Mike Reviews TNA Sacrifice 2005

Happy Saturday Everyone!

We’ve got some TNA for you today, as we look at Sacrifice 2005. IMPACT actually does a good job of uploading quite a few of the classic pay per view events to their official YouTube channel, which is a good way of advertising the video library. WWE tends to focus more on just uploading matches rather than full shows (although they do put full shows up occasionally sometimes I believe), so IMPACT sticking these classic TNA events up for free as a taster is greatly appreciated when you’re looking at something to review. I should probably sign up again to their VOD service actually.

Sacrifice 2005 took place during a period where TNA wasn’t on Spike TV yet, so they shelved any really big storyline stuff and just focused on having good matches, which made them an enjoyable alternative to WWE. The big matches on this one are Samoa Joe Vs AJ Styles as well as Jeff Jarrett/Rhino Vs Raven/Sabu. Both of those sound like they could be fun.

I’ve never actually watched Sacrifice 2005 outside of the Joe/Styles match before, so this will be all new for me. You can view the card by clicking below;

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=3213&page=3

The event is emanating from THE IMPACT ZONE on the 14th of August 2005

Calling the action are Mike Tenay and Don West

We get the opening video package, with the two narrators doing dramatic voices. The general theme is all about Sacrifice, oddly enough.

Opening Match
The Diamonds In The Rough (Simon Diamond, Primetime Elix Skipper and David Young) Vs Chris Sabin, Shark Boy and The Original Playa From The Himalayas Sonjay Dutt

DITR are Diamond’s faction, and he ended up feuding with some baseball players as part of the gimmick and it probably attained Diamond the most fame he ever had in wrestling as a result. Sabin was a perennial challenger for the X-Division Title in this Era, with Sharky and Dutt being more there for comedy value. Young was a comedy lackey for quite a while and it meant that they could never really succeed in making him into a more serious wrestler again no matter how much they tried.

Sharky gets a bit of shine on Young to start, but Dutt is quickly cut off when he gets in and the Heels work him over. Dutt sells that well and the Heels look solid on offence, so it’s a decent heat segment. Sabin gets the hot tag and runs wild on Diamond, with Diamond doing a mostly solid job keeping up aside from a rana bump that goes a bit awry. Things breakdown following that and we get a flurry of spots down the closing stretch, with Skipper sadly botching his rope walk rana on Dutt, as that move seems to be cursed in this match. Sabin ends up rolling up Skipper and that’s three.

WINNERS: SABIN, SHARK BOY & DUTT
RATING: **

Thoughts: This was sloppy in places but it was still a reasonable way to start the show, as it was mostly all-action and it gave the crowd a babyface victory to open things up

Diamonds in the Rough argue following that.

The commentary team confirms that Impact will be debuting on SPIKE and we get some “Stern Tenay” face as Mike sends to footage from the pre-show where Jeff Jarrett and Rhino gave Tenay and Larry Zbyzko some bother. Larry Z says that if Jeff Jarrett wins tonight then he gets a Title shot, but if he loses then he won’t get a Title shot for a year. Oh if we could only be so lucky. Those stips are as Memphis as it gets by the way, and wouldn’t look out of place in some of Scott’s Memphis reviews.

Shane Douglas is backstage with NWA Tag Champs The Naturals and Jimmy Hart. Hart says that anything can happen tonight because The Naturals and America’s Most Wanted don’t like one another but they have to tag up later on. The Naturals want to bring Team Canada’s reign of terror to an end. Jeff Jarrett then busts in, because lo-and-betide a segment on a TNA show not focus on Jeff pigging Jarrett. Jarrett tries to form an alliance, but The Naturals and Hart aren’t interested.

Match Two
Alex Shelley Vs Shocker

Shelley’s whole thing at the time was that he could work any style and had a counter for everything, leading to some fun technical styled bouts with Shocker, who had gained some decent fame from being featured in a McDonald’s advert at the time. I think Shocker had been brought in based on Dusty Rhodes loving that particular advert in fact. Shelley had been “Baby Bear” for a while when he’d been managed by Goldylocks, but I think she’d left TNA to focus on her music career by this point.

This one is the rubber match between the two, with Shelley supposedly using Shocker’s own trademark pinning move to win the second bout in the feud. They work this one mostly on the mat in the early going, and it’s nice technical grappling. Interestingly, Shocker works it Mexican style, in that he works on the right whilst folks in the United States usually work the left. Shelley adapts to working the Mexican way as well, which I’m sure helped make things a smoother transition for Shocker.

Eventually things spill to the outside of the ring, where Shocker gets a tilt-a-whirl back breaker and then follows up an impressive springboard cross body out onto Shelley, which draws us our first “TNA” chant of the night. They trade moves and submission attempts back inside the ring, as there hasn’t really been a heat segment in this one and they’ve kind of just done a back and forth match as if they were in Japan. It’s worked for the most part in my opinion, although I could see some folks not liking it because it’s avoided the traditional formula. Shelley ends up countering a Shocker pin attempt by grabbing the ropes and that’s three, although I don’t know how the ref missed that.

WINNER: ALEX SHELLEY
RATING: **3/4

Thoughts: I think the ref should have maybe called an audible and made them do another finish there, as it looked pretty obvious that he could see Shelley’s cheating. Aside from that though, this was a fun technical exhibition with a few big moves chucked in for good measure

We see Shelley celebrate for all of roughly 4 seconds before its TO THE BACK!

Shane Douglas is backstage with James Mitchell and Abyss, where Mitchell says he’s not afraid of the next match because no one is a better big man than Abyss. Douglas’ wacky tangent about Pearl Harbour aside, this was a good promo segment.

Match Three
The Monster Abyss w/ Father James Mitchell Vs Lance Hoyt

Abyss was kind of doing Mankind crossed with Kane as his gimmick at the time, which was quite an effective character that made him rather popular with the TNA faithful. Speaking of being popular; Hoyt was way over with the IMPACT ZONE fans at the time due to him being happy to go out drinking with them and doing impressive moves for a big dude such as a Moonsault. He’s perhaps better known as Lance Archer these days. This phase in his career was known as “Hoyt-a-mania”.

The pre-match video package suggests that this match came about because Hoyt randomly got caught up in Abyss’ path of rage and now he’s looking for some payback. That works as a reason for two people to fight. Hoyt runs wild to start, sending Abyss to the floor and then following with a dive for good measure. Abyss has his fair share of fans in the crowd for this one, with a number of people in the front row seemingly being the Abyss Section.

This one is mostly the big lads slugging it out, and it’s entertaining for the most part due to both wrestlers being pretty spry on their feet for being huge scary men. Abyss shows that off by getting a big splash from the second rope during the heat at one stage. The match has a good atmosphere as well due to the Abyss and Hoyt fans going back and forth with their chants. Hoyt ends up getting a clothesline from the second rope and makes the comeback, sending Abyss flying with a shoulder tackle at one stage.

Hoyt gets a Choke Slam and heads up with a Moonsault, but Abyss kicks at two. Honestly I wouldn’t have anyone ever kick out of that due to it looking so impressive. Abyss catches Hoyt with the Blackhole Slam OUTTA NOWHERE following that, but that’s also a two, as they are doing Main Event near falls here in this third match on the card. I appreciate them trying to make this match more of a big deal than just a throwaway mid-card match, but maybe it should have gone on later if that was the plan?

Abyss tries to bring a chair into things, but Hoyt kicks it in his Abyss’ face and then follows up with a Van Daminator for another near fall. Seriously, if you’re going to have Lance Hoyt do all this impressive high-flying stuff then maybe you should have him WIN from some of it? Abyss manages to catch Hoyt with another Blackhole Slam following that last kick out and that proves to be enough for three.

WINNER: ABYSS
RATING: ***

Thoughts: Hoyt was incredible here and they really should have had him win with either the Moonsault or Van Daminator if he was going to hit those moves. Abyss did a good job holding things together and showcasing his opponent, with them trying to make it one of those occasions where Hoyt gained something in defeat, but that might have worked more if he’d missed one of his big moves and Abyss had then caught him, as it would have left the question open as to whether Hoyt would have won had it hit, instead of removing doubt by having him hit it and still lose. This was still an entertaining match, but I question the booking

Shane Douglas stumbles over his interview segment with BG James, but James does a good job of getting things back on track saying that he doesn’t know who he can trust in the next match. Konnan comes in and is all angry, saying he can’t trust James anymore.

Match Four
Special Guest Referee: BG James
The Outlaw Kip James and The Alpha Male Monty Brown Vs Konnan and Ron The Truth Killings

Kip James would be better known as Billy Gunn, whilst BG James will be better known as Road Dogg Jesse James. Kip had come to TNA as a Heel with designs on reforming his team with BG, but BG is already aligned with Konnan and Truth, and doesn’t seemingly want to go to the side of evil in order to team with his former buddy. Hence, this match has some intrigue due to James being the ref. Konnan appears to be getting sick of BG James dragging his heels though.

The idea here is that the refs don’t want to officiate this one, hence why BG has been roped into doing it. It’s a wild brawl to start, with all four wrestlers going at it and BG letting it go. BG eventually manages to get this into a normal tag match, although whilst restoring order he is distracted by Konnan and that allows the Heels to cut Killings off and work some heat. Brown makes sure to mock BG’s shaky leg taunt during the heat, just to be a jerk.

Killings sells well in the heat, although he does make the mistake of hitting the ropes near Konnan at one stage, which raises the question why he doesn’t just tag out, or why Konnan doesn’t make the tag himself whilst Killings is in touching distance. BG is giving fair counts for everyone that isn’t Brown, with him taking his time for him, which is a nice touch because even if he does turn out to be aligned with Kip, it doesn’t mean he has to be chummy with Brown as well.

Eventually Brown and Killings bonk heads, leading to the double down and the hot tag to Konnan. Konnan looks like he was struggling to move around here, and I believe he had hip surgery around this time and it led to a dispute with TNA over who was going to pay for it, but don’t hold me to that. Konnan ends up throwing his shoe at people and he accidentally catches BG with it at one stage in order to continue teasing dissension. Kip tries using a chair not too soon after that, but BG stops him and then lays Kip out so that Konnan can get the win.

WINNERS: 3 LIVE KRU
RATING: **

Thoughts: This was more storyline than anything else, but it worked for what it was and the crowd seemed very happy for the babyfaces to remain aligned

We get a video package hyping up Bound For Glory, which was supposed to be TNA’s version of WrestleMania.

The commentary team tells us that Jeff Hardy isn’t here yet, and he’ll be fired if he doesn’t appear.

Match Five
X-Division Champion The Fallen Angel Christopher Daniels Vs Austin Aries

This would be non-Title, as Daniels has thrown out a challenge and the TNA fans have selected Aries as the opponent. Aries was apparently the only guy TNA actually booked, so if the fans hadn’t played ball they might have found themselves in an awkward situation. Thankfully the TNA audience didn’t have a hankering to see Buff E from the Christopher Street Connection and instead went with Aries instead.

Aries gets a big shine on Daniels to start, with Daniels taking some nice bumps and going out of his way to make Aries look good. Aries gets really over with the crowd as a result, and this ends up being a very effective showcase for him, with the commentary team doing their part to get Aries over as well. Daniels eventually cuts Aries off with a series of body slams, with Aries selling that well, as Daniels seems to be targeting the back with his attacks.

Daniels makes the mistake of slapping Aries though, which leads to Aries firing up and making a comeback, including his trademark spinning elbow drop to a downed opponent. Aries actually manages to get his 450 Splash finisher, but Daniels grabs the ropes to stop the count, which protects the move somewhat at least, although again if you’re going to let Aries hit that then it should be the finish. Aries gets a few more near falls following that, but Daniels ends up catching him with the Angel’s Wings for the three count after a game effort from Aries.

WINNER: CHRISTOPHER DANIELS
RATING: ***3/4

Thoughts: I think TNA signed Aries not-too-soon after this, and they would have bene daft not to following that performance as this was a great match and he got himself over by the end of it. Daniels did an excellent job making Aries look good too, although I wouldn’t have done the near fall with the 450 Splash

Shane Douglas is with America’s Most Wanted, who say they don’t like The Naturals but they will team with them tonight so that they can get revenge on Team Canada. Jeff Jarrett interrupts and tries to get AMW on his side, which he eventually managed to do later in the year.

Match Six
Sean Waltman Vs The Pioneer of the X-Division Jerry Lynn

Waltman and Lynn had been both allies and enemies in the past, with Lynn angering Waltman due to not favouring him when acting as a guest ref, leading to this match being set up. Lynn had been out for nearly a year with a big shoulder injury, so they treat his in-ring return as a big deal, which is nice to see. We get a handshake to start, although I don’t expect the pleasantries to continue as the bout progresses.

It’s back and forth stuff to start, with them building the match gradually until it’s time for bigger moves, such as Lynn sending Waltman to the floor and then following with a cross body to the outside. Lynn comes up selling his shoulder following that though, which leads to Waltman ramming Lynn’s shoulder into the ring post for the cut off. Lynn does a good job selling the body part, whilst Waltman taps into his annoying Heel persona in order to wind up the crowd, so it works well as a heat segment.

Shark Boy heads out to the entrance way to watch this one, with Sabin joining him, with the idea being that they respect these two pioneer lighter-weight workers and they want to watch their match in the arena whilst it’s going on. That does a good job of lending the bout some gravitas at least, with Dutt also joining the other two eventually, as Waltman misses the Bronco Buster, leading to Lynn making the one armed comeback.

Waltman replies with a TOPE CON HILO, as they are working hard here and the match has been enjoyable as a result. Lynn responds to that by suplexing Waltman from inside the ring down to the floor, with both wrestlers landing with a sickening thud. This match really didn’t need to be as good as it’s been as both wrestlers are over and have credit with the fan, but they’ve still gone in there and put in the effort, which is nice to see. This is a pay per view and we’re getting pay per view effort from two guys who could get away with doing less if they wanted to.

Both wrestlers get some near falls, with Waltman continuing to be the more snide of the two, but Lynn finding ways to kick out and survive in the bout. The crowd is responding really well to this and seem to be digging the action. I don’t blame them; it’s been a lot of fun! Waltman looks to end things with an Electric Chair Drop of some kind, but Lynn manages a last gasp counter into a Victory Roll and that’s enough for the three count.

WINNER: JERRY LYNN
RATING: ****

Thoughts: This was an excellent match, as they built it gradually and they had the crowd in the palm of their hands during the closing stages. Waltman was good as the dislikeable jerk, whilst Lynn fulfilled his role as the gutsy babyface fighting from underneath, so everything fell into place nicely here and I really enjoyed it. I’m an admitted big fan of Lynn’s work though, so you might not go quite as high on this if you don’t have my same level of appreciation for Lynn. I’m happy to say that you will still think that it’s a good match, but good might be your own personal ceiling

Waltman shakes hands with Lynn following the match, but he of course turns on him because he’s such a scumbag, getting a shoulder breaker of all moves just to ramp up the douchie behaviour even further. Mike Tenay was great on commentary there, as he lambasted Waltman for his actions. The babyface X-Divisioners eventually make the save and Waltman bails.

Shane Douglas is backstage with Team Canada. Eric Young is worried about the match tonight, but Petey Williams has a hockey stick to make up for their manager not being there tonight. Bobby Roode says Team Canada will get the tag belts back after winning their match tonight.

Match Seven
Team Canada (Bobby Roode, Eric Young, Petey Williams and A1) Vs America’s Most Wanted (Wildcat Chris Harris and Cowboy James Storm) and NWA Tag Champs The Naturals (Andy Douglas and Chase Stevens) w/ Jimmy “Mouth of the South” Hart

The story here is that the Heel Team Canada are on the same page whilst the two babyface teams hate each other, owing to The Naturals cheating like nuts against AMW on a few occasions, giving the Heels a clear advantage. However, Scott D’Amore (Team Canada’s manager) isn’t going to be here tonight due to injury, so Jimmy Hart might be able to hold the babyface side together long enough in order for them to pick up the victory.

The babyfaces shine on the Heels to start, with Team Canada taking some nice bumps, but Roode ends up chop blocking Storm and that leads to Team Canada working over the body part for a bit. Storm sells that well and the Heels look good on offence, with Harris eventually getting the tag and pinballing Team Canada around. Harris was an excellent fired up babyface when he was motivated and in shape, but by the time he got to WWE in the late 00’s he was way past his best and had seemingly ceased caring.

Young matches to catch Stevens low following that Harris flurry, and that gives us another heat segment, with Team Canada putting the beat down on Stevens. Stevens does a decent job selling that and the crowd gets behind him as he tries to fight back, so it ends up being an effective section of the bout. Young ends up taking a terrifying bump from the second rope down to the floor outside the ring, which is one heck of a thing to do on a TNA show of all places, and that leads to Andy Douglas getting a hot tag and running wild.

Things breakdown following that, with everyone going at it in the ring as we move into Finisher Madness™, where everyone gets a chance to hit a big move from their signature manoeuvre list. It’s good energetic fun, and the crowd responds to it, with it of course leading to a Tower of DOOM spot at one stage, because TNA. Petey Williams tries to brain Storm with a hockey stick, but Storm manages to dodge that and send Williams packing. However, this allows Roode to run Stevens into Storm and then get a tights-assisted-pin on Stevens for the three count.

WINNERS: TEAM CANADA
RATING: ***

Thoughts: This was good fun, with some nice wrestling and it advanced the storyline well. What I liked was that the babyfaces weren’t idiots and actually functioned fine as a team for the most part, with the ending being the only time that things unravelled for them, and even then it wasn’t because one of them turned on the other. Team Canada just had better synergy as a team, and that’s why they won

AMW and The Naturals argue following that, but before anything interesting can happen, it’s TO THE BACK!

Shane Douglas is with Samoa Joe backstage, who doesn’t seem too interested in answering any of Douglas’ questions. Douglas gets angry at this, which seems to be teasing a match of some kind, but I don’t think that ever ended up happening.

Semi Main
Super X Cup Final
The Samoan Submission Machine Samoa Joe Vs The Phenomenal AJ Styles

The Super X Cup was a tournament with the winner getting an X-Division Title shot. Joe had come into the company in the summer of 2005 and had torn it up in great matches, getting over as an effective monster in the division. Styles had been the face of the division for a while, and he’s looking to get back into Title contention by winning this tournament. They would alternate between what division Styles was in a lot during this period, with him fighting for the World Title for a bit before reverting back to the X-Division again.

X-Division Champ Christopher Daniels joins the commentary desk for this one, looking pretty smooth in a nice suit. Joe is ostensibly a Heel here, but he still gets some chants as he comes down to the ring. They wouldn’t really go full-on Heel with him until later in the year, and even then he was getting cheered again by the end of 2006 due to being booked strong and the TNA fans wanting to have someone they could believe in as a top star.

Styles manages to bodyslam Joe early on, but that just seems to make the big guy mad and he kicks Styles to the floor in brutal fashion in one of the more believable cut offs you’ll ever see. Joe then ups the ante by getting an ELBOW SUICIDA whilst Styles is out on the floor, but Styles fights back with The Phenomenal Forearm from the guardrail, before managing a suplex back inside the ring, as they are doing a believable job of making Joe look like a hefty guy that Styles is having trouble moving around.

Joe eventually manages to gain control of the bout properly, even using Perry Saturn’s A+B leg sweep attack from No Mercy at one stage, which Styles takes a fantastic bump for of course. Joe’s offence usually always looks good and Styles is a great bumper and seller, so the heat segment is as good as you would expect it to be, with the IMPACT ZONE crowd getting behind Styles. Styles eventually manages to use some trademark high flying in order to get back in the match, including his Moonsault Reverse DDT move.

Joe gets a chance to bust out his drunken stagger sell at one stage, which he’s always been good at, and that leads into both wrestlers getting some near falls. The near falls are executed really well, with both wrestlers timing their kick outs really well, and the crowd gets really into the action and drama of it all. TNA running the same venue all of the time could sometimes mean that the crowd could get jaded, but when they were “on” and into the match, they would really enhance the show overall.

Sadly there ends up being a ref bump, as Styles gets a kind of modified TKO onto Joe and that leads to the ref catching a stray leg. Daniels uses this as an opportunity to deliver a Space Tornado Ogawa to Styles, before sizing Joe up for a belt shot. Joe sees this coming however and backs Daniels down, leading to Styles clocking Daniels. Joe seizes the moment following that though, and gets the Muscle Buster on a distracted Styles before going to the Kokina Clutch for the tap out win. I like how Styles actually tapped there and they didn’t just do a knock out.

WINNER: SAMOA JOE
RATING: ****1/4

Thoughts: This was an excellent match, with only the nonsense at the end dragging it down a bit, although I like how Daniels clearly had plans to take out Joe as well until Joe saw it coming and prevented it. Otherwise it would make no sense for the Champion to gift-wrap the match for the scary Samoan when he would have to wrestle said scary Samoan on the next pay per view. Instead it looked like he wanted to knock them both out and seemingly eliminate them both from contention, but his plan went awry. I still would have preferred less shenanigans in the closing stages, but I can’t say that they didn’t have a storyline purpose

Samoa Joe celebrates with his trophy whilst Daniels stares him down from the entrance ramp.

Raven cuts his usual good promo backstage, targeting Jeff Jarrett and putting the World Title over as something important that’s worth having.

Main Event
If Jeff Jarrett Can Pin Raven Then He Gets A Title Shot
The Chosen One Jeff Jarrett and The War Machine Rhino Vs NWA Champ Raven and The Suicidal, Homicidal, Genocidal, Death Defying Maniac Sabu

Raven had taken Jarrett’s place in a King of the Mountain match and won the belt, so Jarrett has aligned himself with Rhino in order to get himself back into contention. Outnumbered, Raven has turned to old rival Sabu to help him out in this situation, with their mutual respect meaning more than their hatred. We were only a couple of months removed from the first ECW One Night Stand following this, and there was a bit of a buzz surrounding some of the former ECW guys, so bringing in Rhino and Sabu made sense as a way to try and generate some interest.

There’s an audible “EC-Dub” chant before the match, and some fans even have ECW replica belts in the crowd as well, so this has worked for the crowd in the IMPACT ZONE at least, even if it didn’t lead to a slew of extra pay per view buys. Cassidy Riley is watching in the crowd, with the idea being that he was a follower of Raven at the time. I think he ended up signing a WWE Development Deal at some stage, and when he came back to TNA he was aligned with The Dudley Boyz, but don’t quote me on that. I might be thinking of Johnny Devine now I think of it.

This one is a brawl early on, with everyone fighting to the floor and brawling around the arena, with Sabu even giving Rhino a suplex on the ramp at one stage whilst Raven slices up Jarrett with a pizza cutter. As usual I have to question whether that would actually make someone bleed or not, seeing as my pizza cutter at home struggles to cut through a moderately thick pizza from Sainsbury’s most of the time, so I’d be surprised if rolling it across someone’s forehead would draw blood or not. Jarrett is soon bleeding at any rate, whilst Rhino cuts Sabu off inside the ring.

For some reason the match just becomes a tag match again following that, even though we’ve had blood, brawling and weapon shots. I always find it funny when two teams brawl all over the place but then politely just start following the rules and waiting on the apron for a tag whilst their partner is getting brutalised. Sabu does a decent job selling the heat at least and the Heels look solid on offence, Rhino especially. Raven eventually gets the hot tag and runs wild, taking on both Heels, looking good in the process.

Raven is actually a surprisingly good fired up babyface, even though he’s probably best remembered for being a scummy Heel. Raven looks to have it won with a DDT to Rhino, but Jarrett pulls out the ref to break the count. Jarrett tries to hit Raven with his guitar (likely without drawing a single dime in the process) but Riley takes the guitar away to prevent it. Jarrett still manages to take Raven down with The Stroke though, and that leads us to our second heat segment, with Raven coming up bleeding following some punches from Rhino.

Raven is an excellent seller, so the work in the heat segment is good, although I think the fans were ready for the closing stretch and not a double heat. It’s been nearly 3 hours at this point and they’ve seen A LOT of wrestling on this show already you know? The heat segment doesn’t go on for long, with Sabu getting the hot tag and running wild on the Heels with some chair related offence, with his timing and execution being on point. You’ve always got to appreciate it when Sabu is “on” and is hitting stuff cleanly, because he’s a very exciting wrestler to watch when he does.

Things breakdown following the second hot tag, with everyone going at it and near falls taking place. The referee takes a bump courtesy of an errant Rhino GORE of course, because this is a TNA Main Event from 2005, and that means there is no one to count when Sabu seemingly has Rhino pinned following an Arabian Facebuster. Abyss ends up joining us to put Sabu through a table in order to set up a feud down the line, but that leads to Jeff Hardy showing up to take out Jarrett. After all that though, Raven only gets a two on Jarrett when Rhino breaks up the pin. A table ends up getting propped up in the corner following that, with Raven trying to DDT Jarrett through it, only for Rhino to get the GORE through the table and that’s enough for three.

WINNERS: JARRETT & RHINO
RATING: **3/4

Thoughts: This one was a tad overbooked, and it probably didn’t need the double heat segment, but the crowd got into by the end, so the patented Raven “Dog and Pony Show” ended up working for the most part, with the finish being an interesting twist as now who gets the Title shot? (it ended up being Rhino, with Jarrett not getting the belt back until later in the year).

Jarrett and Rhino briefly argue and the show ends abruptly, because TNA.

In Conclusion

There were quite a few Heel wins on this one, but in most cases the Heels going over made sense in order to advance the story, so you can somewhat forgive that. There were some really great matches here too, with Waltman/Lynn and Joe/Styles being the pick of the bunch for me. There was nothing here that I’d call actively bad either, and seeing as this show is (as of this writing) up for free on YouTube, it’s an easy thumbs up as far as I’m concerned, as most TNA pay per views from this Era tended to be as they had a really good roster when it wasn’t all focused on Jeff chuffing Jarrett all the time.

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