TNA Moments/Hits/Misses

[WWFChilli]

Been watching TNA through 2004/2007 (2005-2006) being a bloody great period of TV for TNA, and Christ it's depressing what became of TNA. So I thought since the TNA thread is such a depressing car crash I thought about a three column idea for listing what you would consider genuine TNA moments (did they have any?) As well as your personal hits and misses and maybe why so.

 

MOMENTS

*Skipper walks the cage. TNA's version of the Superfly on the cage for several reasons. TNA were canny about always showing this and letting the visual sell itself rather than the modern day manufactured moments in wrestling.

*Angle headbutts Joe. Brilliant angle, superb stuff. The shot of Angle screaming at the camera while a bloody Joe creeps into shot behind him in superb.

*Hogan is coming. It went to shit, but at the time I felt that it could lead to something positive. It didn't, but hell when the announcement was made it spiked my curiosity.

 

HITS

*2005-2006. A cracking run of TV/PPV. It was a mix between national promotion/territory and I just love this period, the tag division was great fun at this time and the X Division was probably at it's peak roster wise. The rise of Joe was also great stuff.

*Paparazzi Productions. Pisses on the New Day personally. Shelley was absolutely brilliant as the rogue camera man for hire. A wrestler/TMZ sleeze hybrid. Once paired with Nash (in one of his best roles as delusional semi retired wrestler) it was solid gold stuff. Some of the funniest stuff in wrestling ever for my opinion.

*James Mitchell. A hit and a miss personally. A cracking promo/manager for Abyss. I love the bloke.

*Additionally, Beer Money, Bully Ray, the Angle/Jarrett 2009 Match, Scott Steiner rejuvenated, Black Machismo, Flair in TNA were personal highlights.

 

MISSES

*Dixie. Fucking mark, nasty woman when you peel the layers away. A moron, a PR spouting moron with her hands too involved... Bloody Serg.

*Monty Brown, how the fucked it up is beyond me. He was always good fun and they let it slip. An idiots mistake.

*Monday Nights. No, it was never going to happen and damaged the brand more than aided.

 

That's just a few, I'll let some others explain more.

[Egg Shen]

Raven talked about the Skipper thing on this week's Austin podcast.

[SpursRiot2012]

I remember being so hyped when Hogan and Co came in and they moved to Monday nights. Only time I had any true interest in the product apart from Scott Hall's lovely TNA theme.

[gbacon85]

I thought Slammiversary X was excellent. The opener of Aries vs Joe was one of the best matches of the year, hot crowd too.

 

Aries winning the belt off Roode at Destination X. In fact the whole run leading up to that for Aries was great.

 

Any match where AJ fought Chris Daniels. Excellent chemistry.

 

That's it

[Guest]

The Elix Skipper thing was NUTS. Most cages have a bit of support/width at the top, their cages were razor thin. I still go mad for that moment whenever I see it. Then they proceeded to do fuck all with Skipper ever again. TNA at it's best and worst in one dude.

 

Monty Brown stuff was the worst. Loved his promos, he could've been their non-WWE, non-indy guy but they fucked him several times over. Not only did they not let him take the belt off JJ when he was hot, then they fuckin turned him heel on DDP in some main event because ~SWEVRE~

 

I think the whole company can be summed up with one guy; Abyss. Kinda shit, strange rip-off of a couple WWF things, but looked the part and could be lots of fun. Now just a weird looking bloated jobber with zero purpose.

[WWFChilli]

Abyss was tons of fun in role up until 2007 when they did the Russo stuff, where they did the stuff where he shot his dad and Mitchell used it as leverage, threatening to get him sent away because his Mum apparently did it. The angle itself wasn't bad as it did a decent job of giving Abyss a backstory, but the whole insulting the audience made it daft.

 

Then they retconned later in the year and had it revealed Mitchell was his dad, and that Judas Mesias bloke was his brother. State of it.

[Statto]

Then they proceeded to do fuck all with Skipper ever again.

Possibly because he was a bizarre-looking, dreadful wrestler.

 

Chilli has said this is another thread only just now, but he's right that Double J-MMA was "sublime". Undoubtedly some of the funniest, most entertaining stuff TNA has ever produced.

[Guest]

 

Then they proceeded to do fuck all with Skipper ever again.

Possibly because he was a bizarre-looking, dreadful wrestler.

 

 

 

I really don't think a couple X Division titles were out of the question. Even if just on the strength of that spot

[WWFChilli]

As I said earlier, but to expand. Kevin Nash and the X Division.

 

Now AJ, Daniels and a few others were head and shoulders above the other lads and were over enough to be who they were. But Nash and whoever else was involved saw that X Division were great workers but it needed more. So you got the early stuff with Sabin stepping up, and then doing the stuff with Lethal and Dutt.

 

It's a shame that Aries pissed off around that time and TNA just fucked up the post PCS push for Alex Shelley. He was a natural heel but the stuff with the PCS had made him a big fan favorite, he had also outgrown the rogue camera for hire gimmick. He should have eventually feuded more with Aries then had a spell with Sabin before they went off to be the Machine Guns. Instead they went all shades of grey heel. They missed something with Alex Shelley, likeable yet obnoxious douche and a really naturally funny guy. They also kept Backlund around for more than his cameo, massive mistake. Got old fast.

 

Those Nash interviews are brilliant, I love him basically parodying all the old territory workers with Hogan esq shoot interview tales. He apparently loved working with Shelley. Telling the X Division he could line then up in alphabetical order and beat them ' A MEDIOCRE, MEDIOCRE BIG MAN' was class.

 

I bloody love Paparazzi Productions too much.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

I used to like the clock, the the scolling news updates along the bottom of the screen, that they had back in the Fox Sports Net days. Gave the show a way different look to WWE. Because its TV, and you had to have time limits, so they put it in the corner of the screen, like a footy match. And if the match went to a time limit draw, you'd have an old wrestler (usually Larry Z) judging it like an MMA bout and give the decision to the one who had the most offense. I thought that was a fairly original idea, I thought. You only had to do a draw every 6 to 8 months, and go to a decision, but the fact that it would always be there and you'd always have a winner could have been something they could have hung their hat on. Then it just ... disappeared. Like everything in TNA. Good ideas and bad ideas, it all just disappears. Referees with cameras on their heads, a shit idea that just disappeared. All X Division matches as 3 ways. A shit idea that just disappeared. X Division matches where anyone of any size as long as the style of right for the division was a great idea. And then they just put a weight limit on it for some odd reason.

 

This six sided ring business for example. I was never in favour of having it, but you cant get rid of it and then go back to it. Its either a good idea or a bad one. There's a reason you originally had it and there's a reason you got rid of it. You cant go back to it. And Jarrett's group is even more stupid for using it, because TNA is the company in the States and over here who is known as the promotion with the weird ring. Why would you want to look like you're ripping off TNA?

[Guest]

Nash had some good moments in TNA, but when he first came in, with the Kings of Rasslin thing. It could've been quite good but obviously with Hall there too they went over nWo shit in the worrst possible way. Nash looked bored as fuck there at first, promos like "yeah uhh we're here I guess....kings of wrestling, we'll be...taking over I suppose"

[Jimboski88]

HIT: I was so into 2008/2009 TNA, possibly even more than WWE at the time. Bound For Glory 2009 felt like a huge deal to me. Of course there was some shit (Morasca/Sharmell) but I genuinely felt that they had their own little niche and could grow quite solidly and organically.

[Sexy Dad]

After being disgusted when Roode didn't win at BFG 2011 It led to what I consider TNA's last great run (ending towards the end of 2012). Roode as the heel champion, Storm becoming a bigger star and Aries stepping up, supplemented with great AJ, Angle and Joe matches in between it was a great time to be a fan.

[Liam O'Rourke]

Nash had some good moments in TNA, but when he first came in, with the Kings of Rasslin thing. It could've been quite good but obviously with Hall there too they went over nWo shit in the worrst possible way. Nash looked bored as fuck there at first, promos like "yeah uhh we're here I guess....kings of wrestling, we'll be...taking over I suppose"

I distinctly remember the promo with Hall and Nash in the ring, where Nash was leaning on the ropes, looking as if he was seconds away from nodding off, while holding the mic and saying "Bow down to the Kings of Wrestling", with a level of enthusiasm that would make Victor Meldrew tell him to cheer the fuck up. I think it was the day I realised just how much you can get away with when you used to be a big star.

[Slapnut]

One of the biggest misses for me was the Main Event Mafia vs. Frontline feud.  It started off quite promising with genuine fan favourites like AJ and Joe going up against the "greedy old guys", and it could have ended up being a great storyline.  Instead, they got Rhino involved as the Frontline leader for seemingly no reason, and then the Dudleys took over as the leader of the "young guys" and had singles matches against Sting and Kurt Angle.  Samoa Joe drew a dick on his face, killed Scott Steiner and then turned heel.  They could never decide whether to call them the TNA Frontline or TNA Originals, despite half of their members not even being originals.  Matt Morgan got involved at one point which led to a weird match against Kurt Angle where Angle wrestled as a face.  There wasn't even a pay-off, just Angle coming out after Bound For Glory and saying the Mafia were finished.

 

2010 was a mental year for "WTF" moments too.  As good as the 4th January episode was for nostalgia etc., nothing on the episode made any bloody sense.  There was something to do with the NWO, I'm still not sure what exactly.  The episode ended with Nash and Hall attacking Foley, because he's fat I assume, while Hogan looks on worried.  As far as I can remember, this wasn't followed up on.

 

Hogan and Earl Hebner did a Montreal Screwjob on Angle which, again, was never followed up on.

 

Abyss got magic powers from Hogan's Hall of Fame ring.  I won't elaborate.

 

RVD debuted and Sting beat the fuck out of him for about 10 minutes straight.

 

The ECW shit - I would hardly even call it a miss, because a miss would imply the storyline had potential when it never did.  Tommy Dreamer showed up in the crowd one day and did the equivalent of what Shane Douglas did on Raw that one time by drawing attention to himself for no reason.  Obviously, no one cared because it was Tommy Dreamer and the year was 2010.  One day, Raven was with him as well.  Eventually, Dixie announced she was the one that invited a bunch of old blokes to turn up and attack her wrestlers and gave them their own PPV, pretty much just to "stick it" to WWE.  As expected, the show was a shower of shit, but more fool me because I fucking went to it.  Well, due to TNA and Universal Studios' inept entry policy, I only got in to see the main event, which I suppose I should be thankful for.  A few months later the ECW lot beat the likes of AJ Styles and Beer Money at Bound For Glory in a wonderful display of cluelessness.

 

Bound For Glory 2010 aka 10/10/10 aka the birth of the NWO V.2 can be summed up in one picture:

 

 

That photo was on the front page of the TNA website for the week after.  The reveal itself of "They" was just bizarre.  Abyss had been warning everyone that "They" were coming for a few weeks, and it was obvious from day 1 that They were Hogan and Bischoff and a few mates.  When it got to the main event of Bound For Glory and They were revealed, it was just a group of blokes celebrating that they've just helped Jeff Hardy win the title.  No motive, no justification, nothing.  Eventually it became obvious that it was another power struggle story (which was already becoming a common theme in TNA and wasn't due to end anytime soon).  Basically, it was just shit.

 

A few months later TNA tried to once again "stick it" to WWE by running a video package for Sting that was near enough identical to the cabin videos WWE had done for The Undertaker a few weeks before.  They presented it as a massive "fuck you, we got Sting and you didn't!" sort of thing, when in reality they had Sting the whole time and the WWE videos were never even meant for Sting.  It was absolutely pathetic and insecure.

 

More recently, the Tito Ortiz reveal was absolutely hilarious.  Similar to the ECW storyline, I can't class this as a miss because it didn't have potential from the beginning.  I'm really not sure what they were expecting.

 

There have been a lot of hits in TNA, but they are always massively overshadowed by misses.  Roode feeding the ducks?  Heel turn.  Aces & Eights?  Dudley Boys and D'Lo Brown.  The Styles & Angle vs. Bad Influence series?  Claire Lynch.