After reading reviews from wrestling pundits and feedback from fans, I feel bad for anyone who invested three hours of their life – not to mention $35 of their hard-earned money – on TNA's Destination X pay-per-view Sunday night.
One commenter on wrestlingobserver.com said, "I didn't even have to pay for this and I felt ripped off."
Ouch.
The Internet Wrestling Community's biggest gripe concerned the booking – or to be more precise, the overbooking – of the main event between TNA world champion A.J. Styles and Abyss. After outside interference by Hulk Hogan and a mace-wielding Ric Flair (who was in a wheelchair to sell the effects of getting choke-slammed through the stage by Abyss last week on Impact), Abyss choke-slammed Styles through the ring, prompting referee Earl Hebner to call for the bell. Hogan presented Abyss with the title belt, but Hebner took it away. After the match, Desmond Wolfe hit the ring, and he, Styles and Flair all ended up taking bumps into the hole in the ring. Wade Keller of pwtorch.com described it as "a Three Stooges routine."
Another angle being panned is the one involving the group formerly known as the nWo. Hey yo, The Band is back together. Who didn't see that coming? It happened about a month or so later than I thought it would, but Kevin Nash turned on tag team partner Eric Young in their match against Scott Hall and Sean Waltman. As far as reunions go, for me this one with Nash, Hall and Waltman ranks right up there – or down there (down where?) – with The New Kids on the Block getting back together.
When Young put one over on Nash several months back and the two went on to form an alliance, I knew it was just a matter of time before Nash turned on him. Nash is never going to allow anyone to outsmart him in the story line. Not only does Young end up looking like a chump in all of this, but who really wants to see yet another rehash of a gimmick that was played out a decade ago? Hall has no business being in the ring and Waltman is such a knucklehead that he twice had trouble in this match finding a can of spray paint that was to be used as a prop. He uttered an expletive in frustration as he searched for it under the ring.
When he finally was able to locate the elusive spray paint, Waltman painted a crime scene outline around Young's body. The outline remained on the canvas for the remaining four matches. There's probably some symbolism in there somewhere.
On the positive side, most viewers seemed pleased with the three X Division matches.