TNA Victory Road 2004 DVD Review

Since its inception in the summer of 2002, TNA Wrestling had made great advances in the struggle to become a successful wrestling company. They had made the transition from producing weekly Pay Per Views , to producing weekly TV shows, and the company had seen many other changes both on screen and off. However, for much of TNA’s success, one thing they hadn’t been able to pull off was producing a 3 hour monthly Pay Per View, that was until November 2004. TNA Victory Road was TNA’s first-ever 3-hour PPV spectacular, here is how it faired.

TNA had been wanting to air a 3 hour PPV since 2003, back then the plan was to bring in Hulk Hogan and have him face Jeff Jarrett for the NWA World Championship, however due to various reasons that plan fell through. However, towards mid-2004 TNA was in a much better position, they now had a weekly TV show to use as a vehicle to promote the PPV. So the date was set for November 7th 2004, and the main event would feature Jeff Hardy challenging NWA World Championship Jeff Jarrett in a ladder match.

The PPV also promised the return of Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, Hall would be in the corner of Jeff Jarrett, and in the corner of the challenger would be Nash. The PPV also promised a very special “In the Pit with Piper” with the incomparable Rowdy Roddy Piper and a special guest. The card also featured TNA regulars such as Monty Brown, Abyss, Raven, AJ Styles and Chris Daniels.

Here is a full look at the card

Matches

• 20-Man X-Division Gauntlet Match:
  Featuring – Hector Garza , Frankie Kazarian, Alex Shelley, Amazing Red, Chris Sabin, D-Ray 3000, Jason Cross, Jerrelle Clark, L.A. Park, Matt Bentley, Matt Sydal, Mikey Batts, Miyamoto, Nosawa, Psychosis , Puma, Shark Boy, Sonjay Dutt, Sonny Siaki, and Spanky.
• Ron Killings, Johnny B. Badd, Erik Watts, & Pat Kenney vs. Kid Kash, Lance Hoyt, & The Naturals (Chase Stevens & Andy Douglas).
• Mascratita Sagrada vs. Piratita Morgan.
• NWA World Tag Team Championship Match:
  3Live Kru (BG James & Konnan) vs. Team Canada (Bobby Roode & Eric Young)
• Trinity vs. Jacqueline.
• Monster’s Ball:
  Monty Brown vs. Raven vs. Abyss.
• TNA X-Division Championship:
  Petey Williams vs. AJ Styles.
• Last Team Standing Match:
  America’s Most Wanted (Chris Harris & James Storm) vs. Triple X (Christopher Daniels & Elix Skipper).
• NWA World Heavyweight Championship Ladder Match
  Jeff Jarrett vs. Jeff Hardy

Highs and Lows

The DVD opens up with an awesome video package made by David Sahadi hyping up TNA and the show. This was the former WWE media man’s first TNA project and it was awesome, I’m a sucker for these types of videos anyway, but this was first class, it literally gave me goose bumps the first time I watched it.

Anyway, moving onto the first match, the 20 Man X-Division Gauntlet match, which is basically TNA’s version of a Royal Rumble, where wrestlers enter the ring at timed intervals and can eliminated, however the remaining 2 wrestlers fight in a regular rules 1 on 1 match. It would be silly for TNA not to open the show with some X – Division match, it is the X-Division that has unquestionably been TNA’s biggest asset since the birth of the company, so it just make sense for the stars of that division to open the show. With these types of matches, it always limits what the workers can do, and it was very evident in this match, it just lacked the excitement of the matches that made the X-Division famous. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a bad match by any means, just lacked something, I suppose you could say it lacked the “X-Factor”. The match did however get some TNA regulars on PPV, such as Chris Sabin, Matt Bentley, and Sonjay Dutt, and we also see the likes of Psychosis and LA Park make an appearance. Overall it was a good match, but I feel TNA would have been better by throwing a 6 man tag match together with the 6 best workers from the match.

We now see a promo encouraging people to vote for a middle-aged Texan who wears a cowboy hat, no it’s not a ploy by the US government to encourage TNA fans to vote for George Bush. It is of course a promo for the “American Dweem” Dusty Rhodes to be the next TNA Director of Authority.

Next match is the 8-man tag match with Ron Killings, Johnny B. Badd, Erik Watts, & Pat Kenney vs. Kid Kash, Lance Hoyt, & The Naturals (Chase Stevens & Andy Douglas). This is pretty much just a filler match, and to get the names on PPV, and if your asking yourself why Johnny B. Badd is on the show, its something to do with him being friends with a local radio presenter in Florida. This was an ok match, but some of the talent like Kid Kash and Ron Killings were wasted by being put in this match.

Mascratita Sagrada vs. Piratita Morganis up next. Midgets, juniors, or even “Mexico’s famous high-flying lucha libre Minis” , call them what you want, I just don’t know why they were on the PPV. This was a bad match, but fortunately was quite short, no pun intended.

3 Live Kru cut a promo to hype up their next match, we also see an update in the Vince Russo vs. Dusty Rhodes vote battle, you guess who is in the lead.

Going back to the ring Scott Hall makes his way to the ring. Hall cuts a promo on tonight’s main event, and he also makes an announcement regarding Kevin Nash.

The NWA World Tag Team Championship Match is next with 3Live Kru (BG James & Konnan) vs. Team Canada (Bobby Roode & Eric Young). This was the first match of the night where it actually had a decent build-up, and a match that actually meant something. This might come as a surprise to some people, but this was actually a good match, it was a traditional tag match that reeked of classic tag team action. Bobby Roode and Eric Young are really hot prospects in the world of TNA, and I can see them going far, they both performed well in this match. As for BG James and Konnan, well both men have been in the wrestling business for a long time now, and they have had a fair few tag team partners between them, and as a team they work well together, and their chemistry with Team Canada made for an entertaining match up. One of the better matches of the night.

Another TNA Director of Authority promo airs, this time its for Vince Russo, can you guess who’s going to win that election.

The familiar bagpipe music hits, as the wrestling legend known as Rowdy Roddy Piper makes his way to the ring. Piper is here to conduct a very special “In the Pit with Piper” interview segment with a mystery guest from Piper’s past. I’m not going to spoil anything here, but its always nice to see Piper, and the way TNA used him in this segment was pretty good. Nice addition to the show.

Women’s match is next with Trinity taking on Jacqueline, the former WWE Cruiserweight and Women’s Champion. The deal in this match was that Trinity was shooting her mouth about who she had beaten etc, so Vince Russo said he would bring in a special opponent for Trinity, who of course would be Jacqueline. Pretty decent match as both women worked pretty well together, plus it was kept nice and short.

Moving on, next up it’s the “Monster’s Ball” match featuring Abyss vs. Raven vs. Monty Brown. Now, if your not sure what the concept of this match is, and I guess there is a fair few of you, I shall explain. Basically all 3 men have supposedly been locked away in dark room for 24 hours, with no food, no water, and no contact with humanity, thus making them very angry men. The match is a pretty much anything goes type of affair, with the usual suspects making an appearance, like tables, thumbtacks and the like. As for the actual wrestling, well there wasn’t a great deal really, it was brawl from start to finish, which probably benefited Raven and Abyss more than it did Monty Brown. Overall this was an entertaining bout that showed a different side on TNA Wrestling, which I can only think was on the show to try and capture a lot of fans of “hardcore” wrestling.

After a couple of interview and promo segments its time for the X-Division Championship match with AJ Styles taking on Team Canada’s Petey Williams who is holding the gold going into this match. On paper, this match looked the strongest and the match was most likely be named the “Match of the Night”. As you would expect this match was a fast-paced affair with a lot of the trademark moves that has made the X-Division famous. Petey Williams was accompanied by Coach Scott D’Amore, who is certainly another valuable asset to TNA Wrestling, both on screen and backstage, and his presence during this match certainly helped from a storyline aspect. The match was probably the best match of the night, but it wasn’t the best match either man has ever had. While the match had the usual highflying, fast and exciting action, I think it personally lacked something. Not a bad match by any means, just not as good as it could have been.

America’s Most Wanted and Triple X (Chris Daniels and Elix Skipper) are arguably two of the greatest tag teams in TNA history, maybe even two of the greatest tag teams in the recent history of pro wrestling, this is why I was really looking forward to this match. This match was a last man standing match, and unlike the WWE last man standing matches, one of the competitors needs to be pinned before the 10 count can take place, and a failure to get up before the 10 count results in a loss. This match delivered, it met all my expectations and was very entertaining, I’d even say it was as good as the X-Division Championship match from earlier on in the night. America’s Most Wanted and Triple X undoubtedly have great chemistry, and they have had awesome matches in the past, this match may not have been as good as some of their past bouts, but it wasn’t far off.

Before the main event, we find out who is the new TNA Director of Authority. I won’t spoil anything here for anyone who might not known what the outcome was, although I’m pretty sure if your reading this you probably know.

Okay, it’s now time for the TNA Victory Road main event of the evening, featuring Jeff Hardy (Challenger) vs. Jeff Jarrett (Champion) in a ladder match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship . I know some people may question the sense to put Hardy in a main event situation, but at the time he was one of TNA’s most recognisable names, so it just made sense to have him in the main event. The bookers at TNA decided to have this as a ladder match, and that again made sense, Hardy isn’t known for his great wrestling ability, but his highflying ladder matches, so the fact it was a ladder match took some of the emphasis off Hardy in terms of his ability in the ring. There was another addition to this match, that being Scott Hall and Kevin Nash who had been scheduled to be involved in the match, Hall in the corner of Jarrett and Nash in the corner of Hardy.

This match pretty much did what I thought it would, it wasn’t anything spectacular but was fairly solid. Jeff Jarrett pretty much did all the wrestling based work, and Hardy did his usual high spots with the ladder. This match isn’t going to go in any record books for being an all-time great NWA Championship match, but it was fairly entertaining. Many people criticize Jarrett for being dull in the ring, something which I strongly disagree with. Jarrett may not be a Kurt Angle, but he is solid, and more so, consistently solid in the ring.

In review, this was a solid match that I enjoyed quite a lot, it did have a “big time” feel about it, that was made that bit more special with appearances by Scott Hall and some of his former nWo running mates.

DVD Extras

• Backstage footage of Jeff Hardy and Frankie Kazarian.

Overall

This was TNA’s first shot at a 3 Hour PPV, and to be quite frank it was slightly disappointing. For the 2 years TNA were in existence prior to this PPV they managed to deliver some gripping and really quality action, but this show lacked a lot of that action. Sure, it had some good matches involving AJ Styles vs. Petey Williams and the Last Man Standing Tag match, but some of the other things on the show could have easily been scrapped. Firstly, the 20 Man X-Division Gauntlet match just used too much TV time and didn’t deliver in terms of in ring action. Secondly there was no need for the midget match, as well as the Trinity vs. Jacqueline match, all of which should have been scrapped, and more time should have been given to the other matches on the card. The show simply didn’t have enough of what TNA was good at, and it had too much stuff that didn’t really matter.

If your looking for a PPV full of quality wrestling action then one of TNA’s other DVD’s will be a better purchase for you. However, if you’re a TNA fan and are thinking about purchasing this event to add to your TNA DVD collection I’d recommend it, even though it wasn’t a great show, it was still a historical night for TNA Wrestling.

Points: 5 / 10

Dan