The Furious Flashbacks – The History of TNA Year 1

The Furious Flashbacks – The History of TNA Year 1

Back when someone leaving the WWE and joining TNA was both new and exciting and welcome

I actually used to watch and recap TNA in 2002. I covered the first six months for another website. That was an interesting time where the X division really stood out and Vince Russo hadn’t ruined the storylines yet. The disc is split into two sections; the story and the matches. Here we go…

THE STORY

June 19th 2002. TNA’s first show. We get some sound checks and Don West says the segments were juggled at the last minute. Also the ring crew were still fixing the ring moments before they went on the air.

The Summer of No Worries

Jeff Jarrett refers to Summer 2001 as that because he was still being paid by WCW and wasn’t allowed to wrestle. After that he went on tour in Australia and considered his options. Bob Ryder talks about going fishing with the Jarrett’s and Ryder pitched the idea of a wrestling company with no TV show. We see clips from the first show where country singer Toby Keith got into it with Jeff Jarrett and cost him the NWA title.

The Genesis of TNA

Jarrett talks about the planning. Ron Harris was the first guy TNA hired. Not a great way to start. Jarrett says it was tough selling people on it, especially investors. Jeremy Borash says that the crew was small and they were all doing multiple jobs. Mike Tenay says the weekly PPV’s didn’t make him optimistic but it worked. Jarrett felt it worked because of the episodic nature of wrestling. We get a clip of Ken Shamrock winning the NWA title. At the time the only big names they had were Shamrock, Jarrett and Scott Hall.

Building the Roster

Bob Ryder talks about going to a show in Nashville to get the announcers to do a run through. Chris Harris & James Storm stole the show and both got hired. So did Abyss. James Storm tells the story about how Bob Ryder offered them a deal right after the match. Don West talks about how he didn’t know what to do on that first show and thought it was terrible. We get a clip of AJ Styles & Jerry Lynn winning the tag titles.

The First Show

Jarrett talks about the lighting and the stage and how things weren’t working. Ryder talks about the flights being a problem and people were constantly calling and he was in charge of travel. He also mentions how many ex-WCW production staff were involved. Borash says the fans were chanting “TNA” as soon as he got in the ring, which is when it struck him how easy it was to chant the letters they’d picked. Don West says he had a panic attack because he was so nervous. Tenay mentions how they flipped the running order because of the ring being fucked. The Harris Brothers tied the ring together using lighting cables. AJ says the ropes broke in a dark match and if they’d not been fixed the opening match would have sucked. Jarrett blames Cheex (a super-fat 450lb black man) for breaking the ring. The Harris Brothers got the ring fixed seconds before the opening match was due to start. We throw to another clip; this time with Jarrett getting into it with the Tennessee Titans.

Will TNA Last?

Jarrett says you’ll never known if you’ll hit a home run unless you go up to bat. Tenay puts over the X division and the in-ring talent. Borash thought it’d work from the start. AJ mentions the rumours that the company would go under but 6 months later it was still there so he just focused on his own performance. BG James says he figured it wouldn’t make it past a year. Elix said on his first show he was told the company would be out of business in 2 weeks. We get clips of Ron Killings winning the NWA title. That sent out a message that you could win a world title in TNA without being a big name. You could earn a main event slot.

The Carter Family

Dixie Carter mentions how she knew Jeff Jarrett from Dallas where they lived next door to each other but hadn’t seen him in years. Dixie mentions watching the Von Erich’s on TV but she was out of the wrestling loop. When they had their first meeting she was impressed with TNA’s quality and organisation. Jarrett says TNA was broke and needed Panda Energy or they’d have gone out of business. He felt they would be ok because they’d been successful and shown they could produce quality shows. Dixie took TNA to Panda Energy, her family’s company, and they invested in it. “Where there’s a WWE there needs to be a TNA”. Dixie says TNA has been written off constantly and how the company would be out of business soon. She thanks the talent for being the alternative to WWE. She goes on to complain about production values and how shitty the arena was when Panda took over. She spray painted the bleachers herself. Another clip with AMW winning the tag titles from the Harris Brothers. James Storm looks SO young.

Rise of the X Division

Elix talks about how the X division was a way to get noticed. Ryder talks about AJ Styles being the future and the first guy they went after. Don West says every time the X guys went out there they stole the show. He says he found the X matches easiest to call because he didn’t have to feign any excitement. Andrew Thomas mentions the piledriver off the ladder in the triple ladder match (AJ-Lynn-Ki) and he thought Ki was dead. Daniels feels the X division was the first time cruiserweights got the spotlight put on them. They were main events. Even in WCW where they had a great cruiserweight division they were always an opening match; an undercard attraction. We get another clip with a bloody Jeff Jarrett beating Ron Killings for the NWA title. Aided by Mr Wrestling III who reveals himself to be Vince Russo in a ‘holy shit’ moment.

The Tag Teams

AJ puts over America’s Most Wanted. Chris Harris didn’t want to team at the beginning but they both decided it’d be their best chance to get a push. Tenay puts over AMW Vs New Church as it got AMW over as their best team. Triple X Vs AMW was a great feud that followed. Everyone loved it. Storm says the chemistry was immense. Elix says every time a stipulation was added to their matches they got better but they were focused on putting on good matches to increase the companies image. We get some clips from that fucking brilliant cage match they had. Was that after the first year? It was on their anniversary show. Maybe it’ll be on TNA’s Year Two DVD if they ever do one. Another clip follows of Roddy Piper appearing on TNA. Thankfully the promo doesn’t air in full.

Welcome to the Asylum

The Asylum in Nashville was their third venue. It was a dump but they re-painted it and tidied the place up. Storm says the small venue made the fans rowdy and it was like ECW. Dixie says the venue was called the Asylum because everyone was crazy. She relays a story about one of the marks getting hooked by Don Harris’ heel turn. We get a clip of Jarrett-Daniels for the NWA title. Jarrett wins with the Stroke but Raven then shows up to give us TNA’s first major feud. DDTing the bloody Jarrett and stealing the belt is a great visual but I keep thinking about Jerry Lynn and how he could have saved Jarrett. They could have done an angle based on that.

Raven Vs Jeff Jarrett

Raven says the first night in the company is when you need to make an impact so he stole the title belt. Don West shills the match but especially the build up. Raven was the first guy to jump from WWE to TNA so it was a big deal. Don says they turned 1000 people away for that show and he couldn’t even get a parking space. Raven says his arrival benefitted TNA because they didn’t have any main eventers. He thinks the fans wanted him to win the title, hehe. Another clip; this one of Russo costing Jarrett the title and AJ Styles winning his first world title. Shame that jackass is in there ruining AJ’s moment but hey, AJ still got the belt.

Looking Back at Year 1

They go around everyone and get their thoughts on Year 1. They’re all positive. Daniels says that without the effort of the guys TNA wouldn’t have made it out of its first year. The feeling they had was they survived that first year and then built on it. Jarrett is left with the last word and says it was a lot of hard work.

1 hour 45 minutes run time on the documentary, which is a little bit long. It really dragged at times with repetition. Some good information but too much of it was similar info.

THE MATCHES

X title – AJ Styles v Psicosis v Low Ki v Jerry Lynn

This is so old that AJ is a plucky youngster who doesn’t even have his theme music. This is a double elimination match. Which strikes me as a little pointless but that allows a more organised 1 on 1 setup. AJ & Psicosis start. They hit stuff and kick out of it. Psicosis is mostly to blame for the spotty nature of it all and the Styles Clash gets the first pin.

Ki jumps right in there and their stuff is well drilled. They’ve probably had this match a dozen times so they have some nice counters set up. Ki counters out of the Styles Clash showing he’s been paying attention and should get a submission with the Dragon Clutch but he stupidly lets go. They break some more countering over the Phoenix Splash, which leads to a series of standing counters until AJ’s Sequence puts Ki down for 3. Bizarre pinfall that. Has it ever worked before or since?

Lynn jumps in there and hits the Cradle Piledriver. AJ is pinned.

Lynn-Psicosis and the Mexican is three seconds away from being gone. His stuff with Lynn is better although its still too spot heavy. Don West is TOTALLY overselling this btw calling it the greatest match, ever or some such hyperbole. Psicosis is fast and goes to the air a lot while Lynn relies on countering aerial moves. Like catching him with a dropkick to block the missile dropkick and the Cradle Piledriver eliminates Psicosis.

Ki-Lynn. They slow it down a bit, which for my money makes Ki the smartest guy in this thing. Lynn is smart too though and uses his size, which he rarely does against other small guys, to dominate Ki. He also uses Ki’s offence against him by countering his moves. Ki has the Cradle Piledriver scouted though and blocks it into an armbar. Lynn powers him up into a powerbomb for 2. They go for a Ki Krusher countered into a DDT, which isn’t too clean but again demonstrated Lynn’s ability to counter just about anything. Cradle Piledriver finishes. Ki is out.

AJ piles in to take advantage of Lynn being tired but Lynn counters the Styles Clash into a rana. He’s just a countering machine! Don West is going insane on commentary ranting about the cheap price of this show and how unbelievable the action is. AJ & Lynn had been working together on a lot of shows around this time so they produce some nice counters at speed. Styles Clash gets the pin BUT that’s Lynn’s first loss so we’re into a final fall.

Both guys sell the fatigue although AJ is notably less capable at doing so. They run a trite blowjob counters sequence, which isn’t very good. They almost sleepwalk through it. Nobody does that anymore and I think it comes off as cliché looking back. They head outside to amp up the intensity. They work in AJ’s quebrada inverted DDT on the floor. Certainly no lack of effort. Just occasionally poorly chosen spots. Ed Ferrara compares this to Flair-Steamboat. Its really not that good. Not crisp enough. Lynn DDT’s AJ off the top for 2. They break out some more cool looking counters and the fans are totally buying into this. You can see from this where the X division got its good name from. They’re putting so much effort in. Lynn gets another near fall off a brainbuster. Not able to score a pin he figures he might as well use a sleeper instead. That doesn’t work so AJ goes to the ropes. That backfires and leads to a superplex…for 2. Back to the ropes and the Spiral Tap finishes. ***3/4. Amazing effort from AJ & Lynn but Ki also brought some great countering and crispness earlier in the match.

SIDENOTE: They should have put the title on Jerry Lynn. Then had AJ chase it and get increasingly jealous before turning heel and winning the title 6 months from this point. But they wanted to stick the title on the poster boy for the division, which was AJ. They ended up rushing the whole feud in the following weeks and not making the most of the potential star-making feud. Lynn continued as an X division mainstay until his shoulder injury in early 2004. AJ moved up the card and the division has been used mostly to promote younger talent ever since.

X title/Ladder match – Low Ki (c) v Jerry Lynn v AJ Styles

Lynn inherited AJ’s original music. AJ has “I Am” in its place. We’re @ the Asylum and have cage dancers. I remember this match very clearly. I’m pretty sure I gave it ****1/2. But that was 8 years ago and spot heavy matches generally don’t age well because spots get more spectacular and wrestlers gain smoothness. For example, Ki baits Lynn into the legdrop through the ropes so he can dodge it and add in a kick. It’s a nice throwback to the first match where Ki got caught by it. The early stages don’t suffer from 3-way selling either because AJ is smart enough to kick back and let the other two wear each other out. Ki on the other hand just lies around selling when he’s not involved. Jerry keeps going for submission holds, which isn’t smart in multiple person matches because it leaves you open. Ki kicks the shit out of him for that and his kicking gives him the upper hand. Also he’s quite innovative and hits the Krush Rush into Lynn. So both guys get a beating. Ki bails for the ladder but AJ kicks it back in his face. AJ then stops off to set up a spot by bridging the barrier and apron. They all tentatively climb on there then all fall off. Lynn looks legitimately hurt afterwards. Ladder into play but AJ goes mental on Ki! He’s then double hip tossed onto the ladder. Spider-AJ gets to run up the ladder twice to counter Lynn but then gets suplexed into it. OW! Ki has now had time to recover so Lynn goes to powerbomb him into the ladder and he counters in mid-move into a rana onto the ladder. Fantastic. AJ gets tied up in the ladder and Ki brutalises him with kicks. Ki looks to have it won but Lynn back suplexes him off the ladder. AJ is left alone thanks to that spot but Ki catches him up. They blow whatever spot they’re trying and Lynn is left alone. The other two shove the ladder over. Everyone is knackered but Ki decides to bring in another ladder. AJ cuts him off with the quebrada inverted DDT. Lynn counters a springboard kick into a powerbomb to cut Ki down. Now all 3 ladders are in there. “FUCK HIM UP” shouts some ringside fan. Oh, fo’ shizzle! They start incorporating three ladders into climbing for the belt. Ki hooks the Dragon Clutch on the top of the ladders to eliminate AJ. Lynn decides to climb up and join them. He pushes both ladders over either side of him but they BOTH springboard back up off the ropes! AWESOME! AJ’s ladder gets tipped again and he’s off to the floor. Ki gets hooked by Lynn; PILEDRIVER OFF THE LADDER! Holy fucking shit! Lynn can take his time getting the belt down because the other two are done. ****. Not as great as I remember it but I dig that the spots all meant something and they built towards the big finish. I still think they did this wrong and Lynn should have been champion all along and retained it here. But hey, TNA wanted to be “can’t miss TV” so they had to have title changes.

Tag titles – America’s Most Wanted v New Church w/Sinister Minister/Belladonna

I’d totally forgotten how amazing the New Church’s music was. They kick off with a massive ECW-esque brawl. Which is probably for the best seeing as Brian Lee and Slash weren’t great in-ring talents. Slash is a guy you might know for another gimmick; Memphis rapper Wolfie D. He completely changed his gimmick in 2001. Eventually the match settles down into the standard tag team formula. Disappointing that they don’t have more of a plan beyond that considering these guys feuded for 3 months solid. West mentions Mitchell having such a control over the New Church that they’ve maintained heel status even with Vince Russo’s gargantuan heel stable Sportz Entertainment Xtreme having every other heel with them. They run the missed tag and Storm gets waffled with one of the tag belts. The eventual hot tag is fairly heatless, which shows you how little people care about tag wrestling even when the teams are good. The New Church miscue on the cocaine throw and Harris hits the spear for 2. That should the finish, surely? Belladonna jumps on the apron with Slash tapping out to the Sharpshooter. Mitchell jumps in and hits Storm with the spike for 2. Jesus, overbooking much! Lee hits the Tombstone but Harris saves Storm. They blow a reversal on another one and Harris has to recover to Tombstone Lee…for 2. How is THAT not the fucking finish? Heels don’t go kicking out of Tombstone piledrivers. It doesn’t happen! Storm takes a chair shot for 2. Slash goes for another one IN FRONT OF THE REF. No DQ for some reason. Death Sentence on the chair, which is ALSO a disqualification and AMW win the belts. **1/4. Match was heavily booked and not in a good way. They weren’t using interference to hide little bits of heel cheating they were using the numbers game to get away with huge, match ending spots and then just carrying on. Almost as irritating as the first half of this match was boring. Not a total disaster but a fine example of how TNA’s booking occasionally drags the show down.

SIDENOTE: Shame Brian Lee didn’t use this run to kick-start his career again. He’d been out of the spotlight since the WWE released him in 1998 and he’d missed out on Attitude. Slash lasted a bit longer before being released in 2004 by TNA as the New Church metamorphosed into something different. James Mitchell eventually joined Raven after Raven took the New Church out. He later managed and feuded with Abyss.

NWA title – Jeff Jarrett (c) v Raven

They spent 3 months building to this, which is something they could learn from nowadays. Raven’s “Flock” at the time was called The Gathering, which included Alexis Laree, who’d go on to become Mickie James and is currently in TNA again as a Knockout. Julio Dinero is also a member at this point but CM Punk has yet to join. Raven works the numbers game to his favour but Julio sucks so he miscues and nails Raven with a chair by mistake. Jarrett hits a pescado to take out the Gathering but that allows Raven to hit a pescado onto Jeff. Not what you’d expect from these two! Raven bladed somewhere during all that action. Jarrett blades too as the Gathering set up a table. I like them being out there so Raven doesn’t have to spend time setting his spots up. He works in a drop toehold onto the chair. VINTAGE RAVEN! The thing about Raven is he’s capable of slowing a match down and making moves mean something, which is an art-form that’s pretty much dead now. Because Jarrett is busted he uses the sleeper to try and bleed him out. Jarrett goes for the Diamond Cutter but Raven shoves him off and both guys fall over and stay down. Erm? Jarrett comes firing back like a good babyface and Raven sells like crazy while the Gathering take a beating too. THE STROKE…gets 2. Jarrett goes for the table, shrugs off Julio and elbow drops Raven through the table off the ropes. Jarrett lifts the DDT but the Gathering pull the ref out. Rudy Charles has seen enough and ejects them. That gets him bumped. Raven’s plan kicks in with Saturn, New Jack, Sandman and Justin Credible running in to wail on Jarrett. They were an ECW group looking to take over. Didn’t work out in the long run. Jarrett gets cuffed, superkick Conchaito’d and Raven goes to add in the killer chair shot. LIGHTS OUT. SABU!! TNA were totally trying to be ECW in 2003. Sabu takes out Raven and the Extreme Revolution. Jarrett is still cuffed though but that doesn’t stop him kicking a chair into Raven’s face for 2. Rudy has a key and tells Raven to get back while he uncuffs him. He can’t get them off so Raven does it himself. Zuh? EVEN FLOW…for 2. Jarrett is taking everything. Another DDT is countered into the STROKE and Jarrett retains in the most bizarre and convoluted fashion. ***1/4. I give them points for effort even though the booking was heavy once again. Did they really need all that shit to tell a story? Kinda ECW-esque but a little OTT. Raven has always been quite fond of the entourage but having two is just greedy.

BONUS

• Special Appearances: just a list of dudes who dropped by during the first year of TNA. I’d forgotten most of them were even there.

• There’s a TV plug for a July show in 2002 that aired on local TV.

• Clips of James Storm Vs Chris Harris from their tryout match. Looked to be energetic. Shame they didn’t leave the commentary on here.

• Various guys pay tribute to Curt Hennig.

The 411: The documentary is decent, if a little on the long side, and its disappointing they only had space for four matches and didn’t see fit to include AMW Vs XXX. Also they could easily have done highlights of each month instead of repeating themselves during the documentary. I would hope they’d continue doing these but this one is so patchy that you’d hope they’d put more thought into it. Compare this to WWE’s Best of RAW DVD’s, which I prefer, and while I appreciate the backstage bits they’re not interesting enough to deserve 105 minutes of doc time.

Final Score:  7.0   [ Good ]