wow. that was...awesome! every single minute was amazing. and for $20 a pop, we had great seats. and I got a rhino shirt! so now i begin the recap of the night.
after trekking through houston to find the reliant arena, we finally arrive. once parked, we hop out and make our way in. first thing while in, get our t-shirts. 'big sexy tour 2008' nash shirt for my brother. simple 'victory road 2008' shirt for my mom. awesome rhino shirt for me.
we start making our way towards our section, when what do we see? nash taking pictures. the line was too absurd to attempt to get in it, but i did get a shot from the of nash by himself while i was off to the side.
we get into the arena and find our way to our seats, then sit while about nothing happens for close to half an hour. around 6:40 or so they introduce the announcers and have paula nelson sing the national anthem. poor girl, she's not very good. and one guy kept yelling 'you suck'. not borash and nash comes out for a moment. then dixie carter out for a moment.
finally a big pyro and the show is underway. up first, the world x cup elimination match. three men from each team wrestling. i spent the whole match booing team mexico, team international, and team tna. i was rooting for team japan, without a doubt. in the end alex shelley ended up winning it, this match was great. i mean just great. amazing spots all around.
next up is angelina love taking on gail kim. this match was decent enough. a lot of realizing that gail is an amazing wrestler, though i already knew that. gail won with a modified neckbreaker. solid match. up next is black machismo jay lethal and sonjay dutt. long drawn out entrances and pre-match. great match. lethal and dutt are both amazing. i was not bored in this one. good ending with val 'accidentally' distracting lethal and dutt getting the roll up with leverage from the ropes.
now time for 'beer money inc.' to get their shot at the latin american xchange and the tag titles. and this one was the fan's revenge match. first the fans are brought out through the entrance ramp and they surround the ring. once everyone is out the match gets under way. some great teamwork moves, and just enough interaction by the fan's with leather straps to make it interesting. and not too much. great match as well, with a good finish having lax retain. the crowd was way behind this match.
now it's awesome kong taking on taylor wilde. this was a solid match. not horrible, but nothing real special. it was well done for the size difference that was portrayed, told a good story. plenty of good counters and near falls. match had a classic roll up ending with taylor retaining. kong goes to hit taylor with the awesome bomb on a chair after the match...but abyss comes out! wait, what? i know, that's what i was thinking. a faceoff between abyss and kong and raeesha saeed held kong back and got her out of the ring. once kong was out abyss grabbed raeesha saeed and hit a black hole slam on her.
next up is the very long process of setting up ultimate x. it took a while, but i have to give props to the guys who set it up, they were going fast. even for the time, they got it up fairly quickly for how big the stuff is. now it's for possibly the match of the night, world x cup final ultimate x. representing team tna, kaz. representing team international, daivari. representing team mexico, volodor jr. and lastly, representing team japan, all the way from dragon gate, the guy i cheered for during the whole match, naruki doi. this match was purely amazing. amazing spot after amazing spot. and a great performance by all the guys in it. the ending of the match, well i couldn't do it justice by describing it. you'd have to see it. but i'll give it a try. daivari wrapped himself around the big x ropes at the top, shimmying towards the x. then kaz climbed to the very top of the structure. suddenly kaz jumped off the structure and hit daivari with a leg drop sending both of them all the way down to the mat. and the crowd exploded! shortly after, volodor jr. took advantage and managed to grab the x while everyone was down. out comes the rest of team mexico and they are awarded the world x cup trophy.
now comes the process of taking down the ultimate x ropes. but surprisingly, they left the big four square structure posts up. up next was going to be the tlc, or wait, 'full metal mayhem'. several ladders, tables, and chairs were set up outside the ring. and oddly, all the ladders had 'tnawrestling.com' written on the side of them. and with all those big structures still up, people start coming out. first is team 3d, then angle. next out is rhino, then christian, and finally aj. this match was another candidate for match of the night. up there with ultimate x. lots of great spots. going through tables, leaping off ladders. christian jumping off the metal structure. bubba hit a superkick? yeah, that's right. bubba hit a superkick on aj. a dudleyville device on rhino through a table. johnny devine shows up to get a pele and a kendo stick shot to the head. good job idiot. there was also a spot where i swear did a flat footed jump from the floor all the way onto the ropes. from there, he leapfrogged onto the ladder. then jumped off the ladder and took angle down. now a table is set up, followed by an odd altercation on the ladder. suddenly an angle slam off the ladder through the table. that's right. there's the pin and angle and team 3d win. amazing match.
now it's time for the main event. booker t getting his shot against samoa joe with the title on the line. the crowd was all over joe. and i was with them on it. everyone cheering for booker and viciously booing everything joe does. to be honest, this match wasn't that great. it was solid, but nothing really special. and no muscle buster. after a solid match and the referee being knocked down for a bit, another comes out. joe then proceeds to take out every referee in tna as they come out. then all the security. give a bit longer, and lights out in the impac- wait. reliant arena. out comes sting. once in the ring he tries to reason with joe and get him to leave. joe goes to leave, but goes back into the ring. sting goes in the ring and starts to argue with him, suddenly joe gives sting the finger. in response, sting hits joe in the gut with the bat. sting leaves as oddly, booker covers joe and sharmell counts the pin? sharmell and booker slide out and sharmell grabs the title, putting it on booker's shoulder. they leave without an announcement of who actually won. with joe laid out and nothing else happening, we left after that. what the fuck just happened?
And click this to go see my MySpace album that has tons of pictures from Victory Road.