I bought it even though I stated I wouldn't. It was a good PPV for the most part, but the AJ/Ray ending killed a lot of it for me.
Beer Guns over British Invasion in a solid opener.
Morgan over Steiner in a slow match.
Abyss over Kendrick and Kaz. Abyss using the divide and conquer method from the Art of War to win.
Mickie over Angelina with a botch finish that had even Taz confused. Mickie takes a beating afterwards.
Crimson over Joe in a pretty tense match. Crimson is on the Goldberg push much to everyone's chringen. Joe deserves better then to be feed to Mr. Green Jeans.
Ray over AJ. Fuck no, Fuck no. This was and still maybe a MOTYC if not MOTY, but they fucked up the ending so bad that it goes down as another TNA fail. I highly recommend finding a way to see this match. AJ tells a great story only for Russo booking to fuck up the end. Nothing against Ray though who really held up his end. Its just a really fucking stupid thing to do when its clear you need faces not heels on this show.
Anderson wins the title from Sting. This was before Kurt/JJ even though they mentioned numerous times it was to be the main event. Bischoff interferes and Anderson hits a low blow and mic check. Anderson doesn't celebrate with Eric, so who knows where this is going. Yet, Anderson is a better choice to be champ then Sting. Great brawl in the beginning then turned into a typical old man Sting match.
Kurt makes JJ tap to the grapevine anklelock. Not sure why this was the main event other then send the fans home happy. They work well together, but again its not as fast pace as Kurt/AJ or Kurt/Anderson.
The right feud is shaping up with Impact Wrestling with Kurt/Anderson. Mickie was botchamania at times and it might be a good idea to get the belt off of her for awhile. Joe and AJ are being wasted while making everyone around them look good. Abyss while more interesting with his Art of War philosophy has no business in the X-Division. Taz making fun of the winner of the chip contestant's weight was hilarious as was Tenay calling Karen a ballbuster. The only thing you can take away from a rather solid PPV is that at the least Main Event is moving in the right direction and after how boring/terrible Impact has been of late that is at least a good thing.
(edited by lotjx on 13.6.11 0736) The Wee Baby Sheamus.
Angle/Anderson is not the right direction. Not with AJ and Joe languishing in the position of putting over the current regime's pet projects. This was at least a return to the solid inring product that TNA PPVs were known for prior to this year, but the booking was more maddening than ever.
I thought it was pretty solid, thanks to a lot of clean finishes and a minimum of overbooking (until the main events, of course).
The AJ/Bully Ray finish didn't bother me nearly as much as lotjx. I thought the match was memorable enough to overcome the finish.
I liked the style of Crimson vs. Samoa Joe, even if Crimson still has a ways to go.
I'll go against lotjx again and say Taz should be fined or something for making fun of the TNA fan who won the contest to be timekeeper. Way to alienate the already small base you have, especially from a non-heel commentator. Just classless, I thought.
The finish of Sting vs. Anderson was just too convoluted and too cute to get over. Speaking of getting over, holy cow, the crowd was dead all night it seemed, especially come the main events. It was embarrassing to see a title match with so little heat.
Typical Russo booking to have the Angle vs. Jarrett feud filled with gimmick matches and stips, and have the blow-off match as a straight singles match. It was fine, but a little below what I expected given their past matches.
Originally posted by Amos CochranAngle/Anderson is not the right direction. Not with AJ and Joe languishing in the position of putting over the current regime's pet projects. This was at least a return to the solid inring product that TNA PPVs were known for prior to this year, but the booking was more maddening than ever.
Not to mention that we already got Angle/Anderson *last* year (which, funny enough, involved Angle's gold medals, yet again).
First time in ages that I've seen a TNA show. I don't recall Angelina Love looking that skanky (and not a good skanky) and the finish of that match was terribly botched (though I guess Love still took the bump) The match until then was decent.
I am confused though. Hogan/Eric mock the X-division, order Abyss to destroy it. Yet the next ppv will be all about the division? Erhm what? The triple threat match was alright.
Beermoney/guns vs British Invasion was entertaining too.
So Crimson is the new Matt Morgan? A big guy that they will beput over no matter what. Ok. Skip. Just like Morgan-Steiner.
The AJ/Ray brawl was good and the ending sorta makes sense on paper (dropping from that height would make you fall over too) but sucks in the execution.
The whole Angle/Jarrett feud has been booked ridiculously, but their matches have been alright. Same here.
This was a mixed bag PPV that wasn't helped by a dead crowd. The overbooking was kept to a minimum until the awful world title match. Sting can't wrestle any and Anderson is just a putrid worker that is now not even over anymore. I guess having Bischoff slap the mat to make Sting confused was creative the match was just awful and overbooked and really Anderson is not a deserving champion. He can only have a good match with one guy. The X division match just served to make Kazarian and Kendrick look bad and I'm surprised that Kazarian took the pin. Mickie-Angelina imo was a crappy match with a dreadful finish. Mickie has had excellent matches with Tara but nobody else. Styles-Ray was easily the match of the night. It was a great intense brawl and had the crowd going nuts. I didn't like the finish and the crowd hated it too as they chanted bullshit. BTW Styles was up at five and then Ray kicked him should have lead to Hebner starting the count on Styles again. Angle and Jarrett likely had their worst PPV match against each other. The right guy went over and hopefully they never wrestle again as they've feuded for three whole years now. Crimson-Joe was not a bad physical match up but the wrong guy went over. Crimson may one day be good but right now he's way too green to be getting a push like this.
The loss of Braun, Roman, Sami, Kevin, and Alexa guts the main event. And then they add a degree of difficulty in shelving the main title. That leaves a pretty good crew, but not enough to make a three-hour show work.