TNA… Cross the Line again

[TheScarlettChad]

56 minutes ago, Richie Freebird said:

I never saw any of the older stuff in this style, so it was new to me. It just seemed completely bizarre. Teleporting, changing day to night, getting about 4 costume changes, ref appearing and disappearing, people dying and coming back to life, Hardy kids getting some bats in. What I also found odd was how, when the segment finished, the commentators just moved straight on to the next match. It seemed worthy of at least a "what the hell did we just witness?", or some such. I sat there wondering what was supposed to be real and what wasn't. It was like a low budget college project movie about a bad acid trip. 

But yeah, agree with David, regular Hardys again now please. That whacky stuff should be a one-and-done. Interesting for a first timer, though. 

They're so used to it because its been going on for ten years! Impact got hot for a while in mid 2016 with the Broken Hardyz gimmick. They ran it iinto the ground as wrestling is one to do.

[Merzbow]

Nice to see TNA honouring a Canadian legend here.

 

[TheScarlettChad]

He only wrestled once for TNA, Right? Sad that he's no longer with us.

[westlondonmist]

1 minute ago, TheScarlettChad said:

He only wrestled once for TNA, Right? Sad that he's no longer with us.

Yeah in a tag match with Sting and someone else vs Christian Cage's crew. 

 

Strangely I thought he was going to be the next big thing when I was a kid. 

[Merzbow]

18 minutes ago, westlondonmist said:

Strangely I thought he was going to be the next big thing when I was a kid. 

He had the look and the intensity, a sweet big boot and a bit of a cool "move-set" so I think many of us thought he'd be a star.

[Carbomb]

It's funny how with a lot of wrestlers, it only takes one thing to click into place for them to suddenly inspire the imagination. In Test's case, I feel it was when he adopted the big boot as a finish. After several "big" finishers like the gutwrench powerbomb, that F5-style "neckbreaker" (as they called it in the games), and the Test Drive (of which the name seemed to endure much longer than it warranted, given how briefly he used it), he finally had one that looked and sounded brutal and final, could be hit on anyone, and, most importantly, would very often come out of nowhere to take out even top main-eventers. All of a sudden, he was a threat to the big boys, and looked destined for the top himself.

[Merzbow]

1 minute ago, Carbomb said:

All of a sudden, he was a threat to the big nosed boy, and looked destined for the top himself.

Hmm, might be why they never pulled the trigger..

[Carbomb]

1 hour ago, Merzbow said:

Hmm, might be why they never pulled the trigger..

I remember that being the thought at the time, but nah - he was never really a top guy; not great on the mike, and there was all that stuff about how he sabotaged his career by not making it to a show, claiming his hotel was snowbound, even though other wrestlers got there and made him (and Stacy Keibler, whom he was dating at the time) look bad.

I mean: it's bullshit. Struggling through snowstorms to get to a show and be "normal" on Vince's radar, or spend a snow day stuck in a cosy hotel room with Stacy Keibler? I'd probably sacrifice my career for that, to be fair. But it was Vince's rules he broke, and he couldn't and didn't get away with it.

Edited August 3 by Carbomb
Kevin Gallacher

[Chili]

Honestly Test was great until that fucking haircut. It's a ridiculous reason but once the locks were gone and the short tights came in, it aesthetically put me off him. He just looked rather odd to me all the sudden. 

[LaGoosh]

I was a huge Test fan but they noticeably buried him to absolute shit after Steph dumped him for Triple H with Triple H beating him loads of times and Test never getting even a hint of comeuppance. He was never going to recover from that. Apparently he took being pushed out the spotlight badly and started spiralling out a bit.

[Arch Stanton]

7 hours ago, Chili said:

Honestly Test was great until that fucking haircut. It's a ridiculous reason but once the locks were gone and the short tights came in, it aesthetically put me off him. He just looked rather odd to me all the sudden. 

There was a whole period where they were instructing loads of their long haired guys to get their hair cut short, because the long haired look was considered passé, no dudes outside of wrestling were still rocking that look in the early-mid noughties. None of the guys who got a haircut were better off for it, suddenly everyone looked bland and generic. It was a sad time!

Aside from the star power that long hair adds to a look, the other reasons wrestlers kept their hair long was the movement it adds to the work, exaggerating the impact of bumps and punches, and it would also cloak their faces when leaning in to call spots.

Edited August 4 by Arch Stanton

[Carbomb]

2 minutes ago, Arch Stanton said:

There was a whole period where they were instructing loads of their long haired guys to get their hair cut short, because the long haired look was considered passé, no dudes outside of wrestling were still rocking that look in the early-mid noughties. None of the guys who got a haircut were better off for it, suddenly everyone looked bland and generic. It was a sad time!

Aside from the star power that long hair adds to a look, the other reasons wrestlers kept their hair long was the movement it adds to the work, exaggerating the impact of bumps and punches, and it would also cloak their faces when leaning in to call spots.

I always thought the primary reason they told Test to cut his hair and switch to trunks from trousers was because they didn't want people to confuse him with Kevin Nash, who'd just arrived. That was the rumour that was doing the rounds anyway.

[Arch Stanton]

2 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

I always thought the primary reason they told Test to cut his hair and switch to trunks from trousers was because they didn't want people to confuse him with Kevin Nash, who'd just arrived. That was the rumour that was doing the rounds anyway.

Could well be true in Test's case. Vince would have these mad notions all the time. Can't possibly have two big guys with long hair at the same time!

[HarmonicGenerator]

The odd thing was, they’d got a built-in, year-long storyline for him when he won the Immunity Battle Royal at Survivors 2001. By no means suggesting it’d have shot him into the main event but there was absolutely more you could do with that then barely ever mention it again and have him faffing about in The Un-Americans six months later.

[LaGoosh]

14 minutes ago, Arch Stanton said:

There was a whole period where they were instructing loads of their long haired guys to get their hair cut short, because the long haired look was considered passé, no dudes outside of wrestling were still rocking that look in the early-mid noughties. None of the guys who got a haircut were better off for it, suddenly everyone looked bland and generic. It was a sad time!

There was of course one wrestler who was exempt from this...

4 minutes ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

The odd thing was, they’d got a built-in, year-long storyline for him when he won the Immunity Battle Royal at Survivors 2001.

Test was on a good run in this period, he was excelling at being a big goofball in backstage segments while being a believable ass kicker in ring.  His mini-push just died on the vine though for reasons unknown.