Tuesday, August 14, 2012

8/12/12 Hardcore Justice

Ratings:
Hernandez & Chavo Guerrero vs. Gunner & Kid Kash: **1/4

Rob Van Dam vs. D'Angelo Dinero vs. Magnus vs. Mr. Anderson (Falls Count Anywhere): **1/4

Kazarian vs. Devon (TV Title): **1/2

Madison Rayne vs. Miss Tessmacher (Knockouts Title): *1/2

Bully Ray vs. James Storm vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Robbie E (Tables): **3/4

Zema Ion vs. Kenny King (X-Division Title): ***3/4

AJ Styles vs. Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe vs. Christopher Daniels (Ladder): ***3/4

Austin Aries vs. Bobby Roode (World Title): ****
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Reviews/Thoughts:
This will be more of a shorter, to-the-point review, since I have been very busy otherwise.

Chavo curtain jerks the PPV. Opening tag match basically started with Hernandez welcoming Chavo into the company, but guys like Gunner and Kash not too thrilled with the Guerrero name. Crowd hot for Chavo throughout the match. Leave it to the ring vets in Kash and Chavo to control much of the match. Fairly methodical match, but crowd stayed into it. Hernandez with a drop-down version of a Dominator nearly put Kash on his head. Good opener with Chavo hitting the Frog Splash for three.

With that said, I feel for Anarquia, Sarita, and Rosita in all this. It's like Hernandez forgot Mexican America existed for storyline purposes. From a heel stable to a face tag team, just like that.

First of the four-way BFG Series matches, with 20 points to the winner of each. Falls Count Anywhere time. Aces and Eights got to Pope, so apparently he's out of this match. Pope, to his credit, sold the attack well and clutched his left shoulder. Funny how Magnus and Anderson came out next unscathed. Match starts as a three-way dance. Didn't take long for the match to spill to the outside. Again, good crowd reaction. RVD with the chair throwing (literally) and legdropping. Tower of Doom looked botched, so they nixed it. magnus awkward moment with a fan trying to get a chair? Van Daminator from RVD to Magnus on the stage gets the Whole F'n Show 20 points. Good three-way match, but seen better.

Madison Rayne interview. Going into the PPV, she's a three-time Knockouts champ and two-time Knockouts Tag champ. Is it sad that I know that?

But first, TV Title match between Devon and Kazarian. Loaded water bottle shot from Devon not a DQ? Gotta love ref discretion. Crowd still very interested in the match, but slightly less than the first two matches. Methodical heel beatdown, then Devon with the comeback. Nice crucifix counter from Kaz when Devon tried one of those Rock Bottom-like moves. Fade to Black countered and Devon spinebuster gets three. Solid finish.

Knockouts title match next, and of course, Earl Hebner is the ref. I still hate Earl Hebner because he gets to work one of those relationship storylines with Madison Rayne. It's a decent storyline because Earl isn't blatantly biased in Madison's favor. He calls the match down the middle, with the finish being the only controversy. Oh, and the whole Madison Rayne scissors stomp should only be done by a woman, thanks.

Anyway, finish controversial as expected. Madison's foot was on the ropes, so Earl right to stop the count. However, he "didn't see" Madison using the ropes to pin Tessmacher. Good for the storyline, but it comes at the expense of Tessmacher's title reign, which I had hoped would be longer to show she'd be a serious contender in the division.

Tables match next. Bully Ray apparently got an ace and 8 of spades. Bully continues to pin Aces and Eights blame on Storm. Poor Robbie is only in there to get mauled. Love how Bully just manipulates Robbie to get him a table anyway. And Robbie totally BOTCHES the spot where he was supposed to completely get the table out of the way -- Bully went through the corner of the table and the refs had to awkwardly say that didn't count. Would think Storm and Hardy coulda just gotten 10 points each, but nope. Crowd really shat over that one. Only means someone like Bully Ray was supposed to win, and that's exactly what happened. 20 points there. No Joseph Park, eh? In the process, Bully shows Robbie how you really move the table out of the way. WHY THE HELL did Hardy fly OVER the table to Rob Terry when he coulda won the match? Weird logic.

Nice job with the Aces and Eights spots to seemingly help and align themselves with James Storm. I've never seen Bully jump that high over the ropes or scamper away so quickly.

X-Division Title time. Crowd solidly behind Kenny King, although it remains to be seen whether his defection to TNA will really help him in the long run. At least he's gotten good exposure for now. Solid mat wrestling from King on top of his high-flying stuff; KK seems to have the entire package. Easily the best match on the PPV of the matches watched so far. Ion and King work well together. Great finish with the Gory Special. King is something special; I'm confident he'll get his time soon.

BFG Series Standings: Storm still in front with 66 points, RVD now into second with 55 after winning earlier. Joe now third with 54. Angle and Bully Ray now tied for fourth with 48 after Bully won earlier.

BFG Series Ladder match now. Can't go wrong with these four guys. Such a fun match, and the crowd loved it. Daniels nuked early. Leave it to Joe to bring the intensity all match long. Nice "USA!" chants for Angle. Action all over the place, never a dull moment. Kept laughing seeing Angle and Joe nuke Daniels like that. Styles springs out of nowhere to grab the clipboard and win the match. Outstanding. Styles still in 7th place after all that (36 points), but at least he's closer to that cutoff point now (top five).

World Title match closes the show. No rematch clause for either guy. Borash with the main event intros. Aries with the upper hand early with offense and mind games. Roode got several near falls on offense, but couldn't keep A-double down. Aries even got Roode in the crossface, which Roode has used to win matches. Nice ref bump from Brian Hebner. Then second official nuked. Brainbuster, agonizingly slow Hebner count gets two. Great stuff there.

We get the double pin spot with two refs counting at the same time. Somehow, it takes a few minutes -- and the presence of Earl Hebner -- to figure out to restart the match. "Bullshit" not censored from Roode because we're live. Aries with the "miracle" rollup for three.

Another solid PPV, consistently good from top to bottom. Best matches saved for last, in my opinion. ***1/2

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