Project Rewatch - TNA: The Good Shit

[SUPES]

Steiner vs. Joe II - August 11, 2006
Tag Titles Match
AJ Styles & Christopher Daniels vs. Chris Sabin & Jay Lethal

That was on its way to excellence until tag legalities in the third act. The challengers worked on the left arm of Daniels at first, but then the champs worked on Lethal. The chemistry between Styles and Lethal was really something, whether it was their work on the match or Styles doing his traditional dropkick with perfect timing after talking trash. The challengers would get the heat on Styles after Lethal caused him to land gut-first on the top rope when sabotaging a springboard maneuver, so they went after his abdomen.

But once all of them did dives to the outside, the match logically fell apart as the ref counted every pinfall attempted. That said, it was still a fun match and could've been something nice to have as a PPV program to elevate Sabin & Lethal, rather than making this a throwaway contest on a house show. ***1/2

[SUPES]

Hard Justice 2006
Tag Titles Match
AJ Styles & Christopher Daniels vs. LAX

I hated this match from almost the very beginning. There were numerous visible botches as mentioned by Bryan & Vinny. I don't know if Styles & Daniels should be blamed since they're the most complete performers, Hernandez should be blamed for being so green, or perhaps even Homicide, who I've heard conflicting things about in terms of how he works from a wrestler's perspective.

There was so much mistiming in this match, and it looked to finally be saved during the dives at the end of the second act. But then the third act, on a live globally broadcasted PPV mind you, became nothing more than an indyriffic spotfest. There was no attempt to maintain tag legalities, making the earlier parts when there was a buildup to a hot tag a complete waste of time. I am not going to shrug this off, for it's not like this was as crisp as Styles & Matt Sydal vs. Austin Aries & Jack Evans, or Aries & Roderick Strong vs. CIMA & Naruki Doi.

This was a bad match that if I was a trainer, I'd show to students on what not to do. Botches, mistiming, a green worker being exposed, and a third act that became nothing more than a scramble spofest, completely degrading the one substantial portion that took place earlier in the match. f*** this match, and I am not exactly thrilled to revisit the in-ring portion of this feud right now.

[SUPES]

Impact - August 24, 2006
Tag Titles - Hardcore Match
AJ Styles & Christopher Daniels vs. LAX

TIME STAMP - 2:47:02


Much easier to stomach this team since this was a hardcore match. So instead of them having to worry about building to hot tags and remembering who's legal, these four just went to war in a short but highly heated TV main event. Styles is wearing jeans and a T-shirt, while Daniels is in business gear, giving this hardcore match some rare authenticity.

They just brutalized each other, with Styles and Homicide brawling at ringside, while Daniels, who has a bandaged cut on his forehead, went right after the powerful Hernandez. But Styles got busted open too and was taken out by Hernandez, leaving Homicide to go to work on Daniels. Konnan got involved and attacked Daniels, allowing Homicide to hit an Ace Crusher through a table to crown new champions. No complaints here this time as this was definitely a hot direction at the time. This was short and to the point, similar to Carnage Crew vs. Natural Born Sinners at ROH's Crowning a Champion. ***