Victory Road 2011: A Strong Undercard Is Overwhelmed by a 1:28 Main Event

Tommy Dreamer and Bully Ray opened Victory Road with a No Disqualification Falls Count Anywhere confrontation stemming from Ray’s conflict with his former Team 3D partner. Dreamer took the fight into the seats, used the ringside guardrail and scattered objects across the ring. Ray responded with a kendo stick, a trash can and a threat to drive Dreamer through a table. The lack of disqualification was central rather than incidental: neither man attempted to win through conventional holds for long, and each needed the weapon chaos to put the feud across in barely eleven minutes.

Ray stopped to taunt Dreamer with a microphone while readying the table. Team 3D music played, Devon’s sons appeared on the ramp and Devon entered from behind. He and Dreamer delivered the 3D through the table, after which Dreamer pinned Ray. The actual winner was Dreamer, though the decisive attack came from Devon’s interference rather than a one-on-one counter. The B- (7.2) reflects an energetic opener whose family-revenge angle carries more weight than its loose hardcore action. It is worth skimming for the specific 3D-assisted finish.

Angelina Love and Winter defended the Knockouts Tag Team Championship against Sarita and Rosita, whose emerging Mexico America allegiance gave the challengers a clear faction connection. Love and Rosita traded holds early while Winter briefly changed the pace with a Northern Lights suplex and tight arm control. Sarita and Rosita isolated the champions with quick exchanges, but the titleholders found counters without building a long comeback. The compressed match made it difficult to establish either team’s best combination sequence before the belts were placed at risk.

Rosita attempted to strike Winter with the title belt, but Velvet Sky hurried into the ring and intercepted the weapon. Sarita used the distraction to roll Winter into a pin and the referee counted three, giving the challengers the championship. The outcome was a real title change, not a disqualification for attempted interference, and neither Love nor Winter won a fall. The C- (5.6) acknowledges that the result altered the division, but the under-five-minute structure and outside commotion leave little replayable tag wrestling. The closing rollup and new champions’ reaction supply the essential record.

Former tag partners Hernandez and Matt Morgan settled another chapter of their dispute under First Blood rules. Morgan started with heavy punches and a clothesline that carried both men toward ringside. Hernandez replied with a spear and a broken broom handle, threatening to open a wound rather than pursue an ordinary pin. Morgan attacked the head and tried the discus lariat. Their brawling became increasingly awkward as each tried to create visible blood without allowing the other a decisive opening, and a ringside disturbance interrupted the momentum in the middle of the contest.

Hernandez emerged with a small cut near his forehead, while Morgan appeared to have blood on his chest rather than an evident head wound. The referee nevertheless stopped the contest and awarded Hernandez the First Blood decision, a disputed finish designed to extend the feud rather than resolve their actual physical superiority. The C (6.2) grade recognizes the personal stakes but cannot treat the ambiguous blood decision as a satisfying result. Skim the ruling and avoid reading it as a conventional knockout or a three-count victory.

Kazarian defended the X Division Championship against Robbie E and both members of Generation Me, Max and Jeremy Buck, in an Ultimate X contest. The Buck brothers initially cooperated against Kazarian and Robbie, even though only one of them could retrieve the title. Robbie used Cookie’s ringside encouragement and opportunistic attacks to interrupt the more athletic exchanges. Kazarian climbed the overhead cables repeatedly, while the Bucks used springboard offense and a moonsault to clear the ring and create a few genuine opportunities to claim the hanging belt.

When Max and Jeremy both headed for the cable, their individual ambitions undermined their teamwork. Kazarian pulled each challenger down, landed a reverse piledriver on Robbie and fought off a succession of airborne counters. Robbie tried bringing a ladder into the cable challenge, but Kazarian climbed first and pulled down the suspended championship to retain. No pinfall or submission decided the Ultimate X match. The B+ (8.4) reflects a lively fourteen-minute title defense and the Buck brothers’ conflicting objectives, though the ladder interference undercut the match’s core Ultimate X premise. It is one of the card’s two clear full-watch recommendations.

Beer Money defended the TNA World Tag Team Championship against Ink Inc. in a bout that mixed respect with an increasingly competitive finishing stretch. James Storm opened opposite Jesse Neal in straightforward wrestling exchanges, while Robert Roode took on Shannon Moore when the first tags arrived. The challengers cut Storm off for a period, then Beer Money regained control with quick double-team combinations. Neal and Moore threatened a major upset when their neckbreaker-and-Ace-Crusher combination nearly kept Roode down, forcing the champions to survive more than simple isolated punches.

Moore tried to reach for his chain as the exhausted teams brawled. Neal explicitly told his partner they would not win by cheating, but the hesitation allowed Storm to deliver a superkick. Beer Money finished Moore with their Drinking While Investing combination to retain the championships. The B (7.6) acknowledges how the two teams created credible near falls and made Ink Inc. look competitive despite losing. This match matters for its actual tag finish rather than a surprise title change; watch or skim its late stretch depending on interest in the division.

A.J. Styles met Matt Hardy, accompanied by Ric Flair, in a conventional singles attraction that had more room to develop than most of Victory Road. Styles attacked with fast kicks and a floor dive while Hardy tried to slow his opponent with targeted strikes and a grapevine hold. Flair reached in from ringside to interrupt one of Styles’s springboard attacks, giving Hardy an opening. Hardy’s Side Effect and Alabama Slam produced close counts, while Styles answered with the Pelé kick and an acrobatic leap from the guardrail back into the fight.

Near the finish, Hardy knocked Styles down and attempted a moonsault but could not complete the pin. Styles countered a further turnbuckle attack with another Pelé kick, climbed up and connected with the Spiral Tap to score the fall after more than seventeen minutes. The A- (8.5) reflects sustained athletic exchanges, Hardy’s credible near falls and a clean, identifiable Styles pin despite Flair’s earlier attempts to influence the match. It deserves a full viewing because the late counters reward following the whole contest, not merely reading its result line.

Rob Van Dam and Mr. Anderson met for a World Heavyweight title opportunity, but their bout did not yield a new contender. Anderson tried to interrupt Van Dam’s movement by attacking his leg against the steel post after the opening exchanges. Van Dam answered with Rolling Thunder, kicks and a slingshot attack to the floor, but the injured leg slowed his next attempt at a dive. The match had the structure of a developing singles competition before both men pushed the fight away from the ring as the time approached thirteen minutes.

On the entrance ramp, Anderson caught Van Dam with the Mic Check. Neither competitor could return to the ring before the referee’s count reached ten, so the official result was a double countout, not an Anderson victory or a Van Dam pin. That distinction is especially important because the match was advertised as a number-one-contender contest. C+ (6.5) reflects reasonable competitive action with a result that intentionally declined to identify the challenger. The finish is more valuable as a booking note than an isolated match recommendation.

Sting defended the TNA World Heavyweight Championship against Jeff Hardy in the infamous main event that lasted about one minute and twenty-eight seconds. Eric Bischoff appeared before the bell to announce No Disqualification rules, yet the alteration played no meaningful part in the wrestling that followed. Hardy entered slowly and offered almost no sustained resistance, leaving Sting to use a few strikes and his Scorpion Death Drop for the pin. The referee counted three quickly and the broadcast was left with a world-title result lacking the normal competitive middle of a pay-per-view closer.

The abbreviated finish was not an ordinary hard-fought champion squash or a double countout. Historical accounts subsequently reported that Hardy arrived in no condition to perform, which explains the promoters’ decision to curtail the attraction, though the observable on-screen evidence is the one-move pin. A score of 1.5 (F) represents the missing match, not a revised judgment on the performers’ careers. Its value is historical context and evidence of the show’s unusually abrupt ending; there is no meaningful full main event to recommend.