Pro Wrestling Chronicle

5 months ago it looked like this pay per view might be in the middle of a TNA surge. They ran Bound for Glory in Detroit and put on a pretty good show. Then in November they relied on the intrgiue of seeing Kurt Angle vs Samoa Joe for the first time. That show was the most bought show in TNA history surpassing the previous month’s pay per view. However, since then TNA has been bogged down by a surplus of gimmick matches and crazy booking which leads to this possibly being the last chance with customers. So what has TNA lined up for this show?

- LAX vs Team 3D in a Ghetto Street Fight- This is the third straight PPV with these two teams meeting and including the TV matches I believe sixth time they’ve faced each other. Most of these have been gimmick matches and tonight is no exception. Supposedly this will be a lumberjack match, and it is non-title. This match makes no sense–Why is a team who has talked about winning the NWA tag titles for months taking their second non-title match in a month?

-Petey Williams & Gail Kim vs James Storm & Jackie- Mixed tags usually aren’t good, and I can’t see how making it a double bullrope match will help any. This match is here just to further the storyline of Chris Harris looking for revenge against his former partner

- Senshi vs Austin Starr- Take two of the best wrestlers on your roster, program one against 58-year-old Bob Backlund, and then throw in a stipulation where to win you must apply the cross-face chickenwing. Talk about handicapping two guys.

- VKM vs A Mystery Team- Christy Hemme is bringing in a team to face VKM which many think will end up being Doug and Danny Basham. Now it seems like they might try to be cute and use another team in the spot. Anybody but the Harris Brothers. That might force me to break my TV.

-Chris Sabin vs Jerry Lynn- For weeks now Sabin has walked around on Impact with a walker and acted like he is hard of hearing, picking on the “elderly” Jerry Lynn. So Cornette says since Sabin doesn’t think Lynn can hang with him they’ll go 2 out of 3 falls tonight. Fine idea, but Lynn got no promo time to sell the match and these matches need time to be good. Time which I’m sure they won’t get.

- Rhyno vs AJ Styles- This is the first TNA Elevation X match. They have set a scaffold up which crisscrosses above the ring and the loser will take the plunge off the structure. So they took maybe the best wrestler on their roster and put him in a position where he can’t showcase his skills and could possibly be seriously injured. Not smart.

- Kurt Angle vs Scott Steiner- Maybe the match I am most looking forward to. Angle, despite letting the crazy settle in, can still go with the best of them. When Steiner was in TNA last year he had his working boots on every match and held up his end of the bargain every time out. I’d imagine this match will be incredibly stiff as these two guys aren’t known for pulling punches very well.

- Sting vs Abyss- These two meet again in a program that has been going on since November. Tonight will probably be the end as it’s a Last Rites match. The winner will have to tie his opponent to a bed which will then be raised to the rafters. The symbolism is the loser is going to either heaven or hell. Very subtle.

- Christian vs Samoa Joe- Joe gets his first TNA world title shot. Couple interesting things here. Joe was asked to leave ROH because TNA wanted to build around him. Is this the first step in that? Can Christian hang with Joe in the ring? What kind of match can Joe get out of Christian? Give Christian credit- since becoming TNA champ for the second time he has been great on the mic carrying the shows, and had some good main event matches. Tonight is a huge night for both these guys.

So on a nine match card- six are gimmick matches. This comes a month before the all gimmick match PPV Lockdown next month. The excitement for that show though, depends on how well TNA does tonight.