wrestling / TV Reports
Tremendous Tirades 1.03.14: TNA One Night Only – Tag Team Tournament
Introduction
As a reminder, this will not be another traditional recap, but instead it will be a mash up of the Rs, Instant Analysis and my usual Twitter ramblings I would do during the shows; completely uncensored and as the ideas flow unfiltered to the old keyboard. Remember, this is a review; and I am here to review the show. As always, I encourage discussion and even disagreement, just do so in a respectful manner. I will be doing the review for Raw and most PPVs and iPPVs going forward.
TNA One Night Only – Tag Team Tournament
Play-In Round: Generation Me (Jeremy Buck and Max Buck) defeated Petey Williams and Sonjay Dutt @ 8:00: The first thoughts watching this match are of this. If TNA was serious about booking their tag team and X-Division, all four men would be under contract, again. Petey Williams and Sonjay Dutt always deliver, and Generation Me/The Young Bucks are one of the best teams in the world right now. The Universal crowd always seems to respond well to Dutt and Williams as the former stars, and Generation Me always gets a crowd going with their work. This was a really fun, and fast paced opening match. Everyone hit their trademark stuff, and it was clean and simple. The finish was a bit anticlimactic, and it could have used a little more time, but the right team won. This was a good way to open the show.
Match Rating: ***½
Play-In Round: Aces & Eights (Garett Bischoff and Wes Brisco) defeated The Hot Shots (Cassidy Riley and Chase Stevens) @ 8:00: Garett Bischoff and Wes Brisco are not strong enough workers or heels to control a match and get enough heat on the faces to make the crowd care. Also, the Hot Shots are older, bigger and slower while still trying to do some of the shit they did back in the day. This felt SO LONG, especially after the opener that we just got to see. This had next to no flow, sloppy work, and Wes and Garrett won. Another note, they won with a low blow over guys that do not work for the company. Sometimes heels need to win clean, even if they suck. Nothing good can come from this.
Match Rating: *
Quarterfinal Round: Austin Aries and Bobby Roode defeated The British Invasion (Doug Williams and Rob Terry) @ 11:00: Aries and Roode teased posing down with Terry, but didn’t want to get in the ring with him. I have said it before and will say it again; Douglas Williams should still be on the roster. If you want a guy that is quality in the ring and will make the guys you want to push look good in the ring (like EC3 and Samuel Shaw) then Williams is your guy. He should also be working the live events (house shows) with those guys to get them ready for TV. There is too much experience there not to use, but apparently Norv Fermun and Dewey Barnes are cheaper. I have no issue with those guys; they are good level one rag doll/Glass Joe level jobbers. But Williams is like finishing school for when those guys they want to get over are ready for that next level. Anyway, the British Invasion still is a fine team to use for events like this. Williams carries the load, Terry works just fine in this environment and Aries and Roode are two of the best workers in the company. Aries and Roode, for not tagging together a ton, are still very smart tag workers, and do the proper, and simple subtle heel stuff so well, which in ways is lost these days. They also worked that Midnight Express pansy heel stuff with Terry, which fit in the structure of what they did, and adds to Terry’s power man gimmick. This was a good match, with clean and simple work, and no overbooked bullshit. The only knock is that the crowd wasn’t into it as much as I would have hoped. But this was quality stuff.
Match Rating: ***
Quarterfinal Round: Chavo Guerrero and Hernandez defeated Bad Influence (Christopher Daniels and Kazarian) @ 12:00: Speaking of heel teams that do all the little things very well, Bad Influence are on my TV and I am very happy. These teams have faced off several times, so at worst this should be good. One thing I love about Bad Influence is that while they are awesome in the ring, they can use the comedy in a way that tends to hurt them instead of the faces, the old show your ass heel stuff. They know when to do it and to do it when it doesn’t hurt the match. Much like the last match, this was another good match with clean, and simple work. Ina way it felt as if they were on auto pilot, working the match they have worked a ton of times, but it was quality. The wrong team won, because if you’re doing a tournament and only have Bad Influence working one time (while Garett Bischoff and Wes Brisco work twice) you’re doing it wrong.
Match Rating: ***
Quarterfinal Round: Magnus and Samoa Joe defeated Aces & Eights (Garett Bischoff and Wes Brisco) @ 8:00: When they tagged, Magnus and Samoa Joe were actually a good and fun team, so it is good to see them being used here. Garett Bischoff and Wes Brisco, not so much. This was better that the first match with Bischoff and Brisco, due to the fact that the crowd actually cared about Joe and Magnus, but still wasn’t great. Bischoff and Brisco are simply not good, and it felt like Joe was pulling teeth to get anything out of these guys. Add in the fact that as heels they got the heat, and there was next to no heat because nothing that they do is believable, and you see the issues. Nearly no pop for Magnus hot tag, since as mentioned there was no actual heat during the heat. Magnus worked hard and finally got reactions for his comeback. It was a struggle, but passable.
Match Rating: **
Quarterfinal Round: Team 3D (Bully Ray and Devon) defeated Generation Me (Jeremy Buck and Max Buck) @ 9:00: Obviously a much different match for Generation Me here. They went with the big man vs. little man formula, where 3D was allowed to look like brutes, and Generation Me had to rely on their quickness. While a good theory, I felt that the booking of the match really neutered Generation Me. It felt as if they were booked like jokes for 95% of the match, and Taz’s commentary didn’t help. Generation Me made Team 3D look good, got very little shine tine and this could have been booked so much better. The work was fine and the match was solid.
Match Rating: **½
Semifinal Round: Austin Aries and Bobby Roode defeated Magnus and Samoa Joe @10:00: I really like this semifinal match, big fan of Aries, Joe and Roode, and Magnus is growing on me, but not quite there yet. While many are down on Joe, he seems to always work his hardest when in there with his friends. Again, this was just good, sound and fundamental tag team wrestling. It’s an age-old formula, but when the right guys work it, it is so good. The face get the shine, a nefarious action allows them to get the heat. They are sneaky and cheat and do everything they can to keep the face down until the hot tag. We had a fun hot tag to Joe, things broke down, Joe and Magnus had things won when Roode pulled the ref to the floor. Aries used the knux (and hid them in Joe’s trunks) and stole the pin. I liked the match, Aries and Roode are heels and want to win the tournament, and so they cheated. It works for them as characters, and it wasn’t a big old over booked clusterfuck of a finish, just an old school knux spot. I had hoped for better as a match as a whole, the formula was fine and the work was good, but it never got into that next level that great matches get to.
Match Rating: ***
Semifinal Round: Team 3D (Bully Ray and Devon) defeated Chavo Guerrero and Hernandez @ 11:00: They stalled for the first few minutes, where Ray made jokes about his opponents possibly using burritos and or chimichangas as illegal weapons. Chavo drank a beer from a member of the crowd and then hugged a chick while Ray made jokes. The match was like, nearly four minutes in. This is the shit that you do in the opening round, not in the semifinals of a tournament. Much credit to Generation Me and their work earlier, because they made Team 3D appear to be quick and motivated. This match is dragging along, the big stall and then general disinterest from the crowd is killing this match. Team 3D won an acceptable, but boring match.
Match Rating: **
Final Round: Team 3D (Bully Ray and Devon) defeated Austin Aries and Bobby Roode @ 13:00: They killed a lot of time with the ring announcements, where Ray did the announcing for his team and Aries did the announcing of his team. They brawled on the floor early, and I was fine with that because they did next to nothing on the floor through out the night. It meant more, and was a nice sign of restraint because in the past TNA would have had almost every other match have floor brawling. They brawled for three to four minutes before finally getting into the ring. With this being a heel vs. heel match, we saw a lot of each team trying to out cheat one another. Aries and Roode are great, but this match just didn’t feel as if it clicked all that well. It wasn’t bad at all, but at the same time didn’t pull me in and or make me care. Ray, Aries and Roode are always guys I pay attention to, but this lacked a certain chemistry; I never got emotionally involved, and the crowd was mild as hell through it as well. Part of that is likely the heel vs. heel booking, part of that is likely that people did not care about Team 3D in 2013 (when this was taped). Aries accidentally hit Roode with the knux, live by the sword, die by the sword, and ate a 3D for the loss. Not a bad match, but at the same time, a poor PPV main event.
Match Rating: **¾
The Tirade
This was the final One Night Only PPV taped last year, and like those other shows, it had similar issues. The inclusion of Aces and 8s being the big thing, because it makes the product seem extremely dated and I think would make many wonder why they would invest in the (One Night Only) product. Also, when Magnus was on screen, Taz had to joke about everyone thinking Magnus was the future and that he hadn’t delivered. Again, dating the show since he is the champion now.Taz doesn’t help these shows at all. I would hate to accuse someone of just coasting, but his constant jokes and general lack of giving a fuck hurts the action at times. Tenay wasn’t much better at times.
The in ring was solid most of the night, with the highlight being the opener and some of the early bouts. Unfortunately, none of the matches felt like anything special or that you couldn’t see on the weekly TV product. Like many of the One Night One shows, it feels like a show being put on because they have to put it on. This one wasn’t bad, but it didn’t feel like it was booked for it to succeed either; and given the talent they had here, they certainly could have booked a much better show. It’s not so much about the talent, it is the booking of these shows which truly holds then back. And that is a shame, because the booking should enhance in ring work, not hold it back.
I wouldn’t recommend spending $15 on an average show, but to each their own.
Show Rating: 6.0
As a reminder, I will be going by the 411 scale…
0 – 0.9: Torture
1 – 1.9: Extremely Horrendous
2 – 2.9: Very Bad
3 – 3.9: Bad
4 – 4.9: Poor
5 – 5.9: Not So Good
6 – 6.9: Average
7 – 7.9: Good
8 – 8.9:Very Good
9 – 9.9: Amazing
10: Virtually PerfectAs a reminder, this is not a basic “how good was the show” number like a TV show, as I have always felt that a PPV is very different from a regular show. I have always judged PPV on how they built to a match, the match quality, crowd reactions to matches and angles, the overall booking, how the PPV leads into the future, PPV price and so on and so forth. I have added this in here for an explanation since so many have asked, and I have previously discussed it on podcasts. I understand that this may seem different, but that is how I grade. Obviously your criteria may be different.
Larry Csonka is a Pisces and enjoys rolling at jiu jitsu class with Hotty McBrownbelt, cooking, long walks on the beach, Slingo and the occasional trip to Jack in the Box. He is married to a soulless ginger and has two beautiful daughters who are thankfully not soulless gingers; and is legally allowed to marry people in 35 states. He has been a wrestling fan since 1982 and has been writing for 411 since May 24th, 2004; contributing over 3,000 columns, TV reports and video reviews to the site.
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