Search - TNA: Sacrifice 2008 on DVD

The Lethal Lottery Returns....And Drags Down This PPV

D.P. | California | 05/18/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"For those trivia fans, this was the third Sacrifice that involved a tournament (the first two involved the World & Super X Cup) but this one was based around the tag team tournament to crown new Tag Team Champions...however, TNA decided to use a format in having four "established teams" face off against 4 teams picked at random (a throwback to WCW's old "Lethal Lottery" concept) with one of the random wrestlers being the Womens Champion in Awesome Kong. On top of this, Kurt Angle suffered an injury which caused him to be removed from the World Title match earlier in the show.

Team 3D vs. Sting & James Storm - This was more of a "put a storyline over" segment than an actual match as it was all about Sting & Storm not getting along to the point where Storm just went to the floor while Sting fought off both members of Team 3D before they finally stepped aside & let Sting slam Storm through the table setup in the ring (funny moment). Again, this was to continue the Sting/Storm storyline more than anything...and a complete waste of a Sting appearence.

Christian Cage & Rhino vs. Robert Roode & Booker T - Just like the previous match, two recent enemies were teaming with each other here & they were getting into it before Rhino & Cage even came out to ringside. Unlike the previous match, this was an actual match that went back & forth between both teams with Booker & Roode making the blind tags with each other throughout the match that would eventually lead to their downfall. Decent match for what it was with an aftermath that's been building up for the past month now...and hopefully on the DVD, they'll switch the camera angles so everyone watching TV doesn't see what's going to happen for around around 20 secs. before Mike & Don notice it to sell the shock value.

Kip James & Matt Morgan vs L.A.X. - Third time in a row, two enemies teaming together as Morgan & Kip were no strangers to each other in the past weeks as well but unlike the previous two teams, they were actually trying to work together. While Morgan did showcase some "Undertaker" like ability, the match was too short (less than 5 mins.) to really get into.

A.J. Styles & Super Eric vs B.G. James & Awesome Kong - This match didn't make alot of sense story wise as it was Eric Young/Super Eric who cost A.J. the tag titles in the first place but now they're acting like buddies to the point where A.J. was referred to as Eric's "super hero buddy." Besides that point, this match was all about the "Chyna" factor in Awesome Kong as A.J. was resisting fighting her at first until she wouldn't let up from attacking. From there, Kong didn't do much but what was done was impactful & played a factor in the end result in her team's downfall as Super Eric slammed her (that's right the comedy act overpowered the dominate monster) onto B.G. One moment to look out for was the ending when Styles went for a springboard but slipped and crashed face first. Just like the previous matches & the entire "quarterfinals" of the tournament...the match was short, decent for what it was, and served it's purpose in eliminating all the "egotistical 8" random teams from the tournament.

Terrordome X Division Match - Due to Kurt Angle's injury, the winner of this match would take his place in the main event. This structure is similar to WWE's Elimination Chamber in that it's a caged dome with the way to win is to escape through a hole at the top. With all the X division contendors in this match & them trapped inside this dome, it was a huge cluster which not much room to do anything else except highspots. So if you like non-stop spotfest then you'll enjoy this but look out for when Kaz went to take down Creed but got shoved off into an Alabama Jam (get well Bobby Eaton) onto Jimmy Rave.

Team 3D vs Christian Cage & Rhino - Cage & Rhino were still selling what happened earlier after their match & Team 3D focused on Christian's neck & head throughout the match. Average match between all four.

A.J. Styles & Super Eric vs L.A.X. - Styles was selling his mid-section from the crash & burn earlier as the action went back & forth between both teams with it being fast paced action right off the bat with the chain wrestling between A.J. & Homicide. Hopefully on the DVD, they'll switch the camera angle to hide the heavily botched pinfall since A.J.'s shoulders weren't flat on the mat. This was the best tag match in the tournament yet.

Makerover Battle Royal/Ladder Match - All the knockouts are in the battle royal & the final two will wrestle in a Ladder Match with the winner getting a title shot while the loser gets her head shaved...except for Gail Kim who won immunity so if she loses then the last knockout eliminated in the battle royal would get her shaved. Just like any time TNA has a multiperson match that has more than one stage (ala "Queen Of The Cage" at LockDown), they got the first stage over with pretty quickly as the only thing noteworthy in the battle royal was Khan tossing Hemme out but instead of straight to the floor, Hemme hit the apron hip first on the way down. The Ladder Match was between Gail & Roxxi with Angelina Love being the one who should get shaved if Gail loses so she constantly kept interfearing with Velvet Sky getting involved as well. The battle royal part wasn't anything special as it was just a way to shove all the knockouts onto the PPV but the Ladder Match was just bad because of the constant interfearence from "The Beautiful People" (TNA can't think of a better name than that?) made this match a dud. The crowd was chanting "Fire Russo" afterwards during the headshaving but with the booking of this match, you could see why.

L.A.X. vs. Team 3D - Before the match even got started, all 4 men were brawling on the outside. This used the typical babyface/heel formula as Team 3D kept working over Homicide throughout most of match building to the hot tag for Hernandez before all four got into it each other ending with L.A.X. regaining the Tag Team Titles...ironically from the team who beat them for it 13 months earlier. One moment to really look out for was when Johnny Devine came to ringside & got into a confrontation with Hector Guerrero resulting in a double stomp through a table.

TNA Champion Samoa Joe vs Kaz vs Scott Steiner - This was a good main event as they went non-stop with nobody looking like a weak link or being carried by both men. Kaz looked like he deserved to be in that match which is impressive considering all the bumping around he did earlier in the night & how he's been booked all year. Steiner put on one of his strongest performances in months and even dominating both men at various parts of the match while Joe put on the type of performance you would expect from him while doing a great job selling that his shoulder was hurt.

In the end, this was far from a classic & would have been an above average PPV except the knockouts match & the "Lethal Lottery/Egotistical 8" tournament rounds really dragged this PPV down & took time away from the other matches that were average to good. This PPV illistrates the problem with TNA right now which was the same problems that existed somewhat in WCW that the wrestling talent is there but they're using the "quantity over quality" formula by trying to shove all the talent on every card & the poor illogical booking making the product look bad and at times, a joke. Anyways, I would give this PPV 2.5 stars but since we can't do half stars, I'll be nice & round it up to 3 so unless your a diehard fan of tag team wrestling...this is one event I would skip."

Worst TNA PPV since Turning Point. Don't very good. A 2.5/5

Preston Ward Condra | San Antonio, TX, USA | 05/12/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This has got to be the worst TNA Pay-Per-View I have ever seen since Turning Point of 2007. In due respect TNA, TNA NEEDS to improve it's PPV's better as the only above average PPV this year was Against All Odds. The rest of the TNA PPV's so far were average at best and Sacrifice is no expection being the worst TNA Pay-Per-View so far this year.

Before I review the matches let me tell you that, there was 10 matches on the card and over half of them were in a part of a Tag-Team Tournament going on. The big problem I had with the Tag Team Tournament was that some of the teams didn't make since whatsover. Booker and Roode? Kong and BG James? Storm and Sting? Other great tag teams should of bee ing the tournament like the Motor City Machineguns. It appeared that TNA only seemed to have curtain wrestlers in the Tag Team Tournament because TNA can't think of anything for them to do right now in the company right now. TNA why do you bother having EVERY SINGLE WRESTLER ON THE PAY-PER-VIEW? On top of that the longest match on this Pay-Per-View was only somewhere around 15 to 20 mintues and TNA wasted about a good 10 mintues on the entrances. I know entrances make wrestlers shine when they make their way to the ring but, they could used that entrance time for the Tag Team Tournament as all of the Tag Team Tournament matches were at a max of 5 mintues at most. Also importantly almost all of the matches on here were total...suck. Aside from 3 decent matches on the Pay-Per-View, the rest of the matches were total junk.

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Match#1:
Tag Team Tournament Match:
Team 3D vs. James Storm and Sting:

Not a very good match at all. What's the point of having TNA doing random pairings when one part of a team is a babyface and the other member on the team is a Heel? This is something that will never work in getting the crowd to enjoy the match. On top of that the match seemed that Sting didn't care for the Tag Titles and was VERY OFF in this match. On top of that this was a very terrible way to start off the show.

Match Rating: 4/10

Match 2:
Tag Team Tournament Match:
Robert Roode and Booker T vs. Rhino and Christian Cage:

NOTE: Since Kurt Angle got hurt in Korea, they had a Heel Replacement for him so what does TNA Do? They make Booker turn heel for no reasons whatsoever here.

This match would of been decent if it was given more time as all four of these guys are awesome wrestlers.

Match Rating: 4.5/10

Match#3:
Tag Team Tournament Match:
Kip James and Matt Morgan vs. L.A.X.:

A toliet break match. This match was GODAWFUL. L.A.X. are a decent tag team as far as the tag teams go in TNA but, Matt Morgan and Kip James on the other hand make for a bad team. Matt is a terrible wrestler and Kip is stating to get to that point after breaking up with B.G. James. At the least they keep the match short.

Match Rating: 2.5/10

Match#4:
Tag Team Tournament Match:
AJ Styles and Super Eric/Eric Young vs. B.G. James and Awesome Kong:

This match made very little since TNA have better ways to use Awesome Kong rather then doing this Tag Team Tournament. Also just like Sting, Styles was WAY OFF in this match. He didn't seem to care for working this style of match at all.

Match Rating: 3.5/10

Match#5:
TerrorDome Match:
Number One Contender X-Division Match and Face Samoa Joe and Scott Steiner later tonight in the Main-Event:
Jimmy Rave vs. Consequences Creed vs. Jay Lethal vs. Shark Boy vs. Sonjay Dutt vs. Alex Shelley vs. Curry Man vs. Shark Boy vs. Johnny Devine vs. Kaz:

This was probably the best match on the Pay-Per-View but, this match also had it's problems. There was 10 guys battling in this match and there was too many guys in the ring with too many things happening in the match. I'm not saying the match is THAT BAD but, it could of been better. Again not to mention this was probably the best match on the Pay-Per-View as this is a type of match where there is still hope for the X-Division to put on great matches.

Match Rating: 7/10

Match#6:
Tag Team Tournament Match:
Rhino and Christian Cage vs. Team 3D:

This match was better then the rest of the Tag Team matches of the night involving the tournament but, this match was still not very good. All four men here were off in this match and the match didn't seem to move at a decent pace.

Match Rating: 5.5/10

Match#7:
Tag Team Tournament Match:
Super Eric and A.J. Styles vs. L.A.X.:

This match is about the same way I said about the past match I reviewed, one of the better tag matches but could of been a little better.

Match Rating: 5.5/10


Match#8:
TNA Knockouts Makeover Battle Royal Ladder Match:
O.D.B. vs. Traci Brooks vs. Salinas vs. Angelina Love vs. Gail Kim vs. Rhaka Khan vs. Jacqueline vs. Christy Hemme vs. Roxxi Laveaux vs. Velvet Sky:

The Battle Royal portion for this match was total junk but when the Knockouts were at the Ladder part for this match, it started to kick up a bit. This match proves that Roxxi is VERY UNDERATED in TNA. If you watch her days in SHIMMER as Nikki Roxxi you can tell the girl can wrestle but, TNA does not see that out of her. Again, the ladder part of this match was pretty good. Gail was one of the final two but, since she got immunity, It came down to Angelina and Roxxi as the final two. Angelina, Gail and Roxxi put on a decent women's match (Even though Angelina didn't get involved until the end) and there was a part where Roxxi even got BUSTED OPEN (No joke) during the match. Also Roxxi was the one whom got her head shaved. Poor Roxxi.

Battle Royal Rating: 3/10

Ladder Match Rating: 7/10

Ending of Roxxi Getting Shaved: 5/10

Average Match Rating Overall: 6.5/10

Match#9:
Tag Team Tournament Finals:
L.A.X. vs. Team 3D:

A big problem I have in this match is that we gone through all of this tournament just to see Team 3D and L.A.X. face each other again? Even though both teams are great wrestlers we have seen them wrestle WAY TOO MANY times already much like Kim vs. Awesome Kong. This was a OKAY Match and a few decent spots but, the least you could of done was something diffrent then what we have seen before.

Match Rating: 6/10

Main Event:
TNA World Heavyweight Title Match:
Samoa Joe vs. Kaz vs. Scott Steiner:

Note: Again like I stated before, Kurt Angle was supposed to be in the main event but, due to been injured in Korea he could not be in this match.

This match like the TerrorDome is tied for being the best match of the night as you expect but, there was a few problems in this match. Scott Steiner botched a few moves in this match and it seemed Kaz and Samoa Joe has to help carry him in this match. But, Scott also helped the match by adding alot of drama to the match and made the ending look very good. Espically since Scott is VERY OVERWEIGHT he was able to carry his weight in this match good as that is what has caused Scott to do poor matches in TNA. Overall, good main event.

Match Rating: Somewhere around 7 and 7.5/10
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Overall:

Pay-Per-View Rating: 5.20/10:

I didn't really like this Pay-Per-View at all. I don't recommend a buy from this Pay-Per-View.
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