The Katz Files – Arnie Katz
The Kingfish’s Sacrifice Recap & Analysis!
The Kingfish Arnie Katz made quite a few predictions before the pay per view. Now he recaps the event and examines his own forecasts!.
Sacrifice from Orlando, FL, opened with a video that interweaved three streams, one for each of the combatants in the main event, a triple threat match for the TNA World Championship.
Kurt Angle stepped out of a long white limousine and told Jeremy Borash that he was under doctor’s orders not to wrestle after he sustained an injury while working in Korea. “I can’t afford to wrestling, because that’s what my doctor tells me,” Angle said.
An arriving Scott Steiner said that he had originally expected it to be him and Joe, one on one, and now he guessed that’s what the match would be.
This segment ended with a shocker: Kevin Nash got out of Big Poppa Pump’s limo!
Kingfish Comments: The pre=-show and the opening video should’ve reflected the fact that Angle would not be competing. If he hurt himself a week before the event, as stated, then TNA had plenty of time to rectify the situation.
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.
The Quarter-Final Match: .
Team 3D d. Sting * James Storm
Communication between Storm and Sting deteriorated steadily through the match and largely caused their defeat. Team 3D brought a table into the ring and, after sizing up the animosity between their opponents, stepped back and let Sting drive Storm through the table! (B-)
Between the first and second quarter-final matches, Frank Trigg talked about Kurt Angel’s injury.
Rhino & Christian Cage d. Booker T and Robert Roode
Roode and Booker were already fighting each other before the bell even rang. Things didn’t go much better after the match officially started, either. Rhino knocked Booker T off the ring apron and then Speared Robert Roode to set up the winning cover. (B-)
After the match, Booker T congratulated the winners and left the ring. Then he came back and dealt Rhino and Cage devastating chair shots! Both were flat on the canvas when the newly heel Booker T headed for the backstage area.
Kingfish Comments: This looks like TNA is setting up a reason for Rhino and Christian Cage to lose the tournament without tarnishing their status. That suggests that a tag team program against LAX may be in the cards.
Backstage, Scott Steiner tried to cut a deal with Kevin Nash. While Big Sexxy stayed cool and noncommittal, he did shake Steiner’s hand.
LAX (with Hector Guerrero) d. Matt Morgan & Kip James
Hernandez Dropkicked Kip James and pinned him,
Morgan and James appeared to cooperate fairly well during the match, putting aside their recent friction, but there was finger pointing in defeat. (C+)
AJ Styles said, in an interview, that he wasn’t sure how to deal with Awesome Kong as an opponent.
Kurt Angle barged into the interview and accused the Prince of Phenomenal of chasing his wife.
Kingfish Comments: This certainly was a non sequitor, especially since Karen Angle wasn’t part of the show. Apart from this one mention, there was nothing about Karen angle or the Angles’ marriage.
Super Eric & AJ Styles d. BG James & Awesome Kong
Styles withstood Kong’s dreaded reverse spinning Backfist and also escaped her Awesomebomb. Styles missed a Splash and landed hard on his face. BG James thought he had some time to recover and didn’t move fast enough to prevent Styles from covering for the pin. (B-)
Kingfish Comments: You wouldn’t think TNA could find a way to misuse so many people in one match. This was a waste of talent.
Lauren interview Rick Steiner, who said that he was at the show to support his brother.
Jim, Cornette announced that the winner of the Terrordome match would get even more than an X Division title shot against Petey Williams. The winner would also earn a spot in the Sacrifice main event.
Kingfish Comment: I guess they wanted to preserve their existing plotting even though Angle was out of the match. They really should’ve just made it Scott Steiner versus Samoa Joe, one on one, and then adjust the planned program.
Kaz d. “Black Machismo” Jay Lethal & Sonjay Dutt & Curry Man & Shark Boy & Consequences Creed & Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin & Jimmy Rave & 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+
The Match: Kaz dropped Johnny Devine on all the other competitors and finished his climb out the top of the Terrordom before any of them could recover.
Kingfish Comments: This was an incredible match with more high spots and incredible moves than many entire cards. The gimmick wasn’t much, but this type of action could probably have rescued any gimmick.
Actual Grade: A
“Kaz is a tremendous competitor who deserves this spot,” Samoa Joe told Jeremy Borash. When the interviewer brought up Kevin Nash, the champion went berserk and choked him.
The Deuces Wild Tag Team Tournament
TNA World Tag Team Championship
The Semi-Final Match:
Team 3D d. Rhino & Christian Cage
The brothers worked on Cage’s head and neck, hoping to capitalize on Booker’s earlier chairshot.
Brother Ray hooked Cage from behind, dragged him out of the ring and introduced him to the ring steps in a most unpleasant way. Devon couldn’t covert it into a pin.
Cage hit a beautiful Huracanrana, but he couldn’t keep Ray’s shoulders on the canvas.
Rhino Gored Devon, but Johnny Devine distracted the referee after handing Ray a kendo stick. Ray clouted Rhino with the kendo stick and scored the pin. (B+)
Jeremy Borash talked to Kevin Nash about his possible connection to Scott Steiner and relayed Samoa Joe’s anger at learning that Nash came to Sacrifice in Steiner’s car. Nash set out to find Joe and Borash tagged along to see what would happen.
LAX (with Salinas) d. AJ Styles & super Eric
LAX executed the Drive By on Super Eric, but the masked man got his shoulders up in time to prevent the pin. Then Hernandez rocked Super Eric with what must’ve been the world’s longest Delayed Vertical Suplex.
LAX won when, while Salinas distracted the official, Hector Guerrero rushed into the ring and tipped a small package attempt so that it ended up in LAX’s favor. (B+)
Samoa Joe’s entrance entourage made another cameo appearance.
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
The Match: The format was an over-the-top Battle Royal that led to o a one-on-one Ladder Match between the last two survivors.
Salinas was the first eliminated, though it didn’t appear that she went over the top rope.
Velvet Sky went over the top rope, but she landed on the apron. She couldn’t maintain the position for long, though, and became the second to exit.
They pushed Traci Brooks over the top strand to reduce the field by one.
Rocka Khan took out Christy Hemme with a Backdrop. Then three women combined to get rid of Khan, too. ODB get eliminated in the same skirmish, followed shortly by Angelina Love due to Roxxi Laveaux’s Back Body Drop.
This created a very intriguing situation. Gail Kim and Roxxi LaVeaux were the last two left. The winner would get the title match against Awesome Kong, but if Kim lost, her immunity would transfer the hair-cutting to the woman eliminated just before the Ladder Match started – Angelina Love!
When LaVeaux went to the ringside area to fetch a ladder, Angelina Love tried to jump her. The Voodoo Queen used the ladder like a bar and hit a Love-ly home run. Gail Kim tried to use the ladder once it came into the ring, but LaVeaux crashed her into it, twice! Gail got some revenge by Monkey-flipping her foe into it.
Both women climbed the ladder. When Kim decided she couldn’t quite get to the top, she settled for Sunset Flipping LaVeaux to the mat!
Roxxi took out Angelina Love on the apron and then dished out a Spinebuster onto the ladder to Gail Kim! LaVeaux climbed the ladder, but Angelina Love stopped her in an effort to preserve her own hair.
Gail Kim got to the top of the ladder and took the contract.
That meant that Roxxi LaVeaux had to have her head shaved. She’d also received a wicked cut from a collision with the ladder, so the shearing wasn’t as cut and dried as it might’ve been.
Roxxi cried and Traci Brooks held her hand for comfort. The crowd chanted, “Fire Russo!”
Gail Kim brawled with The Beautiful People on the ramp.
Kevin Nash and Samoa Joe had a nasty confrontation in the latter’s dressing room. Nash announced he was going to stay in the dressing room. Joe could give him the high sign if he was needed, but he didn’t promise to come to the rescue.
Kingfish Comments: This was another plot thread that went absolutely nowhere.
The Deuces Wild Tag Team Tournament>
LAC d. Team 3D
TNA World Tag Team Championship
The Match: There was a lot of fighting outside the ring before the bell. Ray tortured Hernandez by r trying to crush his throat with a chair while Homicide and Devon tried to take each other apart.
Hernandez Dropkicked both brothers out of the ring and then blasted them with an out-of-ring Suicide Dive. Johnny Devine, interfering again, sneaked down to the ring, hauled out a table and set it up. Hector Guerrero confronted Devine, took away his kendo stick and thrashed him with it!
Hector Guerrero, now totally caught up in the action, put Devine on the table in the ringside area – and then blasted him through it with a Suicide Dive!
Homicide took a Dudley Death Drop, but the referee said he wasn’t the legal man. They tried to do the same to Hernandez, but couldn’t do it. Instead, Super Mex dealt Ray a Spinebuster. Devon stopped his offensive run with an attack from behind.
Hernandez hit the Border Toss on Devon. Homicide finished him off with the Frogsplash. LAX regained the World Tag Team title they’d lost to Team 3D more than a year earlier.
Actual Grade: A-
Kingfish Comments: As might be expected, the tournament got better as it narrowed down to the teams intended to be in the high profile semi-final and final matches. The high quality of the last three contests shouldn’t blind us to the flaws in the booking. The teams formed out of the “egotistical eight” flopped, because the booking was repetitive and without surprises.
Eric Young popped up at the announce table. He claimed he was going to Nashville, site of the next pay per view, to meet Elvis.
Frank Trigg joined Mike Tenay and Don West to add some MMA-slanted commentary.
Samoa Joe d. Scott Steiner & Kaz
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+
The Match: As Kaz and Samoa Joe faced off in the ring, Scott Steiner yanked Joe out of the ring and administered a savage beating.
With Joe draped over the outer guard rail, Big Poppa Pump went to work on Kaz. He hit a Belly-to-Belly Suplex from the second rope, took out Joe again and then destroyed Kaz with a Back Body Drop off the top rope!
Steiner powered Joe to the canvas with a pair of Suplexes. He then applied a Steiner Recliner to the Samoan Submission Machine. Joe powered to his feet and Kaz took out Steiner with a Flying Lariat!
Scott Steiner had a pipe in the ringside area. Samoa Joe took him out with a Suicide Dive, but Big Poppa Pump got in a deadly shot with the foreign object! Kaz then leveled Stein with his Suicide Dive!
Petey Williams crotched Kaz on the top rope, while Scott Steiner engaged referee Andrew Thomas in conversation. Scott punched Kaz a few times and then pulled off a Frankensteiner!
Kaz and Steiner went to the top. Kaz wanted to do a Suplex, but Steiner threw him to the canvas. Moments later, they were back up there again. This time, Steiner Back Body Dropped Kaz all the way out of the ring! Samoa Joe caught Scott Steiner with the Muscle Buster and then covered successfully to retain his belt.
Kingfish Comments: Kaz made a real contribution to the match, even though he never looked like a possible winner. His athleticism and energy kept things from bogging down as they sometimes do with big guys like Joe and Steiner.
Actual Grade: A-
Predicted Overall Grade for Sacrifice: B
Actual Overall Grade for Sacrifice: B+
Kingfish’s Final Comments: TNA cards are often hard to evaluate because there is so much inconsistent and unimaginative booking paired with outstanding ring action. Sacrifice was very firmly in that mold.
I’ll be back tomorrow with another installment of the Internet’s fastest-rising daily wrestling column.
– Arnie Katz
Crossfire4@cox.net
(5/12/08)
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