Search - TNA Cross The Line PPV Vol 2 (Turning Point, Final Resolution & Genesis) on DVD

TNA Frontline vs. Main Event Mafia

D.P. | California | 02/01/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This is another "Cross The Line" 3 disc set featuring the Turning Point/Final Resoultion/Genesis PPV's of 2008 into 2009. The main storyline in TNA at this time was the Main Event Mafia group of former World Champions & established veterans against the TNA Originals of the younger stars who established their name in TNA and later renamed to Frontline when ECW alumni of Rhino & Team 3D joined the group.


Turning Point 2008:
Elimination Match: Eric Young vs. Jay Lethal vs. Consequences Creed vs. Petey Williams vs. Jimmy Rave vs. Homicide vs. Doug Williams, vs. Tanahashi vs. Volador vs. Sonjay Dutt vs. Jimmy Rave - Unlike the normal multiman matches on TNA PPV's, this one was under "lucha libre" rules where you can not only tag to enter the match but anytime you go outside the ring, anyone else can come into the ring to be the legal man in the match. This was your typical multiman X division match that you see where there were plenty of spots & fast paced action to make it a solid opener.

Taylor Wilde & Roxxi vs. Awesome Kong & Raisha Saeed - Wilde & Roxxi were looking for revenge for Kong's new associate, Rhaka Khan, turning on Wilde. This was a solid tag match overall but nothing special.

Rhino vs. Sheik Abdul Bashir - Unfortunally, this is one of those matches were was concentrated more on what was going on elsewhere than what was in the ring as Scott Hall & the Insane Clown Posse were on the outside causing a scene in the audience that distracted everyone from Bashir to the audience chanting "Razor" towards Hall. The match itself was average but you can tell everyone was upset about what happened on the outside to the point where Rhino just walked off after the match.

TNA Tag Team Champions Beer Money Inc. vs. Motor City Machine Guns - This was the first "above average" match of the night and fun match to watch at that. Great tag team wrestling that picked up the pace in the end.

TNA Legends Champion Booker T vs. Christian Cage - This first match involing the Main Event Mafia here as weeks earlier, Booker T debuted the new TNA Legends Championship and this was the first title defense with the stipulation that if Cage loses, he must join the Main Event Mafia. I have nothing against Booker T & Christian Cage but this was exactly the type of match that you would expect from these two based off their previous series of matches in WWE. It was a solid match but nothing above average.

Falls Count Anywhere Match: Abyss vs. Kurt Angle - These two should have been arrested after this match because they stole the show here (bad joke, I know). You had chairshots, brawling through the crowd, going through the stage, and Kurt Angle performing such eye-catching moves like his running flip dive off the stage & moonsault onto the steel chair. Look out for the ending where Abyss falls off the scaffold through the spanish table because he could have been seriously injured if he misjudged the table/fall by a few feet. Again, match of the night here & Abyss' best showing since his return to TNA earlier in the year.

Samoa Joe vs. Kevin Nash - For the first time since probably his Starrcade match against Goldberg, this is the most motivated I've seen Kevin Nash in a match. This was a "student vs. teacher" setup with the story that Joe was just too much for Nash to the point where he had to keep cheating to get an advantage. This couldn't follow the previous match but this wasn't bad at all & a better match than what you would expect from Kevin Nash at this stage in his career.

TNA Champion Sting vs. A.J. Styles - This was a disappointment to me as it seemed like the match didn't equal the months worth of hype it had & along with the fact that both men were capable of so much more than what we saw. It was good & solid but it wasn't a "main event" calibur match...and the ending which came off real "flat" didn't help either.

Without a doubt the highlights here were the Kurt Angle/Abyss match, Beer Money vs. MCMG, and the Nash/Joe match for those Kevin Nash fans.


Final Resolution 2008:
Feast Or Fired Match: L.A.X. vs. Jay Lethal vs. Curry Man vs. Shark Boy vs. Consequences Creed vs. B.G. James vs. Motor City Machine Guns vs. Rock N' Rave Infection vs. Sonjay Dutt vs. Cute Kip - For those who didn't see the first one last year, a "Feast Or Fired" match is TNA's version of WWE's "Money In The Bank" where there are 4 briefcases hung up on a different pole with 3 of them containing a title shot at a championship (World, X Division, Tag Team) and the 4th one being the "Fired" case which would result in being fired from TNA. The rules are that you have to exit the ring with the briefcase in order to claim it. This was better than the trainwreck I saw last year but it's your typical TNA multiman battle royal type of match but keep watching after the match for what happened between Broash & the Gunz as that was a running story throughout the night that later ended with the TNA debut of someone you may recognize from their video game.
Now for those keeping up with what happened with the cases afterwards...Homicide won an X Division Title shot, Hernandez won a TNA Title shot, Jay Lethal won a Tag Team Title shot, and Curry Man was fired.

Taylor Wilde, O.D.B., Roxxi vs. Beautiful People & Sharmell - As part of a pre-match deal, if Sharmell's team wins then the Beautiful People will get Booker T's locker room. This was just an average match that was more of "character driven/put a storyline over" revolving around O.D.B. & Sharmell.

X Division Champion Sheik Abdul Bashir vs. Eric Young - Over the past few weeks, TNA did a big character change with Young in that he's no longer TNA's version of WWE's "Eugene" character and became the more serious wrestler like we used to see in the old days of Team Canada. A good solid match between these two but this was more about the current issue between Bashir & referee Shane Sewell that really came to ahead after the match.

TNA Knockouts Champion Awesome Kong vs. Christy Hemme - This was another "put storyline over" match as it was real short & only there to set Hemme up as the new "Gail Kim" by taking the fight to Kong but the match itself was nothing special.

TNA Tag Team Champions Beer Money Inc. vs. Abyss & Matt Morgan - Sorry but I'm just not impressed with the Morgan & Abyss team so I just felt that Beer Money carried that team to a watchable but nothing special match.

Rhino vs. Kurt Angle w/Mick Foley as the Special Enforcer - After months of being stuck in opening/midcard status, Rhino gets a renewed push here against Kurt Angle with the stipulation that if Angle wins, he'll finally get his rematch against Jeff Jarrett at the next PPV. A good solid match that went back & forth between both guys. The only downfall I can say here was the Al Snow appearence to distract Foley & play off the fact that Mick Foley made tons of money at Snow's expense.....which is the exact feud WWE did almost a decade earlier. Just as quick as Snow appeared, he also hasn't been seen in TNA since.

Main Event Mafia (TNA Champion Sting, Kevin Nash, Booker T, Scott Steiner) vs. TNA Frontline (A.J. Styles, Samoa Joe, Team 3D) - The TNA Championship was on the line with the stipulation that if anyone in Frontline got the victory then A.J. Styles would become the new TNA Champion. This was a fun tag match which everyone looked strong, fast paced, and everyone got their opportunities in. What's probably more interesting than the match itself is just watch what happens with Sting & the rest of the MEM afterwards.


Genesis 2009:
Genesis is one of those PPV's where anything that could go wrong DID go wrong. Due to injuries to Christy Hemme, Awesome Kong, and Kevin Nash (for those keeping track, that's the 4th TNA PPV he's missed due to injury), the card had to be changed. As it rains it pours because TNA ran an angle where Rhino was attacked by the MEM in his hotel earlier (two months after WWE did the same angle with Jeff Hardy at Survivor Series) causing his match with Sting to be the weakest & shortest match on the entire card...but as if that match couldn't have gotten any worse, the crowd cheered Sting the entire time & turned on Rhino. This PPV was also advertised around Mick Foley's return to the ring in the six man tag but due to Nash's injury, Cute Kip replaced Nash with the match not really picking up until it was turned into a "Hardcore Rules" match. Foley's performance reminded me of the match he had with Carlito (anyone remember that?) where his performance didn't equal the hype around his return. The only positives I can say about this PPV is that two matches gave this PPV some replay value in that Kurt Angle & Jeff Jarrett stole the show with their brawl that was without a doubt the match of the night & one that I felt topped their Bound For Glory match...which if anyone saw was a great match as well. The other match is the X Division Championship finals between the Motor City Machine Guns that was just a great match overall that's been missing from the X division in a long time to the point even made Don West say that, "this reminds me of A.J. Styles & Jerry Lynn from the early days." The rest of the matches on this card (O.D.B./Roxxi/Taylor Wilde vs. Saeed/Bolt/Kham, Sewell/Bashir, L.A.X./Young vs. Dutt/Rave/Kiyoshi, Beer Money vs. Morgan/Abyss vs. Lethal/Creed) were just average or as good as you would expect but nothing special.

In the end, Turning Point didn't have a bad match on it, was solid with the wrestling, and did it's job in establishing the Main Event Mafia as the dominate group in TNA. Final Resolutionwas more about establishing their future storylines (Angle/Jarrett, Hemme/Kong, Bashir/Sewell, Feast Or Fired) while still pushing their current ones (MEM vs. Frontline). Genesis has some solid average matches but came off as a filler more than anything due to all the injury problems, the World Title angle, and the crowd being dead weight for most of the night. Overall, your getting 3 PPV's for the price of one here so it's something worth picking up."