[2010-05-16-TNA-Sacrifice] Rob Van Dam vs A.J. Styles

[Superstar Sleeze]

TNA World Heavyweight Champion Rob Van Dam vs AJ Styles - Sacrifice 2010

 

AJ defended in March against Abyss at Destination X and in April against D'Angelo Dinero (Elijah Burke) at Lockdown. If I remember correctly Hogan/Bischoff were babyfaces and aligned with Abyss against the heel Fortune Faction of AJ Styles & Ric Flair. Dinero was actually pretty pushed pretty heavily in the first third of the year. He main evented the February PPV beating Mr. Anderson to earn his title shot at Lockdown. I didn't skip those matches on purpose. I just couldn't find them. I loved AJ vs Abyss in 2005 and would have loved to seen what they could have done with each other five years later and with the face/heel roles reversed.

 

So now to this match, RVD debuted as a Hogan crony based on their ties to Hogan's Celebrity Championship Wrestling. He won title on Impact after Lockdown and I actually like that move. A title change on TV to a hot debuting star can really spark the TV and a promotion. This is AJ's rematch.

 

I didn't have high expectations for this because at the end of the day RVD is not that good. He is good in individual spots. As always no one sells a DDT better than RVD and I thought his sell of AJ's dropkick was absolutely perfect. However, there are so many times where selling to RVD just means to stand and not move. It reminded me of 1998 Crow Sting. There was no register. It was not that he was no selling. No selling is a type of selling. This was not that. He just was not selling. This match also was worked with heavy heat on RVD so large chunks revolved around RVD's shitty selling. Interestingly, the thing that I usually find annoying about RVD, ridiculously contrived spots, was kept to a minimum! The only spot that looked stupid was AJ being crotched on the ropes and then RVD doing a thrust kick. That only looked bad because RVD hesitated a lot and made AJ look silly waiting there.

 

Some AJ spots I enjoyed: AJ checking his dental work after a stiff thrust kick, AJ's going into orbit on a monkey flip, AJ's Pele looked great.

 

There was a great RVD leg scissors takedown into a rollup that I marked out for. Again, with AJ and this bear mentioning is how he builds his finish runs. It is not finishers-> kickouts. It is can the person hit a finisher and then win. We see RVD miss the Five Star Frogsplash in the middle of the match. We see AJ get countered on Styles Clash and miss the Springboard 450. The drama is not in the kickout, but if the move can be hit. Way more interesting!

 

After the missed Springboard 450, Flair comes down the aisleway. Jay Lethal attacks and traps him in the Figure-4. I LOVE the Lethal/Flair promo segment so I will forgive this. RVD hits the Five Star Frogsplash sending AJ back into the midcard.

 

Nothing bad, but nothing super awesome. Basic story of Face shine->Heel heat->Finish. RVD had plenty of hope spots to keep it interesting and AJ rules at offense. I probably wont remember this in a couple months, but this gets points for a smart finish build that I outlined two paragraphs ago. ***1/2