Bound for Glory IV
A pretty exciting time for TNA, the MEM was about to officially form and from what I remember I really thought this was the closest TNA came to taking that next big step, how quickly things can change.
Steal Asylum Match
Alex Shelley vs. Jay Lethal vs. Curry Man vs. Chris Sabin vs. Sonjay Dutt vs. Jimmy Rave vs. Johnny Devine vs. Petey Williams vs. Shark Boy vs. Super Eric
Well now you can say TNA was never guilty about booking a huge multiman match to get everyone on the card... Lot's of talent here though, even more surprising is how many of the guys in this match aren't with the company any more. Everyone tried but there is only so much you can do with 10 guys in the ring at once. I will say that a 7 man suplex was pretty cool. There were plenty of other good spots as well but other than that the match really didn't have all that much substance to it. I'm not going to say that I didn't like it though.
I know that it's pretty much the definition of a spotfest but there was enough of team work from MCMG and the Prince Justice Brotherhood and some feuding between Lethal and Dutt that the whole match wasn't 10 guys jumping all over the place. The beginning was a little slow and uneventful but once things picked up the match got pretty awesome. I've seen a few other Steel Asylum matches before and this is my favorite by far. Good opener and a fun way to start the show.
***
Bimbo Brawl
The Beautiful People and Kip James vs. Rhino, ODB, and Rhaka Khan
Rhino being in a match called a Bimbo Brawl is pretty hilarious. Actually a lot of the things they did in this match had me laughing. Whether it be, Velvet Sky attempting to clothesline Rhino, only for Rhino to duck and give her a death stare, the "Crotch Claw" on Kip James from Rhaka Khan, or Kip James using a make up box as a weapon against ODB this match was pretty entertaining.
So after a few minutes of pretty hilarious stuff involving everyone Rhino and Kip James end up in the ring together. The veterans get a few minutes to do their thing in the ring before Rhino hits the Gore for the win.
I was dreading this match when I saw it on the card but instead of trying to wrestle they just went out there and were entertaining. Impressive job covering up the fact that Rhaka Khan couldn't do anything in the ring, I hardly noticed. A good watch for the time they were given, I actually wouldn't have minded if this had gone on for a few more minutes.
**
X-Division Championship Match
Sheik Abdul Bashir (c) vs. Consequences Creed
The classic "American Patriot" against the "Evil Foreigner" match. They worked the crowd like would be expected, we saw Creed get in some big offense early on before Bashir took control of the match. Creed got his shots in and by doing this he managed to keep the crowd interested in the match until Creed was fully ready start his big comeback.
I was never much of a fan of Creed but I did find myself enjoying this more than most of his matches. I will admit that he does a pretty good job of playing a pure babyface. His character doesn't have much depth (he loves America!) but it was more than enough for this match. His comebacks were good and he was easy to get behind in this match.
I really wished this hadn't ended just as I was starting to get into the match. It also looked like Creed kicked out after two when the screwy ending came. It was still a pretty good match but the ending came out of nowhere and neither guy really looked like they beaten. Solid enough though.
**1/2
Knockout Championship Match
Taylor Wilde (c) vs. Awesome Kong vs. Roxxi
I liked the pace that they kept in this match and it was a very easy watch. It was good to see that Kong had a really hard time getting the upper hand on Taylor. There a bunch of roll-ups that looked like they could have ended the match early if they weren't broken up. It created the sense that the match could end at any moment.
Some team work between Roxxi and Taylor on Kong also made a lot of sense. The action itself was pretty good but I mostly liked that everyone acted like they should have in the match. Nothing too great but good for a short match like this.
**1/4
Monsters' Ball for the TNA Tag Team Championship
Beer Money (c) vs. Team 3D vs. Abyss and Matt Morgan vs. LAX
Special Referee: Steve "Mongo" McMichaels
This was one was a war and while it was filled with spots and falls victim to the problems that a lot of big multiman matches have I still loved it. I'm not to try to recap everything that happened but I will say that everyone had their chance to shine and some of the spots that they had in the match were great but I was happy to see that they didn't rely on all the weapons as there was a fairly lengthy part of the match towards the end of the match where they didn't use any weapons. Abyss going through a flaming table was the highlight of the match and it was brutal.
Like I said earlier the match had its flaws. Guys had to sell moves for too long and they just seemed to disappear and it was hard to get any type of coherent story in the match. Mongo was also terrible as a ref. His counts were way too slow and there were numerous times when he didn't even notice that a pin was taking place. The still managed to overcome this all as it was fun to see how pissed the wrestlers were getting with his slow counts. Abyss at least had his character portrayed in the match as he didn't use a weapon once in the match. He got his ass kicked but never gave in and used weapons.
I really liked this one, good hardcore wrestling which is getting harder and harder to find today. Easily the MOTN to this point.
***1/2
AJ Styles vs. Booker T vs. Christian Cage
This mostly stemmed around whether or not Cage would go with the "Legends" or the younger guys in the upcoming feud. It would turn out that he never sided with either and would soon leave the company but we didn't know that going into this match. It didn't take long to figure out that Christian didn't give a shit about siding with either group and that he juist wanted to win.
I was a little disappointed to see AJ get hit with a briefcase early on and spend much of the early parts of the match unconscious outside the ring. Booker and Cage did OK on their own but the quality was so much better when AJ was involved in this match as once he got into the ring the pace picked up and they started throwing bombs at each other. The Spinarooni further shows itself to be Booker T's character flaw. He has both guys down and it's TNA's biggest show of the year. I'm sure you can guess what he did instead of going for the win. It's pretty funny actually every time he does this.
When I saw this match on the card I thought AJ and Christian got stuck in a filler match but that wasn't the case. This match helped set up TNA's most successful angle and it was extremely entertaining. Maybe a little too spotty for some but I really enjoyed this a lot. Good pace once AJ got back into the match and they really had something going. It ended at the perfect time as I didn't feel it was too long or short. Really good match to have on the card.
***1/2
Kurt Angle vs. Jeff Jarrett
Special Enforcer: Mic Foley
So Jarrett hadn't been in the ring for 2 years going into this match so it came as no surprise when Angle easily took him down to the mat and just embarrassed him early on before Jarrett really got his bearings in the ring and got some momentum and began taking it right to Angle. From there they had a great back and forth match that really had that big match feel to it.
I'm not sure if they slowed the match down on purpose or if Angle had to slow down so Jarrett could keep up but it worked well. I thought Jeff did a good job of keeping Angle under control, and I didn't think he was a good enough worker to do that. I like Angle a lot but there are times when he's just too over the top with all the finishers and suplexes that he sometimes does for what seems to be the entire match.
Angle's mean streak was really shown in this match too. From the start of the match where he took Jarrett down and started slapping the back of his head to him blasting Mic Foley with a chair just because he told him he wasn't allowed to use it. It ended in a feel good moment as Jeff got the win in his return match. I didn't think Jarrett had this in him.
****
TNA Heaveyweight Championship Match
Samoa Joe (c) vs. Sting
Samoa Joe jumping out of a luxury box down the stairs of the arena so he could drop kick Sting was one of the more badass things I've seen in a while. For the main event of the biggest show of the year they spent a surprising amount of time brawling in the crowd.
While I wasn't to thrilled with the idea of them fighting in the crowd for so long I have to admit that they really did capture the intensity of the feud that they would both be apart of. When they got into the ring the match got even better. It really looked like Joe wanted to kill Sting. I've seen Joe in full badass mode before but there is a huge difference between watching Joe no sell something from Sonjay Dutt than when he takes a Muscle Buster from Sting, get right back up, and hits him with some hard chops.
I even liked the ending to this. It wasn't clean by any means but it did lead to the formation of the MEM so it really made a lot of sense. The match was fantastic and you could really feel the hatred between Sting and Joe, even though he lost Joe still came out looking like a total badass because it really looked like he had it won. One of Sting's best performances in TNA and a great main event.
****
Overall: A great show from top to bottom without any bad matches. From Monsters' Ball the show was amazing. I happy to see that TNA really delivered in one of their biggest shows ever. Well worth a buy.
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