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(1) TEAM TNA defeated TEAM JAPAN, TEAM INTERNATIONAL, and TEAM MEXICO

Matches like this make me incredibly grateful I don't generally do play-by-play for the PPVs. First of all, there's simply no way I could. There was one move after another, and half of them I'd never seen before. More importantly though, if I'd been typing it up I wouldn't have been able to sit back and enjoy this match. I said in my preview that this line-up reminded me a lot of old-school TNA, and nowhere was that more evident than here. This went lightning fast and didn't mean a thing (especially because those of us who could count realized that as soon as Team Mexico was eliminated the Ultimate X Match officially became winner-take-all), but was a hell of a joy ride nonetheless. The finish came down to Alex Shelley, Yoshimo, and Alex Koslov. I think it's safe to say that Yoshimo, Koslov, and to a lesser extent Guerrero were the breakthrough stars of this year's X Cup. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that TNA signs Koslov in the near future.

Star of the match: Yoshimo.

We see Part 1 of Booker T's Homecoming. This part shows his nice house. I thought these segments were all a bit dull, but they were pretty quick and helped build Booker up for the main event.

(2) GAIL KIM defeated ANGELINA LOVE (w/VELVET SKY)

There weren't really a lot of frills here. This was just a good solid match, with Kim fighting off both members of The Beautiful People to pick up the clean win. In some ways though, this is a milestone for the women's division. I could be wrong, but I think this might be the first women's match since they started the division that didn't have any direct title implications (or involvement with a men's feud). I'd have rather seen Love get the unclean win, but that's a small quibble.

Star of the match: Gail Kim

(3) SONJAY DUTT defeated JAY LETHAL

For the first few minutes of the match the silliness was kept to a minimum, and we were treated to just a hell of an athletic display. Don West used to say that Sonjay Dutt was the best X Division wrestler to never hold the title, and Dutt reminded us all just how true that is here tonight. SoCal Val seemed surprisingly torn throughout the match, and after Lethal hit the Lethal Combo she pled with him not to go for the Savage Elbow. Dutt took advantage of the distraction to score a quick roll-up and use illegal leverage for the win. I don't look forward to the coming weeks of ambiguity regarding Val's involvement—whatever her allegiances, I would have rather they made them clear here tonight so this feud could move to the next level. Still, for tonight this was fine, and happily "guru" free.

Star of the match: Sonjay Dutt

Beer Money say they're not afraid of the fans' belts, but Jacqueline doesn't want to go out there.

(4) LAX defeated BEER MONEY INC.

Beer Money have a creepy remix of both of their music. Not surprisingly, the fans take great joy in whipping the living daylights out of Beer Money, and then politely help Homicide back into the ring. Otherwise, this was a fairly standard LAX match. Homicide got isolated for a while, did something cool, tagged in Hernandez, and then they both killed everyone. The match itself was nothing special, but I find the fans' involvement fun.

Star of the match: Hernandez--isn't it always?

Part 2 of Booker's Homecoming showed his training facilities. Not surprisingly, this was the most interesting of these pieces.

(5) TAYLOR WILDE defeated AWESOME KONG (w/RAESHA SAEED)

Kong came out firing, but Taylor just could not be kept down. She slipped out of all Kong's big moves, and won with a Victory Roll in about five minutes. This match should have been a lot longer, allowing Wilde to show her tenacity. As it is, it just felt like a rerun of last Thursday. After the match Saeed and Kong ambushed Taylor, but Abyss made the save before they could do too much damage. There wasn't anything bad here, but this could have been a whole lot better.

Star of the match: Taylor Wilde.

Part 3 of Booker's Homecoming showed his Houston restaurant.

(6) VOLADOR JR. defeated KAZ, DAIVARI, and DOI

This was the Ultimate X match for the World X Cup finals. The whole match built to a spot where Kaz hit a Leg Drop from the top of the scaffold to Daivari in the middle of the ropes. Volador Jr. just sort of snuck in and picked off the X to give Team Mexico the win. This was a decent match by any measure, but these were simply the wrong four people. Everyone played their part well, but they should really have used their best built up people in this match. We hadn't even seen Volador Jr. before, and why did they go out of their way to build up Koslov if Daivari was going to be the one in the only match that mattered? It was still a fun little match, and I'm glad someone other than Team TNA got the nod. Still, they should have traded out these four and had Koslov, Shelley, Guerrero, and Yoshimo do what they did earlier in the night.

Star of the match: Kaz

The fourth and final part of Booker's Homecoming shows his prowess on the golf course. I'm not quite sure what that had to do with Houston.

(7) KURT ANGLE & TEAM 3D defeated AJ STYLES, CHRISTIAN CAGE, & RHINO

I like me my garbage brawls, and this match was the garbage-est. After some big spots early on, including an amazing Cross Body Block off the top of the Ultimate X scaffolding by Christian, he and Rhino powdered out. The story was AJ vs. the world, with AJ putting up the valiant fight. I have to admit that as big an AJ Styles fan as I am, Jay Lethal played that part better a few months ago against Team 3D & Johnny Devine. Speaking of Devine, he came out with a kendo stick, so AJ just fought him off too. After AJ took out Devine, Ray, and Devon, a kendo stick shot from Frank Trigg to his head allowed Kurt to hit a Super Olympic Slam through a table for the win. By the way, since usually non-wrestlers' involvement in all things wrestling tends to result in a train wreck, it's worth mentioning that Frank Trigg continues to be an all-star on commentary. AJ and Kurt are now even at one apiece, so we can expect that feud to continue.

Star of the match: Christian Cage--no one does this sort of match better.

Nash told Joe that he's in his corner, and Joe asks him to prove it by staying in the back.

(8) BOOKER T and SAMOA JOE fight to a no contest

Booker started off the match on offense, with the crowd entirely behind him. Joe got busted open, but eventually snapped. He took it to Booker T on the outside, so Sharmell begged him to stop. Joe beat up Sharmell's body guards (I'm not sure what they did), and then proceeded to keep working on Booker. Referee Rudy Charles took a bump as Joe continued to do damage. Sharmell came into the ring and begged Joe to ease off. Slick Johnson came down to the ring, and here's where things started to get weird. Rather than officiate the match, Slick Johnson also started telling Joe to ease up on Booker T. This might have made more sense after a more brutal beating than we'd seen thus far. Anyway, Joe got fed up and took out Slick Johnson. More refs and security came out, and Joe took them all out too. Sharmell started begging for help from the back, and Sting appeared. He convinced Joe to leave the ring, but halfway out Joe thought better of it and went to do some more damage on Booker. Sting came into the ring and tried to pull Joe off, eventually getting fed up and using his bat to knock him out. Booker rolled into a cover, and Sharmell counted three. Booker T left with the belt. Tenay and West were confused.
Okay, I like the bit with Joe snapping and needing Sting to stop him, and to a certain extent I even like an ending that leaves you wondering what really happened. The problem is that this one didn't make sense. Why wouldn't Slick Johnson just officiate the match? Or, if he really thought Booker had had enough, why didn't he call for the bell before pulling Joe off? I don't know if Joe was supposed to be the heel here, cause he wouldn't listen to Sting, or if he's the face cause he was the only one who was trying to finish the bloody match. Booker T clearly didn't beat Joe—if they wanted to run a story where Booker took the belt, they could just as well have done it after a loss. If the loss had come via a ref's stopping the match, Booker would even have had a fairly good claim to having never been beat.
Star of the match: Samoa Joe for selling the snapping.

Star of the night: The X Division. In a night with no individual having too strong a performance, Kaz and Shelley's strong showings reminded everyone what the X Division can do.

Overall: The show started off surprisingly strong, with good action from the X and Knockouts' Division. The tag team action was mostly harmless, and the semi-main event brawl was fun. Then we get to the ending, and, well, things get complicated. TNA gets some points for having Joe snap, having Sting whack him, and having an ending that will make me tune into Impact on Thursday. However, they lose a lot more for an ending that didn't really make any sense. This is one of those shows that is really hard to grade till you know what the broader plan is. We might look back in a month and realize that, for some reason, the ending had to be a no-contest this month—I'm thinking of the DQ finish in the Undertaker-Lesnar feud that set the stage for the brutality of their stellar Hell in the Cell match the next month. I tend to give TNA some benefit of the doubt here, but not too much. B.






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