Destination Excellent and other stuff

Yes, I'm alive, just been busy and unable to swing by and blog much this week. But got quite a few things happening in the coming week to blog about, starting with tonight's TNA Destination X PPV.

-In short, it was an excellent show. No match on the card was really bad, and a few were flat-out great. It didn't quite have the feeling of one of the great shows ever, but you can't fault the effort to do something great here. Pre-show was good enough, and it was great to see Norman Smiley on my TV again, hope his stay is a long term one. Shelley/Lethal was a great, crowd-pumping opener, only marred by a somewhat outta-nowhere ending. Hoyt/Bentley was way better than expected, and the interruption by Young and Shelley was actually pretty damn funny. Team Canada/Naturals was again pretty good, though the match seemed to be coming off the rails by the end, they saved it nicely. Jameses/LAX was also better than it could have been, as they wisely didn't even try to have Bullet Bob actually tag in. The awesomeness started in earnest with the International X Showdown, as all four guys busted their butts and gave us a terrific match when no one was expecting it. Certainly sets the bar high for the World X Cup starting next month. Then the 8-Man Tag War was truly awesome, with a great extended brawl to kick us off, followed by an ultra-hot main segment of the match. Jarrett winning deflated the crowd a little, but that was okay, because up next was the Ultimate X Match. I wondered how the heck they would have Samoa Joe climb the cables, ignoring the obvious answer: they wouldn't. He tried once and fell, and never tried again, as the match was more about the more-traditional-but-still-amazing spots that these three seem to pull out every month, rather than the aerial acrobatics traditional to an Ultimate X match. The ending seemed kinda weird, as Daniels climbed and pulled down the belt without too much fuss, and Joe seemed pretty pissed, giving us the impression that the finish was somehow botched. But then, if Joe lost the belt, his character WOULD be pretty pissed, and A.J. and Daniels shook hands afterward to pay off the "X-Division respect" storyline. Excellent but a little too short, is how I'd call it. The only real disappointment was the NWA World Title match, Christian vs. Monty Brown, and I wouldn't blame Christian for this one: he sold like crazy and tried to build the drama. But Monty just isn't ready to be main eventing PPVs as a heel, IMO. His moveset is pretty limited (though he added a few cool new things tonight), and the restholds kinda killed the crowd, which had been hot as hell all night long. But the real deal here was the post-match fireworks: Jarrett challenging Christian, which led to Jarrett's army beating on Christian, which led to Sting returning (no face paint, straight up Steve Borden) to beat them off, which led to SCOTT STEINER debuting to beat on Sting. Hey, as far as Jarrett's mystery man goes, between Steiner and my other guess (Luger) I'll take Steiner every time. Not digging the new mid-chest tattoo, though, Scotty. Overall, an awesome show, with a few weak points, but the actual wrestling quality was miles ahead of what you'll get out of WrestleMania in a couple weeks, I'll bet.

-Oh, Jarrett appeared injured at the end of the show, but latest report is that he was looking okay in the back, so apparently he was just selling the Scorpion Death Lock that Sting had him in. Good to hear, though I must admit, for one glorious second, my thoughts were that this meant I wouldn't have to see him wrestle live on Friday...

-And why? Because I'm seeing TNA's first house show in Detroit Rock City, baybee! Okay, it's actually in Plymouth, not QUITE Detroit, but close enough for government work, as they say. Originally the plan was to go with Greg and Chris (as a big surprise for the latter) but, sadly, neither of them can make it due to work issues. This left me with three tickets and one me, but it's all good, as Steph and J have agreed to come along and make me a not-lonely Jeff. We're seeing Samoa Joe vs. A.J. Styles live. After Friday, I can die happy. But not for a while. :)

-And BTW, I have free evenings every night this week, and would love to see some folks at some point, so if you're free and wanna hang, please gimme a shout!

-More stuff happening this week, more updates I promise, including (possibly) an entry written by a very special guest blogger...more to come if it happens!