TNA Wrestling held their Hard Justice pay-per-view last night from the Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton, New Jersey. Coming off what I felt was the company's weakest pay-per-view of the year in Victory Road, TNA had a lot to prove for me to continue dropping $30 on their product. Last night I was pleasantly surprised with three full hours of very solid wrestling. My biggest complaint with the show was that most of the finishes were overbooked, however, that is something that I have grown accustomed too when watching TNA programming. I also did not like how the show was built so much around Sting without him having a match on the card although I do understand why it was done. Here are my thoughts on last night's pay-per-view on a match-by-match basis in the order in which they occurred.

The show opened in the parking lot with Lauren trying to seek an explanation from Sting who was made to look like he was just arriving. The segment was rather annoying because it accomplished nothing and reminded me of an edition of WCW Monday Nitro where the NWO was arriving. We then went into the arena where we had a hip hop segment to send us to the formal welcome by Mike Tenay. I do not have a problem with hip hop music so I didn't mind the opening segment. I thought that it was a much better way to open the pay-per-view rather than Mike Tenay's dry voice alone.

Petey Williams and Consequences Creed worked a very good opening match that showcased the strength of Creed as well as the agility of Williams. I was surprised at how pro-Petey Williams that the crowd was but this bout was a perfect fast paced action packed match to set the tone for the night. The match ended with interference from Rhaka Khan and then Sheik Abdul Bashir (Daivari) for Williams to retain the X Division Championship. This was the first match of several overbooked finishes but there was enough good wrestling for me to say that it was a good match.

TNA Knockout Women's Champion Taylor Wilde, Gail Kim, and ODB beat Awesome Kong and the Beautiful People in the second match when Wilde pinned Angelina Love. The match was nothing spectacular but it was a fun divas match for the placing of the card. Taylor Wilde and Gail Kim outworked the others but that is something that I think that we have all come to expect. There was a funny "what the heck" TNA creative moment when they had ODB spray her crotch with perfume that I could have done without.

LAX vs. Beer Money Inc. for the TNA World Tag Team Championship was up next and it delivered what I felt like was one of the best tag team matches of 2008 in WWE or TNA. I won't throw Ring Of Honor in there but the work rate last night was spectacular. There was an outstanding spot near the end of the match where Hernandez gave Homicide a border toss out of the ring onto Storm and Roode. LAX continues to impress me but Roode and Storm have really developed a rhythm. I actually broke the news of the title change at Wrestling News World a couple of hours before it happened in this post so I was not surprised when Storm and Roode went over. The finish was overbooked with Roode landing a beer bottle shot to the face of Homicide but again that is something that I have come to expect when watching TNA.

Jay Lethal vs. Sonjay Dutt was a very goofy gimmick match but I actually did not think that it was as bad as the crowd thought that it was. The crowd turned so bad on the match that they were chanting loud "fire Russo" chants that took away from the commentary of Don West and Mike Tenay. I thought that it was eye rolling that if you could not pin your opponent you had to strip them naked. Why would you want to strip your opponent naked? Anyways, Lethal ended up landing his elbow off the top rope chained to Dutt to get the three count (thank goodness). SoCal Val left during the match which teased more dissension between her and Lethal. Dutt and Lethal were limited on what they could do chained together but again I did not think that it was as terrible as the crowd made it out to be. They could have added color to make it more entertaining but it's hard to add color to a match in that place on the card.

Christian Cage & Rhino defeated Team 3D in a New Jersey Street Fight. This wasn't bad but like I noted in my coverage last night - it was not my cup of tea. I am not a big fan of hardcore matches because I feel that they display everything that should not be displayed in the post-Benoit era but it was entertaining. There was a lot of high risk spots and fighting in the crowd that made the match have more of an ROH street fight feel which is never a bad thing. Christian Cage took an insane powerbomb from Brother Ray out of a hurricanrana attempt which further proves that Cage has no issues putting his body on the line. After the match Johnny Devine hit the ring and teamed up with Team 3D to beat down Christian and Rhino making their win look pretty insignificant. I don't know why TNA feels compelled to have a long hard fought match only for it to end with the challengers looking more powerful than the winners.

Kurt Angle vs. AJ Styles in a Last Man Standing match was the best match of the night, a Match of the Year candidate, and in all honesty one of the best matches that I have ever witnessed. People can say that I am going overboard and that's OK but I'm going to call it how I saw it. Styles and Angle worked a pace that was faster than their first bout with minimal mat wrestling and more action packed maneuvers. Angle completed a standing back flip off of the ramp onto the concrete floor which I thought was awesome. Angle doesn't have to execute spots like that because he is Kurt Angle and has nothing to prove but I cannot help but give him mega props for doing it. Styles was not outworked as he stepped his game up significantly, hitting all of his offense and then some. Angle and Styles displayed respect for one another by not getting counted out by the other's finisher with some breath taking moments down to the finish. Angle ended up getting counted out in what I felt like was a moment where he passed the torch to AJ Styles. I do not think that it is stretching too far to say that Styles going over Angle in that type of bout is similar to Bret Hart passing the torch to a bloody Steve Austin at WrestleMania 13 even though Hart went over in that match. Styles was the Last Man Standing in a match that will forever be remembered by wrestling fans. With the shape of Kurt Angle's body he doesn't have many more of those left in him, if any at all. Like him or not, Angle is one of the best if not the best in the world and AJ Styles is not far behind him. Last night's match was a true classic with two of the best that this business has to offer. TNA creative gave the match a good finish but they had to overbook the ending with Sting hitting a Scorpion Death Drop on Styles as he made his way up the ramp after Styles had landed more blows on Angle as he was receiving medical attention. At least they let the bell ring to end the match before the overbooking.

The Six Sides of Steel main event between Booker T and Samoa Joe was a good match but Angle vs. Styles was impossible to follow. Booker and Joe worked well together in a match that not only included the company's signature steel structure but weapons as well. One thing that worries me about Samoa Joe's title reign is that it looks like TNA lacks confidence in him. If I were Joe I would want to beat Booker clean, however, TNA has remained guarded by not giving him the satisfaction. Obviously the in-ring return of Jeff Jarrett is being teased with a possible feud between him and Booker. The ending of the match was flat not only with the live audience but on television as well.

TNA Hard Justice was a very solid pay-per-view. If you have not watched it I would recommend it to you for the fact that it featured three hours of very good wrestling. You will have to overlook lots of overbooking as well as the goofy chained tuxedo match but I feel like most wrestling fans will enjoy this pay-per-view. Kurt Angle vs. AJ Styles is absolutely a must see match so if you do not see Hard Justice make sure you get a tape of this match. I might even buy the DVD just so I can watch Styles vs. Angle several times over. TNA rebounded nicely from a very lackluster pay-per-view last month with Victory Road. Hard Justice was $30 well spent.

Richard can be contacted at richard [at] grayinternet.com

Richard Gray is a professional wrestling journalist and frequent contributor to Rajah.com. He has been covering the world of professional wrestling since 1999 and has had the opportunity to cover ground breaking stories such as the demise of ECW, the WCW buyout, the Benoit tragedy, Bobby Lashley leaving WWE, and more. For more on Richard check out his web site, Wrestling News World.

- "Richard Reacts" Archive By WrestlingNewsWorld.com's Richard Gray