Bryan Staebell
Destination X recap
I guess they had the balls after all.
Chris Sabin defeated Bully Ray to become the new TNA Champion in the main event of the Destination X branded 7/18 Impact from Louisville, KY. It played out as it would have felt no matter how they booked it…a massive upset. When Austin Aries won the TNA title last year at this time…that didn’t feel like an upset so much as a “wow…they really did it” moment. Aries was basically undefeated for an entire year leading up to Destination X 2012 and had been portrayed, and accepted as a top tier talent. Chris Sabin had none of that. What Sabin had was two legitimate knee injuries that kept him out for nearly two full years. You can’t book an underdog babyface story better than the one life handed him.
I like what making this choice says. This may have been done simply to get through the summer where, other than the Destination X cash in…it doesn’t make sense for the TNA Champion to ever defend their title. They have 12 guys fighting for months to crown a challenger…you can’t just have someone else get a title shot. Last year they had Aries defend in rematches against Roode to get him through to Bound For Glory. This year they can do the same regardless of who ends up holding the title in the end. What I like about this though…is that it was a TNA guy. One of THE TNA guys. Sure, if you want to define “TNA guy” as just a guy who didn’t make his name in WWE first…then Austin Aries qualifies too. I tend to look at it like Aries is a Ring of Honor guy though. He made his name there, like Samoa Joe before him. That is where they grew as wrestlers and people had heard of them. Time washes that all away eventually…Joe is a TNA guy now. Punk is a WWE guy. But Sabin was always a TNA guy. He debuted in 2003 in only his third year in the business. He grew here…in front of the most hardcore of the TNA audience (the ones buying the Wednesday Night Nashville shows). It’s what I loved about Bobby Roode winning the title in 2011. It’s what I hope to see happen with Magnus in the near future.
There’s nothing wrong with an RVD or a Jeff Hardy coming in and winning the belt. They are “yours” while they’re there after all. But it’s always going to be a little more special when one of the guys TNA signed, developed and pushed wins it. Partly because there aren’t that many of them.
The match itself had an awesome beginning but then fell into a rut as Bully Ray worked over Sabin’s leg for far too long. You could have legitimately cut 5 minutes of Bully beating him up and the match would have been better for it. I understood why they did it this way though. They weren’t booking an Austin Aries to go toe to toe with anyone…they were booking for a big upset story. They were in danger of losing the crowd…and funnily it was the tip off of the Main Event Mafia vs. Aces and Eights brawl that brought them back. In the melee, Sabin got Bully Ray’s hammer and clocked him in the face when Bully got him up for a powerbomb. No one even pretended there was a problem with that…which was kind of awesome. They did have the crowd for the finish…with everyone’s faces telling the same story. “I can’t believe that actually happened”. That’s why it’s cool to do stuff like this sometimes.
Elsewhere on the show…Austin Aries pinned Bobby Roode clean for 7 points in the Bound For Glory series. They had the usual awesome match. Roode flipped out after the match since he’s still pointless in the series.
They did 3 qualifiers for next week’s Ultimate X to crown a new X division champion. Of course they were three ways. It’s hilarious that the one stipulation TNA has ever stuck with is the one I probably dislike the most. The concept here was 3 matches representing the past, present and future of the X division.
Sonjay Dutt beat Homicide and Petey Williams in a good match. Homicide looked like he absolutely killed Petey with the Gringo Killer. Dutt did his awesome moonsault footstomp on Homicide for the win.
Manik beat Kenny King and Chavo Guerrero in a Chavo match. A Chavo match is one that you think will be good going in and then underwhelms you.
Greg Marasciulo (Trent Barreta) beat Rubix and Rockstar Spud in a pretty good match with no crowd heat. Not that the crowd really knew who at least 2 of these guys were…but they actually worked a good enough match to get them into it in the end. Barreta looked good. I guess this match told the opposite story of the main event. Here it was better to be a WWE jobber than a TNA guy or a Chikara guy. Small steps.
They also did a segment to build up Mickie James defending the knockouts title against Gail Kim next week. They’re both heels but you can tell the crowd will make Gail the babyface. In part because Mickie’s heel character is so insufferably wonderful…and in part because Gail’s been having these awesome matches that everyone loved with Taryn Terrell.
This was a really good TV show. The story will be written on Chris Sabin over the summer. He’s scheduled to have a rematch with Bully Ray in a steel cage on August 15 at a Hardcore Justice themed show. Pushing this week as a themed show led to the best ratings TNA has had in some time…so expect that to continue.
Bound For Glory Series Leaderboard
1. Magnus – 49 points (4 matches)
Qualified by winning a 4 way over Kenny King, Matt Morgan and Rob Terry (6/13 Impact)
Made Kazarian submit for 10 points (6/20 Impact)
Pinned Bobby Roode for 7 points (6/27 Impact)
Pinned Hernandez for 7 points (6/27, Ottumwa, IA)
Won the Joker’s Wild tournament for 25 points (7/11 Impact)
2. Samoa Joe – 26 points (5 matches)
Qualified by defeating Robbie E (6/6 Impact)
Went to a draw with AJ Styles for 2 points (6/20 Impact)
Made Mr. Anderson submit for 10 points (6/27 Impact)
Pinned Kaz for 7 points (6/28, St. Joseph MO)
Pinned Jay Bradley for 7 points (6/19, Danville, IL)
3. Jeff Hardy – 17 points (4 matches)
Qualified by winning the 2012 BFG series
Pinned Bobby Roode for 7 points (6/20 Impact)
Won via DQ vs. Joseph Park for 3 points (7/4 Impact)
Pinned Austin Aries for 7 points (7/5, Brooklyn NY)
4. Christopher Daniels – 14 points (3 matches)
Qualified by winning a tag match against James Storm and Gunner (6/13 Impact)
Pinned Hernandez for 7 points (6/20 Impact)
Pinned Joseph Park for 7 points (7/6. White Plains NY)
5. Austin Aries – 14 points (4 matches)
Qualified by beating Eric Young (6/13 Impact)
Pinned Jay Bradley for 7 points (6/20 Impact)
Pinned Bobby Roode for 7 points (Destination X)
6. AJ Styles – 12 points (3 matches)
Qualified by beating Kurt Angle (6/13 Impact)
Went to a Draw with Samoa Joe for 2 points (6/20 Impact)
Made Kaz submit for 10 points (7/4 Impact)
7. Mr. Anderson – 7 points (3 matches)
Qualified by winning a battle royal (6/13 Impact)
Pinned Joseph Park for 7 points (6/20 Impact)
8. Hernandez – 7 points (4 matches)
Qualified by beating Chavo Guerrero (6/6 Impact)
Pinned Jay Bradley for 7 points (7/4 Impact)
9. Jay Bradley – 0 points (4 matches)
Qualified by winning Gut Check tournament (6/2 Slammiversary)
10. Bobby Roode – 0 points (4 matches)
Qualified by winning 2011 BFG series
11. Kazarian – 0 points (4 matches)
Qualified by winning a tag match against James Storm and Gunner (6/13 Impact)
12. Joseph Park – -10 points (4 matches)
Qualified by defeating Crimson (6/13 Impact)
Was Disqualified vs. Jeff Hardy for -0 points (7/4 Impact)
Impact 7/25 Preview
They already taped this show in Louisville, so this will just be a non spoiler rundown of what to expect.
Ultimate X match to crown the new X division champion: Sonjay Dutt vs. Manik vs. Greg Marasciulo. Said to be a good long match.
Gail Kim vs. Mickie James for the Knockouts title.
AJ Styles vs. Jeff Hardy in the BFG series. Said to be very good.
Samoa Joe vs. Christopher Daniels in the BFG series.
Mr. Anderson vs. Hernandez in the BFG series.
Random Factoids
Where to start this week… Bruce Prichard, who was the head of creative and in charge of talent contracts, is gone. He wouldn’t agree to a new “pay structure” and is out. Apparently running all these Impact’s on the road without enough new incoming revenue to cover it is a bad thing. Who knew. Anyway…D-Lo Brown went with him.
They released Tara who was making more than the other knockouts and wasn’t being used as much anymore. She had a really good run and I’m sad to see her go.
DOC is gone too when they couldn’t come to an agreement on a new contract. They had plans for him going forward. He was going to turn on Aces and 8’s and get a babyface push. It’s a bad time to have your contract come up though. Part of this was a case of Prichard doing his usual poor job talking to talent about contracts before they come up (see Bobby Roode). Both sides have said the door isn’t closed on working together in the future. That’s what happened with Velvet Sky, Bobby Roode and RVD…until Prichard just stopped returning RVD’s phone calls after he verbally agreed to a new deal. …you know…creative has been better since Russo left…but maybe Prichard leaving isn’t such a bad thing…
The list of upcoming TV/PPV tapings is as follows:
8/1- Wichita Falls, TX (the live 8/1 show and the taped 8/8 show)
8/15- Norfolk, VA (the live 8/15 Hardcore Justice show and the taped 8/22 show)
8/29- Cleveland, OH (the live 8/29 show and the taped 9/5 show)
9/12 – St. Louis, MO (the live 9/12 show and the taped 9/19 show)
10/20- San Diego, CA – Bound For Glory
