“Change” is what Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff promised when they took over the reigns of TNA in January of this year. Big money was spent to lure back veterans like Sting and entice ex-WWE talent such as Rob Van Dam and Jeff Hardy. A conscious effort was made to offer wrestling audiences an alternative to WWE (using a lot of recycled WCW ideas, but an alternative, nonetheless) and TNA regularly crowed about kick-starting another “Monday Night War” with WWE.
Unfortunately, the ratings for the new-look, live “IMPACT!” show on Spike TV were so disappointingly low that Spike and TNA agreed to move the programme back to it’s regular, pre-taped slot on a Thursday night.
Sacrifice was the company’s first PPV since they sheepishly limped out of the “Monday Night War” battle (if you could call it a “battle”, it was more akin to a one-sided pasting) on May 13. And much like TNA in general at the best of times, the event was a “mixed bag” overall.
The opening contest was an enjoyable three-way tag-team match to determine the new no 1 contenders to the TNA World Tag-Team Titles (currently held by The Band). The participants were The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin), Beer Money (Robert Roode & James Storm) and Team 3D (Brother Ray & Brother Devon).
Despite this being a three-way encounter, 3D hardly got any ring time, and instead it was down to The Guns and Beer Money to provide the action (but what great action it was).
That said, Team 3D were involved in some of the pin fall interruptions and got into it with the other 2 teams in the closing moments. Also, it’s worth pointing out that it was Brother Ray who had his shoulders pinned to the mat, after absorbing the always-awesome-looking cross-body-splash/ neck-breaker combo from Shelley and Sabin.
Overall, a nice curtain raiser and worthy victors in the form of The Motor City Machine Guns.
Up next was Wales’ own Rob “The Freak” Terry defending his TNA Global Championship against the controversial Orlando Jordan. Few people were looking forward to this match, although if it had been kept short and resembled a squash match to put over the power and the dominance of “Big Rob”; it would have at least been decent fare.
Sadly, it was an interminable waste of time, with Jordan working on the leg of “Big Rob”, after catching “The Freak” unawares following a strong start from the Welshman.
Despite working on essentially one leg, Terry powered back and finished off Jordan with a weaker-than-usual “Freak-Buster” (choke-slam/ spine-buster variation). At least the right guy won the match (pity it took 8 boring minutes to get there).
Post-match, Orlando jumped Terry from behind and whacked his injured knee with the Global Championship. This after-match assault was over-kill from TNA (fans were already sick of seeing these two after watching their match, why drag the pain out even further?).
A much-better bout was the TNA X-Division Championship Match between Douglas Williams (the man who was unfairly stripped of the title when he got stranded in the UK due to the volcanic ash cloud) and Kazarian (the man who “sneaked in” the proverbial “back door” and nabbed the X-Division Title on the night that poor Doug was left grounded), although it didn’t play out like your average TNA X-Division contest.
Kaz provided the high-risk offence, while Williams kept things a little more technical and “on the mat”. However, Williams himself hit the former “Suicide” with some brutal moves, particularly the sick-looking power-bomb into the bottom turn-buckle towards the end of the match, before finishing off the Antonio Banderas-look-alike with the rolling “Chaos Theory” German Suplex for the win (and the X-Division Title).
Even before Tara had issued the challenge to Madison Rayne for a “Career VS Title” match at Sacrifice, word had got out (from Tara herself, posting it on her official MySpace page) that the former TNA Knockout’s Champion (and former WWE Women’s Champion) would be parting ways with TNA shortly. Which meant the end result of this match was a no-brainer.
Despite the emotion involved and the very real back-story (i.e. this was more than just another “wrestling story line”, Tara was genuinely leaving TNA), this was a somewhat subdued affair. It was solid work from both ladies, but it came across as an average bout, nothing out of the ordinary and nothing that will be all that memorable in years to come.
On the plus side, Tara did break out her top-rope moon-sault (twice) and also hit her dreaded “Widow’s Peak” finisher (but was too close to the ropes and upon impact, Madison rolled out of the ring and to the floor).
The finish came after Tara missed her 2nd moon-sault and Rayne capitalised with a somewhat awkward-looking leg-drop/ neck-breaker combination.
Post-match, Madison teased Tara and laughed as she disingenuously waved good-bye to her on her way up the ramp. Back in the ring, Tara got a warm send-off from the crowd and was then escorted out of the ring by TNA security (I thought this was humiliating, even doing it as angle. They could have at least allowed her character “walk herself” out and perhaps even have a little “microphone time” with the crowd).
I’ve always been a huge fan of Tara, but wrestling-wise it’s hard to see where she goes from here. I know WWE is always an option, but if she was to go back there (which is where she played the clown for the latter part of her career), they’ll no doubt humiliate and embarrass her (and book her into oblivion) just for daring to leaving in the first place. As for MMA? Well, it doesn’t take an expert to see that she’s up against it from the start, what with her being inexperienced in this field, being nearly 40 years old and having a “bum knee”, which has given her grief for years. For these reasons, MMA is a bad idea; WWE would be the safer option if she had to pick one career over the other.
After The Band (Kevin Nash & Scott Hall, with Eric Young in their corner) retained the TNA World Tag-Team Titles in a nothing match against Jesse Neal & Shannon Moore (which ended when Brother Ray stuck his jealous nose in “Ink Inc” business yet again and “KO’d” Jesse with a kendo-stick, allowing Nash to get the pin), it was time for Desmond Wolfe to put his beloved valet Chelsea on the line against Abyss in a match where “The Monster” put his own “Hall Of Fame Ring” up for grabs (if Wolfe won, Chelsea got the ring, if Abyss won, he got Chelsea as his manager).
Wolfe jumped Abyss before the bell, but despite the entertaining start, the bout soon degenerated into an “IMPACT! -style” encounter, with the fans hilariously turning on Abyss and cheering Desmond (the heel) instead.
The finish came when Wolfe used some brass-knuckles (now the most over-used weapon in TNA) on Abyss, only for “The Monster” to kick-out, “Hulk Up” and “Run Wild” on the British bad boy. Abyss then hit the “Black-Hole Slam” for the win.
Post-match, Abyss told Chelsea her would see her “on Thursday” for the 30-day management deal to begin. I tell you, if this angle doesn’t lead to Chelsea becoming Abyss’ manager full-time, then it would have been a completely pointless exercise.
After Mr Anderson branded his fans “A**-holes” (amazingly enough, some TNA fans began referring to themselves in this manner), the microphone maestro went to war with Jeff Hardy in what up until this point in the card, was the best and most thoroughly entertaining match I’d seen all night.
That said, it wasn’t without it’s “near misses” (for example, Anderson nearly landed on his head when he took a reckless backdrop from the ring to the entrance ramp). However, there was no denying the chemistry and the “showmanship” that both Hardy and Anderson displayed here (once again, Anderson proved why in hindsight, WWE might have dropped the ball by releasing him so swiftly).
It was Jeff Hardy who got the win for his “Creatures Of The Night” (I assume WWE didn’t trademark this term for The Undertaker all those years ago) with a Swanton Bomb on Anderson, who offered a “truce” with Hardy in the post-match, in a hint of what he has since become (i.e. a fan favourite, although I think he works much better as a smart-ass, antagonistic heel).
An apparent injury to Sting explained why his match with Jeff Jarrett resembled a TV-style “backstage assault” angle, with “Double J” getting beaten to a bloody pulp by “The Icon” and his ever-present baseball bat.
Despite my initial disappointment (i.e. realising that this would not be a proper “match” per se), I must say that Sting was completely convincing here as a man bent on proving his point (in his mind, he has a point) and making an example out of Jarrett.
Even when a bloody Jeff Jarrett was taken away on a stretcher, Sting pushed the “TNA Founder” off the apparatus and defiantly left to a chorus of boos. Like I said earlier, this was a damn convincing performance from Sting, who proved here just how strong her can be as a character and a performer and not just an in-ring worker.
The last match on the show (the TNA World Heavyweight Championship Match between Rob Van Dam and AJ Styles) was fittingly, the best. RVD and Styles did their talking in the ring and the result was an incredible blend of high-flying action, near-falls and all-round great wrestling that epitomised what at its heart, is what TNA is all about.
Ric Flair was disposed of early on by the referee, allowing Van Dam and AJ to do their thing. “The Whole F’N Show” managed to reverse an early “Styles Clash” attempt into a sunset-flip variation and later averted a springboard DDT from the former champion.
Flair returned later on but got cut off by Jay Lethal, who trapped “The Nature Boy” in his very own submission move, the “Figure Four Leg-Lock!”
Back in the ring, RVD dropped Styles throat-first onto the top rope and polished him off with the “Five Star Frog Splash” to retain the gold.
TNA’s next PPV “Slammiversary” already looks like a strong card (despite the absence of the “King Of The Mountain” Match), with Rob Van Dam defending the gold against Sting and Kurt Angle facing the #10 contender in the new TNA ranking system, Kazarian (who also now has the backing of Ric Flair, much to the chagrin of AJ Styles) and despite the aforementioned issues with “Sacrifice” as a whole (and TNA’s embarrassing “relegation” back to Thursday nights), I still say that the future looks bright for TNA.
I know they may have had aspirations to compete with and even beat WWE “at their own game”, but for the time being, TNA are going to have to settle for second place and concentrate on growing their company slowly but surely. I truly believe the fundamentals are there for long-term success.
Previously posted on Smash Wrestling:
http://www.firetank.com/smashwrestling/
