One Month Review

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

Now that the NWA TNA has been given its own folder I realize that there is a good chance that there will be some people lurking around who have not yet been exposed to the product.

 

Get out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No…just kidding. This is a primer for anyone who missed the first month of the company. That way…if you decide to give the promotion a shot you will be caught up on everything that you need to know about the past month.

 

Anyone who is familiar with the company…feel free to add anything I missed, comment on what you think I was wrong about…or tell people why they should or shouldn’t give the company a shot.

 

Also…anyone who has any questions about the promotion or anything else covered or not covered in here…feel free to post your questions, and someone will answer them for you.

 

Now where do we begin?

 

 

What is NWA TNA? Well…the NWA part you should all recognize. TNA, or Total Nonstop Action, is a subset of the legendary National Wrestling Alliance.

 

The NWA title lineage contains familiar names like Lou Thesz, Buddy Rogers, Dory Funk Jr., Harley Race, Terry Funk, Sting and of course, Ric Flair. Since then names like Steve Corino, Sabu, Chris Candido and Dan Severn have held the strap…no longer considered a “World” title.

 

Interestingly…Dan Severn was stripped of the NWA title in March when he was not able to commit to a title defense in June at the first TNA show. Considering Ken Shamrock ended up winning the title…well…I find it funny.

 

Jerry Jarrett owns total Nonstop Action. (Yes, Jeff’s daddy) With no TV deal in place and knowing that the monthly pay per view route failed miserably for the WWA…someone decided that weekly shows on pay per view was the answer.

 

The shows air on Wednesday nights for ten dollars each. Now ten bucks a week for a two hour show may sound like a turn off…but when you consider this results in eight hours of pay per view action for forty dollars a moth, and compare that to the WWE’s three hours a month for only five dollars less…it doesn’t seem so bad.

 

And on a personal note…after the first eight hours have passed…there is no way someone can tell me that any of the WWE’s monthly pay per views this year have been better than the first 4 TNA shows.

 

Production wise…TNA obviously isn’t as polished as the WWE is. I would say their production values are about on par with WCW’s…that being better than ECW’s ever was.

 

The first two shows were taped on the same night in Huntsville, Alabama. Every subsequent show has and will emanate from Nashville, Tennessee. One positive about holding all of their shows in the same town is the fact that they will be able to get the wrestlers over easier with the crowd…since they see them every week (think ECW).

 

The NWA TNA employs a three man broadcast team. Mike Tenay serves as the play-by-play man…and anyone familiar with his WCW work knows that he is a terrific broadcaster. He knows the name of the moves…and he sounds like he cares about the product. I believe Tenay to be the best play-by-play man in the business right now. His two sidekicks are Don West and Ed Ferrara. They are not up to Tenay’s level by any stretch of the imagination. West brings a lot of emotion to the table…but his voice will grate on you…and he’s kind of dumb. Ferrara knows what he’s talking about…he’s just not that interesting.

 

Jeremy Borash (who you may remember as the play by play man in the WWA) handles the ring announcing. TNA also has a roaming backstage reporter in Goldylocks. She covers everything that goes on backstage (from interviews to brawls to angles). I think it was the Torch that pointed out how much sense it makes to have her walking around covering these things…as opposed to having Vince trying to sleep with Stacy with a cameraman in the room that no one notices.

 

Another thing that the NWA TNA likes to do is parade out the legends. The first two shows (taped the same night) saw Jackie Fargo, Dory Funk Jr., Harley Race and Ricky Steamboat (who actually refereed both the World and X title matches, and played up the importance of the title then passed the torch so to speak to Shamrock…good stuff). Race returned to take a stiff JJ chair shot in week 4.

 

If you have heard anything about TNA at this point it is about the X division. It’s nice to see that TNA hasn’t forgotten about the importance of history while they know enough to push the future.

 

But none of the previous matters without being able to hold your own with the most important part of the product: The wrestling.

 

WEEK 1

The beginning

 

To read the results click the following link:

 

http://www.rajahwwf.com/wwf/headlines/3994.shtml

 

In the end it was a shaky yet somewhat solid first effort for TNA.

 

Ken Shamrock defeated Malice (formerly the Wall in WCW…but you would NEVER have guessed that…he looks SOOO different) to win the NWA title. It was an interesting decision to put Malice in the finals, as no one knew who he was. But I feel it was a great idea. People will buy Hall and JJ as main eventers…but pushing Malice could create another one. Through 4 shows…they continued to push for Malice to be a top guy.

 

Somewhat ironically…or perhaps prophetic…the first match ever broadcast on TNA was an X division match. The flying Elvises defeated three of the four contestants in next weeks X title match (Lynn, Styles and LowKi). Wisely TNA would later turn this into an angle as well.

 

One would assume that the angles involving Toby Keith, Hermie Sadler and Sterling Marlin were done to try and garner some national media attention. It failed.

 

 

 

WEEK 2

The future revealed

 

To read the results click the following link:

 

http://www.rajahwwf.com/wwf/headlines/4039.shtml

 

As previously stated…the second week was taped after the first show. It is to be the only episode or TNA that is not live on Wednesdays. Ironically…the fact that it is taped may have helped the promotion immensely.

 

The final contest (the X title match) received heavy buzz on the Internet and I for one was pushed to order based solely on the buzz around that match. I’m sure many others were too.

 

The first and last appearance of Cheeks took place this week. The less said the better.

 

Chris Harris and James Storm teamed up for the first time…it seems that these two will do some good in the future of the NWA tag division.

 

What more needs to be said about the final match? Expertly booked. Made stars out of the final two competitors (Lynn and Styles) and they absolutely tore the house down. Especially in the final fall. The strength of this match alone most likely solidified in Jerry Jarrett’s mind that the X division was the future of TNA. And most importantly…it got people talking.

 

 

WEEK 3

Growing Pains

 

To read the results click the following link:

 

http://www.rajahwwf.com/wwf/headlines/4077.shtml

 

Week 3 crowned Jerry Lynn and AJ Styles unlikely tag team champions. Obviously Jerry or someone realized that these two were money in the bank after week 2 and decided to hand them the ball.

 

Bagwell officially dropped the stupid Buff name and went back to Marcus. Repackaging and restarting with Bagwell seems like the only option they had…everyone was sick of him. We have yet to see where this leads though.

 

Francine vs. Taylor may be the last women’s match we see for quite some time. And that’s a good thing.

 

They continued to make Malice look strong in his loss to Shamrock. Malice dominated the bulk of the match.

 

Styles and David Young had a nice little X title match…to keep the division going strong…just as Lynn and Styles tag title win did later in the show.

 

Finally…Brian Christopher turned heel in the main event tag match. At first the heel turn seemed forced and without reason…luckily they got it on track in week 4.

 

 

 

WEEK 4

The light at the end

 

To read the results click the following link:

 

http://www.rajahwwf.com/wwf/headlines/4121.shtml

 

Oh my. The praise for this show was almost universal.

 

No match was up to par with the X title match from week 2…but it was one of the most solidly entertaining two hours you will find…anywhere.

 

The Lynn/Styles feud has officially taken off. They are the current tag champs…and Jerry Lynn is SIXTH in line for a title shot after the six-man X division elimination match. This is the feud to watch this year. And if you put a gun to my head…this is THE reason to watch TNA.

 

Bringing in a competitor from Pro Wrestling NOAH helps to give the NWA title a more important and distinguished feel. Even if politics prevented an end to the contest.

 

Things had a feeling of coming full circle in this episode. The Flying Elvises angle came off well…as they are upset about being left off of every X division title or seeding match despite being undefeated. Malice looked strong again destroying the Briscoes and the Hot Shots en route to opening a feud with JJ. Lynn and Styles boiled over. Brian LAWLER emerged as a serious heel. K-Krush took another step towards something good by wrangling something decent out of a non-wrestler.

 

And possibly most importantly…the show ending brawl between JJ and some Tennessee Titans resulted in the national media attention that the company had been striving for.

 

 

 

The key players:

 

Ken Shamrock is the NWA Champion.

 

AJ Styles is the NWA X Champion

 

AJ Styles and Jerry Lynn are the NWA Tag Team Champions

 

Top stars:

 

Ken Shamrock

Jeff Jarrett

Scott Hall (who is really thriving in this environment)

AJ Styles

Jerry Lynn

 

 

 

Next tier:

 

Malice

Brian Lawler (Appears ready to break out)

LowKi

Christopher Daniels

K-Krush (he has really looked impressive…got himself over and appears ready to break out too)

 

 

 

Keep an eye on:

 

Apolo (he has the look…needs to have the match now)

Elix Skipper (looked DAMN good in week 4)

Kid Romeo

David Young

Tempest (former Crowbar and Devon Storm)

 

 

 

Other names:

 

Steve Corino (has not appeared since week 1)

Tony Mamaluke

Norman Smiley (Big Wiggle gets Big Reaction)

Psicosis (has not appeared since week 2)

 

 

 

Everyone else is still looking for where they fit in. The Dupps improved by week 4, Lenny and Bruce are what they are.

 

 

There you have it.

 

Now…go order some TNA…dammit.

[Guest MrRant]

I will order it in August when I get my sweet 20% off all PPVs since I work for AT&T.

[Guest monkey]

Really good round up, however some of us live in the UK and I havent seen any indications of when it might be appearing here. Also havent they got a weekly round up on some tv station now?

[Guest J*ingus]

Yes they do. It's on the former USA Wrestling television show here in Nashville, which airs on Saturday mornings on UPN. The show is an hour of recaps and highlights of the previous Wednesday's event, followed by half an hour of a rather neat business arrangement: Bert Prentice's local group USA Wrestling provides a few dark matches to get the crowd warmed up for the PPV; in return, the matches get the full pro shot treatment and are shown on TV looking better than any indy show in the past ten years. USA is basically NWATNA's developmental league, along with its sister company NWA Wildside. AJ Styles, Chris Harris, James Storm, David Young, and several others all came out of these companies.

[Guest The Superstar]

Of course, the first week I was going to order TNA (the 17th), which is going to have Loki vs. AJ f'n Styles, I have to leave for vacation that day.

 

::bangs head against the wall::

[Guest CanadianHorseman]

Excellent, thorough review that makes me want to order the show even more.

 

Now, bps, about that poecraft link...What the fuck is that? Weird.

[Guest CoreyLazarus416]

I've been pimping NWA:TNA at every other forum I visit, including the one in my sig (Wrestling-Titans) and Bolt.com's WWF board. So far, everybody else that has seen it has helped me in pimping it.

 

bps, might I have permission to copy & paste that to both Bolt and Wrestling-Titans to help pimp the awesomeness of TNA?

[Guest Choken One]

Here's what gonna happen...I shell out 10 meaingless bucks and It sucks...I feel worthless and I don't watch it. I must wait til the next taped one and someone tells me JL had a ***** match.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

do what you want Corey. I don't care.

 

I have that fear to Choken...I only ordered the second show because I heard how great the X Title match was.

 

If I hadn't heard about it...I probably still wouldn't have watched one.

[Guest BigTim2002]

Hey man, Low Ki, after this Wednesday WILL be one of the top stars...and he'll make every WWE Cruiserweight this side of Rey Rey shit his pants after his match with Styles.

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

Scott Hall (who is really thriving in this environment)

Does this mean they're putting six packs at ringside or something?

 

I'm ordering next week though. So many people are spooging over Styles and/or Low Ki that I want to see this.