Turning Point 2006 was the final TNA PPV of the year and featured the (not) long-awaited (enough) rematch between Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe, which was pretty much the hottest thing they had going at the time. Kurt Angle, of course, gave Samoa Joe his first real defeat (that wasn’t a 3-way loss where someone else took the fall) and kicked off a career renaissance of sorts. Conventional wisdom would suggest holding off the rematch for later down the road, but sometimes, wrestling promotions rarely follow conventional wisdom. And I don’t say that as a knock on Vince Russo, who was hired back by TNA earlier that year. WWE has been guilty of the same thing as well over the years.
Anyway, it’s Joe vs. Angle II. Something they could’ve held off a couple months until their next big tentpole event, but I guess TNA felt threatened by that ECW PPV taking place the same month with a week’s worth of build. I wonder how that show turned out.
Senshi (a.k.a. Low Ki) defeated, Alex Shelley, Sonjay Dutt, Austin Aries Starr, and Jay Lethal in what was billed as a “Paparazzi Championship Series” match… which means elimination match, apparently. Kevin Nash was on commentary and all I remember was Kevin Nash doing a bunch of bits with the X-Division guys regarding how to make that division more “marketable.” I wonder if Nash was getting notes from Eric Bischoff during that time and when that didn’t work out, did Bischoff start blaming Meltzer for it? Yeah, so it was a MOVES match. It was harmless. The less I know about this Paparrazi business, the better off I’ll be… I guess.
There’s a bikini contest between Tracy Brooks and Eric Young that I skip because I don’t care… but for those wondering, Eric Young won said bikini contest. Less than a decade later, this man would become TNA World Heavyweight Champion, so there’s some upwards mobility at some point… just not anytime soon.
Also skipped was some interview girl trying to interview “Michael Hickenbottom and Paul Levesque” of DX, which stands for Dumb To The Extreme… but she gets some fat oily dude instead… which I’m guessing is supposed to be a rib on the fat oily dude that used to pop up on RAW around that time… again, the less I recall of this stuff, the better off I’ll be…
X Division Champion Christopher Daniels defeated Chris Sabin to retain the title. Jerry Lynn was the special ref for this match. Daniels look bad after trying an elbow off the top and landed hip-first on the ground. The match as a whole was… fine, I guess? I wasn’t really into this one for some reason. I’m sure they’ve had better matches elsewhere. So after the match, Lynn demanded that Sabin shake Daniels’ hand… dude, this ain’t Ring Of Honor. We don’t do that shit here. Daniels says he doesn’t need to respect because he’s the champion, which causes Lynn to slap Daniels for… some reason.
There’s a bit with Jim Cornette and some baseball players. Don’t care.
Rhino and AJ Styles have a fight backstage, which involved Rhino suplexing AJ onto a trash can… except that AJ’s head hit the floor while the legs caught the can. How this man is still working today after THAT piece of business is a mystery left to the great minds of life, the universe, and everything. They eventually make their way to the ring and have their match, which has more crazy shit happening. AJ fakes an injury (or not, who knows at this point) to bring in medical personnel. As the ref is about to call for a match stoppage, AJ rolls up Rhino (with a handful of tights) for the pin. This was certainly a thing that happened… and it wasn’t boring, either. Credit where it’s due.
Another backstage bit involving a Vince McMahon-lookalike and his chicken… I skip that and in the process, I also skipped a backstage bit where Rhino and AJ are still fighting because of course, they are. Why aren’t we watching that instead of the chicken fucking?
LAX (Homicide & Hernandez) defeated America’s Most Wanted (Chris Harris and James Storm) in a flag match, where the winners got their national anthem played… and that’s what happened. LAX planted their flag on a pole and we get to hear the Mexican National Anthem… and I’m supposed to care… why, exactly? Canada has no beef in this match, so I instantly tuned out. Yeah, so this was a thing that happened.
So the former New Age Outlaws VOODOO KIN MAFIA come out dressed as Triple H and Shawn Michaels Paul Levesque and Michael Hickenbottom (what kind of dumb name is that?!) and then Road Dogg BG James cuts an impassioned promo that challenges the DX duo to – get ready – A SHOOT FIGHT! Yes, so Vince Russo’s big plan to challenge WWE is to do the same shit he did in WWE. This is basically a lesser, shittier version of the DX Invades WCW angle that ultimately went nowhere and, oh, by the way, the Outlaws would eventually return to WWE and even got another run with the tag belts… and Road Dogg would even be part of creative for a time.
Now while I’m sure this excited the TNA monkeys in the Impact Zone because they’ll cheer anything that involves “sticking it to the grapefruits” or whatever… why the fuck is this on PPV? Even when they did the WCW invasion bits, they kept that shit on RAW. This isn’t hip or innovative. This is just sad, derivative nonsense. It’s Vince Russo going back to his wheelhouse doing that stuff that “worked” a decade ago, so surely it must work now… except it didn’t. It’s lame. It’s stupid. It’s why people roll their eyes whenever TNA or AEW or whoever decide they’ll take pot shots at WWE, because it just comes across as super lame. There’s only rare – and I mean, RARE – occasions when this sort of stuff actually works and leads to compelling television. This was a waste of time that went nowhere. They want me to believe that this is as real as real can be… but it comes across as FAKER than the fake wrestling matches. Figure that one out.
NWA World Champion Abyss defeated Sting and Christian Cage in a three-way match involving thumbtacks, ref bumps, outside interference, and several brain cells exploding to retain the title. There used to be a time when I would just embrace the madness, but there’s only so much madness I’m willing to put up with before I throw in the towel. Dude, this was fucking stupid. I mean, you have two former WWE guys challenging their former buddies to a SHHHOOT FIGHT! BRO! THIS SHIT FOR REALZ, BRO! I! SWEAR! TO! GAWD! And then you follow that up with this shit. My brain hurt watching this. I may cancel this TNA+ subscription as a result of this show. Fuck.
And in the main event, Samoa Joe defeated Kurt Angle via submission. I liked this match better than their Genesis match. I like that the TNA monkeys are so stupid they will chant at Joe that he tapped out (a reference to their last match) and then follow it up with “Joe Is Gonna Kill You” chants. I like that Angle tried to hit Joe with a chair, but missed and bonked his own head as a result of a deflect. Most of all, I like that Joe got his win back. Now, of course, they’d have the rubber match at the following month’s PPV and we’ll be looking at that show next week.
I just hope that show is better than this one because holy fuck, this was awful. Absolutely fucking atrocious. Go watch Joe/Angle II because that’s a great fucking match and skip the rest. Please.
dtm666 