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Last night's Turning Point PPV was aptly named for TNA as it was a big step forward from the promotion's Victory Road show and a huge leap from the weekly shows. My live coverage of the show can be found elsewhere on the main page of the site, so here are my thoughts, broken down by segment:
The Pre-Game: Although it wasn’t a Earth shattering match, the free bout featuring the Naturals vs. Mikey Batts & Jerelle Clark was a welcome addition to the pre-show. In the future, I would try to use the match as a way to incite buyers – “If you think what you are seeing now is amazing, wait until the PPV!†with some X-Division performers. Did they march Jimmy Hart out there as a way to make fans think Hulk Hogan was in the house?
Opening Video: This was a good opening video, although the Kings of Wrestling stuff took away from the seriousness of the situation. I forgot to mention this on my Impact TV report last week, but that footage of AJ Styles hitting Scott Hall and then scampering away with all the babyfaces looks like a scene out of Degrassi Junior High or something. It’s so funny and it’s not meant to be.
NWA Tag Team championship: This was a decent opener, although I’d like to see Ron Killings more prominently displayed by the promotion. The other downside was that this was the same finish we always, always, always see for Team Canada. Beyond that, it was OK and the crowd helped make it that way because of how much they are into 3LK.
The X-Division six man tag: During our Elite Section post-PPV gameshow last night, Buck Woodward and I argued over which match was better – the Six Sides of Steel or the X-Division six man. I say the Cage wins. That said, Sonjay Dutt had the best performance I have ever seen him in last night. Dutt looked more like Ricky Morton than anything I can think of as his arm was worked over by all three heels in the six man tag. When he finally was able to make that tag, the fans bought it because of how well the match was laid out and how well everyone worked. Hector Garza, primed for a big TNA push looked as spectacular as always, while Sonny Siaki was booked well as he helped set up the big spots and add some power to the babyfaces when they needed it. The spot with Tracy Brooks at the end was great too. Kudos to everyone involved. Michael Shane and Kazarian are a really great team, it’s amazing to think that TNA had pondered splitting them awhile back. I wouldn’t touch that trip with Brooks for anything.
Serengeti Survival: I thought this was decent, although they built up to one spot and it didn’t really deliver because of how Abyss landed. How funny is it that TNA always pushes the family friendly card in their press releases and here’s the second PPV in a row with a guy landing on tacks? That cracks me up. I am a big fan of Brown, although he still needs a lot of work. The injury on Impact played a big part in Brown becoming mortal and selling like any other wrestler and it worked. Abyss works really hard and is really an underrated performer as well. This wasn’t a match that anyone should go out of their way to get the replay for, but if you wanted to see a decent match with a good table spot, some decent brawling, and a cringe-inducing closeup of Abyss.
NYC vs. Badd & Kenney: This was the worst thing on the show, completely just tossed onto the card for no reason. If Trinity wasn’t there, there was no real need for Jacqueline. Pat Kenney needs to go back to being Simon Diamond, yesterday and if TNA is only going to toss him on useless matches once a month on PPV, it’s time to let him try to better himself elsewhere. The NYC try hard, Badd looks good, and Kenney is a great performer but they could have easily given this time to another match instead of throwing them all out there to the crowd cold, where no one cared or wanted to see it, and they had no shot of winning the fans over. Sometimes, less is more and this is a good example of that.
DDP vs. Raven: They put together a decent match, although I would like to see the drop toehold into a chair retired by Raven. I really enjoyed the brawl at the onset and they had some good false finishes. Do Druids always wear jeans under their garb? The Erik Watts turn could be seen coming a mile away, but it needed a post-match interview to explain what the hell was going on and why it happened and ties into Raven. They also needed at least to push after the fact that fans needed to tune into Impact! to get some answers.
X-Division Championship: This was the match that was needed on the first PPVwith Petey Williams vs. AJ Styles in my opinion, but this was a really fun back and forth athletic encounter that saw both guys come out looking really strong. The only downside was the lame finish of Scott D’Amore interfering and Williams using brass knuckles for the pin. D’Amore and Team Canada are great performers but they deserve better material to work with, especially when Williams is having one of the best matches of his career. I hope they TNA is thinking rematch and not planning to drop the storyline, as they did with the AJ Styles title challenge after Victory Road. The crowd really helped this match as they were chanting all over the place and into everything. Much like the ECW fans of old helped make the product, the Florida fans are starting to help shape TNA’s.
Kings of Wrestling vs. Team TNA: First off, The Kings of Wrestling music and outfits make the Outsiders look like second rate Honkytonk Man knockoffs. They are good for hiding how much older the two have gotten, though. Jeff Jarrett made the right move not coming out in his. I did pop for the guitar that shot pyro, though. The match did lay out a good story featuring AJ Styles and Jeff Hardy being outnumbered and Kevin Nash needs to be given credit for selling hard for Styles in particular. If he continues for another year, he’ll have taken the first step towards rehabilitating his reputation. When Randy Savage came out, I honestly thought it was Tod Gordon for a second, which isn’t a good thing as today I saw someone else post that on a message board that focuses on TNA. The finish to the match made the NWA championship look silly as after all the offense we saw all night, Jarrett goes down to the sleeper and a knee on the chest. If the idea was to give AJ Styles and Jeff Hardy a rub, I don’t think that anyone accomplished that goal. If they wanted to explain why Savage has been wearing that leather jacket, mission accomplished. I have always liked Savage's work in general but none of this stuff in his current storyline makes any sense – how did he know the Kings of Wrestling were going to take over last month? What happened to the car that screeched at him and the others at the end of Impact? How did he get back to the Arena after getting beat up? Who beat up Styles & Hardy on Impact? If we aren’t told these things, they aren’t important. If they aren’t important, WHY DO THEM?
WWE Footage: Back in Extreme Championship Wrestling, The Public Enemy had a promo mocking WCW and Ric Flair that was absolutely hysterical. I liked it then and although I don’t think TNA should remind anyone that they are second in the race, I thought the vignettes with “Vince†and “Triple H†were funny. I don’t know that we needed 4-5 of them, but the idea of HHH calling Vince Daddy as he ran away from Abyss was priceless. I could have done without the little person beating up McMahon though. The actual WWE footage was so silly that I wondered why anyone cared about it, much less promoted it for PPV buys. If Bob Holly didn’t get fired for being the hell out of Rene Dupree, Rey Mysterio’s got nothing to be worried about...right? Mike Tenay’s comment wondering why WWE was so upset only made me ask, “Why was TNA promoting this so hard?†I don’t think 3 Live Kru eating WWE’s catering was even funny, but that was me. So, a mixed bag, depending on your tastes.
The Steel Cage Match: I said last night that I believed this to have been the best match in TNA history and after watching the tape this afternoon, I absolutely still believe so. There have been some good matches in TNA in the past, but always with an asterik of a poor finish or a match that was building, only to be cut short. The spotlight was on all four and everyone delivered. Christopher Daniels and Chris Harris are always given credit for how hard they work, but James Storm took a huge step last night and Elix Skipper just gave TNA the exclamation point they needed for a highlight reel of TNA footage when it's shown to prospective advertisers, licensees, and networks. They told a great story, had enough time to do it, was violent enough to make me think back to the good old days of Jim Crockett Promotions, and had that a few insane spots that made fans go, "Holy sh**!" Thumbs up bigtime for TNA and everyone involved in that one.
Overall: This is worth checking out a replay of, just for the work of the performers. I said before the Victory Road PPV that I felt that AJ Styles vs. Petey Williams should have closed the show. For the same reasons, I was happy to see the cage close out as no one, especially not the Jarrett six man, could have topped the extremely great job everyone there did. Some fans may get turned off by the WWE silliness, but as I wrote, I thought it was cute although pointless in the long run, unless they really wanted to put themselves on Vince’s radar. It’s all a matter of how you like your wrestling PPVs. If you want to see some awesome wrestling, this was the show for you though. I say get the replay and hope that this is the start of a long streak of good TNA shows in our future.
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