[2010-09-05-TNA-No Surrender] Jeff Hardy vs Kurt Angle

[Kadaveri]

This is one of the silliest matches I've ever seen.

 

Match opens with a lockup and they exchange holds. Nothing particularly meaningful but it's ok. Hardy takes Angle down hard and goes to the top rope, but Angle is up lightning quick and jumps up top and belly to belly suplexes Hardy off the top rope. I remember him defeating Rikishi to win the King of the Ring finals with that move! Two count. Surprised to see that so early in the match.

 

Hardy gets up. Hits Angle with a Twist of Fate. 2 count. Angle then dodges a swanton bomb to hit Jeff with the Angle slam. 2 count. Angle pulls down the straps and puts Jeff in the ankle lock but Jeff escapes only for Angle to hit 3 rolling German suplexes and go to the top rope for a moonsault but Jeff dodges and hits Kurt with a whisper in the wind. 2 count. Angle rolls to the outside but Jeff hits him with a Twist of Fate on the outside and then a swanton bomb to the outside. Jeff drags Kurt into the ring and hits him with another Twist of Fate. 2 count. Then hits him with a swanton bomb. 2 count. Then hits him with another swanton bomb. 2 count. Then hits him with another swanton bomb but Kurt gets the knees up. Kurt gets up and hits Jeff with an Angle slam. 2 count. Angle puts Jeff in the ankle lock but Jeff kicks him out the ring.

 

What the hell even is this. This match has now been going on for 15 minutes and they're just hitting each other with their finishing moves over and over again. It's ridiculous. There's no drama because you can't have highs when the entire match is a huge high leaving the whole thing flat.

 

So back to the match after a couple of minutes of fighting on the outside Kurt puts Jeff in the ankle lock for 53 seconds until Jeff kicks him off. Kurt then puts him back in the ankle lock for 1 minute and 58 seconds with the grapevine. How can anyone think this is a devastating submission move? Jeff's been in it for several minutes combined in this match. The bell then goes for a time limit draw. Eric Bischoff comes out and says we can't have a draw, 5 more minutes (why not just get rid of the time limit??)

 

The match is restarted and Kurt puts Jeff in the ankle lock again for only 16 seconds this time until Jeff kicks him out the ring. Jeff goes to the top rope but Kurt jumps up with him and gives him an Angle slam from the top rope. 2 count. Some brawling on the outside until the 5 minutes elapses, and Bischoff says they're being given another 5 minutes to finish the match. The brawling continues until Kurt is busted open on the steps. Jeff puts him in a boston crab but Angle eventually escapes and puts Jeff in the ankle lock for 50 seconds until the time elapses. Bischoff then says that because of Angle's cut the match cannot be restarted so it's been ruled a no contest.

 

There were no less than FIFTEEN finishing moves in this match that didn't even have a finish, including two on the outside and one a super-version from the top rope and a super-submission (the grapevined ankle lock). What we learned from his match is that these guys' finishing moves are totally ineffective, at least that's what I got from it.

 

*1/2 Bad.

[Richeyedwards]

You think this is bad?

 

These two have a midcard cagematch at lockdown 2012 which had 15 finishers in it (I counted) including ones off of the top of the cage and top rope angles slams. That match goes just over 15 mins it is quite literally finishers from 2 mins in.

 

I think it would be the absolute hight of everything is a transitional move angle. The finish they just crawl out the door.

[Microstatistics]

Yeah, I'm not a Kurt Angle hater but this match (and apparently the Lockdown 2012 one as well) do him and his reputation no favors.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Kurt Angle vs Jeff Hardy vs TNA No Surrender 2010

 

I was intrigued by this match because it is a 30 minute draw. I have no idea what these two could do to possibly fill 30 minutes. Conventional thought is to go long with either an extended shine or extended felling out process and a long heat segment, but with these who knows. Neither is a ring general or regarded as a PHD wrestling psychologist.

 

A little context going into the match both wrestlers are babyfaces. This is the semi-finals of the TNA World Championship Tournament. Abyss beat the living shit out of RVD as part of the Immortal storyline to force the vacancy. This also being face vs face added to the intrigue.

 

First 20 minutes of the match: I was not let down. Totally divergent structure. They were hitting finishers SEVEN minutes into a THIRTY minute match. God bless them! Transitions in this match were of course piss poor, but there were some great spots. I love when wrestlers that normally don't powerbomb, powerbomb. Don't ask me why but I mark out for that. Angle hits a WICKED POWERBOMB on Hardy about 2-3 minutes into the match to take command. Like I said they were switching off at will. They were throwing out their set up spots. Hardy hit a Twist of Fate, missed the Swanton and Angle hit an Olympic Slam. SEVEN MINUTES INTO THE MATCH! WOW! Hardy hit a tremendous Swanton to the outside. Great spot. They do a good job milking it, but bothers me that Angle hits the next move. Angle misses the Moonsault. At least they are missing moves. That helps. Hardy hits a Swanton 1-2-NO! SECOND SWANTON! 1-2-NO! These are massive bombs. THIRD SWANTON EATS KNEES! Angle gets an Olympic Slam for two. Goes the Anklelock. There is apparently 15 minutes left, but feels like I am one minute away from a finish. I am so curious what will happen in the next 15 minutes. Ahhhhhh I see what they did. It is a twenty minute time limit. The last 5 minutes is just Ankleock reversals and long Anklelock followed by the draw. They did a great job not telegraphing the draw. It is NOT smart wrestling by any means, but it was an entertaining bomb-throwing match. Here comes the Bisch.

 

Five More Minutes: Bisch says Five More Minutes. Angle is relentless on the Ankle and actuals works it over. Hardy pushes him off. Good Hardy selling here. They have actually managed to manufacture some drama with Hardy's ankle being fucked but Angle cant put him away. Hardy goes up top but is too slow. Angle hits a super duper Olympic Slam. Cant capitalize. Angle takes a crazy flip bump over the top rope to the floor. They are milking this all the way. Double clothesline knocks both out. Time expires. Bisch says we must have a winner. Well then why did you put a fucking time limit on it then shithead. Stupid booking aside, I am getting into this.

 

Last Five Minutes: Strong finish here. Angle is relentless, lots of heavy blows. Misses a charge in the corner. Hardy slams his head into the steps a bunch and draws blood. They do the Boston Crab spot so Angle can be Austin with the blood squirting out of his head. Angle grabs the Anglelock and time expires again. In a smart move, Bischoff does NOT declare this a draw. Instead due to the cut, he is ruling it a No Contest, which saves the illogic of it being a time limit draw after two restarts. Impressive.

 

I thought this was very similar to Okada/Omega I match. Lots of bombs, no transitions and lots of milking the clock by laying around. This actually sucked me in more because of Hardy's injured ankle and the interesting ways they kept him in the match and the bloody Angle was good too. I would say this is a hair better. ***1/2

[Superstar Sleeze]

Fun fact: This is actually generally considered to be one of the greatest TNA matches of all time. I had no idea. I thought this was just some random novelty match. It is not bad as I said. Just bloated. I stand by my assessment that this is a slightly better version of Omega/Okada from 1/4/17.