TNA Hard Justice 2008 - My Review

As always, people might or might not agree with what I or anyone else is writing when talking about professional wrestling as there are TNA fans and WWE fans and the fight is on. I must say that I never made a secret of the fact that I enjoy TNA wrestlers more but the WWE does seem to be growing in storyline material and on the whole the competition between the two companies is interesting although WWE is far ahead of TNA at the moment. Leaving that aside I just saw Hard Justice some time ago and wanted to talk about it a little.

First match saw Creed versus Petey Williams for the X Division title. It was a pretty interesting match but the ending did not really satisfy me as Daivari interfereed and caused Petey Williams to retain the title. As expected, this being an X division wrestling match, it was quite entertaining and did make for a good pay per view start. Then we had the knockouts tag team match, one that should have been highly entertaining as the women's wrestling division in TNA is definitely of high quality. Traci Brooks was the special referee, something that I do not remember seeing before until TNA: a woman's wrestling referee. The start of the match was something that wanted to be funny, it was not for me, and then we had the actual wrestling match starting. It was not bad and the TNA Knockouts champion got the pin.

The next was a highly expected tag team match between Robert Roode and James Storm versus LAX for the tag titles. A lot of hype was around this match and Beer Money Inc. is quite catchy. On the other hand I really like LAX and I wanted them to win. This match looked pretty violent and intense and it did keep fans entertained. We did see the Three Amigos, a punch probably towards the Guerrero family and then Roode tried a frog splash that missed. This was the turning point as Hernandez got in and started laying out Beer Money Inc. Then all broke loose as a lot of near falls happened. This wrestling match had an incredibly intense ending, one that was so unexpected. We saw Hernandez execute the Border Toss on Homicide but landing outside the six sided ring on Beer Money Inc. This was not the end as the women got involved as well, together with Hector Guerrero but Beer Money Inc got the win after the beer bottle was broken on Homice as he was going for the Gringo Killer. An incredible tag team wrestling match and new tag team champions.

Next was Sonjay Dutt versus Jay Lethal, all accompanied by a feud story line that was very well built. The wrestling match had special stipulations as the two wrestlers were chained together and wearing a tuxedo. The win should come via pin fall or when one wrestler takes the costume off the other one. Jay Lethal won it via pin fall, quite a good match but without those chains I think it would have been a lot more spectacular. Next came the Jersey Street Fight that saw Team 3D lose the match with Christian Cage and Rhino. It was quite a good match with a frog splash finish. Abyss also appeared and saved Cage and Rhino after the match. Then we had the last man standing wrestling match but with TNA rules, which means that first you have to pin or submit your opponent prior to the referee starting the ten count. AJ won the match but Sting attacked AJ. This was definitely unexpected. The main event saw Samoa Joe defeat Booker T thanks to a guitar hit. It is becoming quite strange but for me it seems that faces use the guitar and heels Sting's baseball bat. This is quite worth a watch. Hard Justice 2008 was a pretty good pay per view in terms of wrestling but I do think it could have been better. Be sure to watch SummerSlam and Edge versus the Undertaker in Hell in a Cell this weekend.

Against All Odds 2008 - Abyss vs Judas Mesias

Now this was an interesting match at Against all Odds and it was one that TNA managed to build up to in an interesting way. Judas Mesias versus Abyss was a feud that probably ended here in quite a brutal match, Barbwire Massacre 2. This meant that the ring ropes did not exist anymore and they were replaced with barbwire. It is basically impossible not to get cut in such a match. Contrary to what I thought prior to the match, it was not Abyss that got most of the impact with the barbwire. This seemed logical as Abyss is dressed while Judas Mesias is naked and completely exposed to the damage possible after impact with the barbwire. On the other hand it was Judas Mesias who took most of the brutal shots in the match. We also got to see a lovely Black Hole Slam on James Mitchell, both of these guys' father in the storyline. There was a need for two Black Hole Slams for Abyss to defeat Judas Mesias and one of them was done on barbwire and we can only imagine the extent of the pain suffered. The match was pretty good, exactly what the fans expected from such a match, only the second one with its name in history. The first one saw Sabu compete against the same Abyss that won now. To make it all even more dramatic, Abyss did leave from a match with Scott Steiner recently and took off his mask without us seeing his face. Could it be that something will be changed with "The Monster" Abyss? Who knows... maybe he will even start wrestling under the name of Chris Parks now.

TNA Genesis 2007 Black Reign vs Abyss

I don't think many people know this but just in case you do not, Black Reign is actually highly experienced wrestler Dustin Rhodes (just in case you missed the transformation). Well, this is how TNA's Genesis 2007 started, with a Shop of Horrors match between Black Reign and Abyss. It was of course a no disqualification wrestling match that should have been interesting and I thought that Abyss was going to win (I just like this wrestler more). We saw the two wrestlers going at it in the crowd and then an interesting suplex delivered by Black Reign on Abyss. Then something like a stunner on Abyss, then Abyss with a nice kick to the groin and putting Black Reign through a chair set up in a corner and then Abyss brought in the highly popular weapon, the baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire. Then we got to see the same Abyss with a cholkeslam on the top of the stage, not that spectacular but the fans loved it. The next interesting moment came with the interference of Mitchell and Black Reign's finisher executed on a set of rat traps. As expected, it was not enough for a win as this wrestling match, if we can call it that, just started. Well, it ended soon afterwards after Abyss delivered a Black Hole Slam that leveled Black Reign. Pretty interesting match from two big guys although not much wrestling in it. Would have loved to see some wrestling moves but hey, decent opener for TNA Genesis 2007. As the match was over we saw Abyss open the box and a masked wrestler attacked him. The similarity in masks is obvious but this new guy truly has a great body and seems interesting enough. It would be interesting to find out who he was.

PS: I really love Abyss' entrance theme, very good track for his character and I can not stop loving to listen to it.

What is The Monster's Ball Match

Well, in professional wrestling, the Monster's Ball match is a special multi competitor hardcore match. It was created by TNA with a name derived by the 2001 movie, Monster's Ball. The idea of the match stands in the fact that those that enter the ring are kept alone in a locked room without food, water or light for 24 hours before the match starts. As you can imagine, this is just stipulation and it is aimed to motivate, and make the wrestling match more interesting. It also explains the use of weapons and various extreme hardcore moves in the match. Victory is achieved when one wrestler is pinned or submits, kind of like a first fall wins. Because of the nature of the Monster's Ball match, the hardcore wrestling implication, there will be many pre-planned high impact moves that are aimed to draw reaction from the plan. For instance, at the last year's Monster's Ball we saw Raven execute an elbow drop from a high place in the arena on Abyss, who was placed on a table. This was a pre-planned high spot in the match.

Up until know we saw 6 Monster's Ball Matches and one wrestler was involved in all of them. Abyss is that wrestler and the interesting fact is that he only won one of them, this year at Bound For Glory when he executed a Black Hole Slam on Raven on tacks and pieces of broken glass. The first Monster's Ball wrestling match was held on November 7, 2004 and Monty Brown winning over Raven and Abyss. The second saw Rhino defeating Sabu, Jeff Hardy and Abyss on October 23 at Bound for Glory 2005. The winner of the third wrestling match of this type was Samoa Joe, winning over Abyss and Rhino on June 10 at TNA House Show 2006. Number four had only two wrestlers compete in Rhino and Abyss at the 2006 TNA house Show on August 24. Rhino won the second Monster's Ball match of the career then. Monster's Ball number 5 saw Samoa Joe win his second wrestling match of this type after defeating Brother Runt, Abyss and Raven on October 22 at Bound For Glory. This year we saw Abyss winning his first ever Monster's Ball match after defeating Raven, Black Reign and Rhino at Bound for Glory.

The Monster's Ball match is high end profile for TNA and as you can see, it was held at Bound For Glory, the company's largest pay per view, 3 out of 6 times. Samoa Joe and Rhino both won two matches but the difference between the two wrestlers stands in the fact that Samoa Joe won each of the Monster's Balls he participated in.

Since Abyss won the last Monster's ball, I invite you to take a look at a quick promo by TNA about one DVD. Hope you like it!