Smark Out Moment

I've never been too fond of Victory Road. When you've reached that point in the game, you really just want to hit Indigo Plateau and start battling the Elite 4. Oh wait a minute, wrong Victory Road. TNA's latest ppv, headlined by a four-way for the world title. This smells vaguely familiar (cough*Fatal 4-Way*cough). Still, on paper, some of these matches look like they've got potential. What's going to happen? Check back here to find out.

Without knowing too much, I'm going to venture some guesses here and say Doug Williams retains, MCMG are the new tag champs, Matt Morgan wins the steel cage match, Jay Lethal beats Flair, Angelina Love wins the Knockout's championship when Velvet Sky turns on Madison Rayne, Kurt Angle beats Dinero, Brother Ray wins the triple threat, Styles and Kazarian win their tag match, and either RVD retains or he drops it to Abyss.


Starting off with the Ultimate X match. Good idea. Lots of energy to begin with.

X-Division Championship [Ultimate X/Submission Match]: Douglas Williams (c) vs. Brian Kendrick
So with the storyline going into this being that Williams is afraid of heights and the submission aspect there to help him, why did they start it off with Williams jumping to the top rope? We have our first Tazism of the night, calling an X a "rex". There's so much focus on the submissions in this, even on Kendrick's part, that it kind of seems like they need to go with grabbing the title as the finish instead. Williams pulls out some gloves to help his grip when he climbs. This fear of heights has been completely ignored 100% so far. Williams locks in a submission and Kendrick's out.

WINNER: Douglas Williams via submission.
Was there a point in this being an Ultimate X match? They climbed once and did nothing but fell. This whole fear of heights thing was completely useless and didn't factor into it at all. So really, why not just make it a submission match? Quick match that ended out of the blue and in a very anticlimactic way, making it feel like it never picked up any steam. Not very good at all, which is a shame, because it could have been.

Backstage with Bubba
Ray says Jesse is a failure to (insert tons of stuff). He then says Devon is nothing without him.

Brother Ray vs. Jesse Neal vs. Brother Devon
Ray stands off to the side and Jesse doesn't notice, so naturally, Ray attacks him from behind. Devon doesn't come out, as Ray apparently put a blockade on Devon's door. Why the camera man doesn't just remove it, I don't know. Don't think too much when it comes to wrestling storylines, folks lol. Out in the crowd, there's Tommy Dreamer, Stevie Richards, Rhyno, and Raven. Naturally, an "E-C-DUB" chant breaks out. Ray gets distracted so Neal hits a spear, but it's just a two-count. Out comes Shannon Moore who accomplishes nothing but distracting the ref so Ray can hit Jesse with a chair. Out then comes Devon. How long before he turns on Jesse? Instead, they still attack each other, but Jesse spears Devon by accident. Ray hits a Bubba Bomb on him and gets the win.

WINNER: Brother Ray via pinfall.
The match of the outside distractions. Meh.

Knockout's Championship [Title vs. Career]: Madison Rayne (c) vs. Angelina Love
Well, since Love is essentially the main woman on the roster, I think it's safe to say she doesn't lose here, especially with Rayne having "retired" two others. Third time is the charm. Madison is looking exceptionally tasty tonight (no surprises there). Madison does her headscissors move and every guy watching shifts in his chair for a moment. Madison brings a chair into the ring but Angelina kicks it. There's no disqualification, for some reason. Then, someone comes into the ringside area on a motorcycle and attacks Angelina. This biker woman (aka Tara, obviously) then throws the ref down. Finally, the ref calls for a DQ. Angelina wins, yet somehow is awarded the title.

WINNER (and new champion): Angelina Love via disqualification.
How many times does TNA have belts change hands by DQ, or by winning the belt through picking the proper lottery ticket or whatever? Not a fan. She should have just pinned Madison.

Backstage with Anderson
They continue the whole concept of having Anderson go Attitude Era by saying butt cheek and ass repetitively, hitting on Hemme, and making some drug references. Change of pace from WWE's PG 24/7 landscape? Good. Trying way too hard to be cool? Definitely.

A.J. Styles & Kazarian vs. Rob Terry & Samoa Joe
Styles goes from being the champ to tagging with Kazarian in a random tag match. Such a shame. Kazarian's an X-Division guy at best in my mind. Is there a reason for Terry to be Global champ if he never defends it on ppv anymore? Good little spot where Kazarian tries to jump off the ropes and Joe just turns around and lets him miss. The crowd is really digging Samoa Joe here, chanting "Joe's gonna kill you" a few times. Back and forth action, mostly with Joe and Terry dominating. Wolfe comes out (Jesus, how many outsiders need to interfere in this ppv?) but isn't really able to accomplish anything. Still, AJ and Kazarian pick up the victory when Styles pins Terry after a 450. Joe then scares both of them off and gives Wolfe a Muscle Buster.

WINNERS: AJ Styles & Kazarian via pinfall.
Not bad. Nothing really much to talk about, either.

Backstage with Abyss
He's a horrible actor. I don't even need to tell you what he said because I'm sure you could think of better lines and then just fill in the bad acting on your own.

Taz and Tenay Stall for Time
Just generic discussion about the Morgan/Hernandez angle while they're setting up the cage. Taz pulls his first "fustration" of the night that I'm aware of.

Steel Cage Match: Matt Morgan vs. Hernandez
I wish they'd main event Morgan. He carries himself like a main eventer, but they never seem to want to pull the trigger. He's more than capable in the ring and on the mic to pull it off and be a dominant heel champion. Hernandez...not so much. We've got our first blood of the night on Morgan. Morgan spends a lot of time walking around, boasting, and then sticks one foot out but decides to come back. With the win in the bag but being too conceited to leave, it's now clear that Morgan won't be winning. The heel that does that never ends up still winning in the end. Hernandez is bleeding from his forehead. Morgan decides to show it off to the crowd. Hernandez tries twice for the Border Toss but doesn't pull it off either time. It seems like the first time was done as expected, but that the second time he was supposed to and just botched accidentally, as they played it off as if he had power bombed him. Hernandez goes to the top of the cage but misses Morgan, who then pulls out handcuffs. Morgan climbs but hesitates to brag, giving Hernandez enough time to jump through the cage door and win.

WINNER: Hernandez via exiting the cage door.
Not nearly as good as it could/should have been.

Backstage with Ric Flair
Your average near-heart-attack promo. Flair says he'll beat Lethal so bad that he'll go back to sucking on his mother's breasts. Okay...

Jay Lethal vs. Ric Flair
I'll say it to no end, that Flair hasn't been able to wrestle for over a decade, and that it's a shame he couldn't just accept his retirement angle with HBK and leave it at that. Lethal has on red and yellow attire, similar to Hogan. I wonder when this angle's done if Lethal will start impersonating Bischoff next? One of these days, Flair is just going to have a stroke in the middle of the ring. The crowd's split cheering for Lethal/Flair. Flair locks in the Figure 4. Flair holds the ropes and Hebner sees. They yell at each other and Lethal rolls Flair up, but only gets a two. Lethal goes for a sunset flip, but in the process, Flair's tights are pulled down, showing his ass. Lethal works on Flair's legs (who lets out an audible "ah shit!") and then locks in a Figure 4 of his own. Flair taps out!

WINNER: Jay Lethal via submission.
I'll admit, this was quite a bit better than I was expecting it to be. On top of it, I have to give them credit for giving Lethal not only the victory but by doing so with making Flair submit to his own move.

*Lethal gets on the mic and says "Hey Mom, I did it!" I guess his next character will just be Rocky Balboa haha.

Backstage with Jeff Hardy
Hardy says he'll win. No shockers there.

Tag Team Championship: Beer Money Inc vs. Motor City Machine Guns
I really hope the MCMG win this. Basically your average BMI/MCMG stuff so far. Lots of reversals, quite a bit of high-flying, etc. Storm accidentally spits beer in the ref's eyes. MCMG double team and there's enough of a stall before Hebner Sr. can reach the ring and count, thus resulting in a two-count. There are now both Hebner refs in the ring. Storm rolls up Alex and one ref counts to three, simultaneously while Sabin gets a three-count on Roode. Thus, the match needs to be restarted. The MCMG replicate their previous double team neckbreaker/splash and pick up the win.

WINNERS (and new tag team champions): The Motor City Machine Guns via pinfall.
Good match. I'm glad the guns came out on top in the end. With both refs in the ring, the double pin was sort of telegraphed, but the fact that they didn't just end it with a draw makes up for it.

Kurt Angle vs. D'angelo Dinero
Slow start. Not a very impressive match in my opinion. Nothing to talk about.

WINNER: Kurt Angle via submission.
Bland and uninteresting.

Backstage with RVD
RVD isn't a promo guy. Never has been.

TNA Championship: RVD (c) vs. Mr. Anderson vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Abyss
Like the previous match, nothing particularly interesting is going on to report about. And now it's over.

WINNER: RVD via pinfall.
This couldn't keep my attention. It was just boring to me.