TNA Victory Road PPV Thoughts

I finished watching TNA’s Victory Road PPV from Houston Texas and thought I would take a minute to share my thoughts, specifically regarding the two TNA Knockouts matches.

Before getting to the Knockouts, I have to give major kudos to all the participants in the 12 Man Elimination – World X Cup Tournament Match.  As a promoter, you often hear the advice, “start the show hot“.  Often times, that’s easier said then done since most of your top talent is placed higher up the card, but for the past several TNA PPV’s I have ordered, they have taken that advice and made it happen without fail.  I was glued to my TV from the opening bell to the finish of the match when Alex Shelly hit an Air Raid Crash on Masato Yoshino for the pin.

What made this match even more enjoyable was seeing all the familiar faces.  I’ve worked with PUMA, Alex Kozlov and Doug Williams in the past and it’s great seeing them shine on national PPV.  Great work guys, you deserve all praise and more.  Guys like Alex Shelly and Chris Sabin are the future of this business and it makes me proud to see them give 110% each and every time.

The downside to starting the show with a hot match is the following match may not get the deserved attention because the fans are burned out.  I got the feeling this was not only the case with the match that followed, which was Gail Kim vs. Angelina Love, but that was the case the rest of the night as it seems the fans were not able to get back on the same level of enthusiasm as they were in the opener.  Of course, this was only my perception on TV, it may have been much different (and often is) live.

They have been building the Gail Kim vs. The Beautiful People (Angelia Love and Velvet Sky) feud for the past few weeks and did a good job hyping the match with plenty of video segments.  As much as I like Gail Kim as a wrestler and an athlete, I wish her promo skills were stronger.  In the one-on-one segments with Love and Kim, Love came across as the far superior athlete and was far better spoken.  Additionally, somebody forgot to call make-up for Gail Kim, who looked very shiny and sweaty.  Not looking like a former champion at all.

The Kim/Love match itself was fair.  I keep hearing about how good Angelina Love is, but I have yet to see it.  Love is definitely the better wrestler on her team, but not anywhere near Gail Kim’s level yet.  Watching the backstage segments with The Beautiful People shows they have a ton of charisma and are very entertaining, but I would prefer to see them only in that role.  Let them become valets or form a stable, but with limited TV and PPV time, I would much rather see Gail Kim in matches with people like Roxxi Laveaux, Raisha Saeed, Kong or ODB. I had to look up the finish to this match because it honestly was not that memorable.  Gail Kim won with a move called a handcuff neckbreaker.

Later in the night it was time for the TNA Knockout Championship Match.  Former champ, Awesome Kong was set for her rematch against the woman that defeated her and won the belt last week on TNA Impact, Taylor Wilde.  Taylor was the fan that a few weeks ago came out of the audience and challenged Kong during one of the $25,000 challenges and eventually got a match against Kong by defeating Raisha Saeed.

The Kong/Wilde match on the PPV was very similiar to their Impact match, which was on free TV and maybe even a bit shorter.  While I get that Taylor is supposed to be small and fast and Kong is big and slow, I just have a hard time following this.  Taylor’s only impressive move this whole match was an armdrag from the top rope, everything else was just kinda… eh.  I put Taylor at the same level as Angelina Love skill-level, not bad, but not great either.  Wilde ended up winning the match with another roll-up, like how she won the belt originally.  The real excitement came post-match when Raisha Saeed attacked Wilde as she was exiting and really got physical with her.  Raisha dragged her back to the ring and assisted Kong as she set her up for an Awesome Bomb on a steel chair.  Before Kong could hit the move, the lights went out and music hit.  Abyss showed up and hit the ring.  The look on Kong’s face as she went toe-to-toe with Abyss was priceless.  Kong has some of the best facial reactions of any of the Knockouts, she just gave this big, wet, monster looking guy the most non-caring attitude look in the world, great stuff.  Raisha jumped between the two and ordered Kong to leave the ring.  Raisha then got in the face of Abyss and after yelling and screaming at the guy, she pulls back and nails him with a big slap.  Apparently, Abyss was not too happy with that as he grabbed Raisha and hit her with a great looking Black Hole Slam finisher.  As the cameras pull away, Raisha is out cold in the middle of the ring and the announcers mention that this won’t sit well with the commisioner because of the rule in TNA of no male on female violence.  It will be interesting to see how this story develops.

Before wrapping this up, I want to comment on one more guy that I’ve worked with a lot in the past, Samoa Joe.  I remember meeting Joe years ago in LA when he was just starting out at Rick Bassman’s UPW training school and it’s been great to see his career take off over the years.  I’ve heard people say Samoa Joe does not have the “it” factor and question if he can lead the company in the way that Christian Cage and Kurt Angle did in the past.  Well, after seeing his performance tonight, I can say without a doubt, yes.  Tonight I saw a new Samoa Joe and I think he’s now entering a new stage of maturity as a wrestler.  I loved the brutality and the ultra-viloence he brought.  The violence, even though physical was more mental.  If you’ve seen Samoa Joe vs. Necro Butcher, you saw a physical violence.  Tonight’s violence was not the same.  Joe showed was depth in his character and the ability to take a wrestling match to a whole new level.  Much more impressed with what I saw tonight then when he won the belt against Kurt Angle.  Keep it up.

That’s all for now.  I look forward to posting more thoughts on Female Fighting and other wrestling-related subjects.  Be sure to leave your comments below, looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Jason Deadrich
Promoter