Jump to content
Pro Wrestling Only

[2005-05-20-TNA-Impact] Abyss vs Chris Sabin


El-P

Recommended Posts

The Scott D'Amore booked era might already have begun for all I know, although Dusty's still on board. This episode of Impact, one of the last on Fox, was easily the best in a long while, maybe ever. It was capped off by a really good TV match between Abyss, whom the crowd want to cheer despite his alignement with Jarrett, and Chris Sabin, who is in the middle of a feud with Michael Shane/Matt Bentley (the name is changed on PPV at this time, oddly enough). Abyss proves again he is actually a good worker when he's given the right guy, and Sabin bumps like hell, making the mad trucker turned SM fetichist look like, well, a monster. Excellent, spectacular beatdown, with nicely timed and paced hope spots and comebacks. Abyss also has no issue bumping for Sabin's offense. Mea culpa maxima on Abyss, I was wrong about this guye. Sabin is also on point here, not doing anything stupid. It almost comes down to Sabin going for a win when Micheal Shane jumps in and screws him. Post-match has Abyss turning Jarrett's handshake into a Black Hole Slam, which had the crowd pop big time. Jarrett's maneurism leading to the spot were perfect. So there, an excellent segment overall. Maybe indicating of the best months of the company to come under D'Amore's booking ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...

Dusty was already gone at this point, as the Hard Justice PPV (the Sabin/Shane feud featured the Trinity/Traci double turn at this PPV, with Traci turning heel on Sabin and getting back together with Shane, with Trinity turning face by default, the name change comes a couple months later, around the time he and Traci turn face) and the last two FSN Impacts were the beginning of the D'Amore era. I do remember these two Impacts as being probably the best FSN Impacts ever as they were more well-rounded shows than the Dusty and Jarrett booked Impacts beforehand (less focus on the likes of DDP, Savage, Nash, and Billy Gunn in the main event, Trytan was depushed in a big way, the Harris Brothers were gone, Abyss and Raven stopped jobbing on every PPV, NASCAR drivers weren't getting pins on X Division wrestlers... Jeff Hammond pinned Kazarian before he left for a short WWE run on Velocity, where he was undefeated), which is how the Spike Impacts were until Russo showed up, though there were signs of burnout after Slammiversary (this would have been a little after the one year mark, which is often when burnout starts to take effect) with Jarrett winning the belt back, the X Division Jackass angle, etc.

 

I do remember this match being really good, as Sabin's a really good babyface and high flyers tend to mesh well with power wrestlers as a rule. It's performances like this and his matches with Joe and Low Ki (BFG 2006) that show that Sabin is actually a good worker and not all about the spots. Abyss was a pretty good power wrestler at this time, until sometime in the Russo era, and was about more than just hardcore matches.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dusty was already gone at this point, as the Hard Justice PPV (the Sabin/Shane feud featured the Trinity/Traci double turn at this PPV, with Traci turning heel on Sabin and getting back together with Shane, with Trinity turning face by default, the name change comes a couple months later, around the time he and Traci turn face) and the last two FSN Impacts were the beginning of the D'Amore era. I do remember these two Impacts as being probably the best FSN Impacts ever as they were more well-rounded shows than the Dusty and Jarrett booked Impacts beforehand (less focus on the likes of DDP, Savage, Nash, and Billy Gunn in the main event, Trytan was depushed in a big way, the Harris Brothers were gone, Abyss and Raven stopped jobbing on every PPV, NASCAR drivers weren't getting pins on X Division wrestlers... Jeff Hammond pinned Kazarian before he left for a short WWE run on Velocity, where he was undefeated), which is how the Spike Impacts were until Russo showed up, though there were signs of burnout after Slammiversary (this would have been a little after the one year mark, which is often when burnout starts to take effect) with Jarrett winning the belt back, the X Division Jackass angle, etc.

 

Thanks for the clarifications and infos ! I totally agree by Slammiversary you can feel the first signs of burnout. The King of the Mountain finish being the first real bad stain on the booking. The Jackass stuff was so bad you could almost think Russo was already writing, although I believe he was not given the reigns before the move to prime time after BFG that year (2006).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • GSR changed the title to [2005-05-20-TNA-Impact] Abyss vs Chris Sabin

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...