TNA Weekly PPV #3: AJ Picks Up Another

TNA Weekly PPV #3
Date: July 3, 2002
Location: Nashville Municipal Auditorium, Nashville, Tennessee
Commentators: Don West, Mike Tenay, Ed Ferrara

We’re into the home city of the company for the next few years now and we’re going to get our first title defense too. We’re also getting tag champions tonight in the form of a one night tournament. Also if that’s not enough tag team wrestling for you, we’ve got the official main event: Scott Hall/Brian Christopher vs. Jeff Jarrett/K-Krush. Let’s get to it.

As the announcers talk, the NWA President, a big fat balding guy, comes up and says some people are coming to TNA. He has a trophy which is to welcome TNA to the NWA. He’s been in Japan and next week, a guy named Omori is getting a world title match.

NWA World Tag Team Title Tournament First Round: James Storm/Chris Harris vs. The Johnsons

Oh geez it’s the Johnsons. They’re named Dick and Rod and we’ll say Rod starts with Harris. Harris speeds things up and hits some armdrags followed by a Thesz Press to take over. Off to Storm who hits a headscissors to put Rod down. The Johnsons start cheating and hit a double powerbomb on Storm to take over.

A suplex puts Storm down and a double shoulder block gets two. We’ll say Dick jumps into a boot and Storm superkicks him down. There’s the hot tag to Harris who cleans house. He spears Rod down but his cross body gets caught. Storm dropkicks Harris’ back so that he falls on Rod for the pin to advance.

Rating: D+. Nothing special here but you could see the talent in the team that would become known as AMW. At the end of the day here though, they were a one note joke written by a five year old. There’s only so much credibility you can give to a match like this one. The ending was good though and that dropkick was pretty awesome looking.

Post match the Johnsons’ manager Mortimer Plumtree yells at them and gets a chokeslam for his efforts.

Here’s Scott Hall who says Hey Yo but here’s Jarrett for a rebuttal. Jarrett says no one wants to hear Hall talk so get out. They’re about to brawl but the fat guy President says go away. Jarrett says he’ll wait for the main event. As he backs away, K-Krush sneaks in and beats down Hall. Scratch the beats down line and replace it with “gets caught in a fallaway slam and is clotheslined to the floor”.

Harris and Storm have been attacked and there’s blood everywhere.

Anthony Ingram vs. Monty Brown

After Brown says he wants Shamrock, the squashing commences. After a powerslam the Alpha Bomb (starts in a slam position but Brown swings him into the air and powerbombs him down) gets the pin. Brown has what sounds like Abyss’ old music.

Goldilocks can’t find the NWA President. Two blonde guys haven’t either. A midget named Puppet says he’ll do the interview instead. He wants a fight against a Hollywood famous short person. Next.

NWA World Tag Team Title Tournament First Round: Rainbow Express vs. Apolo/Buff Bagwell

Before the match, Buff and Apolo say nothing of note. Bruce and Bagwell get us going with Buff controlling early. He slams Bruce down and hits a Vader Bomb for two. Here’s Alicia for some reason as it’s off to Lenny. Alicia (Ryan Shamrock) goes over to Ed Ferrara and gives him money. Apolo hits something on Bruce for two. No idea what it was as we were looking at Alicia, which to be fair is a better idea.

Apolo chops away at Lenny and hits an elbow to the face to take him down. Bruce gets involved and Lenny hits a running DDT for two to take over. Bruce gets tagged in via a kiss to the hand and they do the World’s Greatest Tag Team jump over the back onto the other guy’s back spot. Lenny drops an elbow for two but walks into a full nelson slam to put both guys down. Hot tag brings in Bagwell and his offense looks pretty awful. Buff and Lenny collide and roll to the floor as Apolo superkicks Bruce down. TKO looks to finish but Lenny makes the save. A Blockbuster puts Bruce down but Lenny superkicks Buff for the pin.

Rating: D. Nothing to see here again. The Express are supposed to be interesting because they’re gay or whatever, but it’s not working at all. Bagwell keeps getting blamed for posing and showboating too much here which I guess is the story, but who in the world would be interested in Buff Bagwell in 2002? Nothing to see here.

Buff talks to himself so Ferrara gets a mic. Bagwell says he’s Marcus, not Buff and he wants to go home. Ok then.

Here’s Shamrock for a chat. He doesn’t care about Monty Brown because Brown has only had one match and now he wants a title shot. Correct me if I’m wrong but hasn’t Shamrock only had one match at this point? Tonight he’s got Malice and then a Japanese guys next week. After that, maybe it’s time for Monty Brown. We cut to Mitchell in the crowd who says that Shamrock will have his hands full with Malice tonight and Shamrock will never make it to Omori and Monty. The lights go out and when they come up, Shamrock is down and Malice is standing over Shamrock.

Jerry Lynn comes up to Bill Behrens and asks if he can get in the tournament in Harris/Storm’s place if he can find a partner. Behrens sends him away because he doesn’t have time right now.

Puppet vs. Todd Stone

Little people time. Puppet yells about midgets before the match. This is a hardcore match apparently. Puppet hits him with a kendo stick as he gets in, followed by a trashcan shot to the head. Stone gets the trashcan put over his head and Puppet pounds on it with the stick. A horrible TKO into the can gets the pin for Puppet. This match exists and that’s as kind as I can be to it.

Puppet hits the referee with the stick post match. Borash gets a shot too. Even Don West gets hit.

Shamrock is being looked at.

We recap Francine and the lingerie battle royal last week.

Miss TNA: Taylor Vaughn vs. Francine

Vaughn is defending. Francine whips her with a belt like she did to Ferrara last week. Vaughn gets the belt and chokes away. This is thrown out in less than a minute.

Ferrara holds Francine’s hand up as she won but she puts his hand on her breast. That gets him a beating with the belt.

Here’s Hermie Sadler, a NASCAR driver, with his pit crew. K-Krush comes out and says no one around here like NASCAR. Sadler gets in his face and the two of them are having a match next week. West says 500 million people like NASCAR. I’d like to see some stats behind that.

NWA World Title: Ken Shamrock vs. Malice

Malice is more famous as The Wall in WCW. I probably should have mentioned that earlier. Shamrock is all banged up but he comes in anyway, only to get beaten down almost immediately. Shamrock gets knocked down to the floor and Malice stomps him against the railing. Back in and Shamrock gets draped over the top rope and Malice hammers away. Ken grabs the arm into a quick armbar but Malice powers him right back down.

Malice sends him to the floor and puts on a dragon sleeper which is quickly broken. As they’re coming back in Shamrock grabs a bad ankle lock but Malice makes the rope. A pair of release belly to back suplexes put Shamrock down but a regular suplex is blocked. Shamrock snaps off a suplex of his own and the belly to belly out of nowhere retains the title.

Rating: D. Malice looked good here but the ending sucked. It basically cut the legs out from under Malice because all of that offense he put in couldn’t slow the champ down and then a pair of suplexes are enough for a pin? I didn’t like this for the most part and it didn’t do anyone any favors at all. This would be the end of Malice’s time around the title.

X-Division Title: David Young vs. AJ Styles

AJ is listed as being from Atlanta here instead of Gainesville. Young jumps the champ from behind but AJ speeds things up and dropkicks Young down. A rana puts Young on the floor and AJ kind of botches a flip dive, with his legs hitting the apron on the way down. Back in the ring that gets two but a second springboard attempt is countered, sending AJ’s throat into the top rope.

Young follows up with an Asai Moonsault which gets two back in the ring. The spinebuster is blocked as is a German suplex by Styles flips. Bobcat is on her phone now as the match isn’t interesting enough to her. Young sends AJ back first into the corner for two. A crucifix gets two for Styles but Young takes out his knee and hits an enziguri for two. After a quick chinlock a powerslam gets two for David.

A brainbuster only gets two but Styles’ kickouts are getting weaker and weaker. Back to the chinlock but Styles fights out of it again and superkicks Young down for two. The moonsault into the reverse DDT gets another two count. AJ tries to speed things up again but walks into a spinebuster for two. That looked great too. Young puts him on the top rope for a top rope rana, but AJ blocks it in mid air and hits the Styles Clash off the middle rope to retain.

Rating: B. I was really digging this one as AJ in 2002 was incredible. Young wasn’t much but he had a good spinebuster and could do some other stuff decently. This was basically an AJ showcase match and that’s what it should be. The X-Division was a way to show off fast paced matches and they did that well here. Very good match.

Post match Bobcat gets in the ring to dance but gets shoved by AJ. That’s pretty heelish.

Goldie is with the Rainbow Express, who doesn’t like her hair. Joel Gertner hits on her and says the Express gets the titles because they don’t have anyone to fight. Gertner rhymes a lot and kisses her.

NWA World Tag Team Titles: Rainbow Express vs. ???/???

The NWA rules that they must have another match, so the opponents are AJ Styles/Jerry Lynn. The Express jumps them as they come in and the unnamed team is in trouble early. Lynn sends them to the floor and hits a slingshot dive followed by a corkscrew dive from Styles. Jerry and Lenny officially start and it’s time for gyrations. Lynn sends him into the corner and Bruce comes in illegally for some homosexual themed spots.

Lenny takes over and it’s off to Bruce via a kiss to the hand, freaking West out. Lynn is sent to the apron and he hits a legdrop to the back of a charging Bruce’s head to take over. Off to AJ who hits a spinwheel kick for two as West praises him nonstop. Back to Lynn who gets two off a bulldog. Back to Lenny who avoids a dropkick and puts on the Liontamer (screw the Tiger Tamer) while shouting to ASK HIM. AJ breaks it up with a clothesline and Bruce comes in sans tag.

Lenny comes back in quickly and a long delayed vertical suplex gets a sexual cover for two. West’s anti-gay shouting is kind of funny. Lynn comes back with a sunset flip out of the corner for two on Bruce and Bruce does the same for the same result. Bruce hooks a chinlock and then a headscissors to keep Lynn on the mat. Lynn escapes a powerbomb but Bruce escapes the Cradle Piledriver, only for Bruce to escape into a rollup for two.

Lynn DDTs Bruce down and both guys are dazed. Hot tag brings in AJ to face Lenny and things speed up. Everything breaks down and Lenny hits a Skull Crushing Finale on Styles for two. Cradle Piledriver takes Lenny down followed by Bruce and Jerry going to the floor. Spiral Tap to Lenny gives Lynn and Styles the titles.

Rating: C+. This was pretty good although it culminates one of the worst “tournaments” I’ve ever seen. The story works well as AJ beat Lynn last week and now they’re partners with AJ still holding the X Title. That would be the big feud for the next few weeks, although I’m not sure why, as AJ beat Lynn twice in a row last week. Yeah Lynn won once, but that still puts AJ up 2-1. The match was pretty good though.

The NWA President has been tied up in the back and has FU painted on his stomach. You know Cena had debuted about a week before this. I think I smell a conspiracy.

We recap Christopher vs. Krush last week which set up the tag match this week.

Scott Hall/Brian Christopher vs. K-Krush/Jeff Jarrett

It’s a brawl to start and all four head into the crowd. Hall and Jarrett head into the dancer’s cage as Christopher and Krush get in the ring. Hall knocks Jarrett onto the announce table as the Hip Hop Drop misses for Christopher. Scott comes into the ring and chokeslams Krush but Jeff is back in quickly. There haven’t been any tags at all yet. We finally get started with Hall vs. Jarrett and the good guys (Hall/Christopher) take over quickly.

Hall clotheslines Jarrett into the corner and it’s off to Brian who dances a bit too much and crotches himself in the corner. Off to Hall who is sent into Christopher while Christopher is on the apron before Hall collides with Jarrett. Jeff brings in Krush with a top rope dropkick but no cover. They badly mess up the spinning forearm as Krush lands on Hall’s back and Hall waits a few seconds before he falls. That looked pretty bad.

Back to Jeff for a cross body off the top but Hall rolls through for two. Jarrett hooks a sleeper and Hall reverses into a quick one of his own. Jarrett suplexes him down but can’t follow up. Christopher leaves the corner for some reason to yell at the referee, meaning Hall has no one to tag. Krush comes in with an ax kick and it’s off to a chinlock which is positioned so that Hall can stand up and hit an electric chair drop.

That gets followed up by a clothesline and it’s hot tag time, but Christopher won’t tag. Hall cleans house on his own including a punch to Christopher. Hall pulls Brian into the ring and beats him up too followed by an Outsider’s Edge to Krush. The referee went down in there somewhere. Brian breaks up an Edge on Jarrett and the Stroke pins Hall.

Rating: C-. This was the standard main event tag team match and it was nothing of note at all. At the end of the day, Grandmaster Sexay/Scott Hall vs. Jeff Jarrett/R-Truth isn’t a match that grabs me. There wasn’t much of a reason for this match to happen and it certainly wasn’t a big fight that we were dying to see. It wasn’t bad though and it sets up the main event feud for awhile.

Jarrett says he’s beaten Hall for years and he’s done it again here. Hall gets hit in the head with a trophy. Jarrett says he won’t get screwed again. The stretcher Hall is on is turned over to end the show.

Overall Rating: C-. This was better than last week’s show overall as they cut out some of the nonsense but the main event was nowhere near the level of the one from last week. These earlier shows for the company were very dull at times and this was no exception, but you can see things starting to shape up a bit better. With only three shows done so far, that’s a good sign.

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