The team of D’Lo Brown, Jeff Jarrett, Raven & America’s Most Wanted defeated AJ Styles, Shane Douglas, Sonny Siaki, Johnny Swinger & Simon Diamond in the main event, a “Wednesday, Bloody Wednesday” Match.For each match or promo, I will assign a ranking out of 10. Then, at the end, I will average the scores in each category and calculate a final ranking.
Matches are worth 60% of the total grade
Promos are worth 30% of the total grade
Tilt (other factors not accounted for such as just an overall mood or something along those lines) is worth 10% of the grade.
After all of this, I will end up with a final number somewhere between 1 & 10. The scale for that final number is as follows:
0 – 2: Pathetic crap, wasn’t even moderately worth watching
3 – 4: Poor overall, with only half-way decent stuff.
5 – 6: Average, not stellar but not completely horrible.
7 – 8: Good, a good overall show with solid stuff all around.
9 – 10: A show that is so good overall it is un-believable.
Now that I’ve bored you all on the system, here’s this weeks review:
Promo – Opening Promo: Tonight’s theme was the epic nature of the PPV. The opening promo served it’s purpose in creating that atmosphere with pointed words like “Leadership” & “Chaos” flashing across the screen between scenes of violence and dis-order.
Score: 8/10
Match – Mad Mikey over Lazz: Although the homo-erotic angle is completely played out these days as a common-place gimmick, Lazz brought something special to it with the little gestures. Also, coming to the ring in a freaking halter-top can’t hurt his cause either. Just a side note, I noticed that when Mad Mikey came out, he had “B-Boy” written on his wrist tape. I can only speculate that it’s the SoCal B-Boy that recently had to leave the country for some family issues, and if so, mad props to Mikey for showing love. The match was short and sweet, and it put Mikey over as a force to be reckoned with when he’s irked (in this case, Mikey was perturbed by a kiss from Lazz). Mikey used a great Double Arm DDT to pick up the 3 count.
Score: 6/10
Promo – Dusty Rhodes: Why does this man have a microphone? The only good thing that came out of the garbled words in this exchange was that Dusty sort of shot on the cage gimmicks used by WWE (HIAC, Elimination Chamber). Other than that though, Dusty typically detracts from the program by always focusing on his-self.
Score: 6/10
Match – Juventud Guererra over NOSAWA – First Round Match of the Super X Tournament: This match was smart booking, considering that NOSAWA doesn’t speak a word of English, and he needs to work with someone that can speak Spanish. I saw NOSAWA live over the weekend, and I gotta say that he comes off better on TV. His kicks look a lot better and his strikes seem more impactful. This match was your typical first round sprint, but these two didn’t seem to click right. It wasn’t a bad match, but it was nothing to write home about. Juvi picked up the win with a nice 450 splash following a sick Falcon Arrow.
Score: 6/10
Promo – James Mitchell Promo: At first I liked everything this guy did. His promos were always so intense and full of palpable emotion. But now, after hearing the same diatribe week after week, he just seems like a campy cartoon character. Oh no, don’t cut off Raven’s hair! I mean c’mon, would a bad-ass like Raven really give a shit if his hair was cut off?
Score: 6/10
Match – Teddy Hart over Johnny Storm – First Round Match of the Super X Tournament: Teddy Hart is the freaking man. I’ll say it again later, because it’s true. These two guys clicked well and they worked a tight spot fest that had the crowd eating up the fast paced action. Even though they sprinted through the entire thing, everything looked crisp and they didn’t screw up any spots. Can I just say too that Hart can bust one of the most incredible Asai Moonsaults that I have ever witnessed. Hart hit Storm with the “Hart Attack” – a picture perfect Shooting Star Press for the win.
Score: 8/10
Promo – Siaki Promo: God, Siaki comes off as such a tool when he rambles on in the beginning of his promos. I’m not sure if he’s supposed to look as ridiculous as he does, but if that’s their aim, nice work guys. Seriously though, the best part of Siaki’s promo is that they put over the danger of the main event match and they started to sow the seeds of discontent among the heels.
Score: 7/10
Match – Chris Sabin over Jerry Lynn – First Round Match of the Super X Tournament: This was the only first round match that had any story, as the primary driving factor was Callis once again causing Lynn the loss. From a logical stand-point, it makes sense that Sabin went on to win the tournament since his first round match was made easier by this fact. Though this match was a spot-fest, the story aspect made it important and ultimately could be the reason Sabin won it all should they choose to spin it that way.
Score: 7/10
Promo – Raven Promo: I usually love Raven promos. If you go back and examine past columns, you’ll see me mark out for Raven like a school girl. However, this week just wasn’t doing it for me. Raven getting incensed over the prospect of losing his locks didn’t sit well with me for some reason.
Score: 6/10
Match – Frankie Kazarian over Michael Shane – First Round Match of the Super X Tournament: Frankie is such an un-believable talent and he absolutely never disappoints in a match. In my opinion, his match with Shane was the best of the first round contests, as it had more at stake. By having Frankie go over on the X Division Champ, this shakes things up. Also, these two had very fluid ring work that put over the issue of the championship even more. Frankie used his patented Wave of the Future to crush Shane.
Score: 7/10
Promo – AJ Styles: Of all of the promos leading into the main event, this one was the best. AJ always gets a little heat for himself before Russo the heat-magnet steps in and makes very valid points that upset the fans. Russo’s comments about everyone gunning for Styles were poignant and did a great job of showing a lack of a unified front in the heel locker room.
Score: 7/10
Match – Juventud Guerrera over Teddy Hart – Semi-Final Match of the Super X Tournament: HOLY SHIT! That’s seriously about all I can say of this match. If you were un-able to see this match live, then acquire a copy by all means. Hart was so damn impressive, both with his innovative offense, as well as with his solid bumping and selling. Juvi & Hart worked a wonderful match that took MOTN honors easily, as they worked a long match with so many near falls. They made the contest an issue of Juvi’s experience vs. Hart’s youth, which made for an interesting match that played out awesome. Hart also at one point hit this ridiculous version of a cork-screw moonsault to a senton that sent shivers down my spine. A tone of great sequences and near falls ended when Juvi spiked Hart with a Falcon Arrow off the second rope.
Score: 9/10
Promo – TNA Red Shirt Security: The red-shirt security came off as a bunch of idiots in this promo, when I’m pretty sure they were to be menacing in some form or another. But by having only Northcutt answer the questions while the only gay sat there, did nothing for their reputation in any means.
Score: 6/10
Match – Chris Sabin over Frankie Kazarian – Semi-Final Match of the Super X Tournament: This was definitely almost your match of the night. Nothing was wrong with it for it to not have been such, but the Hart/Juvi match was just a bit better. However, these two worked a less spotty match with more pacing, as their extensive history really fueled the intensity in this match. Kaarian & Sabin worked well with each other as we’ve all become accustomed to, and it even looked like they might have been going a bit stiff to really put the match over. Frankie hit an awesome “Flux Capacitor”, but in the end, it was a quick reversal into a roll-up by Sabin that got him into the finals.
Score: 9/10
Promo – AMW: America’s Most Wanted did a good job of putting over the tradition vs. sports entertainment aspect of the main event. Also, what made this promo different than every other one tonight was the interference of Kid Kash, was saw it fit to slap the announcer guy. Gotta love that Kid Kash character, he’s such a heat magnet, and he’s such an a-typical heel, given his tiny body.
Score: 7/10
Match – Chris Sabin over Juventud Guererra – Finals of the Super X Tournament: This match was another classic. Although its getting a higher score than my acclaimed MOTN, this is because the other match will always be remembered by me, whereas this match was just so fundamentally sound in every way that it couldn’t help scoring perfect. The opener was cool and well planned, and the match went tit-for-tat from there. Some of the mid-match exchanges with these guys were a pure joy to watch with my eyes. At one point I thought that Juvi had killed Sabin with a gross tiger driver, but I guess it was recompense for Sabin dropping Juvi on his head earlier. The finish was teased and built up as they had numerous near falls that really had the crowd eating out of their hand. Finish came when Sabin finally managed to plant Juvi with the Future Shock.
Score:
Promo – “Rowdy” Roddy Piper is Coming: This promo scored great with me last week, and it did the same thing for me this week. I know Piper takes a lot of heat in the wrestling world, but I have a certain fondness in my heart for him after reading his book. The clip from Real Sports I believe put over his coming, and it should be interesting to say the least.
Score: 9/10
Match: AMW, Jeff Jarrett, D’Lo Brown & Raven over Christopher Daniels, Simon Diamond & Johnny Swinger, AJ Styles & Shane Douglas – “Wednesday, Bloody Wednesday” Match (Cage Match with War Games Rules Mixed with Raven’s Clock-work Orange House of Fun): I was afraid that this might be a cluster-fuck, and it was. It’s just way to hard to get 10 people on the screen simultaneously doing stuff. I just think that in a match of this capacity, there needs to be one or two legit holy shit moments, and these were lacking. I like the idea and I support them for giving it a shot, but that many people just loses the heat in the match, and the heat from character to character. Finish came after a second rope Stroke followed by the Low Down & a leg drop.
Score: 7/10
Tilt: The night hit with their epic trend, but I think that fans were waiting for a better conclusion out of the cage match.
Score: 7/10
The Totals
Average Match Value: 7.7
Average Promo Value: 6.9
Tilt Value: 7
Final Score: 7.7(.6) + 6.9(.3) + 7(.1) = 7.4
The show tonight definitely hit in the middle of the good scale. It wasn’t bad, it was good, but I think that it didn’t live up to expectations. I know that sometimes expectations can get too high, but they promised something epic, and I don’t know that we got that feeling.
