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Best of TNA's first 10 years


Stiva

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We're coming up on ten years of TNA and if one were to hypothetically make a comp, what would be on it? Did the company produce ANYTHING worth seeing in its PPV days? Should it just be 4 discs of Scott Steiner? Any truly memorable angles that don't involve midgets jerking off in trash cans? I'm genuinely interested in knowing just how much (or little) is worth seeing.

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Most people typically name that AJ/Joe/Daniels match from 2005 as their best-ever. There's plenty of good X division matches throughout the years, you've just got to wade through all the ones that were ruined by stupid booking and gimmicks in order to find the ones that miraculously got left alone.

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The James Storm vs. Chris Harris Texas Death Match is probably the best TNA match I've ever seen although I have not seen that much. People are big on the AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels vs. Samoa Joe Three Ways, and I thought they were pretty good too but not great.

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There's a good Jarrett/Brown match from late 2004 Impact. The two Killings/Jarrett matches from 2002 are good. The LAX vs. Styles/Daniels matches are good. There's a 2006 garbage brawl with Jarrett and Raven that is amazing when you consider the fact that Raven can barely walk. Waltman had a string of good matches in the 2005 dark period. There's a good Styles/Sandman match from 2003 too.

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I've been going through TNA from the start (skipping shows that don't have any real importance) as of like a few months ago. Up to August 2004 at the moment and I've watched limited amounts of it after 2004.

 

Heres some half decent matches though that I have seen

 

(Dates are in Day/Month/Year form)

 

- Juventud Guerrera vs Chris Sabin - 3/9/03

- Chris Harris vs James Storm - 13/5/07

- Samoa Joe vs Kurt Angle - 19/11/06

- AMW vs Triple X - 25/6/03

- Chris Sabin vs Michael Shane vs Christopher Daniels vs Low Ki - 7/1/04

- Jerry Lynn vs Low Ki vs AJ Styles - 28/8/02

- Low Ki vs Jerry Lynn vs AJ Styles - 7/8/02

- AMW vs The Naturals - 21/7/04

- Christian Cage vs Kaz - 11/11/07

- Ultimate X - 28/7/04

- Ultimate X - 26/5/04

- Team TNA vs Team AAA - 11/2/04

- Michael Shane vs Chris Sabin vs Frankie Kazarian - 20/8/03

- Triple X vs Cross/Shark vs Storm/Sabin vs Lynn/Red - 9/4/03

- Styles/Daniels vs LAX - 22/10/06

- AJ Styles vs Raven - 27/8/03

- AJ Styles vs Low Ki vs Jerry Lynn vs Psicosis - 26/6/02

- AJ Styles vs Jerry Lynn - 2/10/02

- Kurt Angle vs Sting - 14/10/07

- Sabin/Shelley vs Gen Me - 5/12/10

- Lethal Lockdown - 23/4/06

- Abyss vs Judas Mesias - 10/2/08

- Kurt Angle vs Samoa Joe - 12/8/07

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There was an official comp with matches from Samoa Joe's first year in the company, and everything on that was really good as I recall. Back when Joe was motivated and people were bandying about that he was the best in the world. The triple threat with Daniels and AJ still holds up too, and I despise Daniels. As long as you don't go in expecting the Meltzer 5* classic, and just settle for a fun spot fest that has brilliant timing and fluidity for all its flaws.

 

Otherwise, there was a cage match involving AMW and Elix Skipper/Daniels that was really fun, including this spot which still looks incredible today

.

 

Only seen very sporadically since 2005/2006, I remember there being a pretty decent Jarrett/Angle match with quite a lot of blood on one of the GoodHelmet sets. I've watched Impact two or three times this year (it's on terrestrial in the UK so you occasionally come across it channel flicking), and for match quality TNA is such an awful promotion. I was astonished when I saw people pimping these Bubba Ray Dudley matches that seemed so terrible to me, people were actually suggesting this guy had become a great worker. That's probably an argument for the decline in match quality standards thread though.

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They've had some nice runs with tag teams as well. They've had a good mix of indy spotfest guys, old slumming veterans, and genuine joined-at-the-hip longterm teams all thrown together willy-nilly. America's Most Wanted, Motor City Machine Guns, the Dudleys, the Young Bucks, Beer Money, the Naturals, plus the million different variations of LAX and Team Canada are just the tip of the iceberg.

 

As always, this goes with the provision that at least 80% of their matches were fucking ruined by ham-handed booking, stupid gimmicks, mind-boggling stipulations, constant outside interference, and some of the worst finishes known to all mankind. It's almost like they've got a system in place to deliberately avoid workrate of any kind. But every once in a while, a good one will sneak through anyway.

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There were several good tag matches with AMW, LAX and Styles/Daniel in 2006 though nothing I would call "great."

 

Really only a handful of "great" matches I can recall from TNA and I've watched far more than I care to admit.

 

The Storm/Harris match would probably be my number two match after Joe v. Daniels from what I THINK was the first prime time Impact?? Anyhow that match is pretty great and I fucking hate Daniels.

 

Jarrett has had quality stuff with Angle, Styles, Jay Lethal and even sorry ass Raven. Not sure how much of that approaches the level of being truly great.

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I've always wanted to see/hear more about Ricky Morton's TNA run that was supposedly really good. Didn't he have a match against Kid Kash? I will chop my hand off if that wasn't worth watching.

 

July 30, 2003 PPV. Kash pinned Morton in 6 minutes. Morton's run wasn't anything worth watching at all.

 

As for stuff to comp, here are links to the recaps I did for TNA from the beginning up to their last weekly PPV in September 2004. This should give you general points to look into further if something intrigues you.

 

NWA TNA 2002 RECAP

NWA TNA 2003 RECAP (PART 1)

NWA TNA 2003 RECAP (PART 2)

NWA TNA 2004 RECAP

 

I've watched everything from TNA up through June 2005 and here is a chronological list of all the stuff I found to be worth a second look. After getting through the entire decade with all US promotions, I plan to revisit all of these and surely make some cuts.

 

 

Low-Ki v. A.J. Styles v. Psicosis v. Jerry Lynn - Four Way, Double Elimination X Division Title 6/19/2002 NWA-TNA Weekly # 2

Low-Ki v. A.J. Styles v. Jerry Lynn - X Division Title 8/7/2002 NWA-TNA Weekly # 8

Low-Ki v. Ron Killings - NWA Title 10/2/2002 NWA-TNA Weekly # 14

A.J. Styles v. Syxx-Pac - No DQ, X Division Title 10/23/2002 NWA-TNA Weekly # 17

A.J. Styles v. Amazing Red - X Division Title 10/30/2002 NWA-TNA Weekly # 18

America's Most Wanted v. Disciples of the New Church (Slash/Brian Lee) - NWA Tag Titles 11/13/2002 NWA-TNA Weekly # 20

Low Ki/Christopher Daniels/Elix Skipper v. Amazing Red/Joel Maximo/Jose Maximo 12/18/2002 NWA-TNA Weekly # 25

America's Most Wanted v. Disciples of the New Church - NWA Tag Titles 1/8/2003 NWA-TNA Weekly #26

Jeff Jarrett v. AJ Styles - NWA Title 2/19/2003 NWA-TNA Weekly #32

Jerry Lynn v Juventud Guerrera 2/26/2003 NWA-TNA Weekly #33

America's Most Wanted v. Christopher Daniels/Elix Skipper - NWA Tag Titles 3/12/2003 NWA-TNA Weekly #35

Jerry Lynn/Amazing Red v. Christopher Daniels/Elix Skipper - NWA Tag Titles 4/16/2003 NWA-TNA Weekly #40

America's Most Wanted v. Christopher Daniels/Elix Skipper - # 1 Contender Match for NWA Tag Titles 4/23/2003 NWA-TNA Weekly #41

Jeff Jarrett v. Raven - NWA Title 4/30/2003 NWA-TNA Weekly #42

Jeff Jarrett v. Raven v. AJ Styles - NWA Title 6/11/2003 NWA-TNA Weekly #48

America's Most Wanted v. Christopher Daniels/Elix Skipper - NWA Tag Titles 6/18/2003 NWA-TNA Weekly #49

Frankie Kazarian v. Chris Sabin - X Division Non-Title Match 6/25/2003 NWA-TNA Weekly #50

America's Most Wanted v. Christopher Daniels/Elix Skipper - NWA Tag Titles (Cage Match) 6/25/2003 NWA-TNA Weekly #50

Jerry Lynn v. Justin Credible - Last Man Standing Match 7/16/2003 NWA-TNA Weekly #53

America's Most Wanted v. Simond Diamond/Johnny Swinger - Bullrope, Non-Title Match 8/20/2003 NWA-TNA Weekly #58

Chris Sabin v. Juventud Guerrera - Super X Tournament Finals 8/27/2003 NWA-TNA Weekly #60

Christopher Daniels v. Low-Ki 11/5/2003 NWA-TNA Weekly #68

Chris Sabin v. Christopher Daniels v. Low-Ki v. Michael Shane - Ultimate X.2 X Divison Title 1/7/2004 NWA-TNA Weekly # 75

Chris Sabin v. Juventud Guerrera - 1st Round America's X Cup 2/11/2004 NWA-TNA Weekly #80 1/28 and 2/4

Chris Harris v. Jeff Jarrett - NWA Title 3/17/2004 NWA-TNA Weekly #85

Chris Harris v. Raven - Winner gets NWA Title Match in Cage 4/14/2004 NWA-TNA Weekly #89

Petey Williams v. Hector Garza v. Chris Sabin - World X Cup: Ultimate X Match 5/26/2004 NWA-TNA Weekly #95 5/12 and 5/19

Jeff Jarrett v. AJ Styles v. Ron Killings v. Chris Harris v. Raven - King of the Mountain Match; NWA Title 6/2/2004 NWA-TNA Weekly #96

AJ Styles v. Frankie Kazarian - X Title 6/9/2004 NWA-TNA Weekly #97

AJ Styles v. Frankie Kazarian v. Chris Sabin v. Amazing Red v. Michael Shane v. Elix Skipper - X Title 6/30/2004 NWA-TNA Weekly #100

The Naturals v. AMW - Steel Cage for NWA Tag Titles 7/21/2004 NWA-TNA Weekly # 103

Petey Williams v. Chris Sabin - X Title 12/5/2004 NWA Turning Point 2004

America's Most Wanted v. Triple X - Six Sides of Steel, Losing Team splits up 12/5/2004 NWA Turning Point 2004

America's Most Wanted v. Team Canada (Roode/Young), Tag Titles 1/16/2005 TNA Final Resolution

Christopher Daniels v. AJ Styles, 30 Minute Iron Man, X Title 2/13/2005 TNA Against All Odds

AJ Styles v. Abyss - Steel Cage, # 1 Contender 4/24/2005 TNA Lockdown

Team Canada (Young/Williams) v. The Naturals, Tag Titles 6/19/2005 TNA Slammiversary

Christopher Daniels v. Matt Bentley v. Chris Sabin, Three Way Dance, X Title 6/19/2005 TNA Slammiversary

AJ Styles v. Abyss v. Raven v. Sean Waltman v. Monty Brown - King of the Mountain, NWA Title 6/19/2005 TNA Slammiversary

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The Unbreakable Triple Threat is very good, though not great.

 

There are two or three Joe-Daniels matches from early 2006 that are all very good to great including the one Dylan mentioned from the first Impact that is a tremendous match

 

Still haven't seen Storm-Harris. I have been wanting to see if for years now.

 

Bully Ray actually is solid. In fact, Bubba Ray has always been passable going back to his ECW days. His match with AJ was pimped a lot last year. I still need to see that.

 

Jarrett and Sting have had some decent stuff with actually a variety of people but nothing beyond very good.

 

Those tag matches in 2006 were pretty good too.

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