Apollo and Sonny Siaki win the obligatory pre-show match over Mikey Batts and Jerrelle Clark. They show a nice hype video for the Waltman/Lynn match, complete with sick slo-mo of Lynn’s shoulder injury from over a year ago.

Speaking of obligatory, the PPV proper starts off with an excellent video package. One small complaint, I wish they’d start throwing some new footage of the wrestlers into these packages. We’ve seen all of these same clips for a while now. It is impressive how much mileage the production staff has gotten out the footage though.

Simon, of course, has a problem. If the solution is David Young in a musketeer outfit, I’m outta here. Diamond has adopted Skipper as his latest Diamond in the Rough, saying that Elix was a star with XXX, but has been on the slide ever since they broke up. He does have a point. Young and Sharky start it out, trading moves, until the dreaded Ass Bite of Doom. Simon is embarrassed and slaps Young, who in turn blasts Shark Boy. The Diamonds in the Rough take control with Elix kicking Sonjay in the back and Young hitting an inverted sidewalk slam. Sabin gets a hot tag and cleans house. A missile dropkick on Simon is broken up at two and everybody’s in the ring. Elix goes for the Tightrope Hurricanrana, slips a little, but still sort of hits the move. Young destroys Dutt with a Spinebuster, but it only gets two. Sabin catches Elix, goes for the Cradle Shock, but it’s blocked. Elix tries to reverse it into the Sudden Death, Sabin rolls him up for the three count out of nowhere.

Simon is not happy with his Diamonds in the Rough. While Young seems apologetic, Skipper gets in his face. Well, it won’t be Elix in the Muskateer outfit, that’s for sure. Maybe Young can bring in his sister and they can be the new Prodigy and Prodigette…

Shane Douglas interviews The Naturals and Jimmy Hart about teaming with AMW against Team Canada. Jarrett interrupts, trying to warn them about the impending Black Wednesday. Hey Jeff, they are the tag team champs and pretty much rule, I don’t think they have too much to worry about. The Naturals tell him off, saying he hasn’t talked to them in months. Hart refocuses the team on Team Canada.

The series sits at 1-1 for these guys. Shelley has not become EuroTrash Alex Shelley, he needs some trashy house music for entrance music now. Shocker tries to get under his skin by coming out as MexiTrash Shocker, but Shelley is not impressed. Shocker has promised Tenay some impressive submissions though. These guys are doing some interesting looking moves, I’m not sure if half of them have names yet. It’s odd and different, but it still works. Shelley goes for Shocker’s leg, wrapping it around the ropes. Shocker avoids the running knee, which sends Shelley tumbling out to the floor. Shocker makes a run, going for a springboard plancha, but sees that Shelley is getting out of the way. He just does a fancy flip instead, very nice. Back in the ring, Shocker takes over. He chops him, hits a bulldog, and then hits a sick looking Twisting Figure Four Leg Lock. Ric Flair breaks his TV in HHH’s Winnebago, saying “I’m too old for that crap.” Shelley gets to the ropes to break it. Shocker catches him in an Abdominal Stretch of sorts on the mat, but Shelley escapes again. Shocker hits a German Suplex, but a second is reversed into a Dragon Whip by Shelley. They trade moves, Shocker goes for one of his patented roll ups, but Shelley reverses and holds the ropes for the pin. EuroTrash is dastardly.

Shane Douglas interviews James Mitchell and Abyss. Well, he interviews Mitchell and Abyss grunts a lot. Mitchell says that Abyss is the greatest big man in wrestling history. We now learn that Mitchell has been sniffing glue before this segment. He says that Hoyt is being goaded into this match by his white trash fans who chant his name. He says that Abyss is going to do things to him that would even make Saddam Hussein cringe. Yikes.

Hoyt now has white leather shorts. Maybe his white trash fans are picking his attire now too. Lance starts the match on the attack, he clotheslines Abyss out to the floor. He follow that up with a slingshot plancha to the outside. This Hoyt is pretty crazy for a big guy, I’ll give him that. Mitchell distracts Hoyt and Abyss takes advantage. After slamming Lance into everything at ringside, he brings him back in the ring. Abyss goes for a chokeslam, but Hoyt escapes. Abyss clotheslines him instead, and follows up with a second rope splash for good measure. Abyss Irish whips Hoyt into the corner, but Hoyt jumps to the second rope. He catches Abyss with a turnaround clothesline, and then chokeslams him. Hoyt goes up, and hits the moonsault, but it only gets two. Hoyt sets up for the big boot, but gets a Black Hole Slam instead. Lance kicks out, much to the delight of his Hoytamaniacs. Abyss gets a chair, but Hoyt kicks it into his face. Abyss is knocked down in the corner, and Hoyt sets the chair over his face. He then goes to the opposite end of the ring and hits a VAN TERMINATOR. That was unexpected, RVD slams down his knee brace in disgust. Abyss kicks out of the pin attempt, and now fully pissed, catches a running Hoyt with a second Black Hole Slam to end it.

We’re back to Shane Douglas, this time he’s interviewing BG James about his refereeing gig. The rest of the 3 Live Kru come out, and the segment turns into the Jenny Jones Show. Konnan is all pissed off saying he’s going to get stabbed in the back by BG. Killings tells BG to make it right. We’ve seen this all before.

Since these teams have hated each other for months, we start out with a ringside brawl. Once things settle down in the ring, Monty mocks BG’s shaky knee drop. Killings is playing Ricky Morton here, as both Brown and Kip beat him down. After a mid-ring collision, Konnan gets the hot tag. He hits the Rolling Thunder clothesline, the K-Factor face jam, and starts throwing his shoe. Just as I was saying, “Damn, he really has pretty good aim,” he misses Monty and hits BG. Konnan tries to use the a chair on Kip, but BG takes it away from him. Then, Kip tries to use the chair, but BG takes it away from him as well. Kip shoves BG, BG shoves him back right into Konnan. Konnan does use the chair, blasts Kip, and gets the pin. The 3 Live Kru are reunited!

The fans really do seem happy that 3LK are back together as they celebrate around the arena.

Even though this is Aries’ first match in TNA, the crowd does the dueling chant deal. Well, he did get 54% of the internet vote for this match. The feeling out process begins. Aries dropkicks Daniels to the floor, and follows up with a suicide dive. Now he’s earning the chants. Daniels now feels disrespected and gets angry. He gives Aries a shoulder breaker once back in the ring, which is followed up with a couple of slams. Aries can’t get away from the fury of the Fallen Angel, Daniels hits a tilt a whirl backbreaker and split legged moonsault, but he can’t put Aries away. He tries to with the Angel’s Wings, but Aries escapes. Daniels disrespects Aries with some slaps, which was a mistake. Aries proceeds to beat the ever loving crap out of Daniels, punctuated by a ridiculous swinging elbow drop. Aries gets two counts, but Daniels can’t be pinned. The Fallen Angel regains control with a Flatliner out of nowhere, but misses with an attempted Best Moonsault Ever. Aries takes down Daniels with a kick, and hits his 450 Splash. Daniels breaks the pin by barely getting to the ropes. After more pin attempts, Aries tries to end it with the Brainbuster. Daniels is wise to this though, and reverses it into the Angel’s Wings and the victory.

Shane Douglas is in the back interviewing AMW. They don’t like The Naturals, but they’ll team with them to destroy Team Canada. Then, they’ll go after their NWA World Tag Team Titles. Jarrett interrupts again and gives the same old spiel about Black Wednesday. He says that AMW shouldn’t trust anyone. Storm tells him that he doesn’t trust his mother, or his cousin three times removed. They basically tell Jarrett to piss off. JJ did get in a nice line about Black Wednesday, saying that some of the guys that were released were good, some were bad, and some were duds. Harris seemed to catch the reference and talked to Storm about it.

It was very cool to do the full ring introduction for Jerry Lynn, welcoming him back after being injured for a year. Waltman has no sympathy for the shoulder injury though, he immediately begins working it over. Lynn eventually takes Waltman out to the floor, following up with a cross body off the turnbuckle. Jerry then charges him, but Waltman catches him and slams him shoulder first into the ringpost. Obviously very proud of his handiwork, Sean bows to the crowd. Every time Lynn starts to come back, Waltman takes another shot at the shoulder. Shark Boy, Chris Sabin, and Sonjay Dutt come out to get a better look, showing respect for these veterans. Tenay talks a lot about the battles these two had in Global Wrestling on ESPN, the matches that kicked off their careers, and really kicked off the X Division, style. Waltman goes for the Bronco Buster, but Lynn escapes it. They battle on the ring apron, Waltman tries to suplex Lynn back into the ring, but Lynn suplexes Waltman to the outside instead. Once back in the ring, they’re trading big moves. Lynn goes for the Cradle Piledriver, but Waltman low blows him to escape. An X-Factor gets a long two count. Waltman goes for a cross body off the tope, but Lynn rolls though and gets a two count of his own. A tornado DDT by Lynn also gets two. He goes for a Tombstone Piledriver, but Waltman reverses it into one of his own, which gets yet another two count. Just when it looks like no one will win, Lynn pulls off a victory roll to get the three count.

They shake hands after the match, and it really looks sincere. Just as the crowd starts to get a little misty eyed, Waltman decks Lynn. Then, he gives him a shoulder breaker. Then, he takes him outside, puts his arm over the railing, and slams it with a chair. Dutt, Sabin, and Sharky finally come back out to help out Jerry. I guess they went for nachos after the match.

Lots of action early on, with neither side really gaining an advantage. Lots of quick tags, even AMW and The Naturals seem to play nice. They even team up on a few moves. The Canadians finally isolate Chase Stevens. Eric Young, Bobby Roode, and Petey Williams take turns pounding on him. Stevens puts an end to that with a top rope enziguiri to Young, knocking him out to the floor. It’s chaos after that, with everybody in the ring. Natural Disaster to A-1, but it’s broken up with a Northern Lariat to Stevens. Petey hits a tornado DDT to Andy Douglas, but Chris Harris hits the Catatonic on Williams. Stevens ends up on the top rope and Roode goes for a superplex. Harris puts a stop to that, and hits the obligatory TNA Tower of Doom spot by suplexing them both off. Petey tries to use the hockey stick, but James Storm breaks it up. Stevens accidentally runs into Storm, knocking him out of the ring, and is then rolled up by Roode to give the Canadians the win.

Storm is none too pleased with Stevens. It really doesn’t take much to get AMW and The Naturals brawling, and they don’t disappoint here. Security breaks it up.

Shane Douglas attempts to interview Samoa Joe, with attempt being the key word. Joe just ignores him and goes on taping his fists. Douglas gets fired up, saying that Joe won’t continue to disrespect him. Joe finally speaks, saying that he showed The Franchise respect by not slapping him.

Jeremy Borash does the boxing styled intros for the match, the crowd is very split. I even heard a few boos for AJ, which was shocking. Christopher Daniels is on commentary with Tenay and West. They trade kicks to start, with AJ losing out. Styles doesn’t take too kindly to that, taking him down with a leg sweep and AJ’ing up to body slam him. AJ’s Angry Man Knee Drop only gets a one count. Joe takes advantage, sending AJ out to the floor with a vicious running knee smash. Joe then hits a suicide dive to the outside, knocking AJ back about ten feet into the announce table. They battle back to the ring, a Styles suplex gets two. AJ Irish whips Joe, and goes for his patented flipping dropkick. Joe holds onto the ropes, so AJ just back flips instead. Joe takes control with a spinebuster, then follows up with the face wash and running knee. He is not a nice man. Joe ends up getting AJ into the meanest looking Boston Crab I’ve ever seen, it looked like AJ could kiss his calves. Styles escapes, but Joe turns the hold into an STF. AJ is able to break that, and catches Joe with the flipping dropkick. He follows up one trademark move with another, nailing the Asai DDT for a two count. They battle, AJ tries to roll up Joe into the Styles Clash, but Joe just kicks him in the head. Joe goes for a sunset flip, but turns it into Terry Funk’s crazy rolling, spinning pin. AJ kicks out, then randomly kicks at the air due to the spinning. Nice touch. Kicks from Joe set up an attempted Muscle Buster. AJ, however, escapes the Buster and puts Joe into a Torture Rack of all things. So that’s why they brought in Lex Luger a while back, eh? The ref is accidentally hit by a spinning AJ and Joe. Daniels takes advantage to run in and hit the STO on AJ. Joe thinks about going after AJ, but catches Daniels ready to level him with the X Division title belt. AJ is up by this point, and takes out Daniels. The distraction is enough for Joe though, he hits the Muscle Buster and follows up with the rear naked choke for the tap out victory.

Both guys got the standing ovation, as they deserved.

Raven informs us that being terrified makes him wet. Well, alrighty then….

Raven kicks things off by talking trash to Jarrett. Jeff bails and Rhino comes in to fight Raven. They brawl to the outside where Raven Russian leg sweeps Rhino repeatedly into the guardrail. Back in the ring, all four men get involved with no one getting an advantage. Raven and Jarrett brawl back to the outside, Raven tosses JJ over the announce table. He then dumps a trash can on him, and just happens to find a pizza cutter. Wow, who could have thrown that away tonight? Raven decides to take a slice out of Jarrett’s scalp. Meanwhile, Sabu suplexes Rhino on the entrance ramp. Sabu is in control and he brings Rhino back to the ring. Hurricanranas a plenty, but Rhino draws the line on the Triple Jump Moonsault, tripping Sabu and making him smash his face on the chair. Jarrett is displaying quite the manly blade job at this point, but he’s back in the match. JJ and Rhino take turns on Sabu, but he is able to get the hot tag to Raven before a pin. Raven hits the Evenflow on Rhino, but Jarrett pulls out the ref. Raven goes for the Evenflow on Jarrett, but a low blow puts a stop to that. JJ goes for his trusty guitar, but Raven’s stalker Cassidy Reilly runs in to take it. Jarrett gets the Stroke anyway, but Raven kicks out at two. Rhino tags in and continues the beatdown. In the middle of it, he gets a little hungry and decides to take a bite out of Raven’s forehead. Jarrett tags back in and gets the Figure Four on Raven, but it’s reversed. Everyone’s in at this point, with Sabu taking Rhino out to the floor. Jarrett hits Raven’s patented drop toe hold onto a chair. Poor Raven, that move never works for him. Evenflow by Raven, but it’s broken up by Rhino. Gore to Raven, but it’s broken up by Sabu. Rhino goes for the Gore on Sabu, but he gets the ref instead. Sabu nails the Arabian Facebuster, but there’s no ref to count. Sabu sets up Rhino on a table on the outside, but Abyss runs out. Abyss throws Sabu through the table. Jeff Hardy finally makes his TNA return to make the save. He takes out Abyss, hits a Twist of Fate on Jarrett, and follows that up with a Swanton. Raven goes for the pin, but Jarrett kicks out at two. Rhino sets a table up in the corner, but gets low blowed by Raven. Jarrett is set up for an Evenflow through the table, but Rhino recovers to Gore Raven through the table. Rhino gets the three count before Jarrett and Sabu can react. JJ doesn’t look too happy with Rhino as we fade to black.

· Words don’t do AJ v. Joe justice. I hate to sound too much like a Salesfan, but this match is worth the price of the PPV alone. It was different from what you see in WWE, but it wasn’t too far out there for anyone to get into. The Daniels run-in didn’t bother me as much as it seemed to bother others, I like how it sets up more issues between the three of them.

· EuroTrash Alex Shelley is becoming one of my new favorites.

· Lynn v. Waltman was an excellent X Division match. It stayed true to the general style of the X Division, but was very different from how it’s usually presented. Is Waltman the Comeback Wrestler of the Year at this point? Lynn could have something to say about that by year’s end though.

· The main event brawl was good fun, the added stipulations made it interesting to see how it would end.

· The AMW/Naturals v. Team Canada match was a real disappointment, I was expecting a lot out of it. I think they might have been instructed to keep the wild brawling, a trademark of all of their matches, to a minimum because of the main event though. I do like AMW and The Naturals rekindling their feud though.

· I’m almost at the point where I need to stop making fun of Lance Hoyt and give him his props. If Waltman is the Comeback Wrestler, Hoyt has to be Most Improved. Ditch the stupid leather shorts though, did Jeff Hardy take Lance to Hot Topic or something?

· Austin Aries was very good, but he didn’t stand out. I’m sure the length of the match was a factor, but I don’t know what he brings to the X Division that isn’t already there.

· Where in the blue hell was Traci?

· So BG didn’t turn on the Kru, huh? I still don’t believe that this is the end of it though. Maybe a not so shocking double swerve is in store.

· Overall, the show was great. It was definitely one of TNA’s best efforts. If this is supposed to be TNA in neutral until the Spike TV debut, I kind of hope they don’t try to shift into a different gear. Joe/AJ was my Match of the Night, followed by Lynn/Waltman and Shocker/Shelley. I guess the 8-man tag was the worst of the night, but that’s probably because my expectations were high going into it.

We’ll see what TNA has in store next month at Unbreakable. So far, we know that Raven will defend the NWA World Title against Rhino and Samoa Joe will challenge Christopher Daniels for the X Division Title. I’ll take those two matches for some excellent building blocks to a card. See you next month.