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Falls
Count Anywhere
02-14-06
I did manage
to muster enough time and energy to watch what will probably
become one of the most important TNA PPVs of the year. Against
All Odds has shown that TNA is willing to make itself
a competitor by taking the belt off the guy they think is
the proven draw and putting it on a guy who has a name but
many think isn’t Main Event.
I came
in with the America’s Most Wanted vs. Chris Sabin
and Sonjay Dutt. Dutt and Sabin are two of my favorites,
but I’m not nearly as much of a fan of AMW as I was
at this point last year. Not sure why, though it might just
be the Jarrett rub.
Still,
this was an OK match with some really smart work. AMW worked
on Sabin’s ankle, which had been hurt the week before.
Sabin gave Harris a nice Tornado DDT onto a chair for a
near fall. Dutt went for the Hindu Press, one of my favorite
moves, but Harris moved. Storm came in and gave Dutt the
SuperKick, leading to the Death Sentence for the win for
America’s Most Wanted. Not a bad match, but it seems
like Dutt got a little banged up on the finish.
I’ve
always liked Rhino. I’ve had my ups-and-downs for
Abyss since the beginning, but he’s been really good
of late. This was a solid Falls Count Anywhere match that
I thought was a highlight of the show. They went all over
the place, which is what these matches should do, and they
used all sorts of weapons, including the World X trophy.
Abyss bled. Rhino bled a little too.
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If
Brian Pulido drew Cactus Jack...
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There
was a great spot where Rhino had set up a table against
the corner and went to Gore Abyss into it, but Abyss caught
him and chokeslammed him through another table! Rhino got
a Gore on Abyss on the stands, which sent him off through
the tables, giving Rhino the win. The crowd loved this and
so did I.
If I
say any combination of Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels and
AJ Styles, you can be sure that it’ll be a good match.
If I say all three, you can be sure that it’ll be
a top-flight, no-prisoners amazing match, and this one was.
While I did question them doing the second three-way with
these three so soon after the last one (I’d have waited
at least a year before striking again) this one was hot
and exciting and if it had been on any other show it would
have outshone anything they did. This was stiff as hell.
Joe
gave a tough palm strike to Daniels when he tried to do
a Tope Suicida through the ropes. They all worked submissions
moves, including Joe getting the Kokina Clutch on Daniels
that Styles broke up. Great finishing sequence with the
guys going for their finishers but getting no pins. This
led to Styles going for the Spinal Tap, but Daniels stopping
him, then Joe kicked the hell out of AJ and used the Muscle
Buster to pin Daniels. Wow!
Team
3D, who have been having good matches but who haven’t
really made much of their time in TNA, took on Team Canada
in a match ‘the fans’ chose. It was a decent
match with a story that made sense and was simple. Most
of the match Team Canada just wouldn’t let Devon tag
out to Bubba. That allowed them to do the damage.
Of course,
Devon got the tag eventually and cleaned house, leading
to Roode breaking the flag pole across his back. Roode clotheslined
Young by accident and that allowed Team 3D to get the 3D
and take the win. OK match, and afterwards they had America’s
Most Wanted come out and join in on the beatdown. Ron Killings
came to make the save and legdrop Harris through a table.
The
Main Event. Christian vs. Jeff Jarrett. I was excited for
it because it was going to be the moment that Jarrett lost
the title. There are a lot of reasons why giving the title
to Christian makes sense, even though a lot of people were
against it because they don’t see Christian as a money
player yet. He came up big here.
Meltzer
has been saying that even though he gets too much TV time
and isn’t what the crowd wants, he thinks that Jarrett
has been really good in his role the last few weeks. I dunno,
I still don’t like him at all. He just doesn’t
have that aura that a champion should have and which Samoa
Joe has all over him.
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Valentine's
Day will jump on you from above...
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They
had Earl Hebner reffing the match, which with Heb’s
history of screwing Canadians might have been used as a
sign that they’d be doing the change here. Christian
started off with offense, but missed a top rope elbow. They
had Gail Kim get involved, but in the end Christian PowerBombed
her! Really good stuff with guitar shots and all sorts of
craziness. Christian pinned Jarrett with the Unprettier
to get the NWA World Title.
The pop was
fantastic.
This
shows that the TNA crowd is really working on getting legit
in the eyes of the fans. True, Christian jumping and getting
the title isn’t in the same league as when Hogan did
it in 1994, but still, it’s an important step. They’ll
go on to their new Thursday at 8pm SpikeTV timeslot in April
with a champ that a more casual audience has seen before.
There’s talk about TNA making deals with New Japan
and a couple of the hotter free agents, but no one’s
sure what’s going on with it right now. All I know
is they made a step in the right direction.
Since
there’s no RAW this week due to the Dog Show, and
since I missed TNA and SmackDown! due to being at WonderCon,
this concludes Falls Count Anywhere for this week!
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