crowd energized for the PPV. The eliminations weren't too quick, and they gave this match lots of time which is great. Alex Shelley and Masato Yoshino were the final two guys left. They battled back and forth with lots of near falls, but in the end, Alex Shelley was able to get the pin and gain some points for Team TNA. Again, an awesome opener and a great way to start off the PPV
Match rating: **** 1/4
Singles Match: Angelina Love vs Gail Kim
A decent match, Angelina dominated for a little with Kim making the usual babyface comeback. Velvet Sky tried to get involved but Kim whipped her into the steel barricade. Gail Kim ended up getting the victory via a neck breaker. Post match, Beatiful People tried to put the paper bag on Kim but Gail escaped
Match rating: ** 1/2
Singles: Sonjay Dutt vs Jay Lethal
This started out a little slow, but it picked up towards the end. Sonjay Dutt kept screaming "I love you Val" and "help me" throughout the match, causing Val to start to feel some sympathy for the Guru. It was a good match but the end was a little weird, Val went up on the apron to talk to Jay..I guess to tell him to lighten up on Sonjay, but then Sonjay got the roll up and the win. So basically, either Val is turning heel, or Jay Lethal is turning heel because Val cost him the match
Match rating: **
TNA World Tag Team Championship, Fans revenge match: LAX(c) vs Beer Money
They started out the match with a little comedy. Robert Roode got thrown to the outside and the fans whipped him with the belts. Roode quickly ran back inside and hugs Storm. Then later on, James Storm got thrown to the outside and he got whipped. To add insult to injury, Homicide got thrown to the outside but didn't get whipped, instead he drank a little but of James Storm's beer and shared it with the fans at ring side. Overall, it was a pretty good match with LAX getting the win with some type of double team move. Hernandez had either Storm or Roode (I can't remember at the moment) in an electric chair position and Homicide hit the Gringo Cutter from the top rope for the pin.
Match rating: ***
TNA Knockout Championship: Taylor Wilde(c) vs Awesome Kong
Taylor Wilde is hot. Just letting you guys know that. Anyway, Awesome Kong dominated early, she had a camel clutch locked in on Wilde for a while before Wilde finally fought out of it and hit her series of drop kicks including a missile drop kick. The finish came when Wilde reversed a chokeslam attempt into a role up for the pin. Post match, Raisha Saeed attacked Wilde, then Kong tried to awesome bomb Wilde into a chair until Abyss theme hits and The monster saves the day. He ends up hitting a black hole slam on Saeed, it was funny
Match rating: **
Ultimate X for the X Cup: Naruki Doi vs Kaz vs Volador Jr vs Daivari
The hype video for this was awesome btw. The match itself was awesome too, we got too see some fucking awesome spots. Volador hit a moonsault from the top turnbuckle onto Doi on the outside, Kaz hit a leg drop from the top of the scaffold thing onto Daivari which was INSANE! But right after that, Volador Jr quickly took advantage of his opportunity, he climbed up to the X, made his way to the middle and won the World X Cup for Team Mexico. Post match, Willie Urbina did a horrible job of translating and Team Mexico celebrated
Match rating: *** 1/2
6 man tag, full metal mayhem: Team 3D and Kurt Angle vs AJ Styles, Christian Cage and Rhino
This was a crazy match. Even more crazy spots, and yet another very enjoyable match overall. They started it off with your standard no DQ match, a few weapons shots here and there, but later on it really got going. Rhino hit EVERYONE with a gore which was awesome. Team 3D hit a 3D on AJ and Devon hurt his ankle. And then Christian Cage his a cross body on 3D and Angle from the top of the Ultimate X Scaffolding!! It was sick, and I marked out for it much like I did for the Kaz spot earlier. Anyway, the finish came when Frank Trigg hit AJ Styles with kendo stick brought in by Johnny Devine earlier in the match, so Angle took advantage and hit an Olympic slam from the top of the ladder through a table!!!! I don't know why the crowd didn't react to this, but whatever. Angle got the pin
Match rating: ****
TNA World Heavyweight Championship: Samoa Joe(c) vs Booker T
Well, what can I say about this one? THIS was when the shit hit the fan for this PPV. Where to start? Well, the match was going fine. Joe got busted open and was getting the shit kicked out of him early...but thats all fine and good, then Booker T gets busted open later in the match, and then a ref bump happens. Thats when all hell breaks loose. A bunch of referees come down to try and stop Joe from wrestling...for no reason. Its not like Joe was the one getting his ass kicked earlier by Booker, but I guess thats still fine. Anyway, Joe beats up all the refs, then a thousand securities come down and Joe fucks them up, then Sting's music hits. At this point I am so confused that I would rather just turn this shit off and remember the PPV for all the great matches that we saw before this. Anyway, Sting comes down the ramp and tells Joe to stop, Joe instead flips him off so Sting attacks him with the baseball bat. Booker T covers and then SHARMELL does the pin. So basically, Joe is heel, Sting is heel I guess, and Booker is babyface now? This whole match was just confusing and it just didn't need to end like this. If this was just a normal one on one match, something people PAID 30 BUCKS FOR, this PPV would have been fine. Instead, we get left with a bitter taste in our mouths, for what? Why does TNA need to build up iMPACT! on a fucking PPV!? How does that make sense? Don't get me wrong, bad ass Joe is great but why would you want to ruin what could have been a perfectly fine main event just to confuse everyone and send the hometown crowd home angry? We paid money to see this, give us a normal main event!!
Match rating: *
Additional Thoughts: This PPV reminds me of a car race. A driver is going strong on the last lap, he is ahead of everyone else. Then once he finally gets close to the finish line, he fucks up and crashes causing him to lose. This PPV was going to be fucking awesome, we got 3 MOTY candidates on here, but now everyone is going to overlook that because of the shitty dusty finish to the main event. You can't say that this show sucked because of all the solid matches that we got to see. If TNA didn't fuck up the main event, this could have been PPV of the year for both WWE and TNA, but instead, everyone is going to talk about the shitty main event, and how TNA ALMOST put on an fucking amazing show. TNA Victory Road 2008 was good, better than last year's show by a mile, and definitely worth buying the DVD for just to see some of the great matches. If you don't want to spend money, then you have to download this. It was a solid effort by TNA that got ruined because of Vince Russo.
Match ratings:
12 man elimination tag: **** 1/4
Angelina Love vs Gail Kim: ** 1/2
Sonjay Dutt vs Jay Lethal: **
LAX vs Beer Money: ***
Awesome Kong vs Taylor Wilde: **
Ultimate X: *** 1/2
6 man full metal mayhem: ****
Booker T vs Samoa Joe: *
Overall rating: 7 = good
aperbag3: