Wrestling’s 4R’s PPV Edition 2.12.08: TNA Against All Odds 2008
Posted by Larry Csonka on 02.12.2008
TNA’s second PPV of the year shows some of the same old problems, but even fighting against the booking they end up delivering a good show.
How the 4R's of wRestling Work!
Here is a quick explanation of the 4R's. I will take the 4 main shows (5 if I go RetRo) of the week: TNA Impact, WWE Raw, ECW on Sci-Fi and WWE Smackdown. If we have a PPV, that show will get a special PPV edition of the R's all to its own. I then group my feelings on the shows in various categories: The Right, the wRong and the Ridiculous. The Right is stuff that worked very well: a great promo, a great match and so on. PuRgatoRy is a section between the right and wrong. It shows equal traits from both sides that cannot be ignored and need discussed. It is not a bad place per say, as things can get remedied or go the wrong way the very next week. The wRong is what it sounds like: bad matches, bad or boring promos and so on. The Ridiculous is stuff that had no right on TV: Stupid angles, Diva searches and so on. And there is always a possibility of a 5th R, which is as bad as they come, unless you are TNA. They have a special R all of their own, the 6th R; the Russo-FN-Riffic~! This column is supposed to be analytical, and at the right time very critical of the shows, it was the whole reason it was created. This is not a "mark" column, nor a "smark" column, my goal is to analyze the show from many different fronts, reward the good and call out the bad. There are also occasions where I will bring out a 5th or even a 6th R to the column, so beware of those~! I will not apologize for my opinions, they are as they are, whether very positive or negative.
TNA Against All Odds 2008~!:
The Matches:
TNA World Tag Team Championship Match: Tomko and AJ defeated BG James and Bullet Bob @ 7:50 via pin * TRASH OF THE NIGHT!
Traci Brooks defeated Miss Banks @ 5:15 via pin *¾
Case vs. Case: Scott Steiner defeated Petey Williams @ 9:30 via pin **½
Drinking Championship: Eric Young defeated James Storm @ 8:10 via pin **½
TNA Knockouts Championship Match: Awesome Kong defeated ODB @ 6:55 via pin **½
Robert Roode and Booker T went to a Double Count Out @ 9:17 **
Hardcore Street Fight: Motor City Machine Guns & Black Machismo (NEW CHAMPION) defeated Team 3D and Brother Devine @ 13:18 via pin ***¾
TNA World Heavyweight Championship Match: Kurt Angle defeated Christian Cage @ 20:40 via pin ****MATCH OF THE NIGHT!
The Right:
Roode vs. Booker: While it lasted, these guys had a good, intense bout. They brawled to the floor, which works for them, but there was a lot of that on the show and it really takes away from the matches where it should happen, a minor gripe from me. Overall this is about what I expected, a DQ or count out finish to the match due to Booker getting pissed and Roode running, which is what happened. I do feel that the feud has been built very well, and to me this is like JBL vs. Jericho last month in that the finish makes sense, and TNA rarely runs DQ or Count Out finishes, so it seems different and fits. I have really enjoyed how they are booking the feud, and getting Roode over as a complete dick. While he isn't racking up wins against Booker T, he still comes off strong. I also applaud that TNA has not rushed Booker to the main event scene, which is something that they tend to do with Ex-WWE guys. This feud must continue, and that is a good thing.
Barb Wire Massacre 2: Here is the bottom line on this match, you will either love or hate this match. There is no middle ground. If you like stuff bordering on the death match style, then this is for you. The angle going into the match sucked for sure, but they did tone down the weapon crap leading into this, so it meant more and came off well. Mitchell gave another excellent promo leading into this, as did Cornette who sold the match like he was a used car salesmen. They sold the brutality factor and explained that the match couldn't take place in South Carolina due to the Athletic Commission, but that since they advertised it they would deliver. They played it off as live, and if you didn't know you wouldn't have. The match delivered in the brutality department, we got barbed wire, bared wire boards, chairs wrapped in barbed wire and just about everything you could imagine. In the end Abyss got some redemption, but I doubt that it is over. Also, again I have to mention that all of the brawling on the floor in other matches took away from a match like this. They need to be careful of stuff like that. Oh, and a memo to Mike Tenay, who compared Abyss to such hardcore legends as Abdullah the Butcher, Bruiser Brody, Terry Funk, Cactus Jack and the Original Sheik. You're wrong. They never cut themselves up for no reason and they all made tons of money doing what they did.
TNA Knockouts Championship Match: The next match we'll discuss is the Knockouts Title match with ODB challenging Awesome Kong. They had good crowd heat, which was great because I wasn't sure they would outside of the Impact Zone. They had a good match, a little better then I thought it would be, although it was a level below the stuff Kim and Kong did, but it was still good. They worked really hard, Kong looked dominant while ODB didn't lose any steam in defeat. She took Kong to the limit, but in the end fell to the Kong bomb like everyone else. A minor complaint I have is that I don't like the ideal if Riesha interfering at all, even if it isn't that physical, Kong shouldn't need any help. She hasn't needed help up an until this point and I think if that they continue this, they run the risk of damaging her monster aura.
Hardcore Street Fight: Once again I feel that I should mention that all of the brawling on the floor in other matches took away from the stipulation in this match, and they need to stop doing that. That all being said, this was good stuff. Up and until this point the show was fine, it was not bad, not great by any means, solid if unspectacular. In the beginning portion of the match Sabin, Shelley and Lethal got a ton of heat early on and were running wild and the crowd was red hot. They just were owning them and also hit a great three-way plancha spot, we were off and running in a major way. They busted out all of the weapons you would imagine, including the old sign covered in the crowd and the kitchen sink. Seriously, the kitchen sink, I love that gag. Things looked bad when 3Ds took out the Guns, and they were dead. Some feel that this made them look bad, but I loved how they sold the 3D, and with the result of the match, Machismo can move away from them while the Guns and 3D continue their original feud. But while they were gone, something great happened. Ray tried to attack So Cal Val, which is what set him off and the last few minutes were Lethal doing this awesome superman deal and everyone loved it. They made Jay Lethal a STAR as in the end he fought back and single handedly saved the division and won his title back. Lethal got the top rope elbow through a table on Devine, won his title back and now Ray and Devon have to weigh in at 275lbs to compete in TNA. This should lead to wacky weighing in skits, which THAT is something I actually like the idea of. Ray has been gold on interviews, and seeing them trying to make weight will be great. I await the gimmicked scale coming to TNA. In my opinion the one thing that will be vital is the follow up to the match. Lethal was the most piss poor champion of 2007 and into 2008, he looked horrible. They blew it with him after the Angle win, and then with this feud. He looked horrible. But tonight they made him look awesome. I pray that they properly follow up with this, because tonight was one of those performances that makes a star. I HOPE that they actually follow this up, because after a performance like this, you just can't afford to mess it up. I have said that several times, but they really need to not mess this up. Apparently Machismo is a huge merchandize seller and they are looking to push him. Please do not mess this up.
TNA World Heavyweight Championship Match: And now we come to the main event of the evening. I expected this to be a very good match and again this month they did that. Cage and Angle work so damn well together, and for 16-or so minutes it was rocking my world. The action was well thought out, everything they did was clean, made sense and there wasn't any bullshit. It was awesome. But then as expected, we got the ref bump. Oh yes because we can't have a TNA main event without the ref bump. This is where Joe steps in and is perfectly impartial. Kurt ends up taking Karen out, and things seem to be going Cage's way until AJ runs in. Joe runs him off and they brawl through out the arena and we're left with more good action between Cage and Angle. Angle would then introduce a chair, and that was then when Tomko appeared, took the chair from Angle, and then, you guessed it, hits Cage. Angle retains the title and we see a variation of the same finish that we have been watching for nearly 6-years. The thing is that it DOES make sense and COULD be played well, the whole Tomko run in. I don't think that it is so much him joining Angle as it is him showing Cage that he doesn't need him. But it has no positive effect when you see the same finish every month. Make no mistake about it though, this match was awesome and this makes back-to-back shows that they have delivered big time. It is just a shame that the booking has to fight against the performers so much.
Purgatory:
Case vs. Case: TNA's wacky answer to the Money in the Bank match was still not settled heading into the show. So Steiner and Petey would face off in a match where the winner gets both cases, and in the end possibly two-title shots. I will say that the match was way better than I thought it would be. Scott Steiner continues to prove me wrong when I give upon him and I am glad to be wrong in these cases. I thought that Petey really worked hard and smart, and didn't try to do things Steiner couldn't do. They had a fun match, lots of near falls and the crowd was into it. The finish came with the large woman, who we now know to be Trenesha Biggers, came to the ring and distracted Petey. She was a participant in the 2005 WWE Diva Search and has also worked under the names of Barbie Black, Naomi Banks, and Panther Claw. As mentioned she distracted Petey, and this allowed Steiner to get the win. I felt that this deflated the crowd and took away from a rather hot under card bout. And that is a shame. What else was a shame was the fact that they decided to focus on Steiner and the Woman, and rarely mentioned the cases or allowed for a lot of celebration time because they shot TO THE BACK!
Traci Brooks defeated Miss Banks: After the implosion of Roode and Brooks, and Banks being brought into the fold we moved to Banks vs. Brooks n this show. They had good crowd heat from bell to bell, which is nice to see for women's wrestling and to see outside of the Impact Zone. They brawled early and were heated, I mean, you felt the hate, but the problem is that they went to the floor on the second match on the card, and this complaint is something of a trend. Now don't get me wrong, the heat was there and it makes sense for them to brawl that way, but when you have the barbed wire and hardcore street fight coming, it devalues it when you do it so much. In the end Brooks got the win and some redemption over Banks, which the crowd loved. But I am not sure that I like Brooks winning already as it made her revenge to easy. And I just have the feeling that they can't be done yet, because of they are the blow off comes way too quick and where the hell would Brooks go from here?
The wRong:
TNA World Tag Team Championship Match: Kicking off the show was the TNA World Tag Team Title match, AJ Styles and Tomko defending against the BULLET and BG James. We immediately began on the wrong foot as AJ and Tomko argued on the mic before the match even began. Tag team partners that don't get along, good job Vinny Ru, we get it. Now I want to say that this match could have been a complete disaster. It wasn't, but it also wasn't good. The one main thing is that Tomko, well hell AJ as well had to be way too careful with Bullet Bob, and it hurt the match. AJ and Tomko were working so light with him that is would have looked fake from the peanut gallery. The match was about as good as it could be all things considered, but just not good. AJ and Tomko had a bit of miscommunication, but after AJ hit a missile dropkick to the knee of BG, they would hit the tornado plex and retain. This worked ok to open the show due to the military ties of BG and Bob, and that they had the national Guard troops there. It was also nice to not see AJ and Tomko implode yet, and it was also nice to not see Kip pull the predictable turn. The match never should have happened in the first place.
Drinking Championship And now we come to the Drinking Championship match. They had a match for a fake belt. A belt that represents who can drink the best, well at least we didn't get a bunch of silly drinking segments. One of the biggest issues I had with this match is that they pushed this as a serious title match, more seriously than the other title matches almost with the video packages they ran. How shitty is that? The good news is that as usual, they worked hard and continue to work well together. Storm and Young have good chemistry and are able to make something passable out of the silly booking they have been placed into. But no matter how hard they are working, the silliness of a toy spinner belt with a beer bottle hot glued to it looms over them. The end of the match saw the return of RHINO, who has been gone for many moons. The crowd popped big for him, and he laid out Storm with the GORE! This allowed Young to get the win. I like the Rhino return, it was good and gets Young and Storm separated (I hope) and now we can get back into Rhino vs. Storm and resolve that feud. Rhino was out with neck problems and family issues, and I could actually see them saying he went to rehab and is now back to kick Storm's ass for what he did. While this was a good surprise, the one thing I absolutely hated was Rhino's promo, or lack of promo. He got on the stick and said, "I have a lot to say…but now isn't the time. But Thursday may be." Did we just use the PPV to push the TV show? Again? That is not only ASSBACKWARDS…but is… NO BUYS!
The Ridiculous:
NADDA~!:
Closing Thoughts:
I thought this show rebounded well from the last one. It had a better flow and the last two matches delivered big time. The under-card, while nothing outstanding was all solid stuff outside of the tag title match. The feel good moment we got with Machismo was something special, and I just pray that they follow up well on it. Overall I will go with a 7.5 out of 10 for the show with a slight recommendation to buy. I say slight because the barbed wire match isn't for everyone and the under-card was mainly solid. But if you want a reason to buy the show the final two matches are that reason. All six worked hard and put on a show in the Street Fight while Cage and Angle flat out delivered yet again, even with the crap ending. In the end this was a good rebound show, and I hope that they can keep it up.
2008 PPV Rankings:
-ROH UNDENIABLE {8.5}
-WWE ROYAL RUMBLE {8.0}
-TNA AGAINST ALL ODDS {7.5}
-TNA FINAL RESOLUTION {6.75}
2008 TOP PPV Match Rankings:
-(ROH UNDENIABLE) GRUDGE MATCH: Austin Aries vs. Roderick Strong ****¼
2008 PPV MVP AWARDS: This is a little added deal I started last year, as I feel that there are some other things that should be mentioned from the PPV's. Not every PPV will have one, it just depends on who I think steps up and deserves some extra recognition.
-TNA FINAL RESOLUTION: Gail Kim vs. Awesome Kong (Making us Care about Women's Wrestling on the National Stage)
-ROH UNDENIABLE: Strong vs. Aries (The Grudge is Settled)
-WWE ROYAL RUMBLE: John Cena Shocks the World (No One Saw it Coming)
-TNA AGAINST ALL ODDS: Black Machismo Saves the X-Division (He is a Superman)
"If you like stuff bordering on the death match style, then this is for you"
Sorry Larry but this is a bit out there. If this match had been in front of an Indy Crowed or had been done in BJW or IWA-MS people would be calling it weak, which it was. The matches from ONS2 and Hardcore Homecoming which had barbed wire where far far better than Barb Wire Massacre 2. There are two ways to do a match like this, the first is wait for the spot and set it up with both guys getting slightly cut but the spots mean more or going over the top deathmatch style with lots of blood and this match failed on both of those. Sorry when one guy is takeing barbedwire spots and not getting cut it kills the match. Other than that good review as always.
Posted By: Truthslayer (Registered) on February 12, 2008 at 12:24 AM
good article, but if all that good happened in the eric young vs james storm, how did it end up in the Wrong section??? It was a good match, the title packages were funny to me because of how purposely ridiculous they were, and i don't see how telling fans to tune into the show is a bad thing? especially when we weren't paying to see rhino on the show and got his appearance as an added bonus. good point on the brawling.
Posted By: bighustle (Guest) on February 12, 2008 at 12:29 AM
You should watch this guy's videos on youtube. Truthslayer is awesome!!!
Posted By: Guest#4566 (Guest) on February 12, 2008 at 12:29 AM
"Oh, and a memo to Mike Tenay, who compared Abyss to such hardcore legends as Abdullah the Butcher, Bruiser Brody, Terry Funk, Cactus Jack and the Original Sheik. You're wrong. They never cut themselves up for no reason and they all made tons of money doing what they did."
Are you F'N kidding me? I'm not TNA apologist, but has this guy ever watched any of those guys' matches? They ALL bled for no reason other than to freak people out. I know the reviewer wanted to sound snarky and smart, but man... that backfired big time.
Posted By: MJS (Guest) on February 12, 2008 at 04:24 AM
Generally speaking, Foley et al didn't spend week after week taking ridiculous bumps and bleeding everywhere. If Abyss is on Impact, it seems about a 70/30 likelihood that he's bleeding and taking weapon shots. That's the difference - there's never been any restraint whatsoever when booking Abyss, and so his "big matches" just come off as more of the same.
Posted By: Ian (Guest) on February 12, 2008 at 09:11 AM
I agree that when one of the guys lands on the barbwire and never even bleed, then its something wrong. This was suppose to be brutal and bloody. But only Abyss bleed. But of course, its love it or hate it.
Posted By: Spike (Guest) on February 12, 2008 at 09:54 AM
I give them kudos for trying to grab some viewers with the barbwire match, although not pulling it off live kinda put the clamp on it. I didn't like the no finish in the Roode v Booker T match, although I guess we get another ppv match in four weeks. The main event was great, but it should be seeing how often these two work against each other. I am just hoping now we get MCMG v. Tomko/AJ storyline now, but somehow I doubt it.
Posted By: Kip (Registered) on February 12, 2008 at 12:20 PM
I'd like to take a moment to address the Steiner match and where they can go from here. I think they will try to build up another Steiner-Angle title match which should be good. Angle will probably beat him. What will be funny though is if they have Steiner beat Lethal for the X Division belt. At least this way Lethal would have a true threat to his title.
As for MCMG, now that their feud is over, TNA please let them go for the tag team belts now. It's been on long enough.
TNA did do a better showing than Final Resolution, and they need to begin picking up steam as they head into Destinaion X. With WWE coming to their backyard for WM the booking needs to seriously be on point.
Posted By: Orlando (Guest) on February 12, 2008 at 12:20 PM
Hey Lar, I don't know if you'll remember this convo or not but.... I just got my new comcast for the week and I got June 3rd Raw without ever getting May 26th! WTF!I tried to wait but it never came Csonk. I had the monkeys at Comcast file a complaint with Vince, but I doubt it'll do any good. I just needed a forum to vent in Larry; OF ALL THE F'N WEEKS. ARRGHH
Posted By: SMYK (Guest) on February 13, 2008 at 01:30 PM
You really come across as a total TNA mark sometimes Csonka. I just don't understand how in the world you could love MCMG being taken out for at least 5 minutes by a finishing move. Here's a novel idea, how about to build up a finisher, whenever they use it, they always win? There's no need to make your best tag team look completely weak in the process. I'm pretty sure in past tag team matches teams have gotten out of the ring within 5 minutes after taking a 3D. It's just completely unnecessary.
Posted By: Westen (Guest) on February 14, 2008 at 11:22 AM
