The Best Of NWA-TNA Title Matches

BEST OF NWA-TNA TITLE MATCHES

Review by Jacob Ziegler

Introduction

First off, just so everyone knows, I am selling some of my ROH best of DVDs and a few old shows, so if you are interested please e-mail me.

Well, I have abandoned my quest to review every TNA weekly pay-per-view. It is just too daunting of a task, and with these nice, pretty, high-quality DVD’s I have, it just seemed more logical to review them. So let’s go way back in time and check out their first DVD release.

A nice little video package stars us off, featuring some of the big players in the title picture history, like Raven, AJ Styles, Jerry Lynn, Christopher Daniels, Amazing Red, Jeff Jarrett, and America’s Most Wanted, to name a few. I’ve been watching the early TNA shows on tape, and I’m really glad to be looking at a DVD again, because the quality is so much better. Mike Tenay and Don West do the honors of welcoming us. They don’t waste too much time in introducing the first match on this special DVD collection.

MATCH #1: Gauntlet For the Gold, 06.19.02

Jeff Jarrett is the first entrant, and Buff Bagwell is #2. Oh this match is clipped, thank you. I’ve seen the whole version, and it’s nothing special. In fact, it’s pretty bad. Apolo and Slash are in the ring with Jarrett, and Buff is out. More clipping occurs as Killings and some guy who looks like Scott Steiner are in there. Wow, another clip as Konnan comes out. I hate Konnan. And there’s Rick Steiner, after another clip. I refereed for Rick Steiner once, and contrary to what I had heard, he was a pretty nice guy. Malice comes in and cleans house. Idiot country singer Toby Keith comes out and suplexes Jeff Jarrett. I hate that “Angry American” song. I’m slightly liberal, in case you couldn’t tell. Holy shit, there’s Steve Corino! His ROH shoot interview is probably my favorite of the whole series, it’s very funny. It’s down to Shamrock and Malice at the end and Shamrock gets the pin with a belly-to-belly suplex. They didn’t show much, and it wasn’t very good anyway. According to prowrestlinghistory.com, this entire match ran 37:17.
Rating: *

Tenay and West start talking about how great it is to work together, while introducing our next match.

MATCH #2: Jeff Jarrett vs. Ron Killings, 11.20.02

I actually liked Killings a lot as a heel before that whole 3 Live Kru nonsense started. I’m not sure he was World Championship material, but he was very entertaining. He had a pretty successful first title reign, with defenses against Monty Brown, Jerry Lynn, Low Ki, Curt Hennig, and Scott Hall. I recall that Jarrett won a tournament to earn this title shot, though he did get to squeak past Syxx-Pac, who no-showed the week prior to this. Jarrett and BG James had the finals of the tournament instead of Jarrett’s seminal match against Pac, and Jarrett won. The Truth is the first black NWA Champion, by the way. Whoa, there’s a picture-in-picture with Jarrett explaining how it was his dream to be NWA Champion as a kid. That kind of takes away from the match; that really could be an extra feature. Yep, these two guys are having a match, and it’s pretty boring. The crowd is pretty hot for the match though. Jarrett gets busted open partway through the match, and Killings exploits that fact. Referee Scott Armstrong takes a bump as Killings and Jarrett knock each other down. Everyone’s down! Mr. Wrestling III is out. He had been terrorizing Ron Killings for the weeks prior to this show, and he continues that, hitting Truth with a guitar. Referee Armstrong is back in the ring, and despite the pieces of guitar everywhere, he counts the three and awards Jarrett the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Mr. Wrestling III reveals himself to be Vince Russo, to which Mike Tenay responds “oh shit!” I second that. The match was 17:37, again according to our friends at prowrestlinghistory.com. I’m going to use all of their match times, I’ve decided.
Rating: **

Tenay and West talk about AJ Styles and how awesome he is, since he won both the X-Division and Tag Team Titles.

MATCH #3: AJ Styles vs. Jeff Jarrett, 02.19.03

At this point, Vince Russo had joined up with AJ Styles, who was trying to win the title from Jarrett. Styles is a heel and Jarrett is a face, which is hard to imagine today. Borash calls Styles a two-time tag team champion, which is just a lie. Jarrett looks really old with that haircut. They do some nice wrestling to start off, and Jarrett can keep up with Styles early on. This is Styles’ first chance at a true World Championship. Some in the crowd are chanting for AJ, even though he is a heel. For some reason, Larry Zbyszko is out and he hits Jarrett with brass knuckles. I’m not sure what that storyline is all about, to be honest. Oh, and JJ Dillon is there to send Zbyszko to the back, I don’t remember when he was a part of TNA. Rudy Charles takes a bump, and Andrew Thomas is out to replace him. Andrew Thomas takes a bump off a monkey flip, which is kinda cool. The Harris Brothers come out and attack Jarrett, and VADER~! of all people and Dusty Rhodes come out to take out Ron and Don. AJ hit the Styles Clash but Jarrett is able to kick out. Sonny Siaki is out while Desire is distracting the referee and he hits the Siakalypse on Jarrett twice. But Styles doesn’t want to win it that way, so he gives Siaki the Styles Clash. Jarrett then hits The Stroke off the second rope to get the win at 16:04. It was pretty overbooked, but the chaos worked for me. I don’t remember liking the match this much.
Rating: ***1/2

Tenay and West talk about Raven, and the huge buildup he had for his title match. You know, hindsight being 20/20 and all, Raven really should have taken the title at this point, since he was hotter than at any other time.

MATCH #4: Raven vs. Jeff Jarrett, 04.30.03

Julio Dinero and Alexis Laree are with Raven. There’s that damn picture-in-picture again, with Jarrett talking about the buildup and drama of the match. Julio interferes early on and accidentally nails Raven with a chair. Jarrett and Raven then both hit dives to the outside of the ring. Well that’s highly irregular. Raven is already busted open. Jarrett is bloody as well. Julio and Alexis set up a table on the outside of the ring, which Jarrett avoids for now. Raven hits his drop-toehold on a chair, and the referee sees the chair in the ring as he counts two. I guess this one must be relaxed rules. Julio and Alexis keep trying to interfere, and Jarrett takes them out (Alexis takes an awesome face bump) and gives Raven a really nice enziguiri. This is one of the best Jarrett performances I’ve ever seen I think. Jarrett and Raven take turns kicking out of each other’s finishers. They go to the outside and Jarrett puts Raven through the table with an elbow drop from the second rope. Jarrett hits Raven with his own finisher, but Julio and Alexis pull the referee out, so he finally kicks them out of the arena. S.E.X. and The Disciples of the New Church are all out now, brawling on the outside of the ring. The Extreme Revolution (New Jack, Perry Saturn, The Sandman, and Justin Credible) come out and beat up Jarrett, and Jarrett gets handcuffed. Raven goes to hit Jarrett with a chair, but the lights go out and when they come back on Sabu is almost in the ring. He takes Raven and the Extreme Revolution out. We get a clip at this point, but Jarrett is still handcuffed so it couldn’t have cut out that much. Raven hits himself with the steel chair accidentally and Jarrett gets a very near-fall. That would have been a neat finish. Bill Behrens brings down a key for the cuffs, and Jarrett is finally free. He gets a simple Stroke to get the win at 17:33. This overbooking was a little much for my liking, but it was still a pretty good match. Dusty Rhodes comes out and shakes Jarrett’s hand and generally tries to steal the spotlight. Dusty is an idiot, by the way.
Rating: ***1/4

The next match will be a combination of the last two, as Jarrett will defend against both Styles and Raven in a three-way match.

MATCH #5: Raven vs. AJ Styles vs. Jeff Jarrett, 06.11.03

Tenay mentions the “champion’s advantage,” but since titles can change hands via countout or disqualification in TNA, I have no idea what he’s talking about. They do some typical three-way stuff to start out, and eventually they go outside the ring. AJ hits a wicked no-hands tope to the outside onto both guys. The steel steps come into play as both AJ and Raven jump off them to deliver attacks. Back in the ring they do some cool stuff and Raven reverses a Jarrett enziguiri into an STF, which is pretty neat looking. AJ introduces a chair into the match, and I guess there are no DQ’s in this one. Tenay confirms my suspicions there. The picture-in-picture returns, this time with AJ Styles, who has the title at this point. Man, if I didn’t know the result of this match I would be pissed. Raven hits the Raven Effect on Jarrett, but SHANE DOUGLAS pulls Raven off. This was Douglas’s first appearance in TNA. Back in the ring AJ hits an awesome frog splash for two, D-Lo Brown style. There’s AJ doing the picture-in-picture again. AJ goes for the Styles Clash, but Jarrett reverses, taking the referee out and hitting his second Alabama Slam of the evening. AJ goes for a beautiful springboard 450 Splash, but Jarrett gets his knees up. Vince Russo is out, and looks to hit AJ with the guitar but hits Jarrett instead. Crowd pops huge for that. One Styles Clash later, and AJ wins his first World Championship at 13:59. Russo of course tries to steal the heat by kissing the title and celebrating with AJ. Minus a bit for the finish, but that was still a really good three-way.
Rating: ***3/4

With AJ Styles as the new champion, he had to take on a new challenger, a man he had tag teamed with, D-Lo Brown. They had a best-of-three series on July 23, with AJ taking the first match (pinfalls only), and D-Lo winning the second (submissions only). The third fall would be a ladder match, and that is the match presented on this DVD.

MATCH #6: Ladder Match – D-Lo Brown vs. AJ Styles, 07.23.03

They make a slight gaffe here, as the intro to the match that played at the end of Disc 1 is also here on Disc 2. It’s a forgivable offense. This is for the NWA Title, naturally. This is their third fall of the night, so I imagine fatigue might factor into this match-up. I don’t remember when Trinity was accompanying AJ to the ring, but there she is. Russo is barred from ringside. Apparently D-Lo is undefeated in ladder matches in his career. Russo is peeking through the bars from backstage. Seriously, what is this guy’s infatuation with being on camera? D-Lo and AJ are having a decent little match here. AJ comes on picture-in-picture to talk about how great he and D-Lo’s tag matches were. AJ is just brutalizing D-Lo with the ladder and a steel chair. The crowd is pretty quiet for some reason. D-Lo turns the tables by putting AJ on a table outside the ring and hitting a huge ‘Lo Down from the top of the ladder through the table. That was neat. Don West of course declares AJ legally dead. D-Lo has some trouble climbing the ladder, allowing Sonny Siaki to interfere and push D-Lo off the ladder. Both men recover and climb the ladder and come down with the belt at the same time at 10:59. Russo runs out right away to find out what referee Rudy Charles has decided. Rudy decides that since no decisive decision was reached, AJ Styles will remain the World Champion. The finish sucked, but the match wasn’t bad. It wasn’t special either though.
Rating: ***

We move on now to the Tag Team Championship. It would have been nice to give each of the belts their own DVD, since the X-Division got their own. Plus the Best of the Bloodiest Brawls DVD sucks ass, and those were the original 3 TNA DVDs. In fact, they don’t even sell the Bloodiest Brawls disc anymore. I got mine though!

MATCH #7: America’s Most Wanted vs. Slash & Brian Lee, 01.08.03

This feud had been going on since November of 2002, when The Disciples of the New Church won the belts from James Storm & Chris Harris. This will likely be the final match between these two teams. James Mitchell and Belladonna are accompanying Slash & Lee. I love the New Church’s theme song; does anyone have it on a CD that they can burn for me? They brawl to start, as they usually did. AMW comes on the picture-in-picture, talking about how New Church was their toughest opponents, with XXX being a close second. Cookie-cutter tag match follows, as the New Church take heat on Storm. Storm nails Slash with an enziguiri, which makes him fall into the referee, which means he doesn’t see the tag to Harris. While Harris argues with the ref, Lee hits Storm with one of the Tag belts outside the ring. Yeah, it might be formula, but it works. Storm finally makes the tag and Harris is a house-a-fire! Slash gets the powder out but accidentally throws it into Lee’s eyes, and Harris gets the spear for a very near fall. Picture-in-picture is back, with Harris talking about their tag team style. Mitchell nails Harris with the spike. Lots of foreign objects are used, the referee sees some but not others and he ain’t disqualifying anybody. Belladonna’s ass is quite literally hanging out of whatever it is that she’s wearing. Harris nails Mitchell on the ring apron before hitting the Death Sentence to give AMW their second NWA Tag Team Title reign at 14:15. Solid tag match but not the epic feud-ender that they were going for.
Rating: **3/4

We move on to XXX, which Don West calls a unique idea, even though it has been done numerous times since The Fabulous Freebirds did it in the ‘80s.

MATCH #8: Primetime Elix Skipper & Low Ki vs. America’s Most Wanted, 01.22.03

Low Ki looks a little goofy with hair. Of course he looks a little goofy without it too. Christopher Daniels is at ringside with his fellow Triple X members. AMW had just won the titles back two weeks prior to this from The Disciples of the New Church, Slash and Brian Lee, after a lengthy feud. Daniels is not wrestling in this match because he will be in some goofy four-way for the NWA Title later in the evening. They’re doing the ole’ cookie-cutter tag team match, and it’s working out just fine. Daniels distracts the referee, while Skipper sneaks a tag team belt in the ring and clobbers Harris with it to get the win and the titles at 15:18.
Rating: ***

MATCH #9: Christopher Daniels & Primetime Elix Skipper vs. Jerry Lynn & Amazing Red, 04.16.03

Daniels & Low Ki are technically the champions at this point, but Daniels is defending them with Skipper instead. Last week Red & Jerry Lynn won a four-way match to earn this shot, and interestingly enough, that match will lead to a one-one-one match between them next week to decide who gets an X-Division Title shot. Title shots ahoy! Lynn is one of my favorite guys I’ve ever refereed for. All four of these guys are ON tonight, hitting all the spots crisply. Daniels and Lynn are two guys who are nearly incapable of having bad matches with anyone, and Red and Skipper make good complimentary tag team partners. Wow, Red and Lynn hit a picture-perfect Springboard Doomsday Hurricanrana for a near-fall. A masked Luchadore comes out and takes Red out. My mind is drawing a blank on who that is and what the story behind that is. Lynn is taking a beating outside the ring since he has no partner to save him. Skipper holds Lynn up as Daniels is on the top rope, but Lynn reverses it, slingshots Skipper into Daniels, and gets a rollup on Skipper to win the titles for himself and Red at 14:15. That was just an awesomely executed tag team match-up.
Rating: ****

MATCH #10: Christopher Daniels & Primetime Elix Skipper vs. AJ Styles & D-Lo Brown, 05.14.03

AJ Styles and D-Lo Brown are doing their mentor-student relationship here. They’re getting a tag team title shot because they won three straight matches as a team. Low Ki is on the outside of the ring to help his Triple X brothers. Glenn Gilberti comes out at the end of the match to knock out Styles and Triple X retain at 8:54. That was pretty short and underwhelming, but not bad or anything.
Rating: **1/2

MATCH #11: Steel Cage Match – America’s Most Wanted vs. Christopher Daniels & Primetime Elix Skipper

This is the first-ever cage match in TNA history. Triple X is 4-0 against AMW, but all the wins came from outside interference. This is from TNA’s first anniversary show, back when they were still doing the weekly pay-per-views. This match got all kinds of hype when it happened; let’s see how well it holds up. Chris Harris pops up on the picture-in-picture and says that this was the bloodiest match he’s ever been in. And it does get pretty bloody fairly quickly. Harris gets beat on for a while before Storm gets the hot tag. Then he comes on the PIP and talks about his feelings on the match. Daniels and Skipper do some great double-teaming, as Tenay informs us that this is Skipper’s first cage match ever and only Daniels’s second. On that note, this is only the third cage match for Harris & Storm. Things start to get crazy and Skipper hits a huge cross body from the top of the cage. That looked pretty. Skipper then gets knocked out of the cage, leaving Daniels to fend for himself. That’s pretty cool, given how Triple X always beat AMW by having a numbers advantage. Harris messes up the Death Sentence, and Daniels kicks out. Skipper keeps getting knocked down every time he tries to get back in. Harris goes WAY UP to the top of the cage for the Death Sentence, the win, and the tag team titles for a third time at 17:49. That was a great tag team match and the cage was a great way for AMW to finally get their revenge on Triple X. This was definitely the TNA match of the year in 2003.
Rating: ****1/4

Tenay and West wrap it up, as Don West puts over the Jarrett versus Styles and Jarrett versus Raven matches. The plug the other two DVDs (Best of X-Division and Best of Bloodiest Brawls), and bid us farewell.

The 411: This is a pretty good summation of the World and Tag Team Title pictures in the first year of TNA. The cage match is a great way to end the disc, and the Jerry Lynn & Amazing Red versus Triple X match is a great one out of nowhere. This gets a solid recommendation.
Final Score:  7.5   [ Good ]