Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler def. Kofi Kingston and Jack Swagger in a Triple Threat Ladder MatchZiggler and Kingston had been feuding over the Intercontinental Championship since the summer, so it was already well established that they had great chemistry together. Plus, Swagger being thrown into the mix helped freshen things up a bit. This was a really fun match with some suspenseful "nearfalls" (a.k.a. someone nearly pulling down the title). I believe the finish was botched, as Ziggler was supposed to catch the belt before it hit the ground. Either way, I thought it was clever, though I could understand why others may have thought it was lame. This was the perfect matchup to open the event with. Divas Champion Natalya and Beth Phoenix def. LayCool in a Tag Team Tables MatchI remember this being one of the best women's matches I had seen in WWE up to this point. Of course, the women are involved in all sort of gimmick matches these days, but I'm not sure if there had ever been a women's tag team Tables match prior to this pay-per-view. There was one really scary moment where Phoenix landed on the back of her neck at ringside, but she seemed to be fine and was back in the action a few minutes later. Other than that, this was a pretty good Tables match and I liked the ending with Natalya putting both members of LayCool through a table via a leap from the top rope. Unfortunately, Natalya went on to drop the Divas Championship to Eve Torres out of nowhere one month later on Raw.
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Rob Van Dam def. Zema Ion to Win the TNA X-Division ChampionshipRVD as a member of the X-Division never made much sense to me, but I guess TNA really wanted more star power in the title picture at the time. A lot of RVD's work was uninspired, but truth be told, this was one of his better bouts, probably because of Ion. They put together a pretty good match and worked a nice pace. It was smart for this to be positioned as the opener since the title change kicked off the event on a high note. TNA World Television Champion Samoa Joe def. MagnusThese two teamed up for the first half of 2012 and even reigned as TNA World Tag Team Champions for a brief period, so they already had great chemistry together. Magnus was really coming into his own as a singles competitor at this point and Joe was the perfect opponent for him. They produced a very clean, well wrestled match that I really enjoyed. Joe retained the title, but Magnus had solid showing in defeat. This was probably the only time in the history of the TNA World Television Championship that it was actually important.
United States Champion The Miz def. MVPMiz was still early into his reign as United States Champion at this point but was quickly finding his footing as a heel on his own. He generated great heat from the fans in attendance and MVP was a fun foil for him. They weren't given a ton of time to work with, but it was a nice little match while it lasted with the right result. Championships have changed hands in Madison Square Garden before, so it's not like the outcome was entirely predictable. Santino Marella def. Chavo GuerreroAs you would probably expect, this was complete comedy. In fact, it was less of a match and more of a bit with Santino spending the first minute or so trying out different jerseys that appealed to the New York fans. Admittedly, Santino rolling to the other end of the ring whenever Chavo attempted to go for the Frog Splash was pretty funny. Hornswoggle (who feuded with Chavo all summer in 2009) distracted Chavo long enough to allow Santino to pick up the victory.
JBL and Chris Jericho Confronted Raw General Manager Mike AdamleAdamle was named the new general manager of Raw one week earlier and fans were not happy. Not only did the development not make any sense, Adamle was terrible! I mean, my god, the guy brought out a script with him on stage so he could remember all of his lines for this segment. It came out years later that he was dealing with medical issues at the time (and to this day) that prevented him from remembering things correctly, but they should have never put him in that role to begin with. Nevertheless, this was a solid segment that set up JBL and Jericho vs. CM Punk in a 2-on-1 Handicap match for later on in the night. Intercontinental Champion Kofi Kingston def. Paul BurchillI can't imagine many people truly saw Burchill as a threat to the title here, but I always thought he should have gotten a run with a midcard championship at some point during his career. This was the closest he came to winning one. He and Kingston had a nice little match, though the finish felt a bit abrupt with Kingston hitting the Trouble in Paradise out of nowhere.
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