Full TNA Impact! Results – 4/29/05
Taped From: Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay & Don West
Report by: Ryan Droste of WrestleView.com
-The show begins with a In Memory of Chris Candido screen. Chris’ involvement later on in the main event of today’s show was his last appearance on a professional wrestling show, having been taped this past Tuesday. (Personal Note: I just wanted to say a few words about Chris. I never met him, but from what I have always heard about the man, he was an incredibly nice human being. I first saw Chris perform somewhere around 11 years ago or so. Chris always stood out to me as an outstanding performer. He was one of the bright spots I looked forward to on Impact ever since he joined TNA a couple of months ago. The sadness of this death, especially because of the fluke way it happened, cannot be put into words. I will always look back upon the many times I watched Chris do what he did best with fond memories. My sincerest condolences go out to his family. Chris will be missed by many.)
-Still photos are shown of this past Sunday’s PPV, Lockdown.
-The Impact opening montage airs.
Petey Williams vs. Shocker
They start things off with shocker with a drop toe hold, there’s some quick reversals of armbars, a rollup by Shocker for a near fall. Petey trips Shocker and misses an elbow. Williams with a standing headlock. Shocker sends him to the mat, follows that up with a shoulder block. Shocker with a powerslam on Petey. Shocker moonsaults off the second rope, Petey moves, and he lands on his feet. Petey drop kicks him. Shocker backdrops Petey over the top rope, where Petey lands on the apron on the outside. Shocker with a punch. Shocker flips over the top rope and over Petey, going for a sunset flip to the outside, but Petey blocks it with some punches to the face. Petey then drops a leg across the neck of Shocker sending him to the arena floor. Back in the ring. Petey with a snap mare. Petey puts Shocker and his arms in a pretzel like submission move. Shocker fights to his feet. Shocker with some back elbows and he spins to behind Petey. Shocker goes for the belly to back suplex, but Petey lands on his feet. Shocker lands a tilt a whirl backbreaker. Shocker with a running big boot. A second one. Shocker with a rollup for a near fall. Shocker sends Williams into the ropes, Petey goes for a flying headscissors but lands on his feet and hits a russian side legsweep instead. Near fall by Petey. Petey with a kick. Petey goes for the Canadian Destroyer, but the moves ends pretty much like your usual roll up instead of the usual powerbomb like ending. Petey puts on the sharpshooter. Shocker gets to the ropes to break it. Petey with some punches to the back followed by a german suplex. Petey goes to put on the sharpshooter again, but Shocker slaps him a few times. Shocker rolls Petey up in a weak looking pin for the win in 3:49. Match was good until the messed up Canadian Destroyer and weak looking roll up that ended the match, which took a full * off the final match rating I’m giving it. Match Rating: *1/2
Winner: Shocker
-After the match, Tenay interviews Shocker. Tenay asks him about his X Title shot at Christopher Daniels at the next PPV. Shocker says this is his chance to prove himself to the American fans. He then mutters some words in Spanish.
-Tenay and West talk about the PPV this past Sunday. Video footage is shown of where Chris Candido broke his leg in the opening minute of the first match.
Buck Quartermain vs. Sonjay Dutt
Buck throws Dutt into the corner. He charges at Dutt a few times, but Dutt pushes him off with his feet. Dutt with a crossbody block off the ropes. Dutt with an arm drag. Dutt with a drop kick. Buck rolls to the outside. Dutt slingshots over the top rope on to the outside to nail a crossbody on Buck. Dutt suplexes Buck back into the ring and goes for a pin afterwards but Buck kicks out. Sonjay with a schoolboy for a near fall. Sonjay comes off the ropes, and Buck drops him on his face. Buck with a near fall. Dutt nails a hurricanrana. Dutt goes for a flying headscissors but Buck just throws him off. Buck with a near fall. Buck with an elbow drop followed by another near fall. Buck with a knee drop to the face. Buck chokes at Dutt on the mat. Buck with a belly to back suplex. Buck with another near fall. Buck with a snap mare. Buck puts on a sleeper hold. Buck lets go and nails two strong elbow drops. He goes for a third but Dutt moves. Dutt with a dropkick to Buck, whom was sitting on the mat. Dutt with a couple big right hands. Dutt nails a back body drop on Buck. Dutt with an elbow. Buck throws Dutt over the top rope, but Dutt grabs the rope and hangs on. Dutt with a left hand to Quartermain. Dutt then uses the ropes to flip over the top rope, landing on Buck’s shoulders, and he then nails a hurricanrana into a pin to get the pinfall in 4:09. Overall good match. Fast paced action. The finishing move was awesome. Match Rating: **1/2
Winner: Sonjay Dutt
Mikey Batts vs. The Outlaw
Lock up, Outlaw throws Batts to the mat. Lock up, Outlaw pushes Batts into the corner. Batts dodges a punch. Batts runs into a big boot from Outlaw. Outlaw stomps on Batts. Batts with a bulldog. Batts runs into a side power slam from Outlaw. Outlaw with some stomps, and he then drops a forearm. Outlaw with some more punches. Batts tries to fight back, but he gets a knee to the gut for his troubles. Outlaw with a huge headlock slam. Outlaw gets the pinfall in 2:11. A pretty quick squash match. Match Rating: *
Winner: The Outlaw
-After the match, the 3 Live Kru comes out. Konnan calls Outlaw a “bia-bia”, making all the thirteen year old girls in the audience swoon, and making the men wonder when Konnan started talking like a chick. Konnan basically punks out Outlaw, and he says in a week they are going to fight. Outlaw rolls out of the ring and leaves.
-Dusty Rhodes talks from the “TNA Conference Room.” Thank god they got rid of the pickup truck bed office. Dusty makes some announcements for the upcoming Hard Justice PPV. Dusty announces a Gaunlet for the Gold 20 man match to be declared #1 contender for the NWA World Title. Dusty then focuses attention to the AJ Styles vs. Jeff Jarrett NWA World Title main event. Dusty announces Tito Ortiz will be the special referee for the match.
-Jeff Jarrett comes out to the ring. He goes up to Tenay and West and shoves them. Jeff says he doesnt care that Ortiz is coming, he fears nobody. Jeff talks about how he beat 4 men to become NWA World Champion, and he has a victims list that goes on and on. Jarrett says he’s no Ken Shamrock, and he will slap the taste right out of his mouth when he sees him. It’s kind of odd they are building up Ortiz as a babyface when he’s a total heel to most UFC fans.
-It’s now time for the NWA World Tag Team Championship match. Before the match they show a “Tag Lines” screen listing the key points to this match. They are: AMW: Fighting Champions, Candido Factor, Can History Repeat Himself (The Naturals defeated AMW for the tag titles July 7, 2004)
NWA Tag Team Title Match
The Naturals (Chase Stevens & Andy Douglas) w/ Chris Candido vs. ( C ) America’s Most Wanted (James Storm & Chris Harris)
Before the match, Candido talks on the mic. He talks about the injury he suffered. He says nothing is going to keep him from this day. His boys are going to take the tag team championship, he says. Douglas pulls up a chair for Candido to sit in next to the ring. Storm and Stevens start things off. Stevens dodges a lock up and nails some punches on Storm. Storm with a punch of his own. Storm with a Lou Thesz press and some punches. Douglas comes in and receives a hip toss. Storm works over Stevens. Harris goes to the outside with Douglas. They fight on the ramp. Storm and Stevens are on the outside now also. Harris throws Douglas into the crowd. He hops the rail and fights with Douglas in the crowd. Storm throws Stevens into the steel rail. Harris and Douglas are fighting at the very top, last row of the stands now. Stevens’ head is slammed into the announce table by Storm. Harris suplexes Douglas on the steps up in the crowd. Storm with a face buster on Stevens on the ramp, and he then throws him into the guard rail. Harris nails a slingshot on Douglas, sending his neck into the bottom of the steel rail. Storm throws Stevens into the rail again. Storm lifts Stevens, and drops him stomach first on the safety rail. Harris sneds Douglas into the announce table three times face first. Stevens and Storm fight in the crowd. Commercial break. Back from the commercial, Storm and Douglas are fighting in the ring. Candido grabs Storm and chokes him with a towel. Douglas with a lowblow headbutt to Storm. Douglas with abig punch on Storm in the corner now. Douglas with an irish whip across the ring, Douglas then charges into a big boot from Storm. Storm with a jawbreaker on Douglas. Chris Harris is tagged in. He comes off the top rope with an axe handle smash on Douglas. He then punches Stevens off the apron. Back body drop on Douglas. Atomic drop on Stevens, followed by an arm lariat. Harris goes up top and comes off with a cross body into a pin on Douglas. Stevens breaks the pin up. Storm comes in and fights with Stevens. Stevens sends Storm to the outside. Harris then clotheslines Stevens over the top rope to the outside. Harris is whipped into the ropes by Douglas, Stevens hits Harris hard in the back when he hits the ropes, and then Douglas nails a high knee to Harris. Douglas sends Harris face first into the top turnbuckle. He then stretches Harris’ arms across the top rope, pulling back on them. Candido consoles Stevens on the outside. Douglas rakes Harris’ eyes across the top rope. Douglas chokes Harris with his boot in the corner on the ground. Douglas puts an armbar submission on Harris. Douglas with an elbow drop. Stevens is tagged in, coming in with some punches. Stevens whips Harris hard into the turnbuckle, then clotheslines Harris as he bounces out of the turnbuckle Near fall. Stevens with an elbow to the upperback, sending Harris down. Stevens puts on the camel clutch submission. Stevens drives an elbow into the forehead. Harris fights back with some punches to the stomach, but Stevens pokes him in the eye. Stevens throws Harris to the outside. Douglas comes out and grabs one of Candido’s crutches. Douglas beats Harris with the crutch. Stevens was distracting the ref in the ring. Harris is rolled back in the ring, where Stevens makes the pin attempt. Harris kicks out. Douglas is tagged back in. Douglas with a punch upon entry to Harris. Commercial break again. Back from the commercial, Douglas goes to drop down on Harris’ back, but Harris spins around and gets a leg up. Stevens is tagged in. The Naturals double team Harris with some punches as Storm complains to the ref. Douglas is tagged in. They irish whip Harris into the corner. Stevens then whips Douglas into Harris, but Harris moves and clotheslines Stevens. He then clotheslines Douglas. Harris tags in Storm. Storm with punches to both Naturals. Storm with a big powerslam on Stevens. Storm with a modified powerbomb like maneuver, after Douglas’ feet had landed upon his shoulders trying to rise out of the turnbuckle. Storm goes for an irish whip on Stevens, but he reverses throwing Storm out of the ring. Storm holds on to the ropes, and he “skins the cat” as JR would say, pulling himself back over the top rope. Stevens turns around and goes to clothesline the running into Storm. Storm ducks, and nails a head scissors. Storm goes for the cover, and gets a near fall. Douglas hooked the ref’s arm to prevent the 3 count. Harris punches Douglas. Storm lifts up Douglas to set up possibly the Death Sentence, but as Harris comes off the ropes Stevens nails him with a kick. Storm throws Douglas down. Storm nails a kick to the back of the head on Stevens. Storm goes for a cover and gets a near fall. Douglas grabs one of the tag belts and brings it into the ring. He raises it in the air looking to hit someone, but the ref grabs it and takes it away. Douglas turns around into a superkick from Harris. Candido slides his chair into the ring as the ref is getting the belt out of the ring. Harris turns around into a chairshot from Stevens with the ref’s back still turned. Storm then spears Stevens. All men down. As the ref checks on Stevens and Harris, Candido hops into the ring and drapes Douglas across Storm. The ref turns around and makes the 3 count, as the Naturals get the pinfall and win the tag titles in 17:45. Really good match. Awesome build to it with some high intensity spots. The huge brawl around ringside at the beginning of the match really set the tone for the rest of it. I loved the creative finish of the match and Candido’s ecstatic celebration afterwards. Match Rating: ****
Winners and NEW NWA Tag Team Champions: The Naturals
-After the match, Candido celebrates with the two tag title belts on the outside. Candido is sitting on the ground, after hobbling around with his broken leg. Candido is unbelievably happy about the win, kissing the title belts as if he just has won them. Harris pounds on Stevens a little in the ring with some punches, before Tenay goes over to Candido on the outside. Tenay has a mic and says Candido can celebrate all he wants, but he was the difference maker that allowed the Naturals to win the tag titles. Candido agress he was the difference maker. He says his boys have been overlooked, but now they are the champions. He says even with his leg injured, he proved his boys are better than AMW fair and square. An angered Tenay says what would be fair is AMW get a rematch. Candido says he’s an announcer, not a match maker. Douglas says they won the match for Candido. Tenay goes to get comments from Stevens, whom is surprised to learn he’s a tag team champion.
-A graphic with a picture of Chris Candido holding the tag team title belts with a smile on his face after this last match, and the words “Chris Candido: 1972-2005” comes on the screen to close out the show.