Home ▸ Drowgoddess ▸ Late “Genesis” Review

Sorry for two very late reviews in a row, peoples. Rough week in the world of hour-long one-way commutes and junior high-land. In any case, “Genesis” wasn’t really the steaming pile of excrement that so many people claim it was, particularly in light of all the walking wounded and missing due to injury that the company had to deal with at the last minute. Pretend you haven’t already gotten move-by-move reviews from a dozen other sites, and cross the line!

Opening video package starts with Main Event Mafia, then segues into some of the Front Line. Mike Tenay and Don West take over, and inform us of changes to the card due to injuries. Christy Hemme is off the show completely with a neck injury sustained by training with AJ Styles. The Knockout title match is now a six-woman tag match, where the person scoring the pin or submission earns a title shot at Awesome Kong in the future. Roxxi, Taylor Wilde, and ODB comprise one team, with the Kongtourage (Rhaka Khan, Sojourner Bolt, and Raisha Saeed) opposing them. Rhino has not been seen or heard, and all attempts to contact him have failed. Mike Tenay smells a rat. Or it could just be Abyss.

Match #1: Eric Young, Homicide, and Hernandez defeat Kiyoshi, Sonjay Dutt, and Jimmy Rave. No eliminations took place for quite a while, which actually made the match look better. Kiyoshi’s red face paint wasn’t quite as neat-looking as the black paint with silver kanji that he had when he debuted. Eric Young and Homicide got eliminated, leaving Hernandez in a one-on-three situation. No problem. Hernandez got rid of everyone, and scored the pin. Aside from Hernandez coming out of the match looking beastly strong, Jimmy Rave looked surprisingly good. He got in the most offense, and did better than he ever did as part of the Rock and Rave Infection. Seriously, with Christy Hemme doing her own thing and injured, and Lance Rock not on tv (thankfully), is the whole R&RI bit dead? Jimmy Rave could be fine on his own. It may have been the opening match, but going to split-screen to show Jim Cornette banging on the Main Event Mafia’s dressing room door to find out what happened to Rhino was insulting. When people pay for a show, it spits in their collective faces to treat a backstage segment of repeated knocking on a door as equally or more significant than the match going on in the ring. The names of the wrestlers having the match aren’t important. Don’t cut away from the match.  

After the match ended, Scott Steiner opened the door, yelled at Cornette, insulted Rhino, and slammed the door. Yeah, that was worth cutting away for….

Video package airs recapping the X-Division tournament. The one where no match went much longer than five minutes? The one that got almost no hype for the pay-per-view when compared to Angle/Jarrett and Rhino/Sting? That one.

Match #2: Alex Shelley defeats Chris Sabin to become the new X-Division Champion: Match of the night, hands down. Some are now claiming that all the praise lavished on the match is unwarranted, calling it overrated. Those people are high. The opening minutes could be construed as mechanical, but consider two points. One, we now know that Shelley was working hurt, and has had pain from either a neck or pectoral problem for some time. Two, when two guys who know each other as well as Sabin and Shelley do wrestle, why shouldn’t we believe that they could go almost on automatic pilot at the beginning? In any case, this match is exactly what TNA should be having on a regular basis. X-Division matches that go for over fifteen minutes between guys who can actually go will make them stand out from everyone else. Again. The near-falls were unbelievable, and in a good way. Shelley faked an ankle injury and Sabin backed off, allowing Shelley to roll him up and get the win. Shelley hugged Sabin after the match, but the camera cut away before I could see whether Sabin hugged him back or not. That would actually have been important. While some people have complained most mightily about a good match being ruined by a crap finish, and that the Motor City Machine Guns are in effect finished as a tag team, I respectfully disagree. It suited both characters to end the match that way, and Sabin could argue that Shelley had to resort to cheat tactics to beat him. Yes, it’s typical in wrestling that this match would spell the end of the tag team, but I just don’t see that happening. Would they really go along with that?

To the back! Jim Cornette and JB discuss Kevin Nash’s staph infection and hospitalization. When Mick Foley comes in, he disbelieves. Cornette says he has verified it with the doctors, and that Nash will not be on the show. Foley tells Cornette that, as executive shareholder, he insists that the six-man tag match that was advertised take place. The Main Event Mafia can either find another partner by bell time, or take his team on in a handicap match.

Video recap of the referee Shane Sewell and Sheik Abdul Bashir feud.   

Match #3: Shane Sewell defeats Sheik Abdul Bashir: At one point, Bashir decided to get rough with referee Earl Hebner, who was having none of it. Hebner actually dodged and hit Bashir, who chased him straight into a clothesline from Sewell. All the referees celebrated together after Sewell won. Why is it ok for Hebner to do what got Sewell fired?

To the back! Cornette questions Booker T, who has Sharmell answering for him, about Rhino. Booker got physical with Cornette, and a returning-to-the-locker-room Shane Sewell actually made the save and stared down Booker. New feud!

Match #4: Beer Money Inc. (w/ Jacqueline) defeats Matt Morgan & Abyss and Consequences Creed & Jay Lethal to become Tag Team Champions: Ouch. As good as it is to have Beer Money reclaiming tag team gold, this match really wasn’t about the tag team titles. It was about furthering the break-up of Matt Morgan and Abyss (which is apparently money in the minds of the writers, for some reason), and it was about making Creed and Lethal look like absolute wussies. As far as tv goes, they steal a win after cashing in their title shot on a Thursday, then lose the titles on a Sunday. Nobody came out of this match looking good. Beer Money only looked good by default because they didn’t implode or have a three-day title reign. I know that other things are going on right now, but honestly. Beer Money. LAX. MCMG. That’s where the tag team focus should be.

To the back! JB is with Kurt Angle, who threatens to slap around a receptionist, and attempts cheap heat by trashing the Carolina Panthers. They end up in Cornette’s office, where Angle freely admits that the Main Event Mafia went to Rhino’s hotel room, made him an offer, beat him senseless, and dumped him (with cab fare) somewhere. Rhino was left for dead, and won’t be coming tonight. Ok, time out. I understand that changes had to be made due to unexpected injuries and illnesses, so the whole roster is not available for other things, but this is just plain infuriating. Angle admits to this, and no one can do anything about it? So Jarrett can’t fire Angle. Make Angle take Rhino’s place in the match, so that he has to wrestle twice in one night, and has to take on a fellow MEM member for the World title. Suspend him without pay for a month. Do SOMETHING! Shane Sewell and Alex Shelley have been punished more for doing less than Kurt Angle or anyone else in the Main Event Mafia has been.

Match #5: Taylor Wilde, Roxxi, and ODB defeat Raisha Saeed, Rhaka Khan, and Sojourner Bolt: ODB earns a title shot against Awesome Kong in the future by scoring the pin. Raisha Saeed’s new ring gear is amazing! I want one. It’s like a black full-body ninja outfit with shiny red accents. Sort of. There has to be a picture somewhere, just take a look. Kong hits the ring post-match, and ODB demands her title shot right then. Kong chokeslams her. Kong favored her back at one point, and we now know that she’s nursing an injury as well.

To the back! Jim Cornette questions Sting about Rhino. Sting claims that he had nothing to do with it, but that he came to Charlotte for the first time in fifteen years to wrestle, and he doesn’t care if Rhino makes it to the ring to be his opponent or not.

Video package details the Kurt Angle/Jeff Jarrett feud.

Match #6: Kurt Angle defeats Jeff Jarrett in a “No DQ” match: As far as bloody brawls go, this one was good. Too many cheers for Angle, but several people have pointed out that the crowd was either dead or responding to big names from years past for most of the show. Jarrett bled a lot. I honestly expected some kind of run-in, and was pleased not to have one. Jarrett was stretchered out of the area. A physically done-over Rhino was shown trashing a locker room in a fit of rage. He must have found his way to the arena.

To the back! Jim Cornette tries to talk Rhino out of going through with his match against Sting, but to no avail. Rhino is going to fight.

Video package recaps the Sting/Rhino situation.

Match #7: Sting defeats Rhino to retain the World Heavyweight Championship: Meh. We now know that Rhino’s injury angle was to compensate for Sting’s knee problems. A World title match should never be this bad. The X-Division title has been completely devalued, but who would have thought that the World title would fall so far?

To the back! JB interviews AJ Styles, Brother Devon, and Mick Foley. They all speak, but Foley asks the MEM which version of Foley they imagine they’re going to get. Do they feel lucky? Punks? Cactus Jack is in effect, at least vocally.

Video recap of the Main Event Mafia/Front Line angle.

The Main Event Mafia (Booker T w/ Sharmell and Scott Steiner) hit the ring. Bad African accent Booker has returned. He explains Nash’s situation, and claims that a suitable replacement has been found. They bring out – Cute Kip. No, seriously. Kip James. Kip is immediately on the defensive, and runs down his qualifications to stand with the MEM. The second attempt at cheap heat by slamming the Panthers doesn’t work much either. No one cares about Kip.

Match #8: Mick Foley, AJ Styles, & Brother Devon defeated Booker T, Scott Steiner, and Cute Kip: Nice bit where Kip went for the Fameasser, and AJ dodged it to deliver the Pele kick. Everyone brawled to the outside, and the referee rang the bell to stop the match. Jim Cornette came out and ordered the referee to restart the match. Booker said that Cornette didn’t have the power to do that, and that this match was over. Uh, since when? Explain how Cornette goes from being in charge of everything to not even being able to restart a match. This was on my Wish List, TNA. Read it! Foley interrupts, and agrees that Cornette doesn’t have the power to restart the match. What power does Cornette in fact have, then? Foley goes on to say that he, as executive shareholder/investor/whatever does have that authority, and he is restarting the match. Under hardcore rules. Foley scores the pin and wins for the Front Line.

Final Thoughts: It wasn’t a great show. There were two very good matches (Sabin vs Shelley and Angle vs Jarrett), one ok match (opening six-man of LAX and Eric Young vs Jimmy Rave, Kiyoshi, & Sonjay Dutt), and the rest was pretty bad. However, considering all the changes that had to be made, and all the injuries that TNA suddenly had to deal with, they followed the old theatre adage of “the show must go on.” Could they have done better? Sure, probably. I’m curious to see what happens with Hernandez and Homicide with their respective title shots, with Jimmy Rave as a possible singles competitor, with Beer Money making a face turn, with the dynamic of Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley and the X-Division title, ODB getting back in the Knockouts title hunt, and the return of Samoa Joe. And Raisha Saeed’s new outfit, don’t forget about that. If that doesn’t get Sheik Abdul Bashir’s attention, I don’t know what will. J Just don’t break up the Guns!

Peace out,

Drowgoddess  

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