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