83 Weeks - TNA Hardcore Justice 2010 [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Hardcore Justice 2010

Just last month 83 weeks covered TNA Victory Road 2010 that had Rob Van Dam retain the TNA title in a 4-way over Jeff Hardy, Mr. Anderson & Abyss. But the rumors of Paul Heyman coming in and taking over TNA creative were running around rampant (mostly probably from Paul Heyman) and this is the follow-up to the ECW angle TNA had been planning to help seduce Heyman and attempt to recapture some of the lost ECW fans.

Wrestling Observer 7/19/10

“For the second straight month, in the days leading to the TNA PPV, Dixie Carter started talking about an industry changing surprise. Last month, she backed off at the end, and then tried to twist words saying she didn’t mean it would be at the PPV, but would be slowly obvious.

And for the second straight month, there was no surprise, other than an ECW reunion angle people could clearly see coming.

The surprise in question was an attempt to bring in Paul Heyman to book the company. Mid-week, when Carter talked about how you would never guess who I just met with, she had actually just met with Heyman, and clearly, based on everything being said internally, they believed a deal was imminent. Jeff Jarrett even began giving hints about the identity of a new person coming in. The plan was for Heyman to arrive as the leader of the ECW contingent on the PPV, but Heyman stated a week before at UFC 116 when he said that wasn’t happening, it didn’t happen.”

How close was this situation to becoming a reality for so many people to begin teasing it or was it all just a tease to get eyeballs without a real payoff as TNA has done so many times in the past?

“The game is still in play, and there are two major impasses involved. The first is that Heyman doesn’t believe a booking change alone can turn TNA around, and he doesn’t want to be a part of failure...and probably could have hooked up a consulting job with WWE if he wanted to stay in the business. He wants the power to bring in his own crew, both wrestlers and front office, but was not offered that power.”

The hindsight on this is great. He wants all the power but doesn’t get it but if he’s to fail he wants to make sure he fails with his own group of talent and everyone around him and not someone else’s. Sounds familiar to a recent situation don’t you think?

“Heyman has said that if he is going to come in, he wants to be in the position the Feritta Brothers put Dana White in when they bought UFC in 2001, with the ability to succeed or fail on his own. He wants to hire his own crew, both because he’s not impressed with many on the office staff or the results TNA has, and, if he brings in his own people, those people will be loyal to him, and not to Jeff Jarrett, or Eric Bischoff, or whoever got them in, and won’t politically undermine him in an attempt to get him out of power. There’s no guarantee he can turn it around and it may not be possible to put big numbers on the board for pro wrestling if you aren’t WWE today.”

You can understand his point of view here and how backstabbing this business can be when you’re surrounded with people from a past administration. It’s similar when a new NFL front office person is put in place or coach. Is the mindset something you would need if you wanted to do this again in a different company?

Heyman also, in wanting to be in the Dana White role, wants ownership points in the company. He made clear his goal, which would be to make the company viable, increase its market share and eventually have points in a company that does an IPO, which is how the McMahon family went from being wealthy to filthy rich.

TNA public…

Heyman has talked with a number of people with the idea of bringing them in if he gets power, so he’s at least very much entertaining the idea that he would come in. Flying to Nashville showed interest, and enough that people in TNA were claiming they had a deal almost completed, even though the fact was, money terms had never even been discussed.

Sounds like another situation of Dixie again.

TNA’s idea was to bring Heyman in as the head of creative, with Vince Russo moving to a role in television production. They wanted to have an ECW faction where Heyman would be the on-camera leader, a role he seems to have little interest in. Even before this week, those with knowledge of the negotiations said Heyman made it clear he didn’t want to be a television character, but was open to doing one TV appearance just to make it clear he was coming. Heyman on the other hand, said he was not in favor of the ECW angle, feeling TNA’s big problem was the idea it’s a promotion out of touch and with an aging roster. Bringing in the ECW cast of the 90s is not a way to build the future, and if Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair didn’t have legs, most likely this concept may pull ratings up for a few weeks, possibly deliver a buy rate above the usual anemic levels, but it’s not curing any problems. Whoever is in charge of TNA needs a three-to-five year plan. The key is extensive scouting and recruiting, a developmental program which in a best case scenario would include experienced workers working with the younger talent and teaching them hands on in the ring in front of paying customers and in different types of settings. The problem with the current regime is they were living in the past and not preparing for the future.

None of this is incorrect and if anything it’s dead on. No one cared about ECW at this point as it was a dead brand 5 years later from when it was at it’s “hottest reborn” and you can’t even use the letters. If Hogan & Flair didn’t have legs like Meltzer said...why did TNA constantly go back to ECW?

On 7/12, TNA shot the ECW angle, but instead of Heyman as the main person, it became Mick Foley and Tommy Dreamer. The next night they announced that the 8/8 Hard Justice PPV would be similar to the 2005 ECW One Night Stand show. As a one-time deal, there’s nothing wrong with it. It should do considerably better than anything TNA would put on could do at this time. But it solves none of the problems and even if successful for a night, may dig the hole deeper because it perpetuates to feeling to onlookers that this is the home of aging guys that were WWE discards.

Does this just make TNA look like an out of touch brand when it goes back to a WWE created ECW show from 5 years later that really isn’t going to help build an audience?

The ECW angle started with Abyss and Rob Van Dam coming to the ring and Abyss said it’s time to reveal the big secret about how they are going to take over TNA and there’s nothing Dixie Carter could do about it. But Van Dam turned on Abyss and laid him out with a belt shot. Abyss made a comeback on Van Dam, and went to use the board with nails until Jesse Neal and Shannon Moore came out, but Abyss laid both out. Mick Foley came out and Dreamer, Raven, Stevie Richards and Rhino all attacked and laid out Abyss. Security came out but the ECW contingent laid them out. The first round of wrestlers ran in like Douglas Williams, Kazuchika Okada and Magnus, but they were left laying. Brian Kendrick and Desmond Wolfe were the next sacrifices. Pat Kenney, now as Simon Diamond, and Al Snow, join the ECW group, since both were ECW characters. This led to TNA’s other agents, D-Lo Brown and Terry Taylor coming out and getting beaten up. Jay Lethal and Matt Morgan ran in and were next to be beaten down. Devon ran down, but joined the ECW group. Bubba Ray Dudley did not join the ECW group, and actually was involved with Dreamer, who it is believed suffered a knee tear in the angle when he landed badly as he was knocked off the stage by Bubba. Jeff Jarrett came out and they also beat him up. Carter came out and made it clear she invited them, but another brawl continued. It was a wild scene, but Dreamer and Carter on the next night’s television came out together, and Dreamer said it wasn’t an invasion, but they were all working with TNA. When the dust cleared, the ECW group was Foley, Raven, Richards, Rhino, Dreamer, RVD, Simon Diamond, Devon and Snow. Putting Foley and Dreamer as the focal points and shooting the angle without Heyman seem to indicate they are at least going with the idea he’s not coming in.

A lot to unpack here. In 2010 you got Foley (11 years removed from his peak), Raven (12 years removed), Richards (did he ever really peak?), Rhino (9 years removed from his peak), Dreamer (never really peaked outside of ECW), RVD (4 years removed), Simon Diamond (never peaked), Devon (never peaked on his own) and Al Snow (who peaked as Foley’s dumb sidekick partner 12 years before). Their eating up talent that has been built...laying out guys like Jeff Jarrett...and than Dixie Carter “aligns” herself with ECW and that it’s not an invasion. Who...booked...this...shit?

While all this was going on, neither Hulk Hogan nor Bischoff were at television. Hogan was against Heyman coming in. Bischoff claimed days earlier that he was putting family in front of business this week, but would return at the next set of tapings. During the Victory Road PPV, their names were only mentioned in passing.

Was it legit you were putting family in front of business or just wanted nothing to do with this angle or Heyman?

What will be interesting to note is ratings over the next month with this angle. It’s not a secret Spike wasn’t happy with ratings being significantly down from the same period last year. The show still does well above Spike’s prime time average (which of late has been a 0.6, the only pro wrestling show right now doing right at network average and even last week less than network average is NXT). However, if ratings go up, even short-term, based on this angle, it will alleviate pressure. I don’t expect a long-term boost. We saw with Hogan and Flair a huge boost for a couple of weeks, and then back to normal and then by a month out below normal, and I don’t see this having the upward short-term value of those additions.

How unhappy were Spike with the ratings drop? The average Impact rating in April of 09 was 1.26 and the average rating for April of 10 was .79 which is a 37% decrease. May of 09 Impact was 1.16 compared to 0.91 for April of 10 which is a 22% decrease. That’s with April of 10 being on Mondays and May of 10 being on Thursdays.

Micro Championship Wrestling is doing a TV taping on 8/6 in Austin, TX. At this point, we haven’t heard of the show being sold anywhere. This is the promotion Eric Bischoff is putting together the TV and trying to get a TV deal for.

How close were you to getting TV for Micro Championship Wrestling at the time? Was your time divided between Impact and this?

Bischoff responded to Paul Heyman’s comments that the pro wrestling business needs to get its shit together after spending a week in Las Vegas and seeing how UFC promoted its last show. “As far as his comment goes, I don’t have a clue what context the comment was made in. People have a tendency to want to compare MMA to professional wrestling, and for the life of me, I just can’t figure out why. It’s not even apples and oranges as I’ve said before, it’s apples and bricks. One is real sport and the other is scripted entertainment, and beyond that, if anyone can point out any similarities between the two and why wrestling should modify its business model based on what is happening in MMA, I would be very interested in hearing it, because last time I checked, they are two entirely different products.” It’s mind boggling in 2010 someone running a wrestling company could be so out of touch with his audience.

Do you still agree with yourself 10 years later? What do you think of Paul saying how out of touch you are with a pro wrestling audience back then and then “competing” against him in WWE this past year?

.There has been some interest in JBL. Layfield has met with Dixie Carter in the past and they get along. She’s been trying to bring him in since he retired from WWE after WrestleMania in 2009. At one point she offered to help co-produce the Viper Fighting League MMA group JBL and Bruce Prichard tried to run out of Louisville, which didn’t last. Those close to JBL say they don’t expect him to come in and declined an offer in January when they were loading up on talent to go to Monday.

It’s good to see two good wrestlers given the ability to do this compared to letting an overbooking of angles when they can both go in the ring don’t you think?

Wrestling Observer 7/26/10

Vince Russo and Tommy Dreamer were in Nashville this past week and this current week putting together the final two television shows, which will be taped on 7/26 and 7/27, to build the show. The TV isn’t likely to be completed until the end of the week.

Did Russo and Dreamer have to pass this along to anyone to clear and how did TNA talents who relied on PPV pay days like AJ Styles who weren’t going to be on the show handle not being on the show? Did they have a right to be pissed off?

And for better or worse, Carter seemingly won’t give anyone the power to hire or fire. Vince Russo wanted to get rid of people and she blocked that. Ironically, he may be the beneficiary here since she made it clear to Heyman that Russo has to stay. When the company talked with Jim Ross months back, and they wanted him to turn the company around, he still wasn’t going to be given that power. TNA is a very unique company and that has both its positives and its negatives. The positives are that Bob Carter is not going to be quick to shut down the company his daughter is running. With the exception of a television station that could argue that the losses are still value in some way because of the producing of television product, nobody else in wrestling history has ever stuck with a product like this for so long.

Was this a common thing you ran into at your time at TNA? Dixie was the end all be all on matters that have to do with firing and hiring...did she deserve to be in that position?

There is the internal belief that the ratings will go up for a few weeks with this angle, and that will alleviate any pressure from Spike to make a move. They expect a bigger PPV number than usual, but even if it is, in September, they are still going back to what they were doing. While some are touting the ECW angle as the kickoff of something big, most see it as something less than what they had in January with Hogan and company came, which were three weeks of record ratings, and in the long run, being in more debt and having less fans than before he ever came.

How quickly was TNA looking for results with the addition of yourself, Hogan, Flair, RVD, Jeff Hardy and the move to Monday?

According to one source close to the situation, Heyman outright told Carter of the older legends that they could keep one, but would have to get rid of most if not all the others, and she didn’t seem to understand why. That right there is an issue because Carter has been loyal to the stars of the past, and Eric Bischoff, Vince Russo and Jeff Jarrett all had the idea that the stars of the 90s when wrestling was hot were much bigger than the stars of today.

This is something that WWE seems to be running into today and Meltzer specifically points to you as a proponent of rehashing old stars but not using them to create new ones. What say you?

The other question revolves around Bischoff, Hulk Hogan and Jason Hervey. All had their public explanations for not being at the last two sets of tapings and missing the PPV. Bischoff claimed he was putting family before business for the holiday. Hogan had back surgery. All are going to be back at the next TVs and the writing was done with a segment on every show where their names came up. Still, inside TNA, people were viewing it as a power play that failed, figuring if they weren’t there that things would go down. In fact, the last two TVs with Hogan only doing a few second cameo on one and not appearing on the other were the two highest rated episodes of Impact in more than four months.

Was it a power play by you, Hogan and Hervey? Did you expect the ratings to drop with this angle and without the “stars” on TV?

While a lot of the wrestlers like Hogan as a positive backstage influence and are enamored with him having grown up with him as the king of the business, people noted how much more pleasant things were at the last TV’s without Bischoff, who many knock as not having contributed one thing of value in six months. His big claim to fame, the new way of shooting backstage interviews, with the idea they come across as “more real,” has made no difference and been bad in more cases than good. His changing the format to longer segments and longer commercial breaks hasn’t made a difference in ratings, but I view it as a positive when it comes to the flow of the show. It’s led to longer and better television matches, particularly not having to interrupt matches as often for commercial breaks. While the booking certainly could be better, it’s stronger than it was in late 2009, and house shows, disastrous at the end of last year, are now up from last year at the same time. But few would argue they are pulling their financial weight.

What do you think of Dave’s assessment that you only contributed one thing of value in six months here? How much did you contribute and what exactly are you proud of the most of your time up until this point and the biggest “mistake” you think you had made regarding TNA until now?

The description to me regarding Desmond Wolfe is that he was in the doghouse, as you could tell by how he’s been used in recent weeks, but is digging his way out. The guy they are down on now is Matt Morgan, who had been talked about as being part of Flair’s group. The Hernandez cage match, where the two attempts at the Border toss were completely botched, was blamed on him since Hernandez is a favorite of management. They want him to be their Mexican superstar, but since they don’t really book him as that, it’s not happening.

What do you remember about the issues with Nigel McGuiness and Matt Morgan? Was Hernandez not ready to be this Mexican superstar Dixie kept attempting to push and get over?

Notes from the 7/15 TV show. The ECW angle at the end was a mess, but up to that point the show was entertaining if not overbooked. We had a street fight, an I Quit match, and a ladder match all on the same television show

Why so many gimmicks on one TV show? Do you think if devalues them to have so many gimmick matches on one show?

Abyss came out with his board with nails and some raw meat. Abyss said they had a plan for RVD (yeah, for RVD to turn on you and join in and beat you up) that was beyond extreme. Abyss named his board Janice, noting she was sexy, sophisticated and sharp. For what it’s worth, Janice is the name of Dixie Carter’s mother. Right up there with Salinas being the name for Shelly Martinez when she was there because that’s Dixie Carter’s husband’s last name.

I...just...can’t.

Brian Kendrick beat Douglas Williams in a non-title I Quit match in 4:55 with the cobra clutch and Williams quit. So this makes Kendrick the No. 1 contender for the title, and thus makes no sense that he lost by submission no less at the PPV. Actually it does, it’s the famous TNA booking backwards principle. You have the champion win the title match clean. Then you book the challenger to win the non-title match. On the PPV, Kendrick can win one of TNA’s famous multiple person matches to become the No. 1 contender and say he wants his title shot in an Ultimate X match last month. And Williams can say, you don’t get to pick your stipulation until you can beat me in my specialty, the I Quit match. Then Tazz and Mike can talk about how Williams picked a match that’s to his advantage and Kendrick probably won’t even get a title shot, and the match is happening–last week right here on Impact.

Do you think this is a fair criticism of the booking at the time?

Hardy pinned Lethal in 4:27 with a twist of fate and swanton. That easy. The ECW guys came out during this match. This match should have never happened on TV this week, but if it did, it should have been a lot longer and Lethal should have only lost (and probably shouldn’t have even lost this week) if it was a match he got a lot of near falls in. The reason this happened was because they are all about ratings and believed that in recent weeks they had made Lethal a star, so this would be a ratings match. The saddest part is the match lost viewers. The concept of building and keeping momentum and not having people give up on people just getting pushed apparently doesn’t register, since WWE does the same thing.

Doesn’t this negate everything Lethal had done at this point including beating Flair in such a short amount of time?

Wrestling Observer 8/2/10

Jerry Lynn confirmed on his web site that he’s facing RVD on the 8/8 main event. The only other match made obvious on TV was Raven vs. Tommy Dreamer in what is billed as their final match ever with Mick Foley as referee. Sabu and Sandman appeared in a TNA commercial for the event which should add their names, to the list that also includes Too Cold Scorpio, Johnny Swinger, Tracy Smothers, Little Guido, Bill Alfonso and C.W. Anderson. 

How does this help the TNA product any? If old ECW fans tune in for a nostalgia show and it’s promoted as a one time thing are you gaining any audience whatsoever that makes sense to continue to build the brand?

They are pushing the idea that the 8/12 Impact show will be like a PPV. The deal is that the matches originally booked for the 8/8 PPV show will air on Impact, in abbreviated fashion, including RVD vs. Abyss in a ladder match (didn’t we just have one of those on TV a week ago, not to mention WWE doing two on its last PPV) with the nail board hanging from the ceiling and Eric Bischoff as referee, the final of the Machine Guns vs. Beer Money best-of-five for the tag titles, Mr. Anderson vs. The Pope (which makes perfect sense since Taz told us the two gave each other the street code that they made up) and Kurt Angle vs. A.J. Styles in a rankings match (we can never see too many matches between these two). They are also pushing the ECW guys being there, which is a mistake, even though they are obviously going to stay in some form, by telling people you can see them on TV on Thursday, many will figure why buy the PPV. 

It’s really like running two different promotions with two different end goals during this angle isn’t it?

Notes from the 7/22 Impact. The show was built for Dixie Carter’s big announcement. She was all over the show...The line about ECW in the 90s being what Hogan was in the 80s was such a slap in Hogan’s face, but they are selling ECW this month.

Holee shit. That was a real scripted line.

There is nothing worse that TNA does than make themselves out to be the minor leagues on their own show. Dreamer being out there talking about how people had talked with him for years about coming to TNA but he had a family to think of right there says two things, 1) Either Dreamer isn’t much of a star if he had to worry about supporting his family going to TNA; or 2) TNA doesn’t pay anywhere close to as well as WWE in that a guy spent years being miserable, so he says, even though on their TV that entire time on ECW he never acted like he was complaining, because the difference in pay is that big. The worst thing you can do is tell people on your own show that you are the minor league.

This assessment of TNA is dead on. Why let scripted verbiage on air like this?

TNA doesn’t even allow its fans to argue the point that their more athletic wrestlers are better because they are constantly stuck in 1997, right down to Earl Hebner on the house shows acting like his main claim to fame was screwing Bret when he’s been a TNA ref for seven years, or Team 3-D, Raven or Rhino who all spent far more years in TNA than they ever spent in ECW, being categorized as primarily ECW guys. And while the nostalgia of ECW is better than ECW itself ever was (not unusual in entertainment), the reality is TNA has more TV viewers than ECW ever had.

This gets missed a lot in the TNA vs. ECW argument. Why do you feel the ECW brand has been carried on to this end all be all of revolutionary TV when TNA did more and drew more? Do you think it’s just a fallacy the way ECW is remembered compared to TNA?

Samoa Joe drew Jeff Hardy in 10:03. They opened this match with a phone call from Eric Bischoff. He said he hadn’t been around of late because of July 4th, and Hogan had planned back surgery (couldn’t they at least shoot an angle before the surgery to give him something to come back for, or at least put heat on someone?). He said they were now both on TNA business and couldn’t wait to see everyone next week. The match itself was a disappointment.

You’ve talked about your love of July 4th before on the podcast. But it’s odd to hear it here on a TV show that that was the most important thing don’t you think?

Carter said she wasn’t cutting a promo and this was real. The best line was Carter saying that as important as Hogan was to the 80s, these guys (Dreamer, Raven, Rhino, Mick Foley and Stevie Richards) were to the 90s. The one thing is at least Bischoff, who no matter what you may think of him today, was the architect of the 90s wrestling boom (he had plenty of help, but it was his baby, McMahon took over when he fell apart but wrestling was already popular again, and Austin was McMahon’s central character to take it to another level). And he’s got to be throwing up when the company he’s in is acting like these guys were the Hogans of the 90s. Well, I guess it’s karma for when Bischoff was in that room with Flair, Hall and Nash and said the only guys in the room who ever drew money were Hogan, Piper and Savage.

You have to agree with this right...until Dave reminds everyone about that statement with Hogan, Piper & Savage…

Dreamer asked for one last chance to say goodbye, and Carter said, only if you put the show together yourself because she wants it authentic. There was an angle involving Abyss coming out and trying to make an attack that Vince Russo made the call to edit off the show, feeling that it would take away from the announcement. To me, that was a good call because they needed to go off the air without a physical angle due to the announcement.

When Vince Russo makes the right call on editing something off a show that’s a sign…

Wrestling Observer 8/9/10

The show opened with the ECW guys, who were Dreamer, Rhino, Raven, Stevie Richards, Devon and Mick Foley, coming out. Dreamer announced the change to EV 2.0. He talked about legal issues with certain letters of the alphabet, but the new name sounded forced. Then he tried to lead the crowd in chants of the name. They played along, but it came across as downright sad.

The rumor was you came up with the name EV 2.0. Is that accurate? Do you agree with the portrayal of this segment

the Fortune promo where Ric Flair announced Beer Money as the new members of the team. They also announced the change of Styles’ title from the Global title to the TV title.

Why the change from Global to TV? Was it because it was silly to have a World and Global Title?

Hogan did an interview where he said he had to leave because he had a meeting in New York. They are actually booking angles now teasing that their top guys are jumping ship. Eric Bischoff came out. He’s only been gone a few weeks but he’s aged noticeably. He made the announcement of the 8/12 show, put over ECW and sounded incredibly insincere in doing so, put over Dixie Carter. This was not Bischoff at his best. Abyss came out and wanted a ladder match against RVD with Janice on a pole. Bischoff acted scared (I guess that’s the reason they did the deal where Hogan said he was leaving, to explain why Hogan wouldn’t come out and save Bischoff when Abyss threatened him). Van Dam made the save and was beating on Abyss until he missed a jump off the apron and hit the guard rail. Abyss grabbed Janice but Al Snow and D-Lo Brown came out with chairs and Abyss backed off. There is nothing worse for a babyface to start a fight and then in a one-on-one fair fight then get his ass kicked.

Dave taking shots at how you look and then you coming off as insincere on the promo. Were you?

Wrestling Observer 8/16/10

The recap of the Dreamer-Raven opening promo I had to put in the whole thing because it’s just so unbelievable:

Show opened with Dreamer out, and he told Raven to get out. He asked why he did it and said how his kids call him “Uncle Scotty.” Wouldn’t he be Uncle Raven? Raven said he never forgave Dreamer for betraying him and stealing his girl, and that those kids should have been mine. I bided my time and waited for something that you were emotionally invested in and then ruined it. That was out of the Ole Anderson classic interview where he had teamed with Dusty Rhodes before turning on him. He said Dreamer’s kids should be calling me Daddy, and that he’s going to cripple Dreamer and get back with his ex and that “Your wife is going to be calling me Daddy.” Raven did a good job here. The thing is, the crowd was treating it as comedy and started chanting “Uncle Scotty.” Dreamer attacked Raven but Abyss attacked Dreamer. He was about to choke slam him off the stage but RVD made some saves with chair shots to the back and a Rider kick off the stage. Raven then laid out Dreamer with a DDT on the ramp. Mick Foley came out and hit Raven in the stomach with a barbed wire baseball bat. Foley said he’d be the referee for the final Dreamer vs. Raven showdown. He said there would be a winner.

Bischoff ran down the 8/12 television show, pushing it like you are getting to see a PPV for free and thanked Spike TV. For what, not canceling the show? Kevin Nash came out and complained that he wasn’t booked on that card. Hogan told him that he has to realize that times had changed, that he and Jeff Jarrett have stepped back and our time is over. The crowd booed Hogan for saying that. Hogan then said to Nash that there’s no more conning for paychecks, no more minimum effort for maximum money. He said the smoke and mirrors days are over. Hogan talked about how Nash’s whole career is all based on politics. The crowd wasn’t caring about any of this. Nash laid out Bischoff. Hogan started firing away at Nash, which looked real bad. Nash used a low kick, in slow motion, on the same show Styles did the same thing to Terry, and was beating on him. This also looked bad. He was about to power bomb him when Jarrett made the save. But Sting came out with Orange face paint, which Tenay noted was the Wolfpac colors. Do you realize that if Russo was coaching an NBA team they’d all be doing two-hand set shots. Sting hit Jarrett with a bat shot to the gut and head. Sting hit Hogan with the chair to the head.

Holy shit. It’s like watching two different promotions on one TV show!

RVD & Dreamer beat Abyss & Raven in 3:56. Taz explained the Raven/Dreamer back story, with the idea Dreamer was the quarterback of the football team and Raven was a social outcast who didn’t play any sports. We’re supposed to believe they grew up together and went to school together, even though Raven is a lot older than Dreamer. Finish saw RVD use the rolling thunder on Raven, followed by Dreamer with a DDT and RVD pinned Raven after a frog splash. That is so ridiculous to show on television just days before the PPV. Abyss laid out RVD and Dreamer and choke slammed RVD. Stevie Richards ran in but Abyss largely no-sold him. Then Rhino came in, got some offense on Abyss and went for the gore but got kicked in the face. 3-D came out and set up the 3-D, but Raven broke it up with chair shots on both. The lights then went out and Sandman was out there doing cane shots to Abyss. The show ended with Foley and several others came out with a water cooler full of beer. The show ended before anyone actually drank the beer.

This...was to sell the PPV?

OK here we go with Hardcore Justice

The show opened with Taz doing a promo, saying that the people who thought ECW was all about violence don’t get it, and will never get it. I’m not sure who he was referring to, but some thought it was Eric Bischoff, who rubbed a lot of people the wrong way when he kind of dismissed ECW in a blog. “We revolutionized this frickin’ business. We were the true renegades of this industry and that’s a shoot.” He continued, “I have a message to anyone who wants to piss on what we did, you didn’t get it, you’ll never get it and you may as well just kiss my ass.”

Did you feel that it was a shot at you or towards you from Taz and did you ever discuss it?

1. The Full Blooded Italians trio of Tracy Smothers & Guido Maritato & Tony Luke beat Kid Kash & Johnny Swinger & Simon Diamond in 10:43. Smothers, who is 47, wore a singlet and looked old. Swinger cosmetically looked great. Maritato looked older but was in shape and Luke pretty much looked the same. Diamond was not in shape, to the point Taz was making fun of him saying he looked like 3 Diamonds and he should have invested in a singlet, and made fun of him for blowing up fast. Crowd did a “Where’s my pizza” chant. In the middle of the match, they did a dance contest. The heels (Kash’s team) danced really bad and then the FBI all danced, building to Sal E. Graziano, who still looks to be around 500 pounds, dancing. The big spot was Kash doing a springboard off ref John Finnegan’s back onto everyone else brawling on the floor. Luke missed a dive on purpose and crashed on the floor. They did a Tower of doom spot where Luke took a superplex as the big move. It ended with Guido pinning Diamond with what would now be called a killswitch. *

This does not stand the test of time as all of these guys could go at one point but now here and together…

Mike Tenay and Taz did an on-camera where Tenay said that Styles wasn’t available, but if he was, he would gladly give up his chair. Tenay was in the ultimate no-win situation here. They mentioned that Jerry Lynn injured his back training for his match with RVD and apparently was hurt so bad he couldn’t even fly in for the show. That they turned a negative into a positive with Sabu taking his place. There were other names talked about with the idea they’d be in better shape for a main event match (Kash and Too Cold Scorpio were being discussed the night before) , but it was obvious Sabu was the right pick. Ultimately, it was left up to Van Dam.

This is a risk with bringing people in not already on TV to main event a show and it comes back and bites here. Did Van Dam actually decide who he was to work?

They did a Where Are They Now? segment showing Tod Gordon talking about the early days. It was too bad he wasn’t at the show. Gary Wolfe, Pitbull #1 and Blue Meanie also did promos. A.J. Styles then talked about the Tommy Dreamer vs. Sandman angle where Sandman gave Dreamer the ten shots with the Singapore cane, which got Dreamer over after the crowd originally crapped on him as a pretty boy and got the Sandman cane gimmick over. The problem was Styles talked about watching this as a fan and the feeling, but it came off contrived since Styles has said in numerous interviews that he wasn’t a wrestling fan growing up. Angelina Love talked about ECW, but admitted she never saw it until its last year because it wasn’t available on television in Toronto but said she watched it and loved the crowd reactions.

They did a backstage comedy segment with Al Snow and Head. He yelled at head for chanting those letters or Jerry (McDevitt) will get mad and said there are a lot of legal issues out there. Mike Bucci showed up as Nova. Snow yelled at him about wearing that shirt (because of how WWE owns all the ECW intellectual property). He asked where his scooter was (making fun of his Simon Dean character in WWE. Then James Tillquist (Big Tilly who has played a number of different roles in TNA over the years) showed up dressed as Blue Meanie. Snow got mad but Nova brought up how in “Roseanne” they just hired a new actress to play the daughter. Snow said he hated that show. Nova said that it’s pro wrestling and it doesn’t matter. Stevie Richards showed up. Then a fake Lupus (a short-

lived gimmick as a guy from Raven’s flock in the early years that few even remembered, who retired from the business years ago), played by Florida indie wrestler Sam Shaw, showed up and started picking his nose. Then the fake Blue Meanie picked his nose and they started picking each others’ noses. The segment started out funny with the McDevitt references, fell apart in the middle and bombed by the end with the nose picking.

How does this really make air?

2. Too Cold Scorpio pinned C.W. Anderson in 6:46. The finish was a moonsault that ended with almost a double foot stomp on Anderson’s stomach for the pin. It came across like a short decent match with two older guys who were rusty and not in their best shape. *½

Scorpio even here was still a TV worker was he not?

RVD and Bill Alfonso were backstage. Alfonso looked really old. Van Dam talked about his decision on who he would face. They had already announced it was Sabu earlier in the show, but apparently never told him that’s how they were doing it because he cut the promo like he was making the decision right now. He talked about storylines not complete from his TV title run, but decided tonight is about paying tribute so it had to be Sabu. Fonzie, who managed both guys in ECW, said he would call it right down the middle, which was his ECW catch phrase.

How do these things get through and not have clear communication?

3. Stevie Richards pinned P.J. Polaco in 6:31. Polaco was another guy who I think was hampered by the late call. He looked like a guy who is working a regular job and probably could have gotten in better shape with time. Polaco wore a Justin Credible T-shirt and fans chanted “Justin Credible” when he was announced under the Polaco name.

How much of the legal threat was real and the worry about it from the TNA side of things?

Richards came off the rope into a superkick by Polaco. The finish saw Polaco say, “That’s not the coolest, that’s not the best, that my friends is Justin...” and then Richards superkicked him before he opened everyone up to a lawsuit. Polaco then attacked Richards with cane shots after. The lights went out and everyone knew Sandman was coming. Polaco missed a cane shot when Sandman ducked, and Sandman used a Russian leg sweep with the cane, followed by a cane shot hard to the head. He then grabbed Credible’s cane and broke it in two and stood over him. *½

Superkick party?

4. Rhino won a three-way dance over Brother Runt (former Spike Dudley) and Al Snow at 5:49. There was a ref bump on Mike Kehner. Snow hit Rhino with Head really light. Spike had a chair, threw it at Snow, and fell down, doing the Eddy Guerrero spot derived from the fake foul sell in Lucha Libre. Snow banged the chair on the mat, and also fell down. The ref turned around. It was funny watching two people do the same spot. Runt pinned Snow by climbing up the ropes and doing a bulldog at 5:48. Immediately, Rhino used the gore on Runt for the pin. As far as wrestling went, it was the best thing thus far. **

I don’t know what to say other than who cares?

5. Team 3-D beat Axl Rotten & Kahones (Balls Mahoney) in 11:55. Of course the place chants “Balls.” Mahoney said they were the most hardcore and most extreme tag team in wrestling, and complained they didn’t have a match booked. They challenged anyone in the back. Joel Gertner came out with the Dudleys wearing the old tie-dye and glasses with the tape. Gertner, who was much heavier than before (for his gimmick, that worked) wore a fur coat, with his hairy chest and shorts, and a pink neck brace. He was forever wearing a neck brace in ECW as a gag after he’d get taken out by various faces. Gertner did his usual lewd limerick. A wrestling manager. What an innovative concept. He mentioned that if he couldn’t stuff Lady Gaga’s muff, he would punk her face. He introduced Ray & Devon as “The Dud...Team 3-D.” Bubba said that nobody wanted to see the four do a wrestling match, so he wanted a South Philadelphia Street fight. Mahoney then hit Bubba with the head. Taz made a comment saying in jest that Mahoney was Clark Gable handsome. They brawled in the crowd with loud ECW chants. They used all the weapons like the mannequin heads, frying pans, cookie sheets, garbage can lids. Bubba did the old Bubba Ray Dudley dance spot that he did in the 90s when they were an undercard babyface comedy team. When he did that, Taz said he’s next going to start stuttering (his gimmick that actually got him over as a face at first). Rotten used a reverse DDT so bad it killed the crowd. The wrestling was real bad here but they still got a “This is awesome” chant. Then people chanted for tables and fire, which Bubba pretty well promised on television. They did one of the worst looking chair shot sequences. The crowd groaned, particularly when Mahoney did a light chair shot. 3-D did come back with hard chair shots to the head. They did the Wazzup on Mahoney, everyone yelled for Devon to get the tables. Fans screamed for fire. Gertner gave them lighter fluid and they poured a ton of lighter fluid on the table and power bombed Mahoney through it. Devon then got the pin. *1/2

Yup.

After the match, Bubba said they proved they were the best tag team in the world. Then the Gangstas showed up doing the old spot where they destroy everyone with weapons while the music played. It wasn’t the same because they couldn’t use the music. They broke a crutch on Bubba, used a kitchen sink and finally New Jack hit Gertner with a guitar shot hard and Gertner sold it like he was dead. Then they stopped, everyone hugged, and the crowd chanted “Thank you.”

Doesn’t this just negate everything we just watched?

6. Raven pinned Tommy Dreamer with Mick Foley as ref in 16:59. Raven went to Trisa (Dreamer’s wife as I guess they were afraid to call her Beulah, either that or didn’t want people thinking she was Joe Hennig’s sister), in the stands with her two twin daughters sitting with Dixie Carter) and made a remark. Dreamer kissed his twins and went to the ring, where fans chanted “Uncle Scotty.” Dreamer beat on him and Raven sold like he likes pain. Raven did the drop toe hold into a chair and Dreamer bled. He was bleeding all over the place right in front of his twins. Of all the things on the show, that was the one I just couldn’t believe anyone would do, particularly since it was a spot in “Beyond the Mat” that wasn’t meant to be copied. Trisa took the daughters away from ringside at this point. Raven hit Dreamer in the back with a chair. Dreamer was bleeding like crazy. We got the dueling chants from the crowd. Dreamer then used the drop toe hold and Raven went into a chair. Dreamer used a sign and Raven bled. Dreamer suplexed him on the sign. Dreamer pulled out a table and catapulted Raven into it. Raven crotched Dreamer on a ladder for a near fall, and Taz talked about how Dreamer had his testicles destroyed in an ECW angle. Dreamer used a Death Valley driver, not called a Spicolli driver (interestingly, Tenay and Spicolli were good friends). Fans started chanting “Louie” after Dreamer did the move. Dreamer pulled out barbed wire and crossfaced Raven with the barbed wire in the mouth. Nova and the fake Meanie jumped in to distract the ref while Raven tapped. They attacked Dreamer and Foley and the fake Meanie squashed Foley in the corner. Nova used a downward spiral on Dreamer and Tilly went off the top rope, but he missed a splash by so much and it looked so preposterous you’d think he was Lacey Von Erich’s wrestling school instructor. Dreamer came back with a DDT on Tilly and a neckbreaker on Nova. Raven used a DDT but Dreamer kicked out. Foley pulled out Mr. Socko. Then the fake Lupus interfered. Foley used Mr. Socko with barbed wire and Raven bled from the mouth. Raven handcuffed Dreamer’s hands behind his back and hit him in the back with a chair. Trisa came back out and begged Raven to stop. She hugged Raven acting like she was going to leave Dreamer for him as long as he stopped beating on Dreamer. Raven stopped, and then hit Dreamer with a chair shot and threatened Trisa. Raven used a low blow on Foley and a chair to his back. Trisa then used a low blow to Raven. Dreamer, still handcuffed, gave Raven a DDT for a near fall. Raven came back with a chair shot to Dreamer’s bad knee (that he legit hurt) and used another DDT for the pin. This kind of booking worked when it was new and innovative, but in 2010, it felt so over booked. It was really sad watching the two bleed with the crowd being quiet in a lot of spots. They were into other spots. Basically, they popped for spots but the match wasn’t good and at times it felt like watching Bobo Brazil vs. The Sheik when both were 60 and they’d still do their bloodbath matches in Michigan. *1/4

This is just so uncomfortable and knowing 11 years after the fact of the Foley match that it gets redone here it’s just terribly out of place on a wrestling show especially one that’s a “one time thing”.

6. RVD pinned Sabu in 17:12. It was brought up that both were trained by The Sheik. Sabu had his head shaved and looked a lot like Ivan Koloff. Fans chanted “This is classic” when the match started. Sabu threw a chair at RVD’s head. Sabu did his running jump off a chair, springboarding off the top rope onto RVD who was on the other side of the guard rail. Sabu tried a submission with the camel clutch. He let it go and delivered a chair shot to the back. He put the chair on RVD’s back and put the camel clutch on again. Sabu was bleeding from the back of his head. RVD monkey flipped Sabu onto the chair, and instead of landing on his back, his elbow dinged the chair and the elbow started swelling right away. Then, Fonzie, who was doing the gimmick where he was managing both guys at the same time, threw each a water bottle. Both sat in corners drinking water as the match stopped, which looked preposterous. Both then pulled out tables. RVD jumped off the apron with a kick on Sabu. Then he used a front suplex on the guard rail and a twisting legdrop off the apron while Sabu was draped over the guard rail. RVD went over the top onto the apron with a legdrop with a chair on Sabu’s chest. Sabu used a huracanrana and RVD flew into the chair. Sabu followed with the Arabian facebuster, leading to a “You still got it” chant. RVD crotched Sabu on the top and told Fonzie to hold the chair and kicked the chair into Sabu’s face. RVD did a split legged moonsault for a near fall. Sabu back throwing a chair at RVD’s back and head. Fans were chanting “This is awesome.” RVD did a sliding kick with a chair to Sabu’s face. The spots were good but they were out there too long and the match started dragging. The finish saw Sabu go for the Arabian facebuster off the top rope onto RVD on a table. RVD moved and Sabu went through the table. RVD used the five star frog splash for the pin. Not a great match, but the best thing on the show and crowd helped it. But both worked really hard. ***

Classic RVD - Sabu. But once again...who cares lol

After the match, everyone came to the ring for a beer bash while the crowd chanted “Thank you.” This was really cool. Gertner was even out, not selling anything from the match. The crowd started chanting “Fuck you Vince,” (McMahon, not Russo) and Carter smiled. The fans started chanting “Dixie,” and “TNA” and the show ended as Bubba picked Dixie up from ringside and brought her to the ring.

There’s an old saying. When things aren’t working you put the person in charge as much as possible on TV so they get their limelight while hiding negatives. Do you think this pushing of Dixie so much was part of that?