TNA Epics TV recap: Christian vs. Rhino, LAX with Konnan vs. A.J. Styles and Christopher Daniels, America's Most Wanted vs. Triple H in cage, Mick Foley hosts

TNA Epics TV show report
Airing on Bravo in the UK
Report by Dot Net reader Adam Milne, Scotland

The show starts right into the infamous Elix Skipper walking the cage clip, but faded right to black when he started to hit the hurricanrana, so we just heard the impact the crowd reaction and the announcers. Then it's straight into the opening video, which features alongside current TNA stars:

Hulk Hogan, Roddy Piper, Jeff Hardy's Swanton Bomb off the staging to Abyss through a table, Ken Shamrock holding the NWA World Title, Road Warrior Hawk, Macho Man Randy Savage, Scott Hall, Jeff Jarrett's guitar attack on Hogan, Road Warrior Animal, Abyss dropping Sabu onto a barbed wire board, Raven posing with the NWA World Title, Tito Ortiz decking Jarrett, and Bobby Lashley pointing.

The show starts with Mick Foley introducing the show that's going to feature some of the best six sides of steel matches. He stated that he was "No stranger to the the perils of a steel cage," and also said "Let's start things off with a bang, BANG BANG!" with the finger guns for the bangs.

1. Turning Point 2004 - Six Sides of Steel - America's Most Wanted vs. Triple X. No enterances, and no individual names of wrestlers mentioned in the info bar, or of course the match stipulations. We're starting witgh with everyone in the ring. Match was shown almost completely full. [C]

The first commercial break happened right after Chris Harris was handcuffed, and when we came back from it Storm had just passed the keys to Harris to free himself so a portion of the match was edited out. The other clearly obvious audio edit was when Skipper hit the hurricanrana off the top. Audio suddenly had loud cheering crowd noise with a TNA chant in the background, and cut back into normal when Daniels climbed the cage with with announcers talking and the crowd suddenly being much quieter.

Something to also note is that whenever there was a cut to a reply, the TNA Epics graphics replace the PPV/Impact ones for a full screen replay.

Right after the pinfall we cut back to Foley, who stated that "fans are still talking about Elix Skipper's hurracanrana off the top of the six sides of steel." He said next up would be LAX vs. AJ Styles & Christopher Daniels. [C]

Match 2 - Bound For Glory 2006 - Six Sides of Steel - Latin American Exchange vs. AJ Styles & Christopher Daniels. Starts with LAX in the ring and AJ/Daniels making their entrance. No audio edits here as they're announced as NWA Tag Team Champions of the World. A big edit happens afte Hernandez nails a clothesline on Daniels. We unannounced cut to a music/hype video with lots of the same clips of Foley, Sting, Samoa Joe, Jarrett, Styles, and Angle in the ring with the cage up as we've seen in the hype clips for Lock Down.

There were also clips from LockDown matches that clearly featured Jimmy Rave, Roxxi, Shark Boy, Kaz, ODB, Angelina Love, Curry Man, and Sonjay Dutt hitting or being hit by big spots/moves. After that we're suddenly back to the match again with the Impact announcer voice (not the one that says Cross The Line at the start of Impact) posing the question "How far will these guys go for the titles?"

The announcers back up to normal volume just as Konnan passes Homicide the fork. Another edit happens later on after Styles lands the springboard into a reverse DDT spot. The replay of the move had the announcers talking about something else completely, and coming back to the action Daniels and Styles were now grating Hernandez's face against the cage.

They cut after the pinfall to Foley who commented that AJ and Daniels' athleticism "was no match for BRUTALITY, and VIOLENCE, YEAH! Like a 300 pound Latin American Missile Hernandez coming off the top of the six sides of steel." Final ad break with tease before of the first ever barbed wire six sides of steel.

3. "Barbed wire" Six Sides of Steel - 2006 TNA Impact - Christian Cage vs. Rhino. The match starts with Cage in the ring and Rhino making his entrance. This match was the one with barbed wire all along the top of the cage. A huge edit happens after Cage counters a press slam attempt into his reverse DDT. Suddenly the TNA Epics logo comes up, and now Cage and Rhino are on the top rope holding onto the cage, the barbed wire has been cut, and Cage is busted wide open. So a huge portion of this match has been missed out. There are no more edits from then until Cage being Gored out through the door to win the watch.

They cut to Foley who states that "Cage may have won, but to me he looked anything but a winner after the GORE THROUGH THE DOOR!" and he said the Gore line two more times of course. Foley invited us to tune in next time, and the show ends with a highlight package from all the matches shown. No teases about what's in the next episode.

Thoughts: Of course, huge marks down go for the unexplained and random edits in matches. Putting them in between ad breaks could be passible if they missed out rest spots, but these didn't. Suddenly cutting from Cage in control to him with a face full of blood beggars belief, especially since this show was shown post watershed so all kinds of wrestling violence should be shown, especially since Cage hit Rhino with chairs, and during the LAX-Styles/Daniels match they didn't edit out Homicide using a coathanger to choke Daniels.

While all three matches were good choices, I can't help but feel cheated with match portions being cut out. I would have been fine with the two tag matches and maybe interviews with those involved in the match and other staff thoughts on the bouts. While the edits were disappointing, and the straight into and away from matches felt slightly like a rush job, it was a very pleasing show overall. I expected this to be a big disappointment and that it wasn't.