NWA-TNA 2002 REVISITED

[Victator]

The first Triple Threat with Ki/Lynn and Styles had a terrible finish. Somebody did a a dive on to a guy who was pinning someone and the ref kept counting instead of it breaking the count.

[Mad Dog]

Glad to see people bring up Killings vs Ki. One of my fav matches from the early TNA days but at the time it sort of got lost in the shuffle and didn't get as much props as the X-division matches and some of the others around then.

I find that match even more amazing considering the fact that Low Ki complains about selling for people now. The way he sold for Killings during that match really made it a good match. I think it gets overlooked a little because it happened during that dead time where they had a few more shows before the restructuring that changed up the roster and such.

[MikeCampbell]

It's also sad seeing the potential Siaki had early on and realizing he fizzled out pretty quickly.

Another thing I thought was funny, in hindsight. After establishing Siaki's character as the arrogant prick, with all those interviews where he said it was always about Sonny Siaki, etc. His first singles match sees him putting over Slash.

[Ditch]

I find that match even more amazing considering the fact that Low Ki complains about selling for people now. The way he sold for Killings during that match really made it a good match. I think it gets overlooked a little because it happened during that dead time where they had a few more shows before the restructuring that changed up the roster and such.

Ki's selling was as good as anyone on the NJ Invasion Tour FWIW.

[Mad Dog]

He's really up or down with that. He did that first NOAH tour around his initial TNA run and got a big head. That's when he started burning all of his bridges and whining about doing jobs and selling. I'm actually surprised he lasted in the WWE as long as he did.

[tomk]

I also liked the Malice-Sabu match.

 

I want to say Killings is Manny Fernandez trainee/ not sure if he and Homicide were trainees at same time but I think Cide/Ki and Killings haves ome background together.

 

I watched and wrote a bunch about tna in its early days most of which is lost in toa archives.

[tomk]

I only have three TNA workrate reports saved from the Nashville era. The rest are all lost in Dutch hacking or in toa archives.

At the time my strategy to combat writers block was to pick a Steve Miller band lyric and build the whole report around it. See if you can find hidden Steve Miller.

 

I think I was also reading alot of Jimmy Olsen in an effort to curb my cursing.

 

TNA 7/31

 

Well SHOCKAMAGEE~! NWA-TNA delivers there best show tonight. Every match exceeds my expectations and TNA delivers their best match yet.

 

WHAT WORKED:

 

-AJ Styles vs. Elix Skipper:

I went into this not expecting much. Elix looked bad in the tag match last week, and looked lost in large chunks of the 6 man. I’m very hot and cold on Styles work. And what do you know these two deliver the best TNA match. This was better than the Lynn/Styles vs. Slash/Tempest tag (the match that I previously had as best match in TNA). Actually as AJ Styles match: I think this was better than his match with Donovan Morgan at Super 8, better than both his Low-ki match at ROH and TNA, better than any of his matches with Lynn. It totally took me by surprise.

 

Elix is heel in this match due to the Monte Brown angle last week and this ended up being first X match with heel/face heat. The crowd popped for changes in momentum instead of just singular spots. Elix went back to throwing forearms instead of punches. Both threw really good forearms. Elix also had a nice diving punch. There was a neat section where both guys countered others attempts at asais to the floor. None of the normal X matches “what will it take to put him away, endless finisher kick outs. Good, good match.

 

I think Elix blew a spot at the end and died the death of Koji Kannemoto. But death was so smooth looking that it worked with story of match, no one with a “you fucked up” or a “you are dead” chant.

 

-Sonny Siaki vs. Slash:

Yeah babey!!! Wolfie D singles match!!! And both guys look good here. And this delivers. Slash has a neat neck breaker/elbow drop combo that actually looks good instead of looking like “ wow that’s innovative”. Slash also has a neat little jump kick, a nasty cobra clutch into leg sweep, and a WHIRLY BIRD~!!!. And of course Wolfie takes the big bumps including a high MEMPHO backdrop on the floor. Siaki also is fun in the ring with solid uppercuts and a nice clothesline. Siaki was working face, which was kind of weird, but the crowd got into him as face in this match.

 

Slash goes over cleanly, winning after a neck breaker while Siaki’s head is in a dark bag. Could there be ETHER in the bag???? Lets not carry me too far away.

 

-Apollo vs. Malice:

Wow I was expecting this to be utter shit. Apollo comes out to Backstreet’s Back and I briefly get excited at prospect that Los Tallibanes will be coming to ring. Apollo throws nice chops, takes a posting well, and bleeds like a man who has spent a career working in Puerto Rico. Malice does a good job working on the cut with punches and bumping around ring apron into guardrails. And Apollo wins with his Superkick, instead of Lesnar finisher or roll up. This was better than Josh Dempsey vs. Predator. This was better than the Mike Miller vs. Tenryu and the Brian Adams/ Dan Spivey vs. Tsuruta/Yatsu matches that I had watched earlier today.

 

-Low-Ki vs. Jerry Lynn:

These two have never worked each other in singles before and Borash promised that this would go long….I was afeared. But apparently there was no reason for that fear. This was face v. face and the crowd felt very So-Cal-ish. I tend to dislike mirror segments as they’ve become cliché, but the mirror front face lock reversal section at the beginning of match was really great. I popped for Lynn’s fist drop, and Ki’s five iron and Jumbo Killer. Also thought the kick, when Lynn motioned for piledriver was really well done. After fixing the hot shot of Lynn/Styles split they have Styles cause DQ and re-hot shot it. This sets up a three-way dance for next show. I hate three way dances. For a show with lots of good matches, they seem to be setting up lots of matches I don’t want to see.

 

-Jeff Jarrett vs. Scott Hall:

Sweet Jeff wore his fashion sunglasses to the ring that added extra points right there. Jeff Jarrett was quite the poor man’s Bill Dundee, while Scott Hall played the role of worlds shittiest Big Red. There were a couple of neat spots with a stretcher. And they worked this old school ECW main event style: lots of stuff going on, and brawls through the crowd so as to hide match faults. That’s the smartest way to work this match. The run ins actually made the people on undercard look as important as the former WWF/WCW guys in match: Truth, Lynn, Styles, Malice, Slash, Brown, and Steamboat were as important to match if not more important than Hall and Jarrett.

 

-K Krush:

The K Krush mic segments again were really good this week. It started poorly and forced with the ``PT Barnum freak show`` and “barbaric” references but than got good and felt more natural as soon as he yelled “shut the hell up” to the audience. I thought the dancer did a really good job playing bored girl not buying this guys game. His mocking of the girl really took the segment up a notch. Its unclear if they’re going to turn Krush face, if they are they may not want to do segments where he looks like an attempted rapist.

 

His interaction with Steamboat I thought was good as well. Using Steamboat as the “Walking Tall” Bill Watts in Mid-South type is a little weird. Steamboat spent his entire career as babyface who sold a lot for his opponent. He was not Dusty or Watts “Walking Tall”. Its weird seeing him play role of face tough guy enforcer. It’s a credit to the booking that they aren’t undermining him in that role, as tonight Steamboat was full on Bill Watts.

 

But Steamboat isn’t Watts or Jackie Fargo, he’s more reflective and soft spoken and the combo of guy in enforcer role and reflective guy worked in this segment. Krush does a “shoot” thing on Steamboats WWF career. I don’t know if there is any reason for Tna to be working that hard at shilling WWF DVDs. But I guess since Vince owns the WCW library, there is no advantage in talking about Steamboat’s NWA title wins either (that just sells more Helmsley DVDs). Of all the “shoot~!” segments in this promotion, this was maybe the only one which actually worked. Steamboats recognition that the WWF Intercontinental Belt was the “belt for second-class citizens” was a neat moment. And the shoot segment made sense in terms of setting up the Krush title match for next week. They really need to get the belt of Shamrock and onto Krush. He’s already way more over, and it doesn’t take much to be better ring worker than Sham. I doubt the match can be good but most Shamrock matches aren’t.

 

I thought the rapping at the end was a bad move. The crowd didn’t know how they were supposed to react and just left everyone confused.

 

-Other Mic Segments:

I liked a lot of the mic segments on tonight’s show. The opening Jarrett segment I thought was solid until the gun totting. The piledriver on Stoneface was particularly nasty. Jarrett needs to make the piledriver his finisher. The interaction with Steamboat was good too. Jarrett is a lot better off if he has someone else with mic skills to talk against then if he has to do it on his own. It was a revelation to realize that Scott Hall’s mic skills are so bad, that Steamboat is a big improvement over Hall. I didn’t think they should have teased the Steamboat match, because it makes the Hall one look even less. But this did a nice job setting up a “Stretcher Match” and I’m into the full on Mempho stip matches being set up: stretcher, first blood, etc…they need to stay away from looser gets diapered or eats dog food (although if advertised on right message boards the diaper one might get them extra buys).

 

I thought keeping Ki in that kind of short mic segment was good. And I liked Don Harris mic bit. As a result of working on the DVDVR 500s, I watch a lot of wrestling that otherwise I would fast forward through. Over the last year I have watched a lot of Harris Brothers matches, and I’ve come to the conclusion that Ron is the better of the Harris’. Ron is kind of almost passable in the role of really shitty power wrestler in a tag team: (the Neidhart tagged with Bret, The Nakanishi tagged with Nagata, Ray Candy tagged with Allen Coage, Luger when tagged with Tully). So I don’t look forward to a singles match with the lesser of the two Harris’. That said Don went up for the chokeslam better than Shamrock has. Malice has yet to win a single match in NWA TNA and he really needs a clean win here. Unfortunately it’s a first blood match, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a first blood match that didn’t have a screwy ending.

 

-The Refereeing:

They finally got rid of Slick Johnson. Scott Armstrong and the new ref were really good tonight.

 

-TNA Fashion:

A fed looks shabby when people dress shabby and well no one was shabby tonight. Jarrett’s sunglasses ruled. Sistrunk’s white pants ruled. Goldylocks anti-Dupps girly shirt kicked ass. Aj Styles airbrushed shirt that from a distance looked like it should advertise the Hot Boyz was cool. I even liked Ed Ferrera’s “I collect Hungarian issued Sun Ra records” look.

 

WHAT DIDN’T WORK:

 

-Dwarf with gun:

What are the current Tennessee laws about where you’re allowed to carry your gun? Last I was there, you weren’t allowed to have in your car I think, but everyone ignored it. I’m sure its illegal to have concealed gun at Fairgrounds, but that doesn’t mean that no one might carry. Puppet pulls out a gun in ring, and NWA TNA is very lucky that no one in the crowd reacted in kind. I’ve been to too many parties where one person showing off their gun leads to too many other people brandishing theirs. NWA TNA doesn’t want to get caught in any of that funky shit goin down. They shouldn’t play chicken that way.

 

-Stop focusing on the cage dancers exposed rib cage. Someone buy her some food already.

 

-Siaki’s mic work:

I don’t remember Siaki being this bad on the mic in UWA. He’s clearly been instructed by TNA, to copy Rock speeches. He sounds shitty doing the Rock’s shtick poorly. And even if he did it well, it still is someone else’s shtick. It makes Siaki look bush league.

 

-Taylor Vaughn vs. Bruce:

This was bad and embarrassing. There is no reason for Bruce to be eating suplexes from Ms. TNA. This whole angle is dumb and shitty. Bruce could be a nice addition to the X division; instead he’s stuck in this crap. Nothing entertaining can come as a result of this angle. Well I guess if Bruce has to defend his Miss Tna regularly against other “gay” workers (Bruce v. Lynn, Bruce vs. Wing Kanemaru, Bruce vs. Buff E, Bruce vs. Mace, Bruce vs. Lazz, Bruce vs. Colorado Kid, Bruce vs. Pimpi, Bruce vs. Bagwell, Bruce v. Lodi, Bruce vs. Strong Kobayashi, etc.) that could be a nice extra division. But that won’t happen. Bruce will never be given mic time to discuss the way he listens to dancehall and how he sees the insecurities and hidden longings in anti batty boy songs as affirmations of the beauty in his life. It’s a shitty angle. Even if it wasn’t, Bruce eating suplexes from a top-heavy girl with thick thighs is a shitty match.

 

-Disco Infernos Jive Talking:

Wow this is a giant waste of time. People paid for a pay per view. They didn’t pay to see Disco’s wannabe Richard Bey show. There are a million third rate Richard Bey`s in syndication that I can see for free. Why should I want to pay to see an other? In the time wasted on the Disco segment and the Taylor Vaughn segment, TNA could have run a Harris/Storm vs. Hot Shots rematch which is a feud I want to see continue.

 

Disco segment and the Taylor Vaughn match were both more embarrassing than Cheex. Cheex didn’t take as long and at least it gave Frank Parker a paycheck.

 

-Hey This Show Is Setting up a Bunch of Matches I Don’t Want To See:

Well I liked all the matches on tonight’s show but they set up the following: Don Harris vs. Malice; Ki, Lynn, and Styles in a three way dance; and Shamrock vs. K Krush. Also the ending of show felt like they want to redo the Flair as commissioner turns heel on Austin angle. Steamboat has been a face his entire career. Turning him now is a bad bad idea.

Within a couple weeks of this report I learned that I was wrong about the Harris brothers. Ron is the more athletic and looks better in tags. But Ron can't work singles. Don on the other hand actually can work singles brawls well (and I'm not a guy who is big on complimenting Neo-Nazis). And the Don vs. Malice series was far better than I had anticipated.

 

 

8/2/2002

 

HOLY Fuck why isn’t Brian Lee in AAA?

 

Let me get this out of the way right at the beginning:

Brian Lee is now the gayest looking wrestler ever. When last we saw Brian Lee, he was a stocky biker guy stinking up ECW, WCW, WWF etc. Since then he’s toned up his body and looks like a creepier John Basedow. John Basedow would look at Brian Lee and go “WOW that guys FLAMING!”.

 

Lee has this really slim waist and toned body combined with a lush mane of hair now. Undertaker’s best man looks more feminine than Undertaker’s wife. Well that doesn’t really say much. Lets put it this way, I was recently watching an old Global match where the team of Rip Rogers and Scotty the Body beat down on Chaz…..all of them looked more manly than current Brian Lee. Its not just the slim waist, but the gaunt face and girly lips..its creepy. You could give Billy Gunn breast implants, surgically remove his cock and put him in pantyhose…Brian Lee would still look more effeminate.

 

Allan Funk is wearing a dress and a tiara and Brian Lee still looks gayer. He looks gayer than all the Pena towel boys combined. He doesn’t look so much like a muscular stripper/leather boy in the Los Warriors/Gronda model. Gronda looks like he might be tough and has lived a hard life that has forced him to become the play thing of wealthy male patrons. Brian Lee more has the look of like a third generation Yale student who’s really into “muscle culture” kind of gay guy. Muscular gay guy who is a pussy.

 

When this promotion started up I wrote about the Rainbow Express group, which the TNA press releases were trying to put across as being “controversial”:

“”-Bah! Gay jokes may have been edgy pre 9/11. But post 9/11 that kind of joke is really safe and comfortable. It feels like something Milton Berle would do and Red Buttons would laugh at..There is no “edgy”ness to it anymore. It won’t start water cooler talk anymore. I would hope your aiming your product at an audience hipper and younger than Berle and Buttons” And I mentioned that post MTV real world, gay doesn’t automatically guarantee heel heat.

 

But I’ve now changed my mind. The Brian Lee as gay Yale body builder has changed everything. Package Funk and Lee together as “the Skull and Bones” and you have found the way to do post 9/11 edgy gay jokes. See post 9/11, gays in dresses=not edgy. Implying that a former and current president were involved in a hoimosexual fraternity=edgy. If we can only learn one thing from the amazing continued success of the Simpsons; let it be that Yale jokes always guarantee laughs. C’mon Russo there are a million skulling and boner jokes you can do. Have Lee do long speeches about “perversity” being a privelege of the ruling class, and that he wouldn’t let the soiled working class cocks of the Nashville fairgrounds soil his patrician crack. Have him imply that our current Commander and Chief snorted lines of coke off Lee’s aristocratic cock. This will GUARANTEE water cooler talk.

 

Leak a press release about this gimmick to Dan Patrick and Les Kinsolving, and you’re guaranteed that Ari Fleisher will end up having to say something about it. C’mon I read your defense of putting the belt on Arquette. You think Costner is impressive?---this would equal mainstream publicity from ARI FLEISHER FREE OF CHARGE. It’d be better than Arquette publicity stunt, you wouldn’t just be on the front page of USA Today. You’d be on the top half of the front page. “Where are you going to get that kind of publicity?”. C’mon Russo this kind of stunt is tailor made for your “talents”. Imagine the publicity, the number of extra buys. Mcmahon isn’t ballsy enough to run this angle. This will prove your genius to all those who’ve questioned you. C’mon Russo don’t be such a sissy, put out the press release…you know you want to.

 

You need to move on this now, before Pena puts the AAA title on him.

 

Now that that’s out of my system, on to the show review:

 

WHAT WORKED:

 

-BULLET BOB ARMSTRONG~!!-

Ok first two shows had Jackie Fargo as lead face in commissioner role. Then things fell apart as they couldn’t find a lead face to replace Fargo. If you can’t use Jackie Fargo, The Georgia JawJacker is a great substitute.

 

Bob takes a stiff chair shot like a champ..while Bullet is handcuffed (I was shocked that Russo didn’t have Bullet crucified to a cage but I guess we’ll have to wait on the crucifixion of Bullet)….I was screaming for the Rock N Roll Express run in to clean house.

 

They really should eventually put the NWA title on Bullet. Bullet can do all the stuff that Michaels did in that self-aggrandizing hagiography disguised as a wrestling match on Sunday. People creamed over that match. Imagine their response to Bob working the same kind of match since Bob actually has offense too. Bob beats Jeff cleanly, leading to Bob vs. K Krush, leading to that NWA title run that was promised him back in February of 77.

 

With September 11th coming, the Fighting Fireman is perfect as your lead face. He leaned way into the chair shots and knows how to work this role to perfection. He needs more mic time.

 

 

-STEVE ARMSTRONG AS BULLET!-

I have mixed emotions about this. I haven’t seen Bullet Bob work since 2000. In 2000 he was willing to take all the bumps that Steve did in this match and threw far stiffer chops, and did the neat back fist/uppercut thing that only Bob can do. The bumps look more vicious when Bob is taking them just because he’s older (much the way the slapstick in the later Stooges movies “Have Rocket will Travel”, etc comes across far darker just because they’re old guys stiffing each other).

 

On the other hand, I really like Steve a lot and it’s nice to see him return to the ring. Steve is the flashiest of the Armstrongs. I’m not sure if the Bullet guise may not play to his strengths as I don’t think this was as good as the Steve vs. Jarrett match fromWCWSN from October 96 9of course back then Jarrett was using a slingshot suplex and neckbreaker instead of the shitty stroke).

 

I also kind of really like the angle of Steve donning the Bullet mask. I assume this will lead eventually to Bullet donning the Dixie Dynamite mask in a “Child is the father to the man” type angle. I kind of always like that angle. It’s an angle that plays as major theme in Jack Kirby’s fourth world comics. The son redeems the father who redeems himself by making himself the son in a reverse initiation story. Telling that story with the Armstrongs, kind of removes it from the New Gods, Brian Wilson, Iron John annoying 60s hippy baggage: the “we are children of the future, wonder what we are going to do” kind of crap where personal redemption is part of a package of hippy world transformation. Using the Armstrongs puts the story more of a Faulknerian package, where redemption doesn’t lead to world transformation, instead redemption leads to ability to endure.

 

 

-Kobain/Slash vs. Storm/Harris-

The four-way that led to this match was a mess and will go on the bottom side. There was no reason, not to run two tag matches instead of this clusterfuck. But once the match was down to two teams, it was a good tag match. Harris stinks. But Storm continues to be fun. But most importantly: KOBAIN AND SLASH~!!!

 

KOBAIN AND SLASH~! Finally they let Wolfie D on the mic, welcome to the “WOMB OF HELL”. Why did they waste their time with Mitchell, when they had Slash mic work all along? Plus Flash Flannagan as heroin abuser was great, “I want to overdose on my own pain”! Flash decides to kind of wrestle like Onryu as part of his suicidal junkie gimmick and its great. Slash is his normal greatness, WHIRLY BIRD! and bumping like a champ throughout. And I have to respect both guys for refusing to bump for the Harris/Brian Lee post match run in. “We’ll bump for these Hot Shot guys, but we ain’t wasting our bodies for you turds”.

 

I want to see Slash/Kobain vs. Hot Shots in a regular tag match RIGHT NOW. Fuck Slash/Kobain vs. Backseats in a tag, vs SATS in a tag. SLASH/KOBAIN!!

 

FLASH FLANNAGAN/WOLFIE D~! BAYBEE!!!

 

 

-SAT entrance music-

YOWZA! It was a beautiful sunset over Catalina Island. Vince Russo’s unibrow was gently brushing against Brian Lee’s smooth skin. The mix tape that Borash had made them for this “special weekend” was playing in the background. Somewhere between the carefully selected Little River Band and Rupert Holmes deep cuts, JB slipped on this little piece of faux Giorgio Moroder does breezy smooth jazz. Russo’s finger rubbed the last drips of semen off his gums and then used it to lovingly trace a heart around Lee’s goatee.

Vinie said “ Yeah Borash was right, that’s the perfect entrance music for those Latino boys, so strong and robust.” Brian just sat there, his shit-eating grin breaking up the curves of the hart.

 

 

-Low-Ki /AJ Styles/ Jerry Lynn Triple Ladder match-

Fuck shit this was fun! A fine match to end a promotion on. In a promotion filled with three ways, four ways, etc…this was the only one I really liked.

 

It should be pointed out at this point that both Styles and Lynn had already worked approximately 30 minutes that night with two garbage matches and another ten-minute match. Yep they get to do three garbage matches in one night. Yeah, and you thought Heyman didn’t care about the health of his workers.

 

Styles works stiff and finally hits his springboard death drop move (a move that he has blown on every single TNA show up to now). Styles also pegs the fuck out of Lynn, throwing the ladder into the ring. Low-Ki sells his back better than Shawn Michaels as Ki continues to sell it while on offense. Lynn looks smoother than he has in a while.

 

I really liked the early section where Styles and Ki exchanged chops and headbutts while using the ladder like a scaffold. Shades of Jerry Jarrett vs. Don Greene. The bump that ended that section was suitably nasty.

 

Unlike every other X-games match, the nasty bumps weren’t killed by no-selling and pop-ups. Lynn and Styles refused to insult the live audiences intelligence and continued to sell fatigue from earlier. Ki took enough nasty bumps to be equally weakened. The finish was really nice as Styles’ death bump was teased, avoided and then when it happened it was sold like a death bump…eliminating him from the match story. The death move delivered to Low-Ki was a death move and sold as such. Both guys were out and Styles believably was able to climb ladder to victory.

 

In a fed filled with shitty x-matches, this one delivered. In a fed filled with shitty finishes for title matches, this was a good finish. A nice match for the fed to go out with.

 

WHAT DIDN’T WORK:

 

-Where is the Sista from the local hooters??-

This camera work made the new cage dancer look like she had a cock. Why is the cameraman focusing on the cage dancers’ package? Did they hire Brian Lee’s rent boy to do camera work? Or does the cage dancer actually have a cock? Is Brian Lee now in charge of casting dancers?

 

Brian Lee walks into Jarretts office.

Lee :“listen Jerry , I think the problem is the cage dancers. No one wants to see a woman’s privates…they’re icky. We should get one of those chixs with dixs, man. It’s like the best of both worlds. You have me and Ron squash all the tag teams and put a dancer with a large package in the cage—this fed will start making money, I tell you”

Jarrett too distracted to pay attention to what’s happening to his promotion: “yeah, yeah, go ahead”

 

 

-Every mic segment that didn’t involve Slash, Kobain, Krush, Jarrett or Bob-

Blazing bullfrogs was there some shitty mic work on this show. Siaki doing the Rocky stuff on the mic sucks, plus why is he doing the shitty shoot on Hogan jokes. Amateurish. The other Elvises interview was equally bad. At least Estrada had a nice afropick.

Monte Brown non Armstrong William’s promo work sucks. Brian Christopher was stuck with one of those really shitty Russoish promos where a lot of things are being said and laid out in promo that make no sense and relate to nothing…but “Hey look there’s a lot of things going on, I’m a super-genius booker”. I’m guessing that the big MYSTERY that Brian Christopher will never get to reveal is who attacked Stane Lane on the last WXO show.

 

-Monte Brown vs. Sonny Siaki-

Bull-chips in your cereal, was this ever HORRID!! Siaki’s worst match in TNA. Maybe worse than any of his WCW and UWA stuff too. This was backyard wrestling.

 

Monte Brown had horrible chops, his punches sucked cock, he had the worst Sting Splash ever, a so shitty it was almost comic back elbow and everything he did looked sloppy and untrained. Otis Sistrunk 2K2 even blew a CHINLOCK!! Yep the worst reverse chinlock I’ve ever seen. How do you blow a chinlock?

 

Siaki’s bumps didn’t look good and everything in this match was UGLY. Added to that, this went on forever and there was a really crappy finish. I was praying for Jarrett to run in and chairshot both guys to put this match to death. No such luck.

 

 

-Tag four way elimination-

Yuck! This was bad. All four of these teams can actually work tag matches, why waste them in this kind of spotfest. Kashmere looked ok here, but the Backseats were really the least of these teams. Cassidey O Reilly was great. He hits a really nice dive and chops the fuck out of Kashmere. Kashmere also hits a nice dive. Trent Acid looked bad. Chase’s dive looked like attempted suicide. Harris continues to have horrid punches and do the shitty WWE bulldog. Slash/ Kobain ruled but this was a mess until it turned into a straight tag match .

 

Trent Acid and Kashmere did both bump huge for the John Basedow/Ron Harris run in at the end.

 

 

-SATS vs Elvises-

This was just a mess. Everyone did stuff and there was no semblance of tag story or any story. The double Asai was nice, but so what.

 

Also what in fuck are the SATS wearing? What is that material? It looked like they were wearing Easter basket plastic. How many Cadburry Cream Eggs did Borash have to smash against Brian Lee’s thighs to get enough colored cellophane to make these outfits?

 

 

-Bruce v. April Hunter-

Jumping jar of jellied jaguars, this was dog shit. I hope they didn’t pay for Hunter and Slykk’s transport. Brian Lee looks so much gayer than Bruce, and Bruce is wearing a dress and tiara. I didn’t mind Bruce on the mic (responding with “Thank you “ to the “HOMO!” chants was nice.) Speaking of which

 

 

-Brian Lee’s tight tight pants:

I don’t need to see the inner ring of your gaping tunnel of love. Wear some looser pants. I think I could make out the swastika you have branded deep in there. It was offensive.

12/11/2002

 

Hey I haven’t done one of these in a long while. I don’t think I’ve actually seen a whole episode of TNA since I last did one. VCR always only gets half or tapes a Henry Winkler movie instead (turns out Henry Winkler has even less range than I thought). So for first time in several months watched an episode in full. I figure someone has to chronicle this disaster of a promotion, may as well be me.

 

It’s been over three weeks since Billy Joe Travis’ passing. Ok its been three weeks and there's been no mention of the passing of Billy Joe Travis on TNA.

 

I didn't expect any mention on RAW, but TNA is out of Nashville. Travis regularly worked there. Travis worked for both Jarrett and Prentice for long periods of time. Both Jarrett and Prentice are involved with TNA.

 

So I was dissapointed three weeks ago that there was no bells or mention. But tonight the whole show was built around the question of whether Jarrett would or would not use the guitar shot.

 

I kept on expecting Tenay to make mention of Travis in relationship to the part that guitar shots have meant in Jarrett's career. But no mention. The absence tonight felt almost deliberate. As I kept thinking Tenay was going to say something and then swallowed.

 

CLASSLESS MOTHERFUCKERS. How hard is it to mention BJ Travis?

 

And FUCKING ZOMBIE STRUDEL ON MARS, THIS SHOW SUCKED ASS!!!

 

WHAT WORKED:

 

-BG JAMES vs. RON “THE TRUTH” KILLINGS-CHAIN MATCH WITH CHAIR ON CHAIN

 

On paper this looked to be a shitty idea. I had seen the WWA PPV with the Road Dog vs. Konan dog collar match. And that was easily one of the worst matches I’ve seen. All I was hoping for was that THE TRUTH would do a promo about how BG James’ people had kept him in chains and the Junkyard days were over, and the shuffling Too Cold Scorpio days had gone too. Instead Killings comes into the ring and dances and has a shockingly good match with James. It reallys really stupid for Killings to drop his mic work as face, and instead be all softspoken. He could easily keep up the race baiting schtick as face “SHOOTING” on Russo and the Harris Bros.

 

Essentially it’s a bullrope match with a chair instead of a cowbell. Both guys had nice punches, the chair spots made sense. First time a Van Daminator made sense to me since Wahoo v Flair. BG James looked like a trained wrestler in this match and Killings was smooth. Better than the Saturn v Jericho chain match. Better than the WrestleWar Orton/Murdoch bull rope match. This is all feint praise. The match needed a lot of blood to actually get the angle across, so I guess it failed. But it was best match on the show.

 

-S.E.X.

I never bought DX as a stable.

I never bought the self-important HHH, and NAO trying as a stable who were supposed to bunch of fun loving goofballs.

 

I Never bought the N.W.O. as a stable.

I never bought Hogan, Hall and Nash as a stable who were supposed to be young cool street thugs.

 

I totally buy S.E.X.

I buy BG James, Ron Harris and Don Harris as a stable of guys who have no respect for and want to ruin professional wrestling.

 

So I guess that works.

 

 

TONY MAMALUKE VS. JASON CROSS-

It was a nice little opening match and the second best match on the show. Best Mamaluke has looked. Mamaluke stinks when he tries to work big spots. But is plenty fun on the mat and this was well layed out. It was clear both guys had worked with each other before. Cross’ spots looked good. All that said it was rendered pointless by S.E.X. coming in and squashing them. At least S.E.X. had the common decency to wait for the match to end. Doesn’t Sid live in Memphis…he’d be perfect for S.E.X.

 

-ARMSTRONG MIC WORK-

Scott and Bob are both really good on the mic

 

WHAT DIDN’T WORK:

 

-KID KASH VS. JORGE ESTRADA-

Oh man this was UUUUG-LEE! Both guys would be fine additions to the SEX stable. Estrada has shaved his fro and well his fro and ability to bump were all he ever had going for him. Without trying to get Barnett to flame me, wrestlers who shave their heads without getting the hair match pay-off, are idiots. This wasn’t even a blown spot fest this was a blown criss-cross rope running fest as neither guy seemed to be able to run the ropes. Its one thing to blow running the ropes one time, but then don’t repeat the spot. Just ugly. Could have used Harris run in to take it home.

 

-DEVINE STORM VS. AMERICA’s MOST WANTED-

AMW tried. But Devine Storm really stink. James Storm is great and Chris Harris looks better and better every week. Chris Harris who was really mediocre at the start of this promotion has really looked good last month. I don’t get the announcers putting over AMW as guys who are top heavyweights while the booking has them loosing to a team of mediocre indy guys. They’re giving Devine Storm wins? They never gave the Hot Shots wins. Fed is booked by idiots.

 

Devine Storm would also be a fine addition to S.E.X. And the Devine Storm valet really has a creepy trannie face, is she supposed to be working a “Sarah Calloway neice” gimmick?

 

-RED Vs. AJ STYLES-

This started well and then quickly fell apart during the section on the floor and they were never able to get it back together. Styles can work heel well enough that he doesn’t need to be stuck with a manager who mis-times all his interference spots.

 

I also don't understand the point of giving Styles a manager who looks semi athletic and is both thicker and taller than the guy he's managing. Couldn't they hire Ronnie P Gosset or at least make Plumbtree eat till he reaches Gossett size.

 

 

-BG JAMES OPENING STICK WORK-

First he tells us Russo isn’t going to be there. Hey bait and switch, bait and switch. What about all those folks who pay ten bucks to see Russo?

 

Then he does this whole shitty work shoot speech about how he and Russo made DX. “Russo wrote the words, I provided the attitude”. Well so what? I thought this show was all shoot with no script, what’s the point of putting over a writer. Jeff Jarrett does a speech later about how X-Pac is a sissy for not being on the show and talking about his issues with Russo on air. So which is it, either Russo’s writing your script or is this all improv. What’s the point of having Martin Amis in Comedy Sportz?

 

Harris Twins vs. Brian Lee/Slash-

Slash rules but NO go. And God Damn did this suck. The finish was a million worlds of bad booking. A fireball finish would have been so much better than this mess.

 

Curt Hennig vs. Jeff Jarrett-

They worked this real simple. Go behinds, standing switches and stalling. But then the finish came and turned to meaningless shit.

 

Vince Mcmahon did a scene where he was sodomized on camera. I think if Russo really wants to push the S.E.X. he should be willing to do the same except make it more explicit (maybe use the bridge of a the guitar instead of an enema).

 

Russo not being sodomized on camera really makes him look sissy compared to McMahon. It makes it seem that Russo is a prude and afraid of the S.E.X. How is anyone supposed to take him seriously as leader of the SEX revolution if he wont take the real guitar shot.

[Slasher]

The only thing I took away from the reviews Tomk posted is that he is a closet homosexual or at the very least fixated with that idea. Just awful reviews.

[El-P]

Since TNA is pretty much dead soon (right ? RIGHT ?), I figured I'd go through a bunch of the old weekly PPV's to see how this mess began. I fast-forward a lot, I'm not watching the Johnsons, the midgets, the "celebrities", the catfight and other shit of the same ilk. Was Russo already booking at the beginning ? An awful lot of terrible gimmicks, the Rainbow Express being the most offensive. Lane & Bruce are the worst Adrian Street ever.

 

Jeff Jarrett works exacty like he did in WCW in 2000, by that I mean solid at very best, and totally unimpressive. He still cuts boring promos where he fumbles a bit and try his best to act like a tough guy. Which still doesn't suit him one bit. And I can't understand how a veteran like him just doesn't see how his finisher looks like complete shit, and it's not like it's over either. Well, at least he doesn't use the guitar gimmick…. That's good… Anyway, him and Scott Hall work a bunch of single and tag matches (with K-Krush & Brian Christopher), which could be decent Thunder 2000 main events. Christopher is still doing the Grand Master Sexay routine, which means he's unbearable and a shit worker.

 

Monty Brown debuted on the third show. I had no idea he was there so early.

 

The stand out is very clearly AJ Styles, and that from the very beginning. ALthough he's still pretty indieriffic in the way he uses his incredible offense (but has he really progressed a whole lot ?), he's quite impressive to watch and shows a good white meat acrobatic babyface charisma. He gets both the X division title and the tag division titles in a matter of two weeks, which seems a bit much, but he was clearly the future star of the company. Jerry Lynn would be close second, despite the few usual annoying things about his work (Malenkoesque jerkoff sequence worker + shitty punches, mostly). The X division appears to be the main appeal of the promotion, with all the best matches coming from there thus far.

 

Ken Shamrock is totally dull and has some terrible facial hairs. As far as managers go, Joel Gertner is complete crap (he's been useless since 99 or so anyway), Bobcat, well, I don't even know what the point is… Her guy David Young seems pretty decent though, if nondescript (oh, now I know why they gave him a girl). At least we get James Mitchell who's managing Malice (aka The Wall with a much better look and some actual progress in the ring) and Slash (who I believe is Wolfie D).

 

What was the point of the cage dancers BTW ? I guess the name of the promotion directly derives from them.

 

Only really good match so far :

 

2002.06.26 Jerry Lynn vs AJ Styles vs Psicosis vs Low-Ki

[goc]

I tried to do this at one point El-P but I tapped out around Week 10 or 11. There are a few bright spots but it's really not worth it. Outside of the X Division matches, my favorite match from what I saw was some kind of hardcore match between Malice and Don (Ron?) Harris. It was actually a really fun brawl, it's too bad about what happened to Malice because I liked him from what I saw of him in early TNA.

[El-P]

PPV 4 was the best of the four, with two good matches on the card. First was Jerry Lynn & AJ Styles vs Slash & Tempest (who's Devon Storm) for the tag titles, nice little match again showcasing AJ Styles as the white meat babyface with über cool (but sometimes sloppy) offense. Slash and Tempest are solid there, and so is Lynn, who isn't pleased with the attitude of his partner. Yes, one week into them winning the tag title, they have to put them against each other already, as Lynn actually brutally attacks Styles backstage. Yeah, this is ridiculous. The six-men elimination match to determine the X-division challenger rankings was much less a clusterfuck than I thought it would be, and apart from Lynn's weak elimination on a count out (to protect him I guess), this was actually quite good, with late WCW guys like Elix Skipper and Kid Romeo, former ECW's Tony Mamaluke and two indy darlings in Low-Ki and Chris Daniels. In a good booking move, these two end up the match together, and it's nice that they featured the less known guys instead of the former big2/3 workers. It seems like they were really building a brand with the X-division around AJ, Low-Ki, Daniels and Lynn as the veteran anchor. The main title scene still sucks though, as Shamrock works a dull match against Takao Omori, whose appearance here is just as random as showing up at the Rumble in 96. Plus the match never gets to end since Jarrett bust the two of them with chairshots on the head, then does the same thing to Harley Race and a bunch of security guys. Jarrett trying to act as a bad ass actually begins to crak up up, as he's involontarily funny, especially when he swears. We get a bizarre "shoot" interview from Brian Christopher who is sick of being in his daddy's shadow. Yes, in a classic Russo move, a guy cuts a promo on another one who's not working in the company. But hey, Christopher as a heel is an improvment. We also get to see 18 years old Mark & Jay Briscoe. And a bunch of bullshit that I didn't watch. And after four shows, Don West is already without a doubt one of the worst and most annoying color guy ever. Nice job. And Tenay is already overworking himself, he really needed a solid pbp man as an anchor. So yeah, not a good show by any mean, but the two good matches are worth watching.

 

2002.07.10 Jerry Lynn & AJ Styles vs Slash & Tempest

2002.07.10 Jerry Lynn vs Kid Romeo vs Elix Skipper vs Low-Ki vs Chris Daniels vs Tony Mamaluke

[Johnny Sorrow]

Don West eventually evolves into a great announcer, especially when he went heel.

[El-P]

PPV 5 got even better, with a bunch of matches that I really enjoyed, and a few good promos. First off, Sabu showed up from nowhere and faced Malice in a ladder match. And that was one damn good ladder match based on inflicting punishment istead of trying to do stunts. The best Wall match I've seen, by a large margin, and the proff Sabu could still deliver. He actually bust his nose pretty bad here, and gets killed post match too. Malice takes one hell of a bump leading to the finish that makes sense, imagine that. Then, The Flying Elvis' vs Chris Daniels & Elix Skipper was a fine little match too, with Siaki being a funny egomaniac taking his place at the announcing both and refering to himself at the third person. And finally, AJ Styles vs Low-Ki was quite good too. A little bit your-turn my-turn of course, but the fact they actually sold the damage didn't turn this into a video game cluster. Low-Ki is actually better than Styles at this point, his selling and bumping his excellent. Styles kinda waste a brutal brainbuster in a very indieriffic way of working. But all in all, really good. However, the whole AJ Styles vs Jerry Lynn feud goes way too far into trying to maim your rival after just two weeks. And really, after Lynn cuts a decent promo on Styles, you get Styles attacking him from behind, so at the end of the day we really have no idea who's suppose dto be the face. I guess no one. K-Krush cuts a pretty good frustrated promo too and we get a match against Norman Smiley, which is always nice to see although Smiley is in full WCW gimmick mode. To end the show, Scott Hall and Brian Lawler have a perfectly decent TV match, Hall even busting out his second rope back suplex. Brian is not much on offense, but his old-school comedy heel selling is quite effective to me. Then of course we get Jarrett busting everyone with chairs, because he's a bad ass, you see. So, if you ff through the shit (midgets and catfights), it was not a bad effort of a TV show, despite the ridiculous booking at times. And one thing that is disturbing is the treatment of women. Goldylocks sole purpose seems to be insulted and physically threatened, and we get to see the Blue Meanie DDTing Francine, who ends up on a gurney after a catfight with Jasmine St Clair aka "What the fuck is she doing in the wrestling business anyway ?". This extremely trashy aspect of the product really hurt the perception of a company that is called TNA to begin with.

 

2002.07.17 Sabu vs Malice

2002.07.17 Flying Elvis' (Estrada & Siaki) vs Chris Daniels & Elix Skipper

2002.07.17 AJ Styles vs Low-Ki

[goc]

My feeling on Jeff Jarrett at that time is that it was Vince Russo living vicariously through Jeff's character as Stone Cold Vince Russo the bad ass rebel fighting against the NWA good old boys. He also has some extremely unprofessional chairshots during this time period. I mean just absolutely killing dudes for no reason, especially the non wrestlers.

[El-P]

That's an interesting take. And yeah, Jarrett was insane with the chair shots.

PPV 6 had some good stuff again, but this time the main event didn't deliver. Funniest moment during Sabu vs Ken Shamrock was Sabu going for a pinfall (in a ladder match), the ref counting and Tenay just explaining "It's ladder vs submission !". Pretty much a nothing match, and Sabu clearly wasn't into it probably because of his broken nose. He still managed to kill himself on a table spot to set up Shamrock climbing the ladder. Ending on a screwjob (yeah, in a ladder match) when Malice ran in. Ok, that wasn't good.

 

Low-Ki vs Amazing Red was good in a very indie way, as Amazing Red really looks like your stereotytpical late 90's/early 00's indie wrestler, smaller than the referee and doing all kind of movie like moves and sequences. Not a big fan of those despite the fact it does look cool when it's smooth. So yeah, the most indieriffic worker of the bunch thus far. Low-Ki looks probably the best of all.

 

Jerry Lynn & AJ Styles vs Flying Evis' (Estrada & Yang) was quite good, with Styles and Lynn on the same page before the inevitable screw-up by AJ on a dive, driving Lynn straight into the barricade. Lynn hits a gusher then proceeds to win the match, to the disgust of AJ, who's a glory hog and really looks like the heel now. He also at times looks sloppy and tries to do too much, especially on comebacks and hope spots which would require simpler stuff. Yang is the best of the Elvis'.

 

Then there was a really good promo segment with The Truth, formerly K-Krush, cutting that racial oriented fuming promo before he gets interrupted by Monty Brown, who does a decent promo himself. I knew at some point the term "Uncle Tom" would be dropped. Killings really looks strong on the mic here and both look like potential stars. Good stuff. Later we get an angle where Elix Skipper betrays Browns, allowing Truth to choke him with a chain.

 

In the decent category, Chris Harris & James Storm have a pretty good match with the Hot Shots. So yeah, a lot less crappy stuff (the Dupps, Jarrett acting "tough") and a few non offensive time killing (Brian Lawler vs Apollo, and Disco Inferno's introduction to his talk show, which wasn't too bad but I do fear the actual segment).

 

2002.07.24 Low-Ki vs Amazing Red

2002.07.24 Jerry Lynn & AJ Styles vs Flying Elvis' (Estrada & Yang)

[goc]

Sabu vs. Ken Shamrock in a Ladder match had almost no chance to live up to the interest you have when you see it on paper. I guess it's still worth watching though.

[El-P]

PPV 7 had quite a bit to enjoy again.

 

Elix Skipper vs AJ Styles was much better than I thought it would, and it's no small part because of Skipper, who dumbed it down, settled the pace in slower mode and was quite good in working over AJ's neck after a brutal looking dragon suplex. I would have never guessed Skipper could work that kind of match. The ending saw an horrible looking bump which looked like a death botch, but AJ quickly finishd the match so it made sense. One of the best TNA match thus far, if not the best.

 

The X division delivered again with Jerry Lynn vs Low-Ki, with AJ kissing way to much ass on the mic to not turn heel at the end, which he did. Low-Ki continues to look like the best guy in TNA, and Lynn is his impressive self in spots. We're building toward a three-way dance, which I could live without as it will get more awkward, but I guess I should get used to it in the X division. Good stuff.

 

And really, that Jeff Jarrett vs Scott Hall brawl was pretty good. Hall kicked Jarrett's ass all over the building, including backstage, where Jarrett shoved Jerry Lynn away in the process, which played a role later (nice attention to detail here). Some funky use of the stretcher with good execution. The old ECW fan in me liked the run-ins cluster which worked in that Lynn had a reason to fuck with Jarrett, then it got just crazier with Don Harris (gulp) showing up as the security guy who then got beat up by the New Church… Anyway, it worked for me, much like the finish where for the first time ever, the Stroke actually looked efficient.

 

Like the previous week, Ron Killings promo was very strong, him adressing that dancer was good stuff although it went a little far at the end (hum… sexual agression anyone ?). He was good confronting Steamboat too (although not adressing the fact Steamboat had won the NWA world title was stupid and illogical, but I guess it didn't fit the storyline, which is even more stupid since we're supposed to be in the NWA) and Ricky was himself a much better promo in the role than I thought he would.

 

The other decent stuff included Slash vs Sonny Siaki and Apollo vs Malice (who really dramatically improved since his Wall days), both perfectly watchable matches in their own ways.

 

As usual, a bunch of crap worthy of ff including Jarrett going berserk on a midget, Disco's segment which involved GoldyLocks (who at least didn't let herself bully) and some amazon looking girl from Tough enough (yeah, already recycling the lowest of the WWE rejects), and some awful stuff with Miss TNA and Bruce. And West is so awful. But the good stuff was really good.

 

2002.07.31 Elix Skipper vs AJ Styles

2002.07.31 Low-Ki vs Jerry Lynn

2002.07.31 Jeff Jarrett vs Scott Hall

[Laz]

This is actually one of my favorite eras of TNA. It's a total train wreck that is just dripping Russo garbage, but there was enough good that stood out from what WWE was presenting (and easier to watch than ROH for 16/17 year old me) that I had no problem handing $10 a week from my part time job's paycheck to order it.

 

Once the Dutch era really takes hold in late 2003/early 2004, though, is when it just gets boring and the highs aren't as high.

[Alucard]

Loving the reviews, great new project for you

[cheapshot]

This is actually one of my favorite eras of TNA. It's a total train wreck that is just dripping Russo garbage, but there was enough good that stood out from what WWE was presenting (and easier to watch than ROH for 16/17 year old me) that I had no problem handing $10 a week from my part time job's paycheck to order it.

 

Once the Dutch era really takes hold in late 2003/early 2004, though, is when it just gets boring and the highs aren't as high.

 

Don't mistake boring with patterned, logical storytelling.

[Laz]

When the primary angle revolves around Erik Watts and the best talent on the roster take a back seat to Michael Shane? Yes. "Boring" is appropriate.

[El-P]

I could get someone taping out with PPV 8. Much more problematic stuff here, and quite a bit of crap too.

 

I never cared much for triple threat matches, especially without elimination. It always makes everything convoluted, and that was the case here with Low-Ki vs AJ Styles vs Jerry Lynn, a total spotfest match with some spots that were kinda cool but also kinda ridiculous, with one body triggering the move that the other two would normally do on their own. Plus the match can only be about breaking pinfall attempts all the time, which really prevents any build of any sort. It's a spotfu. Okay. A pretty good one of course with these three, and AJ acting clearly heelish now. So problem is that it really became way too cute at the end, especially when each would use another guy's finisher, with the requisite kickout, of course. Then it got really stupid when the ref counted two for Low-Ki on Lynn, then AJ fell straight on the top of them, rolled around, and the ref still counted the three to give Ki the win. No idea if that was a timing fuck-up, but it was a completely absurd finish which pretty much negated the entire match too, which already had a million break-ups by that point. So yeah, awful title change for a decent but way too cutesy match overall.

 

I think that I actually enjoyed Jeff Jarrett vs Apolo more than the triple threat, as it was a pretty solid match overall. Better than some vaunted Jarrett vs Booker T stuff from late WCW. Well, this one got a bad finish too, the classic "one guy lifted his shoulder during a double pin", but at least that was not totally illogical. Jarret worked his unspectacular self and Apolo was decent in an agile power kinda guy, bleeding of course since he's puerto-rican. The post match had a swerve aspect to it, as Steamboat would give The Truth to Jarrett, but only as his tag team partner. Okay.

 

Yeah, because The Truth won NWA title from faceless champion Ken Shamrock, who I'm glad is going away from my TV, as he's really been bland and not good in the ring. I'm curious to see how they manage this Truth title reign, but at least they put it on a guy with heat.

 

The Flying Elvis' vs Amazing Red & SAT was a pretty good opener, and probably the best match of the night after all. Very indy-like, especially with SAT whose team name and outfits scream INDY. The Spanish Announce Team, come on. I guess it's funny in a meta kind of way, but they look like a bunch of Amazing Red minions. The storyline was that Siaki wanted to work the match alone, so his partners finally abandonned him for a while. Fun opener with in retrospect much less cuteness than in the main event, and I enjoy the Elvis' dynamics.

 

Apart from a good interview segment with Monty Brown, who got attacked by Skipper (and yellow paint), Malice vs Don Harris was actually quite watchable, although I have no idea how Don got blood. Didn't make sense either. But there was an awful and long segment with Gilberti and the Dupps (and Ed Ferrara) and another embarrassing Bruce vs Miss TNA match. Add to that the retarded ending of the main event and you got the most unsatisfying PPV since the very earliest ones.

 

2002.08.07 Flying Elvis' vs Amazing Red & SAT

[goc]

I am disappointed you did not mention just how awful Apolo's superkick (and Shamrock's selling of it) was in the run in that led to the title change. I watched that about 10 times over and over when I went through this period of TNA. I think I only made it about 2 or 3 more weeks. It is perhaps my most vivid memory of watching those PPVs.

[El-P]

I am disappointed you did not mention just how awful Apolo's superkick (and Shamrock's selling of it) was in the run in that led to the title change.

 

Oh yeah, that was brutal. In matches he usually hits them pretty damn good, but this one just was totally off.

[pol]

That indie spotfest stuff probably hasn't aged well but it was exactly what they should have been presenting at the time. Nobody had ever seen anything like it on a national stage and it was awesome to experience.