The First shot was Fired and TNA Scored a Victory

Sorry it's long, I know... but it's big and important damn it! Also make sure you check out J-Call's blog for information on Raw. Go to BigBadSportsDaddy.com to find it.

I remember when TNA first announced that they were going to air on Spike TV, there was a buzz in the air that had been unheard of in years in the wrestling community.

No competition is not good for anyone, it's not good for the business and it's not good for the fans. So, needless to say I was excited, I watched each Impact, learning new names (A.J. Styles and Christopher Daniels), new maneuvers (Canadian Destroyer and the Muscle Buster) and new match types (King of the Mountain and Ultimate X).

The feeling lasted about four months for me, much less for other wrestling fans. TNA came, saw and fizzled, like so many before them.

But "new life" was on the horizon in the forms of old WWE Superstars. Jeff Hardy, Sting, Nash, Christian... Tazz, Bubba Ray, Devon, Kurt Angle... Matt Morgan, Bobby Lashley, Elijah Burke, Victoria... the list keeps growing.

Some have been good acquisitions but some, like so many TNA ideas have fizzled.

So now it was time to breathe "new life" once again into the confusing over-filled roster that was TNA. In came more former superstars... The Nasty Boys, Val Venis, Scott Hall and Sean Waltman... and, of course, the two biggest names, Hulk Hogan and Eric Bichoff.

Now for the record, I understand what Hogan has done for the business and I was pissed when I heard he was coming back. I figured it would be like every other WWE run he had, come in, beat up the guys that TNA should be trying to put over and then he would leave. Then after the live January 4th show, I saw that Hogan wasn't just "not burying" people, he wasn't even going to lace up his boots. He was there for his mind.

Maybe this could be the thing to get TNA noticed...

Fast forward two months and here we are. March 8, 2010, the shot heard round the wrestling world. WCW didn't come out and pronounce a war, they just made one. TNA is trying to build hype and I get that. And whether wrestling fans want to admit the legitimacy of TNA or not, a war has begun. It's whether the war is WWII or the 1990 Gulf War (re: the shortest war in American History).

The opening Promo was nothing superb, Hogan running his mouth, Abyss spazing in the background. The crowd was hot and chanted a ton, which always makes a show better.

Hogan/Abyss vs. Styles/Flair - It was short but had the effect they wanted, got the crowd going, Abyss and Hogan got busted up and Sting makes his "surprise appearance" back in the Impact Zone. The turn was good but a little obvious once he was out there and TNA hyping the first five minutes all week. Nothing else exciting had happened in the five minutes so Sting turning was really the only thing that made sense.

But String (as I know him) has never had a good long heel run so it could be interesting. Don't necessarily know what that crap with Dixie was in the hallway afterward where he was supposed to be menacing but at the same time seemed afraid to touch her, but whatever...Not a bad opening and they tried to keep people interested by continuing the match as a No-DQ later on.

Kazarian vs. Daniels vs. Williams, these are the kinds of matches that are going to put TNA over with the crowd. The work was solid the finish was strong and they showcased so much of what makes TNA a good product... not necessarily better than WWE, but still good. This match also saw the return of Shannon Moore, who for some reason I have always been a huge mark for, so that really excited me.

I thought one of the coolest moments of the night was Dixie announcing that Sting had a match. She has always been a more "behind-the-scenes" owner and she should be. Because that means when something happens that she feels she needs to take care of, it feels like it means something. You could feel how mad she must've been to get involved.


Wilde/Sarita vs. The BPs vs. Tara/Love, this is another match that TNA used to showcase just how different they are from WWE. They don't have women who come out, look hot and then botch every other move. They have attractive women who could hold their own in a match with any guy on the roster (except for a few like Lacey Von Erich, but they do a good job of keeping her out of the ring).

Any team winning here would've been good and bringing in Daffney to continue her feud with Tara made a lot of sense if anyone has been watching Impact on Thursday nights. All told a good women's wrestling segment that showed women's wrestling as it should be, on par with men's wrestling.

The only thing that pissed me off was the inclusion of the "30-day rule". Kong/Hamada former Knockouts Tag Champions hadn't defended their belts in 30-days so the titles were vacated. This is just a crappy way out of a jam since Kong left the company. You are in the cartoon world of wrestling... the writers can make up ANYTHING they want about why Kong/Hamada can't work and the titles were stripped. Don't use stupid logic TNA. 

Desmond Wolfe and his many outfits continue to impress me more each week and the assault on Pope Elijah Burke is no different.

Sting vs. RVD, if you've read any of my previous blogs I am sure I've mentioned how much of an old school ECW guy I was so seeing RVD back in a ring made my heart flutter for sure. Even though he just got beat with a baseball bat, the crowd couldn't stop chanting the man's name and that means good things to come.

Kevin Nash comes out and Scott Hall stumbles his way through another promo, speaking carnie and making the only match at Destination X that I could care less about. But even this segment ended strong with Waltman slapping the shit out of Eric Young and Young going ballistic. 



Waltman vs. Young, Despite the fact that I HATE Waltman, this was pretty good. Young showed so much passion and strength and even Waltman had a spin kick that looked like it took Eric's head off. Despite the low point of the show being the promo, this match made up for it. 

I'm not exactly digging the US army being involved in the feud between Anderson and Angle but I am digging the feud. Anderson has stepped up his game against Angle and Angle is capitalizing on the oldest trick in the wrestling book, Patriotism. There isn't anything wrong with it, and at least they are going about it a different way. 

TNA was looking for a way to make Anderson a heel and calling our service men and women high school dropouts is a sure way to do it. They wanted to make sure people were going to stop cheering Anderson, something WWE has tried to do with a lot of people and rarely succeeded, so I applaud the effort and the so far success. 

Jarret vs. Beer Money Inc., if you had told me that I would ever cheer for Double J, I would have checked you into a methadone clinic. But with all the crap that Bichoff is doing and Jarrett pushing back, I am really starting to get behind him. I like where they are going and this handicap match did it again. Bichoff took two guys who owe their wrestling career to Jarrett and turned them against him. 


Didn't really understand the inclusion of Foley here but I guess they had to shoehorn him into the show somewhere. Their roster is overloaded, there is no doubt about that...  More on that at the bottom.


Brooke Hogan looked ridiculous crying over Hogan, but we did get Hogan to promise never to lace up his boots again, if he holds to this, I will be a happy man.

Hogan/Abyss vs. Style/Flair (again), for a No-DQ match, they seemed to be following the tag team rules a little too much. Oh well, melee doesn't work when two of your guys are senior citizens. Flair and Hogan both bled like crazy and the good guys one in the Feel Good Moment of the night. Wolfe and Pope getting involved made sense and Hardy showing up was icing on a great big delicious cake. Although I wish Spike had stayed through to see Hardy hit the Swanton Bomb like I want to believe he did.


Below is a list of everyone who didn't appear on the show... with this many more people, TNA could really bill two shows, one on Monday and one on Thursday, if they could write it... they can't, yet, but the talent is there for it to happen down the line.

Team 3D, Amazing Red, Matt Morgan and Hernandez, the Motor City Machine Guns, Brian Kendrick, Brutus Magnus, Rob Terry, Consequences Creed and Jay Lethal, Generation Me, Hamada, Homicide, Jesse Neal, Kyoshi, the Nasty Boys, ODB, Orlando Jordan, Raven, Rhino, Samoa Joe, Shark Boy, Suicide or Tyson Tomko.