[2007-10-14-TNA-Bound For Glory] Samoa Joe vs Christian Cage

[Superstar Sleeze]

Samoa Joe vs Christian Cage - TNA Bound For Glory 2007

WOW! This may be my favorite Samoa Joe individual performance ever! HE WAS ALIVE! I was just vibing off all his energy! It was charging me up! Dude felt like the biggest star in the world. His charisma was effusive and he just came in hyped, supercharged and was playing to the crowd so well. You got to watch it. He comes off like a total badass rockstar in this match. 

The Destination X match from earlier in the year for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship gets more hype but this match is way better and way more fun. There are so many great Joe moments but I think my favorite was he does his usual nonchalant walk-away but adds a Middle Finger and then does some flex thing that just came off as  cool. Christian's timing was phenomenal. He gave Joe the lion's share of this match. As the heel who was losing, he could have taken a large heat segment, but he didnt. He would get short flurries almost like heel hope spots to let you know he was alive but more often than not he was thwarted. It felt like an extended shine. The shine is my favorite part of the match so I loved this. Also when Christian did get control it was always through an elusive evasion tactic. It demonstrated Joe was the bigger man but Christian could use his savvy to get one up on him. The best example of this is how Christian hit a cool DDT on the floor. Again, his control didnt last long because Joe was a force of nature who would not be denied in this match. Joe busted all his badass offense. Elbow Suicida AND the Corkscrew Plancha! I loved the Kawada Enziguiri as Christian went for a Springboard. They use the Christian Coalition (AJ Styles & Tomko) as a distraction to give Christian a ballshot and the Unprettier but no one is buying it. We all know Joe is taking this one. Joe beats the shit out of him. Musclebuster & Koquina Clutch for the win!

Interesting tidbit is that Christian had been in TNA since like late 2005, definitely by January 2006 and he had never been pinned or submitted and it was October 2007. I feel like TNA does not get enough credit for how well they booked Angle, Christian and Sting their main eventers. Their main events follow a logical progression. Angle vs Sting was their biggest possible match they were smart to put that on here. Their third biggest star is Christian and Joe got a wicked clean, definitive win here. I know their next "big" PPV was in April at Lockdown and they did the smart thing and it was Joe vs Angle, but Joe was red hot here. I would have moved that timetable up to January and let Joe reign through 2008. This match is wicked fun and shows Joe still had the IT FACTOR well into 2007. I dont think he lost until he took that fucking stupid bump on the stairs against Sting was it in mid-2008. That was so dumb. Joe from 2002-2008 was The Man! ****