TravJ1979

Here are some suggestions of what I would consider "Yearbook moments." I left out the praised matches as I figure that, one way or another, they will all end up on the set. Forgive the formatting as I just slapped it together after having watched everything I could from the big 3 during the year ... JANUARY 2000 Tazz debut and win over Kurt Angle - Royal Rumble Mae Young in the swimsuit competition - Royal Rumble Radicals debuting in the crowd - Raw HHH title win over the Big Show to begin the Mcmahon-Helmsley era - Raw HHH v. Rikishi - Raw, HHH first title defense of year Rumble Match Highlights (Taka elimination, Rikishi dominance, Rock/Big Show Finish) DDP v. Buff Bagwell last man standing Souled out 2000 feuding over Kimberly - Meltzer rated high Mike Awesome Kills Spike Dudley - Guilty as Charged 2000 RVD vacates title after near two year reign with broken ankle February 2000 Foley Retirement HITC v. HHH - No Way Out Tank Abbott v. Big Al at SuperBrawl -- Tank pulls a blade Sid v. Hall v. Jarrett - SuperBrawl Hall Injured 3 Count wins the Hardcore Title from Knobs + 3 Count singing March 2000 Trish Stratus debut new Jack and Vic Grimes almost die - Living Dangerously Dusty Rhodes v. Corino bull rope match - Living Dangerously April 2000 WrestleMania Highlights - ladder match, Title match - Hardcore battle royal Raw 4/24 Trish's 4 vingettes crawling on tables teasing Bubba Ray Dudley leading to backlash Trish going through a table at Backlash by the dudleys Vince Russo reboots Nitro, 4/10 Nitro Highlights - Kidman/Hogan, Awesome/Nash, All titles stripped David Arquette wins the title - Thunder Terry Funk v. Norman Smiley Hardcore match - Spring Stampede Malenko v. Scotty 2 Hotty - Backlash Raw April - HHH v. Taka, HHH v jericho with fake title change May 2000 Norman Smiley/Ralphus win a backayard wrestling title - Thunder Three tier Cage match with Jarrett - DDP - Arquette and Kanyon getting dumped off cage by Awesome - Slamboree Undertaker's Return at Judgment Day 2000 June 2000 Goldberg heel Turn - Bash Human Torch Match: Vampiro + Sting - Bash Hulk Kidman - Bash Evening Gown Match Patterson v. Brisco - King of the RIng Kurt Angle wins King of the RIng + King Kurt July 2000 Russo "shoots" on Hogan - Bash at the Beach Graveyard match with Demon + Vampiro - Bash at the Beach Booker T wins first Title - Bash at the Beach XPW disrupts ECW Heatwave PPV Rikishi splashs Val venis off top of cage - Fully Loaded 2000 August 2000 Bret Hart appears at New Blood Rising HHH/Angle/Steph love triangle - Summer 2000 lawler v. Tazz for JR's honor - Summerslam Kat v. terri Stink face match - Summerslam September 2000 N/A October 2000 gertner over cyrus with kamala belly paint - anarchy rulz austins attempted homicide of rikishi - no mercy Angle wins first WWE Title - No Mercy November 2000 eddy cheats on chyna with chicks in the shower, engagement off Austin dumps HHH off a forklift while he is in a car "worst match ending ever" - Survivor Series December 2000 bunkhouse brawl at starrcade with filthy animals v. jarrett/harris boys Other Natural Born Thrillers debut 70's Guy Mike Awesome Rikishi revealed as guy who ran over Austin last year HHH shoves his way into "Who ran over Austin" storyline after getting cheers during the Angle/Steph Storyline HHH having Trish bent over, caught by Stephanie Tajiri and Mikey team up mae young births a hand, dates mark henry and gets put through a table twice by the dudleys

In my project of delving into the 00's abyss, I just finish 2000 and will do a "pimping" post when and if this 2000 Yearbook gets made, but for now I'll comment on what's already been mentioned and add a few things of my own. I agree a good lead in to Backlash, but not a top 25 for the year. May be good for the yearbook if time permits. I didn't like this. Crowd is hot and Patterson is the ref, not at ringside. He gets involved in the finishing stretch and HHH poking The Rock with a stick through the cage is outright silly. I agree with everything here and actually prefer this to their SummerSlam match. Although short, this is probably the best Kurt Angle match of the year with the Title win at No Mercy and the multiman HITC at Armageddon as arguable contenders. I thought this was an average TV match. Not bad, but nothing that stands out to me. Kane had a much better match with Jericho later in the year and this was in a time he was feuding with the Undertaker and having not-so-great matches Good Brawl, but that's about it. The Eddy-Chyna interaction was fun as this was just after he got caught in the shower cheating on her. Aside from Eddy, not something I would put on a yearbook. Good match and I'd say probably the fifth best TV match of the year behind the 10 man Raw Tag, the three way mentioned above, HHH v. Benoit in Benoit's first WWE TV Match on Smackdown and the 6/12 HHH/Jericho match. Really hot crowd, nothing storyline or work wise that I'd see fitting on a yearbook. Agreed, the 6/12 match is the 2nd best TV match behind the 10 man Raw Tag I wouldn't put this in a Top 25 of WWF for the year, but I did enjoy it while it lasted. Taka hiring the APA for protection in the early part of that gimmick as well as Funaki helping any way he can to help Taka pull off the upset is fun. April 2000 has three of the most talked about HHH matches when his "epic" year is being talked about. You have this match on 4-10, then you have the 4-17 match with Jericho with the title change and subsequent reversal and 4-24 features the hot tag match with HHH and Benoit v. Jericho and the Rock mentioned earlier. I wouldn't put the latter two in a top 25 for the year either as HHH/Jericho had at least two singles matches better that year (6/12 Raw and Fully Loaded Last Man Standing) and while the crowd was hot for the tag as mentioned earlier, the match as a whole didn't do much for me. This looks like a handheld that I have not seen. These two wrestled each other A LOT and had 4 PPV matches alone counting the three way dance with Angle at WM 16. Of the matches I have seen I think SummerSlam's 2 out of 3 falls is by far the best followed by the Submission match at Judgment Day. The WM match and Backlash match aren't that good IMO with the Backlash match having a finish the crowed HATED -- as did I. However, as a whole year, Jericho has a really strong argument as WWE wrestler of the year. After the early nonsense with Bob Holly and Chyna, he had a good feud with Benoit, good to great matches with HHH, a short feud with X-Pac that produced a very good cage match at No Mercy and ended the year with a feud with Kane with the best of that series coming at Survivor Series.

I remember reading in the WON that Johnny Ace was interested in bringing Takako Inoue to the WWE. One has to suspect his motives were less about the women's division and more about his own, less than honorable intentions.

Starting in April of this year, I began watching every wrestling PPV from 2000 through 2004 (excluding Mexico and Japan until I can obtain them) as I do my re-examination of that 5 year stretch. I intend on doing a detailed post once I'm complete (Currently up to Survivor Series 2004). I'm also watching the ROH shows from 2002-2004 mixed in. After this I'll be watching all the WWE/WCW/ECW/TNA TV and as many CHIKARA/PWG/other Indy's I can find to be as complete as possible. Counting all Non-Japan, Non-Mexico based PPV's It is/was about 205+ within this period. That's not even counting the 55 or so ROH shows. Needless to say, I think it will be awhile before I delve into 2005-2009 although the PPV # will be trimmed by more than half with TNA going to monthly's. Left on the schedule... WWE Survivor Series 2004 ROH All-Star Extravaganza TNA Turing Point 2004 WWE Armageddon 2004 ROH Final Battle 2004 ... Much needed break 2004 TV and Indy's.

I'm looking at 5/21/1994 and 4/20/1991 and can't get a definitive 60 minutes. Didn't they go 45+ and 55+ respectively?

55 Minutes I think.

Added everything into the master list. Don't think I would count battle royals. I heard Chris Hero mention a 60 minute match he had with Cash Flo ... anyone know the date? EDIT: I found these that weren't quite an hour Chris Hero v. Cash Flo == IWA:MS == 11/17/2001 (59:57) Chris Hero v. CM Punk == IWA:MS == 11/26/2004 (59:04)

Corrections, additions, subtractions welcome ... =========================================== ***** 1990's***** =========================================== *** Singles Matches *** 1. The Natural v. EZ Ryder == WFWA == 9/20/1990 (75 Minutes) 2. Bret Hart v. Ric Flair == WWE == 1/9/1993 3. Ricky Steamboat v. Ric Flair == WCW == 5/28/1994 4. Bret Hart v. Owen Hart == WWE == 7/8/1994 5. Bret Hart v. Owen Hart == WWE == 7/9/1994 (68 Minutes) 6. Bret Hart v. Owen Hart == WWE == 7/29/1994 7. Bret Hart v. Owen Hart == WWE == 8/6/1994 8. Toshiaki Kawada v. Kenta Kobashi == AJPW == 1/19/1995 9. Manami Toyota v. Kyoko Inoue == AJW == 5/7/1995 10. Bret Hart v. Shawn Michaels == WWE == 3/31/1996 (61 Minutes) 11. Jeff Jarrett v. Jerry Lawler == USWA == 4/15/1996 12. Toshiaki Kawada v. Kenta Kobashi == AJPW == 10/18/1996 13. Kyoko Inoue v. Kaoru Ito == AJW 5/11/1997 *** Multi-Man Matches (3 to 8 Participants) *** 1. Mitsuharu Misawa/Toshiaki Kawada/Kenta Kobashi/Tsuyoshi Kikuchi v. Jumbo Tsuruta/Masa Fuchi/Yoshinari Ogawa/Rusher Kimura == AJPW == 4/18/1992 (66 Minutes) 2. JWP v. AJW Thunder Queen == JWP == 7/31/1993 3. Shane Douglas v. Sabu v. Terry Funk == ECW == 2/5/1994 4. Heavenly Bodies v. Rock -n- Roll Express == SMW == 2/12/1994 5. Heavenly Bodies v. Rock -n- Roll Express == SMW == 3/12/1994 6. Heavenly Bodies v. Rock -n- Roll Express == SMW == 3/13/1994 7. Heavenly Bodies v. Tim Horner/Robert Gibson == SMW == 3/18/1994 8. Heavenly Bodies v. Tracy Smothers/Robert Gibson == SMW == 3/19/1994 9. Toshiaki Kawada/Akira Taue v. Mitsuharu Misawa/Kenta Kobashi == AJPW == 1/24/1995 10. Jerry Lawler v. Bill Dundee v. Brian Christopher == USWA == 1/30/1995 11. Mitsuharu Misawa/Kenta Kobashi/Stan Hansen v. Giant Baba/Toshiaki Kawada/Akira Taue == AJPW == 3/24/1995 12. Toshiaki Kawada/Abdullah the Butcher/Giant Baba/Masa Fuchi v. Stan Hansen/Kenta Kobashi/Jun Akiyama/Takao Omori == AJPW == 9/10/1995 13. Toshiaki Kawada/Akira Taue v. Mitsuharu Misawa/Kenta Kobashi == AJPW == 10/15/1995 14. Mitsuharu Misawa/Toshiaki Kawada/Hiroshi Hase v. Kenta Kobashi/Akira Taue/Jun Akiyama == AJPW == 9/15/1997 *** Multi-Man Matches (9 or more Participants) *** 1. Royal Rumble == WWE == 1/19/1991 (65 Minutes) 2. Royal Rumble == WWE == 1/19/1992 (62 Minutes) 3. Royal Rumble == WWE == 1/24/1993 (66 Minutes) 4. 30 Man Royal Rumble == WWE 1/17/1994 (70 Minutes) 5. 10-Man Elimination == FMW == 10/24/1998 (75 Minutes) 6. 10-Man Elimination == FMW == 11/15/1998 (68 Minutes) =========================================== ***** 2000's***** =========================================== *** Singles Matches *** 1. Triple H v. Rock == WWE == 5/21/2000 2. Kodo Fuyuki v. Hayabusa == FMW == 9/26/2000 3. Kumiko Maekawa v. Momoe Nakanishi == AJW == 10/24/2001 4. Yuji Nagata v. Masahiro Chono == NJPW == 10/25/2002 5. Johnny Graham v. Shane Shadows == CPW == 11/2/2002 (67 Minutes) 6. CM Punk v. Chris Hero == IWA:MS == 12/21/2002 7. CM Punk v. Chris Hero == IWA:MS == 2/7/2003 (93 minutes) 8. Yuji Nagata v. Manabu Nakanishi == NJPW == 3/9/2003 9. Brock Lesnar v. Kurt Angle == WWE == 9/16/2003 10. CM Punk v. Chris Hero == WXW == 2/28/2004 11. Men's Teioh v. Ricky Fuji == Ricky Fuji's One Wild Night Show == 3/20/2004 12. Major Hardway v. Tony Kozina == ECCW == 4/23/3004 13. Chris Hero v. CM Punk == IWA:MS == 6/11/2004 (61 Minutes) 14. CM Punk v. Samoa Joe == ROH == 6/12/2004 15. Chris Benoit v. Triple H == WWE == 7/26/2004 16. Bryan Danielson v. Austin Aries == ROH == 8/7/2004 (75 Minutes) 17. CM Punk v. Samoa Joe == ROH == 10/16/2004 18. Super Dragon v. Joey Ryan == PWG == 10/23/2004 (66 Minutes) 19. Genki Misae v. Yoshiko Tamura == NEO == 12/19/2004 20. Davis Storm v. JAG == EPW == 1/29/2005 21. Satoshi Kojima v. Shinsuke Nakamura == NJPW == 3/26/2005 22. AJ Styles v. Christopher Daniels == PWG == 5/13/2005 23. CM Punk v. Delirious == IWA:MS == 7/2/2005 24. CM Punk v. Christopher Daniels == ROH == 7/23/2005 25. Steve Douglas v. Super Dragon == WXW == 11/12/2005 (66 Minutes) 26. Damien Wayne v. Sean Lei == NWA VA == 1/2/2006 27. Ares v. Joe E. Legend == WXW == 4/20/2006 (75 Minutes) 28. Tsubo Genjin v. Gran Naniwa == Wrestle Land == 6/30/2006 (114 Minutes) 29. Doug Williams v. Steve Corino == 1PW == 7/1/2006 30. Bryan Danielson v. Samoa Joe == ROH == 8/5/2006 31. Bryan Danielson v. Nigel McGuinness == ROH == 8/25/2006 32. Bryan Danielson v. Colt Cabana == ROH == 8/26/2006 33. Azumi Hyuga v. Yoshiko Tamura == JWP == 12/24/2006 34. Johnny Devine v. Tyson Dux == LLW == 10/27/2007 35. GENTARO v. MIKAMI == Mr. Gannosuke Produce == 6/1/2008 36. Gene Kelly v. Ryan Eagles == PWA == 6/21/2008 37. Shingo Takagi v. BB Hulk == Dragon Gate == 6/29/2008 38. Dick Togo v. Antonio Honda == Non-FIX == 7/20/2008 39. Kohei Suwama v. Taiyo Kea == AJPW == 8/31/2008 40. Naomichi Marufuji v. KENTA == NOAH == 10/25/2008 41. Big Ugly v. Timothy Thatcher == SPW == 11/16/2008 42. Billy Suede v. Kyle O'Reilly == ECCW = 12/6/2008 43. Mercedes Martinez v. Angel Orsini == WSU == 6/6/2009 (70 Minutes) 44. Judas Young v. Danny Inferno == ISPW == 8/22/2009 45. John Cena v. Randy Orton == WWE == 10/25/2009 46. Austin Aries v. Tyler Black == ROH == 12/19/2009 47. Steve Douglas v. Ares == WXW == 4/17/2010 48. Jeremy Wyatt v. Mark Sterling == 3XW == 1/7/2011 49. Jaysin Strife v. Mike Cordova == EPIC WAR == 1/8/2011 (420 Minutes) 50. Lee Valiant v. Ric Converse == CWF Mid-Atlantic == 2/19/2011 (63 Minutes) 51. Mercedes Martinez v. Lexxus == WSU == 8/6/2011 (73 Minutes) *** Multi-Man Matches (3 to 8 Participants) *** 1. Masahiro Chono/Hiroyoshi Tenzan v. Manabu Nakanishi/Osamu Nishimura == NJPW == 6/5/2002 2. Low Ki v. Christopher Daniels v. Doug Williams v. Spanky == ROH == 7/27/2002 3. Super Dragon v. Bobby Quance v. Jardi Frantz == APW == 12/27/2002 4. Daisuke Ikeda/Takashi Sugiura v. Kintaro Kanemura/Tetsuhiro Kuroda == WEW == 1/31/2003 [NOT TAPED] 5. Kensuke Sasaki/Hiroshi Hase v. Toshiaki Kawada/Satoshi Kojima == AJPW == 7/27/2003 6. James Gibson/Brandon Thomaselli/Trik Davis/Josh Abercrombie v. Jimmy Jacobs/BJ Whitmer/Vito/Sal Thomaselli == IWA:MS == 5/21/05 (65 Minutes) 7. Ares v. Doug Williams v. Emil Sitoci v. Murat Bosporus == WXW == 8/18/2007 *** Multi-Man Matches (9 or more Participants) *** 1. Royal Rumble == WWE == 1/21/2001 (61 Minutes) 2. Royal Rumble == WWE == 1/20/2002 (69 Minutes) 3. Super Surround Force == KAIENTAI DOJO == 2/23/2003 (69 Minutes) 4. Royal Rumble == WWE == 1/25/2004 (61 Minutes) 5. 29 Man Battle Royal == APW == 3/13/2004 (65 Minutes) 6. 10-Man Cage Death Gauntlet == ZERO-ONE == 10/17/2004 7. Toreno Cibernetico == CHIKARA == 10/30/2004 (76 Minutes) 8. NJPW v. Black NJPW == NJPW == 1/26/2005 (65 Minutes) 9. Toreno Cibernetico == CHIKARA == 10/22/2005 (104 Minutes) 10. Toreno Cibernetico == IWRG == 7/26/2007 (100 Minutes) 11. Toreno Cibernetico == IWRG == 11/17/2005 (94 Minutes) 12. 30 Man Rumble == 3CW == 1/21/2006 (65 Minutes) 13. Royal Rumble == WWE == 1/29/2006 (62 Minutes) 14. Toreno Cibernetico == AAA == 10/7/2007 (61 Minutes) 15. 20 Man Gauntlet == APW == 10/4/2008 (71 Minutes) 16. Global Gauntlet == CHIKARA == 10/19/2008 (64 Minutes) 17. Toreno Cibernetico == CHIKARA == 11/15/2008 (76 Minutes) 18. Toreno Cibernetico == IWRG == 7/16/2009 (105 Minutes) 19. 108 Man Battle Royal == BJW/DDT/Kaientai Dojo == 12/31/2009 (85 Minutes) 20. 37 Man Rumble Match == MEXICO == 3/19/2010 (85 Minutes) 21. 10 Man Gauntlet == NECW == 11/6/2010 (72 Minutes) 22. Royal Rumble == WWE == 1/30/2011 (69 Minutes) 23. Toreno Cibernetico == IWRG == 6/16/2011 (87 Minutes) 24. 20 Man Gauntlet == NWA RPW == 10/2/2011 (64 Minutes) Edit: 11/3/2011 -- Split everything into three categories. I will now add Battle Royals to the Multi-Man section for completeness. Added 1990's. Took these out after FLIK verified they weren't legit: GENTARO v. Munenori Sawa == Mr. Gannosuke Produce == 12/29/2009 (61 Minutes) Timothy Thatcher v. El Chupacabra == SPW == 8/15/2010 (157 Minutes)

NWA-TNA 2004: “So you don’t have to sit-through” Review [Jan. 1 up to Victory Road] EDIT: FIXED THE LINKS! NWA-TNA 2002 Review is HERE NWA-TNA 2003 Review, Part 1 (January-June) is HERE NWA-TNA 2003 Review, Part 2 (July-December) is HERE Quick Facts • 36 Shows in 2004 (1/7/04[75] to 9/8/04[110]) [Only counting Weeklies] • 4 of those were taped (Shows 80, 84, 88, and 95) • Show 97 (6/9/04) debuts the six-sided ring on PPV • All shows held at Fairgrounds in Nashville, TN ===MAIN EVENT/NWA World Title=== The main angle to start 2004 was the dueling authority figures of Eric Watts, Directory of authority for NWA and Don Callis, TNA representative. On the first show of the year, Jarrett, his lawyer, Tom T. Stenenbaum, and Don Callis say they have a big announcement and also they will be getting Watts out of his position of power. He also has a petition that he tells Kid Kash to go around and get people to sign -- if they do they are with him, if not, they are against him. The announcement ended up being the arrival of Johnny Fairplay (after a deal for a 3 hour PPV fell through). Also during the first show, Jeff Jarrett out saying he can't wait to be crowned Mr. TNA 2003, but of course goes nuts when AJ Styles is announced as the winner of the award. This sets up the match of Jarrett/Abyss v. Styles/Watts with the stipulations that AJ gets a title shot if his team wins and if Jarrett's team wins, Watts is out of a job. Goldylocks accepts on Watts’ behalf and Watts is confused before accepting it himself. The match ends with Jarrett pinning Watts after a belt shot, but the decision is overturned after Beherns and Tenay rat Jarrett out to the referee. Match is restarted and El Leon (debuting earlier) runs Jarrett off and Goldylocks low blows Abyss allowing Styles to get the pin. Callis says he'll quit if the decision isn't overturned and Watts says he'll quit if Styles doesn't get the title shot. The decision was that an Eric Watts v. Don Callis match would take place -- No DQ, No Count out, Falls-count anywhere, Wrestlers at ringside cuffed in pairs to prevent interference and the loser must resign. Prior to the resignation match, Kid Kash had spent the last few weeks attempting to get signatures to align with Jarrett, but ends up in a feud with Chris Vaughn and Don Harris of black shirt security, Tiny the timekeeper, Sara the ticket lady and Jeremy Borash, even getting defeated by Vaughn. Eventually a few people signed, Like Trinity, Swinger, while others refused, Lynn, Siaki. Eric Watts ended up losing the resignation match when Goldylocks turns on him and gives a low blow. Tenay calls her a whore, Don West laughs and calls her a bitch. Jarrett out with everyone saying the NWA board is disbanded and Callis now has full control. Up to this point Jarrett had a few matches with El Leon, Dustin Rhodes (a surprise) and James Storm, but the focus was more on Callis v. Watts. After the Rhodes-Jarrett match, Mike Tenay announces on the house mic that he just got word that as the final act of the NWA board; they are naming a new director of authority. The show goes off the air. Next week Jarrett is out bullying Tenay into telling him who the new DOA was, but Tenay wasn't talking. Jarrett then fires Tenay. The following week, Tenay comes to the stage at shows end and announces he, along with all of the other recent firings have been rehired by the new DOA, Vince Russo. With Vince Russo as the new DOA, Callis was announced as having been demoted and banned from the Asylum (actually took a non-wrestling job). They built all the heat on Callis just to have him leave abruptly. Also with Russo in power, the focus turned back to Jarrett defending the NWA title. Announced was a 10-man gauntlet match to determine rankings and # 1 contender for Jarrett's title. R-Truth wins the gauntlet match, but Abyss having beat AJ Styles in a ladder match also puts him in contention. Raven had been lobbying Russo for a title shot as well. Meanwhile, Russo was concentrating on AMW's Chris Harris. He ordered Harris to face both Naturals in consecutive singles matches and then in a handicap match. Harris is pissed until Russo tells him he is getting him ready for a title shot against Jarrett and for the next few weeks, Harris will hate him. To clarify the # 1 contender a match was made between R-Truth and Abyss with the winner getting Chris Harris and that winner getting a steel cage title match with Jarrett -- This was called "Road to the Cage." Of course, Raven interfered in the match as he did Abyss/Styles ladder match so Russo ordered a fatal four way with Abyss/Raven/Styles/R-Truth, with the winner getting Harris and that winner getting the cage match. The enforcer for the four-way was Sting. Raven wins the four-way when Jeff Jarrett takes a towel from Russo and throws it in, effectively submitting on behalf of Styles. Styles is pissed because he thinks Russo threw it and Russo argues saying he didn't and that AJ is the only one who doesn't trust him. In the match between Raven and Harris to determine who gets the shot, Harris wins a very good match, but the following week, Raven jumps Harris injuring his shoulder and taking him out of the cage match. Harris wants Russo to give the shot to Storm, but after hearing arguments from all contenders’ Russo decides to give the shot to Styles who wins the NWA title for the second time by beating Jarrett. The following week, Styles successfully retains against R-Truth. AJ Styles later defends against Raven and wins after “La Parka” does a run in and DDT’s Raven (earlier Raven had beat up La Parka). “La Parka” unmasks as Chris Harris. Chris Harris gets a title shot with Truth and Raven each handcuffed to a ring post to prevent interference and Styles wins after, you guessed it, interference from Raven, Truth, Kid Kash, and Dallas. Due to all of the interference Russo says he hopes they kill each other next week when they all get a title shot. This sets up a Gauntlet match with the rules that if anyone interferes they will be terminated from TNA. Truth wins the title over Styles, Harris and Raven when Jeff Jarrett comes out and hits Styles with a guitar. There is some controversy, buy Russo says the decision stands. Jarrett doesn’t get terminated by TNA. PPV 96 has the first ever King of the Mountain match as Truth defends against Styles, Jarrett, Raven and Chris Harris. The rules are the first to climb the ladder and hang the belt wins. To be eligible you must score a pin and if you are pinned you get 2 minutes in the penalty cage. Jarrett wins the match (when he gets to the top of the ladder, the hook is missing so he waits to get the hook and then hangs the belt). Supposedly, Jarrett was insistent on being the champion when TV started. The following week, Jarrett rolls out the red carpet and wears a tuxedo as the King of the Mountain and Russo orders him to face 3 Live Kru in three stipulations matches that are all non-title. Jarrett wins two out of three by beating Konnan in a Bavarian strap match (first to get strapped 10 times loses), BG James in a trailer park street fight, and then losing to Truth in a Ghetto Justice match (same as trailer park match) after hitting one of the refs with a guitar. On the second anniversary show, Jarrett defends the title against Truth with the stipulation that if he uses the guitar he loses the title. Truth uses the guitar and pins Jarrett, but the decision was contested and the result would be revealed on the debut of iMPACT!. They ended up waiting until the following PPV with Russo giving the title back to Jarrett, but made ANOTHER gauntlet for the gold next week with him, 3 Live Kru, Elite Guard (Chad Collyer, Onyx and Hernandez – A jobber group associated with Jarrett briefly) and the returning Ken Shamrock. Jarrett wins the gauntlet after Shamrock, who was eliminated earlier, comes back and nails Truth with a guitar he took away from Jarrett. Shamrock leaves with that heat and Truth never gets revenge. The next feud Jarrett got involved in was with Jeff Hardy who arrived soon after the Shamrock turn. They built up a match for a few weeks for the last weekly PPV with Jarrett retaining after a guitar shot and distraction at ringside from Russo and Rhodes arguing. This leads into the rematch at Victory Road. ===TNA X Title and the X Cup=== Although there were a few shake ups in the X Title scene, the main focus of the division in the early part of 2004 was the X Cup where 4 man teams from different countries competed against one another for bragging rights. Michael Shane began the year as champion, but on the first show of the year in Ultimate X 2, Chris Sabin regained the belt after knocking Shane off the top through a table. Christopher Daniels and Low Ki were the other two participants. Michael Shane later wins a # 1 contender's match over Daniels and Ki, but Sabin retains in their one-on-one match. Shortly after, Frankie Kazarian returns saying Jerry Lynn didn't want him in TNA and that's why he's been gone. Kaz competes in a # 1 contender's match against the also returning Amazing Red, Elix Skipper, Nosawa, Jerry Lynn, and Petey Williams who debuts the Canadian Destroyer on TNA PPV during the match. Red wins the match beating Kaz in the final. Before Red's title match can take place, Chris Sabin is announced as being injured and must be stripped of the title. This puts Red in a match with Kazarian for the vacant title since they were the last two in the contender's match. Kazarian wins the X Title. He has a successful defense against Sonjay Dutt, who forfeited his spot on the NWA X Cup team before the big May 26th show to have the shot. With Kazarian as champ, a “three strikes challenge” was set up between Sonjay Dutt and Amazing Red, who both lost a title shot which equaled the first strike. The following two strikes would be had during this best 2 out of 3. Of course they split the first two with Red winning the third match only to lose to Kazarian on the June 2nd PPV. After TNA started on TV, AJ Styles was moved into the X division and won a “Best of X” contender’s match for a shot at Kazarian’s title on an episode of iMPACT!. On PPV 97, Styles wins the X title and is quickly jumped by Kid Kash. Kash shortly thereafter injured his foot and then became suspended so on the 2nd anniversary PPV on June 23rd; Jeff Hardy debuted as a surprise challenger to AJ’s X Title. Styles retains and also successfully defends the title in a 6 way X title match (Michael Shane, Kazarian, Skipper, Red, and Sabin were the challengers). Michael Shane faces Styles in a match that puts Shane’s spot in the X Division up against a future title shot. He wins the match by forfeit after Styles injures his knee during a dive out of the ring. Styles holds the title until being defeated in an Ultimate X match against Kazarian and Shane, who have formed a team as of late. The finish came when Styles was about to grab the title but was hit by Kid Kash with a crutch. Shane and Kazarian then grab the title simultaneously and it is ruled they are co-champions. Styles focuses less on the X title and drifts off into a feud with Kid Kash who he defeats in a street fight during the month of August. Not happy with the co-champion deal, Vince Russo sets up a 20 man gauntlet where the last man standing is the new X Division champion. He rules that Shane and Kazarian have to start 1st and the other last during the match. The match’s last two are Petey Williams and Amazing Red with Williams winning with the Canadian Destroyer after Team Canada interference. Williams retains over Chris Sabin soon after with more interference from Team Canada. Williams’ last defense in the weekly PPV era was a successful one over Sonjay Dutt. X CUP SUMMARY When the first X Cup is announced, Eric Watts brings back Jerry Lynn to be NWA-TNA's team captain. Lynn together with teammates, Elix Skipper, Sonjay Dutt and Chris Sabin take on Team AAA (Juventud Guerrera, Abismo Negro, Hector Garza, and Aguila) in the first X Cup. The X Cup consists of 4, one-on-one matches worth 1 point each, two, tag matches worth 2 points each and ends with an 8-man elimination; each elimination counting as 2 points each. Most points win the bout. These rules were used during the first three X Cups. AAA wins 13 to 9 and according to Callis, this put Lynn in breach of contract. The results were as follows: Juventud Guerrera (whose tights read "juciy") beat Sabin, Garza beat Dutt, Lynn beat Aguila and Abismo Negro beat Skipper. In round two tags, Abismo/Guerrera beat Dutt/Lynn and Sabin/Skipper defeated Garza/Aguila putting the score 5 to 3. Team NWA eliminated everyone except Juventud Guerrera during the course of the match, but AAA Pulls out the victory 13-9. X CUP II was Team AAA v. Team Canada (Teddy Hart - captain, Jack Evans, Johnny Devine, Petey Williams). Team Mexico again pulls out the victory with a final score of 12 to 10. The first two rounds were split evenly, but the difference came in the final 8 man elimination match. X CUP III was Team AAA (now captained by Hector Garza as Guerrera was replaced on the team by Heavy Metal) v. Team England coached by Dave Taylor (Xtreme Dean, Robbie Dynamite, Frankie Sloan, and James Mason). AAA dominated first round 3 to 1 and UK takes both tags after Taylor interference. In the final round, Taylor interferes to eliminate one AAA member, but is then taken out and AAA then cleans out Team England for the win 11 to 7 As of the end of April, TNA was gearing up for May 26th's World X Cup with Team AAA v. Team NWA v. Team Japan v. Team Canada with a different format. The World X Cup consisted of 4 stages. The first was a 16 man Gauntlet (won by Hector Garza), The second was a pair of tag matches with Daniels and Skipper from Team TNA defeating Team Canada’s Bobby Roode and Johnny Devine. The second tag match had Team Japan (in their only victory) defeating Abismo Negro and Heavy Metal. The third stage was a ladder match that was won by Eric Young after Scott Demore hit Jerry Lynn with a hockey stick as he was climbing the ladder. The final stage was an Ultimate X match with Chris Sabin v. Hector Garza v. Petey Williams. Team Japan had been eliminated on points so they were unable to compete in this stage. Chris Sabin picked up the victory which gave Team TNA the victory in the World X Cup. ===NWA TAG TITLES=== 3 Live Kru begin the year as champs, but quickly lose to Red Shirt Security after Shane Douglas interferes after comments Kru made about him last week. Around this time, Styles tells Callis he wants a title shot and Callis agrees; He agrees to tag him with enemy Abyss for a shot at the tag titles instead of the NWA title. At the match open, Abyss is ran off by El Leon leaving Styles all alone, but he still pulls out the win and the titles. This is the point where the red shirts split up and are no more. The following week Styles v. Abyss was made with the winner getting to pick a new tag partner. That ended in a no contest so the next week the same match was made, but as a tables match. AJ actually won, but with the ref knocked out Lex Luger appears and throws Styles through a table costing him the match. In typical TNA fashion, Luger is never heard from again. New DOA doesn't let the decision stand and the following week holds the belts up and announces a tournament. In the eight man tournament Low Ki and Christopher Daniels reunite as the mystery entrant defeating the new franchise team. Kid Kash was supposed to tag with Swinger, but said he needs family and brings out Lance Hoyt (known at this point as Dallas) as his partner. The finals come down to those two teams and Kash/Dallas win the belts due to use of a lead pipe. The # 1 contender's were determined in a second chance gauntlet match consisting of eliminated teams and the team that actually ended up winning, the returning D-Lo Brown and the unmasked El Leon, Apollo. Brown/Apollo win the belts via DQ when Dallas is caught using the pipe and titles can change hands on a DQ. It was played as if Dallas, the newcomer didn't know that. So guess what happened the next week ... Kash and Dallas regain the belts after Apollo is caught using the pipe. These events lead to a "nightstick on a pole" match between the teams. The stick kept falling down so mid match they announced that whoever touches the top of the pole will get the stick handed to them by the referee. Going into May, Kash and Dallas were proclaiming to be the best tag team in TNA which causes problems with AMW. This feud ended quickly as after Kash/Dallas beat the “new” AMW (lasted a week) of Dustin Rhodes and James Storm, the original AMW won the belts during the first iMPACT! TV show. Around this time XXX, Christopher Daniels and Elix Skipper are voted by the fans as whom they want to get a title shot, but Daniels is injured. Kid Kash and Dallas said they have no intentions on asking for a title rematch. The next big Tag Title feud was AMW v. The Naturals. They jumped AMW during their defense against Abyss/Monty Brown and stole their ring jackets. The Naturals continued interfering in AMW’s matches and eventually beat them in a non-title match. The following week, The Naturals win the belts after using them to quickly pin AMW. Vince Russo makes a dual ladder match with the stipulations that AMW’s ring gear is at the top of the ladder and if AMW win, they get another title shot the following week. AMW win the ladder match, but lose a Steel Cage match to the Naturals in their attempt to regain the belts. During the time Christopher Daniels was injured, a feud was brewing as to who were the best tag team in TNA history. After Daniels returned, they defeated Aguila and Abismo Negro to become the # 1 contender’s, but they lose to the Naturals after Team Canada interference. While AMW and XXX weren’t getting along, they had mutual hatred for Naturals and Team Canada. AMW and XXX eventually have a best 2 out of 3 series to determine who the best tag team in TNA is. They split the first two matches and the 3rd ends in a no contest after the Naturals jump both teams. Larry Zbyszko, a member of the newly created championship committee, declares a sudden death match for the upcoming iMPACT! show with the winners getting a title shot at the Naturals at next week’s PPV. The sudden death match ended indecisively so on the next PPV, show 109, a three way match took place with the Naturals retaining after pinning an injured James Storm who had just received an Angel’s Wings from Christopher Daniels. The following week Storm was hurt so a tag match between XXX and The Naturals was set, but Naturals jumped XXX backstage and injured Daniels. Larry Zbyszko came out and said the challengers would be Elix Skipper and Chris Harris who went on to win the belts on the last PPV. ===The Rise and Abrupt Stop of Abyss=== After his lackluster alliance with Kid Kash, Abyss began to raise up the TNA ranks during early 2004. At first he was aligned with Jarrett and Callis as their enforcer and ended up taking out D-Lo Brown and Styles for a few weeks with injury angles. He also had a match with El Leon (Apollo) and if Leon lost he gets unmasked (didn't happen). Once that storyline was dropped he began feuding with AJ Styles and it produced some good matches. They even won the tag belts, feuding partners-- a Russo staple -- as mentioned in the Tag belt section. From there he began feuding with Sabu and being "managed" by Goldylocks who dressed up as different women and then being herself playing a psycho character. This began after she turned on Watts who later returns at the end of April to feud with Abyss as well. Goldylocks settles into this greedy, psycho character as herself after awhile as Abyss defeats Watts. Goldylocks begins carrying around a briefcase of money that she claims she got from Watts which set up a briefcase of money v. Watt’s contract match. This match saw the debut in the crowd of Watts wife (but wasn’t he screwing Goldylocks?) and she brawls with Goldylocks as Abyss beats Watts and gets the contract. She then “freezes out” Watts as she has Abyss going after other wrestlers contracts. He ends up capturing Shark Boy’s, D-Ray 3000’s, Sonny Siaki, and Ekmo (who isn’t seen after the loss). Around this time, Alex Shelley is introduced as Goldylocks’ “Baby Bear” which infuriates Abyss. After a few weeks of abuse, Abyss seems to be getting tired of the act. When Desire wants to get Siaki’s contract back, Goldylocks makes her get a wrestler to face Shelley and if that wrestler loses, she gets Desire’s contract. Eric Watts, disguised as La Park, beats Shelley within seconds to regain Siaki’s contract. Siaki and Watts then take on Shelley and Abyss in an attempt to regain D Ray 3000 and Shark Boy’s contracts and put up Watts contract again. By the way, Watts was able to do these matches because his contract lapsed and Goldylocks didn’t renew it because she forgot. Georgie Watts gets involved in a cluster fuck of a finish that saw Watts and Siaki pin Shelley after hairspray in the eyes (kind of). Thankfully, this storyline ended on the last PPV when Siaki/Watts/Desire took on Shelley/Abyss/Goldylocks where Abyss is about to chokeslam Desire, but Goldylocks starts yelling at him and slapping him to do it quickly. Georgie Watts gets on the apron and convinces an already pissed off Abyss to choke slam Goldylocks. Well, Goldylocks refused to take different suggested moves and ended up getting taken out with a weak backbreaker. Desire then pins Goldylocks. Abyss is now apart from this angle and would go on to better things. ===Swinger, Diamond, and Gilbertti fallout=== During the "Under New Management" era discussed earlier, Simon Diamond had a suspicion that Johnny Swinger signed Jarrett's petition. During a run in and save, Diamond gets the clipboard from Kash and finds out it was true. At this point Swinger turns on Diamond and aligns with Gilbertti's crew and Diamond aligns with Sonny Siaki. Prior to this Siaki refused to sign the petition saying he has an advisor telling him not to sign. It turned out to be Vince Russo, the new DOA. However, during his time of refusal Don Callis put him in situations to keep his job by having to win matches. When he beats Kash to save his job, Callis fires Jeremy Borash, Tiny the timekeeper and Sara the ticket lady. Of course, Russo rehires everyone. This feud continued through the end of April when Desire, Siaki's old valet returned to aid against interference from Trinity. At this point, Simon Diamond had changed his name to "Irish" Pat Kenney and Swinger, Trinity, and Gilbertti began calling themselves the NYC: New York Connection. So the feud splits into NYC v. Siaki, Kenney, and Desire. Desire and Trinity feud based on the story Trinity was the one who broke Desire’s back during an Xplosion match. This feud within a feud ended after Trinity wins a stretcher match after Vito debuts and slams an ambulance door in Desire’s face. From there the feud heats up with NYC doing humiliating acts to Siaki (dressing him in a hula skirt and coconut bra) and Kenney (throwing green paint on him, tarred and Lucky charmed, and forcing him to eat Irish Spring soap). This leads to an “ultimate humiliation match” where the winners pick outfits for the losers to wear for 30 days. NYC ends up losing and Swinger wears the skirt/bra, which he seems to like, and Gilbertti wears a leprechaun outfit which he hates. Vito is mad that they are made to look like goons. After 30 days, a rematch is made for 30 more days v. no more costumes which David Young interferes in and NYC wins, but match is restarted with Siaki/Kenney winning. This feud also ties in with David Young who was doing a losing streak gimmick. By Show 57 it is said he is 0-53. He then loses to Mini’s from Mexico, D-Ray 3000 and even referee Mike Posey. The Posey loss put him at 0-88 and he said he would leave TNA if he lost. He lost, got jumped by Gilbertti and Swinger, but of course he didn’t leave. By next week he is 0-93 and he wrestles Gilbertti in a loser leave TNA match. Young wins and Gilbertti actually leaves. This angle then fizzles out with nothing happening up to Victory Road. ===A Sample of TNA Madness=== During the NYC v. Kenney feud a match took place that seems to sum up what TNA can never really get away from … bad TV. “Irish” Pat Kenney v. Vito -- The match consists of four locked boxes in four of the six corners of the ring and a rugby ball in the middle with a key attached. The object is to get the ball over to a case and unlock it in an attempt to find weapons. Three of the boxes are said to be empty. Trinity, although somewhat feuding with Vito, helps him open two of the boxes, but they come up empty. After that the announcers say it is a given as to which box has the weapons, even though two boxes remain locked. Gilbertti comes out in his leprechaun suit and steals the rugby ball (at this point I should mention that the match couldn’t end until the box with the weapons was unlocked). Young comes out to stop Gilbertti (This was the week after Young lost his Loser leave TNA match) and Young gives the ball to Kenney who opens the case with the weapons (he must have x-ray vision) and for some reason all of the weapons were kitchen pots and pans painted green. He uses a chain (painted green) to win the match. ===Raven v. Mitchell Conclusion, Raven v. Sabu begins…and ends === After the fallout from the cage, Punk and Dinero take on Sandman and Raven with the Gathering taking the victory after a "druid" figure takes out Raven with ether. The figure turns out to be Father James Mitchell who is now aligned with the Gathering. The following few weeks Raven doesn't show as Sandman's partner in tag matches so he brings in Balls Mahoney, Mikey Whipwreck and Terry Funk in successive weeks, but lose each time. Funk comes out and says Raven will be his partner next time. In this match Raven does return and when Mitchell tries to stun gun Raven, terry Funk jumps in front of it and Raven pins Dinero with the even flow DDT. This feud comes to an abrupt end when Raven and Sabu defeat the Gathering after Punk is pinned clean by Raven. Raven then moves on to the NWA Title picture, Sabu moves into a feud with Abyss and the Gathering is no longer used. Mitchell disappears for awhile as well. Raven challenges Sabu to an Empty Arena, House of Fun match. Sonjay Dutt shows up and says Raven knows about the “promise” which turned out to be Sabu promising The Sheik he’d never fight Raven. Raven kicks Dutt’s ass. Raven continues to beat Dutt the following week in an attempt to goad Sabu into a fight, but he won’t accept. Mickey Doyle, a long time friend of The Sheik, convinces Sabu to stand up to Raven which leads to a brutal match in which Raven wins. Sabu no shows Show 107 for a Hangman’s horror match so Sonjay takes his place and wins after hanging Raven after a fireball. Two “druid” like characters had been standing by the ramp during Raven’s last couple of matches. This feud ends as Sabu leaves and Raven doesn’t show up for a few more weeks and wants a title shot at Jarrett. ===ICP, FAIRPLAY, and Urlacher=== In February, the Insane Clown Posse showed up in TNA and at first was hanging out in the stands and once sprayed Faygo on Jeff Jarrett during a match. They quickly entered a feud with Gilbertti, David Young and Kid Kash. This was a short feud, ending after only a few weeks and consisted mostly of terrible brawls and a "Dark Carnival" match which basically was just a Clockwork Orange House of Fun match with everything painted neon colors and ICP music being played at different times throughout the match. Monty Brown returned helping the Gilbertti group win. Shortly thereafter ICP left TNA. Was it ever weird hearing Don West and Mike Tenay put over "wicked clowns" and "Juggalos." Johnny Fairplay also showed up around this time and lasted all of a few weeks during the initial run. The highlight was him taking finishers from AJ Styles, etc. and being thrown out of the ring by Brian Urlacher (who showed up with Eric Watts). He kind of just hung around with Lollipop as his "girl" after Russo mandated the cage dancers are no more. ===Miscellaneous Notables=== TNA began the year with a new open and used a remix of Randy Savage's "R U Ready" for a few weeks before switching to a short, generic tune -- Trinity won 2003 TNA Babe of the Year and acted like a face, but ended up switching frequently before ending up at the end of April as a heel -- AMW was named 2003 TNA Tag Team of the Year -- Shane Douglas, Michael Shane, and Traci Brooks became the new franchise, but after only a couple of months they broke up with Shane and Traci aligning as heels against Douglas -- Joe Legend and Kevin Northcutt split up after Legend loses the tag belts and Northcutt just disappeared after the Red Shirt gimmick was over -- Tenay announces on Show 93 that starting June 4th, TNA will have a TV show iMPACT! on Fox Sports Net – At the end of show 96, the former Gorgeous George (now Mensa) shows up on the stage. She shows up the following week during Jarrett’s match, but disappears and never mentioned … Shane Douglas becomes a part of the backstage announce team...In the midst of the 3 Live Kru v. Team Canada feud, a suspended Dusty comes back as the Midnight Rider teaming with the Kru to defeat Team Canada. He later comes back into the crowd as a fan with a ticket…The Styles v. Kash feud ends on a weak note after a subpar tables match won by Styles. EPILOGUE – TV from Last Weekly PPV to First Monthly PPV NOTES ===Main Event/NWA World Title=== During an interview, Jeff Jarrett taunts Russo to bring in some “Outsiders.” This caused Tenay to wonder who the # 1 contender would be and if they were in TNA or not. Later it was announced Hall and Nash would be coming to TNA and appearing at Victory Road. Jarrett wanted to know who his Victory Road opponent would be which had Russo respond saying there would be a tournament to determine that. In a four man tournament Jeff Hardy defeated Abyss and Monty Brown defeated Raven. In the finals Jeff Hardy wins the contract by defeating Brown. Jeff Hardy later challenged Jarrett to a ladder match which was accepted. ===TNA Tag Titles=== Team Canada jumps champions Skipper and Harris until Storm and Daniels makes the save. Daniels and Storm later defeat Skipper and Harris for the tag titles. Team Canada demand a shot at the belts, which lead to an AMW/XXX v. Team Canada match which they lost. However, they got their shot and won the belts from Storm/Daniels. With AMW/XXX facing each other at the PPV, 3 Live Kru was named as getting the tag title shot at Team Canada at Victory Road. ===TNA X Title=== AJ Styles demanded an X Title shot at Petey Williams. Russo set up a 6-way match and the winner would get the shot at the PPV. Styles won that match over Shelley, Kash, Red, Kazarian and Sabin to earn the shot. ===OTHER NOTES=== Weekly PPV’s were highlight shows leading up to Victory Road … Russo and Rhodes continued their battle over authority with Russo blaming Rhodes for Hardy losing at the final weekly PPV. Rhodes said they should let the fans vote on who should be DOA and Russo agreed…Roddy Piper shows up saying at Victory Road there will be a special Piper’s Pit with a mystery guest … A 20 man X Division Gauntlet was announced for the PPV with wrestlers winning matches on TV to earn the spots … Trinity complained to Russo about not getting a spot in the gauntlet and he told her he had a match in mind for her that night … After Jeff Hardy was determined # 1 contender, getting the shot at the PPV, the other three contenders, Raven, Abyss, and Monty Brown began feuding with each other. Abyss had a mystery voice conveying his message (Jim Mitchell) during the hype of what was being called, The Monster’s Ball Match. A small bag Abyss had been carrying around was opened to reveal thumb tacks. ==TNA VICTORY ROAD 2004 LINEUP=== 1. 20 Man X Division Gauntlet 2. The Naturals/Kid Kash/Dallas v. Ron Killings/Eric Watts/Johnny B. Badd/Pat Kenney 3. Piratita Morgan v. Mascarita Sagarada 4. TAG TITLES: 3 Live Kru v. Team Canada 5. Trinity v. Jacqueline 6. MONSTER’S BALL MATCH: Monty Brown v. Raven v. Abyss 7. X DIVISION TITLE: Petey Williams v. AJ Styles 8. ELIMINATION, LAST TEAM STANDING MATCH: XXX v. AMW 9. NWA WORLD TITLE, LADDER MATCH: Jeff Jarrett v. Jeff Hardy That’s the end of my 2002-2004 TNA recaps. I hope you enjoyed it. Personally, I’m glad it’s over. I did keep note of matches I found to be good/great as well as some angles. I will eventually be contributing to the 2000 through 2004 Yearbook suggestion threads with some reviews of the matches that make my final cut.

I think Crash Holly was under their watch, no? No, he had been gone several months by that point. Plus, that was 2003 TNA and it was more like working an indy promotion then. Crash (as Mad Mikey) had his last TNA PPV match on 10/1/03 and died 11/6/03. He was still on the roster teaming with Shark Boy. Also, Curt Hennig wrestled David Flair (possibly the worst match of his career) on 1/8/03 and died 2/10/03 He had been gone for a bit, but Malice/Wall (Jerry Tuite) died after last being seen in TNA by the US audience even though he was working Puerto Rico as well.

Sadly, they still continued to say it even after UT said that.

NWA-TNA 2003: “So you don’t have to sit-through” Review Part 2 (July-December) NWA-TNA 2002 Review is HERE NWA-TNA 2003 Review, Part 1 is HERE Quick Facts • July – December 2003 featured 23 live PPV shows. All of them held at the Asylum in Nashville, TN. The September 3rd show, regarded as one of their best weekly PPV’s and featured the Super X tournament, was taped on August 20th and August 27th. • September 10th and December 24th’s shows were highlight shows with December 31st’s being a 2003 Year in Review. • Going into the second half of the year, some of the main happenings and feuds: o Jeff Jarrett v. AJ Styles w/ Vince Russo o Eric Watts v. Kid Kash and Abyss o Raven v. Douglas and CM Punk wanting to join the Gathering o Chris Sabin as long reigning X Division Champion o 3 Live Kru just starting to be formed o Trinity turns heel choking out Goldylocks o Jerry Lynn v. Justin Credible o Frankie Kazarian getting big push in the X Division • The second half of 2003 was much more focused on feuds and continuity (at least compared to the previous twelve months). There were much less meaningless debuts that went nowhere and abrupt endings to angles (not to say it wasn’t nonexistent). NWA Heavyweight Title Happenings With Vince Russo as his advisor, AJ Styles continued to reign as champion. On the first show in July, Frankie Kazarian asked for an X title shot and instead received a shot at AJ’s world title. Another interesting defense by Styles during his reign was against Low-Ki. Ki had been out for months with an injured shoulder only to be given a shot in his first match back, but loses after being hit with a bat. However, besides those two and successful defenses against Jerry Lynn and Raven, Styles was embroiled in a feud with D-Lo Brown for most of his reign until getting into it with Dusty Rhodes and eventually Jeff Jarrett at the end. Styles and D-lo had two big matches during their feud: 2/3 Falls (Pin fall only, submission, ladder) and a Cage match. In the 2/3 falls, each wrestler trades a fall leaving the deciding factor the ladder match. The finish saw both guys holding the belt as they fell off the ladder. It was later decided that Styles retains because he was not in “a position of defeat.” This lead to the cage match with Russo handcuffed to Eric Watts. Styles retains and D-lo transitions into a feud with Styles’ group of Russo, Trinity and Sonny Siaki. Styles then moves into a feud with Dusty Rhodes. First they have a bunkhouse match that ends in a no contest after Russo and Trinity interference. Rhodes then spanks Trinity’s bare ass. Styles and Russo challenge Jarrett and Rhodes to a tag next week which ends with Rhodes pinning and spanking Styles ala Tito/Couture. The following week, a pissed AJ Styles challenges Rhodes to a bull rope title match and slaps Russo when Russo tries to talk him out of it. Meanwhile, Jarrett is pissed at Rhodes because Jarrett is supposed to get a shot the following week causing a pull apart. Styles is worried about Russo missing, but before the match Russo shows up “drunk.” This lead to nothing and Styles retains holding the ropes as a bloody Rhodes passed out during a figure four getting his shoulders counted down. The following week Russo leaves TNA for the rest of the year after picking a fight with Jarrett and getting destroyed. Jarrett then regains the NWA Title and turns heel with a promo saying Rhodes, Hogan, Savage, or Piper can't do anything about his title reign. With Jarrett now a heel, Styles became a babyface and stays in the main event mix. Jarrett retains his title over Sting by DQ after a lot of interference which set up Sting and Styles v. Jarrett and Lex Luger for the following week. That match ended with Styles pinning Luger after Sting gives Luger bat shots to the head and gut. This was the typical Luger “putting over” a younger talent scenario. Styles would finish the year by beating Abyss in a great match, losing to Jarrett in a rematch after a guitar shot and tons of interference, and teaming with D-Lo Brown against Jarrett and Kid Kash. Champion Jeff Jarrett finishes the year with a match against Rhodes were fans were at ringside with leather straps as lumberjacks which ended in a no contest after numerous run-ins and a non-title match against Sting which he lost. Watts had initially said this was to be a title match, but somehow got overruled by Jarrett. NWA Tag Team Title Happenings After the fallout of S.E.X., Glen Gilbertti emerged as the manager of Simon Diamond and Johnny Swinger. They quickly became involved in a feud with Tag champs, America’s Most Wanted which produced great tag team matches over the course of the next few months. One of those matches was a rawhide (strap) match in which Simon and Swinger lost, but afterwards they stole the belts. The next was a non-title, double bull rope match in which they came out on top. Simon and Swinger would eventually win the belts with interference from Gilbertti. AMW would not get another title shot for many weeks with Gilbertti doing everything he could to prevent it. He brought in the debuting Naturals as mystery opponents for AMW and with Gilbertti’s interference they won, but Watts comes out and restarts the match and AMW wins. Meanwhile Simon and Swinger defeat Doring and the recently debuted Roadkill who had beaten the champs in a non-title match previously. During Simon and Swinger’s tag reign, they also had help from David Young who was somewhat of a lacky for the group. Always interfering, but getting blamed for losses and at one point getting beat down by the group only to return and still be a part of it. Around this time, Swinger had an appendectomy and was replaced by Young in six man matches with 3 Live Kru. A gauntlet was held late in the year for the # 1 contender status and featured 3 Live Kru, AMW, Ekmo and Siaki, Young/Gilbertti and the Gathering. 3 Live Kru won after Gilbertti costs James Storm from AMW the match. 3 Live Kru’s title match with Diamond and returning Swinger ends in a double pin with two referee’s each counting different pins. Of course, the titles were held up and for some reason it was decided the belts would be decided in a six man match with Kru v. Diamond, Swinger and Gilbertti. 3 Live Kru win the belts after AMW, who was on commentary and hadn’t received a title shot since losing the belts interfered. The Tag team scene ended the year with 3 Live Kru as champions, the Gilbertti faction in disarray, and AMW failing to win the belts from the Kru due to interference from Gilbertti and his group amid the infighting. TNA X-Title Happenings The X division brought in some new blood during the latter part of 2003 such as Matt Sydal, Delirious, Alter Boy Luke, and Danny Doring. None of them ended up making any impact in comparison to the debut of Michael Shane. Shane debuted against Chris Sabin during Sabin’s feud with Kazarian. Kazarian was the referee in this match which ultimately led to Sabin retaining. Shane would later become the # 1 contender. Meanwhile in the Sabin/Kazarian feud, Kazarian had won a # 1 contender’s, six person match for a shot which Sabin gave to him immediately after the match and won. Later, Kazarian would pin Sabin for the belt only to have the decision reversed because he used the belt during the match. After yet another convoluted match result, the title was held up by referee Rudy Charles until Watts made the decision that Sabin is still champion. With Shane in the picture the battle for the X title become a three man deal. Shane and Kazarian were put in a ladder match for #1 contender status, but it ended in a no contest when Sabin interfered and left with the contract. This led Don Callis to create “Ultimate X” in which steel cables would be criss-crossed in the ring with the belt in the middle. The winner would be the person to climb to the middle and retrieve the belt. During the match, the belt kept falling down and the match stopped so they could hang it back up. Other than that, it was a good match with Shane coming out of nowhere to win and become the new X Division champion. After being out of the X division title hunt for months during a feud with Justin Credible, being fined and suspended by Don Callis, inexplicably, Jerry Lynn gets the first shot at Michael Shane’s belt. Lynn would later lose due to interference from Callis and his red shirt security team. (Kevin Northcutt and Ryan Wilson) In late August, (shown early September), a Super X Tournament was held with 8 men in a US and Foreign Bracket. The competitors were Jerry Lynn, Kazarian, Chris Sabin, Michael Shane, Juventud Guerrera, Johnny Storm, Nosawa and Teddy Hart. The show that this played out on was received at the time as the best TNA weekly to date. Sabin won the tournament defeating Guerrera in the finals. After the tournament, Kazarian all but disappeared for the rest of the year after an initial strong push. Although Shane didn’t win the Super X Tournament he continued to dominate and become the longest reigning X Champion up to this point. Jerry Lynn, who won a # 1 contender match over Kazarian, Sabin, Nosawa, and Guerrera, loses the next week after Sabin interference. Lynn then leaves the building and doesn’t return for the remainder of the year. Shane follows this up by beating Sabin to retain the X Title and win Sabin’s Super X trophy when he held Sabin’s tights. At this point Christopher Daniels had transitioned into the X title picture, but lost in a three way with Shane and Sabin. In late October, Sonjay Dutt debuted (show also featured El Feugo and Jerelle Clark’s debuts) and eventually was awarded a title shot only to lose by Shane holding the tights. With Shane being the longest reigning champion with what he saw as no competition, he introduced the “Michael Shane Triple Threat Chance Invitational.” The first chance would be an eight man battle royal with the winner getting a bye to the third stage and the remaining 4 advancing to the second chance which was a tournament. Seeding was determined by order of elimination from the battle royal. Low-Ki returned for the battle royal and making their TNA PPV debut were Chad Collyer and X (Tenay says he has no idea who it is, but it is Carl Ouelette under a mask). X won the battle royal and would face the winners of the also advancing Christopher Daniels (v. Low-Ki) and Chris Sabin (v. Collyer). Sabin was “injured” so Dutt took his place in the match with Collyer and advanced to take on X along with Daniels. Dutt wins the three-way pinning X. Michael Shane retains his title the following week over Dutt after Douglas and Traci screw Dutt and declaring Michael Shane the newest member of “The Franchise.” At year’s end, Low-KI, Chris Sabin and Christopher Daniels were all trying to get the title from Shane. After disappearing for weeks, Elix Skipper returned late in the year and wanted to reform XXX, but Daniels and Ki were feuding. Notable Non-Title Happenings New Church v. Raven and The Gathering What began as Raven v. Shane Douglas quickly formed into a Gathering (Dinero, Punk, Laree, Raven) v New Church (Mitchell, Slash, and later Sinn (Kizarny)) with Douglas feud. During the early stages, a large man dressed in white (looked more like masking tape) would attack raven and leave him bloody either by pulling him under the ring or behind a curtain. In the midst of the feud, a # 1 contender’s gauntlet was held for the NWA title with Raven and Douglas as the final two. Raven won with the Evenflow only to lose his match with champion Styles after Douglas and new church interference. A huge brawl ensued causing Eric Watts to make a 10 man, Clockwork Orange House of Fun Cage match for the following week’s main event. (See below) Raven would lose a hair v. hair match to Shane Douglas after tons of interference and the lights going out, coming back on and revealing the mystery man as, Vampiro. Jim Mitchell brutally cut Raven’s hair and Raven basically being scalped, bleeding all over the place while Mike Tenay and Don West go ape shit. The fallout for this was a series of dog collar matches with the first being a six man with the gathering winning after Dinero pins Sinn (not shown on camera). Mitchell and Vampiro are out to destroy the gathering and hang Punk and Dinero from balcony (Laree had left by this point). Raven vows to not need the gathering any longer and declares he will take out the church one by one. He follows through by beating and “hanging” Sinn and Slash in consecutive weeks. He then comes up with a “Dream Blood: Gallow to retribution match” to face Vampiro. The first person to use the dog collar to hang his opponent over the ropes until they are unconscious wins. With the Church taken out completely by Raven, next was Jim Mitchell. Raven bloodies Mitchell up and beats him down. Neither Mitchell nor the church was around for the last month of TNA in 2003. Eric Watts/Black Shirt Security v. Don Callis/Red Shirt Security During the last part of 2003, Eric Watts and Don Callis both became authority figures. Eric Watts became “Director of Authority” for NWA and enforced by Black Shirt Security (Rookies and later Don Harris after Ron quits the promotion) after the reveal of his previous “Eric from WCW is coming.” Well, the Eric turned out to be him. Don Callis originally debuted as the mouthpiece for Edward Chastain (Wildside’s Iceberg) who attacked Sandman after he won the Hard 10 trophy and proclaiming hardcore wrestling and Sandman to be over. Very shortly after this, Sandman defeats Chastain and Callis fires him and moves into the role of TNA authority figure complete with Red shirt security. While not always directly feuding with each other, Watts was trying to keep Russo’s group under control and helping Jeff Jarrett while Callis concentrated on suspending and fining Jerry Lynn and D-Lo Brown. Legend (WWE’s Just Joe) debuted in a feud with Jarrett as a part of Russo’s group, but after a blow off Bat v. Guitar pole on a match loss to Jarrett he transitioned into Red Shirt Security replacing Ryan Wilson. In somewhat related storyline news, Scott Hudson (sometimes Terry Taylor) took over backstage interviewing duties causing Goldylocks to be more of arm candy for Eric Watts and to be not seen as often. Eventually the security teams would have matches against one another with red shirts destroying the rookies. This lead to Watts and Harris taking on the red shirts ending with Watts getting stuff pile drove and Goldylocks running out to be by his side. Around this time, Roddy Piper shows back up quoting Matchbox 20 and generally making no sense as always. Russo comes out and says it’s either him or Piper. Russo calls out Callis to make the decision, but instead Dusty Rhodes comes out and says Styles should dump Russo (covered in NWA Title section). Piper then comes out, but is retained by red shirts and Callis throws Piper out ending yet another useless set of appearances by Piper. With the feud over with Mitchell, Raven gets involved in a feud with Red Shirt Security. He chooses a mystery partner of Sandman, after telling the gathering he wants nothing to do with them, to take on the red shirts late in the year. This feud continued until a year ending cage match between Raven, who accepted the gathering as his partners for this match only against Abyss and red shirt security. However, Dinero and Punk turn on Raven in the cage and give Raven the con-chair-to double chair shot. Jarrett, Hogan, and being delusional Late in 2003, footage began to show on the weekly PPV’s of Jarrett interrupting a press conference in Japan and blooding Hogan with a guitar shot. This was replayed many times and coincided with hype for Bound for Glory on November 30th. Eventually, after Jarrett regained the title and turned heel, Jimmy Hart shows up saying Hogan will be coming in to face Jarrett and to find out why he laid down at Bash at the Beach in 2000. Hart then later says Hogan has signed, but it will be delayed until Hogan recovers from his recent surgery. This ends up pissing off Jarrett and he attacks Hart. Hart declares he will be bringing in people he used to manage to face Jarrett. Jim Duggan is first up and is quickly defeated by Jarrett after a guitar shot. Rick Steiner then shows up right after and their match ends in a DQ after Jarrett hits Steiner with a guitar shot. NOTE: To my knowledge, Hart never managed either of these guys and I thought titles were to change hands on a DQ, but maybe it was non-title and I missed it. Anyway, Jarrett is back on the mic saying two are down and then Hart says it will be Jarrett v. Sting next week. After this, Hart disappears and talk of Hogan is completely dropped. Kid Kash, Abyss and the Legends For the past few weeks Kid Kash had been aligned with Abyss, who he gave that name to and began feuding with NWA legends playing the ungrateful punk role. With the help of Abyss, Kash would defeat Ricky Morton, Larry Zbyszko, Bobby Eaton and Terry Taylor. This feud lasted a few weeks and then ended abruptly with Kash and Abyss transitioning into a feud with each other after Kash blames Abyss for losing a # 1 contender’s match for the tag titles. At year’s end, Abyss aligns with Callis and the red shirts while Kash teams with Jarrett in a main event and has an uncertain future. TNA dancers and “Bitchslap” April Pennington (previously girlfriend of Brian Lawler) returned as a TNA cage dancer and together with lollipop had an aborted feud with Traci (Brooks) and Nurse Veronica (Simply Luscious). Veronica was soon replaced by Cheerleader Valentina in the “Bitchslap” women’s group. For a few weeks the two groups would attempt to fight only to have it broken up by security. This angle was dropped with no explanation, but Traci would eventually return and align with the Franchise Shane Douglas. 10 Man Cage, Clockwork Cluster fuck With many feuds brewing in the company, it finally came down to a 10 Man Cage match. AMW, Jarrett, Raven and D-Lo took on Simon/Swinger, Douglas, Daniels and Styles. This was a complete cluster as there were too many people and weapons in the ring during the finish. Jarrett got the final pin after the babyface team hit all of their finishers. This was the main event of the taped show that was shown 9/3. After the match the Church trapped Raven and cut a bit of his hair leading to the following week’s match. Other News and Notes New Jack was suspended for dropping F bomb’s and was not brought back … Negro Casas and Shocker were supposed to appear on PPV, but backed out … Elix Skipper was being pushed as “pound for pound” the best wrestler in TNA, but after beating Red in his last TNA match, he lost quickly and often to Jerry Lynn and eventually left. He would return during December wanting to reform XXX … Daniels was built strong through vignettes that aired after the breakup of S.E.X. and returned attacking Jarrett after his match with Legend. He would continue the year feuding in main events until landing in the X Title picture … 3 Live Kru’s vignettes were getting them over. Each one showed the group in a trailer park, the hood, and in a Mexican restaurant. They debuted on PPV to a big response … Mad Mikey (WWE’s Crash Holly) debuted and had some funny vignettes as well. He took over New Jack’s role teaming with Shark Boy, but sadly Mikey would pass away a few weeks later … Ekmo (3 Minute Warning’s Jamal) debuts teaming with Siaki managed by Trinity in a feud with D-lo Brown when he helps Siaki beat D-lo in a casket match … Eric Young debuts in an X division six way … trinity and Siaki/Ekmo tease dissension after losing to the gathering in a tag match late in the year … Don West sets the record for use of the phrase “You’ve got to be kidding me!” during the later part of 2003 … Look for the final installment "NWA-TNA 2004: The end of the Weekly PPV" coming down the road. This one will be a few months before I get it together and will feature 2004 until September when the weeklies end and they move to 3 hour, monthly PPV. I figure by that time, they had TV (although lost it for a time) and people were ordering the monthly PPV's and were familiar with the product from that point on.

Yippppeee I tried pre ordering, but any address I entered said "Sorry, we do not ship to this address" Anyone else have the same problem?

Really? Besides the rhino helmet stories (hilarity), I didn't find it all that interesting. He didn't really shit on anybody except Matt Hardy and didn't reveal anything that wasn't well known. It was cool how he owned up to the Mike Bell thing though.

He always does stuff like that. He also jacks every post from the newsletter recap thread on this board and posts it as if he did it himself on C-Max and probably multiple other boards.

I watched this match a little over a year ago in a Meltzer 5 star comp somebody put together and my take was completely different. I'm really surprised as our opinions usually match closely, but on this match we were worlds apart. My review: Jushin Liger vs. El Samurai (New Japan 4/30/92) "Wow. This is the epitome of "does not age well." I'm sure if I were to have seen this in 1992 I would have been hailing it as the greatest match I had ever seen, but watching it some eighteen years later has ensured this match will never be considered for that title. While it wasn't a *bad match*, it wasn't all that great and definitely not a ***** match as the WON rated it. The start of this match is rather familiar as Samurai plays rudo and takes Liger out to the floor and gives him a tombstone piledriver and brings out a bottle from underneath the ring to use as a weapon. (see Tiger Mask v. Dynamite Kid 4/83). Samurai continues to control early and even begins ripping away at his mask, which is usually a shortcut into my heart when judging a match, but then it kinda dies. Liger gets pissed and completely rips Samurai's mask off his head and then continues to hit him with every big highspot that was around in 1992. The problem I had is that Liger would hit a move, wait, then hit another big move. Overall, it just felt disjointed and had me tuning out as it progressed."

Man # 1 Jeff Jarrett Man # 2 Don Harris Man # 3 B.G. James Man # 4 Christopher Daniels Calling this a gauntlet as they did is kind of misleading. You could win by pin fall, submission or throwing a guy over the top rope. All four guys were in at the same time.

Actually, Lollipop had flesh-colored pasties on her nipples. Which might arguably make it even worse, since it proves that the angle was intentionally planned. Those must have been the worst flesh colored pasties of all-time, because on camera it looked like her nipples were completely visible.

NWA-TNA 2003: “So you don’t have to sit through” Review Part 1 (January-June) *NOTE* NWA-TNA 2002 Review, is located here NWA-TNA 2002. I tried to develop the best flowing narrative I could given the numerous abrupt changes of direction this company was still experiencing during the first year, but if things seem scattered about or hard to read I apologize. Quick Facts • January - June 2003 featured 25 live PPV shows. All of them were held at the Asylum in Nashville, TN. • TNA started the year with the logo that would become synonymous with the company for the next few years. • After the Anniversary Show on June 18th, TNA debuts a new set that no longer has S.E.X. coming from a different area of the arena. • A Hard 10 tournament began where you had to get 10 points and win by 2. 1 point for a weapon shot and 5 for opponent going through table. As of the end of June New Jack and Sandman were in the finals. The Title Picture NWA Heavyweight Title Jeff Jarrett starts the year as champion and continues to feud with Russo and S.E.X. On the first show of 2003, Superman Jeff Jarrett beats all three members of XXX (Daniels, Ki, and Skipper) in succession. Afterwards, Jeff gets jumped by S.E.X. and L.O.D., run in to make the save. A.J. Styles then comes out to attack Jarrett which brings out another surprise of Dusty Rhodes to clean house. The following show, Russo puts together an 8-man tag (after he interrupts a FANTASTIC Dusty Rhodes promo) featuring Russo and XXX v. Jarrett, L.O.D. and Rhodes and if S.E.X. wins then he gets to pick the challengers next week for all of the titles. Skipper pins Rhodes in the match after Mr. Wrestling IV hits Dusty; Wrestling IV unmasks as … Nikita Koloff. This same week Styles stages a sit-in until he gets his title shot which brings out, Larry Zbyszko. Larry says Styles is a whiner and Styles slaps him. Given the stipulation last week Russo decides Jarrett will be in a four man gauntlet defending his title against S.E.X.’s Don Harris, B.G. James and Christopher Daniels. Falls, Submissions and throwing an opponent over the top are the ways to win. Tenay gets pissed and walks to the back to prep Jarrett about “tradition.” Jarrett eliminates Don Harris and B.G. James (after ref Scott Armstrong begins fighting with his brother). Dusty Rhodes comes out to fight the eliminated guys to the back leaving Jarrett with Daniels and a new referee. For the second time in three weeks, Jarrett retains his title by beating three other men when he gives Daniels a stroke when coming off the second rope. Tradition celebrates until the debuting Raven jumps Jarrett and steals the NWA Title. Raven promo and brawl with Jarrett starts the next show. Later, Styles came out wanting a title shot which brings out Raven. Styles tells Raven go do heroin at which point Jeff Jarrett comes out and gets his belt back. Zybszko comes out and challenges Styles to beat him twice in 10 mins as Styles said he could do in an earlier promo and said if he can’t then Larry becomes AJ’s advisor (Styles has dumped Plumbtree at this point). Plumbtree spends weeks trying to get a sit down with Russo. Show 29 ends with a Raven and Jarrett brawl with Styles running in giving Jarrett a stroke and stealing the title. The build is now Styles – Jarrett – Raven title triangle. Show 30 featured a show long angle where after confronting Zybszko and Styles about stealing his belt, Jarrett is jumped by S.E.X. who are in masks and fatigues and is kidnapped and Russo gives Gilbertti orders to, “develop Jarrett a new character.” Meanwhile, Raven and Styles have a brawl about the belt and Raven “breaks” Styles fingers. The end of the show comes when S.E.X. is back and tells Gilbertti to unmask, but he comes down the ramp naked and the masked man unmasks as Jarrett who beats down Russo as the show goes off air. At the beginning of the next week a recap of what happened after the show went off the air shows Jarrett being tied up and beaten with a belt by all S.E.X. members while TNA’s faces were locked in a room. On the same show JJ Dillon (replacement for Bob Armstrong – see below) makes Jarrett v. Styles for the title next week. Raven develops a side feud with Sandman in the meantime. Jarrett shows up at the end of the show and reveals he was the one taking out S.E.X. members all show long as revenge for last week and Styles comes in and gives him the Styles clash building next week’s main event. Show 32 begins with Styles (with no broken fingers) showing up to the arena with Russo, but Russo leaves saying he has personal business. The main event saw Jarrett retain after a 2nd rope stroke after failed interference by Sonny Siaki who Styles fights off even though he is there to help him. Show ends with Russo in the driveway of Jarrett’s house saying he is going to go talk to Jeff’s wife and kids. The next week Russo says Jarrett will be joining S.E.X. and there will be a contract signing after what happened at his house last week. Later, Jarrett does an interview in a S.E.X. shirt putting over Russo and saying he has the tape of what happened last week at his house. Later it is revealed that the tape was of Russo’s kids talking about their dad not being around causing Russo to cry (then say he is going to beat his kid’s ass). Jarrett says there will be no contract signing and rips off the shirt. He says what really happened was that Russo was met by a shotgun when he went to his house. During this came the debut of the “New Generation” Brian Lawler, David Flair, and Eric Watts. They come out and beat down Jarrett and seem to be a part of the title picture, but later they drift into a feud with Dusty Rhodes. Styles and Raven were now feuding for #1 contender status as well. On show 34, Tenay interviews Russo from home who says he is done with the wrestling business because he doesn’t want to end up like Curt Hennig (who just died.) Russo stays gone until Show 46 (see below). R-Truth is shown in the stands for a few weeks after being questioned about his loyalty to tradition. On this show, Raven wins his Clockwork Orange House of Fun match and demands his title shot right then. This brings out Jarrett and later Styles, Lawler and Flair for a brawl. David Flair, who had been bringing his empty sack of doom to ringside for weeks, reveals the NWA Title that was his father’s and taunts Jarrett with it as the show ends. So the title picture now seems to be Raven, Jarrett, New Generation, and Styles … until next week. Show 35 shows a video that was a cheap rip-off of the A-Team open hyping a big deal that turns out to be the debut of, D-Lo Brown (crowd deflates). He does the same “changed companies” promo everyone does and says he signed because he was promised a title shot, which adds yet another person to the title picture. In the main event of the show Jarrett comes out for commentary of the Raven v. Styles # 1 Contender’s Match. It ends in a double pin with two different referees doing the count and the show goes off air. The next show begins with S.E.X. out telling D-Lo that Jarrett is out for himself and doesn’t want to give him the title shot which brings Jeff out that ends with a big brawl that includes New Generation, AMW, and Rhodes coming out. R-Truth returns to action helping Tradition clean house. New Generation faces Dusty, D-Lo and Jarrett later in the show. Jarrett pins Flair and afterward, Killings comes out to celebrate, but then power bombs Jeff and runs off. New Generation then ties Jarrett up and puts a noose around his neck and on the hitch of a car, but they never drive off. Styles v. Raven in a ladder match for the # 1 contender closes the show. This was a fun match until Gilbertti interferes and power bombs Styles through a table over the top rope allowing Raven to get the contract as he passes out from blood loss to close the show. Show 37 starts with Next Generation out for a promo. The lights go out and come back on with Jarrett in the ring smashing Watts with a guitar shot and he asks if anyone else wants some. D-Lo and S.E.X. come out. Gilbertti says Raven isn’t there so he will let Brown have a title shot next week if he agrees to join S.E.X. if he wins the belt and he agrees. The show ends with a brawl that ends with Jarrett hitting D-Lo with a chair. Show 38 starts with D-lo getting a title shot even though Raven is the # 1 contender. The agreement was if D-Lo wins, he joins S.E.X. Jarrett retains due to botched interference by Mike Sanders and the rest of S.E.X. The following weeks feature a fantastic build (best in TNA History up to this point) for a NWA title match between Raven and Jarrett. Show 42 featured the match which Jarrett won after tons of interference which featured the return of Sabu who chased off ECW’s group who were trying to help Raven. At this point the title picture has narrowed with the only players being Raven, Jarrett, Styles, and D-Lo and …. Glenn Gilbertti. The last one snuck in after Show 43 where he won an “Anarchy in the Asylum” Royal Rumble type match. Over the next few weeks Gilbertti is all over the TNA PPV’s and is pushed as if he were the hottest commodity in wrestling. Luckily this all ends soon after the return of Vince Russo. On Show 46, Russo attacks Raven with a bat allowing Gilbertti to pin him. The following week Russo nails Gilbertti with a bat allowing Jarrett to retain the title. With Gilbertti and Raven out of the picture, Show 48 features an A.J. Styles v. D-Lo Brown # 1 contender’s match after they had been a tag team for weeks prior. A.J. wins the match clean. On show 49 the title match turns into a three-way including Raven. A.J. Styles ends Jarrett’s seven month reign after a debuting Shane Douglas attacks Raven and Russo helps Styles beat Jarrett. A.J. then aligns himself with Russo. Styles remains champion as of the end of June and ends the year with a tag match with himself and returning Sean Waltman (looking drugged out of his mind wrestling in warm-up gear) against Jeff Jarrett and the debut of Sting. NWA Tag Team Titles The tag team division opened up the year with what was billed as, “The Final Showdown,” between America’s Most Wanted and the Disciples of the New Church. It was a very good match with a lot of near falls that ended with AMW regaining the tag titles. They had one successful defense against Divine Storm, who was getting their title shot earned late last year, before getting defeated by Elix Skipper and Low Ki in another great match and losing the straps. The champs, along with Christopher Daniels announced they will be able to pick any two members to defend the titles going forward via the “Freebird rule.” On Show 29, the DotNC run in to save AMW from an attack by the debuting Rock-n-Roll Express who at first ran off S.E.X., but then jumped AMW joining the heel faction. This turned the Disciples face and set up a match on the next show with them challenging for the tag titles. It was good match but ended in a double pin causing the titles to be held up yet again. You may have already guessed that this led to another tournament to decide the teams who will wrestle for the vacant belts. In a four team tournament, AMW defeated R-N-R and the Harris Bros. defeat DotNC with the help of Low-Ki. The following week, on show 32, AMW defeat the Harris Bros. to earn a shot at XXX in the finals (a bye due to being last champions I guess.) XXX is not “available” to have the match for a couple of weeks which saw AMW get jumped by newest S.E.X. members, the Hot Shots. After being defeated in a good match they were kicked out of S.E.X. the following week after being jumped by the Harris Bros. On show 35, the finals take place with Ki/Daniels regaining the titles after Ki hit Chris Harris with a belt. From there, XXX defend against DotNC in a good match until a ruined finish with the returning (seemingly for only a week) Malice. All of this led to James Mitchell challenging S.E.X. to an S&M match next week vowing to bring new members into the church. On show 37, Malice is gone and Sandman and debuting Perry Saturn joined DotNC for the match (but not the faction) which was a bloody brawl going everywhere with Saturn pinning Daniels after a run-in by Ron Killings and Nelson Knight (a/k/a WWE’s Mabel/Viscera/Big Daddy V). On Show 40 Jerry Lynn and Red win the tag belts from XXX after having won a # 1 contender’s match a week prior. The title reign was short lived however as on Show 43, Chris Daniels won the belts by himself (a result of Lynn winning match the week prior to determine if the match would be 2 on 1 or 3 on 2) via DQ. Starting on Show 45, a tournament dubbed, Asylum Alliance” began where people from different factions would tag in a tournament for a shot at the tag belts. This was a terrible tournament as it was won by AMW (after having teased a breakup for weeks which I assume counted as being from different factions) over David Young/Traci Brooks. All could be forgiven however as on Show 50 TNA’s first cage match was one of the company’s best matches in its short history with AMW beating Daniels and Skipper to regain the titles. AMW reigned as champions at the end of June. NWA X Division Title The early part of 2003 in the X Division revolved around two central storylines. The first involved the debut of Konnan who for weeks came out and beat down X division guys with a kendo stick. Konnan tells Mike Tenay, “He knows what this is about.” Tenay seems confused until a sit-down interview with Konnan reveals he is mad because the x division stole the style from Lucha Libre and he is going to make sure the Latinos get the respect they deserve from the racist promoters. On show 31, an eight-man elimination match is held to determine the # 1 contender for the X Title. The match included the S.A.T.’s, Shark Boy, Jerry Lynn, David Young, Tony Mamaluke, Jimmy Rave, and the debuting Paul London. Jerry Lynn came out victorious and was confronted by Konnan who called for the S.A.T.’s to jump Lynn turning them heel. Even though Lynn had become the # 1 contender, he vowed to set it aside while he battled the lucha invasion saying it was as big a threat as Vince Russo and S.E.X. Each week Konnan would bring a luchadore to challenge Lynn including S.A.T.’s, Juventud Guerrera, Super Crazy, Damien, and Halloween with Lynn defeating everyone brought in. Show 36 featured the new segment, “Interrogators” with Konnan and when asked about the win/loss record of the luchadores he got pissed which led to him teaming with Guerrera against Lynn and Jason Cross later in the show. Konnan defeated Lynn while holding the ropes. This setup a singles match the following week between Konnan and Lynn which Lynn won, but after the match he was jumped by an unidentified masked “luchadore” and Konnan claimed he knows nothing of it. (See conclusion below) The other major storyline in the division involved Kid Kash and Trinity, who began coming out with Kash starting on the first show of 2003. Sonny Siaki reigned as champion and would win his matches with the help of Desire, his valet. Siaki retained against Jason Cross and Red and Kid Kash during early defenses, but the quality of X division matches drops considerably with him as champion. On show 31 Kid Kash defeats Sonny Siaki for the X division Title in an okay match with a finish of Kash hitting a moonsault but landed badly on his neck. This was probably the best match for both Kash and Siaki in their TNA careers. From here, even though Jerry Lynn was the # 1 contender, he was busy fighting off the luchadores so Kash defended his title successfully against Paul London, Jason Cross and Red usually with the help of Trinity. At this point a small feud developed with Red telling Kash he couldn’t win without Trinity’s help and to leave her in the back. Later on the same show, Kash wins over Red and the debuting Johnny Storm, again with the help of Trinity. This leads to a three way with Red, Kash, and Trinity when Trinity keeps Red from winning the title. On show 37 Red brings in Alexis Laree to counter Trinity in an upcoming mixed tag. Trinity pins Laree causing Kash to get mad because she stole his thunder. Over the next few weeks, Kash and Trinity continue to have problems that eventually end up in a full blown feud with Kash being a “woman beater”. On show 46, in true TNA fashion, these two, polar opposite angles end up meshing and blowing off into one angle. On show 37, Konnan and Lynn have a sit down with Tenay essentially blowing off the feud even though the mystery luchadore continues to do run-ins. Konnan insists he knows nothing about it. Over the course of the next few weeks the luchadore focuses in on Kash more and more. The luchadore unmasks as Trinity and is beaten soundly by Kid Kash. Konnan would go on to join a group with R-Truth and BG James, Lynn develops a feud with Justin Credible, and Trinity turns heel. In actual title news, on Show 39 a four team match took place with the winning team getting a tag title shot, but the two also facing each other for an X division title shot. This was won by Lynn/Red with Red winning the X belt on Show 41 from Kash only to lose it to Chris Sabin on show 44 after interference from XXX. Sabin then joins S.E.X. On shown 45, Paul London returns to win a # 1 contender’s elimination match, but with London in Japan, Shark boy gets a title shot (what’s the point of # 1 contender matches) before London gets his shot. As of the end of June, Chris Sabin was still the X Division champion. Other Happenings “Wait, who’s that? Oh My God, that’s ….” a/k/a DEBUTS: I guess when you are a growing company, debuts are going to be made, but in the first three months of 2003, this company did it a lot. Some of them were in for a shot or two, while others stuck around. Here, I’ll try to recap each debut with a small description of the impact. o … As Members of S.E.X. = Rock and Roll Express (couple of shows), Nikita Koloff (I think, he later joins Dusty), Mike Sanders, Glenn Gilbertti, Tony Schiavone (one show), Raven (loosely affiliated), Disgraceland (a/k/a WCW’s Luther Biggs; two shows), Holly Wood (blonde who strips Lollipop’s top off showing her bare breasts). o … One or Two and Done = Damien, Super Crazy, Juventud Guerrera and Halloween (part of Konnan’s invasion), Paul London (a few X division matches), Hacksaw Duggan (beats Mike Sanders), Moondog Spot (randomly shows up as Duggan tag partner one week), Road Warriors (team with Dusty against S.E.X.), Vader (Teams with Dusty against S.E.X.), Zach Gowen (faces BG James and in a six man, signs with WWE), JJ Dillon (authority), Jonah from Tough Enough (S.E.X. recruits and beats him down, one show), Kevin Sullivan (referee for Raven v. Sandman “Clockwork Orange, House of Fun Match), Larry Zbyszko (advisor to A.J. Styles), Mike Barton (feud with Saturn), Nelson Knight (couple of run-ins), Johnny Storm (x division guy), Matt Stryker, Damian Dothwart, Scott Hudson (one and done), Kenzo Suzuki, o … Other = Sandman, New Jack, and Perry Saturn (hardcore faction), Dusty Rhodes (figure for tradition), Konnan (lucha mouthpiece), D-LO (pushed as NWA Title contender), Julio Dinero (Joins Raven), Eric Watts (leads New Generation Faction), Chris Sabin, Mike Awesome (New Church), Justin Credible (ECW faction), Tracy Brooks, Nurse Veronica (Simply Luscious), Frankie Kazarian (pushed X Division), Shane Douglas (pushed in main feud), Sting, Abyss (unnamed as of July 1). “What? I thought he … but … oh, never mind.” a/k/a INCONSISTENCIES: Some things happened that confused me. Maybe I missed something, but knowing this company, I doubt it. o David Flair starts 2003 as a member of S.E.X., but suddenly comes out with Eric Watts and Brian Lawler as, “New Generation” a faction of 2nd generation wrestlers. No mention of him leaving S.E.X. and inexplicably begins winning matches using a seemingly empty burlap sack until later it is revealed he was carrying his father’s old NWA title. o Larry Zbyszko shows up and wrestles AJ Styles and later becomes his advisor. After a couple of weeks he disappears and no mention is made. o J.J. Dillon shows up as the authority figure after it is said that Bob Armstrong asked for a leave of absence due to stress (he actually asked for a $50 raise and was denied, prompting him, BG James and referee Scott Armstrong to leave the company), but lasts only one week before disappearing and never being referred to again. o Percy Pringle says he isn’t sure who he sides with, S.E.X. or Tradition and the next week gets bloodied by Russo’s gang after saying he wants to join. Comes back a few weeks later to talk about Cauliflower Alley Club and is interrupted by Tony Schiavone. Never comes back. o Nikita Koloff debuts as a rival of Dusty Rhodes, but then helps Dusty win a ladder match with no explanation. o Eric Watts, during his “crazy” gimmick just gives Dusty Rhodes the NWA title that Flair had been carrying back to him and Rhodes is gone after that. Also, Watts keeps saying “Eric from WCW is coming.” Now with FACTIONS: Seemingly taking a cue from 1997 WWF, the factions came in full force this year in TNA. However, most faded quickly o S.E.X. (XXX) – They started the year as the main event faction with Russo, Raven, BG James, etc. After BG James quit, bringing in members for a week or two who then left, and Russo leaving for awhile it quickly deteriorated into the N.W.O. Black and White, circa 1998. Glen Gilbertti became the “leader” of Siaki, the Harris Bros., Mike Sanders and later David Young. The biggest stars are XXX who is a faction within a faction consisting of Daniels, Low-Ki, and Elix Skipper. As of June this group began to fade away. o New Generation – Eric Watts, Brian Lawler and David Flair became embroiled in a feud with Jarrett and Dusty Rhodes since their debut. Shortly after forming, Flair and Lawler were gone and Watts went feuding with Jarrett, to feuding with Rhodes, to being “crazy”, to Goldylocks’ boyfriend. o The Gathering – Although not official as Raven is technically still a part of S.E.X. during the first six months of 2003, you can see it beginning as he is usually away from everyone with Julio Dinero and Alexis Laree. o ECW Alumni – New Jack, Sandman and Perry Saturn start teaming together and feuding with DotNC. Saturn around sparingly and the group teamed sparingly if any towards mid year. o Disciples of the New Church – They were around in some form since the beginning o Tradition – Technically not a faction, but it consists of every baby face that isn’t among any other faction currently. Funny Stuff (Intentional or Not): Some things during the first few months of 2003 had me laughing, whether it was designed to or not. o Show 27 Desire wrestles April Hunter in a horrible match when Athena jumps Desire. Desire tries to strip Athena’s pants off, but Athena is shoot resisting I guess due to a miscommunication. Desire tried for what seemed like forever before giving up with no payoff. o Show 28 Siaki to Athena, “I know you bring your kneepads every week.” Piper sends in a promo for Portland ranting incoherently about hating Russo, WB32 and saying he will be sending people to Nashville. A few weeks later he shows up at WrestleMania XIX. o Show 29 a sign reads “Total Nonstop Action has officially stopped” and it was true as, on average, it took 15 to 30 minutes for the first match to get started each week since Russo came in. o Show 30 Tenacious Z (WWE’s Zach Gowen) hits a moonsault on BG James. Don West, “Look at him land on his feet!” o Show 31 BG James calls Gowen, “One-Legged Gang, and Gimp Biscuit” Also debut of interrogators, a segment where Tenay and West put a wrestler on the hot seat and ask stupid questions like “50 cent or Eminem” o Show 35 Dusty calls out Next Generation. Flair and Lawler come out and Dusty says Lawler could be king just like his daddy, “King of Deez Nuts” complete with Dusty’s signature lisp. On the same show Holly Wood rips Lollipops shirt off exposing her bare tits with kids in the audience. o Show 36 starts with Duggan talking about the “Dixie Sticks” saying negative things about our country. During Konnan’s interrogators segment he makes fun or Raven’s “Pee Wee’s House of Oranges” match. o Show 39 Dusty Rhodes is booked in a Ladder Match o Show 42 = sign “Goldylocks, my bed is just right” o Show 44 When Kid Kash offers Trinity to S.E.X. as a peace offering, All the boys ask her about “Rusty Trombone’s” o Show 45 Goldylocks skit with her in a cell phone shop. This has no build up, no angle, no reason, COMPLETE WASTE! o Show 50 during cage match West, “They have to pin them in the ring, right Mike?” o Numerous Shows – New Jack and Shark Boy play board games and are best buddies ever since the Tag Tournament where they were partners.

Schiavone's appearance was January 2003. It's funny because that sign shows up for weeks and to be quite honest he is exactly right. I'm watching 2003 now and on average it takes about 20 to 30 minutes after the PPV's start before the first match gets in the ring.

The Alicia taking money thing is something I forgot to add to the review. When they did the first major budget cuts (about 8 weeks in) she wasn't brought back and nothing was ever said. It may have come out in an interview later somewhere online, but in the world of TNA it was just forgotten about.

Didn't he fracture his skull at one point? I think that would constitute pain. Does anyone think he took something during that time? I think in his shoot he said he just laid in bed at a friends house in the dark for a few weeks.

An ongoing project of mine forced me to watch all 2002 TNA PPV’s so my punishment is your “gain?” I thought I’d offer this review to help in the worst of all-time argument of TNA v. UWF. I’ll start with a few quick facts, and then go into each of the title feuds for the year. Most importantly, the last section will list all of the complete stupidity that comprised the year, ranging from minor annoyances to “WTF were they thinking?” Enjoy. Quick Facts • TNA’s first PPV was June 19th in Huntsville, Alabama at the Von Braun Civic Center • TNA ran 25 PPV’s during 2002, 23 were live while two were taped (Week 2 & Week 11) • All but the first 4 shows were held at the Fairgrounds Coliseum in Nashville, TN (later nicknamed the “Asylum” by Ron “The Truth” Killings after becoming NWA Champion.) • There were no live shows the weeks of 9/4, 9/11 and 12/25. The 9/4 show was an X-Division highlight show while 9/11 and 12/25 had no shows in observance of 9/11/01 and Christmas respectively. It is believed owner, Jerry Jarrett had decided to close the promotion at the end of August after having ran through all the money of initial financial backer, Health South, and funding a couple of weeks with his own money. However, a new backer, Panda Energy owned by the Carter family emerged and avoided a shutdown. The Title Picture NWA Heavyweight Title On the first show, the vacant NWA Heavyweight Title was to be determined by way of a twenty man “Gauntlet” match with the last two remaining then having a singles match with the winner being crowned. The final two participants were Ken Shamrock and Malice (WCW’s The Wall). Shamrock then defeated Malice to become the champion. Shamrock’s reign as champion was lackluster at best. He was completely colorless and the Nashville crowd never got into his submissions which were the basis of his offense. All four of his title defenses were below ten minutes and his challengers mostly weren’t suited to his style. A rematch with Malice went less than six minutes on show three and, after building up Takako Ohmori’s arrival in TNA to absolutely no fan-fair, their match ended in a sub-eight minute no contest on show four. Ken’s last successful defense was against a total mismatch of an opponent in Sabu, in a match completely limiting his style, a ladder match on show six. During the first eight weeks, a challenger seemed to be given title shots for no rhyme or reason and was almost as if a title match was given to whoever the biggest name they could bring in that week was. During Shamrock’s title reign, wrestler K-Krush (WWF’s K-Kwik) was doing a racial discrimination gimmick claiming that “they” were holding him down. This led to a confrontation with then authority figure, Ricky Steamboat on show seven. When Steamboat was trying to convince K-Krush he wasn’t’ being discriminated against, Krush went into a story about WrestleMania III and Steamboat winning the I-C Title, but asked him why he was never given a world title shot. He claimed, “They” were holding him down because of his heritage. Apparently, that’s all Ricky needed to hear to do a total about-face to agree with K-Krush and grant him a title match with Ken Shamrock on the next show. Keep in mind, up until his title match with Shamrock, K-Krush only had a couple of singles matches, one of which was a reverse decision LOSS to NASCAR driver, Hermie Sadler. After K-Krush won the title from Shamrock on show eight, he changed his name to, Ron “The Truth” Killings. Killings title reign was a vast improvement over Shamrock’s as he was much more charismatic and the match quality, although not superb, was much better. His matches tended to have reason behind them, such as a brief feud with Monty Brown again involving race and claims of Brown being an “Uncle Tom.” He had some good defenses against both Jerry Lynn and Low Ki before having a series of very bad showings against Curt Hennig and Scott Hall. Towards the end of Killings’ reign, a masked man dressed all in white known as, “Mr. Wrestling III” began attacking Killings during his matches with the speculation it was Jeff Jarrett since Jarrett had been angling for a title match since the first show. During this period a small tournament was held to determine a # 1 contender for the title which was ultimately won by Jarrett himself setting up a title match on 11/20 on show twenty-one. Jarrett pinned the Truth for the NWA title that night in what was by far the best title match in the brief history of the company. The finish wasn’t clean however as Mr. Wrestling III again attacked Killings with a guitar shot allowing Jarrett to get the pin. Mr. Wrestling III then unmasked to be none other than … Vince Russo. The following week, a rematch was held between Jarrett and Killings that was even better than the first and even had a clean finish with Jarrett pinning Killings after the stroke. Russo was at ringside and handed Jarrett a guitar, but Jarrett smashed it on the ring post showing he wasn’t aligned with Russo. On the final few shows of the year, Jarrett remained champion feuding with Russo. NWA Tag Team Titles The tag titles were initially decided in a small tournament that came down to the Rainbow Express, Bruce (WCW’s Kwee Wee) and Lenny (Lane) v. Chris Harris and James Storm (not yet known as America’s Most Wanted). However, Harris and Storm were jumped and blooded before the bout by an unknown assailant(s) (later found out to be Cassidy O’Reilly and Chase Stevens known then as the Hot Shots). In the vacant slot, A.J. Styles and Jerry Lynn teamed up to beat the Rainbow Express to become the first ever tag champions, making Styles a double champion within four shows. After the win, Styles and Lynn were at odds with each other over the X Division Title and due to defending and winning that belt from each other, the Tag Titles were neglected for the first couple of months. Then on 8/14 (Show 9) a match between Lynn/Styles v. Killings/Jarrett ended in a double pin prompting that week’s authority figure, Bob Armstrong, to declare the titles vacant. That match was by far the best tag match in NWA-TNA up to that point. For the next three weeks the titles remained vacated until the twelfth show on 9/18 when a tag team gauntlet, similar to the one crowing the first Heavyweight champion took place. The match started with an “every man for himself” concept where each individual member of the tag teams would compete until all teams had entered and all but two wrestlers had been eliminated. Then those two wrestlers’ teammates would be brought back for a two on two tag bout. The finals came down to James Storm/Chris Harris (still not referred to as AMW) and Brian Lee/Ron Harris with Harris and Storm capturing the belts and becoming the second Tag champs. Interesting enough Harris and Storm didn’t work the first show as a tag team as Storm teamed with Psicosis to lose to the Johnsons (different story) and Harris was a part of the Gauntlet for the title. Bill Behrens, in week two, caught them before leaving the building and had them take on the Rainbow Express. They remained a team through the rest of the year, adopting the collective name of America’s Most Wanted a few weeks into their first title reign. Even though the Hot Shots were found to be the ones to bloody Harris and Storm keeping them out of the first tag tourney final, a feud never really developed between the teams beyond a couple of matches. Actually the Hot Shots inexplicably put their shot at the tag gauntlet on show twelve up for grabs in a four team elimination match earlier in that same show only to be the first team eliminated and thus taken out of the gauntlet. During AMW’s first reign there was no shortage of tag teams, but a definite shortage on contenders. Here is a rundown of a few: Hot Shots – As mentioned earlier, only a couple of matches even though they took AMW out earlier in the year. Rick and Chris Michaels – A team that was not over with the crowd at all Flying Elvis’ – Between infighting and Yang off doing tours of AJPW, they never really got into the scene SAT’s – They were there more for the X Division although they were in the mix Various makeshift teams – These ranged from Ron Harris grabbing random partners like Brian Lee and Ashley Hudson, to teams being thrown together like BG James and Curt Hennig Then there were the Disciples of the New Church led by Father James Mitchell. After the revolving door closed and Mitchell was brought back full-time they became AMW’s most worthy challengers and produced the best tag title matches up to that point. Originally the DotNC consisted of Slash (PG-13’s Wolfie D) and Tempest (WCW’s Crowbar). During down budget times, Tempest wasn’t used anymore due to travel arraignment disagreements and so Kobain (Indy’s Flash Flanagan) was brought in. He lasted a few weeks until disappearing with no mention. At this point the DotNC disappeared altogether until finally returning and consisting of Slash and Brian Lee (after having teamed with Ron Harris for weeks). This feud produced some great action and bloody brawls with DotNC finally winning the belts on the twentieth show on 11/13. The teams feuded for the remainder of 2002 in various forms of matches. One of the better (as in fun) was Storm v. Slash on show twenty-three as it had a ton of false finishes (for a six minute match) that consisted of every cheap win trick (double team, interference, belt shot, etc) only to have the other kick out when the fans thought for sure it was the finish. The year ended with these two teams continuing to feud with the Harris Bros. mixed in. Divine Storm (pushed simply because Trinity can do a moonsault, IMO) were the # 1 contenders at years end. NWA X-Division Title The X-Division is what put TNA on the map initially with crazy highspot-infested matches not seen by a national audience up to this point. While most of the matches would be average fairs to those familiar with low to mid card ROH matches, the Nashville audience (and Don West) where amazed by them on a weekly basis. The first champion was determined on the second show with a four-way, double elimination match between AJ Styles, Jerry Lynn, Psicosis, and Low-Ki. AJ Styles won the match that is arguably the MOTY in TNA for 2002. The following week, as mentioned in the tag section, Lynn and Styles became impromptu tag champions and teased dissension throughout their whole reign until eventually Styles turned heel and later aligned himself with useless manager, Mortimer Plumbtree. From there, the division kind of lost focus with Lynn as champion and on Show eight, Low-Ki won the belt in a three way match with Lynn and Styles. Low-Ki successfully defended the title the next two weeks in four way elimination matches with the flying Elvis’ and the SAT’s/Amazing Red. In the third week of Ki’s reign, he lost the belt to Jerry Lynn on Show 11 (taped) in a three-way ladder match also involving Styles. Ki all but disappeared for the rest of the year at this point due to Zero-One commitments after being pushed strongly the past few months. Lynn and Styles then had a series of gimmick matches with Lynn always retaining. He was later attacked by Sonny Siaki, formerly of the Elvis’ and injured his knee forcing him to vacate the title. The reason Siaki attacked him is due to a mini-feud that occurred when Lynn was challenging Ron Killings for the Heavyweight Title and Siaki interfered knocking Lynn off the ropes after earlier in the show telling the x-division guys they should stand behind him. Bob Armstrong, the most consistent authority figure in the ever changing first year, declared on 10/9 (Show 15) that a “free for all” ladder match would take place with open invitations to all x division wrestlers in the back. This match was a complete cluster fuck going sixteen minutes only to have the finish be Syxx-Pac coming out at about the fifteen minute mark to walk up the ladder and grab the belt with no physical interaction at all. From there, with Syxx-Pac tagging off and on with Scott Hall (when he showed) and a worthless feud with Brian Lawler (covered later) AJ Styles ended up winning the belt back two weeks later (Show 19) only to have Jerry Lynn win the belt back another two weeks later (Show 21). Lynn finished the year with matches against Sonny Siaki trying to tie up all his feuds, but Sonny Siaki beat Lynn for the title on 12/11 (Show 24) due to the interference of an unnamed woman (Kim Nielsen). The X-division title was the most oft-changed title during 2002. On the last show of the year, the woman was revealed to be with Russo and they recruited Siaki into S.E.X. (Sports Entertainment Extreme). The Stupidity Minor Annoyances • The Johnsons, Rod and Richard – A short lived tag team, managed by Mortimer Plumbtree. If their names didn’t flat out tell you the premise behind the team, they were outfitted in head-to-toe body suits/hoods that were fleshed colored, I’m assuming to resemble condoms. • Celebrities – Chris Rock shows up, says one sentence and is never heard from again. Dustin Diamond shows up, knocks out “tiny” the timekeeper with one punch, never brought back. Then there was Toby Keith, various NASCAR drivers, and the Tennessee Titans brawling with Jeff Jarrett … all of which led to nothing. • The Flying Elvis’ – I’m not sure if Elvis was big in Alabama, which is where these guys debuted, but unless they always planned on making home base in Nashville, I’m not sure the point behind this. They may have figured this out in short order because as the year progressed the team disbanded. First, Sonny Siaki gradually became a cheap copy of “The Rock” eventually burning his jumpsuit in favor of the ever marketable blue pants. Then Jimmy Yang, after hardly being around due to AJPW commitments showed up one week without his suit and the announcers just explained he wanted to go singles. That left Jorge Estrada who remained the Flying Elvis along with Priscilla, a former girlfriend of Jerry “The King” Lawler. • Here Today, Gone Tomorrow – Call it growing pains or call it throwing it against the wall to see if it stuck, but the first few months was full of guys showing up, getting a push, then never being heard from again. First, it was the obligatory “authority figure” which first seemed to be filled by Memphis Legend, Jackie Fargo, then Bill Behrens (NWA Wildside promoter), to looking like it was going to settle into being Ricky Steamboat. Then the money problems started and he was out. “Bullet” Bob Armstrong finally settled into it late in the year and remained in charge. Actually a masked “Bullet” began feuding with Jarrett and eventually was revealed as BG James (WWF’s Roaddogg) to absolutely no fan fare. For the most part, talent coming in and then leaving was understandable as most weren’t big names and tryouts are a part of the business, but there were a few notable exceptions that just caused continuity problems. Malice (WCW’s The Wall) was pushed hard and even made it to the finals of the NWA Title Gauntlet. He became a member of the DotNC and was an enforcer type. After bad matches with Ken Shamrock and Sabu (another guy who had a cup of coffee) he left for many weeks. He then returned for two squash matches and then left again. Word is he had a good gig in Puerto Rico and couldn’t make the dates. Other names from the cast off’s from ECW and WCW’s demise were Buff Bagwell (says he quit and is going to be Marcus, left for weeks, came back to tag with BG James in the tag gauntlet, then left again for good) Sabu (mentioned above) and Syxx-Pac and Scott Hall (no surprise there) Monty Brown debuted during the year and was being pushed hard, even having a World Title match with Killings only to vanish without mention for the rest of the year. The Drizzling Shits Midgets On the first few shows, the midget wrestlers were featured doing very bad hardcore matches. The most heavily pushed was, Puppet the Psycho Dwarf, doing a dwarf killer gimmick. Among the gems were the worst midget match of all time with Puppet against Meatball in a hardcore match, Puppet inside a trash can during an interview with Goldylocks that most believe was supposed to depict him beating off to the sight of her breasts, to him pulling a gun out on Jeff Jarrett and TNA security only to get beaten down by an unarmed Jarrett. Puppet and the midgets all together were last seen during the Dupp Cupp (which has its own section in this review) at least during the year 2002. Dupp Cupp The Dupps consisted of Bo, Stan (WWE”s Trevor Murdoch), and one appearance of their “sister” Fluff. They were portrayed as redneck inbreeds who slept with their sister, played with fire, etc. Actually it was all innocent enough until they introduced the Dupp Cupp, which was simply a gold spittoon. They came up with their own point system with the first person to ten points getting, at first, sixty-four cents, until it was pointed out nobody wanted that. So they quickly changed the prize to a night with Fluff Dupp as long as they could watch. Ed Fererra (WCW’s Oklahoma) immediately accepted, but lost. The next week Teo the midget wrestled for it and won after opening an outhouse on the stage to find Puppet who hit Bo Dupp allowing his head to be placed in the toilet for the win. The Dupps and the Midgets weren’t seen again. The Rules for the Dupp Cupp: Put opponent through a table = 2 ½ points. A burning table was worth 5 points. Put opponents head in the toilet = 2 ½ points. If it had shit inside it was worth 3 ½ points. If you goosed a woman = 2 ½ points. A man = 3 ½ points. Punch either Jeremy Borash or Sara Lee the ticket lady = 2 ½ points Use a weapon given to you by a fan = 1 point Use a farm animal in any way = 2 ½ points Introduce Jay ( a blowup doll) to your opponent = 2 ½ points. Spank your opponents bare ass with horse-e-poo (stick horse) = 2 ½ points. If they liked it, it was minus 2 ½ points If you cry like a pussy = minus 5 points If you stick your opponents head in a cotton candy machine and get one full rotation = 10 points and automatic win. Women/Miss TNA The early shows featured women heavily with the second show having a lingerie battle royal to determine the first ever Miss TNA. It was god-awful and ultimately won by Taylor Vaughn (WWF’s B.B. the EMT). Her early feud was with Francine who they seemed to be pushing, but every week would lose and end up being groped by Ed Fererra for no reason. Right before the women stopped being used, Jasmin St. Claire began a feud with Francine by stripping, which made no sense. Francine, and pretty much all other women stopped being used when Shane Douglas said he wouldn’t come in if they used Francine. The thing is, Douglas never came in that year. The Miss TNA crown lasted a while longer though after Bruce challenged Taylor for the crown in an evening gown match which he of course won. Bruce kept the crown for weeks by challenging “women from the crowd” and at one point, April Hunter. This all came to an end when Bruce ended up being tangled in the Brian Lawler/April angle (see below.) Towards the end Lenny, Bruce’s tag partner came back and when he found out he would be next in line for the crown had anything happened to Bruce, he began sabotaging Bruce even leaving a banana peel for him to slip on during a match. This story ends in the next section … Brian Lawler + April Before April, Brian Christopher started as face, but after couple of weeks he turned on Scott Hall during a tag match. He then cut a promo pronouncing himself Brian Lawler and ran down being the son of The King. Besides being an abysmal wrestler during 2002, he was also involved in a stupid, disjointed angle involving his “girlfriend”, April. Highlights included: He began attacking Jeff Jarrett (also a heel) for weeks without the audience knowing why. Eventually it was found out that he thought Jarrett was fooling around with April. After weeks of this build, it quickly ended when Jarrett pinned Lawler against a door and basically called his girlfriend a tramp that slept with all the boys and he didn’t do anything with her. I guess calling his girlfriend a lying whore was enough for Lawler to drop it. Lawler continued his jealous, abusive boyfriend gimmick with syxx-pac being the next to “bang” April causing Lawler to go crazy. This brief feud was completely nonsensical. First, April denies being with Pac. Then, she comes out during one of Lawler’s matches and makes out with Pac. The next week she claims she was forced. All of this DIDN’T come to a head because Pac left the company before any type of blow-off match. Lawler continued being a whiny bitch about his girlfriend (which I believe may have been a rib on Jerry Lawler and The Kat, but not sure.) and when he heard her moaning in the shower he confronted her (while topless covered in soap), but she claimed nobody was in the shower. Unseen by all but the audience, Bruce then popped his head out of the shower. Yes, the man who was Miss TNA and portraying a homosexual. Lawler finds out and jumps Bruce a few times. Even more ignorant is that briefly during this same time they did a couple of segments making it seem as though Goldylocks and April were having a lesbian relationship. One week they held hands, one week no mention is made, the next week April says Goldylocks is jealous. This all mercifully ended when inexplicably, Bruce does a straight interview saying he wasn’t Bruce, but Allan Funk and he was handing over the Miss TNA crown to April. During the interview Lenny came out and called Bruce/Allan Funk a fake homo and they brawled a bit. Later in the same show Lawler comes out crying about April and says he quits wrestling. This was all for nothing because this was the last we saw of them as none of them were used for the last two months of 2002 and possibly not again as I haven’t seen any 2003. Lawler’s last appearance was leaving the building grab ass’ing Priscilla, the ex girlfriend of his father. Russo “Shoots” Vince Russo storms the ring on Show twenty-two and “shoots” on Jarrett telling their history together and other various nonsense. The following week Roddy Piper shows up to promote his book and he “shoots” on Russo claiming he killed Owen Hart, took WCW from making 67 million a year to losing 80 million, and calling him the Bin Laden of pro wrestling. Russo storms the ring, but nothing comes of it although later Russo comes out after Piper is gone and says Piper is going to hell for using Owen Hart to sell books. You might think this is going somewhere. Well, Piper never shows again and is not mentioned. Russo then mentions all of the Athena signs (many signs were brought by fans since Week 1 for Athena, a local who was also a ring girl for TNA with no mention from the announcers) and says he is going to give them what they want. He brings Athena in the ring and tells her to take her top off and show her tits. She refuses. Russo then calls her a whore and the Harris Bros. beat her down. The Harris’ become the first members of Russo’s new Sports Entertainment Group, S.E.X., Sports Entertainment Extreme. Later in the show BG James would do the same after jumping Jarrett. Paul “Percy Pringle” Bearer shows up in the closing minutes of the show and laughs on the stage, seemingly in approval of SEX. The next week it was said Russo wasn’t there. The Harris Bros. “win” the tag belts with interference from James, only to have Percy Pringle come out and have the ref reverse the decision. So last week he seemed to like what he saw, the next week he is costing them belts. At the end of the show ~RUSSO SWERVE~ he is in the building and interferes in the title match with Jarrett v. Curt Hennig, hitting Hennig twice with a guitar that doesn’t break. Show ends. On the last show of the year Hennig declares he will beat Russo down and when Russo comes out, he chases him only to be jumped by Low Ki, Elix Skipper and Christopher Daniels, the newest members of S.E.X. Russo “shoots” while introducing the newest members and then tells BG James there is no compassion in S.E.X. (last week BG hit his father with a chair and showed remorse). He also tells the Harris Bros. not to let him down or they are out of the group. Finally, what has been teased since Russo showed up is if Jarrett was with him or against him. Jarrett comes out and “shoots” on Russo telling his version of what Russo said during his first promo and said he wasn’t with Russo and so S.E.X. beats his ass. The last segment of TNA in 2002 was a mixed bag. The last match of the year were the S.A.T.’s and Amazing Red v. Low Ki, Daniels and Skipper. It was probably the second best TNA match of the year with Red playing underdog babyface perfectly. After the match ends with Russo’s team winning, Hennig comes out for a big schmoz that included Jarrett and a surprise of David Flair (groan.) AJ Styles comes out attacking Jarrett and the announcers claim he has joined Russo, but wasn’t official. Styles last week denied joining Russo and said he jumped Jarrett so he can be a heavyweight title contender. The show ended with the unintentional comedy of Russo getting blown up by taking an ax to the TNA sign on top of the ramp.

I have entertained the idea of selling my WON collection (complete from 85 to 08 + yearbooks). Just never decided on a fair price ...

Skimming through August 1990's Torches, I only found this very brief blurb. Issue # 81 (8/9/90) - "The Pearl appearing on last weekend's TV show was Ranger Ross in a full-body outfit imitating Great Muta's moves...