We get a recap of last week’s Tag Team Table match, that was booked by people who had no idea how a table match works.

Goldy is backstage with Ron Harris and a guy with a boomerang, who looks like a skeezy Crocodile Dundee. Ron Harris is being a dick to Goldylocks and getting mad at the camera guy who is apparently trying to liven things up by doing crazy camera work. As for Storm and Wildcat, apparently, Ron is huntin’ wabbits, or at least Storm and Wildcat and he’s brought Captain Kangaroo along to help. He claims that Storm and Wildcat walk around like they’re the tag team champs and they’ll have to pay the price. (They ARE the tag champs, dude). He reminds Don of their pact from last week, but when he tells Goldy to ‘shut up, bitch’ when she does her job and asks what he’s talking about, the audience gets audibly pissed.

FINALLY!

NWA Tag Team Championship: Chris Harris and James Storm vs Ron Harris and Ashley Hudson: Storm and Wildcat get a great pop. Harris and Captain Kangaroo, whose real name is Ashley Hudson, get little reaction. I guess the folks in Nashville don’t know that Australia is an ally because they keep chanting ‘USA!’ at Hudson. Where’s Brian Lee? Well, the kayfabe explanation is that Ron Harris cut ties with him because of their loss last week.

To be honest, this match was pretty standard tag team fare. You could plug in Rock n Roll Express vs the Midnight Express and pretty much have the same match. That said, the match was very good. Hudson’s gimmick was lame, but he was a good wrestler. Unfortunately, Hudson’s just there to take the pinfall, which he does when Harris accidentally hits him with a big boot, but then doesn’t try to help his partner, despite still being in the ring.

Winner: James Storm and Chris Harris by pinfall.

Comment: The match was pretty standard, but very good.

Harris is furious that he lost again, which is bad news for Hudson, who gets blamed for what happened, despite it being Harris’ fault. Harris then takes his bad sportsmanship out on Storm and Wildcat. What the pact between the Harris twins was is apparently not real because Don Harris lays his brother out before trying to restore order.

Backstage, Goldylocks and the Flying Elvises are with Jerry Lynn, who is finally out of the production case. Estrada makes Goldy, who is only trying to do her job, leave so they can check on him.

Ladder Match For the X-Division Championship: Jerry Lynn vs AJ Styles: Styles gets a decent pop and acts like an idiot. Lynn gets a good pop, and it’s clear that his neck is bothering him.

The match was actually really good, as is to be expected from these two. Unlike the NWA, it seems that Styles has gone back and watched old WWE tapes of ladder matches, because he’s actually using the ladder in spots, which makes this match a lot less boring. Though why there is a ref in the ring is a little past me since there isn’t supposed to be a time limit or rules in a ladder match.

The dangers of having a ref in the ring during a ladder match is made clear when Scott Armstrong gets taken out. Siaki makes his presence known by grabbing Lynn’s leg to stop him from hitting a move on Styles, though I have to point out that Lynn was NOT anywhere near the ladder when this happened. You’ll understand why in a minute. Styles comes to Siaki’s by hitting a springboard senton on Lynn.

Winner: Styles won by retrieving the belt, which is the ONLY rule to a ladder match booked by anyone who knows what they’re doing.

Comment: Really great match, but having Scott Armstrong doing ref stuff in a ladder match is really dumb.

A fight breaks out between Lynn, Siaki and Styles that brings out the X-Division babyfaces and Bob Armstrong, who gets a hold of the X-Division belt and makes an announcement: Since Siaki interfered by grabbing Lynn, Bob Armstrong rules that Lynn won by DQ and gives him the X-Division championship back! However, he decrees that there will be ANOTHER ladder match next week for the X-Division title. Styles is justifiably pissed since he got DQ’d in a No DQ match and was robbed of the title he won fair and square. Tenay tows the company line, but even the audience knows this is BS.

At the announce table, Don West does his usual plea for further employment.

Brian Lawler and Jeff Jarrett vs BG James and Syxx Pac: Lawler is out first, with April and he’s still treating her like garbage and she seems done with the whole thing. Neither Lawler or Jarrett get great reactions. Apparently, someone has decided that a four on two beatdown isn’t fair, so it’s going to be a standard tag match, at least for now.

James and Pac come out and do a ‘Hey, yo’ in honor of Scott Hall, who still isn’t here and they also have a little announcement for Lawler and Jarrett: Payback’s are a bitch and James vows to make Jarrett his bitch…I think. Pac gets on the mic and tells Lawler that if he keeps treating April like a bitch, Pac is going to keep having sex with her behind Lawler’s back.  Lawler is outraged, but April…isn’t. Furthermore, Pac tells Lawler that if Lawler and Jarrett win the match, Pac might let him watch, cuz why would April care about being a trophy in a wrestling match?

Lawler takes the bait and it’s on! This match wasn’t great. Initial shock value from the start aside, the match quality wasn’t good. Jeff Jarrett is breaking his back trying to carry everyone except MAYBE Syxx-Pac. Lawler and Jarrett nearly steal one when Elix Skipper interferes and attacks Pac, but Pac kicks out and James goes after Skipper. James gets the pinfall by hitting a pumphandle slam on Lawler while Pac fights off Skipper while Jarrett is out of the ring.

Winner: Brian James and Syxx Pac.

Comment: Blah.

Not surprisingly, Jarrett and company aren’t happy about losing and attack James and Pac. For some reason, Amazing Red and the Maximos come out for the save and hit the double Spanish Fly on Skipper. Outside, the fight is continuing but Jarrett save Skipper from a further beatdown with his trusty chair. The show ends with the heels standing tall.

Overall Comments: So, how was Episode 15? It was an eh for me. Too many blah matches, a lot of talking, and a stupid finish to a great match.

Given the finishes and the treatment of Goldylocks and April, I’m guessing that Russo somehow got Jerry Jarrett to give him the pen back, or let him have some input in the story.

I HOPE that the ongoing thread of the NWA officials seeming to be out of touch with how much wrestling has changed is kayfabe because some of their decision making was nonsense and makes straight-forward match concepts unnecessarily complicated, which hurts the matches, as does the stupid finishes like DQing someone in a match that is basically No DQ.

I’m not feeling the DX/NWO merger that’s going on, especially since they used the weaker members of DX for it and Scott Hall, who was still dealing with his issues. DX was only really cool when Hunter and Chyna were part of it, once they left, it got very stale.

I’m not a Jeff Jarrett fan, but he’s easily the star of the show, but he’s languishing in these non-title feuds, it’s time for him and Killings to mix it up.

I’m not sure what is going on with Styles, but his current thing of acting like an idiot is really wearing, if he wasn’t such a great performer, he’d be DOA.

Stinkers: Maximos vs Flying Elvises. I’m still not sure what the heck happened in that match.

Snoozers: Siaki vs Young. Normally, that would be a really good mid-card match, but after about three high-flying matches, it just didn’t stand out like it should have.

Match of the Night: Styles vs Lynn, EXCEPT for the stupid finish.

Final Thoughts: I assume, since it’s still in business 16 years after this show, that TNA finally got its act together, but I wish they figure it out soon.

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