The Wrestling Bazaar: NWA/TNA Weekly PPV #15

October 9, 2002- The Asylum in Nashville, Tennessee

Not 30 seconds into the broadcast and my attention is diverted by a topical sign: T.otally N.uke A.l-Qaeda.

At ringside, Mike Tenay and Don West welcome us to the show. Chris Rock and Hermie Sadler will be here tonight. They pitch it to a video from last week of Ron Killings being attacked by a man dressed in a white jump suit and mask.

Jeremy Borash is about to introduce the opening match before Ron Killings walks out. It’s promo time and the crowd chants “over-rated.” Killings knows a conspiracy when he sees one- Scott Hall, Syxx-Pac and BG James needed to hire a hitman to handle their dirty work. Killings knows that the hitman is their mystery partner for tonight, but the Suntan Superman isn’t having that. Killings turns his attention to Don West, who he calls “Baseball Card Man.” West finds it ironic that “The Truth” isn’t calling it like it is. How is it okay for Killings to attack Syxx and James then complain about getting attacked? Killings doesn’t like being disrespected. If he wanted to, he could Sammy Sosa West’s ass. Killings will take them all on…

BG James and Syxx Pac come out to the entrance stage. every week, James tries to stop Killings from whining and crying like a little girl. Tonight, Killings will learn a hard lesson- we don’t live in a “perfect” world…or do we? Curt Hennig is here in a yellow singlet with red starburst-type designs on both sides. He doesn’t know what he’s gotten himself into here, but he was hired to do a job. He will do that job like only he can. Syxx says they will do what Killings’ momma should’ve done a long time ago. They make their way down the ramp only to be blindsided by Jeff Jarrett and Brian Lawler. All six guys brawl in the ring until the faces clear it out. Let’s have this match right now…

Match One: Curt Hennig/Syxx Pac/BG James vs. Ron Killings/Jeff Jarrett/Brian Lawler
Lawler’s girlfriend, April, is at ringside. Lots of people in the Asylum tonight; makes the arena look much bigger. Hennig and Jarrett stall for a while before Hennig takes out all three heels. They re-group and Jarrett taunts Hennig with the running neck snap. Hennig returns the favor and the crowd loves it. Speaking of which, they are all over Lawler tonight with chants of “Jerry’s kid!” Heels try to isolate Syxx after a Lawler powerslam, but he is too quick to keep down and James makes it into the ring. It’s K-Kwik and Road Dogg all over again as James goes up against Killings. Heels get some sustained offense on James until Syxx tags in and takes them all out. He is derailed with a Jarrett nut shot on a Bronco Buster attempt, and the heels begin another isolation strategy. Syxx turns things around after a nice sitout powerbomb on Lawler and Hennig gets the hot tag. He cleans house with right hands as James attacks Jarrett with a steel chair up the ramp. Lawler gets a low blow on Hennig and nails the Hip Hop Drop. Syxx makes the save and takes Killings out with an X-Factor, but Lawler attacks the ref. In the confusion, the guy in the white jump suit (now called Mr. Wrestling III) powerbombs Killings. Hennig takes advantage and hits the Hennigplex for the win.
Winner: Curt Hennig/Syxx Pac/BG James in 14:00
Rating: ** (Not bad, but nothing too exciting. Hennig looked bloated, but held up relatively well in the ring. I’m assuming Mr. Wrestling III is supposed to be a babyface because he is attacking Killings, a hated heel. Either way, it’s a little odd to see a face team get a win off that kind of interference.)

In the back, Goldilocks checks on BG James who has been taken out by a lead pipe.

JB introduces Jerry Lynn. If Sonny Siaki is trying to piss Lynn off, he has been very successful. After he retains his X-Division championship, he will be standing in the middle of the ring to take on Siaki next week…

Sonny Siaki appears on the entrance stage. Lynn forgot one thing: Siaki is life. Siaki is why these people are here tonight. Let’s give the people what they want, right now. Lynn runs up the ramp and they brawl. Siaki throws Lynn off the stage and he lands with his knee caught in the guard rail. Trainers come out and try to pry his leg out of the rail. Lynn is stretchered out o the building as West and Tenay put on their somber voices.

Earlier today, Syxx Pac caught up with Low-Ki. He apologizes for what he said about him. Ki accepts and AJ Styles steps in. He is the X-Division.

Match Two: NWA Tag Team Championship- Chris Harris/James Storm© vs. The Maximos
Tenay calls this the culmination of three years of sweat and sacrifice for the Maximos. Storm is in full cowboy mode again and the cap guns are back! Storm and Joel go back and forth with submission moves to start. Jose intervenes with a missile dropkick but Harris evens up the odds with a huge spear. Jose tries to get risky but ends up being tossed off the top and onto his brother on the outside. Back inside, the Maximos regroup and isolate Storm. Nice spot as they hit a combination hangman’s noose neckbreaker/springboard moonsault for a close nearfall. Harris tags in and the crowd almost simultaneously gets behind the Maximos. Harris and Storm work in some “behind-the-ref’s-back” heel spots accordingly. Jose makes the hot tag to Joel who unloads with offense on both. He blocks a Storm superkick but falls onto a second one coming of the middle rope. Storm covers but Joel kicks out at two! The match breaks down and we get another close nearfall off a Harris Catatonic. The Maximos try for the Spanish Fly on Harris but Storm breaks it up and syncs up with Harris to hit a double uranage on Jose for the win.
Winner: Chris Harris/James Storm in 10:00 to retain the NWA Tag Team Championship
Rating: **3/4 (Always interesting to see what happens when two babyface teams go against each other. Here, the crowd got behind the underdog Maximos. Good to see Harris/Storm take it in stride and seemingly change up their plan mid-match. Their best match to date after a few stinkers with Ron Harris, Brian Lee and Ashley Hudson.)

Goldilocks is in the ring to introduce Chris Rock who is in the Asylum filming scenes for a movie. Rock proclaims NWA:TNA the best wrestling in the world. If you think it’s fake, come down here and get your ass kicked…and that’s it.

Match Three: Four Corners Ironman Match- Kid Kash vs. Tony Mamaluke vs. Ace Steel vs. Low-Ki
Wrestler with the most falls in 15 minutes wins. According to Tenay, this is also an “X-Division Rankings” match. Come on Tenay, there are no rankings; stop bullshitting us. Mortimer Plumtree, the man who has been stalking the X-Division for weeks, is on commentary to explain is actions. The big reveal: he has been scouting talent. Meanwhile, all four men have a standoff after a series of armdrags. In the opening minutes, no one gets an advantage- it’s just all four guys hitting spots. Kash is the first to get on some sort of roll, but he halfway botches a rana coming off the top rope. Kash is also the first man to give us the obligatory “big dive” of the night, coming off the ropes with a springboard crossbody onto Ki and Steel. Mamaluke follows suit with a high crossbody off the top. Back in the ring, Ki and Kash springboard from opposite sides of the ring and collide in midair with clotheslines- that was pretty freaking cool. Steel and Mamaluke each score one fall pinning both men. Steel, easily the biggest guy in there, uses his strength to his advantage by grounding Ki while Kash hits a brainbuster on Mamaluke to gain a fall. Ki, the only man without a fall, turns things around on Steel and locks in a sick-looking armbreaker to win a fall and make the match a four-way tie. On the outside, Kash bodyslams Mamaluke off the announce table and onto the floor. Back inside, Ki tweaks his ankle on a leapfrog over Steel; Steel begins to target said ankle. Who said the X-Division had no psychology? We are still all tied up at the two-minute warning. With 30 seconds remaining, Mamaluke effectively eliminates himself and Kash with a side Russian legsweep off the apron. Ki wants the win and locks in a Dragon Clutch on Steel in-between the ropes. With 10 seconds left, he breaks it and connects with a springboard head kick that sends Steel to the apron. Then, in one of the worst-timed finishes I have ever seen, Ki suplexes Steel back inside; the clock expires; the bell rings; Steel rolls Ki up; Plumtree holds Ki legs down; and the ref counts the fall in favor of Steel.
Winner: Ace Steel with 2 Falls in 15:00
Rating: *** (Aside from the screwed up/mistimed finish, this was a good match. It had a bit of everything, and there was always something going on. It was never boring. The main story here is that Plumtree has aligned himself with Steel, a good choice in my book.)

Don West is in the ring for a special interview with TNA’s favorite celebrity, Hermie Sadler. He will be debuting the NWA/TNA racecar this weekend (if today was Wednesday, October 9th 2002 that is). Before long, Miss TNA Bruce appears on the entrance stage. Hermie must be a horrible driver because Bruce always sees him in his ring. Will he be a racecar driver or a wrestler? Sadler is about to retort when Jeff Jarrett comes out. Sadler isn’t a wrestler or a driver, even though he has been chosen to drive the NWA/TNA car. Why couldn’t they get a real driver? Sadler doesn’t think Jarrett should be talking when he is without the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. He also wants to know whether Bruce will grow up to be a man or a woman. That’s enough to kick-start a brawl inside the ring. BG James comes out for the save. He clears the ring and assures Jarrett this has just begun.

Match Four: Ron Harris/Sonny Siaki vs. Chris Michaels/Rick Michaels
This is a qualifying match for the NWA Tag Team Championship. Tenay points out that Chris and Rick aren’t related. Little known fact: AJ Styles was trained by Rick. He is also the man taking the majority of the punishment in the opening minutes of the match. Siaki takes some cheap shots on the outside and continues the attack on the inside. Rick turns things around with a facebuster/neckbreaker combo and makes the hot tag to Chris. The comeback is short-lived as Harris pulls Chris to the outside and throws him into the barricade. Back inside, Harris destroys Chris with a number of clotheslines. Chris fares better against Siaki, taking him down with a flying forearm and making the tag to Rick. Match breaks down and Siaki catches Rick with a modified Cutter. He has the match won but Harris stops the ref from counting and instructs Siaki to pick Rick up. He does, and Harris goes for a big boot but hits Siaki accidently. Rick covers for the win.
Winner: Chris Michaels/Rick Michaels in 7:00
Rating: *3/4 (Standard stuff here, and nothing particularly impressive out of the Michaels’. Chris and Rick, with their matching neon green and black tights, look like a team that would be fed to The Outsiders on an episode of Nitro.)

Post-match, Sonny Siaki and Ron Harris get into it. Don Harris and the rest of TNA security break it up with Don tossing out Siaki.

Bill Behrens is in the middle of the ring. Jerry Lynn will not be able to compete this evening. As a result, Ace Steel will take on AJ Styles in a Ladder match for the X-Division Championship tonight. Low-Ki comes out. Steel gets a title shot because he got some computer nerd to help him out? The man in question, Mortimer Plumtree, is out next with Steel. Ki is a liar and a scrawny punk. The whole world knows how Ki made an ass out of himself when he picked a fight with Tammy Sytch. Ki thinks Plumtree has some nerve by continuing to showcase his ignorance. Plumtree is an outsider who reads and believes the lies others write. He will always be an outsider looking in. Bob Armstrong comes out. This isn’t some talk show, and he is here to lay it down. Ki will take on Steel and the winner will face Styles. He calls for a ref and we have a match…

Match Five: Low-Ki vs. Ace Steel
Steel goes after the injured ankle from the four-way earlier. Plumtree grabs a chair and rams it into the ankle behind the refs back. Bob Armstrong comes back out and calls for the bell.
Winner: JB originally announces Steel as the winner by Countout, then changes it to Low-Ki via Disqualification in 1:00
Rating: N/A (Haha, no one told Borash the finish.)

Post-match, there is complete confusion at ringside. Mike Tenay, Don West, Bill Behrens, Bob Armstrong, refs- everyone is pointing fingers and trying to find out what happened. In the ring, Armstrong grabs a mic. Every X-Division wrestler is eligible for the X-Division Ladder match.

Match Six: X-Division Championship: Ladder Match- AJ Styles vs. Ace Steel vs. Syxx Pac vs. Kid Kash vs. Jose Maximo vs. Joel Maximo vs. Tony Mamaluke
What rankings? Throw them all in! Chaos to start and both Maximos introduce ladders. Before long, everyone is brawling on the outside and Styles takes them all out with a springboard shooting star press. Inside, Styles continues by taking out both Maximos and Kash, but things go downhill for him from there. Mamaluke, Steel and Kash all get their shots in on him, the only fresh man in the match. That doesn’t stop Styles from charging at Joel and sandwiching him between two ladders. He teams with Kash to double powerbomb Jose onto the sandwich in the corner. Steel remains the only X-Division guy with a brain tonight, staying away from the chaos and picking his spots. He has an awkward exchange with Kash on the top rope and ends up being superplexed to the mat. Kash has the match won atop the ladder, but moonsaults off of it instead of onto Steel instead of grabbing the belt. Styles takes some more punishment, running into a ladder shoulder-first on a suicide dive attempt. Steel brings more smarts, attacking Mamaluke’s arm in-between a ladder to make climbing more difficult. With two ladders set-up in the middle of the ring, we inevitably get the spot where everyone tries to climb at the same time. It doesn’t last very long and Kash tornado DDTS Jose off the top. To counteract Steel, Kash brings the stupid and hits a high crossbody off the top rope onto Jose on the outside. Why? I have no idea. Back inside, Steel and Mamaluke exchange headbutts atop the ladder until Kash dropkicks it out from under them. Kash tastes some of his own medicine as Joel hits a one-man Spanish Fly off the top of the ladder. Steel tries to climb again but Styles takes him out with a sunset flip powerbomb off the top. That man will never learn. Mamaluke comes off the top with a DDT on Styles, only to be unceremoniously press slammed to the outside seconds later by…Styles. One superplex on Kash later and Styles is left alone to climb. That is until Syxx runs down and back suplexes him off the top of the ladder. Syxx climbs and retrieves the belt for the win.
Winner: Syxx Pac in 16:00 to win the X-Division Championship
Rating: ***1/4 (Absolute train wreck of a match. They managed to pull off some incredible spots, one after the other, but the fact that they were up seconds later and climbing took away from their impact. Aside from Steel’s limited efforts to interject some brains into the match, this was the most blatant spotfest you will ever see. Fun as hell though.)

Post-match, Don West runs off some matches for next week, including Syxx Pac vs. AJ Styles in a…you’ve got to be kidding me. In another fucking Ladder match. That has to be a mistake.

The 411: I had my doubts heading into PPV #15, but it turned out to be a good show. As a matter of fact, this was one of their better outings. From the debut of Curt Hennig and the above-average NWA Tag Team Championship match to the good X-Division Four Way and the incredibly fun (albeit ludicrous) X-Division Ladder match, there wasn’t too much to complain about. Of course, there was the over-the-top worked (?) confusion at the end with who would face Styles, but at a certain point, you have to accept that stuff like that comes with the TNA territory. On top of that, we got some more character advancement from Ron Killings and Jeff Jarrett, the company’s two top heels. This gets a recommendation from me.

Final Score:  7.5   [ Good ]