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What would have gotten me excited about seeing Kurt Angle vs. Sting is if TNA hadn't thrown it on TV a few months back for free with almost no build up. A "first-time-ever" clash of two icons of this generation, and for Sting a couple more, would have been something the wrestling community would have been buzzing about. If this match had been about that - not about whether Karen angle lied about being slapped and Kurt Angle overreacted and then stalked Sting's teenage son at a football game and drove Sting to say he wanted to kill Angle and Sting and Kevin Nash talking about old Sting and legacies and nothing about the motivation to actually win the TNA Hvt. Title - then I think there'd be a decent buzz about TNA's self-proclaimed biggest event of the year.

Kurt Angle vs. Sting is one of those few "dream matches" left in pro wrestling. A top WWE star from the late-'90s facing one of the icons of the '90s and Monday Night War era who had never crossed paths. There's money in that, if you grasp how wrestling fans think and what motivates buys. There may be a time and place for on location family stalking angles. That was excessive in this situation.

While Kurt Angle and Sting have both carried out what's been asked of them well, the storyline itself has been an unnecessary distraction. The whole thing about vowing to "kill" opponents is just too heavy for pro wrestling. There is just never a reason to go that far to sell tickets. Nobody believes it. It takes fans out of the zone of what's fun about wrestling and into territory that's just either fake or uncomfortable.

Christian Cage [artist Grant Gould (c) PWTorch]

The match itself, putting the hype aside, could be pretty good. Sting is athletically not in his prime by any means, but his style isn't built around things only 30 years old can do, so he can get by on star-power and charisma. Angle is still very good. They may be able to tell a good story in the ring. Too bad the bar has been set at the homicide level rather than hard-fought competition level.

Although the X Division Title match has second billing on the TNA website, I'd be pleasantly shocked if it weren't the third or fourth match on the card rather than the semi-main event. It should be second from the top if for no other reason than to send a message to fans that the X Title matters again. The hype and character-development, which should lead, can follow instead. That's fine. The match quality could be excellent. Daniels tends to be overrated relative to what he actually delivers in the ring, but part of that is the position TNA puts him in. Black Machismo has been really good lately in almost everything, so if Daniels rises to the occasion, this could be big plus on the show. But if they've only given eight or nine minutes instead of 15 and placed mid-card or earlier, there's no point wasting time even thinking about it because it's just going to be a letdown.

Team Pacman vs. A.J. Styles & Tomko is, believe it or not, the TNA Tag Team Title match on this show. TNA unnecessarily confused the issue by showing Tomko teaming in Japan with Giant Bernard (a/k/a Albert from WWE) without any explanation for why Styles isn't his tag partner in Japan or why Bernard isn't his tag partner in TNA. We also didn't really get a backstory for how they earned their title shot (that I can remember, at least; TNA tends to throw so much out there each show some stuff slips by even though Tenay and West scream it at me at the top of their lungs for two straight hours). Worst of all is the pseudo-celebrity fanboy marks in TNA who have positioned the criminally infamous fringe celebrity Pacman Jones in a serious position as a tag champion who doesn't ever actually make contact with opponents and the announcers never even acknowledge that elephant during his matches. It's one of the most stupid situations in pro wrestling history because there's no payoff. Pacman is not a household name, he's not charismatic, he brings absolutely nothing to the table other than some ESPN time for Jeff Jarrett on a low-rated program compared to Impact. It also sends a message about TNA's morals. They pay this thug to throw footballs and play pretend-wrestler, but how many members of management wear crosses around their necks?

Samoa Joe vs. Christian Cage has tremendous potential in the ring. Christian tends to be a little "soft" in the ring with his style, so Joe can bring out some fight in him with a few stiff slaps to the chest. Christian can bring out some of Joe's personality, too, with his strengths in the ring. It's an intriguing match-up of different styles. The coconut hype for was, as Joe said, "so cliche" - but the two hour format did allow for them to have some good interaction to make this match feel more than just thrown together.

Team 3D vs. The Steiners could be entertaining, but the age and fitness quotient of this match doesn't promise anything more than a good old-timers match feel most of the time. I really don't sense that my friends who were into wrestling in the Monday Night War Era - when Team 3D and the Steiners peaked as acts (ten years ago, by the way, TNA!) - are itching to see this supposed "dream match." The promos were a mixed bag, but Brother Ray and Scott are always worth listening to even if they do often get needlessly heavy-handed (like Brother Ray's pissing comment this week).

The Ultimate X match is thrown on the show with LAX vs. Elix Skipper & Senshi. There was no hype for this other than a generic video talking about the match concept. TNA didn't drive home any personal issues, any reason these two teams are against each other. It just seems like they wanted their signature gimmick match invention on their WrestleMania, and these wrestlers were available. It could be very good, though.

The there's the barely hyped Fight for the Right match, the Knockouts Gauntlet match, and I believe some sort of Raven gimmick match that isn't listed on TNA's website.

RECOMMENDATION - BUY IT: Overall, it's got definite potential to be a very good in-ring show despite the incoherent, heavy-handed hype going in. I'd recommend the show on the basis of the Angle-Sting, Christian-Joe, Lethal-Daniels, and Ultimate X matches all having three-and-a-half star potential or greater, with a decent mixed on the undercard.

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