Bryan Staebell
TNA YEAR SEVEN: June 9 2008 – June 21 2009
They did a great job getting over a guy that doesn’t work here
It was World X Cup time once again (every 2 years…until…well…2008 I guess). This year the teams were TNA, Mexico, Japan and International. Most notably Doug Williams was on team International and would get some good runs in the company (X champion, TV champion, British Invasion)…in theory he still works there. They had an X Cup preview match on Impact featuring the Motor City Machineguns against Speed Muscle
6-12-08 Motor City Machineguns vs. Speed Muscle
That’s about as good as a short match can be. This time the tournament format was some tag matches, some singles matches, a 12 man elimination match and the finals were Ultimate X. Check out the incredible elimination match and watch Masato Yoshino completely steal the show:
7-13-08 12 man World X cup elimination match
Team Mexico would end up winning again. And since they’ve never done another one I guess they’re still champions. Kazarian was so distraught at letting team TNA down in the finals that he quit wrestling…as Kaz anyway.
Playing a character from a video game no one played, on a show no one watches
My mind on my money, and my money on my beer
Following his awful feud with Booker T, Robert Roode found himself with lost in the shuffle. Lost in the shuffle is where James Storm lived so they became fast friends. TNA had no plans for either of them in the singles world so they threw them together as a team. It didn’t take long for them to become TNA tag team champions:
8-10-08 Beer Money vs. LAX
They’d win the rematch the following month and then find themselves in a wild 4 team Monsters Ball match at Bound For Glory
10-12-08 Monsters Ball
Aside from a few weeks where Jay Lethal and Consequences Creed (Lethal Consequences…get it?) would hold the belts after their Feast or Fired cash in…Beer Money would dominate the tag division for most of the year.
If it gets any better than this…I haven’t seen it
Planting the seeds
Sting had vanished for a couple of months and when he returned he had a whole new agenda. He came back to lay out Samoa Joe who was beating the shit out of Booker T at Victory Road, and then AJ Styles who did a post match attack on Kurt Angle at Hard Justice. Sting was acting more heelish and didn’t like what he was seeing out of TNA’s younger stars. This led to Sting getting a shot at Joe’s TNA title at Bound For Glory.
10-12-08 Samoa Joe vs. Sting
Sting won the title when Kevin Nash turned on Samoa Joe (remember the Hall no show promo? This was Nash’s receipt to Joe). Sting bailed out Booker and Angle and was helped by Nash… hmm…I wonder if that’s going to lead to anything…
Nothing good for the Frontline…I can tell you that
This would begin the first good title run for Sting in TNA. He’d hold it all the way until Lockdown the next April. His first two reigns only totaled 30 days. It was actually the longest title reign of his career…edging out his first NWA title by 1 day.
Kong smash
Having grown tired of beating up the TNA knockout’s roster, Awesome Kong issued a $25,000 challenge to any woman who thought they could beat her. She beat Daffney, Sojourner Bolt and Serena Deeb among others over the next few weeks until she ran into Taylor Wilde. Wilde had been at the shows from the start trying to get picked and she finally was June 19:
6-19-08 – Kong Challenge
Kong managed to survive but Taylor Wilde wasn’t finished. Convinced she could beat Kong if given another chance, she showed up the next week as Kong went back to smashing bitches
Wilde would beat Raisha Saeed (the criminally underutilized in TNA Cheerleader Melissa) the next week to get her shot at Kong and would win the title, and the money on July 10. This was some of the best work the company has ever done on debuting someone and getting them over.
Kurt Angle had one hell of a year
There’s no other way to put it…Kurt Angle was on fire in year seven. It began with this 6 man Full Metal Mayhem match in July:
7-13-08 Kurt Angle & Team 3D vs. Christian, AJ Styles and Rhino
Then went on to this awesome Last Man Standing match with AJ Styles in August.
8-10-08 Kurt Angle vs. AJ Styles Last Man Standing
In September he’d have a good 3 way with Christian and Joe…but in October, at Bound For Glory, he’d have a great match with Jeff Jarrett:
10-12-08 Kurt Angle vs. Jeff Jarrett
Seemingly on a mission to show that he could have a great match with all kinds of opponents in all kinds of styles…Angle, in November, had an out of nowhere awesome Falls Count Anywhere match with Abyss:
11-9-08 Kurt Angle vs. Abyss
His attention would be pulled away by Main Event Mafia/Frontline nonsense…but he still managed to have the Year Seven Match of the Year in the Jeff Jarrett rematch at Genesis:
1-11-09 Jeff Jarrett vs. Kurt Angle
Wherefore art thou, Frontline?
The Main Event Mafia officially formed on a live Impact from Las Vegas on October 23. This was also the night that Booker T debuted the Legends (which would become the Global and then the TV) title…but aside from maybe a mention of the great Doug Williams/AJ Styles TV title match I doubt anyone will mind if I just ignore the belt’s existence. The deal here was that the veterans were tired of the perceived disrespect shown to them by guys like AJ Styles and Samoa Joe. The surprising part was that Sting would join a heel faction. Unfortunately he would never really fully turn heel which was a shame because this was a more interesting Sting.
The next week Sting, Angle, Nash and Booker T were joined by Scott Steiner and those 5 would comprise the Mafia for most of their run. At Turning Point Booker T defeated Christian with the stipulation that if he lost he would be forced to join the Mafia. The deal here was that Christian’s TNA deal was up and they were trying to keep him. They told him that if he chose to stay he would be pushed as the top babyface in the main program fighting off the Mafia. He obviously decided that 3 years was enough and went back to WWE. This was his goodbye party:
On the January 29 2009 Impact, the Main Event Mafia took over the show NWO style. It was an awful show that’s only redeeming qualities were Scott Steiner serving as ring announcer and Nash and Booker T doing some…interesting…commentary:
Chet Lemon and Black Snow
There was a growing problem for the Mafia as the year went on as Kurt Angle (the leader of the Mafia) was jealous of Sting and wanted his title. They decided to try and settle their differences in the old Empty Arena match on February 19:
Sting would go on to win Angle’s “Godfather” position in the Mafia at Sacrifice.
Now if you’re thinking to yourself…why isn’t there any talk about who the Mafia spent all of this time feuding with? It’s because that’s a stupid question and the Frontline were a bunch of pussies who don’t deserve to be remembered.
When you’re led by Rhino…you fail
I did dig up one thing from the Frontline/MEM feud worth mentioning. Kevin Nash had probably the last good match of his career beating Samoa Joe at Turning Point. Believe it or not Joe would actually get that win back at Sacrifice in May 2009.
The clear highlight of the Main Event Mafia in year 7:
Let’s play catch up on the titles, shall we
Awesome Kong would win the Knockout’s title back at that live Las Vegas Impact and then drop it to Angelina Love at Lockdown. Love had gotten a concussion during the match so it went a little wonky.
Beer Money held their TNA tag titles until they ran into Team 3D in Philadelphia at Lockdown.:
4-19-09 Beer Money vs. Team 3D Cage match
Beer Money would regain them at Slammiversary.
You may have noticed there hasn’t been one mention of the X division title in this recap (and outside of the World X cup…the division at all)…that’s because the X division had ceased to matter by this point. Sheik Abdul Bashir (Daivari) got a run with it coming out of the World X Cup. He feuded with a ref (Shane Sewell) and it cost him the title to Eric Young. That title was held up because of the fucked finish with Sewell costing Daivari. In the finals of the tournament to crown a new X champion, Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin did their damndest to make it seem like they were fighting for something important:
1-11-09 Chris Sabin vs. Alex Shelley
Shelley would drop it two months later to Suicide (Kazarian until he was injured…and then Christopher Daniels…they should work that into their current tag team somehow) and Suicide would hold it for the rest of the year. Unfortunately this is how the X division recaps are going to go for the rest of these. Outside of Red and Doug Williams having some nice runs (and the month where people tried to earn a TNA contract leading to an awesome old school X division 4 way with Aries/Low Ki/Jack Evans and Zema Ion)…the X division pretty much died when Angle and Joe fought over all the belts. Austin Aries had the best run you can have while having zero opponents. Kenny King is hampered by the current “all 3 way” concept.
Bang. Wait a moment while I catch my breath and reload. Bang
Mick Foley had almost come into TNA before. He wrote about it at the beginning of the Hardcore Diaries. After having enough of being a commentator in WWE he finally ended up there in year 7. He was the special enforcer for the Angle/Jarrett match at BFG and then somehow became a part owner in the company.
Eventually Foley stepped into the ring for a pretty bad and totally unmemorable 6 man tag at Genesis. At Destination X (again serving as special enforcer) Foley accidentally hit Sting with a steel chair. The next Impact Foley would hit Sting again…this time on purpose. As a result Foley would get a shot at Sting’s TNA title at Lockdown in Philadelphia. Surprisingly…Foley actually won. The match was the ultimate example of the mind being willing but the flesh being weak. No matter how hard he worked or how well a match was laid out…Foley just didn’t have it anymore.
Despite that fact…Mick Foley was a World Champion in 2009. But he was going to have fun with it:
Foley declared going into the King of the Mountain match that if he won he would only defend the title one time per year going forward. Thankfully, and I mean that in every sense, Kurt Angle won the title.
Angle won when now Penis faced Samoa Joe turned heel and joined the Mafia
What else was there…
To further devalue the X division Jay Lethal and Sonjay Dutt had an all time bad feud over So Cal Val. Christy Hemme retired because she was afraid of getting injured again. Huge Japanese star Hiroshi Tanahashi was sent back to TNA where he spent most of his time sitting in the back doing nothing. Curry Man drew the fired briefcase in this year’s feast or fired (meaning Daniels was fired twice). As mentioned above someone drew a penis on Joe’s face in January and no one told him it was there for the rest of the year. Brutus Magnus debuted green as grass and with an awful modern day gladiator gimmick. He’d be rescued by Doug Williams and form The British Invasion in April. Beer Money had a brief gimmick where if you took the fall in a match against them you were fired (the off the wagon challenge). Lance Hoyt and Petey Williams were the victims of that one. At Slammiversary they added the women into the Monster’s Ball and the result was pretty damn good:
6-21-09 Monster’s Ball
And I’ll leave you with Don West laying the fucking law down on Mike Tenay in February of 2009:
