The Worst of TNA

[diamond_dust]

I really thought the Aces and Eights stuff started close to 2 years ago. Fucking hell thats dragged.

 

I missed finally giving Raven the title when fans stopped caring about him only to make him lose it on a none televised show. Surely with how soon the TV deal was sorted after that they must have known something was close and could have held off on it a couple of weeks.

[CTXRussomark]

I missed finally giving Raven the title when fans stopped caring about him only to make him lose it on a none televised show. Surely with how soon the TV deal was sorted after that they must have known something was close and could have held off on it a couple of weeks.

IIRC it was for that exact reason they did the switch - they didn't want the belt on Raven for the start of the new TV show.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

I remember Raven DDTing Abyss in drawing pins and all of the pins falling out of Raven's back. Skin like a crocodile handbag.

[Froggivizal_Version1.0]

I missed finally giving Raven the title when fans stopped caring about him only to make him lose it on a none televised show. Surely with how soon the TV deal was sorted after that they must have known something was close and could have held off on it a couple of weeks.

IIRC it was for that exact reason they did the switch - they didn't want the belt on Raven for the start of the new TV show.

 

It was during a time TNA went back to default mode with America's Most Wanted as the tag champions and AJ Styles as the X-Division Champion. Between those 3 and Jeff, it's a mystery anyone else got a crack at any of the belts during that.

[unfitfinlay]

How about the Feast or Fired matches? They were clearly inspired by WWE's Money in the Bank but, in typical TNA fashion, they completely missed the point about why that worked. ONE person having a contract that allows him to get a World Title shot anytime is dramatic but you when you do it with every title in the company, it just dilutes the effect. The cash ins were shit as well. WWE have guys cash in when the Champions are vulnerable after brutal matches or beat downs, which sets up future storyline possibilities - TNA, on the other hand, had Hernandez cash in his World Title shot just before a four way match which, in kayfabe terms, must be the stupidest decision in wrestling history?

 

Apparently they also forgot that Nash had a shot at the Tag Titles so they just stuck the Belts on him and Hall with no build up at all.

 

The fired thing was dumb as well. Senshi had the first briefcase but asked for his release. Instead of having him just open the case and giving credibility to the stipulation, they had him lose it to Daniels. Who came back as Curry Man. Who got the fired case the next year.

 

Somewhat related but Angelina Love actually won the Knockouts Title by opening a box in a Deal or No Deal style game show thingy. Tara won her spider back and Daffney's box said that she'd have to perform a striptease or she'd be fired. She didn't. She wasn't fired.

 

Speaking of Daffney, TNA trying to pass her off as Sarah Palin might actually have been the worst TNA "reveal" ever.

 

Another one that just occurred to me was the Knockouts Ladder match where the loser would get their head shaved. I realize that Roxxi (who lost) wanted to shave her head but the whole thing came across misogynistic as fuck. Cornette's reasoning for booking it was basically along the lines of "I'm tired of these whores fussing with their hair all the time". It ended stupidly as well. Gail Kim had immunity from the head shaving so Angelina Love, who Gail was feuding with, would've been shaved if Gail had taken a dive. Naturally she didn't.

[Ro_y Disco]

The fired thing was dumb as well. Senshi had the first briefcase but asked for his release. Instead of having him just open the case and giving credibility to the stipulation, they had him lose it to Daniels. Who came back as Curry Man. Who got the fired case the next year.

 

This.

 

I was a massive TNA fan from first discovering the company with Destination X 2005 through to Hernandez winning the Feast briefcase. I was a huge Hernandez fan, and genuinely welled up when his music hit and he came out to cash-in for the first time. His DQ loss and the aforementioned madness of cashing-in in a four-way after Foley re-awarded him the briefcase really soured me on the whole company.

 

I was just watching Jeff Hardy v Abyss Full Metal Mayhem from Against All Odds 2005, the PPV before Destination X, and it's got all the hallmarks of the worst of TNA:

 

- A TLC match for a World title contract as the first PPV match in a feud, with the feud ender being a Falls Count Anywhere match.

- TWO contracts hanging above the ring, with one envelope being empty!

- Referee in the ring for no reason, doing nothing

- Abyss twice inexplicably selling a Twist of Fate as a jawbreaker, and Hardy punching him out of frustration.

- Every table spot being messed up or looking awful.

- Hardy no selling after going through FOUR tables.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZq73zLS4mM

[air_raid]

Somewhat related but Angelina Love actually won the Knockouts Title by opening a box in a Deal or No Deal style game show thingy. Tara won her spider back and Daffney's box said that she'd have to perform a striptease or she'd be fired. She didn't. She wasn't fired.

 

Oh God, this one too. Fuck me ragged. Defied all the laws of logic. In case you forgot, the keys for the boxes were determined by capturing falls in an 8-woman match. So, Angelina wins the title by opening a box - dumb - after she never pinned Tara - dumb - and Tara loses the belt after a match she actually won a pinfall in - dumbest. Let's have a match which completely fucks around with the drama of who wins and loses - since you can "win" and still end up losing your belt, and save the drama for after the match. Brilliant. Oh, and making the title look trivial, let's not forget that.

[Leary of Doom]

Somewhat related but Angelina Love actually won the Knockouts Title by opening a box in a Deal or No Deal style game show thingy. Tara won her spider back and Daffney's box said that she'd have to perform a striptease or she'd be fired. She didn't. She wasn't fired.

 

Oh God, this one too. Fuck me ragged. Defied all the laws of logic. In case you forgot, the keys for the boxes were determined by capturing falls in an 8-woman match. So, Angelina wins the title by opening a box - dumb - after she never pinned Tara - dumb - and Tara loses the belt after a match she actually won a pinfall in - dumbest. Let's have a match which completely fucks around with the drama of who wins and loses - since you can "win" and still end up losing your belt, and save the drama for after the match. Brilliant. Oh, and making the title look trivial, let's not forget that.

 

It's a shame, because they have done so many good things with the Knockouts division (it's even headlined Impact, you wouldn't see that on Raw). But also some god awful stuff like:-

 

Letting Awesome Kong go because she was offended by Bubba The Lobe Sponge, who adds nothing to a wrestling show!

Letting the division reduce to next to nothing. The worst was when they had a no 1 contenders gauntlet with all of 5 women!

Debuting Cookie, and on the very same night bringing in some shit reality TV star to beat her down!

Brooke Hogan

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Letting Awesome Kong go because she was offended by Bubba The Lobe Sponge, who adds nothing to a wrestling show!

That isn't why she was let go. In fact she wasn't let go. She left because they wouldn't pay enough money not to share six to a room.

[Zpencee]

what happened to Daffney was and still is the reason why TNA can go kick rocks for all i care

[Statto]

Debuting Cookie, and on the very same night bringing in some shit reality TV star to beat her down!

 

In mitigation for TNA on that particular one:

- Jersey Shore was MASSIVE at the time. Probably still is.

- Robbie & Cookie were characters to cash in on that fact - we were supposed to believe they were part of that subculture.

- Much of the appeal of Jersey Shore is/was the likelihood of verbal and/or physical confrontation between the characters.

- Cookie was never brought in to be a wrestler - she was a ringside annoyance, and all bark, no bite.

 

Based on those facts, I would suggest getting into a verbal spat, then a brawl, with one of the real stars of the show her character was based on and showing some arse (not literally, unfortunately) was about as good an early start (IIRC they'd actually been on TV about a month when it happened) the Cookie character could have had.

[Leary of Doom]

Debuting Cookie, and on the very same night bringing in some shit reality TV star to beat her down!

 

In mitigation for TNA on that particular one:

- Jersey Shore was MASSIVE at the time. Probably still is.

- Robbie & Cookie were characters to cash in on that fact - we were supposed to believe they were part of that subculture.

- Much of the appeal of Jersey Shore is/was the likelihood of verbal and/or physical confrontation between the characters.

- Cookie was never brought in to be a wrestler - she was a ringside annoyance, and all bark, no bite.

 

Based on those facts, I would suggest getting into a verbal spat, then a brawl, with one of the real stars of the show her character was based on and showing some arse (not literally, unfortunately) was about as good an early start (IIRC they'd actually been on TV about a month when it happened) the Cookie character could have had.

 

If you mean vignettes then yeah, but this was their first time actually on live TV, and the first time she'd said anything about that woman. Surely the better thing would have been having Cookie slag her off for a few weeks, and then bring her in? You know, build up interest in the angle rather than starting it and having the pay off in one night? I'm not a fan of those type if shows, but I understand lots of people are, so it would make sense to advertise the fact, not just have her appear?

[Duke]

Getting your loudmouthed heel character beaten up on week one is a terrible decision, because she's not had time to be terrible enough to make anyone want to see it, and once it's happened its extremely hard for her to draw the same heat again

[Captain Wolf]

No mention of EV 2.0?

 

Jeff Hardy Heel Turn!

 

EV 2.0 were really, really bad, but Hardy's heel turn? I actually preferred it to anything he's done afterwards. The nonsense he talks any time he's let near a microphone worked better for me at building heat than anything, and judging from the crowds at that point he was still selling t-shirts so it couldn't have harmed them too badly there. Having Hulk Hogan as a heel in this day and age was a bigger mistake if you ask me.

 

Not so much an angle as such, but 'Destination X' this year drove home how much they've wasted Austin Aries and Bobby Roode over the course of year. Last year they had a great match for the title, a year later their having a mid-table match in the Bound for Glory series with neither of them having had a sniff of the belt in months. I enjoyed their tag team, but TNA aren't overflowing with top of the card talent to have kept 2 of their best in tag competition for so long.

[Leary of Doom]

I'm surprised no one has said this one yet.

 

That bit earlier this year where we could hear Jeff Hardy's thoughts! The absolute worst was we heard them halfway through an Aries/Roode match, as justification for him interfering a few seconds later!