The Katz Files – Arnie Katz
The Kingfish’s Sacrifice Preview & Predictions!
The Kingfish Arnie Katz has one of the clearest crystal balls in the wrestling business. Now he gets you ready for the TNA pay per view – and charts the likely winners and losers!.
Sacrifice shapes up as a fairly unusual show, possibly because TNA put a major effort into Lockdown and is still reloading for the next big pay per view push.
Only a month after the “gimmick card,” Lockdown, TNA’s bookers have gone right back to their threadbare bag of tricks for a large part of the show. The reliance on weird gimmicks, stips and match formats is not a substitute for well-plotted storylines that lead to gripping one-on-one or tag team confrontations.
Look for a lot of action, most of which will be fun to watch and add up to nothing.
The Deuces Wild Tag Team Tournament
TNA World Tag Team Championship
The Story: When Super Eric saved the day and Kaz and he took the titles from Tomko and AJ Styles, it unleashed a storm of controversy. The former champs claimed that Super Eric represented outside interference. When Eric Young wouldn’t admit that Super Eric is his costumed alter ego, Jim Cornette had no choice but to hold up the title.
That led to the decision to crown new champions with one of the most convoluted match formats in wrestling history. Cornette put four established teams into the tournament: Team 3D, LAX, Christian Cage & Phone and AJ Styles & Eric Young. (OK, the last two weren’t really established teams, but Cornette put them in the tournament anyway_.
Then Cornette named his “Egotistical Eight,” wrestlers who would be in the tournament, matched at random with other members of this select group. On the 5/8 Impact, the luck of the draw paired Sting and James Storm and, later in the show, Matt Morgan and Kip James.
The make-up of the remaining two teams – consisting of some combination of Booker T, Robert Rude, VG James and Awesome Kong – will be announced at the event.
My Predictions: It’s pretty tough to predict a tournament when you don’t know the brackets, but I do have some prognostications. Everyone expects TNA to team Roode and Booker and make Awesome Kong and BG James the final unit. That’s so obvious, I look for TNA to go in a different direction and team Booker with HB James and put Awesome Kong and Robert Roode into a team. That would permit matches with Booker and Roode That would give an opportunity to push the Booker-Roode and BG-Kip feuds by having them on opposite team and fight against each other.
The Ultimate winners of the tournament should be Christian Cage and Rhino, but it is more likely to be Booker T and BG James. They’ll win in a way that launches a program with LAX.
Predicted Grade: A-
“Black Machismo” Jay Lethal vs. Sonjay Dutt vs. Curry Man vs. Shark Boy vs. Kaz v Consequences Creed vs. Alex Shelley vs. Chris Sabin vs. Jimmy Rave vs. Johnny Devine
Terrordome Match
The Story: Another pay per view, another X-Division gimmick match. This one, untried and untested, involves a cage suspended high in the air. Presumably, there’s something more than that to distinguish it from a regular cage match on stilts. The important thing is that the winner will get a shot at the X-Division Championship currently held by Petey Williams.
My Prediction: It doesn’t matter what the specific rules are, because what’s important is the final result. Who would make the best foe for Petey Williams? If this match gives us Lethal-Williams, it’s a lot of work for something that has already been done, so I think Black Machismo and Sonjay Dutt will cancel each other out (and move closer to their inevitable feud).
I would give Consequences Creed the win, because he has not had a high-visibility match, but my hunch is that Curry Man will win to set up an almost guaranteed “A” match.
Predicted Grade: B+
ODB vs. Gail Kim vs. Traci Brooks vs. Jacqueline Moore vs. Angelina Love vs. Velvet Sky vs. Roxxi LaVeaux vs. Christy Hemme vs. Salinas
Knockout Make-over Battle Royal
The Story: Some hair fetishist at TNA wants to see a girl have her head shaved and TNA also wants to set up a new opponent for Awesome Kong. This match brings together those two concepts into one big circus.
The winner gets a title shot. The second-place woman, the one who fights the eventual winner, gets her head shaved. Unless, thanks to an immunity match, it the loser of that final showdown is Gail Kim. No one is shaving those raven tresses, you betcha.
My Prediction: The first question is: who can stand to have her head shaved without destroying her value to the promotion? I see only two women who could take it, ODB and Christy Hemme. Since the victim should, ideally, be a heel, I’m betting on the leader of the Rock n Rave Infection to get shorn.
I see Gail Kim and ODB in the final confrontation, with ODB winning. Kim has immunity, so it’ll be second runner up Hemme in the barber chair.
Predicted Grade: B
Samoa Joe vs. Kurt Angle vs. Scott Steiner
Triple Threat
World Championship
The Story: This match grew out of the title match at Lockdown. Now Samoa Joe must defend his precious gold against not only former champion Kurt Angle, but also Scott Steiner.
My Prediction: There’s no reason why Samoa Joe shouldn’t win this. Kurt Angle and Scott Steiner made pre-match noise about cooperating, but that partnership will dissolve in the heat of battle. Joe will pin Angle and Steiner will then bring the suitcase into play.
Predicted Grade: B+
Predicted Overall Grade for Sacrifice: B+
– Arnie Katz
Crossfire4@cox.net
(5/10/08)
Loading ...