Hard Justice 2007: Angle and Joe Carry a Card Built Around One Giant Gamble

Jay Lethal and Sonjay Dutt won the opening three-team X Division contest over the Motor City Machine Guns and the Daniels–Senshi pairing. The decisive fall came when Lethal pinned Christopher Daniels with an inside cradle after Daniels collided with Senshi on the top rope. Those details identify a real scorer and pinned opponent in a match where all six wrestlers had reason to interrupt one another. It was not a singles victory by Lethal or a pin on Sabin or Shelley. At roughly sixteen minutes the opener had time for X Division counters, and its B/7.8 score credits the variety and finish rather than making it a title change. Daniels' postmatch dispute with his Triple X partners also fed the ongoing faction storyline.

Frankie Kazarian defeated Raven in about five and a half minutes after rejecting Raven's offer to bring him back into the Serotonin group. Kaz initially shook Raven's hand and hugged him, then attacked Raven and the accompanying Havok and Martyr with a kendo stick. In the actual contest he knocked Martyr off the apron and finished Raven with a running kick to the face. That context explains the rivalry more accurately than judging the short result by runtime alone: it was a break from a manipulative faction, not an ordinary anonymous singles pin. C at 6.0 and SKIP fit a brief angle-driven contest whose confrontation and posturing are more memorable than its wrestling exchanges.

James Storm defeated Rhino in a brutal streetfight after repeated chair attacks, a superkick and smashing a beer bottle across Rhino's head. The fight had a dangerous prebell escalation, including a chair thrown toward Storm that went into the crowd, and Storm poured beer on his opponent after the win. With nearly thirteen minutes and the no-rules premise, the feud had room for sustained weapon escalation, yet that excess also made it a rough rather than technically polished match. Storm's final pin was not achieved by a surprise countout or disqualification. B- and 7.0 reward the physical stakes and grudge payoff while keeping it below the more consequential championship main event and the athletic opener.

Homicide and Hernandez ultimately beat B.G. James and Kip James, but the first apparent result was overturned. Kip initially covered Hernandez with the Fameasser after Roxxi had thrown powder into Hernandez's face, drawing an apparent VKM win. Hector Guerrero challenged the illegal interference, the referee restarted the action, and Homicide rolled up Kip for LAX's recorded victory. The reversal is the essential story and explains why a plain statement that LAX simply won by a clean pin would be misleading. Five to six minutes supplied little conventional wrestling, so C- and 5.8 reflect an angle-heavy finish more valuable for its role in the teams' rivalry than as an isolated tag-team recommendation.

Robert Roode pinned Eric Young after a low blow and concealed brass-knuckle strike behind the referee's back. The stipulated loser faced a tar-and-feather humiliation, but the postmatch ceremony took a different turn when Gail Kim intervened to protect Young and Roode accidentally struck Traci Brooks. Young and Kim eventually dumped feathers on Brooks while Roode retreated. Those details make this more than a routine nine-minute singles match: the cheating result and flipped punishment kept the Roode–Young story alive. The finish was an official pin, not a disqualification, even though a foreign object decided it. C+ and 6.5 credit the character payoff while recognizing that the actual in-ring contest never reached the show's stronger matches.

Chris Harris received the official victory when Black Reign was disqualified after attacking the referee and assaulting a bloodied Harris with a chain. There was no legal Harris pin despite the winner designation; the referee stopped the contest after roughly four minutes and forty seconds. Black Reign then handcuffed Harris and threatened him with a spiked implement, with other wrestlers rushing out to end the attack. The segment was Dustin Rhodes' emergence in the Black Reign persona, but the shocking aftermath dwarfed the very short match. D+ and 5.0 reflect an incomplete athletic contest that exists chiefly to intensify the feud. SKIP the full match unless following the Black Reign storyline; do not misread the DQ as a wrestling pin.

Rick and Scott Steiner beat Team 3D in an eleven-minute meeting between two established heavyweight tag teams. Scott delivered the decisive pin on Brother Devon after the Steiners' top-rope-assisted bulldog combination, making the fall scorer and defeated wrestler explicit. This was neither a TNA World Tag Team Championship change nor a multi-team contest; the appeal was the meeting of two recognizable veteran pairings after their increasingly personal confrontations. The finish gave the Steiners the upper hand without ending the broader program. C+ at 6.8 credits the reunion and simple tag-team payoff while recognizing that the bouts around it supplied greater athletic range and larger immediate consequences.

Abyss, Sting and Andrew Martin defeated Christian Cage, A.J. Styles and Tomko inside the barbed-wire Doomsday Chamber of Blood. The team result earned Abyss a TNA World Heavyweight Championship opportunity against Kurt Angle at No Surrender. The closing fall belongs to Abyss, but source accounts disagree about the pinned opponent: Pro Wrestling History names Christian Cage, while the detailed History of WWE report identifies A.J. Styles after a Black Hole Slam onto glass. Because those records conflict, this review doesn't present either individual pin recipient as settled fact. The six-person steel-cage violence and title-shot reward were real. B- at 7.2 recognizes a dramatic spectacle whose heavy gimmickry sometimes eclipsed the wrestling.

Kurt Angle defeated Samoa Joe after a referee bump and a steel-chair blow to the head, capturing the X Division and TNA Tag Team titles Joe had held. Angle entered the main event as TNA World Champion and holder of the disputed IWGP Third Belt, so the main story was not a conventional defense of a single championship. Karen Angle's ringside distraction created the opening for the illicit strike. Joe's hard fight and the high stakes made this the evening's leading match, but Angle's interference-assisted pin should not be described as an uncontested sporting finish. The A- at 8.8 reflects the extended rivalry, championship consequences and substantial wrestling despite the tainted decision.