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TNA Impact is 16 Years Old


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So here I am with my thoughts of you
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Stoic faces when I think of you
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So now you call me, but you know I won't let you through
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I've myself to deceive
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Leave the memories alone
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I don't want to see
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The way it is, as to how it used to be
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Don't change a thing
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And I'll hold you here in my memory
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Edited by RIPPA
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Long time no see, @MGFanJay.

Amazing that TNA is still hanging on in there.

The Good:

2005 is the best year in Impact's history. Samoa Joe and AJ Styles the key contributors to that.

The classic Triple Threat match between Samoa Joe, AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels at TNA Unbreakable 2005.

The other Triple Threat matches by the three.

Samoa Joe's Undefeated Streak.

The X Division and Ultimate X.

Austin Aries 2012.

Ric Flair and Jay Lethal going at it, rather Flair vs. Flair.

Joker Sting.

The Bad:

Vince Fucking Russo.

The King of the Mountain match.

Jeff Jarrett's numerous times on top as NWA World Heavyweight Champion.

The Hogan/Bischoff regime.

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I can't believe we got a MGFanJay sighting.  Man, it's been quite awhile.  Still remember the endless screen caps he had including a ton of Mike Tenay for some reason.

As for TNA I did like what they were doing and while it always seemed like it was going off the rails in the early years there was quite a lot of charm to it.  For a time with the likes of AJ, Joe, and others they were on fire and it made for exciting TV/PPVs.  I'm glad that they managed to hold steady over the years despite them being on the verge of going under many times.  While I don't watch it now it's nice to see that they've become a respectable enough company that has some good things going.

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@MGFanJay your reviews of Impact with the screen caps were great. Impact has it it’s bright spots. What a roster, if they could have only had a better booker and not overly relied on old WWE guys on top. It’s nutty to think Angle, 3D and Rhino had longer runs with TNA than they had in their first stints with the WWE.

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16 years? God TNA/Impact has had more false finishes than a Young Bucks, sorry, Generation Me match.  I’ve enjoyed way too much Impact over the years a lot of which went under the radar.  Off the top of my head I loved the following:

The Beautiful People stable, which for a while was the most entertaining act on the show.  Their feuds with Kong and stories with Madison / LVE were always well done.

Kevin Nash’s cruiserweight challenge.  Just all around great stuff. Must see.

Don West in general but especially his love of Amazing Red.

All of Shark Boy.

Cody Deaner / ODB as a pairing, Deaners first run was hilarious.

The tag division around the time of Motor City Machine Guns & Beer Money was really great.

Taylor Wilde’s run, she could have been huge if she didn’t have to work at Sunglasses Hut to make ends meet.

The Steiner / Petey Williams pairing and the infamous Steiner math promo.

The Beat Down Clan was a strong stable during a time when Impact was accelerating towards its bi-annual false finish.

Decay as a stable and then to spin Rosemary off into her own world.

LAX vs. LAX and the “broken” style vignettes where they killed that one kid

The Lucha Bros run in Impact has a ton of great matches.

EC3 & Rockstar Spud were great as well.

It’s weird, for as much as it gets crapped on there has been a lot to love in Impact over the years. 

 

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Stings TNA run was a career resurgence for him. Post Starrcade 97 Stings WCW run really devalued him, not many looked at Sting as a not top guy more like he wasn’t a big match player. Then he shows up in TNA and goes above and beyond to be the standard bearer for the promotion. Sting took bumps onto thumb tacks, had a true heel run, the Joker run was great, plus he had great matches he was motivated again and it showed.

Edited by Web Conn
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1 hour ago, Web Conn said:

Stings TNA run was a career resurgence for him. Post Starrcade 97 Stings WCW run really devalued him, not many looked at Sting as a not top guy more like he wasn’t a big match player. Then he shows up in TNA and goes above and beyond to be the standard bearer for the promotion. Sting took bumps onto thumb tacks, had a true heel run, the Joker run was great, plus he had great matches he was motivated again and it showed.

I've said back in 2006, but that BFG 2006 main event vs. Jarrett is how the Starrcade 97 main event should have played out.  It's also amazing that he had his best match with Hogan in TNA.

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30 minutes ago, evidence said:

I've said back in 2006, but that BFG 2006 main event vs. Jarrett is how the Starrcade 97 main event should have played out.  It's also amazing that he had his best match with Hogan in TNA.

That Jarrett Match that crowd was all about Sting it was really cool I ordered that PPV and that main event was awesome. That was a 10 month program between the two. 

The Hogan Match I forgot about the match earlier but that made up for the Starrcade. 

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Thank you TNA for giving us the Scott Steiner math promo, the Steiner Brothers promo where Rick lists all the teams they beat the Dudleys didn't, the time Scott said Samoa Joe was fat, and 15 years 362 other days that I honestly don't care about.

Get well soon Big Poppa Pump.

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22 hours ago, DreamBroken said:

Long live Impact! & Welcome back @MGFanJay ! 

I think my absolute favorite years were 2011-2012, 2016 and 2018-19. 

When I saw that it was Impact's 16th anniversary, I had to do something here. Without me having fun blasting Impact here, I never would've gotten into regular wrestling writing via the Observer site.

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Four days late but here we are the very first IMPACT!. June 4th, at 3pm on Fox Sports Net. This is the first TNA show with the 6 sided ring. I'm not gonna lie I like the 6 sided ring it looks different gives TNA a distinct look. Set them aside from the other guys up north. This is also the first TNA show to Emanate from the IMPACT! Zone, soundstage 21 the old Nickelodeon GYTS Arena. 

This is the beginning of Team Canada as the main villains of the show and they are in the opening match a 6 man tag, Bobby Roode Petey Williams and Eric Young vs Amazing Red Sonjay Dutt and Hector Garza. This match was fun started with a triple dive to the outside from the babyface team. Red played the Ricky Morton, then everyone hit their finishes until Garza landed a Corkscrew Moonsault on Roode for the 3. There was a USA chant that broke out during. a match involving three guys from Canada and a guy from Mexico, I found that funny. Solid opening match, they showcased talent from the X Division in this. If this was your first taste of TNA I don't know if you would have been disappointed by it. The Fox Box with the ten minute counter on it was also cool and the scrolling results from Wednesdays PPV was also cool for someone like myself who watched IMPACT! but not the weekly PPV's. 

Shark Boy is next up, I love fucking Shark Boy. I remember back in the day some on the internet would complain about Shark Boy being too indy or too bush league or too cartoony for a company on a national level. I never looked at it like that. TNA was essentially cartoon wrestling which probably is why it never really saw much growth but I think Shark Boy fit in the bright colorful outlandish world of what would become TNA IMPACT! The Asylum was still gritty but they would soon phase out of the Asylum. Abyss is Shark Boys opponent this is early Abyss he's still wrestling in a blue cut off denim shirt and he's in that strange partnership with Goldy Locks and Alex Shelley right now. I also thought Abyss was cool too, everyone is so quick to say oh he's just a Mankind/Kane rip off but if you really followed TNA throughout the years I think he was more than that. Still a B Movie Monster but a fucking kick ass B Movie Monster. Surprisingly Shark Boy got some offensive in against the much larger Abyss including a missile drop kick that led to Abyss stumbling into the turnbuckle. Abyss won with a Black Hole Slam, squash match but fun and displays the unique characters of TNA compared to the competition.

Kid Kash and the man who would become Lance Archer, Dallas defend their NWA Tag Team Championships against America's Most Wanted (James Storm and Chris Harris) in the very first Title Defense on IMPACT! Championship matches are 30 minutes on IMPACT! none Championship matches are 10 minutes. Match was ok, nothing offensive but nothing that really stands out. Crowd was hot for it. Which is odd considering AMW were the cornerstone of the TNA tag scene at this point and.a really good team to boot, sometimes you're on and sometimes you are off. Match was 10 minutes It did get exciting at the end there with the counters and all that leading up to the finish. Harris did hit a cool looking spear on Kash. Dallas gets hung up on the top rope after a big boot, Storm rolls him up for the 3. AMW wins the Tag Straps. Pyro goes off after they win. You gotta give it two TNA they had the first title defense and first title change in IMPACT! History on the very first episode of IMPACT!

Mike Tenay is in the ring now and brings Dusty Rhodes. This is all to bring out the newly crowned NWA Champion Jeff Jarrett out in all white but its before labor day so its ok. This is the beginning of Jarrett's 11 1/2 month reign as Champion which would get X-Pac heat from the crowd. No one wanted to see Jeff Jarrett as champion other than Jeff Jarrett. The Triple J days. Jarrett yells at Dusty for being old and the crowd chants "elbow" they want Dusty to hit the bionic elbow. This ends with Killings making the save for Dusty and getting el kabonged with the guitar for his troubles. BG James and Konnan run out to save their buddy, Jarrett scampers off. This sets up some sort of confrontation on the Wednesdays PPV. A lot happened there.

Shane Douglas interviewed Vince Russo, there's a mystery 4th man in the main event. It's a four way match winner gets a shot at the x division championship. I couldn't tell you who the X Division Champion was at the time. I don't really know the purpose of Russo saying I know who the 4th man is but no one else does. The 4th man's AJ Style's who comes out first. Why is the Mystery man reveled so quickly? And the reveal wasn't that big relatively speaking Aj is the corner stone of the X Division. Sure at this time he was in the Heavyweight Scene and had just won the NWA title for a 2nd time in April but the King of the Mountain match happened June 2nd Jarrett won the title and now AJ is back in the X Division. TNA would also reset when they got a "big" opportunity (look at the Spike debut 16 months later) and have Jarrett has World Champ and AJ as X Division Champ. The other 3 competitors; Michael Shane, Elix Skipper and Chris Sabin are already in the ring so that explains why AJ came out first, he's the only one who got an entrance on camera. If they really wanted to make this a surprise or build up anticipation why didn't Shane Douglas interview Shane, Skipper and Sabin throughout the broadcast with each one cutting a promo on who the 4th man could be brother. So rant over let's get to the match. They got alot of shit in 7 minutes. Skipper hurricanrona'd Shane off the top ontot he floor that was cool. Everybody dove out of the ring onto each other and they like. It was a fun spotfest. Shawn Micheals' cousin Michael Shane was setting up a sweet shin music superkick and Aj comes off the ropes rolls Shane into a sunset flip into a Styles Clash for the 3. AJ Styles wins. Spoiler alert he wins the X Division Championship that upcoming Wednesday.

That's the Show. Not bad. They show cased the X Division and the Tag Scene TNA's two strongest division plus you gotta see Dusty Rhodes.

 

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