Csonka’s TNA One Night Only: Turning Point Review

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: Turning Point

OFFICIAL RESULTS
~ Samoa Joe defeated Kenny King @ 7:55 via pin [**]
~ Gail Kim defeated Madison Rayne and Angelina Love @ 8:47 via [**]
~ Sanada defeated Austin Aries @ 16:05 via pin [***½]
~ Gunner and Mr. Anderson defeated Ethan Carter III and Rockstar Spud @ 11:30 via pin [**]
~ Eric Young defeated Magnus @ 11:40 via pin [***]
~ Monster’s Ball Match: Bram defeated Abyss @ 11:01 via [**½]
~ Bobby Roode defeated James Storm @ 11:50 via pin [***½]
~ Jeff Hardy defeated MVP @ 16:14 via [**¾]

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* We get an opening video package, and then videos for Joe and King. This took up about the first 8-nminutes of the show.

* This show was taped back in September.

Samoa Joe vs. Kenny King: Since I have not been a fan of the commentary in the past, the first thing I will say is that Tenay and Taz were focused during this match, spending time discussing Joe’s MMA influenced style and how it had led to a lot of his success. As for the match, it was fine. It felt as if they went out there, they did stuff, Joe hit his trademark shit and won. There was no real rhyme or reason to the work, but it wasn’t bad. Joe played big man to King’s cocky small man act, and it worked well. The crowd was a bit too quiet for my liking; I hope they get more involved as the show goes on. This honestly felt like more of a basic Impact/Raw match, clean but forgettable.

* We get a few minutes of video packages for the ladies.

Gail Kim vs. Angelina Love vs. Madison Rayne: These ladies have a ton of history and have had a lot of matches together, so this has a chance to be good. It is amazing how Taz can go from sounding intelligent and knowledgeable during one match, and sounding like an immature teenager the next. Making jokes about the ladies outfits, three-ways and constantly having to mention how “sexy” the ladies comes off as pathetic and unprofessional. It’s shit like this that kills any legitimacy that women’s wrestling may have. The ladies tried, but the layout really hurt them as they did the two in and one out gimmick two times for way too long. The lack of crowd response was also disappointing because they were working hard and the match was solid, but no one seemed to care. Not bad at all, but it lacked.

* We get video packages for Sanada vs. Aries.

Austin Aries vs. Sanada w/James Storm: Taz went back to serious announcer here. These guys worked a good bit against each other last year, including live events, and had some very good outings. I am looking forward to this. They teased bullshit with Storm early, but the ref sent him to the back. I liked that they teased it, but then sent him away so that we hopefully get a clean match. This match has a great tempo, and was the first match on the show that felt as if both guys were really trying to deliver something beyond the status quo. While Storm was away, Sanada continued to be aggressive and to use short cuts, like using his tape to choke out Aries. Storm snuck out late, tossed Aries off the ropes and Sanada then landed a kick for the pin. This was a fun match, but not quite at the level of their previous matches, which were very good. I was also not a fan of the finish, but that’s just me. The show needed a pick me up and something for the crowd to actually get into and this was that match so mission accomplished.

* We get a video package, showing off the greatness of EC3.

Rockstar Spud & Ethan Carter III vs. Gunner & Mr. Anderson: Taz was back to having jokes. We had some of the usual comedy with Spud, featuring he and EC3 tagging in and out because neither wanted in the ring. I appreciate Spud’s comedy, and I appreciate the heel stuff that EC3 does. Gunner is fine, but the booking ruined him following his great feud with Storm. I don’t understand how you take a guy that was getting over, give him multiple big time wins over Storm and then just not do anything with him. Right now he just feels like another guy with no direction. Anderson, the less said about him the better. Gunner tossing Spud around like small child was amusing. EC3 got pissed at Spud and left, leaving Spud to eat the Mic Check and diving head butt. For the kind of match that it was (largely comedy) it overstayed its welcome a bit. Drop a few minutes and tighten it up and it is likely more enjoyable. Also, the time cut here could have went to Joe and King, who I really felt could have used it to give some depth to their match. Again, this wasn’t bad, and if you like comedy stuff or Spud, you’ll like this match.

* Video from the Magnus vs. Young World Title feud.

Magnus vs. Eric Young: These guys feuded last year over the world title. I felt that they worked well together during those matches, so this should be good. They worked a clean and simple pro wrestling match. What they did was generally basic, but they did it cleanly, they did it well and it all made sense in the context of when they did it in the match. Overall there is nothing special about this match, and I will likely forget it completely later today. But with that being said, there is nothing wrong with good, clean and simple pro wrestling that makes sense. Young won clean with the piledriver, the fans were happy, and this was good.

Monster’s Ball Match: Abyss vs. Bram: These guys had a series of matches over the summer, Bram owned Abyss and even won Janice. They had a monster’s ball match back in August, which was won by Bram. This was supposed to be a regular match, but they agreed that no one wanted to see that, and Abyss challenged Bram to another Monster’s Ball match. The crowd actually chanted for “Monster’s Ball” so there you go. This was filled with your usual plunder: chairs, kendo sticks, chains, trashcans, cheese grater, tables and Janice. The good news is that the crowd was really into this, partly because the plunder is an easy pop, but also because it was different from anything else that was on the show. Overall a fine plunder filled match with a hot crowd, but the ending was lame. Bram won with a rollup and the ropes following a series of matches like this where he had won clean. There was no real reason to deviate from the formula here.

* Storm came out and spouted off with his Revolution propaganda, which Roode would have no part of.

James Storm vs. Bobby Roode: These guys have a long history; feuding between Team Canada and AMW, years together as Beer Money, the Roode heel turn in 2011 and since then they have had right around 13 singles matches on TV and PPV, with Roode owning Storm in the series (something like 10-2-1 in Roode’s favor). With their history, they should deliver here with little to no issue. They played well off of past encounters, but I felt that the only thing missing was some of the hate between then, especially after they did the opening promo to try and establish that. But with that being said, in case you didn’t know, Bobby Roode and James Storm, really good pro wrestlers. They worked through a crowd that wasn’t all that interested, got them interested, and delivered a good match as expected. I would really like to see then get another program late in 2015, there is a completely different dynamic now and both have evolved as wrestlers so I think it would be really good. While this was a completely different style, it was on par with Aries vs. Sanada from earlier in the night.

MVP vs. Jeff Hardy: MVP and Jeff have actually had very limited interaction over the years. In WWE they worked a bit, but that was 2008. As far as TNA goes, they had interaction back in March for the Lethal Lockdown match. While not a first time match, it’s been six years since they’ve had a major singles match. The crowd was into things well here, due to hardy being seen as a star by the fans, and that is why this is the main event. They worked a nice basic open, basic wrestling, counters, as well as trying to one up each other and get control. MVP tried to stall a lot early, mocking the fans and such, which also kept them involved as they wanted to see Jeff kick his ass. Jeff went for a high risk move, leading to him getting cut off/crashing and burning so MVP could take over. Your basic Jeff Hardy formula match these days, not really a bad thing either. MVP took over on offense, leading to a slow and boring section of the match. I’d call it the heat, but there really wasn’t any. I’d have much rather watched him work some submission stuff and things that are not the norm. Instead, we got a lot of stomps and chinlocks. Hardy made his comeback, hit the swanton and scored the win. It was fine, but not the quality that you want from your main event match. They needed to cut a few minutes from MVP’s overly long and lackluster heat segment, pick it up a bit down the stretch and this would have ended up better. Thankfully the crowd was into Hardy, otherwise this could have been a chore to get through. But between the fact that they were into it and Hardy provided a lot of fun, this was an overall good match.

* End scene.

* Thanks for reading.

“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”

6.4

The final score: review Average

The 411

Like most of these One Night Only shows, there is some good, but not great wrestling featured. The good news was that there was nothing bad on this show, and they finally changes it up by dropping the everyone fights for the gauntlet match deal. Here’s the thing, the show lacks is that really kick ass match that TNA PPVs used to thrive on presenting. There were times I was so down on TNA in the past, but they would hit PPV and usually give me that one match that made me glad I bought the PPV. These One Night Only shows should strive to give you that amazing match, but they all feel as if they are going through the motions due to international TV commitments. To be honest, there is really no incentive to buy this show. It’s not bad, but considering that it’s $15 I’d take a skip on the show. There is too much good wrestling out there to spend that money on. To be honest, most editions of Impact have just as good if not better wrestling, and they also aren’t four months out of date. The bottom line, these shows aren’t usually too bad, but they just simply continue to exist.