Smark Out Moment

TNA No Surrender 2012 PPV - here is your spot for live results coverage and a review to go along with it. Who is going to win? Austin Aries vs Armbreaker. Zema Ion vs Sonjay Dutt. Christopher Daniels and Kazarian vs AJ Styles and Kurt Angle. Miss Tessmacher vs Tara. Bully Ray vs James Storm. Samoa Joe vs Jeff Hardy. Bound for Glory Series Finals. RVD vs Magnus.

PREDICTIONS: Since the Austin Aries match isn't for the title I'm assuming it'll end with chaos. Kazarian and Daniels will retain the tag team titles, as will Zema Ion for his X-Division Championship. I could see Tara winning the Knockouts title and turning heel. I'd like to see Magnus beat RVD. I'd also like to see Bully Ray win the Bound for Glory series but I'm starting to think that that won't happen.

Bound for Glory Series [Semi-Finals]: Jeff Hardy vs. Samoa Joe
Really, really bad botches happening so far. Hardy's hurricanrana to throw Joe out of the ring where Joe has no momentum and throws himself out...Hardy's kick through the ropes that just was awkward...ouch. Joe had a decent suicide dive though. Taz has said about 10 times "you don't want to empty the tank" in reference to how the winner of this match has to wrestle again later. I think we get it by the third time. Hardy hits a Twist of Fate and Joe follows it up soon with a Muscle Buster attempt that Hardy escapes. Hardy puts Joe in the Anaconda Vise. Joe escapes. Hardy rolls him on his side and gets the win.

WINNER: Jeff Hardy via pinfall.
Meh. Ok opener.

Backstage, Jeremy Borash talks to James Storm. He says last year he didn't get the job done against him, but he will now and then he'll beat Jeff Hardy.

Bound for Glory Series [Semi-Finals]: Bully Ray vs. James Storm
Crowd is chanting "Devon's better" if I hear them right. Ray mouths off to Storm, who spits in his face. Bully Ray flips out, leaves the ring, smashes someone's sign and throws a chair. I really hope he wins the Bound for Glory Series. Storm hits Hebner accidentally. Some screwjob is about to happen because of that - you know how wrestling goes. While the ref is out, Bobby Roode smashes a bottle over Storm's head and drags Bully Ray over him.

WINNER: Bully Ray via pinfall.
WWEMorrisonSES, a frequent commenter on my presently defunct YouTube channel (thanks WWE!) called this well. Decent match.

Backstage, Borash talks to Tessmacher, who plays up the "student vs teacher" story by talking about how they're friends. Generic, but better promo than most WWE Divas could cut.

Knockouts Championship: Miss Tessmacher (c) vs. Tara
Crowd's excitement seems to have gone down considerably. Taryn looks great in that ref outfit. Brooke and Tara certainly don't look bad at all either. Situation of reversals met with silence from the crowd. Everything they do is just made awkward with this dead crowd. It's really like watching with an empty arena almost. That's killing this match, which is a shame. One of them would have to strip for this crowd to wake up, probably. Tara goes for the Widow's Peak. Brooke switches it up with a Sunset Flip and wins.

WINNER: Miss Tessmacher via pinfall.
Crowd killed it...even though it's their responsibility to make the crowd cheer.

Backstage, Hulk Hogan's got Bobby Roode in handcuffs with security. Storm attacks him (Roode, not Hogan).

Out comes Austin Aries. He says he's a god of war and in war there's no rules. "Send your goon out here, cause he might kick my ass but he's gonna have to". Not exactly a Braveheart speech.

Austin Aries vs Armbreaker
There's no referee for this, keep in mind. It's not a match I guess. What's funny is that this isn't even as awkward as the last match despite the confused crowd and no ref. Armbreaker picks Aries up for a power bomb and Aries throws a bunch of powder in his face. Armbreaker gets a chair but swings and misses. Aries hits him with a roll of quarters or something, then hits the Brainbuster. The other members of Aces & 8's come out to attack him. Random other TNA wrestlers make the save, including RVD, Zema Ion, AJ Styles, Kurt Angle, Sonjay Dutt, Bully Ray, Magnus, and Samoa Joe. Hogan comes out with a baseball bat. Jeff Hardy is off to the side and Bully Ray points out that he's hurt. The trainers come out. Hogan tells security to lock down the arena and call the cops. The storyline injury for Jeff is a shoulder injury from a kind of weak looking ring post spot.

Uh...this was weird. Should I say Austin Aries was the winner of this non-match?

X Division Championship: Zema Ion (c) vs. Sonjay Dutt
Very dead crowd again. There are actual dead silent sections with no exaggerations. I thought I had this muted. I hope this doesn't hurt the match as much as the others did. Time to start flipping around, guys. The flips are starting to wake the crowd up a bit - particularly this one SHRIEKING female that is incredibly annoying. Series of pinfall exchanges and reversals with some submissions thrown in there, all failing (naturally, or this would be the end of the match). Zema Ion comes out on top.

WINNER: Zema Ion via pinfall.
I expected better, honestly.

Al Snow and a trainer are looking at Jeff Hardy. Hulk Hogan talks to cops about the lockdown. Magnus says to Borash that Hardy is suffering from a severe lack of common sense - he shouldn't have stepped into the Aries situation because of how much more important the Bound for Glory Series is.

Magnus vs. RVD
Funny how the crowd isn't dead for this. Magnus should come out of this with the win. He puts a Cloverleaf on RVD. Insert Sheamus joke. Magnus kicks out of the Rolling Thunder. RVD hits the 5-Star Frog Splash and wins.

WINNER: RVD via pinfall.
Meh.

Backstage, Daniels and Kazarian cut a silly and then good (50/50) promo about how great they are and such.

Tag Team Championship: Christopher Daniels & Kazarian (c) vs. AJ Styles & Kurt Angle
I think Daniels and Kazarian have to retain here, one way or another. Personally, I'm not really feeling this match right now, but I'll admit that it's a personal thing - my frustrations at the moment. It's taking me out of the match and not allowing me to enjoy it. It does seem like the crowd likes it, though, and there aren't horrible botches and such going on. The match isn't doing anything insane to report on. There's a nice spot with Kazarian jumping over the top rope and giving a DDT to Angle, though. Kurt's an Angle Slamming machine. Really good false-finish where Angle has the Ankle Lock on Daniels and AJ hits a 450 Splash on Kazarian, but he kicks out. I thought that was the finish and so did the crowd. Good job on that one. While the ref is distracted looking at Kurt Angle, who is holding his taped up leg, Daniels spits his appletini in AJ's eyes, allowing Kazarian to pin him.

WINNERS: Christopher Daniels and Kazarian via pinfall.
Not bad.

I'm curious, and this just hit me: why is No Surrender's logo the Captain America shield? Wouldn't that only make sense in July, really?

Backstage, Borash talks to Bully Ray, who says he feels bad for Jeff but he would have beaten him anyway. He's not just "bound for glory", he's "destined for greatness".

The police surround the ring and even the commentary booth.

Bound for Glory Series [Finals]: Bully Ray vs. Jeff Hardy
Bully Ray comes out. Jeff's music hits multiple times but he doesn't come out. Hulk Hogan comes out instead. Hogan says if Bully Ray feels the way he does about Aces and Eights, he won't have the ref declare him the winner by forfeit. Instead, he should wait until Impact. He'll be known as either a good man or a bad man depending on his decision. Jeff Hardy's music hits and Jeff comes out with his arm bandaged. They start the match. Bully Ray fist-bumps Hardy. Bully Ray takes it to Jeff's arm, but in a babyface kind of way, for the most part. What I hate about stuff like this is that you're supposed to believe Jeff is really seriously injured, yet he's getting stomped in the arm and such and able to fight back. Come on. He even hits the Twist of Fate and Whisper in the Wind and such. He kicks out of the Bubba Bomb and Bubba Cutter. Another Twist of Fate. Jeff misses the Swanton Bomb. Ray hits another Bubba Cutter, that Jeff kicks out of. Jeff hits 2 Twists of Fate in a row. Hardy hits the Swanton Bomb and pins Bully Ray to win.

WINNER (and new #1 contender): Jeff Hardy via pinfall.
I was rooting for Bully Ray and this match was just too unbelievable for my tastes.


Reasoning: Quite generic. That's about all I can say.