Featuring:
Samoa Joe
Kevin Nash
Christian Cage
Kurt Angle
AJ Styles
Abyss
Raven
Gail Kim
Motor City Machine Guns
Jay Lethal
Booker T
Kaz
…many more
DVD Release Date: February 5, 2008
Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 210 Minutes
List Price: $19.98
The Event
The Impact Zone in Orlando, Florida was jumping and rocking on the night of December 2, 2007 for the last TNA PPV event of the year. It is called Turning Point for a reason because it rounds the corner into the new year and makes way for new battles to begin. Things are coming to a close and people are about to start making their New Year’s resolutions for all they’d like to accomplish, or at least get better at doing, for a fresh start. As for the superstars in TNA, it’s a clean slate and a chance to make their way up the ladder to the gold. For those that have the gold, it’s a bit different. They are getting worried because it is going to be even harder to hold on to that which they cherish.
Turning Point was adding up to be a great looking PPV on paper, but some were kind of worried how it would appear when it came down for action to break out. Booker T was only the company for about a month and getting ready to tag with up and coming star Kaz against Robert Roode and the “Instant Classic” Christian Cage. A huge “Feast or Fired Match” was lined up for the event where numerous wrestlers would compete for four briefcases holding title shots or the most awful prize of all, a pink slip. A brutal “10,000 Tacks Match” was going to pit Abyss and Raven against Black Reign and Rellik. If ever there were four people insane enough to be involved with that many sharp objects, it was those guys.
The PPV was also going to signify the return of one of the controversial superstars in professional wrestling history. Kevin Nash had been around the scenes in TNA doing his bit inside and out the ring, but something always seemed missing. He has been without his partner in crime and true life friend Scott Hall. Hall has had problems of his own, and has tried dealing with them through many different methods. Well his return was imminent and had already happened on a recent episode of Impact where it was announced that Hall would get back in the ring by teaming up with his friend Kevin Nash and Samoa Joe. Well, Hall didn’t quite make it. He no-showed the event and a replacement was found. Needless to say, but it wasn’t quite the same as people were hoping for.
~ Intro – The Angle Alliance discusses needing Christian Cage aligned with them or not. Eh.
~ Tables Match – Team 3D and Johnny Devine have been working together since Devine turned his back on the X-Division. The Motor City MachineGuns and Jay Lethal are the absolute best things about TNA period. This is a pretty brutal match between six guys that have had some heat with each other for a while now. Lethal is honestly getting better with each and every match. MCMG are just awesome, and as much as I hate Bubba Ray and D-Von, this match really was pretty decent and a fun watch. That is, even though the ending was horribly crappy.
~ Roxxi/ODB Vs. Love/Sky – ODB kind of scares me. This was a bit of a “hey, look at me!” and comedy match. Nothing much else to it.
~ Eric Young Vs. James Storm – This whole “World Drinking Championship” started by Storm is just dumb. I thought TNA was supposed to be about making a family program to some extent and not being like, uhhh…the other guys. Nice job (note sarcasm). The match itself isn’t that bad, but makes way for another finish that needed a little bit of interference for some reason or another and took away from the overall quality.
~ Feast Or Fired Match – Fourteen participants were announced recently to compete in this match. Four briefcases were hung in the different corners of the ring. One case contained a shot at the TNA World Title, another had a shot at the X-Title, and one a shot at the Tag-Team Titles. The fourth case contained a pink slip for whoever was unlucky enough to grab it. The contents of each case would be revealed on the December 13 edition of Impact. But tonight, the superstars would compete and hope they got anything but the one case containing their walking papers.
Participants: Scott Steiner, Senshi, Elix Skipper, BJ James, Kip James, Shark Boy, Lance Hoyt, Sonjay Dutt, Chris Harris, Petey Williams, Jimmy Rave, Homicide, Hernandez, and Christopher Daniels
The match goes on with a lot of brawling and a lot of trying to keep an eye on exactly what is going on. It isn’t bad, but really isn’t more then a giant street fight and scramble for the cases.
~ Women’s Championship – As odd as it may seem, this match seemed pretty evened up and was back and forth. Kim has a lot of near falls throughout while Kong dominated at times with her brute strength and size. Yet still another crappy ending takes all credibility out of the match.
~ 10,000 Tacks Match – Rhino was due to be Abyss’ partner but suffered and injury forcing Raven to take his spot. Wow, is Raven ever a shadow of his former self or what? I used to really like Dustin Rhodes in some of his other personas, but this character is just stupid. The whole Misty the rat thing is dumb. Anyway, this match does deliver with a lot of violence and some big shots to all involved. A good number of tables are used along with the barricades and of course, a whole lot of tacks. It wasn’t bad for a big brutal fight and didn’t last too long causing me to get bored.
DUH Moment of the night, Mike Tenay letting us know that Rellik is “killer” spelled backwards.
~ Booker T/Kaz Vs. Cage/Roode – This isn’t a bad match and all considering the bigger storyline going on with Cage and Roode’s involvement with the Angle Alliance. Kaz is really an enjoyable performer to watch in the ring, but Roode just bores me to death. He is not fun to watch in the ring and his promos just drag. Booker (who has some of the worst theme music ever) and Christian are long time fun, but just don’t seem as excited about everything as they used to be. It’s still a decent match, but I feel as if it is a little too high on the card.
~ Main Event – Oddly enough, TNA still included the build-up montage for the match that discussed the return of Scott Hall and the Outsiders. Right away Tenay lets the audience know that Hall isn’t around because “Nash was concerned for his health.” Ok.
My Lord does Nash look old. Samoa Joe comes out and gives one of the best promos I’ve heard in a long time. He rips apart Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and kind of shoots a bit against the company as well. Joe continues on about how strong willed and determined the entire X-Division is and then introduces his partner, Eric Young. It is a nice promo and a good way to build up some of the younger stars, but is still a bit of a letdown. Even the crowd just seemed like they were all, “Yay…wait what?”
The match itself wasn’t too bad albeit rather short. Again a lot of focus for Angle, Styles, and Tomko was on their Angle Alliance fiasco that was currently going on. Samoa Joe and Kevin Nash had their own differences to take care of with the entire Scott Hall problem that had just happened. Finally there was Eric Young who was just kind of there. Not really the main event match you’d want to headline your final big event of the year.
The Video
The event is shown in 1.33:1 Full Screen format and it looks just as good as the PPVs do when they originally air. The picture is sharp and all looks well. One thing that is extremely annoying is the writing on the disc menus. It is incredibly small and I needed to literally get up and close to my TV set in order to read them.
The Audio
The audio format isn’t specified but it sounds to me like stereo sound. No matter what it may be, it does the necessary job and sounds alright. If only I didn’t have to hear Don West then the audio would be perfection. All entrance themes and interviews are heard nicely.
Special Features
Alliance/Cage Bonus – From the December 6, 2007 edition of Impact. This was the first show after the Turning Point PPV and showcased Angle calling out Christian and saying they needed each other. Angle gives Christian an hour to decide to join the Angle Alliance for good or not. A lot of interviews with Tomko, Robert Roode, and others. It all ends up with Cage turning down the offer at first but then deciding to accept and officially becoming a part of the Angle Alliance and siding with some other big names in TNA. This segment lasts about fourteen and a half minutes.
10-Man Tag War – This is a huge tag-team match from the same edition of Impact as the above bonus feature. The Angle Alliance consisting of Kurt Angle, AJ Styles, Tomko, Robert Roode, and Christian Cage Vs. Kaz, Eric Young, Booker T, Kevin Nash, and Samoa Joe. The match is alright but all the tension was again within the two teams themselves. Afterwards, the Angle Alliance explodes.
Photo Gallery – A gallery of still frames from the PPV and then there is a music video with highlights from it.
The Inside Pulse
Turning Point is just not one of the better events put on by TNA or any wrestling company out there in a long time. From this entire DVD, there are only two matches I would care to see again and they are the “Feast or Fired Match” and definitely the six-man tables match. MCMG and Jay Lethal blow me away every time I see them and they can even make a washed up team like Team 3D look good and fun in the ring again. The rest of the card is incredibly lackluster and just quite boring most of the time. Even worse are the few other good matches that end with horrible finishes and just make watching it a huge waste. The special features provide close to forty minutes of extra viewing, but none of it is anything really worth checking out. The ten-man tag is good, but kind of short if you take out all the before and after match stuff. As far as the PPVs for TNA go, this is a gigantic recommendation to avoid.
