It's time to head over to the Impact Zone once more as we take a look at the latest in TNA's One Night Only series, 10 Reunion, shown this past Wednesday night on Challenge here in Britain.
The show began with three way action between Sonjay Dutt, Petey Williams and Kenny King.
It's always a good idea to start off a show with some X Division action, and it was filled with quality action. It was also nice to see Williams and Dutt in this environment again.
All three men put on great performances here. We saw plenty of fast-paced action as they pulled off some nice three-way moves, the best of which came from Williams. However, as they match went on the action seemed to drag a little during the middle, and it could probably have done with having some of the slower-paced segments cut.
Thankfully we got to see one of my favourite finishers towards the end as Williams took Dutt out with the Canadian Destroyer. It didn't do him much good though as King came back into the ring and immediately took him down with his Royal Flush finisher for the winning pin.
Knockouts action followed as Gail Kim went up against Velvet Sky.
You know, this one wasn't too bad. Kim put in her usual solid performance, and Sky was more than up to the task of keeping up with her, and both of these ingredients put together made for quite the encounter.
Both girls came close to getting the pin on numerous occasions, and while the commentary team seemed fixated on Sky's furry boots, and without one mention of Jimmy Jacobs I might add, the former member of the Beautiful People took Kim down with a spear before finishing her off with a sit-down Pedigree-like move for the pin.
Then it was on to the obligatory One Night Only multi-man over the top rope Royal Rumble-like gauntlet match, featuring Johnny Devine, Shark Boy, Chase Stevens, Cassidy Riley, Robbie E, Jesse Godders, Matt Morgan, Mr. Anderson, Johnny Swinger and Joseph Park.
The rules for this one were simple, over the top eliminations until two are left. Then it became a regular match. As for the action, well, Shark Boy was still doing his worst Steve Austin impression and was part of an early botch when Devine slipped off the second rope trying to do whatever move he was going for. The masked man then spent the majority of the match being used as everyone else's punching bag as the various combatants came and went.
Apart from that nothing much else of note happened. The fans in attendance didn't seem to care when the likes of Stevens, Riley and Swinger entered the match, probably because they either never heard of them or forgotten they'd been in TNA in the first place.
Morgan emerged victorious in this one. After everyone's fave lawyer eliminated Anderson and promptly apologised for his actions it became a one on one encounter with the blueprint. He came close to getting the win a couple of times, but with no bloodletting he couldn't invoke the spirit of his brother, which meant that he was eventually taken down with Morgan's carbon footprint for the three count.
Three-way tag action followed featuring Frankie Kazarian and Christopher Daniels of Bad Influence, Homicide and Hernandez of the Latin American XChange, and Bully Ray and Devon of Team 3D.
This was a very entertaining encounter. I really enjoyed the exchanges between Bad Influence and LAX, and even the former Dudleys put in a good stint this time around, certainly better than their outing at the last ONO show.
As expected we had the punching bag segment, which saw Homicide taking a beating first from Daniels and Kazarian and then from Ray and Devon. When he managed to get back to his corner it signalled the start of the mass brawl, with Hernandez showing off his usual display of impressive moves.
At the end it looked like Homicide was going to get the win for his team, but as he was taking Daniels down off the top rope Devon got the blind tag on the Fallen Angel. Homicide completed the move, but after the referee told him that he couldn't make the count Ray and Devon took Homicide down with the 3D for the three count.
It was back to singles action for the next match as Austin Aries went up against Jeff Hardy.
Now this was a quality encounter. It took a while to get going, mainly because of the tee-shirt throwing posturing at the beginning, but once they started they brought back fond memories of their previous matches.
Both wrestlers put in fine performances as they went through their trademark moves, and as the action progressed it looked like the match could go either way. But instead of the flashy finish they opted for the simple one. Aries missed a senton off the top rope, although he managed to land on his feet and roll through with the momentum. Hardy then took advantage of the situation and took him down with a small package for the pin.
The penultimate match was the battle of the former Beer Money buddies, Bobby Roode and James Storm.
These two are always capable of putting on enjoyable encounters whenever they go up against each other, which was exactly the case here. Both guys put in quality performances, and although this one probably won't be remembered in years gone by it was another great chapter to their long-standing rivalry.
There probably isn't too much I could add to that to be honest. Roode did a good job of controlling the majority of the action while Storm played the perfect foil with his more than spirited comebacks. Although I must admit that it did feel a little odd that, for the second match in a row, the big finish didn't involve a big finishing move. Storm took Roode down with a back stabber, but when he went for a lung blower Roode held on to the ropes. He then rolled Storm up with his feet on the middle ropes to take the winning pin.
The main event saw the renewal of another old rivalry as Samoa Joe faced Kurt Angle.
Like the previous match this won't go down as one of the best matches these two have had against each other, but it will go down as another very solid encounter. They didn't quite bring their A-game, but their B-game was good enough.
Angle came into this one with his right leg heavily bandaged, and although he did have a noticeable limp it didn't affect his performance. Like many of the other matches it was an entertaining encounter, with the two protagonists exchanging holds early.
Towards the end both men went for the trademark submission holds without ever really coming close, and after Angle escaped from a rear naked choke by ducking down and sending Joe into the corner he recovered quickly and took the big man down with an Angle slam to take the win.
In conclusion - the last One Night Only showed was a big disappointment, and although this follow-up didn't exactly set the world on fire it was a decent show filled with decent performances.
The match quality was about what you'd expect from a show of this kind. There were all enjoyable, but there were no five star classics.
I did find the overall theme of the show a little misleading though. When I read the Wikipedia entry for this show I didn't really have visions of Chase Stevens, Cassidy Riley and Johnny Swinger as memorable names from TNA's past turning up for the big ten year reunion. Ken Shamrock and Jeff Jarrett maybe, but not those guys.
As for my match of the night I'm going for the Austin Aries/Jeff Hardy encounter. As I said before that was a quality outing from those two, and definitely the highlight of the night.
So with all of that out of the way there's just one more thing to do, and that's to give this show the thumbs up.
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