TNA Destination X Thoughts: By Matthew Evans (16/03/2008)

“Destination X” featured a nerve-wracking homage to the old NWA “Scaffold” matches with “Elevation X”, an insanely dangerous gimmick bout where the object is to throw your opponent around 20 feet from the top of the structure.

“The War Machine” Rhino and “Cowboy” James Storm were the poor souls who would literally be risking life and limb in this match. Beforehand, TNA stars talked about how fearful they were for both men and how they could hardly bare to watch this match (again, I ask, why have this match?).

Apart from an unnecessary “stunt” match, TNA Destination X featured a variety of match types (but in typical TNA fashion, the booking of most of them heading into the PPV had been nonsensical).

The opening three-way tag-team match to determine the new no 1 contenders to the TNA Tag-Team Championship was action all the way, and at times, was almost impossible to keep track of.
From a character standpoint, I really feel that the underrated Christy Hemme has finally found her TNA niche as a screaming “Rock Chick”, while her charges in the Rock N’ Rave Infection (Lance Hoyt & Jimmy Rave) are an absolute riot with their insincere “shout outs” before the match.

LAX (particularly Hernandez) were on fine form here, and it was the suicide-diving big man that got the win for his team with a Border Toss on Rave.

As much as I enjoyed the X-Division Title Match between “Black Machismo” and Petey “Maple Leaf Muscle” Williams (seriously, that gimmick HAS to go), I wasn’t so keen on the Scott Steiner interference.

That said, TNA bookers did at least incorporate Machismo’s love interest, So Cal Val into the finish (she pulled the referee out of the ring and alerted the official to Steiner’s interference) and also further teased a potential rivalry between Machismo and Sonjay Dutt (who saved Val from an attack by Raka Khan, but also got a little too friendly with Val during Machismo’s post-match celebration).

The tag-team bout pitting Kaz and Eric Young against Black Reign & Rellik was pretty run-of-the-mill fare and for a moment, I thought that TNA had completely ruined “EY’s” long-term value by having him play the coward and abandon Kaz because he was “scared of monsters”.
However, I loved it when Eric returned as “Super Eric”; a goofy “Aldo Montoya” lookalike, complete with cheesy “superhero” music.

Unfortunately, not all of the TNA fans in attendance were as impressed with the “new” Eric Young. They seemed to like his “feat of strength” when he picked up Reign and Rellik together and dropped them with a double Death-Valley-Driver to get the win, but overall the “transformation” didn’t really get the reaction that TNA were hoping for.

TNA fans DID react well, however to the commendable three-way Knockouts Championship Match between Awesome Kong, ODB and Gail Kim.

Kim and ODB didn’t work in tandem as much as one might expect, and it cost both of them in the long run. Kong eventually obliterated ODB with an “Awesome Bomb” to retain her title (thanks in part to Raesha Saeed).

The “Fish Market” Street Fight between Curry Man & Shark Boy And Team 3D was good fun for the most part. Amidst the “fish throwing” there was the predictable line of “Holy Mackerel!” from Mike Tenay, who seemed to be having a great laugh calling this unique match.

The finish was typically silly. Johnny Devine accidentally threw powder into the eyes of Brother Ray, causing him to inadvertently deliver the 3D (with help from Shark Boy) to D-Von.

Post-match, 3D tried to start a brawl with “reality stars” Joel Anderson and Johnny Fairplay. Fairplay has been involved with TNA before and didn’t really help business that much. Why waste time on booking him again?

Booker T’s “Stand By Your Man” Strap Match with Robert Roode was a let down, really. It felt rushed, like the average match on IMPACT!

Knowing TNA’s history of not honouring stipulations, I was surprised to see Roode and Payton Banks “strap” Tracy Brooks after the match (this segment was actually better than the contest itself).

Tracy earned a ton of respect with the TNA fans by taking the abuse, before turning on Banks and whipping her. When Robert Roode confronted her, however, she was in big trouble. But then came the highlight of the whole thing.

Booker T’s “scorned” wife Sharmell returned and laid into Roode with a strap of her own! With the fans going crazy, Sharmell started to whip security and later on, the head of TNA Management, Jim Cornette!

This was a highly effective segment. The only thing that tarnished it for me was the fact that Roode RAN AWAY from Sharmell. If Booker T had been in sight, then I could have understood Roode’s act of cowardice. But he wasn’t.

Roode ran away from a woman (the same woman he punched out 2 months ago). Granted, the woman had a strap, but Roode made no attempt to defend himself. I won’t deny that “Mrs T” is tough and definitely not someone to mess with, but I feel TNA made a mistake in booking Roode as a wimp who couldn’t stand up to the same woman he struck just 2 months ago on PPV.

Speaking of “standing up”, that’s something Rhino and James Storm couldn’t do with ease in their “Elevation X” match. Despite the danger and “Oh My God” factor surrounding the match, this was actually easier to watch than last year’s “stunt” display.

That’s mainly because Rhino and Storm spent a lot of time in the ring at the start, before making the ascent to the top of the structure.

Special credit must surely go to Jacqueline for scaling the structure to lure Rhino into a trap. However, in the end, it was the “Cowboy” who took the fall.

Granted, he only just caught the table that had been set up in the ring, but he took the fall. He’s been selling it ever since, but doesn’t seem to have suffered any serious injury (Thank God).

The 6-Man Main Event between “Team Joe” and “The Angle Alliance” was enjoyable, but hardly PPV worthy. The faces had 5 minutes to beat on Styles and Tomko while Angle waited backstage (as if the match was going to end after 5 minutes. How pointless was this stipulation?).

In the end, Joe forced Tomko to tap out. Joe will now head to “LockDown” in A TNA World Heavyweight Title Match against Kurt Angle.

Overall, TNA Destination X was entertaining enough (especially if you’re a UK viewer who got to watch it free of charge on Bravo 2). There was some great wrestling on display, coupled with some daft booking. If TNA could sort out the latter, then they would truly be on their way to making some serious headway as a major wrestling promotion.

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