TNA PPV 2/25/04

1) Jerry Lynn vs. Juventud Guerrera vs. Petey Williams – 4
Juvi and Petey went after Lynn early on as he got in the ring and targeted his shoulder. Not sure if something was legit wrong with his shoulder or not but he was constantly favoring it throughout the match. The sunset flip/German suplex spot was pretty cool. Pretty sure this was Petey’s first major match in TNA. A DDT off the turnbuckle in the corner was pretty sloppy. Most everything was pulled off without any major issues but there was really no heat, even on the near falls.

2) Simon Diamond vs. Johnny Swinger – 2
First bit of this was a chase … well, maybe not quite a chase, more like two friends out for a brisk morning jog. Simon looked quite awful, hitting a superkick that caught Swinger more in the chest than the face and completely airballing a punch that was supposed to catch Swinger off the ropes. I enjoyed these two as a tag team in the dying days of ECW but so much here. A four-minute match with a restart and then a mass run-in 60 seconds later? No thanks.

3) Shane Douglas & Michael Shane vs. Ron Killings & Konnan – 3
First off, we get another pre-match attack by the heels before the bell. That’s two of the first three matches that have had that! There was some decent stuff here, most of it by Truth and Michael Shane. Konnan seemed somewhat motivated and wasn’t rolling on cruise control unlike most of his recent stuff. End was really messy with Douglas slapping B.G. James, who was doing guest commentary, and then brawling with him and Truth on the outside with Traci Brooks hitting Konnan with a cast inside the ring.

4) Chris Harris vs. Chase Stevens – 4
5) Chris Harris vs. Andy Douglas – 2
6) Handicap Match: Chris Harris vs. Chase Stevens & Andy Douglas – 2

Going to do my brief notes on the three Chris Harris matches in one lump here. The backstory here is that Stevens and Douglas injured James Storm so Harris wanted revenge. First match against Stevens was the best of all three as there were some really good nearfalls. Then Russo shows up, makes a second match against Andy Douglas which goes all of two minutes. The handicap match was good for Harris’ selling but it featured some chicanery with The Naturals grabbing chairs and a run-in from James Storm superkicking a chair in the face of Douglas.

7) C.M. Punk & Julio Dinero vs. Raven & Sabu – 4
This was Sabu’s return to TNA and he was up to his old tricks, using a chair to assist with every move, including many chair shots right in view of the referee. This was supposed to be a standard tag match but that was thrown right out the window rather quickly. Julio hit a pretty nice jumping spin kick in the midst of all the chaos. Sabu and Raven got their signals crossed at one point and Sabu took a hard shot right to face. Really wish Punk would’ve been focused on more in the match.

8) Best of Three Tables Match: A.J. Styles vs. Abyss – 6
The stipulation for this is that the first person to put his opponent through two tables gains sole possession of the NWA Tag titles. I think these two match up really well with each other, mainly because A.J. can bump around for Abyss’ big moves and Abyss doesn’t mind doing some wild bumps through tables and tacks as well. All the table bumps were pretty gnarly, especially the first one where Abyss flipped A.J. over the ropes and through a table to the floor. I liked Abyss’ big bump too as he did a somersault off the apron through a table. Finish saw a interference from Johnny Fairplay, a ref bump, and then LEX FUCKING LUGER tossing A.J. rather sloppily through a table.