TNA iMPACT! 11.3.05 (part 1)
So, the first two hour TNA special has come and gone. Rating was a 0.9, which has to be considered a bit of a disappointment. The good news is that the show largely rocked. Let's get to it...
-Show opens with a video package highlighting the evolution from the "old guard" of the company (showing clips of guys like Hogan, Sting & Savage) to the current TNA stars. Really well done. Even though it's also one of my complaints of the company, since they run the same packages over and over and over again, I have to say that overall they're doing a great job with these videos.
Jeff Hardy, Lance Hoyt & Sabu v. The Diamonds in the Rough (Simon Diamond, Elix Skipper & David Young) -
Matching gear for the Diamonds? Fuck yeah! When you can get an entire stable in matching gear, you've got my attention. I'm so easy to please these days. Diamond charges at the bell...directly into a goozle from Hoyt. He breaks free, but ends up taking a sideslam. Hoyt lines up the big boot, but Diamond ducks it and tags Young. Hardy tags in as well. Tenay is grating on me with his old Schiavone shtick of telling everyone at home to call your friends and family and let them know that TNA is on. Everyone knows that wrestling fans don't even have friends. Oh...
Neither Young nor Hardy can get an advantage. Young catches a kick, but Hardy turns it into his spinning mulekick. He goes for a whip, buy Young reverses him into the corner. Hardy runs up the ropes and comes back with his corkscrew moonsault. He covers, but Elix runs in to break it up. Tag to Sabu. Elix runs in as well. Sabu briefly runs wild, but Skipper snapmares him and hits the Spinal Tap. Young covers, but can only get two.
Elix officially tags in. He and Young lift Sabu as if they were going for an atomic drop, but then drop him forward into a facebuster of sorts (Nick Berk's Berkolator, for whatever that useless trivia tidbit is worth). Cover gets two. Elix rams him into the corner and tags Young. He whips Sabu into the corner, but charges into a boot. Sabu hits a springboard clothesline and both guys tag out.
Hoytmania is runnin' wild, brutha! He slams Diamond off of the top. Sabu chucks a chair at Elix in all of the craziness as well, but the camera barely picks it up. Hardy dumps Young to the floor with a clothesline. Sabu apparently hurts his ankle, unless his contribution to the final sequence was to lay around and do nothing. Hoyt kills Skipper with the big boot and drags him into position. Swanton by Hardy! He covers and it's one more for the good guys! (2:54)
Postmatch, Abyss and Mitchell come out. Sabu manages to bounce off the ropes with his injured ankle, but gets absolutely spiked with possibly the most awesome Black Hole Slam I've ever seen. Faces run him off.
-Later, all of the stuff they've hyped for weeks!
-Commercials. That commercial with Martin Sheen helping the crazy people is rad. Because if you're gonna go crazy, you might as well just cede the point and jump to batshit insane right from the outset. In other news, HOLY SHIT! Anna Kournikova and Martina Hingis are going to be in Hershey! That's within stalking distance! Even if I have to put up with Elton John to see them.
-Shane Douglas interviews Jarrett. Words, words, words. Monty Brown interrupts. He wants Jarrett to win tonight, since he specifically wants to beat *him* for the title. He also refers to himself as Alpha Ex-Lax, since he's gonna go through Jarrett like, well...you know.
Brian Gamble v. Monty Brown -
Brown pounds on Gamble for a bit, then takes him over with a butterfly suplex. He gives him a backbreaker, then turns it into a fallaway slam. Pounce. Pounce #2. Pounce #3. Fin. (2:16)
That was...effective. Gamble sells the Pounce like death and you can't ask for much more than that.
-Rhino introductory video package. I'm really ready for them to stop airing these now.
-Commercials.
-X Division video package. I'm super ready to never EVER see this one again.
Christopher Daniels, Alex Shelley & Samoa Joe v. Austin Aries, Sonjay Dutt & AJ Styles -
Oh my. This will rock several casbahs.
Shelley and Aries start. Side headlock by Aries. Shelley backs him into the corner and grinds his forearm in his face. Aries sends him into the ropes, but gets tackled. Snot rocket from Shelley. Classy! Aries grabs a side headlock, but it's quickly countered into headscissors. Aries pops out and nails him with a dropkick that leaves Shelley checking to see if all of his teeth are still intact. Whip attempt by Aries. Shelley shortarms and kicks him in the gut.
Aries slips away from an attempted slam. He trips Shelley and hits his slingshot corkscrew splash for a nearfall. Tag to Dutt. Faces connect with a double back elbow. Aries drops a pendulum elbow and Sonjay follows with the Sprinkler elbow. He covers, but Shelley is out at one. Dutt sends him into the ropes. Shelley holds on and Dutt charges him. Shelley hiptosses him into the ropes. Sonjay rebounds back, countering into a hiptoss of his own. Sprinkler double axehandle follows. Ugh.
Shelley cuts him off with a kick to the gut, then plants Sonjay with a Saito suplex. Tag to Joe, who comes in with a series of *hard* kicks to Sonjay's chest. Joe whips him into the corner. Sonjay goes for a crossbody, but Joe casually steps out of the way, never even changing his expression. Joe follows up with a pair of running knee strikes in the corner, then sets him up for the facewash. Daniels tags himself in, much to Joe's chagrin.
Dutt comes back with an armdrag. He takes Daniels over with a 'rana and makes the tag to Styles. He armdrags Daniels twice and goes for a whip. Daniels reverses it and ducks his head. AJ rolls over him and follows with a dropkick. Daniels backs into the heel corner and Joe returns the favor by tagging himself in. He immediately lands a brutal looking kick to the thigh that nearly buckles Style's leg.
Joe runs a quick crisscross sequence, ending with him nonchalantly stepping away from a Styles leapfrog. He charges, and AJ takes him down with a drop toehold. Sickle hold by AJ. Shelley runs in, but Dutt cuts him off and locks the Octopus Stretch. Daniels is in as well. Aries catches him with a crossbody off of the top, then uses his arms to lock Daniels in a deathlock, then adds a headscissors for good measure. Ref makes everyone break.
Aries tags in. Faces whip Joe into the corner. Aries then whips AJ into Joe and follows along behind with a dropkick. Shelley runs in, but gets hiptossed. Backdrop for Daniels when he butts his nose into things. Both of them roll to the floor, but Aries hits them with a tope! He climbs onto the apron and Joe charges, kicking him in the head and sending him sailing hard into the rail. That looked hurty.
Joe rolls Aries back in. Back chop/kick/kneedrop sequence gets two. Aries fires back, but ends up charging into Joe's snap powerslam. Tag to Daniels. He goes for a backdrop suplex, but Aries rolls free. Daniels charges. Aries ducks out of the way and Daniels nails Joe by mistake. Tag to AJ. Shelley runs in, but it's no use...AJ is officially ON FIRE!
In the process of cleaning house and whatnot, he forearms Joe, who responds by ROARING at him. Joe is a bad motherfucker. AJ bounces off the ropes and staggers him with a second forearm, but he won't go down. A third, springboard forearm does the trick. Shelley grabs AJ in a rear waistlock. Reversal...German suplex! AJ rolls through the suplex, planting Shelley with an atomic drop into facebuster. Cover, save by Daniels.
He whips AJ into the ropes and scores with a quebradora. STO follows. Sonjay runs in. He kicks Daniels in the gut and gives him a standing Shiranui (Asai DDT to Ultimo fans). He turns and Joe murders him with a lariat. Aries runs in. He ducks a clothesline and goes for a crucifix. Instead of a rollup, though, he snaps backwards and turns it into almost a powerbomb type of bump for Joe.
He heads up top, presumably for the 450°, but Shelley shoves him to the floor. Tope by Shelley! AJ works over both Daniels and Joe. Daniels cuts him off. Joe holds him, but Daniels hits him by mistake. Second verse, much like the first, though the roles are reversed. Daniels gets in Joe's grille. AJ kicks him and he collides with Joe once again.
AJ signals for the Styles Clash on Daniels. Before he can get him up, Shelley runs in to break it up, hitting Styles with a step-up enzuigiri. He lifts him for a Kryptonite Krunch or whichever of it's billion names you prefer, but AJ slips away. Styles Clash! Heels are cut off from making the save and this one is over! (9:51)
Man, there was a lot to love in this match. Just a full out sprint with everyone hitting their spots clean and not a dull moment in the entire match. It sets up Daniels/Joe nicely, continues AJ's feud with, well...pretty much all of the X-Division heels, if there even is such a thing and put Aries over pretty nicely. One of the better TNA matches of the year. Still can't shake the feeling that another five minutes or so wouldn't have led to an absolute blowaway match, though.
-Jeff Jarrett introduction package.
-Commercials. They're not giving me much to work with tonight.
-Douglas interviews Rhino. He refers to himself as a "war machine" (and somewhere, Taz cringes) and talks about the last four years of dealing with scumbags. BURN THAT BRIDGE! Raven comes in, but is quickly ejected by security. We get it, already.
Since I've been slacking (what else is new?) and haven't even finished recapping half of Ultimate X or the main, I think I'll cut show this in half and post the rest later this week. I'm such a tease...
-Show opens with a video package highlighting the evolution from the "old guard" of the company (showing clips of guys like Hogan, Sting & Savage) to the current TNA stars. Really well done. Even though it's also one of my complaints of the company, since they run the same packages over and over and over again, I have to say that overall they're doing a great job with these videos.
Jeff Hardy, Lance Hoyt & Sabu v. The Diamonds in the Rough (Simon Diamond, Elix Skipper & David Young) -
Matching gear for the Diamonds? Fuck yeah! When you can get an entire stable in matching gear, you've got my attention. I'm so easy to please these days. Diamond charges at the bell...directly into a goozle from Hoyt. He breaks free, but ends up taking a sideslam. Hoyt lines up the big boot, but Diamond ducks it and tags Young. Hardy tags in as well. Tenay is grating on me with his old Schiavone shtick of telling everyone at home to call your friends and family and let them know that TNA is on. Everyone knows that wrestling fans don't even have friends. Oh...
Neither Young nor Hardy can get an advantage. Young catches a kick, but Hardy turns it into his spinning mulekick. He goes for a whip, buy Young reverses him into the corner. Hardy runs up the ropes and comes back with his corkscrew moonsault. He covers, but Elix runs in to break it up. Tag to Sabu. Elix runs in as well. Sabu briefly runs wild, but Skipper snapmares him and hits the Spinal Tap. Young covers, but can only get two.
Elix officially tags in. He and Young lift Sabu as if they were going for an atomic drop, but then drop him forward into a facebuster of sorts (Nick Berk's Berkolator, for whatever that useless trivia tidbit is worth). Cover gets two. Elix rams him into the corner and tags Young. He whips Sabu into the corner, but charges into a boot. Sabu hits a springboard clothesline and both guys tag out.
Hoytmania is runnin' wild, brutha! He slams Diamond off of the top. Sabu chucks a chair at Elix in all of the craziness as well, but the camera barely picks it up. Hardy dumps Young to the floor with a clothesline. Sabu apparently hurts his ankle, unless his contribution to the final sequence was to lay around and do nothing. Hoyt kills Skipper with the big boot and drags him into position. Swanton by Hardy! He covers and it's one more for the good guys! (2:54)
Postmatch, Abyss and Mitchell come out. Sabu manages to bounce off the ropes with his injured ankle, but gets absolutely spiked with possibly the most awesome Black Hole Slam I've ever seen. Faces run him off.
-Later, all of the stuff they've hyped for weeks!
-Commercials. That commercial with Martin Sheen helping the crazy people is rad. Because if you're gonna go crazy, you might as well just cede the point and jump to batshit insane right from the outset. In other news, HOLY SHIT! Anna Kournikova and Martina Hingis are going to be in Hershey! That's within stalking distance! Even if I have to put up with Elton John to see them.
-Shane Douglas interviews Jarrett. Words, words, words. Monty Brown interrupts. He wants Jarrett to win tonight, since he specifically wants to beat *him* for the title. He also refers to himself as Alpha Ex-Lax, since he's gonna go through Jarrett like, well...you know.
Brian Gamble v. Monty Brown -
Brown pounds on Gamble for a bit, then takes him over with a butterfly suplex. He gives him a backbreaker, then turns it into a fallaway slam. Pounce. Pounce #2. Pounce #3. Fin. (2:16)
That was...effective. Gamble sells the Pounce like death and you can't ask for much more than that.
-Rhino introductory video package. I'm really ready for them to stop airing these now.
-Commercials.
-X Division video package. I'm super ready to never EVER see this one again.
Christopher Daniels, Alex Shelley & Samoa Joe v. Austin Aries, Sonjay Dutt & AJ Styles -
Oh my. This will rock several casbahs.
Shelley and Aries start. Side headlock by Aries. Shelley backs him into the corner and grinds his forearm in his face. Aries sends him into the ropes, but gets tackled. Snot rocket from Shelley. Classy! Aries grabs a side headlock, but it's quickly countered into headscissors. Aries pops out and nails him with a dropkick that leaves Shelley checking to see if all of his teeth are still intact. Whip attempt by Aries. Shelley shortarms and kicks him in the gut.
Aries slips away from an attempted slam. He trips Shelley and hits his slingshot corkscrew splash for a nearfall. Tag to Dutt. Faces connect with a double back elbow. Aries drops a pendulum elbow and Sonjay follows with the Sprinkler elbow. He covers, but Shelley is out at one. Dutt sends him into the ropes. Shelley holds on and Dutt charges him. Shelley hiptosses him into the ropes. Sonjay rebounds back, countering into a hiptoss of his own. Sprinkler double axehandle follows. Ugh.
Shelley cuts him off with a kick to the gut, then plants Sonjay with a Saito suplex. Tag to Joe, who comes in with a series of *hard* kicks to Sonjay's chest. Joe whips him into the corner. Sonjay goes for a crossbody, but Joe casually steps out of the way, never even changing his expression. Joe follows up with a pair of running knee strikes in the corner, then sets him up for the facewash. Daniels tags himself in, much to Joe's chagrin.
Dutt comes back with an armdrag. He takes Daniels over with a 'rana and makes the tag to Styles. He armdrags Daniels twice and goes for a whip. Daniels reverses it and ducks his head. AJ rolls over him and follows with a dropkick. Daniels backs into the heel corner and Joe returns the favor by tagging himself in. He immediately lands a brutal looking kick to the thigh that nearly buckles Style's leg.
Joe runs a quick crisscross sequence, ending with him nonchalantly stepping away from a Styles leapfrog. He charges, and AJ takes him down with a drop toehold. Sickle hold by AJ. Shelley runs in, but Dutt cuts him off and locks the Octopus Stretch. Daniels is in as well. Aries catches him with a crossbody off of the top, then uses his arms to lock Daniels in a deathlock, then adds a headscissors for good measure. Ref makes everyone break.
Aries tags in. Faces whip Joe into the corner. Aries then whips AJ into Joe and follows along behind with a dropkick. Shelley runs in, but gets hiptossed. Backdrop for Daniels when he butts his nose into things. Both of them roll to the floor, but Aries hits them with a tope! He climbs onto the apron and Joe charges, kicking him in the head and sending him sailing hard into the rail. That looked hurty.
Joe rolls Aries back in. Back chop/kick/kneedrop sequence gets two. Aries fires back, but ends up charging into Joe's snap powerslam. Tag to Daniels. He goes for a backdrop suplex, but Aries rolls free. Daniels charges. Aries ducks out of the way and Daniels nails Joe by mistake. Tag to AJ. Shelley runs in, but it's no use...AJ is officially ON FIRE!
In the process of cleaning house and whatnot, he forearms Joe, who responds by ROARING at him. Joe is a bad motherfucker. AJ bounces off the ropes and staggers him with a second forearm, but he won't go down. A third, springboard forearm does the trick. Shelley grabs AJ in a rear waistlock. Reversal...German suplex! AJ rolls through the suplex, planting Shelley with an atomic drop into facebuster. Cover, save by Daniels.
He whips AJ into the ropes and scores with a quebradora. STO follows. Sonjay runs in. He kicks Daniels in the gut and gives him a standing Shiranui (Asai DDT to Ultimo fans). He turns and Joe murders him with a lariat. Aries runs in. He ducks a clothesline and goes for a crucifix. Instead of a rollup, though, he snaps backwards and turns it into almost a powerbomb type of bump for Joe.
He heads up top, presumably for the 450°, but Shelley shoves him to the floor. Tope by Shelley! AJ works over both Daniels and Joe. Daniels cuts him off. Joe holds him, but Daniels hits him by mistake. Second verse, much like the first, though the roles are reversed. Daniels gets in Joe's grille. AJ kicks him and he collides with Joe once again.
AJ signals for the Styles Clash on Daniels. Before he can get him up, Shelley runs in to break it up, hitting Styles with a step-up enzuigiri. He lifts him for a Kryptonite Krunch or whichever of it's billion names you prefer, but AJ slips away. Styles Clash! Heels are cut off from making the save and this one is over! (9:51)
Man, there was a lot to love in this match. Just a full out sprint with everyone hitting their spots clean and not a dull moment in the entire match. It sets up Daniels/Joe nicely, continues AJ's feud with, well...pretty much all of the X-Division heels, if there even is such a thing and put Aries over pretty nicely. One of the better TNA matches of the year. Still can't shake the feeling that another five minutes or so wouldn't have led to an absolute blowaway match, though.
-Jeff Jarrett introduction package.
-Commercials. They're not giving me much to work with tonight.
-Douglas interviews Rhino. He refers to himself as a "war machine" (and somewhere, Taz cringes) and talks about the last four years of dealing with scumbags. BURN THAT BRIDGE! Raven comes in, but is quickly ejected by security. We get it, already.
Since I've been slacking (what else is new?) and haven't even finished recapping half of Ultimate X or the main, I think I'll cut show this in half and post the rest later this week. I'm such a tease...
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