August 16, 2009

Kurt Angle is still the TNA World champ. Photo courtesy TNA

Going into Hard Justice, it was an intriguing main event, with Matt Morgan thrown into the mix, challenging TNA champion Kurt Angle and Sting. However, with Angle's arrest on Saturday for allegedly stalking Rhakka Khan (Trenesh Biggers) in Pittsburgh, and subsequently being charged for having HGH in the car, the drama was bound to unfold in a whole different way. But it didn't.

Instead, Angle is still the champion after the finale of Hard Justice.

In a fairly short match, Angle -- who had been catering to Morgan earlier in the PPV -- turned on Morgan, which resulted in Morgan tossing Angle to the floor hard. Playing it up big deal, Angle stayed outside as Sting almost pinned Morgan. Sensing opportunity, Angle, now recovered, pulled referee Earl Hebner from the ring, went to whack Sting with a chair, and hit Morgan instead, and scored the victory.

Many will see the result as the promotion backing Angle in his time of trouble, or perhaps rolling the dice in what could end up being a wild story. Or, in the end, it could very well end up being a non-story. Time will tell.

In the semi-main event for the TNA Legends title, champion Mick Foley lost the belt back to Kevin Nash. Foley bled first, and brought out a barbed wire baseball bat, but before he got a chance to use it, bumped into Traci Brooks, which led to Nash pinning him. Post-match, Nash hit Foley with the bat once, but was intercepted by Abyss -- who had his own barbed wire bat, before doing any more damage.

The rest of the card shook down like this:

The opening match was an Escape the Cage Match to become No. 1 Contender for the X title, and pitted Suicide vs. Daniels vs. Consequences Creed vs. Amazing Red vs. Chris Sabin vs. Alex Shelley vs. Jay Lethal vs. Pope D'Angelo Dinero (Elijah Burke). There were a lot of highspots. Dinero appeared poised to win, but chose to go after Suicide instead, leaving Daniels to escape the cage and win.

Abyss beat Jethro Holliday, using brass knuckles and his black hole slam.

Hernandez destroyed Rob Terry in less than 10 seconds, so he claimed the championship briefcase.

Magnus & Doug Williams beat Beer Money, retaining the IWGP tag team titles. Eric Young got involved in the bout as well.

Cody Deaner is the new Knockouts champion (!), as he and OBD beat Angelina Love & Velvet Sky. ODB was announced as the champ, but Deaner took the belt.

Samoa Joe defeated Homicide to win the X Division title.

In the Booker T & Scott Steiner vs. Team 3-D bout for the TNA tag team titles, it was announced before the match that it was now a no DQ, falls count anywhere bout, with two referees. It came down to a video replay, as the two referees, Slick Johnson and Earl Hebner, made separate counts at the same time. In the end, it was ruled that Brother Ray pinning Steiner happened a split second before Brother Devon pinned Booker T.

RELATED LINKS

August 16, 2009: Angle arrested

Countdown to TNA Hard Justice