A recap of the Angle-Sting saga, complete with a black and white replay of last week’s empty arena brawl, opens the show before Tenay and West in an empty arena hours before the show. They recap last week’s fight again. Show opening.
We’re “live” now as the arena is full.
Tonight we get to see a 4 way ladder match for the TNA X-Division Title.The four competitors are Alex Shelley, Consequences Creed, Jay Lethal and Chris Sabin.
Beautiful People (Velvet Skye and Anglina Love) w/ Cute Kip vs. Madison Rayne and Taylor Wilde
Rayne and Love lock up. Love feigns a clean break and goes for cheap shot. Rayne ducks the cheap shot and nails Love with punches. Love with a shoulderblock off the ropes. Another run from the rope ends with Love on the receiving end of a hiptoss. A Rayne dropkick puts Love down. Taylor Wilde in. Wilde and Rayne hit double drop toe hold. Wilde with an elbow drop. Love tags in Skye. Wilde gets a cradle for one. Wilde with an arm drag into an arm bar. Tag to Rayne. Rayne comes into the ring with an Axehandle from the top rope. Kip talks smack to Wilde which draws her and the ref down to the floor. BP use this opportunity to double team Rayne. Skye chokes her. Gets a two count. Skye mounts and pounds, shrieking like a banshee. Beautiful People hit a double elbowdrop. Angelina bangs Rayne’s head onto the canvas a few times. Tag to Skye. Skye chokes Rayne and tosses her by the hair. Stomps her back. Velvet chokes Rayne and boots her in the neck for two. Tag to Love. Love with a kick to Rayne’s back. A sleeperhold is broken by a jawbreaker. Rayne makes the hot tag. Wilde comes in with a clothesline and tilt a whirl backbreaker. Sky kicks Wilde and Love follows it up with clothesline from behind. Rayne saves Wilde before slapping her in the face and bailing from the match. Skye hits the Beauty Mark (which is like Carlito’s Backstabber) for the three. The Beautiful People talk trash to Wilde’s unconscious form.
Winners: Beautiful People (* – Seems to be about the max rating for a Knockouts match these days. I don’t know why Rayne turned on Taylor, and I’m not sure why anyone is supposed to care.)
Borash catches the MEM as they exit their Hummer. JB’s questions pertaining to Sting are met with stony silence. Never has there existed a more useless interviewer.
But, several minutes later, Kurt has changed his mind and talks to JB in the Mafia dressing room. JB is upset that Angle has been ignoring his phone calls and texts. Angle says that what’s going on with the Mafia is not anyone’s business. The cops come in and Steiner assures them that she was 19. Hilarious. They’re there for Booker T. Everyone laughs that Booker’s last name is Huffman. Huffman and the police leave to speak outside.
Off the Wagon Championship: Beer Money Inc. (Robert Roode and James Storm) vs. The Rock and Rave Infection (Lance Rock and Jimmy Rave)
We see how Petey got shuttled out of the company in last week’s Off the Wagon match. The announcers bury Rock and Rave before the match, saving me the time. Storm and Rave lock up. Storm with a shoulderblock. Rave is up and, off the rope, hits a shoulderblock of his own. Rave quite acrobatically slams Storm’s face into the mat. Roode and Rock wander in without reproach. Rock flapjacks Storm onto Rave’s knee. Storm hits an enziguiri. Roode plants rave with a spinebuster. Rave eats some chops. Storm tagged in. They lay the boots to Rave in the corner. Rave powers out of a chinlock. He comes off the ropes and gets dropped onto the top. Clothesline turns Rave inside out. Roode tags in. Beer Money hit a sweet combo of moves. Storm tags in and covers for two. Rave clothesline Storm. Rave makes the tag to Rock, Storm tags Roode. Rock hits a big boot on Roode. Chokeslam for Storm. Backbreaker finisher gets broke up by storm at two. Lance hits the Blackout but Jackie distracts the ref. Storm blasts Rock with a belt shot while the ref is distracted. That gets the three. Lance Rock is gone baby gone and Beer Money are still champs.
Winners and still TNA Tag Team Champions: Beer Money (*3/4 – Pretty good while it lasted but it was way too short. Rock is the second wrestler jettisoned in this challenge. It’s not like TNA was doing anything with him anyway.)
Sting arrives at the arena by himself. He also refuses to answer JB’s questions.
Backstage, Booker’s dressing room roped off with police tape. He wants the to look at the destruction inflicted on his dressing room. He wants something done about AJ. Booker’s accent is an ever-changing entity. He’s bugging like crazy, begging quite tenderly for the police to just do something. The police, for the first time in Florida’s history don’t tase an agitated black man.
Tenay and West recap A.J.’s recent attacks on Booker.
We transition to another session of Abyss’s therapy with Dr. Stevie. Today he talks about how much he loves cutting himself. Abyss equates receiving beatings to Christmas morning when he got a Jonas Brothers album. Abyss wants to be a teen idol and rambles about losing a match. Stevie cuts him off, telling him they’re out of time.
The show some video applications for One Night with ODB. Yikes. Some of these guys can’t be serious.
Booker is outside with cops, still demanding they get A.J. “He got my money! Got get it, y’all” AJ’s been waiting all this time and attacks Booker. AJ nails Book with punches before security breaks it up. Booker uses this opportunity to deliver shots to a held up A.J.
We come back for another episode of Thespian’s Theatre with Scott Steiner. He hits on Lauren for a while before transitioning to Styles’ recent sneak attacks on Booker and “that piece of shit” Samoa Joe. He makes some fat jokes before dismissing Lauren to go find Joe and tell him Steiner’s going to kick his ass.
Joe turns off the lights jumps Steiner from behind, holding a knife to Steiner’s throat. Joe intensely threatens Steiner, saying the Nation of Violence will cause Steiner suffering. Joe tells him that if Scott screams, nothing will come out. Steiner just begs Joe to be reasonable. Joe disappears back into the shadows.
Steiner gets in the undisputed line of the year: “That was a knife!”
Jarrett thinks problems like the MEM will happen when you get so many egos in such close quarters. JJ thinks the MEM will break up tonight and business will go back to usual.
We come back from the break with another Hardcore History segment. Today: Foley vs. Orton in a hardcore match. Eh.
Interview time with the Main Event Mafia. They all come out together, including Sting. Tenay is conducting the interview, if anyone cares. Nash and Booker are on one side of the ring with Sting. Steiner is in the other with Angle. Tenay asks whether Angle and Sting will fight. Nash whispers something to Angle and takes the microphone. Nash introduces himself as spokesman for the night. Nash says they took the week to patch up their differences, even though things aren’t perfect quite yet. Tenay, judging by the body language, calls bullshit. Nash thinks Tenay’s just trying to stir things up on the behest of Foley and Jarrett. Nash reminds his family that the only thing that can break them up is themselves. He says the MEM is stronger than anyone in the back, and stronger than the front office. Although Angle and Sting may not love each other, they must respect the Mafia itself. This brings out Jarrett, looking quite determined.
Jarrett doesn’t think Sting is buying any of what Nash just said. Jarrett points out that everything Sting stands for has been called into question if he lets Angle get away with spitting in his face. Jarrett tells everyone to acknowledge that Angle and Sting are complete opposites. He thinks the only option is to let them fight. Jarrett says he’ll give Angle his wish to fight Sting at Destination X.
Booker grabs the microphone and asks Jarrett where he gets off making laws and such. Booker doesn’t care if he’s the founder of TNA or not. He says TNA is a company full of nobodies, born out of a trip to the flea market. Without MEM, there would be no TNA. Booker says he never liked Jarrett ever, so he’d be wise to go back to his office before he kicks his ass.
Jarrett doesn’t think Booker’s going to do anything. Jarrett points out how far TNA has come since he first started it. He calls the fans his family and says his family wants Sting and Angle to fight. He orders the two men back to his office to sign the contract for the match.
Out of nowhere, West calls Tenay an ass kisser. Tenay acts confused but West says he knows exactly what this is about. Tenay denies any such knowledge, forcing West to grab a mike to educate us all. West talks about how good of friends they’ve been since they started calling matches together. Several days ago, TNA management were discussing West’s future with the company and Tenay did not come to West’s defense. He tells the people in the Impact Zone that although they put him on a pedestal, Tenay is “nothing but a selfish prick.” He wanted Tenay to do the right thing, but he didn’t have the balls to do it. West doesn’t think their friendship will ever be the same. He then tells Tenay to take the mike and shove it up his ass. West ambles off as we go to commercials. Ha!
We come back with the Kongtourage arguing in the hallway. We go to Tenay (announcing solo) who is shocked by what West just said. He gets someone in the truck to replay what just happened.
SoJo Bolt is out with Rhaka Khan and a microphone. Bolt calls out Raisha for trying to tell her what to do. She hands the mike to Rhaka who recites a little poem about something or other. I don’t know why Rhaka has beef but oh well. She calls Saeed and Kong down to the ring.
SoJo Bolt and Rhaka Khan vs. Raisha Saeed and Awesome Kong
Bolt and Saeed lock up. Saeed with a shoulder block. Another lockup. Bolt locks in a side headlock. Sojo hits a Thesz press and unloads some punches. Bolt tags in Khan. Khan comes off the top with a double sledgehammer. Khan Leapfrogs Saeed and follows it up with hiptoss. Khan comes down onto Saeed with a legdrop/buttdrop. Saeed reverses a whip, throwing Khan into Kong. Saeed with a double chop. No tag but Kong comes in with a few kicks. Kong and Saeed both choke Khan against the ropes. Kong with a chop. Kong is still kind of hobbled here. Kong comes crashing into Khan with an Avalanche. Saeed tagged in. She hits Khan with a chop. Rhaka fights back with forearms, Raisha hits one of her own. Kong takes the opportunity to knee Rhaka in the back. Khan ducks a kick and clotheslines Saeed for two. Saeed slaps SoJo who was just minding her own business on the ring apron. Kong comes in. She and Saeed double team Rhaka with wheelbarrow splash. Gets two. Tag proper to Kong. She kick Khan in the ribs. Kong with a bodyslam. Both women tag their partners. SoJo slaps Saeed before hitting two jawbreakers on her. Cover gets two. Saeed flips out of a powerbomb and lands awkwardly. SoJo jumps on Kong and starts punching her. Saeed pulls SoJo off. Forearms from Rhaka. Rhaka and Raisha get whipped into each other. Kong dumps Rhaka to the floor and follows her out. Kong misses charge on the outside and hits the ringpost. Superkick from SoJo. A backslide gets three. Damn Saeed stays losing.
Not to be embarrassed like that, Kong climbs into the ring and flattens both victors. SoJo wiped out with another clothesline. Kong Awesome Bombs SoJo onto Rhaka to kill them both.
Winners: SoJo Bolt and Rhaka Khan (1/2* – Not good. Khan cannot wrestle if her life depended on it. Also, Kong seemed bothered by her leg. The storyline for this one is pretty weird, unless I missed something.)
They air another Ultimate X segment. Good to see they’re building this up. Now if only they will tell us who’s involved in the next one.
X-Division Championship Ladder Match: Consequences Creed vs. Chris Sabin vs. Jay Lethal vs. Alex Shelley
A brawl to start. Consequence and Lethal get the best of it. A series of reversals end with the Guns hitting stereo clothesline and back elbows. They doubleteam Creed before Shelley tells the crowd to kiss his ass. Double kicks to Lethal’s back. Sabin goes out to get a ladder. Creed hits a neckbreaker on Shelley. Creed and Lethal go outside and try bringing ladders in but get the MCMG dropkick them into their faces.
We’re back with Lethal and creed in the ring. Sabin hits a facebuster onto the ladder. Sabin sets up the ladder underneath the belt. Creed stops him with a shot to the kidney. Creed grabs the other ladder and hits Sabin with it. Creed wedges the second ladder between the ropes and the first ladder. Creed goes to the apron but Shelley pulls him off. Shelley rolls Sabin off the second ladder. Creed flies in with a springboard something or other that Shelley stops by tossing him. Sabin hits a fireman slam onto the second ladder. He starts climbing but Lethal stops him. Lethal hits the first part of the Lethal Combination onto the frigging ladder. Lethal climbs, but gets blocked by Shelley. Shelley hits a jawbreaker from the top of the ladder all the way to the mat. Shelley hits Sliced Bread using the ladder to scale. Shelley climbs and retrieves the belt. But wait, there’s more! Suicide zips into the ring and takes out every person in the match. After whupping everybody, Suicide gazes longingly at the X-Division belt. The lights go out and Suicide disappears.
Winner and still X-Division Champion: Alex Shelley (** – Too short, especially when the commercial break is factored in. Still, there were some pretty sick moves in this one.)
The last segment gets underway with Jarrett, carrying the contract. Jarrett calls Angle out first. Kurt walks to the ring with a gang of security. The rest of the MEM came down with him as well. Nash tells JJ that it doesn’t have to be this way. Nash warns JJ not to screw with him. He reiterates that the match will not happen. JJ asks Angle when he stopped being the boss. The only person who hasn’t spoke up today is Angle. He pokes at Angle, asking him why he isn’t more like Tony Soprano, Marlon Brandon, Al Pacino, etc. He sasys all those men had balls whereas Angle does not. Angle takes off the shades and snatches the contract. After a cursory flip through, and many moldering glances at Jarrett, Angle signs. He then blasts Jarrett with the clipboard. An Angle Slam follows. Angle mounts him and rains down the blows. Foley comes “running” down the aisle and Angle backs off Jarrett. As soon as Mick’s back is turned, Angle levels him and locks in the Ankle Lock. Sting comes down with the bat and lays out Kurt Angle with it. Sting extends his hand to Jarrett and helps him up. Nash can be heard outside the ring asking Sting what he’s doing. Sting takes the contract and signs. He drops the signed contract onto Angle’s lifeless body.
As we go out, the fans bow to Sting while security checks on Kurt.
