Three weeks after defeating Chris Harris in singles action, Christian Cage now meets America’s Most Wanted in the tag team arena. His partner here is Rhino, but the following night on PPV, he’ll be teaming with Sting opposite Jeff Jarrett and Monty Brown. America’s Most Wanted enter this bout as NWA World’s Tag Team Champions, though their belts are not on the line as instead, they’ll be defending them against Team 3D at Final Resolution.
The people are with Christian at the bell, allowing he and Harris to take their time before sharing an intense lockup in centre ring. Harris quickly charges out ahead, punching Cage to the mat only to be toppled via creative hurricanrana thingy. Must say, I didn’t realise that Cage was a chop man at this time but indeed, he’s a chop man. Either way, Rhino soon comes in, running wild on both Harris and Storm.
The team are a step ahead of the individuals however, with Harris pulling Storm to safety, allowing for their cutoff. They get right to work, cutting the ring off and using Gail Kim to boot. It’s a short lived heat however, with Rhino immediately resetting things and bringing in Cage. Kim interferes, with Harris launching Cage over the top as we go into some actual heat. That makes more sense, as they have a little time ahead of them here.
AMW control things through an ad break, dominating proceedings by isolating Cage. His retort isn’t all that far away either, making the tag for an explosive Rhino comeback. Cage gets in on the act also, coming off the top with a big crossbody for 2. Almost out of nowhere, the people are rocking here, really biting on the near falls that follow. That includes a Kim low blow only for Cage to survive, with Team 3D eventually removing Gail from the picture.
If that wasn’t enough, they then get inside the ring for around thirty seconds, all while the referee talks to Kim. Somewhere along the way, Cage not only wins but gets busted open too, howling. The heels get some heat afterwards, with “we want Sting” chants emerging as his promo plays over the speakers. It’s not particularly good, but it makes Mike Tenay happy, which is honestly enough for me at this point.
As for the match, TNA is retroactively driving me insane with this project. Every match is packed with nonsense and this one was the worst example yet. That Team 3D run-in was a genuine mess and again, it all undercuts the actual finish anyway. None of these are even close to bad matches, the talent won’t allow such a thing. That’s the frustrating part though, as each entry seems to fall such a distance short of its ceiling.
As with most TNA things, even in 2006, it didn’t have to be this way but it was, so we’ll see if my little project improves. Otherwise, I may be headed to the PG land of extreme, unfortunately.
Bing Bong's Match Reviews 