Written by: Bob Colling
National Wrestling Alliance/Total Non-Stop Action Weekly PPV #36
Date: 3/19/2003
From: Nashville, TN
Matches:
1.)NWA-TNA World Tag Team Champions Low Ki & Elix Skipper defeated Slash & Brian Lee to retain the titles
2.)Konnan & Juventud Guerrera defeated Jerry Lynn & Jason Cross
3.)Jim Duggan & Moondog Spot defeated Mike Sanders & Glen Gilbertti
4.)NWA-TNA X-Division Champion Kid Kash defeated Amazing Red & Trinity to retain the title
5.)NWA World Champion Jeff Jarrett, D’Lo Brown & Dusty Rhodes defeated Erik Watts, David Flair & Brian Lawler
6.)Raven defeated AJ Styles in a ladder match to become the number one contender
Angle Developments/Notes:
1.The show opened with Glen Gilbertti trying to convince D’Lo Brown to join S.E.X. Because they are both friends with Vince Russo. He tried to tell Brown that Jarrett was just pretending to be his friend and was really just having Brown fight his battles for him. Jeff Jarrett came out and told Brown that the Russo he knew doesn’t even exist anymore. Brown made it clear to Jarrett that he wanted a title shot, already teasing some issues between them. Brian Lawler, Erik Watts, and David Flair came out and attacked Jarrett. Brown, AMW and Dusty Rhodes made the save for their friend. They were even overwhelmed until Ron Killings arrived and made the save. That makes him a babyface.
2.Raven cut a promo saying that being the TNA World Champion is his destiny and he will eliminate AJ Styles to get it.
3.Slash takes the champs out with a somersault dive on the floor and even Lee dives over the top onto the champs on the floor. Slash leaps off the ring steps to clothesline Skipper as the match is really just a brawl around ringside for the opening minutes. Slash knocks Daniels off the apron and is kicked by Ki from behind to give the champs the advantage. Slash is controlled for several minutes. Slash power bombs Ki to turn the tables. Lee gets the hot tag and cleans house with right hands. Lee nearly pins Skipper after a Death Valley Driver. Lee tosses Ki into the referee and is nailed by Daniels with one of the titles. There is no referee as they continue to battle. Slash spins around and slams Ki down to the mat but there is still no referee. Skipper hit the Play of the Day on Slash onto the championship. Malice runs out and pulls the referee out. Malice destroys Triple X. This was surprisingly a good match, I thought.
4.Mike Tenay interviewed Erik Watts who said that he had done all he wanted to do in the business and put over his father as the best promoter ever. Watts was nice enough to let Tenay know that when he wants to reveal why he is in TNA he will let him know.
5.Glenn Gilbertti pokes fun at some of the members of SEX by mocking Siaki, slapping Sanders for losing to Duggan last week and tells Hollywood she needs to get Athena to expose her boobs tonight or she is fired!
6.As you may remember, Konnan and Lynn have been having a feud for the past several weeks where Lynn has defeated all the challengers that Konnan put in his way. Konnan showed that he could beat Lynn on his own as he blocked a sunset flip and used the ropes for leverage to earn the three count.
7.Backstage, Amazing Red challenges Trinity to a match but is made fun of by TNA X-Division Champion Kid Kash for challenging a girl.
8.Duggan is double teamed by Sanders and Gilbertti as Duggan didn’t have a partner with him for the match. That is until Moondog Spot made his way through the crowd and arrived with a bone in his hand. Gilbertti leaves the ring and that leaves Sanders all alone in the ring. Duggan pins Sanders after Spot hits him with his bone. That was stupid and an awful way to use Sanders.
9.We hear from Father James Mitchell who issues a challenge to S.E.X to a Sadistic Madness match next week. He is going to get another member next week for the match.
10.Red looks to capture the gold tonight when he takes on Kash and Trinity. Kash drives Red chest first into the canvas and has control until Red hits a standing shooting star press. Kash accidentally nails Trinity off the apron! Kash delivers the 130 Edge (springboard somersault dropkick) to a seated Red in the corner, but only gets a two count. That’s insane. Red counters a top rope power bomb with a hurricanrana! Trinity leaps off the top to hit a hurricanrana on Red and plants him with a tornado DDT. She follows up with a head scissors take down. Kash gets the pin on Red after a rolling German suplex!
11.Backstage, Jeff Jarrett and D’Lo Brown are heard yelling at each other in a room.
12.Anyone else find the idea of the Next Generation consisting of Erik Watts, David Flair and Brian Lawler? If that were are future, man, that would suck. Brown opened the match with Lawler and got the better of the exchange after hitting a spine buster. Brown drives Lawler down with a sit out spine buster as well. Watts enters and whip lashes Brown down to the mat to give his team the upper hand. Watts drops Brown gut first over the top rope as he continues to punish Brown. Jarrett gets the hot tag and he cleans house with right hands and a dropkick. Rhodes enter the ring and nailed Watts with several elbow shots. Jarrett plants Flair with the Stroke and picks up the win for his team. After the match, Brown was on the ramp and pointed at Jarrett making it clear he wants the title. Ron Killings shows up and raises the arms of Rhodes and Jarrett. Wait, Killings grabs Jarrett and power bombs him out of the corner! Killings has turned heel! Watts has a rope around Jarrett’s neck and they fight into the crowd. Lawler comes off the top and hits a leg drop on Rhodes! Outside, Watts has tied Jarrett to a limo and he is going to drag Jarrett. Watts drops down to his knees and says he is in Jarrett’s mind. He isn’t going to drag him. Instead, he has something better in mind for Jarrett.
13.Backstage, S.E.X attack the New Church, who had entered their locker room.
14.Sonny Siaki and Hollywood came out to get Athena to expose her boobs. Athena destroyed Hollywood in a cat fight and refused to rip her top off. Siaki ended up planting her with a tombstone and David Young came out to make the save.
15.Styles shows up from behind on the floor and hits Raven with a trash can lid. Styles continues to hit Raven with a trash can and kicks Raven with the trash can over his body. Styles hits a springboard moonsault onto a ladder! Styles delivers a drop toe hold sending Raven face first into the chair. Styles plants Raven onto the chair with a DDT! Raven throws a chair at Styles to knock him off the ladder. Styles is nailed with the ladder a few times as Raven has been busted open. Styles is busted open as well after several ladder shots in the corner. Styles knocks Raven off the middle rope with a trash can lid shot. Styles leaps off the ladder to connect with a hurricanrana! Raven grabs a staple gun and staples Styles right in the head! They are on the floor where Styles fights back with a super kick on the ramp way. Styles leaps off the top rope and sends both the referee and Raven through a table with a leg drop! Raven had grabbed the referee to protect himself. Styles is climbing the ladder but Glenn Gilbertti enters and manages to power bomb Styles over the top through a table on the floor! Raven enters the ring and grabs the contract to win the match.
Final Thoughts:
It was a mixed bag of bad and good this week for NWA-TNA. I’ll start off with the bad. I wasn’t a fan of the way Sanders was booked this week. The idea of putting over Duggan and Spot instead of Sanders and Gilbertti is silly. The six man tag match wasn’t all that good either, and the whole angle between Watts/Jarrett is just dumb. It would work better if Watts was good at some point, but he was never anything more than a lower mid-card guy, even when he father was a booker. The good stuff was the opener, x-division match and the main event. So, in that regard I’d say it was a mildly good show. I’ll give the show a very mild thumbs up.
Thanks for reading.