So Far:

Raven & Sabu vs. Jarrett & Rhino

AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe in Super X Cup Finals

Jerry Lynn vs. Sean Waltman

AMW & The Naturals vs Team Canada

Abyss vs. Hoyt

Not to bad of a lineup. I have to really start watching impact though.......

I'm tired of the AMW/Team Canada crap from the last 18 months, Raven/Sabu v. Jarrett/Rhino doesn't look very interesting, but the rest looks pretty good, although Abyss/Hoyt can go either way, depending on the booking of the match.

I like the fact that there is a tag match for the Main Event.

Might I also add that I am really surprised that Sabu is in TNA considering there was a high level of interest in him from the WWE.

There billing a "Dream Match" for Chris Daniels' opponent, in which the viewers can vote online for his opponent. The poll can be found here: http://www.tnawrestling.com/sacrifice/dreammatch.html

Let's go Roderick Strong!

EDIT: Wow, Austin Aries is really running away with the voting at 63%. Other nominees include Roderick Strong, Jay Lethal, and Matt Sydal.

That's sweet. I voted for Aries myself, but I think Lethal would be pretty swank too.

By the way.....in case anyone was wondering.........I'll have a bold post here in the next few days.

Geez though, ROH could be REALLY depleted once TNA gets on Spike.

I think those guys will still wrestle in ROH too though. The only way TNA could really justify those guys not working elsewhere is if they start up a house show circuit.

If you'll remember when TNA went to FSN, they pulled their guys from ROH. Yes, that coincided with the Feinstein scandal, but we all thoght they had other motives. I could see them trying to make their guys exclusive once they get on Spike, and ROH seems to be their talent pool.

Yeah, but that would fuck them more than it would help. They can't justify keeping people off other shows if they aren't paying them to work for them instead on a house show circuit. Guys would quit and they would lose their roster. See, if they aren't running shows every night/week or whatever and there are other shows that their guys could work on and make a check............they'll have to let them do the other shows..........as long as they can keep their TNA commitments.

Who tha fuck is Matt Sydal?

I betcha anything he wins, because he's the cheapest

Because when you're thirty million in the hole..........you gotta skimp on one show. <_<

As of this morning, Aries is still leading by a considerable margin:

Austin Aries - 54%
Roderick Strong - 13%
Jay Lethal - 14%
Matt Sydal - 20%

I think it's pretty safe to assume Aries will be facing Daniels.

Here are my predictions:

Raven & Sabu vs. Jarrett & Rhino - Will be a bad match, but not a bad idea for TNA to try and capitilize on the ECW nostalgia. Rhino could end up being a breakthrough star for TNA.

AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe in Super X Cup Finals - Will be incredible. MOTN. ****+

Jerry Lynn vs. Sean Waltman - This one will shock some people. I hate Sean Waltman, but I'm betting this will be a very good match packed with emotion. ***+

AMW & The Naturals vs Team Canada - Boring. That's abot all I can say about that one.

Abyss vs. Hoyt - This will hurt both guys, unfortunately. First, it will expose Hoyt as the bad worker he is, and he will lose the steam he's been gaining over the last couple of months. Secondly, it will expose Abyss as being a tad overrated. Abyss looks great against smaller, superior workers, but I don't think he's capable of a carry job.

Daniels vs. Aries - Should compete for MOTN. Hopefully these two go all out and put on a great show. I could also see it being dissapointing though.

-Well, I don't think it'll be the match of the night for sure. It could be decent enough for what they want it to be though.

-I agree 100%

-It sure will shock people as these two have been personal friends for years. I'm not big on Waltman either, but he's been doing very well in ring lately.

Boring? WOW. I'm surprised you say that though WMD as I think it could be fairly entertaining. Love or hate AMW, they show up at every PPV though......and perform VERY well.

Well, you could be right about it exposing Hoyt and showing what Abyss is really made of...........but I will give both of them the benefit of the doubt until after it happens.

-This is the only match that I could see being on the level of AJ/Joe and it will certainly be one of the best matches of the night regardless. I would expect a hell of a crowd reaction for Aries after the TNA/Orlando fans see him live.

So, it's tonight, anyone else ordering besides me? My friends (big AJ marks) will be horrified as Joe kicks his ass. They've never seen Joe before.

No doubt I'll be watching too. I think this one has the potential to be the show of the year up to this point.

Oh and you guys know the deal. If you are not ordering and want to see the show PM me for the details.

Abyss proves yet again that he's a miracle worker in the ring.

I couldn't agree more. That was a great match.

Here's some random thoughts on the PPV.

Jerelle Clark/Mikey Batts vs. Siaki/Apolo - This was the match on the countdown and even though it was only about 5 minutes long...........it's still surprises me that Clark isn't a regular on their PPV's. People give Jack Evans all kinds of credit for the moves he pulls out, but I would be willing to say that Clark can do more and hit them cleaner.

Then it was time for the PPV to start.....

They started out with the six man tag match that was basically just thrown together.

Skipper/Young/Simon Diamond vs. Sabin/Shark Boy/Dutt

-This was basically your run of the mill opener to get the crowd into it. It was basically nothing special but it made me realize on thing.......Skipper is awful. He has the hardest time hitting anything clean and that's not to cool when you're basically an x-division only wrestler. Sonjay continues to get better as he looked great in his matches against Joe that they have been pairing him up in and this match was no exception. Shark Boy did his usual stuff and Diamond/Young didn't bother me too much. The match wasn't overly long, and they got their point across. Sabin pinned Skipper for the win and they did the bit with Diamond being pissed at Young.

Winners - Sabin/Shark Boy/Dutt

Rating - **

Alex Shelley vs. Shocker

-Now this match I was really looking forward to as I really enjoyed their last PPV encounter. Shelley has really come into his own in the last year and it's nice to see TNA recognize how good he can be. Shocker is friggin swank everytime I see him and these two match up tremendously. There was a ton of grappling by Shelley and some real nice high flying by Shocker in this one. Shelley pulled out another win out on Shocker by pinning him with his foot on the ropes which was cool because it looks like they are going to build this as a major program.

Winner - Alex Shelley

Rating - ***1/4

Lance Hoyt vs. Abyss w/ Jim Mitchell

-Well.............I was blown the fuck away in this match. Abyss has definately proven to me that he's a HELL of a worker for a big man or just anyone in general. I know that Mad Dog always sings the guys praises and I usually have good to say about him too..............but it's VERY clear to me that he's probably the best big man working in the US today. Hoyt on the other hand surprised the shit out of me in this one by pulling out......................THE VAN FUCKING TERMINATOR on Abyss. Yeah.......the VAN FUCKING TERMINATOR. I'm not one to mark out for moves, but TNA is damn lucky to have a guy like Hoyt. He's hella over with their fans and is a LOT better than people give him credit for. I remember watching the Kid Kash shoot a few months back and he talks about how good the then "Dallas" is going to be and he was definately right. I'm not saying he's the greatest wrestler in the world.............but he should be pretty damn good if he keeps progressing the way that he has. This match was a batlle the whole way through and the only complaint that I could come up with is that they used a chair in the match and neither guy was DQ'd. Abyss kicked out of Hoyt's moonsault and it took two black hole slams to put Hoyt away. One hell of a big man encounter and the right guy won.

Winner - Abyss

Rating - ***3/4

Konnan/The Truth vs. Kip James/The Alpha Male (Special referee BG James)

-This match was basically what you would expect out of these guys. They teased the BG turn the whole match and this match was a lot better than the past few matches these guys have been in with each other. It wasn't overly long and they kept the shit to a minimum here. Not a bad match.........and not a good one. Although Monty and Killings did pretty well here. Team 3LK gets the win when BG helps his boys hitting James and giving them the win.

Winners - 3LK

Rating - **

Christopher Daniels vs. Austin Aries

-I must admit, this was a match I was really looking forward to all week and thought this had potential to be the best match of the night. TNA dropped the ball on this one. First off the match was about 12 minutes which I personally didn't feel was enough for these two to get going. Daniels hit the Angels Wings for the win, but it just seemed very anti climatic and flat. For what it's worth.........the crowd was lovin Aries.

Winner - Christopher Daniels

Rating - **1/2

Jerry Lynn vs. Sean Waltman

-This was a match that I thought could go a ton of different ways. I thought that since these guys are legit friends and they have NEVER fought on PPV before that this did have potential to be good. Although Waltman has been doing great lately I was actually worried that Lynn wasn't going to be able to hold his own here. They did a great job though. They played up how Lynn had his shoulder injured by a Juvi driver in July of 2004 although I remember him legit hurting his neck in that match and not his shoulder. Nonetheless they did a great job at doing the shoulder work on Lynn and Waltman really seems motivated these days. After how terrible he looked on last years Surreal Life it's refreshing to see him doing a lot better these days. They did the friendly hug after the match and Waltman DDT Lynn's arm as he rolled out of the ring. He then chaired Lynn's shoulder off of the guardrail and they played up the injury well. Looks like these two are about to start a feud. Really good and IMO was probably the best match of the night. Lynn hit a nice Victory Roll for the win.

Winner - Jerry Lynn

Rating - ****

The Naturals/America’s Most Wanted vs. Team Canada

-This was a pretty good tag match with all participants doing well. They did the babyface workover on Storm in this one with the usual heel shenanigans by Team Canada. Eric Young did his typical channeling of Terry Funk with everything he sold and there were a few awesome tag moves here as well. Nicely constructed with Team Canada pulling out the win after cheating. After the match AMW brawled with The Naturals and basically setup AMW going heel and facing The Naturals at the next PPV.

Winners - Team Canada

Rating - ***1/2

Super X Cup Final: AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe

-This was basically what I expected out of these two in a really good hard hitting match. They basically set this up as Joe being the badass submission guy and AJ being the underdog babyface. They play their roles perfectly, I'll tell you that. Joe was threatened by Shane Douglas in the pre match interview for not showing him respect over the last few months when he tries to interview him and Joe just walks away. After Douglas said something about it Joe said he's lucky he doesn't "Bitch slap his Franchise Ass", which I thought was a nice touch. Joe and Aj worked incredibly well together and this one is definately worth checking out. My main complaint was that they did a ref bump spot with Daniels attempting to turn on AJ and Joe only to get caught by Joe. Daniels played it up like he was afraid of Joe and Joe pulled out the muscle buster and the rear naked choke to get AJ to tap out. So Joe is booked strongly again (nice job by TNA) and he is the 2005 X-Cup winner.

Winner - Samoa Joe

Rating - ***1/2

Raven/Sabu vs. Jeff Jarrett/Rhino

-Before the show started Tenay and Zybysko were in the ring to announce the Spike TV deal and Jarrett came out to confront Zybysko about him recieving a World Title shot if he pinned Raven in the main event. He said that would be the case, but if Jarrett is pinned then he wouldn't get a shot for the next year. The main event was WAY better than I expected with Jarrett juicing heavily. Jeff Hardy made his return attacking Jarrett and allowing Rhino to get the pin on Raven after he gored him through a table.

Winners - Rhino/Jeff Jarrett

Rating - ***1/4

Winner

Too bad the Comeback Wrestler of the Year award is dead. Waltman would be a lock for that.

OK, when did Abyss kick this much ass? He carried LANCE HOYT to a fucking ***3/4 Match~?!

Dude, I know..........I was blown the fuck away. Hoyt hit the goddamn VAN TERMINATOR. We may have been underestimating Hoyt or he's improved greatly recently.

Abyss is the shit though...........him with Jim Mitchell is only going to help get him to the top of the card too.

Uh-huh... (throws away Kane poster) Hail, Abyss~!

I'll give some thoughts as well.

Opening 6-man was good, although I missed the first 3-4 minutes of it, I think. I agree with DK that Skipper really sucks, he blew the rope walk rana again. Still a fun match.

Shelley/Shocker was awesome. Both guys are great on the mat and they just tore it up. This made me wish I had seen their first two matches, because this was really good. Probably the most impressed I've been with Shocker so far.

DK summed up Hoyt/Abyss nicely, so I'll leave it at that.

The 3LK match was time for me to run and pick some more people up.

I liked Aries/Daniels. Thought it was given enough time actually, and Daniels was awesome in it. At one point, Aries just fucking kicked Daniels right in the melon, don't know if you saw that DK, but it was brutal. Good match, and I hope they bring Aries back, he looked really good here and the crowd was way into him as well.

X-Pac/Lynn was very fun as well. Started off slow, but really picked up as Waltman started working the shoulder. Probably the second best match of the night behind Joe/AJ.

8-man was a lot funner than I thought it'd be, although I don't remember much except not hating it, and a very cool spot where one of the Naturals hit a top rope enziguri on one of the Canadians, and the guy took a great bump to the outside.

AJ/Joe was awesome, probably the best of the night. They did a really good underdog story, and worked in AJ trying to kick Joe at first, then take it to the mat, neither of which worked too well. They did the "dizzy" spot with AJ enziguri'ing nothing, my friends got a kick out of that since they have never heard of Bryan Danielson.

Main event was decent. Credit goes to Sabu for being "on" lately. Fun drama at the end with Rhyno getting the pin, as well.

All in all, this definately needs consideration for best card of the year, and if anyone has the first two Shocker/Shelley matches and can post them in the media folder, that'd be great.

I saw the kick in the Aries/Daniels match.........watch again.......it looked good, but it wasn't stiff. He worked it well.........

You know Vince gotta be licking his chops over Abyss/Hoyt. OMG!!!! Two big guys that can work..............afjkl;askdfjlowitho[gih

Dare I say that TNA is putting out a better product than RoH the last couple of months.

Nope. Vince has no concern over whether or not a guy can work. Only that he's big, and preferably home-grown.

Let's see how Vince has treated non-homegrown big guys. Remember the monster Vader who could work circles around the entire WCW Roster (except for 4 or 5 guys)? Remember what McMahon did to him?

'Nuff Said.