We kicked off this week's High Voltage with tag team action pitting the Basham Brothers against Josh Abercrombie and Tyson Dux. To the best of my knowledge, Abercrombie and Dux had never tagged before, and they picked a hell of a team to go against in their first tag team match. The Bashams stayed sharp, looking good in this outing and having little trouble getting a win for the Cabinet.
The Basham Brothers (Danny Basham and Doug Basham) defeated Josh Abercrombie and Tyson Dux when Danny Basham pinned Dux after a flying forearm in 0:06:42.
Rating: **
Shaniqua and the Cabinet have the Bashams refocused, and it's hard to perceive Doug and Danny NOT getting a shot at the World Tag Team Titles in the coming weeks.
It looks like Justin Credible is finally starting to mean business. He was not in the mood for Shark Boy's antics, jumping him before the bell rang and never letting up his vicious onslaught. Shark Boy was completely floored and couldn't get in a lick of offense, and it took only 48 seconds for Credible to hit the That's Incredible and get what none of us expected: a dominant victory.
Justin Credible pinned Shark Boy with the That's Incredible in 0:00:48.
Rating: *
This is the type of win that Credible needed if we wanted to keep himself even on the radar of Commissioner Tommy Dreamer to get a Cruiserweight Title shot. He may have wanted to make this match be longer though; it's hard to drop weight when you're done in less than a minute.
After Jeff Hardy quit following the team's loss at Beat Your Valentine, Matt Hardy is left to wrestle on his own. He had his first match in the era A.J. (After Jeff) and it wasn't going to be an easy task as he took on Chuck Palumbo. The Italian Stallion was up to his regular nonsense, but it didn't throw Hardy off. he came out with an extra intensity, obviously still upset over Jeff Hardy's departure from GCW. Despite the distractions of that, Hardy looked good in finishing Palumbo off with the Twist of Fate.
Matt Hardy pinned Chuck Palumbo with the Twist Of Fate in 0:03:44.
Rating: ** 1/4
A solid start to what looks to be Matt Hardy's newfound singles career. Hardy and Lita celebrated with the crowd a bit before heading to the locker room.
Our main event for the evening pitted the former World Heavyweight champion Chris Benoit against one-half of the current World Tag Team champions, Charlie Haas. Haas' partner Shelton Benjamin was down at ringside with him, and nobody believed that he was just there to watch. Benoit was also still suffering the ill effects of Eric Angle's attacks on his left shoulder as he had it wrapped for this contest. At this high level though, if you have a part of your anatomy wrapped up, you might as well paint a bullseye on it while you're at it. Haas' strategy was to go after that arm, and he had a lot of success with this strategy. Benoit's a gamer though, and he showed a lot of fight to keep in this one, managing to hit a variety of suplexes on Haas to keep it even. Benjamin tried to get involved late by jumping up on the apron and holding Benoit wide open for an attack by Haas, but when Haas ran at Benoit, the Crippler got away and Haas and Benjamin crashed together. Haas turned back into a Northern Lights suplex and Benoit got a win that many feel was closer than it should have been.
Chris Benoit pinned Charlie Haas after a Northern Lights suplex in 0:11:27.
Rating: ***
The Rabid Wolverine pulled out the win, but you could tell his shoulder was bothering him a lot by the grimaces on his face. Regardless, Benoit ends this edition of High Voltage with a victory.