Unofficial Comment Thread for NWA: TNA "Gauntlet for the Gold"

[Se7en]

Well, I ordered the show tonight, and I have to say - flawed, but overall, enjoyable. They have some real potential with the promotion.

I'll post some more in depth comments here, but really, I want to know first if anyone else saw the program before I go analyzing this show too deeply.

So, anyone else on the board see the show?

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"Being a bastard WORKS."
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[Jobberific]

My freakin dish company wasn't offering it. I was really looking forward to it too. I don't know how, but somehow, this is all RonFezMark's fault. BLAST.

I don't suppose you could hook a brother up with a copy?

AJW...All Jobber Wrestling...All jobbers, all the time.

[Fallon]

I saw it. Great high flyers, shitty sports entertainment.

Don West sucks, he hardly even talked. Ed Fererra looks like a douche bag.

The 'X Title' division looks promising. I enjoyed the Match with Lynn, Lo-ki, Styles, Flying Elvis' (change that name!).

Too much Jarret.

All the women are ugly, I didn't know that was Ryan Shamrock until they said so.

I enjoyed the midgets match, but I don't want to see them wrestle again.

The Dupps suck.
Country music sucks.
Nascar sucks.

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[RF Godfather]

Let me throw down my comments on the TNA PPV. First of all like a few of you I ordered it and was actually impressed with their product and name brand superstars (ECW, WcW and Indy).

*So the three man announcing booth includes Don West (too quiet, he knows nothing about wrestling), Mike Tenay (I respect his knowledge) and Ed Ferrara (what the f*ck happened to this yahoo, is he trying to be black with the dreds kinda like a fatter Rob Zombie for those who didn't order it). Jeremy Borash is the ring announcer.

*Old School Promo with the likes of Harley Race, Dory Funk Jr, Jackie Fargo, Bullet Bob Armstrong, Corsica Joe and Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat. Steamboat is holding the NWA title and proclaiming it "means more than any other title." He might be right for once. He also said that at the end of the Gaunlet for the Gold, when there are two rasslers left in the ring he will be the special guest referee for the NWA World Heavyweight Title. Jarrett complains about a battle royal for the title, bunch of crap he says. Continues by saying that if it has to be that way then he'll throw all 19 out of the ring. Shamrock appears and says that he can throw 18 out but not number 19 *pop*! Scott Hall enters through the tiny crowd does his "HEY YO!" and complains also, end of first promo.

*Caged TNA dancers. I must say, good God they are stacked!*

*1st Match: 6 Man Match.
Awesome opening match. One side had AJ Styles, LOKI, and Jerry Lynn (WOW) and they faced the FLYING ELVISES? (Yang, Jorge Estrada (TCW) and Sonny Siaki).

The ref is the nWo ref for those wondering. HIGH SPOT CITY! The X division (the Cruiserweight Division) looks promising. Yang Time and the Flying Elvises wins!

*Next week they will proclaim the first X Champion!

*2nd Match: MIDGETS!
Teo vs. Puppet the Psycho Dwarf.

It looked the toddlers fighting that's probably I didn't take the match seriously. Solid match though. The finish is a twisting senton by Teo for the pinfall.

*More scenes of the two women cage dancers*

*Ed Ferrara and Don West are in the ring and hype next weeks Lingerie Battle Royal and gives us a preview of the talent! SWEETNESS! They come out in this order: "THE QUEEN OF EXTREME" Francine, Miss Joanie? Shannon (DAFFNEY!!! with the hot pink hair), Sonya, Alexis Laree (MCW), Erin, Electra (ECW), Miss Taylor, and Theresa. Eventually Franchise says she is better than them all and says that is why she is the Queen of Extreme and Electra gets all pissed off and a catfight begins!

*3rd Match: THE JOHNSONS (Richard and Rod, who were big guys dressed literally like hugh phallic like symbols, funny) vs. Psicosis & Cowboy James Storm.

Ryan Shamrock (Symphony) appears during the match and from the looks of things as a call-girl. JOHNSON's win. Kinda average match but I liked the standing Insequire (sp?).

*The hot blonde interviewer, Goldilocks comes and talks to the Dupps (the standard hicks drinking beer, too funny).

*Borash introduces Sterling Marlin and some NASCAR guy Herman Sadler. K-Krush (K-Kwik) does a stereotypical hating on racing and badmouths the fans. Goes racist and talks about his people are better in sports (was that a shoot). Sadler gets up in his mug and says that there are plenty of NASCAR fans in Huntsville *solid Pop* and as K-Krush is about to pounce on his ass Brian Christopher shows up in his II Cool regalia and cleans house. Christopher says he wants a match with him next week and so its on.

*Backstage, Jarrett is choking one of the old farts, Jackie Fargo then gets restrained by referees.

*4th Match: York/Matthews vs. the Dupps (w/Fluff, Southern belle).

THE DUPPS win in an ok match.

*Country star Toby Keith sings his hot single "Angry American" to a thunderous pop. It is Alabama ain't it? I actually enjoyed the song it was the first time hearing it about American not backing down, post 9-11 song, I was actually gonna cry then all of a sudden Jarrett interrupts the song and says no one wants to hear his song.

[JerryTaker]

I'm all for competition, and whatnot, but this really just looked like the Island of misfit wrestlers....

There wasn't a single reason for any of the matches, not buildup and no pshychology during the matches, the cruiserweight match (ruined by elvis costumes) was just people throwing themselves at each other, highlighted by one of the Elvi completely no-selling a tornado DDT....

Jerry Lynn is so much better than this....

we have two feudes, coming out of the PPV, Electra and Francine, and Jarret and a Country singer....

Jeff Jarret CANNOT carry a fed, WCW learned this, WWA learned this, and NWA needs to learn this, no matter who his father is...

Jackie Fargo reminds me of Mickey Rooney for some reason, and my image of Ricky Steamboat has been shttered forever and replaced by an image of Don Ho....

Buff is awful, always was, ditto for Lawler's Kid, Norman Smiley, Lashe Leroux, Damien Dimentio, etc, etc, etc.... the wanna be Scott Steiner should be ashamed of himself... really the only one who showed me anything was the Wall...

How awful is it that history will show that the Champion after Dan Severn was Ken Shamrock, and no match was made between them?

The fed has potential, but the "Big names" are just Dead weight, and Ferrara HAS to go, he established himself as the biggest scumbag in wrestling for making fun of JR's disease....

and they need storylines... Here's an easy one... Bring in Shane Douglass, he verbally pisses on his old tag team partner, Steamboat, and the entire NWA, instant mega heel.... F-Jarret, he's awful...

just my $0.02

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I've given my life to become what I am, To preach the new beginning, To make you understand. To reach some point of order, Utopia in mind, you've got to learn To sacrifice, to leave what's now behind...

[RF Godfather]

There wasn't a single reason for any of the matches, not buildup and no pshychology during the matches, the cruiserweight match (ruined by elvis costumes) was just people throwing themselves at each other, highlighted by one of the Elvi completely no-selling a tornado DDT....
Jerry, how exactly did you think they could buildup a PPV for an organization that hasn't started yet?

I agree I hate Buff and Jarrett stinks... country blows but it ain't that bad.

BRING IN THE SANDMAN and NEW JACK!

Thanks for ruening my buzz of the PPV, Jerry :)

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[Se7en]

Time for my take on the show.

First off, the production isn't bad. It clearly doesn't have a multi-million dollar feel to it, but it's pretty decent. The announce team, though....yeesh. Mike Tenay, as usual, is pretty solid (I better not see anyone complaining about him as long as Michael Cole still draws breath). Ed Ferrarra.....well, Ed has sure changed his look since the Oklahoma days (and as a JR hater, I LAUGHED at his mocking of bell's palsy). He was sort of there as a color man. Don West is utterly useless though. He added nothing, and the sooner they fire him the better it will be. If you have to stick anyone as a third man, let it be someone like Gertner, who at least can spew an obscene line or two every now and then.

*Opening promo was good. Glad to see the Steamer again, although I must admitt, it is kind of sad to see him with a bald spot, greying hair, and a paunch, when it was less than a decade ago he was putting on a MOTYC with Ric Flair at Spring Stampede 94. Still, he's THE DRAGON~!, so there's nothing I don't love about the guy. I liked the whole opening segment, with the old-timers. It was all done really because *spy report* there was a problem with the ring, and they needed a few extra minutes to fix it. Jarrett put himself over as the heel, and we got appearances by Hall & Shamrock....things started getting a little slow there, but the talking was good to put over Shamrock, Hall & Jarrett as the company's big names.

1st Match: Jerry Lynn, A.J. Styles & Low-Ki vs. The Flying Elvises (Jimmy Yang, Jorge Estrada, Sonny Siaki)
We all know who Lynn, Styles and Low-Ki are. Yang has been wrestling lately in All Japan overseas, teaming frequently with former Yung Dragon partner Kaz Hayashi (who has a NICE new look) and putting on some good matches there. Jorge I haven't seen too much off. Siaki I've seen from his work in WCW (he wrestled on WCW Saturday Night) as well as the little known UWA (Urban Wrestling Alliance) project, where he was known as "Money" (don't even ask). Match was probably the best of the night; not a lot of psychology, true, but plenty of fun work from every man, with highspots galore. Eventually, if they want to build up their X-title like a cruizerweight belt, they should book the matches and the flow of the bouts more like WCW did with their lightheavies, but for the first broadcast this was a good match to show what some of these guys are capable off. Good to see Yang pick up the win, too. Fuck the WWF for firing him when Crash Holly still inexplicably has a job (I defy ANYONE to make a case as to Holly being the better cruizer). The Elvis gimmick was stupid, and makes me believe Russo came up with it (he's rumored to have ghost-booked this show), but once the action started I could easily ignore it.

2nd Match: Teo vs. Hollywood, Hardcore Midgets Match
Amusing for what it was, but really, the novelty wears thin after awhile. Kudos to the two diminutive grapplers, though, they went out and gave a good showing.

Lingerie promo: Confusing in the sense that I didn't know half the women there. Nor did I care. Kind of a sloppy segment, really, since only Electra & Francine had anything to say, and neither are known for their oral skills. Oh wait....Whatever, I started drooling as soon as I saw Daffney. GodDAMN, I loved her in that top.

3rd match: The Johnsons (with Mortimer Plumtree) vs. Psicosis / "Cowboy" James Storm
The Johnsons are the Shane twins, who wrestle down in Florida. Jame Storm is a guy I'd like to see more of, since he wasn't too bad here and I've heard he's had some pretty solid matches with guys like Chris Harris. The Johnsons are the 2nd Russoesque gimmick on the show. Congrats to Tenay for acknowledging the smart internet fans by mentioning how the Johnsons' gimmick was the subject of "much controversy on the internet". Duh, none of us thought you were stupid enough to do it. Silly us. Match was okay; nothing great (just cause a guy is big, doesn't mean he can wrestle), but nothing too bad. I

[RF Godfather]

Fix the dumb gimmicks, fix the announcing, put over some of the newer talent (Malice, Apollo), and theyA›??re on the right track. You consider Malice aka The Wall a new talent. He still looks bad in the ring. As for Apolo, like I said he reminds me of a beefed up Rock. It seems he has some sort of alliance with Scott Hall and that will definitely put him over.

The weekly PPV will kill the fed but all it needs is a channel to give them a chance.

A breath of fresh air in wrestling anyway you look at it.

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[JerryTaker]

Jerry, how exactly did you think they could buildup a PPV for an organization that hasn't started yet?

You're right, but it just seemed to me most of the wrestlers were "just doing their jobs" not only was there no reason / bad blood going into the matches, there was nothing coming out of them either, no revenge or anything, so if we see any of these matches repeated, there's no reason for it, just, "Oh, I'm fighting you again"

I hope that made sense...

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I've given my life to become what I am, To preach the new beginning, To make you understand. To reach some point of order, Utopia in mind, you've got to learn To sacrifice, to leave what's now behind...

[RF Godfather]

You're right, but it just seemed to me most of the wrestlers were "just doing their jobs" not only was there no reason / bad blood going into the matches, there was nothing coming out of them either, no revenge or anything, so if we see any of these matches repeated, there's no reason for it, just, "Oh, I'm fighting you again"

I hope that made sense...
You have a good point actually when I reflect on your statement. They could have done some sort of promo or something tobuild a little heat before the matches.

I just liked the show overall. We all got opinions, right?

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