Ray Mullan reporting for 1Wrestling.com. This week on TNA Xplosion, the Xplosion Championship Challenge heats up as we reach the final match of the Semi Finals. The British Invasion’s Douglas Williams, goes head to head with Alex Shelley for a place in the Final, find out what went down and much more…
Before we kick off the action, let’s take a look at where we are in the tournament bracket:
Xplosion Championship Challenge – Round 1:
“The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero def. Suicide
Crimson def. Robbie E
Devon def. Anarquia
Douglas Williams def. Amazing Red
Magnus def. Orlando Jordan
Alex Shelley def. Okada
Shannon Moore def. Jeremy Buck
Hernandez def. Max Buck
Xplosion Championship Challenge – Quarter Finals:
Alex Shelley def. “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero
Magnus def. Shannon Moore
Crimson vs. Devon (Double Countout – Both men eliminated)
Douglas Williams def. Hernandez
Xplosion Championship Challenge – Semi Finals:
Magnus recieves a bye to the final
Alex Shelley vs. Douglas Williams or Hernandez
Xplosion Championship Challenge – Final:
Magnus vs. TDB
We open with the Xplosion promo video and “Welcome to the gun show” by In this Moment . We cut to crowd shots and we join JB and Taz at the announce booth to take us through what’s in store this evening. We kick off with a bang this week as we jump straight to the action with this weeks Xplosion Exclusive matchup. The announcers hand over to SoCal Val for the ring introductions.
Match 1: Douglas Williams vs. Alex Shelley
Great new theme tune for the British Invasion tonight. Magnus joins JB and Taz on commentary for this one. Magnus is rooting for Williams of course but is looking forward to what he describes as a match between two of the finest technical wrestlers around. Amen to that!
Jackson James is the official for tonight’s bout. Divided crowd here tonight, with duelling chants for both men. Lock-up to start. Taz mentions Shelley's "skunk like" hair cut, the man has a point. Takedown from Shelley, applies an ankle lock variation. Doug Williams with an unreal reveral! Spins over pushes Shelleys arms to the ground with his legs and applies a side headlock, WOW! That has to be seen to be believed. These two begin trading reversals at a frantic pace. Floatover attempt from Shelley, into a pinfall attempt from Shelley, but only gets a two count. Magnus is apparently thinking about going for the Tag-Team titles should he win the Xplosion Championship Challenge, he still harbours ill feeling towards Mexican America it seems. Doug bending Shelley over his knees in a painful looking backbreaker variation, oh but Shelley spins out and covers Doug, but again only gets two. Shelley sidesteps a charge from Williams, sending him crashing through the ropes to the floor.Shelley jumps over the top rope to the apron but Williams dives back into the ring, attempts to club Shelley round the head but it's blocked and Shelley drives Williams head first into the corner. Shelley to the top! He drives a knee right across the throat of Williams. Crucifix pin attempt but again only a two for an increasingly frustrated Shelley.
Back from the break and Shelley has his knee dug into Williams is back but a submission is not forthcoming. Doug gets out driving Shelley to the corner post and follows up with a flying clothesline from the top turnbuckle. Both men down as the crowd stomps in unison, and they slowly rise back to their feet here. They begin trading blows. Shelley comes of the ropes and is met by a series of big uppercuts from Williams.Gut wrench suplex, cover and a two only. Williams sizing up Shelley here for that Chaos Theory...but no it's reversed into a pin by Shelley, 1...2...Oh so close! And Williams somehow locks in a reverse surfboard! This match has been a wrestling clinic folks, great stuff.
Back to their feet and Shelley with a spin kick to the head of Williams, taking him off his feet. Sliced bread attempt here, but its reversed. Shelley sidesteps Williams and heads out to the apron, attempts a spingboard but is met with a vicious uppercut sending him crashing to the floor outside. To quote Joe Styles - "OH MY GOD!", suicide dive to the outside from Williams connects and sends Shelley careening into the guard rail. Both men make their way back into the ring, Williams is heading to the top rope as Shelley is still sat on the mat. Out of nowhere Shelley connects with an audible kick to head with Williams still at the top turnbuckle! Shelley looking for a superplex only to be thrown off by Williams, who then lands a perfect knee drop! Magnus informs us it's referred to as the "Bombscare Kneedrop". 1...2...NO! I thought he had him there, this is great! Rolling Chaos attempt, reversed into sliced bread attempt but that is reversed too. Kick to the gut as Shelley goes back to the well and another Sliced bread attempt, this one connects and this one is done! Shelley is your winner and faces Magnus next week in the Xplosion Championship Challenge final. Another great match-up this week, a really enjoyable old fashioned Pro Wrestling match.
Winner: Alex Shelley
Back to the studio and it’s time for the latest edition of the TNA Spin Cycle with Jeremy Borash. This week’s guests are Austin Aries, ODB, Magnus and Robbie E. The panel discuss the most intimidating person to be in the ring with, their favourite beverages and share some revelations. You can see a full video of the segment here.
We cut to footage of Eric Young as he goes to Hollywood to become a star and track down Scott Baio for a TV Title defense. We see Eric attempting to woo David Hasselhoff's agent with hilarious results. If you haven't seen it yet, here's the full segment courtesy of TNA Wrestling's Official Youtube Channel.
Next up, Jeremy Borash interviews "The Pope" D'Angelo Dinero regarding the upcoming Maximum Impact European tour in January 2012. I used to love hearing and seeing some of the localised promos for live events etc. that promotions do for various towns and cities in the states, but we never got those over here in the UK, so this is pretty cool and pretty unique - nice to know their thinking about us. Pope promises to win the Bound For Glory Series and arrive in the UK this January as World Champion. Considering Dinero hasn't been previously advertised as part of the UK tour, I'm guessing that means we can now officially add him to the list?
We then join "The Fallen Angel" himself, Christopher Daniels at the recent San Diego Comic-Con event. Daniels interview many big names from the comic book industry, all of home seem to see similarities with wrestling and all of whom seemed to be enjoying the spectacle of the live show that TNA put on at the event. TNA setup an IMPACT Wrestling ring at the event and held a small card there for the visitors in attendance. We saw footage of Mickie James vs. Madison Rayne aswell as a superb three-way bout pitting Christopher Daniels (dressed as "Arch Angel"), Kazarian (dressed as Captain America) and Eric Young (dressed as Batman) against each other. This looked like a pretty cool event that was well recieved by those in attendance.
Next up, it's the debut of the all new "TNA Underground" segment, which will feature a classic match from TNA's formative years at the Asylum in Nashville. This week we were treated to a tag-team match-up featuring Jeff Jarrett and sworn enemy (and then NWA Heavyweight Champion) Ron "The Truth" Killings (now R-Truth in WWE) against then NWA Tag Champions Jerry Lynn and a young AJ Styles. This brought back some real memories. The match finished with a series of near falls and false finishes before Jarrett hit the stroke on Lynn as AJ hit the Spiral tap on R-Truth and both went for the pinfall at the same time. Downed referee Scott Armstrong made the count for Jarrett whilst replacement referee Rudy Charles made the count for AJ resulting in a finish of confusion as both refs tried to declare opposing teams as victors. A great match that you should checkout if your yet to see it.
With that we get the "A TNA Wrestling Production" credit and we fade out.
Well folks that’s all for this week, join me next time as Alex Shelley takes on Magnus in the Final of the Xplosion Championship challenge, with the winner earning a shot at any title they please. As ever, if you have any questions, comments or feedback concerning this report, feel free to drop me a line at my blog The Daily Dropkick, E-Mail me at raymullan@gmail.com or tweet me at @raymullan.
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