TNA Against All Odds 2007

Date: 02/11/2007

Location: The Impact Zone in Orlando, FL

Announcers: Mike Tenay and Don West

The Setup

This was Kurt Angle’s first challenge at the NWA title after beating Samoa Joe in their rubber match at the PPV prior. There were a lot of continuing feuds with added stipulations underneath, as TNA was deep into a Vince Russo run here.

Angle challenging Christian for the title in the main event felt like a miss. I thought Christian was somewhat underrated at the time, but the idea of Angle-Christian being a WWE PPV main event while both were there was laughable. In that regard, it did make it seem like TNA would put any WWE wrestlers in top spots.

The Business

The show did 23,000 PPV buys, down 11,000 or 32% from January’s Final Resolution. This had to be highly disappointing for Angle’s first title challenge. Angle helped them reach a new plateau with the Joe series, bumping them to about 35,000 buys on average, and here we are again with a minuscule number. No one seemed interested in Angle winning the title.

The show was fuh-ree at Universal Studios’ Impact Zone.

The Results  

Little Italy Street Fight: LAX def. Team 3D in 9:26. This was nothing special in the ring, and probably well below the normal quality of LAX matches. The ring had a set made to look like Little Italy in NYC, but these four didn’t click in the ring. Hernandez hit a border toss on Devon, and Homicide followed with an elbow. **

Senshi def. Austin Starr in 8:21. They did another ROH match on paper that was short and underwhelming. Putting the babyface cruiserweights with Nash as his flunkies got a lot of heat on the internet then, but I don’t think that them as his little buddies was a problem. What didn’t make a lot of sense was why they couldn’t do the out-of-the-ring stuff and still put these guys in a position to have meaningful, quality matches? They did the stupid finish where both men’s shoulders were down on a rollup, and we couldn’t tell who won. Senshi was awarded the win. **3/4 

Tuxedo Street Fight: Christy Hemme def. Big Fat Oily Guy in 2:29. Everything involving Christy Hemme and Kip James is consistently the worst segment of every show and one of the cringiest moments in the history of professional wrestling. What would have saved the debacle on the last PPV? Big fat oily guy. Jesus. They really were idiots sometimes. The person who greenlit this should be forced to watch it thirty straight days on a loop.  DUD 

Lance Hoyt def. Dale Torborg in 5:04. The AJ Pierzynski/Dale Torborg “basebrawl” feud with Lance Hoyt was the shits, and the epitome of TNA bullshit. They would take what I would call C-level or fringe celebrities and put them on TV. Pierzynski was getting some pub for basically being a heel ballplayer people didn’t like, so they thought this was as good a reason as any to dig the WCW Demon (Torborg) out of the mothballs and use him to put a young Hoyt over. David Eckstein, the most white-meat babyface shortstop EVER, was in Hoyt’s corner. How bad does that look on paper? The answer in your head is about what we got on the screen. AJ hit Hoyt with a chair so Torborg could cover. 1/2*

Motorcity Chain Match: AJ Styles def. Rhino in 15:07. AJ and Rhyno’s program as a whole was very mid-level. Stips defintely dragged it down, but they didn’t click in the ring, either. Maybe the babyface and heel roles should have been reversed as a match here. AJ got the win when Rhino missed a gore through a table.   **1/2

X Division Title Match: Chris Sabin (C) def. Jerry Lynn in 13:33. I forgot about this Jerry Lynn return run, and I can see why now. As a rewatch, it’s been pretty forgettable so far. He’s still good as a performer, but there’s something that didn’t work in the presentation, as Lynn “making” Sabin, despite the appearance that’s what they were going for. Sabin was good at being a dick, too. For whatever reason, there was a disconnect, even if the work was solid. Sabin won with a rollup while holding the ropes. **3/4 

James Storm & Jackie def. Petey Williams & Gail Kim in 8:49. Gail and Jackie improved Petey and Storm’s apparent lack of chemistry, but it was still apparent. Storm elbowed Gail, allowing Jackie to get the win. **1/2 

Prison Yard Match: Sting def. Abyss in 11:57. I was fixing to hate this match because the storyline was horrible and TNA does not deserve the benefit of the doubt in their stip matches, but God damn, they won me over. It started outside in the back of the Impact Zone (which was cheaply staged as a prison yard) and featured a splash by Sting from the top of a dumpster onto Abyss on a table. Even in this, there had to be a TNA moment, and when Abyss’ press slam slammed Sting into a dumpster to a big pop, they then showed the dumpster packed with cardboard and styrofoam to the brim. Dumbshits. The goal was to lock your opponent in a shark cage in the middle of the ring. Sting eventually powerbombed Abyss through a table wrapped in barbed wire for the win. This match was violent and a lot of fun. ***3/4 

World Title Match: Christian (C) def. Kurt Angle in 19:02. Samoa Joe was the enforcer because heaven forbid Angle did anything in the company at all that wasn’t tied to Joe. They had a good back-and-forth match, climaxing with the typical TNA bullshit in the end. Tomko, AJ, and Scott Steiner all got involved to help Christian, but Joe battled the odds. Joe hit Scott Steiner with a weak chairshot in the main event angle, then overcompensated and busted the back of Scott’s head open with another. It looked pretty bad in Steiner’s bleached locks. Cage eventually got the pipe Steiner left in the ring and whacked Angle for the win. ****

Additional Gaga

-Chris Harris appeared in an eyepatch and chased James Storm around after the mixed tag, selling the broken beer bottle angle when AMW split. A slow burn? Yes, it actually happened in TNA.

-They started an angle where Robert Roode owns the contract of Eric Young, and basically holds him against his will by making Eric do Roode’s bidding. Traci and Roode constantly berating EY always worked because the crowd connected with Roode and Eric strongly in the ways they were intended to. They aired videos that implied Traci got Eric to sign by seducing him.

-They were teasing dissension between Scott Steiner and Tomko all night, but of course, just like Abyss and James Mitchell at the prior PPV, it was all a swerve. Fucking Russo.

The Verdict

Thumbs Up 

You can argue the main event was your typical TNA bullshit, but I thought they helpfully leaned into that. It seemed like fans bought into the numerous nearfalls or near endings to the match because they always did overbooked interference shit as a finish. The match was well-worked, and Angle looked so fucking good. I like Christian; he was very good here, but Angle looked like the best guy in the company by a solid margin when you watch this show. If there was an annoying product of that match, they continued to pound Joe vs. Angle, a storyline that started the minute that Angle walked into the company over four months ago. You can do so many fun, different matches when you have one of the best all-around performers in the business and one of its legit biggest names. Still, they were so fixated on the obvious Joe vs. Angle program that they burned through the program in a way that would make John Cena and Randy Orton blush. I was fixing to hate the Sting/Abyss match because the storyline was horrible and TNA does not deserve the benefit of the doubt in their stip matches, but God damnI they didn’t deliver. This was a meh show at best until the final two matches.