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ITT it's 2003: Kamala Live Blogs TNA

Laz

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Poor Joel Maximo, breaking his balls for a job he'd lose soon after.
 

Valeyard

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Man, I don't remember that. Yikes. Might be the best spot I've seen the SAT hit on purpose.

Jose vs Joel vs Red vs Low Ki is a very good match, if you end up finding it. Very start of Red being a big deal and, I assume, the SAT being pissed about it.
 

Brocklock

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Early TNA was absolutely awesome in terms of just batshit moves and spots I haven't seen before. I remember shitting my pants at Jason Cross' Shooting Star Legdrop.
 

Laz

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Jose vs Joel vs Red vs Low Ki is a very good match, if you end up finding it. Very start of Red being a big deal and, I assume, the SAT being pissed about it.
The match literally existed only to serve as a showcase for Ki to do some Matrix spots, with the bookers not realizing that it was only Red who could match Ki in speed.

Those early early TNA shows have some underrated Kid Kash performances, though. Lots of shades of the heel work that would come about a year later that would make him YOUR NEW FAVORITE WRESTLER, as some idiot who used to write for TSM called him.
 

Valeyard

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As I remember it, Dames was at his highest because of EWR and the TNA recaps on the old site took off enough to get the attention of major people in the company. They actually listened to him about some things, and I think offered him a job at one point. So Ace Steel comes in, they push him for a few weeks, and in every review Dames trashes him because he sucked. Lo and behold, Ace Steel is never heard from again and at least one review had Dames say something about how he's glad Ace Steel was gone.

The TSM signs at a bunch of those shows were great. The Heel Section would have things pop up, my favorite being "BOB BARRON ASKED FOR THIS." Come to think of it I think Jingus hung out with them a lot.
 

Laz

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Dames shat on Ace Steel any chance he could, and for damn good reason. Steel was misused in the X-Division as he was more of a brawler, as his work in IWA-MS and as one of the Second City Saints showed. When put with Styles and Lynn and Red and Ki, Steel was garbage and outclassed each time out, but when he was using plunder alongside Da Hit Squad or BJ Whitmer? He was solid as hell.
 

Valeyard

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He was made for that era of IWA-MS. He was always very limited to me, and a lot of that was his goofy facial expressions. I couldn't get past that.
 

Laz

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...yeah. You really did.

The best TNA runs, IMO...
-October 2002 through September 2003
-April 2005 through December 2006 (PEAK of the company)
-The build to LockDown 2008
-The last three months of 2009, pre-Hogan holding pattern
-Late 2011 to late 2012 (when Beer Money split and Bobby Roode was World champ)
 

Baby Shoes

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I missed early TNA but I was watching TNA a ton by 2005 so kinda shocked Kamala missed some of that good stretch between 2006 and 2008 and really only has post-Hogan TNA as reference. I mean, 2012 is one of my personal favorite years in TNA so there is was some good but as Laz pointed out, some really cool stuff in that TNA era.
 

King Kamala

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I barely followed wrestling at all '03 to '06 , only kind of following wrestling in the mid-late '00s and didn't have cable from 2009 to 2011. Plus wasn't TNA on Saturdays for some of that glory period in the mid '00s? I was either going to a movie or in my room masturbating during Samoa Joe's career peak.
 

Laz

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Let's see how much of the TNA television history I can remember off the top of my head.

June 2002 - June 2004: Weekly PPV main show, Xplosion secondary show on WGN
June 2004 - June 2005: Impact airs on Fox Sports Net, horrible time slot of Friday afternoon around 3pm, monthly PPV events
June 2005 - Fall 2005: Impact is webcast exclusively, monthly PPV
Fall 2005 - early 2006: Impact is on Spike and airs Saturday nights with replays the following Thursday, late night slots
Early 2006 - January 2010: Impact airs prime time on Spike on Thursday
January 2010 - May-ish 2010: Impact airs live on Monday head-to-head with Raw because Bischoff/Hogan have no new ideas, replays on Thursday

After that, I'm pretty sure Impact aired on Wednesday to avoid SmackDown (which went from Friday back to Thursday back to Friday), Spike cancelled the show after massively declining ratings thanks to Dixie being even worse hands-on than she was hands-off, Jarrett coming back and trying to rebrand it as Global Force and ohnoivegonecrosseyed
 

Valeyard

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The renaissance of Scott Steiner and Kevin Nash is great. Steiner got more or less the second half of what his WCW run could've been and busted his ass. The build to Steiner/Joe is some underrated work by everyone involved. When Nash starting giving a shit and having fun, he fit his part perfectly. That said I'll never forgive them for not running with Nash and Alex Shelley as a team.

I still love that looking back through the years some evil group was always trying to invade and take over TNA and Styles always wound up looking like a scrub.
 

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I remember Nash busting ass in 2009 and having some surprisingly fun death match type garbage matches with a broken down Foley and Abyss.

I'm glad Steiner got that TNA run to rebuild his credibility cause 2003-2005 was not a great period being a Big Poppa Pump fan.
 

King Kamala

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I bought one or two TNA PPVs from the Asylum back in ‘02 cause everyone at whatever version of TSM was around then raving about AJ Styles and Jerry Lynn.

And I remember randomly turning in a few times to the Fox Sports Net show cause I caught it flipping channels after school and was like “What the hell? Wrestling at 3 PM? Larry Zbyszko is here?!”


But I really only regularly started watching in buildup to Slammiversary 2013 cause my friend bought us tickets so I caught the last few months of Hogan being there and the traumatizingly bad end of AJ Styles run. That is about as bad of a way as you can cut ties with guys as possible.

That is story of my dumb random TNA fandom and I honestly feel like it is millennial equivalent of someone who became a WCW fan in ‘99 or ‘00.

What is the cutoff point to delineate between TNA and Impact Wrestling? For me, it is when they left Spike. Everything after they started going to obscure cable channels is Impact.
 

Laz

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When Don Callis took over is when it's Impact and not TNA. Callis finished the few ongoing storylines and feuds that were going on when he took control, but since then it's been a much more coherent program.

Besides the absolutley fucking garbage cinematic matches. Those are shit and actively lowered the size of the audience in each company they've become a part of this year.
 

Valeyard

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They technically were Impact during the Hogan era. The idea of the transition was pretty much calling the company both names alternately and it pissed people off. Then the Global Force shit went on for a minute. It's why it will always be TNA to me. That and I hate spelling Impact all the time more than I hated seeing people spell iMPACT all the time.
 

Baby Shoes

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Yeah, I remember Bischoff pushing the rebranding as Impact but the use and enforcement was inconsistent and the TNA stuff still really lingered with some of the branding until they switched over to the GFW titles, or were merging and made those belts with the neon green.
 

King Kamala

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TNA is absolutely awful, dunderheaded branding and anyone who unironically thinks it's a good name for a promotion has rocks in their head (TM Steve "Mongo" McMichael) but the problem is that Impact Wrestling isn't really that much better and is way more generic. It's like indy promotion name generated. I can see the argument that the eight TNA diehards have that it's better to have a name that's howlingly awful but distinct over a name that's competent but forgettable even if I DEFINITELY disagree with it.

Somehow, Global Force Wrestling is the best of three but that name was instantly poisoned by Drunk Daddy Jeff's pyramid scheming.
 

Valeyard

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TNA is a godawful name but Impact Wrestling really does sound like the Canadian indy they are now. I'd rather just umbrella the whole thing, but it isn't like it matters what I want, I just do anyway. I will give you the "howlingly awful" thing because of that fucking owl, though.

You okay, dude?
 

Valeyard

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I haven't given money to any incarnation since Bound For Glory '05 and do not feel bad about it. I'd love to watch the uncut weekly shows again but I'm not paying for it because it really would be me paying them for three years of shows I'd fast forward through a lot, nostalgia notwithstanding.
 
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