July 24, 2002
Nashville, Tennessee (Fairgrounds Coliseum)
Announcers: Mike Tenay, Don West, and Ed Ferrara
The Results
Low-Ki def. The Amazing Red in 7:27 ***
America’s Most Wanted (Chris Harris & James Storm) def. The Hot Shots (Cassidy O’Reilly & Chase Stevens) in 5:17 *1/4
Gran Apolo def. Brian Lawler in 7:01 *1/2
NWA World Tag Team Title Match: AJ Styles & Jerry Lynn (C) def. The Flying Elvises (Jimmy Yang & Jorge Estrada) in 16:20 **
Elix Skipper & Monty Brown def. Johnny Swinger & Simon Diamond in 5:35 *1/2
Ian Harrison def. Bo Dupp by DQ in 2:58 DUD
NWA World Heavyweight Title/Ladder vs. Submission Match: Ken Shamrock (C) vs. Sabu ended in a No Contest in 9:32 *
Notable Happenings
We had Jeff Jarrett cosplaying Steve Austin, who Bill Behrens suspended for 60 days, then bashing Behrens (and later Ken Shamrock) with a chair. Jarrett later made fun of the huge Brit, Ian Harrison, and being on steroids when Harrison was standing guard outside the locker room Shamrock was in. Then, Jarrett finally entered the room to fight Shamrock again. Jarrett was cheered in the ring at one point to start the show because he beats everyone’s ass and does whatever he wants, despite never winning a match in TNA. My goodness, all of this is exhausting.
The main event ended with Shamrock reaching for the title, the lights going out, and Malice coming out to chokeslam him off the ladder and take the title himself. This was a ladder match with submission rules as well to make it “fair” for Shamrock in his match against Sabu. It led to a lot of mat wrestling and an overall bad match. I wouldn’t be surprised if neither man had seen the other’s work before this match.
Ron Killings did another good “militant black man” promo, ending with him being interrupted by Monty Brown. Brown wasn’t nearly as polished, but still effective. Later in the Brown and Skipper tag, Killings came out and hung Brown with a belt like he did Norman Smiley the week before, so the black wrestler is hanging other black wrestlers. Jesus, even when the performances are good, the material is awful.
Mike Tenay did a sit-down interview with AJ and Lynn that wasn’t particularly good, and they sounded like guys admitting some responsibility and trying to work through their problems. They had more moments of miscommunication during their match, where AJ accidentally busted open Lynn, and Lynn got a pin before AJ could hit his finish (perish the thought). This partners-not-getting-along storyline is so dramatically overplayed in this company within six short weeks.
Chris Harris was smoking a cigarette and burying James Storm’s “cowboy gimmick” to his face because they’re partners and can’t possibly like each other.
Sonny Siaki did commentary for the Flying Elvises match, setting himself up as the asshole in the group because we need another faction or team that doesn’t get along.
Ian Harrison was a big, jacked-up British wrestler who sucked and never worked here again.
Brian Lawler was over-celebrating in his Apolo match and got rolled up and pinned.
Rating: 2.0/10.0
The wrestling often came off as indie, and only the opener was good. The Killings promo was strong, and even though the Jarrett opening talking segment was as well, it’s just too fucking much Jarrett as Superman and too little good wrestling to pay for. Overall, it’s fucking insane that this company charges money for this nonsense every week. The Shamrock vs. Sabu main event may have had some drawing power on paper, but it delivered no clear winner and was a bad match. This was honestly one of the worst shows yet.
The Video
