Victory Road - Now What?

Last night was TNA's Victory Road. Honestly, I didn't have high hopes for this show.

Yes, Ultimate X is always a crowd pleaser, and Samoa Joe in the main event will always get my attention, but after this show, the big feeling that I have about the direction of TNA is "Now what?"

Pay-per-views are supposed to be used to begin, peak, and end feuds. I don't know what the hell this one did last night, but it didn't do any favors.

Triple X is back, and Christopher Daniels is back in the X Division title picture. But now what do you do with him? This guy should be elevated above the title by now, but instead, he's not only brought back down to the X Division level, he's going back to being a tag team specialist. I realize that Skipper and Senshi had nothing to do, but there was plenty for Daniels to do - TNA dropped the ball on this one.

VKM has a new manager and a victory over Basham and Damaja. And now what? Neither team has enough steam to be a legit contender for the tag titles, and even if they could get a build, the tag titles are currently in limbo...more on that later. This feud is pointless, and has been overdrawn right fron day one.

James Storm defeated Rhino. Good for him. Doesn't everybody beat Rhino these days though? This does dick to push Storm, but does help to bury Rhino. When Rhino was let go from WWE, it was because his behavior backstage pissed some people off. I wonder if that's happening again in TNA, only this time his punishment is a shitload of jobbing.

Storm is no more elevated than he was before, especially since the focal point of this match was "Storm drinks, Rhino doesn't". Is this TNA or TNAA?

The Motor City Machine Guns defeated Jerry Lynn and Bob Backlund. Why is Alex Shelley still feuding with this guy? Shelley is so over, and could do so much for this business in terms of getting it over if he were only given the opportunity. But, yet again, TNA drops the ball on a young superstar.

Eric Young picks up a win and embarrasses Robert Roode in the process. Honestly, the only reason I think this feud is continuing is simply because creative is stuck. Both of these guys have "future world champion" written all over them, and TNA cannot find a way to end this feud in which both guys come out elevated because of it.

By the way, almost every wrestler wears a thong, it's not really a funny joke. "Oh my God, he wears the exact same type or underwear that everyone backstage wears! That's hilarious! How embarrassing for him!" Idiots.

Christian Cage VS. Chris Harris. Why, why, WHY did this match have to end with interference? Now, I got nothing against Goldust, but why is he being thrown into this? No good can come of it. Is he now going to be another one of Cage's henchmen? Is Harris going to go straight into a feud with him? Either way, this idea hurts Harris. It looked like the Wildcat was on his way to the main event. TNA drops the ball again.

Sting and Abyss is a pairing that quite honestly, got old a long time ago. The only real point of this match was to build anticipation for James Mitchell's newest monster. Believe it or not, I can't wait for it. Why? Because Abyss will finally be feuding with someone not named Sting. When Abyss won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, it seemed as though he was poised to be a major player in the main event. Another ball dropped by TNA.

Kurt Angle beat up multiple X Division guys throughout the night. Great way to put over the part of your product that's supposed to be innovative. The main event wasn't anything terribly special, although the return of Scott Steiner is a MASSIVE O.

This means that we will see Team 3D VS. The Steiner Brothers, and even though there will be no titles on the line, I simply don't care. Given the way storylines were seemingly neglected last night, it was good to have something that was storyline consistent happen. Joe sabotaged Angle at the end of the match and pins Brother Ray to win the tag team championships.

I have to be honest, at first, I was sure that Angle was going over and that he would begrudgingly give half of the title to Joe. But with all the X Division superstars who got beaten down by Angle earlier in the night, I think it may go to one of them. Which, if done right, would be another huge O. But, if you've gotten this far, you've picked up a theme about TNA.

Last night, TNA dropped more balls than the sex ed class at the local YMCA.

Overall, Victory Road was a decent show. The wrestling was solid, so I can't call it a waste of time or money. I'm just curious as to where TNA goes from here. They've booked themselves into a corner -l et's see if they can get out of it.

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