TNA Sacrifice 06

1) Jushin Liger v. Petey Williams- 3
2) America's Most Wanted v. AJ Styles/ Christopher Daniels- 5
3) A1 v. Raven- 0
4) Bobby Roode v. Rhino- 5
5) The James Gang v. Team 3-D- 4
6) X Division Gauntlet- 6
Team USA- Chris Sabin, Sonjay Dutt, Alex Shelly, Jay Lethal
Team Canada- Petey Williams, Johnny Devine, Eric Young, Tyson Dux
Team Mexico- Puma, Magno, Incognito, Shocker
Team Japan- Jushin Liger, Minoru Tanaka, Hirooki Goto, Black Tiger
7) Jeff Jarrett/ Scott Steiner v. Sting/ Samoa Joe- 4
8) Christian Cage v. Abyss (Full Metal Mayhem)- 5

It's always fun to see Liger in the states, although his TNA stuff has been largely disappointing, much like Dixie Carter's "Work Hard and Sleep with the Boss" program she's tried to implement. No Takers? Petey sells the Palm Fist like death, but did we really need a blantant low blow for the finish, like this was a McMahon match or something? Too short to be anything worth seeking out....

I felt like this match had promise, really good old school tag scenario developed here, the Wanted boys did a great job melding solid team work and heel stooging to keep this together. Daniels was off here, some miscues with his opponents, he struggled to get off some of his showy offense and was just largely a step or two off. Just for the pure and simple fact of doing it, Daniels took Harris outside, threw him over the guardrail so AJ could do a crazy dive into the crowd, had nothing to do with the match at all. Meanwhile, Daniels and Storm brawl tepidly around the ringside area with as much vigor as two septagenarians fighting over the ripest kumquat at the grocery store. The did the AMW really close near falls and one of them worked well, the BME / splash combination. But it was overdone and the match went on longer than it needed to. Still marginally good action.

Raven had the physique of Batman's arch enemy Clayface here. He looked like a melted popsicle of a man. His hair looked like the remnants of a wolverine attacking a jello mold, or more appropriately, the latest in Troma Films new line of soup products, Cream of Toxie. Onto the match, or as I referred to it, "4 minutes God took from me." There's nothing redeemable about what happened here. A1 did a bunch of sloppy corner splashes, then posed as if he wasn't on the Gas. Raven does his knee lift, but the real impact came from the loud slap on A1's back, because he sold it before Raven's knee ever came near his neanderthal face. This is the kind of match that would make you revert to being a full time Water Polo fan and never look back.

Surprisingly this was a decent piece of work. There's been some banter going around about Rhino being more stale than a Wheat Thin, which I'm not debating at all, but he stuck to the game plan of wounded face here and it worked. He also took two precise hurty looking bumps that went a long way in building Roode's offense up. Roode stayed busy as well, stalling in good moments, aggresively working rest holds (even though Rhino sold them by blowing his hair out of his face) and D'Amore was his usual jolly rulebreaking self. For some reason I miss John Candy watching him. Rhino's shoulder in the buckle is as useful as the hair on my balls.

Bubba comes out in jeans and a Red, White and Blue TNA shirt. When I think Patriotism, my mind goes right to a 2nd string wrestling outfit. Kip shows some spring in his legs, as all 4 dudes take turn hitting dropkicks, Bubba's was the most laughable. Lot of punching in this, but not a lot of selling, even D-Von was light on the facials here. Kind of a blase affair that never really picked up. Ending actually more resembled a backstage social mixer than a wrestling match, as everyone was kind of milling in the ring trying to hit their signature spots. Lame weapon finish didn't do this any favors either.

This I enjoyed. You have to give TNA credit for one thing, they spotlight, or used to, their X Division guys in good spots on their ppv's. Most of the workers involved here had never been in the company before, and were pretty unknown but they were dropped into a position to help a withering show from dying on the vine and they did a good job of it. Lots of highlights here and not many lowlights, Shelly, Liger, Shocker, Tanaka, Puma, Lethal, Magno and even Dutt all had big moments in this followed by a believable and fun ending.

This was the beginning of the Pussification of Joe. His first chance in the ring with main eventers and he totally dumbed down his style and move set. Steiner and he traded some nasty shots and suplexes though, which would translate well into a heralded singles later on. Sting went on a hot streak that could have easily been time traveled from 1989 in the beginning but he seemed to fizzle after that. Hated his terrible scorpion leglocks, just really loose and flaccid. Jarrett was pretty bad with Joe as well, just sandbagging a lot of his offense and not giving anything back, selling wasn't really there either, he took flat back bumps but gave nothing to the crowd. Pretty tame for the expectations I would think. Definitley won't be screened at a Borden Family Christmas.

This was kind of a mock TLC match, where anything metal was legal. I was dying to see someone use a '01 Dodge Stratus. First move of the match was a spear from Christian? So i'm completely disbelieving everything I see here. Luckily the brawling was kept to a minimum, much to my surprise. Christian hadn't yet developed his really nasty smack yet as a strike, so his punches weren't anything to write home about. Cool Killswitch face first on the ladder to Abyss. Mitchell brought in the tacks then was rearranging them with his gargoyle walking stick like he was Jeremy Blake, in a strange, long camera shot, only for him to go into them with a half ass Rock Bottom. Christian was always known for taking a brutal spill off the ladder, this was no exception, split legged and bounced to the outside like someone leaping from the Golden Gate Bridge. This totally isn't one of those big ladder matches you remember because of lack of big spots, but it's also one that works more because the excess is kept more to a minimum so it's a Catch 22 that way. Both guys were also just kind of figuring out how to work a main event because there was a tendency to go to known moves right away, and some dead air during other spots but overall it was a commendable effort.