Countdown to TNA Against All Odds By JON WALDMAN -- SLAM! Wrestling

Styles, Pope claim victory Against All Odds

Apparently TNA has taken the "Against All Odds" title to tonight's pay-per-view in a new direction.

Playing off the last word in the title, TNA has developed a number-one contender tourney for tonight, which makes me happy for two reasons. First, I'm a sucker for one-night tournaments and have been dating back to WrestleMania IV. Second, it makes the show that much easier to preview, since it means that the usual dearth of matches TNA has on its show has pretty much already been covered off.

The tourney could feature some great wrestling and the two matches on the side compliment it fairly well. Curiously, there's no Knockout match to speak of, nor X-Division bout, but we're still getting a pretty decent card. Let's take a closer look at Against All Odds

SLAM! Prediction

The Bischoff-as-ref scenario will throw this match into overbooked hell in the opinion of most, including me. There's no reason for it here, since AJ and Joe can go out and have a great match without needing to rely on Eric as a tool to advance the story. I will say this though - Bischoff has added an interesting element, whereby Styles has the odds stacked against him. Ultimately though, rather than being a tool to make one think that Joe is "corporate", it leads one to believe that the big swerve of Bischoff siding with Styles will be the end result of the bout. This will undoubtedly happen, with Joe ultimately being shuffled down the card.

SLAM! Prediction

The gut instinct here is to say that Angle comes out on top, but he's likely to get screwed in his prelim match with Anderson. Anderson, meanwhile, will likely make it to the finals and be beat by the ultimate tourney winner. Morgan and Hernandez essentially cancel each other out, Pope won't advance past the first round and Foley's just in there for giggles. This leaves Abyss and Wolfe, and I get the feeling it will be the former Nigel McGuiness going into the number one contender spot. The interplay with him and Christy Hemme this past week had definite face overtones and he's so charismatic that you can't help but like the guy. a Wolfe/AJ series would also be a great boost to TNA for a main event run that is a bit different.

SLAM! Prediction

Oh like we didn't know this was coming. It was pretty much a guarantee that Hogan's drinking buddy, Knobbs, would be coming into TNA. Bringing Sags with him was not unexpected either. I'm sure there's a fan out there that's pleased for the reunion, but he/she probably won't order the PPV anyways. the former Dudleys win here, and in keeping with the theme of Hogan's cronies, expect the Dream Team to challenge Devon and Ray next month.