TNA Sacrifice 2011 Review

TNA’s Sacrifice is wrestling’s gain!


By Phil Allely

TNA’s Sacrifice PPV came hot on the heels its flagship TV shows re-brand (now titled Impact Wrestling). Mick Foley’s re-appearance on TV as the Network representative, the emphasis on wrestling and much hyped Sting versus Rob Van Dam world title bout all built things up, but could they deliver the goods?

Mexican America and Ink Inc. had its moments as an opener, both teams doing their thing well. A pretty even bout throughout, the gorgeous Knockouts tag champs Rosita and Sarita proved to be the deciding factor for their team’s win.

Kendrick and Robbie had a fair match, whilst impressive in parts the duo failed to ignite the crowd even as Kendrick stole the win.

Madison Rayne’s re-match for Mickie James’ Knockout gold had a stipulation, if James retained her strap Tara would be relieved of her duties to Rayne. Reasonably paced and well planned this was a decent knockouts brawl, a ref bump and Tara cheap shot on Madison giving Mickie the win to set Tara free.

The X Division then got its chance to shine with champion Kazarian facing challenger Max Buck. Kaz retaining his belt for Fortune with a nice Great Muta like ‘shining wizard move’.

Big men Abyss and Crimson then went all out to pulverise each other in a show of strength and hard-hitting action. Crimson’s success going down well with the fans to maintain his winning streak.

The TNA Tag Team Championship bout saw champs Beer Money face the combo of Matt Hardy and the returning Chris Harris. Top duo Storm and Roode did overcome the odds and retain their prized belts, the Hardy/Harris team did give them a good run for their money though.

AJ Styles and Tommy Dreamer’s No DQ brawl saw the action flowing to the outside of the ring, high-flyer Styles working well with the more extreme Dreamer. A piledriver through a table giving Tommy the win (after a Bully ray run-in and Daniels save).

With Chyna on board the Angle/Jarrett storyline continued. The mixed tag bout saw the guys take the lead. Chyna did make her presence known against both Jeff and Karen where possible. A nice double ankle lock seeing the Jarrett’s lose.

The main event featured World Champion Sting tackling Rob Van Dam. Sting and RVD carried themselves well, the champ giving as good as he got from his risk-taking challenger. Stings second Scorpion Death Drop (after a slightly fumbled first attempt) on a prone Van Dam saw him retain his belt.

Sacrifice may not have shaken the wrestling world to its foundations, but it was a solid effort from a company that seem determined to offer ‘wrestling’ as their product. The match quality veered from good to above average throughout the show, storylines progressed and underneath it all there was a sense that perhaps by acknowledging that ‘wrestling matters’ they can continue to build their profile and put on more events like this.