Ratings/Analysis:
(Nope, not doing PBP tonight. watching this live, so it's impossible to keep up)
Kazarian vs. Samoa Joe: Crowd was really into this one. Great offense from both guys, nice counters. Signature moves attempted (and countered) early, which was nice to see. Just amazing to see a guy like Joe fly through the ropes like that. Why can't we have matches like this all the time? Or heck, just more often than what we see in TNA nowadays? Geez. A bit of a weak, fluke finish hurt this just a bit. ***
Douglas Williams vs. Mark Haskins: Haskins stepped up for this open challenge...never seen that guy before -- I don't think. Williams wore the regular trunks now. Good match here as well. Not sure if Haskins slipping off the top at the end was planned, but he did impress me overall. Nice sportsmanship from Williams at the end. **1/4
Eric Young & Shark Boy vs. Max Buck & Jeremy Buck: So Gen Me got back together after feuding for so long. Also, when the hell was Shark Boy last on TV? At least we saw Eric can really work the fast-paced style. Nice double-team moves from Gen Me. TNA on a roll...I liked this one too. Match was a bit short for me, though. **
Alex Shelley vs. Amazing Red vs. Shannon Moore vs. Robbie E. (Ultimate X): May the spot monkey-fest begin! Fans won't lie, this match was pretty damn good. Unfortunately, it was again short, so the rating could have been so much better. Moore going all the way to the top of the structure was cool. Shelley was a good choice to win the match here. Match ended kinda abruptly, which really affected my rating for this one. ***1/4
Rob Van Dam vs. Jerry Lynn: Really liked the split crowd chants at the start. RVD suffered a busted lip during the match, but that's nothing for these guys. RVD also got busted open by the right eyebrow...sucks to be him. It was very physical and competitive. Crowd liked it, but I got a bit bored watching parts of this. ***1/4
Austin Aries vs. Low Ki vs. Jack Evans vs. Zima Ion: Winner got an Impact contract; others are SOL. Really looked forward to this one, based off what I saw on the matches on Impact. I laughed seeing Austin Aries just standing outside for a bit at the start to let others do their spots. Loved the double submissions from Aries and Low Ki. High-impact, fast-paced, and flashy. Jack Evans does some sick moves, man. This didn't disappoint, that's for sure. Everyone hit some form of huge move and at least attempted a finisher. Damn, that was awesome. I'd seriously watch at least this portion of Impact if they kept it up. But sadly, I'm fearing this was only temporary to promote Destination X and the X-Division. I seriously hope I'm wrong on that. ****
Brian Kendrick vs. Abyss (X-Division Title): Christy Hemme did the title match intros tonight because Borash was doing color commentary. All hell broke loose between Immortal and the X-Division, and of course, Kendrick had to win, considering how Tenay and Borash had built up how "the weight of the X-Division was on Kendrick's shoulders." A respectable match, I guess. *3/4
AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels: They got a ton of time for this, which was awesome. More main event intros from Christy. Nice chess match early on. The crowd was basically doing split chants throughout the match. Excellent submission wrestling as well from both Styles and Daniels. Even Tenay and Borash mentioned how the X-Division has evolved over the years from the spot-monkey, fast-paced style to a more submission-based game. I liked the couple of false finishes we had with finishing moves. Spiral Tap FTW! The thing is, the crowd was not as into this match as the Four-Way for the Impact contract. I expected the crowd to be even louder and more into it because it was AJ and Daniels, but most were probably tired by this point. Even the false finishes didn't get as big a reaction as a real heavyweight title match would. Were the fans really wanting to see Samoa Joe in this match as well? Not really into this match as much as I would have liked to be, but still a great effort. ***3/4
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Final Thoughts:
Six-sided ring returns for this! That's already a plus. The six-sided ring made the product stand out...why get rid of it in the first place? Because wrestlers complained? Ugh. Anyway, Tazz was "on assignment," so Borash takes his place for the night. Not a bad choice. I thought Borash did a decent job as ring announcer before Christy Hemme took that over (Borash still does the main event intros, though).
Very nice card that delivered more than many other TNA PPVs in the past. I'll say this though: Borash is horrible as color commentator. ***1/2
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