TNA
January 23rd (Taped January 16th)
Von Braun Center (Huntsville, Alabama)
Steel Cage Match
I made it a point to watch this match because you hear the words Kurt Angle and Cage Match and immediately think top of the cage moonsault. I have little interest in 2014 Kurt Angle matches unless he is doing his best to cripple himself. Sure enough, Angle did pull out the moonsault, crashing his broken down body smack dab in the middle of the ring. It is a dumb move for him still to be doing, but it always looks good.
Moonsaults aside, this was way more fun than I thought it would be. I don’t see a lot of Bobby Roode (I don’t see a lot of TNA) but he looked as good as I ever remember seeing him. He laid in everything really snugly including some chops and a lariat. The spot that transitions Roode onto offense was him having Angle in the air like he was going to power bomb him, only to ram him into the side of the cage. It looked brutal (Angle came away with a cut on the back of his head) and was an effective transition. Roode’s lucha arm drag out of the Angle Slam was also unexpectedly fun and something I’ve only ever seen Rey do before.
The match suffers from the ‘escape the cage’ rules and Roode doing the ‘slow crawl out the door’ spot not once, but TWICE. That is never well-executed. Angle wins so he gets to go into the Hall of Fame or something equally ridiculous.
Cage Match | Watch It | Quality