The match was thrown together at the last-minute and it showed, so while the match was “Very Good”, at least to the fans in attendance and in other reviews, I’m going to rate it as Good. You may disagree with me if you like, that’s fine, I’ll accept that, but to me it was just a match to get Roode and Lashley on the card and nothing more. I’ll tip my invisible hat to Roode and Lashley for working with what they were given.
Match #5 – Gail Kim (c) vs. Awesome Kong for the TNA Knockouts Championship – Match Length: (10:05)
Following Roode and Lashley, Matt Hardy cut a backstage promo with Borash, which if you watch this after the event, you will tell that Matt was overly confident, like he knew he was going to win .. damn kayfabe. Honestly, I cannot remember Matt Hardy being so psyched for a match in his life, so he did a good job of selling, and telegraphing the main events result.
Next, Billy Corgan appeared and fluffed his one line, corrected himself with a smile, then introduced the newest TNA Hall Of Famer Earl Hebner. Why didn’t they induct Earl at Bound For Glory instead of a house show? The funny part about this was the video package, which could only show TNA footage of Earl, and personal pictures of him with Steve Austin and other WWE legends.
A blurred image of Earl raising Shawn Michaels arm (1996?) was shown, because the majority of Hebner’s career was in WWF/E. Earl is the perfect example of someone who haphazardly does their job for 67,000 years (exaggerating) and gets recognition just because no other guy has done the job as long. I’m only kidding, it’s nice to see the spotlight and someone else for a change.
Ok, so Kong vs Kim was one match I was looking forward to, but even that match had no build aside from the matches they had years ago. So Kim and Kong went at it for a while, until Kim tried for a hurricanrana and failed. Kong splashed Kim from the turnbuckle for a two-count; any other Knockout would have lost right there. Kong got frustrated far too easily and started looking for steel chairs in a regular match. Kim’s husband, Robert Irvine, took a chair from Kong and told Hebner to “do his job”. What’s the point? Does Gail Kim seriously need Irvine’s help? And does Hebner need to be abused? He never does his job right.
Unluckily for Kim, her husbands interference backfired and Kong dumped her on some chairs. Later in the match, Kim tried attacking Kong in the corner of the ring, Kong grabbed Kim by the throat as she stood on the second rope, and Kim used her smarts to convert that into an Eat Defeat. The monster known as Awesome Kong lost the match from one Eat Defeat, and that’s about it. Kong needed to be full-blown heel for this, you can’t sell Kong without her being notoriously bad and disrespectful to everyone, and Kong lost due to her respect for Kim.
So just like Roode vs Lashley, there was barely any build for it, and both were working as babyfaces, so you had to pick a side and go from there. Kong’s had zero momentum since she buried Havok in a cage match several months ago, so I didn’t expect a title change, and that’s what we got. So while the women put on a match, it was seriously underwhelming compared to their previous encounters, and the unnecessary interference by Irvine means I can only rate it as Average.
Match #6 – Kurt Angle vs. Eric Young in a No Disqualification match – Match Length: (13:10)
Whenever I read Kurt Angle’s Facebook page, all I see is “PLEASE KURT GO BACK TO WWE!!!” on every single post, and it just pisses me off. Respect Angle’s decisions, stop being selfish and respect the man wherever he decides to work. He’s worked for TNA longer than he worked for WWE, so he’s a TNA guy, so get over it.
Angle was TNA World Champion before his surgery on the tumor on his neck. Once again, the match was thrown out there at the last-minute, but at least EY’s definitely a heel, and EY feuded with Angle before he was sidelined, making it the most personal feud of the show. Before the participants made their way to the ring, Christy Hemme announced the next match was “No Disqualification”, which was right .. but yeah, you’ll see why this was a botch in a minute.
EY got on the microphone before the match could begin, and in entertaining fashion, claimed he was “GOD”; I just can’t get enough of EY’s heel persona. Angle got on the mic and put EY over a little, before saying the match was now a No DQ match, and despite Christy’s prior announcement, EY was pissed off at the sudden change.
Early on in the bout, EY delivered a mean piledriver on Angle, which forced Angle to clutch his neck in pain and roll to the outside. Medical staff appeared, and the doctor told the ref Angle could not continue. EY took exception to this and attacked the medical staff and referees (love it, EY is one of the best heels around), and carried on with his beating of Angle. The commentary team were disgusted with EY, but seriously, if Angle had re-injured his neck for real, there’s no way EY would be continuing.
So the action spilled to the outside, and EY exposed the concrete. The fans in the front row started chanting “USE THE SHIELD!”, as some dude wearing a Captain America outfit had a shield and was clearly reaching out so they could use it. Sadly, both wrestlers ignored the fans cry for shield interference, and Kurt reversed a piledriver into a German suplex. Pope went nuts, saying it was a miracle he was able to do that with his neck. Angle continued to sell his neck injury through three more German suplex and Angle slam.
So EY managed to come back from all that and target Angles neck. He placed his boot on the back of Angles neck and posed, much to the disgust of the commentary team. He stomped on his neck, and delivered a Randy Savage elbow from the top. Young tried to finish Angle off with a piledriver from the turnbuckle, which luckily didn’t happen, as Angle countered it into an anklelock. EY forgot the No DQ stipulation as he reached the ropes and the referee told him he couldn’t do anything. EY struggled, but was inevitably pulled to the center of the ring, and with no hope of escape, Eric Young tapped out.
So the match served its purpose of bringing Kurt back for a night, but it wasn’t as good as it could have been due to the overselling of the neck surgery. I get it, he had surgery, you don’t need to have Angle sell it for half of the match, only to suplex EY around like nothing’s wrong. This was as bad as a Kurt Angle match can be, but at least the hatred shown by Eric Young added to the story, so I will rate it as Good, nothing more, nothing less.
Match #7 – Ethan Carter III (c) vs. Drew Galloway vs. Matt Hardy for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, with Jeff Hardy as the special guest referee – Match Length: (20:04)
A video package aired highlighting the build for the triple-threat, but just like Slammiversary, the event had audio issues so they cut the video early. Josh Matthews apologized for the technical difficulties. Jeff Hardy appeared and received a warmer reception than any of the competitors, and he was dressed for the part with a referee shirt paired with black & white striped face paint.
They made their entrances and Borash made the official main event announcements, which I always enjoy. The match started and Matt Hardy immediately coaxed Jeff into ejecting Tyrus from the ringside area, which Tyrus could have ignored (no-DQ rules), but chose to walk out instead.
Drew & Matt attacked EC3 and took it in turns to dish out offense. They stomped EC3 down in the corner like heels until he fell to the outside. Drew and Matt fought each other for a while, until EC3 returned to deliver sweet dropkicks on both men. Further into the match, EC3 tried to piledriver Drew on the steel steps, but Drew reversed it and dropped EC3 on the steps; the fans chanted “holy shit”.
The fighting continued on the outside, and Drew nailed Matt with his leg from a sick dive over the ropes to the outside. EC3 introduced a table and set it up on the outside. Back in the ring, Matt hit a DDT and Reverse DDT combo on EC3 and Drew. Matt tried placing Drew on top of EC3, but Drew moved and laid on top of EC3 while Matt climbed the turnbuckle’ Jeff did not count the pin.
Matt nailed Drew and EC3 with the moonsault, and Matt covered both men for a 2-count. Matt set EC3 up for the Twist of Fate. EC3 shoved Matt into Jeff, and Matt was able to counter EC3 with a Side Effect. Matt went the pin but Jeff was down. but Jeff soon recovered during a backslide and counted fast for EC3. Drew delivered the Future Shock DDT to Matt, then EC3 tossed him out and covered Matt, Jeff made a fair count of 2, and EC3 got in his face to complain.
EC3 found Drew on the outside and banged his head off the table, he placed Drew on the table. EC3 found Matt recovering on the ropes and suplexed him over the ring ropes, to the outside, through Drew and the table. Nice spot. The fans appreciated it as well. EC3 tried to cover Matt again, picking up 2. EC3 slowly set Matt up for the One Percenter, Drew quickly entered the ring and nailed Drew with a flurry of punches and chops. Matt surprised Drew with a clothesline, then Matt hit his second combo, a bulldog and clothesline on Drew and EC3.
Matt went to the top and was straddled on the turnbuckle by Drew, then both men fought on the turnbuckle together, Drew fell into the tree of woe, and Matt held him in place while EC3 chopped. EC3 tried to suplex Matt off the turnbuckle, then Drew recovered and threw EC3 and Matt into a German Superplex (mix of German suplex and Superplex). Another nice spot.
All three men recovered and chopped each other til EC3 fell, Drew and Matt slugged it out, then EC3 surprised them both with a double One Percenter. EC3 picked up fair two-counts on both men. EC3 became frustrated, pushed Jeff, and told him to throw the match out. Jeff refused so EC3 shoved him again. EC3 tried to get himself disqualified in a match with no rules, by kicking Drew in the balls right in front of Jeff. He told Jeff “DQ!”, so either character was getting desperate, or he forgot the rules.
EC3 picked up a chair from the outside and taunted Jeff. He tried to strike Matt with it, but Jeff stole the chair and told EC3 he wasn’t going to win that way. EC3 punched Jeff in the face, and Jeff retaliated by hitting him with the chair, which seemed to fall apart on impact. Jeff hit the Twist of Fate, and Matt hit the same move on Drew, pinned Drew and won the match to claim the World Championship for the first time.
The North Carolina fans celebrated with Matt, as Reby Sky, his baby son Maxel Hardy. “The Legend” Gilbert Hardy (Jeff & Matt’s father), and Jeff joined in. EC3 was furious and stormed out. The show ended with the family posing for photos in the ring.
I’ll rate the match as Good, because there were some good spots, but there was a lack of hardcore (for my own personal tastes), and too much time spent on exchanges between Jeff and EC3. Drew was an afterthought, which was odd, as I figured if anyone was going to take the title off EC3, it would be him. The feud originally centered around EC3 and Drew, and Matt was placed in the match on the previous episode of Impact by winning a tag team contest. Matt already had a title shot at Full Metal Mayhem and lost clean to EC3 with no interference, so it seems obvious the only reason Matt was slotted in was because of the location.
The booking is questionable, and it only tells me that TNA wanted to make a “feel good” moment as a reward to the Hardy Boyz for being loyal to TNA. Also Matt is slowing down, so I understand he wanted one more defining moment, but it came at the expense of EC3 and Drew, who essentially represent the talent in their primes.
Another thing which irked me, was the handling of EC3, who was supposed to be a dominant champion, reduced to desperation as Dixie Carter and The Hardys stacked the deck against him. Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around? Shouldn’t EC3 be the one to stack the deck so the fans can get behind Drew and Matt? With the deck stacked so heavily in Matt’s favour, it’s a hollow victory, and his age and recent talk of retirement and nagging injuries makes you wonder why TNA doesn’t do more to build their shows so these moments can be received in the way they hope for.
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