-- 9/5 TNA No Surrender PPV Reax

Stephen Anthony of Nashville, Tenn. (4.5): Best Match: Kurt Angle vs. Jeff Hardy. Worst Match: Jarrett/Joe vs. Nash/Sting (for the misuse of nearly every worker). I saw on one of the few wrestling sites I visit that Hardy vs. Angle was deemed a 'classic.' Sorry, but I try to reserve that sort of praise for the old Flair and Harley Race matches. The obscene state that Hardy is reaching is becoming sad quick, similar to when he began deteriorating week-by-week back in 2002-3. That being said, Kurt Angle is a machine and most likely the best wrestler in the business. I thought the match would be an easy four-star match except that (1) it had no finish and (2) Dixie Carter and Eric Bischoff had plenty of TV time. There were a ton of killer spots and good psychology (until the end when Hardy appeared to be asleep rather than selling a broken ankle). ... The Generation Me vs. Machineguns match had tons of potential, but it ended up looking like a ROH-lite intro match. They'll probably screw up pushing the Buck boys, but they need youthful faces like that across their awful shows. ... The ridiculous Jarrett-Nash angle has spread like a cancer to my favorite wrestler, Samoa Joe. I'm glad he got to work for 78 seconds with those big stars. What a joke. I like Jarrett as a Nashville fixture (quick note: the "Main Event Mafia" name was taken from Jarrett's buddies, the Nashville Muzik Mafia - a group of hard-partying Nashville country guys). But as much as I like the guy, I have no interest in seeing him drag Samoa Joe down into his bottomless pit of heatless matches. Let me also say that Tommy Dreamer has no business booking or doing matches. At least he put A.J. over, but I'm not sure he deserves such a high-in-the-card match. This is now worse than WCW 2000.

Simon Day of London, U.K., Business Owner (7.0): Best Match: A.J. Styles vs. Tommy Dreamer. Worst Match: Kurt Angle vs. Jeff Hardy. I didn't have great expectations for this PPV. Let's face it, TNA themselves couldn't have had many expectations themselves by way of the poor build up and hype for the PPV. In fact, I thought they could have aptly re-named the show "We Surrender." As an Englishman, after learning that Desmond Wolfe and partner had been pulled from the show, my expectations lessened further. I did, however, thoroughly enjoy the PPV for the most part. It got off to a flying start with some good, if sometimes overly complicated, action in the first two X Division-style matches. If I didn't have many expectations prior to this PPV, then I had absolutely zero expectations for the ensuing Falls Count Anywhere match between Rhino and Abyss. However, halfway into the match, I was beginning to wonder why I had such a pessimistic attitude going into the show. It was certainly an above-average match. I thought both wrestlers told a good story without having to resort to excessive use of silly weapons. My only complaint was Taz's excessive use of chuckling. It's quite hard to take a hardcore type of match seriously when the commentators - the guys responsible for on air selling of matches - constantly chuckle as if watching a mildly funny stand-up comedy routine. ...
Nash/Sting-Jarrett/Joe. Well, it was what it was. ... How good is A.J. Styles? So good that he can carry Tommy Dreamer to a top-notch PPV match. I wasn't crazy about the finish, but the match told a story and legitimized Styles as a top heel. ... Conspicuous by her absence, I knew it wouldn't be long before we saw Our Lady of... I mean Dixie Carter on our screens. To the best of my memory, she has had little or nothing to do with the World Title tournament feud on Impact broadcasts of late. Instead, she's been occupied by signing contracts with Dreamer and Co. and fighting the good fight against Ric Flair. Still, she couldn't have picked a better side show than the first PPV meeting between Kurt Angle and Jeff Hardy. This was 20 minutes of majestic wrestling action. 20 minutes, where, you could forget the silly feuds and even sillier logic in TNA, and just sit back and enjoy what was shaping up to be a five-star match. Now there was a reason I listed the bout as my worst of the evening at the top of this critique, and the mayhem that followed the sudden bell at 20 minutes was that very reason. Surely if a match has a time limit, the wrestlers themselves should know about it?! Viewers had no clue about it, yet there was a countdown clock for the two additional periods of overtime. Strange. A TRULY great match in pro wrestling must have an ending. This was a very good bout, that could have been a great bout, but TNA booking dictated otherwise. A great shame. ... The main event was a bit of an afterthought. To follow Angle-Hardy with the crowd still scratching their heads as to what had just happened, it really didn't make for a good main event of the evening. I thought The Pope was awful in this match. He nearly missed a couple of kick-outs and his ring positioning and psychology were just way off on the night. I thought for a couple of minutes after the match that Anderson was legitimately annoyed with Pope. All in all, this was a good PPV for TNA. It's just a shame it wasn't properly hyped. Star of the night: Dixie, of course.

We welcome your 0-10 score and comments on this show for a "TNA PPV Reax" feature in the Torch Feedback section of PWTorch.com. Just to add a twist to this feature, include not just your hometown, but also your occupation (mechanic, lawyer, stay-at-home-dad, college student, etc.) so readers get a flavor for what everyone does as "day jobs." To contribute your thoughts on the PPV, click here.

[Torch art credit Joe Borzotta (c) PWTorch.com]

We suggest these recent related articles...

WWE PPV REAX #1: "I wanted the biggest event of the summer to end with an exclamation point; it ended with a semicolon and a question"

WWE PPV REAX #1: Battleground finish generates mixed reactions...

WWE PPV REAX #2: In-Person Battleground Report on overall show, reactions, more