NWA-TNA PRESENTS: UNBREAKABLE 2005

TNA Impact Zone
Orlando, FL
September 11th, 2005

NWA World Heavyweight Champion: Raven (Since 6/19/2005)
TNA X-Division Champion: Christopher Daniels (Since 3/13/2005)
NWA World Tag Team Champions: The Naturals [Andy Douglas/Chase Stevens] (Since 4/26/2005)

In the dual Twitter poll for the week (over at @BQReviews), this won by a decent margin on the first poll over the WWF/NJPW/AJPW Supershow in 1990, APW King of the Indies in 2001 and FWA Int’l Showdown 2005. While I want to see all three of those shows, this was one intrigues me as I already had FIVE of the matches on my watchlist anyway, and it features what was (at the time) only the second WON Five Star match to take place on American soil in 8 years, but the second to take place in the span of 11 months, and the second to feature Samoa Joe.

Because he is Samoa Joe. And he is pro wrestling. 

AND THIS. IS TNA WRESTLING. CROSS THE LINE~!

Let’s go, perverts. 

The show starts with a graphic paying tribute to the undying American spirit. Ok. 

We then go to, honestly, a pretty fun video package where a bad Howard Cossell impressionist does a MNF style intro for the PPV. It’s not some all timer but it’s a lot of mid 2000’s style fun, if that makes sense. They also really sell AJ/Joe/Daniels as THEE main event and make it feel like a huge deal. 

March #1: 3 Live Kru (BG James/Konnan/Ron Killings) vs. The Diamonds in the Rough (David Young/Simon Diamond/Elix Skipper)
I’m not quite sure why this match happened? Not just because it wasn’t that good but it’s basically a glorified TV squash for the Kru, and not even a good one. Which I know would be hard, since everyone in this at this point of their careers mostly stink. Kru wins. Who cares. Moving on.
3/4*

We see clips from the pre-show (honest to god never knew TNA PPVs had pre-shows back then). Monty Brown attacked some dude to make a statement. He got on the mic and said he was officially challenging the winner of Raven/Rhino for the NWA Title at BFG next month. Jeff Jarrett came out in gear and was confused by Monty doing this since they’re friends and he knows Jarrett has the belt in his sights. Monty steps up to Jeff. Kip James runs out to try and maintain the peace between them, but his partner Monty Brown shoves him away. Jeff Hardy then leads a camera man to follow him out of the tunnel and he runs in and attacks Jarrett until Kip James runs him off. 

Match #2: Austin Aries vs. Roderick Strong
Dude, it is INSANE how much more 2005 Roddy looks like the Roddy Strong we all know compared to 2004 Roddy. Lends more credence to my very true theory that the original Roddy Strong died and was replaced by this one ala Ultimate Warrior in the 90’s! Anyways, this was great! This was the match you should’ve opened the PPV with. Apparently TNA ran a poll to see who the TNA fans would most want to see wrestle, and the ROHbots spammed it to get these two in, which is fine, because they both rock. Especially in 2005. Roddy’s strikes and midsection/back work is so crisp and clean, and much like I said about him in last weeks review, all of Aries offense is so authentic looking in the most pro wrestling way imaginable. Simple story where Aries overcomes the midsection work and fights back. He hits his brainbuster and then hilariously throws caution to the wind after spending ten minutes selling by doing the 450 splash to win. Fun ten minute sprint. 
***

Backstage, Shane Douglas interviews Monty Brown about what happened on the pre show and his tag match next. Kip James interrupts him to confront him about what happened on the pre show and Brown shuts him down because they’ve gotta go make Apolo and Hoyt feel the POOOOOOOOOOOOOUNCE, period, shit. 

Match #3: Kip James/Monty Brown vs. Apolo/Lance Hoyt
Siaki is in Apolo and Hoyt’s corner but he’s in a neck brace after being hurt by Brown and Kip. So Hoyt stepped up to team with Apolo and replace him in this match. Let’s be honest. You’re no more interested in reading about this match than I am about recapping it. So fuck off. Kip & Monty win.
*

Backstage, Team Canada is being interviewed by Traci Brooks. Roode & Petey hype up A-1 and EY for their tag title match tonight. EY is afraid the referee may be American. Roode tells A-1 they need to win tonight, no more free rides. Roode also briefly hypes his match against Jeff Hardy. Petey cuts a dry ass promo on his match coming up next with Chris Sabin. 

Petey comes out to Abyss’ theme. I don’t know if that was his music first (I didn’t start watching TNA initially until Christian made the jump) or if it was a production error. He did look back for a while in the tunnel at the start of his entrance, so I dunno. 

Tenay makes sure to mention this match was originally scheduled to be Sabin vs. Shocker from AAA, but at the last minute AAA changed Shocker’s Saturday schedule to be at a show “deep down in the Yucatán peninsula at the Ciudad Madero” making travel near impossible, and he buries AAA.

Just for funsies, I did a quick google. Mexico City to Orlando is a 3 hour 15 minute flight if there’s no layovers. From Merida, a city with an Int’l Airport just like Mexico City in the Yucatán? It’s a 1 hour 58 minute flight. So I’m not sure how travel was made impossible. 

What’s funnier than this though? Looking at cagematch, Shocker’s booking was changed to Ciudad Madero, but Ciudad Madero is not anywhere close to the fucking Yucatán. It’s closer to Houston and the South Padre Islands! And the flight time from Tampico (a very close Int’l Airport to Ciudad Madero) to Orlando? Two hours and 44 minutes. 

Now granted, a MILLION things could happen that could prevent a flight out of another country at any time of day regardless of flight length, especially Mexico to US. But if it did, why wouldn’t TNA just say that? They’re clearly only having Tenay say what he said because they’re mad.

So either AAA told TNA a HILARIOUS lie to get out of sending Shocker to do a job, or TNA got burned on a booking and made up this incredible and easily disputable lie. 

Match #4: Chris Sabin vs. Petey Williams
This was WAY better than I thought it was going to be. They have great chemistry, and it makes sense since they trained together. Sabin is definitely better here than I thought, but Petey blew me away. Just last week I’m watching him at an IWA:MS show and he looks like an extremely overrated bag of ass. Now this week, I’m watching a show that’s like 12 months to the day later, and he’s improved all the way to mid range. And that’s not even a shot! They do a lot of cool stuff building up to the finishing run. Petey has a decent control segment. Sabin makes his comeback with an AWESOME crucifix buckle bomb and sets up for the Cradle Shock, but Petey tries wriggling away. So Sabin, with Petey still held up, just starts RAMMING Petey’s head into the turnbuckles. To fight back, Petey gouges Sabin’s eyes and distorts his vision. Sabin drops him and Petey steps back, and when the ref goes to check on Sabin, Sabin thinks he’s Petey SO HE SETS HIM UP FOR THE CRADLE SHOCK, but the ref gets down. Petey goes to quick hit Sabin with a Canadian Destroyer but Sabin reverses and finally gets Petey with the Cradle Shock to win. That last bit was a little rushed but this match was a lot of fun overall. 
***ish

Post-match, Michael Shane aka Matt Bentley makes his return to TNA by attacking both men. He says he knows the rumors were he was “bound for up north” but TNA is his home and he’s BOUND FOR GLORY! And he wants to bring back the match he made famous, THE ULTIMATE X. He super kicks Sabin. 

So what had happened was…Michael Shane and TNA were served with a cease and desist in Spring 2005 for using the name Michael Shane, because WWE had one of the Gymini Twins on their roster and his gimmick name (although not being used on TV) was Mike Shane, and WWE trademarked it. TNA switched to just calling him “Michael” for a little bit before pulling him from TV. Then, Shane got into some contractual issues with TNA and there were rumors he was indeed WWE bound. I forget if it just fell through or WWE had him tryout and they changed their minds. But I feel like it had something to do with Kazarian as well? Kazarian was briefly signed by WWE but then got fired because he refused to cut his hair, rumor has it. But I feel like the Michael Shane story ties into that somehow? I dunno. Anyways, $4 a pound…

A hype video airs on Abyss and James Mitchell, saying how Abyss won’t stop his path of destruction until he gets his shot at the world title. 

Match #5: Sabu vs. Abyss [No Disqualifications]
This is 2000’s Sabu, so there’s more sloppiness than usual, but he’s still at that point where it kind of adds a bit extra to the match. This is also Abyss, who while fun if not good at times, is also meticulous and rather uncreative. So there’s a clash of philosophies that creates a lot of mental traffic while planning this match out, I’m sure. But that traffic spins into a beautiful enough car crash that even James Spader in CRASH (1996) would start pounding off. Some fun table spots. At one point, Sabu sets a chair up seated UNDER a table, and then bends Abyss across the table and hits the Arabian Facebuster for double the impact. But then Abyss has a real head scratcher when he hits the Shock Treatment on top of all of that wreckage, but as you know, he’s seated to finish that move off, so his own ASS took more Impact (cross the line) than Sabu did. Sort of like when Sheamus did a knee to back breaker on Randy Orton on top of the steel steps. I can *see* the idea and where it’s coming from, but the execution was piss. The tease the thumbtacks, which was Abyss’ big thing at the time pre-Judas Mesias, and they pull off an extremely telegraph but incredibly pretty finish:

Abyss gets the win.
***

Backstage, Shane Douglas is standing by with Alex Shelley. He was set to interview Shelley and Sean Waltman, the winners of the Chris Candido Memorial Cup, but Waltman no showed the show. Shelley talks about Waltman being a weird guy and how the Total Nonstop Alex tour is still going to head down to that ring tonight with or without Sean Waltman. Side note: I forgot how TNA used to score their shows with generic rock music. But not just during transitions. Like during ring promos or backstage interviews. It’s really annoying. I could barely hear Shelley in that. 

Match #6: Jeff Hardy vs. Bobby Roode
This is around the time Jeff starts to turn it back up a bit in hopes of getting re-signed by WWE, which would happen in around 6-8 months from now. Roode is fine here as well. Fun mesh of styles. Roode has a good control segment and Jeff’s selling is there. It might not be great but it’s THERE. Jeff starts to make his comeback until Jarrett sneaks out and breaks a hockey stick over Hardy’s back, and Roode covers to steal the win!
**1/4

A video package airs to hype up the tag title match.

Backstage, Douglas interviews the Naturals and Jimmy Hart?! I have ZERO recollection of Jimmy Hart managing the Naturals, what the hell. Especially in 2005 since Hogan was back in WWE. 

At ringside, the Candido family is shown as invited guests of TNA since the winners of the Candido Cup would be in this match. Tenay buries Waltman on commentary for not showing up and disrespecting the legacy of Candido.

Match #7: The Naturals (c) vs. Alex Shelley/Johnny Candido vs. America’s Most Wanted vs. Eric Young/A-1 [NWA World Tag Team Championships] [Four Way Elimination Match]
This was what it was. AMW is the only good team here. They have Shelley come out solo and he gets worked over by all 3 teams but mainly Team Canada. Johnny Candido hops the guard rail and gets on the apron and just lets a tag from Shelley to Candido happen because lolTNA. Shelley is obviously great in this but Johnny Candido, while a nice guy by all accounts, simply isn’t that good. The Naturals are as bland as ever and EY/A-1 are an actively bad pair of wrestlers. It’s kind of why I’m tired of this EY revisionism that’s taken place the last 5-10 years. Candido is pinned by EY. AMW gets defeated after a hockey stick shot by Team Canada, and almost instantly, A1 gets hit with the Natty Ice Disaster, so the Naturals retain. VERY nasty. 
*1/2

Match #8: Raven (c) vs. Rhino [NWA World Heavyweight Championship]
This was a match. I dunno why I was expecting some sort of beautiful sequel to their Backlash 2000 match since this is 5.5 years later and both men’s skills had famously deteriorated by this point (Raven more so than Rhino). A lot of sloppiness, some really loud spot calling, and a WWE style hardcore match. Just real sanitized. The only really cool spots were when Rhino randomly finds a beer keg and hits Raven with it and then tries for his head and misses and it hits the post so hard it almost comes back and hits Rhino, and the other one was Rhino bringing a shopping cart into the ring and going to GORE Raven through it but Raven sidestepped and Rhino went through the cart. Jarrett got involved and went to hit Raven with the belt, but Jeff Hardy ran out and stopped Jarrett. The distraction caused Raven to be able to hit Jarrett with the Evenflow. Rhino went to get at Raven immediately after this but Raven stopped him with a low kick and an Evenflow as well to retain.
**1/2

YOU ARE YOU ARE. I AM I AM.

Match #9: Christopher Daniels (c) vs. AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe [TNA X-Division Championship]
So this is it. The match that arguably put TNA on the map. Meltzer gave it five stars. It’s been lauded for years. It’s great, don’t get me wrong. It might even actually be one of if not the best match TNA has ever had. I don’t know if I’m putting this in my top 50 matches of all-time though necessarily. There is a lot of indie-rifficness to this, which can be both good and bad. The bad, for example, is how the entire match is all three men throwing EVERYTHING they have in their arsenal at each other, and you feel like this is gonna end with a pretty big moment or spot or whatever. Instead…it sort of just ends. AJ simply escapes an Angel’s Wings attempt and counters with a backslide pin on Daniels. And that’s it. Daniels six month (and longest to date) title reign is over, and even though he wasn’t pinned, Joe, who should’ve undoubtedly won here, did not win. The bulk of the match was really, really good. Cool, clean, innovative spots like this one:

But it’s also them kind of just playing their hits to a mostly new crowd, since the Impact Zone is mostly tourists and Joe is relatively new to TNA. I think me watching this while concurrently watching 2003 ROH where these three are killing it is certainly having an effect on how much I am liking this. Maybe if I had watched this before I did the ROH review, I would’ve gotten suckered in to going the full five stars or maybe even at least going close to it. But, ending aside, this was still a really, really good match that I can believably buy as TNA’s greatest match ever (non-derogatory) just maybe not one of the greatest matches to ever take place on US Soil. 
****