1.Styles, Lynn, Lo-Ki vs Flying Elvises ***1/4
2.Teo vs Hollywood NR
3.Johnsons vs Storm, Psicosis **
4.York, Matthews vs Dupps *3/4
5.Gauntlet for the Gold **
6.NWA World Title: Shamrock vs Malice **3/4
Thoughts:
This is the very first show from TNA, which you can watch via the video above. Note that I plan on slowly working through a lot of classic content from WCW, TNA, AJPW, and more this year. I'll be digging through DVD's, YouTube videos, etc.
Up first, we had a match that really speaks to the direction TNA would take moving forward with their X-Division. This opener was a quick, highspeed spotfest and worked well to get the show off on the right foot. It was funny seeing the Flying Elivses get the nod, though. Fairly good stuff.
Second, I pulled the next match which saw dwarf wrestlers Teo and Hollywood work a sub-three minute sprint. Fun for what it was. I didn't really get into TNA until a few years after this period so a lot of the things I am seeing as I fast forward as well as stuff like this was a tad surprising. Not sure I realized they ran "midget matches". If I did know, I forgot.
I'll ignore the awful sexism fueled segment.
Third, James Storm and Psicosis looked decent but did the job to generic tag team #352. There was a gambling ref angle.
R-Truth looks the same here as he does now.
Another short tag followed, with the Dupps defeating Joey Matthews and Christian York. One of the Dupps was Trevor Murdoch. The cousin lovers went over the much better team thanks to a shit finish.
Next, we had a large gauntlet match full of star power and early era TNA mainstays. Some big names and a few hacks in what was just a average range Rumble. I've never been big on that style of match so your mileage may vary.
The last pull was the show's main event and was to crown the vacant NWA World Heavyweight Championship. The last two men left standing in the previous encounter were the participants. Note that Malice died about a year after this show. He was found dead in his hotel by AJPW crew during a tour of Japan. The cause was deemed to be a heart attack. Just a touch of info for those that might not know much about him. I know I've seen very little. Anyway, they teased the match a tad during the rumble and Steamboat was the ref. They had a 5 minute battle focused largely around Shamrock working in submissions before finally putting away Malice with his belly-to-belly. Decent.
Jarrett came off as a true dick throughout the show and got to close this out doing the same thing. Oh, and Toby Keith was here randomly across the show, by the way.
Honestly, this was a solid start and a fun way to kick off the run of TNA. I'll check out more old TNA stuff soon. Thanks for reading.
Overall Rating: 60/100%
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