Hard Justice 2005 was sold on the prospect of seeing AJ Styles crowned NWA Champion in front of the biggest audience TNA had ever mustered to this point. With the strap going to the biggest fan favorite in the company at the end of the night, TNA, never a company who embraced subtlety, decided to put together their own version of WrestleMania 14, bringing in Tito Ortiz to officiate the main event. That match, plus the involvement of Ortiz, would have to deliver in major fashion, as the rest of the card was incredibly weak. Let's see how it went.
- Hard Justice comes to you from the Impact Zone, with Don West and Mike Tenay on the call. Say what you will about TNA, but their opening tribute to the recently passed Chris Candido was very touching. A chair sits in the middle of the ring, holding his signature towel, one of the NWA tag belts and a framed photo of Candido, with a pair of boots sitting below the chair, for the ten bell salute. This was absolutely perfect, and very classy from a company not generally known for it.
- Our opening contest sees Team Canada, represented by Petey Williams and Eric Young, taking on Apolo and Sonny Siaki. I was very intrigued to see this match, as Petey and Eric are terrific at bumping and could be perfect foils for their much bigger opponents. We do get to see a bit of that promise when Siaki gets a hot tag, but this match is mostly just filled with rest holds and outside interference. That interference eventually pays dividends for Team Canada, as A-1 is able to take out Siaki with a suplex, allowing Petey to get the win.
- More tag team action follows in our next match, this time of the mixed variety, as Trinity and Michael Shane take on Traci Brooks and Chris Sabin. Traci was the former manager of Shane and Frankie Kazarian, which is important for the finish. As for the match itself, your enjoyment of it hinges on how much Michael Shane you can stand, as he and Sabin do most of the work, covering for the women's lack of experience. I thought it was fine, maybe a bit too long at ten minutes, but a lot better than I thought it would be. The finish sees Traci turn on partner Sabin, hitting him with a low blow, before Shane wipes out Chris and Trinity with superkicks, covering Sabin for the win before celebrating the successful swerve with Traci. This was all booked pretty well, as Shane and Traci never once tried to fight each other, making this betrayal seem very obvious in hindsight, which is just what a swerve should be.
- A Clockwork Orange House of Fun is scheduled to take place up next, between bitter rivals Raven and Jeff Hardy. Unfortunately, TNA had to improvise, as Jeff no-showed the event, which he apparently had a habit of doing throughout this run. The reason why he showed up hours after the event had concluded was never made public, but it's Jeff Hardy, so I think you can guess. His last-minute replacement is Sean Waltman, wrestling his first singles pay-per-view match here in TNA. Obviously, both men were up against it here, trying to come up with a match worthy of a hardcore stipulation on the fly, and their solution was blood. Lots and lots of blood. This match quickly approaches CZW level, as Raven is a bloody mess just minutes after the opening bell. Waltman is portrayed as a real psychopath, stapling Raven's head with a staple gun and bringing the crowd to their feet with a ridiculous somersault leg drop through a table. All of the weapons being utilized in this match are hanging on part of a steel cage, which Raven throws Waltman through, before pinning him for the win. This match was pure carnage, both fun and scary in equal measure, and I thought that considering the circumstances, this was about as good as you could've hoped for.
- I hope you're not sick of tag team wrestling yet, because it's time for the third tag contest of the night, as Monty Brown and The Outlaw team up to face Diamond Dallas Page and Ron Killings. BG James was originally supposed to be teaming with Page, but was replaced by Killings after he apparently had travel issues, which is definitely a work this time. This match is perfectly acceptable, ending via interference from Phi Delta Slam, for some reason. DDP hits a Diamond Cutter on both Big Tilly and Bruno Sassi, before going down to a Pounce from former tag partner Brown. This is the end of Page's TNA run, which is a bit of a shame, as I thought he did quite well, especially for a man pushing 50. I might be a bit biased, as I do love DDP, but he kept himself in really great shape, the yoga probably helped with that, and always seemed to give his all for whatever he was booked for, a constant throughout his career. I can't really say that Page deserved better than what he got in TNA, as he was constantly featured in high profile matches and TNA definitely didn't need to be heavily pushing yet another ex-WCW/WWE guy, but it would've been interesting to see what he could've done as champion.
- In the aftermath of the death of Chris Candido, his allies, The Naturals, have now turned face, which was definitely a good idea as the crowd were solidly behind them. Candido's final appearance in the company saw him assist Andy Douglas and Chase Stevens capture the NWA tag belts from America's Most Wanted, and they now defend them against AMW here. Most of this match takes place outside the ring, as both teams brawl. Once their back inside the ring, the champions score a cheap win, as Stevens has his feet on the ropes for the three count, which a strange way for the new faces to retain. This was okay, as all four men are talented but don't have a ton of chemistry working with each other.
- The X Division Championship is on the line up next, as Christopher Daniels looks to prove he's the best in the world today, defending his belt against Shocker. The luchador is given some shine here, hitting a couple big moves, including a frog splash and a front suplex off the top rope. The crowd isn't really into Shocker, as TNA hasn't done a particularly good job at presenting him as a big star other than just insisting he is one. Daniels scores a nifty win, countering another suplex off the top to hit the Angel's Wings, retaining his belt before declaring himself "Mr. TNA" afterward. In terms of actual wrestling, this was probably the best match of the night, though it did very little to make anyone care about Shocker, which is for the best, as he's very limited.
- Time for the Gauntlet for the Gold, a 20 man over the top battle royal with the final two men in the ring wrestling a singles match for an NWA title shot. Team Canada dominate most of this match, entering early and working together to eliminate every one they can before they get wiped out by Lance Hoyt to a monster pop. The Chris Sabin-Michael Shane feud is continued, as Sabin eliminates Shane and himself, before both men brawl around ringside and up to West and Tenay's announce table. We also get a moment of tension between The Outlaw and BG James, but the Canadian boys attack both men before we can see if they would fight each other. It comes down to Abyss, desperate to earn his title match after losing to AJ last month, and Ron Killings, working his second match of the night. Killings is able to use his athleticism to evade the monster for awhile, before a chair gets involved. Killings keeps the upper hand by catching Abyss in the crotch with the chair, but the big man scores the win, catching Killings in mid-air with the Black Hole Slam for the three. The finish was cool and perfectly executed by both men, and I did like a lot of the story beats during the battle royal portion.
- Main event time, as Jeff Jarrett defends the NWA Championship against AJ Styles, with Tito Ortiz serving as special enforcer to keep Jeff from cheating. This match is extremely slow which really doesn't suit AJ, as Jeff spends a lot of time applying headlocks and working the leg. I did enjoy both men hitting each other with their opponent's finishers, that's always a fun spot. Tito fails miserably at his one job, as Monty Brown manages to run-in, accidentally hitting the champion with the Pounce. Tito then gets distracted with Monty, robbing AJ of a three count, before he throws a bit of a tantrum, attacking another referee when he tries to make the count. Jarrett shoves Ortiz, no clue why, before lifting Styles to the top rope. Ortiz pulls Jeff down and knocks him out in some blatant biased refereeing, and AJ finally ends Jeff's title reign with the Spiral Tap, which he hasn't used in years. It's great to see AJ become champ, a much needed change for the main event scene, but this match really failed to live up to expectations. It's just too slow for AJ to truly florish, and while the finish wasn't quite as overbooked as some of the other TNA pay-per-view main events, it was still too messy to really present AJ as a true champion.
4/10
I wouldn't blame you for skipping Hard Justice, this is a truly unmemorable show. There's nothing really bad on it and everyone is clearing working hard to make it as good as possible, but I can't honestly tell you that there's anything you really need to see.
Next time on Henry's Pay-Per-View Reviews: Slammiversary 2005, the celebration of the first three years of TNA history. See you soon.
- Henry
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