WNS Column: A Long Look At TNA's History From My Perspective

(This is going to be a VERY LONG article. It's divided into sections: The Beginning, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, After 2007, Looking Back, and What Is The Future. It's also written in the first-person, meaning that I used words like I, me, and my. "I think", "I thought", "I felt", etc. It might be biased and very opinionated. Some of you will agree with most of what I said and some of you will disagree with most of what I said. But please do take the time to read it all before you comment. I know it's ridiculously long but please do take the time to read it all before commenting. Thanks.)

 

 

I just got done watching the Jeff Jarrett: King of the Mountain documentary that TNA Impact Wrestling produced back in 2009. And no, this article is not going to be about Jeff Jarrett alone or whether or not Jarrett should take back control of TNA. But watching the documentary definitely took me on a stroll down memory lane. I remember the early days of TNA. I remember when I first heard of TNA shortly after it got started way back in 2002. I remember how much passion I had for the company as a fan. Fast forward to right now, November of 2013, and not only have I lost my passion for TNA, but I completely stopped following their product as of August 1st of this year (yes, the Tito Ortiz "August 1st Warning").

 

I've said this before in previous articles and I hate to keep on repeating myself but I'm going to say it again. I personally feel that TNA kept on getting better and better and heading in the right direction for their first four years from 2002 to 2006. Anybody who worked for TNA, or even just knowledgeable fans who stuck with them in the early days, will tell you that TNA had a rough start. Simply put, it's not easy trying to start a major wrestling company from scratch. It's not easy trying to compete against Vince McMahon and WWE. But TNA did what they needed to do to survive, especially for their first two years or so.

 

Now I personally don't remember too much about TNA from 2002. I know a lot about 2002 now just because of what's been documented on the internet and what's been featured on TNA DVD sets, but I personally didn't really follow them very much in 2002. I was 10 or 11 years old at the time and I really didn't even get on the internet very much back then. 2003 was when I started to get on the computer a lot more and that was when I started to go to their old website at NWATNA.com and reading their results and really finding out what was going on.

 

 

I remember a lot about TNA in 2003. I even ordered one of their weekly pay-per-views in the summer of 2003, which my mother made me pay for myself. I remember being impressed with their overall presentation. Even at a young age I knew that most small-time wrestling companies didn't have such good production. But TNA always had high-definition cameras, pyrotechnics, custom-made entrance themes courtesy of their musician Dale Oliver, and a good commentary team consisting of Don West and Mike Tenay, who I remembered from WCW. As for the roster itself, it had some familiar faces such as Vince Russo, Raven, Sabu, D-Lo Brown, "Primetime" Elix Skipper, "The Franchise" Shane Douglas, Jerry Lynn, Ron Killings (who I remembered as K-Kwik), B.G. James, Konnan, and of course Jeff Jarrett. I remember also trying desperately to learn all I could about the new stars that were being presented, such as A.J. Styles, Christopher Daniels, Low-Ki, Chris Sabin, Frankie Kazarian, America's Most Wanted, and a new scary guy that had just recently made his debut called Abyss. I can't remember what exactly the date was that I ordered this TNA PPV, but I remember Abyss attacking somebody backstage in what actually might have been his very first appearance with the company. I do remember that near the end of this episode, it was announced that TNA had just signed Sting to a deal, which made me mark out immediately.

 

But anyway, I remember trying very hard to learn all I could about the TNA roster and just trying to keep up with everything that was going on without actually being able to order their weekly pay-per-views. Their shows aired every Wednesday night and then every Thursday as soon as I got home from school I would get on the computer and find out what happened on NWA: TNA last night. Who was the NWA World Champion? Did they bring in any more familiar faces from WWE, WCW or ECW? Who was the X Division Champion? Who were the NWA Tag Team Champions?

 

It always made me mark out when I saw that TNA had brought in guys like Dusty Rhodes, Big Van Vader, The Road Warriors, Lex Luger, Roddy Piper, etc. But I wasn't just interested in the big-name stars, I also liked the TNA X Division. I remember in 2003 when they had their first Super X-Cup Tournament. Honestly, I can't remember who won the 2003 Super X-Cup but I remember that I just liked the concept of it.

 

 

I was definitely a big fan of TNA heading into 2004. The first thing I remember about 2004 is the America's X-Cup Tournament, which was immediately followed by the World X-Cup Tournament. I loved reading the results of the X-Cup Tournaments. I also liked how they brought in Juventud Guerrero and Hector Garza for Team Mexico. I remembered Juvi from WCW but I didn't remember Garza until I read on the internet that Garza was in WCW for a time in 1997 and 1998. I remember how they brought in former WCW star Dave Taylor as the manager for Team U.K. I remember being especially intrigued by Team Canada. I knew who Bobby Roode was because I had heard of him from the indy scene and I actually remembered seeing him as a jobber on a few WWE programs such as Velocity and Sunday Night Heat.

 

Coincidentally, I also remembered a guy named Buck Quartermain, who had also worked a few WWE programs and was working for TNA back in like 2004 and 2005.

 

How many of you out there remember Buck Quartermain? I never forgot the name Buck Quartermain after he wrestled D-Lo Brown one time on an episode of Sunday Night Heat back in 1999 or 2000. For four or five years I occasionally remembered the name Buck Quartermain and thought I'd never see or hear from him again until TNA brought him in in 2004.

 

Same thing with Bobby Roode of Team Canada. I remembered seeing Bobby Roode on a few WWE programs and I always wondered if maybe he was Rick Rude's son. So I was excited to see that that Bobby Roode guy who I vaguely remembered from a few WWE programs was now a member of Team Canada in TNA's X-Cup Tournaments.

 

Yes, I am a wrestling nerd. But let's get back on track.

 

I liked Team Canada because of Bobby Roode, Teddy Hart, and this new guy Petey Williams who I had never heard of before. I kept on hearing about this finishing move of his, "The Canadian Destroyer," which was apparently some kind of a variation of a Piledriver. When I finally saw this Canadian Destroyer for the very first time, I immediately let out a yell of "AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"

 

But yes, the X-Cup Tournaments in 2004 definitely made me like TNA that much more. And there was also another guy named "The Alpha Male" Monty Brown who was going on an undefeated streak. Brown had apparently worked with TNA in 2002 and 2003 but I really didn't remember reading about him. But now he was back with a vengeance and taking out guys left and right with this devastating finishing move of his, The Pounce.

 

Between the X Division, Monty Brown, Jeff Jarrett and the World Title scene, the familiar faces who I knew, the Tag Team Title scene, and my desire to see a different product besides WWE, I couldn't wait for TNA to finally announce that they would be appearing on television so I could watch them.

 

Sure enough, it was announced that TNA had struck a deal with Fox Sports Network and would be airing a new weekly program called iMPACT! every Friday afternoon. I was 12 years old at this time and I considered myself to be something of a "smart mark" already. I remember telling the kids at school who watched wrestling that they NEEDED to watch this new program. I remember rambling on about how great TNA was and that they were a fresh new alternative to WWE. And to me, all those things were definitely true.

 

 

I was an absolute mark for TNA when they were on FSN from the summer of 2004 until the summer of 2005. I remember thinking to myself, "Man, these guys are just doing everything right. TNA is so much better than WWE, even though they obviously don't have the money that WWE has. I think it's just a matter of time before TNA surpasses WWE. Five years from now, TNA will own the wrestling world."

 

I remember being very disappointed when it was announced that TNA had ended their relationship with FSN. During the summer of 2005 I had to go back to reading their results on their website. I was worried that I'd never be able to watch TNA on television again. But if I had to just keep reading their results online then that was what I was going to do.

 

I remember marking out when Raven finally won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship at the 2005 Slammiversary pay-per-view. As a passionate fan of TNA and a die-hard Raven fan, I felt very happy that TNA was finally rewarding him for all of his contributions to the company. I read on the internet that Raven in real life actually broke down and cried out of happiness when he was told that he was going to be booked to win the Title. Again, all of this jut made me love TNA even more.

 

2005 was also the year that WWE ended their relationship with Spike TV and returned to their old home on the USA Network. Spike TV picked up TNA iMPACT! and now I was able to watch TNA again. They had pretty much the same roster and the same feel as before, but one new guy they had was the undefeated "Samoan Submission Machine" Samoa Joe. I became a mark for Samoa Joe immediately. A heavyset guy with ridiculous speed, agility, and flexibility, combined with his Martial Arts background and unbelievable wrestling skills, I wanted to be just like Samoa Joe.

 

It was also around this time that TNA signed Christian Cage, who was coming fresh off of WWE programming. I hoped that TNA would book Christian to be the one to finally beat Jeff Jarrett for the NWA World Title, and sure enough, he did. And to make things even better, it was announced that TNA had finally signed Sting to a one-year full-time contract.

 

 

In the early part of 2006 I was as passionate as ever about TNA. They had a lot of familiar faces at this point and I also loved how all three of TNA's Championship Divisions really seemed to matter. The World Title Division was star-studded, the Tag Team Division was red-hot, and the X Division was just blowing everybody away. I honestly thought that TNA could do no wrong.

 

In September of 2006 it was announced that TNA had signed Kurt Angle, who had just left WWE less than a month earlier. And once again, I marked out for TNA.

 

At the October 2006 Bound For Glory pay-per-view, "The Icon" Sting defeated "The King of the Mountain" Jeff Jarrett for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in the main event with Kurt Angle as the Special Guest Enforcer for the match. It was a great night for TNA, but it was also revealed that TNA Founder Jeff Jarrett was dealing with a lot of personal issues and would be stepping away as a performer. The word got out that Jeff's wife Jill was losing her battle against breast cancer.

 

 

It was around this time, late 2006 and early 2007, that TNA seemed to change a great deal. One storyline I remember in particular was the one involving "The Monster" Abyss, Sting, James Mitchell, and Christian Cage. The storyline was very intriguing at first, but by the time the storyline concluded over a year later in early 2008, TNA had totally changed the Abyss character, and not necessarily for the better in my opinion. It became a very bizarre storyline that revealed that James Mitchell, Abyss's manager, was actually his father who Abyss had shot when he was a child. TNA brought in Ricky Banderas and renamed him Judas Mesias and revealed that he was Abyss's half brother, also fathered by Mitchell. This weird storyline also somehow included Raven, "Black Reign" Dustin Rhodes, and Johnny Stamboli as the RelliK character. I thought the whole situation was an absolute disaster.

 

Another thing I remember from 2007 was how they kept booking Samoa Joe to lose to Kurt Angle. Their feud started out great at first but it got kind of ridiculous how Angle kept going over on Joe. I also felt that Angle played a very annoying heel World Champion. I didn't like it.

 

I remember Team Canada breaking up and Bobby Roode changing his name to Robert Roode. Everybody thought he would be the World Champion within a year. They gave him Traci Brooks as his manager and did an angle where he was being abusive towards Traci. Seemed like a waste of time to me.

 

2007 was the year that they formed the Knockouts Division, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I liked the new female wrestlers they brought in and I marked out for the Gail Kim-Awesome Kong feud. I thought the Knockouts Division was pretty good throughout 2008 as well, even though Gail left TNA and returned to WWE.

 

2007 was also the year that TNA brought in Booker T and his wife Sharmell. I was very excited about this at first, but of course, as TNA likes to do, they turned them heel within six months after they brought them in. TNA always turns everybody heel.

 

 

By the time 2007 was finally over, I was no longer as passionate about TNA as I once was. Between the ridiculous storylines (Abyss and James Mitchell, Stomper the TNA Kangaroo Mascot, Eric Young's comedy segments, Rhino's alcohol problem, Kurt Angle's annoying segments with Karen, Borash, Styles, and Tomko, etc.) and nonsensical booking (absolutely burying Samoa Joe, making A.J. Styles the whipping boy for both Christian Cage and Kurt Angle, putting Robert Roode in that pointless abusive storyline with Traci Brooks, etc.) it was clear to me that this was no longer the same company it was for the first four years.

 

There's not much to be said about TNA after 2007 that I haven't already covered in previous articles. What happened in 2008? Samoa Joe finally beat Kurt Angle for the Title and they gave him a disastrous and unmemorable run. 2009 was all about the Main Event Mafia. 2010 until just recently in 2013 was the Hogan-Bischoff era.

 

 

TNA, at least in my opinion and I think in the opinion of others, was going uphill from its inception in 2002 until 2006. But like I said before, it seemed like in late 2006 and heading into 2007, everything started to change. I think it can all be attributed to two main factors:

 

1. Jeff Jarrett stepping back.

2. TNA let their success go to their head and they honestly thought they could do no wrong.

 

Jeff Jarrett carried that company on his back for the first four years. Jarrett was the leader and a smart leader at that. You can say what you want about him keeping the NWA World Title on himself too much for that first four years, but honestly, Jarrett didn't do anything that Verne Gagne, Fritz Von Erich, Jerry Lawler, and lots of other promoters throughout history have done. When you're the promoter of your own wrestling company, you trust yourself the most. You depend on yourself the most. You have to lead by example. Jarrett may have kept the Title on himself too much, but TNA was a good wrestling company for their first four years when Jarrett was at the helm.

 

After Jarrett stepped back in late 2006, it seemed as though TNA decided it was time to go in a completely different direction. They tried to incorporate more "sports-entertainment" into their programming, like the ridiculous comedy segments with Eric Young and the Kurt Angle segments with Karen and A.J. Styles and all of that stuff. They ruined the Abyss character. They made A.J. Styles a boy toy for Karen (anybody remember "The Prince of Phenomenal"?). They made Samoa Joe look like... well, Kurt Angle's bitch, for lack of a better term. The X Division went downhill and hasn't recovered since. I can barely remember who the Tag Team Champions have been over the past number of years except for Beer Money Inc., The Motor City Machine Guns, Samoa Joe and Brutus Magnus, and The Bad Influence. The Knockouts Division has had its ups and downs and sometimes they'll give it a bit of a revival here and there but honestly it's not really worth watching anymore. The Knockouts Tag Team Championship was quite possibly the WORST Championship Division I've ever seen and the TNA Television Championship has become almost as bad. Why they haven't just retired the TV Title by now is beyond me.

 

A lot of people say that Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff are responsible for whatever's wrong with TNA now. I honestly don't know how true that is, but I thought TNA went downhill long before Hogan and Bischoff came in. They just didn't seem to make it any better in the long run, which was disappointing.

 

 

As of right now, I can't imagine that TNA will go out of business any time soon. Whether the Carter Family keeps backing it or if they sell the company, I suspect that somebody will keep the company going for at least a few more years. But what will the coming years look like for TNA? Who will be running the company backstage? Will it be Dixie Carter, Jeff Jarrett, or somebody else? What will the roster look like? Will guys like Sting and Kurt Angle and Jeff Hardy still be there in a few years? What about the TNA Originals like A.J. Styles, Samoa Joe, Abyss, James Storm, Bobby Roode, Frankie Kazarian and Christopher Daniels? What does the future hold for those guys?

 

TNA has tried literally everything. It looks to me like the only thing they can do now is go back to the beginning. Maybe it would be best if they put Jeff Jarrett back in charge. Call me crazy, but maybe they should even bring him back as a performer and have him sort of "take his company back" both on television and in real life. Maybe they should make everything look like it did before. Hey, going back to the beginning couldn't possibly be any worse than what they've given us over the past number of years, can it?