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The Motor City Machineguns (Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley) defeated Joey Matthews (aka Joey Mercury) & Johnny Swinger.  The Machineguns played face for the match and were over huge.  That began something of a trend as a lot of the X-Division performers were well known and over with the live crowd despite their position with the company.  I hope management realizes that.  This was a good back and forth tag match with some fun offense from the Machineguns.  Swinger and Matthews gelled well together and wore matching outfits, which I hope means they are in.  Swinger and Matthews went for the old "Problem Solver" finisher that Swinger and Simon Diamond used in ECW, but Sabin escaped.  The Machineguns hit a series of combination kicks on Matthews, scoring the pin.  Real good opener.

Ms. Brooks defeated a local DJ from Project 96.1 FM, Shaffee.  Slick Johnson was the referee.  He lived in the area, so I guess the company brought him back for the night.  The DJ did some mic work, saying Brooks allows herself to be treated like crap by Robert Roode so she needed a real man to take care of her.  If he won, Brooks then had to go back to his hotel room for the night, which had to be the first time someone used a babyface line to turn heel in one sentence.  Brooks asked what was in it for her and he said that if she won, she could have a shot at the "family jewels".  So, Brooks kicked the DJ in the groin, hit a DDT and got the pin in about 20 seconds.  It was silly pap out of the Jimmy Hart playbook of getting local promotion.

Don West and Mike Tenay were then introduced to the crowd.  The Spanish announcers were introduced, and the crowd chanted loudly "Eddie" after Hector Guerrero was introduced.  Dave Penzer counted everyone down and we were on the air for TNA's biggest PPV of the year.

Once the PPV started, the building went absolutely insane.  Every fan that was in the Arena was there to have a good time and it was one of the best atmospheres I've seen for a TNA or WWE wrestling PPV in a long time, probably the best since the original One Night Stand.

LAX defeated XXX to become the top contenders to the TNA Tag Team championships.  As soon as the bell rang, the entire Arena was chanting "TNA."  LAX were super over as babyfaces live.   It seemed like the plan going into the match by all four was to steal the PPV and they certainly succeeded as this kicked off the show with a ton of great spots.  Whoever laid this out deserves a ton of credit as everyone came out stronger.  Hernandez looked like a monster in there.  There is room for a lot of miscues in a match of this type, but the only one was Elix Skipper taking a little too long to get Hernandez as he hung there obviously able to grab the X.  TNA should try and edit that before it's released on DVD as it was the only slight blemish on the entire match.  Lots of insane spots including Skipper doing a highcross bodyblock off the top of the structure to Hernandez.  Well, if anyone should have to take that spot, it's him.  The crowd loved Homicide's tope con hilo and Senshi's kicks.  This was just a great opener.  LAX left to a champions' response and XXX received a standing ovation live in the building.  This was to TNA what the Edge & Christian vs. Hardys ladder match was to WWF - a chance to break out the next wave of top-tier stars.  I hope they grab it.

Eric Young defeated Robert Roode in the Fight for the Ring Battle Royal finals - Most of the names coming out didn't get a big reaction, which scared the heck out of me since they were all regulars on Impact.  The crowd really reacted to a number of them once they were in the ring, so I wonder how much of it was the crowd catching their breath after the Ultimate X match.  This was way better than it had any right to be given the convoluted nature of the match stipulations.  A fun match.  It was probably too soon to go back to Young vs. Roode but all the work in the match was good and the crowd popped huge for the payoff of Young's victory.

AJ Styles & Tomko defeated Ron Killings & Consequences Creed (substituting for Pacman Jones) to capture the TNA Tag Team titles.  Good riddance to Jones if this was his last appearance.  Whatever TNA wanted to accomplish with his appearances, I don't think they got there and I hope the lesson was learned.  There's no need to do a celebrity tie-in where the upside is a few interviews with media that looks down upon the genre and the downside is it's not selling you tickets while costing a pretty penny.  The company looked bad by focusing so much of the advertising on Jones and then he pretty much walked to the ring with no effort, tossed some dollar bills in the air and then walked out.  That out of the way, this was another fun match.  I had never heard or seen Creed but he was absolutely entertaining and hit a home run inside the ring when it came to timing, charisma and in-ring work.  I'd be shocked if he didn't earn himself a job somewhere.  AJ Styles was the hometown boy made good and the place loved him.  A lot of the work he and Killings did in the match was good.  Killings was really tearing it up too.  Tomko looked good and it's amazing to see the change in his in-ring work from his WWE run to now.  With the exception of the abysmal throw the dollars in the air ending (and does anyone realize they are playing off of a former pro wrestler being paralyzed for life?), this was another really good match.

Jay Lethal pinned Christopher Daniels with the Lethal Combination off the ropes to retain the X-Division championship.  I was expecting Lethal to get a far larger reaction live.  It was polite but not the superstar reaction you'd expect for someone who a month ago beat Kurt Angle.  There's a lesson there and that's in the follow-up.  Once the bell rang, this was again another really good back and forth match.  I can't think of anything wrong with the match, it was that spot on.  Great stuff.

The Steiners defeated Team 3D in a Best of Three Tables Match.  They started this brawling on the floor.  With Atlas Security chasing the former Dudley Boyz, I was having Philadelphia flashbacks.  The crowd LOVED the brawl live.  Fans were chasing around and jumping up and down in a frenzy.  It was obvious they were doing everything they could to make it special, right down to Scott breaking out a top rope Frankensteiner on Brother Ray.  One thing I would have done is had Penzer announce that the team had captured one table because after the first table broke, the audience live seemed somewhat confused.   The Machine Guns, making their third appearance live, came out of nowhere (why???) to distract Team 3D and set up the finish.  The match didn't need the Guns' cameo.  With the exception of a table breaking before it was supposed to, which you can't control, it was a decent brawl.

Gail Kim captured the TNA Knockouts title in a Gauntlet for the Gold.  Awesome Kong and ODB were the standouts of the Royal Rumble portion of the match.  Kong was absolutely great as a monster, a role she knows so well and it made sense that it would take several women working her over to get her out of the ring.  Before anyone asks, no I didn't see the flash from my vantage point.  I felt awful when I heard about it.  Kong tears up Japan and finally makes it to PPV in the States and that happens.  Poor luck, for sure.  ODB was far more polished than most of the other women in the ring, in terms of personality and connecting with the crowd.  You can see how far she progressed during her time in OVW.  The other women did OK but with the exception of Christy Hemme doing a killer job selling to help Kong get over, nothing really stood out.  Gail Kim got a nice reaction coming out and her final singles sequence with Roxxi was good stuff too.  This was probably a little too long but decent overall.  I would have liked to have seen a big "special" celebration moment for Kim becoming the first champion.

Samoa Joe defeated Christian Cage with the choke.  Excellent match.  In my opinion, it was this or Ultimate X for match of the night, and which one was better is subjective depending on what you love about professional wrestling.  Cage and Joe just have an awesome chemistry in the ring together.  Matt Morgan was the enforcer and they teased issues with Joe when Joe came out, but instead Morgan ran off Tomko and Styles to ward off any interference.  That made perfect sense given the build and the storyline of Cage always weaseling out due to his cronies.  Joe nailed the Muscle Buster and hit the choke and that was all she wrote.  These two have had three PPV matches and all three have delivered.

Abyss won a Monster's Ball over Black Reign, Rhino and Raven after nailing Raven with a Black Hole Slam on thumb tacks and glass.  I don't know who lit a fire under Raven, but so far, I am loving it.  Talk about a guy who has a ton to give the business when he's motivated.  This was your typical plunder match, complete with Raven and Rhino switching roles in a recreation of their famous shopping cart spot from a 2001 WWF PPV.  Rhino and Abyss brawled to the entrance stage where Rhino missed a gore and crashed through part of the set.  Suddenly, liquid nitrogen shot out from under the stage, which I thought totally killed the reality of the moment.  WWE does over the top entertainment, so I wish someone would turn the dial towards a little more grit and reality for TNA moments like this.  Raven and Reign teased issues before Raven did a dive off the first level of the Arena through a table on Abyss.  This was perfectly fine for what it was and was a nice departure from the rest of the wrestling-strong show.  Had there not been a brawl in the crowd during the Tables match, this may have stood out even more, but trust me when I say I am not complaining.

Sting defeated Kurt Angle to capture the TNA championship.  Sting received the biggest reactions of the entire show, both when his name was plugged to the Atlanta crowd prior to going on the air and for his ring entrance.   I don't know how well the company translated this to television, but live, Sting's entrance was a momentous deal and gave the impression of a big time moment.  It really was a homecoming in the eyes of a lot of fans.  Between the entrance, Jeremy Borash's ring introductions and the face off between the two prior to the bell, you felt like you were witnessing an important moment.  From an in-ring standpoint, you probably weren't going to get anything better out of these two at this stage of their respective careers.  I know some were groaning over Karen Angle and Kevin Nash getting involved and while I hate the clustering of TNA's main event scene, in this case, they had built to both getting involved in recent weeks (as well as all night), so to simply throw that out the window would have been plain stupid.  Angle nailed a 450 off the top into a kneedrop, which was one of the sickest original moves ever.

Final Thoughts: Overall, a really fun PPV.  If TNA ran every TV and PPV like this, no one would question anything because the positives (work ethic, time for in-ring matches, good promos, etc.) far outweighed the bad (tables breaking when they weren't supposed to, Pacman, etc..).  This was the show that TNA needed to make a statement about their product and my hope is that they keep moving forward, as opposed to sliding back into the same old product.  This was a special evening live and a big part of that was the live audience.  The fans were passionate about the product in a way that I haven't seen since the original ECW reunion weekend in 2005.  In many ways, TNA needs to realize that those are the fans that want to love their product - the ones that want to see something truly different and alternative and hard hitting.  If TNA plays to that audience and doesn't burn them, they'll be on the right path.  There's a world of difference between fans that get in for free in Orlando and fans that traveled to pay to see the company - those fans that paid were obviously telling the company what they want to see more of.  I hope TNA gives them what they want.  Time will tell, but this past Sunday in Georgia, it was the right PPV presentation at the right time in front of the right audience.  A truly memorable night live.

Mike Johnson can be reached at Mike@PWInsider.com.

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