TNA Year Three

TNA YEAR THREE:  June 24 2004-June 19 2005

What if we took two average guys and made them into one super average guy?

AJ Styles began year 3 banished back to the X division (he suddenly became too small again when they got on almost national TV).  This didn’t sit well with the X division, specifically Frankie Kazarian and Michael Shane who decided that Styles shouldn’t be allowed in the X division after winning the top belt.  Yep that’s how much sense it made.  Unable to choose which of these two unremarkable men would unseat Styles as X champion…on 7/28/04…they both did when they both brought down the belt in an Ultimate X match.

No one thought this was a bad idea

The belt was put up in a gauntlet match two weeks later and won by Petey Williams from Team Canada. He would, perhaps surprisingly, get to keep his title through the next of oh so many TNA format changes (dropping the 2 hour weekly show and going to the one 3 hour PPV a month format).

Meanwhile AJ Styles went full in on a feud with Kid Kash that had been building for some time. Kash had attacked Styles when he won the X title back in June, and then caused the No Contest against Jeff Hardy. He also cost Styles the X title to Shane and Kaz. They had a series of matches as the weekly PPV era drew to a close.

 

A date with fate ended up a whole hell of a lot like Destiny did

TNA wanted to build to something big for their final weekly PPV broadcast on September 8, 2004. They were moving to a weekly TV show/monthly 3 hour PPV format with their first 3 hour show “Victory Road” scheduled for November. Jeff Hardy had become the #1 contender to Jeff Jarrett’s NWA title and it seemed obvious that the beloved Hardy would win the big one to close out the era.

Jarrett won.

When Hardy became the #1 contender for the title again heading into the Victory Road PPV it became clear that this was just a really strong build to the big babyface triumph to end their first epic 3 hour PPV. The match was even the Jeff Hardy special: A ladder match.

Jarrett won.

ONLY THEN did it become clear that they were saving Jeff Hardy’s big victory for immediately after Victory Road when TNA had a 2 night “Best Damn Wrestling Show Period” crossover event with the similarly titled Fox Sports Net show. This time it was a steel cage match so Hardy wouldn’t have to worry about run ins from Jarrett’s new posse Kevin Nash and Scott Hall who had cost Hardy the title at the PPV!

Jarrett won.

After that I started to think maybe Hardy wasn’t going to be winning the title.

TNA fun fact: Jeff Hardy, one of the most beloved and over babyfaces of this era, would finally bring home the TNA title 6 years later…

When he held it was as an awesome guy

 

 

More tag team title wackiness

If the second half of year 2 didn’t go well for the Tag titles…the first half of year 3 didn’t do much better. On 7/7/04 The Naturals (Chase Stevens and Andy Douglas) beat AMW for the belts in 20 seconds after hitting James Storm with one of the belts. This was to set up a great cage rematch on 7/21/04 that the Naturals also won (the first “Six sides of steel” match which was actually pretty terrific but has become forgotten when AMW and Triple X blew it out of the water soon after). Then things got wacky again. The Naturals would drop the titles on the last weekly PPV (after successful defenses against Triple X and 3 Live Kru) to the team of…Chris Harris and Elix Skipper. Wacky partners that don’t like each other had arrived in TNA for the first time. Of course Harris and Skipper would lose those titles to…James Storm and Christopher Daniels.

I’m going to skip ahead and then come back. The Triple X/AMW feud reached its boiling point in December as a match between the two teams headlined TNA’s second 3 hour PPV Turning Point. This is the match where Elix Skipper walked the cage. Although there are a couple matches that might be as good (or in the case of Styles/Daniels Iron Man match at Final Resolution maybe even better) I’m going to call this the YEAR THREE MATCH OF THE YEAR because it’s just far more memorable. The stipulation was that the losing team could never team up again…a stipulation that TNA would enforce for about 2 and a half years.

12-5-04 AMW vs. Triple X cage match

 

Team Canada (Roode and Young) would win the titles on Impact in October and then drop them to 3 Live Kru before picking them back up soon after.  AMW finally got back on top to stabilize the tag division with this awesome match from Final Resolution:

1-16-05 Team Canada vs. AMW

 

Getting somewhere and immediately forgetting the people that got you there

As TNA moved into their new business model they decided it was time to take a run at some bigger name talent.  A returning Scott Hall and a debuting Kevin Nash helped Jeff Jarrett retain the NWA title at Victory Road…forming a group called the Kings of Wrestling.  They weren’t the big surprise on that show, however, as Randy Savage came out to confront them to end the show.  Savage hadn’t been seen in wrestling in like 4 and a half years at this point.

And at a TNA PPV he wasn’t seen now…ZING

Savage would “work” his final match in wrestling at TNA’s second monthly event “Turning Point”. He was taken out before the 6 man tag featuring the Kings of Wrestling against Jeff Hardy, AJ Styles and Savage…but made it down for the finish to…well not do much. He pinned Jarrett after slowly lowering his knee onto him. This was to build to a Jarrett/Savage match for the NWA title at Final Resolution the next month…but that never happened. The official reason was Savage had health concerns…the real reason is that Savage wanted to win the belt and then drop it back to Jarrett at the next PPV. As for what Jarrett thought of that, you can ask Jeff Hardy.

So the first TNA PPV event was built around Hall and Nash coming in and a main event featuring Jeff Hardy with the payoff of a Randy Savage appearance. Quick without looking…what were AJ Styles and AMW doing that night?

Diamond Dallas Page also jumped on board for a feud with Raven and then to briefly get in the title picture. Page was coming off of a bad run in WWE so this was actually a pretty decent career move for him.

 

The prologue to a great book

Petey Williams entered the new TNA era very successfully, defeating AJ Styles at Victory Road and in an awesome match with Chris Sabin at Turning Point.

12-5-04 Petey Williams vs. Chris Sabin

 

He would finally drop the title at Final Resolution in an Ultimate X match against both. For my money it’s the best Ultimate X the company has done:

1-16-05 AJ Styles vs. Petey Williams vs. Chris Sabin Ultimate X

 

The next month Styles would defend the title against Christopher Daniels in an epic 30 minute Iron Man match.

2-13-05 AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels Iron Man

 

This would mark the beginning of an on again/off again feud that is still on today.  Daniels would win the X title the next month in yet another Ultimate X match.  Daniels would hold the title through the rest of year 3, a year that would end with the debut of the missing piece of the full on X division resurgence, Samoa Joe.

Pre-penis face

Planet Jarrett

Wanting to keep to his strict “one title defense a month” strategy of long title reigns…Jeff Jarrett was faced with a problem in December of 04.  He was scheduled to be in the previously mentioned 6 man tag on the Turning Point pay per view.  That meant he found himself defending the title on Impact on December 3 against The Alpha Male Monty Brown.  Brown became popular because of his unique promos and his “Pounce” finishing move.  He should have won the title here.  Of all the challengers Jarrett faced throughout this near year long run…this is the one he should have lost to.  Monty Brown no sold a guitar shot and the crowd went ape shit at the prospect of him actually winning the belt.  Of course he still lost.

Brown would get a rematch at Final Resolution in January and lose that as well.  In February Jarrett had to defend the title against Kevin Nash in a shockingly fun match that may be the last good match Kevin Nash ever had…but I’m NOT doing that research (EDIT: He had a good match with Samoa Joe years later):

2-13-05 Jeff Jarrett vs. Kevin Nash

 

Jarrett then went on to feud with and defeat Diamond Dallas Page.

Jeff Jarrett never lost. That was the gimmick. He was a guy who could not be beaten. If you need proof:

That is a video of Jeff Jarrett losing to Ray Gonzalez in Puerto Rico in April 05.  The little ref switch deal at the end was to set up the Dusty finish that since the ref wasn’t NWA approved the title switch didn’t count and Jarrett returned as still champion and it was never talked about again.  So even when Jeff Jarrett lost he didn’t lose.

 

A feel good story ends in tragedy

Chris Candido had been out of any kind of spotlight since ECW shut its doors in 3 years earlier. On January 7, 2005 he made his first appearance for TNA facing AJ Styles in a short opening match.

1-7-05 AJ Styles vs. Chris Candido

 

Candido earned himself a roster spot with his performance and he was going to be used to get guys over going forward.  TNA put him in a managerial spot with the Naturals but also had him wrestling.  In fact he was on almost every show from that point on.  Just before Lockdown in April he did an angle where Kevin Nash had beaten him up so he came down to manage the Naturals in a wheelchair.  In the opening match at Lockdown, Candido broke his leg and had to be helped from the ring.  He worked the next set of tapings and was in the Naturals corner for a great tag match where they recaptured the Tag titles from AMW.  It aired the day after he died as the result of a blood clot caused by his surgery.

On the bright side TNA has somehow managed for 7 years to not tell people that Lockdown is so dangerous it literally killed a man in the first match. That’s not nothing.

 

I lied…Jeff Jarrett does lose…but only to one man

Ah yes Lockdown. The all cage match PPV that no one is quite sure why every match is in a cage. It was originally announced that the two main events (Lethal Lockdown and AJ/Abyss in a #1 contenders match) would be inside the cage and then suddenly it was every match on the card. I’d bet good money someone made a joke and someone else just ran with it.
In the main event of the Lockdown show AJ Styles beat Abyss to become the #1 contender to Jarrett’s NWA title. Styles and Abyss had a real great match :

4-24-05 AJ Styles vs. Abyss cage

 

As a result AJ Styles got his championship match at the next months Hard Justice PPV.  He defeated Jarrett to win his 3rd NWA title (All 3 from Jarrett) inside of a steel cage with Tito Ortiz as the ref.

AJ’s probably on the back cover…

Destiny always rings twice

TNA’s contract with Fox Sports Net ran out following the May 27th broadcast. This left TNA without any TV for the three weeks leading up to Slammiversary. The main event for the show was the second ever King of the Mountain match featuring champion AJ Styles, Monty Brown, Abyss, Sean Waltman and Jeff Jarrett.

On the preshow Jarrett attacked a fan and got himself thrown out of the match. Raven lobbied to get his spot and ended up finally achieving his destiny of becoming NWA champion years later than expected.

6-19-05 KOTM 2

 

I’ve never heard why they did the switch out with Jarrett and Raven so I’ll go ahead and assume it was because they had no TV so Jarrett didn’t give a fuck.

And as always there was a lot of bad in year 3 that we glossed over here. Here are some pictures:

 

Phi Delta Slam

Trytan

The Elite Guard

“Dropkick” Mike Posey

They also split up Simon Diamond and Johnny Swinger and made them have the worst feud ever. Swinger was put with Glenn Gilberti, Vito and Trinity and Diamond went by the name “Irish” Pat Kenney.

This year saw the first Monster’s Ball match, A Piper’s Pit where Piper apologized to Jimmy Snuka, the debut of Alex Shelley (who just left) and completely unmemorable runs by Jonny B. Badd and Dustin Rhodes. Jeff Hardy also was suspended for no showing a Hard Justice match with Raven (ironically filled in for by Sean Waltman who like Hardy would get fired for no showing next year) but he was allowed back in year 4 (until he did it again). Very much a transition year for the company…admittedly not the only one…but perhaps the only one so far that transitioned into something FUCKING AWESOME. Seriously…year 4 rocks…just wait.