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Hey Dave, here's what I thought of TNA No Surrender 2009:
Thumbs up
Best Match: AJ Styles vs Kurt Angle vs Matt Morgan vs Sting
Worst Match: Abyss vs Kevin Nash
This was a great PPV, the actual match quality wasn't spectacular, but
the booking was damn near perfect and I applaud TNA for that. This
company has improved tremendously over the past month, its awe
inspiring if you think about it.
TNA Knockout Tag Team Championship - Sarita and Taylor Wilde vs The
Beautiful People: It was interesting to see how TNA was going to
explain the absence of Angelina Love, they did it the only way they
could, just tell the audience strait up that Angelina had Visa issues
which prompted her release from the company. As for the actual match,
it was good, but you could tell the two teams just didn't click. I
love how Taylor and Sarita work as a team though, they'll do some
great things in this tag division in the future. I'm sure TNA are
happy they booked Madison to join the Beautiful People again, because
if they didn't they would have been screwed.
Match rating: **
Eric Young vs Hernandez: I liked the booking here, Eric said he didn't
want to fight Hernandez because he wanted him to join the World Elite.
Hernandez basically said "fuck you" and he beat the shit out of EY
for 48 seconds, then got the pin. No complaints from me.
Match rating: n/a
TNA X-Division Championship - Samoa Joe(c) vs Daniels: The X-Division
is officially back on the map, and I'm happy about it. I went into
this with high expectations and...well...I'll be honest, it didn't
deliver 100%. However, they still got a decent amount of time to go
out there and put on a good match. Joe is obviously working a
different style now, so wrestlers he had chemistry with before might
not put on that great a match now. Either way, this was a solid bout
with a nice finish, Joe retains and continues to dominate the
X-Division.
Match rating: ***
Falls Count Anywhere - D'Angelo Dinero vs Suicide: I really enjoyed
this match, I think TNA should have actually announced it as it could
have made the card look better going in. Lots of cool spots with some
comedy thrown in, finish came with Suicide hit a leg drop from the top
of the tunnel through a table on the stage! It was great, except
Dinero rolled out of the way and stole the win. Awesome finish,
another solid match.
Match rating: *** 1/4
TNA Knockout Championship - ODB vs Cody Deaner: This was not nearly as
bad as I thought it would be, as a matter of fact, I kind of enjoyed
it. I mean, it was entertaining for what it was, I'm just happy ODB
won. Some people on the IWC were thinking Cody was going to get the
win, but these are probably the same people who refuse to believe TNA
has a new creative direction, they don't do stupid shit anymore.
Match rating: **
TNA Legends Championship - Kevin Nash(c) vs Abyss: Probably the lowest
point of the PPV in terms of match quality. There was simply too much
interference, Nash winning and retaining again pissed me off too. I
don't like Abyss' new character at all, why the hell is he clapping
like he's mentally challenged? Its awful, he needs to go back to
being the monster we knew and loved.
Match rating: * 3/4
Lethal Lockdown: THIS brought the PPV back again, I loved the spot on
the top of the cage where Beer Money double suplexed Brutus Magnus,
that looked really dangerous. There were lots of cool little spots,
tons of action, and it even garnered a "this is awesome chant" from a
crowd that was dead all night! I really enjoyed this, I'm also glad
Beer Money/3D got the victory, its about time the babyfaces got some
momentum in this feud.
Match rating: *** 3/4
Bobby Lashley vs Rhino: Not a bad match by any means, Lashley looked
impressive for his first match in years. I like how they actually had
Rhino work him over a bit instead of a strait up squash. The finish
was weird though, Lashley won with a right hand. I was expecting the
Dominator or The Spear, but instead...a right hand of doom.
Regardless, it was still a good match.
Match rating: ** 3/4
TNA World Heavyweight Championship - AJ Styles vs Kurt Angle (c) vs
Matt Morgan vs Sting: This was the match I was looking forward to the
most, and it delivered! Hernandez ended up cashing in his case, then
getting piledrived out of the match by Eric Young which makes sense
considering what happened earlier in the night between the two. The
match had lots of action, but the finish was the highlight. Sting had
Angle beat, but instead he walked away and hit a flying cross body off
the apron on Morgan. AJ Styles hits a springboard 450 splash and pins
Angle 1.....2.....3!!!!! As soon as I saw AJ and Sting stare at each
other, and when I saw Sting dive out of the ring, I started marking
out like a little school girl. Then when AJ got the pin and became
TNA Champion, it was official, I was jumping on the couch, running
around the house, it was as if I was 7 again. This was the best
moment of 2009 by far, I've been an AJ Styles mark since day 1 and
I've been waiting for YEARS to finally see him win the World Title
again. TNA booked this perfectly, I couldn't have asked for anything
more.
Overall, I loved this PPV and I think it was well worth the 30 bucks.
The highlights were the X-Division title match, Dinero/Suicide, and
the awesome main event with AJ finally winning the Heavyweight Title.
I can't wait for the inevitable career vs title match between AJ/Sting
at Bound For Glory, I've got goosebumps for that already!
Ever since the Victory Road debacle, TNA has been on fire. They
righted themselves with Hard Justice, they raised the bar with No
Surrender, will they top themselves again with Bound For Glory? Only
time will tell, until then, all is right in this world because AJ
Styles is the NEW TNA Heavyweight Champion!!
Ben Narin A mild thumbs up for UFC 103.
I can't go thumbs in the middle because almost everything show on TV was entertaining, but Cro Cop/Dos Santos was a bummer as a Cro Cop fan, and the worst of the fights shown tonight. But other than that there were lots and lots of finishes, which is great to see. I personally enjoyed Griffin/Franca the most, because there is just something great about seeing the guy who comes in overweight get his ass handed to him. It was also great to see the refs making timely stoppages tonight. Kampman and Trigg may have not liked it, but it after seeing the M-1 Show with Mark Kerr a few weeks ago and several disturbing late stoppages, this was a welcome change of pace. I will say that I hope UFC doesn't do free prelims every event. It was a fun hour of TV, but by the end of the night everyone was exhausted and barely paying attention to the show. On shows with a big time main event that would really hurt the overall enjoyment of the show.
Christopher Gilleski Best Match: Lethal Lockdown
Worst Match: Lashley/Rhino
Big thumbs up for the show. The last two matches weren't much but anyway they can get the championship onto AJ Styles is a win. The ending of the main event sets up Bound for Glory perfectly with Styles defending against his hero, Sting. ODB vs Deaner was shockingly entertaining, just pure fun from the opening bell to ODB's shout out to her prison fan base. Lethal Lockdown got plenty of time and was good as usual. Rhino/Lashley was completely useless. In a company that already has a better, more charismatic, more Mexican version of himself, why does Lashley need to exist? He is positively dreadful.
Dave Crumbley
Toledo, Ohio
Thumbs in the Middle
(Would have been up, but the crowd was TERRIBLE)
Best Match: Five Way for the TNA World Heavyweight Title
Worst Match: Knockouts Tag Team Title Match
Probably the worst crowd I've seen in years. It seems like every PPV at the iMPACT Zone that is held consecutively kills the crowd. They came alive only twice during the whole show - when weapons were introduced in the Lethal Lockdown match and for AJ's title win. Absolutely atrocious (not that the PPV was a classic, but still...).
As much I am a mark for the Knockouts, the tag title match was utter crap. Sarita is overrated and Madison Rain couldn't work a match if her life depended on it. I did find it kind of surprising that Taz and Tenay actually acknowledged the departure of Angelina Love and didn't gloss over the fact, which is common knowledge for anyone who reads this site (or reads sites that steal from this site). It's nice to have some (near) honesty in the sport.
After Hernandez's beatdown of EY, I had a feeling that he'd pop back up during the main event since that would have made too much sense to do last month when it actually would have meant something.
The Abyss/Nash match was fine for what it was - a time filler. Nash should just be a manager as his forte is promos. After his hilarious one from this past Thursday ("Stay wet, my friends.") and his in-ring performance tonight, he's only reinforced that point.
Lethal Lockdown was decent - certainly not up to Lockdown standards (they really seem to pull out the stops for that show), and Lashley/Rhino actually went longer than I thought it would (even though it was still a glorified squash).
In the main event, I actually though AJ was going to turn on Sting and join the MEM to set up Sting/Styles at BFG next month which would let Angle and Morgan continue their feud, but that would have made too much sense. Still, I think we'll be looking at Sting and AJ in a "Title vs. Career" match and Angle and Morgan in some sort of stip match. I did like them letting ringside fans in to celebrate AJ's win even though Taz took the words out of my mouth regarding a similar incident in ECW with the ring collapsing during a post-match celebration. A side note - doesn't it seem like they've been mentioning ECW by name (and referencing former ECW talent) a whole lot lately? Is it because of Taz being on commentary without Vince censoring him or is something (or someone) else behind it?
All in all a solid show that makes me think Bound For Glory will actually deliver the TNA goods.
Keep up the great work!
Gabriel Baron
Lockport, IL Thumbs in the middle
Best Match: Samoa Joe vs. Daniels Worst Match: Kevin Nash vs. Abyss Relatively run of the mill show, nothing overly offensive but nothing great either. I thought the Deaner/ODB match was shockingly good. Main event was good but the beginning with Hernandez made zero sense.. Crowd seemed to be dead most of the night, which hurt some of the matches, particularly the Lethal Lockdown match. - Dan Marsiglia
thumbs down
best match: lethal lockdown (process of elimination)
worst match: hard to pick, Nash vs Abyss I guess
While putting AJ over was surprising and a refreshing change, what's the
point? And why didn't they do it after the Angle incident (even if he has
been exonerated)?
As for the rest, so much crap. Sloppy matches, stupid booking, and smarky
comments for no good reason.
--
Mark Coale
E
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