I found last night’s TNA Genesis to be a good show, albeit the ending just really struck me the wrong way. If TNA is to shine here with all the talent that they have, they need to quit overbooking the main event. We sat through this crap when Jarrett was champion over the last few years, and I don’t need to see this almost 6 years later. As much as I was upset with Angle trying to take over power in TNA, I’m even more behind him now as Jarrett/Mantell have slowly ruined the main event of this product.
When I do my reviews, I begin from the start of the card to the end, but today I speak first about the main event…..Kurt Angle & Kevin Nash vs. Sting & Booker T. This main event has had strong build-up for months; and with the mystery partner deal it brought intrigue. To a point I was fine with Tomko and Styles coming out to help Angle, it was a surprise that threw us all off and didn’t see it coming. To add Christian standing at the ramp way at the end in shock was priceless.
My complaints here are big, Kevin Nash couldn’t move around the ring or to the ring, Sharmell/Karen fighting was just not needed, and where in the hell was Scott Hall? There was nothing but mere chaos in the ring. At one point, I had no clue what in the world was going on with all the crazy drama taking center stage.
I hope that they follow through with this here and that we get Angle having the tag champs join his stable, while Christian recruits The Outsiders to his group, and Bobby Roode. This would be a perfect opportunity for Nash to allow Christian as the leader of this group and propel him one step further up that ladder. Imagine Christian leading Nash, Hall, and Bobby Roode………..this could be for some good TV. Limiting Nash and Hall as a tag team could work out, since Nash can’t move as well anymore……this would be Christian’s way of getting back at Tomko & Styles.
I enjoyed Booker’s surprise entrance, but did we need a 30 second interval between Sting entering the ring and Booker making his TNA debut? Why did West and Tenay have to talk during that interval, it really killed the momentum for the TV viewer. I think the dreads need to go Book, time to go back to your fade my friend.
The match itself was fine and what I expected. Booker T looks like he is happy to be here and a man on a mission to prove drain WWE. I’ve already seen that look in Angle’s, Team 3D’s, and Christian’s eyes since coming to TNA.
Black Reign vs. Abyss in a Shop of Horrors Match turned out to be rather enjoyable and a good opener. I like this spot better than placing these two towards the end of the show like last month. They pulled out all the stops here and this shows why every promotion except for the WWE knows how to do a good hardcore style match. I am glad for once that we didn’t see the thumbtacks or bag of glass; that is starting to drive me nuts with Abyss’s gimmick. Very crazy and violent matchup between the two that saw Abyss win with a pinfall. But the real treat came at the end, when Abyss took the key from Reign and opened that mystery box, out came a demon looking guy named “RedRum”….who is Johnny Stamboli using a version of his Great Muta character from Japan, to give Abyss a beat down.
Now this WCW-like limo crap needs to stop, it was beaten to death in the 90’s/early 00’s…….but doesn’t work anymore here in 2007.
In what I am claiming a tie for the match of the night, The Motor City Machine Guns vs. Team 3D was excellent all around. This has to go to Team 3D’s willingness to put over the youngsters + the MCMG’s showing what is lacking in tag teams here in 2007. There was a lot of back and forth action between the two teams that was pure excitement from the opening bell. All that team work in ROH for the MCMG has paid off here and they are a team that should be getting those straps soon. My only real complaint here is that we know T3D are the heels, but so are Shelly & Sabin, so are they faces now or just defending the X division? This is one of the issues with TNA, they just don’t differentiate the two so well at times and this is Vince Russo’s problem.
Up next we had Gail Kim vs. ODB vs. Angel Williams vs. Roxxi in a 4 Way match for the Women’s title. Granted most of these women in the ring are former OVW alumni that came so close to the main WWE roster, but never made it to the next step except for Gail Kim whom is a former Women’s Champ. ODB cracks me up as she came out with a flask, making her look even crazier than she already is. Angel Williams is one hot piece is all I’m going to say and leave it at that. Please, Please TNA get rid of this voodoo gimmick on Roxxi, she is actually a pretty looking woman. The in-ring action was very good and didn’t seem like a mess as many 4 way matches usually do. I did find it weird with the whole Roxxi hypnotizing the ref, which cracked me up, LOL! Gail Kim would score the pinfall on ODB. We had Awesome Kong come out and stand at the ramp way staring down Kim, so I can’t wait for this feud to resume. Very good stuff and this women’s division is off to a good start and TNA for once made a smart move here bringing in ladies with actual talent making this one of the deepest women’s divisions in years when you factor in WWE/F and WCW.
Then we have the X title match next, Jay Lethal vs. Sonjay Dutt in what seemed to be an ok match, but I’m really getting tired of both Dutt’s gimmick/scripted work and Lethal’s Macho Man rip off impersonation. I think that Lethal would have been ok on his own without that gimmick, but there is TNA for you. I found this match to be ok, and it was Lethal carrying the entire way since I think by now I have Dutt’s scripted actions down to a tee. I thought the back and forth hugging was a bit too much, and then it pissed off Lethal so they started really going at it afterwards. Lethal pins Dutt for the win, but I was disappointed here as we had no back story to this match at all and shoot, why hasn’t TNA used Jimmy Rave yet in the role he belongs in and not a lackey to Hoyt and Hemme. There are just way too many people on this roster that are being misused, but that is for a different article. Afterwards we have T3D come out and attack both Lethal and Dud, plus stealing Lethal’s title claiming that they were holding it hostage.
Title match #3 AJ Styles & Tomko vs. The Steiner Brothers already in the middle of the show, back-to-back-to-back, makes you wonder what TNA is thinking by doing this. Not the greatest tag match that I have seen, and I think it might have to do to a degree with the Steiner Brothers not being the same wrestlers they were 10 years ago. I think this was harder on the eyes since both Tomko and Styles didn’t have anyone up to their caliber to wrestle against, so this was almost a brawl with many grounds attacks and a few aerial ones that Styles would bust out. I’m really liking this team of Styles and Tomko, so I hate to see TNA break them up but that is what they have been leading too the last few months.
As we near the end of the show, we have the future battling each other – Samoa Joe vs. Robert Roode. Both men will be main eventing TNA in the future as long as that glass ceiling breaks. Excellent match between the two and this is what this should be about, having an actual wrestling match and small feud that tells a good story in the ring. Now I didn’t care for West’s/Tenay’s story about Brooks/Roode relationship to add on top of this. It was awesome to see Roode nail a piledriver that we rarely see in wrestling anymore on Joe. The scary part was that Ms. Brooks fainted outside the ring, but I guess it was to getting overheated…..good thing that she is fine. Creative really needs to flesh out Roode’s persona a bit more and time to let go of Ms. Brooks as their making her look like a slave now more than anything else. I hope these guys grapple it up again in the future, I think they can pull off an even better match.
In the tie for match of the night, we had Kaz vs. Christian in the finals of the fight for the right tournament in a ladder match. It goes to show why Christian is the man when it comes to these ladder matches. The guy just works around the ladder so well that it has become scary. I couldn’t believe some of the high impact moves by Kaz with the ladder, I was waiting for some crazy version of the flux capacitor tonight off the ladder, but didn’t work out that way. This match alone shows what kind of potential that Kaz has and hopefully TNA will jump on this sooner than later.
The Bottom Line
Genesis turned out better than expected and it was the night for the younger and homegrown talent to shine which is great with that direction and hopefully we will see more of this in the future. Booker T is a nice addition to the roster, but if he isn’t used correctly he will be a waste and that could be a shame with the value that he brings. I still feel that the “X” title is in limbo and it’s going to be sometime before we ever see this thing back to normal. Now that TNA has 2 hours, it might also be nice to finally add a mid-card title to help push the guys ready for the main event.
The problem here is that we had a good PPV, but how they follow-up to this with the IMPACT Tapings is one thing that worries me the most. And both the Orlando crowd + Don West need to go………..I can’t take them anymore as this crowd is so inconsistent and West with shouting, I think the guy is going to have an orgasm one of these days on air.
