STW - TNA Slammiversary 2017 [Show Notes] (Patreon)

TNA Slammiversary 2017

Wrestling Observer 3/6/17

TNA: There are a ton of changes going on behind the scenes. A lot of people who worked for the company in the past have been contacted and Jeff Jarrett’s big marketing idea is something along the lines of “Let’s Make TNA Great Again,” which did work in the Presidential election, but didn’t work as well for Darren Young. The idea is to present the idea of the good old days of TNA when Jarrett was in charge and with the idea that things went off the rails, perhaps not using that term, since he was gone. But on television they are going to bury Dixie Carter’s regime (whether by name or not) and essentially say the product went to hell. Bruce Prichard is being brought back for a role where he is to appear at the upcoming tapings as one of those people, and this may be as early as the 3/9 show, being taped on 3/2. Prichard is booked for that show. Right now Prichard is only coming in as a television character, and will continue his podcasts. He essentially got the gig because of how strong his podcast numbers were and Jeff Jarrett hoping that his podcast listeners would start watching TNA. Matt Morgan is being brought in to be a top star once again. They are also bringing Konnan back, also to bury former TNA (the funny part of all this is originally the lawsuit filed for racism against TNA had to do with Jarrett, but after the settlement, Konnan and Jarrett have long since made up and done business together). The belief is they will bring back LAX, but not sure who will be in it, as Homicide is still around, but Hernandez got TNA in trouble when he came back and Hernandez and Konnan had heat when they were in Lucha Underground. While Jeff Jarrett is not at this point going to have a television role, Karen Jarrett is also expected to be back. I would suspect Don West may be on television as well, although he’s not committed long-term and has been working to sell merchandise they have in stock

How much were you paying attention to the product at this time?
After your comments on the TNA podcasts you had done did you really think there would ever be an opportunity to go back there again?
How did the gig come together?
Do you think Jeff had some push back on bringing you back?
Was the assumption you would move into a different role besides just TV or was it always just for a TV role?
How long before they reached out that you were able to come to a deal?
What was the creative team like at this point? Just Jeff & Scott or just Jeff?

Bill Banks, who has been with the company as a producer since 2003, is moving to Connecticut to help take care of his parents. He is remaining affiliated with the company working from home, working on digital and over-the-top ideas, but won’t be working full-time here

What are your memories of Bill Banks from WWF or TNA?

Matt Conway, who has been on the creative end for years, is also gone with the new regime in

Thoughts on Matt Conway?

Wrestling Observer 3/13/17

Officially the company has dropped the TNA name for Impact Wrestling starting with the 3/9 show. Bruce Prichard made the announcement during the latest reboot show

This was a good move wouldn’t you agree?

Alberto El Patron debuted and beat Bobby Lashley in his first match on 3/2 (air date 3/9) with the promotion using a belt shot after a referee bump to win the TNA title. They had a big discussion with the referees Brian Stiffler and Brian Hebner, along with Prichard, Pat Kenney and Earl Hebner after on who won. Then, on 3/3, for the TV show that airs on 3/16, Lashley was announced as being champion again. Before the taping started, Jeremy Borash, in warming up the crowd, told them that Alberto had voluntarily given up the title because he didn’t want to win it that way, but then when the show stared, they referred to Lashley as champion and promoted a deal where Alberto and Ethan Carter III were battling over the top contender spot for the title. It’s a funny story because the show was booked but it was Drew Galloway in that spot, and then they tried to bring back Bully Ray for that spot, and the irony is that Alberto and Galloway are best friends. Alberto got a big star reaction, but he always gets a big star reaction outside of WWE

Thoughts on Alberto del Rio and his reputation coming in and how was to work with?

Were you worried about you getting a babyface or heel reaction while on TV?

Besides those mentioned last week, newcomers were also Rachael Ellering, K.C. Quinn (Florida woman wrestler Brandi Lauren), Garza Jr., Laredo Kid, Chris Adonis (formerly Chris Masters), a new Suicide (Caleb Konley, who is also working under his own name), Kevin Matthews (who was signed to a contract and may be using the name KM as the cousin of Sienna, I was told he was a very good talker but in the ring he wasn’t much and his grudge match with Braxton Sutter didn’t get over), the tag team of Reno Scum (Luster the Legend & Adam Thornstowe, who worked with GFW when they did their tapings in Las Vegas, they were billed as GFW tag team champions with the belts, although Harv & Girv Sihra were the GFW tag team champions when they were done taping but both are now under contract to WWE) and another tag team of EYFBO from New York, which was Angel Ortiz & Mike Draztic, who were part of the new LAX group headed by Konnan. Konnan wasn’t even called until 2/26 and then asked to find himself a tag team and a singles star because they wanted to remake LAX. Also returning were ODB, SoCal Val, Rebel, Magnus, Homicide (back as part of LAX and they wanted to have him team with Low Ki but Low Ki wasn’t interested) and Karen Jarrett

Crazy to look back 3 years later and look at where the talent is:

Rachael Ellering - released by NXT
KC Quinn - now Ava Storie in NXT
Garza Jr - now Angel Garza on RAW
Laredo Kid - recently worked at AEW
Chris Masters - free agent
Caleb Konley - free agent
Kevin Matthews - free agent after arguing with Scott D’Amore on Twitter
Reno Scum - recently returned to Impact
EYFBO - now part of the Inner Circle in AEW

Prichard will be a featured player on television and it is a cross-promotion for his podcast in the sense he’ll push TNA and they’ll push his podcast. The idea is his podcast has so many listeners that it will draw more viewers to the product

Do you have Dave Meltzer and Conrad to thank for your return to TNA?

Vince Russo claimed that Jeff Jarrett e-mailed him and asked him what his podcast numbers were. He said after doing so, he hasn’t heard back from Jarrett. I guess Bruce Prichard, whose numbers are far better, got the gig for that reason

Nevermind you got Vince Russo to thank.

Notes from the 3/2 tapings. They opened with ODB pinning Laurel Van Ness. Van Ness was still in her wedding dress. I guess she hadn’t taken it off for a few weeks. ODB pinned her with the TKO. For the 3/9 Impact show, the first show of the new era. It was a mostly talking show trying to get over that everything was new with the theme of “Make Impact Great Again,” and telling everyone how incompetent the previous management was and how things are going to be like they used to be when Samoa Joe and A.J. Styles and Kurt Angle were there. This may have been before the show started to warm up the crowd, or will be during the open, but Borash said that there would be a new announcer. Fans started chanting “Josh is stupid.” Next in what appeared to be the open of the show, Eddie Edwards and Davey Richards were brawling all over the place and having a pull-apart. Borash came out to be the new announcer. Matthews acted mad he was there and Borash said that the new management wanted an announcer that the fans actually liked. They started arguing. Borash said that Matthews was disrespecting the fans and disrespecting legends of the business and it was time to change things up. Borash said that Mike Tenay had trained him to be the new announcer for Impact but that Matthews got fired from WWE and the dummies in management and the old owners hired him. That’s notable because the guy who hired him, John Gaburick, is still with the company but out of all creative power. In reality, Gaburick made the move to get rid of Tenay for Matthews because Gaburick only knew WWE way of doing things and Matthews had been trained in that way. Matthews claimed that he was trained by Jim Ross and he had called WrestleMania. Borash said that Jim Ross is his friend and that Jim Ross thinks Matthews sucks as an announcer. Cody came out and wanted a match with Moose. He was told that Moose wasn’t there and he was in Japan. Moose later appeared, but not on that show. While he was there on the day this airs, maybe he’ll be on the way to Japan since he’s got a match for NOAH on 3/12. In the first match Reno Scum beat Bram & Eddie Kingston. They teased problems in DCC after the loss. Braxton Sutter won over DJZ, Caleb Konley and Marshe Rockett. Allie was in Sutter’s corner. Van Ness came out and argued with Allie. Quinn debuted and was to face Brandi Rhodes. But Cody came out and said that Impact was not going to pimp out the Rhodes name. He gave Quinn $45 to leave, saying it was $20 more than her payoff she was getting for the match. He also brought up Moose being in Japan saying Moose may be in Japan, but that he was Japan. Rosemary than attacked Quinn. Prichard came out with his speech. Prichard talked about how just a few years ago Impact had so much hope, but it never happened. He said the TNA name is dead and the company will be known only as Impact Wrestling from this point forward. He said the company has a great hybrid wrestler as world champion in Lashley and that nobody could beat Lashley. This was where Alberto came out and issued a challenge. Ethan Carter III also came out and said that there’s no way Alberto deserved a title shot since he had never wrestled for the promotion and he wanted Lashley. Lashley blew him off saying he’d beaten him so many times he didn’t deserve a shot, so would be facing Alberto. 

Dutch Mantell came out and followed up by saying that when he was last with the company, TNA was great and he’s here to “Make Impact Great Again.” He talked about how the company had A.J. Styles, Kurt Angle, Samoa Joe, Bobby Roode, Sting, Christian and Kevin Nash. He said they all left because of no vision with the people who were running the company. Mantell said that even more important than all those people leaving was how many fans also left. He said in his job he wants to bring the fans back. He said that the only person he answers to is his boss, and he said the fans were his boss. He said Impact Wrestling is going back to being all about the fans and asked everyone to stand up, put their hand over their heart and say, “We the people will make Impact grow.” Cody came out again and challenged Moose. Borash again told him that Moose was in Japan. Cody sat in the ring, threw down his GFW Nex Gen championship and for a time wouldn’t leave. Eventually, he did leave. Garza Jr. & Laredo Kid beat Eli Drake & Tyrus when Garza Jr. pinned Drake. Sienna pinned Rachael Ellering. Alberto beat Lashley in the title match. 

For the 3/16 Impact show, they taped a situation where Drake was supposed to wrestle Moose. Cody attacked Moose in the back and hit him with a chair. They brawled on the ramp where Cody gave him the crossroads. This was taped here since Cody was only in for one day. They taped two more Xplosion matches. In the first, Trevor Lee won over Andrew Everett, Konley, Idris Abraham, Rockett and DJZ when he pinned Konley. Angelina Love pinned local Florida wrestler Angel Rose. Rose & Davey Richards are now a group called the Natural Born Killers. Then, likely for 3/23 they taped the Moose vs. Cody match for the Grand championship. Cody accidentally superkicked one of the judges. Prichard was then brought out to be a judge. They split the first two rounds. The third round was close and two of the three judges gave the round to Moose so he retained the title. During the match, Brandi walked out on Cody.

Cody on top at another company. Once again...crazy what 3 years makes.

Notes from the 3/3 tapings. ODB pinned Rebel in a comedy match. Referee Earl Hebner tried to kiss Rebel. He then took a drink out of ODB’s flask, and passed out just as he counted the pin. ODB than kissed Hebner. Alberto came out and said that he beat the unbeatable and that the only reason he’s not champion is due to politics. Keep in mind the crowd was told just a few minutes earlier that it was his choice to vacate the title. He wanted a rematch. Ethan Carter III came out and said that Alberto needs to earn his title shot by beating him. Alberto said he’s not interested in EC 3 only Lashley. EC 3 started insulting Alberto until Alberto got mad and agreed to wrestle EC3 with the winner getting the next title shot. Trevor Lee retained the X title in a four-way over Sutter, Suicide and Everett when Lee pinned Sutter due to the distraction of Van Ness. Sienna came out in the role as the bitch who is trying to break up Sutter and Allie, in the role that Maria Kanellis had. She said she’s going to do to them worse than what Maria did. Prichard came out and said that titles are to be won or lost in the ring, not in outer space. He noted that the tag team titles were vacant and that in “two weeks” (which should be the 3/30 show) that there would be a match to determine the new champions. First Abyss & Crazzy Steve came out and said how they saved the titles from space and time. Yeah, by losing every time. Reno Scum came out and noted they beat DCC and deserve the titles. Garza Jr & Laredo Kid were next out. This turned into a brawl with Abyss & Steve clearing the ring. LAX came out, with Konnan, Homicide, Diamante (Angel Rose), Mike Draztic & Angel Ortiz (the New York indie team of EYFBO) and they beat down Abyss & Steve. Davey Richards pinned Suicide. Garza Jr. & Laredo Kid & Mahabali Shera (who has to be kept around because of the relationship with Sony Six in India) beat Idris Abraham & Fallah Baha (a Northeast indie wrestler) & Mario Bokara. Reno Scum beat Decay. Ortiz & Draztic beat Bram & James Storm. Once again, the DCC team came close to splitting up after losing. In a match taped for Xplosion, Angelina Love beat M.J. Jenkins. Lashley pinned Jake Holmes. 

Then we had a big angle. Borash brought out the returning Karen Jarrett. Rather than bury the previous organization, she said that she was going to take the high road. EC 3, who is of course a Carter in storyline, introduced himself to her saying that he was a locker room leader and the top guy now. He said he’s on board to make Impact great again. He said he’s not here and doing this for her last name (meaning Dixie), but for his. Josh Matthews then came out and complained to Karen about how they are putting the JV team (Borash) with him as an announcer. So they’re making it clear that Karen is married to Jeff, that Jeff is in charge, but Jeff at this point isn’t appearing on the screen. One would think this is building for Jeff to come in as the authority figure. Matthews then made fun of them bringing in guys like Prichard and Mantell and aid the only reason the fans are here is because these are the fans who are too cheap to buy tickets to see NXT. He talked up Madison Rayne, who they acknowledged now was his wife. Rayne had been on TV of late but it was never acknowledged they were married. Matthews kept being obnoxious and it ended up with Karen slapping him in the face and she left. Rayne then thanked Josh for standing up for her and said that he was the only one telling the truth. Then, in something taped for an all-women’s taped PPV show (the rest of this show was taped the next afternoon), Van Ness did an interview and was in the ring saying somebody slipped and fell in the dressing room that was supposed to be her opponent so she should be winning her match via forfeit. She told Earl Hebner to award her the match. Hebner gave the opponent ten seconds to come out. Rachael Ellering came out at nine with her shoulder taped up. Van Ness than beat the injured Ellering. Rosemary beat Santana Garrett, who used that name as opposed to the Brittany name she used the last time she worked here. Alberto beat EC 3 in the main event. This sets up a Lashley vs. Alberto rematch. Both shook hands when it was over so it looks like EC 3 is going to be babyface. It’s funny that Alberto did all those interviews talking about how he likes being a heel so much more and shouldn’t be a babyface, even though he’s a nice guy in real life. Yet even as a heel in WWE, he was cheerleading to be a babyface, and he comes in here as a babyface

How was the first tapings back for you? Did you feel welcome back at the first tapings?

They also taped Knockout PPVs. What were your feelings on these tapings?

The 3/4 evening taping looked like mostly stuff for the 3/23 show. Karen Jarrett came out and announced that Maria Kanellis was gone. She claimed that Kanellis suffered a nervous breakdown, blaming it on the botched wedding. So that was burying her on the way out. Karen called out Sienna and said she’s been a bully and that is going to end. Sienna shot back saying that she earned her way to Impact Wrestling, she didn’t marry somebody to get here. Karen demanded an apology. This brought out Kevin Matthews in his debut. He is billed as Sienna’s cousin. Sutter came in to save Karen and Karen then announced Matthews vs. Sutter for later in the show. Van Ness, whose gimmick is that she’s still wearing her wedding dress and has been drinking heavily for weeks at this point, came out, drunk, but still beat M.J. Jenkins. Andrew Everett beat DJZ. Rosemary did an interview. ODB came out and wanted a title shot. All of the other women came out and there was a big brawl. So this set up a Rumble gauntlet match where the winner becomes the top contender for Rosemary’s title. EC 3 came out and talked about wanting to get a title shot. James Storm was back with his old Cowboy James Storm gimmick with his old music. He talked about how high the ratings were when he won the title and said he was going to win it again. Matthews pinned Sutter. Ortiz & Draztic won the four-way to take the tag titles. Eli Drake pinned Konley. 

Prichard came out and said that the issues with Borash and Matthews have to be settled and next week they were going to do a face-off. ODB won the Rumble gauntlet so she’s the new top contender for Rosemary. Storm did another promo saying that he’s going to win the title again. Kingston and Bram came out and said that they were supposed to be together as the DCC and Storm has ruined the DCC and now he’s leaving. Storm laid both out with superkicks after spitting beer in their faces. Everett won a three-way over Rockett and Suicide. Richards beat Edwards in what was apparently the TV main event in a last man standing match

Who the fuck cares about Josh Matthews and Jeremy Borash? 

Do you know the story about James Storm doing the NXT taping and then coming right back to TNA?

Notes from the 3/5 tapings. For Xplosion, Laredo Kid & Garza Jr. won a four-way over Bram & Kingston, Fallah Boha & Mario Bokara and Reno Scum. ODB & MJ Jenkins beat Love & Van Ness. Van Ness was still drunk and wearing her wedding gown. Love got sick of Van Ness and walked out on her. Van Ness was pinned. The drunk Van Ness then kissed Earl Hebner and the two left together. There were some segments taped building the announcers match. Chris Adonis debuted as a babyface and confronted Matthews and said he’s sick of him, it’s a new era of Impact wrestling and threatened to put Josh in the masterlock. Alberto beat Jon Bolen with the Del Rio double foot stomp. Alberto challenged Lashley to come out but he didn’t. Next was Josh and Borash doing their draft picks for the main event. When all of Team Josh, Lashley, Bram, Drake & Tyrus were in the ring, but only two of Team JB, Alberto and Adonis, the heels attacked. Morgan made the big save with help from Magnus and they were the last two picks. Reno Scum won a three-way over Decay and Garza Jr. & Laredo Kid for Xplosion. Shera also beat Baha for Xplosion. Baha beat down Shera after the match and left him laying, so there is apparently a feud between those two for Indian television. Baha resembles Yokozuna so he’s a big guy who uses the bonzai as his finisher. Prichard came out and said that Storm (even though as best we can tell he hasn’t won any big matches) is the new No. 1 contender for Lashley. Not sure where Alberto fits into this. EC 3, is seems to be going back heel, came out to complain. 

Evidently there was a fan poll, which would seem to be impossible given these shows don’t air for weeks, that Storm won to get his shot. EC 3 was mad and Prichard, a babyface authority figure, stood up to him and told EC 3 that he needs to look at himself in the mirror, which he’s very good at doing, and noted that EC 3 didn’t just lose to Alberto, but he tapped out. Sutter & Allie beat Kevin Matthews & Sienna. Sienna tripped over Kevin Matthews and was pinned by Allie. Kongo Kong then attacked Sutter and destroyed him. Van Ness, still in the wedding dress, ran out and she and Sienna beat up Allie. Everett won a four-way X division match over Rockett, Suicide and Gregory Shane Helms in what may have been his first TNA match. Helms didn’t do much. Lee attacked Everett after the match. Richards, now calling himself The Lone Wolf, with Love in his corner, beat DJZ quickly with the ankle lock. Edwards tried to attack Richards but was held back. Alicia and Love went at it and were pulled apart. The show ended with the Team JB over Team Josh eight man tag match.

How long were these tapings and when did you hit your exhaustion wall?

Wrestling Observer 3/20/17

The arguments about the ownership of the Broken Hardy gimmick, voted the best gimmick of 2016 in the Observer awards, led to The Dish Network pulling the plug on the 3/10 ROH 15th Anniversary PPV after threatening legal letters from Anthem the parent company of Impact and The Fight Network.

Anthem sent a cease and desist letter regarding the gimmick, which they claimed to own, to not only the Hardys and Ring of Honor, but also to the cable providers, DirecTV and Dish Network, threatening legal action if the gimmick was used on the show.

ROH wouldn’t allow the Hardys to do their gimmick, as they created new music as opposed to the music they were using in TNA, introduced them as Matt & Jeff Hardy, made no references to their changed personalities, didn’t have the Hardys lead chants of “delete” or “obsolete,” even though the crowd did them themselves, and used Jeff as he’d always been. The Dish Network got cold feet and canceled airing the show. Evidently they felt the 2,000 or less orders they’d have gotten maximum for the show wasn’t worth risking legal action.

The problem is the letters were sent the day of the show, leaving no time for negotiations, which had to leave ROH furious about the cancellation even though they’ve said nothing publicly about it.

Due to the probable legal action going farther, Matt & Jeff Hardy also stayed quiet on the subject, as has Impact. But Rebecca “Reby” Hardy went crazy on social media, and Matt Hardy did release a new “F*** the owl” T-shirt regarding the new Impact logo.

What’s notable is this letter was sent out at the same time Anthem wanted ROH & Impact to have more of a relationship, since both air on The Fight Network.

The belief is that Anthem made the move in response to Matt Hardy trying to trademark the gimmick on 3/1, the day after his contract expired, and felt they needed to move immediately. The timing was a mess for ROH, but more likely, the feeling was they had to do it because they wanted to show they were vigilant regarding the ownership of the intellectual property with the expectation the Hardys are going to WWE.

The trademark issue is why there isn’t a similar issue regarding Mark LoMonica and Bully Ray. LoMonica, who had been burned once before on the Dudleys character which was created in ECW, and Paul Heyman had verbally given he and Devon Hughes the rights to use, but never took care of it legally, saw WWE claim ownership of the Dudleys name and gimmick based on the idea that they had purchased ECW in bankruptcy court, and thus now owned its intellectual property. So when LoMonica came up with the Bully Ray character while in TNA he trademarked it and TNA never opposed the trademark. This would have allowed him to use it, even in WWE.

Anthem is asking for a negotiated percentage of the revenues generated from the gimmick going forward as a settlement to the case. It is hard to believe WWE would allow the Hardys to do the gimmick if they made that settlement. Something like this has never happened where WWE used talent with a gimmick that was established as being owned by a rival wrestling company and paid a percentage of their revenue to use it. More likely, if WWE brought in the Hardys, they would change the gimmick completely, or at least enough of it to where they felt they wouldn’t infringing on it, if they felt Anthem had a case.

As far as the legal situation and who owns what, that boils down to the Hardys contract. I’ve seen a standard TNA contract and it’s made very clear that any intellectual property introduced first on TNA television is completely owned by the company. Now, it is possible Matt Hardy’s contract is difference, since Matt did not have a standard TNA contract, as his deal was never exclusive, even to the point he could have continued to appear on ROH television while working for TNA, but ROH at the time he started with TNA decided against using him. Nevertheless, the legal letters sent to ROH, The Hardys, Dish, DirectTV and the cable companies quoted from the contract and it was enough for ROH to have them drop the gimmick for the most part.

Matt did still look like Broken Matt and in an off-television video and at the TV tapings the next day, but not on PPV where they never did any promos, talked in the same voice.

Impact was claiming ownership of all things related to the gimmick from the music, the phrases and the use of King Maxel, Queen Rebecca, Senor Benjamin and Vanguard One.

Reby Hardy noted Benjamin (her father) was never even paid by TNA nor was he ever under contract, and that the Hardys themselves financed some of the segments on location for Impact when TNA was strapped financially. And Matt was largely the creator of the gimmick and of the segments that aired which got the gimmick over.

This was a situation where Impact and Anthem may be legally right, but it was a bad move from a public relations standpoint. To an extent, blocking talent from using gimmicks they popularized will never be something the average fan would side with the promoter over talent on, unless it was a fan of the promotion and not the talent. If this was WWE and a talent, like say New Day, which really created their own character, not the same, but the original character was a flop and they tweaked it to get it over, they still wouldn’t be able to make it anywhere. WWE didn’t even allow Cody Rhodes to use the family name elsewhere.

But the timing came off badly, and also most people are aware it was Matt who largely came up with the gimmick. Anthem claimed that Jeremy Borash, David Lagana and Billy Corgan all had roles in the gimmick.

Rebecca Hardy’s key points on Twitter in response to all this is to say that there were numerous times Matt could have broken his contract with TNA due to issues, and noted that everyone who had a hand in the Broken Hardys gimmick “has our back,” which would probably be the case since Lagana and Corgan left TNA. She also noted that Ed Nordholm, who runs Impact, sent out a tweet thanking the Hardys and wishing them well, and then hours later the company sent them a threatening legal letter. She also noted that it isn’t like Impact is going to use the Broken Hardys gimmick with other characters as they claimed they were just trying to negotiate a settlement regarding a percentage of future revenues from the gimmick with them. She also pointed out that Matt went to television tapings one day after his son was born, and she claimed the three highest rated segments of the year were personally financed by Matt & Jeff because they believed in TNA. TNA’s ratings on Pop TV were significantly higher after the introduction of the gimmick than before, and it was clearly the company’s hottest act. They probably should have gone harder at keeping it, because the Hardys were not looking to leave even with the WWE offers until Jeff Jarrett was put in charge and the negotiations slowed down due to Anthem not creating a talent budget to work with.

“It’s just very heartbreaking,” said Jeff Hardy to SE Scoops about the legal action. “I gave seven years of my life to Impact Wrestling and TNA and for them to hold this against us, when they threatened to sue Ring of Honor, what they said was a complete lie, that they developed the Broken Universe for us, which is so untrue. We did that all on our own. It started when I broke my leg in April 2015. The positive outcome is that Broken Matt Hardy was born. Brother Nero was born as well. The stuff we did at our home, Final Deletion, was the highest rated show all year for Impact Wrestling and it was just four guys and a couple of sound people. We did it all on our own and we totally developed the characters all on our own. For them to hold this against us like this is very sad and heartbreaking. But I think in the end, we’ll come out on top.”

Jeff Hardy said that if Billy Corgan had won the legal battle and owned the company, he’s pretty sure they’d still be there.

“He is so open minded and he was out there when we filmed Delete or Decay and he was great. He had great ideas and he was out there all night until the sun came up. That said a lot to me for sure. If Billy owned the company, I’m sure I’d still be under contract.”

It was noted that on TNA’s first show, that Wayne Keown came out and did the “We the people” chant, which came from WWE, and he came out in a motorized cart like Zeb Coulter. He mentioned he was Zeb Coulter before but that “my real name is Dutch Mantell.” He could argue that due to ring injuries, he needs the cart to move around with ease, and if WWE had claimed the “We the people” phrase as its IP, Impact probably wouldn’t have used it, so that would be the explanation.

What were your feelings on the whole Broken Hardys - Impact - ROH issues?

How great was it to work with Dutch Mantell again?

TNA put out a video of a supposed board meeting where Bruce Prichard headed it and told Alberto that he had to relinquish the title based on using the belt shot to win it, and that they were giving the title back to Lashley. At first Alberto thought it was a joke, and Prichard asked him, “What would your father do?” He got mad at that. He said he’d give it up if Lashley would give him a rematch, but Dutch Mantell said that while they’d like to agree to that they don’t have the power to order Lashley to do that and that Alberto would have to ask Lashley for a rematch. Well, that made no sense

How much freedom were you given regarding your creative?

Bruce Prichard and Dutch Mantell are both great talkers, but I didn’t see what the point of their segment was. They really put over his podcast strong. An interesting note is the reason Prichard was called was because his podcast was doing great numbers and the idea is his podcast listeners would now watch TNA and with the rating being exactly what it was, and not a good number, that didn’t happen in the first week. Now, there was an increase in Youtube watching of clips, but there is almost no money in that and for whatever anyone wants to say about TV viewership falling across the board, which it is for most things, as TV viewership falls, all sports, including wrestling, are primarily dependent on TV for their revenue. So getting Youtube views up, whether it’s a valid measure of popularity, it’s like trending on Twitter, it’s an adjunct where it’s value is to help ratings, not something you can make money on your own (unless it’s WWE where it can help make you business partners). The best example would be in another era if a promotion was to, in the days when TV didn’t pay, give away all their big matches on TV, and draw big ratings and get a lot of people talking, but nobody bought tickets to the show. You may very well be popular but at the end of the day, you’re out of business because revenue, and not even revenue, but profits, in the end, are the key. I know the idea is have great talkers try to rally people around the idea of making TNA great again . Prichard’s speech was how when he was there, TNA was close to turning it around and was almost there and then it didn’t happen. He talked about how he knew wrestling and was there for Hogan, Austin and Rock. That never comes across well as when you watch another wrestling promotion, it never comes off well to be pushing WWF legends. Mantell brought up Styles, Joe, Nash, Hogan, Flair, Sting, Christian, Booker T and the guys who used to be there and they left because they weren’t treated well. The problem is that most of them today are affiliated with WWE and again it was just getting over that WWE was the major league on their TV. It was funny when he said he was Zeb Coulter but his real name is Dutch Mantell. When the Zeb Coulter character was running into controversy over being in bad taste, he cut a video about how he was just a guy playing a character and his real name was Wayne Keown. But Mantell led the crowd in a “We the people,” but put over that he’s working here for the fans and the fans are his boss. I just remember when Eric Bischoff in WCW tried the idea of how we sucked and our ratings are down and now we’re going to turn it around, that didn’t work well. They never buried the Hardys and showed clips of them on bumpers throughout the show, I guess feeling if they were promoted it would help the ratings during this transition period. They did write off Maria Kanellis by saying she’s had a nervous breakdown and would probably never be in the Impact Zone again and there was a quick goodbye to “Mike,” for Mike Bennett. Prichard tried to put over Lashley as one of the greatest athletes in the world as their world champion, and mentioned that our President (without mentioning his name) handpicked Lashley to defend him.

What are your feelings on what Meltzer said regarding no movement in ratings and the hope of the cross promotion between the podcast and getting people to watch Impact?

Did you feel that the speech you gave on TV talking about the past and the stars was something that was productive?

Did you think the thought process of promoting guys that were on WWE made TNA look like a smaller promotion?

The Donald Trump stuff was pretty funny though.

Wrestling Observer 3/27/17

Not a lot to say about the second week of Impact under the new regime on 3/16. It was an easy-to-watch show. The crowd was hot all the way through which hasn’t been the case in a long time. Bruce Prichard as an authority figure is fine. The good thing is he’s not doing the tired heel routine and can talk. But the one thing you don’t want to be is seen as low-rent regional wrestling, and the wardrobe on television was screaming that loudly through the screen, although I suppose people may bring up Daniel Bryan on Smackdown, but WWE doesn’t have a stigma to overcome.

A compliment from Meltzer but a knock about your clothes. What’s up with that?

Wrestling Observer 4/3/17

The entire show was built around a Karen Jarrett interview with the idea that “She” is coming. But she would be the third authority figure after Prichard and Dutch Mantell introduced. It is better than it was and obviously with the Anthem backing they aren’t one step from extinction as they were almost all of 2016

Too many authority figures don’t you think?

Wrestling Observer 5/1/17

The theme at the tapings from 4/20 to 4/23 was that Impact and Global Force Wrestling have merged. Karen Jarrett, pushed as the co-Founder of Global Force, made the statement. So the GFW titles started being defended. Magnus lost his title on 4/22 to Alberto el Patron. Christina Von Eerie lost her women’s title to Sienna on 4/21. They did a tournament for the vacant GFW tag titles (when GFW stopped taping, The Bollywood Boyz were champions) which saw LAX of Santana & Ortiz become dual GFW & TNA tag team champions beating Mayweather & Wilcox, who are called the VOW (Veterans of War). Mayweather used to be Crimson. His real name is Anthony Mayweather. Wilcox is Jax Dane. Another title change saw Low Ki return and win the X title in a six-way on the show that aired on 4/20.

How confusing was making this considering GFW wasn’t really a TV property at this point?

They may be building to unification matches on PPV. The 7/2 Slammiversary main event will be Bobby Lashley vs. Alberto El Patron as TNA vs. GFW champion as well as the match to determine who would be the lead announcer with Jeremy Borash & Joseph Park (Abyss with his old gimmick back as a lawyer) vs. Josh Matthews & Scott Steiner. The story is that when Matthews lost at the last taping which meant he was no longer announcer, it was just something he said but it wasn’t in writing. He showed up about an hour into the show the next week and just started announcing again. Late in the show his explanation was that he lost, he said he was going to leave, he left, Borash & Pope were doing terrible, so he came back. The idea is that they put it in writing and they were just living up to their word and Matthews’ word isn’t good. Well, except Impact advertised it with the stips. Anyway, there is a big picture problem here and that is doing that stuff when the public already has a bad idea about the promotion isn’t a way to change that feeling, and going back to the old tricks that no longer work isn’t going to turn things around either. The 4/20 show ended with Matthews saying Borash wasn’t man enough to hit him, so Borash punched him just as the show was going off the air. This led to Borash getting suspended the next week because, in a WWE spoof, Matthews complained to management that he was being bullied at the announcers desk and that Impact had no choice but to suspend him. Park was then hired as Borash’s attorney and got him off suspension and he comes back. Then both are announcing and continue their bickering during the shows which already ran its course and now will be continuing until early July.

Who...the...fuck...cares?

The tapings covered the rest of April and all of May. The next set of tapings will be 5/30 and 5/31 in Mumbai, India where they’ll tape four weeks of shows for June, with the final angles for Slammiversary.

Were you worried about going to India or was it never really scheduled?

There was a big backstage argument at the tapings on 4/23. It started with Karen Jarrett and Bob Ryder, and then escalated to Jeff Jarrett and Bob Ryder. The first argument was over Ryder forgetting to book a hotel room. Jeff and Ryder’s argument was apparently very heated and it appeared at the time that Jarrett was going to fire him. Jeff told him to leave the tapings, which he did in the middle of the show. But after the tapings were over, both were back at the office in Nashville working like nothing had happened.

Has anyone done less in the business than Bob Ryder and hung on to being involved in a major way for the last 20 years?

Notes from the 4/20 tapings. The TV show opened with a strong video package for the Bobby Lashley vs. James Storm title match. Ortiz & Santana, as LAX, beat Joe Coleman & Jake Homes on 2:32. Coleman & Holmes are from Detroit and are students of Scott D’Amore. Coleman looks to have potential. LAX won with a double-team blockbuster off the top rope on Holmes, called the street sweeper. Konnan did an interview and said LAX was as serious as a late period. Decay came out and there was a pull-apart brawl which ended with Santana doing a running flip dive over the top onto everyone. Karen Jarrett, called the Queen of the Mountain, came out. She said she was the co-founder of GFW and that GFW and Impact Wrestling have merged. If that’s the case, how come Chael Sonnen isn’t announcing and Pope is still there? The fans politely applauded, kind of like they thought they should have. Karen is usually very good on interviews but she was shaky here. She said tonight’s show was the Night of Champions and ran down the show. Sonjay Dutt showed up and said he wanted to make the Trevor Lee vs. Andrew Everett match into a three-way because he’d never held the X title and was back and looking for a chance. He talked about how he and others made the X Division and how the X Division was the cornerstone of the company, and said he thinks it should be the main event. Everett came out and he didn’t think Dutt belonged in the match. Lee & Shane Helms were out. Helms said that if Dutt was here for years and years and never won the title, maybe it means he sucks. Bruce Prichard came out and first ordered a three-way, but then said the ring had six sides so he was going to add three more guys. This led to a brawl with Helms & Lee vs. Dutt & Everett. Everett & Dutt cleaned house and both grabbed the belt.

They did a personality profile on Mayweather. He said his name was Anthony Mayweather, that he used to be Crimson, talked about growing up without a father, showed his football photos from high school and said after high school he went to college, partied too much, and was gone, so he enlisted and now he’s part of the VOW team. Rosemary beat ODB to keep the Knockouts title in 3:44 with the F-5, which is called the red wedding. This match was bad. Swoggle came out. MacKenzie Mitchell interviewed Prichard and Karen Jarrett and asked who the other people in the X title match would be. Prichard said Suicide was one of them but said the others would be a surprise, and said he Karen had to now watch the Knockouts title match and left. The only problem is this interview was placed after the Knockouts title match had ended. Oh well. Sienna confronted Karen and wanted the GFW women’s champion.

How do things work that something like that can happen?
How good was Karen Jarrett as a talker?

Notes from the 4/21 tapings. This stuff will air in May, but not sure dates. Matthews came out with Scott D’Amore, Pat Kenney and another person who played a role that may have been a lawyer and they announced the Borash suspension. Sydal beat Trevor Lee with a shooting star press. Sienna beat Von Eerie to win the GFW title. EC 3 beat Jon Bolen with the one percenter. He vowed to win the title at Slammiversary, although he ended up not in the title match. Borash was walking around the building with a “Free JB” sign and the crowd chanted “Free JB.” Magnus beat Matt Morgan to keep the GFW title with a low blow. Kongo Kong, managed by Laurel Van Ness, beat William Waits. They are building a mixed tag program with Kong & Van Ness vs. Braxton Sutter & Allie. Sutter & Allie came out during this segment. Laredo Kid & Garza Jr. beat Idris Abraham & Haki Zane. Sienna retained the GFW title over ODB. Sydal pinned Edwards with a shooting star press in what was said to be really good. Davey Richards & Angelina Love attacked Edwards & wife Alisha. Moose beat Marshe Rockett to keep the Grand championship. EC 3 did a promo mocking James Storm, pretending to be a cowboy and sang a parody of “Friends in Low Places.” Storm came out. They had a brawl which led to EC handcuffing him to the ropes, pulling off his shirt and whipping Storm with a belt. When Kenney tried to break it up, he got whipped a few times as well. Alberto beat Eli Drake with the double foot stomp. Tyrus was interfering but got kicked out. Alberto did an interview which was probably just for the live crowd considering he told Matthews to “Get the F*** out” and about how he left Paige in San Antonio and didn’t bring her here because he didn’t want her getting in trouble.

How messy was Alberto and Paige at the time?

Notes from the 4/22 tapings. Borash was still suspended here and they got fans to chant “Free JB.” Everett won a four-way over Sydal, Xavier and Konley. Alisha beat Love via DQ when Love used Brass Knux. Edwards was on crutches from an attack earlier. Richards attacked Edwards with his crutches. LAX (Santana & Ortiz) beat Garza Jr. & Laredo Kid in the first round of the GFW tag title tournament when they pinned Garza. Alberto beat Magnus with the armbar to win the GFW title. In his promo after winning, Alberto said he left that other place because he was so miserable but has no found a place he can call home. Kong pinned Sutter. KM, Sienna, Van Ness and Kong beat down Allie & Sutter after the match. Shera made the save to set up Shera & Sutter vs. Kong & KM. Kevin Matthews is going by KM because they already have Josh Matthews. Next was the Funeral segment for Decay. LAX was there and Konnan said they were going to blaze one up in Decay’s honor and said this funeral also represents all the other tag teams. A planted fan waved an American flag and Konnan said that flag was as useful as toilet paper. This led to the Veterans of War destroying LAX. EC 3 was wrestling Storm. Magnus was at ringside, with the idea he was injured. Magnus started arguing with Storm. Prichard came out and kicked Magnus out. EC 3 then attacked the ref and started whipping ref Brian Stiffler with a belt. Magnus came back out and attacked Storm. Prichard ordered a three-way. Prichard once again cut a promo on EC 3, with the idea he’s a Carter and from the old administration. Prichard told EC 3 that he needed to find his balls. EC 3 then beat down Prichard. So this angle set up Prichard hiring Tyrus as his bodyguard. After the funeral for Decay, Joseph Park showed up as the lawyer for Borash and announced he had been reinstated after his suspension. Park announced Borash is back as the lead announcer immediately. Matthews said that everyone knows Park is Abyss. This set up the announcement of Park & Borash vs. Matthews and a mystery partner. The main event on the show saw Low Ki retain the X title in a three-way ladder match over Lee and Everett.

Is this really all you did for 3 days?
How involved were you with the scripting of this?
Any issues being physical?

Notes from the final tapings on 4/23. They did an afternoon taping for a One Night Only show with Lashley beating Edwards to retain the title in the main event. For Impact, Borash announced that Josh Matthews won’t be on the show. Prichard has hired Tyrus as his bodyguard because of what EC 3 did. They announce EC 3 vs. Magnus vs. Storm in a no DQ match for the No. 1 contender for Lashley. KM & Kong beat Sutter & Shera when KM pins Shera. After the match, Sienna and Van Ness beat up Allie until Rosemary made the save, blowing mist at Sienna and Laying out Van Ness. In the other semifinal in the GFW tag title tourney, Mayweather & Wilcox beat Bah & Mario Bokara when Mayweather pinned Bokara. Josh Matthews came out and asked Borash to come to the ring. Matthews said he’s made a lot of mistakes. He apologized to Mike Tenay for taking his job. He said he unblocked Dave Penzer on Twitter and made up with Shark Boy. He apologized to Borash. Park told him not to do it. Borash asked who his partner is. Matthews wouldn’t tell him. Scott Steiner then showed up and laid out Park and Matthews announced he was the partner. Steiner chased Borash away so Matthews did commentary the rest of the show. Edwards & Alisha beat Richards & Love. Alisha pinned Love but Love put Alisha through a table while Richards held back Edwards. The main event of that show is EC 3 over Magnus and Storm in a no DQ match. This was a weapons match which ended when Storm superkicked Magnus, but EC 3 gave Storm a jumping knee from behind and stole the pin on Magnus. The final show taped starts with Moose over Drake via decision in a Grand Championship match. The judges were Prichard, Dutch Mantell and Scott D’Amore. Allie beat Amber Nova, a Florida indie wrestler, in a short match. They brought out a Barber Shop quartet called The Orange Blossom Quartet to sing songs about EC 3. Alberto came out and Karen Jarrett and Prichard announce EC 3 vs. Alberto with the winner facing Lashley in the Slammiversary main event. Santana & Ortiz beat Mayweather & Wilcox in the finals of the GFW tag tourney. Konnan hit Mayweather with a pipe and Ortiz hit Wilcox with a belt shot. Low Ki kept the X title in a three-way over Everett and Dutt when Low Ki pinned Everett. They did an angle where Rockstar Spud beat down Swoggle with a hammer so they’re doing a program. Alberto beat EC 3 in the cage match with a double foot stomp followed by a frog splash to get the title shot. This was said to be a really good bout.

How was being paired up with Tyrus?
What did you think of the judges and the Grand championship?

Wrestling Observer 5/15/17

TNA: Regarding the cancellation of the World of Sport tapings, the public story is logistical problems and the idea the tapings were too close to the dates for the Impact tapings in India (which are 5/30 and 6/1) and they are having trouble getting new dates, but that’s a clear cover reason. The key problem is what was reported here last week regarding ITV and Impact not coming to a business agreement over their partnership. ITV wants to do it, and the feeling was that they had the structure to handle a taping for one show, but not a promotion, which is where TNA came aboard since they have experience in running a wrestling business. It’s certainly not dead that they would be able to reach an agreement and do tapings later. It also may not happen. Whether ITV would do it on their own or work with a U.K. promotion is still up in the air. The problem with the U.K. promotions is that all the talent in the U.K., besides those signed with WWE & Anthem are free agents and work everywhere, and ITV would want a crew under contract so WWE couldn’t pick them off. The Mirror reported that the shows won’t be taped until 2018 which will kill the project because I don’t see any top talent not getting signed somewhere before that. A lot of the talent doesn’t think it’s going to happen now since no new dates were announced and just the way it quietly was announced as not happening. One person key in the plans said the story they were told was they were looking at starting in the next year, which sounds a lot less promising than if they said they’d be taping in the next two months. There were several minor things done to sabotage the project but ultimately I think ITV wanted to try wrestling which used to be cheap programming in the old days, but now it’s expensive and you have to sign the talent to deals or you’ll lose them if they are good to one of many different companies, most notably WWE. There are major issues that aren’t settled. ITV supposedly has a backup plan, but working with What Culture is not something that is being considered right now based on what we’re told. A lot of the talent signed by ITV was unhappy when the word was that Impact would be taking over and wanted out, and even more disappointed when these shows were canceled. Some were told that it may not be until next year when the first tapings take place, which is where the starting back in 2018 story came from. There was actually talk among some of the guys of a Radicalz 2000 jump to WWE, which obviously would have loved to have taken the top tier talent from the project, but many of the key contracts with ITV from the first set of tapings were for one year, so they have a long way to go. There was talk of some of them being at the WWE tryouts, but I’m not sure WWE would let guys try out publicly who have existing contracts and we didn’t hear anything about the contracted guys here trying out. Others involved with the project outright told us that given how everything went down this past week, with the cancellation and not even a clue of a new tapings date, or the nebulous early 2018, that they are going with their own mentality of like it’s not happening, and it’s a big disappointment because much of the talent had high hopes for the project

Were you ever aware of what was going on with the England deal and Jeff?

Wrestling Observer 5/29/17

Ed Nordholm discussed a lot of things regarding the lawsuit against the Hardys and the taking of the IP.

Did you work close with Ed Nordholm? Thoughts and feelings on him? Thoughts and feelings on the whole IP and the Broken Hardy gimmick?

Wrestling Observer 6/5/17

The Slammiversay show on 7/2 from Orlando, based on the final TV show taped in Mumbai, will have as its top matches Bobby Lashley vs. Alberto El Patron in an Impact vs. GFW title unification match, Jeremy Borash & Joseph Park vs. Josh Matthews & Scott Steiner for the lead announcer position, Rosemary vs. Sienna in an Impact vs. GFW unification match, Full Metal Mayhem (TLC match) with Eddie Edwards & Alisha Edwards vs. Davey Richards & Angelina Love, Ethan Carter III vs. James Storm in a strap match and Dutt vs. Low Ki in a 2/3 fall match for the X title. There will probably be an LAX tag title match and something with Braxton Sutter & Allie with KM & Laurel Van Ness. They also seemed to tease Moose & DeAngelo Williams vs. Eli Drake & Chris Adonis. Williams is an NFL star who played for the Carolina Panthers and Pittsburgh Steelers and who led the NFL in rushing touchdowns in 2008 (18) and 2015 (11) and rushed for 1,515 yards in the 2008 seasons. He has appeared once on Impact TV in recent months.

Were you involved with creative yet at this point? What were your feelings on the card and how it was shaping up?

How was India?

Notes from the 5/30 tapings in Mumbai. This should make up most of the next two weeks of television. Low Ki pinned Caleb Konley. Low Ki was bleeding from the eye after a dive by Conley. Sonjay Dutt came out wearing an eye patch and said that now Low Ki knows how it feels. So they are turning the accident where Dutt got his eye busted into a storyline. Dutt talked about how they wrestled years ago in New York and said there’s no Homicide or Hit Squad to help Low Ki and now they’re in Mumbai, India and challenged him to a title match. Low Ki accepted. Davey Richards beat Indian wrestler Vinaash Verma with the ankle lock. After the match, EC 3 came out and whipped Verma with a belt until James Storm made the save. Rosemary beat Laurel Van Ness when she shoved Van Ness into Sienna on the apron and rolled her up. Van Ness and Sienna attacked Rosemary until Allie made the save with a broom and hit both of them with it. Rosemary took the broom away from Allie and they teased her attacking Allie with it and dropped it and smiled at her.

EC 3 came out and said his name was Ethan Singh III and had an Indian translator with him. He claimed to be partly Indian way back and then started insulting India and Indians and then ripped on Sony, who promoted this tour and airs the show, and Impact. The translator refused to translate him ripping on India and its people so EC 3 started whipping the translator with a belt until Storm made the save. Storm got the belt but EC 3 ran off. Storm helped the translator up. Josh Matthews, as a wrestler, beat a local enhancement guy called Sandeep, who was an overweight guy who was supposed to be a non-talent. Matthews won with a swanton and camel clutch, or perhaps they’ll call it the Steiner recliner since he’s teaming with Scott Steiner on the Slammiversary PPV. Matthews wouldn’t let go of the hold. So instead of Jeremy Borash or Joseph Park making the save, since they are the guys Matthews is facing on PPV, they had Mahabali Shera make the save. Shera was supposed to pick Matthews up, but botched it, but they can edit that off television. He did it again. Bobby Lashley ran in to attack Shera. Lashley took out Shera and Matthews put Shera in the camel clutch. Alberto El Patron then ran in and made the save, and the segment ended with Alberto and Shera posing together.

Braxton Sutter beat Trevor Lee with a neckbreaker. Sienna and Van Ness came out and they complained about Allie hitting them with a weapon. They challenged Allie & Rosemary to a tag team match and joked that Rosemary may not even show up. Shera won a 10-man Rumble gauntlet match for the Sony Six Invitational Trophy. In the match were Suicide (Konley), Matt Sydal, Richards, KM, Swoggle, Eddie Edwards, Rockstar Spud, Kongo Kong, Moose and Shera in that order. It came down to Shera and KM and they had a regular match which Shera won with a pump handle slam. Shera hugged his father and brother and the CEO of Sony Pictures. Bruce Prichard and Scott D’Amore presented the trophy to Shera. Moose came out for an interview. Eli Drake and Chris Adonis (Chris Masters) came out to confront him. Drake mostly talked about how Moose is a kiss ass to Prichard. This was to set up a tag match at Slammiversary with Moose and a mystery partner against Drake & Adonis.

Alberto came out and the fans were cheering him big-time. He promised he’d beat Lashley and become the undisputed world champion at Slammiversary. Yes, undisputed. Lashley came out and said he was the realest wrestler in the business and could beat Alberto in the cage or the parking lot. Prichard came out and talked about how both guys should defend their titles tonight against mystery opponents. Lashley then beat Moose to keep his title with a spear after twice kicking out of Moose spears. Alberto then beat Adonis to keep his title with Del Rio style double foot stomp. After the match, Adonis & Drake attacked Alberto until Moose ran in and Alberto and Moose cleaned house. The final match saw Dutt winning the X title from Low Ki. Low Ki ripped off Dutt’s eye patch. Dutt won with a tornado DDT and Hindu press and they had the babyfaces come out and do an in-ring celebration with champagne of Dutt winning the title. Dutt celebrated with Shera’s father and said that he won the title for the entire nation of India.

Notes from the 5/31 tapings. This should be for the final shows leading to Slammiversary. Dutt came out with Punjabi dancers, basically the same deal that WWE did with Mahal, except Dutt is a babyface. Shera was celebrating with Dutt. Dutt said it took him 15 years to win the title and he was happy to win it in India. He promised to be the greatest X division champion of all-time. Low Ki came out to congratulate him. He said Dutt had luck but made use of his luck to win the title. He said since he gave Dutt a shot, that Dutt should give him a shot. Dutt agreed and asked for it to be 2/3 falls at Slammiversary. Low Ki agreed and shook his hand. Then Low Ki turned on Dutt and also attacked Shera. He hit the double foot stomp off the top on Shera. He was about to do the same to Dutt, when Sydal made the save. Swoggle and Spud brawled all over the crowd to set up a street fight later.

Van Ness & Sienna beat Allie & Rosemary. They first teased Rosemary not coming out as her music played and she wasn’t there. But she came out of the crowd to attack them. KM helped out Van Ness & Sienna leading to Sutter coming out and chasing KM to the back. Sienna pinned Rosemary to win after a Van Ness curb stomp. Shera pinned KM. The deal is Shera was injured by Low Ki and the doctors tried to stop him from coming out. KM destroyed him early but Shera came back and won with the Sky high. Kongo Kong came out and they laid out Shera with Kong laying him out after a splash off the top rope. Shera had to be helped to the back. They announced the Sony Six X Division Invitational, which was a six-way elimination match like they do in Mexico with Sydal winning over Trevor Lee, Richards, Suicide (Caleb Konley), Sutter and Edwards. Suicide pinned Sutter. Lee pinned Suicide. Richards was DQ’d for hitting Edwards with a chair. Edwards was then also DQ’d for hitting Richards with a chair. Sydal then pinned Lee to win using a shooting star press.

Drake & Adonis came out. They got the crowd to chant “Moose.” They joked that Moose rhymes with Bruce and that maybe Prichard was his partner. Moose came out and said he doesn’t have a partner because all his friends are tied up, saying Edwards is fighting Richards, Alberto is fighting Lashley and even Rosemary is fighting Sienna. Moose then said his partner would be DeAngelo Williams. Drake and Adonis then laid out Moose. The CEO of Sony Pictures in India along with Prichard and D’Amore presented Sydal with his trophy for winning the six-way. Alberto & Storm beat Lashley & EC 3 via DQ. EC 3 started whipping ref Brian Stiffler with a belt and Brian Hebner came out to order a DQ. Alberto grabbed a chair and chased Lashley away and posed with both the Impact and GFW belts. Sydal & Dutt beat Trevor Lee & Low Ki when Sydal used a shooting star press on Lee for the pin.

They did several contract signing ceremonies. They did one for Rosemary vs Sienna, Edwards & his wife vs. Richards & his wife, EC 3 vs. Storm and Lashley vs. Alberto. Lashley and Alberto had a brawl. Prichard then announced a match with Lashley & Richards & EC 3 & Kong vs. Alberto & Edwards & Storm & Shera. Drake & Adonis beat the Mumbai Cats. Sutter & Allie & Rosemary beat KM & Van Ness & Sienna when Rosemary pinned Sienna with Red Wedding. Alberto & Storm & Edwards & Shera beat Kong & Richards & EC 3 & Lashley. Shera came out first and all the heels destroyed him until Alberto came out. The idea is that Shera was too badly injured and he was taken to the back and the faces were down 4-on-3. Shera came back out several minutes later and made a hot tag and even got a near fall on Lashley. Shera hung Kong on the top rope and Alberto did his double foot stomp on Kong for the win, and there was a big celebration when it was over. The main event saw Swoggle beat Spud in a street fight. They had a dwarf from India as the guest ref. They used a million different objects. Spud pulled the refs pants down. Swoggle and the ref pulled Spud’s pants down. Swoggle put Spud through a table for the win and Swoggle and the ref celebrated.

How was the crowds? How did the talent feel about India?

Do you feel the tapings so far in advance suffered the product in trying to build to the PPV?

Wrestling Observer 6/19/17

IMPACT: The first show from Mumbai, India was notable because the show itself when you were watching it looked like it was from the Impact Zone. The two studios are remarkably similar and they didn’t dress the studio up to look different. The crowd was more enthusiastic, partially because they were prompted to be and because it was something new to them. The out of the ring video features were very good for the most part. It’s too bad they ruined their goodwill to the audience and WWE put out so much product and Impact established itself as being so secondary that for most fans there simply isn’t the time to watch it. The serious wrestling is good and Bobby Lashley has been booked better as world champion than WWE champions. Still, there is way too much authority figure backstage stuff. The first show had four different Bruce Prichard segments in what seemed like 45 minutes. I think Prichard is very good as far as he’s a good talker, knows how to talk to a wrestling audience. I’d rather have a more babyface authority figure just because the heel stuff is overdone, but I’d rather they were used sparingly instead of as almost the guy who is carrying the show. Also, in 2017, the Rockstar Spud vs. Swoggle thing just feels really out of place

Do you think they pushed a lot of you because of who was or wasn’t at the shows?

Wrestling Observer 6/26/17

IMPACT: The company released agents Al Snow, Pat Kenney and Shane Helms this past week which is clearly budget-cutting. Kenney, 49, has been with the company since 2003. Snow, 53, started at the end of 2008. Helms, 42, started in 2015. They are going with Sonjay Dutt and Abyss as the agents since they can double as wrestlers. Dutt is tight with Jeff Jarrett and is in charge of finding the top unsigned talent and rebuilding the X division among other things. The fact they’ve had to start letting people go when they already have a skeleton crew to begin with, is not a good sign for right now and for Anthem’s ability to grow the company. As far as the choices went, Jarrett is going to want his people in, and Helms is also closely aligned with the Hardys, who aren’t there anymore. There is a ton of frustration with the reality that as long as they are on Pop TV, their numbers are pretty limited in what they can draw, but with the numbers they are getting and it being pro wrestling with its lack of appeal to advertisers, these numbers make it hard to get a bigger outlet. Citing what you used to do with Spike got them Pop, but in the TV world, Spike is so many years back now that it’s ancient history

Were you aware this was going on and going to happen?
What were your thoughts on Snow, Kenney & Helms in the agent role?
What about Sonjay and Abyss considering their now in WWE working as agents?

Because Jeremy Borash and Josh Matthews will be wrestling at Slammiversary on 7/2 in Orlando, the announce team for that one show only will be Robert Flores, who is a wrestling fan, with Don West, who is back working with the company. West probably should stay. Flores being in the spot showed that Mike Tenay turned it down since he’s been the first choice all along

How did you feel about Robert Flores and Don West doing commentary on a PPV?

Wrestling Observer 7/3/17

The company sent out a press release that Impact Wrestling has acquired Global Force Wrestling. The deal essentially is that the company Anthem Wrestling Entertainment is the new parent company of Impact/TNA Wrestling, and that Jeff Jarrett will be on the board of managers, be the Chief Creative Officer (the role he’s held already) and also be cut in for an ownership stake in the new company. In the release announcing this, they stated that all the Impact and GFW titles will be merged at Slammiversary, although that had been decided months ago

Odd that this is literally going to court 6/30 regarding the lawsuit that has to do with exactly this?

Wrestling Observer 7/10/17

Impact Wrestling did another round of rebranding this week, as at television, the new graphics read “GFW Impact! Wrestling.”

So the promotion’s call letters are GFW, for Global Force Wrestling, the name of the promotion Jeff Jarrett attempted to start and ran 13 weeks of television tapings in Las Vegas in 2015, but was unable to sell the show in the U.S. or the U.K. The GFW tapes were acquired by Anthem as part of the deal where Jeff Jarrett became a stakeholder in the new company, and will be used for some of the commitments to “One Night Only” specials in India that will air on PPV in the U.S.

Another rebranding?

Just about everyone on all sides felt the TNA name had too much negative baggage. When Billy Corgan attempted to purchase the company, he noted one of his earliest moves would be to change the name.

Slammiversary on 7/2 from Orlando was the first show under the new banner, which included unification of the Impact, formerly TNA, and GFW titles with GFW champion Alberto El Patron beating Impact champion Bobby Lashley in the main event, and GFW women’s champion Sienna beating Impact champion Rosemary. The titles are now called GFW titles although the women’s division will be called Knockouts rather than women.

Slammiversary was generally well received, although it likely did very little business. The negatives are that the Orlando crowd is just so dead and gives the show a tired feeling, and the booking seems out of date in the sense every match seemingly had to have gimmicked finishes rather than what is in vogue in the company’s that are growing around the world, which is winners and losers using finishing moves. It feels like those in charge are trying to replicate the wrestling finish and booking style that used to be, because American wrestling was filled with that, but that fan base was dwindling, as opposed to being up on current trends in the business. It felt watching like if it 1990 when the Japanese business changed, and All Japan and New Japan had to follow UWF which went to all clean finishes, that if All Japan and New Japan, the bigger groups, just ignored it and still did all the double count outs. Instead, the clean finishes, while being more difficult to protect the top guys from never losing, ended up leading to a business turnaround because people were tired of buying big matches with old type of finishes.

Japan, Tokyo Dome, ********* stars

Those at GFW claim the PPV number tripled that of last year’s show although it’s not like last year’s show did any significant business. But that’s still a positive as far as the TV audience isn’t significantly different, so the build and hype for the show beat that of the year before soundly.

Another issue with this group is that as compared to WWE, ROH and New Japan, the quality of wrestling isn’t that strong. They are getting better and the new hires include some solid wrestlers. That wouldn’t matter so much if they were on Spike and drawing big television numbers and their storylines were working. But they are doing small television numbers and it’s an audience where the bullshit fake pro wrestling stories don’t resonate.

Would you agree with that assessment?

The promotion was trying to push its international connections, and opened the show with Alejandro Morez of The Crash, Yusuke Fuma of NOAH, Dorian Roldan of AAA and Ed Nordholm of Impact/GFW on the stage. Jeff Jarrett has been good with a certain cutting through of politics, because not only did they have someone from The Crash and AAA on the same stage, but also had teams from each promotion in the same match. From a Mexico standpoint, this was like a show in Mexico where you’d have Eric Bischoff and Paul Heyman together on the same stage and with ECW and WCW talent in the same tag team match against each other.

They tried to replicate Final Deletion with the Jeremy Borash & Joseph Park vs. Scott Steiner & Josh Matthews match, where much of the match was pre-taped with a ton of gimmicks. But in the end, the decision was made not to change the announcers so the threesome will be Borash & Matthews & The Pope, so the entire reason the feud existed from the start was shelved, likely because Jarrett probably liked Matthews as a heel announcer.

This seemed to be a thing with Impact. 

The biggest mainstream story coming out of the show was DeAngelo Williams, a former All-American and NFL Pro Bowl running back with the Carolina Panthers and Pittsburgh Steelers, doing a pro wrestling match, teaming with Moose against Chris Adonis (Masters) & Eli Drake.

To say Williams looked impressive would be the understatement of the year. He had only three days of training with his opponents and Scott D’Amore. Even though his spots were obviously choreographed and the table didn’t break right on the finish, he was significantly better than even guys like Kurt Angle were in their first match. I’ve never seen a guy in his first match close to as good. At 34, he would be old to start, but there’s not a doubt in my mind that if he wanted to be, he’d quickly become one of the best wrestlers in the business. Lots of guys have great athletic ability, but he had a sense of timing that it usually takes guys more than a year of training to get and sold like a guy with several years experience. There are guys in NXT who have been there daily for three years who aren’t as advanced as he is.

But it’s a moot point, as Williams, a longtime fan, only wanted to do it once. Because the current style of pro wrestling is so physically demanding at the top level, unlike in years past when ex-NFL stars would go into pro wrestling, now, for the most part, if you’re an NFL star, by the time you’re out of the game, you’re body is thrashed. With Williams, you’re talking about a running back with 2,699 carries between college and pro football. Like Kevin Greene, who also had great natural aptitude for pro wrestling, when he got out of football, he wasn’t interested in beating up his body more. With Williams, who is now a free agent, he’s still interested in playing football this coming season.

Seriously how good was he at this PPV? Any expectation of that whatsoever?

With Borash and Matthews wrestling on the show, Robert Flores, who is a big fan, did the announcing with Don West. West did a good job in putting over the excitement of the matches and I have no idea why they have The Pope and Matthews announcing and not West.

1. Santana & Ortiz won a four-way over Garza Jr. & Laredo Kid, Taiji Ishimori & Naomichi Marufuji and Drago & El Hijo del Fantasma in 15:10 to retain the GFW tag team titles. Santana & Ortiz, or LAX, held both the GFW and old TNA titles so there was no need to unify. They billed this as stars from three different companies, The Crash, NOAH and AAA as challengers. This was all kinds of moves back-and-forth. Marufuji seemed a little off in the six-sided ring. Drago & Fantasma looked good. Diamante at ringside tripped Fantasma the first time he tried his best tope in wrestling. Drago at one point slipped and fell off the top rope. There was a triple moonsault to the floor spot. Marufuji did a flip dive on Santana. Ishimori did a dove on Drago. Fantasma did his tope on Marufuji. Homicide interfered and hit the Gringo killer on Garza when the ref was distracted. Drago did a tornillo dive on Ishimori. Laredo Kid did a Spanish fly on Santana for a great near fall. LAX did a double-team blockbuster on Laredo Kid for the pin. Konnan, after the match, vowed that there would be a new member of LAX coming. ***

Lots of talent in this ring. It came together really good and you can see the beginnings of some of the talent.

2. Moose & DeAngelo Williams beat Eli Drake & Chris Adonis in 10:34. Gary Barnidge, an NFL player and Austin Dillon, a NASCAR driver who won this year’s Coca Cola 600, were in Moose & Williams’ corner. Moose & Williams came out with cheerleaders, which included local independent wrestlers Amanda Keiner and Mila Naniki. Robert Flores kept calling Adonis by his old name Chris Masters. Drake tried a springboard move and slipped off in a real big botch. Williams tagged in and hit a Samoan drop and a standing moonsault on Drake. Moose did a crossbody off the middle rope to the floor on Adonis & Drake. Adonis & Drake set up a table And Adonis put Moose on the table. Drake went to the top rope but Williams shoved him off. Moose put Adonis on the table and Williams splashed off the top, but actually overshot so the table didn’t break. Williams pinned Masters. The announcers pushed that Williams did better than Dennis Rodman, Karl Malone or Jay Leno. I mean, come on. Moose called an audible since the table didn’t break, and brought Drake back to the ring and power bombed him through the table. **¾

DeAngelo was covered above but it can be covered here. What did Chris Masters not have?

3. Ethan Carter III beat James Storm in 10:37 in a strap match. The angle that set this up was Carter whipping Storm 31 times, so Storm immediately whipped Carter over and over. EC 3 came back choking Storm with the strap and whipping him. EC 3 pulled Storm off the top rope and pulled out handcuffs. EC 3 tried to handcuff Storm to the ropes, but Storm managed to handcuff EC 3 to the ropes. So Storm whipped EC 3 32 times. Brian Hebner came out to unlock EC 3. Storm used EC 3's one percenter for a near fall. EC 3 pulled on the strap and Storm’s head went into the post. EC 3 hit the one percenter but Storm kicked out. Don West pushed that he’d never seen anyone kick out of the one percenter when EC 3 just had a few seconds earlier. Storm hit a superkick, but then collapsed. The idea was it was a delayed reaction from the ringpost spot. EC 3 gave him a pedigree and pinned him. They had medical personnel all around Storm. ***

EC 3 seems like he’s there until the bell rings. Is that what is missing with him?

4. Joseph Park & Jeremy Borash beat Scott Steiner & Josh Matthews in a no DQ match in 10:51. Matthews was billed as the company’s Vice President of Digital Media. Steiner wore a shirt. His arms aren’t nearly as big as they used to be, but he’s still 53 and pretty big. When Borash wanted Matthews, Matthews tagged Steiner. Matthews did a plancha on Park but bounced off him. They all went backstage and then they cut to a pre-taped segment. Steiner & Matthews were chasing Park & Borash, who were on foot, in a cart. Borash & Park sprayed Steiner & Matthews with a fire extinguisher. Later, Steiner threw a guy who was in one of the Hardys videos driving a truck, out of his truck and they took that over. They ended up with Matthews and Borash in a swimming pool. Borash backdropped Matthews into the pool. Steiner and Matthews were beating up Borash in the pool when Shark Boy showed up and bit Matthews in the ass. James Mitchell showed up and gave Park the Abyss mask. They ended up showing back up in the arena, where Chef Robert Irvine (Gail Kim’s husband) shoved down Matthews. Borash speared Matthews but Steiner attacked Borash. Matthews used the Steiner recliner on Borash. Mitchell and Abyss showed up. Mitchell gave Abyss a bag of thumbtacks and he gave Matthews a black hole slam into the thumbtacks. Borash used a frog splash on Matthews and in landing, thumbtacks cut up Borash’s hands something fierce and Abyss got the pin. This was entertaining for what it was.

Who...the...fuck...cares?

5. Eddie & Alisha Edwards beat Davey Richards & Angelina Love in a Full Metal Mayhem match in 8:35. A lot of spots here. The stuff with the women didn’t look good at all. Alisha did a crossbody off the top onto everyone. Love hit Alisha with a garbage can. Edwards & Alisha used garbage can lid shots o both of them. They put a garbage can over the head of Richards & Love and started nailing the garbage can with a kendo stick. Edwards power bombed Alisha on Richards for a near fall. Richards gave Edwards a brainbuster on a chair for a near fall. Love brought out thumbtacks for the second straight match. Richards put thumbtacks in Edwards’ mouth and Richards kicked him in the mouth but Alisha saved. Love was bleeding from the bridge of the nose. Alisha power bombed Love off a ladder and through a table. Richards and Edwards were both near the top of the ladder when Edwards gave him a sunset flip over the top of the ladder into a power bomb through a table and got the pin. *½

Too many gimmick matches back to back don’t you think?

6. Sonjay Dutt won 2/3 falls to retain the X Division title over Low Ki in 18:14. Low Ki worked the match in a suit and tie, as he has at times of late. He did that at a Tokyo Dome show and New Japan people were furious and have claimed they would never use him again. Low Ki won the first fall when Dutt did a springboard huracanrana, but Low Kid turned it into a sunset flip and then used a double foot stomp at the 7:28 mark. In the second fall, Low Ki tried a double foot stomp but Dutt cradled him at 5:11. The third fall was at 3:35. Dutt kicked out of a Ki Krusher. Low Ki dropped him on the top turnbuckle and went for the Del Rio double foot stomp, but Dutt grabbed him by the tie and threw Low Ki off he top rope. Dutt then used a moonsault double foot stomp on Low Ki for the pin. This was a good match, but it was marred by the quiet crowd and trying to do a wrestling match after two straight matches with tons of weapons. ***

Personally I’ll never understand the Low Ki hype but Sonjay Dutt is so damn good.

7. Sienna beat Rosemary to unify the GFW and Impact Knockouts titles in 10:32. Gail Kim came out before the match. Rosemary came out with some weird looking women, who were played by local indie wrestlers Kaci Lennox, Raegan Fire and Shaniah Arlynna. They tried to make it look like Rosemary was a star with the entrance. It was tough putting the women in this position as the crowd was dead. Plus, the wrestling itself was bad. KM (the former Kevin Matthews, but not using the name because of Josh Matthews) and Laurel Van Ness came out at the start of the match but Sienna told them to go to the back. Rosemary did a plancha off the top to the floor. Sienna used the silencer, which used to be called the pounce period by Monty Brown, for a near fall. When

Rosemary kicked out, they said nobody had ever kicked out of it. Rosemary used the red wedding. Van Ness came back out and pulled referee Earl Hebner out of the ring to stop the count. Van Ness was hitting on Hebner. Allie came out with a kendo stick to chase Van Ness to the back. They were both sprinting. Sienna used a belt shot but Rosemary kicked out. The kicking out of the belt shot got a good easy pop. Rosemary went for the mist, but Sienna put her hand over Rosemary’s mouth. The idea was that Rosemary blew it and it burned Sienna’s hand. Sienna then put her hand with the mist in Rosemary’s eyes and put her in a guillotine. The finish was clever as far as old finishes went, but just came across as out-of-date. *¼

This sucked.

Jeff Jarrett came out and talked about his family being with him, and told the fans they were his wrestling family and how his family has been in the business for 70 years. It was Jarrett doing his charming politician speech thanking the audience. They were lukewarm as far as reacting. He told Bobby Lashley and Alberto El Patron that they’d better bring their A game after what had already happened.

8. Alberto El Patron beat Bobby Lashley in 18:07 to retain the GFW title and win the Impact title. Alberto came out with his father, Dos Caras, and his brother, El Hijo de Dos Caras. Lashley came out with King Mo Lawal, Dan Lambert, the owner of American Top Team (Lashley’s manager and the gym that he trains at), as well as several ATT fighters including Jeff Monson and Marcus “Conan” Silveira. Once the match started, everyone left ringside except Dos Caras and Mo. Alberto tried a dive but Lashley hit him with an uppercut. Mo slammed Caras’ head into a table. Caras chopped Mo, who sold it like a pro. Lashley powerslammed Alberto on the steps. Lashley missed a charge into the post. Alberto used a superplex off the top rope. Lashley did a power bomb for a near fall. The crowd was dead for this. Alberto used a back stabber for a near fall. Alberto missed a tope and crashed on the floor. Alberto used an armbar but Lashley did a one arm power bomb to get out of it. Lashley used a Death Valley bomb off the middle rope for a near fall. Alberto got a near fall with a double foot stomp. Lashley finally hit the spear but Alberto kicked out. Alberto tackled Lashley through the ropes. Mo was after Dos Caras, but in Mexican tradition, Dos Caras nailed Mo with a low blow. Lashley shoved and slapped Dos Caras. Alberto posted Lashley and pinned him after a double foot stomp. After the match, Jarrett, Scott D’Amore, Ed Nordholm, Marufuji and El Hijo del Fantasma gave both a hand, but the crowd just wasn’t with hit at all. ***¼

Did you know Paige was at ringside for this?

Bruce doesn’t last much longer with TNA after this PPV. He does the TV tapings after the fact but not much is heard from again until…

Wrestling Observer 8/28/17

Jim Cornette was among the many newcomers at the tapings this week. Cornette did a TV appearances on the live show seemingly as the new authority figure, replacing Bruce Prichard. They did an in-ring thing where Prichard announced that Alberto was suspended and voluntarily gave up the title and that they were giving the title to Bobby Lashley, the previous champion. Cornette came out at this point after they had been teasing a mystery guy was there. They ended up arguing and Prichard, who was playing a smarmy heel instead of his prior babyface authority figure role, wanted Cornette kicked out. Cornette then revealed that Anthem had hired him and they were tired of self-serving people running the company. Cornette announced that they were going to decide the new champion in the ring and not hand somebody the title, announcing a gauntlet match for the next week’s television. This was taped on 8/17 and will air on 8/24, and it came down to Eli Drake beating Eddie Edwards when they were the last two guys. Drake is a great talker but I don’t think he’s the guy you want as world champion right now when you are trying to rebuild a company. Cornette then fired Prichard. Prichard had commitments as they were filming an episode of his podcast in a live location in New York over the weekend and he’d made the commitment before these dates were announced. The way it was done on television led me to believe Prichard could come back as a heel feuding with Cornette. The way it was described to us is that Prichard is gone for now, given he wasn’t back at the and the next tapings aren’t until November. The angle seemed to leave it open that he could return, although one company source said that he was done and another said he was done at least for now. Regarding Alberto, based on the TV, the impression we have is that they are washing their hands of him. When Cornette did the interview, he specifically said that Alberto did not voluntarily give up the title (Alberto had publicly claimed so, and Prichard did in his interview), that they had taken the title from him and then wished Alberto will in his future endeavors, which sounded like he wasn’t coming back. What we were told is that he’s not going to be back anytime soon. Anyone not at TV wont’ be back until November at the earliest.

Was this really how it all went down? You were booked and couldn’t make the shots so they replaced you but left it open in case you did return? Did you ever plan on going back and couldn’t make it work?