TNA Genesis Results

Genesis last night was a night of returns, a night of new faces, and night of champions!  We saw four championship matches and four non-title matches on the card, and for the better of the near three hour duration, I was entertained!  Here’s what went down:

Genesis opened up with Hulk Hogan & Eric Bischoff coming down to the ring… (holy crap the 6-sided ring is gone!!!).  Hogan welcomes everyone to the NEW Impact Zone and the crowd chants at him, “WE WANT 6-SIDES!”  Hogan responds directly to the crowd, “You had it, and it’ll only take you so far!  This ring is where pro-wrestling is born!”

• Eric Bischoff chimes in, “Get used to change because there’s more coming your way!”

TNA X-Division Championship Match
Amazing Red vs. Mystery Opponent (Brian Kendrick)
WINNER: Amazing Red via pin fall after hitting a Sunset Flip Powerbomb

Backstage: Bischoff & Hogan are with The Band telling them that they have to earn their spot in TNA and it looks like they’re slightly receptive to the idea.

• Scott Hall & Sean Waltman decide to play Rock, Paper, Scissors for the tag team spot with Kevin Nash and Waltman wins.

Sean Morley vs. Daniels
WINNER: Sean Morley via pin fall after hitting The Money Shot

Knockout’s Championship Match – 2 out of 3 Falls
ODB (Champion) vs. Tara
WINNER: Tara via two straight pin falls to become the NEW TNA Knockout’s Champion

Backstage: Christy Hemme is with “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero who’s pimpin’ and ready for his match with Desmond Wolfe.  “If history serves, people remember what happened on January 4th (Pope upset Wolfe)!”  He then insults Wolfe calling him in so many words an Oscar the Grouch look alike.

TNA Tag Team Championship Match
British Invasion (Doug Williams & Brutus Magnus) vs. Matt Morgan & Hernandez
WINNERS: Morgan & Hernandez via pin fall after Morgan hit the Carbon Footprint on Magnus to become the NEW TNA Tag Team Champions

Backstage: Bobby Lashley comes busting into Hogan’s office (Hogan’s not there) and tries to attack Eric Bischoff.  Abyss who happened to be talking to Bischoff comes to his aid, and attacks Lashley and beats him senseless.

• Bischoff’s a little pissed and Hogan walks in the door.  Tells Abyss that he’s still going to have a match tonight, but to put aside the hardcore stuff so that you can prove yourself as a wrestler.  He doesn’t tell Abyss who the opponent is though.

Desmond Wolfe vs. D’Angelo Dinero
WINNER: Wolfe via pin fall after he countered the D’Angelo Dinero Express with a wicked lariat

Backstage: Jeremy Borash is about to conduct an interview when Eric Bischoff walks in and tells him, “because of the Mick Foley situation, I’m going to take you off TV for awhile.”

• Bischoff hands the mic over to Christy Hemme who then conducts a short interview with Ric Flair who is “excited to be side by side with TNA… WOOOOOO!”

Beer Money Inc. (Robert Roode & James Storm) vs. The Band (Kevin Nash & Sean Waltman)
WINNERS: Beer Money Inc. via pin fall after a Last Call/Suplex combo on Nash.

• Mid match, Scott Hall came out and acted like a total idiot causing a distraction for his own buddies.

Backstage: Hogan says to Bischoff after watching that match up that he’s going to call out The Band on Thursday Night’s Impact.

Abyss vs. Mister Anderson (Bobby Lashley’s replacement)
WINNER: Mister Anderson via pin fall after hitting Abyss with a set of brass knuckles while the ref’s back was turned.

• Before the match when Mister Anderson came out, he did his normal speech of how much he weighed in at and where he hails from and then introduced himself.
• After the match, Mister Anderson made his own ring announcement declaring himself the winner and paid homage to Family Guy at the same time (Owwww… Owwww… Owwww… Owwww…)

TNA World Championship Match
AJ Styles (Champion) vs. Kurt Angle
WINNER: AJ Styles via pin fall to retain the TNA World Championship

• Mid match, Ric Flair came down to ringside to get a better view of the action.
• By matches end, Angle had Styles in the Ankle Lock, but Flair pulled the ref out of the ring to the floor as AJ was about to tap out.
• Angle is pissed, he chases Flair out of the ring, and back through the ring, only to get hit by an Styles clothesline.
• Flair grabs the TNA World Title and slides it in to AJ.  He looks at the belt, looks at Flair, looks at Angle… CRACK!!!  He nails Angle with the belt.  Flair slides the ref back in the ring to make the 3-count!
• After the match, Styles and Flair celebrate in the ring and then “style and profile” towards the locker room.

TNA ends the broadcast with a commercial for their next PPV in February, Against All Odds.

QUICK THOUGHTS:

This was a solid offering from TNA.  The matches were pretty good, but I was really caught off guard with the finish to the main event.  As you play Monday morning quarterback, you can see the seed of the AJ heel turn being planted last week on Impact when he refused to shake Kurt Angle’s hand after saving him from the Tomko post match beatdown, but in all seriousness, I really didn’t see it coming like this.  Does this mean that Ric Flair and AJ Styles are forming their own version of Evolution in TNA or is this strictly going to be like a master and an apprentice type deal?  I guess we’ll find out in the coming weeks together.

Now I know why Brian Kendrick changed his mind about performing at the local show here in my hometown.  He was supposed to be here in California on Friday, then go to the Dragon Gate USA taping somewhere in Philadelphia (I believe), and then as a total surprise he joins TNA to be Red’s opponent at Genesis.  At least now I get why he didn’t come out to the west coast because he had a busy weekend.  Looking forward to see if they do something decent with him or if he’ll flounder like most of the X-Division guys.  He and Red had a good little match, and I wouldn’t mind seeing them square off again.

Morley/Daniels was just a time filler match on the card.  They wasted a great opportunity to push Daniels back to another level and be one of AJ’s main competitors in the coming months.

The women’s match went smoothly.  Nothing really outstanding about it, but it was a solid match minus the fact that I think one of ODB’s breast enhancement plastic things popped out of her top.

Tag team title match was solid, but again the outcome was sort of predictable being that the Brits hadn’t been on TV in like a month and Morgan/Hernandez had been.

Wolfe/Dinero’s match was very well received by the fans and was one of my favorites of the night.  Wolfe used some very random as hell submission moves and proved that Dinero’s win on LIVE Impact was a fluke.  Hopefully this puts him right up there again for a title shot.

Beer Money/The Band was another time waster, but it carried along some story line.  Maybe this week or next will be the time we see Hogan publicly fire Kevin Nash and tell Waltman & Hall to take a hike!

The shocker/non-shocker of the night goes to Misterrrrrr Anderson (Anderson!)!!!  I knew it had to be him as the big acquisition, but I didn’t think he would be wrestling on the card.  It’s so good to see the former Mr. Kennedy back in wrestling, and I know people peg him as injury prone and a garbage wrestler, but I have faith that he could do wonders for TNA if he stays healthy because he’s not as bad as everyone says in the ring, and he’s awesome on the mic!  The match against Abyss was a decent offering.

I was a little upset that we didn’t get to see Mick Foley or Jeff Jarrett come in and cause a ruckus in the back.  That would’ve been good, but I guess that could wait until Impact.  Something seriously has to happen with them soon.

The one thing that I’m really pissed off about is the fact that the TNA trademark 6-sided ring is gone!  When Hogan came out and said that the 6-sided ring will only get you so far, it bothered me because I think that’s what made TNA different.  You had a different look and feel, and REAL WRESTLING, not sports-entertainment.  The crowd didn’t care for it and even chanted their displeasure. Some of the news wires are now repoting that any signs bashing the change to a traditional ring were removed from the crowd!  WTF Hogan?!?  WTF Bischoff?!?  We have the right to a dissenting opinion on things, and you go and take signs away… if that’s not a Vince McMahon type move, I don’t know what is.