UNBREAKABLE

September 11, 2005

It’s the follow up to the very fun “Sacrifice” show, and there are questions that will be answered. Can Raven and Rhino live up to their Backlash 2001 match? Will AJ Styles and Samoa Joe steal the show again? And, does Abyss need to carry Lance Hoyt for him to have a good match?

Austin Aries . . . earns his TNA contract by tearing down the house (for the second month in a row), this time with his ROH tag team partner.

Petey Williams . . . makes his return to TNA a memorable one, but memorable for the wrong reasons.

AJ Styles . . . helps to steal the show yet again, proving why he’s TNA’s golden boy.

BG JAMES/KONNAN/RON KILLINGS vs. SIMON DIAMOND/ELIX SKIPPER/DAVID YOUNG

This is really too short to amount to much, the match itself isn’t much more than an excuse to trot out the Kru and let them do their usual spots. The watchable parts are all from the Diamonds. Simon slaps Skipper in the face to fire him up and it does the trick, as he hits a flying kick to James to give them control, and then all three of them show a nice mean streak by putting the books to James. Of course, that’s just about the extent of the heel run of offense, because this is so rushed. Konnan hot tags and quickly finishes off Young with the shoe shot and facebuster. It’s too bad the Diamonds never made it out of the opening match, they certainly deserved better than this, and their entire treatment in general.

AUSTIN ARIES vs. RODERICK STRONG

Aside from a few of their counters, there isn’t anything especially shocking here, if you’re familiar with both wrestlers. It’s Aries doing his stuff and Strong doing his stuff, and it comes together just fine. What really makes this stand out though is how smooth and fluid their work is. Of course, given their experience together in ROH, it’s not surprising how well they work together (and the announcers even acknowledge that they’re stablemates in ROH). There isn’t much to the story itself, Strong wants to wear down Aries for the Stronghold, preferably with his backbreakers, and Aries is good enough (and familiar enough) with Strong to generally keep out of harm’s way. But, again, it’s not the story as much as the execution that makes this stand out. There are a few things that keep this from being more than just good, such as Strong’s idea of using a basic chinlock and trying to make it seem like a viable submission hold, as well as Aries ignoring some of the work done to his back and going right into the home stretch with the corner dropkick, brainbuster and a letter-perfect 450 splash. But, this is still several heads above the opener, judging from this, it’s easy to see why they both wound up getting TNA contracts. ***

MONTY BROWN/KIP JAMES vs. LANCE HOYT/APOLO

If this isn’t the most boring and nondescript tag match of the night, then I can only imagine what’s in store for me later. There’s no real story to the work, not even a real build toward a hot tag. There’s one nice moment when Brown surprises Hoyt with a backdrop suplex, then hits another, and then Hoyt escapes out the back door when he goes for three. James accidentally knocks Brown off the apron to further their dissension storyline, which would normally be nice to see, but it’s wasted here since Brown and James still win. The action picks up in the last couple of minutes, when James hits Apolo with his finish and big moves start getting rolled out to take everyone out of the match, culminating in Brown pouncing Apolo for the win. But it’s hard to care too much about the last couple minutes when the first seven are so boring.

CHRIS SABIN vs. PETEY WILLIAMS

I had hopes that this would be similar to Aries/Strong since Sabin and Williams had worked together so much, however, they opted for a more spotty match, and Williams spent the bulk of it in control. The best compliment to pay them is how good a job they did with their timing and making their spots look clean, especially Sabin’s dropkick while Petey was airborne, but, beyond moments like those, this isn’t anything that hasn’t been seen before from these two. Petey tries for the Canadian Destroyer several times, and Sabin uses the same counter that he used in the buildup to their Turning Point ‘04 match (although Mike and Don seem to have forgotten, because they freak out like they’ve never seen it before). The finish is at least a bit original, with Sabin being blinded when Petey went to the eyes, but Petey goes for the Destroyer yet again, and Sabin counters it the same way and hits the Cradle Shock for the win.

SABU vs. ABYSS

This, obviously, wasn’t going to be a classic, but it’s easy to see this isn’t bad. Abyss is fun while he’s bumping and selling for Sabu, and he’s moderate enough that it doesn’t look completely exposing by his doing so. It’s also nice to see them not go right for the props, but to try their hand at wrestling first and have Sabu resort to the weapons when he can’t get anything going. They also pull out some nice spots, Abyss catches Sabu with two overhead belly to belly suplexes and Sabu forgoes his usual random dive at one point for and does a Gran Hamada-style DDT.

The problem is that their smart moments are usually counterbalanced by the stupidity in some of their spots. For instance, Sabu sets up two tables on the floor and then sandwiches Abyss between the top and middle ropes like Terry Funk likes to do. Sabu dives at him, in a matter that has no possible positive outcome for Sabu. Abyss, shockingly, catches him and overheads him to the floor through the tables. Sabu also tries to drive Abyss through a table with a chair, but winds up taking the brunt of the table bump himself, and yet, Abyss is the one who sells, while Sabu almost gets right up. They do at least deserve some credit for the drama they created in the finish. Abyss spreads the tacks and it seems like either one could be taking the fall, but they keep finding escapes and counters to save themselves, until Sabu’s second leaping DDT gets turned into the Black Hole Slam.

JEFF HARDY vs. BOBBY ROODE

I applaud TNA for having the common sense to reward loyalty and dependability by putting Roode over here. I curse them for negating it with overbooking and useless run ins from Petey Williams and Jeff Jarrett. The match itself is nothing to write home about, Hardy is at near Mutoh-at-his-worst levels of lazy, he just haphazardly tries to work in his stuff without any real regard for what’s already happened, he even screws up a simple sunset flip. Then again, Roode isn’t anything outstanding either, his perceived intensity is welcome, but that’s mostly found in his yelling at the crowd while he sits in rest hold and accomplishes nothing. Hardy looks to be on the verge of winning and Petey shows up to more or less stall, he tries a Canadian Destroyer and gets countered (I think that’s the sixth time tonight for him) and then Jarrett shows up and hits Hardy with the Team Canada hockey stick and rolls him in the ring for Roode to pin. Next!

ANDY DOUGLAS/CHASE STEVENS © vs. CHRIS HARRIS/JAMES STORM vs. ERIC YOUNG/A-1 vs. ALEX SHELLEY/JOHNNY CANDIDO (NWA World Tag Team Titles)

This isn’t the ideal way to kick off the feature matches of the show. The only interesting thing from a storyline perspective is Shelley being on his own (he was supposed to team with Syxx-Pac, but he didn’t show up). He starts off looking like he’ll be in good shape, but then he gets into trouble and nobody is willing to tag him out. Finally Johnny Candido jumps the rail to be his partner, he tags in and almost promptly gets pinned. So ends the only really interesting aspect of the whole match. It’s too bad too, because between the history between the Naturals and AMW, along with Team Canada’s cheating, it seems like this could have played out rather interesting, but it was anything but. It doesn’t help that the Naturals saw fit to just stand on the apron and watch the match until it was down to two teams. The only thing that anyone brought to the table was Young’s selling and stooging, but they needed a whole lot more to make something out of this. Team Canada cheats to eliminate AMW and after a long stretch (which should have been anything but with how much time the Canadians had been in the ring compared to the champs) Jimmy Hart evens the odds and the Naturals retain.

This is fun at times, but it’s a lot like the Sabu/Abyss match in that their fun moments get negated by ill-advised spots and overbooking. The weapons are clearly the focus of the match, but Raven is generally smart about using them, such as using the kendo stick to hurt Rhino’s ankle and then trying to tap him out to an ankle lock. There’s also a nice play off of their 4/01 WWF match with Rhino attempting to hit the gore, but charging into Raven’s shopping cart (although the cart doesn’t break this time). I’d give them credit for their selling, but it’s hard to not sell with some of the punishment they inflict upon each other. But, for each of their smart moments, there are things like Rhino propping ladder on a chair and then deciding it’s a good time to climb the ropes and throw punches. It shockingly (or not at all) ends with him getting a powerbomb on the ladder. Then, there are run ins from Cassidy Riley (although that one at least served the purpose of creating some doubt for the finish), Jarrett, and Hardy. The Jarrett and Hardy ones are totally useless though, Jarrett tries to attack Raven before he finishes off Rhino with the DDT, Hardy stops Jarrett, and Raven lays out Jarrett and then finishes off Rhino anyway. It’d have been just as well to have Raven finish off Rhino first and then trot them out to make their appeals for the title.

It’s easy to see why this match was so highly praised. Compared to lazy efforts like Hardy/Roode and boring affairs like the four-way tag titles match, this is certainly a step up. Add in the fact that it’s really the first time the crowd wakes up and seems to genuinely care about the match and the outcome, and it’s also easy to see that this was the right choice for the main event. It’s got all the intensity you’d expect out of three wrestlers who each feel like they have something to prove as well as all having various beefs with one another. Add in that they all have a pretty good sense of timing and a knack for creative spots, and this really is a treat.

However, it’s not perfect. The only thing that really holds this back is that they seem to take the idea of going “all out” because they’re the main event a bit too seriously. AJ is the worst in that regard, there are several occasions when he tries to get too cute just because he can, even though he’d be better served to do something simpler. His springboard SSP to Joe and Daniels on the floor is an example of that, it’d have been just as easy to do a simple dive or plancha and it wouldn’t have gotten any less reaction. Joe does the same thing later on, when he sees AJ and Daniels going at it on the floor and just charges in and dives. The other moment from AJ that sticks out is the spot where Daniels monkey flips him, and he catches Joe and takes him over. It’d have been just as well if AJ just used the momentum to dropkick him. Being a three-way match, it’s also got the usual logistic issue of how someone is always conveniently out of the way while the other two work, but given their intensity, it’s understandable why the third man would need some time to rest.

Small issues like that aside. This is probably the overall grumpiest TNA main event ever! It starts off with a fun nod to the main event of the first ROH show, with Daniels assuming the position while Joe and Styles play Danielson and Ki. There’s also a bunch of fun moments sprinkled in to play off the three-way aspect of things. Daniels intercepting Joe’s boot scrape was nice, and Joe’s little revenge spot later, when he interrupts Daniels after he puts AJ in the tree of woe. While AJ was annoying with his cutesy spots at times, he was spot on when he broke up Joe’s choke on Daniels. Some might take issue with Daniels using the title belt, but it wasn’t a big deal or really even a match breaker. It only got Joe out of the way so him and AJ could work one sequence, nothing else, it was Daniels hitting Last Rites that got Joe out of the way for good. The finish, with Styles countering Angel’s Wings and getting the surprise pin was a bit out of left field, but it made sense given the overall intensity of the match, and it’s come to be expected from these sorts of matches. It’s that much more impressive (although not surprising given the usual drawbacks of three-way matches) that Styles and Joe managed to top this three months later. ***3/4

Conclusion: The main event gives this show a serious boost, but not able to salvage it as a whole. The main event is available on a couple compilations, so you’re better off to get it there.