ITT it's 2003: Kamala Live Blogs TNA

[Valeyard]

Can you imagine how good he's sell the Impact/AEW stuff?

 

[King Kamala]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1356777561980813317

Is this most inauspicious debut ever? Start of almost 20 year (off and on) run for James Storm. Incredible.

 

[Valeyard]

Storm came so far from jobbing to the Johnsons.

 

[King Kamala]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1356775874113200128

So much good random TNA bullshit tonight.

I may be alone on this but Father James Mitchell as an old spooky queen might have been crazy enough to work.

 

[Baby Shoes]

Not gonna lie, @King Kamala . The more you post that video, the more I believe you are dressed identically in the massively under-buttoned Hawaiian shirt while posting.

 

[Laz]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1356777561980813317

Is this most inauspicious debut ever? Start of almost 20 year (off and on) run for James Storm. Incredible.

...you know, I didn't actually know that. Crazy how they'd go on to spend the next ~5 years being one of the best teams in the industry.

 

[King Kamala]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1357104255497289734

 

[Valeyard]

Hall's runs in TNA pre-Hogan are pretty fun. Every time someone makes fun of his stints, it all comes down to putting Hector Garza over hard on Impact during the KIngs Of Wrestling days.

I had the Pluto channel on earlier and it was something some of Foley's run. You could tell he was trying so hard but just couldn't do it anymore. Didn't seem in bad shape by Foley standards, made everyone against him look good, fell off shit in the safest way he could. It was way less sad than I remember, but it had a late-era Brett Favre feel all the same.

 

[King Kamala]

I remember being surprised at how much I enjoyed Countdown to Lockdown. It really did a good job at capturing the psyche of a washed up wrestler trying to come to grips with what happens when "just good enough" has to be good enough.

 

[Valeyard]

The Lockdown match is pretty good all things considered. He just was done. The stuff with Abyss kinda depressed me, though. Ultimate case of the mind being willing but the flesh being weak. It's hard seeing that when he's not able to kill himself properly that he isn't as smart a worker as I wished he was. Kind of a reverse Sting.

 

[King Kamala]

Besides Hogan's, his is really the only TNA run that I kind of wish didn't happen. I really wish Foley was able to save whatever limited abilities he had left for the early 2010s crop of talent in WWE (Punk, Bryan, Shield) but it is what it is, I guess.

Flair seems the one that most people would want to take back. But Flair really wasn't ready to retire in '08 and I guess there are worse paths he could have taken if he had to scratch that itch. Plus I'd never want to erase his interactions with Jay Lethal.

 

[Valeyard]

I've pretty much erased the in ring part of Flair's run. Except for the Impact that opened with him and AJ against Hogan and Abyss, and I only remember that because they didn't go to commercial and because it was at the Impact Zone and Meltzer (and everyone) was blown away that a company had a match with Hogan and Flair that literally didn't draw any money.

 

[Laz]

Flair's TNA peak was getting iced by AJ Styles.

 

[Valeyard]

He was the perfect manager for Styles at the exact wrong time. I can't say Flair didn't try to get the guys he liked over, though. Styles was on that long title reign and it hadn't gotten stale at all and got a rub that knocked him back, as I remember it. But he did teach Styles how to cut a promo.

I gotta reiterate that AJ Styles was probably the best guy to see improve over the insane talent he had and how he learned. It's insane the talent he had grooming him for the top throughout his career, and that we got to watch it all happen to this day.

 

[Epic Springs]

Foley was ready to feud with Dean Ambrose sometime in 2012 before the Shield debuted (they filmed an angle at (I believe) Axxcess for it which you can find online) but then Foley realized his health wouldn't hold up long term and the deal was scrapped. Yes, I believe even a '12 Foley killing himself to put over Ambrose would have done wonders for his career right out of the gate (though I'm confident WWE booking would have ruined it somehow).

 

[Valeyard]

Totally irrelevant but Petey Williams looks like Tim Roth and no one mentions it.

 

[Epic Springs]

Petey with the long hair looked more like the MILF Hunter to me.

 

[Laz]

I gotta reiterate that AJ Styles was probably the best guy to see improve over the insane talent he had and how he learned. It's insane the talent he had grooming him for the top throughout his career, and that we got to watch it all happen to this day.

Kinda makes sense that he and Angle had such great chemistry when you put it that way

 

[Valeyard]

Angle put him over the top. Styles absorbed SO much from Lynn, Jarrett, Sting, Daniels, Christian--all these vets who have worked everywhere there is to work against everyone you could ever want. Angle rubbed off in such a huge way that it made him elite, like the ultimate level-up. You add that into Flair showing him how to do a promo, by the time he was gone he was as good as you could ever want from anybody.

 

[King Kamala]

One of my favorite bits from Eric Bischoff (or any of the Conrad podcast)'s podcast was him having a detailed breakdown of why that 2010-12 stretch, even though it was mostly terrible was the most crucial period in AJ Styles' career. It's where he learned to adapt and roll with the punches and even though he'd been a main eventer before, was when he proved he could be a WWE main eventer.

Which is making me chuckle thinking about it. "If you can do crappy TNA main events, you can do crappy WWE events. ". It's one of those dumb, sad but true, accidentally revealing anecdotes that occasionally happen and are why I still listen to those garbage pods.

 

[Baby Shoes]

AXS has been randomly airing some TNA era PPVs recently. I was confused why I had two things on my DVR for Impact Wrestling for last week and one was Turning Point 2008. I know my DVR also caught parts of Bound for Glory 2008 and a recent Impact PPV shown for free in the past few weeks.

 

[King Kamala]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1360059927352516609

 

[Baby Shoes]

To honor the late Brian Christopher I think I want to cut that promo at work today

 

[Brocklock]

The set used in the early shows looks more like a strip club than I remember. I knew it looked like one and had women dancing in cages, but holy shit the lighting.

I've looped this Brian Christopher promo for ten minutes now.

Also, who is the interviewer? He almost looks like a super skinny Joel Gertner.

 

[Laz]

Also, who is the interviewer? He almost looks like a super skinny Joel Gertner.

Disco Inferno. The other guy is Shark Boy sans mask, as he bears a striking resemblance to Stephen Baldwin and has worked as Dean Baldwin.

 

[Brocklock]

Disco Inferno. The other guy is Shark Boy sans mask, as he bears a striking resemblance to Stephen Baldwin and has worked as Dean Baldwin.

Yeah the non Disco guy is who I meant. Interesting. I forgot about Dean Baldwin lol.

 

[King Kamala]

Shark Boy also wrestled unmasked on '99/'00 WCW Saturday Nights as Dean Roll. Probably cause Dean Baldwin was too distinct of a name for a jobber.

Anyway, that is one of those facts I feel like I'll remember on my deathbed instead of thinking of loved ones.

 

[Valeyard]

I love the look of the old shows. The Asylum Era had a kind of grungy quality to it, that genuine feeling of ECW fans at a Mid-South show. Unpolished and DIY with the hilarious cage dancers. I can't believe they went almost a year, with Russo booking, to have any nudity.

The Disco show was the nadir of the time. People hated that bit and it got more rabid when the Dupp Cup debuted during said bit. But no one talks about how that show lead to the TNA debut of Paulina From Tough Enough as Disco's bodyguard.

 

[Laz]

Shark Boy also wrestled unmasked on '99/'00 WCW Saturday Nights as Dean Roll. Probably cause Dean Baldwin was too distinct of a name for a jobber.

And because it's his real name.

But no one talks about how that show lead to the TNA debut of Paulina From Tough Enough as Disco's bodyguard.

That's because she showed only one other time, if even, and then quit the business.

I'm much more forgiving, I guess, of his time in TNA, and I legitimately enjoyed his rise as lead of SEX in Russo's absence. I will still defend the choice to have him challenge for Jarrett's World title because it was part of an ongoing story, and he was only a "threat" because of SEX as a faction.

That doesn't excuse his shitty opinions IRL, of course, but the dude was a better worker than he ever got credit for.

 

[Valeyard]

That two weeks of serious Disco were alright. I remember heel end was really lame unless you were Raven or Kash (who should've gotten the shot). Triple X were either in Japan, hurt, or married to AMW in their own universe. New Church brought in Mike Awesome because Malice died, and Slash never got the push he deserved. Abyss wasn't there just yet. Disco was the best option and it's a credit to him that it worked no matter how brief.

Paulina was the first Knockout wtf. Next you're going to say Tough Enough Jonah's big run was pointless.