The Countdown to Against All Odds 2008 – The Conclusion

Against All Odds 2008 – Feb 10, 2008

First of all, for scant under $40, we got some pretty good seats. We did miss a lot of action that would end up going to the floor, but every 3 out of 5 times the cameras would catch this and put it up on the big TNATron for the crowd to see.

There was something that happened in the beginning of the show involving some local radio DJs, Jacqueline Moore, and Curry Man, but one minute it was there, the next minute it wasn’t. The wife likes the entrance music that James Storm and Miss Jacqueline Moore use.

Jeremy Borash loaded into the ring and did his cheap heat thing, saying how he’d heard that Greenville crowds weren’t as loud as Atlanta crowds, or as loud as Orlando crowds, which got about 3/4 of the crowd to try to prove him wrong. Not getting the result he wanted to there, he asked who all the Gamecock fans were (“WHOOOO!”), and those that didn’t cheer must be Clemson Tiger fans (“WHOOOOOO!”). I don’t know if they expected a low end crowd response, because Borash then brought out Hermie Sadler to hype up his appearance on Impact this week, and Hermie went cheap heat on us, hollering out some names of NASCAR drivers who I wouldn’t know if they met me on the sidewalk and kicked me in the balls. (“WHOOOOOO!”)

First match started proper, an opener starring “South Carolina’s own” Consequences Creed. Creed was pairing with Sonjay Dutt, and they faced the Rock & Rave Infection. Okay, Hoyt came out resembling Slash, so there’s the “rock;” his partner’s Jimmy “Rave;” they’re managed by Christy Hemme (conspicuous by her absence), so I guess that makes her the “infection?” Dutt went the bulk of the match, and he pulled off some pretty good moves, including some flippity-flops to the outside. But we apparently weren’t there for R&RI, or Dutt, but for Conquences, and MAN! If I didn’t know better, he just might have been the most over wrestler of the night. And he’s pretty damn good, with some solid light heavyweight power moves, and some nice aerial offence. It’s a damn shame that Ron “The Truth” Killings is gone, ‘cause he and Consequences would have made a fine tag team. And before you say one word, it wasn’t my idea, they teamed up on Bound For Glory 2007, and were supposed to be booked to team again before Killings left. Dutt & Creed d. Hoyt & Rave.

Borash out for the five minutes to the top of the hour all out heat machine! Crowd going nuts …. Kids in the dark floor section holding up signs that will never make it on TV, but blocked our view for a while …. Vince Russo walking around in the shadows of the floor section, just feet away from us (and there were a few times I just wanted to say, “Mr. Russo,” but if I’d gotten his attention, I had no idea what to follow that up with: “You suck?” “Book Mesias vs. Booker?” Good job?” See, nothing …).

Match one: TNA World Tag Team Titles - AJ Styles/ Tomko (c) vs. BG James/ Bob Armstrong
Nate predicted: AJ Styles/ Tomko retain.
What happened was: Styles & Tomko did retain. The Armstrongs marched to the ring ahead of a marching band of Marine representatives. AJ & Tomko played the reluctant tag partners that just can’t stay on the same page. Styles took baby care of Bullet Bob, and he returned the favor by working a punch/chop based offense. Then, Hoss Tomko came in … hoo boy. To be 72 and virtually manhandled by Goat Boy cannot have been the best path to the Shady Pines Retirement Village for Bob. Tomko even got to the point of calling his spots in BG’s face; “I’m gonna plant your old man,” into a powerslam. Bob gets taken out on the floor by Tomko, then a tornadoplex on BG gets the duke. At least they kept the Bullet still looking strong.
My prediction streak: 1/1

Match two: Peyton Banks vs. Traci Brooks
Nate predicted: The one with the tits beats the one with the tits, thanks to Roode’s interference.
What happened was: The one with the tits beat the one with the tits, but without Roode’s interference. Tracy Brooks owned the pair of winning tits – she probably still has the receipt for them.
My prediction streak: I’m calling it 2/2

Match three: Petey Williams vs. Scott Steiner
Nate predicted: Steiner wins, and this ultimately leads to him getting a World title shot. This, I guess, would segue into Williams getting the X Division shot, which would probably be against “Black Machismo” Jay Lethal.
What happened was: Steiner won, but he got to keep both cases, so he’s presumably the number one contender to the World & X-Division titles. Also, some stacked young black woman helped Steiner walk away with the win, by distracting Petey before he could land his Canadian Destroyer on Steiner (which I would have loved to see). And let me say, South Carolina is not exactly the best place to debut your interracial love.
My prediction streak: 3/3

Match four: Drinking Championship - James Storm vs. Eric Young
Nate predicted: I’ll use this opportunity to take a piss.
What happened was: I didn’t take a piss. What I did, was watch the most sterile match of the night. At least the women’s match promised a possible flop-out. Only cool shit that happened here was, 1) Eric Young’s stack Death Valley Driver: He set Storm up on the top buckle; then, he caught Jackie Moore, Storm’s second, in mid-interference, and put her in the fireman’s carry; then, he rolled Storm off the buckle on top of Jackie; and BOOM! F-U, John Cena, top that!! And 2) Rhino returned from injury and GORED Storm inside-the-fuck-out; my wife said, “That shit was crazy!” There ya go.
My prediction streak: 4/3

Match five: TNA Women’s Title - Awesome Kong (c) vs. ODB
Nate predicted: Kong retains, and if ODB wins you’ll probably be able to hear my penis scream.
What happened was: Kong retained. Will asked, “If this match is for the Women’s title, why are there two men wrestling?” And that’s all the people need to know.
My prediction streak: 5/4

Match six: Barbed Wire Massacre 2 – Judas Mesias vs. Abyss
Nate predicted: The crowd will shit on this because it’s not happening on the actual show. Funny part is, it hasn’t even been announced on TNA Impact that this match won’t happen in SC.
What happened was: The crowd did in fact shit on this, but I think it was more of a negative feedback for our beloved state athletic commission. But, we did get conned into believing that this mug was coming “live” from Orlando’s Impact Zone. And there was a really weird vibe, as TNA showed the match on their ersatz Titantron, and the crowd just sat down and watched the match quietly. It was kinda like having the pay-per-view at my house, and about a thousand of my closest friends came by. Abyss won, like I knew he did two weeks prior, fucking spoilers.
My prediction streak: I’ll call this 5/4, since it can’t technically count.

Match seven: Robert Roode vs. Booker T
Nate predicted: Booker T defends the honor of his wife Sharmell, although with Russo at the book, Sharmell will probably accompany Booker to the ring, only to turn on him and cost him the match. Goddamn, now I find myself badly wanting to see Mesias vs. Booker T, which is disappointing because wrestling rarely gives me what I want.
What happened was: “Bullshit! Bullshit!” And so on. That was the chant that went out after Book & Roode wrestled to a double count-out. It wasn’t the best match in the world, wasn’t the worst; here was where most people went to concessions.
My prediction streak: 6/4

Match eight: X Division Title, Hardcore Street Fight - Team 3D/ Johnny Devine (c) vs. Motor City Machine Guns/ “Black Machismo” Jay Lethal
Nate predicted: The MCMGs and Jay Lethal … hey, wait, if this match is for the X Division title, how’s the next champion going to be decided? Maybe this stipulation has changed? I could check, but why bother? I’ll find out tomorrow.
What happened was: Lethal got the pinfall vic and is the new X-Division champion, making this, like, his eighth reign? It might have played out a little better on TV, but it appeared like mostly standard hardcore fare. So Cal Val, some vagina that hangs around ringside, got threatened by Bubba Ray, sparking life into Macho Lethal. For some uncertain reason, the Guns were MIA from the final 1/3 onward to the finale. Dunno if they got injured or what, but Lethal took on Team 3D and Devine singlehandedly, and he reaped the benefits in some love and adoration from So Cal Val. And, again, I don’t know that South Carolina is the best place to debut your interracial love.
My prediction streak: 7/5

Match nine: TNA World Title - Kurt Angle (c) vs. Christian Cage; Special Enforcer – Samoa Joe
Nate predicted: I’m thinking whatever I pick here will in fact be negated by the results of the actual show. I have strong suspicions that Joe will end up involved in the match as a competitor. I’m also hoping against hope that the direction they’re going with the Cage/Tomko storyline does NOT involve the obvious swerve of Tomko turning on Cage ... I think a swerve at this point is for a wrestler to NOT turn on his partner/friend. But, given the stipulations and match as it stands now, I’m going to pick Cage. But like I said, I pick Cage knowing that circumstances will probably conspire to negate my prediction. I think I’m getting put out with TNA.
What happened was: Poet laureate Xzibit said it best when he said, “Any last words? I got two/ Try ‘fuck’ and ‘you.’” Everything in the match was going just fine. There was some tremendous work going on from both guys, and they worked the crowd like true pros; hell, Angle gave the double birdshot to the crowd at one point, sparking me to act like I ain’t been nowhere in public before in my life, ‘cause I started shouting, “You suck!” while my wife tried to calm me down. Cage did some great stuff to counter that evil fucking Angle, and Joe stepped in to call shit straight down the middle, like Bill Alphonso. He even allowed Christian an opportunity to take a swing at Angle’s wife who tried to interfere; this was funny, as we’d been reminded in the Roode/Booker hype-up that TNA has a “no male-on-female violence,” and we’d already seen a woman get DVDed, and now we were about to see Karen Angle get molested. There was some crowd commotion, as a lot of attention was drawn toward the nearby entryway; a quick crane of the neck revealed that AJ Styles was standing in the wings … oh, no. Then there was the ref bump … noooo. Then AJ sprinted through the crowd, only to be taken out by Samoa Joe …. Yay! Then Angle got a chair …. Noooo. Then motherfucking Tomko came out to save the day, and if you thought by “save the day,” I really meant “offer up the swerve that you could see coming a mile away,” then you’d be right. He hit his little finisher, Angle wakes up the ref, covers Cage, uno dos tres, fuck and you.
My prediction streak: 8/5

Overall Score: Out of nine matches, one of which was dropped due to it being pretaped, I accurately predicted five out of eight matches, for an accuracy of 62.5%.

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Against All Odds wrestler-by-wrestler won-loss records, revised (ordered by number of shows involved, then percentage):
James Storm – 4:3 (75%)
AJ Styles – 4:3 (75%)
Abyss – 4:2 (50%)
Petey Williams – 4:0 (0%)
Christian Cage – 3:2 (67%)
BG James – 3:2 (67%)
Chris Sabin – 3:2 (67%)
Team 3D – 3:1 (33%)
Eric Young – 3:1 (33%)
Robert Roode – 3:0 (0%)
Jay Lethal – 2:2 (100%)
Alyx Shelley – 2:1 (50%)
Kurt Angle – 2:1 (50%)
Awesome Kong – 1:1 (100%)
Traci Brooks – 1:1 (100%)
Scott Steiner – 1:1 (100%)
Tomko – 1:1 (100%)
Bob Armstrong – 1:0 (0%)
Peyton Banks – 1:0 (0%)
Booker T – 1:0 (0%)
Johnny Devine – 1:0 (0%)
Judas Mesias – 1:0 (0%)
ODB – 1:0 (0%)

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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 – TNA World Title: Kurt Angle (c) vs. Christian Cage
6 – Motor City Chain Match – Rhino vs. AJ Styles
7 – TNA X-Division Title – Chris Sabin (c) vs. Jerry Lynn
8 – Full Metal Mayhem: Abyss vs. Jeff Hardy
9 – Alyx Shelley vs. Jay Lethal vs. Petey Williams vs. Matt Bentley
10 – Senshi vs. Austin Starr
11 – NWA Tag Team Titles: Kid Kash/ Lance Hoyt vs. AMW
12 – TNA X-Division Title, Hardcore Street Fight - Team 3D/ Johnny Devine vs. Motor City Machine Guns/ “Black Machismo” Jay Lethal
13 – Petey Williams vs. Scott Steiner
14 – Petey Williams vs. Elix Skipper
15 – NWA Tag Team Titles: AMW vs. Chris Sabin/ Sonjay Dutt
16 – The Naturals (Chase Stevens/ Andy Douglas) vs. Austin Aries/ Roderick Strong
17 – Falls Count Anywhere: Rhino vs. Abyss
18 – Barbed Wire Massacre 2 – Judas Mesias vs. Abyss
19 – NWA World Title: Jeff Jarrett vs. Kevin Nash
20 – Drinking Championship - James Storm vs. Eric Young
21 – Prison Yard Match – Sting vs. Abyss
22 – TNA Women’s Title - Awesome Kong (c) vs. ODB
23 – Team Canada (Bobby Roode & Eric Young) vs. Monty Brown/ Dallas Page
24 – Little Italy Street Fight - LAX (Homicide y Hernandez) vs. Team 3D
25 – Robert Roode vs. Booker T
26 – Team 3D (Ray/ Devon) vs. Team Canada (Bobby Roode/ Eric Young)
27 – Mixed Tag Team Match – Petey Williams/ Gail Kim vs. James Storm/ Jackie Moore
28 – The James Gang (BG & Kip James) vs. LAX (Homicide y Machete)
29 – TNA World Tag Team Titles - AJ Styles/ Tomko (c) vs. BG James/ Bob Armstrong
30 – Basebrawl Match – Lance Hoyt vs. Dale Torborg
31 – Peyton Banks vs. Traci Brooks
32 – Dustin Rhodes vs. Raven
33 – Frankie Kazarian/ Matt Bentley vs. BG James/ Jeff Hammond
34 – Tuxedo Match – Christy Hemme vs. “Big Fat Oily Guy”