TNA Against All Odds 2005

A bit of a change of pace in this TNA marathon of sorts, as I diverge from the Global network thing and dive into my DVD collection, where I pull out a 2-disc DVD set of TNA Against All Odds 2005. Don't get excited; they just split the PPV into two discs and so you have to swap discs halfway through because... sure, why not?

On a related note, I've yet to watch the Bound For Glory PPV... I've heard good things about it, though. Maybe when it's on the Global Network thing, I'll give it a watch. Who knows?


In the opening contest, Elix Skipper defeated Petey Williams in a match. It wasn't the most exciting match and certainly didn't get me excited for the rest of the show, but regardless... there we are.

Former Road Dogg and future ruiner of Smackdown BG James and his partner Jeff Hammond (a NASCAR racer according to TNA) defeated the team of Frankie Kazarian and Matt Bentley. Apparently nobody liked Hammond because every time he did stuff, the crowd showed their disdain. On the bright side, nobody tried to hijack the show with beachballs and stupid chants, but this is the Impact Zone from Universal Studios where the shows are free and the crowd is easily amused. This is one of the rare occasions where it just didn't work... and thank fuck for that because this match was a chore to sit through.

Raven defeated Dustin Rhodes with a roll-up and then put Dustin in a straightjacket to beat him up some more before some other guy came in for the late save. What a terrible, terrible match. The words escape me.

NWA Tag-Team Champions America's Most Wanted (James Storm and Chris Harris) defeated Kid Kash and some other jabroni to retain the titles. Picked up the pacing as time went on and turned out to be a perfectly acceptable slice of tag-team wrestling pie. Finally, the first somewhat half-decent match on the show that I could get into.

Future TNA Hall Of Famer Abyss defeated future multi-time World Champion Jeff Hardy in a Full Metal Mayhem match... which is just a ladder match with two envelopes; one containing a contract for a future title shot and the other containing nothing. Why not just call it a fucking ladder match? Also, why have a fake contract along with the real one? As for the match... I don't know. Maybe it's just my tastes having changed over the years or maybe it's because gimmicky ladder matches just don't do it for me unless there's a whole bunch of people in there to keep the flow going, but I really

Diamond Dallas Page and Monty Brown defeated Team Canada in a perfectly acceptable tag-team match. Remember the days when people thought Monty Brown had the potential to be a really big deal in wrestling? That felt like an eternity ago... and then he went to WWE. Need not say more than that. Anyway, this was alright. Not much to say here.

And this is where I swap discs... I'm expecting quality here, TNA.

AJ Styles defeated Christopher Daniels in a 30-minute iron man match that ended in sudden death, 2 falls to 1. Saying that a match between AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels is a great fucking match is like saying water is wet. This was two then-young guys who gelled together, worked magic, and for thirty minutes, kept me interested in the match. It's nice to see a match like this after both guys went on to bigger and better things... just not in TNA.

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Jarrett defeated Kevin Nash with a cello, a belt shot, and run-ins from 1236X-Pac, BG Real Dogg James, and the man formerly known as Billy Gunn (and introduced as such since they couldn't find a name for him yet...) to retain the title. My brain hurts watching this match, which started slow and went even farther down the hole. Not even the snarky "Super Shredder" chant that came out of nowhere saved this one. In fact, my brain stopped working altogether, so... fuck it. I'm done.

If not for that really awesome AJ/Daniels match, this show would've been written off as completely fucking worthless. I wish I could recall my reaction to this show when I bought on DVD ages ago, but it probably says something when I can recall my reaction to WWF PPVs from 20 years ago, but not a TNA one from 2005.

Okay, so that ends the TNA experiment. Next week, I'm doing Heck In A Cell. And then it's off to WCW. Bye.