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Universal Studios – Orlando, FL – Sunday, June 28, 2015
Mike Tenay, Josh Mathews, and D’Angelo Dinero are on commentary.
~MATCH #1~
TNA X Division Champion Tigre Uno defeats Manik and DJ Z at 12:06 in a Three Way Elimination match to retain the title. Uno has been the Champion since 6.24.15, and this is his first defense. The action starts off fast and furious here, as one might expect. No disrespect, but this isn’t exactly on the level of AJ Styles v Christopher Daniels v Samoa Joe. That being said, all three men are flying around the ring at a breakneck pace, doing their best to get the crowd amped up like a good opener should. Eventually Uno is able to hit a split-legged twisting senton to pin and eliminate DJ Z at 9:38. Now we’re down to the two masked men, Tigre Uno and Manik. After a short burst of back and forth action, Uno hits a release German Suplex into the buckles, and then lands another split-legged twisting senton to score his second pin of the night and retain the title. This was as good of a choice to open as they had, with plenty of action and everyone on point. It’d be nice if they actually did storylines in the X Division, but we’ll take what we can get right?
Rating: ***¼
~MATCH #2~
Robbie E defeats Jessie Godderz at 11:20. These two former partners are mad at each other so the fight starts in the aisle. Robbie is the good guy, so he controls the first little bit of the match before Jessie cuts him off and slows the pace. Eventually Jessie puts on the Adonis Lock (Boston Crab) and Robbie reaches the ropes. Jessie goes for a press slam but Robbie slips out and hits an inverted DDT to get the pin. The finish came out of nowhere, but the match was fine enough albeit slightly pedestrian up to that point. I mean if Sting can use it for a finisher I guess why not Robbie E?
Rating: **¼
~MATCH #3~
Bram defeats Matt Morgan at 9:30 in a Street Fight. Bram was facing Vader on IMPACT Wrestling recently, and Matt Morgan came out to make the save for some reason. Morgan is a former two-time TNA World Tag Team Champion (once with Hernandez and once with Crimson). Before the match, Morgan challenges Bram to make this a Street Fight, which Bram has no problem with. Morgan dominates the early going. Once they spill to the floor Bram is able to use weapons to gain an advantage. A handful of weapons get brought in the ring and Bram is able to hit The Brighter Side of Suffering onto a chair to get the pin. That was a typical TNA street fight, which is solid. Bram got a good win and Morgan did a good job putting him over.
Rating: **¾
~MATCH #4~
Austin Aries defeats Davey Richards at 17:15. These two will face each other along with their partners this upcoming Wednesday for the vacant TNA World Tag Team Titles. In fact, the winner of this match gets to decide the stipulation for said match. Both of these wrestlers are former ROH World Champions. These two are very evenly matched and work similar styles to some degree. Richards is working the babyface version and Aries is working as a heel though, is the big difference here. The pace picks up in the second half, as both men are using dives and hard strikes to try and keep their opponent down. After a double stomp from the top rope gets a two-count for Richards, Bobby Roode makes his way down for a distraction, and Eddie Edwards comes out to ward him off. That distraction allows Aries to score a quick rollup to get the pin. Really good match there, really uninspired finish. It makes sense given the characters and the feud, it as just a bummer after such a hot match. After the match Aries announces that the tag team title match will be a 30-minute Iron Man Match.
Rating: ***½
~MATCH #5~
Awesome Kong & Brooke defeat The Dollhouse (Jade, Marti Bell & Taryn Terrell) at 8:05 in a Three on Two Handicap Match. It’s mayhem at the start, with King and Brooke dominating even with the numbers disadvantage. Eventually things settle into the tag formula, with Knockouts Champion Terrell directing traffic from the apron. The referee loses control and it’s a pier-six brawl. Brooke is able to catch Jade with a Super Butterface Maker to get the pin. That was fine formula stuff and an effective setup for a three-way title match between Kong, Brooke, and Terrell. Nevermind that they were doing it on PPV to sell TV.
Rating: **½
~MATCH #6~
James Storm defeats Magnus at 16:40 in an Unsanctioned Match. The brawl starts in the aisle and continues all over the arena and at ringside. Storm excels in this kind of match, while Magnus is a little bit untested in this kind of environment. Both men do a good job making this feel heated as they fight throughout the Impact Zone. Magnus puts Storm through a table with a powerbomb at one point, but later tries an elbow drop from the top rope to the floor but Storm moves and Magnus crashes through the table. Late in the match Magnus throws powder in Storm’s eyes and the referee gets blinded as well. Storm comes back and unloads with a flurry of Last Call superkicks but Magnus is able to kick out! Storm brings two chairs and a guardrail into the ring and sets them up. That backfires when Magnus hits him with a superplex right onto the guardrail. Both men recover and grab beer bottles and crack each other in the head with them. Storm is able to fall on top and steal a victory. I’m not much of a fan of the finish, but the fight leading up to it was pretty rad. Both men used weapons well and made it feel like they were really trying to destroy each other.
Rating: ***¾
~MATCH #7~
Ethan Carter III & Tyrus defeat Lashley & Mr. Anderson at 10:10. This is a pretty random team for EC3 and Tyrus to face. Even so, Anderson and Lashley dominate the first several minutes, though eventually EC3 and Tyrus use their superior teamwork to isolate Anderson for a short time. Lashley gets a hot tag and goes to work on Ec3, throwing him around the ring. The referee loses control and EC3 is able to hit Lashley with the 1%er to get the clean pin. That’s a good win for EC3 since he has a title match coming up on Wednesday night’s IMPACT Wrestling. As for the match, it was kind of all over the place, with no one ever really establishing a rhythm of any kind. Could’ve been better.
Rating: **¼
~MATCH #8~
Jeff Jarrett (w/ Karen Jarrett) defeats Bobby Roode, Drew Galloway, Eric Young, and Matt Hardy in a King of the Mountain Match to win the vacant King of the Mountain Championship. The title was resurrected on June 25 after almost a year in abeyance. This is the ninth ever King of the Mountain match – Jarrett is 2-1, Roode is 0-1, and Galloway, Young, and Hardy are competing in the match for the first time.
The pay-per-view had audio issues so they show the version from IMPACT Wrestling on July 22, so the commentary is three weeks ahead of the rest of the show. The big point of this match is making Jarrett look like the greatest human being ever. Everyone gangs up on him because they’re pushing the thrilling “TNA vs GFW” angle that really lit the world on fire. The four TNA guys all score early pins to become eligible to hang the title, and they manage to keep Jarrett from joining them. Late in the match Jarrett uses a guitar shot to lay Roode out and get a pin to finally become eligible to hang the title. Some notable high spots include Young hitting a piledriver on Jarrett from the apron onto a ladder, and Galloway wiping everyone out with a dive from the top of the Penalty Box. The end comes when Jarrett and Young are alone on the top of dueling ladders, and Jarrett brings him down with a super Stroke. That’s enough for Jarrett to climb up and hang the title to get the win. As a main event this was pretty silly, and Jarrett proved how much it meant by almost immediately vacating the title and going back to run his own “promotion,” As a match I can’t fault the effort of the other four guys and it was reasonably entertaining for what it was.
Rating: ***
A2Z Analysiz
You know those old WWF shows like “SummerSlam Spectacular” or “Survivor Series Showdown” that were used to sell the pay-per-view? This was kind of like that but in reverse, as a majority of the show was used to sell the upcoming episode of IMPACT Wrestling, which, hilariously, had already been filmed. Only TNA is this ridiculous. Looking at just the show, of the eight matches, half of them reside between three and four stars, and nothing goes below two and one quarter stars, so it’s actually not that terrible. But the fact that the World Champion wasn’t on it, and he had already lost the title to one of the guys in the meaningless semi-main event tag team match, and the fact that the DVD had to present the version of the main event from TV, with commercial breaks, is really just sad.
