The Furious Flashbacks – TNA Bound for Glory 2008

The Furious Flashbacks – TNA Bound for Glory 2008

TNA fans should probably not read this at all. Just a warning…

And suddenly I shoot forward to the end of Samoa Joe’s 2008 title run. I remember being quite happy at the time. I remember talking my good friend Redje and telling him that Samoa Joe and CM Punk held the two wrestling world titles at TNA and WWE and all was right with the world. It was awesome seeing two guys I’d watched for years busting their asses get to the top of the mountain. It all seemed so perfect. Which is why wrestling had to go and ruin it for me. Luckily by this point I wasn’t around.

See the WWE did any number of things to irritate me into the point where I just walked away from the product in 2008. Up until 2008 I was still doing live reports on Raw but the last two shows I covered, I checked the archives, were live Raw in June 2008 and a Smackdown a few weeks later. Neither one of which has any kind of analysis at all. I just sat there and typed what happened. The very definition of ‘going through the motions’ that I regularly complain about. I didn’t feel I had any passion for the product anymore and I walked away. To be honest I didn’t know how long this little vacation was going to last. Maybe forever. Who knows. My last tape review dropped in May 2009 and with that I was done. A month later Misawa was killed in the ring and that just emphasised how I felt about wrestling. Was I helping to contribute to the overworking of wrestlers? Just adding pressure to an already difficult job? When Chris Benoit killed himself and his family it shook me up pretty bad. Because he was obsessed with perfecting his art in the ring and that probably lead to his stresses outside of it. Was I partially responsible? So naturally I wanted to get away but wrestling is addictive. Once you’ve got wrestling in your blood walking away isn’t that easy. And if I find it hard, as a tape reviewer, imagine how hard it is for wrestlers to walk away from it? I was gone for 15 months. When I started doing a few tape reviews I started watching the odd thing on TV. Then curiosity got the better of me and I sat down and read Dunn’s PPV recaps to see what I’d missed in the WWE.

The Samoa Joe experiment was TNA’s attempt to see if something different would work at their top end. Push someone from within and see if it made any difference. Like practically everything TNA has ever done it made no difference. WWE’s CM Punk experiment met with greater hostility as he was an outsider and a different competitor in a much bigger universe. Although, to be fair to the WWE, they tried a damn sight harder to get Punk a good run of matches at the top. Joe basically got a couple of gimmick matches and Booker T. Here’s the main events I’ve skipped over:

Joe v Booker T (Victory Road). 15 minutes. No contest.
Joe v Booker T (Hard Justice). 12 minutes. Joe goes over.
Joe v Cage v Angle (No Surrender). 15 minutes. Joe goes over.

While putting Cage and Angle into the mix legitimised the title run a little the feud with Booker T didn’t set the world on fire. Not that I blame Joe for that. Booker wasn’t on his game in 2008. Bringing Angle back into the main event felt like the right thing to do to me. What better way to legitimise Joe than put him back into the scenario that made him champion. Against a hungry Olympian. So we come to Bound for Glory where Joe is in with Sting and the experiment is sadly over. When we get to that match I will TRY to explain why Sting wins and if I can’t then I’ll spend it explaining why TNA don’t know what they’re doing.

We’re in Chicago, Illinois. Hosts are Mike Tenay & Don West.

They’re put a fair bit of effort into the Chicago gangster motif. AJ with a flat cap and a baseball bat is neat. Samoa Joe looks like he fell out of a Mickey Spillane novel.

Steel Asylum match

Winner gets an X division title shot. Its the old Thundercage from WCW. Any match that gets its gimmick from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome is frankly asking for trouble but here we go! Contestants are Alex Shelley, Jay Lethal, Curry Man, Chris Sabin, Sonjay Dutt (with So Cal Val), Jimmy Rave, Johnny Devine, Petey Williams, Shark Boy and Super Eric. Winner has to escape the domed cage. Too. Many. People. In reality only Sonjay and Jay Lethal really matter. Sonjay Dutt was 411’s favourite to win coming into this as that would make logical sense so he’s got no chance. The psychology of this one is Rumble-esque. No one is quite sure what to do when they’re not the centre of attention so they just hang around the edges doing nothing. For the Machine Guns this whole match is set up for them. No need to tag so they can just hit all their shit one move after another. They set up a big triple suplex spot and this match is only fun when everyone is doing something. Otherwise it’s a mess. Plus nobody is climbing. Which means they’re all losers. Meanwhile my mind is wandering and thinking why there are so many wrestlers in this. Four or five guys would have provided them with plenty of opportunity to do a fun spotfest. As it stands this is just a bunch of unconnected spots. When people say they hate spotfests; this is the kind of match they have in mind. The only heat on anything is Lethal & Dutt because they have an existing feud. At times things just don’t make sense. Rave takes a super rana and Shelley, instead of climbing out and winning, hits a frogsplash. Why? Now, I realise that TNA’s crowds don’t always see eye to eye with me but chanting “this is awesome” during this match just makes you look like a bunch of idiots. You know what you remind me of? The foreign commentators in Baseketball that don’t understand the sport but came here to look at the flashing lights and bright colours. MCMG’s actually start doing something smart and go around trying to injure everyone’s legs so no one else can climb. Then Petey lays them both out and hits the Canadian Destroyer. And FINALLY he climbs and tries to win. Then Shark Boy hits a double Stunner on him and some other guy and every spot they’re doing needs the co-operation of at least one other person. Then Johnny Devine, a heel I might add, goes up and does a moonsault when EVERYONE ELSE was down and he could have won. Not only is that completely retarded but the opposite of what his character has done the entire time he’s been in TNA. So Curry Man finally climbs up and the dynamics of the cage start to kick in. Curry Man gets pulled down and its down to Lethal and Dutt upside down on the cage. And that is the best part of the entire match. Lethal uses his legs to hold himself up and pummels Dutt with both hands before climbing out and winning.

Ok, ok, let’s try and be positive here. This was a good way to kick the show off because it got the crowd hot and people generally show up at massive shows like Wrestlemania or the UK Supershows wanting something exciting to start with. So their energy has a direction to go into. For me the match needs more than that though. Yeah, its great for the audience because they get to see a bunch of finishing moves one after another but this just came off as a nonsensical clusterfuck. The characters involved didn’t do anything useful until the final 30 seconds where the vendetta between Sonjay and Jay lead to the conclusion of the match. This was fine although they could have run the same finish only with them fighting and someone else sneaking out to get the win. **. I just felt they didn’t use the cage to its fullest potential and hardly anyone played this to win it. It was just an excuse to throw out one cool looking spot after another.

BACKSTAGE Jim Cornette says he’s proud of this show and its his greatest achievement. Mick Foley shows up to tell a sex story about Stan Lane but Cornette has to hush him up. Cornette says he’s busy so asks Mick to watch the office for him. The Beautiful People show up because they have an issue with their M&M’s. What are they? Van Halen?

Rhino/ODB/Rhaka Khan v Cute Kip/The Beautiful People

Traci Brooks is the referee in TNA’s continuing attempt to get their entire roster onto this show. Kip is the former Kip James and to the WWE crowd the former Billy Gunn. Its somewhat appropriate that he’s been stuck with two women who are over for looking pretty rather than having legitimate in-ring talent. Rhaka is during her one month as a babyface. This is a classic match-up in wrestling terms. Rhaka aside the faces are common working class types that have a bond with the fans. While the heels are all good looking and consider themselves above the fans. Velvet Sky makes the biggest mistake of her life in this match; piefacing Rhino. Did she never watch ECW? If there’s one thing Rhino isn’t squeamish about its male on female violence. This is the guy who piledrived Sandman’s wife through a table and then shouted “happy Mother’s Day, you fucking bitch”. Do you really think he’ll go easy on you? Kip comes in to save Velvet with his horrible timing and Rhaka saves Velvet a second time by tagging in. Kip nails ODB with a make-up case, which doesn’t endear him to the fans. ODB kicks out showing that even Kip’s plunder shots are weak-ass shit. There isn’t much story beyond Velvet & Rhino. Especially when its Rhino-Kip and Rhino blatantly signals Kip on camera more than once. Kip goes for the Fame-Asser but runs into the GORE, GORE, GOOOORRREEE and the faces win. *. The wrestling was messy and they didn’t give us the pay-off only a more conventional face win. Total filler.

BACKSTAGE Consequences Creed talks about how great the US of A is.

X title – Sheik Abdul Bashir (c) v Consequences Creed

Bashir won the title last month. His gimmick is to capitalise on the anti-Arab sentiment of the second Gulf War and insurgencies. He’s even billed as from Iran. He’s from Minnesota! Remember how much the WWF was lambasted for doing this angle with “All-American” Hulk Hogan against Arabs during the first Gulf War? They even bring out an Iraq War veteran to announce Creed. Lay it on thick, TNA. They sure spared no expense for the cheapest of all cheap heat. You know how stupid this is? You could have done the exact same thing with Creed. Change his name to Hassan Assad and bill him from Bagdad. Instant heat. Its shit like that puts American wrestling back 60 years. Not that I blame TNA. They’re just taking the easiest possible route to an easy reaction from these fans. The same ones who thought the opening match was “awesome”. Its like 5000 people turned up to watch this show and they’re all Malory’s Dad in Natural Born Killers. Kill that fuckin’ Arab! On the upside the crowd is hot! Creed tries to flip around, which adds to his popularity and this IS an X division title match. I think you could get just as much heat by Bashir’s style not fitting into the X division. He works WWE-lite style most of the time on account of his run there. And isn’t working WWE style a heel mannerism in TNA? It sure is elsewhere. Bashir’s WWE experience actually helps him when it comes to putting a match together BUT it cements TNA as the place where you can go and see former WWE talent go over up and coming talent from all over the globe! Its like the company is booked by Pat Patterson on the phone from Stamford. Running the Hogan formula against the evil foreigner includes the sleeper spot where his hand almost drops on three. More “USA” chants break out. This match has moments where it feels like a title match. Where Creed puts some snap into his moves and hits them with suitable impact. And then there are segments where neither guy looks good and the match rides from one cheap heat spot to another. Creed eventually gets rolled up and Bashir uses the ropes for leverage. **. Take the heat away and this was the very definition of ‘meh’. There’s nothing incompetent about either guy but they’re both at the lower level of the TNA talent pool and it makes you wonder why they’re fighting over one of their main title belts. Especially when everyone in the opening match is better than this.

BACKSTAGE Mick Foley talks King of the Ring ’98 until Kong and Saeed burst in. Saeed uses “it doesn’t matter” and Foley claims gimmick infringement and has the Rock on speed-dial. Now THAT would draw bigger numbers. Short of it: Kong is in a bad mood. Pssh, like she’s ever in a good mood. Foley thinks they’re a bit down and calls up his old pal Yurple the Clown.

Knockouts title – Taylor Wilde (c) v Awesome Kong w/Raisha Saeed v Roxxi

Roxxi has a side issue with Kong because she got bloodied in a match between them, which might distract from the title. Taylor came out of nowhere to win the $25k challenge and take Kong’s belt. Consensus pre-show was TNA was building Roxxi to take the title here, which isn’t happening. Taylor is like the whitebread, cheerleader version of Gail Kim so while this is a new match-up it doesn’t feel like one. Roxxi looks shit-scared of Kong every time she’s in there, which doesn’t really fit in with how she’s been recently. She has to fire herself up. All of this basically means Kong looks like a total scrub to begin with because she’s the only one TNA isn’t working on character-wise. Seeing as the writing isn’t doing her any favours Kong just does it herself. She flies into a crossbody!! That raises a few eyebrows. Kong even goes up top at one point although Taylor knocks her off. With Kong down Roxxi goes for her finish but gets countered into the German suplex and Taylor retains. That match got a shade over 5 minutes, which is disappointing as they were just starting work on a good storyline. **1/4. The idea being that nobody can beat Kong fairly so they threw her outside and then both clamoured for the quick pin before she’d recovered. While Taylor Wilde may have come out of nowhere: I really like her. She knows her limitations and her moveset is still fun. Its kinda like watching a peppy young Madusa. Or perhaps rather Alundra Blayze.

This would all be rendered worthless when two weeks later Kong just beat Taylor for the belt and we’re back to square one. But then I don’t pretend to understand TNA’s booking.

BACKSTAGE AJ Styles goes to see Mick Foley. He says he likes Mick but doesn’t care for those from the “other” company. Team 3D come in to call AJ a mark. Foley tells Ray he stole his gimmick. Cornette returns to let Foley get ready for his role as an enforcer later.

MONSTER’S BALL/Tag titles: Beer Money (c) v Team 3D v LAX v Abyss/Matt Morgan

Referee is Steve “Mongo” McMichael. He played football in Chicago so that makes some sense. Beer Money has really taken off since the last show I reviewed. Much like the opening match this just doesn’t make sense. The more people you throw into a match the less likely it is to work. That’s why the WWE got rid of battle royal’s and did the Royal Rumble instead (although they persist on adding more and more people to Money in the Bank). So they could keep the dynamic of the match without having the ring too crowded. It doesn’t always work but at least they try. I can understand why TNA wants to try and get all their talent on the show just in case someone is watching the show for the first time and wants to see everything they have. After all Bound for Glory is their BIG show. The difference between this match and the opener is that to keep the crowd amused they have almost everyone bail out and fight with plunder at ringside so we can have a match that doesn’t suck for the home audience. Double win. LAX dominate the early going thanks to their combination of extreme violence and high spots. GHETTO FORK! DOUBLE GHETTO FORK! I like how Mongo is standing there checking it. There’s no DQ. Just stand by the podium until its time to play the feud Richard Dawson. Then Abyss decides its time for him to take over. And he just does. Because he’s Abyss and are you going to argue with him? Bubba opens him up with a cheese grater. YOU SICK FUCK! This is the kind of match where Team 3D can really excel because they’re used to the hardcore environment. They might look slow in traditional matches with TNA’s top teams but in this match; they’re favourites. Mongo’s counts sure are…deliberate. Or slow as shit if you’d rather. Matt Morgan is a weird case study. He’s a total genetic freak. You’re amazed he didn’t catch on in the WWE. And then he goes to do something and the crowd just stop and go “who are you again?” Its like he just has anti-personality.

A little mini-match happens here where James Storm, like a good heel, takes advantage of the situation and challenges Mongo to a football-off. Unfortunately Mongo lays both the tag champs out. Urgh. Nice idea, the worst possible execution. Hey, your tag champs just jobbed to the fuckin’ ref! Crowd wants tables. Morgan is trying like hell to get himself over here including hitting a PLANCHA. He’s like 7 feet tall! That’s ridiculous. Team 3D continue to wrestle a smart match and single out Abyss. He’s the one guy who can win the match on his own. 3D’s plan includes getting Johnny Devine to run out here with the kendo stick. TABLE! LIGHTER FLUID! ABYSS GETS THROWN THROUGH THE FLAMING TABLE! HE’S ON FUCKING FIRE!!! HOLY SHIT! Now THAT is one the best flaming table spots I’ve ever seen. This match can have a bonus ½* for that alone. Roode is totally thriving in Beer Money, as you’d expect, and has changed immeasurably in the last few months. And he stayed heel! They just found his niche. Sometimes TNA can do things right. Mongo has to be the worst referee since Gene Kiniski back at Starrcade ’83. He’s even fucking slower. Hernandez hits a sitout powerbomb and has to CALL HIM OVER to get a count. Homicide is just screaming at him. LAX try to use their wrestling to beat Beer Money but Jacqueline breaks the count. It would have taken Mongo half an hour to get to three so she needn’t have bothered. Perhaps he just can’t count that high. I hadn’t thought of that. Morgan fucks up a whirl move with Homicide and he’s all power, no brain. BORDER TOSS! That’ll learn him! Chicago wants tables. Hernandez, being a sick puppy, adds thumbtacks into the mix. That’s after he’s figured out how to open the bag. I guess he wasn’t in the boy scouts. Because he spent forever setting that up he eats a painful looking 3D through the table but Beer Money run in and steal the pin. ***1/2. Unlike the opener they worked a smart match and kept the action going through logical ways. Like spreading out. Working spots into a logical flow instead of just throwing one after another in there.

Booker T v Christian Cage v AJ Styles

And then TNA goes and flushes all that goodwill created during that last match right down the toilet. Here’s a very simple lesson in TNA management logic: if you’ve been in the WWE recently that makes you better than someone who’s carried your company for 6 years. Because let’s face it; Cage’s contract is almost up and he’s not re-signed and he won’t. So you can’t put Cage over. So its AJ or Booker. And Booker has sucked since he left the WWE and dropped the King Booker gimmick. No prizes for guessing who TNA puts over here. You might as well just change the name of the company to WCW and have done with it. Not content with jobbing him out they make AJ look like an absolute tool during the match. He just makes stupid decisions throughout starting with staring out at Cage and allowing Booker to beat him up. The crowd is a bit burned out after the last match but the ONLY interest is in AJ. The crowd wants AJ to win this. In fact everyone bar the booking committee wants AJ to win this. Why? Because he’s really entertaining. He threatens to use one of his patented moves; the flying elbow smash but adjusts and knocks Cage out with a moonsault to the floor. So what happens next with AJ dominating the match? Booker knocks him out cold with a briefcase. *slow clapping*. Great so now its Booker-Christian, which sucked in the WWE when they ran this feud before and it sucks now. They look like they’re doing WWE style in their sleep. When AJ returns it’s a breath of fresh air. They create new interesting 3-way spots because of AJ’s speed and inventiveness. Every time Booker starts doing anything it strikes me as being in slow motion. For example he telegraphs an axe kick and AJ rolls through into an armbar. Booker couldn’t have set that up any slower if he tried. I sense the horror of him hitting the Book End for the win but AJ kicks out. Then Booker stops and does the Spinneroonie. God, I fucking hate that shit. Let’s see; I could pin AJ and win this match or break-dance and let Cage attack me. Hmm. Tough decision. AJ brings the only remaining fun as he smacks Booker with the PELE and then misses Cage with the Spiral Tap. He’s trying to beat both men at the same time, which is why he’s not going to win. AJ is even pinned and beaten but Booker stops the ref from making the count. They try for an Unprettier off the top, which is a mess and Booker axe kicks Cage for 3. **1/2. Everything that was good about this match came from AJ and I couldn’t help but feel if he had better opponents this would have rocked. His stuff was gold. Booker just sucked. He’s not adapted to the new era of wrestling post-Attitude so he looks like a dinosaur staggering around out there. Like Verne Gagne during the Hogan era.

BACKSTAGE Kurt Angle gets interview time and objects to Mick Foley who he thinks will side with the owner; Jeff Jarrett.

ELSEWHERE Jarrett cuts a tearful promo dedicating the match to his kids.

Kurt Angle v Jeff Jarrett

Another special guest enforcer: Mick Foley. Luckily that’s the only gimmick in this match. Jarrett has basically missed 2 years of action. Crowd chants “thank you, Jeff”. This is his company after all. You’d have to think Jarrett would have ring rust and Angle wants to test him out in the early going. Angle gets a headlock and proves he can win this with the most basic of moves. Now, this is where booking a spot-heavy entire show hurts this match because the crowd gets restless after mere seconds. Jarrett manages to reverse and get his own headlock, which makes it Jarrett’s early advantage as he’s proved he can get the basics and Kurt will have to do more than that. Then Jarrett proves another point by busting out a dropkick and then a PESCADO.

Remember what I said at the end of the last match about Booker looking like a dinosaur. Well, here’s a guy from Booker’s era, Jarrett, making his stuff look credible against a modern competitor. True, Angle is better at making his opponents look good than either AJ or Cage but without Jarrett’s realism it wouldn’t work.

Crowd is noticeably frosty to the “old school” offence and the likes of the inverted atomic drop, which is a bullshit move, gets booed. Jarrett gets a little cocky and busts out the strut so Angle takes his head off with a lariat! Not literally. When Angle is facing off against bigger guys he grinds away at them. Now while Jarrett isn’t a big guy he wrestles like one. So Angle brings that technical game to counter it. Which is why Angle is a truly brilliant wrestler. He’s able to quickly adapt. Jarrett brings his own bag of tricks, none of which are new, so Angle has scouted his material and is ready with counters. At this point its hard to see any result besides an Angle victory. The crowd has been weaned off their high spots and is now totally into this. The only thing that can realistically save Jarrett is an Angle mistake and he sure does that; charging into the ringpost and eating a DDT. While Jeff doesn’t get anywhere with it the break allows him to get back on an even footing. You know Angle won’t let it stay on an even Kiel for long but Jarrett catches him with another DDT. Now this is the cool part. Why is Jarrett able to catch him with that DDT? Because Angle keeps looking for the takedown. The DDT comes from his head being down. Jarrett is using Angle’s strength against him, which is awesome. The great thing about Angle is he can make any offensive move look like a potential match ending move. Like a superplex or the figure four. We know he shouldn’t lose to those but to Angle’s credit he fakes us out. The crowd is now in the palm of their collective hands.

Angle persists with the kind of moves that wear Jarrett down. The Rolling Germans for example. But Jarrett has Angle scouted too and is able to counter the Angleslam. Not the anklelock though. The crowd appreciates Jeff holding on but logically the hold is on for so long that it should be over. Which is an issue in almost every major match. They can’t find a way to make a submission hold mean something the first time around. How many anklelocks does Angle work into matches nowadays? Now a weakened Jarrett takes the Angleslam…for 2. I’d rather they hadn’t done that but its rare he gets a win with that move anyway. Angle then makes another mistake; missing the moonsault. He felt he had to go up there but he really didn’t. Sometimes Angle doesn’t know how to deal with someone who won’t just tap out immediately in the anklelock. Ref is bumped (urgh) and the Stroke…gets 2. Foley jumped in there. I guess the ref bump was inevitable because of Foley’s presence so at least we’ve got there already. Angle fucks up a chair spot on the floor with Foley signalling him THREE TIMES to hit him. Oops. Chair shot for Foley and another for Jarrett. Foley opts to virtually no sell it and stops the count. Urgh. If this company had no booking it’d be great. Socko Claw. Acoustic equaliser and Foley counts the three. Odd how a chair shot is evil but the guitar shot is perfectly acceptable. ****. It was on the way to being an AMAZING match until the booking kicked in and ruined it.

TNA title – Samoa Joe (c) v Sting

Sting’s issue here is that Joe doesn’t respect him so he’s going to beat it into him. The only thing they do right here with a Sting title win is that the younger guys (in a veterans v young guys battle) are better as challengers. And I’m sure that was their thinking going into this match. However I feel that Sting doesn’t have anything believable in his locker to beat Joe. The Deathdrop and Deathlock are not moves I see beating Joe. Or Vader back in 1992. Vader beat himself by making a mistake for King of Cable. My feeling is that they could have made this a gimmick match to give Sting a chance to realistically win.

Mixed reaction for both guys, which shows they’ve either done a great job of building it up or a terrible one. Joe bosses from the opening bell and makes a point of getting in an early ELBOW SUICIDA! Then we make a weird decision by taking the fight into the crowd. Out in the crowd Joe does one of the most insane spots EVER. He goes into a box and does a flying dropkick out of it onto the steps where Sting was standing. I mean FUCK that had to hurt. I think he got lucky and landed on a flat part but he literally dived into danger there and that’s perhaps a mark of Joe’s desperation. They continue the crowd brawl and Sting tries for a receipt but his dive off the hockey box is dangerous for 1984. Joe’s insane dive is dangerous for now…and forever. Also Joe shows his urgency by doing the Ole Ole Kick without any build up. He just ran in and hit it. No warning. Basically this entire match so far has been dominated by Joe and his approach. Sting has been forced into fighting Joe and isn’t doing a good job of it. Back in the ring Joe continues his DESTRUCTION of Sting. Its like Vader all over again…except he moves like a fucking cruiserweight. During the match Sting’s chance of winning this has gone from slim to zero. Joe controls what happens, when it happens and at what pace. If this was a boxing match it’d be over. If it was UFC then Big John McCarthy would have jumped in there. Even when Sting ‘fires up’ he runs into a snap powerslam. If this was the NFL then Sting’s team would be down 50 points at half-time.

And that’s the end of the useful part of the match. From now on everything is horrible. Sting’s masterplan for his comeback is hitting a Musclebuster. Joe totally no sells it. Sting equally no sells the Scorpion Deathdrop. Well, that was fucking stupid. As if Sting can’t do anything more stupid he fucks up an Irish whip leaving Joe to run the entire length of the ring like an idiot. I swear the Irish whip is the most taken for granted and worst executed move in wrestling. ST Joe. Crowd boo Joe thanks to the booking at the point where Joe is posing in between everything like a jackass.

Sting’s main offence is now lying around on the mat. Joe is getting too cocky and showboating. Duelling chants now as Sting takes another boot to the face. Just pin him. I’m getting sick of this. Kevin Nash comes out and Joe is still mucking about. Why are they booking Joe to look like a complete idiot? He’s NEVER behaved this way. When he’s been cocky its because he’s been better than his opponent, which he is here, and he won. Proved it. Here he just spends an age arguing with the ref (for what fucking reason?) or posing. Nash stops Sting getting the bat but this match has gone completely to shit. They fuck the ref bump up and Nash hits Joe with the bat in a joke spot. Scorpion Deathdrop and Sting wins the title with about his third offensive move of the match.

No wonder people hate this company.

I absolutely hated that match. It made no sense at all. Honestly there is no way to compare this to the WWE in terms of stupidity. It’d be like them re-hiring Hulk Hogan, putting him in a match with John Cena and having Sid Vicious interfere to allow Hogan to win the WWE title. Just try and get your head around that because that’s what TNA did here. I award this match no stars and may God have mercy on its soul.

PS – It was probably around **1/2 for a one sided massacre until TNA’s backstage geniuses kicked in and created that finish.

PPS – Apologies to Chicago. I know you’re not a bad crowd. Chicago always has good heat and good reactions and it’s a good wrestling town. It’s just a pity you had to sit through this show.

PPPS – And while I’m at it, apologies to TNA’s workers because almost nothing on this show is your fault.

The 411: TNA is its own worst enemy. As I write this we’re just after Bound For Glory VI where they basically did the exact same thing and had Hogan help Jeff Hardy win the title. At least they picked someone in the correct age bracket to run the angle on this time around but hey, they’ve only learned half the lesson. Putting Sting over Joe here could have worked but at no point during their title match was Sting a threat at all. So he’s now a joke champion. Joe looked like he couldn’t be bothered and couldn’t beat a worthless Sting so he’s now a joke. Angle is in an angle with Jeff Jarrett where he basically jobbed to Mick Foley and AJ just got jobbed out to Booker T. They might as well re-name the promotion WWE Seniors League and have done with it (or perhaps more appropriately WCW as they’re making a habit of repeating their worst and most stupid decisions). And this is their biggest show of the year? Good grief. The big angle coming out of this show was how Joe would now face a long struggle to get the belt back. Really long because he still hasn’t managed it.

Final Score:  5.0   [ Not So Good ]