– I decided to get this one for all of my loyal readers out there, it will be the first TNA PPV I’ve seen since Against All Odds. But we all know since I do Impact every week I’m always up to date on everything. I’m also skipping the Survivor finale for this, so you owe me one.
The NeelDown: TNA Sacrifice 2006
– From Orlando, Florida
– Hosts are Mike Tenay & Don West
Jushin Liger v. Petey Williams – World X Cup Round 2
Interesting choice for an opener, but Liger had to open the last time he was in TNA too, against Joe at Bound For Glory. They exchange hammerlocks to start but Petey takes him down with an armbar. Liger gets a headscissors out of it. Liger grabs a headlock but Petey shoulders him down and gets a quick sweep for two. Petey tries a charge but has the ropes pulled down and gets dumped. Liger follows that with a crossbody. EVIL Team Japan pound on Petey meanwhile, then feed him back in to Liger who gets a somersault senton for two. Liger locks him in a Romero Special as the dueling chants start up. Hey, aren’t Canada supposed to be the mega-heels in this tournament, and in general? Liger tries the Frog Splash but Petey gets the knees up and nails a spin kick. Petey mocks some karate, some Jackie Chan action as Don West notes. Thanks, DW. Petey dropkicks the back and gets a modified tornado DDT for two, which was pretty sweet looking since he didn’t elevate off of anything to execute it. Liger fights back with chops but Williams gets the Russian leg sweep. Canadian Destroyer misses and is countered by a palm thrust, and Liger tries the Liger Bomb. Now the PPV freezes, and we are stuck with Williams up for the powerbomb for about thirty seconds, then we get a technical difficulties screen. Umm … I’m paying for this? I contacted my friend in Texas who is watching this, and they said theres is stuck too. We finally get back, after a couple of seconds with no sound, and apparently Liger has won, presumingly from that Liger Bomb. Mediocre opener, not much different from the Joe-Liger match from last year. Missing the end of the match kind of made it suck though. **
Winner: Jushin Liger
America’s Most Worthless v. AJ n’ Chris – NWA Tag Team Championship
Styles and Storm get settled down to start, and Styles gets a dropkick and tags in Daniels. They get a double slam and knee drop for two. Harris comes in and gets armdrug to hell and back. Harris grabs a headlock but Daniels escapes and gets a leg lariat for two. I don’t know you differentiate that from a dropkick since they look so similar when done by Daniels. Styles gets the tag and cleans house, then locks in the deathlock on Harris. That gets interrupted, so Daniels comes back in and gets the STO takedown for two. Styles comes back in and gets a corner clothesline, then Daniels is back in who pins for two. AMW take turns isolating Daniels and get the inverted atomic drop/Russian leg sweep combination for two. Harris gets the DELAYED suplex on Daniels for two. Storm comes in and they get the double team back drop while Daniels is hanging from the ropes. Oh, say it ain’t so, the ILLEGAL CHOKING follows. AMW cut off the leaping tag and hammer on him in the corner. Harris locks in a thrusting headlock but Daniels elbows out, then gets flattened via back elbow. Don West notes that the strategy here is fantastic. Storm comes in with a fist drop as Daniels gets held for two. Daniels dodges a charge and cartwheels into the hot tag to Styles, who cleans house via an assortment of spinkicks and headscissors, but the first pin following is broken up. AMW try the Tower of Doom but get shoved off, and Daniels gets a crossbody for two. Things spill to the outside where Styles gets a long leaping FLYING FOREARM OF DOOM from the top rope. Cue orgasmic levels for Mr. Tenay. Back inside AMW try the Death Sentence but Daniels breaks it up and holds Harris up for Styles to hit the Pele Kick, then drops him into the Death Valley Driver. Nice. BME misses, but the superkick gets caught. Harris however Spears him for two. Styles gets the tag and gets a double flying clothesline. Styles goes up and tries to hook Storm from the top, but Harris lifts him on the shoulders and Storm gets a neckbreaker, but only for two. Daniels nails the BME and Styles gets a Frog Splash, but only a two count! How TOUGH is James Storm? Storm tries pinning with his feet on the ropes but Daniels breaks it up. Styles can’t muster the Styles Clash and Storm low blows him, then gets the Superkick, Daniels breaks up the pin at two and three quarters. Feel the near falls! Angel’s Wings, but Harris breaks the pin. Feel the near falls! Ref gets bumped and a billyclub baton falls into the ring from the ceiling. We now see Gail Kim is on the rafters. Styles gets the Styles Clash on Storm, but Harris sneaks in and nails him with the club for the win. Oh, so that was the “friends in high places” slur was all about. This was nothing short of a great old-fashioned formula tag match, easily outdoing all of their previous encounters. Could have lived without the skidding ending, but not going to let it knock the rest. ***1/2
Winners: America’s Most Worthless
– Larry Z, who is not outdoing last month’s green suit, dawning a button down shirt with postcards on them has a chat with Slick Johnson, where Vince Russo, Roddy Piper, and Ultimate Warrior are all teased to be at Slammiversery. Memo: No one cares.
Raven v. A1
For the record, this match is totally pointless, with no build at all, similar to the way they built up the match with the other Team Canada guy Bobby Roode, and his match with Rhino. Much like they did with Rhino, they just needed the returning Raven on the card. Larry Z sits in a chair in the ring to start, so A1 wacks Raven with it. Man, Raven looks like a cancer patient, and as well has quite possibly his worst outfit to date. A1 continues the assault on the outside then gets some slow stuff inside. He exposes the turnbuckle and sends Raven into it for two. Raven fights back with a sloppy clothesline. Larry distracts the referee allowing A1 to go low, but he misses a charge and Raven gets the DDT for the win. Well, this was nothing. 1/4*, afterwards Larry and Raven brawl calling for security, because they know what a dangerous weapon Larry can be.
Winner: Raven
Bobby Roode v. Rhino
This one also has no relevance whatsoever, they just needed Raven on the card, so whatever. Roode is sporting a great new sparkly robe. Lockup struggle to start and Rhino takes control forcing Roode to go out and regroup. He returns with a cocky slap, so Rhino attacks and gets a backdrop. Rhino tosses him and they go all punchy outside. Back in D’Amore POKES Rhino with the hockey stick allowing Roode to shove him to the floor, where D’Amore adds some vicious stomps. Never doubt the workate of D’Amore, who did the Canadian Destroyer at the Detroit house show. That gets two. Roode gets a neckbreaker for two, then gets a neck stretch. Roode gets a backdrop suplex and gets the “Whose the greatest?!” knee drop from the top for two. Roode now switches to the REAR CHINLOCK. He decided maybe that wore him out enough, so he goes for a pin for two. Back to the chinlock. Rhino fights out and gets his usual stuff including a spinebuster that gets two. Superplex by Rhino gets two. Tune into Survivor, where Danielle gets to vote the third man out. Hopefully it is Aras. Nope, it’s Terry. Fuck that, Terry deserves to win. Roode misses the Northern Lariat and Rhino gets a belly to belly and sets up the Gore, but D’Amore hits him with the hockey stick. That allows Roode to get the Northern Lariat for the win. Roode won a match?! Pretty slow brawl here, but I’m glad they actually put someone from Team Canada besides the captain over for once. *1/2
Winner: Bobby Roode
Team 3-Dead v. The James Bore – Rematch from 6 years ago
I stated in the NeelDown iMPACT Zone that this match would be about as exciting as watching wallpaper dry, let’s see if they can prove me wrong. Kip grabs a headlock on JUICED UP D’von to start, but D’von gets the flying forearm for two. Kip comes back with the textbook dropkick for two. BG Dawg gets the tag, as does Bubba, whose combined outfits of camouflage shorts, a t-shirt, and blue jeans make things look pretty unappealing. BG gets a dropkick, as Tenay ponders when the last time we saw that happen. They continue stalling for a while, until Bubba returns the favor with a sloppy dropkick. Maybe these two are taking a lesson from what Kane and Big Show recently did on Raw. Bubba and BG continue doing the friendly “okay, I like your little shuffle so let’s do a high five” strategy, as we see Bubba whisper something as they head to the corner. Ouch. BG gets crotched and D’von goes in control and gets a headbut for two. Bubba gets the tag and gets a hangman’s neckbreaker for two. I wish this slow borefest would just cut to the finish. Kip gets the hot tag, although the crowd shows no reaction since they’re so bored. Anyway, the Dudz get the Doomsday Device on BG for two. Double flapjack on Kip. Double neckbreaker on BG, Kip makes the save. BG sneaks in the lead pipe from yesteryear and nails Bubba with it for the win. Well, that theory held up pretty well, as I’m pretty sure I would take the wallpaper route, if given those choices. 1/4*
Winner: The James Bore
– NOW they take us back to the Liger-Williams match, where we see Petey get out of that said Ligerbomb but gets lowblowed by Team Japan, giving Liger the win. If that ain’t some bullshit I don’t know what is.
Team USA: Jay Lethal, Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin & Sonjay Dutt v. Team Canada: Petey Williams, Erik Young, Johnny Devine & Tyson Dux v. Team Japan: Jushin Liger, Goto, Minoru & Incognito v. Team Mexico: Shocker, PUMA, Black Tiger & Mango – World X Cup Gauntlet
This is over the top rope elimination rules. We start with Minoru of Team Mexico and Puma of Team Japan. They try an honorable handshake but Minoru spits in his face and gets a dropkick. Puma comes back with a missile dropkick of his own, ducks a kick and gets a snap ranna. Minoru comes back with a series of kicks and a suplex, then tries a pin, but this is over the top rules. Next out is Petey Williams of Team Canada, who works as a team with Minoru but turns on him fast for causing him the first match. He rakes Puma’s eyes and gets that tornado DDT I talked about earlier. Next out for Team USA is Chris Sabin who goes to work slapping everybody. Williams slows him down but Sabin gets a moonsault on both him and Puma. Next out is Goto of Japan who takes out Petey and Sabin with a spin kick. He and Minoru of NJPW now have the numbers advantage, of course. Incognito of Team Mexico, making his TNA PPV, comes in and gets a suicide dive on Williams. Tenay pimps Nacho Libre. Next out is your favorite and mine of Team Canada, “Hotshot” Johnny Devine. Everybody has two now except the lone Chris Sabin of USA. Sonjay Dutt is in next representing Team India, I mean Team USA. He takes out Petey but gets kneed down by Devine. However, he nails Devine with a reverse ranna. Incognito takes out Sabin. Still no body has been eliminated. Black Tiger comes out next as the last member of Japan. Tiger gets an ankle lock on Petey, but Dutt breaks it. Meanwhile, Devine chokes out Goto and Tiger chokes out Sabin. Japan tries suplexing Dutt out, but no cigar. Mango is in next as the final member of Mexico, who springs in with a somersault senton. Again, no one has been eliminated yet. Erik Young makes his way out now of Canada, who seems completely out of place, much like Chase Stevens has recently looked in the X matches. Incognito and Sonjay Dutt have eliminated each other, the first eliminations of the match. The paramedics check on Dutt, who must have taken a bump going out. Alex Shelley is out now for Team USA. Shelley eliminates Devine. Next out is Captain of Japan, Jushin Liger. Japan now has all of their members. Liger goes to the top, but Mango cuts him off and gets a superplex. Next out is Team Captain of Mexico, McDonalds commercial extroidanire, Shocker. He takes care of Liger and Shelley but can’t outdo Black Tiger. Tiger tries a ranna but Shocker slams him down. Now out from Canada is Tyson Dux, making his debut. Shelley eliminates Goto. Black Tiger has apparently been eliminated now too, although I didn’t see it. Team Captain of USA Jay Lethal is in now, and Minoru has been eliminated. Japan is now just down to Liger. Shocker gets eliminated off of a backfired charge. Liger chop away Young and Dux of Canada, but they end up dumping him, and Japan is now eliminated. Lethal eliminates Showtime. Lethal and Shelley of USA work together to eliminate Dux. It is now down to the final four of Puma, Petey Williams, Jay Lethal and Alex Shelley. Shelley tries a charge but jumps up and gets eliminated. Lethal almost gets eliminated but hangs on, then Puma kicks him out. We are down to Puma and Petey Williams. Puma gets a brainbuster but misses a rolling senton and Williams gets the Canadian Destroyer for the win, giving the Canadians their first points, five, making it a tie with Team USA. Would have never guessed that. Kevin Nash now comes in and destroys Puma, then says a mediocre big man could beat the X division every week. Yeah, whatever, I’m just going to ignore that. I have no idea where to begin on how to rate that match since it was so complex, so I’m not even going to rate it. The ending was a shock though, as I never saw Canada picking up the pin. Anyway, Canada and USA are now tied at 5 points each, so we’ll see how they do the tiebreaker.
Winner: Petey Williams of Team Canada
Jeff Jarrett & Scott Steiner v. Sting & Samoa Joe
Before we begin here, I’m already predicting a Joe turn on Sting. Jarrett and Sting start, and Sting wins the lockups so Jarrett slaps him. Sting unloads on him then and pounds his face into the mat. Steiner comes in and Sting takes care of both of them. Yawn. Joe comes in and pushes Steiner away when he tries flexing. Steiner however takes him to the corner for stomps. Joe reverses but Steiner gives him an OVERHEAD SUPLEX. Steiner no sells some punches and gets a clothesline for two. Joe gets an enzigiri and tries going off the ropes a few times but Steiner won’t go down, and he runs into an OVERHEAD SUPLEX, then gets dumped. Jarrett slides him back in for two. Jarrett comes in and nails a nice dropkick right to the face for two. Jarrett tries a corner jump but Joe catches him and slams him down. Sting gets the tag and powerbombs Jarrett, Steiner makes the save. Sting locks in the Scorpian Deathlock on Jarrett, Steiner breaks it up, so he locks it in on Steiner, Jarrett breaks it up. Jarrett drops him with a DDT, but Steiner is still legal and he pins for two. OVERHEAD SUPLEX by Steiner gets two. We are just anticipating the Joe turn when he eventually gets the hot tag now and ends the Sting isolation. Jarrett comes back in and locks in a front facelock. Note the years of wrestling experience Jarrett brings to TNA, Tenay adds. Joe gets a blind tag but Steiner has Rudy Charles distracted, so he doesn’t see it. Steiner gets the tag but Sting gets the falling CROTCH HEADBUT OF DEATH. Joe and Jarrett tag in, Joe gets a knee lariat but Jarrett rakes the eyes. Joe however comes back with a snap powerslam. Steiner breaks the pin, but Joe takes care of him. Joe gets a double clothesline and stacks them up in the corner for a high knee by Joe and the Stiner Splash. Joe gets a brainbuster type slam on Jarrett, Gail Kim sets his foot on the rope. Jarrett goes low and gets The Stroke then, but it of course only gets two. Jarrett picks Joe up on his shoulders, then sets him up top and tries a Super Stroke, but Joe catches him with the Muscle Buster for the win. That goes against everyone’s predictions that Joe would turn on Sting finally giving Jarrett a win. Match didn’t seem so special after the spotfest match last month, but wasn’t too bad either. **3/4
Winners: Sting & Samoa Joe
– Afterwards Steiner wacks Sting with a chair and Jarrett gets the El Kabong, then Sting gets locked in the Recliner. Joe, despite shaking hands with Sting after the match, refuses to make the save and walks out. The James Bore, Rhino, Chris Sabin and Jay Lethal make the save however.
Christian Cage v. Abyss – NWA Heavyweight Championship Full Metal Mayhem
So the full metal mayhem is basically a TLC match with the title belt hanging above the ring, and chains are also involved. Christian jumps him to strut and tries an early Unprettier, but Abyss gets out. Christian comes back with spear, but it doesn’t phase Abyss much and he levels him in the corner. Abyss goes out and gets the ORANGE LADDER, but Christian baseball slides it into him. They brawl back inside and Abyss gets nailed with the ladder. Thing spill back to the outside where they brawl into the crowd and to one of the barrier walls. Abyss sets the ladder in the corner and sends him into it back inside, but misses a splash into it. Christian catches him with a low blow and sends him into a chair that was set up in the corner. Christian tries climbing the ORANGE LADDER but Abyss big boots him off. Abyss snap suplexes him into the ladder. Abyss sets up three tables outside, then rolls in with one and sets it up. He tries powerbombing Christian through it but he punches out. Abyss misses a charge to the ladder and Christian tries a Frog Splash, but lands on the ladder. Christian chokes him out with the chain, but Abyss yanks him down through one of the tables. Abyss tries climbing, as does Christian, and they tip the ladder over. James Mitchell heads in with the bag of tacks and he empties them. Christian however catches him and slams him into the tacks. Meanwhile Christian sets Abyss up on a table and climbs the ladder. He reaches the belt, and could get it easily, but instead he Frog Splashes Abyss through the table. He then just climbs back up and grabs the title. Um … okay. That finish was just there. The match was really nothing great like its title and buildup hyped it to be. There was only one real bump with a table, as the first one was sloppy and nearly missed, and that ending didn’t help it much. Might as well of just saved this one for Impact after the spotfest last month. **1/2
Winner: Christian Cage
End of show.
The NeelDown: Well, this show was nothing to write home about, with a medicore main event that did not live up to all of its hype. I would reccomend not worrying about catching the replay, but I’m sure all of you will just download the torrents anyway.
