TNA At Ringside: Company On Fire

Columns

Welcome back to ringside everyone. Nothing of importance to mention off the bat so lets talk wrestling.

News & Shit

*Monty Brown quits….but returns….to job

So Monty Brown verbally quit TNA because the Hard Justice only to return later in the night to cut a pretty bad promo and job to Samoa Joe. WWE reportedly has no interest in him (which I’m not buying) and TNA doesn’t care if he comes back either. So what’s little Monty going to do? I say he needs to cut his ties with TNA and head over to WWE. I find them having no interest in him complete bullshit because Brown is a carbon copy of a Vince McMahon worker. But before he leaves, TNA should trademark everything that is Monty Brown. Trademark Alpha Male, Pounce, Period, Serengeti, Hippophit, Cheeseburger, anything and everything that Monty Brown says, trademark it. How bad will Monty Brown be if he can’t say Alpha Male or Serengeti in any of his promos? That’s right, horrible.

Brown’s time has passed in TNA and both parties need to accept that and move on.

That’s all I feel like mentioning in the news section, everything else will be covered in the other sections.

Hard Justice Fallout

So as mentioned last week, I split the PPV tab with my good friend and big brother.

*Eric Young vs. Johnny Devine: As I expected, this match was filled with intentional comedy and unintentional comedy. The crowd chanting “You Can’t See Us” in midst of the extinguisher cloud was gold. Devine and Young handled this match very well considering the circumstances. They protected themselves when the time came and once everything cleared, they finished up the match as smooth as possible. It was a good opener to get the crowd into the match and the fire just helped the cause.

*Delay: I changed the channel to the football game while they ran the same Sting video package 500 times. When I finally decided to change back, I saw Tenay and Borash outside. I’m glad they got everything worked out and they didn’t have to cancel the PPV because that would have sucked on so many levels. I would mention the Monty Brown promo but Neeley covered that pretty much.

*Alex Shelley vs. Chris Sabin: We returned and were treated to a match that looked good on paper but wasn’t given enough time to be anything special. Sabin going over was the logical choice and now we have Sabin vs. Low Ki set for whatever PPV TNA decides to have this match at.

Now to Kevin Nash, who reportedly hurt his neck before the event and wasn’t able to compete. There’s a lot of speculation out there that Nash faked the injury so he didn’t have to job to Sabin. If this is the case, I have lost much respect for Nash. Yes he brings the funny with his video packages but almost every time TNA promotes him to wrestle, he never shows up. To do nothing but put the X Division down week after week and then not even put over Chris Sabin, is very sad in my opinion. TNA should just let Nash sit until his contract runs out or just go ahead and release him. He has no value to the company at this point in time.

*Abyss vs. Spike: Ok, I was dead wrong on this match but in all honesty, IT WASN’T MY FAULT. I honestly thought that this match was No DQ or Hardcore or whatever term you want to use but it wasn’t. It was a regular match and thus, not much hardcore violence. Still, for a regular match, it was pretty damn hardcore. Honestly, have you ever seen tacks be used in a regular match? Hell, not only were they used but Abyss stomped the face of Spike right into them, that was some sick shit. I hope TNA goes ahead and pulls the trigger on the Abyss vs. Raven feud because I’m sick of these cutaway shots to Raven standing there and doing nothing. End the feud with Spike, start the feud with Raven, color me happy.

*Samoa Joe vs. Monty Brown vs. Rhino: This match however was a very hardcore brawl and done very well. It wasn’t a garbage hardcore match like you’ll find in CZW, it was done very well and it was very entertaining. We all knew who was going over in this match so it was no shock when Joe pinned Brown. Now all that we can hope for is that Joe moves on to face Jarrett at Bound For Glory. As for Rhino, I could see him facing someone like Scott Steiner at Bound For Glory.

*Gail Kim vs. Sirelda: I didn’t watch this match.

*Low Ki vs. Petey Williams vs. Jay Lethal: Since Sabin went over you figured Low Ki was going to retain. I honestly think TNA has some big plans for Petey Williams because if they didn’t they wouldn’t have added Lethal and they wouldn’t have had Lethal take the loss. As for Lethal, I guess they figure that he’ll remain over with the crowd after his performance against Jarrett. Still, you can only job the kid out so many times before people start to ignore him or don’t take him serious. Petey and Low Ki got into a little argument after the match so it will be interesting to see where they will go with that.

*AJ Styles & Christopher Daniels vs. Latin American Xchange: As most people expected, this was the MOTN. Homicide was in the ring for the most part so that only helped the cause and I still think Hernandez is improving with every match. If you’ve read the spoilers then you know that they’re setting up a huge match for No Surrender, I won’t get into it until it’s officially announced but I for one can not wait for it.

*Jeff Jarrett vs. Sting: Wow, Christian turned, shocker. Honestly though, I thought the turn was well done. Sure you can say “it was so predictable that it wasn’t even exciting” but if he didn’t turn you would probably say “You didn’t he turn, he sucks as a face”. So make up your mind. Again, the turn was well done in my mind. Christian helped out Sting at one point in the match by tossing him the belt to show he was on his side. The other big moment was when Christian had the chair in hand while both Sting and Jarrett where getting up to their feet. I expected Christian to turn and hit Sting but he hit Jarrett instead and made it suspenseful. Hate on the turn all you want but it was done well and it was a smart move.

As for the match, it was overbooked but what else have you come to expect from Jeff Jarrett matches? I also thought battling through the crowd was a bad idea because it wasn’t going to top the crowd brawl down earlier in the night by Joe, Brown, and Rhino. Wasn’t a horrible match but wasn’t great either.

Overall, I thought the show was well worth the 15 bucks I split on it. The show could have been horrible after the fire but in reality, aside from Kim/Sirelda, every match was very good once they got the fire situation handled. Good effort from TNA and I honestly think this show will top SummerSlam (which has been built horribly and has no matches aside from Foley/Flair that interest me).

The Build To No Sur….Bound For Glory

I actually liked how Impact started off this week. Thankfully they got TUF back and they went straight into the action with LAX brawling with Daniels/Styles. That of course led into a much bigger brawl and I actually thought the show was over when it had only just started. Jarrett also played the heel role perfectly by coming down and still partially celebrating until the lights went out and Sting made his appearance.

Now here’s where I have a problem, I understand that Bound For Glory is their big event but did they just skip right over No Surrender? I personally don’t like that move by TNA. The other move I don’t like is Sting gunning right after Jarrett when it was Christian who cost him the World Title. Shouldn’t he want Christian at No Surrender and then if he wins that match (which he shouldn’t) get a crack at Jarrett at Bound For Glory? Doesn’t that make a lot more sense? I’m sure TNA knows what they’re doing but I still question this call.

The 6 Man tag match was solid and there were actually some cool spots during the match. Anyone catch Sabin and Lethal do cross dives while Shelley stood there thinking he was going to hit them only to be hit by Dutt? I think that was a nice little moment. That row boat with the hurricanrana in the middle was also a nice spot. The faces won as you would expect but I still don’t know if Sabin is facing Low Ki at No Surrender or Bound For Glory. It would be nice if Low Ki was actually used at tapings considering he’s the X Division Champion and all.

That 4 way match was just horrible. It lasted all of 5 minutes (if that) and there was just no reason for me to care. I honestly hate the idea on one man winning a shot for a team. It’s like penalty kicks in the World Cup. It’s drama filled and exciting but for such a team game, it sucks that it comes down to one man and the keeper. The Naturals went over of course and AMW progressed their split. I personally hate the idea of a split because neither man has what it take to become a Main Event player and with no mid-card, they’re screwed. I know TNA has plenty of tag teams and the loss of AMW is not really a loss at all but TNA needs to learn from a WWE mistake. When a team is together for as long as they’ve teamed and neither man sticks out as the true leader, they’re destined to be a team forever. WWE made this mistake with The Dudleyz. The Dudleyz were a team for their entire career and the second WWE tries to split them, it flops. So what did WWE do? Re-unite them of course because they know they screwed up. AMW is the tag team face of TNA, there’s no reason to change that.

Well, Christian Cage is back to his old self. The promo he cut was great and you could tell he was in more of a comfort zone being a heel. I also liked how he mentioned Rhino as his brother. If I remember correctly, Rhino was the 3rd piece of Edge & Christian during a period of time. Not sure if anyone else picked up on that, but I sure did. Sadly with Sting going after Jarrett, it looks like Sting and Rhino will be feuding heading into No Surrender, possibly Bound For Glory. I just ask that Christian is kept away from Jarrett because if he isn’t, he’s bound to suffer the same fate as the heels before him.

I didn’t pay much attention to the main event and why should I? It was a throw together main event with two faces going in opposite directions. Killings is on his way down the card and possibly out the door while Joe is on his way up the card and possibly the World Title. All that match proved was that Joe can beat champions but we already knew that.

So Jarrett vs. Sting seems set for Bound For Glory with the match being title vs. career. Wow, if I didn’t know the outcome already, I sure as hell know now. This match takes place in October, Stings contract is up in December, why the hell would they waste those two months? They wouldn’t and the won’t, that’s why.

The End

No YouTube, no plugs, it’s 3 in the morning and I’m tired. Don’t expect to see me next week as I head to the time and place for everything (only the cool people will get that). Drop me a line at AMPLine4Life@aol.com and join me next time, At Ringside.