This was a Ladder Match, and the third match in a special challenge series. If either The Hardy Boyz or Team 3D were to win (as each had won one match in this challenge series), they would have won two matches of three to date, and would win the Wolves’ TNA Tag Team Titles.
The match itself isn’t amazing, but it’s real fun
It’s very much a TV kind of a ladder match, and one that isn’t the main event of the show at that. A lot of really really fun and entertaining stuff happens. There’s an argument to be made that it’s very much a TLC Three (not TLC III, despite Davey being Davey) retread, but the Wolves are so wildly different from Edge & Christian that that just feels like someone saying something to try and diminish great work. Davey and Eddie are different and the match celebrates that difference. Their success is through striking and traditional wrestling, rather than the other two teams being way more comfortable in these elements. If someone REALLY wanted to participate in some grade A fanwank, you could even say Eddie and Davey are a little reticent of the ladders after their one experience in a Ladder War in 2009 ROH in this same building. I won’t, but I want you to know that the option is out there for any of you enterprising perverts.
What helps the match most of all is that everyone in this clearly genuinely does give a shit about it being great. The Wolves go nuts in a big spot, both of the Hardys continue this weird and wonderful year of return, and even Bully and D-Von do as much as they still can at this point. There’s a genuinely charming sort of an effort to the entire thing that really makes the match.
In the end, Jeff Hardy takes a truly heinous bump, but in a far more grotesque way than any table setpiece from the legendary series at the turn of the millennium. Richards tips a ladder over, but Jeff doesn’t QUITE make the flip over and just comes down on top of the ladder, entirely on his ribs and chest. It would be horrifying if a twenty year old took it, let alone Jeff Hardy in 2014. There may be bigger things they can do in the match, but it’s also next to impossible to do something that’s as realistic and brutal as that. You should always end on or close to the high note, and this is that for the match. Eddie Edwards follows up by pulling down both titles, and the Wolves finally take one.
The series ends 1-1-1, forcing a fourth match weeks later, which is their most highly thought of match. Before watching all of this, I assumed it was overhyped TNA nonsense like the Gail Kim vs. Taryn Terrell match. After watching all three matches, I’m genuinely excited for the fourth. It’s hard to think of a more complimentary statement than that.
three way
HANDWERK 