Results from Gerweck.net.

I was out this weekend with an illness, so not only did you not get a preview last week, but you didn’t get the review yesterday either. Well, have no fear, dear reader, you get two for the price of one today with dual commentary from Birdsong and I. Unfortunately, we weren’t at the same place at the same time to record our commentary (must be a Burt Ward / Adam West kind of thing), so you don’t get the full-on McCartney and Stevie experience, but I’m trying the best I can to make it up to everybody, especially Birdsong, who reliably did his part in getting me his preview on time so his stuff won’t go to waste.

Let me pose the opening question: will Ring of Honor supplant TNA as the #2 wrestling organization in the company now that they have PPV?”

Birdsong: These two companies are going to regret someday, that they couldn’t come to some type of agreement as far as “sharing” talent. Greed, ego, short-sightedness and constantly looking over your shoulder is what ultimately did all the territories from the 80’s in and made the WWE what it is today.

Remember how cool it was to see the Freebirds, Dusty Rhodes, Ric Flair, Mr. Wrestling II, Wahoo McDaniel and the like–all compete in different feds (AWA/World Class/NWA/Florida)–and at the same time still push their character and storylines in between the different promotions.

So to answer the question: no, they will not supplant TNA out of its spot, as that poistion has still not been cemented itself.

The Russ: I kind of feel the same way, except that when I look at all the people that post on the message boards and stuff, they acted like when ROH made the announcement that TNA was just going to fold up shop and quit. There is definitely room for them to make TNA competitive again, because they seem to have gone to the WWE-lite direction over the past year. However, if ROH is successful on pay-per-view, it will force TNA to take a good hard look at what they’re promoting, because they don’t want to end up #3.

Honestly, it made sense to me not to loan out the major TNA stars to Ring of Honor, because why would you spend $25 or $30 for a TNA show to see Samoa Joe or Chris Sabin or the like when you can spend $10 or $15 to see them on Ring of Honor. What I would have done was let ROH be like an Ohio Valley and sent your guys like the Naturals or Serotonin over there and let the guys who don’t get on PPV at all make some money over there and get some exposure, and if any of them get popular, you yank them back. Whether anybody admits it or not, they seem to be a feeder league right now anyway.

Another lesson to be learned is that while PPV makes you look successful, it is actually very expensive to produce and does not actually mean that you are successful. Look at ECW… the minute they went on PPV, they were the darlings of wrestling, but in reality their model for promotion resulted in too much growth too fast. ROH seems to be learning that lesson, as they’re not doing live shows… they’re taping their shows and playing the tape on PPV. That brings down the production costs while they wait for the audience to build. Still, just because they are running PPVs does not mean that they are going to have their own national TV show next week. Some fans seem to be putting the cart ahead of the horse already by even entertaining the idea that ROH might already be ahead of TNA.

Rhino & Senshi (with Hector Guerrero) defeated the Latin American XChange. Hector Guerrero was in the corner of the babyfaces, and Konnan was on the other side. On a side note, Konnan is apparently all about healthcare reform in the U.S. right now. Anyway, LAX’s push has cooled off because some booker thought it should be; never mind the fact that the fans HAY-TED these guys last year. Konnan threw a blackjack to Homicide, but Guerrero got in there and set up Homicide for the Gore. Good opening match, but as I say, I don’t get the de-push of the LAX.

Backstage, Our Miss Brooks tried to seduce Eric Young, but he is gay and retarded and will have none of that. Gail Kim gets in there and gets her some instead. I guess he prefers Benihana to Ruth’s Chris.

“Black Machismo” Jay Lethal defeated Chris Sabin to become X Division Champion.

Birdsong: I can’t help but to laugh at this once proud X-Division. I am humored by Jay Lethal’s impressions–but, if this division is to be taken somewhat seriously, then Chris Sabin should retain.

The Russ: You are wrong, sir. Jay Lethal is everything right about the X Division because it actually is funny, entertaining, and the crowd loves it. They need to feed off their crowds to get the audience at home interested in the shows. It doesn’t have much shelf life because we’ve heard his schtick all before, but it’s still funny. Kevin Nash, on the other hand, is everything wrong about the X Division. Check out Sonjay Dutt there throwing flowers around. He’s doing a Ghandi gimmick, not a Strawberry Alarm Clock gimmick! Anyway, the match was probably too quick, but it was action-packed. Lethal won with the flying elbow.

Frank Wycheck & Jerry Lynn (with Kyle Vanden Bosch) defeated James Storm & Ron “The Truth” Killings.

Birdsong: Hopefully, Wycheck can hold his own better than Mongo Michaels did some years ago. If he could pull off a Kevin Greene now that would be something?! And no matter how great some of his performances were in the ECW years, I still refuse to let Jerry Lynn off the hook for that whole purple-ninja era of his as Mr. JL. (But, what the hey… even Owen Hart was the Blue Blazer.) Wycheck and Lynn!!!

The Russ: To me, the whole booking of the match is skewed. If all they wanted to do with this match was boost the live house, then fine. You put Wycheck in there, let him stink up the place, but at least you got people in the door that might have been Tennessee Titans fans but not TNA fans. On the other hand, if they thought this was going to help the buyrate, Wycheck has little name recognition around the nation with the common man. He’s no Lawrence Taylor.

So, after the match started, Storm and Killings attempted to hike a football or something in the middle of their match and dropped it, which seemed to be the dopiest of cheap heat. Wycheck actually took some bumps in the match and looked better than Karl Malone, at least. Wycheck caught a superkick, and Storm tried to cover, but Vanden Bosch made the save. Storm went after Wycheck with a beer bottle, but Lynn made the save. Wycheck hit a piledriver on Storm (!) and got the cover for his team. “Wildcat” Chris Harris was supposed to be in this match, but you will see later on what became of that.

Bob Backlund defeated Alex Shelley.

Birdsong: In a year’s time, Alex Shelley will probably be working in the WWE. Got lots of potential… but what is to be gained by booking ageless wonders like Bob Backlund (and Ric Flair if you’re a WWE fan) with these young upstarts? Alex Shelley wins with the ole sunset-flip!

The Russ: The only potential you gain from a match with Bob Backlund is the potential to make the line to the john longer. Mike Tenay mentioned that Backlund hasn’t wrestled in 10 years. Even better idea… put an up-and-comer against a guy with 10 years of ring rust. Typical slow and plodding Backlund match that ended with a rollup. Of course it did. After the match, Backlund offers to shake Shelley’s hand. Chris Sabin jumped Backlund from behind, but got the crossface chicken wing. One for Shelley as well! Kevin Nash and Jerry Lynn went out to help break up the fight, but then Nash gave Lynn a big boot. Lethal ran in for the save. After the match, everybody is confused as to whose allegiance is with whom. ME TOO.

Christopher Daniels was in the crowd cutting a promo on Sting, but all it looked like was a Raven impersonation.

Voodoo Kin Mafia defeated Basham & Damaja (with Christy Hemme).

Birdsong: Man, they wouldn’t even book this match for Smackdown filler. Basham and Damaja go over to cement their status as the new bad-asses on the block. Why is TNA still investing time in VKM anyway? “Let It Go”

The Russ: VKM is the same kind of inside joke that didn’t work when Vince Russo took over WCW. There’s a reason why Ed Ferrara hasn’t been doing Jim Ross impersonations for 7 years now. And Basham and Damaja are such bad-asses that they couldn’t even cut it on Smackdown? These two guys are horrible to watch. BG James won the match, saving Kip James from a double suplex with a spear. After the match, they tried to take out that other WWE retread Christy Hemme, but Lance Hoyt ran in for the save for the heels. Blech.

Eric Young defeated Robert Roode (with Ms. Brooks).

Birdsong: Eric Young, but only via disqualification. Bobby Roode is going to be the next TNA Champion! Mark my words!

The Russ: End this feud now. It’s burning my eyes! The match was actually pretty good… I’m just tired of all the outside-the-ring antics of the past 6 months+. Brooks ran off after Young de-pantsed her. She later returned after pulling them back up again. So Young threw her at Roode’s crotch, and then hit them both with a fireman’s carry. Yes, it’s very believable that this guy is a retard. At least Nick Dinsmore has a crappy workrate to match his gimmick. Anyhow, Roode cracked Young with a chair while the referee was distracted and got the pinfall. After the match, Roode said he still owned Young and fired him. Jim Cornette went out and restarted the match. Gail Kim ran in to make a save, stopping Brooks from handing over another chair. Roode bragged about Young still not moving after the chair shot, but after picking him up, Young rolled up Roode for the win.

Team 3D defeated Rick Steiner & Road Warrior Animal to retain the TNA World Tag Team Titles.

Birdsong: Outside of his little brother, the only other guy Rick Steiner has teamed with significantly is Sting. Unfortunately, Mr. Borden is already booked in another match on this card. Team 3D is going to win regardless, but, it will be interesting to see who they get to replace Scott on such short notice.

The Russ: Nice choice for the mystery partner. It made sense and it was a nice gift to 3D, who are Road Warrior marks from back in the day. Average tag match given the personnel. The champs retained with a 3D on Steiner for the win.

Sting defeated Christopher Daniels.

Birdsong: The most intriguing of all the matches presented–and perhaps even tougher to call. Since his return, Sting hasn’t been tested. And I think Christopher Daniels is the guy that can perhaps bring some of the old Sting out. I say Daniels win, with some controversy swirl that’ll have us all waiting on pins and needles for a return match!

The Russ: This was a tough call. If you give Sting the win, you run the risk of making Daniels look weak against the main eventers. If you give Daniels the win, then you ruin Sting’s value to put over future stars like Daniels. It’s a fine line. Solid spotfest match that displayed the big spots from Daniels and a lot of sweet moves inside and outside the ring. Sting countered the Last Rites with a Scorpion Deathdrop for the win.

Abyss defeated Tomko in a No Disqualification Match. That match did something that Vince McMahon could never do–it made Tomko. I’m not saying that he’s the second coming or anything, but he looked way better in that match than he ever has. They should put him in the role Abyss has now and then slide Abyss over to be a better wrestler, because this really played to Tomko’s strengths… putting him as a brawler/bruiser type like A-Train or even Heidenreich (even though he totally sucked).

Anyway, action in and out of the ring as Abyss went for the bag-o-tax early. Of course, Abyss gets the tacks instead. That’s not enough, so Abyss goes for bag-o-broken-glass. Somewhere, Candice Bergen is screaming and Dan Aykroyd is laughing. Abyss stomped on the glass to break it up more for good measure, but of course, Abyss gets the glass instead. Somehow, I think it would be better for Abyss if he left all the bags full of office supplies and broken windows in the back. Tomko grabbed a piece of glass and knifed at Abyss’ head with it (!). Tomko then went after him with a barbed wire baseball bat. Abyss tried to get away and climbed a scaffold. Tomko used a ladder instead, but then they both fought over the bat on the scaffold. Abyss pulled him off, and Tomko fell to the floor. Abyss splashed off the scaffold, and you think that’s the end of the match, but they crawled and rolled to the ring after that. I guess we got to get the finish in here some time. Black Hole Slam into the bag-o-glass, and Abyss wins. That match probably stole the show, which probably isn’t what you want on a show with a King of the Mountain match.

Mike Tenay introduced a Jeff Jarrett video, and they did a tribute to him and his late wife Jill. I read somewhere today that she was friends with Scott Steiner’s wife Christa, and she often sat with Jill at the hospital when Jeff wasn’t there. After that, Jim Cornette said that he wanted to make Jeff Jarrett the final entrant in the King of the Mountain match, but Jarrett said that someone else should get his spot, someone who had been with TNA since Day One… “Wildcat” Chris Harris.

Kurt Angle defeated AJ Styles, Christian Cage, Samoa Joe, and Chris Harris in the King of the Mountain Match to become TNA World Heavyweight Champion.

Birdsong: Samoa Joe..hands down!

The Russ: You know, if you throw Harris in there at the last minute and make it seem like a big deal, they should have at least let the guy go over. Kurt Angle should be chasing the title. They put it on him too early, and it’s just a repeat of the finish at Sacrifice.

Anyway, the match rules are if you get pinned, you get put in a penalty box. To win, you have to hang the title belt at the top of the “mountain”. To be able to hang the title belt, you have to pin somebody else first. Confused yet? Anyway, Harris got the first pinfall on Styles, Angle got the second pinfall on Harris, and Cage got the third pinfall on Angle. Joe and Styles didn’t get a pin in the match. Anyway, if you thought the last one was a spotfest full of hardcore, this one managed to do better than even that one. At one point, Joe flipped AJ Styles over his head, off the penalty box, and through the announcer table. I guess that’s why those two never got a pin, because they ended up killing each other. While Cage and Angle fought over the ladder, Harris speared Cage from the top rope, allowing Angle to climb the ladder, hang the title, and get the win. After the match, Samoa Joe got in Angle’s face and they turned on each other.

That show might actually have been worth the money, if only for the two main events. Top-to-bottom, it was not that great, but I would have paid for at least four of those matches. Not outstanding, but not bad…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 20th, 2007 at 7:53 am and is filed under Jonathan Birdsong, Russ Ray's Rasslin' Ring, The Russ, Wrestling. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.