Falls Count Anywhere

01-17-06 (Smackdown!) (NEWS and TNA Impact)

It's Sting's world...we just live in it.

Roderick Strong, Alex Shelley and Austin Aries vs. Matt Bentley, Sonjay Dutt and Chris Sabin was so strong that it reminded me why the X Division is what will carry DVD sales for the next few years. Aries, Shelley and Strong are a great team, and Dutt, Sabin and Bentley are a wonderful team as well, but they’re less fluid together than Generation Next. GenNext even busted some triple team moves, including something like a 3D and a stomach stomp. SuperKick and a Roll-up gave Shelley the pin. Solid.

I missed the next match, which I understand was the Diamonds in the Rough against the James Gang. I’m pretty glad I missed it.

I had to hurry back to get to the TV in time for Tanahashi against AJ Styles. For eleven minutes, I was disappointed. I had high hopes and while it wasn’t a bad match, it did not live up to things like I had hoped. These guys are both great at their styles, but they just didn’t work well. They had Shannon Moore run in and he ended up hitting Tanahashi with the Mr. TNA Award and that gave AJ the chance to get the pin with the Styles Clash. Weaker than I’d hoped.

I saw most of Raven vs. Sean Waltman in the match that’ll lead to Raven leaving…at least in storyline. It wasn’t a bad brawl, especially with the X-Factor through the Table. The crowd really didn’t like it at all, especially all the stuff after the match.

I missed the nest two matches. When I got back, I asked what I missed. I was told ‘Not much. Two matches that really didn’t matter. This was looking like a weaker TNA PPV then we’d seen in a while.

America’s Most Wanted got themselves a win over Team 3D(udleys) in a match that was solid and the best thing since the opener. This one was worked really smartly, but it had an issue with pacing at the opening and the finish wasn’t exactly made clear through the announcing what had happened at the finish. There was a nice spot where Buhbuh Ray tossed Storm off of the top through the table that was on the outside. There was a throwing of powder that blinded the ref and they counted a pin after Team Canada came out. It’s even more confusing than I presented it here.

How could Samoa Joe and Christopher Daniels have a match that lived up to all the expectations that it had from the beginning? It did. They worked stiff. They worked smart. They worked like they wanted to tear the roof off the sucka. This wasn’t on the level of Joe vs. AJ, but it was great. There are a lot of spots that Joe does that are borrowed from Johnny Valentine. Joe just walked away from an Asai Moonsault, which just makes him look more and more tough. There was a Death Valley Driver on Samoa Joe that made me think of the great drops of El Samurai in 1997 or Kenta Kobashi taking a Backdrop Driver from Steve Williams. He looked like he landed right on the top of his head. Wow.

Joe kicked and kneed the hell out of Daniels. They used a lot of the concepts of the AJ vs. Joe matches and it will make things going forward even better. It is really starting to look like workrate will be forever changed by the X Championship and the matches these guys are having. A bunch of Ole kicks busted Daniels open and he licked the blood! Samoa Joe is what all heels should be. A MuscleBuster on a Chair! Joe just knees the hell out of Daniels and it turns into a beating until AJ Styles throws in the towel for Daniels. Great match. Really super. There’s a reason Samoa Joe took second in Wrestler of the Year.

The Main Event. They drew a lot of people and had a turn-away crowd because of Sting. Sting teamed with Christian Cage against Jeff Jarrett and Monty Brown. They did a long match that I didn’t much love, but they gave the crowd what they wanted and there’s attention on the Main Event for once even with the X Division on fire.

Sting didn’t do nothing, which is kinda what I expected. I really thought they were gonna do it in the style of Hogan on his comebacks. They did a spot that I loved where they used Monty as a Battering Ram. We got all of the trademark Sting Spots, including some done by Christian Cage that really worked with the crowd. Stereo Scorpion Death Drops and Stinger Splashes.

Team Canada interfered and that was the theme of the night and I wasn’t a fan of the way most of the matches ended. Sting pinned JJ, which will set up their feud for the belt which will probably keep Christian from winning the belt in the short term.

They needed a big hit. They got a small hit. Not much spark other than the reactions for things like Sting’s return and the 3D, and Samoa Joe and Daniels had a great match, but the rest of the show was not memorable. Basically, this will not help them going forward but the stuff they’ve done with Samoa Joe shows what they should be doing with someone for the NWA belt.

RAW

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Chris Garcia