Tremendous Tirades 8.02.13: TNA One Night Only – TNA 10 Reunion

Sonjay Dutt vs. Petey Williams vs. Kenny King: Pretty solid lineup of guys for the match, Petey and Sonjay work really well together and tend to deliver. In my opinion, King can be hit or miss, but on paper this looks like a good choice for the opener. The match, while not horrible, suffered from a few things. First of all they utilized the third toss one guy out, work one on one and repeat formula instead of trying to integrate more three-way spots. Also, while they did a lot of one on one work, the match really seemed to lack a solid flow. It wasn’t spotty or anything like that, but just felt as if they were killing time to get to the next one on one spot. Petey hit the Canadian Destroyer on Dutt, but Kin then rushed back n and scored with the Royal Flush and got the pin after about 14-minutes. It was fine, but a bit disappointing; especially after the video package of all the great X-Division moments and moves right before hand.

Match Rating: **½

Velvet Sky vs. Gail Kim: TNA looks at velvet as the most popular Knockout, and if you want her to have a good match, you put her with the best worker in the division, Gail Kim. They had a perfectly acceptable match, even if it got a bit sloppy at the finish. Kim played the dominant, and bitchy heel while the crowd loved Sky. Sky won at about 7-minutes when she hit the In Yo Face.

Match Rating: **

GAUNTLET MATCH: Matt Morgan, Joseph Park, Shark Boy, Johnny Devine, Cassidy Reily, Chase Stevens, Robbie E, Johnny Swinger, Jessie Godderz, and Mr. Anderson were the participants. I like the idea of bringing guys back for the PPV, but Shark Boy, Johnny Devine, Cassidy Reily, Chase Stevens and Johnny Swinger doesn’t exactly make me want to watch this match. Hell, this whole match is full of people I really am not excited about. I like some of them, but there really isn’t a hook to make this feel like anything other than a match to get people on the show. Johnny Devine almost killed himself, Christopher Daniels on NITRO style with a slingshot moonsault try. That was scary. Chase Stevens looks… well. Cassidy Reily and Chase Stevens were the Hot Shots back in the early days of TNA; all we needed was Andy Douglas to appear so we could also have a Naturals reunion. Morgan did the traditional big man entry and toss guys spot, no one really cared because it was Matt Morgan. And now it’s Joseph Park bumble fucking his way around the ring while people pretend the gimmick is still funny and or useful. Lets cut to the bottom line, you know those battle royals what are perfectly fine until they get down to the precious few and then it has a pretty well booked ending and you’re completely happy and thought it was all worth it. That wasn’t this match. Matt Morgan won in a match that felt as if it lasted an hour.

Match Rating: *

Team 3D vs. The Latin American Xchange vs. Bad Influence: They ran a good video package showing off all the great tag teams in TNA history, which then made me sad that we couldn’t have the Machine Guns, AMW or Beer Money for various reasons. But 3D and LAX have history, and Bad Influence are great so this could have potential. This was the best Homicide has looked in his recent TNA stints. He looked motivated and like he really cared out there. I wouldn’t mind an LAX reunion with the state of the TNA tag division. After the soul sucking gauntlet match, this was a breath of fresh air. This was a smartly worked tag match, playing to everyone’s strengths and it never felt slow. That’s most of the battle right there, the work was clean and fun and this was very enjoyable. Homicide got a second rope cutter on Kazarian, but Devon had blind tagged in and he and Bully hit the 3D on Homicide for the win at around 12-minutes.

Match Rating: ***

Jeff Hardy vs. Austin Aries: Aries and Hardy have a history of putting on good matches together, so I am looking forward to this. Aries is so great in his heel role, playing things well when he does comedy to show frustration and sell effects of Hardy’s attack; but he also can flip the switch when he goes on offense. You instantly think he is credible, and that he is an asshole; basically you hate him proper like. Hardy is simply money in the aspect that the crowd loves him, but that he simply knows when to do the right thing at the right time to get those reactions. I should note that while they loved Hardy, they bought the near fall off of the Aries brainbuster. Hardy scored the win after 13-minutes with a small package after Aries missed the 450. best match on the show thus far, and could have been even better with a little more time. The PPV really needed this match to help turn things around.

Match Rating: ***¾

James Storm vs. Bobby Roode : Well isn’t this something, on the conference call from this week, they hyped this as the main event of the show. It’s not so much a complaint, but that’s a bit dishonest. Anyway, Storm and Roode have great history and chemistry, so this is another match I have high hopes for. Good match overall from these guys, but I felt it was a bit lacking. The work was good, but I didn’t feel it had the drama or crowd reaction of their past matches. It’s likely due to the fact that they did have the blow off match at Bound For Glory, or it may also be the fact that the crowds have cared about Storm a lot less since the company got cold feet and cut his nuts off at last year’s Lockdown. Either way, they worked hard and what they did was good, but it just felt like a “good match” with an anticlimactic ending. Hardy and Aries had the crowd I expected this one to have, but the work was clean and good. Roode won after 14-minutes with stack and his feet on the ropes.

Match Rating: ***

Samoa Joe vs. Kurt Angle: And this was the third match I was really looking forward to seeing. While I have watched them wrestle several times, I am a huge fan of both and they usually do not disappoint, and I expect put in the main event slot they will have a good match. Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but Angle was working this match banged up (knee this time). If you’ve seen Joe vs. Angle before, this in many ways was a “best of” match for these guys. Joe runs wild early Angle makes the comeback and tries to break Joe down, they trade submission holds, and Angle wins with an Angle slam in 13-minutes. The work was good, the match had a good flow and I enjoyed it; but it lacked that next gear that these guys normally hit for a PPV main event match.

Match Rating: ***½