Gauntlet Match 2004

[9.0] "Really good fun, starts of with Sonjay doing cool stuff then slows down and takes a few minutes to get back into gear but the energy just builds and builds and the crowd is super hot for it. Lots of good shine for the competitors, I liked that Kaz made it so far but Hector was comparably fresh and the dude looks like a monster and Kaz just couldn't overcome him, solid in match storyline work. Great stuff"

[8.0] "Royal Rumble-style matches generally aren't great, simply due to the constraints of the format; however, this one was elevated immensely by the breakneck pace and athleticism of the X-Division. A great, high-energy way to start the show that got the crowd hot. The only peculiar aspect was Garza's win, which came after a five month break from TNA and whose run in the company ended less than two months later, never to be seen again."

[6.0] "There are a few guys who would become TNA staples, some would continue to wrestle elsewhere but are legends in their own right and then there are people who I have never heard of. Not a bad match but nothing amazing"

[8.0] "4 stars great way to open the first every monthly tna ppv even if I don't know most of these wrestlers."

[7.0] "Very solid match that had me pulling for Kazarian to go wire to wire. Most of the guys really got time to shine and everyone worked hard to have a good match. Solid 3 stars."

[6.0] "This was a good way to open up the show, although I think Big Davey Meltz was being a tad too generous in giving this one a 4 star rating. It was a fun match for the most part, with some exciting action mixed in with some enjoyable character work from the likes of Park and Sharky. Opening their first 3 hour pay per view with the X Division was a smart move on TNAs part as it was a good example of something they did better than WWE at the time, due to WWE treating its Cruiserweight Division with little more than thinly veiled disdain. TNAs big appeal was in trying to provide an alternative to WWE, and the X Division was a great way of drawing that line in the sand"

[6.0] "As a rumble this is decent enough, I appreciate the entrants are coming out every minute so it did not take forever. There were not too many interesting stories threaded through but enough that I never got bored by it. A decent introduction to everyone."

[4.0] "This Royal Rumble rip-off is a mess. Too many participants result in spots being cramped together due to the lack of time between the entrances and no attention given to the majority of the eliminations. The whole structure makes it impossible for the match to have any kind of interesting story or thread throughout it."

[8.0] "Very good Rumble-ish match right here between all these talents for what marked the very first PPV match in the history of TNA no more and no less, not at all bad to start with a match like this one that represents all the DNA of TNA and showed at the time to the new viewers what the company could look like when it let their X-Division shine like this, a perfect introduction for them at the time but first of all a great wrestling match. It's basically a Rumble with faster entrances and the final two fighting in a clean match with pinfalls, you could feel that the production wasn't perfect yet at the time but it was still super cool to watch from the beginning to the end. Everyone was fantastic in this, Kazarian was for me the MVP."

[7.0] "Most battle royals aren't good because a lot of the time the guys involved try to do as little as possible. That wasn't the case here, as everyone worked hard, resulting in one of the better battle royals that you'll see."

[9.0] "This was the 1st match on the 1st TNA show I ever saw and as a kid, I was hooked instantly. The mixture of TNA guys, old WCW luchadores, ex WWE talent, and lesser known independent talent was something I had never seen before. One of my favorite X Division matches."

[8.0] "Good 20 men Gauntlet with X-Division members and some guest stars from Mexico and Japan. This is the perfect way to open an event, some wrestlers shine, others are just there for a couple of minutes. The final part is the best one with fast eliminations and a good one on one at the end. ***3/4"