Written By: Matt Peddycord
March 13, 2005
Orlando, FL
Universal Studios
The current NWA & TNA Champs were as follows:
NWA World Champion: Jeff Jarrett (6/2/2004)
NWA World Tag Team Champions: America’s Most Wanted (1/16/2005)
TNA X-Division Champion: AJ Styles (1/16/2005)
Your hosts are Mike Tenay & Don West.
Team Canada (w/Scott D’Amore & Johnny Devine) vs. BG James, Konnan & America’s Most Wanted
At this point, Team Canada consists of Bobby Roode, Eric Young, Petey Williams and now replacing Johnny Devine due to a knee injury is BCW’s A-1. BG James misses the Shake Rattle and Roll on Roode, but connects with a big boot and cleans house on Team Canada. Konnan hits his rolling lariat on Young and throws his shoe at him! And they sell it like a gunshot? Storm does a stupid spot with EY where they hop over each other down on the mat until Young ends up jumping through the ropes and landing on the floor. Roode comes in and gets tossed out as Harris backdrops Storm on top of them. Harris follows them out by flying down on everybody. Back inside, EY pearl harbors Harris. Heel miscommunication occurs, but Roode pulls Williams out of a corner charge – causing Harris to run shoulder-first into the ringpost. Cheating and arm work follows from Team Canada. Pretty short heat segment as Harris fights out of an overhead wristlock from EY and nails him with a jumping clothesline to set up the HOT TAG TO KONNAN? Rolling lariat and leg snap spinebuster connects. K-FACTOR takes out Petey Williams. Roode gets stuck in the TEQUILA SUNRISE until EY makes the save. It breaks down with everybody brawling out to the floor. D’Amore gets slammed off the top by Konnan, but he doesn’t see the NORTHERN LARIAT from Roode! Cover, 1-2-3. (8:55) YAY! I’m not Canadian, but Team Canada is one of my favorite groups ever. Solid opener, but nothing special. **¾
Out in Dusty’s truck, Johnny Fairplay stops by to make excuses for getting beat up by Traci and Trinity two months ago. Quit filibustering on Dusty! He begs for another chance to be Dusty’s beeyotch, so Dusty gives him three hours to go find a tag team. Weird.
Chris Sabin vs. Chase Stevens (w/Andy Douglas & Chris Candido)
So looks like Chris Candido has taken the Naturals under his wing. Candido distracts Sabin to start to allow Stevens to attack from behind. Sabin quickly counters with a headlock and takes Stevens to the floor with a rana. He meets Stevens on the floor with a springboard plancha. Back in, Stevens does something to regain control. Didn’t see it because of the replay. Anyways, the Naturals and Candido start cheating up a storm on Sabin by choking him in the ropes and yanking him off the apron. Sabin tries a floatover out of the corner, but comes back down to a swift kick in the balls. That gets two. Stevens delivers a series of neckbreakers across the knee and finishes the sequence off with a flatliner for two. Lionsault gets another two. Stevens starts pulling back on Sabin’s arms, but Sabin escapes and mounts his comeback with an enziguri. Springboard tornado DDT gets 1-2-NO! Sabin goes for the CRADLE SHOCK, but Candido distracts the ref while Douglas stops him in mid-move. Meanwhile, Douglas counters a wheelbarrow while Douglas boots Sabin in the face! Odd rollup with a handful of tights gets reversed into a quick cradle from Sabin for the 1-2-3. (6:19) BOOYAKA! BOOYAKA! Oh, where was I? Yeah, typical TNA finish. Hate it. Way too short to mean anything too. Afterwards, Sabin gets a Team Candido beatdown until a masked man kicks them all away and somersault planchas on everybody. WHERE IS SECURITY? He unmasks alongside Sabin to reveal himself as CMLL superstar Shocker – introduced by Tenay as ‘the guy from that McDonald’s commercial’. Boy, is this WrestleMania? Real life celebrities are here in TNA! No one in the audience has a single clue who this guy is. WHAT A SHOCKER! **
Dustin Rhodes vs. Raven – Bull Rope Match
This is a rematch from last month’s show since Raven pinned Rhodes with his feet on the ropes. Rhodes pulls Raven by the bull rope into turnbuckles, ringposts and guardrails to start. Finally, Raven yanks Rhodes off the top rope to turn the tide. He finds a chair and wedges it into the corner to do some damage to Dustin’s face. I’m guessing he’s over breaking people’s fingers. Raven drops one elbow on Rhodes while he’s laid down on the chair, but Raven misses a second one. Rhodes crotches Raven on the bull rope and hits the ten-count corner punch, but Raven shoves off a BULLDOG on the cow bell. Raven goes for the drop toe hold on the chair, but Rhodes counters with a BULLDOG on the back of the chair! OWW. That gets three. (6:12) Team Canada run out and attack Rhodes for reasons I don’t understand until AMW make the save. *½
The Disciples of Destruction (w/Traci) vs. Phi Delta Slam (w/Trinity)
The only thing that the winning team gains is that their manager gets to become Dusty’s so-called assistant. Phi Delta Slam are two REALLY FAT guys known as Big Tilly and Bruno. The Disciples of Destruction are just the Harris Brothers repackaged as bikers – Big R and Heavy D. I still have no idea how you can tell those two apart. DOD clean house on the two chubs to start. Back in, they receive chokeslams. Heavy D nails Bruno with a chair down on the floor. Back in again, DOD isolate Bruno until Trinity interferes and Heavy D gets sent into the guardrail. Oh geez, this match is too long. They keep him on their side of the ring beating him up with fat people moves. Trinity tries to moonsault on Heavy D, but he NO-SELLS (and why should he?) and tosses her over the guardrail into the crowd. Back in, Bruno misses a flying elbow to set up the HOT TAG TO BIG R! The DOD run the fatties together, but Heavy D gets dumped to the floor. Big Tilly hits the FLYING SPLASH on Big R, but the ref is busy trying to stop Trinity from stomping Heavy D. Meanwhile, the twins switch and Big Tilly corner charges into a big boot for the 1-2-3. (10:22) I can’t believe it. Ten freakin’ minutes for that match. That was rough stuff. ¼*
Meanwhile at Dusty’s truck, AMW and Dustin are hanging out talking about beating up Team Canada. Johnny Fairplay just happens to stop by and ask AMW if they’ll let him manage them. They couldn’t care less about this idiot and decide to put him through a test. Never let rednecks put you through a test. It’s usually just to humiliate you. This is no different as Fairplay gets on all fours. They put some hay and a saddle on him as Storm rides him like a pony. I think that’s a “no” to his offer.
Trytan promo airs. It really makes you think the Warrior is here, but you would be wrong. He would rather fly all the way to Italy and wrestle Orlando FN Jordan before he would show up in TNA.
Trytan vs. Monty Brown
Turns out Trytan is just a big steroid freak. Think of a better looking Snitsky. Monty avoids the CHOKESLAM to start, but runs into a press slam and nearly gets dropped on the mat on his THROAT. Brown elbows out of another CHOKESLAM attempt and they head to the floor for some guardrail action. Back in, Monty runs into the CHOKESLAM and this time Trytan gets it for 1-2-NO! Brown slips out of a slam and lands on his feet to avoid the T-3 (F-5). He whips Trytan into the ropes and catches him for the Fallaway Slam. He goes for the POUNCE when the lights go out. Once the lights come back on, there’s a masked Dennis Knight (Mideon) in the ring. Monty gives him the POUNCE instead and…covers him for the 1-2-3? (5:30) That’s like something straight out of WCW. Terrible match as Trytan looked greener than New Zealand on a lush spring morning right after a heavy rainfall. Just so you don’t think Trytan disappeared in thin air, he’s over by the entrance ramp staring at Monty and motioning for him to follow him into the smoke, I think. You’d think TNA would see this as a huge disappointment in execution and never mention this character again, but once again – you would be wrong. CRAP
In the back, DDP shows us he can do yoga! It’d be more entertaining watching him try to do this in the back of Dusty’s truck.
Jeff Hardy vs. Abyss – Falls Count Anywhere
This is supposed to be the end of Jeff Hardy and Abyss doing crazy things to one another. Abyss goes for the Shock Treatment early on, but Jeff escapes and clotheslines Abyss out for a springboard plancha off a chair! They fight backstage where two tables are set up for Jeff to do a SWANTON off some steel girders that help hold up the building. We’re just four minutes into this match. Has Jeff done enough damage to keep Abyss down on those tables to do a time-consuming spot like that? Kind of kills the spot for me. Anyways, the Swanton gets two. Back to the ring and Abyss tosses in a couple more chairs. One of the chairs gets wedged into the corner by Abyss, which takes his attention away from Jeff who dropkicks another chair in his face when he turns around. Abyss catches Jeff with a big boot and flying splashes a chair on him. Cover, 1-2-NO! Abyss goes for the Earthquake Splash with the chair on top of Jeff, but Jeff turns the chair sideways and sticks it straight up into the Abyss! Three chairshots later, and Jeff covers for only two. Geez, really? Jeff takes forever to find a ladder. He sets it up in the ring and delivers the leapfrog legdrop. Cover, 1-2-NO! Well, it never wins anyway. Twist of Fate is countered into the Shock Treatment. Cover, 1-2-NO! Jeff does a floatover in the corner and Abyss goes underneath right into the wedged chair! He falls back into a roll up for 1-2-NO! Abyss crotches Jeff on a Swanton attempt and finds a table. Abyss goes up top to put Jeff through the table, but Jeff crotches *him*. He goes for a rana, but Abyss powers him back up on his shoulders and powerbombs Jeff through the table. Abyss clears the ring of the broken pieces of the table and goes for a CHOKESLAM onto the ladder, but Jeff kicks him away and delivers the TWIST OF FATE on the ladder instead for 1-2-3. (15:50) Afterwards, Abyss finds some thumbtacks from under the ring and gives Jeff the BLACK HOLE SLAM on top of them. So Jeff does win the feud? He doesn’t win the feud? I don’t understand the point of that. **½
In the back, Fairplay finds a Canadian flag and tries to convince Scott D’Amore to let him borrow just two members of his crew. They aren’t impressed.
Kevin Nash vs. Kip James – First Blood Match
Does merely four weeks of anger necessitate a first blood match before a regular match even happens? I know Cute Kip here cost Nash his title shot last month, but come on now. Both men have their fists taped up because they mean serious business. Nash does his boot choke in the corner and then gets his leg worked over by Kip. Next up, he finds a tool box and opens it up to find…a SCREWDRIVER! They do a melodramatic ’80s spot in the ring where Kip tries to jab the screwdriver down into Nash’s forehead, but Nash elbows Kip away from him at the last second. Catapult from Nash takes James to the floor where he meets the guardrail. Back in, Nash brings a chair with him and goes for a shot on James, but he takes a jimmy-tap. Instead, James wipes Nash out with the chair. No blood! James reverts back to his tool box and finds some pliers to remove and expose a turnbuckle. Neither man get their heads bashed on the exposed steel just yet. Nash hits a Big Boot and goes for Snake Eyes, but Kip slips out and shoves Nash into the ref. Kip drives Nash’s head down on the steel connector, but then takes a low-blow. After a pair of Snake Eyes and some rough athletic tape is grinded into the forehead of Kip James, we see some blood. As Nash brings the formerly KO’ed ref into the ring, here comes Jeff Jarrett to nail Nash in the face with the NWA world title belt. Meanwhile, Jeff’s crooked lawyer friend sends a doctor in to wipe the blood from Kip’s forehead. If he’s REALLY busted open, wouldn’t the blood just keep pouring out anyway? Once that’s over, the doc disappears and Nash is caught with blood on his face by the referee to give Kip James the win. (11:23) Shortly after this, Nash contracted a staph infection which took him out of action for six months. Probably the best thing that could have happened when you’re jobbing to Billy Gunn. ½*
TNA X-Division Champion AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels vs. Ron Killings vs. Elix Skipper – Ultimate X Challenge Match
Interesting little concept as the first fall is a tag match in which the loser of the fall is eliminated, the second fall is a triple-threat, and the third fall is an Ultimate X match where the winner has to retrieve the belt from the X above the ring. To avoid any unfair advantage for the team formerly known as Triple X, AJ and Skipper pair up against Daniels and Killings. Skipper and Killings start us off. Skipper beats Killings into the corner and then turns away to run his mouth off. He turns back around into a missile dropkick from Killings, followed by a powerslam for two. Skipper fires back with a butterfly suplex and connects with a missile dropkick of his own. Tag to AJ, he wants Daniels. Well, too bad. Daniels drops off the apron because why would he want to run the chance of being pinned? Alright, so we get AJ vs. DA TRUTH. Killings screws up a rana attempt and eats a dropkick instead. With AJ’s back turned, Daniels runs in and forearms Styles down. Killings hits a jumping forearm smash and tags Daniels from behind. Jumping shin kick from Daniels gets two. AJ forearms Daniels and delivers his jumping knee drop for two. Skipper nails AJ from the apron to temporarily reform Triple X. Daniels works the neck, but AJ blocks the Koji Clutch, so Daniels settles for the Crossface. AJ makes the ropes. Split-legged moonsault by Daniels gets two. Jumping enziguri from AJ connects. Now that Killings gets a tag, he and AJ work together against Skipper. Killings does his splits and stuff to set up a FLYING AXE KICK on Skipper for 1-2-NO! Daniels makes the save and gets punched out to the floor as AJ has enough of him and wipes Daniels out with a somersault plancha. Meanwhile in the ring, Skipper randomly puts Killings away with SUDDEN DEATH (Celtic Cross) for the 1-2-3 at 8:07. See ya, Ron.
Now it’s a three-way dance as AJ Styles has to take the renewed Triple X team. Daniels is still regrouping from the somersault plancha while AJ and Skipper exchange kicks in the ring. They wind up knocking each other down as Daniels climbs to the middle of the Ultimate X ropes and moonsaults down on top of AJ and Skipper. Once Skipper gets to his feet, he starts shoving Daniels around. He convinces Skipper to stick with the plan as they both come off the ropes, but then Daniels SWERVES Skipper and drills him with a clothesline. So much for the reunion. Daniels dominates Skipper in the ring and keeps AJ down on the floor until Skipper flips out of a backdrop and takes Daniels for a ride with the belly-to-belly suplex. As Elix goes for his Dragon Suplex, Daniels drops to the mat while AJ springboards in with a crossbody block. AJ delivers a Spine Breaker (backbreaker followed by a gutbuster) to Daniels and set him up in the corner. Here comes Skipper as he finds himself on one of the Ultimate X ropes and reverse ranas AJ off the top rope to the mat! Crazy! Daniels flies off the top on Skipper, but he counters that into a powerbomb! Triple X EXPLODES while AJ tries a Shooting Star Press off the Ultimate X rope, which kind of fails. Not like I could do better or anything. He still temporarily takes both guys out. AJ hits the suplex into a reverse neckbreaker on Daniels for 1-2-NO! Skipper breaks up the STYLES CLASH on Daniels and counters the Quebrada DDT into the SUDDEN DEATH! As Elix goes for the cover, Daniels gets a cheap roll up on him for the 1-2-3 at 17:16.
And now it’s just a back and forth climbing contest between AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels. The crowd is still really into everything though, which is good. Ha, they comically mess up a ref bump, which leads to AJ retrieving the belt. Daniels can’t let the ref see that, so he grabs AJ and delivers the ANGEL’S WINGS. He plays dead with the X-Division belt laid on top of himself as the ref comes to and awards the match and the title to Daniels. (25:28) Well, there’s Christopher Daniels first X-Division championship victory. While still the best match of the night, it seemed like an off-night for the X-Division. ***½
So Johnny Fairplay has given up on finding a successful tag team when he discovers the jobber tag team of Buck Quartermain and Lex Lovett. He’s all of a sudden their biggest fans. Looks like he’s snagged himself a team after all.
NWA World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Jarrett vs. Diamond Dallas Page – Ringside Revenge Match
“Ringside Revenge” match sounds kind of cool for all those alliteration fans out there, but it just adds the run-ins that you would normally see in a typical TNA main event and cuts out all the running by having anybody who might run-in during the match to interfere already there at ringside. The running was just too time consuming, I suppose. Monty Brown, 3 Live Kru, Larry Zbyszko, Team Candido, and Jarrett’s lawyer are all out here to make sure everything is even steven. Jarrett stalls a bunch to start and then attacks when Page turns his back on him. They trade finisher attempts with nobody suffering a STROKE or getting banged. Jarrett bails to the floor and puts his hands on Monty Brown, which is a bad idea. DDP beats Jarrett back into the ring for headlocks and shoulderblocks. Page clotheslines Jarrett back out to the floor and they fight into the crowd. The SAT gets cleared out as Jarrett gets tossed onto the table. In the ring, Page brings a swivel chair with him and punches Jarrett onto the chair as he spins right round, baby. Right round like a record, baby. A ride on the chair gets two. Jarrett low-blows Page during a ten-count corner punch and smashes the swivel chair down on top of Jarrett. Now THAT would have been more effective. Jarrett takes Page to school which leads into the FIGURE-FOUR. Oh, but DDP makes the ropes. Jarrett grabs a sleeper, but Page shoves him off and takes him down with a neckbreaker. Discus clothesline is followed with a big boot. Ten turnbuckle smashes and a clothesline earns Page another nearfall. Uranage from Page gets two. Jarrett hits something off-camera as we were checking out Monty Brown that gets two. Page comes back with a sitout powerbomb for 1-2-NO! Jarrett shoves off the DIAMOND CUTTER and some ill-conceived interference from Team Candido sets Page up for the STROKE. Cover, 1-2-NO! Everybody out on the floor starts brawling and during the craziness that is only occurring outside the ring, Jarrett finds a GEETAR. BG James takes away the guitar while Konnan holds Jarrett, but JJ ducks and Konnan gets KABONGED. BG and DA TRUTH haul their Mexican amigo out of the ring while Page shoves the ref into Jarrett to crotch him up top. Here comes Kip James to drill Page with the FAMOUSER. Jarrett slumps over for the pin and gets 1-2-NO! Out of nowhere, Sean Waltman appears and beats Kip James to the back. Meanwhile in the ring, DDP looks to finish with the DIAMOND CUTTER off the second rope. Jarrett’s lawyer distracts Page, but it’s not enough. Team Candido all eat DIAMOND CUTTERS. Jarrett is still sitting there on the top rope…and he still takes the DIAMOND CUTTER! The lawyer gets back in the ring and takes off his coat like he’s about to throw down when Monty Brown jumps into the ring. He appears like he’s going to POUNCE the lawyer when he runs over and POUNCES Page! Ooo, a completely unnecessary heel turn! Brown puts Jarrett on top of Page for the 1-2-3. (21:42) Brothers don’t shake hands, brothers got to hug! The Jarrett-Brown relationship has begun. Don’t understand it since Monty Brown had a commendable following as a babyface, but whatever. **
Final Thoughts: Quite the night if you’re a heel as the long-term ones all ended up looking strong while they got the better of most of the babyfaces. Hard to recommend this one even for just the X-Division considering anything under **** is a disappointment from what we’ve seen on the last two PPVs. Not that it’s a bad match, but it’s not worth tracking down the DVD to watch. A few decent matches scattered throughout the show, but there’s just too much junk on here. And what’s with the booking? Why on God’s green earth would you turn Monty Brown heel at his hottest point? Even so, I’ll go with a mild thumbs down for Destination X 2005. Of course, a thumbs down is still a thumbs down, but it’s certainly not Uncensored 1995 bad or anything.