The 2008 Victory Road was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) promotion that took place on July 13, 2008 at the Reliant Arena in Houston, Texas. It was the fourth event under the Victory Road name and the seventh event in the 2008 TNA PPV schedule. Eight professional wrestling matches were featured on the event's card, three of which were for championships.
The main event was for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, in which the champion Samoa Joe defended the title against the challenger Booker T. The match ended in a no-contest after interference from Sting and various security personnel, thus causing Joe to retain the championship. A Six Man Tag Team Full Metal Mayhem match was also featured at Victory Road, pitting the team of A.J. Styles, Christian Cage, and Rhino against the team of Kurt Angle and Team 3D (Brother Devon and Brother Ray). Angle and Team 3D were the victors in the contest. The TNA World Tag Team Championship was defended in a "Fan's Revenge" Lumberjack match at the show, in which the champions The Latin American Xchange (Hernandez and Homicide) defeated Beer Money Incorporated. (James Storm and Robert Roode) to retain the title. The final two rounds of the 2008 TNA World X Cup Tournament took place at Victory Road. The third round featured a Four Team Twelve Man Elimination Tag Team match, which Team TNA won. The final round was a Four Way Ultimate X match, in which Team Mexico's Volador Jr. defeated Team International's Daivari, Team TNA's Kaz, and Team Japan's Naruki Doi.
Victory Road is remembered for the closing of the 2008 TNA World X Cup Tournament. 25,000 was the reported figure of purchasers for the event by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Victory Road had an attendance of 3,000 people. Bob Kapur of the professional wrestling section of the Canadian Online Explorer rated the show a 7 out of 10, which was lower than the 8 out of 10 given to the 2007 edition by Chris Sokol.
Production Background The fourth installment under the Victory Road name was announced in January 2008 with a July 13 date attached. In May 2008, TNA hoped to host a PPV event in Houston, Texas by the end of the year, the earliest timeframe being late summer. TNA issued a press release in late-May 2008 revealing that Victory Road would be held at the Reliant Arena in Houston, Texas. Tickets for the show went on-sale on May 30. TNA released a poster to promote the event featuring the tagline "Houston, We Have a Problem" as well as Booker T and Samoa Joe. The final two rounds of the 2008 TNA World X Cup Tournament were scheduled to take place at Victory Road. An online vote commenced at the start of the show to select a stipulation for a Six Man Tag Team match promoted for the show. The choices were Falls Count Anywhere match, Tables match, or Full Metal Mayhem.
Storylines Victory Road featured eight professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.
The main event at Victory Road was for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship between then-champion Samoa Joe and the challenger Booker T. Joe and Booker T previously fought at TNA's Slammiversary PPV event on June 8 in a King of the Mountain match for the title, which Joe won to remain champion. On the June 12 episode of TNA's television program TNA Impact!, Booker T claimed that Joe did not beat him at the event due to interference from Joe's mentor Kevin Nash. This led to Nash stating that Joe could not beat Booker T in a one-on-one match. After this segment, Joe announced that Booker T and he would face at Victory Road for the title. Since Houston is Booker T's hometown, TNA promoted the match as him attempting to win the championship for the people of Houston. On the July 10 episode of Impact!, Sting proclaimed that he did not know which of the two would win at Victory Road, but that he would be there to watch.
The predominant storyline heading into the event was the rivalry between A.J. Styles and Kurt Angle, both members of The Angle Alliance. On the February 14 episode of Impact!, TNA held the scripted wedding of Angle's real-life wife Karen Angle and Styles despite Angle and Karen still being married on-screen. Afterwards, Karen and Angle separated in the storyline on the March 13 episode of Impact!. TNA continued to build the situation with Angle attempting to reconcile with Karen on the May 15 episode of Impact!. Karen refused Angle's request on the May 22 episode of Impact!, leading to Angle turning on and assaulting Styles later in the episode due to his jealousy of the affection Karen showed for Styles. This led to a match between the two at Slammiversary which Styles won after a distraction by Karen. The two faced in a Lumberjack match on the June 12 episode of Impact!, which Angle won before it ended in a brawl between Styles, Angle, Tomko, Christian Cage, Rhino, Abyss, and Team 3D (Brother Devon and Brother Ray). Afterwards, Team 3D and the team of Cage and Rhino became involved in the feud with Team 3D joining Angle, while Cage and Rhino sided with Styles. Team 3D then injured both Cage and Rhino in the narrative, with Rhino being knocked out on the June 19 episode of Impact!, while on the June 26 episode of Impact! Cage was slammed through a glass table by Brother Ray. Rhino returned from injury on the July 3 episode of Impact!, challenging Team 3D and Angle to a Six Man Tag Team match at Victory Road, while teasing at adding Full Metal Mayhem rules to the bout. TNA promoted the match for the event afterwards.
The conclusion to the 2008 TNA World X Cup Tournament was held at Victory Road with two matches completing the final two rounds. The World X Cup was a tournament consisting of teams competing against each other for points. There were four teams each made up of four men, with three teams representing a country and one representing TNA. These teams were Team TNA (Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, Curry Man, and Kazarian), Team Japan (Masato Yoshino, Milano Collection A.T., Naruki Doi, and Puma), Team Mexico (Averno, Rey Bucanero, Último Guerrero, and Volador Jr.), and Team International (Alex Koslov, Daivari, Doug Williams, and Tyson Dux). The World X Cup began on the June 19 episode of Impact!, with round one being tag team matches worth one point each. Round one concluded on the June 26 episode of Impact!. Round two was standard wrestling matches worth two points each on the July 3 and July 10 episodes of Impact!. The fourth round was announced on the June 19 episode of Impact! to take place at Victory Road in an Ultimate X match. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported that the third round of the tournament would be a multi-man team elimination match consisting of the wrestlers not competing in the fourth round.
The TNA World Tag Team Championship was defended in a "Fan's Revenge" Lumberjack match by The Latin American Xchange (Hernandez and Homicide; LAX) against James Storm and Robert Roode. On the June 12 episode of Impact!, Roode and Storm teamed to face LAX for the World Tag Team Championship. The match was originally won by Roode and Storm before being restarted due to interference. LAX won the restart to retain the championship. After the bout, Roode and Storm assaulted LAX and their manager Héctor Guerrero. Management Director Jim Cornette scheduled a title defense at Victory Road between LAX and Roode and Storm under "Fan's Revenge" Lumberjack rules on the June 19 episode of Impact!. TNA announced on the June 26 episode of Impact! that a contest was being held with the winner getting a free trip to participate in the match as a lumberjack.
Event Miscellaneous Victory Road featured employees other than the wrestlers involved in the matches. Mike Tenay and Don West were the commentators for the telecast, with Frank Trigg providing commentary for the Full Metal Mayhem match only. Jeremy Borash and David Penzer were ring announcers for the event. Andrew Thomas, Earl Hebner, Rudy Charles, and Mark "Slick" Johnson participated as referees for the encounters. Lauren Thompson and Borash were used as interviewers during the event. Besides employees who appeared in a wrestling role, Velvet Sky, SoCal Val, Héctor Guerrero, Salinas, Jackie Moore, Raisha Saeed, Abyss, Johnny Devine, Sharmell, and Sting all appeared on camera, either in backstage or in ringside segments.
Preliminary matches
The show opened with the third round of the 2008 TNA World X Cup Tournament. It was a Four Team Twelve Man Elimination Tag Team match between Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, and Curry Man of Team TNA, Masato Yoshino, Milano Collection A.T., and Puma of Team Japan, Averno, Rey Bucanero, and Último Guerrero of Team Mexico, and Alex Koslov, Doug Williams, and Tyson Dux of Team International. The bout lasted 24 minutes and 16 seconds. The rules of this encounter involved only two wrestlers in the ring at all times, with any member of any team being allowed to tag in at any time. Members of each team were eliminated until only one team remained, that team was considered the winner and earned three points in the World X Cup. The match came down to Shelley of Team TNA and Yoshino of Team Japan. Shelley won the bout by pinning Yoshino after forcing Yoshino back-first onto the mat with his signature Automatic Midnight maneuver.
The second match pitted Gail Kim against Angelina Love. Love was accompanied to the ring by Velvet Sky. The duration of the match was 6 minutes and 13 seconds. Early in the bout, Kim held Love in a Figure-Four Leglock submission hold around a ringpost, which she was forced to release by the referee. Later, Kim slammed Love back-first onto the mat with her signature Happy Ending maneuver and followed with the pinfall for the win.
Sonjay Dutt fought Jay Lethal in the next bout on the card. Lethal was accompanied to the ring by SoCal Val. The contest lasted 8 minutes and 24 seconds. Dutt was the victor in the encounter by using a roll-up pinning maneuver on Lethal while he was distracted by Val.
The TNA World Tag Team Championship was defended in a "Fan's Revenge" Lumberjack match by LAX against James Storm and Robert Roode—now known as Beer Money Incorporated—in the fourth match of the show. LAX were accompanied to the ring by Salinas and Héctor Guerrero, while Storm and Roode were accompanied by Jackie Moore. In a "Fan's Revenge" Lumberjack match, people are chosen from the audience to take part in the encounter by standing around the ring with straps, in which their primary purpose is to make sure all the participants remain in the ring. If the participants do not remain in the ring, then the fans that are chosen are supposed to hit them with the straps until they re-enter. Roode was whipped twice during the encounter; the first when he was thrown to the ringside area, while the second was when he fell to the outside. LAX won the match at 10 minutes and 6 seconds when Hernandez pinned Roode following LAX's signature 5150 tag team maneuver.
The TNA Women's Knockout Championship was defended by Taylor Wilde against Awesome Kong next in a bout that lasted 4 minutes and 51 seconds. Kong was accompanied by Raisha Saeed to the ring. Wilde won the match with a victory roll pin on Kong to retain the championship. After the bout, Kong and Saeed assaulted Wilde until Abyss came to her defense.
Main event matches