Last night TNA held their Against All Odds pay-per-view live from the BI-LO Center in Greenville, South Carolina. While not a major show, I look at any effort from TNA outside of Orlando as an important show. I feel that it is necessary for TNA to deliver when they are outside of Orlando in order for them to get better known across the country. One of the best ways to judge how the product is received is to listen to the live crowd. Last night’s crowd in Greenville was outstanding. They were into every match and despite being a “heel” crowd at times, cheering the heels and giving the babyfaces no reaction, they helped the event immensely.
A lot of my criticism towards TNA held up last night as creative made their usual mistakes of booking storylines that didn’t make logical sense and the always irritating overbooked finishes. The apparent Tomko heel turn at the end of the pay-per-view, helping Kurt Angle retain the TNA Championship made me laugh for a good 10 minutes after the event was over. Out of all the mistakes that TNA creative makes, you would think that they would try and do a better job. Tomko, a guy that has basically become the number one babyface in the company based on crowd reactions in Orlando, suddenly screws over Christian Cage and aligns himself with Angle. I can’t wait to see how they try to explain this one. We have sat through weeks and weeks of TNA TV with the entire saga between Angle and Christian, Tomko and AJ, with Tomko expressing his desire to be “independent” only for him to change his mind at the drop of a hat and make a major impact in a PPV main event. It makes no sense and is really goofy. I’ll talk more about this as we get into the matches.
“Bullet” Bob Armstrong & BG James vs. Tomko & AJ Styles for the TNA Tag Team Championships was fine to open the pay-per-view. I thought they made Armstrong look a little too credible being able to hang in there with Tomko for as long as he did but I didn’t want to begin to gripe too early. Styles’ work stood out the most to me in this match as he once again showed how big of an asset he is to TNA Wrestling. I would like to see a long program between Tomko & Styles and The Motor City Machineguns for the tag straps but with TNA creative, that’s never a very good possibility because that may just make sense.
The surprise match of the night for me was Traci Brooks vs. Payton Banks. This was just a filler match and both of them worked their rear ends off. I didn’t like how the fight spilled out onto the outside so early in the event but both of their work in their ring not only surprised me but impressed me. You can tell that Banks has worked hard to get her shot at a legitimate run in the company and Traci is usually very solid in the ring.
I could not see TNA Wrestling giving Petey Williams a TNA Title shot and I was right as Scott Steiner defeated him to win both cases. However, Williams really shined in this one and I felt like he carried Steiner throughout the match. Williams showed how agility can make up for size in the ring. I was very entertained throughout this match and if I would have been booking the pay-per-view, I would have opened with this one. They could have swapped the position of this match and the Tag Titles match and I felt like it would have made more sense, but once again, TNA creative doesn’t do things that make sense. Steiner worked solid but he still comes off as tremendously overrated to me. The guy used to have a rock solid body but now he’s just flabby and slow. He’s still got muscles but he looks like hell. I guess they plan on feeding Steiner to Angle but I don’t see him reigning as TNA Champion.
Eric Young vs. James Storm could have been a television match. The storyline between the two “drinkers” has gone on way too long and hopefully it ended last night. It made sense to bring Rhino back here since there was nothing else very entertaining about it. I hate how TNA uses their pay-per-views to promote iMPACT as Rhino’s promo that he cut after the match was irritating. He said that he had a lot to talk about but it wasn’t the place but iMPACT was. I paid $30 and instead of a heated promo I get a plug for iMPACT. Thanks TNA creative, as a paying customer, I appreciate that.
Let’s face it; things have not looked pretty between Awesome Kong and ODB. Coming off a feud with Gail Kim that outshined the male wrestling on the last two pay-per-views, this match had a lot to live up too. However, it didn’t even come close and I feel like Banks vs. Brooks was a better women’s match. Don’t get me wrong, I think that the ODB character is entertaining but maybe they rushed her in the Women’s title picture too soon. When you are working with someone as big as Kong, agility helps. ODB, being bigger herself, doesn’t have much agility or high-flying attacks in her arsenal. I think this just shows how good of a wrestler Gail Kim actually is and that she is the top woman in the company.
For the most part, I hate gimmick matches but if I told you that I wasn’t looking forward to the Barbed Wire Massacre match, I would be lying. I thought that TNA handled the situation where they had to explain why the match had to be held in Orlando very well. Cornette explained the real nature of the contest and that is exactly what needed to happen. As for the match itself, it was the usual Abyss blood bath, but he bled far worse than Mesias who did the job. This should end the Abyss/Mitchell storyline, at least for awhile, as there is really nowhere else for the storyline to go. The crowd in Orlando seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed the match but I think a lot of the people marked out a little too much. It was a solid effort but nothing spectacular and probably would have been just as effective if it would have been another hardcore match that could have aired live. I still wonder how the live crowd in Greenville reacted while the match aired.
Booker T vs. Robert Roode in their Grudge Match was a lot of fun. Roode has tremendous potential as he is outstanding on the mic and very solid in the ring. I say this all the time; Roode is a feature mega star of the business. I enjoyed the work in this one and I expected the no contest finish. What confused me was why the referee decided to start a count out now. It seems like in TNA now that the referees only count out a match whenever the feel like it. I guess that this is just another blunder by TNA creative and the lack of logical sense when booking match endings. The ending of the match which featured Roode throwing Banks out of the Cadillac to speed out of the arena was priceless.
Jay Lethal stole the show during the Team Lethal vs. Team 3D & Devine match. Shelly and Sabin worked well as usual but they didn’t shine like Lethal did. Lethal was outstanding and proved that he is a very special talent. Many had this as the match of the night candidate and while I do not feel like it lived up to that, it was a very good pay-per-view match. Lethal’s arsenal along with his gimmick makes for a very entertaining wrestler. The heel crowd shined during this one as they continuously shouted “we want tables” at the Dudleys, in which, they finally set one up. Lethal’s flying elbow through the table was the perfect finish for him to recapture the X Division title.
Given his health problems and the way that he left WWE, there have been a lot of doubts regarding Kurt Angle. However, last night once again he proved that he is still one of the best if not the best the technical wrestlers in the world. Angle worked an outstanding match with Christian Cage during last night’s main event. The German supplexes, the near falls, the tremendous selling ability of Christian made this match a dandy. The first 15 minutes of this match were of 5 star quality until TNA creative overbooked the finish and had a ton of interference. However, that should not take away from what Christian and Kurt showcased in this bout. In my opinion they had a much better match than what they did at Final Resolution and should be commended for their superb ring work. Every spot was made very believable and while I felt like Kurt Angle would retain they teased us a couple of times with some close near falls.
The match began to fall apart with the overbooking of the finish. I don’t remember the exact sequence but it went something like ankle lock from Angle onto Christian, Angle Slam, Unprettier, Angle Slam off of the top, ankle lock from Christian onto Angle, interference, Tomko screws Christian, pinfall. I felt like it was a tremendous injustice to Angle for Christian to be booked to kick out of the Angle Slam not once but twice. Angle is your champion and his finisher should be effective. There was really no need for Christian to use the Unprettier and to let him use it only for Angle to kick out of didn’t do him any good either. I expected the interference from Styles and I thought that Samoa Joe played the enforcer role well. It was funny to watch Joe run Styles out of the building.
The ending of the match which featured Tomko’s unexplained heel turn on Christian made so little sense it was funny. It was the funniest spot of the night for me. As I mentioned at the begging of this piece, I laughed for a good 10 minutes after it happened because I could not believe what they did. Just when you think that TNA creative can’t mess things up any worse, they pull this. The fans have spoken; Tomko is your top babyface. So why in the hell are you turning him heel now? Christian is a babyface right now but that’s not going to last. Some people are just natural heels and Christian is one of those people. His smartass attitude and natural cocky promos make him too valuable for him to praise his peeps. He is better as a heel and why you turn Tomko who is pretty much the definition of a babyface is beyond me. Damn you TNA creative, why mess up a stellar main event for one of your goofy storyline blunders? Angle and Christian worked very hard to save what would have been a very mediocre PPV and TNA creative nearly took that away with one of heck of a goofy finish.
In conclusion Against All Odds was a solid pay-per-view. I probably wouldn’t order the replay because there is nothing that I would label “must see” but I didn’t feel ripped off with my purchase. To enjoy TNA you almost have to overlook the storylines because you’ll get so frustrated you won’t be able to stand it. I just took it as humor and laughed off the ridiculous ending. The backstage skits were very good as they usually are. I thought it was hilarious when Kurt Angle told JB that he loved him and AJ walked in. I also enjoyed the work of Scott Hudson; his serious facial expressions make him a good backstage interviewer. Karen Angle’s work with Kurt is unmatched in the wrestling industry. They come off as so natural because it doesn’t seem like they have to do a whole lot of acting. Karen Angle has emerged from being just “Kurt’s wife” to one of the better valets in the business. Her work at ringside as well as her work backstage is very entertaining. Kurt and Karen will renew their wedding vows on iMPACT this week which should make for some entertaining segments. I just hope they can somehow make sense of the Tomko heel turn because I sure as hell can’t.
Richard can be contacted at richard [at] grayinternet.com
Richard Gray is a professional wrestling journalist and frequent contributor to Rajah.com. He has been covering the world of professional wrestling since 1999 and has had the opportunity to cover ground breaking stories such as the demise of ECW, the WCW buyout, the Benoit tragedy, Bobby Lashley leaving WWE, and more. For more on Richard check out his web site, Wrestling News World.