TNA Final Resolution
January 25th, 2005 ~Pre-Show~ The Naturals vs Sonny Siaki and Johnny B Badd
This is a rematch from the Dec 17th iMPACT where the Naturals won. The crowd is pretty into the match. Johnny B Badd once again looks good in the match. I don't know whether it's only because he's been booked in tag matches, but this is easily the best I've seen Mero perform in his entire career. Andy Douglas holds Mero while Chase Stevens pulls a chain out of his tights and heads to the top rope. As Stevens is coming down, Siaki shoves Badd out of the way and takes the hit. Stevens covers Badd for the victory. Teney puts over how great of a partner Siaki is to take the hit. A fairy decent match for the time given. For whatever reason, this was the second straight time The Naturals are in the pre-show. Sure, they're winning, but these two guys were the tag team champions until September last year. This is exactly why they had such a hard time getting over. They would always get pushed, yet it would come to a sudden end with the team barely being booked. After they lost all of their heat, they would be pushed again. On and on it went. They could of really been a great team in TNA.
5 Minutes. 2 Stars. Chris Candido vs Cassidy Reilly
Candido recently made his TNA debut after Turning Point. The crowd is fairly quiet at first, but Candido is able to get them into the match as it goes on. Cassidy Reilly is best known for the wrestler with the chick tattoo on the small of his back and being Raven's Mini-me. He was actually signed by the WWE in 2007 with his first match being Monty Brown's first victim on ECW. Reilly saw some success in OVW with James Curtis, but was eventually released. For a pre-show match, this was a lot of fun. While Candido was still trying to get back into the shape he used to be in, the guy was still talented. Candido finishes Reilly off after a top rope headbutt.
7 Minutes 2 1/2 Stars. ~PPV~
The show begins with Shane Douglas talking to Jeff Jarrett. Jarrett doesn't seem worry about tonight's match against DDP, Kevin Nash or Monty Brown.
3LK vs Christopher Daniels, Michael Shane and Frankie Kazarian
This match came about when Shane and Kaz came out and was making fun of 3LK's buddy, Nascar announcer, Jeff Hammond. The feud would be my pick for worst TNA feud of the year. Konnan starts off the match looking good for once. Once he gets out and BG James is in the ring, the match slows down and becomes quite boring. Late in the match, Daniels accidentally takes out Kaz. With only Shane in the ring, all three members of 3LK hits a side kick on him and picks up the easy pinfall. It showed potential early on, but they were given far too much time. Scale it back 5 minutes and it would of flowed a lot better. If you want to talk about misuse, just look at all three heels in this match. Daniels just came off of the huge 6 Sides of Steel Match the month before and now he was shoved in this meaningless match. Then you had Shane and Kaz put into this ridiculous feud that would eventually be the cause for why Kaz left TNA. Luckily, Daniels wouldn't be misused for much longer.
15 Minutes. 2 Stars.
Trinity, Traci and Survivor's Johnny Fairplay are all trying to become Dusty Rhodes sectary. They're all told that someplace in the building is a clue that will help them move on to the next round. Total waste of time.
Elix Skipper vs Sonjay Dutt
While Daniels was misused, TNA did the right thing and instantly placed Skipper in a X-Division match. Dutt quickly works on Skipper's arm proving that he can do more than flips. Speaking of flips, Dutt does the 3 revolutions around Primetime. Primetime sells the arm for most of the match. Skipper uses kicks to keep the match even. Dutt heads towards the top rope (Moonsault?) but Skipper easily jumps to the top rope, balances and then dropkicks Dutt off. Primetime amazes me at times. On the outside, Skipper (Who I'm having a hard time not calling Benjamin) rams Dutt back first into the ring. All that does is hurts Skipper's arm even more though. For an X-Division Match, they're doing a great job at targeting a body part and selling. Back inside, Skipper goes for the Play of the Day (Playmaker), but Dutt reverses it sending Skipper crashing to the mat. Dutt goes for the Lionsault, but Skipper puts up the knees. Skipper hits a nice flipping Closeline from the apron to the ring. But once again holds the arm afterwards. On the top rope, Dutt blocks a Superplex and hits a nice Sunsetflip Power bomb (Hardy could learn a thing or two from Dutt). Dutt hits a nice tilt a while DDT for a 2 count. Dutt on the top misses some flippy move and walks right into a variation of the Catatonic (Umaga's spinning Rock Bottom). Skipper covers and gets the 3. Wow. I did not expect this to be as good as it was. Dutt brought his A game while Skipper did what very few X-Division wrestlers can do - sell. A rare gem of a match.
10 Minutes. 3 1/2 Stars.
Promo for Trytan. Talk about a failed gimmick.
Kevin Nash talks to DDP about teaming up tonight to take out Monty Brown first. DDP doesn't seem to trust Nash. Go figure.
Kid Kash vs Dustin Rhodes
Rhodes is another guy who just came into TNA. Although he did appear in early 2004, he wasn't around long. This match came about with Kash being the egotistical dick (aka a great heel) that he is to Rhodes on iMPACT. Kash jumps Rhodes at the start of the bell, but Rhodes uses his power to manhandle Kash. Kash tries again to get in some offense, but Rhodes overpowers him every time. On the top rope, Rhodes sends Kash down. As he falls to the mat, his leg buckle and gives out. Kash acts as if he's seriously hurt. At this point, this has been done to death with every company doing it a couple times a year. The fans chant "Bullshit". With the ref's back turned, Kash low blows Rhodes. It's a miracle, he can walk~! Kash changes his tragedy up and goes after the leg of the big man. Most of the match is spent seeing Kash work over Rhodes' leg and Dustin selling it. Kash heads to the top and hits a Frogsplash on Dustin's leg. Once again TNA is doing a great job of having their matches be about targeting a body part and the selling of it. Kash locks in a sleeper, but Dustin starts to Hulk-Up. Dustin tries to give Kash an Atomic Drop, but his leg gives out. It's the little details of this match that is making this so much fun. Kash hits a crossbody, but Dustin rolls through for a 2. Several pin attempts by Kash. Kash eventually gets frustrated and pushes the ref. The tiny ref shoves Kash on his ass. Ha, Kash is awesome. The distraction is enough for Dustin to hit a Bulldog for the victory. I can't recall Dustin putting on too many good matches in 2005, but this is an exception. A very old school match that shows that the old tricks still works. I would of preferred to have Kash won so that this feud could of continued. Kash is now 0-3 on TNA ppv.
11 Minutes. 3 1/2 Stars.
Johnny Fairplay is shown in Dusty's office where he finds a clue. Okay, did TNA actually think that fans would care about Fairplay?
Raven vs Erik Watts
When DDP returned last month, we found out that he was good friends with Watts. Raven wanting to amuse himself, tells Watts that DDP told Watt's wife that Erik kept sleeping with a bunch of ringrats. This led to Watts and DDP feuding for a couple of weeks before Watts found out the truth. Match begins with Raven in charge. On the outside he Russian Leg Sweeps Watts into the steel railing twice. One of those times I believe Watts is hurt for real. Back in the inside, Raven continues to beat Watts up. God, this is boring. Midway through the match, Watts takes over and sends Raven outside of the ring. Watts returns the favor and hits two Russian Leg Sweeps against the steel railing on Raven. Inside, Raven introduces a chair and sets it up. Raven whips Watts to the ropes, but Watts stops Raven from Droptoe holding him into the chair. Looks like someone has been studying up on Raven. Watts shoves Raven to the corner and he hits the ropes, uses the chair to jump and hits a closeline on Raven. Pretty nice. Watts locks in the STF, but Raven reverses it into the Ankle Lock. At the time, Raven was using the ankle lock a lot. Watts gets out of hit and tries to hit a chokeslam. Botch. Watts grabs Raven again and this time hits his chokeslam for the win. As Watts is leaving, Raven grabs the mic and says he's sorry. He let his hate affect him. Raven claims Watts is his only friend. Aww. He's sorry for disrespecting Watts. Raven says he still disrespects DDP. Ha, I love Raven. Watts doesn't buy it and just leaves. Raven follows him and nails him with a garbage can which sends Watts off of the small stage. The bigger story in all this was that Erik Watts was rumored to have tried committing suicide that weekend. TNA kept the match on the PPV, but decided to let Watts win. I believe this would be the last time Watts was ever seen in TNA. It's been 3 years, so I assume he's okay now. While I shed no tears about Watts leaving TNA, it would of been horrible for him to commit suicide. Anyways, the match was slow at first, but it picked up near the end.
10 Minutes. 2 1/2 Stars. Scott Hall vs Jeff Hardy - Special Guest Ref: Roddy Piper
This was originally supposed to be Hall vs Hector Garza, but Garza got into some legal troubles and was unable to enter America. Hall is wearing the lame Elvis jumpsuit. Before the bell, Piper forces Hall to turn around and spread his legs like I'm sure Hall has been told to many times on his drunken nights by police. Piper finds some foreign object in Hall's boot, a file in his jumpsuit and a chain in the collar. Hall forces Piper to let him search him as well. Hall finds a pair of handcuffs in Piper's pocket. Okay, I really don't see where this is going. Match begins with Piper giving fast counts whenever Hardy is covering Hall and slow counts for when Hall is covering Hardy. Mike Teney brings up the fact that Hardy's first match in the WWE was against Hall. Hall throws Hardy into Piper. With Piper down, Hall goes to the turnbuckle and pulls out a pair of brass knucks from the padding. Piper, being a former wrestler is actually able to wake up faster than most refs. Piper stops Hall and pokes Hall in the eyes. Hardy hits the Twist of Fate which Hall butchers the selling. You see, when Hall takes the Twist of Fate, he doesn't fall flat. Instead, he takes it like a Stunner with his head being sent backwards, he turns around then falls down. Hardy goes to the top and hits the Swanton Bomb for a 3 count. After the match, Piper and Hardy stalls for time while Piper tells Hardy that he will get another title shot. Suddenly, Abyss enters the ring and takes out Hardy. One Blackhole Slam and Hardy is down. Don West pretty much ruined the surprise by acting as if it wasn't even a big deal. As soon as Teney yells about how shocking this is, West suddenly changes his tone. See, what made this such a shock is that Abyss was rumored to have left TNA and was about to sign a WWE contract. So really, Abyss showing up was a HUGE surprise. A huge surprise West sold as just a typical event at TNA. Nice job West. As far the match, I really don't get the logic behind it. Normally, when a wrestler has to be replaced, it's bad. For this, it turned out to be good. This match had a lot more backstory than Hall vs Garza had. Hall was one of the men who cost Hardy the title at Victory Road. Instead of focusing on that, Hardy is just a supporting figure in this comedy match between Hall and Piper. This really led to nothing as both men would be gone from the company within a month. So they took a match that had some significance and turned it into a meaningless match that could have had Hall booked against anyone. On the plus side, it was kept short which was good since neither Hardy or Hall were in any shape to put on a good match.
5 Minutes. 1 Star.
Tracy and Trinity tries to use their tits to find out where the clue is. Pointless.
Monty Brown vs DDP vs Kevin Nash - Triple Threat - Number 1 Contender's Match
Elimination rules with the last man fighting Jarrett in the main event. To be eliminated, you can be pinned, forced to submit or thrown over the top rope. Match begins with DDP and Kevin Nash taking turns battling Brown. Pretty much a handicap match for most of the match. Brown is pushed in the corner with Kash and Page hitting him. Nash backs up and runs to hit Page, Page ducks and pulls the top rope down. Nash falls out and is eliminated. That was pointless. DDP hits the Diamond Cutter on Brown, but Nash pulls him out of the ring, punches him a few times and throws him back in the ring...right on top of Brown. I guess the few extra seconds is enough for Brown as he kicks out. DDP tries another Diamind Cutter, but is pushed to the ropes. Off of the ropes, Page is met with the POOOOOOOOUNNCCCCEEEE....period. With that, Brown wins the match and has a ticket to face Jarrett in the main event. After the match, Brown and Page shakes hands. The whole point of this match was supposed to help make Brown look like even more of an underdog for the main event. DDP and Nash double teams him and Brown has to take out both men to eventually get his Title match. Problem is, Brown hardly got beaten up and wasn't even involved in Nash's elimination. Pinning DDP was nice, but in the end, it barely even helped Brown. The whole over the top rope rule was bullshit. My guess is that Nash didn't want to do a job, so he took the easy way out. Big surprise, taking the easy way out hurts the overall match. Oh well, the fans at least sees the one they want to win, win the match.
10 Minutes. 1 1/2 Stars. Team Canada (c)vs AMW - NWA Tag Titles Match
While Team Canada are talking s tragedy with D'Amore, AMW jumps them. The match begins with a huge brawl outside of the ring with AMW throwing the Canadian's all over the place. James Storm hits a nice headscissors on the ramp to Eric Young. Inside the ring, AMW takes their turn attacking Young. Young has a golf ball size bump on his head already. Damn. AMW controls the match for the first 5+ minutes. Team Canada eventually takes control slowing the match down greatly. Roode and Young keeps Storm in the ring. Harris gets the hot tag and the match picks up speed again. The fans are very into the match. Harris takes his turn hitting power moves to Young and Roode. Young catches Storm on the top rope. With Young trying for a Superplex, Harris comes up behind him and hits a powerbomb on Young. Young hangs on and hits the superplex onto Storm. Storm hits (somewhat) a 360 sitdown senton on Roode. Even with the small botch by Roode not being at the right place, it's an awesome spot. Storm hits a Superkick on Roode for a 2 count. D'Amore interferes so AMW grabs him and handcuffs him to the steel structure that holds up the Ultimate X ropes. AMW hits the old Hart Attack on Young for a 2 count. A Death Sentence is cut short by Johnny Devine entering the ring. Devine (Who looks like the bastard offspring of Edge and Jericho) breaks a hockeystick across Storm's back. Young only gets a 2 count. Devine tries to come in again, but Harris spinebusters him hard. Harris hits a Catatonic on Young. Devine slides a chair in and with the distraction, Roode hits a Northern Lariat on Harris who falls face first into the chair. Roode covers Harris, but Harris gets a foot on the ropes. Fuck this is an awesome match. Roode Irish whips Harris, but Harris reverses it. Devine with his back turned accidentally nails Roode with a chair. Harris rolls Roode up with a small package and we FINALLY have a winner. Hands down, the single best match of Roode/Young's career as a tag team. The fans were red hot for the entire match. It dragged on a bit when Team Canada had James Storm alone in the middle of the match, but everything else was incredible. AMW gets their 6th title, but Team Canada isn't hurt much since Devine cost them the win. AMW however, doesn't get hurt by winning it unfairly since they dominated TC for most of the match. An early MOTYC.
20 Minutes. 4 Stars.
Johnny Fairplay meets up with Trinity and Tracy and rubs their face in the fact that he found the clue. Trinity and Tracy beats Fairplay up and both grabs the clue. The clue rips so they race to get to Rhodes. Rhodes tells them that they both moved on to the final round. Their last mission is to find a team to manage. It can't be a team already/were in TNA though. Remember that little detail, it will come in handy for Against All Odds. All of these segments are totally worthless. Short bathroom break though.
Petey Williams vs AJ Styles vs Chris Sabin - X-Division Title - Ultimate X 6
AJ is going for his record making 4th X-Division title, Sabin is going for his record making 4th Ultimate X win and Petey Williams is the longest reigning X-Division champion at the time. Sabin and Styles double teams Petey early on in the match. With Petey out of the picture, both men turns on each other. Both men tries to surprise the other with quickly jumping up to grab the X lines. Sabin alone, has D'Amore grab his legs until Petey comes in pulls him down. The ref orders D'Amore back to the back. The fans chant Goodbye. Sabin does the O Canada to AJ Styles. I miss that. Pele kick to Petey by Styles. Sabin is pulled down from the X lines and lands on Styles' shoulders. Williams tries to grab the belt, but Sabin grabs him. Petey falls hurricanaing Sabin off of Styles shoulders as he does. Awesome. Petey climbs back on the X wires. Styles takes out Sabin and springboards off of the top rope and tries punching Petey off. Now, Teney and West sells this terribly. Styles easily missed Williams, but they tried to say that Styles "Grazing" Williams was enough to knock him down. Uh no. When Styles springboards up, Williams smartly pulled his body up. But seeing how he barely had a grip in the first place, moving his body in another position was enough to lose his grip and fall. Come on Teney, you've been doing this for years, if I could figure that out, surely you could of. Still a cool spot though. The fans are loving every moment of this spotty match. Sabin tries to climb, but Styles pulls at his legs, super hurricana~! Petey grabs Sabin and readies him for a reverse DDT on Sabin, Styles does his Lionsault where he grabs his opponent for a reverse ddt. DOUBLE REVERSE DDT with Styles nailing Petey and Petey nailing Sabin. Styles climbs up the X wires, but doesn't get far as Sabin hits a drop kick sending Styles inside out falling hard to the ground. AJ is hitting some amazing spots this match. Styles tries climbing up the structure to get on the X lines, but Williams hits him and Styles loses his balance. He's now hanging on the structure by only his trapped arm. Styles falls down and is holding his arm. And just like that, this spotty match gets some real psychology and a hurt arm. Back inside the ring, Sabin hits the cradle shock on Williams and tries grabbing the belt, but a hurt Styles pulls him down. Styles tries for an one armed Styles clash, but Sabin locks in a triangle choke. One arm powerbomb on Sabin~! Styles then hits an one armed Styles Clash. Styles looks like he's in tears from the pain in his arm. If this is just selling, AJ is much better at selling then I ever though. He gets halfway across the X lines, but his arm can't support it anymore and he falls down. Petey nails the Canadian Destroyer on AJ then hits a DDT on Sabin. Williams tries to reel Sabin in for a Destroyer but Sabin's slow coming up makes Petey say to fuck it and try climbing up. The delay in climbing allows Sabin time to get up. Sabin pulls Petey down. Both men now climbs the X lines and gets to the title. The title is unstrapped with both men holding on to it in the air. Awesome sight. AJ climbs the corner and with one last effort, jumps across the ring and grabs the titles from the hands of Sabin and Petey. The title and Styles falls down to the mat and AJ picks the title up to win his first Ultimate X match and 4th X-Division Title. Fuck. That was an amazing match of incredible spots and even some psychology from Styles. The crowd only added to the greatness of the match. Overall, this has to be my favorite Ultimate X match. TNA put on 2 MOTYC's in a row on a show. Fantastic. This is really one of the few X-Division matches that can appeal to anyone. Tons of spots for fans of that, D'Amore putting on another godly performance and selling/psychology by AJ in a X-Division match. AJ is the true star of the match, but all 3 men did a great job.
20 Minutes. 4 Stars.
Since I ran out of tape the first time I tried taping this event, I had to rewatch the replay and remove a few minutes. The short segment following Ultimate X is what was cut. It isn't anything important though. Just Jarrett and Nash yelling at each other.
Jeff Jarrett (c) vs Monty Brown - NWA World Title Match
Jeremy Borash has a hard time announcing the wrestlers. Don Harris, security and other refs come out to keep Brown and Jarrett separated until the bell. Jeff does some Monty poses. Quite comical. Back and forth action begins the match. Brown goes to the outside with Jarrett trying to hit a cross body from inside the ring to outside. Brown botches the catch. Tenay of course BS's saying that he did. What ever happened to you Tenay? You used to be one of my favorite announcers. You're terrible now though. The two men brawls in the fans making this feel like a WWF PPV main event circa 1999. Jeff hits Monty with a steel chair. Jarrett nails Brown with Tenay's revolving chair. Back to the ring, the ref stops Jarrett from using the belt. Okay, so I guess chairs are legal, but not titles. Keep in mind the title can change hands on a DQ. So the logic of the past 2 minutes makes very little sense. Monty hits a powerbomb for a 2. Monty busts out his new Circle of Life neckbreaker. Monty accidentally runs into the ref hurting the refs knee. Jarrett grabs a guitar. This has to be the most gimmicked guitar I've ever seen. The back has a large square cut out, but they left one side uncut which makes it very easy to break. Jarrett nails Brown with it. Brown kicks out at 2~! Jarrett grabs a chair, but Brown picks him up on his shoulders. Jarrett swings the chair downward, but Brown's hands easily block it. Tenay still acts as if it was a real chair shot. Fucking tool. Jarrett covers Brown, but Monty once again kicks out. The fans are going crazy. Brown has somehow became the most over face in the company. Jarrett grabs the title and doesn't even come close to hitting Brown. Brown falls down, Jarrett covers. The Alpha Male STILL kicks out. The fans can feel a title switch coming up. Monty Brown sets Jarrett up. Monty hits the ropes, but the dumbass ref is too close to Jeff and Jarrett pulls him in to get POUNCED. Meh, I didn't like the ref anyways. Ha. Jarrett goes outside the ring and pulls the steps up. There's a guitar hidden in the steps. Had Hall not did something similar a hour and a half before, this would of been a clever way to introduce the weapon. Jarrett climbs to the top rope, but Monty chokeslams Jarrett. Brown nails Jarrett with the guitar. The fans are going absolute apeshit. They can feel a title change and they want it badly. Monty covers Jarrett, but by time a second ref (Who could pass as the twin of the down ref) comes out, Jeff kicks out at 2. Monty goes for the Pounce, but Jarrett nails him with some of the leftover guitar. The stupid ref was taking care of the dumbass ref. Jarrett hits the Stroke. Jeff doesn't even try to pin, he picks him up and hits another Stroke. Quote of the night by Don West "Jarrett strokes Brown again." Aw, Don, you're so pathetic you're funny.
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Jarrett hits a low blow and hits one last Stroke. Jeff covers and gets a 3 count. Wow...I can't believe TNA fucked this up. This would of been like having Hogan pinning Goldberg the night that Bill won the WCW title. Monty was extremely over. The fans wanted him as champion. Jarrett for months was getting X-Pac heat. Why in god's name would you keep the belt on Jarrett?! Brown was never the same after this match. While I don't think he had what it took to lead TNA into being direct competition against the WWE, however; he could of easily carried the company until TNA got some bigger names. TNA at the time was saying how they were everything the WWE was not. Yet, keeping the title on Jarrett like this was exactly like how the WWE kept the belt on Hunter in 2003. The fans don't want it, why are you forcing us to watch something we don't want to see while ruining the credibility of people we WANT to see as champion? As far as the match goes, it was decent. Their iMPACT match from a couple weeks before was more enjoyable. The three gimmick weapons shots at the end by Jarrett made the match a joke even before the finish. The fans made this enjoyable though. Now, if only they would of put the right person over. RIP Monty. Your TNA career died on this night.
16 Minutes. 2 3/4 Stars. Overall
TNA begins 2005 with a bang. You get two MOTYC's, solid performances from some of the undercard and even a good pre-show. Minus the two bad matches of Hall vs Hardy and the Triple Threat Match, everything was at least decent to near great. Had Brown won the main event, it would of made this PPV near perfect. Still a solid PPV that easily beats the WWE's Jan ppvs of New Year Revolution and the one match show of the Royal Rumble. Great improvement TNA.
Grade
B+
Top 5 TNA PPV Matches Ever
5. AJ Styles vs Petey Williams - Victory Road 2004
4. Sonjay Dutt vs Elix Skipper - Final Resolution 2005
3. Kid Kash vs Dustin Rhodes - Final Resolution 2005
2. Team Canada vs America's Most Wanted - Final Resolution 2005
1. AJ Styles vs Petey Williams vs Chris Sabin - Ultimate X - Final Resolution 2005
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