I’m doing this for Aaron because I consider Aaron a friend, and he asked me to. It is making me seriously reconsider why I have friends.
But I kid. This show was better (well, less bad) than the last few. Even if not all 10 of these thoughts are reasons why.
1. Mick Foley sounded like he was Alex Shelley’s high school principal when he was bitching at him during the show opening promo. That was somewhere between funny and sad. The rest of the promo was exactly as good as you’d expect from him, even if it’s something he could do in his sleep.
2. This week’s “Are they trying to make the faces look like retards, or is it just a subconscious thing?” entry: their joyous celebration after Eric won the X-Title– because beat up Davari. I was impressed that Sewell became the first ref in history to actually see a guy clutching his balls in pain and realize the heel had given him a nutshot.
3. The Guns just standing around in the back and no selling the celebration over Eric’s title win was a pretty nice touch, I thought.
4. Lethal vs. Sting was another good showing for Lethal against an older guy (I really liked his match with Booker last month, and he had the match with Angle). Now all he has to do is get something decent out of Nash and Steiner and he’ll have a clean sweep of the Main Event Mafia!
5. That said, Lethal being aghast at the Guns offering him help when the friggin’ ref gave Eric the match was a pretty big inconsistency on his part.
6. Man, at one point in 2001, Steiner vs. Rhyno would have been a match between the last WCW Champion and the last ECW Champion not under WWE management. That sure is a thing, huh? Their match seven years later was okay, all things considered, even if Rhyno did job to a damn T-Bone Suplex.
7. Spike cut off the drama of everyone freaking out over Lethal refusing the Guns’ help for a commercial for their Video Game Awards. To be honest, though, Eliza Dushku randomly interrupting TNA to talk about video games is something I always thought would make the show better. And is also pretty damn close to a sexual fantasy for me.
8. They came back with Petey being assaulted backstage by the MEM and taking a bump off of what kind of looked like a childern’s playground slide.
9. Velvet Sky looks pretty damn hot with the Sarah Palin look. That was the one and probably only good thing we’re ever gonna get out of their latest desperate attempt for mainstream publicity here. At least it won’t lead to a crappy match. Well, no, I shouldn’t totally rule that out.
10. Bubba was very good as an announcer during the match between Beer Money and AJ/Joe. I’d love to see him do that full time. Of course, I can say that for pretty much every wrestler in the twilight of his career who’s ever been in TNA, from Shane Douglas to Kevin Nash. And yet, Don West abides.
11. James Storm came to the ring on a scooter made out of a beer cooler. That is the single greatest thing TNA has and probably ever will produce.
12. The actual match between BM and AJ/Joe was solid. Had it’s moments, perfectly good wrestling, etc. The ending kind of had to be a DQ, given that neither team could afford to job clean. I do like that 3D’s taken Christian’s centrist position (except being more pissed off at everyone), because it makes sense.
13. Christian’s send off from TNA came in the form a beatdown from the MEM (except for Sting, who I guess abstains from that sort of thing to remain a committed ‘tweener). It’s kind of fitting, considering how he used to lead that kind of beatdown when he was running the top heel stable.
Better than average show this week, I thought. Of course, when your average is “soul crushingly awful”, that’s not saying a lot. But hey, an improvement’s an improvement. Gotta give ’em that.
