While You Weren’t Watching for 5/4

The purpose of this column is to examine through opinion pieces, TV and PPV recaps and upcoming show previews what is happening in the world of TNA Impact Wrestling…which, let’s be honest, you probably didn’t watch this week.

 

The Long Run

March 26, 2001 marked the end of an era. That night’s Nitro would be the final show ever run by World Championship Wrestling. The main event, fittingly, saw Sting defeat his long time rival Ric Flair. A disaster of an invasion angle aside, WCW was gone…and seemingly so too was the face of the company, Sting. While most of WCW’s top names would find their way onto the WWE roster at some point, Sting was content to stay on the sidelines. Aside from a handful of appearances overseas for the World Wrestling All-Stars promotion, Sting’s isolation would last over two years.

The deal to bring Sting back to compete in North America was agreed to at the last minute and hastily announced during the June 18, 2003 TNA weekly PPV. The following week would mark the company’s one year anniversary and Sting had agreed to come in for 4 dates as a favor to Jerry Jarrett, who had helped him break in to the business. And so it was with little fan fare and less viewership that the Icon Sting returned to the ring to team with Jeff Jarrett against AJ Styles and Sean Waltman. TNA would spread his other three appearances over the remaining half of 2003. Sting made one more appearance in TNA, as a special enforcer for a match in March 2004, and then went back to his life away from the ring.

In October 2005 TNA took the biggest step forward of their young existence when their Impact show began airing on Spike TV. Determined to grow viewership and land the company a better time slot than the late Saturday night one hour show they were given, Dixie Carter set her sights on signing name talent to the roster. Team 3D joined the company that same month and Christian arrived the next. In December, two years after competing in his last match, Sting agreed to terms with TNA on a one year contract.

His return was teased at the end of the Turning Point PPV, and officially announced after midnight on the New Year’s Eve Impact special. He teamed with Christian to defeat Jarrett and Monty Brown in the main event of January’s Final Resolution PPV. The crowd greeted him with chants of “You’ve still got it” and ate up all the classic Sting spots. The following Impact saw Sting “retire” claiming that now he was able to say a proper goodbye and had closure on his career. This led to a paranoid Jeff Jarrett unwittingly drawing Sting back in the fold for good in March.

The next few months were pretty much what you’d expect. Sting doing a nostalgia run and feuding with Jarrett. He befriended Christian (so of course Christian turned on him later) and worked his way towards Jarrett’s NWA title. When you look back on it now, it reads better than it played out. Jarrett regained the NWA title in controversial fashion at Slammiversary, Sting won a #1 contenders match the following month only to lose his title showdown with Jarrett when Christian turned on him. Sting would get his rematch at Bound For Glory and, over 16 years after winning it the first time, became NWA Champion.

He’d quickly drop the title to, and feud with Abyss. He had agreed to return for another year…one that turned out to be very similar to his first year. He stayed around the title picture and once again found himself winning the title (this time the TNA title) at that years’ Bound For Glory. That night he had a really good match with Kurt Angle…made more impressive when you consider he was rounding the corner on his 50th birthday. He dropped the belt back to Angle the following week and, following a match as Booker T’s tag team partner the next month, would head home again.

The following April, Sting returned again as part of Christian’s Lethal Lockdown team. It was during this run that Sting stopped relying on nostalgia and started to take his character to new places. He became disgusted with Samoa Joe’s title reign and a perceived lack of respect Joe showed towards his veteran opponents. This culminated in Sting defeating Joe for the TNA title at Bound For Glory (3 years straight). Unlike the previous 2 years, however, Sting would receive a long title run this time. Never known as a strong promo guy, Sting found his groove during this period. He was routinely cutting the best promos of his career and was bringing a real fire to his work. He was seemingly a heel, joining with other top bad guys Kurt Angle, Kevin Nash, Booker T and Scott Steiner to form the Main Event Mafia. The entire premise of the group was an extension of Sting’s storyline…that the homegrown TNA talent didn’t respect how great legend’s like Sting were. It was the most interesting Sting had been in a decade.

The Mafia dominated for months while Sting began to waiver on his heelishness. The truth is Sting never committed fully to the heel turn (like, say…Jeff Hardy did as the Antichrist) which leads you to wonder how great it might have been if he had. Oddly he was still committed to the character anyway…he just played it up for cheers while dressing, acting and talking like a version of Sting we’d never seen before in his promos. This all eventually led to a falling out with Kurt Angle and Sting firmly returning to the babyface side (he had dropped the title to Mick Foley of all people in April). His story got its payoff at No Surrender in September 2009. He was in a 5-way main event for Kurt Angle’s title when everyone had been taken out except Sting and AJ Styles (one of the punks he had been feuding with). Sting stepped aside allowing Styles to become champion in what was supposed to symbolize Sting admitting he was wrong and showing Styles he had his respect…but what came off as silly since he could have tried, you know, winning the title instead. Styles requested a one on one match with Sting at Bound For Glory in what was heavily believed at the time to likely be Sting’s final match. Styles ended Sting’s streak of winning the belt at BFG and left Sting in the ring for the final bow.

This is where you can draw the line on things radically changing in TNA. The next month we’d find out that Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff were coming in to run the show. Sting made an appearance in the rafters of Hogan’s debut Impact in January and then returned for good two months later. He worked the whole year injured (which is to say…didn’t work much) and spent the year telling everyone who would listen that Hogan and Bischoff (who came in as good guys) couldn’t be trusted. Sting’s warnings came true at that year’s Bound For Glory as Hogan and Jeff Hardy turned heel and formed Immortal, in control of the TNA title and TNA itself. Sting’s contract, as usual, came up at the end of the year.

Meanwhile in WWE…it was almost WrestleMania time and they began running a cryptic video of someone either coming to or returning to the company. Everyone decided that it was Sting. And when it wasn’t…everyone decided that they really wanted it to be. In reality it was the return of Undertaker (it was WrestleMania season after all) and Sting was still sitting at home. Suddenly a commodity again, and now healthy Sting made a surprise return to TNA in March 2011, defeating Jeff Hardy for the TNA title. He’d trade the belt with Mr. Anderson before dropping it for good to Kurt Angle in August. To date his last TNA title reign.

Sting then set his sights on another prize…getting Hulk Hogan back in the ring. In storyline Hogan was in full control of TNA, as a heel, and Sting began doing whatever he could to get under his skin. This led to another transformation of the Sting character…Joker Sting. It started very strong with Sting back to cutting great promos, much different than at any point of his career. He inevitably succeeded in getting Hogan to put the company on the line and face him at Bound For Glory 2011. Sting won, Hogan turned babyface, and nearly 2 years of storylines were paid off in a match that, while not “good”, was far more enjoyable than you could have hoped for.

From there Sting moved into the GM role on Impact before feuding with Bobby Roode for the TNA title. The same night he failed to take the belt from Roode, it was announced that Sting would be the first inductee into TNA’s Hall of Fame. On the first Impact after that…the Aces and 8’s storyline began with an attack on Sting…the intricacies of which were laid out in a previous column.

That brings us to today. On Impact, Sting regained the trust of Hulk Hogan and defeated Matt Morgan to become the #1 contender to the TNA title. He’ll face Bully Ray at Slammiversary on June 2 in Boston. His role seems to have become the legend who puts the new top heel over (as he did with Roode), and that’s what I’d expect to happen here.

But when you consider that a 4 match contract has turned into an entire second career for the now 54 year old Sting… Or that on occasions like a month ago with Austin Aries on Impact, he can still get after it in the ring… Or now that TNA has taken Impact on the road Sting is appearing in many cities for the first time in over a decade… Who’s to say what comes next. Or when this run…this long last run…will end.

 

Impact Recap 5/2

This week was a little better than last week. Or maybe they’ve lowered the bar enough the last few weeks that they’re just clearing it now. Either way…

Chris Sabin returned from basically 2 years of rehab and beat Zema Ion and Sonjay Dutt in an X-division 3-way. Sabin looked good and they had a fine match. He gets to move up to the next X division title match with the win. So all that work was worth it. …

They had another terrible Rob Terry match. This time he beat 3 comedy jobbers (Joey Ryan, Jessie Godderz, Robbie E). He had a couple impressive power moves in there…but no one cares about this and it’s not going anywhere good.

Kurt Angle made D-Lo Brown say “I Quit” in a pretty decent match. Angle looked real good…which is promising. The story here was that D-Lo told his gang he was going to make Angle quit. Anderson and Bully Ray quietly exchanged a look that let you know the end is coming for D-Lo. After he quit, the group left him alone in the ring and Bully said he’d deal with it next week.

Mickie James and Taryn Terrell beat Gail Kim and Tara in a match not as good as it should have been with 3/4 of that group. Gail being obsessed with killing Taryn has been alright though.

Sting beat Matt Morgan to get the title shot at Slammiversary. The ref stopped the match when Morgan refused to tap to the Scorpion Deathlock and passed out. Not terrible…but not good. The only three things I’m afraid of in the world are rats, flying and Matt Morgan main event pushes.

They’re doing a deal where you can vote for who you want to see in the next X-division contenders 3-way. Suicide won. I’m sure Kaz and Daniels are thrilled. It’s not surprising that he won since he’s the only one who’s gotten pushed on TV at any point that you could vote for. Rockstar Spud had a respectable showing. Poor Rashad Cameron did not. Bringing back former X guys like Petey Williams and Sonjay Dutt, bringing in newer guys like Cameron and Spud, letting fans vote for who gets in, having the consequence of re-qualifying if you take the fall in the title match… TNA is doing a lot of things right with the new 3 way gimmick. Why do I still hate it so much?

 

Impact Preview 5/9

Next week TNA is live (well…more on that in the Random Thoughts section) from Tupelo, Mississippi.

The big main event is Sting, Kurt Angle and a mystery partner vs. Bully Ray, Devon and Mr. Anderson. Angle wants AJ Styles to be the third man.

The match everyone wants to see is Bad Influence vs. Austin Aries and Bobby Roode. James Storm is the special ref as they continue to tease a Fortune reunion. I’ve been waiting for this match for a while…here’s hoping they give them some time before they start the storyline aspects.

We are a month out of Slammiversary so the directions of a lot of these guys should start becoming clear at this taping. I am intrigued by the Fortune storyline. I am less enthused in two awesome tag teams having a match to determine who has to wrestle Chavo and Hernandez for the millionth time.
One Night Only: Joker’s Wild PPV recap

This was the BattleBowl (random tag teams with winners in a battle royal for a fake $100,000 check) concept show taped a while back at the Impact Zone. It began airing on PPV last night. Taz toned down the Aces and 8’s commentary a lot here…and even referenced during the show that he was told not to talk about it as much. That was pretty funny because you know it’s true. This made the commentary a billion times better than last month, especially when Tenay got into what he does best, relaying the history of the wrestlers.

This poor crowd. They were sold by Jeremy Borash that this show was going to be great because you don’t know who you’re going to see next…and then the first match is James Storm and Christian York against CRIMSON (dug up from OVW…off TV forever) and GUNNER (dug up from…maybe a literal grave…off TV forever). Gunner was a lot smaller than when we last saw him. Probably because he’s been starving to death. If I was booking this I’d have him win the whole thing because he’s clearly the one most in need of the big fake check. Match wasn’t bad, which earns it a top spot on a best of Crimson tape. Storm and York won.

Jessie Godderz was drawn next. If I was in the crowd I would have left at this point. His partner was Mr. Anderson. Anderson was wearing a TNA hat doing a TNA entrance from the TNA locker room. They still pitched him as being from Aces and 8’s on commentary. They faced my favorite tag team that should have been, Doug Williams and Kid Kash. This was better than it had any right to be because Godderz was entertaining. He’d call for a tag repeatedly after doing one move…but after a long stretch of getting his ass beat by Williams and Kash, told Anderson “I got it” and wouldn’t tag. Anderson did his best work sitting on the apron looking less than impressed with his partner. Williams and Kash should have had a run. Anderson reversed a Kash roll up to get the win.

Crimson and Gunner, who lost by the way, cut a promo about forming a tag team. They mentioned they were both military vets and had been sitting at home for months…and said they deserved better. Good luck with that.

Christopher Daniels was next and his random partner was Samoa Joe. Daniels celebrated this selection. Obviously he saw the first two matches. They faced Chavo Guerrero and RVD. Joe popped up as RVD set up the 5 star and hit a musclebuster for the win after a pretty good match.

Robbie E and Zema Ion then faced Bobby Roode and Joseph Park. Roode was understandably upset. Park worked basically the whole match…so it was a basic Park match. Eventually he saw blood, Abyss’d out and hit a black hole slam. When he snapped out of it, Roode tagged himself in and made the cover to give his team the win.

Hernandez and Alex Silva faced Devon and DOC. Tenay did the math before they drew Devon’s partner and said there was a 20% chance it would be DOC. That was a nice touch since things like this happen in every one of these “random” draws. Nothing match. Hernandez hit his crazy dive but DOC chokeslammed and pinned Silva. Silva didn’t stand out as good or bad.

Matt Morgan and Rob Terry beat Al Snow and Joey Ryan in the longest, worst match ever. Never watch this.

The battle royal portion was TNA Gauntlet style (Royal Rumble that they can’t call Royal Rumble). The first two in were Roode and Storm. Devon was in 3rd, DOC 4th. We got the Beer Money suplex spot on DOC…but no celebration. They eliminated DOC together. The crowd was happy when they worked together and upset again when Roode tried to eliminate Storm later. People still love their Beer Money. Godderz came in 5th, Christin York 6th, Joseph Park 7th and Anderson 8th. Park eliminated Godderz. Daniels came in 9th followed by Joe in 10th. Rob Terry came in 11th and eliminated York, Daniels and Anderson. Matt Morgan was the last in at 12. Morgan eliminated Park, Joe and Terry. Storm eliminated Morgan and Devon. It came down to Storm and Roode. Storm eliminated Roode with the Last Call to win. Storm finally wins a big match and it’s on a show no one will ever know existed.  I tried to make the commentary as dry as possible to match the excitement of the Gauntlet itself.  I still may have overshot the mark.

Nothing worth going out of your way to see. Still…less annoying than last month.

 

Random Thoughts

 

So about that live thing… It appears that TNA is going to start their tapings at 7 instead of 8. Which means they’ll be filming the “live” episodes an hour before and going through without commercial pauses and will actually still be taping that show when it begins airing at 8. I’m assuming it’s to speed up what are long, late tapings to try and keep the crowds from dying.

 

King Mo made his pro wrestling debut this week beating Austin Bradley via submission in a dark match for OVW. He has another Bellator tournament coming up so it will likely still be some time until we see him on Impact.

 

It was reported this week that TNA is 2 weeks late paying their Gut Check winners in OVW.  Usually with TNA it’s a paperwork issue (they’re REALLY bad at paperwork)…but is it that out of line to suggest they stopped payments to coincide with my column last week blasting Gut Check?  hmmmm?

 

TNA announced the dates for their annual UK tour in early 2014:

Thursday 30 January 2014
Glasgow Hydro

Friday 31 January 2014
Manchester Arena

Saturday 01 February 2014
London Wembley Arena

Sunday 02 February 2014
Birmingham NIA

 

The list of upcoming TV/PPV tapings is as follows:
5/9- Tupelo, MS (the live 5/9 show and the taped 5/16 show)
5/23- Tampa, FL (the live 5/23 show and the taped 5/30 show)
6/2- Boston, MA – Slammiversary XI
6/6- Duluth, GA – (the live 6/6 show and the taped 6/13 show)
6/20- Peoria, IL (the live 6/20 show and the taped 6/27 show)
6/29- Las Vegas, NV (taped to avoid July 4th, the 7/4 show and the 7/11 show)
7/18- Louisville, KY (the live 7/18 show and the taped 7/25 show)
8/1- Wichita Falls, TX (the live 8/1 show and the taped 8/8 show)
8/15- Norfolk, VA (the live 8/15 show and the taped 8/22 show)
8/29- Cleveland, OH (the live 8/29 show and the taped 9/5 show)