Falls Count Anywhere

01-16-07

Get your head out of your Vince.

For this edition of Falls Count Anywhere!, I’m protesting the WWE’s latest fiasco by not reviewing SmackDown!. There are plenty of places you can find the results (I recommend www.wrestlingobserver.com). I did watch the show, but I was still fuming about Monday.

TNA Final Resolution
TNA’s latest PPV was a pretty darned good piece of work. I had a good time watching it and it reminded me that I really like wrestling when done by real wrestlers who call themselves wrestlers.

We opened with the Last Man Standing match with AJ Styles and Rhino. Rhino did some flying early, including hitting a nice Tope. Styles worked very heelish, but still got treated mostly as a face, which figures in this day and age. It’s a lot like when the Memphis fans wouldn’t turn on The Fabulous Ones when they gave them the gay lovers gimmick.

Rhino got powerbombed off the top, but came back and hit a Diamond Cutter. The finish was a Gore and then, instead of getting up to beat the ten count, AJ sat in the corner and quit. That was a weird ending, but it’s one of those that I’ll forgive if they follow up on it strongly.

Chris Sabin beat Fallen Angel Christopher Daniels and Jerry Lynn. This was Lynn’s first match back and he looked good. Daniels looked great in this one. Even when they did the silly triple rope race, Daniels came out of it like a star. Jerry Lynn didn’t show much ring rust either. His Double Dropkick off the Top was awesome. Lynn went for a Cradle Piledriver on Sabin, but Sabin raked the eyes and that allowed Lynn to change it into a PowerBomb.

Eventually Lynn got the Cradle Piledriver on Daniels, but was rolled up by Sabin who won the match. This was a really fun match and I’m glad they’re bringing Lynn back into the mix. The guy’s just a great talent.

Alex Shelly beat Austin ‘Don’t Call Me Austin Aries’ Star. This match was terribly booked. They had Bob Backlund as a judge along with two fake scrubs. Basically they did a ten minute match that was pretty good. I like the way that Shelley works and Star is such a talent. Star turned a Sliced Bread #2 into a Facebuster and managed to get a Camel Clutch right as time expired. This led to the judges being polled and Backlund explained his choices and said it was a draw after the two fakes were split. This led Kevin Nash to say that they were going to a five minute over-time.

Why WHY do the voting gimmick and ruin the flow of what was a pretty decent match when they were just going to go to an OT? Shelley won that. Star complained afterwards and ended up in a Backlund Crossface Chicken Wing. OK, that was kinda awesome.

James Storm beat Petey Williams. The annoying thing is that Petey Williams is a star. They had an OK match, but really they should be using Williams as an X-Division contender and not as some set-up guy for Heavyweight contenders. He’s too much of a talent. Storm stood out of a Canadian Destroyer and turned it into a pin.

I missed the VKM stuff on purpose. Even the thought of Vince McMahon in any form makes me angry right now!

The LAX vs. Team 3D match ended in a DQ. This was the weakest match so far and the booking for a DQ didn’t help much either. This was mostly brawling the recent issues between Hernandez and Brother Devon didn’t help matters. I called it about 1/3 of the way through when Brother Runt ran in dressed like Santa, like he was last PPV, and hit Homicide with the elbow off the top. Weak stuff.

Wrestling worth watching AND writing about...

It’s actually really hard to make a 30 minute Iron Man match work. The crowd knows there’s no finish until late in the match, so it’s hard to drag heat out. Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle did a really good job of it. The open was really strong. Joe works so smart, as does Angle, but it was obvious that Joe’s injury had to be protected, so he took measures to make sure they could have a good match and Joe pushed it forward. Very smart way. Let the hurt guy take the lead.

Kurt worked the leg smartly with kicks and takedowns throughout. Angle used the Kokina Klutch. Well, almost, as he didn’t quite get it on. Angle let Joe up and that allowed Kurt to kick him back down to the canvas. Great stuff! Kurt got the first pin with a German after about 15 minutes. Angle got out of a MuscleBuster, but got caught in the Klutch for Joe’s first pin. It was 1 to 1 after 16 or so minutes.

The next section was great as Kurt just worked and worked on Joe and Joe’s offense was perfectly timed. Joe had the AnkleLock slapped on him, but escaped only to be pinned by a Schoolboy! 2 to 1 Angle! That was the score into the final minutes and Joe managed to get the AnkleLock on Kurt with 30 seconds left. Kurt held on and tapped at 30 minutes and 1 second, so he still won the match officially. Great, great match. I want more from these two!

Christian Cage won the NWA Title by beating Sting and Abyss. It was a good match, though I’d rather have had Christian win in a singles match. He never really lost the title by pinfall, so it’s nice to see them going back to him. Sadly, Christian was never over to the level TNA needed and I’m betting he’ll job to Angle in very short order. Sting worked hard. He’s so good for an old dude. He hit a Press Slam on Christian and then did a beautiful Stinger Splash.

The finish was pretty good, though it felt overused because of the earlier three-way. Abyss clocked Sting who had Mitchell in the Scorpion Deathlock. That allowe Cage to get the Frog Splash for the pin. Decent, but I wasn’t a huge fan of the booking.

Good show.

That’s all for today. More on Thursday.

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Chris Garcia