NWA TNA 7-2-03

Been converting tapes for like, the last seven hundred years, and right now I'm getting into a bulk of NWA TNA shows. Most of these are from 2003, which is a pretty weird period in a company full of weird/bad periods. Russo's booking and managing AJ Styles to the world title, despite making AJ look incredibly short, Jeff Jarrett is a crazy babyface, and TNA was just finishing up running not one, but TWO whacky tournaments. Let's explain:

First there was the Asylum Alliance Tag Tournament, so under the rader Prowrestlinghistory.com doesn't acknowledge it, but here was the idea: Russo loves the Lethal Lottery concept and since TNA at the start of 2003 had Sports Entertainment Extreme, The Extreme Revolution, the New Church, TNA, among other fun groups of grapplers. So there were things like Chris Sabin of SEX teaming with Chris Harris, and Jerry Lynn teaming with Justin Credible. And David Young teaming with Tracy, and Ron Killings teaming with Don Harris...ok so pretty much it was an excuse for Russo to do all his favorite storylines at one time: Fueding partners, mismatched teams, men and women wrestling or wrestling together, and racial tension. And the end of the whole shebang? Of course, America's Most Wanted reformed and LOST to Tripple X. So nothing came from it, and nothing was accomplished, and no one was entertained. It's like TNA's mantra.

Then there was the Hard Ten tournament, a bastard child of the ill-fated Dupp Cupp, which was someone's idea involving hardcore matches with POINTS. 5 points for a table spot, 1 for a weapons shot's, first to 10 wins, BUT you have half to win by 2, cause I know w hen I watch wrestling, I really want to bother with number stats. But it was an odd tournament which featured GANGREL and Devon Storm making TNA cameos, and a finals of New Jack vs Sandman, which HEY, is on this show:

-Show starts off with Shane Douglas, pissed off at Raven and recently alligned with The New Church because um, he worships Satan. Shane explains he hates Raven because Raven loves the NWA Title, and that title is like Shane's mortal enemy, mostly because he couldn't have it when it was worth something. CM Punk comes down to take Raven's place in the horribly named "Clockwork Orange House of Fun Match", which SHOULD have both wrestlers fighting with their eyes held open (What a great time for a powder spot!), but alas, just has weapons. yep, weapons on a show with the Hardcore Tournament final, TNA are kings of overkill. Match was pretty good as Punk and Douglas kept wrestling while mixing in a bit of chairs and what not. The Rules of the COHOF match used to be you had to throw someone off the balcony through a table, but they dropped that quickly. Douglas gave Punk a nice amount of offense before winning after a knux shot and a belly to belly. Suprisingly fun.

-Then a lot more stuff happened, Russo had a crappy promo w/ Jarrett which involved Joe E. Legend debuting. Legend wrestled as Just Joe in WWE, pretty much being a HEAt and JAKKED SUPERSTAR, playing the gimmick of a backstage snitch. Oh well, he worked WWA too and i think people were into him in the same way people are into Ken Kenndy, he apparently cuts long dramatic great promos, I dontk now. He owns Jarrett as Teney puts him over as a threat, which is what they should do , no matter what I think of the guy. He seems generic as heck, oh well, people say that about Jarrett at first glance I think.

-Then AMW wrestled David Young and Sonny Siaki, and it was exactly the match you expect it to be...comeon, close your eyes and picture it, there's the match.

-Now we have Kid Kash in the back, talking to someone unseen....ah, Abyss has just debuted and Kash is naming him, that's cute, like a neopet or something. Eric Watts, who had a bizzare TNA run not once, but twice, shows up and its him vs Abyss. I think late career E. Watt's is a gulity pleasure of mine, he bulked up a bit and changed his gear, and looks like tool, but he improved to passable, and for Eric, that is amazing.

Ok, so now I have company over and it's hard to recap and blog with wrestling muted and people talking. Anway, I have a million more tapes of this stuff, so stayed tuned

Wrestlemania 23

Whoa, wrestling blogging after too many months away, Just wanted to post a few thoughts after watching a bit of Mania. BTW, my gf asked to watched with, it was the greatest moment in the history of men and women being in love.

-Money in the Bank: This was fun, yet, felt short. NOT that I am asking they do seven or eight more insane spots, far from it, but the sectioning of the match (pre and post Jeff Hardy crotch attack spot) are very obvious. My gf is amused by Jeff's character of "guy who could win but decides to do something stupid". Who approved the Kennedy-Hornswoggle bump? It was quite the sight, and an EXTREME call back to King Kong Budy demolishing Little Beaver at WM3, sadly JR and the King didn't notice that. The Booker-Matt Hardy-Sharmell bit was very nice and brought a third dimension to booker's character, which, while awesome, has been a little one or two note since becomming King Bookah! Get well Booker, I await a face turn. Overall, a very good opener, some nice detail (I loved Booker just about hitting his "Tell me..." catchphrase after pulling out the step ladder), and a bit of drama, both wife and briefcase based, bravo

-Kane vs Khali: now THIS is professional wrestling: two men who look like no other job on planet earth would suit them, fighting to see who is the toughest. No, I understand, this match was not good, but it honestly wasn't half as bad as it could have been. On a normal show, in a smaller building, where they would probably give them too much time, it could be dreadful, but Maina is more spectical than anything else, and this match had it in spades. And the slam was pretty great, I have no idea how they thought Hogan could do that...hell, and the end of the day, that could be half the reason Vince didn't fight hard to get Hulk on the show and just said "screw you", he might have realized that slam would be physically possible. Honestly, I"m happy Kane got that moment, though i'm sure it won't get as played as Andre-Hogan,a nd it shouldn't, it's an amazing highlight for him, and he's earned it.

so that's it, plan to watch Taker-DAVE tomorrow and probably a few more things. Later