TNA held its Hard Justice pay-per-view Sunday night in New Jersey, and while there were the usual assortment of wacky finishes and outside interference, all in all it was a solid show.
8:00 PM
Pay Per View starts with Sting arriving at the arena and Lauren is frantic trying to get answers from Sting about his actions but he will not say anything.
8:04 PM
F.I.L.T.H.E.E. and Grandmaster Caz open the Pay Per View with their song “Ay, Ay, Ay” – crowd is silent in appreciation.
8:05 PM
There is one dude in the ring who is doing nothing but posing and the words “Wellness” do come to my mind.
8:06 PM
“Get ready for violence” – Don West
8:09 PM
Petey Williams Vs Consequences Creed for the X Division Title opens up the show
8:14 PM
Nasty spot as Creed dives over the top rope and the back of his head catches the apron on the way down but luckily Creed was okay. Crowd is very hot for this opener and the atmosphere should hopefully add to this show.
8:16 PM
Petey has been such a great heel during this match and the crowd is now getting behind him. TNA has to decide to either make Petey a babyface or have him ditch the Canadian Destroyer because it’s a babyface move and doesn’t work in that context of a heel using it.
8:21 PM
Williams applies the sharpshooter but Creed reaches the ropes.
8:24 PM
Rhaka Khan runs in and Creed hits her with an F5 – I thought man on woman violence was banned? Shawn Daivari (Sheik Abdul Bashir) makes his way to ringside and hits Creed with a chair and allows Williams to get the win after the Canadian Destroyer. Bashir says he is the “The Middle Eastern Nightmare”.
8:27 PM
Samoa Joe and Kevin Nash in the back – Borash asks Joe if it’s a distraction to have Sting in the arena. Joe says he is tired of the HOCUS, POCUS. Nash (sans shirt) says he should focus on Booker T. and he will take care of Sting tonight – ANGLE ALERT!!!
8:30 PM
They do a video for the 6 woman tag match and voiced over in fairy tale fashion.
8:30 PM
Taylor Wilde & Gail Kim & ODB Vs Awesome Kong & The Beautiful People with Traci Brooks as the guest referee
8:48 PM
All the matches are getting some time during this event. Most of the match saw Kim selling but then the finish came with Wilde coming in and getting the roll up on Love for the win.
8:48 PM
Lauren is with Team 3-D backstage. D-Von is touching her ass and Brother Ray says he’s now going to have to wash his hand. They go up to the rafters to find Sting and we find out that Ray is afraid of heights (Elevation X alert for the future). D-Von is afraid of the dark.
8:53 PM
LAX Vs Beer Money Inc. for the Tag Titles
LAX comes out to F.I.L.T.H.E.E. for their theme song. Homicide doesn’t even have a scratch after that glass table spot on Thursday, which begs the question why they would even do that spot.
9:09 PM
They problems with Homicide and Hernandez and then they come up with a ridiculous double team move where Storm and Roode are on the outside and Hernandez border tosses Homicide over the top rope onto both men. This was a crazy spot.
9:10 PM
Homicide attemts the Gringo Killer on Storm but Roode hits Homicide with the beer bottle and Storm gets the win and the Tag Titles.
9:12 PM
Kevin Nash is with Sting in the rafters and calls him “Steve”. Nash says the other guys “don’t know”, Sting says they do. Nash says there has to be “another way” and Sting says there isn’t. This was the most vague conversation I’ve heard in my life.
9:13 PM
Black Machismo Vs Sonjay Dutt in a “Black Tie Brawl and Chain Match” is next. Wrestlers are chained together and can win by either pinfall or stripping their opponent
9:26 PM
SoCal Val walked out of the match after Lethal was choking Dutt. Lethal needs to ditch this woman. Crowd is chanting “boring”. Yet another gimmick match that hurts the match with talented performers.
9:27 PM
The best part of this match is Lethal’s family in the crowd, who I guarantee have not been smartened up to the business. They are excellent!
9:29 PM
“FIRE RUSSO” chants – I love this audience. When has a booker ever had that much heat?
9:30 PM
Lethal gets the win but the gimmick just killed this match.
9:35 PM
Home run promo from Booker T. stating how Sting and Booker paved the road that Samoa Joe walks on and then Joe messed the road up and he has to go out with a shovel each and everyday now to fix it.
9:36 PM
Team 3-D Vs Christian Cage & Rhino in a “New Jersey Street Fight”
9:53 PM
Crowd was really hot for this match with loud “ECW” chants at one point. Lots of brawling through the crowd and then big high spots in the ring. Finish came with Rhino hitting a gore on Brother Ray into a table in the corner (which didn’t break) and got the pin. Johnny Devine ran in after the match and attacked the faces and then Abyss made the save.
10:00 PM
Kurt Angle Vs A.J Styles is next in the “Last Man Standing Match”
10:26 PM
The deal in this match was that you had to pin or submit your opponent before the referee would could “10”. Finish was insane as they had A.J DDT Angle off the top rope and had a disgusting landing. A.J got the pin and 10 count for the win – this was an outstanding match. It looks as though they are doing a paralysis angle with Kurt. The took Kurt out on a stretcher.
10:29 PM
As Kurt gets up, A.J comes back and suplexes him. As A.J is leaving the lights go out and then Sting appears and give the Scorpion Death Drop to Styles. Nash comes out and asks Sting why he did that.
10:35 PM
This match is getting zero time. We have had 2 video’s for the match back to back. We are just starting the entrances right now.
10:37 PM
Booker enters the ring and now we have ANOTHER VIDEO. Once Joe finally makes it to the ring we have the big introduction from Jeremy Borash. This is getting less than 15 minutes.
10:41 PM
The bell rings to start the show
10:47 PM
Joe is already bleeding – these guys need to exert some pull backstage and make sure they are going to ring by 25 after the hour because it’s ridiculous that the main event gets shafted two months in a row in order for the whole undercard to get time.
10:49 PM
Crowd is so captivated that “You Screwed Bret” chants have begun for Earl Hebner.
10:53 PM
The lights go out in the arena. A guitar is bashed over Booker’s head and Joe gets the pin. So they are teasing a Jeff Jarrett return.
<B>John Pollock is a journalist with The Fight Network.<BR><BR></B>
