Csonka’s TNA One Night Only X-Division Xtravaganza 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 X-Division Xtravaganza

OFFICIAL RESULTS
~ Tigre Uno defeated Sonjay Dutt @ 9:00 via pin [**¼]
~ Kenny King defeated Jay Rios and Pepper Parks @ 6:25 via pin [*¾]
~ Manik defeated Mr. 450 @ 7:00 via submission [**¾]
~ Crazzy Steve defeated The Great Sanada and Jonathan Cruz @ 6:21 via pin [**]
~ BONUS LADDER MATCH FROM SLAMMIVERSARY 2014: Champion Sanada defeated Manik, Tigre Uno, Crazzy Steve, Eddie Edwards and Davey Richards @ 10:00 [***¾]
~ Rockstar Spud defeated Dalton Castle defeated @ 6:18 via pin [**]
~ DJ Z defeated Mikaze @ 6:40 via pin [**½]
~ Ladder Match: Taryn Terrell defeated Angelina Love, Brooke Tessmacher, Gail Kim and Madison Rayne @ 6:40 [**¾]
~ Davey Richards defeated Eddie Edwards @ 9:09 via pin [***]
~ Austin Aries defeated Matt Hardy @ 14:20 via pin [***½]
~ $100,000 Ultimate X Match: Rockstar Spud defeated Kenny King, DJ Zema Ion, Crazzy Steve, Manik and Tigre Uno @ 17:53 [**½]

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* This was taped back on February 15th.

* Borash and Mathews are the commentary team. The winners of the matches tonight head into the Ultimate X main event.

Tigre Uno vs. Sonjay Dutt: Tigre Uno is a guy that doesn’t get used enough in TNA and Dutt is a guy that always does well on these specials and someone I feel TNA should have used more. Uno apparently has issues properly taking arm drags; one time he landed on Dutt’s face and the next he just took an odd ass bump, making the beginning stretch a bit rough. Dutt ended up playing heel, which made sense due to Uno being the highflying face that works fulltime for the company (although you can’t tell most weeks). They had a mostly technically sound match, but it felt disjointed and lifeless as the crowd barely responded. I was expecting a fast paced opener to kick things off very well, and this felt like a regular match with no real plan set and some communication issues. This wasn’t bad, but both men are capable of much better. Uno won with a really sloppy roll up.

Kenny King vs. Pepper Parks vs. Rios: Pepper Parks works CZW and other places, Rios is one half of Los Ben Dejos with Jay Cruz, and they work a lot of FIP. Rios was the sole face in the match, and worked really hard. This was an odd match, they would do stuff, continue doing stuff, take turns working with each other and never really allowed it to settle in and tell any sort of story. Also the camera cuts were REALLY odd in this match, either the director was really bad or they were covering up mistakes with editing. No matter what it is it made it difficult to watch, but what was there wasn’t great. King pinned Rios after the Royal Flush; this crowd is dead for the action and the workers really aren’t doing much to change that. We’re not off to the best of starts.

Manik vs. Mr. 450 John Yurn: Mr. 450 is better known as Jesus De Leon. He’s 27 and has been working since 2002. These gentlemen seemed to really want to have a good match. They appeared to have a plan, worked well together and this felt like a complete match as oppose to the previous ones. Manik is a guy not used well enough in TNA, but has had some great outings with Evolve recently. They had a good little match here, they to put things together more than the others had up to this point and this was enjoyable. Manik won clean with an arm bar.

* Mathews and Borash are really bad on commentary so far tonight, too many jokes and not enough actual commentary.

Crazzy Steve vs. The Great Sanada vs. Jonathan Cruz: Jonathan Cruz is one half of Los Ben Dejos with Rios, who we already saw tonight. Sanada and Cruz were focused on wrestling, Steve was doing his wacky gimmick, pretending he needed to be tagged din and tooting his little horn. Sanada and Cruz eventually tried to wok together, they had some miscommunication and Steve made his comeback. Sanada got the Mist on Cruz, hit the moonsault but Steve made the save, tosses Sanada to the floor and then hit Cruz with a DDT for the win. This was more of a grab-ass comedy match that would have been better suited for the TV product that a PPV like this that is supposed to focus on “the innovative talents of the X-Division”.

BONUS MATCH From Slammiversary 2014: X-Division Title Ladder Match: Champion Sanada vs. Manik vs. Tigre Uno vs. Crazzy Steve vs. Eddie Edwards vs. Davey Richards: This was a really good match, easily the best thing on the show so far which is kind of a shame since it is recycled material. They had a hot crowd and good action, but an anticlimactic finish hurt it a bit. Overall this was a bit better that I remembered; it had lots of fun an athletic spots, but it had some flow issues early that kept it from being great.

Rockstar Spud vs. Dalton Castle: Dalton Castle works ROH and CHIKARA, and TNA was actually looking to sign him but he opted to sign with ROH. Castle had the girls here as part of his entrance, but he got no reaction because no one had a clue who he was. They did wacky comedy playing off of Castle’s peacock like entrance, Spud’s interpretation of that and then Spud spent the time calling Castle a chicken. This was the first few minutes of the match. Good news, commentary took the time to discuss a story where Mathews was chased by a chicken when he was a young lad. Borash used this time to make a “choke the chicken joke” for the second straight PPV. The commentary is the dirt worst and completely took away from the match. Why bother discussing NEW TALENT on this show that many fans may not know about when you can tell chicken choking jokes? Spud won clean with the underdog, which Castle sold well. The work was solid, lots of comedy and it had its moments; but this felt like something that may have worked better on regular TV. It would have been nice if the commentary team would have also acted as if they cared and told people who the fuck Dalton Castle was instead of making jokes about Dalton “Sand” Castle and Dalton “Ice” Castle. There was a lack of energy on the work because the focus was on the comedy, and the crowd continues to barely react to anything in the ring.

DJ Zema vs. Mikaze: Mikaze is 32, and has been wrestling since 2002. They had another sub-seven minute match, but this one came off a bit better than the others. Ion was a good heel to work with the new talent (that commentary could have done a better job of introducing us to) and this was clean. The work was good, then worked to an ending but the finish felt completely anticlimactic as Ion did his little through the ropes tornado DDT that is always a transition move on TV, but was used as the finish here. This was a step up from some of the other matches, but overall this was just fine and felt like nothing special.

Ladder Match: Taryn Terrell vs. Angelina Love vs. Brooke Tessmacher vs. Gail Kim vs. Madison Rayne: They are fighting for a contract, good for a future tile shot. They used a basic ladder match formula and called on some classic (but not too dangerous) spots; but the work was clean, the spots didn’t take forever to execute and the crowd was actually into the match more than a lot of the previous stuff. The contract actually fell off of the clipboard, so they had to improvise the ending where Terrell had to hop off the ladder to get possession of the contract and win the match. This felt a bit rushed, and the ending was unfortunate; I think that it easily could have been better with some more time, but overall they did well for the time they were given. Basically it was out of their control because they worked hard.

Davey Richards vs. Eddie Edwards: They did a good backstage promo, explaining that they are brothers, but this is a test to see who is the best tonight. They established that it was all about respect, and that is fine because it is different on this show. A little thing I appreciated was the fact that they did not wear the matching tights tonight. They did some really quality, fast paced stuff early and played off of the fact that they know each other so well. These guys were having a hell of a match and were on their way to a great match, but unfortunately this was the match where Edwards broke his heel (he did a moonsault from the apron to the floor, landed on his feet and pulled up hurt). He got back in the ring and worked a bit, but Richards hit creeping death two times and scored the win. Richards immediately called for medical attention.

Austin Aries vs. Matt Hardy: This is called a special attraction match, the winner here is not moving onto the main event. These guys had a really enjoyable match. The beginning stretch was all about a game of one-upmanship, as the worked for an advantage, while also trying to show up the other man. This transitioned nicely into a stretch where they were constantly countering the finish of the other and worked some nice near falls. They got time to really work, as opposed to the other matches, and the crowd was into the match more than anything else presented. Part of that is the time, and part of that is that these are established talents. They worked a good closing stretch, had some good near falls and Aries won clean with the brain buster. No complaints here.

Ultimate X: Rockstar Spud vs. Kenny King vs. DJ Zema Ion vs. Crazzy Steve vs. Manik vs. Tigre Uno: The winner “receives $100,000” for the win. Borash and Mathews sent the match not calling it, but discussing measurements and weight factors. They have been beyond frustrating tonight. They did teases early of climbing for the X, everyone sold in the down spot about five minutes in, and then at about 8-minutes in we had the dive spots to the floor. They then did the big tower of doom spot, and but Spud was on the floor and then snuck in and started to climb but King stopped him. Late in the match Uno did a 450 to the floor onto Ion, which was wild and dangerous as hell looking. This led to Manik and King working together to try and take out Spud. This failed, and King then introduced a ladder. He took out Spud, climbed as slow as possible, and then Spud made his comeback and climbed the ladder. Spud knocked him to the amt, Manik spring-boarded onto the ladder but the ladder toppled and Manik fell, but Spud was on the cables. He grabbed the X and won. This simply felt flat. It didn’t have that great drama on the climbs, and didn’t even deliver in that car crash style that you expect from this style of match. As much as I appreciate the match getting time, it felt so long at times. It wasn’t a bad match, but lacked the drama and overall style that you hope for in an Ultimate X match, specially one in the main event spot. I came away disappointed.

* End scene.

* Thanks for reading.

“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”

5.5

The final score: review Not So Good

The 411

For the most part, this show was essentially filled with short matches that were never given a chance to succeed, and felt as if they didn’t matter. The one thing, as compared to other One Night Only events, was that there wasn’t anything truly bad on the show. We had matches that did not get enough time, and some of them really needed it. Proof that they could have had more time was the fact that they had to pad this show with a match from 2014 (and that it ended at 11:42PM ET). Give that time to some of the early matches, and maybe we have a different story.

Mathews and Borash were really bad on commentary. Much like the stuff with Taz they seem more concerned about telling jokes than putting over the talent that is either new or barely gets used on TNA TV. On a show like this that is something that needs to be done, and unfortunately they were too concerned with their jokes to do that and that is not only a shame, but also an insult to the performers in the ring. Much like the booking, the commentary should be there to add to the product, not to take away from it.

This show was supposed to highlight the X-Division, something that helped put TNA on the map and for years has been abused and misused on the regular. They had a chance to let these guys go out there, do their thing and impress. Unfortunately most of the show is completely forgettable. The Slammiversary bonus match was the best thing on the show. The ladies worked hard and did well, but they needed more time. Richards and Edwards was on its way to being great and then the injury happened. As for the original content, Aries and Hardy was the best thing but nothing you won’t see on Impact most weeks. With the talent involved, the show should really be better.

As an overall show this wasn’t very good, and considering that this show costs $15 I cannot recommend it. I have said it before and will say it again, there is too much good wrestling out there to spend that money on. To be honest, most editions of Impact have much better wrestling on it, so if you are enjoying Impact stick with that and don’t waste the money here.