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  3. TNA Against All Odds Recap (2/10)

Against All OddsThe show opens with the SC National Guard accompanied by Marine veterans BG James and his father “Bullet” Bob Armstrong, marching out with the US and SC flags. Then the National Anthem is sung by Joe Trusty. They follow with a video montage of scenes from events leading up to the PPV, mixed in with a series of political video clips.

Announcers Mike Tenay and Don West are at ringside to welcome fans.

TNA Tag Team Championship Match
“The Prince of Phenomenal” AJ Styles and Tomko (C)
vs.
BG James and “Bullet” Bob Armstrong

On the ramp, Tomko complains to AJ and tells him not to wear his crown to the ring. Once they are in the ring, AJ complains to Tomko that he hasn’t called him back all week. Tomko retorts that they are about to face the greatest wrestling family ever, and they are backed up by the Marines, so AJ needs to get his head straight.

AJ and BG start off, but AJ isn’t taking BG seriously, and he starts off playing around with him. Finally he gets BG in a headlock, but BG escapes and AJ goes back to fooling around, so BG decks him with a right. BG tags in his father, who slaps the taste out of AJ’s mouth.

AJ tags in Tomko, who goes to town on Bullet Bob, who soon tags in BG, who brawls with Tomko, and manages to get the better of him. He tags Bob back in, but he’s no match for Tomko, who slams him to the mat. AJ tags himself in and goes for the tag, much to the disgust of Tomko. Bullet Bob kicks out, and AJ beats him down. He goes for another pin attempt, but still gets just two, so he tags in Tomko.

Tomko works over the Armstrong patriarch, but then misses with a running boot and gets his foot stuck in the ropes long enough for BG to tag in. AJ tries to springboard into a flying forearm on BG as Tomko holds him, but BG ducks and Styles misses and hits Tomko instead, knocking him to the floor.

After brawling some more, AJ hits BG with a springboard drop kick and takes out his knee. BG can’t get up again due to his injured knee, so Tomko and Styles hit him with a tornado plex, and Tomko gets the pin. After the match, Kip James comes out to help BG to the back.

They cut to Jeremy Borash with Karen and Kurt Angle, who are arguing. Karen tells Kurt he does treat her right, and he’s not romantic. Kurt tells Karen to go to the concession stand and buy some Midol.

Knockouts Grudge Match
Traci Brooks
vs.
Payton Banks

Payton Banks is better known to fans of indy wrestling as Rain. The women start out slapping each other. The Traci spears Banks into a corner and beats her down, but Payton makes a comeback by raking Traci’s eyes. The women continue to brawl to the outside, where Traci slams Banks into the railing and hits her with chops. Banks makes a comeback by slamming Traci’s head several times into the steel ring steps, then hits her with some forearms.

They return to the ring and continue to brawl, with Banks putting the boots to Brooks, slamming Traci’s head into the turnbuckles and hitting her with elbows. She chokes Brooks in the ropes, but Brooks makes a comeback by powering out of an attempted powerbomb and back dropping Banks.

After more brawling, Traci tries going up to the top, but Banks knocks her off and sets her up in the corner for more punishment. Payton charged Traci but misses and hits the ring post instead. Traci rolls her right up for the pin. After the match, Banks tries to get pay back, but Traci fights her off and Banks heads for the locker room as Traci celebrates.

Mike Tenay announces the return of announcer and interviewer Scott Hudson!

After a video about the Case vs. Case match, they cut to Scott Hudson, interviewing both Scott Steiner and Petey Williams. Williams says it’s fine with him if they put both cases on the line, because he knows he’s going to win. Scott tells him he’d better not try to copy him tonight, because if he does, Scott has a surprise for him.


Case vs. Case Match
“Big Poppa Pump” Scott Steiner
vs.
“Maple Leaf Muscle” Petey Williams

The fans get a loud dueling chant going on as Petey and Scott faced off to start the match. Petey’s speed is his advantage against Steiner’s greater size and strength. Petey starts off well, but Scott eventually catches Petey and gains the advantage with his power moves. Steiner hits Petey with a belly to belly release suplex that sends Petey bouncing across the ring. Another belly to belly release suplex off the top rope does more damage, but Steiner still refuses to go for a pin. He hits Petey with a fall away slam off the top and then brings the two steel cases up and wedges them into opposite turnbuckles.

Steiner tries to ram Petey head first into a case, but Referee Slick Johnson stops him. When Johnson turns away, Petey grabs Scott and slams his head into the steel case instead. Petey goes for the pin and gets two. Petey follows up with a hurricanarana on Scott. Then he goes for the Canadian Destroyer, but Steiner reverses it into a power slam. Steiner goes to pick up Williams, but instead is rolled up for another two count.

Petey keeps up a quick barrage of drop kicks and aerial attacks on Steiner, who is now wobbling on his feet. After several near falls, Petey locks in the Steiner Recliner, but Scott powers up and slams Petey twice into the ring post to make him let go. Petey comes back with a tornado DDT but still can only get two. Steiner resorts to a low blow to get Petey to the mat, but when he tries his own Recliner, Petey flips over and punches him several times in the face to escape. Once Petey is back on his feet, he returns a mule kick to Scott and then slams Steiner’s head into the second metal case.

Williams hits Steiner with a drop kick off the top, and is starting the Canadian Destroyer, when a blonde haired Trenesha Biggers, who was released from a WWE developmental contract some years back, comes out and stands on the ring apron to distract him. Steiner takes advantage and power bombs Petey to get the pin. Then Trenesha comes into the ring to celebrate with Scott, as Tenay says that Steiner must have brought one of his freaks to help him out against Petey.

They cut to Jeremy Borash giving Kurt Angle advice on how to appease Karen. Kurt and Karen are going to renew their wedding vows on on Thursday’s iMPACT! which is also Valentine’s Day.

Drinking Championship
Eric Young (C)
vs.
“Cowboy” James Storm with Jackie Moore

As Eric is greeting fans on his way in, Storm leaves the ring and attacks him, then forces him into the ring to start the match. EY soon clotheslines Storm over the top rope to the floor, and then hits him with a cross body block off the top. Then he chases Jackie around the ring before going back to brawling with the Cowboy. They return to the ring, where Storm slugs Eric, then later uses the ropes for leverage to kick EY right in the head.

They return to the floor, where Storm pulls back the padding and tosses Eric onto the concrete. Then he tries to suplex Young, but Eric blocks it and suplexes Storm on the concrete instead. The continue to brawl and trade near falls, with both men becoming frustrated as the crowd loudly cheers Eric on. Jackie comes in to interfere, so Eric hoists her onto his shoulders and uses her to knock Storm off the top turnbuckle onto his shoulders as well, allowing him to deliver a Double Death Valley Driver. He still gets only a two count though.

Jackie leaves and climbs back up onto the ring apron with a beer bottle behind her back, to argue with Referee Andrew Thomas. She tosses the beer bottle to Storm behind the ref’s back. As James Storm is about to hit EY with the beer bottle, Rhino runs in and gores Storm out of his boots. Eric Young pins Storm to get the win.

After the match, Rhino says that he will explain why he’s back on Thursday’s iMPACT! (Rhino has been out with an injury.)

They cut to Crystal with Jim Cornette, who explains that the SC State Athletic Commission would not allow the Barbwire Massacre match, so it will be sent live on PPV from Orlando, FL. Cornette warns that the match will be bloody, and demonstrates by rubbing a foam ball over a barbwire board. (NOTE: The match was actually prerecorded, and the video will be aired tonight.)

TNA Knockout Women’s Championship Match
Awesome Kong (C) with Raisha Saeed
vs
ODB

Raisha Saeed’s eyes sure look an awful lot like Cheerleader Melissa’s eyes. She sounds a lot like Melissa too – or at least what Melissa would sound like if she were faking a Middle Eastern accent.

ODB starts off trying to go toe to toe with Kong, and even goes so far as to try to lift her for a suplex, with no success. She goes outside to guzzle a drink from her flask, and Saeed comes over to admonish her, but she just cusses her out. ODB returns to the ring to try again to lift Kong, but has no more success than before. Kong tires of this and goes to work on ODB, battering her out of the ring and all around it until the ref persuades her to return to the ring, where she continues destroying ODB.

ODB tries a tornado DDT and a Thesz press, but none of it works, so she goes to drop kicks, and finally after a number of them gets Kong off her feet, but still can’t get the pin. Kong hits ODB with the implant buster, but only gets two. Kong goes up to the top, but gets cut off by ODB, who finally manages to slam Kong. She goes back and guzzles more from the flask, but her offense still has little effect. Saeed gets up onto the ring apron, and ODB knocks her down. Awesome Kong grabs ODB and hits the Awesome Bomb for the pin. Mike Tenay tries to claim that it was the distraction by Saeed that cost ODB the match, but since Kong was never really phased for long by anything ODB did, that’s not credible.

They cut to James Mitchell in Orlando, delivering a promo telling Abyss that his mommy won’t be there to save him tonight, and he’s going to tell Judas Mesias to kill him.

Barbwire Massacre 2
Abyss
vs.
Judas Mesias with Father James Mitchell

Jim Cornette and Mike Tenay again warn that this match will be brutal and bloody. The ring ropes have been replaced by barbwire, which is woven to look like a sort of spider web. Referee Earl Hebner is wearing long sleeves and leather gloves to protect himself.

The blood does indeed flow freely in this match. Each man tries to push the other into the wire, and Mesias is the first to be impaled, landing chest first on the wire, but Abyss is soon thrown into the wire as well. There are barbwire weapons and boards outside the ring, and when Abyss gets an advantage, he goes out for a barbwire chair, but Mesias grabs it and crotches the monster with it, them slams him twice in the head with it when Abyss gets up. Mesias punches the wound on Abyss’ forehead, then bites it.

Mitchell helps Mesias bring a barbwire board into the ring, but Abyss leaves the ring. Judas follows him and bites his head again, but Abyss throws him into the steel ring steps. Then Abyss gets another barbwire board and props it up on the ring apron and ring rail. Mitchell sneaks up behind and tries to hit Abyss, but Abyss grabs him by the throat. Before he can slam Mitchell through the board, Mesias rescues him and takes Abyss back into the ring.

Mitchell gives Judas a piece of barbwire, which he uses to rake Abyss’ arms, causing more bleeding. Then he licks the wire. Abyss fights back with a big boot and catches Judas by the neck, but he escapes the choke slam and goes for what may have been a flying forearm. Abyss catches him instead, and slams Judas stomach down on the barbwire board.

Abyss goes for another barbwire board, but Judas follows him to the floor and attacks, him, then climbs up onto the ring apron to try for another attack. Abyss grabs him by the throat and slams Mesias onto the barbwire board that was propped up between the ring and the rail. The Monster then chases Mitchell into the ring and Black Hole Slams him. Mesias follows and gets the same, but it’s only good for a two count.

They battle on, and Judas bull rushes Abyss into a barbwire board propped up in the ring. The exhausted men slug it out on their knees and finally struggle to their feet. Abyss hits Mesias with a Black Hole Slam onto the barbwire board and gets the pin.

Scott Hudson interviews Robert Roode, who says that he never wanted to hurt Sharmell, and it’s not his fault, it’s Booker’s fault. He says he hates Booker and his “horse faced, skanky wife,” and tonight he will break Booker’s jaw too.

Jeremy Borash interviews Booker T, who says that Roode’s “punk ass belongs to me!”

Revenge Match
Booker T
vs.
Robert Roode with Payton Banks

Roode puts the boots to Booker as he tries to enter the ring, but Booker fights back and soon gets the upper hand with chops to the chest and face of Robert, side slams, clotheslines, and more. He tosses Roode over the top to the floor, where Booker continues to punish Roode with chops, and a short arm clothesline and then drops him on the steel safety rail.

Booker throws Roode into the ring first, and has the advantage when Booker follows. He hits Booker with chops and punches until Booker hits him in the head with a back kick – not really an enzuiguiri, more like a mule kick, but up high. They continue battling, with the advantage going back and forth as the fans chant for Booker T. Finally Booker gets Roode in trouble and hits him with a spine buster. Spinneroonie! But Roode grabs Booker’s trunks and sends him out to the floor. Booker returns and they battle on until Roode leaves the ring and runs to the back with Payton Banks, with Booker T in hot pursuit. The match goes to a double count out as Booker catches Roode, and both men fight out to the parking area in the back, where Roode pulls Banks out of the driver’s seat, throws her at Booker, jumps into his car and drives away.

Borash and Kurt Angle tell Karen about the idea to renew their vows on iMPACT! on Valentine’s Day. She loves it and says she’s going to go make plans. Angle then cuts a promo telling Christian Cage he’s going to beat him.

Scott Hudson interviews 3D, who say that they respect Jay Lethal, but the Motor City Machineguns are just a flash in the pan and they have no respect for the wrestling business.

Hardcore Street Fight
“Black Machismo” Jay Lethal and The Motor City Machineguns, Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin
vs
Team 3D, Brother Ray and Devon, and Johnny Devine

If 3D and Devine win, the X Division will be terminated. If MCM and Lethal win, 3D will have to get their weights under 275 pounds, and the man who gets the pin will be the X Division Champion.

They start right off brawling all around ringside. TNA is using a split screen to try to show all the action. The weapons include a kitchen sink, a blow up doll, a police billyclub, chairs, trash cans, traffic signs, a computer keyboard, and all the standard plunder. There is way too much going on for me to try to describe the action in much detail. The weapons are used frequently, and the X Division wrestlers hit a variety of high flying moves.

MCM and Lethal get an early advantage, but the size advantage of 3D and Devine eventually allows them to dominate. Lethal and MCM do some amazing flips to sell the clotheslines and other blows of 3D. 3D beat down Sabin and Shelley and take them out of the match. Then they turn their attention to Lethal and begin to beat him down.

SoCal Val is crying and gets up on the ring apron to beg them to stop hurting Lethal, but Ray grabs her by the hair and pulls her into the ring. He terrorizes her by licking her face and threatening to use the cheese grater on her face, but Lethal becomes incensed, and the adrenaline flows as he rescues Val and goes to town on 3D and Devine. He hits Ray with a hurricanarana and a chair, but Devon pulls out the ref before he can count three. They keep coming at him one by one, but Lethal keeps coming back after them.

3D set up a table in the ring and Val cries. Lethal sends Devon over the top to the floor and hits Ray with a solid enzuiguiri. Devine comes at him with a Dead End street sign, but Lethal ducks, grabs the sign, smashes Devine over the head with it, and Johnny falls back onto the table.

Black Machismo puts Johnny Devine through the table with the flying elbow to get the pin, regain the X Division Championship and save the X Division. Ray tries to run off with the X Division belt again, but Lethal springs off the top rope onto Ray to grab the belt from him. SoCal Val gets into the ring to celebrate with Lethal, and Sonjay Dutt soon joins them as the fans cheer and celebrate too.

Scott Hudson asks Christian Cage if he knows more about tonight’s match than he’s letting on. Cage says he knows a lot, but he doesn’t know who Hudson is. Then he asks Joe to do his job tonight. He says Joe does deserve a title shot, but not tonight, because tonight belongs to him and all his Peeps.


TNA World Heavyweight Championship Match
Special Enforcer Samoa Joe
Kurt Angle (C)
vs
“The Instant Classic” Christian Cage

Cage and Angle go at each other full on, with a good mix of mat wrestling, reversals, power moves, submission holds, and a little high flying for spice. Samoa Joe stays watchful at ringside, but has little to do at first, as they stay in the ring and keep the match clean. At one point, Christian goes up to the top, but Angle pulls his feet out from under him and he lands hard on his shoulder.

Angle gets Christian’s head on the bottom rope and steps on his neck. He doesn’t listen to the ref’s orders to release it, but Joe steps up and makes him. They trade more blows, and then Angle throws Cage over the top to the floor with a belly to belly suplex. Angle goes out and grabs a chair, but Joe takes it away from him. Angle shoves Joe, and Joe shoves back. Christian recovers and goes after Angle, but gets lifted by Angle and rammed into a ring post. Angle power bombs Cage into a corner, but still gets only a two count. He locks in a leg scissors, but Cage rolls him up and gets a near fall.

Angle hits Christian with a German suplex and goes for the second, but Cage blocks it by getting his foot behind Angle’s, then reverses and hits Angle with a German. Angle landed awkwardly, but he got up. Now Christian has the advantage and gets several near falls. They battle on, and Angle tries to suplex Cage off the ring apron to the floor, but Christian holds on in a tug of war. Angle manages to get the ankle lock on Cage and pull him through the ropes into the ring, but Christian gets to the ropes for the break.

Cage counters an Olympic Slam, but Kurt reverses his move into an ankle lock, and Christian reverses that into a roll up for a near fall, all within seconds, as the crowd roars and chants “TNA!” More near falls follow for both men, until Christian ducks and Angle takes out Referee Andrew Thomas with a clothesline.

Cage gets the ankle lock on Angle, and Joe gets into the ring to act as referee. Angle manages to get to the ropes for the break, and Christian pulls him back, but also pulls in Karen Angle, who is holding Kurt’s hands. Karen slaps Cage. Christian goes after Karen, but Kurt charges, Cage dodges, and Kurt takes out Karen. Kurt and Christian fight on and take each other out briefly. Joe removes her the ring apron and sets her on a chair at ringside. While he is doing that, AJ Styles runs out of the crowd, but Joe catches him before he can get into the ring. Joe fights with Styles and chases him up the aisle and through the crowd, and out of the arena.

The ref is still out. Angle gets a chair and hits Christian with it. Next Tomko runs out and pretends he is there to help Christian, but instead he slams Cage. Angle wakes up the ref and gets the pin to retain his title.

They close with a video with the theme “Cross the Line.” It appears to be a new advertisement for TNA, aimed at WWE fans.

TNA’s next PPV is Destination X on March 9 in Norfolk, VA at the Scope Arena.

— Karen Belcher
Courtesy of ProWrestlingDigest.com