NWA-TNA 2003 aka a passive-agressive way to deal with depression

[Laz]

That was the moment when TNA killed Nashville. The crowds were never as big or as interested in the product, and the BORING AS HELL shows later in the year and into 2004 didn't help matters.

 

IIRC, Raven's loss was because he wouldn't sign a new contract. That doesn't explain how Jarrett was able to shake everything off and still win with the worst finish in the company. Around this time, we started calling him Triple J (since this coincided with HHH's reign of terror on Raw), only it was even worse since the TNA fans at the time were primarily smart fans so this was seen as the company biting the hand that feeds it while also shitting on its mother's corpse.

[El-P]

Enjoying the details people are adding to this thread. Makes it more fun to me, and everyone I'm sure.

 

PPV 43

 

Hey ! Finally, TNA goes into the shitter again. What a dumb as fuck show this was.

 

*Glen Gilberti, N°1 contender after beating up Jarrett like no ones business and winning a complete clusterfcuck Royal Rumble-like match (with pinfalls counting anywhere too). Ok, I think Gilberti is a pretty good worker and did well on the mic. But really, Disco Inferno main eventing against Jeff Jarrett ? What is this ? USWA circa 96 ?

 

*Talking about this mess, the matches during the show were qualifyers for that Rumble-like fiasco. Expect, of course, the vast majority of the participants didn’t have to qualify at all, so every JTTS gets automatically into the thing while AJ Styles has to earn his spot, for instance. Dumbfucks.

 

*A bordeline disturbing angle with Kid Kash beating up Trinity in front of people while nobody around moves an inch. Great babyface locker room. Kash had been established already. Trinity won their grudge match. This was needless and gratuitous. Russo is a dipshit. BTW, Tracy Brooks threatens a sexual harrassement lawsuit yet acts like she’s gonna whore herself to the commisionner at the same time. Vomit. Desire vs Tracy was closer to softporn than a pro-wrestling match. Oh, then Tracy gets into the Royal Rumble match and Kid Kash beats the shit out of her too. From simple « complete jerk jealous of his valet » he’s now « woman beater ». Fuck that shit.

 

*Surprise entrants in the Asylum-whatever match : Rick Steiner & Buff Bagwell. Star power. No comment.

 

*Harris Boys sounding like racist homophobic pigs on the Interrogators segment. I guess it’s allright since they’re heels right ? Well, they sounded a bit too genuine to me.

 

*Tag Team titles being defended one against two and changing hands on a DQ. The match of Lynn & Red vs Daniels was actually quite good until the shit finish, they made it work. Daniels is great, definitely. A top 5 worker in the company already.

 

*Storm (James) vs Harris (Chris) having a decent qualifyer match playing on familiarity (although a little bit too choregraphed to me), settling their differences yet teasing problems again during the Royal Cluster. Fuck me… No one wants to see this, as showed by the tepid reaction to their match at first.

 

Ultimately, only the opener XXX (Low-Ki & Skipper) vs AJ Styles & D-Lo Brown was a good match without any shit booking. Brown keeps on looking strong in the ring. The other qualifyers were a bad ECW match with New Jack diving to his death. He cuts a good promo before the three way against Sandman & Sabu though, as old ECW issues seems to be the new thematic now.

 

Yeah. Complete shit show. Only thing that made sense was Raven showing up at the end to screw Sabu. And frankly, Sabu vs Raven is sort of an ECW dream match to me. I'm sure they'll find a way to ruin it though.

 

2003/05/03 AJ Styles & D-Lo Brown vs XXX (Skipper & Low-Ki)

[C.S.]

My thoughts on a couple of things:

 

- SEX = Sports Entertainment Xtreme, right? I wonder why WWE never copyrighted the term "sports-entertainment," as they invented it (although Meltzer says he originally coined the term "athletic entertainment").

 

- Jarrett was stale and past the point of no return as champion, but even then, I understood the reluctance to switch it over to Raven, who was probably perceived as being one relapse away from being unreliable again. 'Course, why push someone like that to the top of the card in the first place? Lack of better options, I suppose?

[El-P]

Raven was the closest thing to a real star they had. Make sense. I think the unreliable years were way behind him at this point.

 

PPV 44

 

The main event of XXX (Skipper & Daniels) vs AJ Styles vs D-Lo Brown was good until the final screw-job finish by Gilberti, who fucked up his own finisher. Not as strong a match as the previous week though.

 

Rest of the show ? Complete shit. Screw-jobs and runs-in every time around. Every match including undercard stuff worked the same fake dramatic way with a thousand nearfalls, which makes everything seem the same and undramatic. SEX all over the card with « complete chaos » every fifteen minutes.

 

Tracy doing a PMS gimmick (fake subserviant woman and actual bitch supposed to be an empowered woman through sexual means... or something) and beating up Kid Kash.

 

Shitty X-division triple threat match with Lynn vs Red vs Sabin with awkward and nonsensical spot galore and shit swerve at the end with XXX costing Red his title and Sabin joining SEX. Way to devalue the X title.

 

Continuation of the « trouble in AMW » angle nobody wants to see. Ron Killings & Konnan are babyface or heels ? Dunno. Women abuse with Trinity being « given » to SEX by Kash.

 

Gilberti was all over the show, as he's pushed as the N°1 contender for the NWA title. Feel the cred ? Most hilarious statement : Jeff Jarrett making an analogy with Stunning Steve becoming Stone Cold and Mean Mark becoming the Undertaker. Yeah. Disco Inferno is the next breakout megastar of TNA.

 

That company is a complete and utter joke.

 

2003/05/10 AJ Styles & D-Lo Brown vs XXX (Skipper & Daniels)

[El-P]

PPV 45

 

TNA : The company with the idiotic concepts. And this week we have two of them , plus the ruining of another gimmick match.

 

First idiotic concept : the Asylum Alliance tournament to determine a N°1 contender for the tag belts. Damn, they determine N°1 contender every week. The concept is making makeshift tag team to prevent the gang mentality. Basically, the first half of Battlebowl, which gives us two shitty matches to begin with, including a mixed tag, of course, Kid Kash & Trinity (who is still abused, which negates everything about the big angle a few weeks ago) vs David Young & Tracy. Sloppy indy spot work + women abuse. And the Black Scorpion, well actually the mystery luchador challenging Kid Kash.

 

To spice up things, we get a qualifying match to the Asylum Alliance Tournament. But with regular tag team. "Does that make logic ?". At least that means a solid AMW vs AJ Styles & D-Lo Brown match, although heatless and with a screwjob finish, but the work itself was good, as expected. They’re totally wasting AJ Styles in this stuff though.

 

Second idiotic concept : the Hard Ten tournament. Garbage match with a scoring system. Each weapon shot gives you one point, gotta have ten and a two points advance to win. Going through a table is five points apparently. Sanders vs Brian Lee tried their hands at it. Total garbage and made no sense whatsoever. I hope they give up on this shit quickly.

 

More creative booking with XXX (Skipper & Daniels) vs Justin Credible, Amazing Red & Slash. Sounds like a WAR tournament trio. Babyfaces (well, I guess since Red is part of the team) with the number advantage, yeah, that always works to get sympathy. Match is really good though, Red as a face in peril of course and Daniels simply being great. Then Raven attacks Red, because he wants Jarrett so he’ll take some innocent victims out. Okay. But didn’t Raven lost clean after Jarrett kicked out of his finisher twice already despite having his brain bashed in while handcuffed ? What a whiner.

 

Ruining the Clockwork Orange House of Fun : having Sandman vs Sonny Siaki aka the most boring worker since Mike Rotundo in a slo-mo garbage match with Raven refusing to play referee like he should, leading to no-finish-at-all and a giant clusterfuck with Amazing Red trying twice to put Raven through a table. Doesn’t make any sense ? No, indeed.

 

Thankfully, the opener, a four-way elimination to determine a N°1 contender (yeah ! that's a fresh idea !) for the X-title between CM Punk, Kid Romeo, Jason Cross & Paul London was actually pretty good if booked ass-backward with Punk being the first eliminated despite obviously displaying the most star potential already. But good spotfest at least.

 

Forgot to mention that for a few weeks now, Erik Watts mentions the fact that « Eric from WCW, The Eric from WCW, is coming to TNA to be Director of Operations ». Wasn’t Bischoff in WWE at that time anyway ? Anyway, Watts was right, but a few years too early.

 

Oh, and Goldylocks is shown in a cellphone store acting like a hysterical bitch breaking up her phone and shit. I have no idea either.

 

This company = a joke.

 

2003/05/21 CM Punk vs Kid Romeo vs Jason Cross vs Paul London

2003/05/21 AMW vs AJ Styles & D-Lo Brown
2003/05/21 XXX (Skipper & Daniels) vs Justin Credible, Amazing Red & Slash

[gordi]

I just finished reading your totally epic Death of WCW thread. The craziest part of it, for me, was probably realizing with a kind of creeping horror that you were actually glossing over or even skipping some of the absolute worst stuff. Is that the case here, too? I kind of hope not, in the sense that I can't even imagine what the "even worse than what's in the thread already" stuff might be.

[El-P]

I won't do better than the WCW Highway to Hell thread. Ever.

 

I usually fast forward through the stuff that is really unbearable like a Russo promo or a Harris Boys tag match, or a Jeff Jarrett beatdown (more on that coming up), but I try to reflect on everything that happened. Still focusing on the good stuff as much as I can, even if it's just fun or pretty good.

[gordi]

...like a Russo promo or a Harris Boys tag match, or a Jeff Jarrett beatdown...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Flyin' Brian]

I had forgotten about the Hard 10 tournament, but from your description I started having flashbacks to the Dupp Cup. *shudder*

[Jimmy Redman]

I now have evil thoughts about El-P watching the Impact episode featuring the Knockouts Lockbox Challenge.

[Gutenberger]

My first post on here, since I haven't found any kind of "Hello, I'm there, welcome me!" thread, and I just gotta tell you how much I love your posts!

I'm dealing with depression myself and know how far one can go to do so, but DAMN you are one tough SOB!

[El-P]

I'm just insane, is what I am. But thanks ! And fuck depression !

 

 

Haven't seen that grumpy face in a while. (still following sumo ? No spoiler if you do, I'm always a basho late !)

 

PPV 46

 

This is getting so bad it’s actually getting funny too.

One good point, there was actually some changes of pace, with what I’d call two competitive squashes, XXX vs SAT (who still suck like it shouldn’t be allowed to) and D-Lo Brown & AJ Styles vs CM Punk & Jason Cross. This is refreshing to not have a hundred nearfalls in every match, it gives a sense of hierarchy. Anyway, after their match, D-Lo & AJ Styles decide to split up amically to pursue their dream of being the NWA champ. Nicely done. Oh, D-Lo said that Jeff Jarrett was « The Game in this dressing room » which got "Triple J !" chants. The worst is that it’s actually true on every level, neither of them would be where they are if not for nepotism and politics.

 

One good match as part of the Alliance Asylum tournament (hey we have brackets now so we can figure out that disaster), Chris Harris tagging with Chris Sabin (as part of the AMW split tease) against Justin Credible & Jerry Lynn. Really good match actually, with Lynn working most of it as face in peril and Harris & Sabin looking even better than AMW usually do. Lynn kinda screws up the timing of the hot tag though, so the ending felt a little rushed and out of nowhere, but the body of the match was super solid. Next feud for Lynn is Justin Credible, as he got pinned like an idiot after asking for Lynn to step out and let him finish the match. Some ECW rehash that I don’t mind at all, as Credible as looked fine thus far.

 

Then, so many idiotic stuff. The return of BJ James tagging with Konnan. I guess redneck Brian Armstrong is a minority. Teaming with Konnan makes sense though, as they both are specialists of annoying pre-match catchphrase that never change. So they beat up Sonny Siaki, as his partner in the tournament Sandman fucks up him by refusing to tag in.

 

I refuse to even watch Slash vs New Jack. This Hard Ten concept is one of the most stupid in wrestling history. JUST BASH THE GUY TEN TIMES IN A ROW !

 

So, the Masked luchador is actually… Trinity. Oh yeah, that’s believable... So she has a godawful match with Kid Kash, who got beat up by another porn-actress looking girl backstage. Grotesque blown spots where Trinity comes close to breaking her neck, tedious heat because everyone thought this feud had been settled weeks ago already. And Kid Kash wins in the end. Fuck me. Brilliant. So the woman abuser gets the last laugh.

 

More woman abuse after a ridiculously fun catfight between Desire and Tracy, who’s not afraid to take stupid hard bumps and show tons of ass. I mean, in both sense. I said fun, because they really beat the shit out of each other and Tracy looks so damn slutty that it makes for a fun Z-movie moment until David Young spikes her and takes Desire away. The idea is that Young is in love with Desire here. Oh, and of course, Young & Tracy are tag team partner in that stupid tournament, because things just aren't contrived enough.

 

Erik Watts is making out with Goldilocks. Why is this guy being paid for, really ?

 

And in the main event, Gilberti has a bad match with Raven, who himself looks perfectly fine, but Disco plain sucks here, killing what was an okay match by turning into the worst Kurt Angle ever. That ankle lock deal is such a terrible idea, damn you Angle for making it so popular. Raven’s selling is very good. But then run-ins (Julio, Alexis, Harris Boys) and more run-ins (Siaki, Sandman) until the return of… oh for fuck’s sake… Russo is back to screw Raven, who at this point his bordering on tweener-babyface because he’s so much cooler and better on the mic than Jarrett, as showed by the first promo segment at the begining of the show. Jarrett is acting a bit more heelish, which he should, but still, having him playing touring NWA champ in Australia on an WWA PPV just doesn’t cut it.

 

So I guess they try to rebuild Raven by saying he’s been screwed (well, kind of, but not really either. BTW, where the fuck is Sabu ?). Well, he’s the only credible main eventer along with Styles. Jarrett fumbling over his words on promos is just sad to see when he tries to act cool and shit. The Kid Kash heel turn has already been wasted and the AMW split tease is something nothing wants to see.

 

2003/05/28 Chris Sabin & Chris Harris vs Jerry Lynn & Justin Credible

[ElHijodeGorgeousGeorge]

I want to say that this has been a beautiful project to read and I, too, suffer from depression and reading these reviews helps ease that quite a bit! It's wild to look back at this era and realize that this TNA bizarro world has been alive and well since the very start of that company.

[El-P]

I'm not sure the term "beautiful" really relates to anything in TNA except Lollipop. But thanks ! And yeah, group therapy by reviewing crappy wrestling promotions ! It can work ! We can't get much more down than these people went. So :

 

PPV 47

 

AJ Styles vs D-Lo Brown to determine a N°1 contender was good. They played the familiarity game, so a lot of your-turn my-turn, but D-Lo did some impressive stuff (a frogspash to the outside). They did play the difference of strenght too. Raven attacks both guys. And the match next week will be a three-way since Raven was promised a title shot before. I don’t like three ways, but at least you got the three top guys in the same match.

 

This is the infamous Glen Gilberti vs Jeff Jarrett main event, which makes everyone in the company look dumb. This is where a sense of hierarchy is actually important. As much as Gilberti was decent as a mouthpiece and as much as he can be fine in the middle of the undercard, having him in the main event and trying to work an epic match with Jarrett just fucks up everything. At least he should work from underneath, trying to sneak into a fluke victory. But no, he’s working as an ass-kicker and thinks he’s Kurt Angle again. Anyway, bad match with trading finishers (wow, every bit of WWE self-conscious epics tropes are there. Was this already a staple in WWE at the time ?), sloppy execution and Russo showing up again.

 

The rest of the card was just as bad. Frankie Kazarian debuts in a six-man tag cluster with CM Punk & some guy named Matt Stryker, with an Y vs Kid Romeo, Swinger (yawn) and some green-ass guy named Damien Dothart. Punk isn’t made for this kind of stuff and Kazarian deserved a better set up since they teased a feud with Sabin already.

 

More Hard Ten stupidity, this time with The Vampire Warrior. Tenay had to remind everyone that « He was Gangrel in WWE ». Seriously, let it go already, it's not like Gangrel was anything but JTTS. Well, so was D-Lo when you think about it.

 

More stupid tournament matches, including AMW getting back together and having to carry BJ James & Konnan, both looking as lazy/bad as ever, and another « tag » match with Ron Killings alone (HarriSS doesn’t want to tag with him because he accuses him of playing the « race card », funny to have a guy with an SS tatoo play a racist shit) vs David Young & Tracy. Killings is one of those « wasted movements » workers like RVD or Booker T. Tracy takes stupid bumps and has a catfight with Desire. Tracy has to show lots of ass every week.

 

Talking about women mistreatment, the Kid Kash & Trinity angle keeps on going… more verbal and physical abuse and now Trinity doesn’t do shit. So Goldylocks defends her, which leads to homophobic jokes by Kash, implying that Goldy & Trinty have sex together. Well, I did like Goldy’s answer though, talking about Kash’s « limp bizkit ». Ok, it wasn’t very smart and led to more woman abuse, until Erik Watts runs-in and saves the day to a big pop. They found a way to make people care about Erik Watts for a second, although of course, this whole angle should have stopped as soon as Trinity beat Kash weeks ago.

 

Raven had actually two interview segments which shows how well this show is pre-planned... As always the Tenay interview was shooty and Raven reverted back to Scott Levy talking about his career, even telling the infamous Bischoff story where he just left the room.

 

Bad show « saved » by a Raven promo, D-Lo vs AJ and Tracy’s ass.The main event was particulary embarrassing even beyond the subpar work.

 

2003/06/03 AJ Styles vs D-Lo Brown

[Jingus]

Anyway, bad match with trading finishers (wow, every bit of WWE self-conscious epics tropes are there. Was this already a staple in WWE at the time ?),

Not as much in the later Cena years when practically every main event had a bunch of inevitable finisher-kickouts, but it was already happening. Don't forget that by this time the Shawn/Trips feud was already nigh unwatchable in ridiculously overlong, overbooked, overhyped, oversold matches.

 

The rest of the card was just as bad. Frankie Kazarian debuts in a six-man tag cluster with CM Punk & some guy named Matt Stryker, with an Y vs Kid Romeo, Swinger (yawn) and some green-ass guy named Damien Dothart. Punk isn’t made for this kind of stuff and Kazarian deserved a better set up since they teased a feud with Sabin already.

Matt Stryker was a Les Thatcher trainee from HWA in Cincinnati, he wrestled on the forgettable undercard in ROH in their early years. Sadly, his career never went anywhere and he eventually retired, probably because Matt Striker was rocketed to fame when him getting fired from his shoot job as a teacher for using sick days to work WWE tapings suddenly became a huge story. Too bad, because Stryker was by far the better wrestler of the two.

 

 

They found a way to make people care about Erik Watts for a second

Just wait until he inexplicably becomes one of the most over babyfaces on the roster.

[Johnny Sorrow]

"Unibrow" Matt Stryker was our favorite guy to heckle with just plain weirdness at ROH shows.

[anarchistxx]

For some reason I had always assumed that Matt Stryker and Matt Striker were the same person until now. Probably because pretty much my only exposure to the WWE version was as a commentator, so made the connection that it was the worker from ROH.

[El-P]

The post-Attitude, pre-Cena era of WWE sounds like the pits of boredom hell.

 

PPV 48

 

For a Triple Threat match, Jeff Jarrett vs AJ Styles vs Raven was pretty good but the lack of heel/face dynamic really hurts everything. Raven is made out to be the biggest babyface of all without having turned really, since AJ & Jeff double team him for a while. Then it turns into a one on one match when Shane Douglas (finally !) attacks Raven and drags him away. Styles vs Jarrett was good but Jarrett has some annoying execution flaws like anticipating some moves way too early. And of course, Russo shows up and finally screws Jarrett (he tries to do the old « Who is he gonna hit ?» game but he’s so awful at anything he does that it was totally obvious). Nice, so now AJ Styles first title reign is thanks to Russo, who booked himself in the main event scene again.

 

Rest of the show was terrible. Well, Chris Sabin vs Shark Boy was a pretty watchable little X-division match and Sandman & Devon Storm (in complete Crowbar costume) actually found a way to almost make the idiotic Hard Ten gimmick work. Almost.

 

On the most terrible side of things, Kid Kash vs Trinity & Goldylocks (who’s a character I guess now that Scott Hudson debuted as the backstage interviewer) was not only awful but it also marks the debut of Abyss, whom from what I’ve seen is one of the stupidest garbage worker ever with a third rate gimmick. Well, his stock can only rise. Kid Kash wins BTW, so yeah, the woman abuser pig wins in the end.

 

In the same « woman are sluts to be abused anyway » category, AMW vs David Young & Tracy was awful too. AMW were totally off, I guess not motivated by working a match which makes them and the whole tag team division look stupid. Tracy’s whole gimmick is talking bump and showing ass, litteraly I mean. Oh, and her big spot, which is basically Matt Borne’s bomb’s away, is called « The pie in the sky ». How classy. More PMS-like deal after the match with Nurse Veronica making a comeback.

 

The only good segments on the undercard was a decent brawl between D-Lo Brown & Julio (not Dinero anymore, which is annoying since it makes him generic) and the Interrogators stuff with Justin Credible & Jerry Lynn, picking at each other until they just go at it.

 

In other words, what I’m looking for now is Raven vs Shane Douglas and Justin Credible vs Jerry Lynn. Welcome to ECW 1999.

 

Next week, for the first anniversary show : Sting. Really ?

 

2003/06/11 Raven vs AJ Styles vs Jeff Jarrett

[El-P]

PPV 49

 

For their first Anniversary show, TNA managed to put on the worst show possible considering what was on paper. New entrance set so the show looks more like a second rate Thunder now. God Bless Lollipop.

 

What could have been the show stealer, XXX (Daniels & Skipper) vs AMW, ended up being a rushed Nitro seven minutes match with the wrong team going over. It was still the best action on the show, but AMW not going over is kinda ridiculous.

 

The X-division match between Chris Sabin & Paul London is exactly what I don’t care for, a bunch of spectacular moves and sequences with no rhyme or reason (London doing an amazing shooting star press of the apron two minutes into the match and it meant zilch), with a lot of contrived stuff. When you’re only doing moves that look special, nothing is actually special anymore. London really is your posterboy for 00’s indy guy. Booking had CM Punk, who wants to impress Raven, do a Raven impersonnation and screw London, so there goes your clean finishes in the « workrate » division.

 

Jerry Lynn vs Justin Credible could have been the savior of the undercard as they had really good stuff in ECW, but it was cut short with a terrible job by the ref, who looked inept.

 

The six-man opener of Siaki, Heavy D. & David Young vs D-Lo, Kazarian & Sandman (who barely entered the ring) was decent but again, totally rushed.

Because you see, you needed time for your 30 mn Vince Russo segment talking about WWE and shit. He looks ridiculous with that perm too. Anyway, Raven wants to beat him up (I feel your pain) but Shane Douglas jumps on him. Waste of time during which Sting makes his first appearance, closely followed by Jeff Jarrett so he can get the huge Sting pop too and pretend he's over. What a carny.

 

And we get more Russo shooty bullshit before the main event as he introduces Sean Waltman (in street clothes) who supposedly said he would never work with him again. Wait ? Where ? When ? I guess in shoot interviews on the Internet. And the announcers have to act like it’s a known fact. Pathetic stuff. Jarrett & Sting vs Waltman & AJ Styles was pretty good before it got all clusterfucky with *more* Russo, Raven & Douglas run-ins, but Jarrett looked the worst of the four again, and yet still got the win. He can be glad daddy (who was interviewed by Tenay earlier to say basically nothing) got a promotion for him to play around. No wonder he and Dixie understood each other, there are two of the same. Sting is more over than anyone else since the beginning of the promotion and really brings on some legit star power. But I guess it was a one shot before he came in for good much later.

 

A few decent stuff in the undercard like that funny parody interview with Konnan & Ron Killings as BG James played racist Mike Tenay. Wait, I thought they were supposed to be babyfaces ? And a good Trinity video package showing her stunt work, building her as the female ace of the promotion. Too bad she kinda sucks in the ring actually when she has do work an entire match, because she looked good here.

 

And some awful stuff, a stupid Hard Ten (duh !) match with New Jack (who’s playing along Shark Boy these days) and Mike Sanders and an awful segment with Watts interviewing Kid Kash who got applause when he said he was beating his women. Fucking rednecks. And Goldylock in a cage backstage with Abyss, unexplained. And a terrible Saturn vs Kenzo Suzuki match with a swerve as Justin Credible screws his ECW partner. Suzuki sure looks good physically, but he’s just rough to watch, and Saturn really sucked here, blowing spots left and right.

 

In other words, Vince Russo needs to go. Now.

 

2003/06/18 AMW vs XXX (Skipper & Daniels)
2003/06/18 Jeff Jarrett & Sting vs AJ Styles & Sean Waltman

[Jingus]

For their first Anniversary show, TNA managed to put on the worst show possible considering what was on paper.

And they actually charged money for it? You see, at the time, most of the Asylum's crowd was let in free. The fans around ringside paid to get in (or at least some of 'em, there were lots of comped seats for special guests, you can frequently spot Dixie in the crowd back then) but all the fans in the bleachers and in the balcony got in free, because TNA drew so badly that they wouldn't have filled up even this small building otherwise. This show was an exception, with Sting being there, and they actually made everybody (except the wrestlers' inevitable special guest Plus Ones) pay the ten dollars to see the show.

 

Also, afterward the show went off the air, Saturn walked down the ramp dressed as Naked Mideon, wearing only a thong and a fanny pack. Your guess is as good as mine.

[Gutenberger]

 

Also, afterward the show went off the air, Saturn walked down the ramp dressed as Naked Mideon, wearing only a thong and a fanny pack. Your guess is as good as mine.

 

[El-P]

Also, afterward the show went off the air, Saturn walked down the ramp dressed as Naked Mideon, wearing only a thong and a fanny pack. Your guess is as good as mine.

 

Glad they didn't show that...

 

PPV 50

 

First legit great match in TNA in 2003 (and maybe ever ?). AMX vs XXX (Skipper & Daniels) cage match. Tenay taking shots at the climbing cage gimmick was kinda funny. Straight out of WCW 1995. They worked it old-school with blood, not going insane with the cage gimmick, really milking the babyfaces comebacks than escalating the tension at the end before an awesome finish. Two huge dives that made sense. Kudos to Skipper who seemed to have hurt himself early in the match but worked it through anyway. Daniels is just terrific, does a lot of small things right actually. Plus it was the opener so great kickstart to this show.

 

Then of course, you have to reduce the impact of this match, so we get an impromptu match in the cage between AJ Styles & D-Lo Brown. With blood. Of course. Keeping the big cage match unique would make too much sense. Russo runs-in. Fuck, he’s gonna ruin every AJ Styles segment now. At least the action was promising and they’re making an effort to build D-Lo to somewhat main-event level.

 

As far as good stuff goes, Shane Douglas cut a good focused promo, talking about how he ruined the legacy of the NWA ten years before and now Raven wants to rehabilitate it. Kinda liked how he basically no-sold Jarrett’s reign in hindsight. Leads to a Douglas & Gilberti vs Raven & Jarrett main event, which went off the wheel. Pretty good brawling at first, but then Raven hurt his ankle on a terrible looking tope and Gilberti & Jarrett weren’t too good. Douglas looked fat and rusty. Raven actually did a terrific job working hurt and keeping things together, but the ending was poorly executed. Jarrett is using the guitar gimmick again now. Oh, fuck me, that really didn't make any sense in WCW, and does even less now. Shane Douglas isn’t working for Russo but for James Mitchell. This, I can get behind.

 

Jerry Lynn & Justin Credible had a short but intense brawl starting outside the building. Damn, the TNA Asylum looks really redneck from the surroundings. Poor finish though, with Lollipop busting out of her cage and injury herself, leading to Jerry Lynn being kinda distracted but still winning the match with a roll-up on the ramp. Yeah, that’s how you win a lights out match, with a roll-up. Next week, Russian chain match. Idiotic (comes from nowhere) but at least we’ll see how Lynn handles this kind of gimmick.

 

X-division match was Chris Sabin vs Frankie Kazarian. Moves. Lot of them. Funky looking. By that I mean awkward. No selling. You turn my turn. Sloppy execution. They picked it up a bit at the very end, but this is basically a wankfest by two young indy guys who have no idea how to work. Sabin should have tagged with Harris, he was so much better in that context.

 

Erik Watts finally gets to work a match against Kid Kash, which was watchable I guess. Abyss is helping Kash & Goldilock (Hudson has disappeared BTW) shows her concern and cleavage.

 

The stupid Hard Ten tournament is still going on, New Jack is doing comedy with Shark Boy, BJ James does a really funny impersonnation of Don West. So I guess now the minority guys are comedians. Yeah, BJ James is a minority guy because he’s street, basically. SEX is done. And oh :

 

Stupid turn of the week : Trinity. Turning heel to join the ex-SEX guys, choking Goldilock from nowhere, for absolutely no reason. One week after they showed that very good babyface video package and after weeks of abuse by Kid Kash. Clap clap clap. Glorious.

 

2003/06/25 Jerry Lynn vs Justin Credible

2003/06/25 AMX vs XXX (Skipper & Daniels)

[Gutenberger]

 

 

 

Jarrett is using the guitar gimmick again now. Oh, fuck me, that really didn't make any sense in WCW, and does even less now.

That never bothered me, here or there. After all, he's been a "musician" in WWF and I just took it for granted that having his guitar was by this point so embedded into him that it just became his thing.

[Jimmy Redman]

Yeah, that is kind of the forgotten cage match between AMW and XXX, because of the much more famous one from December 2004 with the cage walk, but this one is just as good a match, and like you said it might be the first truly great match in company history.

[Jingus]

Jerry Lynn & Justin Credible had a short but intense brawl starting outside the building. Damn, the TNA Asylum looks really redneck from the surroundings.

It is literally a fairgrounds, they have flea markets and gun shows in the same place. Out back are animal stalls for when people bring livestock for sale. Elsewhere in the same complex is a Nascar race track.