TNA Final Resolution 2012 12/9/2012

TNA World Champion Jeff Hardy defends against Bobby Roode. Also, AJ Styles looks to get final revenge on Christopher Daniels!

Total Non-Stop Wrestling presents Final Resolution
Date: 12/9/2012
From: Orlando, FL

Matches:
1.)James Storm defeated Kazarian
2.)TNA X-Division Champion Rob Van Dam defeated Kenny King to retain the title
3.)TNA World Tag Team Champions Chavo Guerrero Jr. & Hernandez defeated Matt Morgan & Joey Ryan by disqualification to retain the titles
4.)Austin Aries defeated Bully Ray
5.)TNA Knockouts Champion Tara defeated Mickie James
6.)Kurt Angle, Samoa Joe, Wes Brisco & Garrett Bischoff defeated Aces & Eights
7.)Christopher Daniels defeated AJ Styles
8.)TNA World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Hardy defeated Bobby Roode to retain the title

Angle Developments/Notes:
1. The opening match wasn’t promoted prior to the show. I thought Storm had suffered a serious rib injury, but he is already back in action. Kazarian decided he wanted to shut Storm up from his constant complaining. He did get the expression of “ride off into the sunset” incorrect by saying sunshine instead. It is clear early on that Storm isn’t 100% as he doesn’t appear to be putting forth a full effort and is favoring his ribs. Kazarian’s offense is rather basic and isn’t all that effective, really. As soon as I say that, he hit a springboard leg drop. Storm hit a double under hook DDT of sorts as he made his comeback. Kazarian nearly won following a slingshot DDT from the apron back into the ring. Storm was able to quickly recover and hit the Last Call after getting out of the Fade To Black. (*3/4. It started off slow and didn’t have a lot of good action, but they managed to get some decent action in there for the last two minutes or so. Storm shouldn’t wrestle unless he is 100%, though.)

2. I’m a big fan of Kenny King and I was hoping this would be his breakout match where he made a huge impact. They trade some kicks but neither man is able to get a lengthy amount of offense in at the start of the match. RVD is focusing his attack on King’s left leg, and the fans chant “this is awesome” or about ten people did, and it’s not awesome by any means. King wakes me up by kicking RVD off the top rope with a kick and the champ crumbles to the floor! Oddly enough, King isn’t able to maintain the control. For an X-Division match this has been boring. I miss the days of high risk, crazy stuff. RVD is crotched on the top and King hit a spinning kick for a near fall. RVD blocked a slingshot splash by getting his knees up. The champ hits the Rolling Thunder but is stopped on the top rope. RVD leaps off the top to kick King down to the canvas. RVD misses the Five Star Frog Splash! King can’t hit the Royal Flush and is rolled up by RVD, which is good enough for the win. (**. They didn’t click all that well and I didn’t find it all that entertaining. I think RVD needs to take his career to a different promotion. He’s just not worth it.)

3. Ryan is controlled early on by Chavo and Hernandez. Chavo tried to drop toe hold Morgan but that didn’t work out so well. Hernandez gets the tag and the big men have a standoff. Remember when they were tag team champions together? The announcers didn’t mention that. Morgan hit a discus clothesline to get the upper hand on Hernandez. Hernandez takes Ryan down with a delayed vertical suplex. Ryan simply can’t get anything going when he is in the ring. Morgan rams Chavo head first into the top turnbuckle while the referee is distracted to help Ryan out. Chavo hit a nice hurricanrana to send Ryan face first into the middle turnbuckle. Hernandez enters with a slingshot shoulder block and works over Ryan. Morgan slams Ryan onto Hernandez but can’t get a three count. Hernandez is headbutted by Morgan from the apron and Matt goes for a choke slam. Chavo hits a missile dropkick and Hernandez sends Morgan to the floor with a clothesline. Hernandez tags in Chavo who hit a frog splash but Morgan pulled the referee out. That causes the disqualification. After the match, Morgan catches Chavo and rams him back first into the ring post. Hernandez takes Morgan out with a dive over the top rope! (**. Well, these two teams will be meeting again as this was just a way to actually give a proper reason for them to have a showdown on pay per view. So, from an angle advancement perspective, this did an alright job of accomplishing that.)

4. Aries slapped Ray in the early moments of the contest and that’s just asking for trouble. Ray proceeds to take Austin over with a gut wrench toss. Aries fought back with a middle rope dropkick and a neck breaker. Aries comes off the ropes to hit an elbow strike to Ray’s upper back area. Aries big boots Ray moments later and mocks Hogan before hitting a leg drop. Ray kicks out at one, proving the move is an awful finishing move. Ray hit a gorilla press slam and a big splash, just like the Ultimate Warrior for a two count. Is this turning into WrestleMania VI?! Ray hit a missile dropkick off the middle rope. Aries attempted a suicide dive but ran right into a foot by Bully. Aries hit a running dropkick but couldn’t hit a brainbuster. Ray hit a nice Bully Cutter but only got a near fall. Aries sends Ray face first into the ring steps. That causes Bully to be busted wide open. Brooke Hogan runs out to check on the bloody Ray and gets blood all over her hands. Aries grabs Brooke and brings her into the ring. Ray has recovered and tosses Aries to the floor. Hulk Hogan slowly walks down to the ring and Bully checks on Brooke. Aries slides in and low blows Ray to get the cheap win. (**1/2. Well, it was a decent match but the drama involving Brooke is just silly. For some reason I just can’t buy into Brooke and Bully having some kind of relationship. A solid win for Aries, though.)

5. How many times can Mickie James lose a Knockout Championship match? James nearly rolled Tara up after Tara talked to Jesse on the apron. Mickie hit a hurricanrana out of the corner but couldn’t hit a DDT. Tara is pulled out of the ring by Jesse so Mickie kicks him down. On the floor, Tara kicks James on the apron and Jesse taunts James. This match is rather uninteresting. Tara nearly wins with a spinning side slam. James battles back with a series of forearm shots. Jesse gets kicks off the apron and Tara hits the Widows Peak to win the match. (*1/4. Just an uninteresting match and Mickie constantly losing title matches makes her unimportant in the company. Now, it’s on to a Tara/Sky feud, I’d imagine.)

6. Angle takes Devon over with a snap suplex early on. Joe wants a piece of Devon, but Devon bailed out of the ring quickly. DOC enters and is hammered away on by Joe. Bischoff enters but DOC quickly got control of the little man. I have no idea why Garrett is involved in this angle, he is not that good. Brisco gets tagged in and along with Bischoff splashes the masked man in the corner. Brisco tags in Joe who delivers several kicks. Joe is attacked on the floor briefly to give the heels the advantage. DOC splashes Joe and keeps the advantage with several elbow strikes. I think it’s interesting that Joe is getting manhandled the way he has been. This role should have gone to Bischoff, in my opinion. Joe slams one masked guy onto the other before tagging in Angle. Angle enters and cleans house with several suplexs. All eight men begin to brawl. DOC hits a chokeslam on Angle but Brisco hits a top rope cross body. Brisco is met with a big boot, Bischoff plants a DDT, Devon hits a spine buster, Joe kicks Devon to the floor. Joe followed up with a suicide dive onto Devon. Bischoff prevents DOC from using the hammer. Brisco spears the big man to the floor and Angle gets the win with the Angle Slam. (**1/4. Not an awful match or anything, but it was really just average. I’m confused why Aces & Eights can’t win an important match. The group has rather weak members and having them lose just makes them look weaker.)

7. This is the final showdown between Styles and Daniels. Whenever that is said, it usually takes less than a year for rivals to meet again. Apparently, they have wrestled one hundred and fifteen times. That can’t be just in TNA, but that is still a crazy amount. They keep the start of the match rather simple and slow with mostly mat wrestling taking place. Styles drops Daniels with a big clothesline to hit the first impactful move. Daniels is just getting manhandled at this point by Styles who is just delivering strikes for the most part. Wow, Styles hits a snap suplex on the apron. Daniels is able to slam Styles back first across the apron as well just seconds later. Daniels also slams Styles onto the steps back first. Daniels tries to get a submission with a crossface but that isn’t successful. They collide in the middle of the ring with cross body attempts and Styles has been cut open right by his left eye. Daniels attempts the BME but Styles gets out of the way and hit a top rope flying forearm! Styles locks in a torture rack before slamming Daniels back down to the canvas. Daniels stops Styles on the top to hit a superplex! Styles battled back with a discus clothesline and the pele kick. Styles counters Angles Wings into the Styles Clash but Daniels kicked out at two! Styles goes for a middle rope Styles Clash but Daniels holds onto the middle rope and drops AJ head first down to the mat. Daniels hits the Styles Clash and that’s good for the three. (***1/2. It was a good match and the story was executed to near perfection. I thought Styles would win, but this makes sense for Styles to turn heel. Hopefully this leads to a push for Daniels as I would pay to see a Daniels main event run. He deserves it.)

8. Roode gets the quick advantage by working over Hardy’s ribs in the opening moments. Hardy fought back with a backdrop but Roode bailed out of the ring. Hardy hit a slingshot crossbody onto the floor. Roode hit a clothesline back in the ring but couldn’t get a three count. Roode hit a rolling neck snap and is focusing his offense on Hardy’s ribs it seems like. This is rather slow and uninteresting at the moment. Hardy gets his feet up as Roode jumped off the middle rope. They slug it out for a moment until Hardy hit a side Russian leg sweep and got a near fall. Roode sends Hardy through the middle rope to the floor. Roode sends the champ into the ring steps shoulder first. Hardy recovers in the ring and kicks Roode with a double leg drop. Jeff hits a middle rope big splash but Roode powers out at two. Roode counters a piledriver by catapulting Hardy into the corner, but the champ hit the Whisper in the Wind for a near fall! Roode nearly stole the belt with a roll up and a handful of tights. Hardy plants Roode with a front suplex. Hardy hits a top rope splash but still can’t get a three count. Hardy runs into a spinebuster but Roode can’t get the ever important three count. Roode rolls to the floor after the champ hit the Twist of Fate. Hardy follows up by leaping off the apron to hit a clothesline. Hardy jumps off the steps and misses Roode. He instead hits the railing and falls over into the crowd. Roode nearly wins back in the ring but Hardy kicks out. Roode is shoved off the top by Hardy, who jumps off the top to hit the Swanton Bomb but can’t make the cover. Roode spears Hardy and nearly wins again! Here comes the Aces and Eights. Roode is yelling at them because he paid them. He turns around and Hardy hit the Twist of Fate for the win. After the match, Hardy is attacked by the gang. DOC powerbombs Hardy. Roode is pissed about not getting help. Devon whacks Roode with a bat and he is beaten up as well. DOC chokeslams Roode because he can. Aces and Eighs stand tall to end the show. (***. A solid match that started off rather slowly, but they put together a fine main event match.)

Final Thoughts:
This didn’t feel like a pay per view, but rather a show hyping up a pay per view. There were three matches that I felt were good and entertaining. But, mostly the matches just seemed like they were hyping up rematches or something down the line. Aside from Daniels/Styles, I feel like there wasn’t much resolved. I’m going to give this a thumbs down, overall. I just wasn’t all that entertained.

Thanks for reading.