First off I have to say that I don’t usually post spoilers with my reviews, but because of the nature of this particular Pay Per View; the eight man tournament, I felt it was necessary. Secondly, I have to say that thus far I have noticed an improvement in the quality of the last two PPVs. So let us get on with the mathces. The first out of the gate was The Pope vs Desmond Wolfe. These two have had at it a couple of times, and just like their prior matches this one was good. Naturally because this was a tournament, we couldn’t expect the first round match ups to be very long, but for the time they had they put on a good show. And you always see something original out of Wolfe. But this time out, The Pope got the win, and advanced. Next up was the Tag Team Champions going head to head. Hernandez vs Matt Morgan. On paper this looked like it would be very interesting. Unfortunatley it was not . Morgan is capable of pulling off a good match, but sometimes he is only as good as his opponet. And Hernandez is still just too green. They lumbered around the ring, and did their thing, but in the end Morgan got the victory, and at the same time he managed to screw Hernandez over a bit, thus planting the seed for their eventual demise (in my opinion) The third first round match was Mr Anderson vs Kurt Angle. This was certainly one of those matches that I wish had more time. It was very good, but if it was a main event, it could have been excellent. Angle still has lots of go left in him, and Anderson just has that ability to get the crowd going, while still putting on a great match. After this one was done, I just could not help asking myself, why in the hell did the WWE ever let Anderson go? And yes, somehow Anderson was able to beat Kurt Angle . Now on to the last of the first round matches. This one featured Mick Foley vs Abyss. The stipulations for this match were simple. It was no DQ. And as an added bonus, both men were told that if the barbed wire bat was not used, that Abyss would be unmasked on Impact. Now, these days, Foley has no business in a ring, and it shows. Mercifully this one was short, and the use of thumbtacks made it a fun ending. But despite Abyss getting the win, the bat was never used. I guess the mask is coming off soon. Now, as for the rest of the tournament, I will keep the other rounds winners a secret. But your second round matchups were The Pope vs Matt Morgan, and Mr Anderson vs Abyss. I can’t give everything away. But I will say that I did not really expect how things eventually turned out. But for sure the final match was a winner. In fact, it was the final match of the card. That had more to do with giving the men a break between rounds, but I honestly thought It was better than the World Title match between A.J. Styles and Samoa Joe. I’ll get to them in a second, but I do want to mention the one low part of the night. Team 3D vs The Nasty Boys. I understand that The Nastys are Hogans boys and all, but they really are not very good. In fact It’s almost painful to watch them lumber around the ring. Team 3D after all these years can still get the crowd going, and put on a good match, but even they had trouble making these two stiffs look good. And with the surprise appearance of The Nasty Boys manager at the end of the match, It looks like they will be sticking around. But lets move on to the World Title Match. Samoa Joe has finally rid himself of the face paint, and the whole Nation Of Violence thing, and is looking like the Joe of old. Just a wrecking machine. On the other hand, we now have A.J., who came out in a Ric Flair type robe, that made him look like a blue chicken, and blonde highlights in his hair. Thankfully the changes in the looks did not affect his Wrestling ability. As you would expect, these two had a great match. With Flair at ringside, you have to expect some kind of funny business now and again, but for the most part it was just a solid effort from two very good Wrestlers. So, in my opinion I would have to say that this was yet another good PPV from the Hogan/Bischoff team. very few weak matches, and some twists you might not expect. The only thing missing was an X-Division match, but thats for two reasons. 1) the tournament, but more importantly 2) Destination X, is going to be an all X-Division Pay Per View. Now THAT should be something to see.
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Isn’t it always the case. A Wrestler just starts to get rolling, and just before he makes it big, he gets struck down with an injury. Such was the case a couple of months ago with “The Pope”
