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Here are my thoughts on the show as I watched it:
Since this is the show before the PPV, it makes sense to start off with Tommy Dreamer. Dreamer did a good job reminding everyone about the number of times they have been friends and enemies. I did not like that they basing the match between Raven and Dreamer on Sunday on the fact that Raven is still jealous that Tommy ended up with Beulah.
I liked the set up for Abyss to attack Dreamer on the stage while Raven was drawing Dreamer up the ramp because they will be in the tag match tonight. It also got Rob Van Dam out to give everyone a brief preview of what we would see in the main event.
Why did Foley wait for Raven to turn around to hit Raven with the barbed wire bat? Is he an example of someone who has honor while being extreme?
The Knockouts Tag Match was not that good from a wrestling standpoint. I don’t know who to blame for the problems in the match because there were a lot of things missed and things that looked off during the match. Did they have to do a ref bump in this match?
I did not like that Taylor and Hamada stopped while the helmeted woman was at ringside because they should be taking advantage of every situation to win the titles and not be distracted by someone who was not in a position to interfere at the time they stopped.
At least with the Knockouts Title Change, it continues the tension within the Beautiful People. Maybe we will see Madison and Velvet feud over the Knockouts Title if Madison can successfully defend against Angelina. They can also move the issues with the biker chick in black away from the title situation.
I wonder if Hamada will turn on Taylor like Sarita did?
It made sense for Kazarian to run to the back when Terry came at him with a punch because he couldn’t last a minute against Terry.
The Styles/Terry match was too short. I thought the match depended too much on Earl Hebner with Styles pushing him and then Earl being out of position to allow A.J. to hit the low kick leading to his win. When the wrestlers in the match are secondary, it does not help them in the long run.
I liked Kurt Angle’s promo and the training footage that accompanied it. It gives us a lot of insight into Angle’s motivation and his desire to remain on the top of the business. The only thing that I would have changed was Angle’s mention that he is forty-one years old.
I thought the footage of Jay Lethal was good. He is still excited over his victory against Ric Flair. He also incorporated the need to be more aggressive and be able to expand on what he has done and prepare for the street fight with Flair.
I guess the backstage pull apart with Madison, Lacey, and Velvet means that the Beautiful People are no more for this incarnation of the group.
I liked the promo by Robert Roode. He did a good job of putting over the best of five series and gave credit to the Machine Guns as well as talking about how good they are. I also thought Sabin did a good job in his promo talking about how they chose the Ultimate X match because it is their specialty.
I thought the Ultimate X match was good. I liked the way that Shelley and Sabin used their experience in Ultimate X matches at the start of the match by going for the towers. While the Machine Guns looked like they were trying to win the match, Storm and Roode did not look like they wanted to go for the X in the early part of the match and were expecting this match to be longer. I did like Roode using Storm for balance during the match. I thought there were a number of good spots in the match including the Sliced Bread on the apron. Roode was smart to use the steel structure and cable as a tightrope, but with Sabin going across the cables the ‘normal’ way, it made it harder for Roode to get the X before Sabin. This showed that Sabin and Shelley made the right decision to make this match an Ultimate X match because it was a match they were more familiar with than Beer Money.
The match did not feel as fast paced as most previous Ultimate X matches that TNA has done. I don’t know if it would have been more of an issue if the last Ultimate X match was not the Douglas Williams versus Brian Kendrick match at Victory Road.
I wish TNA would space out their specialty matches a bit more. If they are going to do two Ultimate X matches in a month, it decreases the importance of the match.
Why would Storm ‘drink before the match’ when he knew that he would have to climb the towers to get the belt?
I like that TNA is going to give us ‘pay per view quality matches’ next week, but they have been hyping a number of recent ‘first time ever’ matches as pay per view quality as well.
With the card announced for next week, I really hope that Spike TV and TNA have come to an agreement about the commercials for the show and limit them as much as possible because it could really affect the matches if they have to go to commercial a few times during these matches. I think if they are going to have matches that are cut up, it will hurt the way that new fans might perceive the product and detrimentally affect them in the long run.
I thought the Hogan/Nash/Sting/Jarrett segment was okay, but it felt like it did not belong on this week’s show. Even with the ‘nostalgia’ effect with the former ECW guys on the show, seeing this segment felt like they were reverting back to some of the booking at the start of the year.
I hope what Hulk Hogan was saying to Kevin Nash is a sign of what is to come for the company. It looks like we might be building to Nash and Sting versus Hogan and Jarrett, possibly at Bound for Glory?
I guess Jarrett didn’t see Sting standing in the ring when Jarrett went for the chair.
I thought the Dinero/Jordan match was okay until Eric Young came out. Why did Jordan and the referee care so much about what Young was doing? It cost Jordan the match because it allowed Dinero to recover.
With Matt Morgan, D’Angelo Dinero, and Ken Anderson in a Triple Threat Match next week, it made sense for Morgan and Anderson to get involved with Dinero after the match. At least Dinero hasn’t forgotten what Anderson did to him in the past.
I thought Flair’s promo was okay. Why would he be wearing his normal street clothes for a street fight? Shouldn’t he take a look at the way that Dusty Rhodes used to come to the ring for a street fight for guidance?
It was weird to see the contrast between what Flair and Lethal were wearing during the street fight when the match started. It was a little disturbing watching the contrast between what Flair and Lethal were wearing at the end of the match.
I guess when you put Ric Flair and Street Fight in the same sentence, that meant we were going to see Flair bleeding. The match was okay. I think Flair bled too much and took too many shots to the head from Lethal. Earl Hebner again took away from the match when he tried to dress Flair after the sunset flip leading to the belt shot from Williams. I
I don’t know if the loss will affect Lethal that much. Some will say that he lost the match to Flair so it negates what happened at Victory Road. However, Flair won thanks to interference from Williams so it was Lethal being beaten by two people.
I liked that Douglas Williams interfered in the Flair/Lethal match. I think Lethal versus Williams for the X Division title would be a great feud that can help both men. If Lethal can regain the position he had after his feud with A.J. Styles, it could be time for Lethal to win the X Division title.
I’m glad that if they had to pick someone who is British to help Flair that it wasn’t Desmond Wolfe. Wolfe has been treated horribly by Flair and was told that he was not good enough for the group so why should he help this man. While it might not have made sense because he has not been used that much lately, I think if Magnus was affiliated in some way with Flair, it would help him more than Williams, who is over with the crowd based on what he does in the ring.
I thought the main event was an okay brawl, but it felt like it was too short of a match. I liked that they started things on the ramp and then were in and out of the ring. I hope the length of the match is not a sign of what we are going to get on Sunday for some of the matches.
However, the story of the main event was what happened after the match and that did a good job to set up for Sunday. We got to see Stevie Richards and Rhino do more than stand around during Tommy Dreamer promos even though they got manhandled by Abyss. Then we got to see some other people confront Abyss only to be attacked by him. When the lights went out, I wonder if people were thinking that Sabu was going to appear. Sandman got to get in a few cane shots on Abyss and unfortunately they cut away as the beer cooler made its way down the ramp to the ring.
While I would have preferred to see the celebration in the ring after the beer got to the ring, I thought the video package was good with the footage of the guys from their days in ECW while they talked about the show on Sunday. I thought the comments from Brother Ray were good. His comments seemed genuine that this show is more important for more people than others.
What to watch on your DVR (If you are looking forward to Sunday’s PPV): Check out the opening segment with Raven and Tommy Dreamer; the main event and post match festivities.
What to watch on your DVR (If you are looking forward to next Thursday’s Impact): Motor City Machine Guns versus Beer Money.
