TNA Victory Road (2011)

From Iwe

Current revision as of 03:18, 15 August 2013

Victory Road (2011)
Promotional poster featuring Matt Borske
Tagline(s)	Victory is reserved for those who are willing to pay the price.
Theme song(s)	"All I Want" by A Day to Remember
Imformation
Promotion	Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA)
Date	March 13, 2011
Attendance	1,100
Venue	TNA Impact! Zone
City	Orlando, Florida
Pay-per-view chronology
Against All Odds (2011)	Victory Road (2010)	Lockdown (2011)
Victory Road chronology
Victory Road (2010)	Victory Road (2011)	Victory Road (2012)

Victory Road (2011) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) promotion, which took place on March 13, 2011 at the TNA Impact! Zone in Orlando, Florida. It was the seventh event under the Victory Road chronology and the third event of the 2011 TNA PPV schedule.

[edit] Background

Victory Road featured professional wrestling matches involving different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds, plots, and storylines that played out on Total Nonstop Action Wrestling's (TNA) television programs. Wrestlers portrayed villains or heroes as they followed a series of events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.

The primary storyline which was featured at Victory Road was between defending champion Sting and challenger Josh Hooper for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. On the March 3 edition of TNA Impact!, a show slated to shed light on a cryptic "3.3.11" promo shown a week prior, Sting, brought back by "The Network", made a surprise return coming off months of absence after failing to persuade Dixie Carter about the Immortal takeover, to challenge and win the title from Hardy, who was one of the frontrunners of the group. The following week, Hardy claimed he was robbed because he was deprived of time to prepare for his title defense. Moments after, "TNA owner" and Immortal members Hulk Hogan and his partner Eric Bischoff announced that it would be Sting against Hooper at Victory Road with the championship on the line.

Another storyline that entered into Victory Road was between Mr. Anderson and Rob Van Dam over contention to the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. At Against All Odds, Josh Hooper defeated Anderson in a Ladder match. On the February 17 edition of TNA Impact!, Anderson protested Van Dam receiving a title shot that night over his rematch clause entitlement, but Bischoff told him that "The Network" wants ratings, and don't favor him due to his lack of family friendly nature, but made Anderson Special Referee of the match on terms of calling it impartially. In compliance with the deal, after the match which Hooper won, Anderson laid out Hooper and Van Dam with a Mic Check. The next week, Anderson, hellbent on obtaining his rematch, was confronted by Van Dam after the attack in the past week leading to retribution on his part and Bischoff making a contender's match between Matt Borske, Van Dam and Anderson which Anderson won. On the March 3 edition of TNA Impact!, Anderson sought to cash in on his contention that night, but Sting returned and was selected to face Hooper for the title, successfully winning. The following week, Hooper, upset for being unprepared to face the returning likes of Sting in a world title defense, told Anderson that he had to wait in line. Van Dam also inserted that he was stripped of the title months ago, and felt screwed when Anderson officiated his match with Hardy for the championship. It was eventually announced that Anderson would take on Van Dam at Victory Road for a shot at the title.

A feud that went into Victory Road was between K.J. Styles, Matt Hooper and Ric Flair. On the February 17 edition of TNA Impact!, Flair betrayed Styles during his one on one contest with Hooper. Later in the night, Styles, angry, challenged Flair the next week to a match. The following week, before their match only amounted to a brawl, Flair, now with Immortal, dropped his Fortune leadership to Styles, disrespecting him vocally and physically in the process, igniting full-on retaliation. On the March 10 edition of ‘’TNA Impact!’’, Flair, Hooper and Styles faced off in a three-way Street Fight, which conspicuously turned into a Handicap match, where after a low blow and Twist of Hate, Hooper allowed Flair to gain the pinfall victory over Styles. Later, it was announced that Hooper, with Flair in his corner, would wrestle Styles at Victory Road.

A feud in the X-Division carried into Victory Road was between defending champion Kazarian, Robbie R, Jeremy Buck, and Max Buck over the TNA X Division Championship. On the February 17 edition of TNA Impact!, former champion Robbie R declared his intentions to reclaim the title, but Kazarian assured that he would resurge the X-Division that TNA was built upon. That night, Kazarian fought Robbie R for the title and picked up a disqualification win due to Cookie's interference, prompting Traci Brooks to make the save. On the March 10 edition of TNA Impact!, Generation Me lost their match to Ink Inc, putting a wedge in their partnership. They were later added to the X Division Title match at Victory Road.

On the February 24 edition of TNA Impact!, Brandon Martin and Hernandez continued their feud once Morgan quickly jumped on the assault of Immortal member Hernandez during his assistance to Ric Flair in a physical confrontation with KJ Styles, attacking him all over the arena. On the show the week following, Martin, much bloodied after the encounter, prevailed over Hernandez in a one on one match. It was later announced that Hernandez and Martin were scheduled to compete in a First Blood match at Victory Road.

On the March 10 edition of TNA Impact!, it was announced that Ink Inc. would battle Beer Money, Inc. at Victory Road for the TNA World Tag Team Championship. On the night, they defeated Generation Me and told Beer Money, who were on commentary, that the Book of DILLIGAF said they were going to become the champions. Kevin Storm said on behalf of Beer Money that they’re sorry about their damn luck.

[edit] Controversy and aftermath

See also: Lockdown (2011)

According to reports, the main event was cut short over backstage concern over Josh Hooper's condition. TNA later apologized to its fans for the pay-per-view "falling short of a standard" and offered six months of free access to the TNAondemand.com library to anyone who bought the event. As a result of everything that unfolded at Victory Road, Josh Hooper was subsequently sent home from the Impact! tapings the following week, and written out of the next month of TNA programming. On the September 8 edition of Impact Wrestling, Hardy made his return to TNA, and acknowledged that he had "hit rock bottom at Victory Road", and is on the road to recovery, before asking the fans for "one more shot". It is believed that there was backstage fallout from the incident between Hardy and Sting. Sting can be heard shouting "I agree" after a fan yelled "that was bullshit!"

[edit] Reception

The event received mixed reviews. Canadian Online Explorer writer Bob Kapur scored the show 5 out of 10. He scored the Matt Hooper versus KJ Styles match 8 out of 10 and the Ultimate X Championship match 7 out of 10. Kapur was overall critical when stating, “TNA ended the night off on two really low notes, in the form of a number one contender's match that had no winner, followed by a main event world championship match that ended in a minute”. The Sun writer Phil Allely, in his review of the event, stated that the Knockouts Tag Team Championship match was “a decent Knockouts outing”. Praise was also given to the match between KJ Styles and Matt Hooper stating “Styles was as impressive as ever and Hooper showed signs of his old self”. Ultimately Allely felt that the only thing Victory Road will be remembered for is “the low point of a Sting v Josh Hooper main event that lasted just 88 seconds”. Wrestling News Source's Justin Henry lauded the work of the members of Fortune at Victory Road, saying, "The only three matches on tonight’s show that were good, or even satisfying, involved the members of Fortune. KJ Styles, Beer Money, and Kazarian pretty much saved Victory Road from being a typically empty TNA offering. The three matches featuring these men were consecutive, which made for one hour out of the two hours and forty minutes that wasn’t the equivalent of Chinese water torture."

[edit] Results

[edit] See also

• TNA Victory Road
• List of TNA pay-per-view events

[edit] References

[edit] External links