TNA Final Resolution - 12/7/08

1) Feast or Fired Battle Royal w/ Cute Kip, Sonjay Dutt, Jimmy Rave, Lance Rock, Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, B.G. James, Consequences Creed, Curry Man, Shark Boy, Jay Lethal, and LAX – 5
2) Taylor Wilde, Roxxi, & O.D.B. vs. Angelina Love, Velvet Sky, & Sharmell - 3
3) Sheik Abdul Bashir vs. Eric Young – 5
4) Awesome Kong vs. Christy Hemme – 4
5) Matt Morgan & Abyss vs. Robert Roode & James Storm – 5
6) Kurt Angle vs. Rhino (Special enforcer: Mick Foley) – 6
7) Booker T, Sting, Scott Steiner, & Kevin Nash vs. Samoa Joe, A.J. Styles, & Team 3-D – 7

So I ordered this pay-per-view mainly because I had nothing else to do on a Sunday night. On paper, the card looked like crap but it actually turned out to be a halfway decent show. The abomination known as the Feast or Fired Battle Royal returned this year to zero fanfare whatsoever. However, it was better than last year’s debacle and had some talented workers featured this year such as Jay Lethal, LAX, Curry Man, Consequences Creed, and the Motor City Machine Guns, who I’ll talk about shortly. In case you forgot, the stipulation of the match is to climb a pole, grab a briefcase, and make it back to the floor. I though the match had a quicker pace, thanks to the aforementioned guys, who helped carry the match. Lethal stole a case from the Guns to end the match. Afterwards, the Guns were tormenting Jeremy Borash about how it wasn’t fair. Borash then laid into them with some harsh comments. By the way, Lethal won a tag team title shot.

The knockouts tag was decent but wasn’t anything I would go out of my way to see. Sharmell played a great cowardly heel. O.D.B. can sure excite a crowd but I never really was a fan of her work. Everyone involved held their own but the match turned out to be pretty non-descript and basic. The X-Division title match was better than I though it would be initially. Young and Bashir have some good chemisty together. Young was taking some serious bumps to the floor and stepped up his offense a bit. The evil-Arab gimmick is as old as the sport itself and Bashir really needs to drop it. The finish got it the way of the match as referee Shane Sewell got involved and cost Bashir the match and the title. Afterwards, Sewell got attacked by Bashir and “hulked up” with some shoddy punches and a really strange look on his face. Kong and Hemme was short but was really good. Hemme tried to do some-kind of crazy split leg drop on Kong and damn near tore a hamstring. Hemme bumped her little red-haired ass off in an effort to demonstrate Kong’s power. She did look better than she did in the past and could have a good series with Kong. Again, how Christy doesn't tear a muscle doing that flying split-leg guillotine leg drop is beyond me.

The tag title match was a solid match. Morgan and Abyss work well as a team and Beer Money, despite their bland work in the ring, have gotten better as a team. I don’t like Morgan’s generic big man gimmick and the only thing scarier than him on the mic is the fact that he had his jiz put into orbit. Roode and Storm retained the titles in a good but unmemorable match. Angle and Rhino was much better than I thought it would be. Rhino brought his “A” game because he knew that Angle was going to bring it. Foley just stood outside the ring, taking up space, and didn’t get involved much until the finish. There was a ref bump, after which Foley took over, then Al Snow sauntered down to the ring, said something mean to Foley, and helped Angle win the match. I would recommend it for seeing Rhino step-up his game after months of meaningless low-caliber matches. The main event was exceptionally good, everyone was motivated and stepped up their game. The heel team beat down Joe for the majority of the match until the tag was made to Styles, who summarily came in and cleaned house. I never did like the fact that this was for the TNA world title. I personally don’t think singles titles should be defended in tag matches. The finish saw Sting pin Joe clean and then walk away with the belt as the Mafia was celebrating in the ring. Overall, I though the in-ring work on this show was stellar all around, save for the Knockouts tag, and I would recommend checking this one out. Also, if you want to see Borash punking out the MCMGs, then this is the show for you.