My TNA Monthly Catch-up, Aug - Sept 06

Before I get started a few things. TNA still can't get it timings right and still go to commercial in the middle of matches. Can't they do this during backstage interviews? Plus they have to stop calling samoa joe undefeated because he isn't. a loss is a loss, this pinfall/submission only b**ls**t is exactly that. joe is defeated, get the f**k over it TNA. Anyway, now here's the highlights of the last 6 weeks.

17th aug 06 - daniels & styles get beat down by LAX, Naturals win a title shot, Killings jobs to joe & their still calling him undefeated in 14 months (B**LS**T! wot about the belt lost to senshi?), jarrett dares sting to put his career on the line for a title shot.

24th aug 96 - christian cage comes to the ring and bores us. rhyno sells a c**p chair shot.
zybsco's wigs get worse. sting puts his career on the line, jarrett promises a public execution, LAX meet styles & daniels in a border war title match, konnan cheats LAX to the win.

31st aug 06 - LAX come out & bore us. Sharkboy jobs to eric young, christians c**p heel turn continues, runt Vs abyss in the 10,000 thumbtack match (how was this not held back for a ppv? answer = worst ending EVER!) - raven puts abyss thru 2 tables of thumbtacks, jarretts execution is 3 guys dressed like PIRA (google those initials, ok?) and the public execution of stings career. nice word play jeff. the impact zone show what marks they are. cornette tells jarrett he's taking a polygraph.

7th sep 06 - LAX try a warm-up match against jobber nobodies (the mack brothers). the james gang run with sharkboy & norman smiley against amw, maverick matt & kazarian. gail kim cheats them to a win. jarretts polygraph (was he SMOKING a cigarette on Tv?). heel cage v killings in a very even match. rhyno bores us on the mike. jarret fails the polygraph, cornette
makes a fans revenge lumberjack match against samoa joe at the no surrender ppv.

14th sep 06- styles & daniels go against maverick matt & kazarian. raven v abyss in a hangman match (another ppv style match with a poor finish). cornette reinstates earl hebner as a ref, cornette hikes up samoa joes unbeaten run to 18 months (it was 14 months mere weeks ago, and it's still B**LS**T - senshi took the x division belt from him). I'm assuming the female "fan" jarrett knocked down was some jobber.

21st sep 06- jarretts bores us on the mike bleating about how he's a victim, issues an open challenge and samoa joe comes out. jarrett hip tosses a male "fan" over the railings (yet another jobber, no doubt). norman smiley jobs to eric young who's obviously getting a push now. monty brown v rhyno in a falls count anywhere match, cage interferes and gives yet another s**t chair
shot to rhyno. bobby roode speaks to sensational sherri in another of his series to scout managers. LAX bore us on the mike, styles beomes a pinyata. and despite having the ultimate x ropes up for over 3 weeks of taping we saw no such matches take place.

No Surrender PPV 24th sep 06 - eric young v A1, A1 jobs in EY's continued push.
petey williams v jay lethal. wlliams jobs & i hope the Jackass people paid jay lethal & his guys a lot to pull all that jackass style b**ls**t over the last few weeks.

Abyss vs Brother Runt vs raven in a no dq match. abyss wins, no shock there.

Tag battle royal - amw, the naturals, the paparazzis, sharkboy & norman smiley, kazarian & maverick matt, ron killings & lance hoyt, diamonds in the rough and the james gang. (who put out who) - norman smiley by elix skipper, elix skipper by lance hoyt, lance hoyt by kazarian, jonny devine by truth, sharkboy by alex shelly chase stevens by maverick matt, maverick matt by truth, david young by truth, truth by alex shelley, bg james by alex shelley, kazarian by maverick matt from the outside, alex shelley by kip james, james storm by kip james, chris harris by kip james (who cheated his way back in cuz the refs never saw him touch the floor due to a fight on the ramp), kip james by chris harris (illegally).

amw v the naturals tag match (right after the battle royal). naturals win after help from the james gang.

x division championship. sabin vs senshi. sabin tries to pull some b**ls**t jackass stunt but senshi wins.

christian v rhyno - an over-long match that was pretty even. cage wins off an unprettier off a chair behind the refs back.

interview with styles & daniels (who shows no sign of the 2 head cuts he recently got).

Ultimate x tag championship match - styles & daniels V LAX. daniels takes the win for his team. awesome match, specially the angels wings thru a table.

Fans Revenge Lumberjack match - jarrett Vs samoa joe (non title contest). jarrett padded himself up in as many layers of clothes as possible for this. (i counted 3 layers in total) we saw the female "fan" in pink and the black male "fan" in yellow that jarrett had hit over the last 2 weeks (definately jobbers, as most likely were the rest of the lumberjacks). the cameramen in
a very in a very bad position to show how fake the stroke into the guitar was. joe wins off a musclebuster (and jarrett was strapped 7 separate occasions by the fans).

cornettes announcement #1 - impact goes prime time on november 16th.
cornettes announcement #2 - angle is coming to TNA. it's damn real!
(oh, and i noticed some FU cena shirts in the crowd).

My TNA Monthly Catch-up, Jul - Aug 06

Before I get started I need to say TNA need to finally sort out their running times for their Impact shows and stop taking breaks during matches. It's very unprofessional and lets them down a lot. Does WWE take ad breaks mid-match?

20th jul - Team 3d take a holiday, leaving Brother Runt to his own devices.

27th jul - TNA announcers have memory loss, AGAIN!. And continue to announce Samoa Joe as undefeated. Which he isn't. He LOST the X-division belt to Senshi over a month ago. So he's defeated. They have to get that FACT into your thick skulls. Lost belt = defeated, ok?
Here, read these 2 bits of information.

From Wikipedia:- on the x division belt succession.
Samoa Joe 2 April 10, 2006 Orlando, Florida Singles iMPACT!.
Senshi 2 June 19, 2006 Orlando, Florida Three-Way iMPACT! (see, Joe lost the belt. Defeated)

From Wikipedia:- On Joe's TNA streak.
Although in TNA he has lost two triple threat matches, a four-way match, a battle royal and an Ultimate X match, none of these have ever been won by pinning Joe or by making Joe submit and thus Joe is still referred to as being undefeated in his TNA career.

(a total of 5, count them FIVE matches where he has lost then. Hardly undefeated if he lost 5 matches, is he?)

3rd Aug - Samoa Joe also still thinks he's undefeated as well. short memory, eh? Loved the emegency meeting by the way.

10th Aug - Rhyno shows why you should pay attention, t**t.

Larry Z shows why men shouldnt wear wigs.
LAX are becoming the new Team Canada, #1 Tag team heels.
Runt goes super high flying. Cornette becomes an announcer.

13th Aug - PPV Pre-show. Hemme looking fierce!

Killings demoted from PPV status.

The Sting story is reshown despite the fact that it was shown on the 10th? WTF?

13th Aug - Hard Justice PPV 06 - I think the "fire" during the Eric Young/Jonny Devine was a work, they didn't evacuate right away or kill the tv feed so it wasn't real.

The 4-way tag match. How did Maverick Matt & Kazarian get into that? They are unknowns. Were they filling in because Team 3D are off eleswhere?

How many times did they run that Sting promo because of "technical difficulties"?

Kevin Nash unable to work due to a neck injury, no doubt inflicting whilst bending over to tie his shoelaces.

Runt went back to the oldschool tie dye, shades of ECW days.

They complained about losing time to the fire but they still found time to have pre-match interviews & flashback promo's. B**ls**t. If time was so tight why didnt they drop the Gail Kim/Sirrelda match? Every single match had either an interview or flashback promo before it (sometimes both) so they obviously didn't care about time or they'd have cut back on them as well. The tag belt match was too long by about 15 mins at least.
The Sting/Jarrett match ended in a predicable heel turn by Christian Cage.

My TNA Catch-up, Against All Odds PPV 06

In the main event who was more afraid? Jarrett afraid of Christian? or Christian afraid of Jarrett? There were numerous truly awful NO-SELL moments. Jeff Irish whipping Christian into the announce table. total no sell by Cage. jeff double leg boosting cage into the turnbuckle and cage hitting jeffs crotch. no sell by both of them.

the match looked like neither man was match fit, or both had suffered a bad experience at the hands of the other and was worried the other man was going to work stiffly. the match looked really dire. the audience invading the ring was a nice touch. it didnt really look totally scripted, not! sad that half the matches on the card made cage and jarrett look like rank beginners. nice of TNA to let us know where the whole Hebner angle was going.

sting at the next ppv to win the belt i guess, dropping it to monty brown at a house show.

My TNA Monthly Catch-up, Apr - May 05

Impact 29th Apr 05

This was the 1st TNA I bought, back when TNA was still part of the NWA and being aired on the Fox Sports Network, matches had 10 minute time limits and Dusty Rhodes was Director Of Authority. Matches that didn't have a winner after 10 minutes were thrown to an outside judge to call a winner, normally Larry Zbyszko.

Petey Williams vs Shocker. Team Canada still existed & TNA was more about action, Shocker got the win after Williams was on top for the whole match.

Buck Quartermain vs Sonjay Dutt. This seemed like a pointless squash match on the face of it, Quartermain bumped & sold well. Dutt took the eventual win.

Mikey Batts vs The Outlaw (Billy Gunn) - Outlaw got the win, 3 Live Kru (3LK) come out & Konnan challenges The Outlaw.

Tag Championship Match - The Naturals vs America's Most Wanted (AMW). This had a 30 minute time limit, Chase Stevens & Andy Douglas are The Naturals, Chris Harris & James Storm are AMW. The Naturals took the win after their manager Chris Candido interfered.

Impact 6th May 05

Cassidy Riley vs Abyss. There was only ever going to be 1 winner in this squash match, predictably enough Abyss won off The Black Hole Slam.

Sonjay Dutt vs Shocker. A decent match watched by the Champ Chris Daniels, Shocker took the eventual win but Dutt had a decent match.

The Outlaw vs Konnan - This was Konnan on top until Outlaw beaned Konnan with a chair outside the ring, Ron Killings & BG James came out to stop any more of a beatdown but this had no finish or decision.

Chris Sabin (with Traci) vs Michael Shane (with Trinity)- This one also had a 30 minute time limit, Sabin's handstand snap headscissors was amazing. Sabin took the eventual win off a side roll but both guys had a great match.

Impact 13th May 05

4 Way Elimination Match - Elix Skipper vs Eric Young vs Jeff Hardy vs Christopher Daniels. I had to wait until the helpful graphic telling us what type of match it was popped up as we totally couldn't hear the ring announcer over West & Tenay. Hardy was snatched out of the match by Raven (his opponant for the upcoming PPV) & the ref counted him out. Daniels kept Skipper & Young at bay, Skipper made it back in eventually & was on top with a good run. Skipper eliminated Young off Sudden Death which got him the win, Daniels missed getting his pin by a second although the decision was overturned & it was deemed a draw.

10 Man Gauntlet Match - This was started off with Michael Shane vs Chris Sabin and Sabins head was taped after last weeks match. This whole match is a 30 minute time limit with a new person entering the ring every 30 seconds. Next in was Bobby Roode closely followed by Petey Williams then David Young who eliminated Roode. Next in was Trytan who eliminated David Young & Michael Shane. Next in was A1 from Team Canada as Trytan eliminated Petey Williams & the next guy in was Lance Hoyt followed by Abyss as Hoyt eliminated Trytan. The final guy in was Apolo as Abyss eliminated A1, they took a break but luckily no-one went out during that but Abyss eliminated Apolo by ducking a clothesline. Sabin was eliminated by Abyss and Abyss eventually pinned Lance Hoyt off The Black Hole Slam to take the win earning the spot as the 20th entrant into the PPV Gauntlet match.

Hard Justice PPV May 15th 05

The PPV starts with a ten bell salute following the recent death of Chris Candido.

Tag Match - Team Canada (Petey Williams & Eric Young) vs Apolo & Sonny Siaki (who almost twisted his ankle just walking down the entrance ramp!). Williams took the win for Team Canada after A1 interfered.

Mixed Tag Match - Michael Shane & Trinity vs Chris Sabin & Traci. A pretty good match apart from the weak twist finish where Traci crotched Sabin allowing Shane to superkick Trinity and get the pin off Sabin leaving both Sabin & Trinity betrayed by their partners.

Clockwork Orange House Of Fun Match - Raven vs Sean Waltman. Its a basic hardcore match, any weapons are legal & no DQ as falls count anywhere. Raven bladed very early & Waltman was bladed by Raven outside of the ring not much long after that. Raven struggled through a lot of blood flowing into his right eye as he'd bladed himself pretty deep, Jeff Hardy was supposed to be Raven's opponant here but no-one knew why Hardy wasn't here.

Waltman hit a nice spinning splash onto Raven through a table and took a heavy bump onto another table off the entrance ramp, overall this was a really good hardcore match with Raven taking the eventual win.

Tag Match - Monty Brown & The Outlaw vs Diamond Dallas Page & Ron "The Truth" Killings. Fair to average match that was going nowhere hence the shit run-in from Phi Delta Slam. Brown won off The Pounce on Page.

Tag Championship - America's Most Wanted vs The Naturals. The Naturals retain the title.

X Division Championship - Shocker vs Christopher Daniels. Daniels wins.

20 Man Gauntlet For The Gold - It's a number 1 contender match for the Heavyweight title, basic Battle Royale rules apply. 2 guys start and another person comes in every minute. In first was Bobby Roode and number 2 was former WWE employee Zack Gowan, the worlds only 1 legged wrestler. Next in was Eric Young & 4th in was Cassidy Riley followed next by Elix Skipper. Next in was Shark Boy and no-one had been thrown out yet although Shark Boy fixed that by eliminating Zack Gowan. Next in was A1 from Team Canada meaning they now had 3 guys in this and next in was Chris Sabin followed by Petey Williams, A1 eliminated Shark Boy to make a save on his team mate Williams and Eric Young eliminated Cassidy Riley with a nice head scissors. Next in was Sonny Siaki and Bobby Roode eliminated Elix Skipper with a stiff looking clothesline not long after that.

Next in was Lance Hoyt who eliminated Eric Young with a Gorilla Press and the next to enter was Michael Shane (running down the ramp as though he'd crapped in his tights) who was eliminated by Sabin taking himself out at the same time closely followed by the exit of Sonny Siaki at the hands of Petey Williams & Bobby Roode working together. The next guy in was a totally unknown to me Jerrell Clark who was eliminated by Petey Williams and after him was Mikey Batts who briefly teamed with Lance Hoyt until the entrance of The Outlaw who came in next and gave Batts 2 violent looking necktie slams.

Next in was Trytan as The Outlaw eliminated Mikey Batts and in after him was Ron Killings, Team Canada eliminated Trytan as he had his back turned and next in was Apolo who was quickly eliminated by The Outlaw and the penultimate guy in was BG James. Booby Roode was eliminated by Lance Hoyt who was eliminated by A1 and Roode helping outside the ring. BG & The Outlaw were working as a team and the final guy in was Abyss but for some reason the countdown timer still kept running despite the fact everyone was now in the ring.

BG James eliminated Petey Williams & The Outlaw eliminated A1 seconds later and Abyss came in and eliminated BG James & The Outlaw at the same time leaving Ron Killings and Abyss as the final 2, both guys bumped hard and sold well but Abyss took the eventual win off The Black Hole Slam to become #1 Contender for the Heavyweight title.

Heavyweight Championship Match - AJ Styles vs Jeff Jarrett. Our special guest referee is UFC star Tito Ortiz. Styles won off the Spiral Tap (a wicked looking corkscrew moonsault) & is new TNA NWA Heavyweight Champion with helpfrom Ortiz.

My TNA Archive Catch-up, 12th Nov 04

TNA was being broadcast on the Fox Sports Network, Don West & Mike Tenay are on colour.

Scott Hall, Kevin Nash & Jeff Jarrett announce they are now known as The Kings Of Wrestling.

Tag Match, 3 Live Kru (Ron Killings & BG James) vs Matthews, Kage & Static - I cant tell you any more about their opponants because West & Tenay never even talked about them so all I had was the ticker graphic saying their surnames. BG James took the win then Team Canada jumped 3LK.

6 Man International X Division Tag Match Kid Kash, Frankie Kazarian & Michael Shane (with Traci) vs Psicosis, Hector Garza & L.A Park - Kash took the win off Garza after Traci distracted him & kash smashed him in the head with a coconut.

Raven vs Monty Brown - Brown was about to hit the Pounce when Abyss jumped him so Raven got up to take advantage but Diamond Dallas Page hopped the guard rail nailing Raven with the Diamond Cutter allowing Brown to take the win.

Alex Shelley (with silly curly hair, a goatee & a bandana) vs Chris Sabin - Sabin took the win with some business with X Divsion Champ Petey Williams post match.

Tag Match, The Naturals vs AJ Styles & Jeff Hardy - Styles took the win off the Styles Clash.

My TNA Archive Catch-up, Victory Road PPV 04

X Division Gauntlet Cup 20 Man Battle Royal, Kazarian vs Sonjay Dutt kicks it off - The match works like this, 2 men start in the ring then every 60 seconds someone comes in to join them with elimination coming from going over the top rope to the floor until the last 2 where its a standard match with pinfall or submission to take the win & earn the cup. Next guy in to join them was Puma, next in was L.A Park (formerly known from WCW as La Parka), next in was Jerrelle Clark (I dont even think West or Tenay even said his name, they were just referring to him by his nickname which I had to Google), next in was Miyamoto, next in was Michael Shane (Kazarians tag partner who came down with Tracey) who was helped by Kazarian to eliminate Puma closely followed by Jerrelle Clarke & Miyamoto just as quickly.

Next in was Hector Garza, next in was Nosawa, next in was Mikey Batts, next in was an almost unrecognisable Alex Shelley who eliminated Sonjay Dutt who was closely followed out by LA Park eliminated by Kazarian, next in was Matt Sydal followed a minute later by Sonny Siaki who eliminated Nosawa & Mikey Batts a few moments later. Next in was Jason Cross followed by Shark Boy, Matt Sydal was illegally eliminated by Alex Shelly from outside the ring and next in was Psicosis followed a minute later by D-Ray 3000 (Shark Boys tag partner) although he and Shark Boy were eliminated by Sonny Siaki within moments.

Next in was Amazing Red and Alex Shelley was eliminated by Jason Cross a few seconds after that, next in was Spanky (Brian Kendrick) and the last guy to enter having earned the final slot was Chris Sabin who double teamed with Spanky and they both eliminated Sonny Siaki. Spanky eliminated Michael Shane who definately hurt himself taking a wickedly hard bump on the ringside mats and possibly a bit of the concrete too, pretty much everyone Power Suplexed Kazarian in a Mega Tower Of Doom then Psicosis eliminated Jason Cross but was eliminated himself by Amazing Red a short while later and Amazing Red was eliminated by Kazarian really quickly after that. Spanky was eliminated by Chris Sabin who was eliminated by Hector Garza leaving it as Garza vs Kazarian with Hector Garza taking the win by reversing a Side Roll.

8 Man Tag Match, The Naturals (Chase Stevens & Andy Douglas), Kid Kash & Dallas vs Erik Watts, Empire Saint Pat Kenney (aka Simon Diamond), Johnny B. Badd & Ron "The Truth" Killings - Dallas would eventually go on to change his name to Lance Hoyt, he's working for WWE currently. Truth took the win off a Double Underhook Slam off Chase Stevens.

Piritita Morgan vs Mascaritas Sagrada - Oh dear, TNA stooping to Midget Wrestling and Lucha Midgets at that. Sagrada took the win.

Scott Hall comes out to waffle on the mic.

NWA World Tag Team Title, 3 Live Kru (Konnan & BG James) vs Team Canada (Bobby Roode & Eric Young with Coach Scott D'Amore) - Konnan took the win from Roode and 3LK are new NWA Tag Champions.

Rowdy Roddy Piper comes out and does a Pipers Pit with Superfly Jimmy Snuka.

Trinity (with Glenn Gilberti & Johnny Swinger) vs Jaqueline - This wasn't a half bad match but after interferences from Swinger Trinity took the win off a Reverse Moonsault.

Monsters Ball Match, Abyss vs Raven vs Monty Brown - By the looks of it this was your basic Hardcore match, anything goes No DQ, Falls Count Anywhere. Abyss took a great Powerbomb off Raven into Thumbtacks but Monty Brown took the win after hitting The Pounce on Raven through a table. Dixie Carter was visible (looking horrified) in the audience behind the ring several times during this match.

X Division Championship, AJ Styles vs Petey Williams (with Coach Scott D'Amore) - Williams took the win off The Canadian Destroyer to retain his title.

Last Team Standing Match, Triple X (Christopher Daniels & Elix Skipper) vs AMW - AMW took the win after Chris Harris nailed Skipper with the Catatonic into a chair for the pin & Skipper was unable to answer the 10 count.

Dusty Rhodes is named Director Of Authority.

NWA World Heavyweight Championship Ladder Match, Jeff Hardy vs Jeff Jarrett - Jarrett retained the title after interference from Scott Hall then Kevin Nash in their run as The Outsiders. A run-in by AJ Styles failed to save Hardy as did run-ins from BG James, Konnan & Ron Killings leaving Hall & Nash standing tall until the music of none other than Randy Savage hit and he came in looking the same as he did in the Spiderman Movie.

My TNA Archive Catch-up, NWA-TNA PPV 3rd Mar 04

Well this one is back in the old pre Impact days when they broadcast from "The Asylum" & still had a boring square ring. This was Vince Russo's 1st run in TNA and he got a LOT more involved in front of house back then. This review will also talk about who was with the company back then, excuse any incorrect spellings as names weren't always displayed back then.

Show opens with a flashback of Russo telling Jeff Jarrett its time to pass the torch & a few other flashbacks to matches.At this time Vince Russo was "NWA Director Of Authority". Don West & Mike Tenay were doing colour.

Kevin Northcutt vs Chris Harris (with James Storm). This is clearly back when Americas Most Wanted were still over as a tagteam. Harris got the win in this average match.

10 Man Tagteam Match - Kid Kash, Micheal Shane (aka Matt Bentley then managed by a pre-implant Traci Brooks), David Young, Johnny Swinger & Glenn Gilberti (aka The Disco Inferno) vs Sonny Siaki (who would have 2nd run in TNA a few yrs later), D-lo Brown (probably fresh from WWE), Konnan, Ron Killings (with BG James back when they were the 3 Live Kru) & Simon Diamond. Another average match, Simon Diamond got the win for his team. Shame about the Russo inspired post match beatdown. The Insane Clown Posse break things up to save 3LK & friends. I never knew they'd worked in TNA.

Frankie Kazarian (aka Kaz) vs Jerry Lynn. Kaz wasn't half bad back then, Lynn was clearly at his best at that time as well. Kaz took good bumps & took the eventual win.

Raven came down and made a long speech about people he'd run out of TNA including Sinn, Slash & Father James Mitchell (under their "disciples of the new church" gimmick), Vampiro (who would come back to haunt Raven!) & CM Punk (when did he work for TNA?). Raven is eventually jumped by The Naturals (Andy Douglas & Chase Stevens) the lights go out & Sabu (in his 1st run in TNA) saves Raven.

6 man tag match (World X Cup Match?) Team Japan (Ebisan, Nosawa & Wishanbo Comet) vs Team NWA (Sonjay Dutt, Elix SKipper & Chris Sabin who was then X Divsion Champion). Excellent match from both teams. Sabin & Dutt made the pin on Nosawa.

Flashback to a match between AJ Styles & Abyss. Johhny Fairplay had Lex Luger jump Styles midmatch.

Falls Count Anywhere Match, Abyss vs AJ Styles. Now this was a decent matches both outside & inside the ring. 3 refs got "knocked out" & due to having no clue how to end it Russo sent security (Don Harris) and some of the wrestlers out. Match was thrown out as a "No Contest".

Scott D'Amore & Team Canada (Petey Williams, Teddy Hart, Johnny Devine & Jack Evans come out to bitch on the mic. Their interupted by Team Mexico (Juventude Guerrero, Mr Aguila (aka Essa Ríos), Abismo Negro & Hector Garza & a brawl ensues which is eventually broken up by Scott D'Amore.

Jeff Jarrett comes out to bitch that he isn't getting a match tonight & starts on West & Tenay. Chris Harris (stupidly) tries to stop it and gets jumped by Shane Douglas for his trouble.

Chris Harris vs Shane Douglas. Don Harris is referee as all the other refs had been "injured" previously in the show. This match was mainly Douglas on top and Harris putting him over as a heel by selling everything he was given. Harris took the eventual win after interference from both Jarrett and James Storm.

Russo wastes the last 3 minutes of the show by boring everyone on the mic.