Random TNA Bullshit Vol. 2

[Valeyard]

That's being incredibly forgiving. Russo is so disingenuous and annoying that he can never work as a face unless he's booked against, like, AIDS or slavery or something.

I somewhat want to revisit some of the Michael Shane stuff but he's so much of everything that makes me crazy about Adam Cole that I can't. He and Kazarian were a fun heel team that never got their shot, though. Somehow worked, putting them together despite their blandness.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

I'm not saying I loved it, but Russo didn't perform too badly at that point. I still remember when they were trying to get the belt off of Jarrett during the Planet Jarrett run, and Double J had his top contender taken out, so you had Truth, AJ, and a few others arguing for the shot. There was some alright conflict on Russo's face that worked for me when he announced AJ as the challenger just before the match started.

Shane/Kazarian as a team worked because they covered each other's weaknesses. Shane was good at getting his ass kicked, Frankie was good at getting the hot tag and getting his shit in.

 

[Valeyard]

Shane, Kazarian, and Traci were a solid little unit. It's weird how the Naturals kinda lapped them as the big heel team considering the pushes Shane and Kaz got from their debuts. That open space after Triple X felt perfect for them. Not a shot at the Naturals who were awesome.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

I barely remember the Naturals beyond seeing they were feuding with AMW and wondering who the hell they were

 

[Valeyard]

The Naturals were good, but I'll never fully accept them getting as far as they did. I don't think they had any great matches that didn't involve AMW, but the cage match and the Bound For Glory match with heel AMW were really good. They just were never the same after Candido.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Revisiting TNA Impact Wrestling 2014 Dixie Carter Put Through Table, Monsters Ball Match, 3 Way X-Title Match - DEADLOCK: A Pro Wrestling Podcast

The DEADLOCK Podcast is an off-the-rails retrospective look at pro wrestling's highest & lowest points hosted by James Darnell, Anthony Douglas, & John Blud. Formerly the present, currently the past, sometimes the future - this podcast has seemed to do it all when it comes to the landscape of...

pca.st

Dammit, @Laz …I’m in!

This was an underrated shark jumping point for TNA tbh. It got a huge rating ATT too which is probably worst thing that could have happened.

 

[Valeyard]

A heel getting a comeuppance is how it's supposed to work and if she's willing to take the bump I don't see a problem. What's always surprised me is why people cared because the table bump is nothing special anymore and she was no doubt going to be protected. Credit to the players, I guess.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

The sad thing about Dixie is nobody can actively say a bad word about her, as a person, just that she was a dogshit promoter who hitched herself to the wrong horses. That she still sings the praises of those who were obviously her greatest losses talent-wise (AJ, AJ, and AJ) is telling of this.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

2014 TNA may have had even more of a “coffin on roller skates” vibe than ‘00 WCW. WCW was failure on a much bigger scale obviously but I don’t think they had anything as demoralizing as losing two of their most beloved stars in the same horribly received angle in a one month span. Or a World Champion as random as Eric Young. That’s like if Hugh Morrus got the World Title instead of the US!

 

[Valeyard]

They literally put the belt on Eric Young because he had a beard.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Maybe Hugh Morrus should have grown less stupid facial hair.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Dumb thing is Magnus is the one who defeated AJ Styles and Sting in their last TNA matches, albeit via massive amounts of chicanery. Theoretically, the guy who beat him for the World Title should have been a made man.

The guy who beat him for the World Title was Eric Young. Not even on a PPV! On a random episode of Impact with an hour’s build. ffs I hate mid 2010s TNA.

I can’t even remember who beat Eric Young for the title. Lashley? Bobby Roode? Magnus won it back?

(fake edit- It was Lashley.)

 

[Fall of Epic]

Lashley's run in TNA in 2014 was actually really good and I have to imagine it's what caused WWE to open their eyes to him again and re-hire him in 2018. He was a perfectly-booked, dominant monster heel.

I went to a Impact taping in the summer of 2014 at the Manhattan Center. One of he highlights was a Samoa Joe/Lashley world title match. Also, Crazzy Steve was inexplicably hella over.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Lashley and MVP were really good store brand version of Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman in WWE at the time. Lashley really saved himself from being stuck in the dungheap of pro wrestling history with the Mr. Anderson and Rybacks of the world with that run.

Lashley, Rockstar Spud and tag team division were reasons why I kept tuning into TNA. And to see how bad it would get.

 

[Valeyard]

Knockouts were always my favorite part, almost consistently since the beginning of the division. But that era had Lashley, the last gasp of the Hardys, Drew becoming a real star, the Allie/Maria stuff, Laurel Van Ness, the best incarnation of LAX with a solid unappreciated tag division...there was stuff, but it was just a really unpleasant show to watch for me visually and tonally, and even then after Spike it's been a hassle to actually FIND Impact.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

A lot of if not most of that stuff you mentioned is 2016-17ish. 2014 was the last year on Spike. Oh and the dirt worst thing was this was when Dixie brought in Vince Russo as a ghostwriter after Hogan and Bischoff left DESPITE SpikeTV explicitly telling her to never rehire Vince Russo.

I honestly think if TNA had been a halfway decent product AND NOT WENT AROUND THE NETWORK TO REHIRE THAT IDIOT RUSSO, they’d have been on SpikeTV until it ended. Pro wrestling was just about to become an acceptable part of mainstream nerd culture again but instead TNA had to appeal to the mouthbreather dregs of the Attitude Era/ECW fanbase that were still lingering. “Huh huh huh. That bitch got put through a table.” It was too trashy for a network that aired a 1000 Ways to Die!!!

 

[Valeyard]

Hogan leaving and Dixie begging on her hands and knees for him to stay is the worst moment in the company. That's why Impact Wrestling was a failure. But the severe production decrease and loss of names was the worst. Once I saw the Beatdown Clan debut, or at least I think Low Ki coming back, and the arena was pitch dark except for shitty janky overhead lighting like a 2000 UPW show, I was out.

 

[Valeyard]

Look at this shit.

 

[Fall of Epic]

The Destination America era was the dark period for me. Show was so unaesthetically pleasing.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

TNA demoting (and eventually firing) Mike Tenay cause Destination America wanted a younger PBP guy was also one of those low key horrible moments in company history. TNA didn’t even last six months on that network before things went to hell and they were off it entirely within a year.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

Real talk: the BDC were fucking cool.

Those Destination America days were trash in appearance. It always seemed to me that the simplest solution was to not light the ring exclusively and have dim light on the crowd behind, book smaller venues, and make the product seem "dangerous" compared to the overly PG WWE. There was a brief period where the company made the conscious decision to be geared more toward adults when WWE was full-swing with the TV-PG era, and it delivered some quality stuff (the Beer Money split and feud is still a top 10 program in that company), so going back on it always felt...

...well...it felt TNA.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Well actually Kamala here again.

Beer Money breakup feud was in Fall 2011, three years before the Destination America era.

I wanted to say first episode of the Destination America era had the Beer Money reunion but it was the first episode of the Pop era. Damn. TNA/Impact have been on a lot of WEIRD cable networks through the years.

I think the edgy James Storm angle you’re thinking of is The Revolution (James Storm’s dime store Wyatt Family knockoff) and him pushing Mickie James into an oncoming train to write her off TV. Which is the first of several times TNA “killed” someone.

 

[Valeyard]

Eddie Kingston and the driveby was fucking hilarious. That's the best I can say.

Storm being miscast was bad but killing Mickie was also very funny.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Eddie Kingston and the driveby was fucking hilarious. That's the best I can say.

It wasn’t a drive by. He ran over a kid. More of a drive over?

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

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View this content on Instagram

 

[Valeyard]

Still funny they got Vader during the last gasp of being a good worker and use that borrowed time to put him with Dusty against the Harris Boys.

It's a shame they didn't give us Vader/Sting one last time during whatever run you'd think of

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

TN FN A, @Laz

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Revisiting TNA Wrestling 2008 The First Live Impact, Sting Returns, Kurt Angle Sparring Session, The Highlander Robbie Incident - DEADLOCK: A Pro Wrestling Podcast

The DEADLOCK Podcast is an off-the-rails retrospective look at pro wrestling's highest & lowest points hosted by James Darnell, Anthony Douglas, & John Blud. Formerly the present, currently the past, sometimes the future - this podcast has seemed to do it all when it comes to the landscape of...

pca.st

An underrated absolutely stupid moment in TNA History. Their first live show highlighted/ruined by a WWE undercard guy getting himself fired.

TNA should have at least hired Highlander Rory after that.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

How the hell am I just learning about this? I was too preoccupied on stupid tasks like trying to earn a degree from a liberal arts college and drinking my weight in piss beer to notice Steve Harvey chopping it up with the 2009 stars of TNA.

 

[Valeyard]

Other TNA thread got me remembering that time when they had that producer (a girl from Tough Enough) who got wrestlers to be in goofy music videos but when TNA found her Youtube they made her delete everything and fired her.