TNA: Final Resolution
December 9, 2012
Orlando, FL
Universal Studios

The current TNA champs are as follows:
TNA World Heavyweight Champion: Jeff Hardy (10/14/2012)
TNA Television Champion: Devon (12/6/2012)
TNA X-Division Champion: Rob Van Dam (10/14/2012)
TNA World Tag Team Champions: Chavo Guerrero Jr. & Hernandez (10/14/2012)
TNA Knockouts Champion: Tara (10/14/2012)
TNA Knockouts Tag Team Champions: Eric Young & ODB (2/28/2012)

Your hosts are Todd Keneley, Mike Tenay, and Tazz.

• James Storm vs. Kazarian
  

Storm comes out wanting to whoop Bobby Roode, but Kazarian interrupts calling him a whiny drunk. Cowboy doesn’t see a problem with that, and decides to give Roode’s butt whooping to Kazarian instead. IMPROMPTU MATCHES~! They brawl on the floor and into the ring. Thesz Press and punches follow. Kazarian avoids a corner charge and takes control with a neck vice. Back to the floor, Kaz puts Storm on the guardrail, and then drops a double sledge off the apron. Back in, cover gets two. Springboard legdrop scores another nearfall. Kaz applies what appears to be a cravat. Storm fights out and mounts his comeback. Butterfly slam gets two. Kaz rolls to the apron, but shoots back in with a slingshot DDT for two. Storm fires back with an Alabama Slam and hits Closing Time. He tunes up the band, but Kaz pulls the ref in front of Last Call. Lucky for him, Storm puts on the brakes. Kaz rakes the eyes and looks for Fade to Black, but Storm rolls through and delivers the LAST CALL anyways for the 1-2-3. (6:10) Real fun, quick match to start the PPV. Nothing wrong with that. Storm still wants some of Roode though. **½

• TNA X-Division Champion Rob Van Dam vs. Kenny King
  

Second PPV X-Division title shot for KK despite only being in the company for five months. Pretty sweet deal. RVD feeling out process to start complete with headlocks and the like. Van Dam catches King with a mule kick, but KK fires back with the handstand kick for two. After some quick chain wrestling, King enziguri kicks RVD off the top down onto the guardrail. Back in, that gets two. King wears down RVD with some stretches. RVD tries a comeback, but gets crotched and crashes on the mat after a roundhouse kick for two. He wants to follow up with a slingshot corkscrew splash, but RVD brings up the knees. Here comes RVD! He hits the monkey flip and the Rolling Thunder, but King catches RVD up top. King gets shoved down, but backflips onto his feet. Still up top, RVD nails the jumping kick, and heads back up for the Five Star Frog Splash. Oh, but there’s nobody home! King wants the Royal Flush, but RVD lands on his feet, and kicks King in the face to stagger him for the leg trap rollup to retain. (9:22) Very athletic, lots of kicks. Nothing too interesting though. **¼

• TNA World Tag Team Champions Chavo Guerrero Jr. & Hernandez vs. Joey Ryan & Matt Morgan
  

I do like the idea of Matt Morgan wearing a cape and doing the throwback character, but I just hate that it’s supposed to be Hogan’s, because it all comes back to him instead of this great talent. Chavo and Hernandez throw Joey around to start. In comes Morgan, he concentrates on Chavo until he makes an escape and tags Hernandez so they can match strength. Shoulderblock battle, but Morgan wins with a clothesline. A-ha! Now Joey wants in and gets double-teamed for a while. Eventually, Morgan slam dunks Chavo’s face to the buckle. I do love that. That triggers a heat segment on Chavo. We get the hot tag to Hernandez, who gets a nearfall off a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker on Joey. In comes Morgan, who gives Hernandez a suplex, and then drops Joey on top of him for 1-2-NO! Hernandez fights up and drills Joey with the Canadian Backbreaker. Morgan grabs Hernandez from the apron though, but gets nailed with a missile dropkick from Chavo. Hernandez runs Morgan out with a clothesline. With the big guy out, Hernandez pounces Joey into position for the FROG SPLASH. Cover, 1-2-NO! Morgan pulls out the ref for the DQ. (10:36) Even though he and Hernandez retain, Chavo makes the mistake of hitting Morgan with a pescado, only to get caught and backed into the ringpost. Morgan FINALLY leaves his feet as here comes Hernandez with the Big Man Dive. This ain’t over! **

• Austin Aries vs. Bully Ray
  

Aries spends the first few minutes ducking Bully Ray. Eventually, Bully gets his hands on Aries and throws him around. Bully runs into an elbow though, and receives a big dropkick to the thigh. Aries takes over working Bully in the ropes with slingshot moves. Now he’s mocking Hulk Hogan. Running boot and a legdrop gets two. Bully fires back though with slaps to the chest, followed by a gorilla press slam and a gorilla splash. Are we seeing Hulk v. WO-YAH? Aries tries to come back with the IED, but Bully catches him in mid-air for snake eyes. Bully continues with a missile dropkick of all things that lands Aries in the ropes. Aries dumps out Bully for the Heat Seeking Missile, but Bully sticks his boot up to block. Awesome. That gets two. He tries the Bully Bomb, but Aries manages to slip around to the back for the Crucifix Driver. Only Aries could pull that off. He punts Bully in the head back into the corner for the IED. We could see the Brainbuster, but Bully hoists Aries up for the Samoan Cutter! Cover, 1-2-NO! Aries reaches the bottom rope. He rolls out over towards the steps. Bully comes charging at him only to be tripped face-first into those same steps. Oh, he’s busted open. Bully tries to get back inside, but Aries nails him on the apron. While he’s laid out draped on the apron, his gal pal Brooke Hogan heads down to check on him. Aries, however, does not want this ho bag near his ring, and pulls her into the ring to yell at her. Bully eventually makes the save and dumps out Aries. Here comes Hulk Hogan to take his daughter to safety. As Bully watches Brooke leave, Aries sneaks up behind him for a low blow and rollup for the win. (13:06) HA! Turning Bully Ray into a sympathetic babyface? Now that’s interesting, I think. Aries being awesome? Well, that’s just the way it is. So far, best match of the night. ***¼

• TNA Knockouts Champion Tara (w/Jesse) vs. Mickie James
  

First big match back for Mickie James here. She has been missed? It’s cool she’s back, but doesn’t Velvet Skye’s return kind of overshadow her? Probably should have waited on that one. Wristlocks and hairpulls to start. When Jesse try to console his lady, Mickie surprises Tara with an O’Connor roll and bridge for two. Northern lights suplex gets two as well. Mick-A-Rana leads to a possible Mickie-DT, but Jesse pulls out Tara to safety. As they embrace, Mickie nails them with a kick through the ropes. Back in, Tara kicks Mickie in the face, and pulls on her hair. Widow’s Peak gets countered to a rollup, but Jesse has ref Taryn Terrell distracted. Spider Web to Mickie gets 1-2-NO! Tara grabs a body scissors, but Mickie fights up and mounts her comeback with a series of kicks. Mickie dumps out Tara, who gets caught by Jesse. Once Jesse puts her down, Mickie flies off the top to splash Tara. Jesse charges Mickie on the apron, and gets kicked down. However, that was enough distraction for Tara to pick up Mickie for the WIDOW’S PEAK and the win. (7:51) Good enough story told there. **

• Kurt Angle, Samoa Joe, Wes Brisco & Garett Bischoff vs. Aces & Eights
  

This seems like a prime opportunity for Brisco and Bischoff to turn on Angle and Joe, which means it probably won’t happen here. Joe goes right after Devon, but Angle tries to calm him down. Instead, Devon attacks Angle from behind. Angle fires back with a suplex, and tags Joe to send Devon running. Tag to DOC, Joe beats the crap out of him in the corner. Bischoff and Brisco give and take their shots from Aces & 8’s. Back to Joe, the gang pull him out and send him into the guardrail to make him *your* face in peril. They cut the ring in half on him for a while. One of the masked dudes charge Joe in the corner and eat a boot, the other runs into STJoe on top of the other guy. Hot tag to Angle! He throws people around until the pier-EIGHT brawl erupts. Finisher happen here and there in the ring. Joe wipes out Devon though with an Elbow Suicida. In the ring, Angle hits a masked guy with the T-Bone Suplex. DOWN COME THE STRAPS! ANKLELOCK! DOC tries to break up the hold with the hammer, but Bischoff stops him. Since he doesn’t hit DOC with the hammer, Angle takes the hammer away. As Angle threatens him, Brisco spears DOC out of the ring. ANGLE SLAM to the same masked guy gets the 1-2-3. (11:22) Fairly typical and uninteresting eight-man. Overall, it was fine though, just nothing spectacular. While certainly things are happening with those two, the Bischoff-Brisco heel turn will have to wait another day. **½

• AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels
  

This will be the LAST – TIME – EVER that you will see these two face each other in a TNA ring. You never grow tired of seeing these two though. Tenay says somebody did the research (probably him) and that AJ and Daniels have faced each other in some form or fashion 115 times in TNA. Feeling out process to start. Daniels takes AJ down with a couple shoulderblocks. Back in, AJ blocks a hiptoss with a nasty clothesline. He hits the Best Dropkick in the Business, followed by the kip-up headscissors. Over to the apron, AJ gives Daniels a suplex! On the other side, Daniels delivers a uranage to AJ on the apron! Now Daniels abuses AJ with the steps. He tosses Styles into one set of stairs, then dishes out a slam on the steps. Back in, Daniels keeps AJ down and targets the back. At one point, they both try for crossbody blocks, as Styles and Daniels collide. During the collision, AJ gets busted open over his eye. Styles still manages to avoid the BME, and hit the Springboard Clothesline. Torture rack into the powerbomb gets two. Daniels avoids the Styles Clash and delivers the Blue Thunder Driver for 1-2-NO! He wants Last Rites, but AJ snapmares him away and hits the Asai DDT for 1-2-NO! Back up top, Daniels brings AJ down with a superplex to do more damage on the back. They come up trading blows, but AJ wins that battle with a discus clothesline. PELE KICK! AJ is dying to get that Styles Clash, and finally gets it! Normally he rolls you over with his legs, but couldn’t do that with Daniels this time. He has to turn him over for 1-2-NO! Made all the difference. He wants a Super Styles Clash, but Daniels counters with a headscissors that lands AJ straight on his neck. With AJ out on his feet, Daniels grabs AJ for the STYLES CLASH and delivers for the 1-2-3! (21:36) Unbelievable finish with another great match behind it. And hey, AJLOSES AGAIN! I am interested to see where this goes, because of course AJ is going to want a rematch here. ***¾

• TNA World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Hardy vs. Bobby Roode
  

Unfortunately, the crowd is solidly behind Hardy. This is why they don’t understand what really works for a national TV program. Touring is a MUST in 2013. Roode goes right after the ribs, which was the point of attack for Aces & Eights last week. Hardy fights back with a headscissors and wants the legdrop to the nuts, but Roode bails. He meets Roode with a pescado, and rolls him back in for two. Hardy tries a floatover in the corner, but here comes Roode with a clothesline to take over. Suplex and knee drop gets two. He wears Hardy down with a chinlock for a while. Perfect neck snap gets two. Back to the chinlock. Roode wants something off the middle rope, but flies down into a boot. Hardy tries to mount a comeback, but Roode shoots him through the ropes for a nasty spill. There’s a ride into the steps, and back in gets two. More chinlockage. Geez! He changes over to a body scissors concentrating on the ribs. Again, Hardy begins his comeback and delivers a flying splash from the second rope for two. Roode tries a catapult, but Jeff catches himself on the top rope, and nails the Whisper in the Wind for 1-2-NO! Sitout gourdbuster and another flying splash gets two. Roode catches Jeff for the RR Spinebuster for 1-2-NO! The Twist of Fate out of nowhere sends Roode flying out to the floor. Hardy follows him out with a clothesline from the apron. He tries Poetry in Motion using the steps, but Roode moves and Jeff bounces off the rim of the guardrail. Roode puts Hardy back inside as quickly as possible for 1-2-NO! Jeff fights off a superplex though, and hits the SWANTON BOMB. He can’t cover though because of the hurt ribs, I’m assuming. As Jeff gets up, Roode pounces on him with the SPEAR for 1-2-NO! Cue Aces & Eights. Roode wants them to get involved as he pulls the ref back, but they just stand there watching. Roode yells at them, and then turns back around into a Twist of Fate for the 1-2-3. (23:00) Afterwards, Aces & Eights beat up both guys. No one is safe! This was fine. Again, nothing spectacular. These are stunts we have seen Hardy do before. ***

Final Thoughts: Just another PPV where nothing will stand out for the ages. I am so glad they are dropping the February and September PPVs, because hopefully this will give the shows some more time to build, and there will be less of a chance for these lackluster shows. Two good matches and a solid Styles-Daniels confrontation. Can’t go down, so I’ll give Final Resolution 2012 a ‘thumbs in the middle.’ See you in 2013, TNA.