Bienvenue chez Luttepro !

A Brief History of TNA - Pt. I Posted by Corey Lazarus on Oct 29, 2005, 16:46

Chapter One

In 2001, two of the darkest events in the history of professional wrestling occurred: the closing of ECW, and the sale of WCW. While the former promotion started off as a hardcore-based company with compelling angles and workers that made the Big 2 (WCW and the then-WWF) begin to change how they produced their television programs and was filled with monetary problems throughout its 8-year existence, the latter was a wrestling promotion formed by a billionaire (Ted Turner) as competition for the WWF and had enough backstage drama to put any soap opera ever aired on television to shame. The closing of ECW meant that independent workers looking to get a break and hopefully get signed by WCW or the WWF now had to work that much harder, and it also meant that the ECW contracted workers now had to hope that WCW and/or the WWF were interested at all in them. The closing of WCW put many workers out of mainstream competition because of either burnt bridges with Vince McMahon or just a general lack of interest from the WWF as a whole.
Now, why am I explaining this? Because the closing of ECW and WCW is the entire reason TNA formed. Jerry Jarrett, one of the main guys in the old Memphis territory (along with Jerry "The King" Lawler), is the father of former multi-time WCW World Heavyweight champion Jeff Jarrett (believe me, this is worth noting if you're too stupid to realize the relation right away), who burned his bridges with Vince McMahon in November 1999 by holding out for more money to drop the title to Chyna. (Aside: Technically, Jeff was in the complete right to do so. WCW was interested in signing him, and since his contract expired the day before he was set to drop the Intercontinental title to Chyna, he wanted to make sure he would be paid for it. What resulted was venom towards him from the WWF as a whole, and the best match of Chyna's entire career, as well as the defining humiliation in Jeff Jarrett's career.)
While touring with the short-lived WWA promotion throughout Australia and Europe, Jeff Jarrett and his father Jerry had a plan: to begin their own promotion as a way to both give fans an alternative to WWE (by this time the Wildlife Fund suit had been settled) and also place Jeff Jarrett back into the main event spotlight on a (somewhat) national level like he was in WCW throughout 2000 and the three months WCW was open in 2001. The company was formed, NWA Total Nonstop Action, and the broadcasting was awkward: weekly Pay-Per-View's. Vince McMahon had once pondered whether or not fans would purchase more than one PPV a month with his Tuesday in Texas experiment, which had failed, so this idea was preposterous (and, in truth, it didn't work so well in the long-run). The first edition of TNA programming was rather forgettable aside from one match. That one match contained two of the men that would make TNA a rising promotion to be reckoned with for the rest of 2002, and was proof-positive that something new was going to happen. That match was the debut of the X-Division, a division based around the style of work as opposed to weight limits: a 6-man tag between the teams of AJ Styles, Jerry Lynn, and LowKi and the debuting stable The Flying Elvises (Jimmy Yang, known as Yin-Yang in WCW; Jorge Estrada; and Sonny Siaki).
While the match itself was nothing special, nor was the finish, it did help set the tone for what TNA was going to be: something different than what WWE was offering at the time. Around the same time as TNA was debuting, another new promotion, Ring of Honor, was putting on their fifth show. Featuring much of the same talent as TNA's X-Division, RoH was the company to turn to for GREAT wrestling, while TNA was the company to turn to for GOOD wrestling but better availability and more storylines. Basically, RoH was a WRESTLING company, WWE was a SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT company, and TNA was IN THE MIDDLE. That's the best way it could be put, honestly, and that situation is still like that today.
Over the next few weeks, Jeff Jarrett's chase for the NWA World Heavyweight title, then held by former WWF Intercontinental and Tag Team champion, as well as the UFC's first Superfight champion, Ken Shamrock, developed while the X-Division flourished. A feud was ignited between AJ Styles and Jerry Lynn, the first NWA World Tag Team champions of the TNA era (they won a one-night feud, defeating the Rainbow Connection of Lenny Lane and Bruce {Alan Funk, best known as Kwee-Wee} in the finals), over AJ's, the rookie, lack of respect for Lynn, the veteran. And one Mr. Ron Killings, then working as K-Krush in TNA and best known at the time as K-Kwik from the WWF B-shows, was quickly rising up the ladder. In fact, on the 8th edition of TNA weekly PPV, Ron Killings (who had dubbed himself "The Truth" in his racially-charged promo's about being discriminated against because he's a black wrestler, the same promo's that made TNA fans take notice) defeated Ken Shamrock to become the first black NWA World champion. The match itself was forgettable, and the finish seemed botched, but one thing was for sure: TNA was going to continue trying new things.

Chapter Two

Of course, that's not to say that everything TNA tried worked. The company was booked by Jerry Jarrett, formerly the MEMPHIS booker, and rumors at the time circulated that Vince Russo was ghostwriting for him secretly due to Russo's contract with WWE (which lasted all of a couple of months due to Russo pointing out the writing team's obvious mistakes), so naturally there were a lot of miss's. For instance, the character of Bruce was possibly the biggest MISS TNA (no pun intended) has done so far. Bruce, as mentioned earlier, was portrayed by Alan Funk, the former Kwee-Wee in WCW. While Kwee-Wee was extremely flamboyant and rather ambiguously gay, nothing was ever flat-out said to make Kwee-Wee gay, and Alan Funk did a good job of making him into a flamboyant pushover one minute and a dangerous madman the next. If Kwee-Wee was flamboyant, then Bruce was downright FLAMING. He wore a dress, a tierra, and a sash that said "Miss TNA" that he "won" after pinning some female talent (I forget who, honestly, because I tried to not watch anything involving Bruce) in an "impromptu match." The angle was so bad, especially since they continued doing it with Lenny Lane returning from injury to attempt to steal the Miss TNA "title" from Bruce that I've actually blocked it out of my memory.
Another big miss was the Midget Division. This was never an OFFICIAL division, but it might as well have been, since every show for the first month and a half or so had a midget match on it. Meatball, Teo, and Puppet the Midget Killer were the only ones in it, and Meatball just continued eating all throughout his "match," so that goes to show just how DEEP of a division it was (deeper than the WWE Women's division in 1999, at least). Puppet was entertaining for the most part, though the only lasting impressions he ever made were when he was, ahem...RELIEVING SOME STRESS in a trashcan out back as TNA personality Goldilocks attempted to interview him. And then, of course, Puppet's final TNA moment, where he was sick of people making jokes about him (I do believe it was Jeff Jarrett making quips about him), and then pulling out a gun. He was then distracted by somebody and taken out by Malice (again, this is purely off of memory, so I'm likely wrong), never to seen again.
Speaking of Malice...the Harris Brothers were somehow employed as wrestlers again. "Heavy D" Don Harris and his younger brother "Big" Ron (yes, they're actually NOT twins) were notorious for being employed for various companies simply based on who they knew. They were friends of Vince Russo, which is how they got their jobs in the WWF as Skull and 8-Ball of the DoA, and likewise how they got their jobs as Standards & Practices in WCW (and, later on, as themselves). The job in TNA was through Jeff Jarrett, and to be honest? Heavy D was actually fairly entertaining for quite some time. As head of TNA Security, he made on-air appearances simply to help break apart brawls. In doing so, he had his first feud in TNA with Malice, as Malice (a member of the demonic-themed stabled the New Church, which consisted of Slash, formerly Wolfie D; Tempest, formerly Crowbar and Devon Storm; Kobain, some nobody who apparently loved the idea of suicide; and managed all by Father James Mitchell, best known until that point as the Sinister Minister of ECW, where he managed Mikey Whipwreck and Yoshihiro Tajiri) was a part of a wild brawl, and the two started duking it out because Malice didn't want to be restrained. This lead to a pair of matches that weren't technically good, but weren't that bad either.
Unlike the atrocities known as the Dupp Cup. Bo and Stan Dupp were rednecks, you see, and...yeah, they were rednecks. Neither were particularly good in the ring, but as far as playing retarded rednecks goes, they were perfect. At first, they were entertaining, but TNA let the joke go on for far too long a few too many times. The Dupp Cup was a match all about wackiness, really. There was a points system devised, where certain moves were worth one point, and others made you lose one point, and the way to win the match was to get to 10 points. Sounds decent enough, right? Wrong. One of the rules was that you had to goose TNA color commentator Don West, and another was that you could knock out Sarah the ticket lady (which always lead to whatever Dupp brother was in the match being beaten by Sarah with a broom). Of course, there were some good rules, such as if you lit a table on fire and put your opponent through it it was an instant 10 points...or that if you knocked out TNA ring announcer Jeremy Borash (best described by Bo Dupp as "that Kermit the Frog looking feller right there") you were awarded 2 points. The Dupps disappeared right before the midgets did, as Teo took them up on the challenge to win the Dupp Cup and then both disappeared.
Outside of that? Most of what TNA was doing was fairly good. Some angle developments were bad, and some matches were the drizzling shits, but for the most part? Everything was damn fine, and MUCH better than what WWE was offering (that is until Paul Heyman took over creative for SmackDown in late '02). The feud between Jerry Lynn and AJ Styles had been named the "best feud on television in quite some time" by none other than Dave Meltzer, and was the reason that many fans began ordering TNA PPVs. The matches themselves exceeded prior expectations set by the famous Jerry Lynn/Rob Van Dam series, as Styles has always been a much better worker than RVD could ever hope to be, and each match grew off of the last one. Were they spotfests? Yes, but did they have some basic sense of psychology (ie. the same spot not working twice)? Yes, and were they entertaining? Yes.
And while Jerry Lynn vs. AJ Styles was coming to a close with AJ Styles moving on to feud with various others and Jerry Lynn feuding with Sonny Siaki over the X-Division title, the second big angle, possibly the biggest angle to hit TNA in its entire 3 and a half year history, started: the debut of VINCE RUSSO.

A Brief History of TNA - Pt. II Posted by Corey Lazarus on Nov 4, 2005, 15:57

Chapter Three

The match was Ron "The Truth" Killings (again, the former K-Kwik of the WWF who amazed TNA audiences within its first few weeks and became the first black NWA World champion during the company's 8th show) and Jeff Jarrett. Jarrett, who had started off as a heel in TNA, became a face because of how well-booked his chase towards the NWA World title had been, and Ron Killings had thus become the de facto heel (that, and due to his quick overexposure in TNA, became similar to how John Cena is now in WWE, only with much better matches against the likes of Jerry Lynn and LowKi). The match was a decent brawl, but was basically the same thing that TNA main events featuring Jeff Jarrett were already: some solid in-ring action to start, lame crowd brawling with a few good spots, and then an overbooked finish. Oddly enough, this match would prove to be the archetype for ALL of Jarrett's singles main event's, even up to this day. Both men were hitting each other with everything they had, and then it happened: the ref bump.
(SIDENOTE: For a few months, a man wearing a gray hoodie, gray sweatpants, and a Mr. Wrestling mask would randomly attack Ron Killings' opponents during his title defenses, including the night that he won the belt off of Ken Shamrock, in order to help give him the win.)
"Mr. Wrestling III" came through the crowd. He entered the ring, holding Jeff Jarrett's trademark acoustic guitar. Both men stood up. The swing, the hit...ON RON KILLINGS. Jarrett quickly delivered The Stroke as the referee was revived for the 1-2-3, and became the third NWA World champion of the TNA era. Then "Mr. Wrestling III" took down the hood. He leaned forward, and pulled off the mask. While I could just type out who it was, I think I'll quote Mike Tenay instead:
Mike Tenay: "IT'S VINCE RUSSO! IT'S VINCE RUSSO! HOLY SHIT, IT'S VINCE RUSSO!"
Yes. Vince Russo, who at first had only been giving Jerry Jarrett some ideas (and had done what many believe was ghostwriting) for the booking and writing of the shows, was now in TNA. And immediately in the main event. The next week, Russo explained himself: in WCW, he and Jarrett were the best of friends. But what happened when Russo was given the pink slip? Jarrett abandoned him. When Jeff couldn't take advantage and abuse the privileges that came with being Russo's friend anymore, he no longer wanted to have anything to do with Vinny Ru. So Russo plotted the perfect revenge (in his mind): he would HELP Jarrett win the NWA World title. He would HELP put the title on him, only to take it away from him. While this is actually a good idea for a heel, the fact that it was VINCE RUSSO and not a WRESTLER that decided to do this made the feud that much worse. And so, towards the end of 2002, Russo debuted his stable of wrestlers that would help him not only take the NWA World title off of Jeff Jarrett, but also to take over TNA as a whole: Sports Entertainment Xtreme.

Chapter Four
On the final show of 2002, SEX was in full gear. Russo had taken Jeff Jarrett out with the aid of his troops (off the top of my head, these were the members of SEX at the time: Glen Gilberti, the former Disco Inferno; Sonny Siaki; "Heavy D" Don Harris; "Big" Ron Harris; Mike Sanders, former leader of the Natural Born Thrillers in WCW; David Young; "The Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels, Elix Skipper, and most surprisingly LowKi as the three-man tag team known as XXX), handcuffs, and a belt (in what was actually some damn fine programming), and what did TNA have over SEX? X-Division stars. Three of the top X-Division talents in The Amazing Red, Joel Maximo, and Jose Maximo (collectively known as the SAT, all trained by ECW Triple Crown winner Mikey Whipwreck, and all blood relatives) went up against XXX in one of the more memorable matches of 2002. The match was filled with great highspots and intense action, and the drama of XXX outpowering SAT (along with SEX at ringside) helped to sell the belief that TNA was on the losing end of the forthcoming war. Perhaps the most memorable part of this match came when Don West, TNA's color commentator, stood on the commentary table while Red was on a fiery babyface comeback, taking out all three members of XXX sequentially as well as fighting off interfering members of SEX, chanting the now-famous (to TNA fans anyway) "GO, RED, GO!"
Alas, Red and Los Maximos were overwhelmed as SEX's numbers game got to them, and XXX picked up the win. Afterwards, Vince Russo walked up the entrance ramp and took an axe to the TNA sign, splitting it apart as the final show of '02 went off the air. As 2003 rolled in, the questions of who would help TNA stop SEX appeared, and two men were chosen: NWA World Tag Team champions "Wildcat" Chris Harris and "Cowboy" James Storm. The duo, America's Most Wanted, had been TNA's top tag team since early on, winning the Tag belts in a Gauntlet following the vacating of them after the first Tag champs of the TNA era, Jerry Lynn and AJ Styles, had started feuding. Following a pair of successful feuds with The Hot Shots (Cassidy O'Reilly and current half of The Naturals, Chase Stevens) and The New Church (in the form of "Killdozer" Brian Lee and Slash), AMW were part of a number of people hand-chosen by none other than NWA legend Dusty Rhodes (or, as he likes to say it, DUTHTAY WHODES) to represent the TRADITION of the NWA against the SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT of SEX. I do believe that those four were AMW, Jerry Lynn, and Jeff Jarrett. While I don't remember the exact people, I do remember the quote Dusty said about tradition and how it affects the future, and I actually believe it's an amazingly fantastic quote.
Dusty Rhodes: "Every man has an opportunity to take the tradition and turn it into something of their own."
The quote is very similar to that, anyway. America's Most Wanted then feuded with XXX, and XXX did the unthinkable: they defeated America's Most Wanted. Sonny Siaki was the X-Division champion, having defeated Jerry Lynn late in 2002 before the formation of SEX, so the only belt left to take? The NWA World title. This is where AJ Styles fit into the picture.
Before winning the X-Division title for the second time in October 2002 from Sean "Syxx-Pac" Waltman, but after losing it to LowKi in a Triple Threat match (the third man being Jerry Lynn) and failing to regain it two weeks later in a Triple Threat Ladder match (Jerry Lynn won it, with LowKi having lost the title in the match), Styles sought the managerial talents of one Mortimer Plumtree, who had started managing IWA Mid-South talent Ace Steel. Plumtree's goal was, of course, to take over the X-Division by managing one of its newer talents, Ace, and one of its top talents, Styles. Styles defeated Waltman to regain the X-Division title, and then lost it within weeks to Jerry Lynn in what could be considered the blowoff to their feud. Then, Lynn lost the belt to Sonny Siaki due to Siaki injuring his knee before the match and goading Lynn into defending the belt, making it an easy (and tainted) victory.
AJ had began wrestling his matches without the aid of Plumtree in early 2003. Plumtree would then be seen backstage begging AJ to listen to him, or begging others to get AJ to talk to him, but to no avail. Styles had somebody else in his ear: Vince Russo. Russo put it in Styles' head that he was above the X-Division title, and instead should be going for the BIG belt: the NWA World Heavyweight title.
In February 2003 (again, I forget the exact date), AJ and Jarrett squared off in their first one-on-one encounter. The match was very good, with both men going back-and-forth and playing to their advantages (AJ sped around Jarrett and was more resilient, but Jarrett was stronger and more experienced). During the match, SEX began interfering, but AJ Styles made something clear: he didn't want anybody's help in him winning the World title off of Jeff Jarrett. He fought of SEX alongside Jarrett, and then fell to The Stroke while his attention was towards SEX. While TNA fans began seeing Jeff Jarrett as a miniature version of WWE political main eventer Triple H more and more now, the idea of Jarrett going over Styles to retain the World title actually helped out the single biggest match in TNA's history so far: DESTINY.