Sery's Top 15 things TNA

TNA isn't just a company that produces nonstop shit. For a while they were kicking on all cylinders and were growing in popularity. It seemed that they couldnt do much wrong. Even after everything went south, they still had a few good things here and there. I love TNA and have always gave them a break on some of the stuff they do. I always want to see them do good and be a good second option. It kills me to see them fall to where they are now. The thought of what could have been always enters my mind. So I just started writing down some good moments in TNA history and finally decided to do my own top 15 list.  I actually put alot of time into this and hope some people read it. These are my favorite things TNA.

15. Main Event Mafia

To start defending myself right away, the idea of this was great. A stable where every member is a former world champion. I liked the idea and for a while it was working. Until they completely took over the show. The group was formed in 2008 and consisted of Kurt Angle, Sting, Kevin Nash, Booker T, and Scott Steiner. I guess you could count Samoa Joe who was "paid to join" the Main Event Mafia. The Main Event Mafia was one of those things that was a great idea, but not great execution. One of the funniest things TNA has done was let Booker T and Kevin Nash do commentary for one show and it was hilarious! I think the funniest thing was Scott Steiner introducing the wrestlers to the ring.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YVNP1G0KSA

14. AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels

You can't have a greatest of TNA list without this feud. These guys feuded throughout their whole careers in TNA. They always seemed to cross each others path. Going from TNA Tag Team champs to bitter rivals. From a "Who is the better man" feud all the way to a love affair with Dixie Carter/AJ Styles feud in what we all  like to call the Claire Lynch debacle (yuck). But no matter how many times we've seen it or how horrible the story surrounding it was, they always delivered in the ring. Two of TNA's best and two TNA orginals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mciRamZcjLE

13. Open Fight Night

When Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff came into TNA they tried to change everything. They got rid of most of TNA's original matches, brought in there own guys, and switched to a four sided ring. In 2013 Open Fight Night was introduced. Any wrestler could come and call anyone out to fight. I really loved any wrestler being able to come out and call out anyone on the roster to fight. They had it once a month for a string of months, then as soon as it came, it was gone. It was really disappointing to see such a cool concept be thrust to the wayside so quickly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhe2Olldl_8

12. LAX (Latin American XChange)

The Latin American Xchange consisted of Konnan, Homicide, Hernandez, and Machete. Their main thing was they hated the repression of ethnic minorities. I feel like these guys were one of the most controversial things that TNA ever did. I always say anytime you can add a bit of edginess to something it really adds to it. The most famous thing LAX ever did in TNA was threatening to burn the American Flag.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZCQrTSDADc

11. Motor City Machine Guns vs. Beer Money

Does anyone remember this 5 match series a few years ago? These were some of the best matches in TNA history. The best part of each show by far. I remember not being able to wait till the next match, I haven't felt anticipation for a wrestling match in a long while. But this one got me feeling like a little kid again. Two of the best tag teams in TNA history Beer Money and Motor City Machine Guns really didn't come into greatness until after the "TNA good days" were over. Those days were over somewhere between 2007-2008. These matches match up to any tag match in any place in time in TNA history. They even hold there own against any tag matches in the whole industry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Nkhp_E0uys

10. AJ Styles wins TNA World Heavyweight Championship (2009)

Now I know Styles won the title before this but i'm pretty sure that was when the belt was the NWA-TNA World Heavyweight Championship. Styles was announcing his retirement on Impact in the weeks before this match, but Sting was there to talk him out of it. So at No Surrender 2009 AJ Styles won the TNA World Heavyweight Championship for the first time in a 5 way match between Sting, Hernandez, Matt Morgan, and the current champ Kurt Angle. I thought the whole roster storming the ring and having the confetti come down while AJ is hoisted in the air was a unforgettable moment. Styles is one of my favorites and is MR. TNA and it was awesome to see the company get behind him like that. One of my favorite moment in wrestling history.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJfwzRpo8gE

9. Abyss/James Mitchell

This was when Abyss wasn't a joke. He was a scary effing beast and hardcore as all hell. I loved it when Abyss was with Mitchell, he was the perfect manager for Abyss and added something to the whole character. This gimmick should have died when James Mitchell left, because after this Abyss never really did many great things (besides Joseph Park, yes I loved that angle). I remember Abyss was doing barbed wire massacres and his own match the monsters ball. I mean I guess Monsters ball was special to any single wrestler, but its Abyss' match no doubt. But I think we can all agree there was a point when Abyss was a badass monster and was fun to watch. That was when he was with James Mitchell.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDvnsukyHjs

8. Signing Sting

Who is the biggest superstar to have never competed in WWE but was a household name? Sting. At the time Sting never wrestled for the WWE and TNA scooped him up. He is a key player in TNA's history and considered the first big signing that TNA made. In order to be considered big league TNA needed to get big names like this to come to there company. Sting went on to win multiple world championships, main event numerous ppvs, and the first TNA hall of famer. He even had a Bound For Glory winning streak going on until AJ Styles broke it. I might be alone on this point but I think some of Sting's greatest work came in TNA. My personal favorite match with Sting involved was against Samoa Joe at Bound For Glory, where Joe did a drop kick down a flight of stairs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv064jrwSXE

7. The World X Cup

What really set TNA apart in the early days was the variety of wrestlers they had. They weren't afraid to acknowledge other companies like the WWE and they even had something called the World X Cup. The World X Cup was a X Division tournament with wrestlers and teams from the roster or all over the world. I think the most popular thing to come out of this was Team Canada. I know TNA brought this back for a One Night Only PPV, but that just doesn't get me excited. These things were exciting. Ah the good old days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JoPgDEpsMo

6. Bobby Roode's Heel Turn/Title Run

The longest reigning champ in TNA history. Bobby Roode is probably the best wrestler out there to not have wrestled in the WWE in my opinion. He has the look of a WWE superstar, can work in the ring in a WWE friendly style, and has mic skills up the wazoo. To win the title Bobby Roode smashed a beer bottle over James Storm's head a week after James Storm surprisingly won the title. Just a legendary heel turn and kick started the longest title reign in TNA history. Hulk Hogan really wanted to get behind Roode and make him the main guy. Don't know what happened there, but for a while Roode was on the top of the mountain. One of my favorite champs in TNA history and the heel turn to kick it off is en-grained in my brain. I loved the camera work by TNA in the match against Storm how they show Roode really torn and contemplating using the beer bottle on Storm. It was really well done.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loVa--0srHk

5. Ultimate X Match

Alot of TNA's original matches make you scratch you head. Elevation X, King of the Mountain, Terror Dome, etc. But they really did get something right with the Ultimate X match. For a while TNA's most popular thing was there X-Division before they didn't capitalize on the momentum and killed it. I always thought it was odd how they had two different set ups for the ultimate X. But my favorite was when they had the big steel structure for the Ultimate X. One thing that was funny was when they would have to retrieve a big X from the middle of the ring and it would just fall down by itself. Regardless this match has alot of opportunities for neat spots and was high flying fun. I loved it when Christopher Daniels dove to the middle of the X to capture the win.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoK4QhC26FI

4. Signing Kurt Angle

As big of a signing as Sting was, no signing was bigger for TNA than Kurt Angle. Out of all the crappy ex WWE wrestlers that TNA has brought in, the only one that made sense was Kurt Angle. Angle was a huge name, so this was a huge deal. I remember talking with people who like wrestling and for the most part I mention TNA and people wonder what the hell im talking about. But for a year or so coinciding with this signing people heard of TNA and tuned in.  Its what got me into watching TNA especially his feud and epic matches with Samoa Joe. I had to check out what all the fuss was about. The thing is for a while TNA was having way more entertaining PPVs than the WWE and had wrestlers with a better work rate. Out of all the ex WWE guys, Kurt Angle was one of the only ones who could keep up and excel. He fit right in. The whole being draped in an american flag and rising up on the stage was really cool to watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqIB4CWDkiM

3. Knockouts Division

TNA decided it was time to start a womens division, they named them Knockouts instead of Divas. Until recently TNA did have something over the WWE, they had a stellar womens division. They let the women have time in the ring and let them have their time outside of the ring to build feuds. Something WWE never really has figured out. TNA did the "Divas revolution" 8 years before it was cool. The talent they had was great. They had Gail Kim, Awesome Kong, Tara (Victoria), Mickie James, Madison Rayne, Angelina Love, Velvet Sky. They even took Brooke from the extreme expose and turned her into one of the better womens wrestlers out there. Gail Kim is considered one of the best female talents of all time and she mainly made her name in TNA. Even though the Beautiful People don't really have the talent in the ring that everyone else had, they had a good gimmick and it made up for their lack of talent. The Knockout division's claim to fame is the classic Awesome Kong vs. Gail kim match up. But that wont be the match I show you. You all know how great those were. This one happened in the last few years. It was a ladder match between Taryn Terrel and Gail Kim. I had no expectations for this and it ended up being on of the best womens matches of the year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghX7VnS9s_k

2. Lockdown 2008

Like I said before, TNA for a little while was starting to gain popularity. People were talking about it, people were excited about they new style of wrestling and how the product was just so new and refreshing.  Its arguable that TNA started to go down hill before this even, but this was TNA's peak. Lockdown 2008 that had Samoa Joe winning his first world title against Kurt Angle in the cage. This is big because TNA built Joe from the ground up and they put faith in their own creation to carry the company. This is TNA's highest buy rate for a PPV in their history. The buy rate was 55,000. For WWE those a microscopic numbers, but in a world where WWE rules all, I think it says something about how TNA's popularity was growing. I call this the peak of TNA and I do get kind of sad that they weren't able to keep going up. Sometimes mistakes can be fixed, but failure to learn from them will doom you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmEJeAuUcn0

1. Unbreakable 2005 - Triple Threat

When I talk about my all time favorite matches with my friends who watch wrestling, they name off the typical matches Bret vs. Shawn, Rock vs. Austin, etc. But in my list I include this triple threat match. Its a sad fact that they have no clue what I am talking about. This Triple Threat between Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, and Christopher Daniels for the X-Division Title is the only match in TNA's history to ever have a 5 star rating by the wrestling observer. You can't deny it at all. This is the match that perfectly describes what TNA was. It was monumental to because the X-Division main evented this PPV. The one thing that TNA had was their X-Divison. The mantra was "Its about no limits, no weight limits" which would be forgotten later on. Week in and week out these were the best matches around. The three figure heads for the X-Division are AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, and Christopher Daniels. But also Kazarian, Petey Williams, Chris Sabin, Alex Shelley, Sonjay Dutt, Jay Lehtal, and many more. This match summarizes what it is all about and I always go back and watch it atleast one or two times a year. But watching this match, it is hard no to ask yourself what went wrong?  TNA was so good, so damn good, their PPVs were quality. Everything for them seemed to be clicking on all cylinders for a while. Then somewhere down the line it stopped, good things were few and far between, homemade stars were being forgotten. The matches slowing down and werent as exciting.

I know there is the old veterans mentality that everything needs to be slowed down (Looking at you JR!).  Because the faster it goes and as fast as these guys were moving, they said that selling of injures and stuff was forgotten, and was taking away from the industry. First off, since its so popular they could just say that these guys are so much more evolved and physically fit than wrestlers of the past. Because in most sports now days that is the case anyways. Second off, it pains me to see history repeat itself. In WCW the cruiserweights were one of the most popular things on the show. Well the X-Division was like that but 10 times more entertaining and fast. It kills me to see a company ignore the popularity of something that could have made them stand out from the competition. Something that fans want to see and go crazy over, TNA should have embraced it. But I'm sure all the management figures they got over the time killed it. I wonder if Jim Cornette had anything to do with it , he's old school all the way. I would like to blame Russo but I feel like the X-Division suits his needs for crash course television. You can't blame Bischoff and Hogan, because it was dead way before they got there. Anywho, atleast we have youtube to go look back at some of the amazing matches. #1 on my list, AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels vs. Samoa Joe 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U28pyOAMXcI

Honorable Mentions
Jeff Hardy's debut in 2005
Bully Ray's single push
Capitalizing on EC3's release from WWE developmental
AJ Styles leaving TNA with the title and defending it all around the world
Option C/Austin Aries title win
Gut Check

Last edited by Sery (Sat-23-Jan-2016 11:04:05)