Against All Odds
February 13th, 2005 ~Pre-Show~
For some reason, I don't have the pre-show recorded on the same tape which is weird since I remember watching it originally. However, looking back at the results, it was very skipable.
The show was comprised of Trinity and Tracy unveiling their new tag teams.
Trinity's Phi Delta Slam def Lex Lovett and Buck Quartermain
PDS are two huge guys that were brought into TNA because Dusty loves big men. The less you saw of them, the better.
Tracy's Disciples of Destruction def Mikey Batts and Jerrelle Clark
The DOD are really Ron and Don Harris reprising their DOA gimmick complete with the bikes. This made very little sense seeing how Rhodes said at the last ppv that they had to be new.
These two teams will come into play for the next PPV.
~PPV~ Petey Williams vs Elix Skipper
Skipper gets another valuable match in his slow push after the demise of Petey. This is a huge match for both guys. If Petey loses, it will be even harder to get a shot at his X-Division Title. If Skipper loses, all of his success he's been having would be derailed and he'll have to start over. This is also the battle of the X-Division/CW wrestlers of Team Canada. Skipper was a former CW champion in WCW while a member of Lance Storm's Team Canada. Small world eh? Petey goes for an early pin attempt, but Skipper does his crab like escape. Williams throws Skipper on the outside where D'Amore is able to attack him some. Nice hurricana from Petey. Back inside, Petey does the O Canada in the corner. Once again, I miss that move. This is shaping up to be your typical X-Division match with just spots and nothing else. Williams goes for a top rope cross body, which Skipper tries to do the crab stance to cause Petey to miss him. Both guys totally botch it since Petey gets tripped up on the ropes, causing him to be a second or two off cue. Skipper always goes down while Petey is trying to get on the top rope. It could of been a cool spot, but carelessness ruined it. Petey gets hung up on the top rope. Skipper hits a nice top rope legdrop to Petey who is still draped across the top rope. Don West mentions that Skipper has a new finisher which pretty much gives away the ending. Skipper sets Petey up on the top rope and he walks the ropes, but Petey ducks down when Skipper tries to hit his patented hurricana. Petey tries to roll Skipper up, but he loses the grip causing yet another botch. Petey goes to the middle rope to hit the bounce off Canadian Destroyer (How he beat Styles at Victory Road), but Skipper reverses it into his new finisher, Sudden Death (Celtic Cross). 1-2-3, it's over. The match showed potential in the early stages, but near the end it was pretty sloppy with all of the botches. I expected a lot more from both guys.
8 Minutes. 2 Stars. BG James and Nascar's Jeff Hammond vs Michael Shane and Frankie Kazarian
With iMPACT airing on FSN, TNA decided to add a little Nascar to their show. This is the blowoff match. On a previous episode of iMPACT, Hammond made his debut defeating David Young. Young's biggest claim to fame in TNA was his massive losing streak. Hell of a spinebuster though. Michael Shane and James starts the match, but Shane wants Hammond. Road Dogg tags in Hammond who quite possibly has more talent than Billy Gunn did. All Hammond does is shoves Shane. James back in. TNA was smart enough to at least pair Hammond up with the 3LK's most talented member and let him do all of the work. While he may not be great, James is good on the mic and solid at times in the ring. Shane and Kaz takes control of the match. All three men are down and Roadie tags in Hammond. Hammond hits a double Choo Choo (Erick Stevens would be proud) to Shane and Kaz. BG takes care of Michael Shane. Kaz/Shane knocks James down and Kaz grabs Hammond. Hammond gets out of the way right before Shane hits the superkick. James takes out Shane and Jeff Hammond hits quite possibly the most cheesy finisher ever on Kaz for the victory. What's the finisher you're asking? It involves Hammond driving an imaginary car in a circle and then hitting an elbow on a down Kaz. Honestly, can you get any lamer? Kaz finally has enough and quits TNA after this. Michael Shane be in limbo for the rest of the year.
5 Minutes. 1 1/2 Stars.
Dusty Rhodes meets Jeff Jarrett's lawyer. Jarrett's lawyer wants to waive the rule that if Jarrett uses the guitar tonight, he will be striped of the title. Dusty refuses. I'll get into the idiocy of this storyline later on.
Raven vs Dustin Rhodes
After Raven lost to Watts at the last PPV, he turned vicious breaking the fingers of Cassidy Reilly after beating him on iMPACT. Rhodes playing the role of a mentor to Reilly stands up for him. Raven smartly goes after Rhodes' leg. Tenay smartly points out that it will help Raven in his new submission hold, the Ankle Lock. However, for whatever reason, he fails to point out that Rhodes leg may also still be sore after Kash spent 10 minutes damaging it at the previous PPV. Dustin hits a bad superkick (aka one that doesn't even touch Raven) to prevent the DDT. Raven locks in the Ankle Lock. Raven's Ankle Lock is Raven just holding onto the ankle. He had a great grip on it, but it lacks the intensity of Angle's. Dustin looks like he's trying not to fall asleep. West tries to say how Rhodes is in obvious pain. Yeah buddy, it sure looks like it. Rhodes gets out of it and locks in his own. Raven reverses it and attempts a pinfall. With his feet on the ropes, Raven wins. After the match, Raven beats Rhodes down and puts him in a straight jacket. Dustin is tied around one of the turnbuckles while Raven is hitting him with a leather belt. Out comes Cassidy Reilly to save his mentor. Reilly gets a DDT for his effort. With the match mainly centering around the Ankle Lock, you'd think that both men would do their best at making it look deadly. Instead, it always looks extremely weak. Neither man really seemed to be into the match.
9 Minutes. 1 3/4 Stars.
The lights go off and the promo video says that Trytan will make his debut on iMPACT this week. What joy. I actually have the iMPACT on tape after the PPV. Maybe I'll watch/review it. After all...Trytan will be on. That will bring in the ratings.
America's Most Wanted vs Kid Kash and Lance Hoyt - NWA Tag Titles Match
A rematch from the very first edition of iMPACT on FSN in the summer of 2004. Finally, Kash is used well on PPV. This is Hoyt's return to PPV, but also his debut of being called Hoyt instead of Dallas. This is a very old school brawl with Hoty throwing in some new age spots. Hoytamania begins tonight as the fans chant "Hoyt Hoyt Hoyt" after he hits a sidewalk slam on James Storm from the top rope. Hoyt would also hit a moonsault and get a hurricana from the top rope by Harris. Kash annoys AMW, so Harris handcuffs him to the turnbuckle. Is that legal?
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. AMW hits the Death Sentence on the big man from Dallas to pick up the win. Not as good as AMW's Final Resolution match, but this was still a lot of fun. Hoyt and Kash were such a great team. Kash was an amazing heel while Hoyt using his spots brought something that very few big men could. These 4 men puts on the first good match of the night.
13 Minutes. 3 1/2 Stars.
A limo pulls up, but security blocks Shane Douglas from finding out who's in the limo. Douglas gets upset. Um, didn't we already do this?
Abyss vs Jeff Hardy - Full Metal Mayhem Match
Full Metal Mayhem is a ladder match with two envelops hung above the ring. One has nothing inside, while the other has a title shot. That's right folks, another Hardy ladder match. Your typical Jeff Hardy ladder match mixed in with some of Abyss's hardcore spots. Abyss taped between the middle and top rope (Think Nigel's rebound Lariat), Hardy charges him, but Abyss throws him overhead. Hardy's misses the table, but his feet did manage to break it. Botch spot # 1. Abyss sets up two double decker tables. Well, thank you for giving away the big spot at the end of the match. This was 3 years ago, why the hell would Taker vs Edge do it? Even in 2005, it was obvious what it meant. Abyss and Hardy fights on the stage. Abyss sets up a table, but Jeff hits a very awkward Twist of Fate. Hardy pulls Abyss on the table. Jeff climbs the TNA set and hits the Swanton through the table~! Don West screams how that must of been 30 feet. A few moments later he screams that must of been 10 feet. In reality, From where Jeff fell off (He didn't really jump) to the table, it was maybe 6 feet. Oh and Jeff barely even hits the table. Semi botch # 2. Jeff uses a huge ladder (the one he climbed at Victory Road outside of the ring for no real purpose) to pull down the first envelop. Nothing inside. Abyss drags Hardy down and by his hair throws him hard to the ropes. The throw was so hard that Hardy was sent flying over the top rope and crashing through the 4 tables~! What an incredible spot! Well it would of been had Hardy actually reached the tables. Hardy gets far enough to knock them down at least. Abyss climbs up and pulls down the second envelop and tears it open to look inside. Abyss seems happy, even though we don't see the contract. Jeff Hardy meanwhile throws a tantrum by jumping on the tables and kicking them. Well, he botched the spot (Botch # 3), but hey, he eventually broke them. All of the major spots were either botched or not as special as Tenay and West tried to scream they were. Unlike the Jarrett match, it's hard to even get any comedic joy out of this. The whole idea of the 2 envelops were a terrible idea. A ladder match is already enough of a gimmick, you don't need to add to it. It's no surprise that I went from loving Hardy to being a Hardy hater while he was in TNA. The guy literally put on one botch shitfest after another. As much as a shit on him these days, he's a million times better than he was in TNA.
16 Minutes. 1 1/2 Stars. Team Canada vs Monty Brown and DDP
This was originally supposed to be Brown/DDP vs Bobby Roode and Scott Hall. Which really shows that TNA was pushing Roode as a singles star long before now. However, the day of the show (pre-show) we're told that Scott D'Amore bought out Hall's contract for the match so that Young could team with Roode. In other words, TNA had enough with the drunken has been and cut their losses with him. On the plus side, Young/Roode could provide a much better pairing than Hall/Roode. The match is fairly boring. Monty Brown went from being the most over man at the last show to barely even getting a reaction. Even the pounce at the end of the match barely even got a reaction. TNA truly killed Monty Brown's overness the previous month. Monty hits the Pounce on Roode while DDP hits a Diamond Cutter on Young (while Young was on the top rope) to get the victory. Fairly boring match that just didn't have the fans into it.
10 Minutes. 2 1/2 Stars. AJ Styles (c) vs Christoper Daniels - X-Division Title Match - 30 Min Iron Man
Wow, Daniels goes from jobbing in the opening match at the previous show to challenging for the title now. They start off with some chain/mat wrestling. AJ works over Daniels rips while Daniels goes after Styles hurt arm from the month before. AJ goes for a 450 splash, but Daniels blocks it with his knees. Angel's Wings and Daniels goes up 1 @ 14 minutes. AJ kicks out of the Blue Thunder Driver and nails a nice Pele kick. AJ moves out of the BME, but gets hit with his own Asia Moonsault turned into a reverse DDT. Daniels only gets 2. Styles hits Daniel's Angel Wings for a 2. Daniels goes for a suplex, but AJ reverses it into a rollup and gets the pin. 1-1 @ 24 min. AJ quickly gets busted open when Daniels throws him into the steel post on the outside. Back inside, Daniels keeps punching at the open wound of Styles. Daniels wipes some blood on his forehead in a cross. That can't be safe. At the one minute mark, AJ comes back punching Daniels. This doesn't last long as Daniels takes over. Daniels tries to hit Angel's Wings, but AJ falls down to the mat. Tenay points out the obvious that AJ is out cold and is dead weight. At the same time, Don West tries to say how AJ knows he has to fight it and he's doing anything to survive. Okay guys, get your stories straight. Is AJ out cold or is he purposely trying to prevent the Angel's Wings? Daniels says to hell with it and busts out the Koji Clutch!!~! AJ starts bleeding heavily. Tenay tries to inform the audience what this is and who invented it. West, the moron he is, yells over him pointing out the obvious that AJ is bleeding badly. AJ goes completely limp. The bell rings and the 30 minutes are up. Daniels isn't happy, well he was pretty much screwed out of the title. He gets on the mic asking Dusty to not let it end this way. The Dream comes out and orders sudden death. Back to the match, Daniels hits a reverse bulldog for a 2 count. Styles heads to the middle rope to hit a hurricana, but Daniels sunset flips through that...BUTTT AJ rolls through THAT and hits the Styles Clash for the victory. Sudden Death really only lasted about 2 minutes, but it was a nice sequence to end the match. I know a lot of people loves this match. But just like the first time I saw it, there were several parts that left me bored. The final 10 minutes were great and I loved the fact that these two guys actually used psychology. Personally, I don't even understand why this was an Iron Man Match. This was their first ever meeting in TNA. What really warrants an Iron Man Match? It seems like a random match stipulation to help bring in a few more buys to the PPV. I'm not even a fan of Iron Man Matches to begin with. Long matches can be great, but when you know that it's going to be a certain amount of time, it takes some fun out of it. It is a good device to use for storyline purposes (such as this case), but I'm still not a fan. To be honest, most Iron Man Matches I see, I end up disliking. I'll probably try to watch this again sometime. Perhaps then I will end up appreciating it as much as others do.
32 Minutes. 3 1/2 Stars.
Jeff Jarrett (c) vs Kevin Nash - NWA World Title Match - Jarrett Loses Title if he uses Guitar
This is the official end of the Kings of Wrestling. If you didn't watch TNA at the time. The KOW's was pretty much the entire nWo storyline of 2 1/2 years compressed into 3 months. Victory Road was their Bash at the Beach '96 with the face shockingly (yeah right) turning heel and aligning with the heels. On iMPACT, they started attacking everyone. Amazing Red even was used as a lawn dart by Nash just as he attacked Mysterio in 1996 on Nitro. Turning Point was TNA's first time really bringing a group of wrestlers together and beating the evil KOW. Final Resolution was the first sign of dissension amongst the faction. This would be about early 1998 for the nWo. Finally this match is the final match were the KOW's split apart. This is kinda like Jan 1999, with Nash vs Hogan on Nitro, minus the whole fingerpoke of doom BS. The nWo storyline, while good was overlylong. The KOW storyline was terrible and was too short to be meaningful for this match. The match begins with brawling, actually, that's all the match really is. Jarrett is smart enough to work over Nash's leg though. Tenay brings up the fact that Nash has had 14 knee operations in his lifetime. To think, he still wrestles 3 years later. They brawl in the fans and to the back. Jarrett is thrown on the food table. Jarrett gets busted open. They head back to the ring. Jarrett pulls a case from under the ring. Since Jarrett can't use a guitar, he has a new secret weapon. A Cello. That's right...Jarrett is about to go Yo Yo Ma on Nash's ass. Jarrett holds it above his head like he does with his guitar. However, since a cello's base is a lot bigger and heavier, it's thin neck can't support it's weight. The cello breaks apart before Jarrett even uses it! Jarrett takes the base of the cello and hits Nash with it. Inside the ring, Jarrett brings in the cell case and hits Nash with it a couple times. Jeff lays Nash's legs in the case and rams the cover on it several times. Now this would hurt a lot if it was one of those hard cases. This case though, is a soft one. It's your suitcase type top that is just made up of some black plastic and nylon. This is turning into a disaster. Jarrett decides that while the cello case hurts a lot, he should bring back the broken base of the cello. Nash lowblows Jarrett. Nash goes to use the cello (God, I can't believe this is actually happening), but the ref gets in the way. What the hell? Nash throws the cello down and sets Jarrett up for the Jackknife Power Bomb. But he decides to turn him a bit so that the ref can be knocked down. That's almost as subtle as Jarrett using his foot to make the ladder unbalance and fall against Hardy (Victory Road). Nash powerbombs Jarrett on the...cello. With no ref, out comes the former Billy Gunn~! Gunn (well to be fair, he's really "That's....that's....well we know who that is~!) hits Nash with a chair. The ref wakes up and Jarrett covers Nash. Nash kicks out. Billy Gunn tries to come back in, but another ref stops him. Tenay reminds us that he is the former Billy Gunn of the WWE. He's also one of the former members of the former faction, Degeneration X. Jarrett trying to use the belt gets a spinning heel kick from the returning Sean Waltman~! Tenay is in his glory because he once again gets to bring up DX. Waltman hits the Bronco Buster on Jarrett (I swear that has to be the first time he actually nailed it since 1999). Waltman hits the face buster and leaves the ring. Nash covers, but only gets a 2. Gunn comes back in the ring and readies himself to hit Nash with the belt. BG James comes out and grabs the belt away from Gunn. Tenay is having an orgasmatic experience able to say how James is also a former member of DX. The Ref gets Gunn out of the ring, but Jarrett uses the belt to hit Nash. Nash kicks out at 2. Jarrett hits the Stroke, but Nash kicks out again~! Jarrett shoves Nash into the ref lightly to allow him to hit a low blow and hit one last Stroke. Jarrett finally wins. Holy Clusterfuck Batman~! Just the previous month, they did the same exact finish (Minus all of the interference) of Jarrett having to do everything to win the match. Why are they repeating it? Was it Gunn or was it Waltman who was in the limo? Nash and Jarrett were actually having a decent match. There was zero needs for the run ins. The cello idea was one of the lamest ideas I've ever seen in a wrestling match. Why the hell was there even a rule about Jarrett using a guitar? This isn't the WWE, TNA had the rule that titles can change hands on a DQ. So the whole stipulation was unneeded. Why do all of these matches have so many cases of weapons being used (Mainly by the ref) and yet Jarrett is NEVER DQ'd?! This entire match/storyline of the night felt like a bad episode of Nitro in the Russo era. NOTHING made sense. Once the cello broke, I really felt as if I was watching a parody of a match. Had they just left out the cello and the run ins, it would at least be a 2 star match. Instead, they make this one of the worst booked main events I've ever seen. Ugh. Terrible.
20 Minutes. 3/4's Star. Overall
TNA came off of an impressive Final Resolution and delivered a disappointing Against All Odds. With the exception of Christopher Daniels, everyone on PPV ended up producing a worst match then their FR match. They book Jeff Hammond, yet The Naturals aren't even featured on the Pre-Show, yet alone the PPV? With TNA, it's always been about 2 steps forward and one big step back. Kudos goes out to AMW, Kash/Dallas, Styles and Daniels for actually looking like they gave a damn.
Grade
C
Top 5 TNA PPV Matches Ever
(Not including Turning Point 04 Yet)
5. AMW vs Kid Kash and Lance Yoyt - Against All Odd 2005
4. Kid Kash vs Dustin Rhodes - Final Resolution 2005
3. Christopher Daniels vs AJ Styles - Against All Odds
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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