TNA Victory Road 18.3.2012

Bobby Roode Vs Sting
Kurt Angle Vs Jeff Hardy
Chris Daniels & Kazarian Vs AJ Styles & Mr Anderson
Knockout Title: Gail Kim Vs Madison Rayne
TV Title: Robbie E Vs Devon
Tag Titles: Samoa Joe & Magnus Vs Morgan & Crimson
X Division Title: Austin Aries Vs Zema Ion
Bully Ray Vs James Storm


Mike Tenay and Taz welcome us to Victory Road


Bully Ray Vs James Storm

Like as he did in a video posted right before Victory Road, Bully Ray takes a microphone into the ring and says he will take over TNA unless his match with James Storm is made into a No.1 contenders match for the World Title. He threatens to take out any wrestler, security guard or cop that tries to stop him. James Storm comes to the ring and he tells him he will put his right to be the No.1 contender to the world title on the line in their match and runs to the ring….
After a short scuffle, Bully Ray takes a mouthful of James Storm’s beer and gets a surprise Superkick to the chin and quickly pinned.
James Storm has just had ankle surgery, so he was unable to take part in a normal match. This was a fun way to include him in the show. The way the finish happened so quickly and by surprise helped to protect Bully Ray too.

Eric Bischoff interviews Austin Aries backstage.
Eric says that everyone knows Jeremy Borash doesn’t deserve to be in the company.
Eric asks Aries what he has to do to reach the main event and Aries says that any time he  is in the ring, it is the main event.

X Division Title Match: Austin Aries Vs Zema Ion
AA has been one of my favourite wrestlers to watch for the last 8 years. Some great action from him as always in this match too.
Aries hits the great high-impact dive through the first and second rope on Ion and grabs So Cal Val’s mobile phone and sends a live Twitter message: “It’s a great day to be great and a great day to live tweet”.
They did a spot in the match where Ion hit Aries with the same move which almost paralysed Jesse Sorensen….
Ion catches Aries with his hairspray in the face behind the referee’s back but only gets a 2 count. Ion gets the Tilt-A-Whirl face buster for a 2 count. Aries reverses a Superplex attempt into a sunset flip power bomb. After a Brainbuster by Aries, into the Last Chancery submission hold, Aries gets the win and remains the X Division Champion.
This was a really good match.

Tag Team Titles: Samoa Joe & Brutus Magnus Vs Matt Morgan & Crimson

During the match, Crimson leaves the ring and his tag partner, Matt Morgan to be double teamed by Joe and Magnus.
Morgan says “Fuck you” and gives him the middle fingers before fighting off Joe and Magnus on his own.
Crimson jumps back in the ring and hits a spear on Morgan.
Joe and Magnus get their snap mere / top rope elbow combo on Morgan and take the pinfall to retain their Tag Team Championships.
Crimson’s heel turn is complete.

Bobby Roode  /  James Storm promo segment

TV Title Match: Robbie E Vs Devon

Robbie says that the Robbie E invitational challenge can’t happen because everyone is already booked in a match. The fans chant “RVD, RVD, RVD”. Rob Terry whispers to Robbie E and he announces that one of the fans can take part in the invitational challenge instead….
Devon starts heading through the crowd… Robbie E doesn’t want the match and yells at security to take Devon away. Brian Hebner makes the match official.
Devon controls Robbie early on. When Robbie takes a ringside chair to strike Devon, Brooke Hogan reaches out from behind the guardrail and grabs hold of the chair. She does this twice before Robbie decides to take Devon back into the ring.
Devon looks in great shape with a couple of high-impact shoulder tackles, a neck breaker, running charge into the corner and Spinebuster as he becomes the new TNA Television Champion.
I’m really pleased to see it for Devon, I think he deserves it and he will be a great champion.

Dixie Carter is backstage with Jeremy Borash and she says that Slammiversary will be in her hometown, Dallas, Texas.

Knockout Title Match: Gail Kim Vs Madison Rayne

They have a good match. Gail Kim successfully defends her Title after she catches Madison with her “Eat Defeat” Finisher and gets the clean pinfall victory over her friend.

Jeremy Borash is backstage with Daniels and Kazarian and he asks Kazarian why he has been more aggressive recently…. Daniels tells Borash to talk to himself instead as he is the one in control. Daniels tells Mr Anderson that he is involved in something that has nothing to do with him and that they are both going to pay for the mistakes they have made.

Chris Daniels & Frankie Kazarian Vs AJ Styles & Mr Anderson
This was a good tag match with a lot of highlights. Everyone looked good and worked hard. I’ve see AJ Styles and Chris Daniels working against each other for so many years now and it never gets old to me. Great stuff.
Styles reverses Kazarian’s reverse sit-down piledriver attempt into the Styles Clash and scores the pinfall on Kazarian and a little revenge at last.

Kurt Angle is backstage and he tells his son Cody that although he doesn’t usually like him to watch violence, he wants him to watch what he does to Jeff Hardy tonight….


Kurt Angle Vs Jeff Hardy
Angle and Hardy wrestle early on, Kurt gets the Ankle lock, but Hardy escapes.
They brawl on the outside, Angle gets busted open on the steps. Hardy misses his leap of faith and crashes into the barrier. Inside the ring, Angle executes three German suplexes. Angle only gets a 2 count after the Angle Slam. Jeff Hardy takes a hard bump when Angle brings his knees up to meet him on a Swanton Bomb attempt.
Jeff Hardy gets a Stunner and a Twist of Fate on Angle. Angle runs up the turnbuckles to catch Hardy with his top-rope overhead suplex.
Jeff Hardy lands a brutal looking Swanton Bomb on Angle, but Angle reverses the pin attempt into one of his own and holds the bottom rope for leverage to secure the 3 count. The finish didn’t really work out very well because Hardy didn’t have his shoulders down and the ref was not even looking at the shoulders while he was counting…. Maybe because he realised that the shoulders were not actually down and it looks better to count down shoulders you can‘t see rather than count down shoulder which you can blatantly see which are not down?
Apart from the sloppy looking  finish, this was a great match and my favourite match on the show.
Both guys worked really hard and still have great chemistry in the ring together.

I’m looking forward to watching Angle Vs Hardy at Lockdown, although I worry about their well-being in that kind of match and wonder exactly how many more cage matches they have left in them.


Bobby Roode Vs Sting
They start to wrestle in the ring, but it turns into a brawl on the outside for a while, Roode just misses a chairshot and Sting hits the Stinger Splash on Roode into the guardrail.
Roode works some of this match like a younger version of Ric Flair - he gets a low blow, chops away at Sting and works on his leg before trapping him in a figure four leglock, which Sting just manages to escape from.
Sting fires back with punches, clotheslines and backdrops Roode. Roode gets crotched on the top rope and brought back into the ring with a Superplex.  Sting almost makes Bobby tap to the Scorpion Deathlock.
Roode grabs a chair and sets it up in the middle of the ring and tries to piledrive Sting onto it. Sting fights back and reverses it and sets Roode up for the Scorpion Death drop - while doing the move, Sting’s head brutally hits the chair on the way down and Sting is knocked out cold. Roode covers him for the 3 count.

I’ve never seen this finish in pro wrestling before and I really liked it.

Roode goes outside the ring and pulls Dixie Carter over the railing and into the ring. While he threatens her with a chair, Sting gets up and knocks Roode out of the ring. Roode returns with a chair and knocks Sting down and tapes him to the ropes and pulls Dixie Carter around the ring by her hair.
Dixie cries and Roode says “Kiss my ass, bitch”. He threatens to hit her with the chair again, but decides to throw it down in the ring instead. “What’s the matter? You don’t like me, Dixie? What are you gonna do, Dixie? There’s nothing you can do!”

TNA Victory Road 2012 fades to black….

Overall, I thought this was a good PPV.
Some good wrestling matches, storyline advancements, a new champion and a heel turn all in the same night.