Trevor Lee (c) vs. DJ Z vs. Andrew Everett vs. Eddie Edwards – TNA X-Division Championship
Trevor Lee is young and talented, but he’s not getting decent reactions at the moment. DJ Z has spent years as the extra body thrown in to create the illusion of a broader X-Division. I understand TNA wanting to use Eddie Edwards as Davey Richards recovers from injury, but this feels like a demotion.
Not so long ago, Eddie and Davey dominated the tag team division by defeating teams like Team 3D and The Hardys in Full Metal Mayhem, and other teams like Beer Money. Without his partner, Eddie’s left in the mid-card with little chance of moving up. To me it feels like a setback because he could be challenging higher up the card, yet he’s going for a title which has been misused and underappreciated for a long time.
Pope was quick to point out Shane Helms’ change of attire from his neon green suit before the referee banned him from ringside. With him gone Trevor Lee and Everett teamed up and made it more of tag match. I’ll admit, when this was live I had serious streaming issues so I decided to watch it again without interruption.
Ok I’m done. When I saw it live I wasn’t too impressed, but it was hard to judge as the stream kept freezing; and I missed the finish. While I felt the match had good pace, it was difficult to care for any of the challengers except Eddie, so if he didn’t win it was going to be a downer for the rest of the PPV. Everett was impressive; if you like photogenic spots. Eddie Edwards is the new X-Division Champion, but the real question is … will he have any serious challengers?
It was a good opening. Not the greatest X-Division contest ever, but at least it warmed up the crowd. Forgot to mention I’ll be rating matches out of five stars (1 = terrible 5= excellent), and I’m judging on how they compare to past TNA matches. As far as an X-Division match goes, it lacked hype, serious challengers, and the guys only got 10 minutes. At least the right man won, even if it feels like a step in the wrong direction.
3 1/2 Stars ***-
The Tribunal (Basile Baraka and Baron Dax) w/ Al Snow vs. Grado and Mahabali Shera
Before the match EC3 cut a promo on his upcoming bout with Matt Bennett. As always he delivered a passionate promo telling the story and hyping the encounter.
Who are The Tribunal? Baraka was formerly known as Sylvester Lefort in NXT as a tag team wrestler, while Dax worked as a monster heel called Marcus Louis in NXT. As the NXT roster grew, they were relegated to enhancement talent til their releases in February. In March they signed with TNA, and in April made their debut as a tag team with Al Snow as their coach.
“Coach” Al Snow carries a whistle now … and yes, it’s as annoying as it sounds. As for The Tribunal, I see long-term potential in Dax, but not Baraka. Too early to say because I didn’t see much of Baraka in NXT. So yeah .. Grado and Shera were trying to do comedy but the crowd weren’t into it. Rolling around in the ring while there’s a new team trying to pick you off? I don’t want to see that, I want to see Grado and Shera working together to at least look like a threat. It was an inevitable victory for The Tribunal.
Don’t get me wrong, there were some enjoyable moments (like Al Snow’s disbelief of Grado’s toughness), but it was an extended squash match which went on too long. If you want to make this team look good, it shouldn’t take over seven minutes to pick off this comedy act. Al Snow was the only guy getting any kind of heat from the crowd, so on that basis I can only give.
2 Stars **
Jade (c) vs. Sienna vs. Gail Kim – TNA Knockouts Championship
Before the match the new talent Braxton Sutter (bad name, but perhaps it will grow on me?) interrupted James Storm’s promo and exchanged greetings. Storm walked away with him as they talked about who he would fight later in the night.
After the hype video for Gail Kim vs. Maria, Gail made her way to the ring and called Maria out. Maria came out with her assistant Allie, as she explained why Maria couldn’t wrestle. Really high pitch on Allie, she could break windows with that voice. Gail wasn’t believing her excuses and neither were the fans. Gail threatened to attack Maria, forcing Billy Corgan to enter.
Corgan showed the x-rays of Maria’s broken hand, and promised Gail would get her match with Maria when she’s cleared. To clear things up, Corgan added Gail to the Knockouts Championship match and announced it would start immediately. Sienna entered wearing a black peacock-like attire (sorry I don’t know what it’s called), making her look a little less plain. Jade made her entrance looking the happiest I’ve ever seen her, as she sported long tights instead of short.
Questionable finish. Sienna is the new Knockouts Champion after Marti Belle interfered and hit Jade with a weapon of some kind (baton?), leaving Sienna to claim the easy pinfall. I understand that TNA wanted to move Jade away from the title so she could feud with former Dollhouse partner Marti Belle, but did it have to go to Sienna? I mean, she’s strong, and a good worker, but she hasn’t been around long and it feels too soon. It didn’t feel like .. “oh man Sienna won!? That sucks!”, it was more like “Sienna won? I suppose? Is there no one else?”. Do we know who she is? How many times has she picked up a mic? Where did she come from?
For a triple threat Knockouts match it was pretty good actually. Jade and Gail Kim have chemistry so any time they squared up it was good. No botches from what I saw, so it seems they were all on their game. The crowd was kinda chanting for Gail, and some for Jade too. Didn’t hear much booing for Sienna, but definitely for Allie when she broke up a pin. Gail punching her in the face was really welcome from my view. A decent match which only happened because of Maria’s hand injury, and I guess it keeps the Gail vs. Maria storyline going as she can challenge Sienna til she recovers.
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