The Most Useless PPV Ever

[SomethingSavage]

The majority of those TNA "One Night Only" PPVs are atrocious and completely irrelevant. It's like they exist in a vacuum, with no actual connection to ongoing continuity or anything at all.

 

However, I'd say that there are two of them that I honestly enjoyed - "Hardcore Justice 3" and "Old School" from 2014. I believe they were taped right before New Year's Eve 2013 on back to back nights in reality, but both shows were surprisingly good for TNA standards at the time.

 

The look, feel, and presentation was unique. The ring announcer (no idea who he was) should have been signed to a deal right then & there.

 

The shows themselves were structured differently than you'd expect, feeling MUCH more like a typical House of Hardcore or bigger indie event. I can't say for sure, since I'm totally unplugged to any of the insider news and gossip, but I walked away with the impression that Dreamer MUST have had a hand in helping with these. I know it was being tossed around that he was in talks with TNA around this time, and he actually appeared on both shows - so that theory holds up & seems to be plausible enough anyhow.

 

There was neat variety on the shows. The crowds in Poughkeepsie and Lowell offered a refreshing backdrop.

 

Jeff Hardy and Abyss both took bigger bumps than you'd expect for a throwaway, meaningless show in their Monster's Ball Match. Eric Young & Joseph Park had a fun spot-fest with Bad Influence in a Full Metal Mayhem match the previous night, with EY looking head & shoulders above the rest like an actual star & true showman. Ditto for EC3, who had an entertaining hardcore bout with Tommy Dreamer on one of those nights.

 

There was also Austin Aries in a decent little X-Division Cage bout with Sabin, a surprisingly spirited brawl between Bully Ray and Ken Anderson (with a nasty superplex onto a guardrail and other stuff), along with a Lethal Lockdown main event that actually capped off a mini-angle that ran throughout the night and led to a cool little payoff DURING that Lockdown finish.

 

So yeah. I was blown away by how much I enjoyed it at the time and actually kept both shows saved to one of my spare hard drives - just for the hell of it. Can't recall the last time I really dug a TNA show, but those two rank right up there. Maybe I'm overrating some things. Maybe I was just in a REALLY good mood when I caught the shows. (Hey, it's happened. And I WAS coming off a weekend of a family get-together and several B-days with friends.) But I dug the hell out of the stand-alone shows at the time - enough so that it got me back into checking out some of their TV, but then of course that quickly faded.

 

Other than that though, you're absolutely right. The TNA One Night Only events have been embarrassingly terrible at times. I do recall seeing a fun Aries vs. Angle match on one of those one-night-tourneys they ran early on - consisting mostly of Austin Aries doing old school Eddie Gilbert like Memphis heel shtick, with tons of stalling and cheap tricks - but it's not enough to recommend the entire show, which honestly felt like everyone taking the night off, working super slow styles, and just phoning it in until the end.

[Strummer]

this was the main event of Armageddon 2006

 

John Cena and Batista v Booker T and Finlay

 

that's a good SD main event but this headlined a PPV

[Death From Above]

If we're talking useless, it's hard to top WCW Fall Brawl War Games 1998. You remember this right? They put DDP, Piper, THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR, Hogan, Stevie Ray, Bret Hart, Nash, Sting, and Luger in the cage, had a totally bloodless, pretty much violence-less match, and then Stevie Ray did a job for DDP, and that was the end.

 

This is also the show where Davey Boy Smith got his back destroyed by the trapdoor for Warrior's MAGIC SMOKE entrance, so it also ruined a human being's life.

 

Semi main event was Scott Hall jobbing to fucking Konnan.

 

Jericho beat up a Goldberg impersonator, and we never got a real payoff to this angle, because WCW.

 

Goldberg wasn't on the show at all despite being the hottest act on the planet.

 

So that's my nomination.

[Laz]

There was a very entertaining Saturn/Raven match on that undercard, though. Maybe Saturn's highlight singles match in WCW. Also, Piper's face during his entrance and immediate barrage of eye rakes is a worthy sight.

[JaymeFuture]

Yeah, if I recall, on the podcast we did for this topic, Fall Brawl 98 did come up, and I used the Raven/Saturn match as a counter. Also, since it set up DDP/Goldberg, it at least served a purpose in existing, even if it was ugly and horrible getting there.