“Rage Over The Ring”
AJ Styles and Ric Flair make their way to the ring to start the show. Styles says that while D’Angelo Dinero wants to put himself on a pedestal, he is still the man around TNA. Flair complains about Hogan giving his Hall of Fame ring to Abyss last week. The crowd is all over Flair as he calls out “The Abyss”. Abyss comes out to Hogan’s music. Flair runs him down on the mic. Abyss comes back with a nice insult and Flair’s response is pretty funny. Styles gets in on the bickering and demands that Abyss take off the ring. Hulk Hogan interrupts and gets into a confrontation with Flair. Before the situation turns into a brawl, Flair and Styles leave. Flair announces that Abyss’ ring will be on Styles’ finger by the end of the night.
Mick Foley enters the building and the man is not happy. He’s apparently looking for Eric Bischoff.
Opening Match: Tables Match: Brother Ray and Brother Devon vs. Brian Knobs and Jerry Sags
It’s a brawl to start. I really wish these two teams would just stick to promos to hype their feud. Ray blocks the weakest charge ever from Knobs and hits a flying shoulder block. Team 3D stun Sags with the What’s Up and call for tables. A table is setup in the ring. The Nasty Boys try to hip toss Devon through a table but Ray moves it. Jimmy Hart interferes but Jesse Neal returns to stop more interference. Neal tosses a motorcycle helmet into the ring, which is sued to lay out Knobs. Team 3D send Sags through a table with the 3D for the win at 3:54. Jesse Neal returns for around the fifth time and I still don’t care about him. At least the playing sides are equal now…this is going to get good! ¾*
Mick Foley is in Eric Bischoff’s office complaining about his staged shopping spree last week. Bischoff takes credit for Abyss having Hogan’s ring and says that he’s living up to his end of the bargain. He wants to know where Foley’s suit is. Foley admits that its back at his hotel and leaves to get it.
Match #2: ODB vs. Daffney
Daffney tries to attack before the bell to no avail. They have a backstage interview during this match with Tara. She calls Daffney crazy and has taken notice. Daffney starts going after ODB’s left leg. Daffney utilizes a piece of the ring steps to cause a disqualification at 2:09. Fine for building Daffney’s character. ½*
Daffney continues the attack after the match until Dr. Stevie stops her.
Jeremy Borash is backstage with Matt Morgan and Hernandez. Despite Morgan’s actions at Against All Odds, they are on good terms. They will go down in history as dominant champions.
Scott Hall and Sean Waltman are digging through a dumpster looking for weapons. They seem to be taking their role in TNA very seriously.
Beer Money are in the ring. Roode says that they decided to become a team almost two years ago. He claims that they are the greatest tag team in professional wrestling today. They were in TNA since the beginning, but management wants to put them on the sidelines. Essentially, they aren’t making enough money to buy beer. Hernandez interrupts and wants Beer Money to challenge for the TNA Tag Team Titles at Destination X. Beer Money accept the challenge.
Jeremy Borash is with Kevin Nash and Eric Young. Nash just wants a fight with Hall and Waltman. It doesn’t need to be a sanctioned match. Young promises that if they can fight the Band, it will be the highest rated segment ever in TNA. I think Young forgot about the Team 3D/Nasty Boys match that just took place tonight. Nash says that emotional pain doesn’t go away.
Jeff Jarrett storms into Bischoff’s office. He is angry about the aftermath of his encounter with Abyss last week. Bischoff apologizes and says that he’s doing his best. He offers to meet Jarrett in the ring so he can be given a better opportunity in front of the fans. Jarrett is hesitant but accepts the offer.
Eric Bischoff makes his way to the ring. He says that he loves the fans and introduces Jeff Jarrett, even giving him entrance music. The man even has pyro! Bischoff has his assistant bring out the barbed wire bat. He says that Jarrett did the right thing by not using it. However, Jarrett didn’t do the right thing according to Bischoff. Bischoff sends Jarrett to catering and gives him a spatula. He puts a hair net on Jarrett and walks away.
Matt Morgan questions Hernandez’s choice to give Beer Money a title shot. They need to be in-synch outside of the ring as well. Hernandez agrees.
Match #3: Brian Kendrick vs. Kazarian
The winner of this match will become the number one contender for the X Division Title. They trade control of a wristlock. Kazarian lands a slingshot leg drop along with a dropkick in the corner. Kendrick avoids a charge and connects with an enzuigiri. Kazarian dazes him up top and hits the Flux Capacitor for the victory at 2:34. This was constricted by its short duration but the right man won. Williams/Kazarian should be a quality match at Destination X. I also like that the match allows TNA to show that the X Division isn’t solely about spotfests for once. *½
Jeremy Borash is with Abyss backstage. He challenges anyone to try to take his ring. He is not the lord…but the monster…of the rings. I can dig that.
Match #4: TNA Global Title: Rob Terry © vs. Mr. Anderson
During his entrance, Anderson talks about what he did to Kurt Angle. Speaking of the man, Angle appears behind Anderson with a chair and lays him out. Rob Terry carries Anderson back into the ring. Terry hits a powerslam to retain his title at 0:27. N/R
Jarrett is flipping burgers and Foley has made his way back to the Impact Zone.
Kevin Nash and Eric Young enter the parking lot. Young charges after Sean Waltman while Scott Hall attacks Nash with a pipe. The Band get the better of Young and spray paint “4 life” on his back.
Bischoff is in his office talking on the phone. “No, no, no…we are not using celebrity guest hosts on our show every week. That’s the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard”. TNA! TNA! TNA! TNA!!!! Foley walks in and shows off his suit. It’s flawless except for a mustard stain. Bischoff wants to hire an etiquette coach for Foley. Foley jumps at the idea and is excited. I can’t wait for those segments next week.
Match #5: Desmond Wolfe vs. Abyss
Wolfe dodges a charge and hits his kick-lariat combination in the corner. He follows with a european uppercut. Abyss catches Wolfe with the Black Hole Slam for the win at 1:53. I can appreciate the fact that TNA is building guys like Dinero and Abyss. However, Wolfe has become “just another guy” and has really fallen since his feud with Angle. *
After the match, Ric Flair and AJ Styles come out to attack. Abyss fends them off until Wolfe hits him with a chair. Flair works in a low blow and the heels handcuff him to the ring ropes. Hulk Hogan makes the save, punching all of the heels. Flair chop blocks Hogan and the heels turn their focus to him. Styles lays out Hogan with the TNA World Title, busting him open. Abyss musters the strength to break the handcuffs and chases off the heels. We go to commercial. Back from break, Hogan announces that it will be Styles/Flair vs. Abyss/Hogan on March 8th. This was definitely an effective segment that had the live crowd in a frenzy. However, there’s just something that doesn’t sit right with me about Flair coming out of retirement. He was fine being a mentor to Styles. Coming out of retirement in TNA shits on his match at WrestleMania 24 and what happened on RAW the night after.
Overall: This was a pretty bad episode to follow the decent show last week. There was just over ten minutes of wrestling on the whole show. That is totally unacceptable and makes the viewer feel like they didn’t need to tune in at all. You can read about all of the storyline advancement and be fine. You actually need to watch the wrestling matches to get the most out of them. Unfortunately, there was little wrestling this week. Although I like the two matches announced for Destination X thus far, this was a very underwhelming episode.
