Am I being an asshole for reusing the banner I whipped up for this show a decade ago when I did the musings for this thing shortly after watching it? Probably – especially considering both guys are in better states of mind nowadays than they were back then… but on the other hand, it’s pretty much the perfect picture for the state of TNA at the time of this particular piece of programming.
My original thoughts can be found here. A lot of this musings (especially for the early portion of the program where I really have nothing new to add) will just be copied-and-pasted from the original post, but there is enough new stuff towards the end that it’s not a complete cop-out… only a partial one.
“Hey! Look, kids!
Marty Jannetty FINALLY won a World Title!”
– My buddy after last night’s TNA PPV
So to bring people up to speed, news broke prior to the show taking place that Destination America, who had assumed the program rights earlier in 2015, would cancel the show, which meant TNA had to secure TV rights to stay on the air. Meanwhile, they had a Bound For Glory show in a couple weeks that was barely booked, so they ended up shuffling their main event scene so that Matt Hardy could be involved in the World title picture that was scheduled to be champion EC3 defending his title against Drew Galloway (McIntyre)… because, you know, BFG was in the Carolinas and Matt is a hometown guy.
It’s worth noting that there’s only a couple thousand people on the floor and the arena, as a whole, is dimly late. There’s a few people in the balconies, but probably not as crowded as one would have liked. The Carrabus Arena, which held the event, normally holds about five thousand people. Not a bad showing for an indy promotion or anything, but for someone who was once touted as the counter to WWE and on their biggest show of the year? It’s not a pretty picture in the slightest.
X-Division champion Tigre Uno defeated Manik, DJZ, and Andrew Everett in an Ultimate X match to retain the title. I didn’t know who any of these people were when I watched the show back then, so years after the fact is even more of an issue. For what it was – opening X-Division contest with high spots and fun bits – I was more or less entertained. Nothing that I haven’t seen before, but it was fun while it lasted.
Tyrus (a.k.a. fucking BRODUS CLAY) wins the Gauntlet battle royal, which is essentially a mini Royal Rumble of sorts that goes by elimination over the top rope until only two remains, then it becomes a regular match with pinfalls and submissions. Pretty much a trademark TNA match type dating back to the very first show. A mix of old TNA faces, some not so old faces that I’m barely familiar with, and your usual veterans like Tommy Dreamer or Al Snow. Once again, I will reiterate the big where Pope – who was doing commentary on the show with Josh Matthews, who was largely tolerable here because they didn’t turn him into a shittier version of heel Michael comes in, sees Abyss and fucking Brodus Clay in the ring, and promptly eliminates himself. That was funny, but the rest of the match was just okay. Nothing special.
TNA Tag champs The Wolves (Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards) defeated Brian Meyers and Trevor Lee (the future/former Cameron Grimes of NXT fame) to retain the titles in a pretty good and entertaining tag-team match. In retrospect, this was probably the only match that I genuinely enjoyed throughout the entire show.
TNA King Of The Mountain Champion Bobby Roode defeated Booby Lashley in what I had originally dubbed “the Battle of the Boobies” to retain the title that was once the Television title… and before that, it was the Global title… and before that, it was the Legends title, which was a vanity title that they gave Booker T during his Main Event Mafia phase that didn’t last long. Despite the current name, this is not being defended in a King Of The Mountain match (a multiperson match involving ladders and stuff), but rather a straight up one-on-one match, which makes calling the belt that name kinda stupid, which is par for the course with TNA. Also, the idea of Roode besting Lashley comes across as not the best idea. I make no qualms about never being the biggest Lashley fan back in the day – his ECW run kinda soured me on the guy – but his more recent WWE run and even his AEW appearances when he can be bothered to get booked (less a Lashley issue and more a TK issue, but that’s besides the point) had me turn a corner on the guy. So looking back at this match probably gave me a greater appreciation for Lashley, who had a presence and was talented in his own way. Maybe they should have had him win the match for the happy moment, but then again, it’s probably for the best that they held off Lashley for the eventual World title win that would come along a year or so later.
Knockouts Champion Gail Kim defeated Awesome Kong to retain the title in the obligatory Legends match… which seems like I’m taking the piss out of this match being booked, but what else do you want me to say? These two have been on and off with TNA since at least the early days of the Spike TV era, they were mainstays in a women’s division that blew WWE’s Divas out of the water any day of the week, and hey, you know what? This match was fine. No offense to Gail, but I had kinda hoped Kong would win it, but they could’ve gone either way and it would have been fine.
Kurt Angle defeated Eric Young via submission… because of course, he does. Hell, the story behind it is reasonable. Young hurt Kurt, Kurt comes back and gains revenge in a match. That’s fine. I can’t complain all that much. At one point, Kurt is holding his neck and the medics stop the match… but Eric Young is an “evil bastard” who won’t let Kurt walk out that easily, implying a dastardly villain at work here… and then he taps out at the end… it’s a no-DQ match, he could have done anything dastardly to turn things around, but nope. Just gives up. Eh, whatever.
Matt Hardy defeated TNA World champion Ethan Carter III and Drew Galloway when Hardy pinned Galloway to win the title… or as my buddy commented at one point, “Look, kids. Marty Janetty finally won a world title!” That’s what inspired the banner… and honestly, that’s probably for the best because hindsight has pretty much destroyed this main event in particular, because my assumption was that they didn’t want to pin EC3 and keep him strong, so let Matt pin Drew instead. But then EC3 (in storyline) files an injunction against TNA and Matt Hardy, which results in Matt Hardy posting a Youtube video (that I’d link to, but it’s now private… but you can still check out the post here in case it comes up) declaring his vacating of his newly won title, which kicks off TNA’s months-long World Title Series… yes, they called their months-long round-robin tournament the World Title Series. Even 33-year old Tony Khan is crying foul over a poorly-named tournament that ends in January and is eventually won by EC3, who then drops the title to Matt Hardy two weeks later on Impact… because sure, why not?
Had they not done the whole injunction thing and made Matt vacate the title, maybe EC3 gets to be a heel a little while longer and if you wanted to do the Double Turn (which did eventually happen), you could have done it on your first episode of Impact on the POP Network… which would be their new television home after Destination America – who debuted Impact on their channel in January of that year – decided not to renew… after ONE YEAR on the air. And I also remember the kerfuffle over the summer when Dave “Hack Pooie” Meltzer reported that DA was shitcanning TNA and TNA denied it, only for DA to pick up Ring Of Honor as another program and forcing TNA to air Impacts on Wednesdays… oh and they were out looking for a new television partner since DA decided that they’re not going ahead with Impact.
All of this degression is more interesting than the actual match itself, which sees EC3, the heel if you recall, defending his title against two challengers, and somehow coming across as more sympathetic than the designated baby face of the match, whose brother (Jeff Hardy) just so happens to be the special referee? And he’s the fucking heel? Was Russo still booking this crap? This seems like his handiwork. Also, Matt’s inclusion was apparently last-minute and it was going to be EC3 defending against Drew, which I would have been fine with and probably would have had Drew won, if it was a case of another WWE cast-off winning TNA’s top title. Meanwhile, after all this time, we sat through Nick Nemeth holding onto the title for half a year before dropping it WWE-bound Joe Hendry. Make of that noise what you will.
I am conflicted about this show. On the one hand, it’s a step above the previous year’s show because at the very least, it’s a proper Bound For Glory TNA production rather than a taped house show run by another promotion of lesser stature. On the other hand, this didn’t feel particularly special. The matches were just kinda, sorta there, none of them feeling particularly special or important. Once again, this felt like a show that was thrown together out of contractual obligation to fulfill a PPV commitment rather than what was traditionally supposed to be the most important show on the TNA calendar. That is perhaps the biggest hurdle facing TNA during these lean years when they’re just struggling to figure out whether they’re still going to be on the air in a few months time… which they are, but back then… we weren’t so sure.
