TNA Against All Odds 2011

TNA Against All Odds 2011TNA Against All Odds 2011

By Big Red Machine
From February 13, 2011
Discussion

TNA Against All Odds (2/13/2011)- Orlando, FL

Tenay- "We welcome you to an Against All Odds that promises fireworks"- Well, I just swathe show opening pyro. Is that really all you have?

#1 CONTENDERSHIP MATCH FOR THE X-DIVISION TITLE: Max Buck vs. Jeremy Buck vs. Robbie E. (w/Cookie)- No rating. I thought this was very well done. It gave Robbie a chance to be an a**hole and gt some heat on him going into the title match.

Wait... so TNA made a match (for a PPV, no less!)... and didn't tell one of the competitors that the match was happening?

TNA X-DIVISION TITLE MATCH: Kazarian(c) vs. Robbie E. (w/Cookie)-5/10

Only Scott Steiner can fumble his words, and thus botch a promo in which he calls his opponent uncoordinated. James Storm actually cut a good promo... until he ruined it with his moronic catchphrase.

SCOTT STEINER & BEER MONEY vs. ROB TERRY, GUNNAR, & MURPHY- No rating. Pretty much a squash, but very enjoyable.

DEVON PROMO- Great! Except for him misusing the term "sacrificial lamb." TNA needs to fire Taz now! Apparently his stupidity is contagious.

SAMOA JOE vs. POPE- 5.5/10. Good aftermath, though.
"O-kato?" Really? Are you TRYING to make this feud look like a joke? THE ANNOUNCERS (crappy as they are) are LAUGHING AT THIS during the middle of a serious match between two men who dislike each other. THIS IS BAD!

Also, why didn't Pope just jump down the ramp and run away from Okada like he did on Impact? The situation is almost the same, except that this time, Joe ISN'T right behind Pope!

LAST WOMAN STANDING MATCH FOR THE TNA KNOCKOUTS' TITLE: Madison Rayne(c) vs. Mickie James- 4.5/10. UGG! This was long and boring. Mickie ducking that stupid "loaded glove" didn't feel significant at all. Compare this to someone ducking Chris Hero's never-proven-to-be-loaded elbow pad in ROH, or someone avoiding Regal's brass knuckles in WWE. It just falls so flat. The finish is something we have seen 6000 times before. Mickie is going to win, but Tara interferes and prevents her from winning (and it didn't even make sense here, either! It's a NO DQ'S MATCH? Why did the ref care about Tara being there?). I am all for getting heat on the heels, but this feud is dragging on WAY too long.

JEFF HARDY PROMO- the words were good, but I can't decide if I like these flat, monotone Jeff Hardy promos or not. I get what he is trying to do, but I am very up in the air on it.

MATT MORGAN-HERNANDEZ SEGMENT- You have got to be f*cking kidding me! A RACE ANGLE? REALLY? Not only is this the lowest of the low, but when has this ever worked before? Especially in TNA? And especially with LAX? And this segment definitely could have been saved for Impact. It didn't at all feel like something that should be on a PPV.

"COLD BLOOD" MATT HARDY PROMO- Pretty good stuff.

MATT HARDY vs. ROB VAN DAM- 7.5/10. I do have one gripe, though, and that was that these guys were on the outside FOR ALMOST TWO STRAIGHT MINUTES... and weren't counted out. When the ref got to a certain number, he would go outside and yell at them... and then apparently forgot where he was in his count, so he would start over. WTF?

BULLY RAY PROMO- Apparently beating up his tag team partner, spitting on his kids, then changing his name to "Bully" Ray wasn't enough to show us that Bubba is now a heel, so he is also a sexist who acts like a creepy rapist around the backstage interviewer.

STREET FIGHT MATCH: BULLY RAY vs. BROTHER DEVON- not sure what to rate it, but this definitely worked. I actually cared about the kids. To paraphrase Jake Roberts "If you're going to kill my baby, you do it right in front of me and make me watch." This accomplished that PERFECTLY.
WHY THE F*CK ARE THESE IDIOTS CLAPPING AND CHEERING! The heel just put a teenager THROUGH A TABLE, WHILE HE MADE HIS FATHER WATCH? AND THEY CHEER? WHAT THE F*CK IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?! I can't decide if these are plants, or just REALLY stupid wrestling fans.

JEFF JARRETT PROMO- Dumb.
KURT ANGLE PROMO- Great.

As someone brought up on the internet this week... they are using CUSTODY OF THEIR CHILDREN as the stipulation of a PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING MATCH! Why hasn't someone called Kayfabe DYFS on these three?

KURT ANGLE vs. JEFF JARRETT (w/Karen Jarrett)- 6.5/10. The story of this match was that Jarrett tried his best to cheat, but all it amounted to was great nearfalls, which is good, although it definitely didn't work in the same way that it worked for MCMG vs. Beer Money at Victory Road. What I didn't like so much was Kurt kicking out of the Stroke off the top rope. Save kicking out of that for the blow-off. Also Jarrett wins via roll-up. So after all this time cheating... Jeff pins Kurt cleanly? That was weird.

Also TNA Refs need to learn to assert themselves! The ref earlier say Cookie grabbing on to Kaz's leg. Call a damn DQ! Or Karen Jarrett put her hands on a referee! SEND HER TO THE BACK!

ANDERSON PROMO- Didn't like it. He needs to be more serious.
If Anderson hates Jeff's Title Belt so much, why hasn't he replaced it yet? Go find Eric Young, kick his a** and take the belt.
The "Tale of the Tape" here was moronic
1. What does the fact that the football team from Anderson's home town won the Superbowl have to do with wrestling?
2. Tenay actually shortened the word "reputation" to "rep." AS in "Jeff Hardy made his rep in ladder matches." This sounds moronic, especially coming from someone called "the Professor.
3. Yes, control of the titles is very important... but you said that Genesis was the final deadline for Immortal to control all of the titles. After Genesis, you said that it was February 3rd. Now you are trying to tell us how important control of the titles is for Immortal.... So why didn't they make Beer Money defend the tag team titles tonight? You have already killed this angle, so stop pushing it. Just say "the World Title is important because it is the World Title."

LADDER MATCH FOR THE TNA WORLD TITLE: MR. ANDERSON(c) vs. JEFF HARDY- 7/10. The minimum acceptable for a main event. I just didn't enjoy this match too much. I'm not 100% sure why, though. I guess it just didn't click with me.
Oh sh*t. Please don't tell me they're going to pull a Slammiversary and have a ref push the ladder over... phew.

Overall, this show was bad. It had a lot of matches on it that were good, but nothing near great, which is unacceptable for a PPV. Especially in TNA, which has always prided itself on its ability to put on better matches than WWE (at this point their roster is their ONLY selling point), putting on a PPV that will likely rival WWE's worst PPV of the year is just plain unacceptable. And was for you, TNA fan... you could have bought two or three indy DVDs for the price you paid for this show. Don't you feel silly?

Stupid Announcer Quotes:
1. Taz (about the Angle vs. Jarrett's feud)- "It's very real"- so everything else isn't? Well, if you are emphasizing that this is "real," then everything else must be less real (and thus, fake)... so why should I care about any of it? KEEP KAYFABE, YOU MORON!

2. Multiple times during this show, Taz referred to Suplexes as "throws."

3. Taz calls Mickie "Pocahontas-like" then Tenay makes a racist-stereotypical "Indian sound." Welcome to TNA. Where the babyface announcers fill women's matches with sexist and stereotypical-racist comments. And the president of the company (a woman herself) criticizes WWE for the way they treat the divas.

4. Tenay (during a "nearfall" in the Mickie-Madison match)- "What's the ruling here? Did she get up in time?" Well, seeing as how the referee stopped at nine, rather than continuing on to then, and didn't tell the timekeeper to ring the bell, I'm going to assume that Mickie made it up in time.

5. Tenay "He (Bischoff) can motivate them through intimidation, and he can motivate them through manipulation"- yeah, I didn't see either of these on Impact last week, so your statement is irrelevant.
6. Tenay- "We heard from Jeff Jarrett in the pre-match interview that he would not put the kids in harm's way, but I don't know if Jeff can control the uncontrollable Kurt Angle"- is he implying that Kurt, the babyface, would assault his own children?

7. Taz- "Did you see the whiplash in Anderson's skull?" No I didn't. Because you can't get whiplash in your skull. It is a neck injury.

8. Tenay (about Jeff having a second ladder brought into the ring)- "There's a reason behind this. And We're about to see it." Thank you for that insight, Tenay. Please tell us more! Is he doing this move in order to hurt Mr. Anderson? Is this move part of Jeff Hardy's strategy to win the match? Just shut up and let us watch the match without you pointing out the moronically obvious.

Taz's comment about "their being somebody sitting at home saying 'that's a fake ladder'" bothered me. There will always be people who don't understand what wrestlers go through. We can't change that. But these people should not be acknowledged on the air. It only hurts the business to do so because of the kayfabe environment in which it was said. You can't correct doubters (who are, IMO at least, non-kayfabe entities) at the same time as keeping kayfabe while calling a match. Your fans won't care, and non-fans will be confused and think that you mean everything kayfabe is real.

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