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Richard Reacts To TNA Sacrifice 2009

Date Added: May 25, 2009
Story By: Richard Gray

TNA Wrestling held their Sacrifice pay-per-view last night from Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. With the show being wedged between two of TNA's major pay-per-views in Lockdown and Slammiversary, the event is widely regarded as a throwaway. How much of a throwaway? So much that there may be a TNA Championship match for the main event, there may not; below are my thoughts on last night's show on a segment by segment basis:

Lethal Consequences & Eric Young b. The Motor City Machineguns & Sheik Abdul Bashir
TNA opened Sacrifice with a match that was announced earlier in the weekend. The bout was a great opener which accomplished everything an opener should accomplish. The match got the crowd going and even garnered "this is awesome chants". I didn't have high expectations for the pay-per-view but this match got the energy going in the building. The finish of the match saw referee Andrew Thomas offering Lethal an assist on Sheik Abdul Bashir, letting him roll him up for the win. They teased Eric Young wasn't happy with the way the match ended.

Taylor Wilde b. Daffney in a Monster's Ball Match
This was a forgettable match that was booked to setup the post-match stuff with Abyss taking out Dr. Stevie on the tacks. Lauren came out and was able to stop Abyss from taking out Wilde. Stevie provoked Abyss with strap shots which resulted in him taking the chokeslam. This could have been done on Impact rather than on a pay-per-view.

Daniels b. Suicide to win the X Division Championship then the match was restarted and went to a draw.
Wow, I don't even know where to start with this match. Daniels and Suicide (who was Frankie Kazarian) worked what I described in my pay-per-view coverage as a flat match where Daniels ended up winning the X Division Championship thanks to interference from the Motor City Machineguns. Chris Sabin distracted the referee on the outside while Alex Shelley took out Suicide in the ring. This allowed Daniels to get the pin on Suicide. After the match, Daniels said he can't win in this fashion and demanded a restart. Completely lacking logic, the referee asked Suicide if he wanted to restart the match for an additional five minutes. Why does the referee have to ask Suicide if he wants to restart the match? He just lost his championship; of course he wants a restart! The match ended up going to a draw as the five-minute time limit expired and Suicide retained the X Division Championship. Now correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Daniels win the X Division Championship prior to the restart? Obviously TNA booked it as the first finish didn't count, but Mike Tenay kept billing the restart as a "bonus match". If it were a "bonus match" then Daniels would have been defending the X Division Championship. What a booking disaster and a complete waste of time.

Angelina Love b. Awesome Kong to retain the TNA Knockout Women's Championship
The Knockout Women's Championship match was just as forgettable as the rest of the pay-per-view. Basically a hardcore match with spots outside of the ring, Kong dominated throughout. TNA creative overbooked the finish with Raisha Saeed getting on the ring apron, causing a distraction, resulting in Kong getting sprayed in the eyes with some sort of spray and pinned by Love. After the match Kong took out Love with several Implant Busters.

Samoa Joe b. Kevin Nash
This match wasn't given enough time but it was actually one of the few entertaining parts of the pay-per-view. I'm not high up on the work of Nash but he didn't do anything to mess the bout up. Samoa Joe looked good and they put on an entertaining match. Joe ended up making Nash tap in the rear-naked choke which I felt was good for a change of pace. I would have rather seen this get more time and some of the filler stuff cut out.

Beer Money, Inc. b. The British Invasion to win the Team 3D Tag Team Tournament
Brutus Magnus is still green, too green for my liking but I like how they put him with Doug Williams to give him work in the tag division. This match was pretty good but broke down several times without having several hot tags I'm used to seeing in Beer Money matches. Roode and Storm hit a double team on Williams, using the "Feast of Fired" briefcase to get the win. Not crazy over the dirty finish but Beer Money wins the tournament and will get a shot at the Tag Team Championship. I found it hilarious how Mike Tenay plugged the trophy presentation for this week's Impact.

AJ Styles b. Booker T in an "I Quit" Match to retain the TNA Legends Championship
This match was good but not great and featured yet another questionable finish. Instead of either Booker or AJ quitting, Jenna ran out and threw in the towel on behalf of Booker. This upset Sharmell to no end and didn't really declare a winner. AJ hit some good spots, as did Booker, but it wasn't the classic it could have been. It kind of reminded me of the Jeff Hardy vs. Matt Hardy matches. It had the potential to be a classic but didn't produce. They were given plenty of time and didn't necessarily disappoint but it was no classic and nothing you need to go out of your way to see. The whole match ended up being a way to continue dissension between Sharmell and Jenna. Taking the focus off AJ and Booker in a pay-per-view match is a mistake.

Sting pinned Kurt Angle to become the new leader of the Main Event Mafia
Was it a TNA Championship match? Was it a retirement match? I'm not even sure what this match was! I think it was mid-way through the bout when I finally put together the title really wasn't even on the line. Or was it? If I was this confused I can't imagine what the casual fan felt like. Wrestling-wise, as I noted in my coverage last night, the old geezers got it done. It was entertaining but the goofy stipulations completely took away from it. I guess Kurt Angle paid the "Ultimate Sacrifice" but how does Mick Foley walk out the TNA Champion and not win the match? Terrible gimmick match that I hope is not repeated. We saw a change in power in the Main Event Mafia but I still felt like I wasted my time and money.

TNA Sacrifice 2009 was a forgettable throwaway pay-per-view. TNA didn't even try to hide it as a number of mind-blowing creative decisions made this a no-brainer not to watch. There is absolutely no reason to watch this show unless you want to see what not to do. I'm not a wrestling creative writer, and never have been and I know it's easy to criticize when you're on the outside looking in. However, is it too much to ask to book thinks that make logical sense? Is logic too much to ask for? There were a couple of fun bouts but nothing that couldn't have main evented an episode of Impact.

Richard can be contacted at richard [at] grayinternet.com

Richard Gray is a professional wrestling journalist and frequent contributor to ProWrestling.com. He has been covering the world of professional wrestling since 1999 and has had the opportunity to cover ground breaking stories such as the demise of ECW, the WCW buyout, the Benoit tragedy, Bobby Lashley leaving WWE, and more. For more on Richard check out his web site, Wrestling News World.

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