[2004-06-09-NWA TNA] A.J. Styles vs Kazarian

[El-P]

AJ Styles vs Kazarian (X Division title - TNA 06/09/04)

 

WIth the debut of Impact, TNA seems to give a brand new focus to the X division with AJ Style as the new ace, which is a smart decision. By making the X-div title "as important" as the world title (this was the main-event of the first PPV post Impact) with their best worker and former world champ as the ace, it gives a lot of credibility to the part of the product that is very distinctive from WWE. The six-sided ring was also an idea, if nothing else, and the announcers did a good job explaining how it changed the in-ring strategy (more difficult to get to the ropes, more sides to create offense etc...). Kazarian has come a long way since his horrible stint in 2003, working heel helped, but he also paces himself a lot more and does less stupid flippy-floppy sequences. His execution and selling is better too. Excellent match, with AJ dominating the first part with better speed and better understanding of his opponent's mistakes until Kazarian took the upper hand with one of his trademark spot which requires a dubious setup (the slingshot DDT, here on the apron which looked brutal), but they did they best to make it look good. They kinda lost the crowd during a Kazarian resthold and never got them back, which is too bad since they showed good pacing and selling of the exhaustion. Worked kinda japanese style toward the end, with stiff offense. They never went overboard with finisher kickouts either. Really nice work overall, with tons of snappy and spectacular offense, which is what the X-div is supposed to be about. The finish was totally blown though, with AJ overshooting his dive, Kazarian seemingly kicking out and the ref still counting three. Totally confusing, looked like crap and really ruined the end of what was an excellent match. Still, Kazarian showed a lot of improvement and AJ Styles as the ace of the X div brings both credibility and promises of excellent matches to come. Well, with Kid Kash (and Dies... Dallas) attacking him post-match, maybe not so much.