View Of The Orient - Week Three
Posted by TWV Guest Columnists
on 01/17/2007
Want to get your column on this site? Just click here and follow the instructions. No experience is needed!
Guest Column By Sivaram Prasad
Several years ago, one of the few remaining active wrestlers from the Jarrett family was unable to work in the mainstream area of pro wrestling following the demise of WCW and ECW. Jeff Jarrett did not decide to make a return to World Wrestling Entertainment for the relationship between him and man who had killed competition in the American pro wrestling, Vincent Kennedy McMahon, was tense following past events during Jarrett's previous tenure in the WWE, or WWF at that time.
Instead, Jarrett, with the help of his father, longtime wrestling promoter Jerry Jarrett, set up NWA:TNA, a new professional wrestling company.
TNA's business plan was suicidal in some ways and they had financial problems early on. Unlike most other independent federations across the USA in 2002, TNA did have televised events. However, these were available on a weekly PPV basis. TNA's talent roster was good by all means, using a mixture of young Indy wrestlers such as Michael Shane and Chris Sabin, young former WCW alumni who didn't get much of a chance to shine because of WCW's demise such as "The Phenomenal One" AJ Styles, "The Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels, and "Primetime" Elix Skipper, and a host of former WWF, WCW, and ECW stars such as BG James (formerly Road Dogg of the New Age Outlaws), Jerry Lynn, Syxx-Pac/Sean Waltman, and more.
Once TNA lost their major financial backer, they were in trouble. TNA publicist Dixie Carter persuaded her father, owner of Panda Energy, to save the company, which he did. Carter was soon made president of TNA.
TNA continued to lose money. They gained national TV status with an afternoon slot on Fox Sports Network. There, they began monthly PPVs, having abandoned the weekly PPV format. A move to their current TV residence Spike TV followed where they have done much better, bringing in new stars and finally starting to fill that void that was left in the wrestling.
TNA have grown a lot in four and a half years. Each year has gotten bigger and better for them and 2006 is no exception. That's why I'm happy to rewrite and relive the huge highs & stooping lows of 2006 for TNA Wrestling.
TNA Wrestling
2006
Year End Review
Chapter One:
Do You Want A Haircut?
Raven's TNA career reached it's peak when he won the NWA Title at Slammiversary 2005. Sadly, politics and Jeff Jarrett (the two most feared words in TNA) came into play and Raven lost the title before iMPACT!'s Spike TV run even began.
Instead of giving Raven a simple rematch, TNA put him in a feud with Larry Zybysko, the authority figurehead of TNA, with the story being that Larry would refuse to give Raven his re-match.
So Raven put his job on the line for a rematch facing wrestlers whom he'd feuded with in the past, such as Justin Credible and Syxx-Pac/Sean Waltman (X-Pac).Raven lost to Waltman at Final Resolution when Larry Z called for the three count despite Raven's leg being on the ring ropes.
That should have been the end of Raven, but nope. He returned at the all cage PPV Lockdown in April, reinstated as Larry was placed on probation. Raven proceeded to chase Zbyszko all over Universal Resorts for two months before the two finally faced off at Victory Road in a Hair versus Hair match with Larry Z's new enemy, Slick Johnson as ref. No need to ask who won this one.
A picture worth only six words:
What a total waste of my time.
Whoops, that's 7 words.
Verdict:
Boringly bad.
We did get a couple of good promos leading up to the match, but the match itself was bad. Thankfully, TNA didn't give this match much attention as it sure didn't deserve any.
Chapter 2:
The New Face Of Arm Wrestling
The 3(4) Live Kru, one of TNA's mainstay stables, disbanded at Genesis 2005 after Konnan attacked partners BG and Kip James (former Outlaws). As other partner, two-time NWA champ Ron Killings refused to take sides, it was Konnan's new Latin American X-Change group feuding with the reunited James Gang.
The two sides faced off at Against All Odds in February with the James Gang winning. BG's dad, "Bullet" Bob Armstrong, was so upset that BG and K-Dawg couldn't get along. He tried to talk Konnan into making peace with the Gang and Konnan beat the living daylights out of him. Nice.
Bullet Bob and his gang beat LAX in a six man tag match at Destination X. A terrible match with Konnan selling Bullet's punches as if they were lightning bolts. Kip won it with a Cobra Clutch Bomb. Apparently though, that wasn't enough.
The Dinosaur Bullet Bob challenged Konnan to an Arm Wrestling contest, but new LAX member Hernandez interfered. The rematch took place at Lockdown with the winner able to hit his opponent ten times with leather straps.
Bullet Bob would win and the rest of the World...didn't give a damn.
This is what arm wrestling's all about, ladies and gentlemen.
A bad match at Against All Odds, a
god-awful match at Destination X, and an arm wrestling contest at Lockdown...
Verdict:
Three strikes and you're out!
Chapter 3:
Need An Eye Patch?
Christian Cage was a great World Champ, but he was losing support midway through his title run. Personally, I felt it was because all the attention was placed upon Jarrett and Sting, while Cage became a second thought literally.
Of course, the King Of Dumbness Jeff Jarrett decided to take this opportunity to reclaim the title. JJ won the title with Earl Hebner pushing Sting and CC of the ladder during the King Of The Mountain match at Slammiversary. JJ won it and a storyline was ran where new TNA authority figurehead Jim Cornette was upset, but could not take back the title.
Instead, the four "toughest guys" in TNA (Steiner, Cage, Sting, and Joe) would face off at Victory Road. The winner would face JJ a month later.
Sting won, though the manner in which he did it was pointless. Three minutes into the match, Jarrett comes out and sprays gasoline into Sting's eyes. Sting runs off to be treated.
(Jarrett rejoices at the opportunity to get himself on camera)
The other three men proceed to pull of a decent match, but Sting returns, throws Cage & Joe off the turnbuckle, and pins Steiner for the win.
After the match, Sting and Cage shook hands. For the life of me, I don't know why. I'd have just poked Sting's eyes out.
How touching...
Verdict:
A forgettable farce.
Chapter 4:
Movies Can Teach You Something
Thanks to the creative mind of TNA announcer and booking committee member Jeremy Borash, Chris Sabin and his pals Jay Lethal and Sonjay Dutt began imitating stunts from the movie
Jackass: Number Two.
This began following the Hard Justice PPV and initially it was entertaining. Dutt and Lethal began by putting Johnny Devine in a shopping cart and ramming him against the turnbuckle. In the following weeks, bowling balls and suitcases were used as well as a plastic doll during Sabin's X Title loss against Senshi, who destroyed Sabin and the doll. Chants of "This Is Stupid" and "No More Jackass" emitted in the iMPACT! Zone in late September and eventually they were dropped, much to everyone's relief.
So there you have it...the bad and awful of TNA's 2006. Next week...the good and great of TNA's 2006.
Send feedback to
sivaram_91@hotmail.com.
Click here to let us know what you thought about this column on TWV's official discussion forums!
Want to get your column on this site? Just click here and follow the instructions. No experience is needed!
Copyright © 2005; TheWrestlingVoice.com & Douglas Nunnally.
All Rights Reserved.
Disclaimer & Privacy Statement
