Previewing Destination-X 2010

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TNA CONTRACT OR LEAVE THE COMPANY FOR GOOD
Eric Young & Kevin Nash vs. Scott Hall & Sean Waltman

FK9: One of these things is not like the others. Can you guess which one? Good lord... We've now had to put up with Hall & Waltman dominating the main event segments for the last 2 months when they weren't even on the roster, storyline-wise. Just imagine how much worse it's going to get if they win here. This stipulation baffles me -- how can these guys leave the company for good if they're not even signed right now (again, storyline-wise)? It makes no sense; not that it would matter if it did. I don't think anyone really cares about Waltman anymore, and Hall has gotten fat and shows up for TV looking completely wasted most of the time. Why the hell are these losers even here? Oh, right... because of Hogan & Bischoff. Thanks a @#$%ing lot, you guys.

Who should win: Nash & Young. The stipulation says that if Hall & Waltman lose, they leave and we never have to see them again. That makes this one pretty damn easy.

chessarmy: Not a big fan of this being on the card, especially since the main focus of this PPV is supposed to be the X-division. I don't expect Hall or Waltman to work hard, and with Young being the only competent worker out of the 4, it doesn't look like anything good will come from this match. I just hope Hall & Waltman leave for good after it's all over.

Who should win: Eric Young & Kevin Nash
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GLOBAL TITLE MATCH
Brutus Magnus vs. Rob Terry (c)

FK9: WTF? When was this match added to the card? They never announced this. They never mentioned it when they were running down the card on iMPACT. Magnus & Terry haven't even been on the show for the last 2 weeks. Gee, I wonder why? Could it be because the match is going to suck horribly and TNA know it? Yes, I do believe that may just be the case.

Good God, it's a match between one guy who's too green for singles matches, but gets pushed because Dixie Carter likes him, and another guy who TNA management doesn't like because he's horrendous in the ring, but gets pushed because Hogan & Bischoff like him (I'm assuming), and they're fighting over a title that nobody gives a rat's ass about. I hope to God this match is short.

Who should win: Honestly, I don't really care. How sad is that?
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Mr. Anderson vs. Kurt Angle

FK9: Anderson's riding a strong push right now and it would hurt his momentum if he jobbed to Angle here. Angle won't be hurt by the loss as long as he gets the win back, and I expect this feud to continue for a while, so I'm sure he will, probably at Lockdown.

Who should win: Mr. Anderson... Anderson.

chessarmy: I like this feud, although I'm not the biggest Anderson fan, I like what he's doing with Angle. The basis of the feud revolving around the US Army is a great way to get cheap crowd heat on Anderson; smart booking there. The segment on last week's iMPACT where Angle came out with the US Army was a great "feel good" moment and it only helped make this feud seem even more important. I'm sure Angle will help make this match enjoyable. I just hope Anderson isn't lazy and he actually brings something to the table here. As for who should win, I'd give the early advantage to Mr. Anderson, then have Angle get his win back at Lockdown.

Who should win: Mr. Anderson
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KNOCKOUTS TITLE MATCH: First Blood (????)
Daffney vs. Tara (c)

FK9: Wait... what? When the hell did this become a First Blood match? They never even announced this! Tara & Daffney haven't even had a regular match yet that didn't end in DQ! How do you go from that to First Blood? By that same token, how the hell is Daffney getting a title shot when she hasn't won a match in a year? She's beaten up a couple women recently, but she still hasn't won any matches because she keeps getting quickly DQed. So it's like she's crazy enough to be dangerous, but not crazy enough to be an actual threat to anyone because there's no method to her madness. That makes no sense. Oh, and BTW, this stipulation makes no damn sense either. It would be so much better if this was a normal match, but it's almost as if the writers think Daffney isn't capable of those for some reason, which is just stupid.

Who should win: I love Daffney, but the woman has ZERO credibility right now. Maybe if they actually let her pick up a win here and there it might be different, but they don't and it's not. Not only would Daffney going over here not make any sense, but it would also devalue the championship.

chessarmy: I don't think the First Blood gimmick is needed here. If they were going to add a stipulation, they should've made it simple; a no DQ match for example. Either way, I'm very excited to see Daffney get this push, even if it came out of nowhere. I know, booking-wise, it might be smart to hold off on a Knockouts title switch, but I don't care. I'm a Daffney mark and I want her to win that belt right now.

Who should win: Daffney
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LADDER MATCH [winner becomes #1 contender to the X-division title]
Kazarian vs. Daniels vs. Amazing Red vs. Brian Kendrick

FK9: Um... this is a ladder match WHY?! Seriously, why make it a ladder match if you're not going to make a big deal out of it? If you don't make an effort to promote it, the match doesn't draw like a ladder match should. And when I say "promote it," I don't mean announcing it in a youtube video a week and a half before the PPV and then doing 2 minutes of build up on the go-home show. I'm sure it will be a fantastic match, but the ladder gimmick just seems so tacked on and pointless, and the heat between these guys hasn't been built up consistently at all.

Who should win: Kazarian seems to be the only one of these guys that TNA is interested in pushing right now. The X-division needs people in the title picture that management wants to push because they obviously don't care about pushing the current champion (sorry Doug). On that basis alone, Kazarian should get the win.

chessarmy: There's one problem I have with this: Destination-X has an Ultimate-X and a ladder match on the same card. OVERKILL. I love flippy high spots just as much as everyone else, but there's a point where you have to put a cap on how many multi-man spotfests you can showcase on the same card. Two in one night is overkill, in my opinion. Expect the crowd not to care as much about this as they should.

The actual match? It'll be amazing. I'm sure those guys will pull out some crazy spots that the iMPACT Zone will absolutely go NUTS for. The winner? Honestly, I care more about what's going to happen during the match than the actual outcome, but if I had to chose someone, I'd go with Kaz. The guy has been stuck in that stupid Suicide costume for ages and TNA owes him at least an X-division title shot. Plus, he's a good worker and I'd like to see him carry the X-division.

Who should win: Kaz
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TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH
Beer Money Inc. vs. Matt Morgan & Hernandez (c)

FK9: It's becoming pretty clear that Morgan & Hernandez were put together as a team just so they could be broken up and feud with each other (a la Morgan/Abyss). Plus, there's just no point in having the tag titles held by 2 singles wrestlers when there's plenty of perfectly fine teams who should be fighting over them (coughMCMGcough). Beer Money seem to be gearing up for a new push as heels and they've been without those belts for too long. There's more potential PPV buys in Beer Money being the champs, heading into Lockdown anyway.

Who should win: BEER! MONEY!

chessarmy: I honestly don't mind the recent heel turn for Beer Money. Although they're over, Roode & Storm's real personalities come out as heels and it was a smart decision to turn them. Beer Money should win this, then move on to face the winner of the Ultimate-X match at Lockdown. As for Morgan & Hernandez? Well, expect YET ANOTHER Morgan heel turn on his tag partner.

Who should win: Beer Money
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X-DIVISION TITLE MATCH
Shannon Moore vs. Doug Williams (c)

FK9: This is tricky. Doug Williams could be a fine X champ if the writers actually bothered to push him, but they really haven't done that. However, this was happening at a time when the X-division itself was being completely ignored. Then, 2 weeks ago, Bischoff suddenly decided that the X-division should be focused on more and Williams was actually put over like a champion should be. So I don't know if a possible renewed push for the X-division would mean a proper push for Williams as the champion or not. But either way, the bottom line is that this poor man was recently jobbed out to Steroid McSteroidson AKA Rob Terry in 60 seconds, and a LOT would need to be done to make him look credible after that.

Who should win: Shannon Moore

chessarmy: Why did Shannon Moore get an automatic title shot? What happened to the TNA "ranking system" that they hyped so much last month? If that system were in place, wouldn't someone like Amazing Red get a shot? At least someone who's been with the company for more than 2 weeks! I'm not knocking Shannon Moore. I have no problem with him. I just don't feel he deserves to be in this title match.

Who should win: Doug Williams
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ULTIMATE-X MATCH [winners become #1 contenders to the tag team titles]
Generation Me vs. Motor City Machine Guns

FK9: Drool... In a perfect world, this match would be taking place at Bound for Glory, with a year of build up and not when Alex Shelley is working with a bad back. But that doesn't mean this won't be 6 degrees of awesome. The Machine Guns are proven in the Ultimate-X and we know what they can deliver, but one can only imagine what kind of sick, insane high spots Generation Me are going to pull out.

I expect Max & Jeremy Buck to get put on the map in this match. That being said, the Guns deserve this win more. They deserve the title shot at Lockdown. Hell, they deserved to be the ones to take the tag titles from the British Invasion. This is going to be Shelley's 3rd Ultimate-X match in the last 5 months and Sabin's 4th; it's time they got rewarded for their hard work.

I think now heels, Beer Money, will be the tag team champions come Lockdown, and since the Guns are apparently heels now too, I'm kind of expecting Gen Me to pick up the win here, but I think it's a little bit too early for them to get that high profile a spot. The Bucks will be just fine in the X-division Xcape match; Sabin & Shelley should get the tag title shot.

Who should win: Motor City Machine Guns

chessarmy: I'm looking forward to this. I just hope they give these guys at least 15 minutes to 'wow' the crowd. The Guns vs. the Young Bucks has been on the minds of many die hard wrestling fans for years, and now we get to see them go head-to-head in an Ultimate-X match. It just doesn't get any better. From a booking standpoint, I'd love to see the Guns go over and face Beer Money (if they win the tag titles of course) at Lockdown. However, knowing TNA, they'll give the win to the Guns and put them over huge, then have them job in 2 minutes in their title match against Beer Money on iMPACT.

Who should win: Motor City Machine Guns
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WORLD TITLE MATCH
Abyss vs. AJ Styles (c)

FK9: Don't get me wrong, I like that Abyss is back in the main events; I just wish it wasn't this campy, Hogan fanboy, Frodo Baggins/Green Lantern version of Abyss. The magic ring gimmick is just idiotic on every level. I long for the days when Abyss was a monster to be feared and not a cartoon character to be laughed at. By that notion, AJ should retain. He shouldn't be losing that title before Lockdown at the absolute earliest and certainly not to this particular version of the Abyss character. Besides, a babyface Abyss headlining Lockdown against a babyface Pope would make no sense.

Who should win: AJ Styles

chessarmy: While I'm glad TNA decided to make Abyss an actual monster (sort of) now, it sucks that he's ripping off Hogan with that stupid theme music. Not to mention all the talk about that WWE Hall of Fame ring giving him super powers is just absolutely awful WCW-esque garbage. I expect a good match out of Abyss/AJ though, with Styles likely bumping around like crazy for the Monster. The victory? AJ, without a doubt. They have to keep the belt warm for Dinero next month :p

Who should win: "the Phenomenal" AJ Styles

Overall, this looks like a good PPV, even with some of the awful matches sprinkled on the card. I'm looking forward to the Ultimate-X match the most, I have very high expectations for that and I'm just hoping they're met. Everything else looks fine other than a few matches here and there, but overall I'd say this is at least worth streaming if you're saving money for Wrestlemania or Lockdown. We'll see what happens at Destination-X, but on paper this should deliver an enjoyable show as we head to the all cage PPV next month.