TNA’s latest pay-per-view effort, Final Resolution, can be summed up in one phrase: It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good, either. Two stellar title matches were enough to overcome the card’s dead weight, but when all was said and done, nothing too memorable had been accomplished and the show featured another lackluster TNA World Heavyweight Championship match. Mainly, this was a mixed bag.
In the main event, Jeff Hardy successfully defended his TNA World Heavyweight Championship by beating Matt Morgan.
Mr. Anderson is your special guest referee as assigned by Morgan.
TNA World champion Jeff Hardy. Photo by George Tahinos
They take immediate advantage of the freshly-added no disqualification stipulation by brawling on the outside. Morgan moves out of the way of a Whisper in the Wind attempt and hits an avalanche and a side slam. Discus clothesline hits for Morgan. Hardy hits the Twist of Hate out of nowhere but it only gets two. Morgan then hits Hardy with the Carbon Footprint but comes down badly on his leg and is slow to cover. When he does, Hardy gets his foot on the bottom rope. Hardy then hits another Twist of Hate but Morgan kicks out at two. Hardy puts the boots to Morgan and goes to the top for the Swanton Bomb but Morgan gets his knees up. Hardy starts to walk out and Anderson starts counting but he refuses to count to 10, stopping before he gets there. Then he runs out to Hardy on the ramp and confronts him. Hardy pie-faces him and this upsets Anderson. He does it again and the rage is building. Again. And then Anderson starts beating the tar out of Hardy and throws him back in the ring. Morgan rolls him up from behind for two. And a few kicks later, Hardy hits a third Twist of Hate. This time, Anderson engages in the slowest count in the history of professional wrestling as Hardy had Morgan pinned for about 15 seconds before Morgan got the shoulder up.
Hardy slides to the outside and gets a chair and hits Morgan in the knee with it. He goes for another Twist of Hate but this time, Morgan shoves him off but he goes right into Anderson, sending him out of the ring. Morgan then hits the Carbon Footprint but Anderson is out. Then Eric Bischoff comes out with Jackson James. He posts Anderson and makes James the referee.
James in to count the cover and Hardy kicks out at two. Now Morgan has the chair. He goes for a chokeslam but Hardy kicks his way out and then hits the Twist of Hate onto the steel chair and that’s it.
Winner via pinfall and STILL TNA World Heavyweight Champion: Jeff Hardy
Match Rating: 4/10
The next TNA pay-per-view is Genesis on Jan. 9, 2011.
Following a video package, Mike Tenay and Taz welcome us to tonight’s show, an nine-match affair from Orlando, Fla.
Match #1 – No. 1 Contender’s Match for the TNA World Tag Team Championship – Ink Inc. vs. Beer Money Inc.
Ink Inc. gets rolling in the early going and have Beer Money reeling. But Jesse Neal goes off the ropes and Robert Roode grabs him and yanks him back by his Mohawk and James Storm hits him with a Codebreaker to get the heat. Storm pulls some tape off his hand and chokes Neal with it behind the referee’s back. Roode goes to work with a modified Garvin Stomp on Neal, who is hurting. Roode with a chinlock but Neal elbows out. Roode goes for a backdrop but Neal kicks him but can’t get to Moore. Neal with a back elbow on a charging Roode but again he can’t make it. Neal with a jawbreaker and finally gets to Moore.
Moore is the proverbial house of fire, landing clotheslines and a head scissors. Bulldog lands for Moore but Storm makes the save. This brings Neal in and he dispatches of Storm. Neal clotheslines Roode to the floor. Moore connects with an Asai Moonsault onto Roode. In the ring, a neckbreaker gets two for Moore. They go for the Mooregasm but Storm breaks it up. He can’t make a big impact, though, as he is sent flying. Neal looking for the spear on Roode but Roode sidesteps him and Neal runs right into a Last Call Superkick from Storm. They follow up with the DWI and that’s it.
Winners via pinfall: Beer Money Inc.
Match Rating: 6/10
Match #2 – Falls Count Anywhere – Tara (State of California) vs. Mickie James (Richmond, Va.)
Missile dropkick lands for James and sends Tara flying across the ring. Mickie goes to the apron and Tara runs her into the buckle. On the floor, Mickie goes under the ring and dropkicks Tara to the outside from behind. On the floor, Tara gains the edge and sends Mickie into the crowd. She sends Mickie face-first into a steel chair for two. Mickie gets the heat briefly on the outside area by spraying Tara with a bottle of water and then chucking it at her. Tara tries to go for a piledriver or a power bomb but she gets backdropped onto the concrete for two. Neither woman has gained an advantage for more a minute.
They brawl into the men’s room much to the crowd’s delight. Referee Jackson James kicks out the two men in the restroom. Then they barge in on a guy dropping a deuce. Then, out of a random stall, Madison Rayne sprays Mickie with a fire extinguisher and then hits her with the title. She yells for James, who had ran away, and he makes the count.
Winner via pinfall: Tara
Match Rating: 6/10
Match #3 – X Division Championship – (c) Robbie E. (Seaside Heights, NJ) vs. Jay Lethal (Elizabeth, NJ)
Earl Hebner can’t get Cookie in the shark cage. Lethal attacks Robbie and Cookie runs up the ramp when, of all the people in the world, SHARK BOY, comes down, grabs Cookie, and puts her in the shark cage.
Lethal is on fire early, lighting him up with chops. Robbie takes control and dedicates a running back elbow to Cookie. Robbie sends Lethal front-first and fast into the corner. Robbie with a sleeper but Lethal elbows out. Robbie, though, brings him right back in. Lethal might be out. Hebner drops the arm twice but it doesn’t go down the third time. Lethal drops down and sends Robbie into the corner. He connects with the handspring back-elbow and then the Lethal Combination for two. Cookie throws something to Robbie but Hebner sees it. When he’s getting rid of it, Cookie throws another one. Lethal gets this one and sprays Robbie with it. He hits the Lethal Injection and goes for the cover but Hebner puts two and two together and calls for the bell.
Winner via disqualification and STILL TNA X Division Champion: Robbie E.
Match Rating: 6/10
Cookie flaunts the title around the ring while Robbie is reeling in pain. This brings Shark Boy back out. Cookie slaps him twice, so he thinks about it, turns around and gives her the Stunner and gives her the bad mouth.
Match #4 – First Blood Match – Rhino (Detroit, Mich.) vs. Rob Van Dam (Battle Creek, Mich.)
Rhino looking for anything early. RVD stops Rhino in his tracks and hits Rolling Thunder. Guillotine legdrop connects for RVD. Springboard kick sends Rhino off the apron and to the floor. Rhino gets going on the floor and slams RVD’s head into the steel steps. Still no blood, unfortunately. Suplex connects on the stage for Rhino. Crowd starting to give up, chanting for tables. As that happens, Rhino hits the Gore. Rhino goes underneath the ring and grabs a trash can and two lids. RVD ducks the shot and misses a kick right into a belly-to-belly. Rhino sets up the trash can between the second and third buckles. He drills RVD with a spinebuster. RVD gets going with a high kick and hits a twisting leg drop. Still no blood, obviously.
RVD goes up and hits the Five-Star Frog Splash. RVD gets up and grabs the trash can. He goes to set it on Rhino’s head but Rhino low blows him and plants him with a DDT. Rhino grabs the trash can lid and goes for a power bomb but RVD slips out, grabs the lid and tosses it to Rhino and hits a Van Daminator. Rhino lies in the corner and RVD sets up the trash can against his face. He’s going for the Van Terminator and hits it. The referee checks and Rhino is indeed bleeding.
Winner via not bleeding: Rob Van Dam
Match Rating 4/10
Match #5 – TNA World Television Championship – (c) AJ Styles (Gainesville, Ga.) vs. Douglas Williams (The United Kingdom)
Lots of mat wrestling in the early going. Both men trading holds back-and-forth. Styles rolls through a sunset flip and tries to go for the Styles Clash but Williams quickly escapes it. Williams gets going now. AJ’s leaning through the ropes and Williams hits him with a high knee and then hits a running flip off the apron. He rolls AJ back into the ring and AJ tries to sneak attack but Williams quickly turns it back around. Running knee connects for Williams. He goes to the top rope but Styles catches up and yanks him to the floor. Styles attacks as Williams enters the ring and hits the springboard moonsault leg drop. A nice sequences sees AJ drill Williams with a drop kick for two after a poor attempt at a cover.
Williams gets hung up on the ropes and Styles kicks his right knee into oblivion. Styles goes to work and locks in the Figure Four Leg Lock. Williams, though, turns it over and into the ropes. They actually fall through the ropes to the floor with the move still intact. Once they hit the floor, Williams ends up in the dominant position. They make it back into the ring before the count. Styles shoots the leg but Williams drops him into his knee. Exploder suplex connects for Williams. Williams to the second rope with a flying European uppercut and it gets two.
Williams looks for the Chaos Theory but Styles elbows out and comes off the ropes with the moonsault into inverted DDT. Styles goes for the Figure Four but Williams with a small package for two. They start brawling and AJ pulls out the Pele and it sends Williams to the outside. Styles slingshots to the outside and grabs Styles from behind, runs him into the guard rail and then drills him with the rolling Chaos Theory Suplex. Williams rolls in at seven and Styles barely makes it back into the ring. Styles is done at this point and Williams grabs him and calls for the Styles Clash and beats Styles with his own move. New champ!
Winner via pinfall and NEW TNA World Television Champion: Douglas Williams
Match Rating: 8.5/10
Match #6 – Full Metal Mayhem Match for the TNA World Tag Team Championship – (c) Motor City Machine Guns (Detroit, Mich.) vs. Generation Me (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Hot start for GenMe. This is just a giant spotfest. Max Buck power bombs Alex Shelley into a ladder held by Jeremy Buck and then Jeremy comes down on Shelley. The Guns sandwich Max in between the ladder and then Shelley drops Jeremy onto the ladder and Sabin bulldogs Jeremy onto it. Guns put Max in a Tree of Woe and Sabin hits a hesitation dropkick with Shelley holding a chair in front. Guns stack a ladder and a few chairs on top of the Bucks and Shelley comes off the top with a double foot stomp.
Guns bring two more ladders in the ring and the Bucks get up and all four are up on them now. They all end up falling with no consequence and then do some more moves. The Guns bring a table into the ring and put the table on top of the three ladders. Guns get interrupted by Jeremy so they hit a springboard crossbody to the outside on him. Now the Guns have literally no idea what to do with another table and Jeremy comes in and takes them out. Now the Bucks go to work.
Sabin laid out on a table now but he is able to escape. Then Shelley takes out Jeremy with a Sliced Bread No. 2 through a table set up on the outside. Max and Sabin climb the ladders with chairs in hand. They swing and hit the chairs against each other. Then Sabin hits Max’s out of his hand and hits him in the gut with his and then hits hit over the back with the chair which sends him falling through the table below. Sabin grabs the belts and that’s it.
Winners via belt grabbing and STILL TNA World Tag Team Champions: Motor City Machine Guns
Match Rating: 8/10
Match #7 – Casket Match – Abyss (Parts Unknown) vs. The Pope (Harlem, NY)
They quickly brawl on the outside. They go back to the inside and Abyss throws Pope out of the ring and back-first onto the casket. Pope gets back in the ring and Abyss hits an avalanche. Pope recovers and goes for a sleeper but Abyss turns him around and hits a side slam. Abyss picks him and goes to put him in but Pope gets out on the apron. But then Abyss is able to put him in the casket but he’s slow to close the lid. Pope fires up and goes to the top and hits a flying shoulder block and an inverted atomic drop. More inverted atomic drops and then a flying bulldog for Pope. He rolls Abyss to the casket and rolls him into the casket but he can’t close the lid, either.
They get back into the ring and Abyss hits the Black Hole Slam. Abyss drags him to the casket and is real slow closing the lid and Pope gets his arms up and powers out. He hits 4-Up and then the DDE. He rolls Abyss into the casket and goes to close the lid but Abyss punches through the casket right into Pope’s “yambag region” as Taz would say. Abyss’s hand is bleeding. In the ring, eye poke for Pope and he clotheslines him to the apron. Abyss pulls Pope to the apron. Another low blow followed by a choke slam into the casket and that’s it. Thank heavens.
Winner via casket shutting: Abyss
Match Rating: 2/10
Samoa Joe and Jeff Jarrett are being read the rules for their submission match when Gunner and Murphy run up from behind and attack Joe’s knee.
Match #8 – Submissions Match – Jeff Jarrett (Hendersonville, Tenn.) vs. Samoa Joe (Isle of Samoa)
They trade holds early, mainly Joe locking in submissions with Jarrett having to get to the ropes. Joe with a forearm shot and a senton drop before he locks in a keylock. Jarrett escapes and Joe channels Dean Malenko by locking in the Texas Cloverleaf. Jarrett is able to crawl out of the ring. Joe chases and locks in the choke and Jarrett taps so Joe gives it up, but it’s outside the ring. Back in the ring, Jarrett walks into an armbar. Jarrett taps right when he gets his foot under the rope, so the hold breaks. Joe loads Jarrett up for the Musclebuster and hits it. He locks in the Kokina Clutch in the middle of the ring when Gunner and Murphy run in. Joe dispatches them off the apron but as he does that, Jarrett comes up from behind and locks in the ankle lock on the injured leg. Joe claws at the referee and apparently submits.
Winner via submission: Jeff Jarrett
Match Rating: 4/10
That’s right. Jeff Jarrett makes Samoa Joe submit.
Match #9 – No Disqualification Match for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship – (c) Jeff Hardy (Cameron, NC) vs. Matt Morgan (Fairfield, Conn.)
Winner via pinfall and STILL TNA World Heavyweight Champion: Jeff Hardy
Match Rating: 4/10
Event Rating: 5/10