[Rafael122]

Originally Posted by TripleG

It is true that the swerve was painfully obvious, but there have been many times that I have seen a swerve coming. I mean my God, who didn't see Stephanie turning on Vince at Armageddon 99. The second they said she was going to be in the front row I thought "Screw job!"

But because the ending was obvious, I'll say that it was definately Angle & Joe's weakest match. However, to say the match was horrible (as some people were) I think is a huge stretch.

I felt that a lot of people were pissed that Joe lost which is why they were so harsh on that match, but I could be wrong.

It just wasn't the swerve bro, that entire period with Pac Man Jones, etc, that 3 month stretch sucked. The match itself wasn't bad, but the whole company was in a shitty position. Nothing was really good about them.

Personally, Joe should have won the belt 18 months ago, so when he lost, I really didn't care. He should have had at least one title reign beforehand. But that's over with. I'm looking forward to see if buys and ratings increase with him as champ.

[odm]

my thoughts on the main event:

i'm glad joe won. i'm glad it was a clean match without a ref bump or interference. i'm glad it was given a lot of time. that's pretty much where my enjoyment ends. i can't stand worked "shoot" fights. if i want to see MMA i will watch UFC or old Pride stuff. when i turn on pro wrestling i want to see pro wrestling matches. when a TNA ppv is headlined by arguably 2 of the best wrestlers in the world today, i expect to see a great pro wrestling match. i do not want them to try a lot of double leg take downs and working around the guard/mount positions. it's 2008. most people know wrestling is fake, and they know in a real shoot fight that a lot of the shots/submissions used early in the match would have finished a real shoot fight quickly. i know some people really enjoyed the match, and i'm happy for them. but for me personally, worked shoot fights don't entertain me. they are boring. they are bad imitations of the real thing and they don't deliver. the best part of the match came at the end of the figure four spot where they actually started working a wrestling match. from then on the match was mostly good. i hated that they had to throw in the ankle lock/crossface spot since angle just used it a few months ago and joe has never used a crossface to finish anyone in TNA. since they put so much focus for most of the match trying to be a worked shoot fight, i think joe winning by tapout would have made a bit more sense, but that's just a small detail. i know meltzer said he loved it and they "pulled it off" but i disagree. maybe i need to watch the match again, but at this point the very highest rating i could give it is a very slim 4 stars, and that is based mainly on the superb build they did for the match and the fact that joe finally won the gold.

[JoseBxNYC]

I can't believe I miss this PPV. I bet it was awesome.

[Kawasaki Dream]

Fucking amazing PPV, I don't think I hated any match. Joe/Angle was the shit, I see big things for this company now.

[mankind2112]

Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle just wrestled the worst match I've seen since Chris Harris-James Storm in a Blindfold Match. IT WAS A FUCKING MMA MATCH! If I wanted to see MMA, I would tune in to UFC or P.R.I.D.E. I tune in to TNA to see wrestling.

TNA, you've dissapointed me on a PPV for the first time since the weekly PPV era. Shame on you.

WOW!.

[Taroostyles]

Just got back from the show and all I have is one word: AMAZING.

First of all, the crowd was electric pretty much all night and it was deafening in their at parts.(Even BG/Kip people were getting into)

Secondly, no dirty finishes and all of the matches were booked very well. I was in one of the loudest sections in the building, to the right from the camera I think.

As for Joe/Angle, I thought the match was pretty incredible but it did have lulls. There were fans in my sections who were chanting "We Want Wrestling" but I never heard any "Boring" chants.

I thought that a few of the submissions were kept on a little too long but it was one of the most realistic pro wrestling matches I've ever seen.

Lethal Lockdown was also incredible, I think the best one so far. The cross body from Cage, the table spot, the bottle spots, and the Gore all received tremendous ovation. After the match, Cage/Nash/Sting got a standing o on the ramp.

I thought even the Cuffed and Queen matches played out well and Roxxi was actually super over.

Just an incredible night and something I will remember for the rest of my life. The pop when Joe got the 3 almost popped my eardrums, it was nuts.

Ratings(Rough since I saw it live, so I will definitely need to see them on DVD)

Xscape Match-***1/4-***1/2
Queen Of The Cage-**1/2(The action with Roxxie/Angelina was good and they got the gimmick over with quickly.)
BG/Kip-**(The WMOTN IMO, but it still wasn't that bad.)
Cuffed In The Cage-**3/4(Some good spots and the gimmick didn't play out as badly as I thought it would, predictable finish tho)
ODB/Kim vs Kong/Melissa-**3/4-***(Kind of short but a nicely wrestled match and you gotta give Melissa credit for wrestlin in that outfit)
Roode/Banks vs Booker/Sharmell-***1/4(It was good that they kept the girls out to the end and Roode/Booker had great chemistry and some really nice sequences)
Lethal Lockdown-****1/2(I just loved every minute of it, crowd was super into it)
Joe/Angle-****1/4-****1/2(This is the match I really need to see on DVD cause it was hard to tell live but I know it was awesome. If they did a little less MMA and more pro wrestling, I would probably go 5*.)

Biggest Pops

1. Joe wins the belt
2. Sting
3. Shark Boy
4. Cage
5. Curry Man(He was 1st out)

It's hard to tell biggest heat since nobody got booed that hard, Devine probably actually got it the worst. Roode got booed and cheered, same with Angle, and Team 3D.

Tomko and AJ were actually over as faces pretty much(especially AJ)

All in all, just incredible. My throat is sore, my body aches, and my head is ringing but it was well worth it. Loved absolutely every minute of it.

[TripleG]

Sounds like you had a great time man. I would have loved to have been there live to see Joe win the title.

I have a question though. Was the crowd chanting "You can't Wrestle" at the BG/Kip match. I watched the show, but I couldn't make that out, but some people were making posts about it.

I did hear a "We want wrestling" chant during the main event, but it didn't last long, but that chant also struck me as funny because technically that's what Joe & Angle were doing.

[ROH88]

Im so happy Joe won the belt. He really deserves the title. I didnt order the show but will see a replay.

[Taroostyles]

Originally Posted by TripleG

Sounds like you had a great time man. I would have loved to have been there live to see Joe win the title.

I have a question though. Was the crowd chanting "You can't Wrestle" at the BG/Kip match. I watched the show, but I couldn't make that out, but some people were making posts about it.

I did hear a "We want wrestling" chant during the main event, but it didn't last long, but that chant also struck me as funny because technically that's what Joe & Angle were doing.

Yeah there were some people chanting that during the BG/Kip match, but it didn't last very long at all.

A few other notes I thought of:

The funniest part of the night had to when Don West came out, he got right in this little kids face and went absolutely crazy. It was hilarious.

After Joe won the belt, I was standing about 5 feet away from Joe hugging his father in the aisle, it was really emotional.

If you watch TNA Today on the website now, I'm right in the section directly to JB's right. I'm like just barely out of view.(3-4 seats away from the rail)

If anybody saw the guy in the clown suit, I was like directly behind that guy.

[peers]

I saw Lethal lockdown and Angle/Joe.

I was really impressed. I haven't seen wrestling for a while so there was some really cool spots in LL, like the twist at the beginning with AJ styles jumping Cage, and AJ doing a Pele after failing a backdrop. The ending came a little out of nowhere, but when the end can come at any moment, it can be pretty exciting.

Angle/Joe was built well. I liked them walking from their dressing rooms and the official introductions were good. Could have done without the Karen Angle bit though. The match itself was brilliant. I'm glad they took it seriously (Angle was in great shape, he's lost a lot of fat, esp. his gut). Sadly there weren't many takedowns from Angle.

I really enjoy that style of wrestling. Bryan Danielson has a great mix of MMA and Professional wrestling in his matches. Angle and Joe similarly displayed this mix just as well, except on a much bigger stage. I hope there's more of that to come. If there is, I'll definately be watching.

When i think about it, they probably only used 10 moves between them. I barely noticed, I was really into it. Maybe incorporating MMA aspects into Professional wrestling services that 'Less is more' thing. MMA is the way forward. But i don't think a lot of people could pull it off, which is a shame.

I'm gonna watch the first half of the ppv, because i really enjoyed the second half. And i wanna see the MCMG.

I'll definately watch iMPACT! I wanna see Joe's first promo as TNA champion. Plus I want to see why Angle was on the sacrifice trailer. Isn't Steiner next in line for Joe? I really enjoyed their last encounter (awesome promo's, pretty good wrestling).

EDIT: Oh shit, how could i forget? The commentary was awesome! Frank Trigg gave good play by play and really gave some cool insights into moves that i never thought about. It really makes those longer submissions interesting when he explains the reasoning behind them and why they're effective. It also meant Don West had less time to talk and Mike Tenay balanced the play by play with the usual story telling/selling. Good balance. I would love it if he could do more commentary with TNA.