Shit, I forgot to come on and give mine, Half the card changed anyway.
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A bunch of announcements.
Rhino "isn't here and we don't know where he is" which is clearly storyline
Both Christy Hemme and Awesome Kong are injured, but they don't want to say that Kong is injured because monster heels aren't supposed to get hurt. They've added ODB & Roxxi & Taylor Wilde vs. Rhaka Khan & Raisha Saeed & Sojourner Bolt. That could be a scary match. The person who scores the fall will get a shot at Kong when she returns.
Kong is also off the U.K. tour that starts Friday but that wasn't announced.
Sonjay Dutt & Jimmy Rave & Kiyoshi vs. Eric Young & Homicide & Hernandez has been added to the show opening the show in an elimination match.
Dutt pinned Young with his feet on the ropes
Rave pinned Homicide holding tights
This left Hernandez against all three, and he quickly won all three falls. He pinned Kiyoshi after a border toss, pinned Dutt after a power bomb and finally pinned Rave after a splash off the top. Crowd peaked about 8:00 in and lost interest. They were into the big moves but this isn't that hot of a crowd for the product at large. A lot of early missed moves as well.
Jim Cornette talked to Scott Steiner about where Rhino is and Steiner said Rhino was probably drunk, since he's been in rehab more times than Jeff Conaway. Jeff Conaway?
Chris Sabin vs. Alex Shelley for the X Division title is up next.
Finish saw Shelley pretending to have an ankle injury. As Sabin tried to check on him, Shelley used a schoolboy for the pin. Technically excellent, very reminiscent of a CMLL championship match third fall. A lot of the crowd didn't react early but the ringsiders loved the match and were chanting "This is Awesome." Crowd didn't have a favorite although slightly pro-Shelley by the end. Lots of near falls with both kicking out of the others' big moves.
Kevin Nash has been admitted to the hospital, supposedly a staph infection from the match in Japan and he's in the hospital. Cornette wanted the postpone but Mick Foley said the people were promised a match. Anyway, Booker T & Scott Steiner have to pick a new partner.
Shane Sewell vs. Sheik Abdul Bashir is next.
Basic late 70s style prelim wrestling match. Crowd didn't seem into the match much except when Bashir tried to rile them up. Finish saw corny looking as Earl Hebner and Bashir were shoving each other. Bashir started chasing Hebner in circles (this looked real bad) but Sewell lariated Bashir and pinned him after a sunset flip.
Jim Cornette confronted Booker T and Sharmell about Rhino. Booker used his fake voice. Then grabbed Cornette but Sewell came out. Booker threatend Sewell who didn't back down.
Consequences Creed & Jay Lethal vs. Beer Money vs. Matt Morgan & Abyss for the tag titles.
Beer Money got the titles back. Crowd was so dead for 90% of this. Some good moves but lack of crowd enthusiasm hurt it. Jackie Moore distracted ref Rudy Charles for about a month. Abyss went for a belt shot on Roode, who ducked and KO'd Morgan. Lethal then gave Roode the Macho Man elbow off the top. The ref was still throwing Moore out. Storm superkicked Lethal and put Roode on top of Morgan and Charles turned around the counted the fall.
Post-match saw Morgan and Abyss argue with each other.
Kurt Angle is on the rampage. He's with Jim Cornette. Cornette wants to know what's going on with Rhino. Angle said he went to the hotel room and made Rhino an offer, but Rhino refused, and then they beat him up in a vacant lot and left him with cab fare and Angle said Rhino's not coming tonight. Which, translated, means he's coming.
This was not the night to come across this minor league.
ODB & Roxxi & Taylor Wilde vs. Raisha Saeed & Rhaka Khan & Sojourner Bolt is up now.
ODB pinned Saeed with a small package. This match sucked. Kong came out for a showdown with ODB. They did a pull-apart with all six. They never acknowledged Kong being hurt. The way she was moving it appeared to be a back injury. She did choke slam ODB.
Jim Cornette was with Sting. How can Sting put up with these guys. Sting said he hadn't been to Charlotte in 15 years (has it been that long) and he wanted to wrestle for the world title tonight.
Kurt Angle vs. Jeff Jarrett in a no DQ match is next.
Excellent grudge match. The intensity in this match was at a completely different level from everythig else on the show. Double juice match. A highlight was Angle doing an Olympic slam off the entrance way through a table although Jarrett took the bump mostly missing the table. Jarrett did an incredible job of selling here and really most of the match. After kicking out of chair shots to the head and escaping their finishes, Angle won with a cradle. Angle Pillmanized the ankle of Jarrett after the match. It appeared they were doing an injury angle with Jarrett here. Jarrett is being taken out on a stretcher.
Sting vs. Rhino is next. Rhino supposedly has a back injury and his head is all bandaged up before the match even started. Even with this angle, Sting was 98% babyface to the crowd which booed Rhino's comeback. Rhino missed a gore and Sting got the pin with the Scorpion death drop. Crowd popped big and Sting played to the crowd after he won.
Mick Foley & A.J. Styles & Devon vs. Scott Steiner & Booker T & Kip James (Dear God) finishes the show. When Booker announced it, you could hear the place groan. Couldn't they have at least called Rick Steiner or someone like that?
They first did a double count out. Jim Cornette announced they were restarting the match but Booker T said he didn't have the authority to do it. Foley said Cornette didn't have the authority but he did, and he made it a hardcore match. They used the usual garbage cans and chairs. High spot was Styles doing a springboard splash on Kip through a table. Finish saw Foley use a double arm DDT on a chair on Steiner for the pin.
It really hurt because you had the remnants of the old WCW/Crockett audience and they reacted to stars but you could tell they didn't even watch the TV as most didn't react to the TNA angles, only the star power of guys from years ago.
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