Date With Fate Preview
Wednesday night will be the last live TNA PPV ever.
In 2001, during the lengthy and painful period in which TBS, Inc. was trying to sell WCW, Jerry Jarrett decided that it would be the perfect way to re-enter the wrestling business after years of making his living elsewhere and compete with a very popular WWE product at the time.
But no such salvaging would ever take place, Jarrett couldn’t secure funds, and when TBS took a television time-slot that had been filled for years by WCW off the table, the only group that remained interested was the WWF (the most likely purchaser, the Eric Bischoff-led Fusient Media project, pulled out when the time-slot was off the table). The WWF then attempted an invasion angle, much like the one that led WCW to the heights they had seen, and failed miserably. Interest in the idea itself led to one of the highest PPV buyrates ever in professional wrestling (760,000), but combined with a badly-conceived Steve Austin heel turn and the disastrous XFL, the year has become a more than useful example of low lows.
A year later, the plan for Jarrett to run a weekly series on a weeknight, and the press releases of the time focused on a series called TNA (with that acronym picked for the obvious reason): Tuesday Night Action and featuring “the X-Division.” Before the first PPV, on June 19, 2002, that changed to Total Nonstop Action.
The question within wrestling was whether such a formula could succeed. Jarrett, and his wrestling son Jeff who became a big part of the product (and pushed as the biggest star of the company most of the time), argued that there was a market for wrestling at around the same price of a WWE PPV, amortized over a weekly series. Jay Hassman, hired for the company’s promotional end, allegedly sabotaged the company, intentionally overestimated the market for the PPV and not advertising the show properly. The two court cases that followed ended with no significant judgment against either party and an out-of-court settlement.
Before long, due to a combination of bad booking and trashy programming, the show was a failure in buys and live. Over the next years the show would be a constant struggle between long term planning, a direction for the company, and creating characters. While there were times when all three of those elements were achieved, there are few times when they all came together to create a product with any long term prospects. The product was well covered by all of the main sources of news in wrestling, but immediately pegged small-time by most.
The Jarrett Family had secured an investor in HealthSouth, who donated over 1 million dollars to the project, which TNA spent immediately. HealthSouth, embroiled in controversy otherwise, pulled out. The mood was solemn and most in the company were under the impression that the show was over. Dixie Carter, in an effort to save the company, talked to her father Bob Carter, owner of Panda Energy, who has been funding the company millions since that time. Dixie Carter was named president of TNA Entertainment, LLC. The company would live to see their first anniversary, and their second, much to the surprise of most.
The time period that followed continued to be a balancing act, but gradually the fans were being lost, and buyrates slowly decreased. In about a year’s time, they have been cut in half. In 2003, the company shifted from a booking team consisting of Jarrett and Russo, to Jarrett and Mantel, in a huge power play. The company attempted at least two times to do a supercard PPV and get TV (at first through WGN, then through FSN), but Hogan never came in and the PPVs fell through, and the WGN deal also fell through.
Then, a new chapter of the company began. A few months ago, they got TV on Fox Sports Net, and, mainly because they are losing quite a bit of money, Dixie Carter made the decision to switch to a TV-building-to-PPV format, much to the dismay of both Jarretts, still hopeful that the Wednesday night plan could make money and be the hallmark of the company.
The last main-event feud of the company on Wednesday night’s has been Jeff Hardy and Jeff Jarrett. And that will be the main event Wednesday night.
In the end, TNA PPVs won’t be remembered for pioneering something drastically new in wrestling, as many had hoped. Unfortunately, the single most accurate contribution that the enterprise will leave behind is the degree to which it has been frustrating, hard to watch, and hard to support.
But we will continue to support and cover TNA, with the continuing hope that they will shape and etch a more successful future for all of pro wrestling, because that was the only point from the beginning.
Card for Wednesday: *six team X division match
*Erik Watts & Sonny Siaki & Desire vs. Goldylocks & Abyss & Alex Shelley
*A.J. Styles vs. Kid Kash in a 2/3 tables match
*Naturals vs. AMW for tag titles
*Winner of that match vs. XXX for tag titles
*Dusty Rhodes vs. Scott D’Amore with Vince Russo as ref
*Jeff Jarrett vs. Jeff Hardy for NWA title
ROH in Braintree (8/28) Report
Among the stories at last weekend’s Ring of Honor show, the two biggest involved the announcement that ROH would be bringing in Jushin Liger, as well as a well-hyped and -executed main event with a Scramble Cage Melee match, won by Jack Evans.
At the show in Braintree, Shawn Prince announced that world-famous Jushin “Thunder” Liger will be debuting with the promotion on their 11/5 show, also in the Boston area and in a bigger arena.
The show, another in a line of well received shows, was headlined by the first ever scramble cage melee match. The gimmick was the definition of a style that went out-of-style in WWE years ago and was successfully picked up by many indies, with wrestlers having to jump off the top of the cage on an opponent to eliminate them. Jack Evans was put over in the match.
Also, the Pure Wrestling Title changed hands in a match between champion Doug Williams and John Walters, as the company hinted toward a possible future feud between ROH Champion Samoa Joe and Williams.
Complete results:
*Alex Shelley over Jay Lethal
*Jimmy Rave defeated Special K’s Angel Dust
*Ace Steel over Roderick Strong
*Austin Aries over Colt Cabana
*The Havana Pitbulls over Izzy and Dixie
*John Walters over Doug Williams to win the Pure title
*Homicide over C.M. Punk and Samoa Joe
*Jack Evans wins a scramble cage melee match over Trent Acid, Fast Eddie, Alter Boy Luke, Dunn & Marcos, BJ Whitmer, Dan Maff, Loc & Devito, and Oman Tortuga & Diablo Santiago
TNA on PPV Update:
Universally praised show on 9/1, the penultimate show, buoyed by both good wrestling and angles. The use of Goldylocks and Rhodes/Russo continued, but not with the same fervor that interrupted the show in the past. NWA World Tag Team Title Match (Three-Way Tag Team Match): The Naturals (Chase Stevens and Andy Douglas) defeated Elix Skipper and Christopher Daniels, and America’s Most Wanted (Chris Harris and James Storm) in a “Three-Way Tag Team” match when Stevens pinned Storm to retain the tag team titles…Michael Shane and Frankie Kazarian defeated Chris Sabin and Amazing Red when Shane pinned Red…NWA TNA X Title Match: Petey Williams pinned Sonjay Dutt to retain the title…Six-Man Tag Team Match: Three Live Kru (Konnan and BG James) and The Midnight Rider (Dusty Rhodes) defeated Team Canada (Bobby Roode, Eric Young, and Johnny Devine) when Rider pinned Devine in a “Six-Man tag team” match…Contract Match: Erik Watts and Sonny Siaki defeated Alex Shelley and Abyss in a “Contract” match when Siaki pinned Shelley…Street Fight Tag Team Match: AJ Styles and Ron Killings defeated Kid Kash and Dallas in a “Street Fight Tag Team” match when Killings pinned Dallas.
Not such a great show on 8/25 the week before, however. Eric Watts returned to very little fanfare (isn’t it interesting how no one even cared when he left weeks ago) as La Parka pinning Alex Shelley in :51 with a chokeslam and freeing Sonny Siaki. As it turned out, Watts was third or fourth in line of people contacted to do this, including Jimmy Snuka, Abdullah the Butcher, and D-Lo Brown (Snuka just had surgery, Butcher can barely move at this age, and Brown is in Japan—more on that in the news). At this point, it’s not so much the organization or even execution of angles, but being able to book characters in a way that will get fans to care. Many characters within this company are failing to get over for just that way. As in with WWE, but that’s another issue. While it didn’t save the show, there were a few good promos and angles, which will help in the long run, rather than incessant Goldylocks segments. Scott D’Amore helped continue the feud between Vince Russo and Dusty Rhodes, asking Vince Russo for a decision on Rhodes. Konnan also did a strong promo on Russo, helping to buoy a seemingly useless angle. Frankie Kazarian and Michael Shane defeated La Parka and Psichosis when Shane pinned La Parka…Contract Match: “La Parka” (Erik Watts) pinned Alex Shelley in a “Contract” match…Four-Way X-Division Match: Sonjay Dutt defeated Chris Sabin, Joey Matthews, and Jason Cross in a “Four-Way X-Division” match when Dutt pinned Cross…Best of Three Series Match #3: Christopher Daniels and Elix Skipper fought to a No Contest against America’s Most Wanted (Chris Harris and James Storm) in a “Best of Three Series” match…Handicap Match: Scott D’Amore and Team Canada (Eric Young and Johnny Devine) defeated Three Live Kru (Konnan and BG James) by Reverse Decision in a “handicap” match…Six-Man Tag Team Match: Jeff Hardy, AJ Styles, and Ron Killings defeated Kid Kash, Dallas, and Monty Brown when Hardy pinned Dallas in a “Six-Man tag team” match.
9/3 Impact results:
Dark The crowd was very low due to Hurricane Frances.
*Chris Harris over Bobby Roode
*Triple X over Kazarian and Shane
Impact show *3Live Kru over Alex Shelley, Nosawa, and Abyss
*Kid Kash over Kid Romeo
*The Naturals over Shark Boy and D-Ray 3000
*Scott D’Amore over Chasyn Rance
*Monty Brown over Adam Flash
*A.J. Styles and Jeff Hardy over Onyx and Hotstuff Hernandez (the Elite Guard)
8/27 Impact results:
Dark
*3Live Kru over Michael Shane, Kid Kash, and Dallas when Ron Killings pinned Shane
*A.J. Styles over Alex Shelley
Impact show
Dusty Rhodes was at ringside in crowd. Just like the PPVs of the last several weeks, a lot of the show focused on their drama. He was suspended Wednesday. Also, Jeff Hammond’s Six Points of Impact segment was with Elliot Sadler (NASCAR driver and star of those early TNA shows). He was at Starrcade in the 1980s. This is becoming pointless. Hopefully it won’t be Toby Keith next week.
*Sudden death for #1 contendership: Chris Harris and Christopher Daniels fought to the time limit (James Storm was hospitalized due to a back injury during his match on PPV Wednesday). Zybzsko decided that it would be a three way between AMW, Triple X, and the Naturals on Wednesday for the titles.
*Amazing Red, Sonjay Dutt, and Chris Sabin over Cassidy O’Reilly (not in TNA for years), John McChesney, and “Fast” Eddie Villa
*Team Canada (Bobby Roode, Johnny Devine, Eric Young, and Petey Williams) over Rod Steel, Bruce Steele, Mikey Batts, and Jerrelle Clark. D’Amore went after Rhodes. Russo got rid of Rhodes.
*Abyss over Sonny Siaki.
*Jeff Jarrett NC “Uptown” Frankie Capone. This is my favorite jobber this week, just because of the name. That said, Jarrett simply beat him up.
*Jeff Hardy over Kazarian.
TNA Impact on 8/13 did a 0.27, and on 8/20 did a 0.21.
ROH NEWS SUMMARY: Mark Briscoe missed the Ring of Honor show due to a motorcycle accident. He was not seriously injured.
The nationally syndicated newspaper insert “Parade Magazine” ran a story on Ring of Honor, without actually mentioning the promotion by name. A youth was asked what his favorite summer job was and he said he volunteered to help promote events near Cambridge and ended up helping them getting a venue, making flyers, and getting to shoot photos from the front row.
TNA NEWS SUMMARY: Vince Russo was removed from the Mantel-Jarrett booking team about 4 weeks ago, according to Russo himself, in a letter to the Wrestling Observer. TNA officials were saying last week that Russo left the creative team much earlier. I remember about the time Russo places leaving the team, there was a Pro Wrestling Torch report that he was extremely frustrated with no longer having input in TNA booking. People of all levels within the company are saying that Dutch Mantel and Jeff Jarrett are resistant to new ideas, to the degree that no one is proposing any. Russo, however, says that there was no heat between anyone, and that he left more because of time constraints, between a business he owns in Atlanta and attending seminary school online.
David Sahadi, noted last week as being courted to help with TNA production, has been hired. Sahadi worked for multiple years with WWE, helping to greatly increase the production value of the company and did some great vignettes for them, under Kevin Dunn.
Victory Road: As far as location, the main candidates are Nashville or Fort Campbell, KY, the military base that Jimmy Hart has secured for TNA. The fort managers are all for having a show there, just outside of Nashville, but it would be predicated on if it is needed for war-related reasons… Monty Brown vs. Jeff Jarrett is tentatively scheduled as the main event.
TNA continues to ask D-Lo Brown to alter his All Japan commitments so he can come in for TNA shows, but he is refusing to change them. They have had plans for him for weeks.
Alex Wipper, one of our newest writers, dedicated a part of his most recent TFP column to the build towards Victory Road. You can read it at http://www.thebalrogslair.com/opinions/tfp/2004/0825.shtml
That’s all for this week, thanks for reading and letting me get caught up with all this news. As an in-house note, this would be the week to email suggestions about how you would like to see TNA covered as they switch to a weekly-TV format.
Matchmaker
Trevor Hunnicutt
THunnicutt@aol.com
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