Sacrifice Preview & Predictions

Sacrifice comes to us live this Sunday from the Impact Zone in Orlando, Florida. The event will focus mostly on a tag team title tournament, with a World title match and a few #1 contenders gimmick matches thrown in there for good measure. Due to the tournament, there will probably be 10 matches on the card, however, only four have been announced.

Here is the current lineup:
- Samoa Joe vs. Scott Steiner vs. Kurt Angle (TNA World Championship)
- Deuces Wild Tag Team Tournament
- TerrorDome – 10-Way X Division #1 Contenders Match
- Knockout Makeover Battle Royal – 10-Way Women’s #1 Contenders Match

Samoa Joe vs. Scott Steiner vs. Kurt Angle (TNA World Championship)
Scott Steiner announced his intentions on cashing in his Feast or Fired World title shot at the Sacrifice pay-per-view long before Samoa Joe even won the TNA World title from Kurt Angle at Lockdown. Following Joe’s title victory, a rematch between Joe and Angle took place on Impact, where Steiner played a role in allowing Joe to pick up the victory and retain his title. Following Steiner’s actions, Jim Cornette decided to add Kurt Angle into the mix and make it a three-way match for the TNA World Championship.

News reports are stating that Kurt Angle had been injured in a match in South Korea this past week, so it will be interesting to see what kind of role he plays in this match, if he is even in it at all. Injured or not, I’m pretty confident that this match will go in favor of Samoa Joe, as he just won the TNA World Championship a month ago. I don’t think it would be wise to take the title off of him just yet.

Starman’s Prediction: Samoa Joe to retain the TNA World Title.

Deuces Wild Tag Team Tournament
Due to controversial interference from Super Eric in a match where the TNA Tag Team Championships changed hands from Styles & Tomko to Kaz & Eric Young, Jim Cornette decided to vacate the tag team titles and hold a tournament to decide the new tag team champions. However, it wouldn’t be just any regular tournament; it would be a Deuces Wild Tournament.

Eight tag teams competed in qualifying matches on Impact and will face four randomly selected tag teams from a pool of eight singles wrestlers at Sacrifice. Two of the tag teams have already been selected, which paired feuding wrestlers Sting & James Storm and Matt Morgan & Kip James together. Left in the pool of eight are Booker T, Robert Roode, BG James and Awesome Kong, who will be randomly paired at Sacrifice. These teams will face the “established” tag teams of the LAX, Team 3D, Christian Cage & Rhino and AJ Styles & Super Eric.

Seeing what the pairings have been like so far, it will more than likely be Booker/Roode and James/Kong in the tournament together. None of the tournament brackets have been revealed, so there is no way in telling what teams will face each other aside from the one match tournament match that has been announced, Sting/Storm vs. Team 3D, which will kick off Sacrifice.

I truly hope that one of the established tag teams walk away with the gold, but since there really is only two established teams, the odds are against them. As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if both Team 3D and the LAX are knocked out in the first round. With that said, I am still going to go out on a limb and choose the LAX to win the tournament as they have been given some good television time in recent weeks and now have Hector Guererro in their corner.

Starman’s Prediction: The LAX to regain the TNA World Tag Team Championships.

TerrorDome – 10-Way X Division #1 Contenders Match
Jim Cornette revealed TNA’s newest concept match, the TerrorDome. The TerrorDome is a steel cage with a dome on the top that has a small opening in the center. It is said to have combined the Six Sides of Steel with the Ultimate X match and the winner will be the first one to escape from the hole at the top.

The participants for the TerrorDome are Jay Lethal, Curry Man, Kaz, Alex Shelley, Jimmy Rave, Chris Sabin, Johnny Devine, Shark Boy, Sonjay Dutt and Consequences Creed. Since there hasn’t been any build up and it is basically a random group of X Division stars, much like the Deuces Wild Tournament, this match will be hard to predict.

Curry Man could be a good pick as he is over with the fans. Jay Lethal could be one as well as he never got a rematch for the title he lost. Jimmy Rave could be an option to possibly carry out a feud if they intend on pursuing the Petey Williams injury and Consequences Creed is a newcomer wild card. The only other ones I could see possibly escaping the cage are both members of the Motorcity Machine Guns. I will go with my gut instinct and pick Jay Lethal.

Starman’s Prediction: Jay Lethal to escape the TerrorDome and become the #1 Contender to the X Division title.

Knockout Makeover Battle Royal – 10-Way Women’s #1 Contenders Match
Jim Cornette booked the Makeover Battle Royal against all of the Knockouts to vie for a shot against the Women’s Champion, Awesome Kong. Like all things in TNA, it can’t just be a straight up battle royal, but it will turn into a ladder match once there are only two competitors left in the ring. Those two will then go after a contract that will be hanging high above the ring. If that wasn’t enough, the loser of the match will have her head shaved bald… unless that person is Gail Kim, as she won an immunity match this past week on Impact. In that case, the next runner up will have her head shaved.

The participants for the battle royal include Gail Kim, ODB, Angelina Love, Velvet Sky, Rhaka Khan, Roxxi, Salinas, Christy Hemme, Traci Brooks and Jacqueline. As far as the head shaving goes, the only two people that I feel could sport that look would be ODB and Rhaka Khan. I feel that the match could either go with ODB winning against Gail Kim, in which Khan would end up having her head shaved or Kim would win the match against ODB, where ODB would lose her locks. I think I am going to go with the latter.

Starman’s Prediction: Gail Kim to win the shot and ODB loses her hair.

So there is the Sacrifice preview in a nutshell. The tournament is being set up to put more focus on partners than it will on the matches, which will take away from the whole point of it – crowning new Tag Team Champions. The TerrorDome has the talent to put on a fun match to watch, but having all 10 in the ring at the same time may be too many in the ring at once. The Makeover Battle Royal probably won’t be anything to write home about, but at least Jim Cornette promised that one Knockout will have her head shaved. Unless the tag team tournament and a bald Knockout really interest you, Sacrifice may not be up your alley.

As always, live coverage of Sacrifice will happen live on Gerweck.net starting at 8:00 EST.