Fond Memories of TNA?

[Ty]

Ive been reading from the history of TNA. I dunno why but it just is so fascinating.

Source: http://taimapedia.org/index.php?title=LOLTNA_History#The_Jerry_Lynn_and_AJ_Styles_saga


2002



LOLTNA would not be possible without its savior, Vincent J. Russo.


OVER. AS. FUCK.
[edit]The Gimmicks


The Johnsons. I think this was supposed to be funny.
Moments before the very first TNA broadcast, a dark match took place featuring a morbidly obese black wrestler named Cheex. Cheex was so enormous that he damaged the ring, and the ring crew had to act fast to repair the damages before they went live.
The Dupps, a hillbilly tag team made their debut. TNA broke new ground by introducing an incest aspect to their gimmick as they were accompanied to the ring by a valet who was billed as both their cousin and girlfriend, Fluff Dupp.
The Rainbow Express debuted on TNA. They were a homosexual gimmick tag team that were booked as heels, due to the TNA target audience at the time (southern folk). This results in face commentator Don West making awkward homophobic remark, whilst heel commentator Ed Ferrara sounded educated and tolerant. Keep in mind that the Rainbow Express was introduced AFTER cousin fucking Dupps which the commentators didn't seem to mind much.
TNA had a phase of terrible penis-related gimmicks; Richard and Rod "The Johnsons" were literally a pair of wrestling cocks, managed by Mortimer Plumtree; whilst "The Hot Shots" wrestled with giant bulges in their pants.
The first month of weekly PPVs featured a midget match on nearly every show. The short lived midget division consisted of a number of midgets including: Puppet, a psychotic dwarf who threatened to kill other midgets and also was infamously shown masturbating in a trash can; Meatball, an obese midget; and Teo, an "extreme" midget who once tried to force his way onto one of the cagedancers.
[edit]Segments, Mishaps, and Angles
As an omen of things to come, the first thing ever broadcast on TNA PPV was a segment involving older wrestlers talking.
To satisfy their backwoods audience even more, the first month of PPV's featured K-Krush (R-Truth) feuding with Hermie Sadler, a NASCAR driver. This culminated in a match at PPV #4, one which Sadler won by reverse decision. Sadler was scheduled to drive a NASCAR car covered in TNA sponsorship logos, but failed to qualify for the rest of the season.
TNA plugs a lingerie elimination match on the first show by having Elektra make one of the most egregious accusations in wrestling history by accusing Francine of being responsible for ECW's bankruptcy... Nothing gets me in the mood quite like that. The next week the girls came down wearing what looked like pajamas from an insane asylum, then left the ring when they were eliminated after having been stripped down to their bra and panties. This was great for the live crowd, but not so much for anyone who bought the PPV; Borash fucked up the introductions for the first two girls then just stopped introducing altogether. When Francine was eliminated, Ed Ferrara tried to help her. Francine then pretended like she was going to fellate Ed, before punching him in the groin. The Francine/Ferrara exchange took the focus off of the match, causing cameras to miss most of the eliminations. This match was for a contract as well as the the Miss TNA moniker and was won by Taylor Vaughn (B.B. in WWE).
Then-NWA President Jim Miller had so much faith in the TNA brand that he didn't show up to acknowledge it until the third show... he was in Japan and couldn't be bothered. When Miller finally appeared, he ended the PPV by being tied up with rope and spray-painted with the letters 'F U'.
In addition to Jim Miller being tied up with FU sprayed on him, Bill Behrens was shown tied up and stripped to his underwear. Neither were explained.
The TNA Asylum was plagued with signs for TNA's ring girl Athena. Although Athena was popular at the arena she wasn't properly introduced to the PPV audience for the first several months of shows, leaving the home audience in the dark as to what the signs meant.
James Storm and Chris Harris were unable to compete in the tournament to crown the first NWA Tag Champs under the TNA banner because they were shown knocked out backstage. A few weeks later it was explained that The Hot Shots were the culprits however they hadn't even debuted at the time.
Sabu became #1 Contender to the NWA Heavyweight Title in a Ladder Match, despite never making any appearance prior on the show. It gets worse when Sabu challenged then-champion Ken Shamrock to a Ladder Match, and Shamrock challenged Sabu to a Submission Match. This resulted in a Ladder/Submission match, which ended with Malice stealing the Heavyweight Title.
Brian Lawler turned randomly heel by turning on Scott Hall and kind of explained his actions on the next PPV by cutting a promo on how much he hates his father, Jerry Lawler.
Brian Lawler main-evented a PPV against Scott Hall. At the beginning of the match the crowd chanted "Jerry's Kid" whilst Lawler berated them for a good three minutes. During all of this, the near seven foot Scott Hall manages to hide behind Brian.
Puppet came down to the ring after Jarrett attacked another midget. Puppet pulled a gun on Jarrett only to get hit multiple times with a steel chair.
Scott Hall ended his second PPV in a row getting carted out of the arena on a stretcher when K-Krush strangled him with a belt. Problem is earlier in the PPV K-Krush did the same spot with Norman Smiley, and had Smiley strangled for longer, only Smiley was able to walk away from the event.
Ron Killings cut a shoot promo about how Ricky Steamboat never made it to the top in WWE because he was racially discriminated against and claimed he was suffering the same in TNA. Steamboat agreed with him and gave Killings a shot at the NWA Title. The original plan was for this to result in the first heel turn in Steamboat's career but he never appeared again after this promo.
Don West assumed the role of Amazing Red's number one fan and stood on the announce table to scream "GO, RED, GO!" in the middle of a match.
After a successful run of PPVs, TNA ran a best of the X-Division series. Over 50% of the matches involved AJ Styles, TNA obviously pushing him as one of the main faces of the company. So they naturally decided to turn him heel as soon as possible. This would be a common theme for AJ, a wrestler well respected by the wrestling community and fans, who would honestly prefer to cheer someone who does high risk moves than boo him.
The Blue Meanie debuted, gave Francine a DDT, and was never seen again.
Marcus Bagwell killed off the Buff gimmick after losing to The Rainbow Express -- "I'm a six time tag champion and I just got beat by two gay guys". The angle was put on hold when TNA didn't book him for another two months after Jerry Jarrett was angered by his backstage unprofessionalism. Bagwell quietly returned and lost a tag tournament match with BG James only to disappear again for the rest of the year.
Syxx-Pac shoots on "sports entertainment" and how he was in TNA for professional wrestling again. He cut this promo immediately preceding an impromptu boxing match between Screech from Saved by the Bell and Tiny - TNA's obese timekeeper.
Sean Waltman initially refused to join the company unless they booked his girlfriend, Alicia Webb (aka Ryan Shamrock). Jarrett expressed concern as Webb was NWA Champion Ken Shamrock's ex-girlfriend. Nevertheless she was booked and was paid $500 per appearance (she was originally offered $350 per appearance but Waltman refused) where she came down to ringside and guys handed her money. This was never explained.
Taylor Vaughn made her first appearance a month after winning the "Miss TNA" moniker. Bruce interrupted her interview and then ended up beating her in a match where her crown was on the line. The next week Bruce put his crown on the line against Vaughn in an evening gown match in which he wrestled completely in drag. Bruce treated the the crowd to a striptease after defeating Vaughn. Bruce would continue putting his crown on the line in Kaufmanesque open challenges to women in the crowd and would wrestle all of them in drag.
James Storm debuted as a comedy cowboy character who shot cap guns off before each match. Chris Harris blamed James Storm's "gimmick" when TNA didn't book AMW for a couple of PPVs.
Don Harris wore a shirt featuring the Nazi SS symbol during PPV #9. The Jarretts apologized for this on the TNA website and Harris was placed on probation. Upon returning he never wore the shirt again, however his SS tattoos were still clearly visible.
Jarrett fought a guy being billed as Bullet Bob Armstrong's masked "The Bullet" character two weeks in a row. The Bullet unmasked at his second appearance reveling himself to be BG James however James' distinct tattoos were absent during The Bullet's first bout.
Because Dreamworks Pictures was filming a movie in the area Chris Rock ended up appearing in the ring for less than two minutes in a segment in which he declared "NWA TNA is the best wrestling in the whole world!"
After two title matches (and numerous others) end in disqualification or just end, Bob Armstrong decided to make a change to the NWA rules. He decided that if a wrestler decides to get deliberately counted out or disqualified, they will lose their title. This is announced on a show where three of the matches involved brawls around the arena. The first title defense after this ruling featured a DQ, but because Ron Killings didn't intentionally do it, he kept his belt. Numerous examples of Scott Armstrong failing to call for count outs or DQs then plague PPVs.
Furthermore, Bob also announced a tournament for a shot at the NWA World Title and decided that Head of Security Don Harris would be refereeing all of these matches. The first match involved BG James (Armstrong's son) and Ron Harris (Don's brother). Bob came down to the ring and fired Don as referee and his son wins. This was never followed up on.
PPV #23: James Storm vs. Slash goes down in history for the most false finishes in one match. Storm kicks out of a powder shot, being rolled up with a handful of tights and a belt shot before having to double team Slash to win the match. The referee is distracted about six times during this contest.
A triple threat tag team match between the New Church, Harris Twins and AMW took place. During the match, several referee distractions took place to do typical underhanded manager shenanigans. These included Athena hitting a low blow on on the Harris Twins. At the end, LoD randomly ran in and beat the fuck out of the New Church and the Harris Twins. No DQ is called despite everything happening right in front of the ref. AMW simply pinned Slash after he was given the Doomsday Device, with no penalty.
[edit]The Jerry Lynn and AJ Styles saga
Lynn and Styles tagged together in the first ever match on TNA in a losing effort to The Flying Elvises -- A trio of multiracial Elvis impersonators. The following week, Styles pinned Lynn to become the X Division Champion. The week after that, Styles and Lynn became Tag Team Champions.
The week after this, Lynn piledrived AJ, calling him a glory hog. The following week, Styles demanded an apology and then kicked Lynn in the head. Lynn then interferes in AJ's title defense.
Suddenly realising these two are the Tag Champs, TNA has them make up on the following program. The very next week, AJ would attack Lynn (still Tag Champs).
Lynn gets pinned in a Triple Threat for AJ's X Division Title. The two then randomly brawl with Jarrett/Killings to end the show.
Styles/Lynn then have to defend the Tag Titles against Jarrett/Killings, with the match ending in Dusty fashion.
So Lynn/Styles finally have a series of matches to settle their differences. The first being Falls Count Anywhere, the second being No Disqualifications, and - if they need the third - a 10 minute Ironman Match. Surprisingly, the series ends in a draw after both men score 3-3 in the Ironman.
A few weeks later, Styles and Lynn were still feuding over the title belt. This leads to a Ladder Match where the referee took a bump for no reason, Sonny Siaki interfered but was beaten up by Lynn, and AJ ends up winning the belt. This apparently didn't settle well with Bob Armstrong, who comes down and immediately books a rematch for the next week under the same stipulations.
-Putting someone through a table = 2 ½ points (5 points if it's on fire)
-Sticking opponents head in the toilet = 2 ½ points (3 ½ points with shit)
-Goosing a woman = 2 ½ points (3½ if it's a man)
-Hitting Jeremy Borash or Sarah Lee (ticket lady) = 2 ½ points.
-Using a farm animal = 2 ½ points
-Spanking your opponent with the Horsee-poo (stick horse) = 2 ½ points (-2 ½ points if they like it)
-Using Jay (Blowup Doll) = 2 ½ points
-Using a weapon a fan gave you = 1 point.
-Crying like a pussy = -5 points
-Sticking your opponent's head in the cotton candy machine for one full rotation = 10 points (automatic win)
— Rules of the Dupp Cupp
[edit]Disco Inferno Jive Talkin
Glenn Gilbertti pitched his idea for a talk show during his debut. He hyped it by putting himself over as the guy who pinned Joey Maggs and Barry Horowitz countless times.
Week One: Goldylocks made an appearance. Gilbertti called her a stupid bitch and demanded to see her tits, claiming those were all she was good for. After Goldy attacked him for being a misogynist fuck Paulina from Tough Enough debuted to be his bodyguard. She disappears after the second episode of Jive Talkin.
Week Two: The Dupps made an appearance in which they introduced the Hard-10 Championship. They also brought their granddaddy's spit bowl --The Dupp Cupp--- on the program and said the person with the most points will take it home. This title came with the most complicated set of rules ever. The idea was to be the first to get ten points which was easily achieved with 10 chairshots, however, it could be achieved by "feeling up the ticket lady" and "involving an animal in the match" among other ridiculous things (see Rules of the Dupp Cupp). After being bored to death by the Dupps' endless explanation the first fight for the Dupp Cupp took place on Jive Talkin with Ed Ferrara but it did little for the crowd and resulted in Ferrara suffering a concussion. Ed would later leave the company when they told him they couldn't pay his monthly cheque. The Dupps would also depart from the company soon after. The Hard-10 "matches" continued well into 2003 regardless.
Week Three: Gilbertti interviewed an unmasked Shark Boy pretending to be a Baldwin brother. This would be the last installment of the show and it would never be mentioned after this.
[edit]Syxx-Pac wins the X Division Title
Jerry Lynn, the number one contender, was injured at the hands of Sonny Siaki. This canceled the possibility of Lynn vs. Styles in a Ladder Match.
On the same show, there was an X Division 15 minute Ironman Match to become #1 Contender between Tony Mamaluke, Kid Kash, Ace Steel and Low Ki.
With five minutes to go, all four were tied at one a piece.
At one minute to go, Steel and Low Ki were wrestling each other. While Low Ki had Steel up for the Ki Krusher, Mortimer Plumtree pulled out the legs of Low Ki, and the referee counted the pinfall after the time had elapsed.
Bill Behrens then came out and decided to put Ace Steel in the Ladder Match against AJ. Low Ki disagreed, Ace Steel and Plumtree came out to counter argue before Bob Armstrong decided that there should be a match between Steel and Low Ki to decide who is number one contender.
With the referee distracted, Plumtree took advantage and injured Low Ki. Ki was counted out and Steel won... but not before Behrens, Bob Armstrong, and everyone and their dog intervenes to call the DQ. The bell rang and Jeremy Borash announced: "The winner via countout, Ace Stee- it's a disqualification, ladies and gentlemen... the winner of the match via disqualification, Low Ki".
Armstrong decided that, due to the X Division giving him a headache, he will make the ladder match between every X Division competitor.
Despite not actually being in the ring when the bell rings, and never ever competing in ANY X Division Match, Syxx-Pac climbed the ladder and won the title in the last 30 seconds.
Soon after having won the X Division Title, Syxx Pac put over Low Ki and Styles, before dropping the belt back to AJ.
[edit]Brian Lawler and April
Brian Lawler spent a good amount of time threatening to reveal something about Jeff Jarrett. This never happened. Eventually Jarrett confronted him by saying "I did not sleep with April, but you've gotta wonder, Brian; who is right now?"
This led to Syxx-Pac making out with April on the entrance ramp during one of Lawler's matches.
April then lied to Lawler, who is a heel, saying that Syxx-Pac forced her...making April, I guess, a super heel.
During a match between Syxx-Pac and Lawler, April became frantic and begged them to stop fighting before Goldy comes out to comfort her. The announcers implied a lesbian relationship, which was never followed up on.
Waltman decided to leave TNA after Russo joined the company. This forced TNA to switch from Syxx-Pac to Bruce as April's secret lover.
This is made worse by the fact that Bruce had debuted as a homosexual character in the aforementioned Rainbow Express, that eventually became Miss TNA and beat up women in regular segments.
During an interview segment, Lawler heard April moaning and burst into the girls locker room to confront April.
April was wearing a skin-colored bikini to cover her breasts, and was covered in copious amount of bubbles. Despite trying to maintain an above-chest camera frame, the cameraman continually dips down to bizarrely show that April either has no nipples, or has them somewhere they shouldn't be.
Bruce was then confronted by Lenny Lane, who called Bruce a phony homosexual, before Brian Lawler ran in for a beat down.
TNA stopped booking Lawler for the rest of the year as punishment when he lashed out at a fan who sat on his jacket.
Bruce would drop his homosexual gimmick via a worked shoot and christened himself "Angry" Alan Funk. Naturally he disappeared from TNA not long after.
"Until they make radical surgical changes in creative, and unless they get some people who comprehend the wrestling business, they are doomed to be the financial drain on Panda [Energy] that they are now and have been since inception. The core of their problems is the creative development of their product. They have to cut the cancer out. [. . .] I would deserve the label 'stupid' if I had made the decision to hire Vince Russo. But I made the horrendous mistake of yielding to my son's (Jeff) wishes. He obviously has qualities that I don't recognize or understand. How can a person who has a 15-year history of failure still keep a job?"
— TNA Co-Founder Jerry Jarrett on Vince Russo
[edit]C-O-N-SPIRACY? or N-A-I-V-E?
When TNA started up in January 2002, Jarrett hired Jay Hassman to deal with setting up contracts with various pay-per-view companies around the country as well as make sure they were well advertised in the various cable magazines.
When asked for buy-rate estimates from Hassman, Jarrett was told they would be in 60,000 to 70,000 range. And that the first ever TNA show had done 80,000 buys.
This made no sense whatsoever: various people had complained on forums that they couldn't watch the PPVs because the carriers weren't hosting the shows, magazines like DirecTV made no mention of the show anywhere from the listing to advertised.
Jarrett smelled a rat and called InDemand directly and asked for PPV numbers: the result the first show had done just under 20,000 buys. TNA sued Hassman and his company which also provides PPV support for the WWE.
This would be the start of two things: first the conspiracy theory that WWE had been sabotaging TNA since the beginning and secondly TNA's money problems: Jarrett had been budgeting the company at 50,000 buys almost double what they had coming in.
It is also worth mentioning how Dixie Carter got involved in the company. Jarrett got financial backing from a lot of different companies when TNA began, one of these being HealthSouth. In October, HealthSouth was losing revenue due to fraud investigations; as a result, they pulled out as a backer for TNA. Dixie was already working as a promoter for TNA and persuaded her father to become a financial backer for the company. This led to PandaEnergy purchasing the 71% backing position for the company for $250,000. Over the next few months, the company would be renamed to TNA Entertainment, and Dixie would be named as president by the start of 2003.
[edit]2003



TNA fans show their support to one of Vince Russo's classic shoot segments
[edit]The Russo Shoots
"OH SHIT, IT'S VINCE RRRUUUUUUUSSSSOOOOOOOOO!" - Mike Tenay on Mr. Wrestling III unmasking to reveal himself to be Vince Russo. Mr. Wrestling III had previously helped Jarrett win his first NWA Title.
The show afterwards would feature the first of many Russo shoots on wrestling in general. Russo started by claiming that TNA originally stood for Tits 'n' Ass and that the promotion would be gritty. Some indications of this original concept remain: cage dancing girls and midgets masturbating in garbage cans. The latter would be mentioned at least three times.
The following PPV, Roddy Piper was given a live mic to plug his book. Instead, he shoots on Russo while the crowd go nuts. This was until Piper says "Hey Russo, did you book my cousin Owen's death?". Everything went quiet whilst Piper ranted about Vince before Russo comes out to calm Piper down. Piper refused to give Vince the mic, hit him with his book and then verbally berated him.
After a tag match, Russo came out and responded to Piper's comments. He then talked about how he gave the fans everything they wanted and he will deliver. He mentions Athena, who was a local girl from Tennessee who worked in the arena. Due to her being attractive and having some background as a wrestling valet, signs started appearing at the shows such as "HIRE ATHENA" or "TNA NEEDS MORE ATHENA". In response, Russo brought her into the ring. A very uncomfortable sequence ensued that involved Russo attempting to get her to flash the audience, slapping her and repeatedly calling her an ugly wench. Eventually the Harris Twins came out for the save, but they swerve by hitting Athena with their finisher. Twice. Apparently security didn't feel it was necessary to intervene until after Athena was already long laid out. This whole segment lasted a good ten minutes.
Tenay brought out J.J. Dillon and announced that he had replaced Bob Armstrong as the NWA Representative. Russo came out with The Harris Brothers and called J.J. Dillon a piece of shit, a pawn of Vince McMahon during his time with WWF, and claimed that Dillon was the man responsible for his WCW release. The segment ended with Sandman attacking The Harris Brothers on Dillon's behalf. Dillon would make one more brief appearance in TNA and then disappeared from the promotion.
A video package of Mike Tenay interviewing Vince Russo opened a show which was intended to introduce Russo to new viewers. During the worked shoot Russo defended putting the WCW Championship (which he refers to as a prop) on David Arquette, defended ruining the cruiserweight division with the likes of Oklahoma and Madusa, and told the fans that IF YOU WANT LUCHA LIBRE, GO TO JAPAN!
Tony Schiavone debuted, turned heel, was promised a job by Russo and then was never seen in TNA again. This entire segment lasted a good ten minutes and achieved absolutely nothing. Fan signs clearly shown throughout this segment included "WHO CARES?" and "The 'Total Non-stop Action' has officially stopped".
[edit]Sports Entertainment Xtreme (S.E.X.)
Made worse by the fact that Russo introduced the stable as "Sports Entertainment Extreme, you can work out what the letters stand for." S.E.E.?
David Flair made his debut wielding an axe, presumably to use on Jeff Jarrett and Curt Hennig. Tenay and West hype up Flair (who just months ago was completely destroyed on WWE television by the Undertaker) as a huge acquisition for S.E.X. Vince Russo also decided to axe the TNA set for shiggles during this segment.
The debut of both Flair and the axe leads to TNA's first iteration of Russo's favorite gimmick match, the "item on a pole" match; an Axe Handle on a Pole. This match featured against David Flair would be Hennig's last match.
Mike Sanders is hyped as a big acquisition and joins S.E.X. almost immediately after his debut. Sanders then jobbed to Jim Duggan (Twice), Moondog Spot, and Shark Boy.
The Rock 'n' Roll Express immediately turned heel after their debut, then joined S.E.X. and did practically nothing.
Russo left the company as a on screen character in an angle that paralleled the Ric Flair/David Flair saga in WCW 2000, Jarrett taped an interview of Russo's sons basically saying that Russo is a terrible father, Russo then leaves S.E.X. to be handled by Glenn Gilbertti and Mike Sanders.
During their feud with Jose Estrada, S.E.X. introduced a fat Elvis impersonator who named Disgraceland to the group. Disgraceland ate during his matches, gave Estrada a swirly in the toilet after his debut, then disappeared after being beaten by Estrada a few weeks after his debut.
Triple X (Low Ki, Elix Skipper, Chris Daniels) won the Tag Team Titles for the stable... which also includes The Harris Brothers and The Rock 'n' Roll Express. This effectively reduced competitors for the Tag Team Titles to AMW and The New Church, as every other tag team was already part of S.E.X.
Vince Russo returned to TV but distanced himself from S.E.X. Russo claimed he owned the rights to the S.E.X. name and stripped the group of their gimmick. Despite being a nameless and (at this point) useless faction they stuck around for awhile doing nothing before quietly breaking up.
[edit]The first Ultimate X match
Two lengths of rope were suspended above the ring forming an X, the belt was hung in the middle, the object was to monkey hand-over-hand to the belt and pull it down.
The emphasis of this match is the "X Factors" is: No Limits. No Ladders
The logic department failed on TNA as soon as one wrestler let go of one of the ropes, the ropes sprang back with force causing the very small belt to pop off.
As a result TNA officials had to rehang the belt TWICE during the match.
Don West reacted to this by almost creaming himself and screaming YES! YES! YES! YES!
[edit]One Night in TNA
Vader showed up, went over the Harris Brothers, and was never seen again.
Paul Bearer randomly debuted at the end of a PPV and then did practically nothing... Except blade a few weeks later.
After Russo unmasked as Mr. Wrestling III, Mr. Wrestling IV showed up and unmasked to reveal Nikita Koloff. Koloff hadn't been seen in pro-wrestling since 1992. Koloff would tease turning against Russo, before walking out of the company completely to never be seen again.
Not only does Bart Gunn make his TNA debut, Mike Tenay hyped him up as a former big superstar from the WWE. He joined S.E.X. and lasted about a week.
Moondog Spot tagged with Jim Duggan and went over S.E.X. leaders Gilbertti and Sanders in under two minutes. Never showed up again.
Viscera debuted to be Ron Killing's bodyguard. He disappeared after two weeks and was never seen again.
Mike Awesome hung around with The New Church for a few weeks, then inexplicably disappeared.
Lex Luger's arrival in TNA came while he was still under indictment for thirteen felony drug charges after the death of Miss Elizabeth happened in his home, TNA used this to their advantage and hypes this as his first match since the Elizabeth fiasco. Before his match he cut a shitty promo in which he called A.J. Styles "AC" Styles. Luger then almost made A.J. tap in the Torture Rack until Sting saved the day. Way to keep your top face strong TNA.
[edit]Miscellaneous Shenanigans
Goldylocks butchered the National Anthem LIVE! on PPV.
Lollipop, a cagedancer notable for sucking on lollipops, accepted an open challenge from S.E.X. member Holly Wood. She suffered a nip slip almost instantly and then got her top ripped completely off clearly exposing herself on camera and in front of the live crowd. Fortunately Jeremy Borash was waiting with his jacket off (and was shown on camera before the incident) to cover her up.
Larry Zbyszko debuted to yell at AJ for being a punk. This lead to a match in which AJ needed to cheat to beat the 52 year old living legend.
Because AJ didn't even beat Zbyszko in under 10 minutes, Zbyszko was assigned to be his manager. This angle was quickly dropped after Russo lost interest in writing it.
A feud between Brian Lawler, David Flair, Erik Watts and Dusty Rhodes broke out over the NWA World Title; the catch here was that none of them were the actual champion. Ric Flair owned a replica of the title belt awarded to him for his services to the wrestling world, Flair gave this to David as a present for finally getting serious about his wrestling career. David brought this to the tapings but Dusty said that David shouldn't have it, despite the fact it is David's.
AJ busted into the S.E.X. lockerroom with a chainsaw, threatened to cut Glenn Gilbertti into pieces, and called him a faggot.
Raven became the first wrestler to cross the line and join TNA. He instantly became a major figure in the NWA title scene and earned a title shot after about four months. During the match Jarrett overcame odds that would make even John Cena cringe and Raven lost the match, deflating all of his momentum.
The New Church, a stable made up of Malice, Slash, Brian Lee and headed by James Mitchell, accidentally turned face when TNA booked a heel vs. heel tag team match. Considering the tag team had been built up for weeks as EVIL it seemed untimely to debut yet another heel stable.
Kid Kash beat Abyss in a First Blood / Chair on a Pole match.
In order to promote the X Division as having no limits, TNA debuted a muscular wrestler, "X", the idea being that he is a monster heel. This goes pretty well as he squashed his opponents and the commentators push the idea of X's finisher, the Package Piledriver being a "death-like" move. During his second match things went slightly wonky when he attempted a swan dive and almost killed himself.
More X Division madness as there is not only a X Division Title but an X Division Trophy as well... this was not explained thoroughly but from what I can make out the trophy worked as the number one contendership... anyway Michael Shane has one and Chris Sabin has the other. They have a match and at the end of it Michael Shane wins both the belt and the trophy... he then frequently appears with the trophy and belt. No explanation.
[edit]Hulk Hogan is (Not) Coming to TNA!!!
Jeff Jarrett attacked Hulk Hogan at a press conference in Japan in October. This was supposed to lead to TNA's first ever $30 supercard PPV that had the main event of Jarrett vs. Hogan. Jarrett was supposed to go over and Hogan suddenly had mysterious "pains". The whole thing turned out to be meaningless as Hogan would not wrestle for TNA and eventually re-signed with WWE. Hogan goes on to never appear in a TNA ring until 2010. The footage of Hogan being attacked is replayed countless times and made it onto the 50 Greatest TNA Moments DVD.
Part of the issue with Hogan coming in goes back to Bash at the Beach 2000, where Jarrett laid down for Hogan in a worked shoot. In a speech after the match Russo came out and called Hogan "a bald son of a bitch". Hogan, despite being in on everything that night, wasn't happy and filed a real defamation of character suit that prevented the two working together. Three years later the suit still existed.
On top of this there was very real tension in the booking and creative team. At the time, it consisted of Jarrett, Dutch Mantell and Vince Russo. Often the three would come up with a scenario and agree with Russo's plans before waiting for Vince to leave and change all of his ideas. Russo was paranoid that Jarrett was "out to get him" and when Jarrett told him he'd been in discussions with Hogan Russo immediately saw that as a betrayal.
Later that month Russo made the decision to leave TNA. To take himself off television Russo had Jarrett beat him on television, Russo told him to make it look as real as possible. Russo would suffer another concussion and severe bruising.
[edit]2004

TNA's first show of the year had no clean finishes, three matches had the referees distracted, one had the referee blatantly ignore interference and the last one is Ultimate X where Mike Posey got bumped so Shane Douglas could bring out a ladder.
The Street Team
After TNA launched a message board on their website, Dixie Carter introduced "The Street Team". The concept was to send fans out on the street to do TNA's advertising for them. For a fee, TNA would send them a package that included flyers, buttons, stickers and other miscellaneous items to use in order to spread the word.
In addition, for people who didn't want to pay, they could join an internet team. TNA's board admins would give assignments for board members to go to various message boards and advertise TNA. Many of the attempts were to try and fit in with a "niche" based on a storyline they were doing. For instance, a NASCAR forum was targeted due to Jeff Hammond's appearance on a PPV. The mass majority of these efforts resulted in either the fans getting mocked or ignored. Other internet assignments included griefing TNA references into Blockland servers.
As for the street team members on location, it predictably resulted in TNA fans simply hounding WWE fans waiting in line for tickets or heading into a show by shoving TNA flyers in their faces. This also usually resulted in an overly negative reaction.
In his first run in the company, Jeff Hardy no-showed two PPV events and had a habit of sleeping in during iMPACT tapings.
Jeff also brought the "Hardy Party" to the iMPACT zone -- a group of fat, hair dyed groupies who hung out with him after show was over. They typically hogged up the front row to watch Jeff's matches only to leave when they were over, and were very much hated by everyone else. Eventually the "leader" of the pack was banned from Universal Studios for a year for shoving people in the crowd to get front row seats, which led to much rejoicing among non-Hardy Party regulars.
[edit]Under New Management
TNA ended 2003 with Raven being betrayed by CM Punk and Julio Dinero, costing Raven a shot at the NWA World Heavyweight Title.
Jarrett theorizes thus: if he could get all the control over to his buddy Don Callis and make sure there is never a No. 1 Contender he'll never have to defend the belt. This plan involved Jeff talking to a lawyer about actual employment law within the US, specifically acts of violence by those in management positions.
This plan involved exposing the entire NWA Board of Directors for petty crimes and having them struck off and forcing Erik Watts - the Director of Authority - to put his job on the line.
TNA Security took sides in the power struggle and split into two feuding factions: Red Shirt Security and Black Shirt Security.
WWF jobber Joe E. "Just Joe" Legend became a major player in this angle as he led the Red Shirt faction. He main evented a few PPVs during his run, including one Guitar and Baseball Bat on a Pole Match against Jarrett.
Jarrett's next plan was to win the Mr. TNA Award which grants the winner a World Title shot, which was won by AJ Styles.
Callis beat Watts after Goldilocks betrayed Watts.
Jarrett's new management lasted a mere fortnight before Vince Russo came back.
[edit]"Celebrity" Involvement


Jonny Fairplay would be the first of many failed reality "stars" brought in for publicity at a high price. Nobody cared.
TNA hyped its biggest announcement of the year in January: Jonny Fairplay is coming to TNA. Jonny was a wrestling fan who appeared on Survivor Pearl Islands. TNA hyped him up as the "most hated man in America", most notably because he lied about his Grandmother's death during a challenge on the show to gain the sympathy of his fellow tribemates. He was paid $350,000 plus health insurance for his appearances, which consisted of him doing nothing of note besides getting press slammed out of the ring by NFL star Brian Urlacher.
Jonny Fairplay randomly returned after being off TV for four months. He issued an open challenge to any reality star to take him on in the "Reality Challenge". This was never followed up on and Fairplay was then off TV again for another six months.
TNA hypes up Dennis Rodman returning to wrestling with TNA. He came out with 3 Live Kru during a random iMPACT! and sat ringside to watch their match with Team Canada. He didn't do anything else for the rest of the episode and was never seen again.
The Insane Clown Posse found themselves in a pretty awkward feud with Disco Inferno, Kid Kash, and David Young after coming to TNA. A highlight of the feud included the first and only Dark Carnival match which was a hardcore match with ICP music randomly interrupting the match concurrent with colorful lighting. Mike Tenay explained that these distractions were "part of the experience." According to Slam! Sports ICP brought the largest paying crowds that TNA had seen at this point.
[edit]Vince Russo Returns
After firing Mike Tenay the week previous, Jarrett discovered there was a new Director of Authority. Tenay returned at the end of the next show to bring out the new DOA: Vince Russo.
Russo had become a born again Christian during his time off and wanted to come back to have the opportunity to explain himself on television.
In his first promo back Russo claimed he "did a deal with the devil" and "knelt at the altar of television ratings" by putting "nudity, violence and vulgarity" at the forefront of television. All three of these words get pops. After Russo announced he'd been "forgiven" (i.e. a Christian) the crowd chants "BULLSHIT".
Inevitably, in spite of Russo getting chants of "pass the torch" going, this became another Jarrett/Russo feud. Jarrett slapped Russo and got zero reaction.
James Storm, one half of America's Most Wanted, hurt his shoulder in early 2004. TNA decided to give Chris Harris a singles run while Storm recoverd and booked him in strong matches. The fans actually got behind Harris, who puts on some great performances with some of the top tier talent. A storyline is booked where Russo, now playing a face as a "born again" Christian, was grooming Harris to win the title by keeping Jarrett on the sidelines to accumulate ring rust. Harris and Jarrett wrestle at a highly hyped PPV and Jarrett ends up winning. Harris was back to the midcard shortly after, killing all his hype.
After Vince Russo's exit, TNA looked towards Dusty Rhodes direction to be the new head booker. Rhodes proceeded to fire half the X-Division and put Jeff Jarrett, Diamond Dallas Page, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Randy Savage, Sean Waltman and Billy Gunn in main event feuds throughout the year. His freshly released son Dustin is also predictably signed and gets teased with an upper card slot while earning victories over up-and-comer Bobby Roode at PPVs.
"I signed a $150,000 contract with TNA Wrestling for a year. I ended up making 8 appearances for 40 minutes. Then I signed a second contract and they didn't use me. So, I'd like to thank them for $300,000 for 40 minutes' worth of work."
— Fairplay reminisces on his tenure with the company
[edit] Early PPV Supercards
Victory Road 2004
During an opening gauntlet match Alex Shelley feigned an injury, Don West was so concerned about whether or not he was really hurt but then gave everything away when Shelley recovered.
The event was also the conclusion of a story between Russo and Dusty Rhodes where fans were voting who would become the Director of Authority. During the event the same stats are shown as the "current" results and Scott Hudson was fed a line saying that they'd had a server breakdown from excess voting in Stanford, Connecticut (headquarters of WWE).
3LiveKrew were billed having a year long struggle to win the Tag Titles, the match went 6:57 with most of the heat on referee Andrew Thomas who kept looking to see if the double teaming/illegal tactics/interference had stopped.
Presumably the previous match was so short to give time for the next segment: Piper's Pit which featured Roddy Piper telling Jimmy Snuka to hit him, before Kid Kash interrupted to which Mike Tenay comments: "Why is this interruption from Kash of all people?". Kash was joined by Kaz and Michael Shane to beat up Snuka before Sonjay Dutt made the save. Sonjay was then hit in the back of the head with a coconut. This NINE MINUTE segment ended with Kaz and Shane saying that "wasn't right" and Kash claiming "I didn't bring the coconut". WHY?
Promoted as the PPV where "the old world falls and the new world emerges" the event would end with Jeff Hardy (27) being beaten by Hall (46), Jarrett (37) and Nash (44) who turned on him. The entire PPV was hyped around whose side Hall and Nash would be on.
Randy Savage also debuted in the last thirty seconds of the PPV magically teleporting from a limousine to the inside of the building in about three seconds.
At Victory Road 2004 (TNA's first ever monthly PPV) Randy Savage made his debut to close the show. He was booked in a six man tag team match at the next PPV, Turning Point, with partners Jeff Hardy and A.J. Styles against Jeff Jarrett, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall. He never appeared on iMPACT once during the hype for the PPV. During Turning Point, Savage was "kidnapped" in the middle of the show and didn't appear until the last minute of the match where he simply punched Jarrett in the face and pinned him for the win. He's never seen or mentioned again after this.


Look at us, WWE! Look! Look! Look at us! We're on your filming set with balloons, LOL! Oh hey, Raymond Stereo! Look, it's us!
Cookie-gate at Turning Point 2004. In December 2004, WWE was in Orlando filming the "West Side Story" Royal Rumble commercial. Being in town, a few TNA stars and a camera crew head over to the WWE filming set to offer a "welcome wagon". However, they were kicked off the set. In response, this is turned into a "storyline" where the footage of what went down was hyped to be shown at the PPV in an attempt to make WWE look bad. To hype up how overly scandalous this supposed footage was, a fake Vince McMahon and Triple H begin roaming the iMPACT zone to find and destroy the footage while "firing" several TNA employees in the process. The footage actually ended up making TNA look much worse. It starred BG James, Shane Douglas, Ron Killings, Konnan, Abyss and Traci Brooks walking onto the set with balloons and cookies, acting like obnoxious buffoons. After continuously asking if they could speak to Vince McMahon, uninvitedly eating food off the buffet table and putting Eddie Guerrero, Randy Orton and an unmasked Rey Mysterio on camera, they're left offended and surprised when WWE officials tell them to leave. After the footage was aired, Tenay and West act completely baffled as to why WWE would do such a thing. Nobody cared.
[edit]2005

Against All Odds
Bizarrely this PPV opened with Scott Hudson and Scott Douglas conducting promos for the main event outside doors.
Jeff Hammond was brought in to team up with the 3LiveKrew, he tagged with BG James who works an entire match against Kaz/Michael Shane before picking up the pin fall. Hammond, a NASCAR commentator, went on to host a weekly segment on iMPACT!
Abyss beat Jeff Hardy in a Full Metal Mayhem match (TNA's version of TLC) to become the Number One Contender. The final spot was supposed to be Abyss press slamming Hardy into four stacked tables, instead Abyss threw him over the rope and Hardy barely went through one. Pissed off by the blown spot, Hardy no sold the move and started drop kicking tables whilst Abyss retrieved the contract. Subsequently Abyss didn't cash this contract in for a title shot and instead gets pinned by Hardy at the next PPV.
Jeff Jarrett faced Kevin Nash in a match where he would lose the title if he uses his trademark guitar. During the match Jarrett pulled out a case containing a cello, the neck of which snaps as he prepared to hit Nash with it. Despite Jarrett using the cello case to crush Nash's knee, the referee won't let Nash hit Jarrett with the body of the cello. Three ref bumps, a run in by debuting Billy Gunn (see below), a returning Syxx Pac, BG James, a belt shot, and a low blow later... JARRETT RETAINS!
Billy Gunn debuted in the middle of the main event between Kevin Nash and Jeff Jarrett by hitting Nash with a steel chair. Despite helping Jarrett, he had absolutely no reaction from the crowd. Furthermore, TNA was so excited to debut Gunn that they didn't even have a name prepared for him, forcing him to walk around in a "No introduction needed, you already know my name" T-Shirt for awhile. Eventually he used the name "The New Age Outlaw", but TNA had to once again think of a new one as that was a WWE trademark, sticking with simply "The Outlaw".
TNA signed Dave Hebner for a backstage role after WWE released him. Dave made three bizarre onscreen appearances, however, where he was shown doing nothing but taking notes. TNA never explained why he did this, and after his last appearance, nobody ever mentioned it again.
Monty Brown got insanely over with his above average promo skills and entertaining persona. After testing him with a main event push that the fans got fully behind, TNA proceeded to have him feud with a bad Terminator rip-off before turning him heel as Jeff Jarrett's goon. He stayed in the midcard for the rest of his TNA run.
TNA spent several weeks hyping the debut of Trytan. He was basically a cheesy Terminator rip off with sunglasses, a leather jacket and a terrible F5 called the T-3. His only feud was with Monty Brown, which consisted of Trytan pointing at Brown from the ramp at the end of his matches. They had a pretty bad five minute match at Destination X. Right before the finish, the lights went out and Trytan was nowhere to be seen. Instead, a masked Mideon was in the ring, who Monty proceeded to squash and pin. Mideon was never seen or mentioned again, this whole angle was never explained and Trytan was gone from the company soon after.
"I've been reading The Death of WCW, and after reading it I mean... Hulk Hogan, I'm glad he's not with us".
— A.J. Styles during a 2005 interview with NODQ.com
WCW Jobber Hector Garza received a massive push that got cut short after he was busted for steroids and got deported. Mexican wrestler Shocker seemingly was going to be groomed to take Garza's place as Tenay and West put him over huge despite zero crowd reaction when he debuted at Destination X. He never grew on the crowd but received an X division title match anyway and then disappeared shortly after.
On the bio put up for Shocker on their roster page, it was explicitly pointed out that he had starred in a fairly popular fast food commercial that was playing regularly on TV at the time. The only problem with this was that he was masked in that commercial, so nobody knew it was him.
Traci, Trinity and Jonny Fairplay were feuding over who got to be Dusty Rhodes' personal assistant. After some very unfunny "Survivor Scavenger Hunt" skits at Final Destination, Dusty gave them the task of signing a new tag team to TNA. They'd have a match at Destination X and whoever's team won, they'd be the new assistant. Fairplay -- who previously tried to "sign" already established TNA stars like AMW and Dustin Rhodes -- was unable to get one and was out. Traci and Trinity, however, were able to score two huge teams that were hyped throughout iMPACT broadcasts and was advertised as a selling point for Destination X. They turned out to be Phi Delta Slam -- a couple of obese men in their mid-thirties playing a frat boys gimmick -- and the Harris Twins. Nobody cared. They also had an awful match.
During the Destination X PPV, Fairplay ended up signing Buck Quartermain and Lex Lovett, two guys who were regular jobbers for the company at this point. This was after Traci was already named Personal Assistant, so it was never explained why Fairplay bothered doing this. Also, he never appears on TNA again.
It should be noted that Phi Delta Slam were Dusty Rhodes' chauffeurs and hunting buddies at the time, which was pretty much the only reason why they were hired.
Dusty booked a complex match for the X Division title at Destination X. It started out as a tag team match featuring A.J. Styles and Elix Skipper against Christopher Daniels and Ron Killings. After Killings was pinned it became a triple threat. Daniels and A.J. survived the triple threat and had a singles Ultimate X match. During that match Daniels and A.J. inadvertently knocked out the ref. A.J. got up and retrieved the belt but was attacked by Daniels who took the belt from him. The ref then saw Daniels with the belt can declared him a winner.
The Lockdown PPV debuted under Dusty's tenure in April of 2005. The idea originally came as a joke during a booking session in which he sarcastically suggested that every match on the card be contested inside a cage. Dixie, unaware he was joking, jumped at the idea. Lockdown has been a staple of the TNA PPV market ever since, though in 2013 they abandoned the "all matches in a cage" format, limiting the gimmick to specific matches instead.
The very first Lockdown is generally remembered for Chris Candido's very last match, the opener, in which he landed wrong after taking a dropkick from Sonny Siaki and fractured several bones in his leg. He died days later of a blood clot, a complication stemming from surgery. His last appearance for TNA saw him happily celebrating the Naturals' tag title win on the Impact after the PPV, which aired after his death due to TNA's taping schedule. This heartbreaking image was used for TNA's "in memory of" graphic.
Following the death of Chris Candido TNA refused to pay Tammy Sytch the money they had owed him. While this is technically legal because they were not officially married, Terry Taylor sent her a ham dinner as a condolence gift.
In memory of Chris Candido, TNA held the Candido Cup. The tournament consisted of several tag teams with a veteran and a future star. The winner of the Candido Cup would earn a trophy and get a title shot. Sean Waltman and Alex Shelley ended up winning the whole thing, but Waltman decided to piss on the tournament by no-showing the PPV where he and Shelley were entered into a four-way for the tag titles as a result of winning the tournament.
Waltman didn't just no-show. He disappeared for an entire week, despite having been at a relative's house only about two hours away. Candido's brother Johnny was subbed in at the PPV midway through the match.
A.J. Styles finally ended Jeff Jarrett's nearly year long title reign at Hard Justice 2005. To capitalize on the triumphant victory, A.J. would drop the title to Raven in the King of the Mountain reverse ladder match just thirty-five days later.
Speaking of Raven, he would hold the title throughout the summer before dropping the title back to Jarrett. Via an AMW heel turn. At a house show. For another promotion (Scott D'Amore's Border City Wrestling). TNA would hype the holy hell out of this, naming it "Controversy in Canada" in one of what would eventually turn out to be several attempts at ripping off the Montreal Screwjob.
When TNA landed their Spike TV deal, they decided to ignite a Kevin Nash vs. Jeff Jarrett feud for the title to main event their first version of WrestleMania, Bound for Glory. The day of the event, Nash hurt himself via picking up his son's toy chest, so he was out. TNA solved this by having a battle royal that night to determine a Number One Contender. Rhino, who had been booked mainly as a midcarder to this point (and had been already booked on the card in a hardcore match), won the battle royal and pinned Jarrett to win the belt. TNA followed up on this underdog story by having Jarrett win the title back two days later at an iMPACT taping. Rhino was back to the midcard soon after.


Hurry! Hurry! We've gotta get a camera out there! And off of us reading the script, preferably.
At Bound for Glory 2005, an Ultimate X match was held to crown the #1 Contender for the X-Division title. Since this wasn't a title match, a wooden X was hung from the center instead of a belt. This caused problems as it wasn't very secure. As Michael Shane and Chris Sabin were both shimmying on the rope, the X suddenly fell down. This caused the match to be stopped for several minutes as officials hung it back up. With the match restarted, the X fell off yet again. Realizing where this match was going, Petey Williams improvised by catching the X, even kneeling underneath and seemingly praying for it to drop, which was a very nice touch on his part. This was not the planned finish, but he was awarded the win anyway. A rematch was held on the Impact after the PPV. Williams won that too, which suggested that he was supposed to win the first match anyway.
Tenay and West are clearly shown reading from a script on iMPACT.
Neilson Corporation offered to buy TNA in May 2005 for $10,000,000 USD from Panda Energy; however, Panda Energy expressed no interest. Morphoplex, a major TNA sponsor, offered Panda Energy $20,000,000 USD for the company later that month, which was also rejected.
[edit]2006

Samoa Joe was signed in 2005 and built up as a huge force to be reckoned with. Joe went on an eighteen-month undefeated streak, during which he got a clean win over the NWA World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Jarrett in a non-title match. Kurt Angle debuted in the fall of 2006 after leaving WWE a few weeks prior; instead of building up to Angle vs. Joe, said match -- which was both Angle's first TNA match and the end of Joe's undefeated streak -- takes place two months after Angle's TNA debut (Genesis in November 2006). Joe's career stagnates after his follow-up matches with Angle; he didn't win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship until 2008 -- from Kurt Angle, ironically enough -- and by that point, everyone had stopped caring.
ROH regulars Austin Aries and Roderick Strong became big parts of TNA's X-Division, teaming with Alex Shelley in what was referred to by fans as the second coming of their ROH faction, Generation Next. After a massive snowstorm, TNA suggested the pair no-show their scheduled ROH show in order to ensure their ability to make it to Florida in time for a TNA taping. Aries and Strong stayed true to their ROH commitments, and although they both made it to Florida on time, both served a long suspension. Strong was released shortly after the suspension was up, while Aries was repackaged as Austin Starr.
The Fan's Revenge Match - Fans became lumberjacks and surrounded the ring armed with leather belts. This happened twice, once at Victory Road 2006 with LAX and Beer Money, and again at No Surrender 2006 with Samoa Joe and Jeff Jarrett. TNA encouraged fans to send in videos to earn the chance to be selected as a lumberjack.
The fan submissions were so laughably bad, several videos were featured on The Smoking Gun's Worlds Dumbest Fans in 2009.
Jackie Gayda joined Planet Jarrett after being blackmailed when Alex Shelley brought Jeff Jarrett an allegedly incriminating piece of tape involving Gayda, which was funny since Gayda claimed to have a huge secret to reveal about Jarrett. We never found out what was on the tape or what the secret was, as she took time off after becoming pregnant and never returned to TNA.
[edit]Orlando Screwjob
Jarrett became paranoid that he would lose his job as he believed he was perceived as a "cancer" behind the scenes. For some reason Larry Zbyszko thought he would get fired too in favor of TNA bringing in Jim Cornette despite having a no cut contract.
The two conspired that if Jarrett was champion then their jobs will be safe. Because of this they rehashed the Montreal Screwjob for the millionth time at Slammiversary.
During the King of the Mountain match they had Earl Hebner push a ladder over that Christian and Sting were climbing on, allowing Jarrett to become champion.
The event was foreshadowed at Against All Odds during Earl Hebner's debut with the company. Jeff Jarrett put Christian in the sharpshooter while Tenay and West pleaded with Hebner not to call for the bell.
Immediately after the match another referee took the belt away from Jarrett and handed it over to Jim Cornette while Jarrett knelt at the bottom of the ramp and sobbed.
Cornette fired Hebner on the next episode of iMPACT but then handed the title back to Jarrett and made him defend it at the next PPV as punishment... which he would have had to do anyway.
Hebner was later rehired by Cornette after he passed a polygraph test proving he wasn't part of the plan.
A few months later Larry Zbyszko would be fired after losing a match with Eric Young (who also was paranoid about losing his job, leading to the fairly popular "Don't fire Eric!" gimmick) at Bound for Glory.
This whole episode was dubbed The Orlando Screwjob and nothing about it made any sense.

Abyss won his first and only NWA World Championship by disqualification when Sting pushed referee Rudy Charles. Back in the early days of TNA, Bob Armstrong made a rule saying any champion who intentionally disqualifies himself from a match would lose their title. While TNA deserves credit for remembering this rule (and showing actual continuity), nobody had mentioned the rule since 2002, and TNA eventually did away with the rule after this match. This ending resulted in most of the live crowd and viewing audience having no idea what the hell was going on.
Robert Roode was praised as being the future of the industry as part of his post-Team Canada singles run, and legendary managers such as Bobby Heenan and Sherri Martel actually appeared on iMPACT to convince Roode to hire them. Roode ended up hiring Traci Brooks as his manager and feuded with Eric Young for over six months for no real reason; both moves killed any momentum he may have had coming out of Team Canada and turned him into one of TNA's most boring performers. Roode wouldn't recover from this period of his career until TNA paired him off with James Storm.
A "highlight" of this terrible and seemingly never-ending feud was Eric Young defeating Traci. In a bikini contest. In which Young stripped down to Spongebob skivvies.
At Hard Justice 2006, the opening match between Johnny Devine and Eric Young was disrupted by a large cloud of smoke, which caused fans to begin chanting "YOU CAN'T SEE US!" (in reference to John Cena's catchphrase). A shot of the smoke reveals that the Impact Zone's roof was on fire (the fire was caused by the pyro which kicked off the PPV). Devine and Young worked the remainder of the match -- something both men should be commended for -- and then followed fans, other workers, and TNA staff out of the Impact Zone. As the fire department spends a half-hour extinguishing the fire, Tenay and West run down the rest of Hard Justice's card and held interviews with various wrestlers (including a possibly-high Monty Brown). A multi-team tag match was booted from the card as a result. No more pyro would be used the rest of the night, which prompted a "No more pyro!" chant.
Jackass: Number 2 was heavily promoted for several weeks as many X Division wrestlers attempted to recreate stunts from the Jackass series (something the opening sequence of the show strongly discourages). Stunts included: Senshi popping a blow-up doll by stomping on it, Jay Lethal riding a shopping cart into the ringpost, and Petey Williams being fed laxatives. Displeased fans chanted "No more Jackass" at them for it. Despite their effort, Steve O and Chris Pontius made an appearance on Raw and had a match with Umaga while nobody from the Jackass crew stopped by the iMPACT Zone. Soon after Steve O and Pontius appeared on Raw, all promotion for the Jackass movie died, and the stupid gimmick was laid to rest right along with it.
The Petey Williams laxative incident happened at a PPV during a match with Jay Lethal. What could have been a fun X-Division match for the paying customers, it turned into a terrible "comedy" match where Petey feigned badly needing to take a shit bell-to-bell. Don West shouted "THE SMELL! OH GOD THE SMELL!" the entire match, although nobody in the audience seemed too bothered.


This is what TNA actually believes.
WWE resurrected ECW in mid-2006; in an attempt to bring legitimacy to this rebirth, WWE attempted to lure former ECW stars working in TNA into working as part of WWECW. During house shows, ECW alumni who were offered contracts rip said contracts up in front of a crowd. TNA turned this into a storyline when Rhino began bashing both ECW and Vince McMahon; for weeks, Rhino whined about how WWECW was not the original ECW, and the whining culminated in Rhino taking the original ECW World Heavyweight Championship and tossing it into a burning barrel.
Team 3D got involved in this, too; most notably, they stapled an "ECW fears TNA" sign to Abyss' head during a hardcore match.
Shannon Moore came to TNA after a fresh Future Endeavoring from WWE and began using an exaggerated version of his "Prince of Punk" gimmick. Moore debuted by interrupting what was at the time a dream match between AJ Styles and Hiroshi Tanahashi, started a feud with AJ and even got a clean victory over him (back when Styles was still relatively important to TNA). The next week, Shannon was gone; TNA hadn't actually signed him to a contract, and when WWE came calling again, Moore headed back north while taking a jab at TNA in his WWE.com interview.
TNA repackaged Kazarian, Matt Bentley, and Johnny Devine as Serotonin; they were essentially a new version of Raven's Flock -- right down to Raven leading the group -- which did nothing but lose every match they were in and let Raven whack them with a kendo stick after every loss. Devine was inexplicably pulled from a fairly successful pairing with Alex Shelley for this.
BG and Kip James cut a promo mocking Team 3D; this involved BG sticking a box up his shirt to look like

[Crazy Kyd]

Besides all of the jokes that one could make about TNA, the years that they were on Fox Sports Net were the best.

The early Spike years when they only had a one-hour show were amazing as well, but a little before they went to 2 hours it started going downhill, before fluctuating too much for my liking. Now it has remained pretty consistent, but the FSN years were kick ass.

and Main Event Mafia was the GREATEST group in TNA history! 

[Mike Powers]

Besides all of the jokes that one could make about TNA, the years that they were on Fox Sports Net were the best.

So much this.  I LOVED the way that TNA was presented on FSN.  With the "Fox Box" at the top of the screen, to the clock counting down the time limits, it was presented as an honest to god fucking SPORT.  It was incredible. 

[Crazy Kyd]

It was. I miss it. 

[Duckman]

Their PPVs in 2005 were some of the best in the history of wrestling for in-ring action and good booking.  Just no one watched them.

Damn shame.

Peace

Duckman