Jump to content
Pro Wrestling Only

[2004-06-23-NWA TNA] A.J. Styles vs Jeff Hardy


GOTNW

Recommended Posts

This is Hardy's TNA debut. Enthusiastic crowd cheers him on and it goes much better than his legendary ROH debut did. Soaking it in like they did was the right call. Mechanically AJ was leagues above Hardy here, and Jeff's usualy sloppiness seemed to be even more of an issue here, probably due to his unfamiliarity with the six sided ring and I assume he was a mess at the time since WWE got rid of him. Most of the action here was OK. I thought the chop dare spots were stupid but liked AJ kicking Hardy when he grew tired of him and him shoving Jeff's wacky hand sign aside was a cool moment and we got the usual non-finish. **1/2

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Usual non-finish ? All X-div matches had finishes at this point, it's totally an exception to the rule here.

What is also an exception to the rule since AJ got his belt back, is that this match just isn't very good. Hardy looks sloppy, and the six-sided ring excuse doesn't fly, he always looked sloppy anyway. AJ had memorable matches with about everybody in TNA (with the exception of some bad Double J Specials and Ron Killings, who's a shitty worker) and this isn't one of them. Hardy sure brings "name recognition" as the heat it terrific, with dueling chants which were welcome as I would hate people forgetting about their ace AJ just because a WWE guy shows up. He doesn't bring much more though. When you got execution machines like Sabin, Kazarian, Dutt and even guys like Michael Shane, not to mention great workers like Chris Daniels, Hardy just look bigger and sloppy. Sure was a nice addition to the roster as far as "star-power" went (although he really was not a star in WWE at this point, way before his main event stint and after the ladder stunt shows were kinda forgotten at this point), but as far as work goes, he's in the low tier of the promotion judging on this match alone. Sure has a lot do to gain stock with me. AJ was ace though, acting a little annoyed and flying around the big goof (yeah, Hardy looks big here, because he's actually a rather tall guy). I'm pretty sure Kid Kash would have looked better.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • GSR changed the title to [2004-06-23-NWA TNA] A.J. Styles vs Jeff Hardy

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...