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411’s Instant Analysis: TNA Destination X 2011
Welcome to this Pay-Per-View edition of 411’s Instant Analysis. I’m Randy Harrison and many of you might know me from my weekly Bell To Bell News Report, but this time out I’m going to be giving my real-time thoughts on TNA’s Destination X event from the Impact Zone in Orlando. TNA is pulling out all the stops with this event, essentially making it a love letter to the X-Division. TNA is bringing back the six-sided ring for one night only and the card includes some of the X-Division’s biggest stars like Samoa Joe, AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels, as well as the return of X-Division pioneer Jerry Lynn to continue his long-standing feud with Rob Van Dam that dates all the way back to the glory days of ECW. Before this column goes any further, I want to specifically point out that I have no bias for or against TNA and I’ve been following Impact Wrestling for the most part since all the way back to when the show started on Fox Sports Net. I’m not coming into this one with any preconceptions, so hopefully I’ve nipped those types of comments in the bud before we even begin. Seven matches on the card including an X-Division Title match and an Ultimate X match, so let’s get this one started!
Match One: Samoa Joe vs. Kazarian
Before we get too far into the show, I have to say that watching TNA for the past few weeks I don’t really like Christy Hemme doing the ring announcing, especially with her just shreiking some of the names. Joe vs. Kazarian is one of the big feuds that this pay-per-view was being built on, at least based on the recent barroom brawl on Impact Wrestling and given the frequent chants for Joe, it seems like TNA made the right choice having this one kick off the show. The first five minutes or so of this one was like seeing Joe back when he made his TNA debut in 2005 as he was just laying a classic ass-whipping on Kazarian until Kazarian turned the tide halfway through. The nice thing was that the crowd stayed into it, even when Kazarian was on offense and stayed hot all the way through the match, which was a good sign for the rest of the show. Unfortunately for Kazarian, those offensive bright spots were few and far between as this felt a lot like an extended squash for most of the match. Surprisingly though, he got the win with a sneaky roll-up to continue Joe’s recent string of losses. A decent enough opener for the show, but nothing too exciting, which makes sense considering that there’s going to likely be some absolute insanity as the night wears on.
Match Two: Douglas Williams vs. Mark Haskins
I give credit to Jeremy Borash for trying to get Haskins over with the work he did during TNA’s last tour of England, but you could feel the air coming out of the crowd as he made his way to the ring. Williams’ promo to try and put Haskins over didn’t really do a lot to get the fans on Haskins’ side either as the people seemed to be behind the established star in Williams more than the newcomer. As you would expect, Williams dominated early on, but Haskins started to win the fans over a little bit as he nearly snuck a quick win off of a series of pinning predicaments. You can tell that TNA wants this guy to be a big deal as they were pushing him HARD on the commentary, but at times it felt way too forced and came off as annoying more than anything else. I’m not sure if it was the crowd not responding the way he hoped or the pressure of the situation or what, but Haskins seemed nervous and had a couple of botches that took a bit away from this one. In fact, there were plenty of boos for Haskins before Williams managed to pick up the win with a roll-up. Not the best debut for Haskins as the crowd wasn’t terribly into him, he had a couple of screw-ups and even got booed when Williams raised his hand and shook his hand after the match. Glad that they didn’t decide to open the show with this one because it would have been a really bad vibe to start things out on.
After that match, Austin Aries cut an incredible promo that shows why he needs to be a part of TNA and he needs to be a BIG part of TNA. I got the chance to see a lot of Aries during his time in NWA Hollywood and he looks like he’s stepped up his game even further from the high level he was at during his feud with Scorpio Sky in Hollywood. Great stuff from him and it really got me behind him heading into the four-way match later in the show.
Earlier in the show, Eric Young was looking for a tag team partner for this unadvertised bout and after being turned down by the likes of Curry Man and Suicide, Shark Boy made his return and threw his hat in the ring to team up with EY. With Young and Sharky on the same team, I was expecting this one to be mostly comedy and sure enough, that’s what we got in the first couple of minutes. Once they got down to the in-ring action though, things picked up a bit and there was actually some pretty good back-and-forth from all four guys. I’m still amazed that no matter what they do with Eric Young in TNA and no matter how badly they treat him, the fans are still behind him and tonight was no exception. This one was really fast as all four guys had speed to burn, but it felt a lot like the thrown together match that it was with just spot after spot without a ton of psychology. I like that Young got the win because I’ve always been a fan of his and every win that he gets is just one more chance for TNA to get behind him in a major way, but this felt less like a bonus match and more like a filler match.
Match Four: Ultimate X Match: Shannon Moore vs. Robbie E vs. Amazing Red vs. Alex Shelley
In the interest of full disclosure, I’m a total Alex Shelley mark, so you know who I was pulling for in this one. By the by, Cookie has apparently been taking extra lessons at the Vickie Guerrero School of Shrill as she was in full throat for this one unfortunately. Early highlights included Shelley’s baseball slide dropkick with Robbie and Moore stacked up in the corner, as well as Red’s shooting star press on Shelley off of Moore’s back. Like with most Ultimate X matches, there was plenty of chaos and plenty of spots involving the crossed cables and the best came when Red hit a big springboard dropkick to knock Robbie off of the cables as he got near the X. Moore’s spot where he used the Ultimate X structure to try to get across to the middle was actually pretty inventive as it kept him out of danger and gave him the chance to get all the way to the middle unscathed. Luckily for me, Shelley managed to get across the cables to cut him off and take down the X to become the new number one contender in the X-Division. I have to say that even though the right guy won (in my opinion), this was fairly underwhelming as an Ultimate X match and it felt like it was over just as it was starting to get interesting. There were moments, but it was missing the huge spots that we’ve all come to expect from the Ultimate X match and that hurt it quite a bit.
Match Five: Rob Van Dam vs. Jerry Lynn
This one had some pretty big shoes to fill as they’re undoubtedly going to be compared to their classic ECW encounters, no matter how much time has passed since those matches took place. They started off slow, milking the crowd’s response and dueling chants for all they could and we even got Borash referencing his Forever Hardocre documentary in a cool little moment on commentary. Van Dam had firm control of the match early on, though Lynn had some nice flashes as they spent the early portion of things setting things up with some nice mat wrestling sequences to show how evenly matched they are. It was interesting watching Lynn changing his tactics as he got more and more frustrated with RVD and more and more frustrated with the Impact Zone siding with him and added a different dynamic to the match. In most all of their matches in ECW, Lynn was a decided babyface so it was cool to see him heel it up a little bit to change things up. Yeah, you have to admit that this was a half a step off from their matches in the late-90’s, but they still managed to build up one hell of a match. As soon as Lynn brought the chair in, you knew he was going to end up eating it at some point, but it was cool to see Lynn get the big legdrop on the chair first as well as the flip powerbomb out of the corner for a couple of near-falls. This one ended the same way that you would expect it to with a Van Damninator into the Five-Star Frog Splash, but that’s alright by me as Van Dam is the guy that will still be in TNA next week and couldn’t really afford the loss. Not quite as good as the matches that they had in ECW, but still the best match on the card so far and definitely worthy of their feud.
Match Six: Four-Way Match For TNA Contract: Zema Ion vs. Jack Evans vs. Low Ki vs. Austin Aries
Alright, the same way that I talked about Shelley in the Ultimate X match, I’ve got the same kind of bias for Aries, so now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s talk about the match. With the type of guys involved, this one was going to be a clinic in speed and it absolutely didn’t disappoint as all four guys were flying around the ring and hitting great spots all throughout. I’d highlight some of the big spots in this one, but there were too many to count (though Aries locking in the Last Chancery on Ion and talking smack as Low Ki had the Dragon Sleeper on Evans was pretty awesome). I honestly think that all four of them did enough to earn a spot in TNA with their performances, especially Evans, who seems to have found a way to control his problem with botching spots since the last time I saw him regularly. This was pure action from the opening bell to the finish and everyone got a chance to shine at one point or another, which was probably the reason they signed this match to begin with. TNA needs more matches like this if they really want to live up to their “Wrestling Matters” tagline as this match was the blueprint for how TNA can become a true alternative to the WWE. Of course, I’m extra happy because Aries picked up the win with the BRAINBUSTAHHHHHHHH, but the real winners were the fans that got to see this one as it was an awesome display from four amazing athletes. To quote the Impact Zone, “Sign Them All!”
Match Seven: TNA X-Division Championship: Brian Kendrick vs. Abyss (C)
I’m not what you’d call a huge Abyss fan, but he looked like he was carrying Todd’s Book of Pure Evil as he made his entrance, so he gained a little bit of respect from me. Classic big man vs. little man match here as Kendrick’s offense was hit-and-run, while Abyss would cut him off with one big move that would completely change the complexion of the match. Abyss controlled for the majority of the match, just on his size alone, and while it made things a little boring, I didn’t really care for him stopping midway through the bout to read from the BOPE. It made sense once Kendrick used the book to cut Abyss open, but felt a little silly before that. That being said, Abyss turning Sliced Bread into the Shock Treatment was actually a pretty bad-ass spot and one that I really enjoyed. The ref bump and Kendrick getting the false finish sucked, especially once Bischoff got involved, but it was cool to see a guy like Kendrick get to waffle him one. The whole thing broke down into Immortal vs. the X-Division like you would expect it to once the referee was down and out and it was nice to see the X-Division get to have their moment in the sun, especially at their pay-per-view and it will be fun to see Kendrick vs. Shelley whenever they decide to put that one together. It didn’t quite come off as the epic moment they wanted it to with the confetti and what-not, but it was still one of the biggest wins of Kendrick’s career, which makes it pretty cool to me. I just hope that they don’t have Bischoff somehow screw Kendrick out of the belt to give it back to Abyss due to the outside interference or the Bischoff punch like they did back in the day with the whole Outsiders/Steiners deal because that would suck.
Match Eight: AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels
The video building up to this one was tremendous and made it feel more like a big time boxing match on HBO instead of a TNA pay-per-view main event and that’s a very good thing. With what these two have done in the past in and out of the X-Division, there were some pretty lofty expectations coming into this one and they did a great job in living up to those expectations. The beginning of the match was paced beautifully and laid the foundation for what was to come later on as they mat wrestled and exchanged holds and counters to put over just how well they know each other after all of their matches against each other. For as much as I put over how hot the Impact Zone crowd was during the beginning of the show, they were almost a distraction in this one as they seemed more interested in starting a dueling chant than they were in the match. Dueling chants are one of the most played out things in wrestling and the Impact Zone is a big reason why and it went from being cool the first time to just being annoying by the time the show was coming to a close. Daniels and AJ are total pros and went about building this one the right way all the way up to the finish with the two men trading big moves until AJ hit the Spiral Tap for the three-count. I like that they also kept this one about the athleticism and managed to keep most of the story advancement out of the match as it probably would have overshadowed the story that Daniels and AJ were trying to tell in the ring.
Match of the Night: Four-Way X-Division Showdown for TNA Contract
For as good as the story that AJ and Daniels told was, this match was exactly what the X-Division was about during the early days of TNA and what the X-Division should be about in the future. Four guys laying it all out there and crushing their bodies and souls to put on an incredibly fast-paced and entertaining match while showcasing innovative offense and high-risk maneuvers. Aries getting the contract was absolutely the right move, especially after the promo he cut earlier in the show, but all four guys deserve to get signed if you ask me.
Trash of the Night: Doug Williams vs. Mark Haskins:
Haskins may have impressed during TNA’s tour of England, but he left a lot to be desired here. I’m not going to completely write him off yet as this could easily be attributed to first-match jitters, but he was a bit of a disappointment as the mystery opponent. Whether he succeeds or fails, I would expect to be seeing him for a long time to come, especially with how hard Borash and Tenay were pushing him on commentary.
Final Thoughts: The show started off pretty well and then flagged a bit in the middle, but the three top matches all delivered and that’s about all you can ask from a wrestling pay-per-view. It would have been great to get five-star classics up and down the card to showcase the X-Division, but that would have never happened. That being said, this was a solid PPV offering from TNA and probably one of their best of the year, which hopefully means that there will start to be an emphasis put back on the X-Division after they’ve spent the better part of the past few years on the back burner.
Listen to the latest edition of the 411 on Wrestling podcast! On the show, 411’s Larry Csonka is joined by co-host Michael O to discuss TNA Destination X, WWE Raw, The 411 Top 25 of the Last 25 list and more!
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