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WRestling’s 3R’s PPV Edition 12.18.06: TNA Turning Point 2006

December 18, 2006 | Posted by Larry Csonka

Sorry for the delay kids, holidays and work, combined with cable issues slowed me down, but never fear, the R’s are here!

Introduction!

Welcome back to another PPV edition of WRestling’s 3R’s! It is time once again to break down the PPV of the past weekend in the 3R’s style. This time around we will look at the TNA Turning Point PPV, which is the 4th PPV in a row out of 5. I may die, but I will get through it kids! We just got through the Turning Point show and it is time, once again for me to break down the show as I always do; 3…R’s…style. Sit back and relax and let’s see how the show was!

TNA Turning Point 2006~!:size=36>

The Matches:

PRE-SHOW MATCH Ron Killings and Lance Hoyt defeated Serotonin (Bentley and Kazarian) @ 5:00 via pin * Trash of the Night

PAPARAZZI CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: Senshi defeated Sonjay Dutt, Alex Shelley, Jay Lethal and Austin Starr @ 14:51 via pin **¾

TNA X-TITLE MATCH: Christopher Daniels defeated Chris Sabin @ 12:56 via pin ***

AJ Styles defeated Rhino @ 11:39 via pin ***½

FLAG/ANTHEM/NWA TITLE MATCH: LAX defeated AMW @ 12:00 ***

NWA TITLE MATCH: Abyss w/Mitchell retained the NWA Title defeating Sting and Christian Cage w/Tomko @ 11:15 via pin **

THE REMATCH: Samoa Joe defeated Kurt Angle @ 19:25 via Submission ****½ Match of the Night.

The Right:

The importance of words -There are times when we cringe at promos, or times that they are fine but we just don’t care about them at all. But then there are times that they really add to the shows and angles and we love them. At the Turning Point show there were some damn good promos on the show, so we shall discuss those here.

  • Samoa Joe: Samoa Joe was excellent during the pre-show interview he gave. He has really stepped up in the feud with Angle and Steiner this year, and continues to do so. Joe is really proving to everyone why he is the man to feud with Angle.
  • Konnan: Konnan was absolutely great after LAX won the flag match. He went on a great tirade on American, AMW and Tenay and demanded that people stand and respect the anthem. It looked like the happiest day of his life and the promo reflected that.
  • James Mitchell: James Mitchell was awesome again. Some feel his promos are over the top, but the way he has been selling the feud between Abyss and Sting have been tremendous. He is a true asset to Abyss and the promotion and continues to prove it on each and every PPV.

    Daniels vs. Sabin – The good news is that for the 4th straight month we have had a good X-Title match. This was on the lower end of the matches, but they did deliver a really fun and solid match here. Daniels and Sabin have been working well together, and that is what the division needs. The only complaint about the match itself is that it seemed to end when it was about to head towards a hot finish. That isn’t a horrible thing, but it just seemed like they were building to so much more. The other thing to discuss is the Jerry Lynn factor. Most everyone expected Lynn to turn on Daniels and help Sabin win the title in Russo-riffic fashion. The others expected Lynn to cost Sabin the match, setting up a Sabin vs. Lynn match and continued feud. But none of that happened. Lynn and Daniels ended up having an issue over the respect deal. It was actually a surprise, a good “swerve” if you will.

    AJ vs. Rhino – So here we had another first time match, and an interesting one at that with AJ Styles and Rhino. While the build has been questionable, both men have been intense and I felt as if they would put on a good match and they did. Had it not been for Angle vs. Joe II this would have been my match of the night. This all began as Rhino was cutting a promo and AJ like, FLEW into the screen for the attack. They brawled backstage and it was rather brutal including AJ bouncing off a trashcan and eating some cement, like literally eating it. The young man was lucky to get up after that one. He ended up just bleeding from the nose and they finally filtered into the ring for the official match, if you will. AJ played heel very well here, including a great spot where he looked like he was going to do a dive, and then backed off and made the ref count out Rhino, good stuff. AJ was killing himself here, Rhino looked like a beast and then it appeared as if AJ injured himself being AJ Styles, the psychotic. The ref checked on him and made the dreaded “X” symbol, which used to mean a guy is hurt and now means we are pretending that the guy is hurt. They had people come out to check on AJ as AJ was playing it up and saying, “I think it popped.” Then, just as it looked as if the match would be called, AJ Styles RAN into the ring, and rolled up Rhino with the tights for the win, and that was that. People were pissed and outraged at the finish, and you know what? YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN! He fooled us, he fooled the face and got the victory through nefarious means, LIKE A GOOD HEEL! While it is not the idea circumstances to some, I thought it was a good ending, creative and something TNA hasn’t really done. Rhino didn’t get beat by the better man, he got beat by a cheater and is now even more pissed and looking for revenge. That is why we will have another match and I am ok with that. Good stuff here and AJ continues to prove that he can work with anyone they put him in the ring with.

    The Flag Match – I have to be truthful and admit that I was afraid that this would be an over booked mess, steal the flags, use a ladder, hang the flags while avoiding the 5-pipers piping while the maids a milking flash you, it just had mess written all over it. Thankfully everyone involved seem to have a unified plan going into the match and they succeeded despite the booking. I must also compliment them on their chemistry. Last month they seemed really off in spots, a lot of spots, and while this match was not perfect, it was damn good, they played the stipulations well and were much more cohesive. That is a credit to all involved. Also, Hernandez is doing so well, including throwing a crazy dive again in this match, showing he can hang with everyone.

    The booking of the end was also good, as Storm looks to stop the evil Homicide with the beer bottle but the glass flew into Harris’ eyes and he fell to the mat. Hernandez then hangs the flag and LAX wins. AMW is left to argue amongst themselves because not only did they fail to win the titles and fail to beat LAX, but they let “America” down because they had to listen to the “evil” Mexican anthem. We actually get the heels standing tall and they get to hear their anthem played. This is something that no one expected because the “Good Guys/Americans” always win. They didn’t here, and seeing Konnan standing there like it was his greatest career achievement was tremendous.

    Joe vs. Angle II – So here it was, the rematch of the “dream match,” the second installment in what could end up being a tremendous long-term feud. The booking of it has come under fire, but I see why they wanted to get off to this start. It is all business. They want the buy rates now, they want the hype now, they want the potential ratings jump now and they are hoping to get 2-hours on Spike now. While I think that stretching things out can do bigger business, and in the end do more good for the company, I can also see the rushed aspect of it and delivering the goods right away.

    That all being said, the build was good again, the crowd was hyped again and I for sure was ready to see the rematch. It was funny to see them do the “Puder-Angle” spot during the match, watching Kurt escape and then beat down Joe for it. I heard it put best that this will be Kurt Angle’s Montreal and that is probably true. Anyway, the short of the long of it is that these guys just beat the hell out of each other, and brought out a level of brutality that I feel the rematch needed. They worked hard, fought hard and did their best to put on the best match of the night and they did. On one hand I hated the finish stuff, with the ref bump and all because a match like this didn’t need it. But on the other hand I loved that Angle did the visible tap out, and then ended up tapping anyway. In that short time it was like Joe got vengeance for his only two losses, both to Angle. And really, does ANYONE do the rebound off the ropes chair spot better than Angle? He is possibly the only one that can do it and not look like a total tool in its execution.

    In the end I thought that it was better than last month’s match, and jumped into the MOTY race, early for some as some people go December to December. I gave it the same rating as the first, but it was very close to ****¾ in my opinion, but the tainted finish took away to me. This is Joe vs. Angle, if either guy loses in a great match no one is hurt, both still look string, so enough with the shit finishes. I will STILL say that it does feel rushed, and that they should have stretched things out but the matches have delivered big time for the promotion, and that is a truth. I really hope that they stretch out the build for the 3rd match, hopefully for the NWA title down the line and then another short series of matches. But as for drawing buy rates and delivering great matches, they have done that so far and that isn’t a bad thing.

    Purgatory:

    TNA is starting a softball team! – I am just not sure here. First of all, Lance Hoyt is the guy that is going to get the rub from this? They couldn’t choose anyone else to get the rub besides Hoyt? I like Hoyt well enough I suppose, he has had some really good outings, and some really bad ones. Having him and the Demon face off isn’t exactly a money drawing dream match to me. While I hate that they will probably giving time to them for an angle, with Lance Hoyt of all people, it “could” get some more media buzz for the promotion. In the past they have got the buzz from this, but it hasn’t translated to ratings or more importantly buy rates. MAYBE it is working this time, the rating for last week’s show was a 1.2, and the highest audience all time for Impact. This may have had something to do with it. They have had clips on ESPN, CNN, and a deal in Sport Illustrated. Eckstein will talk about it as he promotes his book and Piersynski will talk about it because he wants to get himself over as a bad boy. I really wish they weren’t doing it because they have only the one hour of TV time, and if they have some kind of wacky Basebrawl II they will use TV time to promote the match an then give PPV time to it. I can see the mainstream positives, but what good will it do Lance Hoyt? We all know that Dutt, Simon Diamond and the DIRT all got the big rub from the first Baseball Brawl…oh wait. We’ll have to wait and see, at least they are trying but I think they could focus their energies elsewhere.

    The PCS – I will say that this was the right match to kick off the show. The Orlando crowd loves the X-Division guys, they like Nash and having they kick things off the show just worked. Thankfully they did not treat this is a comedy match and let the guys go out there and have a good match. They also have apparently driven home the point of not letting the opening guys go out there and do every move ever invented, in an attempt to save something. You can have a good opening match without doing everything in the book. Also, I thought they did a good job of keeping on with the Starr vs. Shelley vibe. Starr not only costing Shelley to be eliminated first, but doing very well and almost winning, keeping favor with Nash is an important vibe. Also, Senshi got an important win. You can tell he hates this whole thing, for real and in story, and is just out there to kick ass and did just that.

    And it apparently is supposed to be some wacky competition like the World X-Cup where they are competing for points. If you lost first you got one-point, and so on with the winner getting five-points. This is how it broke down.

    Senshi – 5 pts.
    Austin Starr – 4 pts.
    Sonjay Dutt – 3 pts.
    Jay Lethal – 2 pts.
    Alex Shelley – 1 pts.

    The funny thing is that it comes off more as parody than something serious. Like Nash is mocking the overcomplicated matches TNA can lay out. Here is the other problem, what are they fighting for. Kevin Nash is just here, creates a tournament and these guys just agree to do it? It is just odd I suppose. Finally there is the last thing. Who is this going to get over in the end? While a lot of this stuff is funny, and the guys worked hard and put on a good match, in the end the one getting over is Nash, who is out for himself; always has been, and always will be.

    Lining up the matches – This isn’t a huge deal, but sometimes I have to gripe about this one. The way the matches were laid out irked me just a little. The X-Title match went on second, a title that has main evented in the past went on second. Considering that there were only 6-matches on the show I know that it was hard to lay out things, but the title matches I feel should be at the end. For the most part TNA has done a solid job of making all the titles important, and when they are shuffled down the card it just raises issue with me.

    Then there was the NWA Title match, which went on second from last. Last month I understood why they did it. First of all they went with the fuck DQ finish, and you would not want to end a show on that and Joe vs. Angle was a huge marquee event, deserving of the main event slot. Then they went and did it again this month. Joe vs. Angle II was another big match, and like the first one it delivered huge. It did deserve the main event when you look at match quality.

    In the end I see why they did what they did, but the fact is that you need a really good reason to take “the big belt” out of the main event, and while they had one they need to be careful that they don’t devalue the title. In closing I will say this, I have loved that over the last 4+-years that TNA has had the balls to put other big matches or titles in the main event in place of the “big belt,” I think that it shows outside the box thinking from traditional wrestling, and that is ok at times, as long as you don’t devalue that big belt as I mentioned.

    The wRong:

    The NWA Title Match – I begrudgingly have to put this in the wrong. Let me say that it was not horrible, but for your world title match you rally wanted more I feel. Also, it was just overbooked with way too much Tomko. I understand why they brought Tomko in, I am all for that but this was just too much. Sting was back to looking normal after winning the title, I guess he thought the juice wasn’t worth it now that he didn’t have the title and that he is old. The match was a decent at best brawl, nothing special and not what you want from your world title match I need to say again. The finish was botched to hell also. Abyss was supposed to black hole slam Sting, who would kick Cage to the floor on the way around and then land in the tacks for the pin. They basically did that, but it looked like hell, Cage took more of a phantom bump and Sting missed the tacks, which are a dead gimmick now. These men are professionals, it looked like shit and really they could have done something after that to save it but didn’t. In the end it was good that Abyss got the pin on Sting, but that was really about it. A decent brawl, but overall it was just too overbooked and didn’t deliver for the title match.

    The Ridiculous:

    Serotonin – You know I and this same bitch about Robert Roode and his “debut” on the pre-show. First of all I know that this was not their debut, even though they tried to hype it as such. They already debuted, they already jobbed and then the disappeared. Magically we then get promos to lead to their debut, which already happened, which is hyped for PPV but happens on the PPV Pre-Show. Follow me so far? It isn’t important if you do, no one in TNA does either. They also jobbed again. I get that the whole thing is suffering and then vindication through pain, but they do have to win sometime. Raven came out again, caned Kazarian for losing and that was that. That is all well and good, but it needs to be somewhere that people can see it. Bad planning here, and I just have no clue where they are going with this if anywhere. What a waste of all the talent involved.

    Eric Young vs. Miss Brooks – All righty then. Let’s see what the deal is here. We have a bikini contest, between a man and a woman. No one wants to see the man strip down to his under-roo’s and they want to see the woman wear next to nothing. What sucked? Brooks wasn’t even that naked and EY got too naked. It was also a colossal waste of time. Young came out in a bathrobe and flip-flops. Brooks did her thing with way too much on. Young’s turn came and he suddenly turned shy. He finally took off his robe to reveal a t-shirt with a bikini on it. Robert Roode yelled for Young to be DQed. Young then asked for a beat and disrobed down to his SpongeBob SquarePants boxers. Ref Slick Johnson decided that he was going to DQ Young for not wearing a bikini but Young stopped him and took his boxers off to reveal SpongeBob SquarePants bikini briefs. They asked the audience to decide the winner and they picked Young. WHY? WHY? WHY was this on PPV? Why are we supposed to care? After the match Roode grabbed the mic and said he was sick of Brooks, Young, and the Orlando fans. He told Brooks that if she wanted to make this up to him, she needed to do whatever necessary to get Young to sign with Robert Roode Inc. He said that the fans will love him if he signs Young. Roode told Brooks that if she doesn’t get Young to sign, she may be the one who gets fired. Why does he care if the fans like him, HE IS A HEEL! I just can’t wrap my head around this one.

    THE RUSSO-FN-RIFFIC~~~!:

    The VKM – Ok, let me break this down so I don’t have to every week. If they have a skit, it will most likely just have this attached to it. It is stupid because:
    -It makes no sense.
    -It is a waste of precious TV and PPV time.
    -It has no payoff.
    -It will make no money.

    I will say that them mocking DX did get a chuckle out of me. The fake Spirit Squad taking bumps off of crotch chops as just about realistic when you think about how much offense the Spirit Squad got in on DX during their feud. But here is the worst part of it all. BG James cut a great promo. No, this was a FUCKING great and passionate promo. He was on, he was so into it and I was almost buying it. But the sad part is that there will never, ever be a pay off. Here is a clue, why can’t we get them to feud with some one on the TNA roster, so that when they use all of this TV and PPV time to hype a feud, and when a guy gives a kick ass promo it will mean something! Have him cut the promo on LAX, the Naturals, Team 3D or any team in TNA! Lord I hate this stuff, especially when the guys are working so hard and it COULD benefit the company if they would feud with someone that they can have a payoff with. In closing I will say this. If DX showed up in Orlando they would be GODS because they are HHH and HBK. Secondly it wouldn’t happen. Thirdly I will say I think VKM would take them in a real fight. Kip is a legit tough guy, and BG is a former Marine. They again this is all a moot point because this is stupid and won’t happen.

    Closing Thoughts:
    At the end of the night you had a very good night of wrestling, with some wacky and Russo-riffic booking tossed into it. The pre-show match was the worst match of the night, as everything on the PPV was “PPV Worthy” and they all worked hard. The PCS was a good and fun opener, the X-Title match was solid again as well. AJ and Rhino had a damn fine match for their first meeting, with AJ being a totally sneaky and evil heel to get the win. Speaking of “evil” LAX won and got their anthem played, which is something no one expected. The low part of the card was unfortunately the NWA Title match, as it was just so damn overbooked that it took away from what could have been a decent match. Joe vs. Angle II delivered big time, and in the end I came away pretty happy.

    In the end I will go with a 7.0 out of 10 for the show. There was a lot of good wrestling here, along with a great match in Angle vs. Joe II. While I still question some of the booking and Russo-Riffiness of the show, which did really hurt the overall score, it was definitely worth the $30 I spent on the show. If you can forget some of the Russo-riffic booking and just want good wrestling, then this is most definitely the show for you. Overall this is another solid recommendation from TNA.


    Reader Feedback on TNA TURNING POINT 2006:

    Alright, new TNA show means new pessimistic TNA thoughts from yours truly. The promotion seems to be under total Russo control from a storyline standpoint, and there are a few ups and a lot of downs. The preshow match is another great outings from Serotonin who will be jobbed into oblivion by Jan at the latest. Also, I inexplicably hate Lance Hoyt and have since the impact zone audience randomly started to love everything he does. All of the VKM shit in this show was free publicity for the competition and will never get anywhere. Of course, it’s still absorbing twenty percent of the free TV time. I will not speak of it any further as it shouldn’t be allowed to monopolize my thoughts as well. When did Kevin Nash become the booker of the x-division? Did I miss that memo? I mean, why are these guys supposed to care what he thinks, particularly the guys who were feuding with him 6 months ago. The match was decent considering I hate the situation so much. The bikini contest, Bobby Roode, and Tracy Brooks no longer exist to me. I was very happy with the X-division title match, and also surprised to see Lynn/Daniels in my future. There is no way to do that match wrong, but it was nice to see an example of both guys not compromising their existing personalities. Baseball players also no longer exist to me. It would be wrong of me to pass judgment on Styles/Rhino until the rematch I assume is pending, decent match with an overdone finish. LAX does the right thing and retains, while setting up the AMW split (I’m shocked and pleased they actually pulled the trigger on this one so quickly). The title match, once again, had a confusing finish that overshadowed a good solid match. Unnecessary stuff like this will start to hurt the promotion pretty soon. Finally, Joe and Angle stepped it up in a great match that I feel exceeded the first. Technical excellence and good chemistry make me look forward to these two feuding over the title for 5 or 6 months.

    From Hobgoblin –

    8.5

    Best Match: Tag Match: LAX vs. NWA, Hernandez is easily one of my favs, he’s fucking strong as hell and that spot where he hurdled the ropes out to the floor was sick.

    Honorable mention: AJ Styles vs. Rhyno, sure, the ending was clichéd but AJ really sold the injury well and he got dropped on his face on the concrete earlier too, great brawl.

    Worst Match: PCS, although no fault of Shelley, Senshi, or Starr… Dutt just brings the quality of any match down.

    VKM was aight… defiantly not as funny as Kip or BG had hoped, but the dumb to the extreme skits with the fat dude and the “spirit squad” were funny.

    And finally from 411’s ARI~! –

    The wrestling in the matches we expected to be terrific were absolutely terrific. Russo booking was certainly felt but it didn’t overwhelm and really take over. There were a couple of fuck finishes and such, but overall this was a MUCH better effort from TNA than the last few PPVs.

    Daniels and Sabin was a fucking phenomenal match. The twist between Lynn and Daniels was unexpected and actually good–we didn’t see a swerve in that one but the storyline can go places now and it will actually feel like there’s some depth to it. AJ Styles took some hellacious bumps and he and Rhino did almost steal the show except for the dumb false injury angle that everyone but Tenay and West and the fucking impact audience (Dumb shits) saw through. Still gets great heat on Styles, but I wouldn’t have gone that way.

    The bikini “match” was deplorable but at least it was quick. The VKM parodies ranged from noxious to genuinely funny. And it was smart that Kip James said not one word during the whole thing–BG can cut a decent promo when he needs to. Still, if I had the choice between this and no VKM, I’d vote for lalo err, I’d vote no VKM. And for the love of god, I don’t want to see Chippendales dancers in WWE, TNA, ROH or ABCDEFG wrestling promotion for the rest of my life. Just because its parody is not an excuse to do what the other co. is doing. I’m lucky I turned away in time or else I might have been blinded… and all those years mom told me not to stare at the sun, little did she know.

    LAX-AMW was good and the effort was there, although I hope they don’t fight anymore because every time out they manage to hurt ‘Cide and dammit, he has an ROH title to win in two weeks, he can’t get injured before then!

    The Heavyweight title was more drama than wrestling but for what it was it was fine.

    Joe-Angle II kicked all sorts of ass. The finish with the bump was unnecessary but everything else before and after was top notch. Not a five star match but definitely in the mid four-star range. The strikes they had were stiff and the chain sequence in the middle was tremendous and both men really kept it going and kept the crowd biting on every reversal. THIS was the match they should have done the first time around.

    Overall IMO I thought it was a very worthy PPV, reminiscent of the quality they put out earlier in 2006. Minus the dumb Russo stuff, which was to be expected, the wrestling was great, the effort was there and that’s all I expect for my money. Also, this PPV lasted a good half hour longer than ECW and had about 5x as much quality as that or Survivor Series (which for the record I actually had a lot of fun watching).

    I’d order a replay of this in a snap with the caveat of averting your eyes at the bikni contest and the stripper guy. But Angle-Joe II and Sabin-Daniels plus the PCS makes it all worth it.

    Thanks for joining me for this special edition of the 3R’s, and don’t forget to check out the regular edition complete with all of the other shows from the week!

    For more interesting information on wrestling, check out Bryan Alvarez and Figure Four Weekly Online, Mike Campbell over at SPLASH MOUNTAIN and Dr. Keith Lipinski over at Puroresu Power!

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