A hugely significant PPV for TNA, taking yet another step towards "WWE PPV style"- both in presentation and quality. What happened to TNA being the alternative to WWE?

The Latin American Exchange (Homicide and Hernandez) vs Team 3D (Brother Ray and Brother Devon) in a Little Italy Street Fight
Ridiculous gimmick match number 1. Calling it a simple "street fight" would have sufficed, but hey Russo doesn't like to do things the easy way, now does he? Acceptable opener with a badly booked finish. Unless they are waiting for the big payoff when 3D actually win the titles, they should have won this, since it was non-title. Now, with LAX gaining two straight PPV victories over 3D, this feud should be over. SHOULD.
2/5

Senshi vs Austin Starr
This angle has received solid TV time since it started last month, yet the match was never announced. WHY? The match itself was a disappointment. Both are capable of having a 4 star match in ROH every night of the week, why not at a TNA PPV? The entire match seemed really restricted and I wouldn't be suprised if they, and indeed the entire X division have been told to tone down the high flying stuff. Bad match, then they go for the "who had who pinned?" finish to protect the loser BUT in a typical Russo fashion, they bury Starr by sending out Crazy Bob(best promo guy TNA have!) to apply the cross face chicken wing. Bizarre.
2/5

Christy Hemme vs Mystery Opponent
So TNA is starting a women's division. Great, at least it can't be as bad as WWE's right? WRONG. TNA could have brought in a whole host of women from around the world, and if they really had to it could have been Lita but instead Russo logic prevails and Hemme's opponent (chosen by Cornette for some reason) is the Fat Oily Guy. At this point it's gone beyond parody and moved into "GET THIS SH*TE OFF MY TV". Ahem. Disgusting waste of time, served no purpose whatsoever. Kudos to the guy in the front row who brought the "WE ARE WRESTLING" sign and held it up for this whole debacle: good sense of humour.
DUD

Lance Hoyt (w/David Eckstein) vs Dale Torborg (w/A.J. Pierzynski)
Can somebody who watches MLB tell me if knowing who these are actually adds to this angle? I'm assuming the answer is no.
Another waste. Russo being Russo couldn't even go with a clean finish here and they went for the whole Dusty finish due to cheating thing. Yawn.
DUD

Rhino vs AJ Styles in a Motor City Chain match
Finally some quality on the card, oh wait its Ridiculous Gimmick Match number 2!! Unnecessary gimmick aside, this match wasn't anything special but nonetheless it was rather solid, what you'd expect from these two any given night. The "you screwed AJ" chant at hebner was gold. I've heard a few grumblings over Rhino losing again, but it's pretty basic booking, heel domination followed by face revenge. If Rhino won here, would you pay to see them go again? No. The story of this angle is Rhino wants a decisive, mouth shutting victory over AJ the arrogant, and absolutely brilliantly played heel. It's important not to give the pay off until the feud is ready to end. Anyway, I digress.
3/5

Chris Sabin(c) vs Jerry Lynn for the X Division Title
They continue to push Sabin and more and more I am convinced that either a) he doesn't have it or b)he's a terrible heel OR c)he's a great heel, I hate him as a result and can't seperate my personal feelings from actual logic(it's not that one). Stop this nonsense and put the strap on Lynn for a program with Daniels/Senshi/Williams. The match itself was average at best.
2.5/5

James Storm and Jackie Moore vs Petey Williams and Gail Kim
Short and sweet: boring angle boring wrestling match.
On a side note, I read somewhere that Petey Williams minus the Canadian Destroyer equals Barry Horowitz. Hmm.
1/5

Sting vs Abyss in a Prison Yard Match
This match was actually really good for what it was supposed to be. Match started outside and there was a nice looking spot in front of the overflow fans involving Sting jumping off a skip, putting Abyss through a table. in reality it wasn't that high or impressive, but it looked decent. Various hardcore shenanigans when they got to the ring including a barbed wire baseball bat, Sting getting smashed by one of the lights at ringside(getting a rather undeserved holy sh*t crowd chant) and finally, the finish being Sting powerbombing Abyss from the cage through a barbed wire table. Nasty bump, and it came off really well on camera. Suprisingly good match.
3.5/5

Kurt Angle vs Captain Charisma "The INSTANT CLASSIC" Christian Cage(c) for the NWA World title
Lets get one thing straight: Christian is great. No, seriously he's a fantastic heel, his mic skills are unrivalled(in TNA) and his ability to coin catchphrases is phenomenal: his latest "Instant Classic" is superb and is already over in the Impact Zone. Anyway, enough on Christian(for now). The match was rather solid, with no real standout moments of genuine awesomeness(Can't stop with the Christian markdom). The finish may have hurt Christian's credibility and momentum a bit, with Angle refusing to go down. Joe coming in and confronting Angle only to dive over the ropes at Steiner and Tomko was the spot of the night, incredible(And he wasn't wrestling tonight, why?).
DW's commentary really hurt this match at times(more on that below), and with the rather ridiculous clusterf*ck finish, this match only earns...
3.5/5
And thats so high because I'm a huge Christian mark(did you notice?)


So thats the PPV over, just a few side comments, the first being about Don West. I've expressed my concern about this guy before and I really think now is the time to put Cornette on commentary and get West out. Cornette and Tenay could share the role of putting the match over and calling it, alternating between the two. DW has the amazing ability to kill a match before it even starts. At the beginning of the main event, he spends what must be 2 mins in a constant stream of rambling nonsense about Christian and Steiner rather than actually calling (or letting Tenay call) the match. If the commentator doesn't care about the most important match on the card, why should we? Tenay tries to drag DW into the match and eventually does, but its already embarrassing at this stage. TNA would really benefit from having someone (eg Jarrett) feeding lines to the slow one(thats you DW).

This is the second straight distinctly average PPV TNA has put on, and from a company that's selling point is it's great PPVs, this is bad.
The Russo train continues...