1) Kevin Nash X-Division Invitational Battle Royal – 6
2) The Naturals vs. America’s Most Wanted vs. Team 3-D vs. The James Gang – 4
3) Samoa Joe vs. Brother Runt vs. Abyss vs. Raven – Monster’s Ball Match – 5
4) Eric Young vs. Larry Zbyszko – Loser Gets Fired Match – 2
5) Senshi vs. Chris Sabin – 6
6) Christian Cage vs. Rhino – 8 Mile Street Fight – 4
7) A.J. Styles & Christopher Daniels vs. LAX – Six Sides of Steel Match – 7
8) Jeff Jarrett vs. Sting – 5
The battle royal was a fun match to open the show with. Austin Aries debuted with a new character (as Austin Starr) and ended up winning the match by lasting the whole way through. Petey was way over with the Detroit crowd. It was also cool to see guys like Norman Smiley and D-Ray 3000 to fill out the match. Afterwards, Nash presented Starr with a giant bowling trophy. The tag match was about what you would expect when these four teams get together. There was a pretty cool Tower of Doom spot but that was about all that was notable. Jake the Snake was the referee for the Monster’s Ball match which was a disappointment in general, mainly because it wasn’t as insane as the previous ones. Runt bumped his ass off and got thrown from the set by Abyss. Raven came out wearing some weird mask that looked utterly ridiculous. Joe bumped off the ramp through two tables. Abyss used his usual sack of tacks and ended up getting put through them face first. Joe won with a muscle buster. It was a fairly decent match but I would’ve liked to have seen more hardcore action. Eric Young closed down Larry Land permanently in a match that was nothing but three minutes of slop.
Senshi and Sabin tore the house down as was expected. There was a nice spot were Sabin kicked Senshi in the face in the middle of a cartwheel. Sabin won with a clean roll-up from out of nowhere which instantly gave the match a bonus point. I really found it interesting that there was little to no ovation for Rhino when he was introduced in front of his hometown crowd. His match with Christian was so reminescent of late-90s WWF hardcore matches that it wasn’t funny. They started the match outside, then fought on a zamboni, then started using plastic street lamps. Rhino did give Christian a pretty swank ECW-esque piledriver through a table in what was probably the highlight of the terrible match. To finish, Christian piled a bunch of crap like chairs, broken tables, and ladders on top of Rhino and then beat all of that with a chair in what was probably one of the most convoluted matches on pay-per-view this year.
The six sides of steel match was the perfect match to finish up the LAX feud with. Styles and Daniels were both busted and got worked over with a fork by LAX. There was another pretty awesome tower of doom spot but it looked like A.J. got stuck on the top of the cage. Immediately after, he hit Hernandez with an incredible dive from the top of the cage. A sickening Gringo Killer move from Homicide recaptured the belts for LAX and capped off one of the best matches of the year. For those who viewed the Hard Justice pay-per-view from August, you may remember the abysmal Jarrett/Sting main event which featured pointless brawling and tons of interference. Well, this was nothing like it. As a matter of fact, it may have been the best match that either of these two have had since their days in WCW. Sting even broke out a long lost powerbomb and seemed to have a new fire lit under him. Kurt Angle was on the outside and slammed the referee for no apparent reason halfway through the bout. Sting no sold a Jarrett guitar shot and the crowd went absolutely apeshit. Sting’s deathlock looked the best it had been in years and helped him recapture the NWA title and end one of the best shows of the year on a very high note.
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