TNA Destination X 2007

Consider this a bonus musings... and on an old TNA PPV no less.

I have the show on DVD-R from like ages ago, as it was one of the very few TNA PPVs (not counting the early weekly shows) that I actually got to watch live. Much to my surprise, I never did repost the old prediction page onto this blog like I did some of the others and since I had the show on tape so to speak, I decided to give it a watch and thus find myself doing a fresh write-up with fresh eyes. So that's something...

By the way, this was a chance discovery, as I was looking for some other disc in my archive and I came across this recording from way back when. I'm almost tempted to dig even dipper to see if I can find some other TNA shows that I might've caught on tape (or disc, as the case may be.)


LAX (which would comprise Homicide and Hernandez managed by Konnan) defeated Team 3D in a Ghetto Brawl, which is a fancier way of saying a street fight. Why can't you just call it a street fight? Interesting to note is that LAX are your reigning Tag-Team Champions for this show, but they're not actually defending the titles here. Anyway, there's a bunch of runs in from people I don't recognize with the exception of Alex Shelley and an old and slow moving Johnny Rodz, who's perhaps best known for training big stars these days. It's a fairly entertaining brawl at least.

James Storm and Jackie Moore defeated Petey Williams and Gail Kim in an Intergender Double Bullrope match... well, that's hardly accurate since the women didn't get a whole lot of action here, but the match was alright, I suppose. Not much more to say than that.

Senshi defeated Austin Starr in a Crossface Chickenwing Submission match. To recycle a blurb from my old predictions post ages ago on the other blog, "Once upon a time, Senshi was known as Low Ki. Also once upon a time, Austin Starr was known as future Belt Collector Austin Aries. Now for some reason, the two need to use Bob Backlund's old submission for the win. Again, fault this to my lack of TNA awareness." Again, the match was alright for what it was, but considering how good these guys were, I'd imagine how much better this would've been if they just had a straight-up regular match instead of this crossface bullshit tacked on for the lulz.

Voodoo Kin Mafia defeated the Heartbreakers headed by Christy Hemme... oh damn, we're doing this, aren't we?

Voodoo Kin Mafia are your former (and future) New Age Outlaws, who used to go under the name "The James Gang" early on before "leaving" TNA and then returning to TNA in order to "wage war" on Vincent Kennedy McMahon, Paul Levesque, and Michael Whatshisface. And you know this is a shoot because they use real names and shit. Anyway, VKM started issue challenges to said men that go unanswered for obvious reasons and that was enough for VKM to declare victory. If you don't get the significance of VKM, then you obviously weren't paying attention.

Anyway, it's a Vince Russo brainfart that wants to recreate that whole "DX invades WCW" bit and even has the former Road Dogg and Mr. Ass "invade" a couple WWE things... but whereas the DX thing was kinda cool in 1998 when the idea was fresh, this being done in 2007 came across as lame. And watching this again in 2018, I am amazed that Roadie and Billy not only made their way back to WWE in 2013-ish, but also got one more run with the tag titles.

So with the whole "fake" real war out of the way, the VKM started to feud with former Diva Search winner Christy Hemme due to Kip "Billy Gunn" James quipping something about women not belonging in the ring... which is funny when you consider they were part of one of the more popular WWF stables in DX... a stable that included a woman that helped out in matches with timely ball shots. You'd figure Russo would've taken that into consideration, but I guess when you got cheap heat, you don't sweat the little details.

So Christy Hemme challenges VKM to a match against a team of her choosing and they brings out the Heartbreakers, who were formerly known as the Heartthrobs in WWE where they did nothing of note. And that sums up this match as a whole; nothing of note happens and we all move on with our lives.

TNA X-Division champion Chris Sabin defeated Jerry Lynn in a Best of Three Falls match to retain the title. I expressed surprise that Jerry Lynn was still wrestling at the time and the guy looked good at the time. The match was enjoyable fare with some nice back-and-forth action of sorts. Sabin wins the match 2 falls over Jerry's one.

Rhino defeated AJ Styles in an Elevation X match... which is just a Scaffold match. I never got the appeal of Scaffold matches and this is coming from someone who lived through the Attitude Era where guys were falling off the top of giant ass cages for a pop. For those who have never witnessed one, the idea behind it is that you're fighting on the suspended platforms and to win, you have to push the guy off. Admittedly, there is a bit of tension and cringeworthiness to the whole affair, but I don't think it was to the benefit of the match. Scaffold matches went the way of the Doomsday cage for a reason and this was a clear cut reminder.

Kurt Angle defeated Scott Steiner in a match that only manages to be slightly better than the duology of matches Scott Steiner had with Triple H back in WWE circa 2003. That is not high praise for the uneducated folks out there and only on account of the fact that Steiner did more than suplexes here, which already makes him a better spectacle than Brock Lesnar today. Again, that's not saying a whole lot.

Sting defeated Abyss in a Last Rites match, which is apparently a Casket Match of sorts that saw Abyss gets dumped into a casket and then said casket rises to the heavens. This whole thing comes off as hokey and comes close to the hokeyness of that one casket match between Undertaker and Yokozuna, where Undertaker rises to the heavens and... my brain hurts. This match is shit, the whole idea of this match is fucking stupid, and while I'm not a fan of the modern-day wrestling audience who likes to pull chants and beachballs out of their asses, at the very least they never chanted for anyone to get fired. Only Vince Russo seems to get that distinct honor because for every good idea that he has executed to great success in his early years, he's had more of this shit than that over his later years.

Look, I've said this years ago when this match took place and I'll say it again here watching this a decade later because it needs to be said and I'm just hurting my head now: Fuck you, Russo.

Okay, I'm better now. Let's move on.

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Christian Cage defeated Samoa Joe to retain the title. This was a case where it could have gone either way and I would've been fine. I honestly thought at the time that Joe was going to win it because he was on such a roll, but Christian pulled through (with feet on the ropes) and that was that. This was actually a pretty damn good match and both guys played their respective parts well. Joe came across as a brute force while Christian used some smarts (and extra leverage) to get the win. I don't know if these guys ever locked horns again, but I almost wish Christian would come out of retirement so he can give Joe a run for his money again. I liked this match and it more than made up for the past series of awful matches that I had to sit through.

Destination X 2007 started off good with some entertaining fare, then the middle part was just teetering between unwatchable and just plain awful. And then when all hope was lost, it pulls itself back together with a fantastic main event that ended the show on a somewhat happy note. While 2007 Dave might have had fun with this, 2018 Dave merely had a decent time with it. Cut off the middle part and you have an ideal wrestling card. As is... eh, it's okay. But do check out that Christian vs. Samoa Joe match; that's good stuff.