It's time to start something new, as I kick off my TNA reviews with their first monthly pay-per-view, Victory Road 2004. My knowledge of the company is admittedly a little lackluster; I know of a lot of the bigger players and I've seen some reviews of their best matches, but I've never really sat down to watch any of their shows. In fact, this is the first time I've watched a TNA/Impact show from start to finish, and it was quite something. I'll get into more of my thoughts as we go on, but the main point I want to establish is that this is a very different beast than something like the WWE. Everything feels significantly less professional, which has it's upsides and drawbacks. Ultimately, all I would look for in my wrestling is to be entertained and never bored, and I think Victory Road accomplished that.
- TNA Victory Road 2004 comes to you from Soundstage 21 in Universal Studios, the largest of the three that the company used for pretty much every pay-per-view, all earning the nickname the "Impact Zone". Technically, the attendance is zero, as almost none of the 700 faithful present actually paid their way in. The usage of the Impact Zone, plus Don West and Mike Tenay on commentary, will be a running theme for every single one of these reviews. In no way can the look of the place compete with the arenas the WWE has managed to secure, but the crowds for these shows could absolutely flatten just about any WWE pay-per-view. They are just so damn happy to be there, and that feeling runs throughout everything on this night, from West and Tenay to many of the homegrown talents competing. This has the feeling of a victory lap for a company that many were already counting out, even at this time, and it definitely elevates a somewhat mediocre card.
- One of the major appeals of watching a WWE pay-per-view is the opening hype package, which always tend to be stellar thanks to their superb video editing team. TNA can't quite compete with that greatness, but they do have some help thanks to the brilliant voice-over work from the late Barry Scott. His baritone adds tons of gravitas to the opening package, which highlights some of the best performers on the roster, including AJ Styles, Petey Williams, Monty Brown and Jeff Hardy. It's worth noting that at no point does this video try hard to sell you on any matches, just the appeal of seeing these great athletes compete, which is perhaps my biggest problem with this show and with TNA in general. The company just isn't very good at building tons of heat for their big matches, and all the great in-ring actions suffers for it.
- Another of the TNA pay-per-view staples is the multi-man X-Division spotfests, and we get a doozy here with a 20 man Gauntlet match. The pace of this match is just insane, with competitors entering eveyr 60 seconds or so, and just trying to keep up with it is incredibly difficult, even for West and Tenay on commentary. Everyone's been instructed to just get their sh** in, and that leads to some incredibly innovative offense. Sonny Siaki was the big surprise to me, I've never seen him wrestle before and I thought he was put over super well here, just destroying so many of the smaller guys. It's obvious that TNA is pushing Hector Garza, who did already have a stint in the company beforehand and returned for this match, and he's terrific, silky smooth in the ring and in the air. The final three are Garza, Chris Sabin and Frankie Kazarian, who's also being put over big as he entered at number one and has just about survived elimination multiple times. After a bonkers spot when Sabin suplexes his competitors into each other, he's taken out by Garza, and that takes it down to a final two, which is now just a normal match for some reason. Garza whiffs on a corkscrew moonsault, which allows Kazarian to try and take advantage with an inside cradle, but Garza manages to counter into one of his own for the win. This was one of the best battle royals I've ever seen, more than capable of competing with even the best Royal Rumbles thanks to the incredible in-ring action, though the ending was overbooked, a running theme on the night. As I stated before, TNA were obviously quite high on Hector Garza, but he never did make the big time in the company. At the start of 2005, he was deported for steroid possession, pretty much ending any chance of a long-term run in any US company ever again. He passed away in 2013 after an extended battle with lung cancer, but his legacy lives on in nephew Angel Garza, one of the biggest rising stars in the WWE today. This is a very tragic way to begin a review, but at least I got to see Hector compete at the peak of his career, but hopefully Vince sees the younger Garza's obvious potential and push him to the moon, so that this sad story can have something approaching a happy ending.
- We move on to eight man tag team action, as heels Kid Kash, The Naturals(Andy Douglas and Chase Stevens, a staple of the TNA tag team scene) and Dallas(AEW's Lance Archer) take on Pat Kenney(ECW's Simon Diamond), Johnny B. Badd(Marc Mero under his WCW gimmick), Erik Watts(another former WCW competitor and son of legendary promoter Bill Watts) and Ron "The Truth" Killings(WWE's R-Truth). In the time it took me to type all of that, the match is already over, as this one clocks in at a scant 4 and a half minutes. Killings pins Stevens with a funky Pedigree-esque DDT thing, which I'm sure got him over well when he made the trip up to Stamford.
- In little person lucha libre action, Piratita Morgan takes on the legendary(at least in Mexico) Mascarita Sagrada. This match is sloppy as all hell and the crowd absolutely does not care, as Sagrada wins in just under 3 minutes with a roll-up. It's safe to say that neither of these men is being invited back to the Impact Zone anytime soon.
- The NWA World Tag Team Titles are on the line in our next match, as TNA is still part of the alliance at this time, with champions Team Canada(Eric Young and Bobby Roode) defend against two members of the 3 Live Kru, Konnan and BG James(Road Dogg). This is a perfectly acceptable match, mostly showcasing the talents of the heels, as Young and Roode are far superior in the ring, bumping all over the place. But even if they're better athletes, they don't have the name value of the challengers, and that's all Dixie Carter will ever care about. After some run-ins from Team Canada's manager, Scott D'Amore, and the third member of the Kru, Ron Killings, the challengers capture the gold. Considering all the great tag teams TNA had on their roster, going with these two feels like a major disappointment.
- One of the early stars of TNA was Stephanie Trinity, the badass chick from the Bronx who backed down from no one and wasn't afraid to scrap with any man or woman who crossed her path. Accompanied by the New York Connection, Johnny Swinger and Glenn Gilberti(WCW's Disco Inferno), she issued an open challenge for any woman to face her in a match. That challenge was answered by the debuting Jacqueline Moore, and the prospect of seeing these two brawlers square off was certainly very intriguing on paper. Unfortunately, they were given just 2 minutes to work, and most of that time was spent with the Connection interfering. They do enough to allow Trinity to connect with her Fall From Grace moonsault and score the win. It's an odd decision to have a new competitor answer an open challenge and quickly be defeated, but Jacqueline would end up becoming a cornerstone of TNA's underrated Knockouts Division, so the signing was an important one in hindsight.
- Time for the first Monster's Ball match, where the competitors would be locked in isolation for 24 hours without light, water or food in an attempt to make them more feral for the match. Now, that kayfabe explanation does sound pretty cool on paper, but I'm really going to need you to temper those expectations. The debut of this stipulation is extremely underwhelming, with Monty Brown, Abyss and Raven mostly just having a normal match with the occasional hardcore spot. Brown is the obvious star of the trio, with an incredible power moveset and charisma to spare, so it makes sense that he got the win, pinning Raven with the Pounce. That move is awesome by the way, and his pronunciation of it is great. Everything before that point was pretty skippable.
- It's pretty clear that a large amount of the folks in the Impact Zone showed up for our next match, as Petey Williams of Team Canada defends the X Division Championship against AJ Styles. Right from the start, the atmosphere is electric, with dueling chants for both men and the crowd and announcers popping big for just about everything. These two could sleepwalk their way to a good match, and this is a solid encounter filled with quality offense but absolutely no story. They've only been given 10 minutes to work, which certainly doesn't help, as the finish comes rather abruptly. Scott D'Amore, who promised that he would TNA for good if Petey lost, interferes with both men on the second rope. AJ is pulled back down into the ring, allowing Petey to leap down and connect with the Canadian Destroyer, scoring an emphatic title defense. This may not have lived up to the hype, but it was still an entertaining match and the best bout of the night.
- I mentioned the problem of overbooking earlier in the night, and the Last Team Standing match between America's Most Wanted(James Storm and Chris Harris, perhaps the greatest tag team in TNA history) and Triple X(Christopher Daniels and Elix Skipper) was hindered badly by it's stipulation. It's clear that these two teams could have a great match, and they would put on a much more memorable one the following month, but this one was just terrible. The rules state that you must first pin your opponent, then wait for a referee's ten count for him to be eliminated, before moving on to the next guy. As a result, there's just no flow to any of this, as the referee needs to have considerable involvement, stopping the teams from getting into a proper pace. After losing the match, Triple X go on the attack, handcuffing Storm and Harris to each other and hitting them with a couple chair shots. This was an abject disaster and I think all four guys were pretty eager to just move on.
- Main event time, as Jeff Jarrett defends the NWA title, the famous "Ten Pounds of Gold" against Jeff Hardy in a ladder match. This one starts off well enough, with both guys finding creative ways the other with the ladder, and it was genuinely enjoyable. But then Scott Hall gets involved, and it all devolves from there. He's here to support Jarrett, and forces Hardy to slow everything down to work at his pace. Kevin Nash shows up with a couple guitars, and he, Hall and Jarrett hit Hardy with on each, allowing the champion to retain. The trio are quickly besieged by 3 Live Kru and AJ Styles, defending the honor of TNA, but stand tall, before a limo, which has been shown all night, opens to reveal the debuting Randy Savage. Savage doesn't actually help, he's held back by security, so he just yells at the heels for a couple seconds before the show abruptly goes off air. Man, this sucked. Everything about it had the feel of late-era WCW with these big names well past their peak stealing the limelight from guys that can actually still work. That's the biggest shame of all of this, really. The two Jeffs could have had a quality main event match on their own, and when they were on their own, it was really good. LOLTNA, I guess.
5/10
I wanted to like this show a lot more than I did, though I did enjoy it a lot more than I think this review may have come across. The action never really slowed down or dragged too much and the two X Division matches were highly entertaining and leagues above the cruiserweight wrestling of WWE. But the biggest drawbacks of TNA were the reason I can't consider this show to be an out and out success. The booking was absolutely ridiculous in the worst possible way, and their reliance of old guys who can't work will never be good. I suppose that makes this the perfect introduction to the company for a newer fan like me.
Next time on Henry's Pay-Per-View Reviews: TNA Turning Point 2004, the site of Elix Skipper's legendary cagewalk. Should be a fun one.
- Henry
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