The Stories
Sting defeated Mike Knox in a match that was right after Kurt Angle was taken out before fighting Mr. Anderson. First off, the beginning of the show was excellent. When Kurt and Ken faced off, you could really feel the hatred boiling off of one another. That is something extremely hard to do, and I thought they executed it perfectly. Anderson's a wild card in this whole scenario, but I do think he is much better suited as a member of Aces and Eights. They talk about his history and then it gets personal. After the attacks, Sting makes pretty quick work of Knox, defeating him after a Scorpion Death Drop.
After the match, they try to attack once again, but Aces and Eights has Brooke Hogan held hostage. Finally, the suspended Bully Ray runs down the ramp and saves her. (He is suspended, but he is allowed backstage? That is a hole in logic, right?) Anyways, He saves her, and the question still remains what is Mr. Anderson going to do? He still is not an official member of Aces and Eights, and was not with the group when they had Brooke. I like the suspense, but Anderson's career in TNA has been up and down, heel to face. I really hope their plans are much more detailed this time around. Grade: B
James Storm and Jeff Hardy defeated Austin Aries and Bobby Roode via Disqualification. I really enjoyed the interaction in this match, as all four men has a twisted history with the others. Before the match, I really loved the personal interaction we saw with Roode and Aries. They are extremely comical together, and made for some quick and interesting TV. It was like two friends bickering, or two brothers annoying one another. Roode tagged himself out immediately after Hardy took him down, so the action really began with Aries and Hardy. Aries connects with a great combination of an elbow drop, as well as a knee drop from the middle rope. It was so crisp and so clean to see him go from one area of the body to the next. Him and Roode continue to tag in an out to show off against the other guy. Finally, James Storm gets the hot tag and cleans house. He hits a few nice offensive sets, but the finish of the match came when Kazarian and Daniels attack Storm. After this, Roode and Aries take out Hardy, and they argue over who gets to hold the title in the air. Instead, they both hold it and that ends your segment. I thought this was brilliant. You really need to put the focus on Hardy overcoming all of the odds, all of the men, and all of his opponents. You had a great tag team match that gave Storm and his feud some spotlight, but the main focus came back to the champion being taken out. I am excited for this 3 way match at Genesis, and they did everything they could to give us some foreward thinking. Grade: A-
