TNA Against All Odds 2/12/2006

Austin Aries & Roderick Strong VS The Naturals
What the heck happened to Aries? At the last PPV he looked like a legit bad ass, now he looks…GAY! Actually, he now bares a resemblance to Petey Williams. At least the man is still a workhorse in the ring.
The match was solid also, and it was good that they remembered the Naturals are former tag team champions and giving them the convincing win here.
Match Rating: *

4-Way X-Division Match: Alex Shelley VS Petey Williams VS Matt Bentley with Tracy VS Jay Lethal
Seeing Tracy bounce around makes me happy.
Nice to see them do a better job with Lethal compared to the last PPV. This was another solid match, only I didn’t like the face VS heel bit of the match that went a little too long, making it feel more like a tag match. Why didn’t anyone think to tag in the other guy to make it heel VS heel or face VS face?
Seeing Tracy makes me happy.
Match Rating: **

LAX (Homicide & Machete) with Konnan VS the James Gang (BG & Kip James)
This as pretty bleh. Homicide is being wasted as they are still playing the “bigger guy always makes the smaller guy his bitch” card. At least Homicide won’t be around for long due to him needing shoulder surgery.
I hate the direction this angle seems to be taking if it means Bullet Bob Armstrong is going to get back in the ring again.
Match Rating: 1/2*

NWA Tag Team Titles: Sonjay Dutt & Chris Sabin VS America’s Most Wanted (C)
I’m all for having an underdog match, but I hate it when they play up the injury angle. I hate one they book the match that way and one team has the clear advantage and dominate for the most part because of it, and the injured guy usually won’t be allowed to use his full arsenal cause he has to sell the injury. Sabin’s injury may have been legit, but I still think they could have come up with better since it’s obvious they weren’t going to win anyway. This was probably the only way they could book AMW to win clean now I guess. Overall, I thought this match was better suited to be on Impact.
Match Rating: *

I thought it was funny having Jarrett rip on Monty Brown about doing the same redundant promo, which he does do if you notice.

Falls Count Anywhere: Abyss VS Rhino
Thank God they put this match up next as I was beginning to feel this PPV was really underwhelming. These two put on one heck of a war despite not running all over Universal Studios like I thought they would. Easily the best match of the night right now as they pulled some really big spots out of the bag, like Rhino breaking a trophy over Abyss’ crotch with a baseball bat, Abyss using a staple gun on Rhino’s bleeding head, Rhino chokeslammed through a table, and the closing spot where Rhino Gored Abyss off the balcony through four tables!
Match Rating: ***1/2

3-Way X-Division Title Match: AJ Styles VS Christopher Daniels VS Samoa Joe (C)
This one definitely lived up to the hype and was a lot better than the first encounter! These 3 obviously work well together with a lot of great 3-way offense and no allegiances between the 3. Considering what’s left on the card, this has to be the best match of the night and an early MOTY candidate.
Match Rating: ****1/4

Team 3D cut a great interview backstage where it seems Brother Ray is trying to incite a crowd gang beating on Team Canada.

Team 3D VS Team Canada (Eric Young & Bobby Roode)
The fact that this match went more than 2 minutes is a crime in itself. This should have been an easy squash for Team 3D considering it’s the Team Canada’s B (or even C) Team. It just couldn’t keep my interest as Team 3D was out for blood but were having so much trouble here instead.
Match Rating: 1/2*

NWA Heavyweight Title: Christian Cage VS Jeff Jarrett (C) Special Referee Earl Hebner
Did I just see Jarrett do a Blue Thunder powerbomb?!?
OK, this was surprisingly a lot better than I thought it would be with Christian defying the odds to take the gold after the usual Jarrett overbooked finish. I didn’t like the way they played up Earl Hebner would screw Christian or all the Montreal Screwjob references either. At the end of it they kept saying Christian had broken the glass ceiling, I say he’s only broken it if he can hold on to the title for a few weeks. Nice touch having the fans come into the ring to celebrate with Christian and Rhino though.
Match Rating: ***1/2

Overall: The first half of the PPV was nothing really special, but at least the 3 hyped matches on the card more than delivered. It was a lot better than that train wreck of a PPV Final Resolution was. Now how about giving the tag titles to Team 3D already?