This review was commissioned by Dan Vacura over on my Ko-fi account.
The downfall of Team Canada continues.
Earlier in the night, Bobby Roode and Eric Young lost the NWA World Tag Titles to America’s Most Wanted, but luckily good ole Petey Williams is still the X Division Champion. As they so often did in this era of TNA, the booking and presentation makes the stakes so easy to understand. Petey’s reigning and defending, Sabin went 3-0 in Ultimate X the year before, and AJ’s the king of the division trying to get back on top. Simple stuff all around that makes any potential result viable.
As with most of these heights-based stipulations, the core of the match is the big bumps. The attraction is the wild stunts and watching bodies fall from a great height. On the booking front, the way many promotions have leaned on this idea is by just adding more bodies to the equation. The more people involved, the more spread out the harder bumps are, and the easier it is to cycle people in and out to feed for all the crazy spots that people expect.
What distinguishes one of these matches from the others tends to fall into two categories. The first is the spectacle of the high spots. While innovation is not impossible, we’re close to three decades into a post-TLC world and there’s really only so much that can be done on that front until some truly innovative new talent comes along. The next is how to fill the space between all the high spots and how the match progresses towards the spectacle. In a time of diminishing returns for big dives and bumps, it’s here that a match can truly separate itself from the herd.
Luckily for these three, this Ultimate X bout excels in both.
As far as bumps go, this has great moments that hold up well over two decades later. This is prime AJ Styles we’re talking about here, so there was always going to be some truly wild shit involved. Of course AJ delivers here with his incredible athleticism on full display. Perhaps most notable for me is when he’s dropkicked off the cables by Sabin and just turns completely inside out, somehow still taking a back bumps when he hits the mat. Borderline cartoon physics made possible by AJ Styles.
Sabin and Williams are not far off here either though time has made it so they stand out a little less. They can be counted on to match the speed though and when called upon to take their spills off the cables and in and around the ring, they’re more than up to the task.
Perhaps more impressive than any individual bump these three take (except for that one AJ bump, because truly Jesus Christ, man) is all the care that leads into those moments. There’s three of them at play here which feels like the exact right number to keep the match moving without sacrificing too much substance. There’s just enough leeway for bodies to cycle in and out, but never to the point that the workers start blending into each other. Together, they do a good job of never making any of this complex work look too cooperative. There’s a lot of space work they do to make the big moments feel like natural progressions of what’s happening, something that’s helped with sharp direction and editing ensuring that we never linger on contrived set ups at any point. For example, the tower of doom rana spot off the cables might be one of the better examples of this idea with the timing of the rana and Sabin’s struggle on AJ’s shoulders keeping things moving at a nice pace even though one can tell they’re moving towards something flashy.
It’s the other broader structural choices here that make it sing as well. Much like the much more famous Unbreakable three-way later in the year, this match concerns itself with a heel X Division Champion against two babyfaces. Both matches play similar beats with Petey taking the brunt of the challengers’ aggression here early on. He’s able to put on a very strong stooging performance, doing lots of classic here work to enhance the craziness going around him. For Petey that means a lot of bumping and feeding for the heroes as well as going to the eyes to seize an early advantage. It also means relying on Scott D’amore to insert himself at a key moment to prevent an early victory. Small moment of praise for D’amore here too as he gets ejected from the ringside area and throws a fit evocative of classic Jim Cornette. Good stuff to move along the narrative of Team Canada falling apart on this night.
There’s other detail work here as well. For example, AJ’s made out to be the boldest of the three by far in interesting ways. Early in the match, he tries for an out and out springboard leap for the belt that he just misses. This accomplishes a few things–establishing the necessity and difficulty of climbing the cables to reach the prize but also foreshadowing the the physicality of what would become the finish.
AJ’s central in one of the more interesting choices for the final act as well. In a twist I genuinely couldn’t have seen coming, arm work gets introduced here late into the proceedings. Petey Williams and AJ get tangled up in the support beams and the champ uses the steel to trap AJ’s arm and proto-Unify him against the metal. The attack also leaves AJ dangling by a single arm from the beam–great visual–which leaves him down one arm for much of the final stretch. This manifests in some strong ways like Sabin trying to wear down the arm further with a triangle, which leads into a classic Styles Clash counter, one that shows of AJ’s valiant determination. Just when it looks like AJ might forego the arm selling for the necessity of climbing the cables, it returns when he can’t get a proper grip and drops from the weakened limb. Good stuff! Not the most evocative limb selling I’ve ever seen but consistent and consequential in ways that dictate the match’s progression.
On the selling front, some of it isn’t perfect. Leading right into the finish, for example, there’s a particularly grotesque running Razor’s Edge Sabin hits on Petey into the turnbuckles. It’s truly horrific and vicious, but the timing of it is poorly placed with the very next sequence relying entirely on Petey and Sabin racing up the cables at the same time. Outside of moments like that though, the camera and workers both do a good job of conveying the toll all three take from this bout. Lots of great lingering shots on the workers trying to catch their breath and regroup, helped by the fact that it never once feels like these moments happen for the camera, simply that they’re captured at just the right time.
The finish itself is memorable and strong, if not perfect as well. Sabin and Williams unbuckle the belt in unison but have a tug of war at the intersection of the cables, only for AJ Styles to leap from out of nowhere and snatch the belt right out of their hands. It’s a clever idea and it’s about 95% of the way there in execution, but man do I wish AJ just held on to the belt on the way down. It’s never the most satisfying visual in these kinds of matches to just pick the thing up off the floor, always makes it feel like a technical victory. To AJ’s credit though, the thing I remember most is that wide leap, paying off his failure earlier with this one final, desperate push to grab the thing.
Far from a hollow fireworks display, this is a match clearly concerned deeply with narrative and character. AJ’s the one that suffers the most, works the hardest, and he’s rewarded for it. About as valiant a babyface victory as you can get while leaping for a pinata prize strung up on cables.
Rating: ****¼
