Want more wrestling news, rumors, and results? Be sure to visit PWInsider.com and PWInsiderXtra.com.
Here are my thoughts on the show:
I liked that they started the show with Ken Anderson so he can answer the question of ‘Why did you hit Jeff with the chair’. I have not been a fan of Ken Anderson’s promos, especially since he started his ‘A**hole’ gimmick. It sounded like his promo was ‘phoned in’ and a lot like another person’s promo who said that they wouldn’t be shy about something they did because they would admit to it. You had some tension between Anderson and Hardy, and if they want to bring in more, they can have D’Angelo Dinero talk to Hardy about Anderson and what he has done in the past.
The Kazarian/Styles match was good and very fast paced. Since Ric Flair is the reason for this match, it would have made sense for him to be at ringside for the entire match. I liked that there were a number of standard moves by both men that were countered or blocked because they are so familiar with their work. I liked the slingshot to the floor by Kazarian into a DDT on the apron. I liked that it was a double count out and that they continued to fight after the bell rang.
Why would Flair want Kazarian and Styles in a match against each other only to work as a team at Victory Road. If Flair wants Kazarian and Styles to win, shouldn’t he tell them who they are facing?
The match and promo were effective because Frankie and A.J. will be in a tag match on the pay per view.
Did they find the one room in the Impact Zone and backstage area that did not have a mirror while Angelina was ‘topless’?
The Angelina Love/Daffney match was okay for television. There were a few sloppy spots during the match. I was not surprised that Angelina won because she needs to be on a winning streak going into Sunday.
Angelina’s promo was okay, but it was much better than Madison’s promo. Why would Angelina put her career on the line if it is not in the contract? With the announcement that if Lacey or Velvet interfere, Madison is disqualified, I wonder how they will interfere in the match because I can see Velvet getting fed up with Madison’s attitude over the last few weeks.
While this might not have been a strong segment, it served its purpose for the pay per view since Madison and Angelina are facing each other at the pay per view.
The Team 3D and Jesse Neal video package was good and set up the Triple Threat match for the pay per view.
I thought the promo between Brother Ray and Brother Devon was good. It sets up the possibility of tension between them but it could just be a red herring to set up an attack on Jesse during their match at the pay per view. This did a good job setting up their match for the pay per view.
With Samoa Joe and Rob Van Dam having their first ever match, why would you have Tommy Dreamer and his band of merry men walking into the building to take the attention from the match?
I thought the Van Dam/Joe match was a very good television match that started off slowly but picked up a lot of steam as the match progressed. With the way that Joe has been wrestling over the last few months, it was a match that he needed to prove that he is still one of the best men in the business.
While it was a very good television match, I don’t know why they had the match for the first time on free television unless the next time is going to be for the title on pay per view.
Why would Joe be angry at the referee since he lost the match and could not get Van Dam to tap to the choke? It was his fault.
I liked Kurt Angle’s comments about Ken Anderson since Angle does not appear to have forgotten what Anderson did to him during their feud. With Dinero’s comments, Hardy should be wary of Anderson’s motivation to work with him.
I thought it was funny that Taz told Tenay ‘confidentially’ that Douglas Williams was afraid of heights.
While it was strange to see Douglas Williams wrestle a ‘typical’ X Division match against Jeremy Buck, I thought it was a very good match even though there were a lot more spots than there should have been for a match of that length. I was not surprised to see Buck get the win since it was a non-title match, but shouldn’t that mean that Buck gets a title match as well?
The Motor City Machine Guns video was okay. I thought they should have had a bit at the end with Chris Sabin giving up the ways of Beer Money and being that happy and athletic man again.
During the six man tag match, Taz was describing unwritten rule of wrestling five that the referee never disallows a blind heel non-tag but does not allow the blind face tag in a match and I did not agree with his explanation. Why was it okay for a heel tag to be okay when the referee doesn’t see it but a face tag is never allowed?
I thought the six man tag match was a good television match but because of the amount of time that they were given, it felt rushed. All six men worked well together in the match, especially Hernandez with the Machine Guns. With Beer Money getting the win, maybe we will see the Machine Guns win the titles.
I liked Dinero’s promo, but he said that he was not cleared to wrestle. With three days before the pay per view, shouldn’t the wrestler be cleared before he is put in a match?
If Hogan is admitting that it was wrong to bring in Hall and Waltman, why did they give them the tag titles? This was the only part of the show that did not have any link to the pay per view.
I liked Jay Lethal’s promo. He said what you would expect after your brother was attacked. Since Lethal has incorporated his mother into angles in ROH, it made sense that he would make reference to her in his promo. I thought Flair was okay on the mic, but Lethal made that part of the promo much better because he would not back down from Flair when he tried to get him to back up.
I did not like the Hardy/Anderson match. For a match involving two men who are going to be in the main event on Sunday’s pay per view, should the match have only gone slightly more than three and a half minutes?
Why is Taz surprised that Anderson uses a Swanton since he did it in WWE while Taz was with the company.
I liked that Abyss was in control of the situation after the match when he took on all three men until he focused too much on Van Dam on the floor. Then you had the ‘Is Anderson on the same page as Hardy’ moment when Anderson moved Hardy out of the way to hit Abyss with the chair. Then we got the Van Daminator to knock Abyss out of the ring.
I thought this did a great job of setting up the main event with the question whether we will see Van Dam, Hardy, and Anderson work together on Sunday or will they put winning the title over any alliance that they have? Will their alliance give Abyss the edge in the match?
What to Watch on DVR: You should really watch the entire show because of the job they did with their final build for the pay per view.
