Badseed's Bottomline #359:

My Faith Restored in Wrestling

By Badseed

Hey yo!!  I was bored with wrestling and then I ordered Against All Odds on PPV this weekend and now I’m excited again.  What a PPV.  Oh wow!!  I am so pumped for Destination X.  Oh, is No Way Out this weekend?  Yawn!!!  Let’s not talk about the WWE for now.  That nonsense is whack!!!

The PPV started off with some weak matches.  Nice to see Ron Killings get a win.  It was nice to see that they remembered the fact that he’s a former world champion.  The funny part comes with the fact that Lance Hoyt wrestled again in a six-man match.  It’s almost like it’s a running joke.  Let’s see how many different partners we can give him and keep him on the pre-show.  Funny. 

Then the official PPV started and wow…what a show.  Austin Aries and Roderick Strong vs. The Naturals was an awesome match.  TNA knows how to give us tag-team wrestling.  We had four tag-team matches on this PPV and they all served a purpose.  This match was old school to a tee.  I mean, this was true tag-team wrestling at its best.  I think Aries and Strong are a really good team right now.  They have a big future.  The Naturals went from looking like a Well Dunn-style WWE team to being one of my favorites in TNA.  They are a real team and right now, I almost want to see them feud with AMW more than Team 3D.  Great match.  Good to see The Naturals get the win and move up the ranks. 

The four-way X Division match was great.  In last week’s column, I talked about how TNA doesn’t surprise me enough.  Giving Jay Lethal a real chance to shine here was an awesome surprise.  I was very happy to see Lethal come away with the victory.  He has a lot of talent and TNA needs to start really pushing more X Division talent besides Samoa Joe, AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels.  How many X Division stars got a chance to shine on this PPV?  Petey Williams has gotten stale lately.  I think Matt Bentley needs more mic time.  Alex Shelley has so grown on me with his new gimmick.  TNA is going things right.  It feels like everyone is getting a push when you watch.  That’s exactly why the WWE sucks.  A PPV should push all talent. 

Now, LAX vs. The James Gang sucked.  It was just very awkward.  How can you have the whole basis of the feud be Konnan vs. The James Gang and Konnan in the mind of Ron Killings and not have Konnan wrestle and not have Killings get involved in the match?  That doesn’t make sense.  Bow, Homicide isn’t really getting a chance to show his stuff.  He needs to be in the X Division and he needs to be pushed to battle Samoa Joe; not fighting The James Gang.  Losing Apollo destroyed the credibility of that group.  His size would have made this match better.  I like The James Gang, but I’d rather see them fighting AMW and Team 3D instead.  At least The James Gang won and that made sense. 

AMW vs. Sabin and Dutt:  Now, this match did a better job of pushing tag-team wrestling.  Here is a team that was just thrown together and has no real tag-team look to speak of, but seems to work so well together and have demonstrated that week in and week out since teaming against the Diamonds in the Rough a couple months back.  They actually deserved a title shot and did well with it.  This was a fun match that, even though you knew the outcome, was better than your usual big-team vs. little-team match and made it look like any team could rise up and take the belts. 

Rhino vs. Abyss: Wow.  What a brawl.  I knew these two were destined to lock up and blow the roof off wrestling.  Great action.  Great high spots.  The last high spot was ok.  Rhino really didn’t gore Abyss, but I think that would have been too dangerous, so I appreciate the move for its payoff and I actually want to see them go at it some more.  Both men have really shown up the WWE; first for being able to push a masked wrestler like Abyss and second, for knowing how to use Rhino effectively. 

AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels vs. Samoa Joe: You just get better and better every month by putting these three in the ring together.  TNA could just advertise this match every month and be better than the WWE.  I bet not one match on Wrestlemania could be as good as this battle – and it’s not about crazy spots or funky X Division moves.  This match had a great storyline and the wrestlers told a story in the ring.  They also know how to craft that story over time and essentially provided us with almost a year’s worth of action just from interactions between these three men.  The WWE has trouble creating storylines that span one month.  Creative in TNA knows what the hell they are doing.  And they are going to go on with this battle.  Ultimate X at Destination X.  Are you kidding me?  The best match TNA ever invented and now we get the best wrestlers in the X Division together in that environment.  Wow!!  Can Samoa Joe climb those cables?  I’m excited and with Lockdown coming up after that, I can only imagine what we’ll see next.  Now, what should they do next?  Hmmm…Jay Lethal is cool, but I want so badly to see Loki vs. Samoa Joe.  Sign it!!  Sign it now!!!

Team Canada vs. Team 3D: This was actually more like a WWE tag-team match, but I missed a lot due to problems with the feed.  When it came back, Team 3D had won and for some reason Ron Killings; who I guess is feuding with Team Canada after the whole Bobby Roode incident and A-1 match earlier; helped his new buddies – who I never thought were his buddies before.  Interesting.  This actually bothered me a little.  I like that Killings is getting a push, but it seems like a hot shot push.  Maybe they are leading into something involving LAX and The James Gang since I hope they didn’t forget Killings’ role in all that.  I will wait and see.  I’m not blasting this idea completely, but I’m doubtful about it at the moment. 

Christian Cage vs. Jeff Jarrett: Loved this match.  I was worried, but it turned out to be great.  I love the little touches like Earl Hebner getting ready to call for the bell when Christian was in the sharpshooter and Christian grabbing his ankle to stop him.  I love how the new ref actually didn’t cheat.  I thought that the way he talked to Larry Z before (he’s a cool ref) that he was in Jarrett’s pocket, so that was cool.  I don’t get why Jarrett low-blowed him to stop from getting disqualified, but I guess he figured a loss keeps Christian in the title picture and he wanted to cheat to win and have another victim on his list.  I can’t believe Christian won.  How long was Edge’s title reign?  Hmmmmm…I have a feeling Christian’s lasts longer and I’m sorry, but TNA may not make as much money as WWE; they are still a better product and given time, Christian’s title reign will have more meaning than Edge’s minute with the belt.  HE deserved it.  He really worked hard for it and deserved it.  That was the happiest PPV ending I have ever seen since Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero at Wrestlemania two years ago. 

What a great show.  The PPV got rid of the stigma I felt from last month’s Team 3D vs. AMW horrible ending and the towel throwing incident from Christopher Daniels vs. Samoa Joe.  Against All Odds has taken its rightful place as the best top to bottom Pay-Per-View of the year.  Let’s see the WWE top that.  Peace. 

Check out www.tnawrestling.com for more information on this great PPV!!!

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