*Apologies for the lateness of this review and the lack of column updates lately. I’ve been busy with other things outside of Smash and have been rescheduling things of this nature over the past month or so. The regular “Smash Service” should now resume! :)
You have to feel sorry for one Ken (“Mr”) Anderson (the artist formerly known as “Mr Kennedy”). It seems that if he didn’t have “bad luck” he’d have no luck at all.
Wrestling fans will not doubt recall WWE WrestleMania 23, the night Anderson (then known as “Mr Kennedy”) became “Mr Money In The Bank” by winning the “Money In The Bank” Ladder Match on the “Grandest Stage Of Them All.” The briefcase Anderson now held in his mitts gave him the contractual right to challenge ANY World Champion on ANY WWE brand, ANYTIME over the next 12 months.
Indeed, it appeared that Anderson was now on the proverbial rocket-ship to the moon. Unfortunately, Anderson never made it to his destination. Put simply, the rocket didn’t just run out of fuel, it pretty much crashed and burned, shattering Anderson’s WWE main event aspirations in the process.
Soon after winning his briefcase, Anderson went down with an injury (obviously, not good and a double blow to Anderson as he’d already been “banged up” and “left on the shelf” a few times already in his short WWE career). Initially fearing Anderson would need surgery and a long recuperation period, WWE booked him to lose his “MITB” case (and obviously, the contract) to Edge, a former “MITB” winner. Anderson did just that, as planned, which was fine (obviously, not for Anderson, but it was effective “damage control” for WWE, who quickly had to postpone Ken’s main event run for at least another year). That is, until they discovered that Anderson’s injury wasn’t as serious or career-threatening as they first thought and would not require surgery (however, by this point, the deed had been done and Edge was the new “man with the briefcase”).
Anderson would eventually return, battle through more injury woes and ultimately get released from his contract for being (allegedly in the eyes of some WWE bigwigs and wrestlers) a “liability” in the ring.
At TNA Genesis in January 2010, Ken Anderson made his debut for Dixie Carter’s company, beating Abyss in a mediocre bout. It was a shaky start for sure, however, when Anderson began to verbally and physically provoke Kurt Angle in a series of realistic and gripping segments on “IMPACT!”, it appeared that Mr Anderson had truly “arrived” (indeed, his ring work and all round character hadn’t been this effective or entertaining since those early WWE days when many insiders and industry experts hailed him as one of the “next big stars”).
Fast-forward to the “Turning Point” PPV and Anderson had finally been given his first headline main event singles match at a major event. Since the aforementioned Angle feud first caught fire, he’d been on a roll, gaining such a huge fan-base of “***-holes” that he’d been turned baby face.
Anderson’s opponent at the PPV would be the TNA World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Hardy, another ex-WWE talent who’d just come off the heels of a shocking heel turn at “Bound For Glory” the previous month, where “They” had been revealed to be a devious new faction comprised of Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff, Jeff Jarrett, Abyss and Jeff Hardy (Ric Flair’s group “Fortune” would join forces with what would soon be known as “Immortal” on the post-PPV edition of “IMPACT!”).
An angle on “IMPACT!” would see Hardy attack Anderson from behind with a steel-chair. Anderson would be unprotected, but this would be fine from a safety standpoint (obviously, it would hurt, but it was unlikely to take Anderson out of the game for real, especially coming from a experienced pro like Hardy). It would work for both men: Hardy would be portrayed as the cowardly champion, attacking from behind, Anderson would be the hero caught unawares and then vowing to get his revenge at the PPV.
Unfortunately, Hardy accidentally struck Anderson in the back of the head with the chair, swinging the weapon at full force. Anderson got legitimately busted open and blood gushed from the wound like water from a fountain (TNA later filmed footage of Anderson getting stitched up for “ReAction!”; it was nauseating even for the non-squeamish: The back of his head looked liked it had literally been torn open).
Unsurprisingly, Anderson also suffered a serious concussion to go with the nasty head wound. TNA now had a legit injury on their hands as they faced a race against time to try and get Anderson fit and healthy again before the PPV. But it wasn’t to be.
TNA was forced to hastily split Matt Morgan from Fortune and Immortal and draft him in as the potential replacement for Anderson. They even used Anderson’s concussion in the story line, having Morgan “stand up” for Anderson and the health of “the boys” by reiterating the dangers of working with head trauma (TNA may have got more credit for this if they hadn’t already booked an angle where comedy wrestler Eric Young began acting goofy and confused every week after taking a [planned] head-first fall to the mat from the ring).
Even a week away from the PPV, TNA advertised Anderson for the match as originally scheduled. But he’d been quite literally “knocked for six.”
Morgan ended up being the replacement, but had been given precious little time to connect with the fans as a fan-favourite, and more importantly, be considered a threat or a legitimate challenger to Hardy’s crown.
This was a major road block for TNA heading into the show. How would they deal with it and turn an in-ring accident and a muddled main event into something positive?
Kicking off proceedings was a good TNA X-Division Championship Match between defending champion Jay Lethal and the challenger Robbie E (accompanied by the awesome Cookie). Lethal dazzled Robbie with his usual array of high-flying moves (including a superb spring-board back elbow off the ropes) as Cookie tried to distract Jay and the referee time after time to try and swing the bout in the favour of her “dude.”
She eventually succeeded, pushing Lethal off the top rope and allowing Robbie to hit his version of the “Rude Awakening” on Jay and become the new TNA X-Division Champion (seriously, my dude!).
There were no championships on the line in Mickie James’ lively scrap with her fellow ex-WWE Diva Tara (even Tara’s buddy and current TNA Knockouts Champion Madison Rayne took a back seat to proceedings and didn’t actually wrestle on the PPV at all). Indeed, this was a deeply personal grudge (apparently based on some alleged animosity dating back to WWE; TNA didn’t elaborate on this so as usual, the viewers weren’t given the full story and so didn’t know WHAT exactly went on with these two previously), so personal that the ring literally couldn’t contain these two.
It was a hard-hitting, realistic brawl that saw both Knockouts battle towards the stage and force the referee to deem the bout a double-DQ. Of course, this didn’t stop the battle; as Tara snapped a broom over Mickie’s back, before Mickie responded by bashing Tara in the head with a bin.
Overall, this match resembled the sort of out-of-control angle one might find on “IMPACT!”, plus the cheap DQ finish didn’t help. It made sense in the end, as a rematch was booked under “Falls Count Anywhere” rules at Final Resolution and on the “IMPACT!” following that PPV, there was the decisive “Cage Match” to perhaps conclude the rivalry. However, I still feel that perhaps TNA could have by-passed this match at Turning Point, or at least have given the fans a winner.
TNA made the right call by having The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) retain their TNA World Tag-Team Titles against Team 3D (Brother Ray & Brother Devon) in what had been promoted as 3D’s “last match.”
Of course, most of the fans didn’t buy the “retirement” story (good job, too as it turned out to be another ruse. On the next edition of “IMPACT!”, Brother Ray callously attacked Devon from behind and later explained his actions by saying that Devon had “screwed up” at Turning Point and that he had carried the team for years. It doesn’t seem like Ray or Devon are leaving TNA any time soon). However, they did get behind 3D in the match and willed them on to “retire” as champions.
It was certainly an action-packed, if a little short, encounter. 3D kicked out of the “Skull & Bones” (neck-breaker/ vertical splash double-team combo). Brother Ray accidentally drove himself through a table. The Guns kicked out of the “3D” finisher. The Guns eventually got the duke with a 2nd “Skull & Bones”, ensuring that the tag belts remained in their camp.
Up next was an “Extreme Rules” match between Rob Van Dam and Tommy Dreamer. Their friendship had been strained heading into the PPV thanks to RVD (who was betrayed by former friend Jeff Hardy at Bound For Glory) being paranoid that Eric Bischoff had secretly recruited a member of “EV2” to join “Immortal” and betray Van Dam. Dreamer was adamant that this was not the case, but felt that his hand had been forced into having this match to get their grievances out in the open.
This match was ok, but they took some silly risks out there with chairs and ladders (Van Dam actually did “Rolling Thunder” on a steel ladder, unprotected). It should have been stopped when Dreamer injured his hand, giving fans and viewers at home the sick visual of the outline of bone protruding through the skin. But Tommy continued right through to the planned finish: A “Five-Star Frog Splash” from Van Dam while Dreamer was laying on a steel chair.
The 10-Man Tag-Team Match between “Fortune” and “EV2” was better, albeit a little rushed. The stipulation was that someone from the losing team would be fired. Since “EV2” had the most dispensable guys (most of whom likely to be on short-term deals), there were no prizes for guessing which team would come out on the losing end here.
Brian Kendrick (who’s not strictly an ECW guy, but had to make up the numbers) got taken out early with what looked to be a legit knee injury (it wasn’t). Rhino (who looks to have now left TNA following Final Resolution) nearly sent Robert Roode flying out the ring with an extra-powerful “Gore”, while Sabu was the bout’s true “MVP” (which was a shame, because he ended up being the guy who got “fired”, after taking a match-winning top-rope “Styles-Clash” from AJ Styles).
It was said to see Sabu legitimately leave TNA. It was just as said to see Raven join him just a short time later.
Now it was time for the “Lumberjack Match” between The Pope and Abyss. Based on the build up (I.e. Abyss “kidnapping” audience members and dragging people out of the crowd), I was under the impression that TNA would stage the (admittedly naff) “Fan’s Revenge” match, where “fans” (or “plants”) would “get their own back” on “The Monster.” From a story line perspective, this would have made more sense than what TNA ended up running with.
TNA booked a “Lumberjack Match” featuring members of Pope’s “congregation.” One of these men was supposedly Pope’s “brother.” Presumably, they would have Pope’s “back” as he fought the odds against Abyss.
Pope was “banged up” before the match even started. He had his ribs taped up from a previous Abyss attack. In all honesty, the action in this bout was pretty forgettable up until the finish, which was lame to say the least.
Eric Bischoff appeared and made the “money” sign to the “congregation.” They responded by attacking Pope: IT HAD BEEN A SET-UP ALL ALONG! (YAWN!).
They tossed Pope back into the ring and allowed Abyss to hit the “Black-Hole Slam” for the win. So, it seemed that Pope had been screwed out of victory by a bunch of mystery men whom the live audience and viewers at home had only just met. Therefore, there was no reason to care.
There was also no reason to care about Samoa Joe’s dull “Submission Match” against Jeff Jarrett. This bout just didn’t have any real flow to it and the finish (again) was screwy (Jeff’s hired goons Gunner and Murphy interfered and Jarrett choked Joe out with a nigh-stick for the win. Since then “Double J” has been doing a rather embarrassing turn as an “MMA Fighter.” If this whole saga ends with an angle involving a real MMA Fighter standing up to Jeff on PPV, then perhaps it has some logic [however, since it probably won’t, then it’s little more than another idiotic TNA idea]).
Thankfully, Jeff Hardy’s TNA World Heavyweight Championship defence against “The Blue-Print” Matt Morgan was an improvement on the previous two matches, although it was far from main event-worthy when it comes to PPV events.
The first real problem was that Morgan didn’t get the desired baby face reaction. Despite Hardy’s heel turn at BFG, fans still want to root for this guy, and this was clearly evident in this match.
Also, Morgan struggled to shake off the “last-minute replacement” stigma and didn’t really make the match his “own.” Finally, and generally speaking, this match just felt like a match that TNA, Hardy and Morgan had to “get out of the way”, it didn’t come across as significant, like any World Title PPV headline match should.
That said, there were a few bright spots. Hardy kicked out of the “Carbon Foot-Print”, and Morgan kicked out of the “Twist Of Fate” and later blocked the “Swanton Bomb.”
The finish was a bit messy (even if it was intended to look that way). Morgan hit another “Carbon Foot-Print” but rookie referee “Jackson James” only counted two because Hardy’s leg was raised and in his way (Hardy’s shoulders were still on the mat).
Morgan couldn’t believe it, but Hardy came back with the “Whisper In The Wind” and another “Twist Of Fate” to retain his title.
The post-match proceedings saw “Immortal” celebrate with Hardy. He would live to fight another day as champion.
And that’s how Turning Point ended. Morgan, the “middleman” getting cheated out of the title by an inexperienced official and Hardy capitalising on the mistake and scurrying away with the title. The show had certainly been a mixed bag of highs, lows and baffling booking decisions.
Previously posted on Smashwrestling:
http://www.firetank.com/smashwrestling/
