“Robert Roode vs AJ Styles goes 30 minutes. Still can’t save this Pay-Per-View.”

Hey everyone, Andre Harrison back at it once again with a brand new (Yet slightly late), review of Sunday’s TNA Final Resolution. On the card, Jeff Hardy vs Jeff Jarrett in a Steel Cage Match where the Jarrett’s TNA careers are on the line, as well as Jeff Hardy trying to get another World Championship opportunity, Austin Aries faced Kid Kash for the X-Division Championship, Kurt Angle faced James Storm, and AJ Styles faced TNA World Champion Robert Roode in an Ironman Match for the TNA Heavyweight Championship. It’s Final Resolution *sighs*, on The Harrison Analysis!

On commentary, Mike Tenay and Taz.

Rob Van Dam vs Christopher Daniels

This was a solid 10 minute match between two veterans, although, I’m kind of unsure as to why this match would open the show, these are two of the higher level guys in the company, why have them be the curtain jerker? What didn’t help is that this match had some potential…Just about any match with Daniels does, but this wasn’t much good. They had 10 minutes, so there were limited from the get go, but it was pretty much a TV level match, besides the occasional Daniels taunt (He did the RVD pose, which made me chuckle). Nothing really wrong with it, but I expected a little more.

★★ ¼

Robbie E (w/Rob Terry) vs Eric Young (Television Championship Match)

Well, anyone who’s a Wrestling fan, who knew who these two were, could see where this is going, right? That is correct, it was indeed a comedy match, and something which was fine for what it was, because I saw it coming, so I found it hard to criticize from that point of view, but I just couldn’t take it seriously, and there amount of over-booking was more off-putting and funny-cringe than funny-haha. Also, Tenay and Tax were cracking jokes the whole time, which was god awful. This could be a long night…

★

Matt Morgan and Crimson (TNA Tag Team Champions) vs The Pope and Devon

Now this was a weird one. I hadn’t been keeping track of TNA Impact so I had no idea that Morgan and Crimson were Tag Champs! But this match just felt off to me. Partly because some of the planned spots weren’t as smooth as they should have been and it was odd that Pope was the only real heel in the match up, yet, he was the one being isolated and targeted by Morgan and Crimson, as if he was a babyface. Weird. But I guess this is being done to extend the already rocky Pope/Devon feud going into Genesis 2012.

★★

Austin Aries vs Kid Kash (X-Division Championship Match)

Heel vs Heel match-ups are an interesting thing. Who is the crowd meant to cheer for? Simple, in this case, it was great wrestling action, and that was what made this match pretty darn good. Also, I liked the story-telling elements here as well, as they were both heels and they were both trying to out-sneak each other (Like Aries vs Kendrick from PWG BOLA 2010, I think), and despite some odd moments where there was some comedy spots thrown in (For reasons I have no idea on), but I found this match to be entertaining, by a mile the best of the night so far.

★★★ 

Gail Kim vs Mickie James (Knockout’s Championship Match)

You know what my problem was? I came into this match with my expectations being too high. Can you blame me? These are two of the better women in Mainstream wrestling right now, surely? I’m glad they gave this match nearly 8 minutes (TNA DO give their women a fair wad of airtime, something the WWE really doesn’t do), and the usual TNA over-booking reared its ugly head towards the end again, only this time with Madison Rayne getting involved. I mean, god forbid, a heel wins clean in TNA?! But you know what’s odd…This was still better than most female matches on PPV this year.

★★

Kurt Angle vs James Storm

This could have been outstanding. It wasn’t, but I will give TNA credit, this match did exactly what it needed to do, and that was to get James Storm over as the company’s #1 babyface right now, and the story here reflected that, as they were trying to load up the story of Storm’s concussion and whether he could win with the odds against him, and Angle wasn’t trying as hard as he normally would, thinking he could easily win, and they conveyed that well in the match. Have to give TNA credit for a well booked match on this one. (I shouldn’t really, but ha!)

★★★ ½

Jeff Hardy vs Jeff Jarrett (Steel Cage Match, Loser Leaves TNA, #1 Contender Match)

Sound like a mouthful up there? It was. To be fully clear, this was a Steel Cage Match, Karen Jarrett was handcuffed to Sting at ringside, while if Hardy won, either Jeff or Karen would be fired from TNA, and also be given a title shot at Genesis, but if Jarrett won, Hardy would be gone from TNA. And you wonder why TNA gets a hard time for over-booking. Never!

As for the match itself, this was one of the worst TNA Main Events of the year. This was a complete mess. The cage was hardly a necessary add on to the match or feud, even less so now, and the whole thing didn’t even feel like a match, more like an extended segment, and a bad one at that. Hardy was acting silly for the sake of it…”Let’s climb the cage and escape after two Twists of Fate! No! I’m going to do a huge Swanton and miss instead!” (At least his pharmacist will be kept busy), and then Karen got away from Sting and the cage gimmick was made to be even more pointless, and eventually Hardy won, and then…Sting says you’ll have to tune into Thursday’s Impact to see who gets fired? So PPV is now setting up free TV?! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! *head explodes*

DUD

Robert Roode vs AJ Styles (30 Minute Iron-Man Match for the World Heavyweight Championship)

AJ Styles makes a great Eli Manning with his comebacks, and that was the story in this one, as he came back from 2-0 do eventually force a draw, in a 30-minute match filled with drama and good action throughout. Styles did a good job of selling the leg throughout, and Roode did a good job playing the heel targeting the limb for the first 15 minutes, even though he forgot about it in the 2nd half. I was willing to throw 4 stars at this, as I’ll always give credit to two men who worked for half an hour for my entertainment, but the ending was a real headdesk moment. Roode running away to protect his title at all costs made sense, but it made for a dull and annoying end to a PPV, especially one called “Final Resolution”, right? Oh well, it was great for 28 and a half minutes, and that’s still an A+ right?

★★★ ½

Harrison’s Final Analysis on TNA Final Resolution 2011

This show was a small improvement on Turning Point, and again, the Wrestling here, overall, was solid, but for the upteenthtime, once again, the booking of the show left a lot to be desired, and left this viewer with a rather bitter taste in the mouth, which is a shame. Cleaner finishes in the two Mains and I’d have been happy to hand this show a 7/10, because I have little/no complaints over the action in-ting. Ah well, standard TNA really. I’ve been Andre Harrison, thanks for reading, and Sayonara.

Harrison’s TNA Final Resolution Rating: 6.0 out of 10 – Decent

TNA Final Resolution 2011, 5.7 out of 10 based on 3 ratings

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