Project Rewatch: TNA - The Good Shit

[G. Badger]

Austin Aries, Roderick Strong and Alex Shelley vs Christopher Daniels, Chris Sabin and AJ Styles - IMPACT! 1/7/06

 

 

Surfing YouTube and this match washed up. No idea that this dream match up occurred or at least in this form. Usually TNA would throw Sonjay Dutt or Michael Shane or someone far worse in there to muddy the waters just a little bit. Like "ah it's almost all A level workers but dammit there's so and so."

 

Here we have in essence Generation Next reformed taking on Chris Daniels, Sabin, and AJ. Holy crap, that's a pretty match on paper especially in 2017.

 

Its roughly 10 minutes so, its no classic or even a great match but, man they do a 100% spot on balls to the wall sprint. No shenanigans or run ins like I was expecting. Dives, double teams, tilt a whirl moves like they're going out of style, AJ in peril etc.

 

Plus Alex Shelley does the Embassy pose which was funny and confusing for a sec

 

Anyhow, very fun stuff...like a golden age ROH midcard match that just happened to be on TNA.

[G. Badger]

Alex Shelley, Roderick Strong & Austin Aries vs Matt Bentley, Sonjay Dutt & Chris Sabin - 1/15/06

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WADCrpxNx2g

 

Humorously, the following match from Gen Next in TNA is from the Final Resolution '06 ppv and features Sonjay Dutt, Michael Shane (Matt Bentley) and interference leading to the pinfall!

 

What the hell!? Many reasons TNA was goofy as all get-out but, putting a TV level match on PPV where money is paid seems awfully asinine.

 

Or did TNA do WCW Saturday Night style tapings? Like we're taping a months worth of stuff in a day...then we'll edit it to make sense or fit time restrictions. The "Impact Zone" looked like the the same studio. Can't believe they would do that for PPVs though...

 

Anyhow, the match is good but, is very TV caliber. Sonjay doesn't botch anything but, Shane/Bentley is kinda bland for a fireworks type match.

[Mad Dog]

I think they were either taping 2 weeks at a time during this era or they would tape on a Tuesday and air it on Thursday or Saturday,

[G. Badger]

Going through some of older posts and stumbled on these Good Shit posts that Supersonic did a few years back. These were pretty helpful. Thought I would compile some of my TNA reviews and share them here again for folks that want to go back and watch.

Samoa Joe vs AJ Styles (TNA Sacrifice 08/14/05): I thought this was a fantastic meeting of two of this generation's best wrestlers. It was really everything you could hope for in a match between AJ & Joe. Athletic, intense, and surprising. Also thought the ending was good for the match/story as well. A 100% clean finish or draw would have been preferred but, I think this match is still a classic.

 Samoa Joe vs Jushin Liger (TNA Bound For Glory 10/23/05): Amazing cool entrance by Joe and Liger's wasn't too shabby with his NJ music, full shoulder pads, and streamers. Liger, sized wise, looked like a good match for Joe. Shorter but, thick as Joe. Crowd was amped.
Joe pretty much did his 'standard' TNA act here but, Liger switched it up from his 2005 routine and played it like a younger junior taking on the heavyweight. So, we got a few moments of brilliance from Liger as well as him taking to the air.The only thing stopping this from being a great match was the time it was given. It reminded me of a Fire Pro Wrestling match where you get a Critical just as you're starting to amp things up. Highly recommended match and a successful dream match in my book.

Jeff Jarrett vs Rhyno (Turning Point 2005): This was a good to very good hardcore match. It was a lot fun as it was mainly a bunch of different spots around the arena. There were some different one like of a scaffolding and using the entrance tunnel. It was a Double J match so it was overbooked in the end but it was enjoyable. Also a couple folks I don't recall like A1 for Team Canada and Jackie Gayda (va va voom)... but got this odd feeling of nostalgia for something I didn't experience. This is right before I got back into wrestling and there's something very early 2000's about seeing those two but never knowing or hearing about them prior. Hahaha it's just they seem to perfectly represent the blind spot of American from the 2000's that I still have. 
 
Samoa Joe vs AJ Styles (TNA Turning Point 12/11/05): AJ took it right to Joe and set the tone for this match. Intense and physical as hell. It was full of nice surprises,teases, hard way blood from both guys, and fantastic pacing. Plus, the post match kept the story going setting up Daniels vs Joe. This really is a classic match alongside anything they did in ROH. Its really a testament to how TNA was mismanaged. Styles, Joe, and Daniels could have been having classics like these for the Heavyweight belt for a few years instead we got 2000 era WCW redux and all kinds of other stupidity.

From Against All Odds 2006:

Roderick Strong & Austin Aries vs The Naturals - Wow ROH tag team royalty taking on a Hardy Boyz  type indie team. Its pretty good stuff with Aries & Strong looking best with the Naturals doing their cools moves like a Shooting Star body block to the floor, double team moves etc. 

Alex Shelley vs. Petey Williams vs. Matt Bentley vs. Jay Lethal in a Four Way X Division Match - Shelley rocking the two tone hair like Suwama. Fun action match that's well paced and told some fun stories. Wish we got  more Shelley & Jay because they were the best. 

Sonjay Dutt and Chris Sabin vs. America's Most Wanted - Really good tag match. Sabin & Duty are underdogs based on size alone. But then the AMW target Sabin's recently repaired leg and things look dire. Sabin does a great job hanging in there and making the hot tag to Sonjay. He goes ape shit with the cool moves to the offish tag champs. Really nice simple but well executed story match. 

Rhino vs Abyss (Falls Count Anywhere) - Best match so far although it didn't resemble a wrestling match. The bunk house brawl match in other times. Rhino looked really exciting here (which is an uncommon thing). Abyss is his usual plodding self like early Kane but it works since he's the only monster in the promotion. Anyhow this is your ECW style match. Its pretty back & forth since they're big tough guys. Nice garbage swinging especially the trophy spot. Good tease of the high spot and fantastic unique finish. Maybe it was telegraphed a little once the pieces fell into place but screw it - it was pretty sick! Very good to great stuff!

Samoa Joe vs Christopher Daniels vs AJ Styles - The REAL main event and it definitely delivers! Daniels just gets brutalized by Joe but Daniels hits a vertical Death Valley Driver that evens the score. AJ is bumping and diving. There's a lot going on with the spots and sequences. I think the only thing that stops this from being a ****1/2 classic is some of spots seemed too contrived to be done more than once a match. There were some 3 man spots that were call backs to earlier ones that you kinda saw before. BUT!!! they still worked and kept things exciting and interesting. So I'd still call this a near classic match, ****1/4 and match of the night. Just lots to enjoy here from a work rate perspective.

Jeff Jarrett vs Christian Cage - A good match that gets a little sloppy down the road (not sloppy but not smooth either). And like many TNA main events, especially with Jarrett, has too much scrap booked. There's Earl Hebner in his first TNA match and they referenced the Screw job in commentary and in a spot. Then he keeps getting knocked down or out so no one can count the pin. Then another ref comes out and they do the same thing. Then Gail Kim is doing stuff and there's foreign objects etc. So I mean it's fun & the crowd was having fun. Stylistically I don't think this was any different from what WWE was doing.

LAX (Homicide and Hernandez) vs AJ Styles & Christopher Daniels (Bound for Glory 2006): Steel cage match for the tag titles. This was a big selling point for this DVD and it delivered! Non stop action, ghetto fork, coat hanger chokes, double teams, moves off and into the cage, and a helluva finisher. Classic TNA tag match without a doubt. 

Rhino vs Christian Cage (1st TNA Impact episode 2006): Rhino has got his original spelling back. Christian and the War Machine have some history and we get a nice feud that culminated in this barb wire cage match (plus extras). Of course it's more spots but damn they picked some good ones. Plus neither guy is afraid of taking a few big bumps. Everything looked really good here - reversals, sick bumps, a little bit of the wire, and finally some real time crimson mask. Plus a pretty awesome finish! Very much what everyone wanted and I was pretty happy with it too. 

Samoa Joe vs Kurt Angle (Genesis 2006):This still holds up after 3 or 4 viewings over the years. I was a hard fought battle between... ah shoot you already know by now. It's a little quick in my opinion. I think they transition too quickly and its because they make Kurt too strong... he doesn't shake off Joe's offense but he doesn't really sell it either. The atmosphere they create is electric and they accomplish what they set out to do. I wish they slowed down a little but its a great start. Kurt cuts himself a gusher...classic Perc Angle moments in this one.

From Turning Point 2006

Jay Lethal vs. Alex Shelley vs. Senshi vs. Sonjay Dutt vs. Austin Starr (Paparazzi Championship Series Five Man Elimination Match) - Austin Starr is Austin Aries and Senshi is Low-Ki. Very good multi man match, the paparazzi stuff has something to do with Shelley &Aries' gimmick under the tutelage of Kevin Nash. Who cares but all that talent in one ring, that's worthwhile.

Christopher Daniels (c) vs. Chris Sabin - Great match much like the previous match. Both guys in 2006, hard to go wrong.

Rhino vs. AJ Styles - Not a giant Rhino fan but man this was great! Basically starts as an ECW brawl and you've got a big man and a guy who'll bump for him. Lots a of hate and great spots. Finish was pretty good given the story.

America's Most Wanted (Chris Harris & James Storm) (w/Gail Kim) vs. LAX (Flag Ladder Tag Team Match): Very good, all spots really but it was entertaining and crazy at times but I thought the gimmick finish was typical TNA. It sets up one of the best TNA matches (Harris vs Storm) but still...

Abyss (c) (w/James Mitchell) vs. Sting vs. Christian Cage - This was pretty good even though the finish was TNA at its worst putting an angle over match quality and happy fans at the end. I honestly don't know how the finish even made sense.

Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe - They cleverly tease another TNA finish but it isn't to be and we get a clean finish and a classic match. Kurt was pretty much in business for himself here but it works out in the end.

James Storm vs Chris Harris (Sacrifice 2007):  These guys just beat each other senseless from beginning to end. Stiff as you'll see in TNA, great spots that actually surprise you, intensity and buckets of blood. Harris gets a good one but Storm damn near Muta's himself (fantastic spot that "busts him open"). He's wearing the crimson mask, he's drizzling blood everywhere (you can see this best when setting up a table on the outside), and actually when at rest is leaving puddles of the sanguine substance on the floor and in the ring...the intensity, the stiffness, the creative and high risk spots and absolute gusher Storm blades..this is a 5. Plus it's  classic TNA match especially if you know the history between these two in AMW and how things got to this point.

Tomko vs Abyss (Slammiversary 2007): No DQ match but its a death match. And it's done right for a fairly mainstream audience. The thumb tacks and glass mean something. The BIG bumps mean something. It was a spectacle like an old Onita death match and they did it right (which he didn't always do). I am not 100% sure on the glass not being sugar glass but shoot it works either way. I thought this was great with the tacks, glass, barb wire bat and big bumps.

Kurt Angle vs Jeff Jarrett (Genesis 2009 January) : This was a No DQ match that was very much an Attitude Era throw back. Boxes were getting checked off:  Big bumps, blood, chair shots, etc. But it felt good given the age of the two. I mean Jeff almost lawn darted on a suicide dive and damn near missed the table on a big spot. It worked because they sold the hate. This was a very, very good match.

Kurt Angle vs AJ Styles (Table match, January '09, Impact TV bout) : The intro video does a great job recapping the AJ & Kurt saga...One I'm very fond of. In a nutshell, Tomko (remember him?) and AJ are tag partners and part of Team Angle. Kurt's babe of an (ex)wife is introduced here as well. Kurt is a egocentric tool and AJ is protecting her. Kurt thinks there's romance brewing but AJ & Karen say they're just friends. They say this is after all of that but I sorta remember that running into this period of the Main Event Mafia (groan) vs the non former WWF /WCW wrestlers. Anyways, this was a good TV match but it should be clear that TNA was becoming WCW part deux.

Kurt Angle vs Sting (Empty Arena Match Grudge match, Impact TV February '09): This is a battle I remember loving. It felt like something very special to see on TV. I still feel that way (even after all we've seen in the past year). Other than the fantastic and hilarious finish where Kevin Nash yells at them like an angry father (see below), this was a great battle. You could argue that this was more WCW flash backs but, if its done right, there's no problem to me. This was an instance where they did it right. I would give that credit to Sting and Kurt wanting to still put on a good show. It'd be wrong for me to call this a classic match BUT with the match combined with the ending, this was a Classic bit of TNA Impact TV!

Sabin vs Shelley vs Homicide vs Daniels vs Amazing Red vs Suicide (Bound for Glory, October '09, Ultimate X match) : Red was the champ and this was a free for all, the MCMG fought as a team and came out as a team. Yeah in hindsight they were in here just to spice shit up.And really that's all this was - top notch high risk spot match. It is neat that you have all of this talent but also bummer that they're not fighting for the World Title. They were just so afraid of pushing them beyond the X division. This should have been the main event as it was thrilling and the fans were crazy about it.

AJ Styles vs Sting (Bound for Glory, October '09): A simple but effective World title fight. It reminded me of Sting facing a young version of himself in AJ Styles. You could say it was a little disappointing if you bought the PPV and thought they would top Ultimate X but on tape and a decade removed, its a great match.

Kurt Angle vs Desmond Wolfe (Turning Point, November '09) : Its not great when you don't have anything worthwhile for 9 months from your top star to put on the DVD. But here we are! Desmond Wolfe has been gunning for Kurt and has decimated him on TV. Now they have a match to settle things. OK...I'm going to get my rant from 11 years ago out of the way. Why the hell did they change the name and character of Nigel McGuinness? He had so much hype coming from ROH and they just KILLED it by doing this. Doing this seemed like such WCW/WWF level bullshit. Its not worth going into but even Nigel (I know its not his real name but he's used it everywhere else in wrestling) says in a promo/vignette something like, ' I'm going by the name of Desmond Wolfe at the moment ' when introducing himself. He or whoever wrote the segment knew there was still cross over between ROH and TNA and they should acknowledge that this guy was someone else somewhere else. That is convoluted to write but its because it is a convoluted idea! All I can hope is Nigel didn't want to tarnish the character and his legacy by jobbing in TNA. And I can support that with hindsight on my side because he was a mid card jobber to the stars in the promotion. They tried to do the British team thing again but I had fucking tuned out of TNA a little after seeing what they did to my boy! :(Spoiler alert!!! The writing above should give you an idea on the outcome of this match. It is a great match. Its Kurt big-match-by-numbers but Nigel...I mean Desmond is masterful. To use a line from The Dark Night Returns, this isn't a wrestling ring. Its an operating table and Desmond Wolfe is the surgeon.

Samoa Joe vs Daniels vs AJ Styles (Turning Point, November '09, 3 way, TNA 2009 Best Bout): Best Bout? You better believe it! This was a classic work rate match showing their 2005 classic was no fluke. This is in the Top 10 Best TNA matches that I've seen. I remember the build up to this and it was great to see Christopher Daniels as "himself" instead of Curry Man. I missed his early years in TNA and had only heard of these three's 5 star match. I was really jazzed up about this but I never bought TNA shows since I was worried about cheap finishes. So its fantastic to finally see this and know that it lived up to the hype. That said, I don't know how it would stack up  against a ROH three way match in 2009 but would still put it at the ****1/2 level.