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Going into last night's TNA Pay-per-view, I thought the company had once again put together a solid undercard, but had a very suspect main event. And, just like with Victory Road last month, Turning Point was an event where the undercard more than made up for a lackluster feature match. I am tempted to say this was an average show, since the advertised main event came off so lame. However, that wouldn't be fair to the rest of the card, in particular two very good matches that made the show far more enjoyable, in my opinion, than last month's offering. Certainly, TNA gave fans more to sink their teeth into than some of WWE's single brand PPV events. Of course, there was also the monumental waste of time that was "Cookiegate" and the backstage segments. Here's my thoughts on the show:
I thought the live pre-show with Shane Douglas and Jeremy Borash hyping the matches in front of the live audience was well done, although the Naturals vs. Batts & Clark match probably wasn't going to entice anyone to order the event. It was just sort of "there". At least it gave the live crowd a warm-up before the PPV got underway.
Opening with 3 Live Kru vs. Team Canada was a smart move, since 3LK is tremendously over with the Florida audience. Strange that Konnan wasn't at least at ringside with BJ James and Ron Killings. The match itself was okay, nothing special though. The "fog" that was created by the pyrotechnics was pretty annoying, and especially made the wide shots look bad. Team Canada (at leas in this case) is very non-descript, but thankfully Scott D'Amore is a great heel manager and gives them a much needed dose of personality. As I wrote, the match was okay, but the finish looked bad, with BG James staring right at Johnny Devine as he turned around the hockey stick in front of him when he realized he was holding it wrong. Devine also stayed in the ring way too long after hitting the shot. Sort of took the bout down a notch for me.
The X Division six-man tag team match was the Match Of The Night for me (although I can understand those that went with the cage match). It was just such a well worked match, with Kash, Shane and Kazarian working over Dutt to set up the hot tag at the end of the bout. Rather than just a cluster of highspots, this was a smartly put together bout that saw a lot of subtle touches that too many wrestlers don't employ (or don't know how to employ). Things like Kash using his free leg to push his trapped leg out of a hold and Dutt not allowing Kazarian to trip him twice with the same move are the types of things that makes a match seem "more real". Even when Hector Garza slipped on the ropes, he didn't try to redo the spot, and instead moved on. Just a great effort by all six-men, and really had the crowd rocking at this point.
Monty Brown and Abyss are perfect examples of two talents going in different directions. Brown is showing more and more "star potential" every time out, and should be carefully guided into the main event picture. Abyss, the devastating monster, was made to look goofy with the balloon bit in the "Cookiegate" segments. Why would a vicious monster take balloons to anyone? All it does is kill his aura. It also seemed bizarre that a monster would throw away his bag of thumbtacks just because his opponent already spread his out. The match was decent, although neither are really in the position of being a ring general. Just when I was thinking "they need to get to the finish" they started to, so that was a point in their favor. As for the finish, and Abyss not hitting the tacks with his back (and boy, now we know why he wears a shirt in the ring!), it is just one of those things that happens on a live TV show that you can't harp on. At least some of the tacks went in, and the camera was able to close in on them.
If there was a "bathroom" match on the show, it was The NYC vs. Pat Kenney & Johnny B. Badd. The match came off like a total afterthought, and even the diehard TNA fans probably didn't care about it, since none of these guys have even appeared on Impact lately. Swinger and Kenny could probably have had a better singles match, and both are sorely underused. Badd showed a lot more in an Impact squash a month ago than he did here. And what is Glen Gilberti doing wrestling on a PPV? He's a decent heel manager (and D'Amore is way better), but he's just atrocious in the ring. This also killed the crowd, and it was obvious that some "sweetening" of the sound was going on here, as fans sitting on their hands usually don't create that much noise.
I expected Raven and Diamond Dallas Page to work hard, and they did. No matter what you think of them, both men have always had a good work ethic when the bell rings. You can tell DDP enjoys being in the ring, and involved in wrestling. The fans also take to him as a real "star" which is a big help to TNA. That said, I thought there were far too many kickouts of finishers in this bout, and also thought it didn't help Raven that, even with Erik Watts turning on Page, DDP was still able to get the win. A good match, but not great. Still, DDP and Raven are great assets to this company.
While not as spectacular as the cage match or well worked as the X-Division six-man, I liked the Petey Williams-Chris Sabin match and felt it was easily the third best bout on the show. Very good action, although both are still a little green in "connecting the pieces of the puzzle", but that will only come with experience. Sabin is a little ahead of Williams at this point, but Williams is showing marked improvement as well. The finish was sort of "eh" and made it two PPV events in a row where a good Williams match was followed with a very "screwy" finish. It's okay for a heel to cheat to win, after all he is a heel, but something more dramatic than the old brass knucks bit would have been nice. I wonder if they will push for a rematch next month, or put Hector Garza (who has two PPV wins in a row now) in the position of challenging Williams.
Wow, is TNA following the WCW pattern or what? Once again, a solid undercard with some very good action was followed with a "star-laden" but otherwise totally under whelming main event. For started, the closing of Impact from Friday (Styles and Hardy down, a car speeding towards Savage) was totally ignored and forgotten at the PPV. Then they did the "kidnapping" of Savage, who miraculously returned later without even having a scratch on him. Of course, we were treated to a handicap match before his return, which seemed to consist of Hall, Nash and Jarrett selling Styles' dropkicks, and little else. I felt really bad for AJ Styles being stuck in this bout. As for Jeff Hardy, well, he was there. That's about all that I can say for his performance. He's got his fans, but I don't see him winning over new ones. Maybe in part because I had such low expectations for them, Hall and Nash were actually fine here. As for the big finish, Randy Savage was a total flop, looking very un-Macho Man in his long sleeve shirt and smaller than I can ever remember seeing him. A few punches, a sleeper and (as Mike Johnson put it on the Elite recap show) "gingerly" lowering himself onto Jarrett for the pin was all Savage brought to the match. Now, I want to stress that there is nothing wrong with Savage being "smaller" than in his prime, and it is certainly understandable given his time away from the ring. However, Shawn Michaels has shown that you can lose size but still be in great condition. Savage coming out covered head to toe leads me to believe that Savage has fallen out of shape. Obviously, they are pushing towards a Jarrett-Savage singles match at the next PPV. However, after seeing this, TNA should take whatever money they are paying Savage and toss it at Sting instead. At least he can make a good accounting of himself in the ring.
Whoever made the call to end the PPV with the cage match instead of the advertised main event deserves a raise. America's Most Wanted and Triple X erased the memory of their bomb last month with a great bout to end the PPV on a high note. Interestingly, I thought there was a decided lack of heat early in the match, and it was scary how it seemed no one in the crowd popped for Chris Harris unlocking himself from the handcuffs. However, the second half of the match more than made up for it, with the last seven minutes being absolutely incredible, and some of the best action TNA has produced. Elix Skipper has grapefruits the size of basketballs for walking across the cage to hit the rana after slipping off twice while trying to steady himself. Skipper gave a career performance here, and I hope TNA has something planned for him now that Triple X is done. Christopher Daniels should be in the main event mix yesterday (and not in an Elvis outfit either). As for America's Most Wanted, I imagine they will be heading back towards the tag belts. A great ending to the show, and to reiterate, they were wise to close with this, as there is no way the six-man could follow this.
As for the non-wrestling portion of the show, I thought "Cookiegate" was just stupid. I don't think TNA did any favors for themselves by having Mike Tenay act like WWE was silly for threatening to sue over the footage (even if they were). If WWE was silly for wanting to sue, what does it say for TNA, who spent three hours (and a few weeks, really) making such a big deal about the tape? Some TNA workers raided the catering table at a WWE commercial taping. Ohhhh, how rebellious! I don't blame TNA for taking a shot at getting some press and attention off of WWE, especially since WWE did walk right into their backyard, but they came off as being "gutless wonders" here. They were right at the door of the studio, but instead of walking in, they just hung out at the catering table and ate some salad. Them blurring out almost everything on the screen also gave the impression that TNA was "wimping out" in showing the footage. Big deal, they got some shots of Rey Mysterio hugging his old friend Konnan. Whatever.
As for the "Vince and son" bits, I chuckled at the first one, but as the show went on, it just got dumber and dumber. Really, it just became a monumental waste of time, and looked very low rent. Besides, how many people even got the cookie and balloon references (at least, before the footage was shown later)? Some post-match interviews, particularly with Erik Watts or Chris Sabin, could have been used instead of these sketches. TNA only has four hours of TV to build to a PPV, it would be a good idea to get the ball rolling right away. As for the "big payoff", what is the point of "Vince" getting hit in the groin by a midget? It's as if some halfwit was writing the skits and thought "Hey, grown men getting hit in the groin by a midget is funny, let's do that!" Just a waste of time.
Assorted notes: Mike Tenay did a great job, as always, and put over storylines and the importance of matches in addition to calling the action. ... Don West has improved greatly over the last two years, but it is still painful when he doesn't know the difference between a chokeslam and a powerbomb. He could use some more schooling in basics. ... Production was fine, except for the smoke problems in the opener. ... If you are going to have Hawaiian Tropic girls standing at ringside all night, someone should probably tell them to smile and at least act like they are having a good time. ... A very hot crowd for most of the night, and the few times they weren't hot, technology seemed to step in. ... Was anyone else fearing a Honky Tonk Man appearance during the opening bit with the Kings Of Wrestling. Oh, and someone should tell them that "KOW" isn't nearly as catchy as NWO.
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