Hogan made his way out and booked a Fatal Four Way match between the wrestlers for that night, with the added stipulations that if either Hardy or Anderson win then they get RVD's spot as number one contender on Sunday, and if Roode wins then he gets to choose his opponent between the three, but if Van Dam is victorious then he gets to choose the stipulation for the World title bout. Interesting start to the show.
Brooke Tessmacher defeated Velvet Sky in a passable, if no particularly memorable contest. Let's face it, putting these two together is never going to produce anything incredible is it?
Bully Ray fortunately attacked Matt Morgan before he was about to face Crimson in a match no one wanted to see. He struck him in the head with a steel chair, causing 'The Blueprint' to be stretchered off. Bully was strangely calm and quiet as he warned Aries that this would be him, it was some nice work by Ray who's become one of my favourite things about TNA as of late.
Crimson grabbed a mic after and mocked Morgan, who he stated was never going to defeat him anyway. He went on to request that the referee give Morgan till the count of ten to get back to the ring, of course Morgan didn't make it and Crimson was declared the victor.
Austin Aries (c) defeated Zema Ion to retain the X Division Championship in a superb title match. Aries and Ion went back and fourth with smoothly executed and impressive maneuvers, as you'd expect from them. Both men put in a solid display and gave even more proof as to why the X Division, something WWE don't have an answer or equivalent to, should be pushed far more then it is. The fans were also really into it, showing their appreciation for the efforts of both talents.
My only very slight gripe with it would be that the talented Ion wasn't made to look like he would ever dethrone Aries as champ here. Previously he'd been made to look like the future champion, and has the credentials to do so. If it were up to me I would've had Ion be the one to finally win the X Division title from AA, leaving Aries to be able to move further up the card with his new and deserved push.
Christopher Daniels, accompanied by Kazarian, gave AJ one last chance to confess publicly the big secret that Daniels has been blackmailing him with. AJ Styles sure enough came to the ring and warned both men that they are about to make a huge mistake by revealing the secret. But nonetheless Kaz and Daniels then presented a series of photos of AJ with TNA President Dixie Carter, including one of them kissing. Oh my!
Devon (c) defeated Robbie E to retain the TNA Television title in a short and drab match up. Afterwards Robbie's bodyguard Robbie T took out the champion, supposedly setting up another rematch or a bout between himself and Devon.
We were shown a VT of James Storm at his ranch, talking about his loss to Roode at Lockdown, how if deflated him and his possible exit form pro wrestling due to it. It was as usual a nice promo from Storm and a smart way of keeping him in the fans minds still. I'm hoping he'll return for Slammiversary.
Joseph Parks, Abyss's brother, came to the ring and explained that his search for his missing brother over the last few months had brought up one common name, Bully Ray. H e went on to say that he might just buy a ticket to Sacrifice to have more words with Ray, but there might not be any need as Bully then made his way out. 'Calfzilla' claimed that Parks had no business being in a wrestling arena and threatened him if he stayed. Joseph retorted by reminding Ray of his recent losses in TNA and his beat down at the hands of Aries last week, asking him "how's that bullying thing working out for you?" This mickey taking obviously didn't please Bully who then pushed Parks over and left the ring.
The logical thing to do here is build up to a match between Bully Ray and Parks (who will be revealed to also being Abyss after Sacrifice I'm guessing) at Slammiversary. Which would make sense and be a nice, slowly built feud as apposed to most rushed ones you get in WWE and TNA nowadays.
Rob Van Dam defeated Bobby Roode, Jeff Hardy and Mr. Anderson in a Fatal Four Way match, thus giving him his match of choice against Roode on Sunday which he already announced as a Ladder match earlier in the show. It was a fair match up, they weren't given as much time as I was expecting but it was entertaining enough and helped build towards the matches at Sacrifice.
Afterwards Abyss then made his surprise return to TNA and warned his younger brother to "back away from the fire before you get burned." So maybe I was wrong? I didn't see the sense in bringing back Abyss this soon, it could've waited until next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment