Universal Studios – Orlando, Florida – 11.7.04
~DISC 1~
Intro
The opening video focuses on AJ Styles, Monty Brown, Jeff Hardy, and Jeff Jarrett. Mike Tenay and Don West are the hosts, and they run down the card, including a tag team title match, a three-way Monster’s Ball match, an X-Division Title match, and of course the ladder match for the NWA World Title. Also, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash are here. Earlier today Shane Douglas got a word with Jeff Jarrett, who seemed confident of his chances to win tonight.
MATCH #1: No Limits X Division Gauntlet
No fewer than 20 X-Division superstars will be featured in this match, with one-minute intervals. Kazarian drew #1, and Sonjay Dutt drew #2. Dutt almost gets eliminated right away but fights back into the ring and unleashes a flurry of offense. Puma comes out at #3 and immediately goes after Dutt. Kazarian joins him and they double-team the Original Playa from the Himalaya. L.A. Park is entrant #4. Of course he brings a chair with him and gives everyone a shot with it. Kazarian takes offense as Jerrelle Clark comes out as #5. He shows off his aerial skills. Miyamoto is #6 and he goes after Puma. Clark hits Puma with the 630 but then gets leveled by Kazarian, who gets leveled by Dutt. Matt Bentley (accompanied by Traci) is #7. Kazarian and Bentley were tag team partners at this time, and they work together to eliminate Puma, Clark, and Miyamoto. Hector Garza is entrant #8. I must admit that Garza has a tremendous moustache. Next out is #9, NOSAWA. Not much happens until Mikey Batts comes out at #10. Next out at #11 is my buddy Alex Shelley. He immediately eliminates Dutt. Kazarian then eliminates Park. Next out is Matt Sydal at #12. Boy would he go on to bigger and better things. Sydal moonsaults right onto Shelley’s back and Shelley takes a powder. Former X-Division Champion Sonny Siaki is #13. He asserts his size and power advantage, eliminating NOSAWA. Garza eliminates Batts. Jason Cross is #14, and I wonder what happened to him. TNA always seemed to want to do something with him back in the day. Cult favorite Shark Boy is #15. Shelley pops up at an opportune time and eliminates Sydal! What a jerk. Next out is Psychosis at #16. Nothing much happens, and then D-Ray 3000 is entrant #17. Siaki eliminates both Shark Boy and D-Ray. Don West’s favorite the Amazing Red is #18. Shelley foolishly goes to the top rope and Cross pushes him to the floor to eliminate him. Next is the best entrance music ever for #19, Spanky. He immediately goes after Bentley. The last entrant, #20, is former X-Division Champion Chris Sabin. He drills Bentley with an around-the-world swinging DDT. Spanky and Sabin team up to eliminate Siaki. Then Spanky eliminates Bentley all by himself. Kazarian goes up top to set up the requisite Tower of Doom spot. Psychosis eliminates Cross with a clothesline. He’s the next one to go, courtesy of Amazing Red. Ironically Red is next to go via Kazarian. Spanky goes for Sliced Bread #2 on Sabin but gets pushed over the top rope to the floor. We’re down to the final three – Kazarian, Sabin, and Garza. Kazarian goes up top and Sabin hits a super release German Suplex right onto Garza. Sabin charges at Garza and gets dropped on the top rope and then dropkicked to the floor. Now we go to pinfall or submission rules. Kazarian hits a springboard legdrop for two. He tries the Wave of the Future but Garza blocks it with a clothesline. Garza hits a beautiful moonsault but Kazarian kicks out at two! Kazarian fights back with a slingshot DDT for two. Garza comes back with a dropkick to the back but misses the Tornillo. Kazarian rolls him up but Garza reverses the momentum and gets the pin at 26:26. That was a perfect way to open the show and a good showcase of the X-Division style. I remember Garza having a couple of big matches on iMPACT! after this but then he disappeared. Moody Jack gets a word with Garza, and helpfully translates for all of us.
Rating: ***½
Next up is a campaign ad for Dusty Rhodes, who is facing Vince Russo to be the sole TNA Director of Authority. I forgot that this happened and I think I was happier that way. Scott Hudson talks about the vote and says there was a web server crash in Stamford, Connecticut. Sigh. Then he brings out Kid Kash, Dallas, and the Naturals, who will compete next. Kash does all the talking and says he will be the team leader tonight.
MATCH #2: Eight Man Tag Match – Kid Kash, Dallas & the Naturals vs. Erik Watts, Pat Kenney, Johnny B. Badd & Ron Killings
Talk about a motley crew of wrestlers. Both Kid Kash & Dallas and the Naturals are former NWA World Tag Team Champions. Kash and Kenney start the match trading armdrags. Kenney gets the advantage and tags Badd. Kash pokes Badd in the eyes and tags Andy Douglas. Badd comes back with a series of armdrags and tags Watts. Douglas makes a blind tag to his partner Chase Stevens, who goes after Watt’s leg. That doesn’t last long before Stevens tags Dallas (better known today as Vance Archer). Watts hits Dallas with a chokeslam. Dallas comes right back with a side slam and tags Kash. Watts kicks Kash in the face and tags Kenney. Kash fights back and tags Dallas. The big man takes Kenney down and goes up for the moonsault but misses. Stevens and Killings get tags, and The Truth is all over everyone. The match breaks down to a brawl with all eight men in the ring. They start heading to the floor, as Badd hits Stevens with a super hurricanrana. Killings hits Stevens with a modified Pedigree for the win at 4:39. Well they did as much as they could for the time given, but this was obviously a random mishmash just to get more people on the card.
Rating: *½
Cut to outside the building, where a limo is pulling up and Shane Douglas is hoping to get a word with Kevin Nash. The door opener says it’s not Nash.
Elsewhere, Abyss is locked up in isolation without food and water for 24 hours as part of the stipulations of the Monsters Ball match. I actually love this little touch and they totally don’t do it anymore.
MATCH #3: Mascarita Sagrada vs. Piratita Morgan
Have you ever seen a midget match before? They’re all pretty much the same. The bigger one (Morgan) throws the smaller one (Sagrada) around, and the smaller one (Sagrada) comes back with various flippy armdrags and cross body blocks. Morgan drops Sagrada with a fireman’s carry and then hits a splash. Sagrada comes back and involves the referee, and then gets a cradle for the win at 2:59. That was exactly what you would expect.
Rating: ¼*
Scott Hudson is backstage to update us on the Director of Authority vote. Then the 3Live Kru pops in to proclaim that they are going to win the NWA World Tag Team Titles from Team Canada.
Scott Hall Announcement
The big announcement is that “Big Sexy†Kevin Nash will not be here tonight. He says a whole lot of not much, and then says about the main event “May the Best Jeff Win.â€
MATCH #4: NWA World Tag Team Title Match – 3Live Kru vs. Team Canada
The 3LK is represented by BG James & Konnan, while Bobby Roode & Eric Young represent Team Canada. Roode and Young have been champions since 10.15.04 and this is their first defense. BG James and Konnan beat the Naturals to earn this shot. Roode and James start the match. James wastes no time hitting his signature jabs, and makes sure to make both champions look like idiots. He misses a cross body block and tumbles to the floor, where Roode drives his back into the ring apron. Now Team Canada takes the advantage, working James over in their half of the ring. Eventually James makes the hot tag to Konnan, who unloads with his slow, shitty offense. The match breaks down to a brawl, with Roode and James in the ring and Konnan with Young outside the ring. James goes for the Pumphandle Slam on Roode and Scott D’Amore tries to interfere, but Ron Killings runs him off. Roode comes back and levels James with the Northern Lariat. Konnan comes back in the ring and hits the K-Factor to get the win and win the titles for the second time at 6:58. At least they kept it short, but why on earth was the 3Live Kru wrestling for the tag team titles on a pay-per-view anyway? This was a total TV match.
Rating: *¾
Somewhere, Raven is locked up in his room, and he cuts a typical Raven promo about being insane and all that. He even includes some impromptu poetry. He’s supposed to be wearing a straight jacket but he can still do the Raven pose.
Next is a campaign commercial for Vince Russo, who is currently 10 points behind “The American Dream†Dusty Rhodes in the vote for Director of Authority.
In the Pit with Piper
Roddy Piper comes out and rambles on for a while. Then he calls out Superfly Jimmy Snuka and begs him to hit him with a coconut so that they can be even for something that happened 20 years ago in a different company. Kid Kash comes out to interrupt and to act like a jerk. He attacks Snuka, and Kazarian and Matt Bentley come out to join him. Sonjay Dutt comes to the rescue. He gets some offense in but then Kash blasts Dutt with the coconut. This took forever and went nowhere.
Monty Brown is in his isolation room and promises that he will be victorious tonight. This is one of the biggest miscalculations in TNA history – not turning Monty Brown into the face of the company, and I’m completely serious.
Turning Point comes to pay-per-view on December 5! Be there!
MATCH #5: Trinity Open Challenge
Trinity comes out with the New York Connection, Glenn Gilberti and Johnny Swinger. She looks … different than she did in WWE. She gets on the mic and says no one is answering the challenge, but then Jacqueline comes out of the crowd to answer it. She throws all three New Yorkers to the floor and then hits a dive to wipe them out. They get in the ring to officially start the match. Gilberti holds Jacqueline’s leg to give Trinity the advantage. Trinity rolls through a cross body block for a two-count, and then chokes Jacqueline with her own hair. She hits a powerslam and a sort of spinning kick to the face for another two-count. Jacqueline fights back with punches and a release German Suplex. She covers Trinity but Gilberti pulls her off. She goes up for mounted punches, but Swinger drops her neck on the top rope. Trinity goes up and hits a moonsault to get the pin at 1:52. Yeah, that’s going to make me care about a women’s division.
Rating: ½*
Scott Hudson reminds us AGAIN that Dusty Rhodes is 10 percent ahead of Russo in the polls. XXX comes out to cut a funny little promo about facing America’s Most Wanted tonight in a Last Man Standing match. It’s funny because of Elix Skipper’s voice.
MATCH #6: The Monsters Ball – Abyss vs. Raven vs. Monty Brown
Raven and Abyss get the match started without the Alpha Male. They all battle outside the ring and throughout the crowd. Abyss takes control, throwing both Raven and Brown all over the place. Up in the rafters a guy in a black cloak is watching, and I have no idea where that ended up going. Back in the ring Abyss hits the Shock Treatment on Brown for a two-count. Brown and Raven try to double-team the Monster but get simultaneously clotheslined. Raven takes Abyss down with a discuss clothesline and then goes out and brings in a steel chair. Abyss boots him in the face takes the chair, but Raven counters with a superkick. Raven hits Brown with a clothesline. He tries the drop toehold on a chair but Brown avoids it and picks up the chair to hit both of his opponents. Brown sends Abyss to the floor and goes to work on Raven, hitting a t-bone suplex and then a fallaway slam. ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED? Brown goes to Pounce Raven, but he pulls the referee in front and he takes the full force of the POUNCE! Abyss gets back in the ring and Brown picks him up for a powerslam! Brown goes for the Pounce but Raven kicks him in the back, and Abyss capitalizes with the Black Hole Slam, but there’s no referee. Abyss puts Brown up top and brings in a bag of thumbtacks. Of course Brown pushes Abyss back into the tacks instead. Raven goes for a cover and a new referee comes out to make a two-count. Abyss rolls to the floor, and Raven brings in a table. Raven takes turns punching both guys, and knocks Abyss off the apron and through a table. Then out of nowhere Brown hits Raven with the POUNCE through a table to get the pin at 9:25. That was compact but they got a lot of action in and the crowd was pretty hot for it. Brown getting the win was definitely the right call.
Rating: ***
Back outside the arena, Shane Douglas is still yelling about wanting to interview whoever is in the limousine. One of the Harris Brothers comes out to try and calm him down. They follow this up with footage of the TNA Fan Interaction thing.
Petey Williams Interview
Scott Hudson manages to start an interview without talking about Dusty Rhodes or Vince Russo. Petey wants to see how phenomenal AJ Styles really is. D’Amore gets his two cents in as well, and then they show the video package.
~DISC 2~
MATCH #7: TNA X-Division Championship Match – Petey Williams vs. AJ Styles
Williams has been the X-Division Champion since 8.11.04, this is his third defense and definitely his biggest. The crowd is hot for Styles. They start off by trading forearms and then take it down to the mat. Styles gets a quick small package for two. They trade a series of pinning combinations for a string of two-counts and the crowd is quite impressed. Styles hits the exact dropkick sequence that he’s still using six years later. Williams takes a powder and Styles follows him out to hit a kick to the back. He then gets back in the ring just to wipe Williams out with a dive. Back in the ring Williams hits a chinbreaker and then distracts the referee so D’Amore can take cheap shots. The crowd is chanting for both men. Styles comes back and goes for the flipping inverted DDT but doesn’t quite make it, and Williams wisely sells it as a kick to the head. Williams punches his way back and tries Oh Canada, but Styles pulls him down to the mat. Styles comes back with the Pele out of nowhere. He unloads with a series of hard forearms and then a belly-to-back suplex. He hits the springboard flying forearm for a two-count. Williams comes back with the Canadian Legsweep. He signals for the Canadian Destroyer but Styles reverses to a Styles Clash, which Williams blocks. Styles ends up with Williams in an Alabama Slam position, and he whips him into the turnbuckles. D’Amore grabs the title belt as Styles goes for the Styles Clash again. Williams blocks it but Styles rolls through to a jackknife pin, and referee Rudy Charles interrupts his own count to go argue with D’Amore. That just looked awkward. Williams grabs the hockey stick but Charles takes it away from him. In the process Williams is able to hit Styles with the belt but he kicks out at two! He goes for the Canadian Destroyer but Styles sets him on the top rope. Styles goes up with him but D’Amore grabs his leg. Williams drops Styles on his chest and then jumps off the second rope right into the Canadian Destroyer to get the win at 9:49. I would have liked the finish better without the interference (since it happened in just about every Team Canada match), but for the most part this was a solid, TV style match. That’s what makes it disappointing.
Rating: ***
MATCH #8: Last Team Standing Match – America’s Most Wanted vs. Triple X
Triple X is of course represented by “The Fallen Angel†Christopher Daniels and “Primetime†Elix Skipper; America’s Most Wanted is “The Tennessee Cowboy†James Storm and “Wildcat†Chris Harris. The bell rings and all four men waste no time in getting the fight started. Skipper and Harris fight outside the ring while Daniels and Storm fight inside the ring. Those are the mixed duos that held the tag team titles together, for the record. Storm and Harris trade places and Storm hits Skipper with a reverse suplex. AMW follows up with the Hart Attack. Daniels tries to fight back but Storm blasts him with a superkick. They set Daniels up for the Death Sentence but Skipper breaks it up, only to take the legdrop the back of the head himself. Storm hits Daniels with a modified Air Raid Crash to get a pin at 1:48 but Daniels gets back to his feet before the 10-count. He hits Daniels with a powerbomb, and then Harris takes his shots. Daniels fights back with a side suplex. He makes the tag, and I guess we’re doing tags now. Triple X works Harris over, hitting the Power Plex for a two-count. Harris fights back with a lariat and makes the tag. Storm is a house afire, hitting Skipper with a powerslam for two. Skipper looks a little out of it for some reason. Storm sets up for the superkick but Daniels dropkicks the knee. Triple X hits the DWI to get a pin at 5:33 and Storm makes it back up at nine. Skipper slides Daniels a chair and then distracts the referee while Daniels hits Storm’s knee with the chair for another pin at 6:10, and this time Storm doesn’t answer the 10-count so he’s eliminated. Harris comes in swinging but Daniels grabs him with a uranage slam. Daniels goes for the Best Moonsault Ever but misses and Harris hits a Spear. Skipper is obviously supposed to break up the count but he is obviously messed up at this point. So Harris does the smart thing and throws him down hard to the floor. Harris then hits Daniels with a guillotine legdrop to get a pin at 7:36 and Daniels doesn’t get up, so he’s out. Back in the ring Harris tries to have a match with Skipper but it’s not going so well. Harris hits a powerbomb for a two-count. I wish JR was there to shout “Just stay down Elix†and that it would actually happen, but no. Skipper tries the Play of the Day and just falls over. The crowd is actively booing at this point. Skipper tries to hit Harris with a chair but Harris blocks it and hits the Catatonic right on the chair. This is just painful to watch. Skipper totally kicks out at two but the referee makes the right call and rings the bell anyway at 10:53. The referee counts to 10 to end this cruel game at 11:16. That match was brutal, but Skipper had a concussion so I can’t blame them. These teams obviously proved on several occasions there were better than this so it was obviously just a fluke disaster.
Rating: *
Storm and Daniels come back out to continue the brawl and Triple X takes control with a steel chair. They handcuff Storm and Daniels together and Daniels blasts them with a steel chair. Finally security comes out to break it up.
Jeff Jarrett Interview
The NWA World Champion keeps it short and sweet, and promises to keep his NWA World Title when all is said and done tonight.
DOA Decision 2004
Mike Tenay is in the ring to announce the results of the vote for Director of Authority, which is a really stupid title for someone to have. Of course Dusty Rhodes won the vote and he comes out for his acceptance speech. He announces that America’s Most Wanted will battle Triple X in a Six Sides of Steel match at next month’s pay-per-view.
MATCH #9: Ladder Match for the NWA World Title – Jeff Jarrett vs. Jeff Hardy
Jarrett has been the champion since 6.2.04, and this is his fourth defense. TNA originally wanted Hulk Hogan to face Jarrett here, but it didn’t happen for whatever reason. I’d actually really like to see this match with both guys from today, but Hardy was not at the top of his game during his initial TNA run. There are two ladders in the ring before the match even starts. Jarrett tries to attack Hardy, but the challenger was ready for him. Both ladders get set up in a corner, and Hardy winds up Irish whipping Jarrett into both of them. Hardy stays in control by using the ladder as a weapon. He sets Jarrett in between the rungs of the ladder and slams them down on his back. He sets the ladder up in a V and puts Jarrett between the rungs again and stands on him, putting pressure on the ribs. Hardy hits a dropkick to the face. He tries to climb up but Jarrett blocks him. Hardy stays in control, hitting an STO. He goes for the super-over-the-ladder legdrop but Jarrett avoids it. Jarrett is in control now, whipping Hardy into the ladders. The champion makes the first attempt to climb the ladder and grab the title, but Hardy knocks him down. Hardy then slams Jarrett on a ladder and hits the Swanton Bomb. He tries to climb up but Scott Hall runs down and delivers The Edge to take Hardy down. Heavy D and TNA Security come over to remove Mr. Hall. He promises he’ll just sit and watch now, so Security takes him at his word. That’s a nice security force. Meanwhile, Hardy sets up the ladder see-saw and legdrops it, smashing Jarrett in the face. Hardy climbs the ladder. Jarrett climbs the opposite side and they slug it out. Hardy grabs Jarrett’s head and slams him off the ladder face-first into the mat. Hall pulls Hardy to the floor and slugs away on him. Jarrett tries climbing the ladder but Hardy makes it back and shoves the ladder over. Hardy goes up now and Jarrett pushes the ladder over, and Hardy actually lands on Hall outside the ring. Jarrett comes outside the ring too but Hardy whips him into Hall. Hardy grabs a chair and uses it as a launching pad to wipe out Jarrett and Hall on the floor. He then sets up a ladder on the floor for some reason, and it tips over with both of them on it. They crash to the floor and the ladder lands on Hall. They both make it back to the ring and climb on two ladders at the same time. Hardy hits a low blow and tries a Sunset Bomb but it doesn’t really work out. He then tries one from the apron to the floor but again it doesn’t really work out. Just stop it, dude. They go back to the ring and Hardy starts the climb. Hall gets back in the ring with a chair but Hardy kicks it back into his face. Hardy hits him with the Twist of Fate and the Swanton Bomb. He tries to climb again and Jarrett hits him with the chair and Hardy crumples to the mat. Jarrett start to climb and Kevin Nash finally makes his way out, with two guitars in hand. He hands one to Hall, and Hardy takes three straight guitar shots, allowing Jarrett to grab the title and retain at 18:33. They kind of had a good thing going in the early parts, but Hardy got sloppy and the interference of Hall and Nash added nothing.
Rating: **¼
Nash gets on the microphone to talk lazily about the same old crap he always talks about in TNA. They challenge anyone from the back to come out, and AJ Styles answers the call. The 3Live Kru also answers the call and somehow Jarrett, Hall, and Nash are able to beat them all up. Then we cut to outside where someone gets out of the limo and it’s Randy “Macho Man†Savage of all people. He stands there looking old and the pay-per-view goes off the air.
BONUS
The bonus features are all a series of random fan-cam type shots of stuff that happened throughout the event. I don’t know if there’s any rhyme or reason to it and frankly it all seemed pretty pointless to me and it took up 15 minutes. Why not show a bonus match or something interesting instead?
The Pulse: Well this was a series of missed opportunities. It started off well with the X-Division Gauntlet, but it pretty much went downhill from there. Jarrett going over again just reeked of same old, same old. Imagine, the kids could have said “wow, remember the time Jeff Hardy won his first World Title?†Instead they’re left asking “hey, remember the time Jeff Jarrett retained his title again?†The Last Team Standing match was surrounded by unfortunate circumstances. AJ Styles and Petey Williams could have gotten double their time when you think about all that was wasted on the DOA stuff, the women’s match and the midget match. Monsters Ball could have used some more time too. Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and Randy Savage being positioned in the main event was a horrible idea even back then. I guess this is a good summation of the history of TNA, as things haven’t really changed all that much since then.
