Report by Stuart Carapola & PWinsider.com
We start off with a video package looking back at last week's events surrounding the X Division Title, the Main Event Mafia, and Aces & Eights, then we go backstage where Bully Ray tells the annoying cameraman that since he's always looking for reactions, he'll give him one and say how dare Brooke, his WIFE, go out and get engaged. He knows people have a need to move on, but she moves on when he says she can move on.
We go out to the ring where Bully Ray, flanked by Aces & Eights, wants to take care of some business. He wants to start by talking to Chris Sabin, who has a chance to cas in his title and face him next week at Destination X. Hogan will come out later and ask Sabin if he wants to turn his title in, but warns Sabin not to do it because he's a bad man who does bad things to little people like him. Secondly, Aces & Eights votes for their new Vice President tonight, and the fans have no say in that because this is family business, and speaking of families, he wants to talk to the Main Event Mafia. If they want to challenge Aces & Eights to a fight, he will say that Aces & Eights absolutely, positively, beyond a shadow of a doubt, say no because they fight on their...wait a minute, the Main Event Mafia is here and they have something to say. Angle says they didn't pick next week by accident, they picked it because Bubba's defending the title and the Mafia is going to take every member of their group out one by one, then when he's all by himself, Bubba will look around and see that he's all alone for the first time since winning the title. Sting says the newest member of their family is a heavy hitter, and we'll find out who it is before the end of the night.
We see Chris Sabin arriving at the arena with the X Division Title, and we'll find out his decision later tonight.
In the meantime, Jeremy Borassh and Christy Hemme are at the entryway and are ready to draw the participants in the first tag match of the Joker's Wild Tournament. Just to bring you up to speed, we'll have three randomely drawn tag matches, and then the six men who advance will go to a final Gauntlet match later in the evening with the winner earning 25 points in the Bound For Glory Series. So let's get started with...
Joker's Wild First Round Match: Jeff Hardy & Joseph Park vs Samoa Joe & AJ Styles
AJ and Park start us off, and AJ easily smacks Park up, so PArk tags out to Hardy to try his luck. Hardy gets a few shots and a gourdbuster in, but then he gets caught in the wrong corner where AJ and Joe work him over. AJ gets his leg submission (which sounds like Mike Tenay calls it the Cow Killer...?), and PArk comes in, hesitates, and stomps on AJ's face to break the move up. Hardy tags Park in, and Park cleans house on both AJ and Joe. He backdrops AJ to the apron and hits an avalanche on Joe in the corner, but Joe shoves Park off and right into a springboard forearm from AJ. Joe quickly gets Park in the Kokina Clutch and taps him out.
Winners: AJ Styles & Samoa Joe
Joe and AJ get their hands raised, then go nose to nose as they're apparently still not friends.
Taryn Terrell is backstage stretching in preparation for her ladder match tonight.
Time for the next Joker's Wild tag match, and Jeremy & Christy introduce our next contestants...
Joker's Wild First Round Match: Jay Bradley & Hernandez vs Brutus Magnus & Ken Anderson
Anderson insincerely tries to shake Magnus' hand, but Magnus blows him off and they spend the entire rest of the match having a degree of trouble with their cohesiveness. Bradley and Hernandez trap Magnus in the ring and work him over with big moves, but Magnus gets away and crawls to his corner to make the tag. Anderson reaches out...then drops off the apron to leave Magnus on his own. Magnus fights valiantly and Bradley reaches in to hook what he thinks is Magnus' ankle as he comes off the ropes, but actually grabs Hernandez. Hernandez yells at Bradley and gets rolled up for 3.
Winners: Brutus Magnus & Ken Anderson
Austin Aries is backstage complaining to Bobby Roode about how he got screwed out of the X Division Title and his World Title shot, and Roode doesn't want to hear it because he has his own problems and he wants his own title shot. Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian come in and say it's down to them, and it doesn't matter who wins because they'll all win, and one more time it's going to be Bad Influence facing the Dirty Heels. Daniels and Kazarian leave and Aries and Roode remark on how fast they talk and how they can't stand those guys. Gee, I wonder how the next match is going to be drawn.
Gail Kim is backstage stretching for the ladder match later on, then Jeremy and Christy draw our next participants in the Joker's Wild Tournament, and sure enough...
Joker's Wild First Round: Christopher Daniels & Austin Aries vs Bobby Roode & Frankie Kazarian
Daniels and Kazarian start off, but refuse to wrestle each other, so Daniels tags Aries in and he goes at it with Kazarian. Aries gets the upper hand, so Daniels tags himself in and lets Kazarian tag out to Roode. Now Roode gets the advantage, so Daniels tags out to Aries and the reluctant partners go back to doing what they do best: fighting each other. Roode backdrops Aries out to the apron, Aries trips him and goes for the slingshot senton, but Kazarian trips Aries and drags him down to the floor as we go to commercial.
We're back and Aries escapes the Fade To Black, drills Kazarian with a roaring elbow, and tags out to Daniels as Kazarian tags Roode in. Daniels hits a uranage and goes for the BME, Aries tags himself in and hits a missile dropkick, but Kazarian pulls Roode out of the way of the IED and Aries hits nothing. Kazarian tags in and hits a DDT and goes for a cover, but Daniels pulls him off of Aries and they get into an argument. Aries thumbs Kazarian in the eye as Daniels tags himself in, and a blinded Kazarian rolls Daniels up without realizing it's him and gets the pin.
Winners: Bobby Roode & Frankie Kazarian
Kazarian realizes what happened, but it doesn't matter at this point because the deed is done, so Daniels gets over it and raises his buddy's hand. So the final field for the gauntlet match later on is Bobby Roode, Frankie Kazarian, Brutus Magnus, Ken Anderson, AJ Styles, and Samoa Joe.
Bully Ray tells the boys it's time to vote for the new Vice President and they leave their clubhouse, then we go to Taryn Terrell as she's backstage, and she's...WALKING!
Hulk Hogan catches up backstage with Brooke and asks what's going on with Bully Ray, Brooke says nothing because she did what Hulk told her and didn't come back last week, and says that her personal life can start after the show because she has the ladder match to worry about. Hulk says that's fine and to make sure she takes care of her business...ALL OF IT.
Aces & Eights is backstage, and it's time to vote for the new Vice President. Bully leaves the vote up to the team, and it comes down to 3-3 with Knux getting the deciding vote. He ponders on it for a moment before voting for Anderson, who is the new Vice President of Aces & Eights. Doc gets in Knux's face and Knux says it wasn't about him, it was about the club, but Doc tells him to keep walking.
Mickie James comes out to ringside to observe our next match...
#1 Contender's Ladder Match: Taryn Terrell vs Gail Kim
They go at it as soon as the bell rings, Terrell dumps Gail out to the ramp and takes her out with a spear through the ropes. Gail quickly recovers, slams Terrell onto the ramp, and brings the ladder into the ring. Terrell comes back in and plays tug of war with Gail, then changes gear and rams the ladder into Gail's ribs in the corner and then drives it in a second time with a dropkick to the other end. Gail doesn't seem to feel the pain and comes back after Terrell, so Terrell smashes her face into the ladder and catches Gail with a right hand as she tries to springboard off the ladder. Terrell sets the ladder up and starts climbing, but Gail shoves the ladder over and both girls are down as Mickie claps from ringside. Gail tries to climb and gets about halfway up before Terrell drags her down and they start trading shots again. Terrell dumps Gail out to the floor and prepares to climb the ladder again as we go to commercial.
We're back and they're still going at it, Terrell shoves the ladder square into Gail's face in a really nasty shot that looks like it could have legitimately busted her up, but Gail falls in such a way that her leg is tangled in the ladder and Terrell is unable to stand it up, so she goes under the ring to look for another ladder and Gail has time to recover, nail Terrell after she sets up a ladder table between the first ladder and the ropes, and gives Terrell the ringpost figure four through the ladder. They go to climb to the top of the ladder, Terrell gives Gail a Dragon sleeper and drops her into the ring, and Terrell has the chance to grab the contract, but chooses instead to dive off the ladder and take Gail out with a crossbody. She appears to hurt her knee on the landing and takes too long to get up and gives Gail time to recover. They fight on the ladder table and Gail tosses her to the mat, but instead of going for the contract she leaps down as well and tries for Eat Da Feet, and Terrell counters to a dragon sleeper. Gail has the presence of mind to reach up and tie Terrell's hair to the ropes, gets herself free, and sprints up the ladder. Terrell manages to free herself, but not in time to stop Gail from grabbing the contract and winning the match.
Winner: Gail Kim
Kurt Angle and Sting are backstage gloating over how well Magnus and Joe are doing in the Bound For Glory Series, then Angle asks Sting about the fifth member of the Main Event Mafia. As it happens, Sting's cell phone rings and Sting takes the call as we go to commercial.
We're back, and Sting tells Angle it's a go, and Angle says that means it's time to go do it, and they leave.
Joker's Wild Finals: AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe vs Brutus Magnus vs Ken Anderson vs Bobby Roode vs Frankie Kazarian
AJ and Magnus start us off, and they take it slow and only do basic mat wrestling, which makes sense since they'd both have the longest road to winning this thing. AJ tries to speed things up, but gets flattened by a Marufuji clothesline by Magnus. AJ drills Magnus with a dropkick as Kazarian comes out at #3, and the two old buddies go at it with Kazarian getting the early advantage with a Slingblade. Kazarian briefly turns his attention to Magnus, but AJ comes over and suplexes Kazarian into the corner as hard as I think he could physically manage. Joe is out at #4 and immediately starts working together with Magnus to dominate the ring. Kazarian dumps AJ out to the apron, but he tries a charge and AJ ducks it and sends Kazarian sailing over the top rope and to the floor. Kazarian is eliminated, and we're at commercial.
We're back, Anderson made his entrance during the commercial and we come back just in time for Roode to make his entrance and complete the field for this match. Roode catches a springboard something from AJ and drills him with a powerslam, then he tries to elevate him over the top rope and doesn't have much luck until Anderson runs in and knocks AJ out himself to eliminate him. Joe unloads on Anderson with jabs, but Anderson fights his way out and goes at it with Kazarian as Joe chokes Roode out and walks over to save his partner from Anderson. Joe clotheslines Anderson and they both tumble over the top rope and to the floor, and we're down to Roode and Magnus and one of them will have to pin or submit the other to win this. Roode hits a spinebuster and gets Magnus in the crippler crossface, but Magnus rolls backward and cradles Roode for 2. Magnus picks the legs and gets Roode in the Texas Cloverleaf right in the middle of the ring, but now Roode makes it to the ropes to save himself. Roode puts Magnus on the top rope and goes for a superplex, Magnus shoves him off and goes for the top rope elbowdrop, but Roode moves out of the way. They go back and forth looking for a finishing move, then reverse pinfall attempts until Magnus cradles Roode and just barely gets the three.
Winner: Brutus Magnus
Magnus picks up 25 points in the BFG Series, and he is now way ahead of the rest of the pack.
Chris Sabin is backstage, and he's...WALKING! And Hulk Hogan is backstage, and he's...MEANDERING!
We come back from commercial, and Hulk Hogan comes out to remind us that Destination X will be live next week from Louisville, Kentucky, and reminds us that Chris Sabin has the opportunity to turn in the X Division Title for a chance to become the TNA World Champion, and asks Sabin to come out and make his decision. Sabin comes out to the ring and says that there was a time he never thought he'd be able to wrestle again after tearing both ACLs, but he was inspired by the way he watched Hogan dominate the wrestling world when he was a kid, and now it's time to fulfill his dream and hand over the X Division Title for a chance to become the World Champion. Bully Ray comes out before Sabin hands Hulk the belt, and he tells Sabin to do himself a favor and not turn in his title, he tells Hulk not to try and reassure Sabin because he's gotten everyone else he's reassured, including his daughter, in trouble with him. He asks Sabin how bad he's going to beat the crap out of him if he turns in that title belt, and Sabin tells him to shut up because he's got a short memory and doesn't remember that he was the one who pinned him in Team 3D's reitrement match, and he's the only one to ever kick out of the 3D. This is nothing new to him, and usually the big man would beat the little man, but all he needs is one shot and he knows he can and will beat him at Destination X, then he'll stand over Bubba and ask him if he knows who he is, and he'll say he's Chris Sabin: the TNA World Champion. Bubba tells him again not to do it, but Sabin hands the belt over to Hulk and it's official: Sabin will challenge Bubba next week. Bubba tells Sabin he just signed his death warrant because he's taken everyone else out, and Sabin's not just up against him, he's up against all of Aces & Eights. Aces & Eights comes out of the crowd, but the Main Event Mafia comes out to the top of the ramp and Sting says Bubba's not quite right because it'll be a one on one match between Sabin and Bubba, and the rest of the gang will have to deal with himself, Angle, Joe, Magnus, and their heavy hitter...RAMPAGE JACKSON! Bubba doesn't look impressed, but the Main Event Mafia seems to have the momentum on their side as they stand with their hands raised at Aces & Eights as we call it a night.
|
