November 19, 2009

Match of the Year Contenders?

Well, it's that time of year again. The time when people start tallying up the contenders to see what was the match of the year. TNA does this annually around this time and announces the winner on the website, if not the iMPACT show. Right now they have a survey on TNAwrestling.com where the fans can vote on which match of 2009 they felt was the best. Unfortunately, there seems to be a rather large problem...

This list is a complete joke.

First of all, there are no less than 24 choices to pick from, when in actuality the list could and should be narrowed down to around 5.

And not that there aren't some tremendous matches on it, but there were also some glaring omissions. Several of TNA's best matches of '09 that SHOULD have been included were not, and instead there are a number of matches that have absolutely no place on a 'Best of' list whatsoever.

WHAT WAS THE BEST PAY-PER-MATCH IN TNA WRESTLING IN 2009?
-Genesis: Kurt Angle vs Jeff Jarrett
-Destination X: Ultimate X: X-Division Championship
-Lockdown: Matt Morgan vs. Abyss: Doomsday Chamber of Blood
-Lockdown: Sting vs Mick Foley: World Heavyweight Championship
-Sacrifice: Samoa Joe vs. Kevin Nash
-Sacrifice: Angelina Love vs. Awesome Kong: Knockouts Championship
-Sacrifice: Sting vs. Mick Foley, Kurt Angle and Jeff Jarrett
-Slammiversary: Abyss/Taylor Wilde vs. Raven/Daffney: Monster’s Ball
-Slammiversary: X Division King Of The Mountain: X Division Championship
-Slammiversary: King Of The Mountain: World Heavyweight Championship
-Victory Road: Kurt Angle vs. Mick Foley: TNA Heavyweight Championship
-Victory Road: Beer Money vs. Steiner/Booker: Tag Team Championship
-Victory Road: Angelina Love vs. Tara: Knockouts Championship
-Hard Justice: Steel Asylum Match For the X Division #1 Contender
-Hard Justice: Kevin Nash vs. Mick Foley: Legends Championship
-No Surrender: Bobby Lashley vs. Rhino
-No Surrender: D'Angelo Dinero vs. Suicide: Falls Count Anywhere
-Bound For Glory: Sting vs. AJ Styles: World Heavyweight Championship
-Bound For Glory: Kurt Angle vs. Matt Morgan
-Bound For Glory: Bobby Lashley vs. Samoa Joe: MMA vs. TNA
-Bound For Glory: Abyss vs. Mick Foley: Monster's Ball
-Bound For Glory: Ultimate X: X Division Championship
-Turning Point: Kurt Angle vs. Desmond Wolfe
-Turning Point: AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe vs. Daniels: World Heavyweight Championship

The matches highlighted in bold are the ones that could conceivably belong on TNA's Best of '09 list. I was even generous and threw in the Slammiversary Monster's Ball and the Hard Justice Steel Asylum match, both of which are a bit of a stretch, IMO. But what about all those others?

Morgan vs. Abyss at Lockdown -- did TNA management actually watch that match?

Angelina Love vs. Awesome Kong/Tara -- seriously? I'm sorry, but Angelina did not match up well with either of those women and it showed.

Nash vs. Foley -- WHAT? How can they expect the fans to even take this thing seriously if they're putting Kevin Nash matches on it? The only cool thing about that match was all the blood that was spilled.

Bobby Lashley vs. Rhino -- riiiiiiight...

No match from Victory Road belongs on any Best of '09 list. Plain and simple.

If they wanted to put some Knockout matches on there then where are Sarita vs. Alissa Flash and Hamada vs. Daffney? Those were the best two women's matches of the year in TNA and far better than any match involving Angelina Love.

The inclusion of Kevin Nash and Bobby Lashley matches on this list is disconcerting enough, but perhaps even more bizarre is the stuff they left off it.

How can they not include Chris Sabin vs. Alex Shelley at Genesis? That was one of the top five matches of the year easily. What about Beer Money vs. Team 3D at Lockdown?

It literally feels like whoever put this list together just stuck some post-its with every PPV match TNA had all year up on a wall, put on a blindfold, started throwing darts at random and picked whichever matches they hit. It's that ridiculous.

So in an effort to bring some credibility back to this list, here is the Best Matches of 2009 list that should have been:

-Genesis: Kurt Angle vs Jeff Jarrett
-Genesis: Chris Sabin vs. Alex Shelley: X Division Championship
-Lockdown: Beer Money vs. Team 3D: TNA & IWGP Tag Team Championship
-Bound For Glory: Kurt Angle vs. Matt Morgan
-Bound For Glory: Ultimate X: X Division Championship
-Turning Point: Kurt Angle vs. Desmond Wolfe
-Turning Point: AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe vs. Daniels: World Heavyweight Championship

Those are the matches that belong on this list. If we're counting TV matches as well as PPV matches then AJ Styles vs. Kurt Angle from the Super iMPACT show would be on there as well. And, again, I'm being generous with a couple of those picks. I could narrow the list down even more if you pressed me.

I just thought I'd clear that up for everyone.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The best women's match in TNA for 2009 goes to Alissa Flash vs. Sarita. That match was excellent and it had people rave about it. I'm surprised that didn't make the TNA year list.