Okay so lets hit this in order. I have to admit I'm a little out of date on TNA lately, five horendous PPV each more terrible than the last has put me off watching iMPACT! So it's about time I caught up and lets start with this past Sunday's Hard Justice PPV. Before I begin I have to point out that the graphics for this PPV are absolutely horrible.
1. Daniels defeats Suicide, D'Angelo, Chris Sabin, Alex Shelley & Amazing Red in a Steel Asylum Match to become Number One Contender to the X Division Title.
So after the X Division was unceremoniously dropped from last months Victory Road PPV they decide to bring back the usual multiman spotfest to start the show. Seriously I'm tired of this crap. I'm totally fed up of having to write the same critique I've been writting for the last four years. This match was a total spotfest, no psychology, just a bunch of moves. Some moves were more interesting and creative than others, but it was mostly bland and forgettable. Nobody gets over from this match, no characters or personalities are developed, it's just a bunch of spots thrown out there serving absolutely no purpose. The Steel Asylum gimmick is horrible, it's effectively watching the monkeys swing from the bars while the morose seals in the TNA audience clap along.
Imagine how much better this show would be if this match was broken up and instead we got three singles matches between the respective competitors. With proper backstories and character development and a month long drawn out feud with actual winners and actual losers. Not just this garbage where the morons chant "This is Awesome" and no one gets over, and nothing ever changes. On a positive note at least they gave Daniels a promo after the match to set up next months PPV, shame Daniels promos are utterly horrible.
All in all, a fine dose of athleticism to start the show, as forgettable and interchangeable as any TNA PPV opener of the last five years. (**1/4)
2. Abyss defeats Jethro Holiday (w/Stevie Richards).
Well there were certainly postives and negatives to this match. On the postive side of things Abyss stayed away from the bag of tricks, and didn't use, blood, thumb tacks and glass. Maybe he's realized if you save that for a well built fued it means twice as much as when you do it each and every PPV, or more likely they were saving the blood for the Main Eventers. On the negative side of things this was a pretty horrible Abyss-Holiday snorefest. You have to wonder why exactly this match needs to be on PPV? Is Jethro Holiday really going to sell a single PPV buy?
Passable TV match but a lumbering waste of PPV time, competent but complete devoid of any drama or suspense. (3/4*)
3. Hernandez defeats Rob Terry to win back his title shot in five seconds.
This has to be the smartest bit of booking TNA has done in a long time. Hernandez is something special, his style is incredibly high impact, his matches are exciting, he's a Latino that earns him double marketing points, and he proved that he can cut a decent promo. The Absolute correct booking decision. (N/A)
4. The British Invasion defeats Beer Money Inc. to retain the IWGP Tag Titles.
I have to say I enjoyed this match. It was no great shakes, but there was some solid tag team action and some creative spots, especially the 69 crotching spot. The wrestling was nothing particularly special but they got their characters across and got the crowd into the match. Major kudos has to go to Eric Young who was fantastic on commentary. Young got his heel character over brilliantly, he came across as a jerk but he had a logic that made him seem like a realistic rounded character rather than a goofy pro wrestling heel. I wasn't wild on the interference finish but Young is doing a great job as a heel and if this actually gets some heat on Young then I'm all for it.
Good solid dose of PPV tag team wrestling, with a good mix of solid action and a reasonable developed feud. A perfectly acceptable undercard offering. (**)
5. ODB & Cody Deaner defeat the Beautiful People, as a result ODB wins the Knock Out's title.
Remeber when the TNA Knockout's division was the hotest division in all of Pro Wrestling? It seems liks a long long time ago doesn't it. Well Gail Kim is gone and we stuck with this quasi comedy garbage. Can I even call this comedy? Wait yes, if people are stupid enough to find Adam Sandler funny then someone somewhere is probably laughing at this. Of course this being TNA their obsession with Man on Woman violence continues, I really don't know what their problem is but someone backstage really has some issues. Anyway for the one person who cares Cody got the pin and ran away with the title as if he was the Knockout's champion. Just what we needed because God knows Santina was sooooo funny....*sigh*.
Forgettable, can we have Kong and Tara now please. (DUD)
6. Samoa Joe defeats Homicide to win the X Division Title.
While it's completely unfair on the two workers you can't help but compare this Joe-Homicide match to their classics in ROH, and it's a sad state of affairs. Joe is really banged up, he seems to have lost a whole step of pace in the ring, not the mention that all of his heat has dried up. Of course this is a different time and a different place, these guys aren't going to get half an hour to tear down the house and that's fine but a bit more than nine minutes would be nice. There was some really good action in this match but it just felt limp, Homicide was trying but Joe is clearly warn down and his intensity and effort have completely gone. It's a shame, I'd love them to have a fifteen minute rematch and prove that they can still steal the show. The finish was particulary dissapointing as it felt rushed, and we were denied the five minutes that could have taken this match from passable to above average.
Perfectly acceptable, but you can't help but feel dissapointed. These two really need to be rebuilt from the ground up. This new Joe has got to go. (*3/4)
7. Scott Stiener & Booker T draw with Team 3D in a Tag Team Title Match.
To clarify they went with a double pin finish in a falls count anywhere match. The finish was pathetic, especially on a PPV, and served no purpose whatsoever. At this stage of their careers do they seriously think they have to protect these four? Seriously does anyone care any less about Brother Ray if he gets pinned by Booker T? Well whatever.
Aside from the enfuriating finish this was you standard dose of Team 3D on PPV. Scott is still trying, Booker is still phoning it in, and Team 3D are still using the same old bag of tricks. Remind me, why is this on my TV in 2009? (*1/4)
8. Kevin Nash defeats Mick Foley to retain the Legends Title.
They did the best they could in this one. I'm glad they were smart enough to save the blade jobs for this match, and it worked. It doubled the impact and crowd heat and for once they dwelled on it post match. The finish completely undermined all the good work done up until that point though. Tracy's inclusion was just convoluted and pointless. It's good to see Abyss put with Foley. He can carry the work rate for Foley and hopely Foley can give Abyss some rub, and get him away from the low level garbage wrestling he's been stuck with. Should these two be wrestling on PPV in 2009? Let alone against each other? Well probably not, especially with so many other past their prime fossils on the show.
Bloody, Brutal but it never threatened to be epic. Well above expectation, but well below the show saver it needed to be. If you want a better example of a bloody brawl go back and watch the brilliant Triple H vs. Ric Flair cage match from Taboo Tuesday. All in all, not bad, but not particularly good either. (**)
9. Kurt Angle defeats Sting & Matt Morgan to retain the TNA World Title.
Another month another multi-man main event full of wrestlers who are not over, and don't deserved title shots. Don't get me wrong, if you can ignore all his personal problems Kurt Angle is a fine choice for champion, but are Sting and Matt Morgan really the best opponents they could come up with? TNA has burnt out any drawing power left in Sting and well I don't think there's a person walking the face of the eath who'd buy a PPV to see Matt Morgan main event. It's a symptomatic flaw in TNA's booking, no one is over on this show.
The fans aren't into the matches or the feud. They cheer Team 3D and Sting because they were over in WWE/WCW and they remember their shtick, but no one is willing to buy a PPV to see these guys. The X Division gets a great live reaction but the characters have been booked into such a meaningless repetitive hole that no one is willing to purchase a PPV to see them wrestle either. TNA constantly throws out multi man gimmick matches for no reason with no real heat. They should have learnt from the excellent Gail Kim-Awesome Kong feud and the equally good Team 3D-Beery Money feud, that a well book singles fued is more effective than a confusing half baked multi man scenario. Remember how good Angle-AJ and Angle-Joe were? Of course you do because these were clearly defined feuds where the workers were able to go out and tear the house down, doing what they do best.
That said, they played the Matt Morgan story relatively well, unfortunately because they do this kind of swerve story telling so much you know the finish is going to be one of two alternates before the match even starts. To make matters worse it's Matt Frigin' Morgan. What exactly has he done to earn this position? Match wise this was pretty solid but totally forgetable, just like any other TNA main event since the Lockdown 2008 (the last great TNA main event).
Solid wrestling, with a decent storyline running throughout, but on a PPV of okayish action, the main event needed to be more than decent. (**1/4)
Overall Thoughts: This was a bad show. I was going to call it okay, but it's only acceptable in comparison to how bad TNA's other recent efforts were. It is not reasonable to expect people to pay thirty quid to watch a three hour show without a single match above **1/4. Seriously, you could have saved your money and watched two episodes of Smackdown, or even iMPACT! and got the same level of action for free. Hard Justice 2009, just inspires apathy, and in many ways that's just sad. TNA needs to change direction and it needs to do it now. Jeff is gone, Dutch is gone, Kurt Angle is implodding it's time to let go of the past and do something new, and something bold. If it were up to me I have Hernandez destroy Kurt Angle or Sting at Bound For Glory to win the TNA title, and set him up against fresh challengers and not the Mafia. I mean Homicide, Joe, AJ Styles and even the British Invasion. As a sadly departed wrestling legend used to say "Enough is Enough, And It's Time For A Change". (3.0/10)
