The Furious Flashbacks – TNA Genesis 2010

The Furious Flashbacks – TNA Genesis 2010

Sometimes there’s change for positive reasons and sometimes there’s just change for the sake of it.

After months of floundering in 2009 TNA had finally found their stride and the final two PPV’s of 2009 (Turning Point & Final Resolution) had taken TNA back to a level where their in-ring was worth checking out. Kurt Angle, Desmond Wolfe, Samoa Joe, Chris Daniels and especially world champion AJ Styles had showcased their remarkable talents. The result was the best wrestling the company had seen in ages. As if to prove this was no fluke they’d even set up their next two PPV main events; title defences for AJ against Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe.

And they had to go and ruin it all.

TNA, in their infinite wisdom, handed control of the company over to Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff. Clearly thinking back to their successful run in charge of WCW where the company dominated in the Monday Night Wars in the late 1990s. Perhaps not thinking back to 2001 when WCW went out of business. I know Bischoff will probably feel he wasn’t responsible for that and I KNOW Hogan thinks he had nothing to do with it. They both probably blame Vince Russo…who conveniently enough is the other guy involved in the booking of TNA. Dixie Carter has been fooled by these people into thinking their experience, and failure, at running WCW equips them with the tools to run TNA. I think Bischoff & Hogan’s early interviews where they said they didn’t like the 6-sided ring (which the fans like) should have been a warning sign that they didn’t understand TNA or its fanbase. Now I don’t claim to speak on behalf of TNA’s fans, who I don’t often see eye to eye with, but Vince McMahon tends to change shit based on what the fans like and dislike rather than his own personal preferences. Yes, he will push things he likes (which is ok from an on-air perspective because he’s a fucking heel) but if the crowd don’t bite he’ll switch it. TNA has always prided itself on being an alternative. So TNA’s first actions under Hogan/Bischoff included re-hiring a bunch of former WCW & WWE talent and switching back to a four sided ring…like WCW & WWE.

“Meet the new boss, same as the old boss”.

We’re in The Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida. Hosts are Mike Tenay & Taz.

PROMO TIME – New World Order Bischoff & Hogan. Yeah, let’s kick off the PPV with two old guys talking. TOTAL. NON-STOP. ACTION! It’s the name of the company. You can’t kick-start a new era of PPV under new management with a promo. Crowd is pro-Hogan. Well, you’ve only got yourselves to blame. Hogan defends the 4-sided ring by saying its change. Yeah, change back to normal. It’s the opposite of evolution. “We learned how to fly!” “Fuck that shit, we’re walking, its traditional. If you disagree you just don’t understand the transportation business”. Crowd drowns him out by chanting “we want six sides”. Hogan says six sides “only took you so far”. HEEL TURN? “We’re changing it whether you like it or not”. Hogan tries to get the fans back onside by talking about wrestling over Sportz Entertainment. Bischoff promises more change. Like opening a PPV with two guys talking, who don’t wrestle? Sweet. Sign me up.

X title – Amazing Red (c) v Brian Kendrick

Kendrick was billed as a “mystery opponent” because you no longer need to do anything to get an X title shot. They’re just giving them to anyone who used to work for the WWE. Kendrick’s music sucks. He’s a good signing but unfortunately, like other TNA guys who wrestle better elsewhere, he’s been told to wrestle the flippy style. He’s ignored them, thankfully. He takes it to the mat and works the arm. These guys don’t click at all with Red working lucha and Kendrick struggling to try and do a style to counter it. It just looks clumsy. Brooke Hogan is out there rooting for Red. Kendrick switches to the leg but Red no sells it and hits a Hurricane Kick. Red hits a plancha in front of Brooke. Red is now selling the knee. Kendrick tends to use dodging as his main offence and mat holds as a secondary. I guess he wanted Red to get the pops while he held it all together. Red does better with defensive moves like an Enzuigiri. A really awkward standing counters spot follows, followed by another. Oops. I wonder if either dude knew what was going down there. Red decides to go home and works in the Code Red off a blocked sunset flip. **. At least they had a finish. The match went south in a hurry though with the clash of styles not helping either guy. It makes Red look like a weak champion and Kendrick looks like he’s from another planet…and not in a good way. And I like both of them but they’re not good in there together.

BACKSTAGE Bischoff thanks Nash, Hall and Waltman. Hey, they all showed up! Hogan says tonight is their only shot then later says its their first chance. The Band then bicker about who gets to wrestle. Waltman beats Hall on scissors, paper, stone to get the match. Presumably because Hall isn’t fit to wrestle. Not in a Jeff Hardy kinda way. In an unwell kinda way.

Sean Morley v Christopher Daniels

Morley’s music sucks too. He gives his towel to Brooke. Damn, its like everyone is wrestling for Hogan’s daughter. What a terrific state of affairs. I’m so glad the company has brought Hogan onboard. Morley talks about his new video while the crowd chant “turn his mic off”, which is the PG-13 version of “shut the fuck up”. Meanwhile Daniels has gone from main event to wrestling this has-been in one month. Daniels points out that TNA is wrestling so Morley can take his Sportz Entertainment elsewhere. Daniels gives Morley’s movie one finger up instead of two thumbs down. Morley looks AWFUL here. Like he’s not wrestled in years. Morley used to be quite popular 7-10 years ago but he’s so rough here the crowd start chanting “Fallen Angel” and Daniels is the heel. “Morley sucks”. Daniels get a triangle and the crowd chant “tap”. Wow, this isn’t working out. Daniels’ strikes look better and his offence doesn’t look archaic. Morley seems to hate the Hardy Boys, for some reason, and his shoots on them online have been fascinating BUT based on this match he’s not in a position to run anyone down for having a lack of talent. Morley really should have been the heel here. Crowd starts just booing everything he does even though he’s actually starting to make sense by working the midsection to set up his splash. Tenay mentions that after I typed it. Daniels picks Morley off with the Koji Clutch but Morley counters into a pin for 2. Morley evades the BME. Daniels starts lifting CIMA spots until Morley blocks the Frankensteiner. Money Shot finishes. *. Sloppy match with retarded booking. The ringside fans turn their back on it. Seriously.

Ok, imagine the WWE doing this? Alberto Del Rio, one PPV off the title shot, gets put in a match with a debuting midcarder from another company who hasn’t been famous in a decade. Like Lash LeRoux. And jobbing. Because that’s what TNA just did. Yeah, its different but only because no other company is stupid enough to do this. And I’m not even a big Daniels fan but he just came off AJ Styles and a ****1/2 main event last month. Come on!

Knockouts title – ODB (c) v Tara

ODB won the title back on Impact (January 4th) so we go 2/3 falls here. Tara brings the kneebrace assault and a jigglesault for 2. Crowd doesn’t care. AT ALL. Just total silence. Even the usually rowdy ringside heel fans don’t give a fuck. A guy in Hulkamania gear has a sign with “they know nothing” on it, which he’s pointing at the loudest fans in the building. Yeah, you’re wearing Hulkamania gear. In 2010. Tara, despite being outwrestled for most of the first fall then gets an inside cradle for the first pin.

I’ve seen people blaming ODB for these matches being below par but Tara doesn’t do anything. Its hard to get behind a babyface who doesn’t do anything. Obviously Sforcina loves her so she must be doing something right. I like her character and yet she never seems to bring her personality into the whole of a match. Like Daffney does. Not that Daffney is much of a worker but she brings that personality to everything she does. ODB hits a perfectly good running powerslam…for 2. Tara counters a follow up into the Widow’s Peak and takes this 2-0 to, once again, win the Knockouts title. *. Nothing much doing. For whatever reason these two ladies don’t click. Which makes this the third straight match where they’ve booked two wrestlers together who aren’t ideal opponents for each other. Also, ODB then lies around selling the finish to give Tara time to pull out the spider. Stupid. It also doesn’t help that the Knockouts title changes hands every five minutes thus devaluing the achievement of winning it. While you can see the TNA way of thinking; titles changes = excitement, it’d help if they didn’t keep switching *this* belt to help establish it. If you want a quick title change just job the Legend’s title around. Its not like anyone takes that title seriously.

BACKSTAGE “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero, who’s “pimptacular”, cuts a Rock-esque promo.

Tag titles – British Invasion (c) v Matt Morgan/Hernandez

This is just dumb. BI have spent months ducking Beer Money and the Machineguns but instead of one or the other getting revenge they get thrown in with two muscleheads. Which would be fine if BI were going over tonight. Just to prolong this. But they’re not. So now instead of either Beer Money or MCMG looking great by ending the reign they both look like chumps for failing while this thrown together team gets it done at one attempt. Kinda buries the tag division that TNA is so proud of. The bigger team dominates until Brutus clips Hernandez’s knee and BI get it done with double teams. Then Morgan gets a hot tag and takes both guys apart by himself. He brings the elbows. VINTAGE MATT MORGAN – Taz. Ok, that’s funny. BI work some heat on Morgan but there’s never a feeling that Morgan is in trouble. Then Morgan casually beats up both guys and hits the Carbon Footprint on Brutus for the win. **. I honestly think this is a colossal mistake but only if you actually care about tag wrestling. The wrestling itself was ok but it sent out the message that tag team wrestling is dead in this company. It doesn’t help that they keep pushing Morgan regardless of his abilities.

BACKSTAGE Lashley barges into Abyss’ meeting with Eric Bischoff, which gets him a beatdown. Lashley has now been knocked out of tonight’s show. Which is hilarious because Lashley is knocked out with a monitor shot after beating a 10-count on a pipe shot 2 months ago. Which one is made of a harder material? Bischoff complains that his “semi-main event” is gone because of this. OH NO! Who books Lashley Vs Abyss in the first place? Hogan comes in and books Abyss against a mystery opponent instead. Of course they knew Lashley couldn’t wrestle tonight so they shouldn’t have announced it but this is a sly way of sneaking in yet another mystery opponent. Unfortunately I know who it is already.

Desmond Wolfe v “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero

Wolfe is debuting his valet, Chelsea, here. The problem with sticking these guys together is neither one has established themselves in TNA but they’re both awesome. So potentially one of them will be exposed as weaker during this feud (Dinero, probably). In theory Wolfe HAS to win the in-ring action as Pope will always be the charismatic promo guy. Although this could be the feud that does for Pope & Wolfe what Triple H v The Rock did for those guys in 1998. Pope’s in-ring isn’t quite where it should be but he’s exciting, which compensates for a lot. As I expected the crowd don’t totally buy into this because of the lack of established opponent. They run an injury angle where Pope lands badly on his knee but he then turns the wrong way instead of leaving the knee open for Wolfe to assault. Simple little mistakes are sometimes blindingly obvious to everyone bar the person in the match. This gives the match some focus with Wolfe working a half crab and I’m glad they’re intent on telling a story. It shows they both have promise. Wolfe is a submission machine and he’s not done much stupid offence in TNA, which is a bonus. It also helps that Wolfe has a variety of submission holds to keep the knee work interesting. Pope escapes the Tower of London and surprises Wolfe with an STO. He shouldn’t have been able to kick the leg out but there’s not much you can do with one leg. Wolfe invents a new submission hold using the rope but the ref has to break it because its illegal. Fans are getting awkwardly silent because of how nasty some of this stuff looks. Pope mounts a sloppy comeback with Wolfe having to bump some lame strikes. Urgh. Pope does better with defensive wrestling and trying to get a flash pins off a rollups. He switches to setting up more complicated offence, which doesn’t suit either his injury or his skillset. Pope tries to set up his double knee attack, which is a stupid idea, and Wolfe kills him with a lariat for the win. **3/4. Promising action here with Pope showing he’s not quite ready for a big run. Wolfe meanwhile is capable of carrying a lesser talent but can’t quite reign all of Pope’s issues in. Which is the difference between Wolfe and a main eventer like Kurt Angle. Still both these guys are on their way to being megastars in the wrestling business. They’re just not quite there yet.

BACKSTAGE Borash has Eric Bischoff who takes Borash off TV. He seems intent on replacing him with Christy Hemme on PPV too. So Christy interviews Borash’s interview subject…Ric Flair. WHOOO! He talks about going where the talent is. Or the money. One of the other.

The Band (Kevin Nash/Sean Waltman) v Beer Money

While ditching Scott Hall for Waltman denies the fans an Outsiders reunion it does have the benefit of Waltman not being as horribly deteriorated as Hall. Also they probably didn’t want Hall this close to some beer. Storm takes heat off the Band but they’re not heeling it up enough so the reactions aren’t right. Much like in the last match. Give us a reason to care. Storm & Waltman make matters worse by not clicking. Waltman is better off with the cruisers or X-style guys. Meanwhile Nash is painfully slow. Surely he’s about due to retire? Double suplex. BEER! MONEY! Scott Hall comes out here. See, that’s what happens when you shout beer. Scott Hall goes after a plant in the crowd. Waltman tries to calm him down and this gives Beer Money a 2 on 1 to pin Nash. *. Poor match with no reason for the fans to care about the outcome. Plus a daft finish with Hall attacking a fan. What the hell is that going to achieve?

BACKSTAGE Hogan and Bischoff. Yadda, yadda, yadda. We get it, you run the show. The show sucks. That’s your fault. Stop yacking on camera and do something about it.

Abyss v Ken Anderson

Another talent acquisition from WWE. A guy who’s only attribute is saying his name twice…loudly. He is remarkably awful here. Ringside fans chant “overrated” at him. “How’s this for overrated, watch this” and then he does nothing. So he’s a heel? I think. But he did a babyface introduction. Maybe that’s because it’s the only thing he does well. If you take his introduction away he’s just another guy with no special skills. I feel bad for Abyss who has to try and make Anderson look credible. He’s not much of a wrestler so his counters involve going to the eyes and so on. His one “hold” around the ring post looks like the set up for arm wrestling. Or perhaps a big manly handshake. Also he punches like he’s bowling a ball in cricket. Who the fuck punches over the top like that? Plus he just gets hit with moves and kicks out. Chokeslam. Kickout. Shock Treatment. Kickout. TNA is a company that prides itself on wrestling and counters. Anderson isn’t that guy. Abyss goes for a chair but the ref grabs it and Ken hits Abyss with brass knucks for the win. ¼*. Simply put Anderson isn’t good enough for this position on the card. Check this match out; big pop for his entrance and then nothing whatsoever. All his offence is WWE-lite. Kicking and punching. No structure. No character. Occasionally he’d shout something.

POST MATCH Ken cuts a promo where he keeps saying “aahhh”, which reminds me of when Peter Griffin hit his shin running home. Its comical but the promo isn’t. Which is typical of how Anderson can’t cut a promo without someone scripting it for him. And all he basically said was “the winner is Mr Anderson…Anderson” and he couldn’t do that right.

AJ Styles (c) v Kurt Angle

This is Angle’s last shot at AJ as champion. Its also the only hope for this card. Its been a really poor show. Even by TNA’s low standards in 2009. But these guys are the poster boys for TNA. Angle; their greatest signing. AJ; their superstar. Crowd get the duelling chants going to show how they love both wrestlers and just want to see a good match (which is something Hogan doesn’t understand despite getting one of his best reactions for the match with Ultimate Warrior when they were both faces). AJ tries to match Angle with wrestling and counterholds, which is possibly a mistake because of how good Angle is. AJ has more luck by flipping out of Angle’s stuff but Angle catches him by surprise by dodging a few speedy moves. AJ came in confident but that surely must effect him. Angle won the ‘Angle’ segment then tied AJ in the ‘Styles’ segment. They carry on though with AJ reversing a knucklelock and then breaking out the dropsault. Oh yeah, he’s still 50-50 in this thing. AJ fakes Kurt out with a dive but Angle quickly recovers and yanks him off the apron. That’s why they call it ‘high risk’. Angle starts to grind AJ down with suplexes. AJ still has that speed but Angle catches him in a backbreaker and with every move AJ is forced to slow down. Angle is looking at the spine to limit AJ’s movement. Whenever AJ looks to get going he gets planted with another suplex. Angle’s defence and offence are the same thing. Although you could make the same claim for AJ, which is why both men are so good and their offence makes sense. Sadly they make this about RIC FLAIR who strolls out to take a look at this match. AJ clocks Angle with a forearm to send him outside and he follows with a flip dive and Angle takes it on his back thus putting a lot of pressure on his legs. He hobbles back in. SPRINGBOARD FLYING FOREARM! They need to get a camera in line when he does that so you can see how awesome it is. Angle counters the Styles Clash and heads into the Rolling Germans. AJ counters the Angleslam into the PELE KICK. OH, IT JUST COMES OUTTA NOWHERE! Then Angle brings the speed to dodge AJ in the corner. AJ blocks the Anklelock though by staying on his back. Angle avoids the QIDDT too and throws AJ into the buckles. AJ misses the 450 Splash and ANGLESLAM…for 2. This has been all about knowing each other’s moves and preparing for them. Angle was ready for the high risk, as he was earlier, and then when he goes for his own AJ dodges the moonsault. Not the smartest move from Kurt Angle. Styles Clash is countered into the ANKLELOCK using Angle’s “Tombstone Counter”. That’s a nice touch. AJ struggled with a back injury on that Styles Clash setup. AJ kicks him off. Kurt then lifts the STYLES CLASH…for 2. AJ pulls out a DDT to counter the Angleslam. They didn’t quite get that right. AJ then lifts the ANGLESLAM…for 2. Turnabout is fair play. Just as I type that Mike Tenay says it. AJ wants that 450 or maybe the Spiral Tap but Angle gets up AND HITS THE AVALANCHE ANGLESLAM…for 2. He was playing possum and AJ STILL kicked out. Well, the Angleslam is dead forever. ANKLELOCK. AJ kicks him off but Angle holds on and Angle drops down into the HEEL HOOK. That’s ALWAYS the finish. AJ taps out BUT Flair pulled the ref out! That was game over for AJ. Flair baits Angle into a clothesline and throws the belt in to the champ. Just to make it official AJ turns heel with the belt shot and evil look. Hebner counts the three and AJ retains. ****. Was going great until the booking kicked in. Turning AJ heel? Are they insane?

The 411: Swing and a miss. I can’t begin to describe how horrified I was by this change of direction. The booking on this show blows. Even the best wrestling in the world can be let down by poor booking and the usually well-booked main event scene went to pieces here. Angle’s final title shot was all about showing who the better man was. I guess they thought they’d do Rock-Austin @ Wrestlemania 17 but Flair just got here and he’s not exactly evil incarnate. The undercard was borderline brutal. Two former WWE guys came in and stunk it up in Morley & Anderson. Plus the needless number of non-wrestling backstage bits were frustratingly WWE-esqe. As if they wanted to emulate WWE and WCW but didn’t know how. I can’t say I’ve ever been a fan of either Hogan or Bischoff but they promised change and they sure delivered it. In one show they’ve devalued most of TNA’s titles, turned the companies top babyface heel for no reason AND prevented a re-match with a stupid clause and routinely ignored the fanbase for no reason other than ego. Which is what it comes down to. No one can tell Bischoff or Hogan that they’re wrong because they know they’re right. Looking positively at this thing, at least this makes the 2009 shows look better.

Final Score:  4.0   [ Poor ]