TNA officially announces schedule change
TNA Entertainment finally announced this past week, in the form of a press release to the public, and Wednesday to wrestlers, the decision to ditch weekly Wednesday PPVs in favor of a monthly Sunday-night show, similar to WWE and PRIDE. As noted here, this is a decision that was made weeks ago by the company and production staff.
Made official, for the first time, would be the name and date of the first Sunday show.
The event, which will be called TNA Victory Road 2004, will take place Sunday, November 7, 2004. The final live Wednesday show, on the other hand, will take place September 8, and feature Jeff Hardy versus Jeff Jarrett for the NWA World Championship. Throughout the month of September, the company will be airing best-of shows on Wednesday nights.
The price on PPV, likely still being decided with iNDemand, which owns rights to air all pay-television TNA shows, and live location for the show have yet to be announced.
Until a better slot can be arranged, TNA Impact will continue to air Fridays on Fox Sports Network at 3pm local. The show taping will be moved to a lighter day for wrestlers, Tuesday, which will allow a more lenient two and a half days for post-production. A Sunday morning slot is currently being arranged, possibly competing head-to-head with WWE’s poorly-rated Experience show. It will be scaled up in terms of booking, and will serve the purpose of a RAW or SmackDown within WWE, to promote the supercard PPVs. Xplosion will take the current place of Impact, and will be scaled up from the current format.
TNA will be hyping Hardy/Jarrett for about a month and it will be the last big feud under the current system. The build for the first supercard PPV—a pricing system for which has yet to be devised, with numbers ranging from $19.95, to more likely figures $24.95, or on the high end $29.95—will last until the PPV on 11/7.
TNA on PPV (8/18):
So, it became official this past week that this will be the last full month of TNA PPVs on Wednesday night. I’ll talk more in depth about the end of this series in my end-of-the-year news recap, but looking back over the entirety of the series, it’s easy to say that this is the right move for the company, which is also something that will be addressed in the next few weeks. For a number of reasons, TNA has made a decision that will at least afford them the opportunity to be a force that can compete with WWE in the future.
1. Sonjay Dutt over Raven in a Hangman’s Horror match in 10:04. Sabu was injured, which was announced earlier that afternoon, over the weekend. So, that’s why they had Sonjay Dutt replace him in this heavily hyped match. Two guys, Cloak and Dagger, watched from backstage. Many are expecting this to turn out to be James Mitchell and Slash (the New Church). It doesn’t seem as if the match booking was changed at all by the fact that Sabu wasn’t there. They worked a tough hardcore match. Dutt went through a table. In the end, Dutt went under the ring, Raven went after him, and Dutt did a fireball on him like the Sheik. Mitchell may not have liked that, seeing as he practically blew his finger off doing the same spot.
2. Petey Williams retained the X-title over Chris Sabin in 9:09. Sabin is a fringe challenger for this belt, but has no character, so its impossible for him to get over anywhere near when he was last year when he competed in the classic three-way for the title in the first Ultimate X match. With Williams as champion and Kazarian/Shane off doing their own shtick, it makes you wonder exactly where they are going with A.J. Styles. Of course, Scott D’Amore interfered. Then Dusty came out. D’Amore ran away and Rhodes gassed. Sabin had the match one but the ref was dealing with these two. Bobby Roode ran in and knocked Sabin out with a rabbit lariat (clothesline from behind), leading to the win for Williams. Konnan and B.G. James ran in. Russo came out to deal with Rhodes. Is this a joke? How did this match turn into a segue for the Russo/Rhodes feud that doesn’t do anything for wrestlers? Russo wants to fire Rhodes for interfering in things that don’t involve him.
Speaking of Michael Shane and Kazarian, they talked about picking up women and sleeping with them, which I suppose is to defuse rumors that this is a gay coupling the likes of Billy Gunn and Chuck Palumbo. They screwed up in the booking of that though, because Traci, the woman who is supposed to be in love with Shane or something to that effect, approved of all this ghastly discussion. Shane said that they were Mary Kate and Ashley or Venus and Serena, so I guess they can’t be gay if they are related. Let me understand this though, last week they said they AREN’T Shawn [Michaels] and Marty [Janetty], but they are the Olsen twins? Vito is angry at David Young because he interfered in his match last week, so the losing streak of 90+ matches was all so that David Young could get over in a program with Vito. If it wouldn’t work with Lance Storm, why would it would with Dave?
3. Triple X (Christopher Daniels and Primetime) over America’s Most Wanted in 9:05. Do you have a problem with Daniels and Primetime being Triple X, despite being only two people, because I don’t. This was match 2 in the two-out-of-three. They are holding back for the finals. Daniels pinned Harris.
4. Monty Brown over Ron Killings in 8:02. But first, there was a Brown interview. He’s coming along well enough on the mic that fans are catching on to him as something special, as he has natural charisma, that people in TNA must have seen (well there was also the physique, of course) as something that he has to offer before anyone else does. I guess since Brown is anti-establishment, Kash and Dallas wanted to join up with him since they are on Russo’s bad side. And since the Serengeti can only be inhabited by one person at a time, he said no. Unfortunately, he’s not nearly as good in the ring. Week-by-week he has been making an improvement. Killings used the ax kick and had the match won, but Kash pulled Rudy Charles out of the ring. Styles ran out. Brown won with the POUNCE~!
5. The Naturals (Andy Douglas and Chase Stevens) retained the NWA Tag Team Championship over 3Live Kru (Konnan and B.G. James) in 10:16. D’Amore, you guessed it, interfered, hitting James with his hockey stick. Rhodes ran out after Team Canada, and ended up getting 3Live Kru disqualified. Russo got mad at him again.
More with the world’s worst actress Goldylocks followed. Desire is getting a man to face Goldylocks’ man and if her man wins, she gets Siaki back, but if not Goldy gets Desire’s contract. Goldylocks was mean to Abyss again. David Young, Vito, and Trinity fought in the ring, and were broken up.
6. A.J. Styles went over Kid Kash in 15:18 of a street fight. Stiff and realistic brawl, and good by TNA standards. Styles reverses a cradle to get the pin and get the win. Dallas went in to beat up on Styles. Ron Killings ran in, followed by Monty Brown who gave Styles the pounce. Jeff Hardy made an impression, coming in and cleaning everyone out of the ring. They really do want him to be a serious contender.
Xplosion matches taped at the TNA PPV: Alex Shelley and Abyss over J-Rocc and Michael Cordova; Kazarian and Michael Shane over Brett Anthony and Justin Kage; Johnny Devine, Eric Young, and Bobby Roode over Shark Boy, D-Ray 3000, and Sonny Siaki.
thumbup (0k image) Overall, I’d say this was a pretty good effort from TNA, but now is really just holding out until 9/8, building Jarrett/Hardy as something special, and closing out strong. Then the push is on for 11/7, which should be a long and strong build on TV.
This is the latest card for next Wednesday:
—A.J. Styles, Jeff Hardy, and Ron “the Truth” Killings vs. Kid Kash, the Alpha Male Monty Brown, and Dallas
—Dusty Rhodes and 3Live Kru (B.G. James and Konnan) vs. Team Canada and Scott D’Amore
—America’s Most Wanted vs. Triple X in match three of the three-match series for the #1 contendership to the tag titles
—Alex Shelley vs. Desire’s mystery person in a Siaki vs. Desire’s contracts match
—L.A. Park and Psychosis vs. Michael Shane and Kazarian (not Shawn and Marty)
—Vito vs. blackshirt security member Chris Vaughn
ROH in Braintree, MA (8/28) Preview
—Samoa Joe vs. C.M. Punk vs. Homicide
—Scramble Cage Melee featuring Jack Evans, Alterboy Luke, Fast Eddie, Dan Maff, B.J. Whitmer, Loc, Devito, Dunn & Marcos, Diablo Santiago & Oman Turtuga, and Trent Acid
—Tag titles: Ricky Reyes and Rocky Romero vs. Jay and Mark Briscoe
—Pure title: Doug Williams vs. John Walters
—Colt Cabana vs. Austin Aries
—Ace Steel vs. Roderick Strong
—Jay Lethal vs. Alex Shelley
—Jimmy Rave vs. Izzy
They are also advertising a huge announcement by Shawn Prince.
Impact on Fox Sports Network:
*Jeff Jarrett over Irish Pat Kenney in 1:28.
*Kid Kash and Dallas over Mikey Batts and Jerelle Clark.
*Petey Williams over Eddie Villa (I like that name for some reason) in 2:44.
*America’s Most Wanted over Alex Shelley and Abyss in 3:41.
*Monty Brown over Demetus Anglin in :46. Poor Demetus.
*Jeff Hardy, A.J. Styles, and Ron Killings over Jason Cross, Michael Shane, and Kazarian. No Jeff Hammond here.
thumbup (0k image) Squash format, although a little less obvious this week. Russo is still mad at Dusty. Larry Zybysko was the guest for Six Points of Impact. He talked about the championship committee, and again, nothing of note.
TNA Impact on 8/6 did a 0.29 rating, on target with the average.
ROH NEWS SUMMARY: Jay Alternative from Perverted-Justice, who was the person who chatted with Rob Feinstein in those logs, defended himself and the website in response to the remarks published by the Declaration of Independants website. “1. At no point did I alter any chat log with Rob. 2. My only goal at PJ is to protect children. I have no interest in the fact Rob is a big name in wrestling for I do not follow wrestling or have ever…. For those questioning and dissecting the chat log and chain of events, that is up to your own free will. In the immediate future, my hard drive is going to be examined by LE forensics for two other cases they need chat logs for. If they are willing, I will ask them to extract the original logs from Rob’s bust. At which time, they will clearly be able to give a legal answer to if they were altered. As myself and Rob already know, the answer will be NO. I have the name and address of Rob’s lawyer, given to me by Rob himself, and if the LE forensic officers do this for me, Rob’s lawyer will be the first to receive a notarized copy from LE.”
Ring of Honor announced Monday that Mick Foley, who will be making an appearance on the company’s 9/11 Elizabeth show, would also be coming in for the company’s 10/15 and 10/16 weekend doubleshot in Dayton and Chicago Ridge.
Mick Foley did a shoot interview for ROH as a part of their new Straight Shooting series on 8/20. It was over four hours in length.
The company has yet to discuss his involvement in the upcoming shows.
The first tryouts of the second class of the C.M. Punk Ring of Honor Wrestling School takes place on Sunday. Email ROHhelp@aol.com for more. The school is located outside of Philadelphia.
TNA NEWS SUMMARY: David Sahadi, the man who helped lead WWE into production genius, and went on permanent sabbatical a year ago, has been at several TNA shows. The schedule with WWE was probably killing him. He has flown on the Nashville-Orlando jet, which is for management, so they are courting him. They haven’t made a deal yet.
Talent: Maybe I spoke too soon on Hardy. He and Sabu, who have become friends, were both several hours late to the Orlando TV taping on 8/12. They still made it well before shooting began, but late nonetheless. Besides that, there hasn’t been anything notable regarding him… Vito was saying his goodbyes on 8/11. “I’m not wanted here and I know that,” he was quoted as saying. “My time is about over.” He may know more than they do, because he just started a program with David Young on Wednesday… Big Vito and Trinity are having problems… Glenn Gilberti, who was storyline fired after his loss to David Young on PPV, will be off for a few weeks to sell the loss. Gilberti, who got heat for missing a taping to appear at a big-budget Hawaii show with talent from Japan and America, is expected to be back. He is friend with Vince Russo, who besides his on air role, has limited storyline input… On that same subject, Russo was complaining that he doesn’t have more input, reportedly, and that Mantel, who took over his job, and Jarrett, who was at odds with him at one time, don’t listen to him. As far as I know, he is still scheduled to go to school to become a minister… The company realizes they made a mistake with “Irish” Pat Kenney when they split him, at the time Simon Diamond, from Johnny Swinger. What exactly that means they plan to do with him is unknown. Kenney lives with Dawn Marie from WWE… On the other hand, Kenney’s former partner Johnny Swinger has been told that he will be taken off TV for an indefinite period of time. While he may be under contract through September of 2005, the contract only guarantees pay for 26 bookings, which he has certainly received since the beginning of the contract term last fall.
Impact taping notes: Panda board members were backstage at Impact, which made staffers feel extremely nervous… Spanky was also at the show, filming vignettes. He was ready to wrestle, if needed, but wasn’t. He will be coming in for the company, which may or may not be disturbed by his Zero-One bookings, though I would bet the latter… Eddie Villa, or Fast Eddie, was the man that worked against Petey Williams on Impact. He will be on this weekend’s ROH show… Peter Knight, or Mideon, was backstage at Impact visiting… 1wrestling.com reported that Hulk Hogan visited with Jimmy Hart, who works with the company, backstage.
There have been complaints from viewers from Canada about the ESPN Classics Canada TNA series. Apparently, the network doesn’t even air the episodes (the deal is that they start with the tapes from the beginning) in full, and there is no rhyme or reason to how it is edited, often leaving some of the best matches from those shows, and putting in the worst, leaving out the current competitors that these shows are supposed to advertise. There have been complaints from viewers from Canada about the ESPN Classics Canada TNA series. Apparently, the network doesn’t even air the episodes (the deal is that they start with the tapes from the beginning) in full, and there is no rhyme or reason to how it is edited, often leaving some of the best matches from those shows, and putting in the worst, leaving out the current competitors that these shows are supposed to advertise.
Rumors continue to circle that TNA is continuing to consider doing house shows, the current rumor being up to four per month.
And before we finish this week, TBL welcomes Alex Wipper (writer of the Fan’s Perspective), who wrote a column this past week on TNA getting rid of the PPVs. You can read it at http://www.thebalrogslair.com/opinions/tfp/2004/0817.shtml.
That’s all for this week. Next week: the usual recaps, the week in news, and a report on Ring of Honor in Boston.
Matchmaker
Trevor Hunnicutt
THunnicutt@aol.com
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