We’re heading all the way back to 2002! Welcome to my retro review of NWA TNA’s first ever Pay Per View. Having never seen this before I’m intrigued as to what I’m about to see. The show comes to us from Alabama, USA and our commentary team is Don West, Mike Tenay and Ed Ferrara.

I’m going into this review pretty blind, my knowledge of TNA starts mainly in 2005 so this will be a great adventure into the unknown for me. Although, one thing I know for sure, with early TNA, is there will be a giant dose of madness. Looking at the card there are some exciting names to be seen, even in 2002 Scott Hall is a big draw and the likes of AJ Styles and Low-Ki at this time will always excite me.

The show starts with the introduction of our commentary team along with a wonderfully awesome level of fireworks. After the commentary team hype up the show announcing legend Jeremy Borash who, in turn, introduces some of the NWA legends in attendance: Harley Race, Dory Funk Jr, Jackie Fargo, Bullet Bob Armstrong, Corsica Joe & Sarah Lee, Bill Behrens and Ricky Steamboat who emerges with the NWA world heavyweight championship.

After a brief speech with the title, Steamboat announces he will be special guest referee for the main event to decide the new NWA World Champion following the Gauntlet for Gold Battle Royal. Before he can finish Jeff Jarrett interrupts and goes on a ridiculous rant about why he only fights for titles in one on one matches. It’s typical Jeff Jarrett nonsense where Jarrett is insulted by Jackie Fargo and told he will be number one in the Gauntlet For Gold Battle Royal. Ken Shamrock also appears to tell Jeff Jarrett he’s gonna win too. You would think that this would be enough but Scott Hall emerges in the crowd (admittedly very cool but my god how many people do we need to tell us they are gonna win tonight). Hall says the exact same things about the Battle Royal sucking and that he will win.

Our next segment takes us backstage with Psycho Dwarf ranting about well very little really, it’s absolutely mental.

AJ Styles, Jerry Lynn & Low-Ki v The Flying Elvises (Jimmy Yang, Sonny Siaki & Jorge Estrada)

Our first match of the night is a six man tag, I had high hopes for this with the likes of AJ Styles and Low-Ki as well as Lynn who can still more than go at this point. Tenay introduces the X-division during Styles, Lynn and Low-Ki’s entrance. The Flying Elvises make their entrance which at this point is still one of the more normal things to happen on this show. The match is worked at the expected fast pace which I love, Jerry Lynn gets to showcase just how good he is before Low-Ki tags in and gets worked on by the Elvises; Estrada hits an incredible neckbreaker from the top rope which was very very cool. Styles and Jimmy Yang tag in and Styles highlights just how good he is here. The running flying forearm smash was out of this world! Chaos ensues as the tag rules go out the window and everybody seems to be pinned at some point completely ignoring who is actually legal. Jimmy Yang gets the pin on Styles with a spectacular twisting moonsault after Low-Ki accidentally kicks Styles.

This was a good fast paced opener that gave everyone time to shine despite it’s time restraint. For a first showcase of the X-Division this ticked all the boxes and I really enjoyed. It’s always great to see TNA AJ Styles especially at such an early part of his career, 7/10.

Teo v Hollywood

Next up we get a mini’s match in a quick sprint where both men don’t hold back. TEO certainly doesn’t pull his punches as he gets the win with a swanton. Not bad considering the attitudes at the time but very short. (No Rating Applicable)

Following this Don West and Ed Ferrara take to the ring to introduce the wrestlers in the (Rolls eyes) lingerie battle royal. This includes a young Mickie James and Francine from ECW, who gets in a scrap with fellow wrestler Electra after Francine does an I’m the best speech. The high point is Elektra claiming Francine bankrupted ECW which was a slight stretch to be honest (cough cough Paul Heyman).

I’ve avoided mentioning this till now but the show decides to constantly pan back to women dancing in cages instead of doing things like replays or hyping the card which is expected but so completely pointless.

We now get Mortimer Plumtree who is the wrong type of terrifying, he is basically managing his school bullies (aptly named the Johnsons) for some reason. They make their entrance next and well…they are wearing bodysuits, flesh bodysuits to be exact.

The Johnsons v James Storm & Psicosis

Oh poor Psicosis, I love Psicosis and to see him here fighting giant Johnsons is so sad. The match starts with some nice double team between Storm and Psicosis. As one of the Johnsons are thrown from the ring someone called Alicia stands on the ramp as Plumtree goes off again on the Johnsons. James Storm gets some time to showcase himself whilst skinning the cat and taking one of the Johnsons down. The Johnsons take control (amongst many Johnson jokes from commentary) as Alicia still glares from the ramp. The Johnsons eventually win after a Plumtree assist. Oh my what to say about this, Storm and Psicosis tried but it just had nothing. 3/10.

The referee departs the ring during the celebration and (sighs) hands Alicia some money before departing. We have an equally mortifying backstage segment where The Dupps terrify interviewer Goldy Locks.

Next we have a NASCAR driver, who apparently was winning the league (I think?) at this point, he waffles about NASCAR for a bit before being interrupted by a young R-Truth (oh thank you R-Truth!) under the name K-Krush. He buries NASCAR drivers and calls them ‘not athletes’, which amuses me, they fight back which the crowd adores. Brian Lawler/Christopher (no-one on commentary knows what to call him!) comes out to save the drivers when K-Krush tries to attack. Lawler challenges Krush eventually to a match next week. This was, well, completely mental but considering this show so far it’s almost normal.

Jeff Jarrett attacks Jackie Fargo backstage in a very short promo.

Christian York & Joey Mathews v The Dupps

An interesting match with a young Joey Mercury, I can’t say I had high hopes or any idea what to expect, but lets see.

The Dupps take control early on, before Christian York delivers an awesome looking duel dropkick. The Dupps once again take control using their strength advantage before the hot tag to York. The match ends when York is pinned following a distraction from Fluff Dupp. Short match where nothing really happened. Surely the faces winning would make sense here but there we go. (No Rating Applicable).

Gauntlet Battle Royal

Entrant Number One as announced earlier is Jeff Jarrett who interrupts a concert from Toby Keith, Buff Bagwell is number two. Every 90 seconds a new wrestler will enter the match in Royal Rumble style with eliminations being over the top rope. This match comes after Dan Severn, the former NWA World Champion, won the title from SHinya Hashimoto due to shenanigans. This led to the title being vacated for some reason?

Jarrett eliminates Bagwell with a backdrop in ridiculously quick fashion. Lash LeRoux is #3 and takes on Jarrett, as the 90 second interval ticks down LeRoux is also eliminated in about 40 seconds. This is where I realise how this is gonna go, Oh Jeff Jarrett. Norman Smiley is #4 whom the crowd pops huge for, after getting some offence in Jarrett low blows and eliminates Smiley.

#5 is Apollo. He takes control of Jarrett here, nearly eliminating him early on; he continues to dominate Jarrett before #6 K-Krush saves Jarrett from elimination. After beating down Apollo for most of the 90 seconds #7 is Slash who also goes for poor Apollo.

As the ring starts to fill up, #8 Del Rios enters (his superman trunks amuse me greatly) and we get more battle royal time wasting, punching and fake eliminations. #9 is Justice who lays waste to most of the field. The match really needs an elimination right now as nothing of note really happens, Jarrett nearly eliminates Apollo but he hangs on.

#10 is Konnan to a good ovation. Konnan goes straight for Jarrett and hits a trio of rolling clotheslines before hitting an X-Factor. #11 is Bruce from the Rainbow Express, we still have no more eliminations. #12 is Rick Steiner which is very awesome, he gets a great pop and eliminates Slash (to my absolute relief). Steiner also eliminates Justice.

#13 is Malice, who goes on a wonderful chokeslamming spree. Malice eliminates Bruce from the rainbow express, K-Krush, Del Rios and Konnan all in about 20 seconds. Rick Steiner is then also eliminated by Malice. #14 is Scott Hall in full Outsiders gear with the biggest ovation of the night, he hits Jarrett with the Razors/Outsiders Edge.

#15 is Toby Keith well no, it’s not, but he comes out and suplexes Jeff Jarrett who is eliminated by Hall and Keith. We currently have Hall, Apollo and Malice in the ring as Chris Harris is next at erm #15 I think, maybe 16, who knows at this point? I get even more confused as Vampire Warrior (Gangrel) also turns up and enters the match.

#17 is Devon Storm who sprints to the ring in hilarious fashion (I love a good ring sprint) nothing else really happens as the remaining wrestlers start chopping each other, in what I want to call a chop off. #18 is Steve Corino, who happens to be the only former NWA World champion in the match. Mitchell continues to help Malice and pull the strings outside the ring.

#19 is Ken Shamrock, who angry man marches to the ring and unleashes his incredibly brutal kicks, he also hits a great knee to Malice before being power slammed. The final entrant is Brian Christopher (commentary have decided on a name now), he eliminates Chris Harris, Devon Storm and Vampire Warrior almost straight away. Christopher then eliminates Steve Corino before getting chokeslammed by Malice.

Shamrock eliminates Brian Christopher as we are down to the final four: Shamrock, Malice, Hall and Apollo. Malice then eliminates Apollo, and we are down to three. Malice counters the outsiders edge and eliminates Hall, so we now have our final two and our main event for tonight.

NWA World Heavyweight Championship Ken Shamrock v Malice

The match restarts as a singles match with the final two and Ricky Steamboat takes up his position as Special Guest referee. Malice gets the early advantage with a big sideslam and suplex that both get a two count. Malice dominates the early stages before Shamrock begins his fightback as he counters the chokeslam into a arm breaker. Mitchell pushes the rope into Malices hand just as its looks like he will tap to Shamrock. Shamrock now locks in the ankle lock in the middle of the ring, Malice nearly gets a rope break but Shamrock pulls him back before Malice gets to the ropes again. Shamrock is nearly disqualified for not breaking the hold whilst Malice regroups with Mitchell.

The match ends when Shamrock reverses the chokeslam into a belly to belly for the three, to become the first NWA World Heavyweight Champion on Total Nonstop Wrestling. Hard to rate a match like these two, the battle royal was okay but for me was paced too slow, they got far too many wrestlers in the ring and went such a long time without any eliminations. 4/10 for the Battle Royal. The following match gets a 5.5/10 the story was simple and did what it needed to.

Shamrock celebrates as we go to Jeff Jarrett again(!) who is still brawling with Toby Keith; Jarrett then comes out to the ring moaning about the battle royal once again. It’s so ridiculous at this point but does put the heat on Jarrett who attacks Dory Funk Jr and Harley Race. More chaos ensues as Jackie Fargo emerges announcing Scott Hall v Jeff Jarrett next week whilst Toby Keith also shows up again and does nothing. The show ends with a brawl between Jarrett and Hall.

Final Thoughts

A tough show to rate really, some strong aspects of it certainly haven’t aged well and there was too much back and forth for me promo wise where there could have been wrestling. Especially with some of the promos being so so so bad.

First wrestling shows for companies will always be like this when you have a whole new batch of wrestlers to introduce, a champion to crown and storylines to begin. I enjoyed the first match but the rest of the show was, at points, painful. Final Rating 4/10.