VICTORY ROAD

November 7, 2004

I didn’t want to review another WWF/E or ROH show, and nothing in my Japan collection jumped out at me. So I’m going with something a bit different, and this certainly fits the bill.

Mascarita Sagrata . . . shows that midget matches can be enjoyable.

The 3-Live Krew . . . win a match without actually doing anything.

Jeff Hardy . . . falls off ladders like that’s his only reason for being.

X-DIVISION GAUNTLET

This is essentially a twenty-man Royal Rumble, which becomes a one-on-one match after eighteen participants have been eliminated. Everyone present brings something enjoyable with them, whether it’s impressive spots like Jerrelle Clark’s 630, fun selling like Frankie Kazarian and Michael Shane do for Shark Boy and D-Ray’s battering ram, and crowd playing, like LA Park after he lays everyone out with a chair. There isn’t much in the way of surprises or twists, except Hector Garza winning, because (like everyone else unfortunately) he wasn’t a standout performer in the match. Shane and Kazarian try to team up, Sonny Siaki uses his power to his advantage, and Spanky and Shane continuing their longtime rivalry (and Spanky wins this battle by eliminating Shane). There are hardly any eliminations that really stick out, other than the way Alex Shelley trips up Matt Sydal causing his elimination, and Shelley gets his comeuppance in the form of getting pushed off the top to be eliminated. But there is plenty of space between the fun stuff, as they just plod along and kill time.

The closest the match has to a standout performer is Kazarian, due to how long he lasts, and the ways in which he almost gets eliminated but manages to avoid it. The rules of the singles match between the final two cause a problem though. Kazarian is exhausted from having survived the battle royal, and being a cheating heel, he has no sympathy for the trouble he’s in. Simply losing the match doesn’t seem like enough of a comeuppance either. Even something small like Garza throwing him to the floor, just to finally have it accomplished would have given some sense of finality. But Garza doesn’t even use his finisher nor really take advantage of Kazarian’s fatigue, and a simple roll up may work as far as getting the win due to Kazarian’s state, but it doesn’t do much for the story going on.

KID KASH/DALLAS/CHASE STEVENS/ANDY DOUGLAS vs. JOHNNY B. BADD/PAT KENNEY/ERIK WATTS/RON KILLINGS

Just considering the number of people involved here, this goes way too short. There isn’t anything in the way of a storyline leading to the match, or a story being told. Everyone just does their stuff and moves on, and nothing of any real consequence is done. Erik Watts and Dallas have a quick sequence, so that Dallas can show off (and miss) his moonsault. Big deal, “Big” Dick Dudley could do a moonsault too, and he was a lot heavier than Dallas. Things break down, leaving Andy Douglas with Badd and Killings, and Badd does a rana that gives Don West a near heart attack, as though he’d never seen one before, and Killings quickly finishes things off.

PIRATITA MORGAN vs. MASCARITA SAGRATA

I can’t say that I’m an expert on Lucha Libre or midget wrestlers, but this is fun for the three minutes or so that it lasts. Sagrata’s spots are impressive, and very clean looking. There are a few bits of comedy thrown in, as well as the ref getting involved and taking an arm drag. The roll up ending isn’t quite as odd as it was in the opener. It still looks anticlimactic after seeing the stuff that Sagrata showed he can do, it but it uses Morgan’s huge weight advantage against him.

ERIC YOUNG/BOBBY ROODE © vs. KONNAN/BG JAMES (NWA World Tag Team Titles)

Despite the pimping from Mike and Don, the champions don’t particularly show off that much in terms of great skills, and the challengers don’t do anything to show off their experience edge. As much as Mike calls Roode, the “power man” of Team Canada, all he really has to show for it is a bunch of clubbing forearms. In fact, all anyone really has to show in this match is lots of punching. Roode and Young each only get a couple of moves in, and Konnan gets to work in his usual three moves. The only real sense of any flow to the match comes when BG tags Konnan and the ref misses it. The hockey stick and run ins from both Coach D’Amore and Killings only serves to kill the little flow that the match had going on. During all the chaos, Konnan hits a facebuster on Young for the titles. It was probably too much to ask for a title change to leave the impression of the winners actually winning by proving they’re the better tag team.

TRINITY vs. JACQUELINE

Wow. This is just ugly. Go-Go-Go from the start, Trinity throws some wild kicks, that show distance. Jacqueline has an okay German suplex, and Trinity has a nice moonsault, but both big moves just get tossed out without any build to them. Unless Trinity’s desire to prove that she could get the win on her own can be called “build” and it’s moot anyway. Johnny Swinger had already more or less finished her off for Trinity anyway, so the moonsault wasn’t a match breaker. Hopefully TNA isn’t in a hurry to establish an NWA Women’s Title.

RAVEN vs. ABYSS vs. MONTY BROWN (Monsters Ball)

It’s blatantly obvious that Raven is calling the shots, and that’s not a bad thing in the least. Whenever Raven is in control of things, something is always going on. He always has good spots ready, and he’s good at filling the time between spots with something interesting. Abyss isn’t that bad either, thanks to his selling. While he’s certainly no Kawada, he does a nice job at realistically selling for a guy of his size. When Raven gets taken out of the action neither Brown nor Abyss have any good ideas on how to fill time between spots, and the only spot that really stands out during their exchange is Monty giving Abyss a bodyslam. It’s a tribute to Abyss’ guts that he’s willing to take a voluntary thumbtack bump, and even more so that he gets up, so that Raven can effectively take him out of the match, just in time to get pounced and give Monty the win. Between Abyss’ guts and passable selling, and Raven being able to at least keep the match together, the only thing Monty added to the match was the pounce. Period.

Even though this is easily the best match of the card, it’s got the same problem that most of the other matches have suffered from, it’s too short, not much in the way a story being told (aside from Petey needing the Canadian Destroyer), and un necessary overbooking to lead to the finish. As far as decently-executed spotfests go, this isn’t bad at all. Both AJ and Petey bring good stuff with them, and they know what will keep the crowd going. Another somewhat impressive feat on their part is that neither AJ nor Petey used any really dangerous looking moves, which is wise because neither of them is known for great selling, and it keeps up the idea that they’re on somewhat equal footing.

Both Styles and Williams have finishers that are highly protected and very over as match breakers. It’s no surprise at all that they both attempt them as early as they do, and it’s equally nice to see that they’ve both ‘done their homework’ so to speak, as it regards finding escapes and counters. As silly as it is to have any high-profile or title match get mucked up by overbooking and run ins, at least it serves somewhat of a purpose here. Petey knew (just like AJ) that the Canadian Destroyer would get him the win, and D’Amore’s interference and the hockey stick and the title belt coming into play are a bit more forgivable because in the end, they all led to Petey being able to hit the Destroyer and retain the title.

CHRISTOPHER DANIELS/ELIX SKIPPER vs. CHRIS HARRIS/JAMES STORM (Last Man Standing Elimination match)

To no surprise at all, this goes unusually short, especially given its high placement on the card, and the stipulations involved. But the LMS stipulation winds up being a huge positive. Both XXX and AMW do an unusually good job at selling the moves they take. Things that would normally have any of the four of them popping right back up to their feet wind up being sold as near falls, and nearly cause ten counts. A great example of this is Skipper saving Daniels from the Death Sentence early on. But after Skipper takes a bump into the guardrail, he can’t save Daniels from being pinned after a simple leg drop off the second rope. Daniels tried like crazy to get to his feet, but just missed beating the count. Storm’s knee injury is utilized very well, with XXX only zeroing in on it, when it’s clear that they can’t keep him down any other way. Storm does a great sell job with it, leading to his eventual elimination from the match. The same cannot be said for Harris’ back injury, because there isn’t any point in the match where you can pinpoint it happening. His back just simply ‘gives out’ on him, in time to botch the POD. It also seems to a momentary thing, and it’s not long after that happens, that Harris has no problems at all giving Skipper the Catatonic on a chair to give AMW the win. Although Skipper killed the ending by kicking out and getting to his feet, until the ref said he counted to three, and Skipper just dropped back down.

Don West actually summed up this match the best. “This is unbelievable.” He’s actually on the money with that statement, although not in the way he intended to be. What’s unbelievable is how bad this match is, it’s got the same mentality as a Misawa/Kobashi head dropping marathon. Scott Hall and Shawn Michaels showed that it’s possible to use the ladder to further along a match, by using it as a tool to further a specific goal. Edge and Christian showed that no matter how many big spots get used, it’s still possible to retain smart work within the match, and have it pay off. This match does none of those things. The “Ladder match veteran” Hardy, does one innovative looking ladder spot, when he tries to sandwich Jarrett with the ladder. Jarrett plays off his strength a little bit, by using the ladder as more of a battering ram type weapon. Other than that, forget about it.

Both Jeffs climb the ladder and get knocked off. The other Jeff tries to climb, but he gets knocked off too. There is nothing in the way of any meaningful selling or a game plan for either of them. If Jarrett was nearly as good a worker as he thinks he is, he’d have taken out Hardy’s knee with the Figure Four and used that to prevent him from climbing the ladder. After a while Scott Hall runs in to push Hardy off, and does some selling that’s so damn goofy that it’s hilarious. The fans get desensitized to all the times that both Jeffs take falls, so Hardy takes out a bigger ladder, and they both fall off that too (and Hall has the ladder fall on him). The Kevin Nash run in and swerve to help Jarrett retain, was predictable in the worst way. If TNA’s goal was to end their “biggest show ever” on a complete downer, then they really hit home run.

Conclusion: You can’t argue that TNA didn’t offer a diverse product. Midget matches, ladder matches, LMS matches, and title matches all on a single show. But none of it wound up being good, and the stuff that could have been potentially good, didn’t get enough time. Take a pass.