Dark Pegasus Video Review: TNA Wrestling — Turning Point 2004

TNA Turning Point 2004 — 12.05.04

From Orlando, Fla.

Your hosts are Mike Tenay and Don West.

We open with a video package with “The Kings of Wrestling” dressed as Elvis (what’s with TNA and Elvis?) running down their problems with Randy Savage, AJ Styles and Jeff Hardy.

Outside, a limosine arrives with Billionaire Vince and his son-in-law, who happens to carry a sledgehammer. Abyss shows up and scares them away.

Opening Match: NWA Tag Titles: 3 Live Krew vs. Team Canada (w/Scott D’Amore)
BG James takes the mic and yells, “Arriba La Raza” in honor of the injured Konnan. You know, maybe it’s just me, but it’s a little unsettling to hear a man with a southern accent yell “Up with the Race.” BG beats Young from pillar to post and then back to pillar. Young mocks the Shake, Rattle & Roll. Killings legdrops Young between the legs. Butters: Oh, right in the wiener! Roode tags in and steamrolls Killings. Roode takes a pounding from both members of 3LK. Team Canada takes over and hits a doubleteam backbreaker for two. Eric stomps a mudhole and congratulates himself, so Killings slings himself to the top and hits a missile dropkick. HOT TAG TO JAMES! Sort of. Young busts out the Flair Flip, but Killings crotches him on the top and delivers an axe kick. SPINEBUSTER by Roode. ONE, TWO, TH-NO! 3LK team up for a press into a sidekick, but D’Amore has the ref distracted. Johnny Devine slinks in and hits BG with a hockey stick for the win and gives Team Canada their second tag titles at 8:31. Solid opener. **

Dusty Rhodes calls the internet a crazy machine and says a limo from “up north” just pulled in, and he’ll offer them a tape.

Six-Man Tag: Kid Kash, Matt Bentley & Frankie Kazarian (w/Tracy Brooks) vs. Sonny Siaki, Sonjay Dutt & Hector Garza
Kash was mean to Jimmy Snuka at the last PPV, but Dutt & Co. are all respectful to their elders and stuff, so we get this match. Dutt and Kash go first with some decent stuff. Bentley and Garza tag in, and Garza kicks his hamstring. Garza slips off the top rope and lands on his neck. Siaki and Dutt team up for the press into a huracanrana on Kazarian. Kash hits Dutt from the outside to take over, and the heels isolate Dutt’s arm. Dutt tries to fire back on Bentley, but Matt counters to a sitout armbreaker. Kash hammerlock slams Dutt into the turnbuckle. This is some quality armwork in between the usual tag formula. Finally, Dutt gets out of trouble by hitting rana on Bentley. HOT TAG TO GARZA! Garza unleashes the Mexican fury. MOONSAULT ON KAZARIAN! Kash makes the save. Siaki double-clotheslines Bentley and Kash to the floor and launches Dutt out on top of them. Tracy tries to hit the Pie in the Sky (Thesz Press off the top rope), but Siaki moves, and Tracy takes out Kazarian. Garza finishes Kazarian moments later with the corkscrew senton at 11:00. Fun stuff, but most of it was just Dutt taking a beating. **3/4

Randy Savage threatens to stop anyone trying to ruin TNA. With what, his mad rhymes?

Petey Williams tells Chris Sabin that he’s not just a one-move wonder.

Recap of Abyss costing Monty Brown the NWA Title, leading the Serengeti Survival Match.

Serengeti Survival Match: Abyss vs. Monty Brown.
You win by pinfall, submission or putting the other guy in the tacks. Monty calls Abyss out, and they brawl in the aisle. Abyss whips him into the ringpost and sets up a table in the ring. He grabs a bag of thumbtacks, but that just gives Monty time to recover. MONTY CHARGES…right into a boot. Abyss splashes a chair on Monty’s chest and chokes him out on the ropes. He tries the vertical splash again, but Monty crotches him with the chair. CHAIRSHOT! POWERSLAM ON THE CHAIR! POUN-NO! Abyss counters to the BLACK HOLE SLAM! ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Abyss sets up a chair between the ropes, but Monty reverses and tosses him headfirst into it. POUNCE! Oh, but he knocked Abyss out of the ring. Back in, ANOTHER POUN-NO! Abyss ducks out of the way, and Monty CRASHES through the table! Abyss and Brown both grab bagfuls of thumbtacks. Abyss lets Monty dump his out and goes for a chokeslam, but Monty slips out of it and rips Abyss’ shirt off. Abyss powers out of a powerbomb and goes for his own, but Monty counters to the ALPHABOMB on the tacks. That picks up the win at 12:17. Sweet little brawl, though it lacked the hatred it really should have had. ***

In the back, “Vince” tries to fire someone but finds it difficult when they don’t work for him.

The NYC vs. Johnny B. Badd & Pat Kenney.
Jacqueline is your special guest referee. In case you didn’t already know, Pat Kenney is better known as Simon Diamond. He’s got issues with Johnny Swinger because they used to be teammates. The faces dominate early, of course. Gilberti nails Kenney with a knee to the back, and the heels take over as per the formula. Kenney plays face-in-peril as Jackie admonishes the heels for doubleteaming. I’m not sure why they’d think she’s an impartial ref when she’s feuding with the NYC, but she seems to be calling it down the middle. Eventually, Kenney hits a sitout spinebuster and makes the HOT TAG TO BADD! Badd destroys the NYC until Swinger breaks up the TKO (F5) with a superkick. Gilberti hits the Chartbuster and gets into a fight with Jacqueline. Jackie slams him down, leading to the TKO by Badd at 7:59. **

Outside, the Kings of Wrestling apparently attack Macho Man and kidnap him. This leads to Don West completely burying the faces by saying, “Who’s gonna stop ’em now — Styles and Hardy?!”

Recap of the interesting-but-frustrating angle between Diamond Dallas Page, Raven and Erik Watts.

Raven vs. Diamond Dallas Page.
Interestingly enough, since all TNA theme songs sound like they’re being played by a 15 year-old taking guitar lessons in his garage, DDP’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” ripoff works quite well. Erik Watts is on commentary, putting Page over, so you know he’s going to turn on him. Page hits the ring and DESTROYS Raven right off the bat. The ref tries to pull him off, but Page boots him in the face. DDP crotches him on the ringpost and goes for the Diamond Cutter, but Raven grabs the ropes to counter. Raven grabs his goofy helmet and blasts DDP with it. Raven gives him the drop toehold to the chair for two. DDP suddenly explodes out of the corner and goes for the Cutter, but Rave counters with a lowblow. A Raven bulldog gets two, but he runs into a belly-to-belly for two. Raven goes for a clothesline, but Page catches him with the Diamond Cutter. ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Two Hooded Men in Black walk down to ringside to observe as Raven hits another lowblow and drops DDP with the Raven Effect. Watts runs down to the ring and challenges the men in black. Chokeslam to one guy. Chokeslam to the other guy. Watts picks DDP up…and gives him a lariat. Told you. Chokeslam to DDP – NO! DDP counters to the Diamond Cutter. Raven jumps DDP from behind but eats his own Diamond Cutter moments later. Page picks up the confusing win at 12:03. This booking made absolutely no sense. The match wasn’t bad, but the ending with Page turning into superman when he should have had a knife in his back was ridiculous. *3/4

In the back, “Vince” complains to his son-in-law that he needs protein. Tracy comes in and offers them some cookies, prompting Vince to throw a tantrum.

NWA X-Title: Petey Williams (w/Scott D’Amore) vs. Chris Sabin.
The crux of this feud was that Williams was claiming that there was no counter for his Canadian Destroyer finisher, but Sabin had one figured out. It’s to both guys’ testament that they were able to get this angle over because there are about two dozen counters to the piledriver/powerbomb already. But people bought into it, and it was nice to see a feud about actual wrestling for once. Sabin goes for Cradle Shock early, but Petey bails. Back in, Williams accidentally takes a kick to the crotch off a leapfrog. Sabin missile dropkicks him to the floor once again. Sabin catches Petey in the Cradle Shock as he’s trying to sling himself back in, but Petey armdrags him to the floor. Nice little ironic psychology here, as the big storyline was Sabin coming up with counters for the Canadian Destroyer, but it’s Williams who has countered the Cradle Shock twice early. Sabin powerbombs Williams into the metal railing. SICK! He crawls up into the second tier of the crowd and flies onto him with a crossbody. Williams counters a reverse suplex to a hot shot on the ropes to turn the tide, though. Williams busts out the Dreamer crotchstand. A tornado DDT gets two for Petey. The match slows down as Williams takes over on offense. Finally, Sabin catches Williams going up and throws him off with a belly-to-belly. Sabin explodes with an enzuigiri and the RUNNING LIGERBOMB! ONE, TWO, TH-NO! We miss Williams missing something because we’re looking at D’Amore. Sabin follows him out off the top rope. The crowd generously chants, “This is awesome!” Back in, Williams goes for the Canadian Destroyer, but Sabin counters to Cradle Shock, but Williams counters *that* to a SHARPSHOOTER! Sabin makes the ropes. Sabin blocks a sunset flip powerbomb and tosses him with an over-the-shoulder throw. PILEDRIVER! ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Sabin goes for Cradle Shock again, but D’Amore breaks it up. Williams grabs some brass knuckles and finishes Sabin with a single punch at 18:11. Team Canada celebrates with Williams. The match was good, but not as good as they hyped it. As with most X-Division matches not involving Styles and Daniels, it was just a series of moves until they decided to take it home. They were great moves, though. ***

In the back, “Vince” gets beat up by a midget. I’m sure there’s some sort of X-Division metaphor in there.

A video recap hypes the six-man as TNA managed to recreate the entire nWo angle in one month. Look! There’s Red playing the part of Rey Mysterio. I guess the idea was to make us wonder if Savage would turn on TNA like Hogan did with WCW. In fairness, it had been more than 7 years.

Six-Man Tag: Jeff Jarrett, Kevin Nash & Scott Hall vs. Randy Savage, AJ Styles & Jeff Hardy.
Hall and Nash are dressed as Elvis. They’re the Kings after all. Macho Man doesn’t show up, of course. Styles starts with Jarrett and hits him with a dropkick in the mug. Hall tags in, but AJ wants Nash. Nash dominates AJ early, but AJ comes back with a series of dropkicks on all three Kings and tags Hardy. Oops, that’s never a good strategy. Hardy almost immediately gets caught in the King’s corner. Nash hits the sideslam for two, and they go into the usual Outsiders heel stuff. Hardy eventually hits the reverse giri and tags AJ. Styles hits the Quebrada DDT on Jarrett, but Nash breaks up a springboard from the outside. Now AJ is caught in the wrong corner. They do the false tag spot as AJ tries to leap over Nash into the tag, but the ref is busy with Hall and Jarrett. Jarrett and AJ both go for crossbodies, leading to a double KO. HOT TAG TO JEFF! Hardy hits the Whisper on Jarrett. TWIST OF FATE! AJ hits Hall with a crossbody. ONE, TWO, THR-Nash pulls the ref to the floor. Hardy goes up, but Hall hits him with a guitar shot. Hardy falls off into a senton anyway, but there’s no ref! Finally, here comes Savage…who waits for a tag. What a moron. HOT TAG TO SAVAGE! The faces do a triple sleeper spot. Jarrett gets out of his sleeper and hits a sunset flip, but Savage squats down on him (sort of) for the win at 17:55. Styles and Hardy made things entertaining by taking several beatings, but the ending ruined any credibility the match had built up. Tenay and West spend the next five minutes pushing for Savage to get a title shot. So, basically Savage got the lid off the pickle jar after AJ and Jeff spend 17 minutes loosening it, and he’s a #1 contender? **1/2

Then, we get the big controversy between TNA & WWE that they’ve been building up to. WWE had a show in Orlando, so 3LK, Tracy, Abyss & Shane Douglas stormed their production area and stole some of their food. WWE threatened to sue TNA for airing this, which just made them look like big pussies.

Recap of the earlier cage match between AMW and XXX.

Six Sides of Steel: America’s Most Wanted vs. XXX.
Losing team must disband. You still have to make tags, in theory. That rule gets broken pretty quickly, and Daniels gets tossed into the mesh. Harris gets caught in the heel corner, and XXX works him over despite Daniels spewing blood all over the ring. Storm gets the hot tag, but Daniels breaks up the Death Sentence. Now Harris goes facefirst into the steel thanks to Primetime. Skipper handcuffs Harris to the turnbuckle, and XXX stomps Storm down in the middle of the ring. Harris looks on helplessly. Of course, Daniels just *has* to taunt Harris with the key to the cuffs. What harm could possibly come from that? Harris, like an idiot, screams, “Give me the key!” Daniels is all, “Yeah, I’ll get right on that.” XXX hits a Canadian Backreaker into an elbowdrop. That gets two. Strom avoids another doubleteam and spears Skipper. The key is loose! Storm reaches out and hands it to Harris who uncuffs himself! Knock, Knock. Who’s there? IT’S ON, BITCH! THAT’S WHO’S THERE! AMW unloads righteous retribution on XXX! Skipper gets suplexed into the mesh. XXX takes over amid the chaos, though, and hits the original powerplex (suplex with a crossbody). They even hit Storm with their own Death Sentence. It only gets two. Daniels signals for Skipper to go all the way to the top, but Harris breaks free of Daniels’ grasp and gives Skipper a POWERBOMB OFF THE TOP! ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Daniels hits the Angel’s Wings and goes up. Storm catches up with him, and they fight on the top of the cage. Skipper climbs up (eventually), walks across the top bar of the cage, and in one of the more famous spots in TNA history, RANAS STORM OFF THE TOP OF THE CAGE! Daniels sees Storm laying in the ring and decides to drop an elbow on him! Daniels goes up again, but all four guys catch up with him, and they do a quadruple decker spot with Daniels going flying off. TRAIN WRECK~! Harris and Skipper make it up first. Harris counters the Play of the Day to the Catatonic, but they both ram themselves into the cage. Daniels goes up, but Harris spears him into the cage. The handcuffs are still there, so Harris cuffs Daniels! SUPERKICK TO SKIPPER! AMW considers going for the Death Sentence before deciding to finish with the Powerplex (neckbreaker/powerbomb combo) at 21:04. One of the few TNA matches that truly felt “epic.” For once, they matched the insane spots with smart booking and intensity, which really put the match into the stratosphere. ****1/2

The 411: This was seen as a blowaway show at the time, and I can't say that I disagree a year and a half later. While fans had conceded for some time that the average TNA match was better than the average WWE match, the main event cage match showed everyone that TNA could do that one, unforgettable match that would make stars out of all involved — something at which the WWE excelled. The lone downside to the show was the ego-feeding of Page and Savage, which just made the promotion look like WCW 1999. However, it's a marked improvement over "Victory Road," and is really the show to check out if you're just getting into the promotion. Thumbs way up.

Final Score:  8.5   [ Very Good ]