TNA Final Resolution 2009
Now before I start on the matches I have to say that the Shop TNA Christmas video made the Cross the Line 3 pack worth the money. It was hilarious.
TNA Tag Title Match:
The British Invasion (c) vs. The Motor City Machine Guns
Excellent opener and I was thrilled to see how much offense the Guns got in. Despite being the much smaller faces they got in just as much offense as The British Invasion. The Guns also controlled the tempo of the match so for guys like Magnus and Williams this match had a really fast pace.
I really wished the Guns had won the titles though. They really are such a great tag team and it would have been nice to see them get the gold at least once.Anyways fun stuff that saw the Guns come so close to getting the gold numerous times and seeing the The British Invasion steal the win.
***1/4
TNA Knockout Championship Match:
ODB (c) vs. Tara
Maybe it's because the last women's match I saw had Eve in it but I liked this one. There is no doubt that ODB's character was very stale but at least here we got to see a mean streak from her. She was much more serious here and it was pretty refreshing to see. I really liked where she set up a Bronco Buster, ran at Tara, stopped, and stomped her instead. Ending came out of nowhere but it kept the feud alive so I guess it made sense. Very solid.
**
Feast or Fired Match:
Jay Lethal vs. Consequences Creed vs. Robert Roode vs. James Storm vs. Sheik Abdul Bashir vs. Cody Deaner vs.Kiyoshi vs. Rob Terry vs. Kevin Nash vs. Eric Young vs. Samoa Joe vs. Homicide
For what's it worth this is one of the better "Something on a pole" matches that I've seen. Not much in the way of a wrestling classic but there were a good number of talented wrestlers brawling all over the place for a little under 10 minutes so there was some entertainment that came out of it. Not much in the way of spots and in all honesty this might have been best of as a spotfest. It wasn't terrible, which is all I could have asked for. At least they showed what was in each briefcase right after the match.
*3/4
Elimination Match:
Team 3D, Rhino, and Jessie Neal vs. Hernandez, Suicide, Matt Morgan, and D'Angelo Dinero
So because of a pre match stipulation Hernandez had to go the first 5 minutes on his own and if he was pinned his team would lose. Well it wasn't much of a surprise that Hernandez lasted the whole 5 minutes, but what was a surprise was that he scored a pin on Rhino 4 minutes in, giving his team an advantage. It made Hernandez look really good, especially since he was eliminated by DQ when he just destroyed Jessie Neal with a chair.
This match could have been a lot better if there wasn't so much stupid stuff that happened. Why would Jessie hit someone with a chair when his team was already a man down? And why would Hernandez get DQed for hitting someone that wasn't in the match anymore? There are a few other things that didn't make much sense at all but the action made up for some of it as it was a pretty entertaining match. All the young guys ended up looking really strong coming out of the match so I guess it accomplished its purpose.
**3/4
Last Man Standing Match:
Scott Steiner vs. Bobby Lashley
Neither guy could really do all that much in the ring. Steiner because he's old and Lashley because he kind of sucks. This wasn't too bad but I couldn't shake the feeling that they just had a wrestling match where the ref would count to 10 instead of 3. And it wasn't all that good of a wrestling match at that. Nothing terrible but lots of suplexes. I also never really got the impression that Steiner and Lashley hated each other. In fact their match they had at the previous PPV was done much better than this match. Very skippable.
*3/4
Hardcore Match
Mick Foley and Abyss vs. Stevie Richards and Raven
Solid enough match. I was a little surprised that Foley just seemed to vanish for a while and left Abyss on his own. They had been playing to the fact that Foley hadn't been there for Abyss so I guess it made sense but it really didn't do anything for the match. Well Foley eventually comes back with a cart filled with weapons and the ass kicking starts. Nothing all that brutal but the match was pretty fun. It did have one really good start where we saw Foley hit a Cactus elbow drop onto Richards through a table off the stage but other than that there weren't too many dangerous spots. I was shocked that Abyss worked a hardcore match and didn't blade.
I was kind of expecting a little more out of the ending as it ended with a Black Hole Slam which isn't all that devastating of a move and even less so in a hardcore match. It wasn't all that long but I felt it was a pretty good match.
**1/2
3 Degrees of Pain
Kurt Angle vs. Desmond Wolfe
So the first fall was a pinfalls only match, second was submission, and thrid was cage. The cage was up the whole time though but you couldn't use it as a weapon until the third fall. It might sound like a dumb idea but it actually allowed for some really good chain wrestling for the first 2 falls.
I like Angle but I really feel like Wolfe out shined him during the first 2 falls of mat wrestling, especially towards the end of the second fall. There were a lot of counters to submissions and you would see Wolfe land a bunch of really different and good looking holds while all Angle did was apply Ankle Lock after Ankle Lock. Wolfe sold the ankle really well to his credit after the first fall.
I would have liked to see Wolfe pick up the win but that doesn't seem to be something that TNA likes to do. In fact when Wolfe scored a pin on Angle I realized it was the first time in a very long time that I had seen Wolfe pin someone. I really liked this match. It was just a really good pure wrestling match for the first 2 falls and the second fall was very exciting to see. I still think the match they had at Turning Point better but not by all that much.
****
TNA World Title Match:
AJ Styles (c) vs. Christopher Daniels
A pretty simple match structure that saw them start out with a slow pace and showcased some very good mat wrestling. This was booked as a jealousy feud between them and you could really feel the animosity between Daniels and AJ. It was more about Daniels showing he was better than AJ so it made sense that he was more concerned with winning the match than hurting AJ.
There were also some really great spots here early on that they built the rest of the match around. AJ took a nasty spill and seemed to land right on his head. From there Daniels went after the back/neck and at one point he slammed Styles through a chair. Daniels took his fair share of bumps as well, the best being a straight up power bomb he took on the floor.
Great match here. I liked the deliberate pace that it had and I also liked that they didn't go crazy at the end. It wouldn't have made sense if they started throwing bombs one after another and not selling after such a well worked match where they sold everything. A fantastic main end to the show.
****
It might a little rough between the opener and the last two matches but overall I still felt it was a good show. It had it's flaws but I feel the last 2 matches more than made up for the lackluster mid card. And this is part of the Cross the Line Pack so you can't go wrong with these 2 main events along with the Wolfe/Angle and Styles/Daniels/Joe from Turning Point.