Thumbs up!
Best Match: AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe
Worst Match: Team 3D Nasty Boys
The show was much better than last months but still lacked in certain areas.
Pope vs Wolfe: I only wish this match had gotten more time, short but fun while it lasted and a great opener. ***
Morgan vs Hernandez: The match was somewhat sloppy but had a good finishing stretch. *1/2
Angle vs Anderson: I thought this match was somewhat of an upset and was the beginning of what would be a long night of excellent heel actions by Anderson. Not the best Angle match I ever saw but it was still Angle and it was still good. **1/2
Foley vs Abyss: Another poorly worked match but they tried to tell a story albeit somewhat unsuccessfully. *1/4
Team 3D vs Nasty Boys: Who's idea was it to give this match this much time? Pope and Wolfe couldnt have had more time? *
Pope vs Morgan: Crowd wasn't helping much but I don't blame them after having to deal with Team 3D and Nasty Boys. The match was fine. *3/4
Abyss vs Anderson: Pretty much the same thing we saw last time between these two except this time with excellent heel work from Anderson. **
AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe: Not the best match I have ever seen these two have but it was still a hell of a fun match. A.J. looked great with the blond streaks and the robe. I never though A.J. would ever become the star he is becoming but he has exceeded my expectations. I love Joe but he needs new gear or his old ROH/TNA gear he also looks to have loss a pretty good amount of weight.
Great Match overall and best of the night. ****
Pope vs Anderson: The match went forever and only the finishing stretch was exciting. It also did not help that the audience was not helping. They were telling a story by having Pople look like a sympathetic underdog and It will be interesting to see how they follow up in the coming weeks. They really have a chance to make Pople into a huge superstar and A.J. vs Pope can be the companies biggest buyrate ever for a payperview if booked right. They have 2 months as well as an upcoming monday night timeslot so they have no excuses.
Overall a pretty good show and I am eagerly awaiting a Pope title reign!
David Penton
TNA Against All Odds
Thumbs Up
Best Match: Joe v Styles
Worst Match: Team 3D v Nasty Boys
Not much to say. A solid show where it was to be expected, with a little TNA nonsense thrown in, just when you think they're going in the right direction.
I guess Hogan doesn't want to have to wrestle and pin Flair, so Bischoff gets the job. Now Ric is jobbing to guys who never HAD a prime in the ring. But that's a broken record.
I wonder where the Knockouts title and tag titles are. Especially if next month's show is an all X Division PPV.
Jeff Cohen
Flushing, NY
Dave and Bryan:
Two thumbs in the middle for TNA AAO.
Best match: AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe World Title Match.
Worst match: Nasty Boys vs. Team 3D.
Best aspect: AJ and Flair; both were hilarious on the mic and with their interactions with others. Also Ken Anderson's mic work was golden.
Worst aspect: Is Eric Bischoff a heel or a face? Plus, do we have to see Hulk Hogan on every show?
Pope vs. Desmond: Pope smells like money. He can work, he can talk, he has charisma and the fans love him. What happened to Nigel? Is he in the doghouse? He debuted in a main event feud with Angle, and now he's losing in PPV openers.
Hernandez vs. Morgan: Wouldn't be a Russo-written PPV without a swerve of some point between tag team partners. The soon-to-be feud won't play to either man's strengths. Hernandez's bump looked ugly.
Angle vs. Anderson: Match was good, the second best on the show. Would not mind seeing these two in a main event feud.
Foley vs. Abyss: Hate what's been done to the Abyss character, although partnering him Foley is a good idea. Having Foley be Abyss' spokesperson could and maybe should be the natural progression from Jim Mitchell.
Team 3D vs. The Nasty Boys. "It's the match 15 years in the making." Well, put it back in the oven 'cause it ain't done. Well, the Nasties are. When Team 3D are the ones bringing the speed, athleticism and work rate, that's telling. Knobs and Saggs may have been brought in to put over some of TNA's young tag teams (MCMG, Beer Money, etc...etc...) but they are the cure for insomnia; their match brought the show to a screeching halt.
Speaking of TNA's "young talent," it'd be nice to see Daniels, Young, Creed, MCMG, Beer Money, Lethal get some TV and PPV time.
Pope vs. Morgan: Fun small babyface versus cocky big heel match.
Abyss vs. Anderson: Not terrible. Not great. Just a mid-card match.
Styles vs. Joe: Really good even if the finish was predictable. Styles and Joe are unable to have anything but a good match with each other.
Pope vs. Anderson: Hall and Waltman set up the "valiant injured babyface fights through adversity" with their jumping of Pope. Waltman looks like he can work. Hall...well, he looks bloated.
The match itself had a pretty simple philosophy; the hurt babyface being cut off at every turn by the cocky heel. Still with Styles going over in the main event, Pope needed the win.
Denis Gorman
Dave,
It would have been a thumbs up if I had gotten to watch the whole show. My feed went out in the middle of the Samoa Joe/Styles match. It never came back up, so I didn’t get to watch the end of the show. I enjoyed the Pope/Wolfe match, it was well paced and had a really good finish. The other matches before the World title match were okay, with only Anderson/Angle standing out. I didn’t like the Nasty Boys/3D match at all. Just two old teams trying to reclaim old glory. Team 3D doesn’t move well at all anymore and the Nastys are not good at all. Abyss/Foley told a decent story, and being a huge Foley fan, it hurts to see him not be able to move in the ring anymore. Joe/Styles was good for what I saw of it. They didn’t really capitalize off of pulling the floor mats up, but they were telling a good story.
I’m glad you post the results in a timely fashion, because I was pissed. I called Time Warner and there wasn’t anybody there to even tell me what the problem was. I’m calling back tomorrow and getting my money back.
Patrick Zollner
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