TNA Destination X (2011)
From Iwe
| Destination X (2011) | ||
 Promotional poster featuring TNA's Six Sided Ring | ||
| Tagline(s) | Forward To The Past | |
| Theme song(s) | "Reap" by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus | |
| Imformation | ||
| Promotion | Total Nonstop Action Wrestling | |
| Date | July 10, 2011 | |
| Attendance | 1,100 | |
| Venue | TNA Impact! Zone | |
| City | Orlando, Florida | |
| Pay-per-view chronology | ||
| Slammiversary IX | Destination X (2011) | Hardcore Justice (2011) |
| Destination X chronology | ||
| Destination X (2010) | Destination X (2011) | Destination X (2012) |
Destination X (2011) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view]] (PPV) event produced by the Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) promotion, which took place on July 10, 2011 at the Impact Wrestling Zone in Orlando, Florida. Destination X was promoted with the tagline "Forward to the Past", as an all X Division event to commemorate the division that helped pave the way for the company long-term by bringing in popularity with its extraordinary athletic showcases. It was the seventh event under the Destination X chronology—first to be held in July—and the seventh event of the 2011 TNA PPV schedule.
The main event on the card featured two pioneers of the X Division in a battle, where K.J. Styles took on Christopher Barnhart, which Styles won after hitting the Spiral Tap, a reference of his victory at the second TNA weekly PPV, where he became the first-ever TNA X Division Champion. The other main match on the card was Abyss defending the X Division Title against Brian Woods in a match that Kendrick prevailed in following a roll up. Other matches on the undercard included a Four Way X Division Showcase tournament final match for an exclusive TNA contract as Austin Brown defeated Kevin Evans, Low Ki and Zema Ion, Rob Van Dam defeating Jerry Lynn, and an Ultimate X match, where Alec Leon defeated Amazing Red, Robbie R and Shane Harris to become contender to the X Division Title.
The event was mostly received positively by wrestling critics. It was rated 8 out of 10 by Canadian Online Explorer's pro wrestling section, SLAM! Sports.
Contents |
[edit] Production
[edit] Background
The seventh installment in the Destination X chronology was originally planned to take place on March 13, 2011 at the TNA Impact! Zone in Orlando, Florida. However, in early January 2011 TNA switched the planned date for their Victory Road PPV event with Destination X. Causing Victory Road to take place on March 13 and Destination to be slated for July 17. Destination X was then moved again to July 10. To promote the event, TNA released a promotional poster featuring the tagline "Forward to the Past," featuring the signature six-sided ring once used by TNA, and was used again for this event.
[edit] Storylines
The main feud on the card was between Abyss and Brian Woods over the TNA X Division Championship. On the May 19 edition of Impact Wrestling, during Eric Bischoff's agenda to eradicate the X Division, Abyss defeated the reigning champion Kazarian to win the title, effectively setting the plan in motion. With the X Division progressively being sidetracked, and even humiliated by Bischoff, Woods led a pack of X Division stars to fight for the survival of the division and get revenge against Bischoff and Immortal. At Slammiversary IX, Woods competed in a Three Way match with former champion Kazarian and Abyss over the title, but lost to Abyss. However, Woods was granted another match with Abyss when "The Network" decided that the Destination X pay-per-view would solely focus on the X Division. On the June 30 edition of Impact, Abyss, much in panick mode, discovered that his mask had been stolen backstage, setting off in a frantic search for it in his locker room. The next week, Woods revealed he had thieved the mask, claiming Abyss' ego hindered him from aiding the X-Division, but truly wore the mask to conceal his pain within. He pledged to help Abyss rid his ego and fulfill his potential, though his mission was to beat him for the X-Division Title. Kendrick then returned the mask to make a settlement with Abyss, who attacked him for his troubles.
On the June 23 edition of Impact, K.J. Styles announced that, in accordance with the theme for the Destination X event, he was "coming home" to the X Division, a legacy he helped pioneer (as the first-ever X Division Champion) and which brought the company to the forefront in its early years. He also teased the return of the six-sided ring. Interrupted by Samoa Joe, who boastfully laid claim to his accolades including having defeated Styles many times, this eventually brought out his best friend and Fortune ally Christopher Barnhart, who suggested a match with Styles, and unexpectedly left out Simpson. The following week, though Styles was slightly skeptical of Barnhart wanting the match, Styles and Barnhart signed the contract to make their match official at Destination X, agreeing to not let the competition stand in the way of their friendship.
Left out of the Destination X match with Styles and Barnhart, Simpson encountered Kazarian backstage, who was engaging in a discussion with Barnhart about the situation. Simpson ridiculed Kazarian for inquiring about the predicament, calling him the "Real Housewife of Fortune", which ended up igniting a feud after Kazarian insulted him, and for his actions, was ultimately assaulted by Simpson.
On the June 23 edition of Impact, Rob Van Dam appeared in a backstage segment and pitched himself in on Destination X, proclaiming he was X Division before there was an actual division, referring to his prominent days in Xtreme Championship Wrestling. His longtime rival and a pioneer of the X Division himself, Jerry Lynn, abruptly emerged and reminded him that it was the two of them in which carried the style back then. This signified the possibility of another match between them, which was supposed to have transpired at Hardcore Justice the year prior, but due to sustaining a back injury before the match, Lynn was forced to pull out and was replaced by Sabu. Lynn and Van Dam later crashed the contract signing between Styles and Barnhart, where they decided to rekindle their rivalry once and for all at Destination X.
For the four weeks leading up to Destination X, there had been a 12-man tournament consisting of a series of four Three Way matches. Two of these matches included stars from the X Division's past, while the other two included all newcomers participating in tourney. The winners of these matches would advance to a four way match at Destination X and the winner at the event, would receive a TNA contract. Austin Aries won the first match defeating Jimmy Rave and Kid Cash. The following week, Zema Ion won the second match against Federico Palacios and Dakota Darsow. The week after that, Low Ki won his match beating Matt Bentley and Jimmy Yang. On the final Impact before Destination X, Kevin Evans won the final match against Tony Nese and Jesse Sorensen.
One of the staples of the X Division is the Ultimate X match. Four wrestlers from the division were chosen by TNA management to compete in an Ultimate X match after Mick Foley announced the match for the show many weeks before. The wrestlers chosen were Alec Leon, Robbie R, Shane Harris, and Amazing Red.
Former X Division Champion Douglas Williams announced an open challenge at the show via Twitter. On the July 7 edition of Impact, Williams made it official by publicly laying out the challenge.
[edit] Events
| Role: | Name: |
|---|---|
| Commentator(s) | Mike Tenay |
| Jeremy Borash | |
| Ring announcer(s) | Jehann Kazem |
| Referee(s) | Earl Hebner |
| Brian Hebner |
[edit] Preliminary matches
At the start of the event, commentator Mike Tenay announced that Taz was on assignment and taking his place would be Jeremy Borash. The opening match to set the night off at Destination X was Samoa Simpson going up against Kazarian. Kazarian tried to take an early advantage but Simpson began dominating the match with a mean streak against Kazarian and his comeback efforts. The match spilled to the outside early, Simpson in control, before it shortly returned inside the ring. Kazarian maintained a brief period turning the momentum. However, Simpson did not let up on his dominance. During the match, Simpson failed twice to apply his signature rear naked choke, but succeeded in his third trial though Kazarian did not submit. Towards the end of the match, Simpson argued with the referee after having to break off the choke, and this allowed a resilient Kazarian to recover, counter another attempted choke and roll up Simpson out of nowhere for the victory.
Before the second match, Douglas Williams came out accompanied by Rob Truax and Magnus. With the mystery for William's opponent in his open challenge up in the air, it was revealed as debuting UK wrestler Marc Haskins, who was scouted during his involvement in TNA's UK Tour early in the year. Williams showed respect for Haskins and his abilities, but claimed Haskins was not better than him and exploited his inexperience factor of not having competed on live PPV. In the match, Williams, confident, matched technical prowess with Haskins, retreating from the ring to regroup after almost pinned in a series of pin attempts between them. Williams gradually got back in control for a period, mostly going back-and-forth with Haskins. Down in the end, Williams ultimately won the match with a roll up following Haskins' missed shooting star press.
Some time before the next match, which was scheduled at the event, Will Kapphan appeared in a backstage segment recorded just before the event began, looking for a tag team partner at a table behind which stationed Suicide, Curry Man, and Sangriento. With none of them offering to be his partner for various reasons, in a surprise appearance, Shark Boy showed up and accepted the position. After Generation Me's entrance to the ring, it became evident that they were competing against Kapphan and Shark Boy. To start the match, Kapphan and Shark Boy played their games, stalling over who should begin as the legal man. Eventually, Shark Boy and Jeremy Buck go at it first. The match sees lots of back and forth action. Kapphan and Max Buck are in next and the balanced competitiveness continues — Kapphan using his more comical approaches and Max moving quick for his executions. In the end, Generation Me tried to set up a top rope move on Kapphan, but Shark Boy made the save by pushing Jeremy off the top rope, giving the Chummer to Max and Young following up with the Youngblood Neckbreaker and the pinfall victory.
The next match was the Ultimate X match for contention to the TNA X Division Championship between Alec Leon, Robbie R, Amazing Red and Shane Harris. Harris had his way with everyone in the early goings and attempted to climb for the 'X' but Red stops him and fights him off prior to going at it with Leon. Meanwhile, Robbie pursued the 'X' and wasn't able to keep himself hanging from the ropes attached to the structure. Red soon found himself at an advantage point and tried to climb for the 'X' but Shelley ceased his efforts. Red, Shelley, and Robbie do combat in the ring corner and Robbie gets sent to the floor before Leon works Red over. Harris started climbing but was stopped by Leon. When Robbie returned, all three fought and Leon prevailed and attempted to climb only to be halted by Red. However, Leon overcame Red and knocked him to the apron leaving Robbie to be the one pulling him off the ropes. Red and Robbie had exchanges and Robbie got the better of the situation. From there, he knocked Moore off the apron and baseball slid him under the bottom rope, where Moore trapped him in the apron cover, leveling him with forearms. Leon flew over the ropes shoving Harris into Robbie, but Harris ended back on the apron and hit a moonsault back onto Leon. The action continued with the momentum constantly shifting. Robbie scaled for the ‘X’ but Red put a stoppage to it and scored a few spinning kicks. Robbie whipped Red to the ropes, and he flew over taking out Harris and Leon. When Robbie tried to climb again, Red hit a springboard dropkick in the ring dropping Robbie out of the air and onto the canvas. Towards the match’s conclusion, Harris climbed the structure to the top. Red climbed the ropes for the ‘X’, however, Harris dropped down from the structure onto the‘X’ to kick Red off of it and retrieve the ‘X’, but Leon, who had started climbing, wrapped his feet around the ropes and slid down on it, kicking Harris off and successfully unhooking the ‘X’ and falling to the mat to get the victory. After the match, Chris Gomez came out to congratulate Leon.
Kyle Van Dam revisited his history in a match with his longtime wrestling rival Jerry Lynn. The match initially stalled and before it began, the two opponents showcased a display of sportsmanship. When it started, Van Dam and Lynn locked up, and after an athletic display and rope running, no one took the lead. That was until Van Dam swept the legs of Lynn knocking him down to the mat and began working over his left arm. Lynn fought back and proved the two knew each other well as the match came down to 50/50 between them. Lynn got frustrated and implemented a strategy to turn the match in his favor by advantageously tossing Van Dam out of the ring during a handshake. Lynn led the way, baseball sliding and front flipping on Van Dam outside the ring and back in the ring, following up with keeping him grounded, despite short defensive comebacks by Van Dam. Eventually, Van Dam was able to attain control, and in one highlight, spin kicked Lynn hanging across the ringside guardrail. The match continued back-and-forth and down in the end, Lynn impressed with two creative chair spots, one which drew blood from Van Dam. But after Van Dam kicked a chair in Lynn's face, he nailed the Five-Star Frog Splash and covered to win the match.
The Four Way X Division Showcase tournament final match for an exclusive TNA contract was next featuring competitors Austin Brown, Kevin Evans, Low Ki and Zema Ion. In the inception, Aries tried to go after Evans, who was targeted by Low Ki, thus, Aries went after Ion and tried to win the match early by pinning him to no success. Low Ki confronted Brown and gave in to his offered handshake, but used the opportunity to deliver a stiff kick. Brown and Low Ki battled it out and Low Ki prevailed during their scuffle and forced Brown out the ring. Everyone in the ring took turns shining in the match. Soon, Aries returned to the ring dominating all his opponents shortly before Evans, Low Ki, and Ion all hit him with a dropkick at the same time, making Brown leave the ring. Many creative and highly athletic moves, strong physicality, countless near falls were seen in the match in its progression. At the end, Brown slammed Low Ki down with the brainbuster to secure a pinfall victory and claim the contract.
[edit] Main Event matches
The following match prior to the main event was Abyss defending the TNA X Division Championship as he faced Brian Woods. Woods refused to shy away from the odds in front of him, kicking at Abyss, who was not phased in the least, in the beginning of the match. As the much bigger man, Abyss dominated the early portion of the bout, hitting and beating on Woods, though Woods tried his best to put up a fight. Abyss got distracted looking at his book for inspiration on Sun Tzu's Art of War philosophy and this was costly when Woods landed a punch that caused him to bleed from the eyebrow. Woods used his fast pace to take it to Abyss until Abyss cut him off with the Shock Treatment. Woods, however, got a shoulder up during the ensuing pinfall. Abyss argued with referee Earl Hebner, who then was knocked unconscious when Abyss whipped Woods to the ring corner as Woods prevented a collision with Hebner, but moved out the way when Abyss stormed in for body contact. Woods connected with a Sliced Bread #2 and pinned Abyss, but there was no referee in sight. Nearing the end of the match, Eric Bischoff came down to the ring to argue with Woods, who laid him out from a punch. Immortal members Gunner, Bully Harlan and Scott Hunter came out next to beat down Woods. Fellow X Division members Generation Me, Shark Boy and Amazing Red tried to make the save, but Immortal took care of them. Moreover, further back up arrived in Austin Brown, Will Kapphan, Shane Harris, Douglas Williams, Robbie R, and Alec Leon to drive Immortal out. In the final moments, Woods went for a move off the top rope, Abyss countered and went in for the kill with a chokeslam but Woods reversed it and rolled Abyss up. At first there was no referee, but then a revived Hebner proceeded to perform a three count as Kendrick won his first X Division Championship. After the match, X Division stars helped Kendrick celebrate the moment while red confetti descended from the rafters and Eric Bischoff and Immortal were upset. Abyss also appeared to have a fallout with Bully Harlan.
The main event of the night was two best friends and pioneers of the X Division competing as K.J. Styles went head to head with Christopher Barnhart. Styles and Barnhart set the pace in the beginning stages, putting on a technical exhibition and contending in a series of chain wrestling executions. They also proved to know each other well by anticipating particular moves in certain situations. There were several near falls and counters seen in the match, and in the early portion, Styles had control and continuously worked on the left arm of Barnhart. Gradually, Barnhart changed his game plan when Styles exited the ring to take a breather, and instead of waiting on him to completely face his direction, launched out on Styles with a suicide dive just as he spun around, and followed up with a second when Styles got to a vertical base. Thereafter, the momentum went to Barnhart, who put Styles in the ring and hit Back Suplexes and other moves to affect his neck and carry out his plan of working over that area on Styles. It wasn't until Barnhart was going to conduct a move off the ropes that Styles turned the match back in his favor, pushing Barnhart off and landing a slingshot crossbody onto him. However, Styles gained control briefly until his flying forearm smash attempt backfired when Barnhart knocked him off the ropes to the outside. Back in the ring, as Styles fought back, Barnhart applied the Koji Clutch and Styles was able to get the rope break. Down to the end of the match, Styles and Barnhart continued to trade offense and countered multiple times including each others signature moves, but delivered their finishing moves which only led to two counts during pins. Barnhart also let his frustration get the better of him. At the very end, while both were on the top rope, Styles backdropped Barnhart, who attempted the Angel's Wings from that height, and Styles hit the Spiral Tap, and covered for the victory.
[edit] Aftermath
[edit] Reception
[edit] Results
| No. | Results | Stipulations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kazarian defeated Samoa Simpson | Singles match |
| 2 | Douglas Williams (with Magnus and Rob Truax) defeated Marc Haskins | Open Challenge match |
| 3 | Eric Young and Shark Boy defeated Generation Me (Jeremy and Max Buck) | Tag Team match |
| 4 | Alec Leon defeated Amazing Red, Robbie R (with Cookie) and Shane Harris | Ultimate X match to determine the number one contender for the TNA X Division Championship |
| 5 | Rob Van Dam defeated Jerry Lynn | Singles match |
| 6 | Austin Brown defeated Kevin Evans, Low Ki and Zema Ion | Four-way X Division Showcase tournament final for an exclusive TNA contract |
| 7 | Brian Woods defeated Abyss (c) | Singles match for the TNA X Division Championship |
| 8 | K.J. Styles defeated Christopher Barnhart | Singles match |
