On behalf of myself and everyone at TNAsylum, we send all our get well wishes to Zema Ion who recently had his appendix removed due to a case of appendicitis which lead to the discovery of a tumor on his colon. Make sure to send your well wishes to Zema @ZemaTNA or if you would like to donate to help with his current and future medical bills you can do so by visiting https://www.giveforward.com/fundraiser/6hd2/zematna
For the first time ever since the change to the X Division, we were treated last week to an in-ring X Division promo (cheers). Kenny King made his first appearance after his successful title defense three weeks ago (not exactly an ideal gap for your champion to be missing from TV). After gloating about himself, King began to praise the returning Chris Sabin, hailing him(no pun intended) for his determination to come back from 2 ACL tears. After bringing Sabin out and even letting him hold the title, the X Division emperor decided to rule with an iron fist and proceed to tear Sabin a new one and state that it would be the closest “Frail Sabin” would ever get to the X Division title again. Sabin heard enough, and proceeded to knock King on his ass and out of the ring, ending with the standard stare down between the two before their Championship match along with Petey Williams next week.
I'm glad we finally got an X Division promo to set-up an upcoming match, one of King's best attributes is his talking and since the change I’ve felt his mic work has been wasted by not giving him more opportunities to speak. Hopefully they begin using him more when he's not wrestling by having him give interviews or even guest commentary on the top contender matches. It was a nice change of pace to see a promo instead of a video package to set-up the next title match. While I didn't like how Petey Williams was nowhere to be seen in a promo (that on the surface was to hype the next title match which he is apart of), I liked how the seed was planted for a future feud between King & Sabin. While the new rules may prohibit it, I can see how they could get to the King vs Sabin match.For this week's Championship three way we first got a video package with comments from the three competitors talking about one another and their upcoming bout. We skipped the entrances of all three and headed to the ring for the big fight style introductions. The match began with King heading straight to the outside, encouraging Williams & Sabin to go at it with one another to get things moving. The two obliged and after a short trade of offense from one another, the champion made his first move by tripping Petey, pulling him outside and throwing him back first into the guardrail to eliminate one threat for a short period of time. King then turned his attention to his other threat in the ring.
King got in the ring only to be one upped move after move by Sabin. Just as the champion leveled Sabin with a cartwheel kick he turned straight into the shoulder of Petey Williams who followed up by springing over the ropes and hitting K2 with the codebreaker. After hitting Sabin with a hesitation drop-kick that knocked him out of the ring, Williams was hit from behind straight away by King (who at this point began wearing down Petey in the ring while Sabin was on the outside).
Once Sabin got back into the ring, the offense was constantly moving between the three, with each man's attempt at a big move failing and costing them control of the bout. It was anyone's match until Chris Sabin hit Williams with a death valley driver onto an upside down Kenny King who was hanging in the corner. Seemingly taking out King and moving his attention to Maple Leaf Muscle, Sabin hit Petey with a power bomb followed by a running kick to the face. Just as Sabin was setting up Petey's prone body for the Future Shock, King came out of nowhere with a shotgun knee to lay out Sabin and took advantage of a dazed Williams driving him down with the Royal Flush and once again retaining his title.
Yet again, we had an impressive X Division match with all three getting their turn to shine. This week Kenny King's standard game plan for these three-way matches was highlighted with him yet again coming in the back door and stealing the win from one of his two opponents.
After the match we were made aware of both the next Top Contender's match & the next Championship match. Next week the man who lost the fall in this week's title match, Petey Williams goes against the man in his 3rd Top contenders match Sonjay Dutt & the returning masked man of mystery, Suicide. The winner of that match will advance to Slammiversary to face Chris Sabin and Kenny King for the X Division title in the high-wire spectacle, Ultimate X.
The question remain who will be the man that advances to Slammiversary's Ultimate X match (lets just forget about that production screw up that told us who). Will Maple Leaf Muscle bounce back from this weeks loss and get straight back into the title picture? Will it be 3rd time lucky for the Guru who's been looking to get back into the title bracket since March? Will it be the returning Suicide that gets the win and moves on to Slammiversary? The question was answered on this past Thursday's Impa......no, wait, that's right but that's not exactly set in stone. Let's see.......that answer will be “confirmed” on this weeks Impact!.
Now as a mentioned at the beginning of the column, the potential feud between Kenny King & Chris Sabin that was teased last week is prohibited by the X Division set-up, however after this week's Impact there may be a way to get the King vs Sabin match that we have been teased with. We now know that at Slammiversary the X division title will be defended in an Ultimate X match. The two confirmed participants are the two men in question Kenny King and Chris Sabin. Now here's what I could see happening at and after Slammiversary.At Slammmiversary in the Ultimate X title match, Chris Sabin wins and becomes the new X Division champion. On the following Impact, Kenny King demands a rematch for the belt but he wants a one on one with Sabin. Sabin's response is that the loser of the fall in an X Division match drop's out of the title picture, however due to the match at Slammiversary being an Ultimate X match, their was no fall to be lost, therefore the next title match will be a re-match of the bout from Slammiversary. King then states he's looked into it, and when he won the X Division title, the new rules weren’t in place & he had a re-match clause, and in this situation with there being no clear loser and no open spot for a top contender to fill, his rematch clause is valid meaning he gets his one on one match with Sabin for the title. This moves us to a title match between the two
The scenario would be a smart way to get to the King vs Sabin match without contradicting themselves and insulting anyone’s intelligence, it's a pre-existing clause that has become active due to a unique situation and being implemented to give the fans a match that should happen.
As I mentioned in the previous installment, I have been thinking of some themes for editions that are not on week's the X Division doesn't have a match, the two I have come up with are “Section X: Rewind” & “Section X: Top 10.” Rewind will be a look back on feuds, matches and events from the past 11 years of the X Division. Top 10 will list the top 10 in a certain category ranging from finishing moves to best X Division wrestlers and much more. If you have any themes you'd like to see for either Rewind or Top 10 you can post them in the comments or tweet them to me @MisterTNA. The debut of one of them may be in two weeks due to a standard Section X scheduled for next week because of the return of Suicide on this weeks Impact and the assumption his return will take place in a Top Contenders match against Petey Williams and Sonjay Dutt.
Speaking of returns “MisterTNA Talks” will be back next Sunday for the TNAsylum 3rd Year Anniversary. The topic will be part two of the last edition “MisterTNA Talks...Impact Road Tapings” which was looking forward to the start of Impact permanently on the road. Part II will look back at the move to the road so far and where we go from here. Be sure to check it out along with the contributions from all the TNAsylum staff next Sunday and celebrate 3 great years for the haven for TNA fans.
