This was my first time witnessing a Call Your Shot gauntlet match in TNA, and I have to admit, there might be more to me in TNA than I initially thought. I really enjoyed this game and purposely didn’t look up the rules for a quick refresher before the game started. TNA actually made the chaotic bout easy to understand, although the commentary ended there.
I really like the gauntlet match and this one moved quickly to get all 20 contestants, men and women, into the ring. For someone who doesn’t watch TNA consistently, there were a lot of names that I keep hearing about but finally got to see in action outside of social media clips, which was nice. Wrestling made me a fan of Gabby Forza, who used this cross-gender matchup to really showcase it. I liked that the women weren’t eliminated right away and that Forza and others like Elaina Black got quite a bit of standing against the men. Forza even eliminated Bear Bronson, which I thought was incredible.
There were plenty of funny, goofy moments to balance out the duck**ers, like Matthew Rehwoldt coming in from the commentary table, getting kicked out by Heather with Elegance, then going right back to commentary mode, shirt on and all.
I’ve been a fan of AJ Francis since the second he got in the match because I think he deserves a bigger shot and what a treat for it. I thought he looked really good throughout, especially during the fight with Elijah. There were a few storylines that went on during the match that the commentary explained perfectly, like the rift between Heather and M over Elegance, which was brought on by M accidentally eliminating Heather along with Harley Hudson.
The selection of the final four in the match was smart, with Avery Styles and Trey Miguel, who started the match, still there with Frankie Kazarian and Francis. Stiles went to fly to take out Francis, but Francis shoved him while he was in the air, sending him flying for his elimination. Miguel hit a crazy Canadian fighter on Francis to eventually eliminate him and the match went to singles action, which was great with my little context for Ghazarian to win.
I didn’t love Ghazaryan’s win, as I found out, for the third year in a row, but I still had a good time and there were plenty of stars who had impressive showings in the match. For a show that could have felt much bigger, being “TNA’s biggest event of the year,” the Call Your Shot gauntlet was a special highlight for me.
Posted by Daisy Ruth