NWA-TNA #6

NWA-TNA #6
07/24/2002 from Nashville, Tennessee, USA

I wanted to get to this review sooner, but the previous episode was just so bad I felt like I needed a break. So I cleansed my pallet with some awesome wrestling shows(Road To Dominion from New Japan and Best In The World from ROH) and now I'm back.

I'd like to add that I watched part of this past Sunday's Slammiversary. The main event, The King Of The Mountain match for the new King Of the Mountain championship, was so bereft of basic wrestling psychology. It was honestly amazing the company has made it to their 13th anniversary.

But I'm here to review episode six of their weekly pay per views. Coincidentally this also features an awful main event.

NWA-TNA #5

NWA-TNA #5
07/17/2002 from Nashville, Tennessee, USA

I'm starting to become uneasy with how much Jeff Jarrett I am going to have to watch for these reviews. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing really wrong with Jarrett. He is a serviceable worker and a good promo. He has a good mind for the business. I just don't think he is a strong enough guy to build an entire company around, much less one that was to compete with WWE.

This was always a problem with the company. Focusing on the wrongs guys. Be it Jarrett, Hulk Hogan or Magnus. Or stars way past their prime like Mick Foley. At varying points in it's history TNA has continually focused on the wrong people. When they focused on the right people like AJ Styles or Samoa Joe, they fucked it up.

Anyways let's take a look at what it was like five weeks into it's history.

NWA-TNA #4

NWA-TNA #4
07/10/2002 from Nashville, Tennessee, USA

One of TNA's biggest problems at the beginning, which would continue throughout it's whole existence, was lack of a unique identity. Simply put there was little to differentiate it from it's much larger competitor WWE. Later on they would try different match types, new concepts and ideas but none would really stick. I feel like that's true to this day. The company had a tendency to adopt some new stuff(gut check system, changes to x-division) only to abandon it shortly after.

But when this show aired in 2002, that was okay. It would have been smart to try to be different from the get go, but maybe there's something to be said about doing what the successful competition was doing. They could try to get their audience. The promotion was only a few weeks old, so there was still time to find it's own vision of professional wrestling.

So here we go with NWA-TNA weekly PPV #4. Was it worth the $9.95 they were asking for these things? I guess I'll find out.

NWA-TNA #3

NWA-TNA #3
07/03/2002 from Nashville, Tennessee, USA

After taping two weeks worth of shows in Huntsville, NWA-TNA moved to Nashville. TNA is still based out of Nashville to this day. Despite the "NWA" brand name being attached to the company in it's early days make no mistake about it, this is TNA. I suppose the NWA name was there to add legitimacy.

However despite their efforts, the NWA title looked anything but legitimate based on how they booked it. It was clearly playing second fiddle to whatever angles Jarrett was involved in, as his feud with the NWA representatives and Toby Keith was pushed as the most important stuff in the company. In their second week however they at least tried to push some new stars, with the X division being based around AJ Styles and some other younger talent.

With that being said let's take a look at week three of NWA-TNA, centered on the first defenses of the X title and NWA title, as well as a tag team tournament and the continuation of Jarrett's feud with Scott Hall.

About Chronowrestlethon

At this time I'd like to talk a little more about the Chronowrestlethon concept. I should have done this yesterday before I made two big review posts but oh well. Think of it as being like when TNA tapes so far in advance that things get messed up chronologically.

Of course chronologically is the key word here. What I intend to do is post reviews of shows in chronological order. I will watch the A-shows and the pay per views. I will skip B-shows(like Xplosion, Superstars, Main Event etc.) because I only have so much time to watch this stuff, and most of what happens on shows like that are inconsequential to the big picture.

I wanna watch the shows chronologically because I feel like it gives you the best experience. If wrestling is to be considered a form of fiction and to be taken seriously, then you need to look at a story from the beginning, middle, and end, and judge it based on that. Therefore reviewing random wrestling PPVs without considering the angles and matches shot for TV that build to the PPV is pointless.

So I've got two of the weekly NWA-TNA PPVs down, and 109 to go. After I finish reviewing those I am open to suggestions on what to do next. I've already gotten requests for MTV's short lived Wrestling Society X and the Jesus based promotion Ring Of Glory. I'd like to avoid reviewing every WWE Raw/Smackdown/PPV because I've already watched those shows over the past few years. At the midway point I came up with the concept for this blog, but by then it was too late to go back and start over aain. So hit me up in the comments if you have any suggestions for future review projects(preferably short and obscure, as that's what I'm into these days).

James

NWA-TNA #2

NWA-TNA #2
06/26/2002 from Huntsville, Alabama, USA

After the first show NWA-TNA was off to a shaky start. The promotion wanted to pride itself on the tradition of the NWA, using it's world title and brand name, while at the same time pushing stupid gimmicks, midget wrestling, lingerie battle royals and country music stars. I don't think you can really have it both ways.

What was worse was that it did little to differentiate itself from WWE. If the audience wanted sleazy angles and matches based around stupid gimmicks they could just flip on Raw for free, and not have to pay whatever they were charging for the weekly PPVs.

With that said let's see if the second show was any better than the first, and if the company did anything to present itself as an alternative to the 'E.

NWA-TNA #1

NWA-TNA #1
06/19/2002 from Huntsville, Alabama, USA

The year was 2002. Nelly was heating up the charts with "Hot In Herre", Spider-Man was about to swing into movie theaters for the first time, the United States had yet to enter the Iraq War, and ol' Bush Jr. was the president.

In the wrestling business, things were changing. The business was in a decline from the Monday Night Wars era peak. Event attendance, pay per view buyrates and television ratings were all falling. Much of this had to do with the end of World Championship Wrestling when it was acquired by the World Wrestling Federation. The closure of WCW harmed the industry greatly as there were now fewer jobs available, and worse, caused a massive part of the wrestling fan base to stop watching wrestling entirely. It was this fan base that NWA-TNA seeked to lure back when they aired their first PPV in June of 2002. What kind of show did they put on? Well let's take a look.