TNA Notes from the 3/15 Observer

[Enigma 0]

The 3/3 show saw both a taping for 3/10 with the finals of the second America's X Cup, as well as the live show. Because of ICP being there, they had a nearly packed house of 1,300. Based on the lines, it looked like about one-third paid. The show is now pretty much designed to get Vince Russo over as the all-knowing babyface and Jeff Jarrett as his heel adversary. The announcers and the babyface wrestlers all put Russo over like its Dusty Rhodes in the late-80s for Crockett. It got so silly in the main angle, which was the build for the 3/17 Jeff Jarrett vs. Chris Harris match, that Harris, an unproven challenger (by that I mean someone who doesn't have a long history of beating top guys in singles main events) was said by Russo, the babyface authority figure, in the last live angle before the match, that he's not ready for the title match. In the immortal words of Tony Schiavone, that'll put butts in the seats. Either. Harris wins, to prove Russo wrong, or Harris loses to prove Russo right. Anyway, we'll see on the 17th. The deal was that Harris beat Kevin Northcutt in the opener, and then had to come back and wrestle Shane Douglas in the main event. Harris survived help from Jarrett and a chain shot from Douglas to win after James Storm gave Douglas a superkick. Russo got mad because Storm helped Harris win two matches in the past two weeks, showing he's not nearly ready for a singles match with Jarrett. At least in the 80s, when Ricky Morton would challenge Ric Flair, you didn't have Dusty or David Crockett saying the week before the match that Morton isn't ready and there is no way he can beat Flair.

 

The interest level is continuing to fall. Our poll this week had 3 thumbs up (21.4%) and 11 down (78.6%). It's actually stunning how few responses we got for a live show. Best match was Abyss vs. A.J. Styles with 12 and worst was Harris vs. Northcutt with 8.

 

The big surprise was a ten-man with Ron Killings, Sonny Siaki, D-Lo Brown, Konnan, & Simon Diamond over Johnny Swinger, Glenn Gilberti, David Young, & Kid Kash, & Michael Shane which was a fast paced good match, and even told a story with Swinger avoiding Diamond the entire match. They did a post-match deal where the heels beat on the faces so ICP, Rude Boy, and 2 Tuff Tony could make the save. Konnan in particular looked the best he had in recent memory. They saved the ICP match for last, after the PPV is over (yeah, ICP is now TNA’s Hulk Hogan), but about 35% of the crowd left at 10 p.m. So they missed the finals of the America's Cup, where Team AAA of Juventud Guerrera, Hector Garza, Abismo Negro, & Mr. Aguila beat Team Canada of Teddy Hart, Johnny Devine, Jack Evans, & Petey Williams. Before the show there was a little controversy, as the plan was for Guerrera to be eliminated early, with the story of the match being that Team AAA is wrestling without their captain and biggest star, but they come back to win. Scott D'Amore gave the Mexicans the finish and Guerrera started complaining, saying he was the most well-known guy on the team so he should be there at the end. When Guerrera asked who came up with the idea, D'Amore said Jarrett, and Guerrera quickly quieted down. But before he did so, and he said this in front of the other three guys on his team, that if they beat him and eliminate him, people will start leaving because they don't know the other guys. People aren't sure if he said it in English thinking the other three wouldn't have understood it (Garza and Aguila both worked for several years in the U.S. for WCW and WWF and knew the language well enough that they understood), or just didn't realize how the other three would view that statement. The idea was to beat Guerrera as a surprise and reward Garza, who they thought did well the last time he was in. Guerrera even shot back before finding out it was Jarrett's idea, saying that if he was eliminated, nobody would care about the match, which made him really popular with the rest of his teammates. The match wasn't that good from what we've heard, coming down to Garza being left with both Hart and Williams, and pinning both. Part of the problem is that they went about 8:00 without elimination. Ref Mike Posey was given the word backstage that they were going too long so he gave them the word to speed things up, and they sped them up way too much. They did seven eliminations in around 3:00 which came off looking bad. The AAA team this time got to celebrate without being interrupted. ICP, 2 Tuff Tony, & Rude Boy lost to Kash, Young, & Gilberti when Monty Brown (a former member of the New England Patriots) returned and helped the heels.

 

The next taped show is 4/7, which means it'll be taped on 3/24 and 3/31. The working idea is Team AAA defends the America's X Cup against a Japanese team. At this point, there are no ideas who would be on the team.

 

In the other Mexico vs. Canada matches, Guerrera & Negro beat Hart & Evans when Guerrera used a half crab to beat Hart, who was selling his knee. Hart had his chest chopped to smithereens by Guerrera and when he showed up on the live show, it was cut and welted up like crazy. This was said to be very good. An interesting note is that Evans is engaged to Hart's sister. Hart & Evans are also calling themselves the New Generation Hart Foundation. According to Hart, they were originally Hart Foundation 2.0, but Bret told him (I have no idea if this is true but it's his story) that 2.0 will be an obsolete term in a few years when new computer programs are written, while New Generation won't be.

 

The other was Devine & Williams over Garza & Aguila when Williams pinned Garza (which set up Garza pinning Williams to win the elimination match final). There were no major incidents this week with Hart, which I guess is news, other than people being frustrated with him as he'd go from selling his knee (since the match where he "injured" himself with Aguila airs on the same show as his two matches this week) to doing his springboard moves.

 

The black eye was that all week they were advertising Abyss, who won both tag belts with Lex Luger's help, defending with his new championship partner (strongly teased as Luger but never outright said, so I sensed that as a near bait-and-switch, and they don't seem to even realize that nobody cares about Luger in the first place and you only piss your fan base off when you do this crap) against Styles and a mystery partner. Whomever it was supposed to be fell through in both cases, so when the show started, they announced that Russo had stripped Abyss of the belts because of Luger's interference. Luger got $2,500 for his brief run-in, as opposed to the $5,000 he was getting for doing a match, so that may have something to do with it. If he doesn't lose a singles match or clean in a tag to Styles in the right away, then it makes him being there make no sense. However, they said Russo hadn't decided what to do about the tag titles, and they made Abyss vs. Styles into a singles match. Styles went all out, taking crazy bumps and even doing a flip dive off the balcony. They ended up with three ref bumps in the same match. With no refs left, Don Harris came out. Both guys punched him so it was ruled a double DQ. They are building toward a ladder match on 3/17.

 

Julio Dinero, CM. Punk, and Jim Mitchell were all gone, and seemingly replaced by The Naturals, Andy Douglas & Chase Stevens, in the feud with Raven & Sabu. After Frankie Kazarian had pinned Jerry Lynn (who sold a shoulder injury throughout the match), Raven came out and DDT'd Kazarian. He was doing a promo when Douglas threw powder in his eyes and the Naturals did a number on him. The lights went out, and Sabu made the save.

 

A sign which read, "I came to watch wrestling, not rapping clowns or Survivor losers" was confiscated. They were told, “No more negative signs.”

 

Everyone has been told to tone down the language because people from Fox Sports Net have been watching. B.G. James on the broadcast even cracked about the 3 Live Kru signature line, "Let's do the damn thing" they were told can't be used and he said, "Let's do the darn thing." Uh, what is the name of FSN's signature prime time show?

 

Arturo Rivera missed the taping to do the Spanish announcing for the X show, and Konnan had been sent home, so they used a local guy doing color.

 

Johnny Fairplay is being universally considered a flop. On the 3/3 show, his only appearance was doing a fan in the crowd throwing choke on Styles, and that didn't even lead to a finish. Vince Russo, who was his strongest supporter, is said to have soured on him to the point of only wanting him to do his interviews backstage pre-taped and not in front of the people.

[LucharesuFan619 0]

An interesting note is that Evans is engaged to Hart's sister.

WOW, ya learn something new everyday...

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

The match wasn't that good from what we've heard, coming down to Garza being left with both Hart and Williams, and pinning both.

 

Odd, considering I've heard nothing but good things about the final match on there.

[Guest Man Of 1,004 Modes]

The match wasn't that good from what we've heard, coming down to Garza being left with both Hart and Williams, and pinning both.

 

Odd, considering I've heard nothing but good things about the final match on there.

It's all a matter of opinions. I for one liked it, and agree with Lazarus' rating of ***1/2. Calling it "Not too good" would make it like *. I highlight doubt anyone with 20/20 vision can say the match sucked.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

The match wasn't that good from what we've heard, coming down to Garza being left with both Hart and Williams, and pinning both.

 

Odd, considering I've heard nothing but good things about the final match on there.

It's all a matter of opinions. I for one liked it, and agree with Lazarus' rating of ***1/2. Calling it "Not too good" would make it like *. I highlight doubt anyone with 20/20 vision can say the match sucked.

I totally agree and I think they picked a great storyline for it with Juvy getting knocked out early.

[Guest Man Of 1,004 Modes]

I like that Juvi injured Teddy Hart with that ...move. I know Brock does it in WWE and people call it the "Brock Lock" but that name sounds stupid. So I'll call it "Whatamanuever!"

[Astro101 0]

I can understand not saying bitch or whatever, but not able to say damn when one of Fox's shows has that word in it is silly.

[Guest bort]

I wasnt a huge fan of the final match, the Juvi storyline was good but would have been better if they put him out first and had more time beetween eliminations, the quick count on teddy kinda threw me off, there really wasnt anything great in the match, Also i have seen a few Jack Evans matches now and i would have to say he is one of the most overated dudes ive seen, i dont care how many double flip moonsaults he can do from what ive seen he cant put a match togther for his life

[Guest Man Of 1,004 Modes]

I wasnt a huge fan of the final match, the Juvi storyline was good but would have been better if they put him out first and had more time beetween eliminations, the quick count on teddy kinda threw me off, there really wasnt anything great in the match, Also i have seen a few Jack Evans matches now and i would have to say he is one of the most overated dudes ive seen, i dont care how many double flip moonsaults he can do from what ive seen he cant put a match togther for his life

My problem with Evans: He looks like any other dime a dozen indy worker who fights in front of 50 people. And trying to look like Eminem doesn't help him.

 

 

And big freakin doo he can do 508394384 flips. That doesnt make anyone good. Ask RVD. Outside of his spotty flip flopping, he's the worst wrestler I've ever seen praised for not being World Champion.

[2GOLD 0]

Johnny Fairplay is being universally considered a flop. On the 3/3 show, his only appearance was doing a fan in the crowd throwing choke on Styles, and that didn't even lead to a finish. Vince Russo, who was his strongest supporter, is said to have soured on him to the point of only wanting him to do his interviews backstage pre-taped and not in front of the people.

 

 

Then why not just FIRE him if he's not working out??? The guy isn't going to amount to anything, just like every Survivor person.

 

Hell, I'd be more interested if they brought in the BAND Survivor over this loser.

[Guest JacK]

Uhh, why have CM Punk and Julio been replaced? It isn't over the Hart thing is it? What'd Julio do?

[Jingus 0]

They were pretty much done with the Gathering vs. Raven & Friends storyline anyway, and Punk & Dinero left, just like Slash and Synn before them.

[Guest JacK]

Oh, I guess that makes sense, but it still sucks. Slash should be back too though, he was pretty good I thought.

I thought they were going to make them into a Tag Team of some sort, especially after they competed in those multi-team match's and the like.