Match #56
Rob Van Dam vs. Mr. Anderson
TNA World Heavyweight Championship #1 Contender's Match
TNA Victory Road - March 13, 2011
Looks like the meat of the show is coming up. Anderson and RVD both have valid claims to the World Title - Anderson is the former champ who got screwed and has his rematch, and RVD never lost it, being vacated after he
ran out of dates got injured by Abyss. Let's see if this is any good!
Anderson's the only guy who gets "asshole" chants as a face. Instant big fight feel, just add staredown! RVD does a flipping leg drop, which misses, but actually hits Anderson very slightly on the arm. RVD hits an honestly really sick bodyscissors to stack up Anderson for two. Long staredown again. Both men rummaging for headlocks and hammerlocks. Anderson puts on a
snap headlock (please don't break RVD's neck) which RVD counters with a headscissors. There's an AMAZING botch where RVD can't get enough height on a leapfrog leading to Anderson legit headbutting him in the balls. "You fucked up" chants!
In the midst of the following generic heat segment, Anderson makes clear his position that he meant to do that.
RVD re-establishes control, gets a kick and a Rolling Thunder. Anderson goes to the outside, so RVD does a kind of weak-looking baseball slide to get him to the barricade, and lands an awkward slingshot plancha. RVD does his guardrail leg drop spot, and I can't tell if it's a botch or if Anderson merely dodged away at the last minute. All I know is, smashing his leg into the rail looks like it really hurt RVD. Anderson resets a potential count-out like a true heel before working the leg by smashing it into the ring post. Back in the ring, he starts working the other leg for some reason. Did he forget which one was supposed to be hurt? This is some decent leg work, though, even if it is the wrong one.
RVD fights back with his good leg (which was supposed to be his bad one). Anderson goes for the Mic Check but RVD grabs the rope so it just becomes Anderson dropping awkwardly on his back. They do a Rolling Thunder catch spot (where RVD isn't even selling the bad leg) but it's just so, so slow and obviously choreographed. Anderson almost gets the Green Bay Plunge off that but RVD counters it into... a headlock. Yeah. A fairly slow neckbreaker by Anderson gets two. Green Bay Plunge finally happens but doesn't end this match, sadly. Commentary brings up Anderson's concussion issues... yeah, that was a bad storyline, wasn't it?
Double down from a clothesline. RVD shoulder charges Anderson in the corner, but does a weird backflip which lets Anderson dodge. RVD's just not bothering with the leg anymore. RVD crossbodies Anderson which puts them both over the top rope. They battle up the ramp... Mic Check on the ramp! Both men are down, and the referee completes a count of 10. Double count-out! So I guess we have no Number 1 contender. Dueling chants of "Restart the match" as the crowd wants a clean finish, and "NO" as they don't want to see any more RVD vs. Anderson.
Middling at best in-ring with two workers who don't gel, psychology that seemed to be forgotten midway through, and it doesn't have the decency to finish conclusively.
