Bryan Staebell
TNA YEAR TWO: June 19 2003-June 23 2004
A numbers game
America’s Most Wanted won a tag tournament (Traci Brooks was on the team they beat in the finals. Tournaments were never Russo’s strong suit) at the end of year one to earn a shot at Triple X’s Tag titles on the first anniversary show. Given that it was the big anniversary show everyone expected AMW to finally get their belts back. An injured Low Ki (Triple X was Daniels and Skipper for this match) interfered to allow his unit to retain. As a result it was decided that a rematch would take place inside of TNA’s first ever cage match. With the numbers finally even…TNA opened their first show of their second year with what turned out to be a classic (even if the same teams would end up outdoing it a year and a half later). In some great turnabouts fair play, Elix Skipper is knocked out of the cage while trying to come off the top allowing AMW to finally have a numbers advantage of their own and reclaim their titles.
6/25/03- Triple X vs. AMW (cage match)
Harris and Storm would go on have a series of matches with Simon Diamond and Johnny Swinger, eventually losing the belts to them on 8/27/03.
Diamond would later eat Glenn Gilberti
A different kind of champion
Unlike his predecessor Jeff Jarrett (whose title defenses were somewhat rare and treated as a big deal), AJ Styles would defend the NWA title all the time. He’d spend a good deal of time feuding with his former partner D-Lo Brown. They had OK matches but always seemed to get shortchanged on time. Styles would have one way too short defense against Jerry Lynn and a pretty weird feud with Dusty Rhodes that included a blow-off that went over 15 minutes. A 15 minute Dusty Rhodes/AJ Styles match? Weird. He also found time to almost kill Frankie Kazarian:
Here’s one of his best title defenses…against Raven:
8-27-03- AJ Styles vs. Raven
A signature match
At the start of Year 2, the X division was pretty much focused on just 3 guys. Kid Kash had moved on from the division into, first a legend killer gimmick (literally a month before Orton did it) beating Larry Zbysko, Bobby Eaton and Ricky Morton, and then moving on to team up with the monster he’d brought in to the company, Abyss. This left Champion Chris Sabin to feud with newcomers Frankie Kazarian and Michael Shane. Shane is famous for being Shawn Michaels’ cousin…and nothing else.
The X title was held up after some non-finish match and it was decided by Don Callis (who was in charge at the time. If you think I’m going to be able to recap all the people who were in charge at different points throughout TNA history you can go fuck yourself) that the 3 men would compete for the title in a brand new match concept: The Ultimate X.
Actual photo
On August 20, Michael Shane would win the vacant X title in a match that would feature the belt falling off of the ropes twice…but was nonetheless unlike any match seen before it. Ultimate X would become the signature match of the X division and provide some of the goddamned stupidest bumps anyone has ever taken in the history of the business.
8-20-03- First Ultimate X
Incredibly, Michael Shane would have a long run with the belt, beating guys like Jerry Lynn, Christopher Daniels, Low Ki and Sonjay Dutt before losing the belt to Chris Sabin in Ultimate X II on January 7, 2004.
Here are all the memorable matches Michael Shane had as champion:
I think this Hart kid has a bright future
While Shane was lulling people to sleep with his complete and total mediocrity, someone in TNA had a great idea of what to do with the X division. It was called the Super X Cup and was taped over two weeks to air on September 3, 2003. An 8 man single elimination tournament with 4 TNA guys on one half of the bracket and 4 international wrestlers on the other. The 4 TNA guys were Chris Sabin, Frankie Kazarian, Jerry Lynn and Michael Shane. The 4 international guys were Juventud Guerrera, Nosawa, Johnny Storm and Teddy Hart. The good news on this show was that Juvi came with the intention of tearing the house down.
You can watch the whole tournament edited together here:
Or just skip to the finals for Juventud Guerrera vs. Chris Sabin in what I’m naming the Year Two Match of the Year:
9-3-03- Chris Sabin vs. Juventud Guerrera
It would be TNA’s best received show to that point and would lead to future X division tournaments (another Super X Cup in 2005) and all out international/TNA crossovers (several World X Cups)
That other CM Punk/Raven feud
Raven entered year two as a newly turned babyface (not that he was exactly hated before) feuding with Shane Douglas and Jim Mitchell’s New Church. He formed a new “flock” called “The Gathering” here with Mickie James, Julio Dinero and CM Punk. At this same time in Ring of Honor Punk and Raven were having a huge feud and Raven decided he wanted to do a hair vs. hair match with Punk winning. TNA decided that wasn’t going to happen and if Raven wanted to lose his hair so bad they’d pull rank and make him do it there. I don’t know what kind of language was in his contract but everyone just went along with it. So on 9/17/03 Shane Douglas beat Raven and Jim Mitchell (not knowing what the fuck he was doing with the clippers) scalped him.
Raven spent the next month taking out New Church members (Sinn, Slash, Vampiro and then Mitchell himself) before getting into a feud with the Red Shirt security (which was Kevin Northcutt and Ryan Wilson…but then was Northcutt and Joe E Legend…for reasons no one remembers or cares about). Anyway this all led to Punk and Dinero turning on Raven on the last show of 2003.
Punk and Dinero would get a little push out of it starting 2004 by taking out makeshift teams of former ECW guys like Sandman, Balls Mahoney, Mikey Whipwreck and Terry Funk. Eventually Raven would return and he and Funk would beat Punk and Dinero. The week after, Punk and Dinero would lose to Raven again (this time with Sabu as partner) in what would be Punk’s last appearance for the promotion. You see…at this same time TNA was taping matches for a Team Mexico/Team Canada World X Cup show and Team Canada member Teddy Hart got into it with Punk (IIRC it started when Punk told Hart to not steal AJ Styles move or something…its’ been a long time) at a restaurant the wrestlers use and Punk smacked Hart across the face. Sabu broke it up and neither guy was used again past Hart’s taping commitment for the X Cup.
The story is interesting because of the ripples it caused. TNA would try to go after CM Punk again in 2005 but Punk would turn them down because they wouldn’t meet his request of an hour long match with Samoa Joe on PPV. If he hadn’t been cut who knows how that would have played out since it was only a little over a year later and his buddy Joe would have just signed. He ended up doing OK for himself. Teddy Hart’s career has still never gotten out of the indys because he never grew up. With him gone it caused TNA to have to make changes to the Team Canada roster since the act drew great heat and they wanted to keep it around. With Hart went Jack Evans so TNA had 2 spots to fill. They filled them with Eric Young and Bobby Roode. Now Roode would have probably gotten in eventually anyway since he was quite good but this incident is what opened the door for him. That’s 2 of the top guys in their respective companies right now (Punk and Roode) whose careers were positively influenced by Teddy Hart being a jackass.
Hulkamania runs wild on AJ Styles
On October 13, 2003 Jeff Jarrett attacked Hulk Hogan in Japan.
Hogan beat Chono and then in the post match press conference was talking about wanting to go to American and win the NWA title since he’d never held it. The plan here was for Hogan to wrestle Jarrett in TNA’s first 3 hour pay per view event, Bound For Glory. Much like in WCW in 2000…this match never happened. Jarrett didn’t know that at the time though so he needed to get the NWA title back on himself right away. He beat AJ Styles for the belt less than 10 days later.
The great irony here is that while the world still waits for not one but two different Hogan/Jarrett matches…Hogan would actually wrestle against AJ Styles in a tag match years later. It’s a funny business.
Just because you have more than two tag teams, it does not mean your tag division is good
Alright I’m blowing through this quickly because if they didn’t put any thought into it then…I’m certainly not putting any into it now.
Simon Diamond and Johnny Swinger lost the tag titles to the 3 Live Kru (a horribly misused Truth, a fattening by the minute Road Dogg and Konnan who wasn’t cool until the third time they put LAX together). The Kru would lose them to the Red Shirt Security. The Red Shirt Security would lose them to AJ Styles. Yep. Technically AJ Styles and Abyss but Abyss turned on him and Styles won 1 on 2. Abyss then beat AJ Styles so he got to choose a new partner but instead the belts were just held up. Kid Kash and his new partner (after he and Abyss had a falling out) Dallas (Lance Hoyt) would win them in a tournament…but then immediately lose them (by DQ!) to Apolo and D-Lo Brown. Brown and Apolo would lose them back to Kash and Dallas (by DQ!) a week later. Bunch of bullshit is what this was.
Probably not even the highlight of their week
The reason for the chaos here was that the two good teams (AMW and Triple X) had mostly moved on from the division for a while. Daniels, Low Ki and Skipper all were floating around the X division (although they were in the tag title tournament, losing in the finals to Kash and Dallas), and AMW tried to be singles wrestlers for a while. Storm would never really find a place but Harris received a big push and worked his way up to the NWA title picture. But we’ll get to that in a minute.
For the X Cup…OF AMERICA…and THE WORLD
On the February 11, 2004 show TNA debuted their new X division concept. It was called America’s X Cup (I’m guessing because the international side didn’t win the Super X Cup? That’s just a guess) and featured two teams of 4 (Jerry Lynn, Chris Sabin, Sonjay Dutt and Elix Skipper for team TNA and Juventud Guerrera, Mr. Aguila, Hector Garza and Abismo Negro for Team Mexico). The format was 4 singles matches, 2 tag matches and then one 8 man elimination tag (with different point values for winners/survivors). Anyway since the things was called America’s X Cup of course America lost (and Sonjay was billed from India so I don’t even know.). I know you’re thinking “Hey…Mexico is part of the Americas…it’s all good” but they didn’t rename the cup until much later…after England had a shot to win it. What part of America is that?
This led to something kind of fascinating. As a result of winning the X Cup, Team Mexico had to later defend it (in the same format) against a team from Canada (Teddy Hart, Jack Evans (who’s not Canadian), Johnny Devine and Petey Williams) and a team from England (Doug Williams, Jonny Storm, Jody Fleisch, Nigel McGuiness…oh wait no…that would have made sense and been awesome…instead it was 4 guys I’ve never heard of). This meant that there were a couple of TNA PPVs built around guys that weren’t TNA wrestlers. Part of Team Canada would end up sticking…but it was still pretty ridiculous. Also Guererra was replaced by Heavy Metal by the Mexico vs. England show.
This would all lead to the big WORLD X CUP when Team Mexico would finally lose the Cup to TNA (Christopher Daniels replaced Sonjay Dutt). This show featured a different format as 4 countries competed at the same time (also included the new Team Canada lineup and a Team Japan with Nosawa and some other guys I don’t know). Everyone competed in a gauntlet match, then there were two tag matches, then a 4 way ladder match. Japan had been eliminated in the points by the finals so Chris Sabin won a 3 way Ultimate X match to win the Cup.
They would do the World X Cup again in 2006 and 2008…but it unfortunately ended there…either because Bischoff hated the idea or they just forgot. Both are equally plausible. Had they kept it up there would have been one going on right around now.
R.I.P., descansar en pieza, Rest in piece…eh, R.I.P. (in Japanese)
There will be a modified World Cup at a future One Night Only PPV. This time featuring Heavyweights, Tag teams, Knockouts and X division guys. They didn’t bother to get any of their stuff in order though so instead of exciting international talent coming in from AAA and New Japan…there’s a Team Aces and 8’s, a team international with whoever they could dig up and all the British guys they have under contract already.
You guys better enjoy this…because it’s the last you’ll see it for a LOOOONG time
At some point Jarrett figured out that Hogan wasn’t coming in. So on 4/21/04 AJ Styles pinned him to win his second NWA title. Just like last time Jarrett’s reign was very few title matches stretched out over a long period, and just like the last time Styles was a fighting champion. In the weeks immediately following his win Styles would successfully defend the belt against Truth, Raven and Chris Harris. The next week the belt was up for grabs in a 4 way featuring those same guys. Truth would pull an upset and walk out as champion for the second time. It was in this month that TNA announced they would have a new TV show coming to Fox Sports Net on Friday afternoons (in most markets). The show was called Impact. It looked like Truth was going to be in the top position heading into a new era for the company.
But of course he wasn’t.
Well…it is his nickname
On the June 2nd show (2 days before Impact’s debut) Jeff Jarrett (who hadn’t wrestled since the loss to Styles) defeated Truth, Styles, Raven and Harris in the first ever King of the Mountain match to take back the title.
Impact debuted two days later and brought with it the 6 sided ring and the debut of the Impact Zone.
They also did a 10 minute time limit on non main event or title matches and if there was a draw someone would just pick a winner. Getting on (almost) national TV caused a reboot for TNA. Jarrett won the title back just before, AMW would win the tag titles back on the first Impact, and AJ Styles would become the #1 contender to the X title on that same debut show and would win the X title back at the next Wednesday night show. It made some sense to want the new people watching (and even with a somehow worse time slot than they had for the PPVs…there would be more new eyes since it was free) to see AMW as the top team…but it was a hell of a step back for AJ Styles. It wouldn’t be the last time for him…and it wouldn’t even be the last time they did literally this exact same thing.
Midgets, women and No contests…now it’s a party
That brought us to the second anniversary show. It featured Jerry Lynn in a 15 minute match with a manager (Scott D’Amore), women in a stretcher match (Trinity and Desire), a midget match (who cares), and a no contest in the X title match followed by a no contest in the Main Event (Jarrett vs. Truth). The big thing on the show was who AJ Styles opponent was that night. The debuting Jeff Hardy turned out to be the mystery opponent in a rare case of TNA actually delivering on a surprise, if not the match itself.
Either way the show was shit.
TNA year two added some more building blocks for the future of the company. It was where the Abyss character started and Bobby Roode debuted. It was also a year that saw the Insane Clown Posse do a few shots, the character “X” (Carl Ouellett/Pierre in a mask) try to destroy the X division…or win the X title…I’m still not sure, and D-Ray 3000 be D-Ray 3000. Up and down is a good way to look at year 2.
I’ll leave you with this:
