Saturday, February 09, 2008

The Countdown to Against All Odds 2008 - Part Three

(... is SGM's 1000th post! Huzzah!)

Against All Odds 2007 - February 11, 2007


The pre-show match was Serotonin (Kaz[arian]/ Johnny “Havoc” Devine) d. Jay Lethal/ Sonjay Dutt.

Match one: Little Italy Street Fight - Latin American Xchange (Homicide y Hernandez) vs. Team 3D
I remember the buildup to this match on Impact, and it reminded me of times that I can appreciate how solid Konnan can be, especially when he’s shitting on gimmicks and matches in his undercover way. When Team 3D dropped the “Little Italy Street Fight” gimmick of this match, they brought out Steve Schirripa, of “Sopranos” and Spike’s “Casino Cinema” fame, to build up the Dudley’s Italian/Mafia roots, as a supposed counter to the Latino Nation. And Konnan breaks in this promo with, “Fine, and you can bring James Gandolfini, Deniro, Abe Vigoda, whoever …” and in one swoop shits all over this glorified lumberjack match. Learn your history, bitches, and your history is this: LAX owns the Dudleys, with receipt, proof of purchase and certificate of authentication. LAX d. Team 3D

Match two: Senshi vs. Austin Starr
Eh, pretty standard X Division fare here, which surprised me because these guys are two capable athletes. The ending was one of those “both competitors had their shoulders on the mat” endings, which was more eh. And the final eh to complete the hat trick was Bob Backlund chicken winging a protesting Austin Starr nee Aries. Is this lucha libre, ‘cause this shit was Triple Eh. HAW!! Senshi d. Austin Starr

Match three: Tuxedo Match - Christy Hemme vs. “Big Fat Oily Guy”
No titties = the less said about this match, the better. At least the crowd chants of “Fuck you Russo” made this a little more worthwhile. Christy Hemme d. Big Fat Oily Guy

Match four: Basebrawl Match – Lance Hoyt vs. Dale Torborg
Man, these guys need to thank Christy Hemme and the Oily Guy, because if not for them, this would have been the shittiest match on the show. Lance Hoyt d. the former WCW Demon

Match five: Motor City Chain Match – Rhino vs. AJ Styles
The chemistry between AJ and Rhino is pretty amazing, as they’ve managed to have some great showings against each other, even in the wake of some pretty unfortunate gimmickry (Elevation X, anyone?) Now, part of the appeal of this match for me is that it’s one of my favorite gimmicks, and yet what holds this match back from being better than it ended up was that AJ gets out of the chain in the middle of the match. It ranks up there with two wrestlers to are in a “no escape” cage match, who spend a large part of the match fighting on the outside. Pffft. AJ Styles d. Rhino

Match six: TNA X-Division Title – Chris Sabin (c) vs. Jerry Lynn
This match was built around the old school concept of respect: Jerry Lynn, the forefather of the X Division, takes on Chris Sabin, brash upstart champion who’s arrogance has brought Lynn out of semi-retirement. Sabin gots no love for the honor of the X Division bitches; this actually served to further Sabin’s streak of solid PPV showings. Sabin d. Lynn

Match seven: Mixed Tag Team Match – Petey Williams/ Gail Kim vs. James Storm/ Jackie Moore
This match was primarily a stepping stone closer to the pending James Storm/ Chris Harris match, built from the feuding tag team partners mold, with Harris as the face and Storm as the heel. This built to the outstanding Storm/Harris Texas Death match at Sacrifice 2007 a few shows later. Petey & Gail (the latter a holdover from the AMW faction) are pretty much just there … although I’ll take Gail Kim’s “being there” over Petey’s any day. Hell, I’d probably take Jackie’s “being there” over Petey’s. Spaeking of Jackie, ever since the good ol’ days of WWF Attitude, I’ve been anxiously awaiting her return to frequent titty popouts, but alas, it would not come to pass this day. Storm/Moore d. Williams/Kim

Match eight: Prison Yard Match – Sting vs. Abyss
Sting has spent much of his recent showings trying to convert the soul of Abyss Chris (as they keep alternately referring to him). The shitty part of the way they started using Abyss at this point was to really expose just how much of a Kane ripoff he is … of all the booking directions that are out there, did they really have to take the guy in the Kane mask and make him an orphan by proxy (his mother shot his father, and Abyss took the fall for momma); down the road, we would further learn that Abyss’ manager, Paul Bearer … cough, I mean James Mitchell is Abyss’s dad. Oh, and Mitchell has a son – Judas Mesias – that looks like the Undertaker. Jeez. Anyway, Sting and Abyss leave it all in the ring again, and Sting keeps up the pattern he established at Genesis 2006 of doing crazy shit, which helps this match considerably even though the gimmick of the match is pretty butt. Sting d. Abyss

Match nine: TNA World Heavyweight Title – Christian Cage (c) vs. Kurt Angle
So far, this was the best Heavyweight title match in the history of Against All Odds. Of course, this was back when Cage was one of the best heels in the business at the time, and Angle hadn’t been Jarretted down our collective throats. Angle looked pretty strong, but just couldn’t overcome the diabolical interventions of the Christian Coalition. Cage d. Angle

The comparative analysis for Against All Odds 2007:
1 – TNA World Heavyweight Title – Christian Cage (c) vs. Kurt Angle
2 – Motor City Chain Match – Rhino vs. AJ Styles
3 – TNA X-Division Title – Chris Sabin (c) vs. Jerry Lynn
4 – Senshi vs. Austin Starr
5 – Prison Yard Match – Sting vs. Abyss
6 – Little Italy Street Fight - LAX (Homicide y Hernandez) vs. Team 3D
7 – Mixed Tag Team Match – Petey Williams/ Gail Kim vs. James Storm/ Jackie Moore
8 – Basebrawl Match – Lance Hoyt vs. Dale Torborg
9 – Tuxedo Match - Christy Hemme vs. “Big Fat Oily Guy”

The cross-analysis of all Against All Odds matches to date:
1 – X Division Title: Samoa Joe vs. Christopher Daniels vs. AJ Styles
2 – X Division Title, 30 Min Iron Man Match: Christopher Daniels vs. AJ Styles
3 – TNA World Heavyweight Title – Christian Cage (c) vs. Kurt Angle
4 – NWA World Title: Jeff Jarrett (c) vs. Christian Cage
5 – Motor City Chain Match – Rhino vs. AJ Styles
6 – TNA X-Division Title – Chris Sabin (c) vs. Jerry Lynn
7 – Full Metal Mayhem: Abyss vs. Jeff Hardy
8 – Alyx Shelley vs. Jay Lethal vs. Petey Williams vs. Matt Bentley
9 – Senshi vs. Austin Starr
10 – NWA Tag Team Titles: Kid Kash/ Lance Hoyt vs. AMW
11 – Petey Williams vs. Elix Skipper
12 – NWA Tag Team Titles: AMW vs. Chris Sabin/ Sonjay Dutt
13 – The Naturals (Chase Stevens/ Andy Douglas) vs. Austin Aries/ Roderick Strong
14 – Falls Count Anywhere: Rhino vs. Abyss
15 – NWA World Title: Jeff Jarrett vs. Kevin Nash
16 – Prison Yard Match – Sting vs. Abyss
17 – Team Canada (Bobby Roode & Eric Young) vs. Monty Brown/ Dallas Page
18 – Little Italy Street Fight - LAX (Homicide y Hernandez) vs. Team 3D
19 – Team 3D (Ray/ Devon) vs. Team Canada (Bobby Roode/ Eric Young)
20 – Mixed Tag Team Match – Petey Williams/ Gail Kim vs. James Storm/ Jackie Moore
21 – The James Gang (BG & Kip James) vs. LAX (Homicide y Machete)
22 – Basebrawl Match – Lance Hoyt vs. Dale Torborg
23 – Dustin Rhodes vs. Raven
24 – Frankie Kazarian/ Matt Bentley vs. BG James/ Jeff Hammond
25 – Tuxedo Match – Christy Hemme vs. “Big Fat Oily Guy”

Alright, now lemme dork out a little bit:

Who’s competed in the most Against All Odds, to this point (excluding pre-show matches)?
3: AJ Styles; Abyss; James Storm; Petey Williams

2: Jeff Jarrett; Christian Cage; Homicide; Lance Hoyt; Rhino; BG James; Austin Aries/Starr; Chris Harris; Bobby Roode; Eric Young; Team 3D; Matt Bentley; Chris Sabin

1: Kurt Angle; Christy Hemme; Machete; Hernandez; Kid Kash; Kevin Nash; Raven; Dustin Rhodes; Kip James; Roderick Strong; Jeff Hammond; Christy Hemme; “Big Fat Oily Guy;” Elix Skipper; Sting; Gail Kim; Jackie Moore; Jerry Lynn; Dale Torberg; Senshi/Low Ki; Samoa Joe; Sonjay Dutt; The Naturals; Alyx Shelley; Jay Lethal

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