Welcome back to ringside everyone. Big week in TNA as they wrapped up their 3rd year and started their 4th.
Slammiversary Recap
*Zach Gowen vs. Delirious vs. Jerrelle Clark vs. Shark Boy vs. Prime Time vs. Amazing Red: Shark Boy won this in a pretty decent contest. A lot of spots as you would expect.
*Alex Shelley vs. Shocker: Shocker won with a roll up. Another decent bout but I would have liked to see Shelley go over with him returning and all.
*The Outlaw vs. The Truth: Killings won this with a roll up. TNA once again refuses to pull the trigger on re-uniting the New Age Outlaws. We know it’s coming, just fo it already.
*The Naturals (c) vs. Eric Young & Petey Williams (w/ A1 & D’Amore) – NWA Tag Team Titles: Naturals win this when they use a megaphone. JIMMY HART!!!!!!!!!!! Good to see Jimmy back in what should be a good role for him.
*Sonjay Dutt vs. Samoa Joe: Joe wins with a rear naked choke. Another decent contest to hold a fans attention. We all knew Joe was going over here.
*Bobby Roode vs. Lance Hoyt: Hoyt wins with a lariat. Hoyt is so over it’s crazy. Maybe TNA should sign Test and have the two feud.
*America’s Most Wanted vs. BG James & Konnan: AMW win with the death sentence. More NAO teasing, it’s really getting old now
*Christopher Daniels (c) vs. Michael Shane (w/ Traci) vs. Chris Sabin (w/ Trinity) – X Title: Daniels wins with the angels wings. Another good match as you expect from these 3. I hope Daniels keeps the title for a long time he’s always fun to watch.
*AJ Styles (c) vs. Monty Brown vs. Sean Waltman vs. Abyss vs. Raven – King of the Mountain – NWA Title: Raven replaced Jarrett in this one and he wins this one. I was lost during this match, it’s kind of confusing. I guess it’s a typical TNA gimmick match.
To read a full report of the PPV click here. PK has ya covered
Ravens Title Win
Here on our reader forums I posted the following short comment about Ravens win. “I dont mind that Raven is the champ but I just hate that they put the title on AJ and take it off a month later. AJ is NOT Randy Orton.”
I stick by that statement. Raven deserves to be the champ, he’s been with the company since early 2003. He is about the only person in the company that has a personality. We all know Raven as the sadistic guy with the dark interviews who always ends them with “quote to Raven, nevermore.” We know Raven because he’s been with everyone major company in his career. I like Raven, he deserves the TNA World Title. Raven has had to put up with some shit since TNA went to the 3 hour PPVs. He was in some stupid “Monsters Ball” match. He jobbed to Erik Watts, Diamond Dallas Page, Dustin Rhodes, and Jeff Hardy. He had to deal with Hardy no showing and faced Sean Waltman instead. Was he supposed to be in the King Of The Mountain match? No. Was he the best possible replacement? Yes. Raven was the benefactor of Jarrett “assaulting a fan.” They let Raven take advantage of that. Congrats to Raven.
Now with AJ Styles, it’s a different story. When people think of TNA they think of AJ Styles. AJ Styles has been with TNA since day one. The fans want to see AJ Styles. There’s a reason that the fans have voted AJ “Mr. TNA” for two straight years now. It’s not because they hate everyone else. It’s because AJ is the best worker and the most exciting worker in TNA. Every time AJ gets in the ring, you know you’re about to see a good match. TNA seemed to trust AJ at first. On the 2nd TNA PPV, in the 4 Way Dance match, who won the first ever X Division Title? AJ Styles. There was a household name like Jerry Lynn in that match, but TNA trusted AJ Styles enough to put the title on him. At Victory Road, when the Kings of Wrestling threw out the open challenge to anyone in the back, AJ Styles answered it. AJ carried the 6 Man Match at Turning Point. He won my favorite TNA match at Final Resolution. He won an awesome Iron Man Match at Against All Odds. He beat Abyss inside a steel cage to earn a World Title shot at Lockdown. AJ is the backbone of TNA.
TNA let AJ keep the title for one month, one damn month. Question is, was it really a month? Think about it, he won the title at Hard Justice, then a week or two later, TNA was off FSN and without a TV timeslot. AJ Styles never got a chance to showcase his talent as World Champion. Jeff Jarrett was on TV week after week after week with the World Title during his 9 months. AJ was on TV twice. He had an interview interrupted and he won a tag team match. So if you want to think about it in “wrestling terms”, he only had the title for 2 weeks. To me, you don’t know how well a World Champion draws unless they have had the title for 3 months. After 3 months, if butyrates and attendance and what not are down, he’s not ready to be the champ. AJ had the belt for 2 whole weeks.
Another question, why build up what you plan to quickly tear down? I’ll use an everyday example. Why buy a Lego set, build it in an hour or so, and then destroy it the next day? That’s what they did with AJ it seems like. They put together this great video package of him before Hard Justice, building him into the next champ. I’m starting to question TNA and the video packages they put together. Let’s look at Trytan. They sold the hell out of him for months, he debuted, was more or less squashed, and hasn’t really been heard from since. They put together an awesome video package on AJ Styles and then killed it off after a month. WWF put together a video package like that a while back with Shawn Michaels. They built him as trying to achieve the “boyhood dream.” He achieved that at Wrestlemania 12. He didn’t drop it to Diesel the next month, he dropped it to Psycho Sid in November. AJ should be World Champion right now, not Raven.
Finally, why won’t they let AJ Styles be AJ Styles? AJ Styles has been TNA World Champion three times in his career. The first time, he beat Raven and Jeff Jarrett when Vince Russo hit Jarrett with the guitar. The 2nd time he beat Jarrett, another guitar was used. The 3rd time, guest referee Tito Ortiz hit Jarrett and AJ hit the spiral tap for the win. All 3 title victories for AJ, were tainted in one way or another. Why won’t they allow AJ to go out there, put on a phenomenal match, and win the title cleanly? He’s AJ flippin’ Styles, you know he will deliver.
TNA’s Top 5 List
At Slammiversary, TNA came up with their own Top 5 best moments in their history. I don’t agree with most of them and I’ll tell you why.
#5 Greatest Moment in TNA History: AJ Styles wins the title for the first time in June 2003: Read above, the victory seemed tainted and that took a bit out of it for me.
#4 Greatest Moment in TNA History: Raven debuts in January 2003: This could have been foreshadowing. Raven debuting was a cool moment, I agree with this being in the top 5. Raven has been with the company since then even with all he’s been through. You know what you get when you have Raven
#3 Greatest Moment in TNA History: Lockdown 2005, the first ever all steel cage match: This was a dark moment to me. Did it end up being a good PPV? Yeah, it wasn’t bad. What was bad is that they killed the cage match in one night. If this is a yearly thing, it might be cool. If it’s yearly, mixed in with cage matches on other PPVs, it’s hell.
#2 Greatest Moment in TNA History: Jeff Hardy’s debut in June 2004: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HA! Jeff Hardy debuting in TNA is not one of the top 5 moments. It’s lucky if it’s top 20. Since his debut he has missed spot after spot and show after show. Abyss returning at Final Resolution and beating the hell out of Hardy, was 100 times better.
#1 Greatest Moment in TNA History: Prime Time walks the cage at Turning Point 2004: Now this thing was cool but it’s not the greatest moment in TNA History. It was a cool move that people talked about for weeks but number 1 moment? Nah
So what’s wrong with this list? Where’s the first PPV? It was a great moment when TNA pulled off their first PPV because it gave wrestling fans an alternative. Where’s Victory Road? As hard as TNA sells their “3 Hour Epic Events” you would think they would include Victory Road. To me, they went more with “Greatest Mark Moments in TNA History” more than actual greatest moments.
TNA TV
So TNA is in talks finalizing their deal with Spike TV. It seems as if the new Impact! will air late Saturday nights starting in September or October. It’s not official but it’s close.
This is decent news for TNA I think. I mean, the ratings still won’t be great because let’s face it, not many people want to watching wrestling on a Saturday night. If I don’t watch it though, I will tape it. It will either air against Velocity or before Velocity which means TNA can compete with WWE slowly but surely.
Until then TNA will air all the episodes of Impact! on TNAWrestling.Com every Friday starting today I believe. This is a real good idea because most households have the internet. I know a few people that don’t get Fox Sports Net and never caught Impact! that will change for the time being. Plus, you can download the show at anytime. FSN aired replays of Impact! but at what times? Midnight and 2 A.M. I think. Fuck that.
Plugs Around The Pulse
Might as well show love to fellow columnists so from now on, I’ll plug one column/review from each section that I enjoyed reading.
Batman Begins Review Tom N. reviews the movie turned into a game.
Auditory Assault Tom D’Errico grades Heavy Metal through half a year.
Great-ing Gimmicks of the Past David Brashear looks back at the threesome that was David Flair, Crowbar, and Daffney
The Eyes – Face The Challenges Patrick Gilchriest looks at Survivor challenges
Spider-Man: Breakout 3 Ben Nagy reviews the comic
Cheat Heat: The Show Is Over Daniels takes a look back at the career of Mike Tyson
NFL Series 11 PK previews the new NFL figures line up
Herbie: Fully Loaded Review Scott Sawitz reviews Lindsay Lohan’s latest flick
The C-Cup
NOT ONE TNA MEMORY! Everyone thinks it’s gonna die…or everyone hates me.
*Best Slammiversary moment: Give me something good people.
That’s it for this week everyone. I never got in talks with Campbell about the joint column. Hit me with an e-mail Campbell. Everyone can drop me a line at AMPLine4Life@aol.com and join me next time At Ringside.
