TNA NO SURRENDER

Sunday, September 9th, 2012 from Orlando

JEFF HARDY vs. SOMOA JOE: Um...why did these two wrestle Thursday just to wrestle again tonight? It was good but nothing spectacular. Sadly, both guys haven't been in a great match in awhile. **

BULLY RAY vs. JAMES STORM: Well...Bully is only good if tables, barbed wire, fire, or something destructive is in the ring. Storm is just dull. This was boring but at least the big Storm ain't getting the title. *

MISS TESSMACHER vs. TARA: Not good. *

AUSTIN ARIES vs. THE ARM BREAKER: Yes, the champ of the company wrestled a masked man with no name in a match with no ref or ending. 1/2*

ZEMA ION vs. SONJAY DUTT: Dutt is a good, entertaining wrestler. Zema is getting there. It was typical. **

RVD vs. MAGNUS: Eh. *1/2

CHRISTOPHER DANIELS & KAZARIAN vs. AJ STYLES & KURT ANGLE: Angle is hurt, but honestly you couldn't tell. It wasn't as good as their match of the year in June but it was the best of the night. **1/2

JEFF HARDY vs. BULLY RAY: Unwatchable. Hardy was hurt by the Aces & Eights during the Aries/Arm Breaker match that had the locker room come out and fight the bad, masked dudes. So Hardy was hurt, didn't do anything, then at the end miraculously won. Um...I'd rather see an epic, hardcore classic. 1/2*

WWE SUMMERSLAM

Sunday, August 19th, 2012 from Los Angeles

DOLPH ZIGGLER vs. CHRIS JERICHO (13:05): TNA must be really good this year, right? Because this show was perhaps 2012's worst ppv of the year. First off, this opener was for nothing. But on RAW they fought with big stipulations; Jericho loses and he's fired, Ziggler loses and he forfeits his MITB contract. I understand you want to get ratings for a 3 hour RAW (they're 3 hours now for no good reason...perhaps they want to slowly die off like WCW) but Summerslam is supposed to be the 2nd biggest show of the year. And this match was the best on the show and not all that good. ** (out of ****)

KANE vs. DANIEL BRYAN (8:02): At least Bryan won. Why is Kane still wrestling? 1/2*

THE MIZ vs. REY MYSTERIO (9:09): Really? Really? Still pushing The Miz? *

SHEAMUS vs. ALBERTO DEL RIO (11:22): Del Rio will never be in a good match. Just realize that already and get rid of him. 1/2*

R. TRUTH & KOFI KINGSTON vs. PRIME TIME PLAYERS (7:07): I just love the tag title division. There's, like, one team in it now. *

CM PUNK vs. BIG SHOW vs. JOHN CENA (12:34): Funny...but they did the same thing in this match that TNA did last week. Punk and Cena both put on submission holds on Show and two refs rang the bell but AJ came out to restart it. Punk has been the champ since last November. Wow. This match was dull. First off; Kane and The Big Show suck and have always sucked. I think Shane O'Mac was the only one ever to get a good match out of them. & he quit the company. *1/2

BROCK LESNAR vs. HHH (18:45): So...Cena had a great, messy, bizarre match against Lesnar in April. You'd think HHH would put on a better one, right? You would be wrong. This was 19 boring minutes. & it was obvious Lesnar wouldn't lose both of his WWE matches this year, right? So HHH taps out and loses. What a downbeat way to end a show. I'm falling asleep. 1/2*

TNA HARDCORE JUSTICE

Sunday, August 12th, 2012 from Orlando

CHAVO GUERRERO JR. & HERNANDEZ vs. KID KASH & GUNNER: Mediocre opener, although it's funny how Chavo is doing all these entertaining moves like a moonsault. Where was that Chavo in WWE? *1/2

ROB VAN DAM VS. POPE D'ANGELO DINERO vs. MR. ANDERSON vs. MAGNUS "FALLS COUNT ANYWHERE": The Pope got ambushed by Aces and Eights, the new, masked group of thugs...so The Pope wasn't in this match. The funny part was when Magnus couldn't find a chair and yelled, "Where's a fucking chair?" for everyone to hear. This probably should have been called a Chairs Match. **

DEVON vs. KAZARIAN: Not bad. These guys were doing some vicious moves. **1/2

 MISS TESSMACHER vs. MADISON RAYNE: Rayne is "in love" with ref Earl Hebner so he let her win the title. Eh. *

BULLY RAY vs. JAMES STORM vs. JEFF HARDY vs. ROBBIE E "TABLES MATCH": Aces and Eights showed up but didn't do anything. Bully put Hardy through a table to win. Robbie E went through a table by himself. **

ZEMA ION vs. KENNY KING: This show had a good card but didn't turn out that good. This match, obviously, wasn't going to be good no matter what. 1/2*


A.J. STYLES vs. KURT ANGLE vs. SAMOA JOE vs. CHRISTOPHER DANIELS "LADDER MATCH": I guess because these guys are veterans and not stupid...but nobody did any death defying leaps off the ladder. It was good but nothing special. **1/2

AUSTIN ARIES vs. BOBBY ROODE: The worst thing about TNA this year was the fact that Roode has been in every ppv main event. He lost this match and thus has no re-match. Good. They did a neat bit where both guys pinned each other and the match had to re-start...but Roode is a bore and this was dull. *

WWE MONEY IN THE BANK

Sunday, July 15th, 2012 from Phoenix

DOLPH ZIGGLER vs. DAMIEN SANDOW vs. SIN CARA vs. CHRISTIAN vs. CODY RHODES vs. TENSAI vs. TYSON KIDD vs. SANTINO MARELLA "LADDER MATCH": This has become my favorite WWE ppv. I mean, two ladder matches guarantees two good matches. The only other show that guarantees two good matches is the Elimination Chamber ppv. & I love Wrestlemania, sure, but I love ladder matches more. And even though I picked Ziggler and Cena to both win and they did, they were both good matches, this one being a zany clusterfuck of a match with missed spots and sick spots and a wild energy to it. The sickest spot had Tensai tossing Dolph over the announce table and onto the announcer's chair. The catch? Dolph flew through the air and landed upside down on the chair and bounced off. It was scary. Definitely one of the best WWE matches of the year. ***1/2

SHEAMUS vs. ALBERTO DEL RIO: Yawn. 1/2*

TITUS O'NEAL & DARREN YOUNG vs. PRIMO & EPICO: I read the paper while this was going on.

CM PUNK vs. DANIEL BRYAN: Good match. They used a chair, a table, and kendo sticks. AJ didn't really sway the match...so what was the point of her being the ref? Punk put Bryan through a table from the top rope to win. ***

RYBACK vs. CURT HAWKINS & TYLER REKS: More paper.

LAYLA & KAITLYN & TAMINA SNUKA vs. BETH PHOENIX & NATALYA & EVE TORRES: More paper. Really...the WWE can't put a good 3 hour show together? There were 3 matches that didn't even belong on RAW.

JOHN CENA vs. BIG SHOW vs. THE MIZ vs. KANE vs. CHRIS JERICHO "LADDER MATCH": Good not great, but it had some interesting stuff that made it stand out. Like Cena tossing Show through the announce table early. Kane being suplexed onto a ladder. Cena won, cashed in his briefcase on RAW to announce he'll face Punk at the 1,000 RAW on July 23rd. Everyone says this means a Punk heel turn. We'll see. But it looks like Summerslam will be Lesnar/HHH and Cena/Punk which ain't bad. ***

TNA DESTINATION X

Sunday, July 8th, 2012 from Orlando

RUBIX (JIGSAW) VS. MASON ANDREWS (SCORPIO SKY) VS. LARS ONLY (JOHNNY YUMA) VS. DAKOTA DARSOW: There were a lot of "stars" not on the show tonight; no Bully Ray, Mr. Anderson, Jeff Hardy, Abyss. This show felt like a CZW Best of the Best type of show...which isn't bad...but it would have helped if we knew who any of these guys were (they had them on only one Impact). This was wild but also a mess. **

KID KASH VS. MASON ANDREWS: Yes, Kid Kash is still wrestling. I saw him in ECW at the ECW Arena in, like, '99. He's still mediocre. *1/2

DOUGLAS WILLIAMS VS. KENNY KING: King jumped ship from ROH who fired him. He's got a dumb name and isn't all that exciting. *

SONJAY DUTT VS. RASHAD CAMERON: Dutt has a crazy finisher. He leaps off the top rope and does a flip and lands feet first on the opponent's chest. Sick! I also saw him at the ECW Arena at CZW's Cage of Death X. I guess that says something about TNA's star power. **1/2

ZEMA ION VS. FLIP CASANOVA: Jesse Sorensen came out before this match to say that he will return, win the X-Division title and then the World title. Zema, if you forget, broke Sorensen's neck by accident. I like Zema. Go figure. **

KURT ANGLE VS. SAMOA JOE: Not good. Bad finish. Joe choked out Angle and the ref called it. Jeez, remember when these guys were in the main event burning the house down? It felt stale, bygone. **

A.J. STYLES VS. CHRISTOPHER DANIELS "LAST MAN STANDING MATCH": Great match that I missed most of thanks to an internet stream failing. The finish had AJ giving Daniels his face plant finish off the ramp through a table. ***

KENNY KING VS. ZEMA ION VS. SONJAY DUTT VS. MASON ANDREWS "ULTIMATE X MATCH": They haven't had a great Ultimate X match in a long time. I remember them always being stellar. Not sure what happened, but I guess the wrestlers haven't been as good. Dutt got hurt but came back out late to take a hard bump off the X in the center of the ring and Zema won. **1/2

BOBBY ROODE VS. AUSTIN ARIES: This, like every Roode match, was not good...but Aries won the title clean and that was shocking and awesome. It's nice to be surprised. **   

WWE NO WAY OUT

Sunday, June 17th, 2012 from East Rutherford, NJ

SHEAMUS vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER: Good opener. Randy Orton was suspended for using steroids and then Alberto Del Rio got a concussion so this left Dolph Ziggler to take the spot against Sheamus. Perhaps the best match of the show (and if you couldn't tell by that, the show was awful). **1/2 (out of ****)

SANTINO MARELLA vs. RICARDO RODRIGUEZ "TUXEDO MATCH": Yeah...a match where you have to rip off the other person's tuxedo. A leftover from the Russo era? 1/2*

CHRISTIAN vs. CODY RHODES: Kind of stale, although name a good match Cody has ever been in. Yeah. *1/2

PRIMO & EPICO vs. TYSON KIDD & JUSTIN GABRIEL vs. TITUS O'NEAL & DARREN YOUNG (THE PRIME TIME PLAYERS) VS. USOS: Who are these people? There was one good spot where one dude jumped off the top rope down onto seven people. But look at this card...most of it is worse than a RAW card. *1/2

LAYLA vs. BETH PHOENIX: Ugh. Women wrestling. 1/2*

HUNICO vs. SIN CARA: Really? On a ppv? 1/2*

C.M. PUNK vs. DANIEL BRYAN vs. KANE: Good, not great. Thank Kane. **1/2

RYBACK vs. ROB GRYMES & DAN DELANY: Goldberg! 1/2*

JOHN CENA vs. BIG SHOW "CAGE MATCH": So The Big Show beats the shit out of Cena. Then Brodus Clay shows up with a steel chair and won't let Show out. Then Kofi climbs the cage to prevent Show from escaping and then Ryder does the same. All of this interference helps Cena give Show the Attitude Adjustment and climb out to win. Thus Vince McMahon fires John Laurinaitis and then Cena tosses him threw the Spanish announce table. A good clusterfuck of an ending. **1/2



        

TNA SLAMMIVERSARY

Sunday, June 10th, 2012 from Arlington, Texas

AUSTIN ARIES vs. SOMOA JOE: A terrific match, albeit a little short. Fuck...Somoa Joe has been losing for decades, right? Remember when he was the TNA champ? ***

HERNANDEZ vs. KID KASH: Eh. Hernandez did a great over the top-rope leap down onto the floor and Kash, although Hernandez did look like he landed on his shoulder. I see a wheelchair in your future, big man. **

DEVON & GARETT BISCHOFF vs. ROBBIE E & ROBBIE T: Not good. 1/2*

MR. ANDERSON vs. JEFF HARDY vs. RVD: Good. And I guess it's a surprise that Mr. Kennedy won, although not surprising that he lost in the title match on Impact to Bobby Roode (the winner of this got a title shot). **1/2

JAMES STORM vs. CRIMSON: So Crimon's Goldberg-like winning streak ends. So what was the point of this winning streak? At least Goldberg won the title and the winning streak went somewhere. Crimson's winning streak was a year of beating B-stars. *

MISS TESSMACHER vs. GAIL KIM: So what does Tessmacher mean, anyway? Is it some sex joke like Ms. Hancock was? The women's division in TNA hasn't been the same since Awesome Kong left. *

JOSEPH PARK vs. BULLY RAY: Really? REALLY? What is this storyline, anyway? Park is supposed to be Abyss' brother but we all know he's Abyss without a mask. So Park rolls under the ring mid-match and Abyss comes out and choke slams Bully Ray then goes back under the ring and Park comes out. I know everyone on wrestling internet sites hates hardcore wrestling but that Abyss/Bully match earlier in the year with barbed wire was fucking awesome. **

A.J. STYLES & KURT ANGLE vs. KAZARIAN & CHRISTOPHER DANIELS: The best TNA match in a LONG time. The final few minutes were a crazy flurry of activity and it was wild and entertaining and fun. Great match. ***1/2

STING vs. BOBBY ROODE: Please, Sting: stop wrestling. Also, Bobby Roode stop wrestling. 1/2*