Keith Watanabe * NET 2.0

just got through watching it. fun PPV. not a huge fan of the concept since you'd have to utilize in each match to really get the value out (some matches like the first one made it inconsequential), but there were some excellent moments in the matches that just blew me away. Christian Cage did really well to impress me here. not that he did a lot of spots than his usual matches, but he had major moments that really stood out such as the reversal powerbomb onto the tacks, his top of the cage frog splash and his Unprettier on the tacks. of course, Abyss took a gnarly beating, but they're really trying to build Christian as a worthy champion. then next month he'll have another match with Abyss in a Full Metal Mayham style match up. that should be good potentially where he does more bump taking and shows a few hardcore spots to solidify people believing in him as a champion. also, it helps put Abyss in the spotlight while making Christian look like a fighting champion. i mean, there's tons of people Christian can feud with for over the year to build him up as a legitimate appearing champion so this path is quite interesting. The World X-Cup Japan vs Team USA match was pretty nifty. it's great seeing Minoru Tanaka in the states. wonder if Yumi went? :) no huge spots in there but the match was just great for warming people up. i'm hoping they eventually move up guys like Shelley and Lethal since they're so much fun to watch. Christopher Daniels vs Sanshi was fun too. kinda Japanese in style but they have tons of stuff to go even though it seems next month Low-Ki (or however you spell his name) won't have something to do before the PPV. adding Low-Ki/Sanshi adds more depth to the X-Division. Samoa Joe vs Sanshi!!!! Samoa Joe vs Sabu was what it was. The right guy went over while another guy is on his way out. I'd take Low-Ki over Sabu in his injured state these days. but TNA is losing a character. not sure if that's really a big loss since he would only show up here and there. The 6 man X-division Escape match was another fun one. not a whole lot of "Holy Shit!" spots but still action packed. it didn't steal the show, leaving the last two matches to demonstrate something as well. the Team Canada vs Team 3D wasn't bad. nothing fantastic and had it's moments. great seeing Runt in the group. Runt vs Eric Young!!!! final match was also fun. AJ is legit crazy. you gotta admit it was smart getting him in there. definitely a "passing of the torch"/rub match where AJ probably would benefit the most. he definitely had a potential show stealing spot with his top of the ceiling dive onto Storm through the table. Steiner looked good too. tons of suplexes from him that made him look like a monster. they should do a Steiner vs Rhino match down the road sometime just so that they have a wild brawl. great PPV. no real 5* matches but i can't complain about the overall quality. my main nitpicks were the build of the matches. TNA still lacks building matches in most cases where the best move is saved for last. best spot for a finish last time i've seen was Samoa Joe doing the Island Driver to Daniels. they need more of that where the big move is the finish. i mean AJ doing the crazy dive should've been the end point as opposed to Sting doing a lame looking Scorpion Deathlock. Or at least have Sting do something killer.