TNA Victory Road 2010 Review

TNA's annual July PPV on the path to Bound for Glory stops at Victory Road. The vacant World Tag Team Championships are on the line, Kurt Angle's career is on the line and the TNA World Heavyweight Championship is also on the line in the main event!

Match 1: X Division Championship - Ultimate X - Douglas Williams (c) vs. Brian Kendrick
Good choice to open the match, just always wished that they limited the Ultimate X match for bigger PPV events rather than having one every other month or something. For this edition, a winner can also be crowned champion by not only grabbing the belt from the top, but by also submitting their opponent. Kind of takes a little bit of the drama away. Regardless, the two had a pretty good match here with a pretty limited amount of time. The two climb the structure and fall off together from the wire leading to the belt which led to Doug Williams choking out Brian Kendrick to secure the win.
Winner: Doug Williams
Rating: **1/4

Match 2: Brother Ray vs. Jesse Neal vs. Brother Devon
Brother Ray beings the match by hiding within the stage and attacking Jesse Neal from behind before cameras reveal that Ray had locked Brother Devon in the locker room. Only in TNA. Ray is beating down Neal before the old ECW guys appear in the stands for whatever reason as the tides turn with Neal hitting his Spear. Devon eventually comes out and begins brawling with Ray before Ray finishes off Neal with a Bubba Bomb. More of an angle than an actual match here. Too much happened in such little time. However, I like the call of giving Ray the win. Only the start of Ray's ascension to the top as the company's top heel.
Winner: Brother Ray
Rating: *1/2

Match 3: Knockouts Championship - Madison Rayne (c) vs. Angelina Love
If Angelina Love loses the match, her career also ends in the process. With that taken into consideration, the two have a match that lasts about a couple minutes until a mysterious figure comes out in a motorcycle and attacks both Love and the referee. Therefore, Madison Rayne is disqualified and loses the title. She then leaves with the chick on her motorcycle as Love celebrates her title win as if she had accomplished it without any funny stuff happening. This was so ridiculous on all levels, even Taz couldn't hide the crap.
Winner: Angelina Love
Rating: 1/4*

Match 4: AJ Styles & Kazarian vs. Rob Terry & Samoa Joe
Ric Flair booked AJ Styles & Kazarian in a tag match with the opponents being a secret. Their opponents turn out to be the odd pairing of Rob Terry & Samoa Joe. Decent and short match here that saw both squads get in their fun displays of offense before Desmond Wolfe appears out of nowhere to attack Joe. This leads to Styles & Kaz capitalizing on the distraction as they take out Terry to score the fairly easy win. Afterwards, Joe takes care of Wolfe for his troubles. Another basic match that gets booked on a PPV.
Winners: AJ Styles & Kazarian
Rating: **

Match 5: Steel Cage - Matt Morgan vs. Hernandez
This was one of the company's best feuds at the time. Huge fan of both guys and loved their breakup. As weird as that sounds. Hernandez starts off the match on the better end of things before Matt Morgan turns the tides and gains momentum as he does not let up. I absolutely love Morgan as a heel, he is so cocky and what makes it best is that he is able to back it all up. As he makes blood pour out of the head of Hernandez, he wipes the blood on the hand and displays it to each section of the audience. He even asked the crowd which side of the cage he should exit from. However, Hernandez does not let up, even after Morgan decided to handcuff him Morgan climbs the cage and continues to taunt Hernandez but Hernandez breaks free from the cuffs and launches himself through the door for the win. Great match here with Morgan playing the great role of a bastard heel and Hernandez being the underdog. Absolutely loved the ending, these guys didn't get enough credit.
Winner: Hernandez
Rating: ***1/2

Match 6: Jay Lethal vs. Ric Flair
One of 2010's biggest shining spots for TNA was Jay Lethal's impression of Ric Flair. Ultimately, it led to a very personal feud between the two and a match here at Victory Road. All the hate that was going around for Flair wrestling again but in all honesty, he had a pretty damn good match here against the younger Lethal. You get the usual Flair spots but the crowd absolutely ate it up and Lethal was so good in his role, especially in making Flair look like a legitimate threat. Loved Flair's exchange with Earl Hebner and loved the spot with Lethal exposing Flair's rear to the crowd before Flair would eventually tap out to a Figure Four from Lethal. Great match and moment for Lethal.
Winner: Jay Lethal
Rating: ***

Match 7: World Tag Team Championships - Beer Money, Inc. vs. The Motor City Machine Guns
Always enjoyed the matches these two teams had and it was cool to see them go at it for the vacant World Tag Team Championships. You know you will be getting quality wrestling whenever the two teams square off and they delivered here. Loved the finish when after getting blinded by a spit of beer, another referee is called to the ring. Here, both teams roll each other up as the referees make the count at the same time and call for the bell. They then restart the match as The Guns get the win shortly after. That was a very TNA finish and while it seems like we have seen the company do this on multiple times, it worked here. I also liked how they didn't drag the match out too much further after this as The Guns got the quick pin after the match got restarted. It almost felt as if they didn't want to break out all the stops for this one as they were saving it for the rest of the year. The best was certainly yet to come.
Winners: The Motor City Machine Guns
Rating: ***

Match 8: D'Angelo Dinero vs. Kurt Angle
Kurt Angle's quest back to the TNA World Championship sees him taking on the #8 seed in D'Angelo Dinero. Always fun to see two big faces in a match and the two made it work really well here. Angle was able to look dominant in the match but also allow Dinero to look like a very suitable opponent for him. The chain wrestling in the beginning was definitely a treat to watch and Taz on commentary adding information to all the suplexes Angle was tossing was certainly a nice touch. Angle was able to lock in an Ankle Lock on Dinero to win the match before the two shook hands afterwards. Another *** match for the night and a nice co-main event for the night, as well.
Winner: Kurt Angle
Rating: ***

Match 9: TNA World Heavyweight Championship - Rob Van Dam (c) vs. Mr. Anderson vs. Abyss vs. Jeff Hardy
After disagreements of who should be the #1 contender for Rob Van Dam's TNA World Heavyweight Championship, the main event turns into a four-way match. I like the booking decision to have all four guys main event the show considering this isn't the biggest PPV of the year and storyline progression should be the biggest factor here without blowing their load. Abyss, of course, is back to being crazy as he brings out a 2x4 with nails plastered all over it. However, the other participants of the match team up early against Abyss to try and eliminate him from the match. It was definitely fun to see all the styles of these four guys clash against each other. After Abyss Chokeslams Jeff Hardy atop Mr. Anderson, RVD hits a Five Star Frog Splash on everyone as he pins Anderson to retain the gold. Afterwards, Abyss goes berserk and tries to smash RVD with the 2x4 as RVD narrowly escapes. The show closes with a deranged Abyss holding the 2x4 as a concerned RVD looks relieved to have escaped. Nice closing to the show that allows their Abyss storyline to continue into a bigger volume.
Winner: Rob Van Dam
Rating: ***1/4

Overall Show Thoughts and Rating:
With a rather slow start to the show, the rest of the card followed it with very good matches and progressions for their respective storylines that actually made sense. Ric Flair back in the ring was a treat to watch and the main event was suitable for the show. Not the best, but definitely a good PPV showing from TNA.
Rating: 7/10