Shown on August 2nd, 2013.
First, let me apologise. I completely forgot this was even on, and I saw virtually nothing for it. Even the guys I usually watch TNA with forgot. It just fell under the radar completely. So the reason this is so late is one of the guys got hold of it somehow, and finally, on Friday (a week later), we sat down, just the two of us, and watched it. My thoughts are, therefore, coming as I viewed it.
Mike Tenay and Taz are the announcers.
1) Cool opening montage and Jeff Jarrett even sees the light of day again. For all of 3 seconds. Dear God, the guy founded the company (with his old man) – give him some love, TNA!
2) The X-Division montage is a damn fine one, too. If there is one thing TNA does well, it’s music montages.
3) Match 1 – Sonjay Dutt v Petey Williams v Kenny King. X-Division match: Let the spots begin!
4) Some nice moves taking both guys at the same time from Petey Williams. Nice and innovative.
5) Fun match, but it was really a typical X-Division match –spot, sell for three seconds, recover like nothing happened, repeat. Nothing out of the ordinary, I’m afraid.
6) Williams hit the Canadian destroyer on Dutt, but King hits the royal flush on Williams to get the pin. 7/10
7) Top 10 moments from TNA’s first ten years (yes it’s been 10 years!) is spread through the show. Some cool stuff there, but it is a repat from Slammiversary X.
8) The video montage of the Knockouts is brilliant. WWE could not do that from their last 10 years of women’s matches and have it look like that.
9) The Sky-Kim montage was longer and duller.
10) Match 2: Gail Kim v Velvet Sky.
11) This is the Knockout’s 10 year match? Seriously? Where’s ODB, Tara, Mickie James, the rest of the Beautiful People, something to make it seem like it’s a special 10 year reunion, not just a match we have seen again and again.
12) Sky needs to learn to throw convincing punches and forearms. But, hey, she’s only been with the company for years…
13) Not horrible (and, in my opinion, better than AJ/Kaitlyn matches) but just a match. Sky is not at Kim’s level of ability.
14) Bonus points for a John Nord-Berserker reference from Tenay concerning Sky’s boots.
15) Sky wins with the in your face – face buster for the pin. 6/10
16) A Joseph Park interview. AUGH!
17) Over the top rope Gauntlet Battle Royal. This should be a clusterf**k.
18) 1- Johnny Devine. 2- Shark Boy. Fun little start until Devine attempted a springboard moonsault and slipped and dropped straight onto the back of his head. I mean, sh*t! That looked plain nasty. Shark Boy dumps him over the top rope straight away and Devine looks in bad shape. Botchamania time! Ow. 3- Chase Stevens. Back and forth. 4- Cassidy Riley. Double team by the former Hotshots on Shark Boy. 5- Robbie E. Hotshots kill him as well. Then it bogs down. With 4 guys. 6- Jessie Gonnerz. So Jessie and Robbie talk until a Hotshots attack. Riley out by Jessie and Robbie. 7- Matt Morgan. Stevens out by Morgan. Jessie and Robbie attack Morgan from behind. To no avail. Robbie out by Morgan (awkwardly). Jessie out by Morgan. Comedy bit with Shark Boy and Morgan. 8- Mr Anderson. Goody, an Anderson-Morgan face-off. Has Anderson been going to the Velvet Sky school of throwing punches? 9- Johnny Swinger. And with Anderson and Morgan in control it slows right down. 10- Joseph Park. Kill me now. Anderson cons Swinger and dumps him. Morgan dumps Shark Boy leaving my 3 favourite people in TNA in the ring. Anderson and Morgan take it turns attacking Park and the audience dies. Park eliminates Anderson by top rope pull down. Now it’s pinfall/submission to win. And they proceed to try and have a wrestling match. After a year Morgan hits the carbon footprint for the pin and the win. 5/10
19) Bad Influence interview. Can these guys cut a bad promo?
20) Tag team video montage is superb. I miss MCMG.
21) Triple Threat Tag Team Match – Daniels and Kazarian (Bad Influence) v Homicide and Hernandez (LAX) v Bully Ray and D-Von (Team 3D).
22) One of the two matches I was looking forward to on this card. LAX v Bad Influence was really entertaining. As soon as team 3D got involved it lost something. Just a step too slow and a touch too predictable. This made it a disappointing and disjointed match. I would love to see a Bad Influence – LAX match given decent time on PPV. It could awesome judging by this.
23) Team 3D hit a huge 3D on Homicide for the win. Without 3D it was a good 8.5/10, with them it dropped, so we’ll split the difference. 7/10
24) Austin Aries interview is not a bad one. He mentions the fact that this PPV means nothing and is in the Impact Zone. Way to sell your show, Austin!
25) Austin Aries v Jeff Hardy. On paper, this could be not too shabby.
26) Oh. My God. Aries let it be known during his interview what he felt. But to go out there and half-arse a match like this? He did not take it seriously, Hardy did, they were not on the same page and it was just an awkward match. Some nice moves and spots save it from total embarrassment, but this should have been so much better.
27) Hardy wins with a small package after Aries pulls out of a 450. 5.5/10
28) James Storm – Bobby Roode video package is another great one in a series of them tonight.
29) Bobby Roode v James Storm. Grudge match. Allegedly.
30) Now, I’ve seen these two go at it before and it was not as good as the build up would have let me believe it was going to be. And so it was here. They did a match which was technically very good, but it lacked the emotion these two should have had after everything they had been through. It just didn’t feel real.
31) Bobby Roode won by pinning with his feet on the ropes. 6/10
32) There’s one match to go, so I need to say – where were Jeff Jarrett, AJ Styles, Jerry Lynn, MCMG, and so many others from the early years? It felt less like a 10 year reunion and more like an extended version of Impact. Disappointing.
33) It was a 10 year reunion. Would it have killed them to use the 6-sided ring at least for one match?
34) Samoa Joe’s interview was a good, intense one.
35) Yet another great video package to show the history of Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe.
36) Samoa Joe v Kurt Angle. This is the second match I was looking forward to coming into this PPV.
37) Yep, match of the night. It wasn’t a spot fest, but it was an actual wrestling match. They fought, they grappled, they used the spots when they had to, they used psychology, it was just a wonderful match to watch. My main complaint is that it was like 12 minutes long. I wanted more, damn it! The moves were clean and they told a story. Joe wanted to knock Angle out; Angle wanted to just win and survive.
38) Some great submission moves, reversals of moves, counters to moves. They know each other so well and gel nicely in the ring. Samoa Joe looked motivated as well, which is always a good thing. So, yeah, this was a great match.
39) Kurt Angle turned a Kohina Clutch into an Angle Slam for the win. 8.5/10
40) With a 6.4/10 average match rating, this was another mediocre One Night Only effort I’m afraid. I’m finding it hard to keep the motivation up to continue to watch these.
