Why I Love/Hate Wrestling 11.25.07: Genesis 2007 (Part 2)

Well I hope you all didn’t miss me too much last week. I was visiting a college in So Cal. Anyways, I am here bringing you my in depth thoughts on TNA’s Genesis 2007 PPV. It’s time to be entertained!

Why I Love Wrestling

Team 3D (Brother Ray & Devon) vs. The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin)
I almost boycotted this match before it started because D-Von is shirtless. Ewww…. Oh, good, he put his shirt on. We can continue watching. *phew* And I just wanna get this out of the way early, so here it is. Team 3-D looks like hell. I was watching the match, and as Ray was near the canvas his arm blended in with it since it was so pale. And he is so fat Sabin couldn’t even get his hands all the way around him. But, then again, who would want to wrap their arms all around Ray? But now to the actual match. MCMG is the greatest tag team ever. Hands down. They were able to pull a great match out of 3-D’s asses. But, to their credit, 3-D did show some effort. Ray was really good at getting some heat. Shelley, as always, was the star of the match. Everything he does is awesome. The way he walks around the ring, the way he plays up to the crowd, he just oozes charisma. MCMG has some of the greatest double team moves and work extremely well together. All in all, the match exceeded expectations and I was pleasantly surprised. Now if only Ray would go tanning. By the way, I am 1-0 right now, and I called the way the match would end. That’s a good start! ***1/2

TNA X-Division Title Match: Black Machismo © vs. Sonjay Dutt
As in before the match, I am having mixed feelings about the match. On one hand, you have a damn fine X-Division match put on by two very capable wrestlers. They put on a good, well fought battle with tons of insane spots. The best spot of the match was when Sonjay went for a moonsault, but Lethal moved. Sonjay then hit a standing moonsault, followed by a Standing Shooting Star Press. The bad part was the fact that this match had no hype and no storyline going into it. The match was announced a week ahead of time with no reason given. But the pros outweigh the cons in the match and we were able to see a good X-Division match. Not a classic by any stretch of the imagination, but the match was good and it provided us with plenty of awesome spots and X-Division goodness. I am 2-0 now as I predicted Machismo to go over. ***1/4

TNA Women’s Title Match: Gail Kim © vs. Roxxi Laveaux vs. ODB vs. Angel Williams
I expected this match to be a really good women’s showing and I was right. All of the wrestlers in the match looked strong and the wrestling was really good. This is probably the best women’s match I have seen since Mickie vs. Trish from Wrestlemania 22. Angel Williams is a stone cold fox and put on a good effort, but nobody bought her as that much of a competitor. ODB seemed more likely to have a chance of winning as she is a ruthless wrestler, but I could do without the wacky antics. I still don’t know what to think of Roxxi, though. Gail, however, was the force that held the match together. She executed her moves extremely well and was clean and crisp with the delivery. That match itself was good and I think the women’s division is set for good things, especially with the Gail Kim Awesome Kong feud on the horizon. I am 3-0 now. I’m on a roll! **1/2

TNA World Tag Team Titles Match: AJ Styles & Tyson Tomko © vs. The Steiner Brothers
This was definitely not the train wreck many expected. Sure the Steiners may be a little out of it and mobility challenged (especially Rick), but the match wasn’t too offensive. The beginning was a little slow but built the match up nicely in the typical tag match formula. Rick looked a little sloppy, but considering where he is in his career, it is great to see he can still hit some of his moves like the Top Rope Bulldog. The last 3 or so minutes of the match really picked up with Scott coming in and delivering some suplexes. They do some spots where AJ and Tomko team up on Scott, only to have him battle back. Eventually Scott and Tomko wind up outside the ring and the ref gets bumped, prompting Styles to use the chair and pick up the win. While many may complain that this was a cheap finish, at least it wasn’t a DQ or count out or something ridiculous like that. The champs pinned the challengers cleanly in the ring and Styles/Tomko add a big win to their belt. It the Steiners stick around to put over younger talent, ala Ric Flair, this could be pretty okay. I am 4-0 now! **1/2

Samoa Joe vs. Robert Roode w/Miss Brooks
This is the only match to make a jump from the “hate” section in part one to the “Love” section of part two. I knew the match was going to be ok, but it was definitely better than I expected. The action kept up most of the match and both men put out a tremendous effort. Joe, as usual, brought the awesome and delivered. I hadn’t seen too much of Roode previously, except for the fact that I knew he was talented enough in the ring. I was pleasantly surprised to see that he was really good and did a good job in the ring. The only gripe I have about the match is the fact that too much attention was paid to Traci. And I’m not talking about her fainting, I am talking about before that. Every twenty seconds or so they would cut to her to get her professional facial expressions or to see her bickering with Roode’s number one fn. Other than the Brooks issue, the match was actually pretty good and very entertaining. I actually thought Roode might have had a chance to win. Anyway, I am 5-0. ***

Fight for the Right Tournament Final – Ladder Match: Kaz vs. Christian Cage
Awesome, awesome, awesome match. The match was nonstop action, drama, brutality, and story-telling. You have the young Kaz, just getting pushed into the title scene facing off against multi time title holder and one of the innovators of ladder matches. The match rocked the house and was everything you could ask for in a fifteen minute match. There were cool ladders spots, such as Cage’s Frog Splash onto Kaz who was on the ladder that was set up on the guardrails. Another cool spot was when the ladder was propped up on the ropes with Cage lying on it, and then Kaz leg dropped him. The match was totally insane and delivered big time. Nothing else to say except Match of the Night. Plus, I was one of the only people to pick Kaz (aside from Larry). Now I am 6-0. ****

Why I Hate Wrestling

Shop Of Horrors Match: Abyss vs. Black Reign
I was not looking forward to this match and my intuition proved correct. The match was slow, plodding, and all around sucked. Now normally Abyss is able to put on an entertaining brawl, but this flat out sucked. And Reign is so fat Abyss can barely lift him. The chokeslam was nothing more than a push of the stage. As my friend put it, “I hope Reign doesn’t get up after that.” But alas, he did get up. The only cool part of the match was Abyss going face-first into the mouse traps, but Abyss is always up for a spot like that. And what is up with Reign’s finisher? He essentially set him up for a Pedigree, but the collapsed. And then, after all the brutal brawling, Abyss won with a Black Hole Slam. This match was horrible and it was a horrible way to open the show. I did get this match right, though, and I am 7-0. *1/2

TNA World Heavyweight Championship Match: Winner of the fall wins the Championship: Kurt Angle © & Kevin Nash vs. Sting & THE MYSTERY MAN~!
You know what, I am not going to waste my time on this match. This match shouldn’t even have happened. It should have been either Sting or Kurt Angle against Samoa Joe, with Joe winning. Instead, we get another guy who was sick of the WWE so he decided to jump ship and interject himself into the title match. Yes, Booker T made his triumphant debut in TNA. But it might not all turn out to bad, seeing as how when Christian debuted, he was interjected into the title scene and wound up have some pretty good matches (you will never guess who Booker is feuding with now). JD Dunn put it best when he said it seemed like a late 1990’s WCW match. I just can’t see how WC…. I mean TNA can expand and build new stars when they keep bringing in old guys. And now we have Joe, Nash, and Hall vs. Angle, Styles, and Tomko, which will hopefully lead to Joe facing Angle for the title and winning, and, unfortunately, hopefully not, The Outsiders taking the tag belts from AJ and Tomko. Uh-oh. 8-0. **

This PPV was definitely better than expected. There was one bad match, but was okay in a sadistic way. Then there was a match that was bogged down by politics that wound up being average. The rest of the matches were good, and a few being great, such as the ladder match and the MCMG match. I will give the PPV thumbs up and a slightly solid recommendation. It had some newer guys getting their time to shine, which is always a good thing. Plus, I went 8-0 and got every match right! Go me. Check out the sweet articles around the site. Stay classy, 411Mania readers.