AmazingRen

Credit PWTorch.com TNA Impact tapings August 19, 2004 Orlando, Fla. at Universal Studios Report by Danny Robertson, PWTorch.com correspondent Jimmy Hart came out to start the show. He then introduced Jeremy Borash and The TNA Girls. XPLOSION Matches (1) Chris Sabin & Sonny Siaki beat Bobby Rude & Lex Lovett. The end came when Sabin hit his finisher. Solid back and forth match that started the show off strong. (2) Triple X beat The Naturals. Really good match with some good spots that saw Triple X get the win with their double team finisher. IMPACT Taping (1) Jeff Jarrett beat "Irish" Pat Kenney. Short match that was actually more or less a good back and forth match and not the squash i was expecting. The end came when Jarrett hit The Stroke. Afterward Jarrett cut a promo on Hardy saying that Hardy was no match for The King of the Mountain. During the promo Kenney attacked Jarrett but then Jarrett came back and took him out with a guitar shot. (2) Kid Kash & Dallas beat Mikey Batts & Jarell Clark. The end came when Kid Kash hit his finisher. Another good back and forth match. After the match Kash attacked Clark. (3) Petey Williams beat a local guy. Really good match that saw Petey get the win with The Canadian Destroyer. Scott D'Amore attacked the local wrestler after the match which prompted Dusty Rhodes to come out. Team Canada had the advantage over Dusty until the 3 Live Kru made the save. Promo in the back with Vince Russo. Russo said that he will take care of Dusty Wednesday night at the PPV. Scott D'Amore barged in and said that he should take care of it now because Russo certainly had no problem doing in to D'Amore. (4) America's Most Wanted beat Abyss & Alex Shelly. Second best match of the night. Really good match with a hot crowd to go with it. End came when AMW hit the spear on Shelly after Abyss had accidentally hit Shelly. After the match Goldylocks chewed out, slapped, and pushed Abyss. Abyss had finally had enough and went to take out Goldylocks but Shelly got in the middle. After thinking for a minute Abyss grabbed Shelly by the throat and the crowd went absolutely crazy. I’m serious when i say i haven't heard the crowd this loud before. He almost took him out but Goldylocks talked him out of it. This really disappointed the crowd. (5) Monty Brown beat Demitrius Anglin. Match lasted less than a minute. The end came when Monty hit the pounce. The "Six Points of Impact" aired. This week's guest is Larry Zbyszko. Team Canada came out in the middle of Mike Tenay and Don West's ringside promo. Scott D’Amore said that Russo doesn't have control. This brought out The 3 Live Kru and Dusty. They brawled at ringside and in the ring until they were broken up by security. (6) Jeff Hardy & A.J. Styles & Ron "The Truth" Killings beat Jason Cross & Kazarian & Michael Shane. The end came when Hardy hit the Swanton bomb. Good back and forth match that saw the crowd really divided when it came to Jeff Hardy

The price point is OK (ECW didn't go higher than $20 and they always had a larger fanbase --- and their shows weren't that great, either). I know they probably can't afford to rent arenas for the PPV --- but I think holding it at Universal Studios is just not going to work out for anybody. -=Mike I agree. They should try to have it at the same place they had at their first PPV. Or if they came to Virginia the Hampton Coliseum would be a perfect place. As long as they have longer storytelling matches, push the right talent, go to arenas that has die-hard wrestling fans and their isn't any run-ins or screwups the monthly PPV thing should work out fine.

I saw on one of the main sites (PWTorch, PWI) that they are going to start out with $19.95

I agree. I wonder what he gave Eddie v. Angle at SummerSlam because that match was not more entertaining than Kash v. AJ

Seeing as Jarrett has already buried all these guys (don't worry Monty and Abyss will be added) which guy would make more of a credible TNA champ? I'll break the down by one: 1. Raven- I don't know if it's because he's not motivated or what, but lately Raven has been putting on some crappy matches. It seems like he gets tired in the first 5-minutes of a match. Sure he has the mic skills, but would you by a show just for that? So I wouldn't pick Raven 2. AJ- the only things that are making me not pick him is mic skills and lack of emotion in his matches. Can AJ wrestle? Hell yeah. Is it going to make people order? Hell no. You can put on good matches every week, but if you don't have the mic skills, strong emotion (see Benoit) or people around you that would make you look like a credible champ then no oe will order. 3. Chris Daniels- My pick. Besides Kurt Angle, Eddie and HHH he has the top 3 things you need to be a great champ. 1) Mic skills 2) Wrestling skills 3) Charisma. He would be a perfect heel champ for TNA. He has the wearing suits thing down pact. How many single matches has Daniels had in TNA anyway? 4. Turth- If he changes his character (or at least stop dancing and be taken seriously) he would be a nice pick. 5. Aybss- Not enough Heavyweights in the company 6. D'lo- See Raven (expect the mic skills part) 7.Hardy- Well he does have charisma. However, he mic skills are bad and the only time he matches are watchable is when his opponent are great wrestlers (see his matches with Benoit and his IC title win against HHH) and TNA doesn't have many that can do that 8. Monty- see Hardy 9. Kid Kash- too short

Say what you will about BG James, but he has gotten himself back into ring shape and he's one of the few guys in TNA that can keep the crowd in a match.

Yeah, but Eddie and Benoit are jacked. Kid Kash needs more muscle. Do you think WWE would have gave Eddie the title if he looked like Eddie 2000?

It's a repackage D'lo. If you taped it pause it when the person is doing his pose(the same pose D'lo does before his leg drop) and you can see the back of his head.

I'll admit when the shows were good and the crowd was dead I would always be pissed at them for not giving the wrestler's the response they deserved. However, after last night's show I understand why the just sit on there asses and say nothing. TNA doesn't do anything important to get a hot crowd. Why should there care if Sonny gets money or loses his contract? I know TNA couldn't show ECW clips of Raven and Sabu, but they could've done more to build up the match so that when it happened there would've been more excitement and heat to it. I also understand why the crowd was dead during the Russo promo. He's not interesting and he's very dull. Why didn't they restart the AJ and Kash feud instead of having after only one week of his return? Most of the crowd is casual fans and not wrestler fans so if you just throw two guys in the ring without a reason your going to get a dead crowd because they don't have a reason to cheer the face and boo the heel. The only good thing I saw out of last night's show was Alex Shelley's promo when he got out of the limo and Monty Brown's promo. Now I understand why the crowd is so dead. It's not there fault it's TNA's fault.

First off, great post. I honestly think the only thing TNA can do right now to get people's attention is a Heavyweight feud between a heel Raven and a face AJ. Along with: Truth v. a heel Chris Dainels Jerry Lynn v. Jeff Jarrett Alex Shelley v. Sabin a face Abyss v. Monty Brown (if they would build this up right it could be a great feud) Bobby Rude v. Sonny Siaki Sabu v. Vito (hardcore feud) Hardy v. Michael Shane (considering Shane wrestles WWE style this feud would be perfect for Hardy)

I take it I missed something... when exactly did 3LK come to hate Petey Williams...cuz I know they also interfered in the cage match. 3lk is facing Team Canada next week in a no.1 contenders match for the tag team titles.

I think if TNA wants to continue doing weekly shows the should change the shows from $9.95 to $1.00. That way they could treat the shows like there on regular TV (like there doing right now). If they were to do that they could cancel the Impact! shows because it's a waste of time and have a once every month 3 hour Sunday PPV (like ECW) with the price ranging from $10 to $20. Think about it if people say the only reason they won't order the shows is because they can't afford it or they don't feel the shows are worth $9.95 paying just a $1.00 a week would be great for those people. If TNA are getting 8,000 buys for $10 a week just imagine the upgrade in buys they would get for just a dollar. Also they wouldn't have to rush feuds (Raven v. Sabu) like they do because they know when Sunday comes around people will know that's they big show. They could switch the Wednesday shows back and forth at Nashville and Orlando so the crowd wouldn't get burned out and since the Sunday PPV's are once every other month they could have the PPV's at semi-big arena's. Why isn't TNA donig anything like this? It would be perfect! Damn I'm a GENIUS!!!!!!!!

I just got finished watching the Benoit DVD and besides The Great Sasuke and Angle matches I feel his match with Too Cold was one of the best matches on the DVD. The problem is no one talks about him as a great wrestler. I would even go as far to say that he is a better wrestler than Jericho. His ground work and counter moves was so great in that match. If WWF (at that time) wasn't so worried about giving him a stupid gimmick and focused more on his in ring abilty he would have gotten more credited as a wrestler. I mean sure he doesn't have that "Superstar" look, but that's no excuse for not giving him more of a chance in WWF or WCW. Do you think as far as great wrestlers go that Too Cold is a very underrated wrestler?

JIM CORNETTE DISCUSSES WHAT'S WRONG WITH TNA, THE FUTURE OF THE BUSINESS, OVW, ROH, WWE'S BUSINESS AND MORE by Mark Pickering @ 6:33:00 PM on 7/25/2004 Blake asked Cornette what he thinks WWE needs to do to turn business around. "What you've got to remember is they're still on top. They're the biggest company in the world. The problem is that when you have a boom, every great peak is followed by an equally distant valley. In this business it's a cycle. Now that the main promotion is a national, worldwide promotion the peaks and the valleys come all at the same time. There's never being a period of wrestling when wrestling was selling out everywhere, all the time, every time. The company now is in a valley because the stars are not hot. See Vince Russo tried to take a lot of credit. The only credit I give him is for destroying the wrestling business. He tried to take credit for putting the WWE attitude over. He was overlooking the fact that he had Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock, two off the hottest stars ever to come up, the two hottest, both at the same time. You could have read cooking recipes on the television show and it would still drawn because it's a talent driven business. Vince Russo didn't do anything but hamper the undercard that couldn't stand up to him. Now you are always in between stars. There was no star between Hulk Hogan and Steve Austin in that period of the early 90's. Instead of hurrying people, instead of rushing people now if a start isn't there you can't make one. You can help them along but if Steve Austin had been Steve Austin and the Rock hadn't been the The Rock the pushes they got wouldn't have helped. It takes a creative push and it takes a talent". Blake asked if Cornette was familiar with the NWA:TNA product. "Unfortunately yes. Vince Russo is on camera as a talent and I feel no need to pay $9.95 American money for the right to be just pissed off in my own home. If I have to look at his face then that's going to cause me to break stuff. So I never got one. Then I was taking some time off a couple of months ago and there I was sitting on the couch and there I was, so I ordered it. And I would like to say the production is amazing, the lights and the set and all they stuff they do. I don't know about the six-sided ring now, this was before that. They'll reinvent anything. But it was absolutely without a doubt the most abysmal putrefying all-inspiringly bad big budget wrestling show I've ever seen in my life. The matches made no sense, they went on forever, they went nowhere, they fell apart due to green guys trying a bunch of stuff that nobody understood even if they were sitting there with a notepad trying to keep track of it, because that Russo's idea of surprising people because he's a moron. Jerry Jarrett I have a ton of respect for, he started me in the business, he was a tremendous promoter, a genius in the wrestling booking department. Jeff I've known for 20 something years, he's a great kid but Jeff Jarrett is not a guy to build a promotion around. I can understand because it's his promotion partially that he wants to make sure he cant walkout on himself, that's a factor. Still, take this dollars that they're spending on PPV's and start a territory in Nashville and Alabama and Mississippi and part of Georgia and you could run forever. Credit PWinsider

But what Jim is saying is that Jarrett isn't a big enough draw to build a company around.

Not really. Vince Russo is still a talent and the company is still being built around Jarrett.

NOW THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!!! Even though there are two squash matches the opponents are known (Sharkboy and Kid Romeo) which makes them both watchable. I can't believe Jeff Hardy was on Impact!. I wonder what kind of reaction he got. I also wonder did they continue the Abyss being jealous storyline with Alex Shelley. I never heard of Jerrelle Clark is he any good? The only bad thing is I have to wait until Saturday to see it.

Before you read this let me say that I have ordered every single TNA PPV so what I'm about to say should mean something... "Why I'm getting a little fed up TNA" It's been two years since TNA was born and it still seems like they're stuck in a deep hole. Yes TNA has a TV deal, but what has it done for the company. They still don't have DVD's in stores,people in Nashville still get in free and most of them aren't even wrestling fans(I say about 70% or less are),they still have there PPV show in the same place every week, the guy that has been in the main event scene since day one is the champ. What is that piece of puzzle TNA needs to get out of that hole? You can no longer call AJ the future of wrestling because he's already been champ and it has done nothing for the company. I'll admit the AJ was more over than Brock before they became champs, but look at both of those guys title reigns. Brock got over by other guys putting him over (Hogan,Taker,Angle etc...)and being the main guy in the feuds. The only people that were getting themsleves over during AJ title reign were Jarrett and Russo. I'll never forget the show when AJ and Russo were at a pool and AJ jumped in the pool for him. That did nothing for AJ expect for him pleasing his master. If you were a person that just started watching TNA by looking at Impact! you wouldn't even know that AJ used to be the NWA Champion. TNA has to realize that the show that put on every Wednesday is a show that we have to pay for. Now $9.95 might not seem like alot of money to them, but when you put on average shows then it's a waste of money. Right now it just seems like 3LK is just being used for Jarrett to hold on to the title. Nobody is a real threat to Jarrett right now. Does it feel like TNA management is just waiting for one of the big name free agents (Hogan,Savage,Warrior,DDP ect...) to join TNA to feud with Jarrett? Konnan isn't a threat,BG isn't a threat, everyone speaks for the Truth(Russo,3LK,Dusty) so he isn't a threat, D'lo isn't as over when he first came to TNA, when Dusty,Larry,Shamrock,and Elite Guard are main eventing the show when they haven't done squat to earn a title shot it makes the title seem worthless . When was the last time TNA went off the air with somebody getting the best of Jarrett? I hope if/when Jarrett loses the title he doesn't get back in the title picture 3 weeks later. And why is TNA treating Impact! like a WWE Heat show? After watching this week's show and other Impact shows it seems like TNA isn't trying hard enough to attract viewers. TNA only has one show on National TV and there not taking advantage of it. The differance between Impact and Heat is people already know the wrestlers by watching Raw and they know how to react to them. Impact on the other hand has only one show and it's a paying show so the crowd in Orlando doesn't know who the wrestlers are (besides AJ, Jarrett, D'lo, and Sabu) because TNA doesn't let them cut promos and establish themselves to the audience who haven't ordered the shows. It's sad when the only reasons the Orlando crowd knows who to cheer for is by the heel and face entrances and by Jeremy telling them before the show starts. TNA needs to treat Impact! like they don't have a PPV show. I don't mind if Impact only has 3 matches if it means the wrestlers can come out to cut promos and create their characters. Team Canada doesn't even get the crowd heat it should because they don't come out and cut anti-American promos. The crowd doesn't even know that when Ron Killings wrestle for the PPV crowd that chant "Truth". They don't know that David Young is on a losing streak. If TNA doesn't change the direction of Impact! in the next 2 months (summer ends) I don't see them lasting too long on TV. I'm sorry for the long rant, but I just had to say this

These are the top 3 guys who have had more pushes than anybody, but still haven't made it to the top. 3. Albert- this guy has had alot of chances. From being with Droz, to being with Bossman, to being with T&A (they were a team for a long time and didn't even win the titles), to being a single wrestler, to being with the X-Factor, to being with Scotty 2 Hotty for a while, to being a single wrestler for a while with the name A-Train, and to being with Paul Heyman's group. All of that now look at where he's at 2. Test- he has had atleast 3000 pushes. Frst he started as a bodyguard, then he went to the Faction, then he went to the Union, then his biggest push came when he started dating Stephanie and that got him nowhere after the storyline ended, then he became the hardcore champion, then he became part of T&A, then he went back to a single wrestler, then he joined the WCW/ECW Invasion group where he became champs with Booker T and then he really got lost, then they tried to start a mini feud between him and the Rock, then he joined the Anti-Americans and that got him nowhere, then he became a single heel wrestler that later started being managed by Stacy, and finally he became partners with Scott Steiner. 1. Val Venis- I shouldn't even have to explain this one

Yes. The TV guide of Ditigal Cable didn't change the listings because Comcast Sportsnet's website changed it to late. Or they could be just lazy to do it, but if you go to the Comcast Sportsnet website and check listings it has Impact! listed for Saturday night/Sunday morning at 12:00am for the rest of this month

Did you know that before Charlie Hass became part of Team Angle he had already made a WWE TV appearance? Do you remember when Edge and Christian went to a bar and they asked someone have they seen APA? And the guy responded by saying "No! But you guys rule! Well that guy was non othe than Charlie Hass. Did you know that before the French guy (the one that tags with Rob Conway) was Vince's special ref that he had already made a WWE appearance? It was the show after WrestleMania 18 when Jericho lost to HHH and a guy made fun of Jericho losing the title. Well the person who made fun of Jericho and got his ass kick for it was non other than him. I sure everyone already knows about Paul London being the fan that called the police on Ric Flair after he hit London in the crowd . Does anybody have anymore before they became known?

He had a 2 month feud with Foley when Foley was a part of the Rock and Sock connection. He had a one night feud with Austin. He's held the Euro and IC titles and couldn't run with them. Hell he even had a WWE title shot against the Rock when he was part of RTC.

It was Grenier. I also think Kurt Angle did a skit with WWE on Sunday Night Heat before his 1999 debut.

Wow! I didn't know that. Do you know what year that was?