(Almost) 5-Star Match Reviews: America’s Most Wanted vs. XXX – TNA Turning Point 2004

This match came highly recommended to me and is considered one of the greatest matches in TNA history. It’s not hard to see why: it was one of those rare cases where spot-heavy indy craziness mixed with serious old school tag team wrestling and the end result wasn’t some haphazard mishmash of two opposing styles.

What these four did in this match was special: they had a serious match with a relatable story behind it that paid off in spades. Not only that, but it featured something for both the diehard regular followers and the casual fan looking for something jaw-dropping to look at. How did these four men achieve this? Read on to find out.

The story

AMW and XXX were two of TNA’s founding tag teams. The duo of Chris Harris and James Storm first came together in the NWA and were brought in by Jeff Jarrett to build his tag division. Meanwhile, XXX was a stable composed of Christopher Daniels. Elix Skipper, and Low Ki/Senshi. It was also a subgroup of Vince Russo’s Sports Entertainment Xtreme stable as well; kind of how The Elite started off as a subgroup of Bullet Club.

Anyway, TNA was in possession of the NWA World Tag Team Title belts at the time as it was still considered a division of the NWA (its official name was NWA-TNA). TNA’s tag division during those early years was wild and frenetic with short title reigns and quick turnarounds between teams. By September 2004, Harris and Skipper (one man from AMW and the other from XXX), had five and four tag title reigns, respectively. But then going into the fall season, things started to get murkier.

On September 8th, Chris Harris replaced an injured Christopher Daniels in a tag title challenge alongside Elix Skipper. Harris and Skipper won those titles, only to lose them two weeks later to the duo of James Storm and a now-healthy Christopher Daniels. Then after Storm and Daniels lost the titles to another team, the intermingling between AMW and XXX caused tensions to rise quickly and intensely. This led to an elimination tag match at Victory Road 2004 that AMW won, but Daniels and XXX were far from done. Determined to put this rivalry to bed quickly and decisively, then-TNA Commissioner Dusty Rhodes booked both teams in a six-sided steel cage match, with the added caveat that the losing team must disband and never team together in TNA under any circumstances.

The match

This took place on December 5, 2004. It was rated ****3/4 out of five by the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer. The only way to win this match is via pin or submission.

This is a tag team match inside of a locked cage so you have two people inside the ring while others stand on the apron. Daniels and Storm start by attempting to smash each other into the cage wall. Skipper tags in and so does Harris. Skipper does a snapmare/spine punt combo and trash-talks Storm, only to then walk into a full nelson slam from Harris. Storm tags back in and AMW hit double-team moves on Skipper. They try to do the same to Daniels but he fights them both off for a while until the numbers game catches up to him.

AMW smash Daniels into the cage wall and it isn’t long before he’s busted open. Harris tags in and grinds Daniels’ head into the cage some more. He teases a suplex but Skipper cuts him off allowing Daniels to drive Harris into his corner and tag Skipper. XXX double-team Harris with a double-team slam and then with Skipper slamming Daniels onto Harris. Skipper stiffs Harris with forearms and goes to ram him into the cage but Harris fights him off. Daniels tags in and we miss some big tandem move due to shitty camera work. Daniels maintains control with a standing crossface and clotheslines Harris as he bounces off the ropes. Daniels taunts Storm until Storm enters the ring, only for the ref to keep Storm at bay while XXX double-team Harris. But not before Harris gets one shot in at Daniels from behind.

Skipper maintains control with more moves that get missed by awkward camera work, but then Harris blocks a kick and counters with a slingshot toss into the cage. Both Storm and Daniels tag in and Storm fights both members of XXX. He hits a powerlam on Daniels and an enzuigiri on Skipper and then teases a double-team move on Skipper but Daniels cuts that off. Daniels turns around and eats a top-rope crossbody press from Harris. Skipper goes after Harris and then answers an Irish whip counter with a flapjack that sends Harris into the cage wall.

Skipper handcuffs Harris to a turnbuckle and rakes Harris’ face into the cage wall once more. If there were any tag team rules in this match at the start they’re long gone as both members of XXX attack Storm. Daniels waves the key to the handcuffs in Harris’ face and then uses it to cut Storm’s head to make him bleed as well. Harris swings blindly, helpless as XXX drive Storm head-first into the cage and Daniels puts the key around his neck like a badge. XXX hit Storm with an overhead backbreaker/diving elbow combo but it only gets a two-count.

Daniels goes for another diving double-team attack but this time Storm dodges and Daniels hits Skipper instead. Storm follows up with a spear on Daniels which sends the keys flying off of him. Storm gets the keys to Harris and Harris frees himself. Harris runs wild on both members of XXX. Storm goes after Skipper and successfully counters an inverted suplex attempt into his own that sends Skipper into the cage wall while Harris smashes Daniels’ face into another side of the cage. Harris suplex tosses Daniels into the cage some more and then completes a vertical suplex onto the mat for a two-count.

Skipper knocks both members of AMW down and then he and Daniels hit a suplex/crossbody combo on Harris for another two-count. Storm hits Skipper with a swinging neckbreaker and then smashes both Daniels and Skipper into the cage again. Then AMW hit a Hart Attack but it only gets two. Chaos ensues with lots of quick moves, sudden slams, and more two-on-one situations. Then XXX hit Harris with AMW’s own tag finisher the Death Sentence. One, two, Harris kicks out.

XXX tease another double-team move but this time on Storm and with Skipper climbing to the top of the cage. But Storm breaks free, cuts skipper off, and powerbombs him from the top turnbuckle. One, two, and Skipper kicks out this time. Daniels hits Angel’s Wings but Storm kicks out. Harris chases Daniels up the cage wall both of them end up struggling at the cop of the cage. But here comes Skipper as well. Daniels holds Harris in place as Skipper walks across the top of the cage and hits Harris with a hurricanrana takedown from the top of the cage to the mat below!

Inspired by his partner’s bravery, Daniels hits a diving elbow drop onto Harris from the cop of the cage. Impressive, but not Elix Skipper risking everything at the top of the cage impressive. Storm chases Daniels up the cage again and holds him in superplex position. Then Skipper comes in again and goes for an electric chair on Storm. But wait, there’s more. Here comes Harris for a powerbomb. Four-man Tower of Doom!

Harris and Skipper get up first and trade sloppy forearms. Harris tries a slam but can’t because of the pain in his back so Skipper goes for a Rocker Dropper. Harris blocks and attempts a swinging sidewalk slam. Skipper blocks and both of them go crashing into the cage wall. Now Daniels and Storm trade punches and other sluggish strikes as they both teeter on spaghetti legs. Daniels blocks a top-rope move and then both of them end up trading elbows against the cage wall. Harris knocks Daniels off the top rope and handcuffs him to the ropes. Then Harris escapes a slam from Skipper and sends Skipper into a superkick from Storm. Then AMW get more revenge for earlier by hitting XXX’s Power-plex (powerbomb/neckbreaker) combo onto Skipper as Daniels watches on. One, two, three! AMW win the match and XXX is to be disbanded!

Winners after 21:02: America’s Most Wanted (Chris Harris & James Storm)

Review

That was a fun spotfest of a match. What little structure they started with vanished as all four guys became completely wrapped up in dishing out mayhem left and right. It was filled with chaos yet there was still a sense of story and progress. They emphasized the cage as much as possible by making the most out of the structure and creating plenty of spots around it to justify the stipulation being used. All four guys threw caution to the wind for the sake of their craft with high-impact bombs, tons of blood, and three incredible spots that would make a curious onlooker question these men’s collective sanity. But most importantly, this wasn’t a display of suicidal acrobatics done for its own sake: most if not all the moves in this match, including the most ridiculous ones, served a storyline purpose.

With such high stakes, all four men had to do anything and everything in their power to win. That meant hitting so hard that three of the four men involved bled, hitting as many high-impact moves as possible, and using the numbers advantage whenever possible. The match started as a traditional tag match contained within a cage, but once Skipper introduced the handcuffs that structure was cast aside. Instead it became more about drama and building heat as XXX demolished Storm while Harris could only watch from the sidelines. The way they mocked Harris, double-teamed Storm, and showed such a blatant disregard for AMW made it clear to the audience that they were the guys you were supposed to do. That was an important distinction to make at the time: even though all four guys were athletic and could do “cool moves”, Daniels and Skipper were supposed to be the bad guys here and thus they had to remind the audience of that by being as dastardly as possible.

But sometimes the will to win supersedes following old school wrestling logic. Despite wrestling like a classic southern tag team, XXX couldn’t get the job done. No matter how much they isolated Harris from Storm and weakened both of them, they couldn’t get the three-count. So Skipper did something so crazy it has yet to be replicated: he walked across the top of the cage and hit a hurricanrana.

I can’t overstate how ballsy that move was: Skipper was 15-20 feet in the air and had to walk across a thin steel bar. Sure, he only took four steps. Sure, the cage top is wider than a standard ring rope and isn’t as springy. But this was still extremely dangerous: one misstep and Skipper risked falling to the floor onto thin mats covering a concrete floor…and that’s if he was lucky. Had he fallen backwards, sideways back into the ring, or in any other direction in an uncontrolled manner, that spot could’ve ended in disaster. And as mentioned before, that spot served a purpose: it weakened AMW so much that they were no longer ahead but in as dire a position as they were during XXXs two-on-one heat segment on Storm.

And once all four men exhausted themselves and couldn’t show off anymore gravity-defying high spots, the only way to end the match was to finish the story. Daniels, who earlier acted like an utter prick with the handcuffs and the key, found himself getting his just desserts as he found himself on the receiving end of that same fate. All his arrogance and taunting blew up in his face as he could only watch as Skipper, exhausted and beaten down, couldn’t do anything to withstand another double-team finisher and kick out before the three-count. It was a fun little bit of poetic justice and helped give this match a satisfying conclusion after all the in-your-face craziness that preceded it.

Final Rating: ****3/4

I wouldn’t call this the smoothest of matches since the camera cuts missed some big moves here and there and the rules established at the beginning were abandoned in short order and the ref just shrugged his shoulders. But aside from those two minor gripes, this match is absolutely bonkers and not in a rudderless or self-indulgent sort of way. Yes, it had plenty of high-spots, but even the most ludicrous and bone-crunching of falls served to further the story and sell how badly both teams wanted to win.

Even with some moments of genuine excess, there was enough of a serious tone to this match that makes it so satisfying to watch. For all the shit TNA has gotten over the past two decades, one cannot deny that it was more than solid during its infancy.

Thanks for reading.