Worth Your Wealth? 08.11.08: TNA Hard Justice

Hello again, 411 readers! “The One-Man Ratings Booster” here with another edition of “Worth Your Wealth?”! The idea is that you spend your hard-earned dollars on wrestling on a monthly basis, and I want you to know whether or not you’re getting your moneys worth. So read on and see if you’re investing wisely of if your cash is going to waste as this edition of…

Presents:

TNA Hard Justice 2008

First, as always, we start off with our super-scientific formula for calculating the projected worth of each part of the show. Keep in mind I round things to the nearest nickel, so as not to piss myself off. Oh, and for the purposes of this column, I don’t have HD and neither do you.
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P = 2(A)x + 1.5(B)x + 1(C)x + 0.1(P)

Ten-percent of the PPV price accounts for non-wrestling related activities, such as in-ring promos, backstage segments, video packages, etc. Aside from that, A B and C represent the different classes of matches on the card:

Class C: Filler matches with little to no solid build behind them.
Class B: Secondary, but still significant matches that were well-promoted prior to the show.
Class A: The main event, as well as other high-profile, heavily promoted matches on the card.
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The Breakdown (as I see it):

Class C: Petey Williams vs. Consequences Creed and Gail Kim, ODB, and Taylor Wilde vs. The Beautiful People and Awesome Kong

Class B: Beer Money, Inc vs. LAX, Jay Lethal vs. Sonjay Dutt, and Team 3D vs. Christian Cage and Rhino

Class A: Kurt Angle vs. AJ Styles and Booker T vs. Samoa Joe

The Calculation (as the universe sees it):

30 = 2(2)x + 1.5(3)x + 1(2)x + 0.1(30)
30 = 4x + 4.5x + 2x + 3
27 = 10.5x
x = 2.60

The Result (as you will see it):

Class A: $5.20
Class B: $3.90
Class C: $2.60
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And now, THE GOODNESS!

Bonus Materials – Price Tag: $3.00

Excellent promo work all around tonight. We had Styles and Booker each cutting awesome pre-match promos, as well as the ongoing field trip to the rafters saga. They did a good job keeping up the intrigue with Sting throughout the show, with both Nash and Team 3D venturing up to speak with him.

Additionally, Abyss made another appearance and inserted himself into the ongoing struggle between 3D and Cage/Rhino. To top if all off, we saw a slew of well-done video packages for each match, as well as footage of the TNA video game during wrestler entrances!

Nothing to complain about here.

Overall Value: $3.00

X-Division Championship: Petey Williams (c) (w/ Rhaka Khan) def. Consequences Creed via Pinfall (Canadian Destroyer) – Price Tag: $2.60

This was an excellent opener to the show which really set the bar for the rest of the evening. Creed and Petey worked hard and put on a hell of a match, even involving Rhaka Khan for an especially awesome TKO. Creed was tearing it up and looked to be on the verge of winning the X-Division title…but they they spoiled it.

Shawn Abdul Davari made his way down to the ring and nailed Creed with a chair, allowing Petey to hit the Canadian Destroyer and retain the belt. Any why, Shawn, why? Because of his USA-themed shorts? For shame!

Anybody ever wonder if Davari ever gets tired of being thrown into the anti-America gimmick? A paycheck is a paycheck, am I right? Anyway, I really don’t see why they had to ruin a highly entertaining match with a random screw-job when he could have just as easily come out and beat Creed up after the fact. This is definitely one of those situations where the finish kept the match from a better rating.

Overall Value: $2.60

Special Guest Referee: Tracy Brooks – Gail Kim, ODB, and Taylor Wilde def. The Beautiful People and Awesome Kong (w/ Raisha Saeed) via Pinfall (Rollup) – Price Tag: $2.60

A satisfying match, overall, considering the work rate of the Beautiful People leaves a bit to be desired. The early minutes with ODB spraying hairspray on her crotch didn’t really seem to fit with the seriousness of the feud, in my opinion, but I’ll take it.

Kong looked like a beast, Gail did some interesting stuff (like using Taylors back as a launchpad) and we continued the theme of Taylor Wilde getting fluke victories. Kong was pissed, the faces celebrated, and Traci Brooks is hot. Good stuff tonight from the ladies

Overall Value: $2.60

TNA Tag Team Championship: Beer Money, Inc def. LAX (c) via Pinfall (Booze to the Face) to win the TNA Tag Team Titles – Price Tag: $3.90

This match focused primarily on the injuries to Homicide and they played to it phenomincally throughout the match. Beer Money, Inc has quickly become one of my favorite attractions on TNA television and they continued to impress me here tonight.

Homicide was the ultimate face-in-peril while Hernandez watched helplessly from the apron for the entire middle of this match. This was good stuff as it sold the never-say-die attitude of the champions as well as the extreme douchebaggery of the challengers.

LAX tried to mount a comeback, capped off by an amazingly cool Border Toss which sent Hernandez flying over the ringpost and onto Beer Money. The ladies fought and things got confusing enough for Roode to nail Homicide in the eye with a beer bottle, allowing Storm to pick up the win and Beer Money, Inc are your new tag champs!

This was a really fun match which great storytelling throughout and we’ll almost certainly be treated to something else next month.

Overall Value: $4.50

Black Tie Brawl and Chain Match: “Black Machismo” Jay Lethal def “The Guru” Sonjay Dutt via Pinfall (Elbow Drop) – Price Tag: $3.90

The Lethal/Sonjay feud has really been up-and-down for me. It almost seems like they know that we all see the Val turn coming, so they’re purposely pulling other stuff out of the hat to trick us. At any rate, we had an interesting stipulation tonight in that these guys were tied together and could win by undressing each other.

I enjoyed the opening segment where Lethal tricked Sonjay into being chained to the ring rope, allowing him to get in a few free shots while the referee struggled to unlatch the chain. Overall though, nothing really stood out here for me. They tried to make a big deal out of Val’s reactions, but I had a hard time even caring about it as the match progressed. She finally walked out on Lethal and they just kinda glossed over it.

If anything, Lethal should have lost while being distracted by the Val walk-out. Instead, he took a beating for a few minutes and rather easily came back for the rather unexciting win. What’s worse, is that Val walking out on Lethal was supposed to be some kind of big deal, but they cut right to Booker T backstage the moment the match ended. Way to totally ignore the story.

Overall Value: $1.80

New Jersey Street Fight – Christian Cage and Rhino def. Team 3D via Pinfall (Gore! Gore! GORE!!!!) – Price Tag: $3.90

Apparently a “New Jersey” street fight is the same as a regular street fight, but hey whatever. The one thing I noticed about the video package for this match is that they called the competitors “four hardcore legends”, which made me think, “Christian Cage? Hardcore legend? Ehhhhh, bit of a stretch.”

This was an entertaining brawl with a bunch of boring crowd-fighting stuck in the middle. The sequence towards the end with the stairs in the ring was especially entertaining to me, as well as Christians huge frog splash from the top of the ladder. However, I really bummed when that table didn’t break all the way when Rhino hit the Gore to win the match.

Overall, I liked it, but I was left slightly unsatisfied, especially due to the sluggish middle section.

Overall Value: $3.50

Last Man Standing: AJ Styles def. Kurt Angle via 10-Count (Super DDT) – Price Tag: $5.20

Highlight of the night for me, right here. I have been so excited to see AJ no longer being treated as a buffoon the last few months, and Hard Justice, I feel, was his complete return as a legit badass in TNA…well, until he got bitched out by Sting.

Regardless, Kurt and AJ put on a hell of a show here topped off by some sick cage-dive spots and some exciting reversals towards the end. They were really trying to sell AJ as the underdog here, repeatedly pointing out that Kurt was staying one-step ahead of him even on the high-flying action.

In the end, it took AJ dropped Kurt straight on his head to leave no doubt in this one. Kurt looked very strong throughout the match, so this win meant even more for AJ. Even better, he ran back down to the ring and killed Kurt AGAIN while they were strapping his poor ass to the stretcher. I loved this.

But seriously, what the fuck, Sting? Couldn’t this have waited until Impact or something? Why kill an assload of post-match momentum for AJ by bitching him out to Sting? I understand Kurt might be taking some time off and this might open the door to a new feud for AJ, but that really pissed me off. Still, it wasn’t part of the actual match, so I’m not gonna say it hurt what was an extremely enjoyable affair.

Overall Value: $6.20

TNA World Championship: Six Sides of Steel w/ Weapons – Samoa Joe (c) def. Booker T via Pinfall (Guitar to the Head) – Price Tag: $5.20

The build for this has been great. Booker T has really been gold on the mic since he began this feud with Joe and I was really excited for this match-up…especially considering the abortion of a finish we saw last month, I figured they HAD to give us something this time around.

Instead, what I got was a pretty disappointing (and short) main-event which ended in more controversy. The one highlight of the match that I even care to remember was Joe nailing an enziguri on the top rope. Aside from that, it all seemed very “blah” to me.

We got treated to another SWERVE here, as the lights went out and everybody thought, “OMG STING!” But nay! Where Joe should have been down following the scissors kick, the lights came up and he nailed Booker with A GUITAR to pick up the pinfall victory.

Joe won his title back, which had been the entire focal point of the feud for the last month, but who cares? The announcers couldn’t care less, so why should it matter to me? Instead it was just a bunch of “IS HE BACK? IS IT DOUBLE J? HOLY CRAP!”

I can’t deny that it will be interesting to see if Jarrett really IS coming back, but this could have just as easily been a post-match thing after Joe picked up a legit win. Gotta love it when they build something just to completely shit on it when the time comes for the payoff.

Overall Value: $3.00

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The Final Tally:

Resulting PPV Rating: A- (90% Worth)

Closing Comments:

An extremely entertaining show, ruined primarily by a severely mediocre main event. Booker T and Joe were being counted on for a lot more than we saw at Hard Justice and it really kept the show from being great. Additionally, the Black Tie Brawl was pretty awful, and a terrible finish kept the X-Division match from being better. All in all, though, this was a surprisingly good show considering you never know what you’re going to get with a night of gimmick matches. Worth catching the replay if you’re looking for a fix when there is no live programming on this week.
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Year in Review:

1. TNA Victory Road – A (93% Worth – $28.15 / $30.00)
Match of the Night: World X-Cup 12-Man Tag Team Elimination match – 144% Value ($3.25 worth, $2.25 price tag).

2. WWE Night of Champions – A (93% Worth – $37.20 / $40.00)
Match of the Night: WWE Championship: Triple H vs. John Cena – 111% Value ($7.00 Worth, $6.30 price tag).

3 (tie). TNA Hard Justice – A- (90% Worth – $27.20 / $30.00)
Match of the Night: Last Man Standing: Kurt Angle vs. AJ Styles – 119% Value ($6.20 Worth, $5.20 price tag).

3 (tie). WWE Backlash – A- (90% Worth – $36.25 / $40.00)
Match of the Night: World Heavyweight Championship: The Undertaker vs. Edge – 101% Value ($7.00 Worth, $6.90 price tag).

5. WWE Judgment Day – B+ (89% Worth – $35.65 / $40.00)
Match of the Night: Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels – 114% Value ($5.95 worth, $5.20 price tag.)

6 (tie). WWE One Night Stand– B (86% Worth – $34.35 / $40.00)
Match of the Night: World Heavyweight Championship TLC Match: The Undertaker vs. Edge – 112% Value ($7.75 worth, $6.90 price tag.)

6 (tie). WWE Wrestlemania 24 – B (86% Worth – $47.25 / $55.00)
Match of the Night: Career-Threatening Match: Shawn Michaels vs. “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair- 116% Value ($8.00 worth, $6.90 price tag).

8. TNA Slammiversary – B (84% Worth – $25.20 / $30.00)
Match of the Night: X-Division Championship: Petey Williams vs. Kaz – 111% Value ($4.50 worth, $4.05 price tag).

9. TNA Lockdown – B (83% Worth – $24.95 / $30.00)
Match of the Night: TNA World Heavyweight Championship: Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe – 116% Value ($5.00 worth, $4.30 price tag).

10. TNA Sacrifice – C (74% Worth – $22.15 / $30.00)
Match of the Night: X-Division TerrorDome – 100% Value ($3.25 worth, $3.25 price tag).
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And with that folks, we’ll see you next time with another edition off…