Christian

[Matt D]

I watch TNA. May the wrestling gods be merciful.

 

Christian vs Samoa Joe, No Surrender, 2007

 

I don't do star ratings but I think if I did this might hover right under 4 stars. It might even hit it. Maybe it'd make it slightly over? Okay, to hell with star ratings. Let's go with "So, this was actually pretty good," instead. The video package would have me believe there was heat, with Christian feeling that Joe cost him a title shot and Joe pissed off because Christian gave a con-chair-to to a Samoan dancer or something? Anyway, Joe came out super intense and his stuff looked great and Christian sold it like death, getting beaten around the ring and ringside area. He'd get a little flurry here or there but would get cut off immediately. Heel-in-peril works when you have a monster face, vulnerable heel, and a reason for said face to kill said heel. Eventually, Christian came back with a pretty great looking "Reverse Falling DDT" thing that was his original finisher, off the top. It felt organic and looked great, the former being more important than the later. Most of his attempts at offense were containment chinlocks, which made sense in the context of the match but weren't very exciting. The announcing was pretty good here; if anything they tried TOO hard to explain the match and get things over, which is not a complaint I'm used to having these days. It felt a bit more like psychology guesswork. Sometimes less can be more.

 

Anyway, the heat wasn't all that drawn out or compelling but it probably wasn't supposed to be in a match like this. Christian kept whatever momentum he had coming into this by kicking out at the last second time after time after time during a far more lengthy third act. I think maybe he kicked out of one too many bombs (DVD, Powerbomb, etc) and the story would have been tighter with a bit more restraint. It all led to Joe hooking on his finisher but Christian being in the ropes and the ref breaking it up a bit too harshly, which led to Joe going nuts and killing half the locker room and trying to hang Christian before Cornette and Matt Morgan came out to stop him. The finish worked fine for me. Christian came out looking pretty good. Joe came out looking like a force. Morgan ended up looking dangerous enough to be a deterrent. Yeah, pretty good match.

[W2BTD]

Christian's early TNA work was nothing short of fantastic. He came in motivated & excited about being given a real chance with the ball. Eventually the TNA malaise that hits everybody took over, but it took longer with him, and he never really hit the depths that most other do (Booker T comes to mind as a guy who completely & thoroughly gave up and stopped trying to the point that i'm pretty sure he was seeing how little he could care on purpose while still getting away with it).

 

Christian was always good, but I think from TNA onward is where he went from good to great. He will always be the guy for me who managed to get me totally invested in Randy Orton matches. If you're one of those people who completely ignore TNA, get a hold of Christian's stuff and dive in. It's good.

[rovert]

AJ Styles in his shoot interview this year put Christain over as the professional's professional. Like W2BTD said he gave TNA a good faith effort he was neither slumming it and conducting a cash grab like so many other ex-WWErs.

[Matt D]

Jarrett/Brown vs Christian/Sting - Final Resolution (?)

 

Let me put it this way. I don't think it's worth looking up when this was. As far as I can tell, I think it was Sting's first TNA match and he was fine. Christian was fine. Brown wasn't even that bad, but my god, if you wanted to define the stink of TNA this would be a good match to find it, and frankly, I think it's not even that bad an offender. The first ten minutes of the match are fine with a nice little shine where Sting got to hit some stuff, a good FIP on Christian though I get the feeling that he didn't QUITE have the real polish he'd develop over the next year or two yet. Little choices seemed slightly off here and there (the one that comes to mind was a pretty poor looking ddt/final shot combo that was just ill conceived, but the timing on his hot tag could have been better too; some of that isn't him).

 

But the back third? Oh man. They put in some really fun flourishes like Christian using the Stinger splash or both of them hitting their reverse ddts at the same time on team canada who interfered. It felt a little like Edge teaming with Hogan in that regard. And SOME of the BS was okay (like the aforementioned Team Canada destruction) but a lot of it was just brutal and went on way too long. Jarrett could only tap (with the ref out) after reaching the rope on the Deathlock (the ref bump lasted forever by the way). In a tag match. Against the big new icon you're bringing back. And that was just the tip of the iceberg with all the interference bs and overbooking. I will say this. Sting felt so iconic that it sort of worked. Him hitting the guitar with the bat felt like a real moment. He just had a crazy presence to everything else going on. Christian was fine and he was able to make himself feel, if not on Sting's level, at least able to be in the ring with him, but this whole thing was a mess by the end.