Six contestants, and only three places in the final up for grabs. To help decide their fate, Al Snow and Angelina Love stepped into the ring with the hopefuls to compete in a mixed eight-person tag team match, which was a final chance to show what they had to offer. James Milin-Ashmore reports.
As the old adage goes, you never know what you’ve got until it’s gone.
For the last few weeks I’ve been sure there was a conspiracy to keep Grado in the competition, but as he angrily shuffled off towards the end after being unceremoniously dumped out by Al Snow, I felt nothing but sadness.
Sure, it might’ve been a worked shoot, but Grado (and to a lesser extent Dave Mastiff) have been my personal highlights of the series. With both sent home along with Noam Dar, I’m not sure if they made the right choice. Then again, I’m not the one handing out a professional contract.
Instead, I’ll just repeat some of the questions and issues that arose (solely in my mind) when I found out the final three of Rampage Brown, Kay Lee Ray and Mark Andrews.
- They picked Mark Andrews over Noam? Seriously? Did they actually watch the (painfully boring) eight-man match? Yes, he can do backflips, but he oversells every single time. He wasn’t up against Brock Lesnar.
- Rampage Brown doesn’t seem to have a single defining feature.
- Dave Mastiff was probably always fighting a losing battle to prove himself.
- Kay Lee has a really good chance to win this, she’s the real deal.
- When all is said and done, Grado will be the one I remember.
The match itself seems inconsequential in hindsight considering the shock of the eliminations, but it still ended strongly following a powerbomb/sitdown powerbomb combo by Rampage on Andrews that was pretty explosive. Other than that, referee Earl Hebner danced with Grado. It wasn’t a highlight.
(Andrews also pulled off another crazy flip to perfection during the match, so perhaps he can work on his timing, hand placement and selling if he does win the contract. He does have great potential.)
Rampage and Andrews are obviously great athletes, but I wonder if their characters are as well defined as Mastiff and Grado. I can see why they were picked, and either would be a deserving winner, but are they really so different to what TNA already has to offer?
As for Kay Lee, she has a great chance, and she does stand out from the crowd. This time next week, she could be the first female to win TNA’s British Boot Camp. For now, it’s too close to call.