By James Caldwell, Torch columnist

TNA Victory Road PPV Report
July 13, 2008
Houston, Tex.
By James Caldwell, PWTorch columnist

We're live inside Reliant Arena about an hour before show time. Estimated tickets sold is 3,500 for the live event.

Merch table analysis: Curry Man has two t-shirts featured next to a PPV poster. World champ Samoa Joe has a basic t-shirt way off to the side. Decent traffic at the merch stand, with more total t-shirts for sale than I've seen at recent WWE shows.

Very tight ringside area without much space on the floor for diving spots. Announce table is about ten feet away from the ring.

Dixie Carter was out about 45 minutes before the PPV meeting and greeting with fans. ... Mike Tenay came out to an AC/DC theme for his entrance. Something wrong with that picture.

Kevin Nash came out about 10 minutes before going on the air casually holding a beer. Jeremy Borash interviewed him about Booker vs. Joe. Nixed pop for Booker. All boos for Joe. Interesting.

Dixie then welcomed the crowd to the show before Borash tried to find the loudest fans. House show routine really worked the crowd up.

LIVE PPV COVERAGE

Arena filled up nicely by bell time. Probably right at that 3,500 mark.

(1) World X cup tag match. I have no idea what Sabin and Shelley were wearing. LOD 2008 maybe? But they did have a superstar pop. This made no sense at all but crowd was into most of the spots thrown against the wall to see what would stick. Entertaining yet quite long match from ringside. Crowd was super into Sabin and Shelley. Cream will rise to the top eventually. After the multiple-man craziness settled into more one-on-one action, this turned into a pretty good match. Shelley with the Air Raid (modified Celtic Cross) on Yoshino for the win. WINNERS: TEAM USA in 24:00. (***)

Booker showed off his home in a Cribs-style video package. Trying to present him as the cocky heel, but I don't see that working tonight based on the anti-Joe vibe tonight.

(2) Gail Kim vs. Angelina Love. Plenty of Hebner-related chants ringside. Fine singles match to come down from the opening match. Gail won with a neckbreaker. Beautiful Peeps tried to attack post-match, but Gail escaped during a near-wardrobe malfunction for Angelina. (*1/2)

(3) Sonjay Dutt vs. Jay Lethal (w/Val). Dutt took control of this to work an entertaining heel attack on Lethal. Dutt apparently covering the bald spot with the doo-rag. Val accidentally distracted Lethal allowing Dutt to score a roll-up. That Val turn is coming for sure. Lethal was upset with Val afterward. Storyline match here. (*)

Backstage, Roode and Storm cut a local promo about the Oilers leaving 10 years ago.

(4) LAX vs. Beer Money for the TNA Tag Tiles. The "marks" ringside with straps looked like peeps from Booker's promotion. LAX won when Hernandez scored the pin following a Doomsday Device. LAX was never in jeopardy here. OK tag match. WINNERS: LAX in 9:00. (*1/2)

Another Booker segment aired, this time from his training school. Awesome heel stuff here.

(5) Taylor vs. Kong for the Knockouts Title. Taylor went for the same finish of ducking the back fist into a roll up, but Kong had it scouted. Nice false finish leading to Taylor countering a powerbomb into a roll up for the win. Afterward, Kong tried to destroy Taylor, but Abyss made the save. Beauty and the Beast then left together. How sweet. Crowd was hot for Abyss's cameo. WINNER: Taylor in 5:00. (*)

Announcers: Tenay and West killed time while they set up the Ultimate X deal. Meanwhile, PWTorch Newsletter made a cameo over West's shoulder.

(6) Ultimate X World X Cup final. One of those rinse and repeat spot fest matches until Kaz busted out the big double foot stomp on Daivari that popped the crowd. Tenay simply spun around in his chair and had the huge look of shock. Voldero, Jr. then grabbed the X to win for Team Mexico. One spot match. WINNERS: Team Mexico in 8:00. (*)

Another Booker segment. We're on the golf course working on the short game.

(7) Styles & Rhino & Christian vs. Team 3D & Angle. Trigg is on commentary. Match went a little long leading to the slow ending. Trigg, of course, helped Angle win with the Olympic Slam through a table off a ladder. Lots of crazy spots here. Devon appears to have twisted his ankle. Styles had a legit superstar pop coming out to the ring, which carried on throughout the match. (**1/4)

(8) Samoa Joe vs. Booker T for the TNA Title. Well this was easily one of the worst finishes I've ever seen. No ending. Just a terrible ref bump that knocked out ref Rudy Charles forever leading to ref, security, and Sting intervention. Sharmell simply counted a three for Booker, grabbed the TNA Title, and left. Crowd was stunned in silence as no one knew what was going on. I'll have more later. Just a terrible terrible finish that killed the crowd. WINNER: ??? in ???. (n/a)

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