NWA-TNA Weekly PPV #2 6/26/2002
Last week's PPV is here: https://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2024/10/nwa-tna-weekly-ppv-1-6192002.html
We see clips from last week's show.
Mike Tenay, Ed Ferrara and Don West are on commentary. Ed has goofy braids and looks like Raven. They talk about K-Krush and hype up the lingerie battle royale. We also crown the first ever X-Division champ tonight.
Jeff Jarrett comes out. He calls out Scott Hall, Toby Keith and Jackie Fargo and it appears we are starting our first match.
Jeff Jarrett vs Scott Hall
Scott throws his toothpick in Jeff's face. They lock up and Jeff armdrags him. Jeff trips him and slaps him in the back of the head. Jeff side headlocks him and gets punched. Jeff goes for an up and over and is punched. Scott catches Jeff's crossbody, fallaway slams him and lariats him over the top. Toby Keith gets behind Jeff outside and Jeff heads in. Jeff hits shots on Scott.
Jeff dropkicks Scott then leg lariats him on the ropes. Scott's head is banged off the buckles. They each hit punches. Jeff gets on his back for a sleeper. Scott goes down while put in the sleeper. Scott then puts Jeff in the sleeper. Jeff backdrops him out of it for 2.
Scott blocks punches and hits his own. Scott lariats Jeff over. K-Krush gets on the apron and saves Jeff. Krush nails Hall. Fargo hits shots on Krush. Brian Christopher then appears to chase Krush out. Jeff bangs Scott's face off the mat. Jeff goes for the stroke then Toby Keith low blows Scott. Scott and Toby both bang Jeff's head off the mat and Scott wins.
Thoughts: It went well until the interference spot then things all went downhill. K-Krush and Toby Keith both openly interfered in front of the ref and the ref could have cared less. The ref even counted the pin with Toby in the ring.
Cheex vs Frank Parker
Cheex is with the brown-eyed girl. He's a very fat dude with a glittery jacket and black underwear. He has some of the fattest legs you have ever seen.
Frank hits lariats and Cheex no sells them. Cheex lariats him over. Frank tries to irish whip him but he can't. Cheex slams him then hits a corner hip attack. The commentators make fat jokes. Frank eye rakes Cheex and hits punches. Alicia talks to Jeremy Borash outside.
Frank goes for the sunset flip and Cheex blocks it with a butt drop. Cheex then splashes him to win.
Thoughts: This was a quick squash here. Frank looked alright but sadly had to be squashed. I don't know what we were supposed to do with Cheex here. Nobody wants to see all that fat and the announcers didn't take him seriously. He's just a freakshow and not one of the more entertaining ones.
Jeremy Borash gives Alicia money after.
We cut to girls dancing in cages
K-Krush vs. Brian Christopher
Sterling Martin and Hermie Sadler are with BC. Both BC and Krush dance on their way to the ring.
BC poses on the ropes and Krush hits him. Krush boots and punches him in the corner. BC leapfrogs him then neckbreakers him. BC hits a bulldog for 2. BC hisses a bronco buster in the corner and goes into the buckles.
Krush suplexes BC. Krush goes up and over in the corner and hits a leg lariat. Krush chinlocks him. Krush hits shots to the back. BC makes his comeback with punches. BC step up enzugiri's him. BC hits a stunner.
Krush atomic drops him. Krush goes between the ropes. Sadler and Martin pull the ropes up in front of Krush's crotch in front of the ref. The ref doesn't care though. BC hits a top rope legdrop and gets the win.
Thoughts: Similar to the last match, it went well until the interference, which was blatant and in front of the ref. The ref didn't care here in this one either. The match wasn't great or anything but they moved around well and their offense looked good. I was surprised Krush lost here as he seems like a guy they are building for the future.
Miss TNA Lingerie Battle Royal - Erin vs. Elektra vs. Alexis Laree vs. Shannon vs. Taylor Vaughn vs. Francine vs. Joni vs. Miss Sasha vs. Tyler
They say the winner of this gets a contract. They mess up the intros with Tyler coming out when Francine is supposed to. They do a poor job of announcing who is who.
All the girls are wearing pajamas. They all fight. and tops go flying. Tyler loses her clothing and is first out. Shannon and someone else strip Sasha and send her out. Erin is stripped and sent out.
Francine is triple teamed. Her pants are pulled off then her shirt is pulled off as well. Jodi is stripped and sent out. Francine cries about being eliminated outside and Ed Ferrara consoles her. Ed grabs her chest. Francine pulls Ed's belt off then whips him with it. I think someone gets eliminated but the camera's miss it. Taylor takes off Elektra's shirt.
Taylor chokes Elektra then trips her to win.
Francine attacks Taylor from behind after then strips her. Francine then whips her with a belt.
Thoughts: It was not much of a match as expected and as expected, there was no nudity here. The announcers did a poor job of explaining who was who and I'm pretty sure they missed an elimination.
Goldilocks interviews Apolo. He says he's looking forward to tonight. Bobcat comes in with David Young and asks if she has a problem with her. She says Young should be interviewed. Bobcat argues with her and Goldi ends the interview. I think this was the debut of Bobcat and David Young.
Apolo vs David Young
Bobcat is with David Young. Dave side headlocks him and they shoulderblock battle. Apolo tilt-a-whirl slams him then front suplexes him. Dave goes outside to stall and Apolo plancha's him. Bobcat flirts with Borash outside.
Apolo corner splashes him then misses a corner charge. Dave hits a hard kick to the face and Bobcat flirts with Borash more. Dave armlocks Apolo and Bobcat takes off Borash's shirt. Dave gets distracted then Apolo rolls up Dave for 2. Dave lariats Apolo over. Dave step up enzugiri's him for 2.
Dave suplexes Apolo for 2. Dave chinlocks him. Apolo tornado ddt's him. Dave spinebusters him. Dave is distracted by Bobcat. Dave misses a top rope moonsault. Apolo superkicks him. Apolo hits a TKO and wins.
Thoughts: This didn't work. They focused on Bobcat and Borash the whole time for some reason and made it clear the match didn't matter. Apolo then won as expected in an average match. This was not a good intro to David Young and made him look like a fool.
Bobcat dances around in the ring after.
Joel Gertner is in the ring after and is very slimmed down from his ECW days. Joel does his usual schtick. Joel says there's people who have alternative lifestyles. He says he doesn't care what they do in their hotel room, that's their business, but he says his men are all business out here.
The Rainbow Express (Lenny and Bruce) vs The Dupp's (Bo and Stan Dupp)
The Dupp's don't come out. They are in the back and say they aren't wrestling those alternative lifestyle boys. Bill Behrens says they need to go to the ring now and replace them.
The Rainbow Express (Lenny and Bruce) vs Chris Harris and James Storm
Chris and Storm head to the ring and get pounded on as they enter. Bruce is lariated over the top and Lenny takes a bulldog. Lenny hits a tornado ddt on Storm. Lenny kisses Bruce's hand to get in. Storm fights off a springboard sunset flip then is lariated over. Chris hits a flying headscissors on Lenny.
The Express bang Storm's head off the mat together. Lenny suplexes Storm. Bruce pounds on Storm then kisses Lenny's hand to tag him in. Storm misses a dropkick and looks like a fool doing it. Lenny lion tamers Storm and Chris breaks it up.
Chris gets in and hits punches on his opponents. Chris hits a thesz press on Lenny. Bruce is pulled down face first on the apron. Lenny stunguns Harris. Harris rolls him up for 2. Harris backslides Lenny. Lenny and Bruce bang heads then Harris rolls up Lenny to win this.
Thoughts: Like the Cheex match, I didn't know what to really make of this. It was so weird to try and transcribe this one because Storm looked like Davey Boy Smith at this point more than he did himself. At least the right people won here which is about the only good thing I can say of this one.
Ricky Steamboat comes out in a ref shirt and asks if everyone is having a good time. Ken Shamrock comes out. Ricky says Ken has joined the ranks of a lot of legendary wrestlers by being NWA champ. Ken says he will defend the belt with honor and pride. He says he has risen to the top in other sports and now The NWA. He says he will be a fighting champ. He tells fans to kiss his @ss who don't like him.
Father James Mitchell comes out. He calls the crowd "crackers". He says he's on a mission from god. But not your god, his god. He says that's why his Disciples of The New Church control the NWA Title. He dares Ken to fight one of his wrestlers in a title match next week. James then brings out Slash (no, not the guitarist).
Ken says this has to be a joke. He lays the belt down and tells James to send the freak down to try and take it from him. Malice then appears from behind Ken and chokeslams him. Malice then chokes Ken. Steamboat and other people then try to stop Malice. Malice pushes them over.
James says might is right and say the meek shall inherit nothing.
NWA TNA X Division Title Double Elimination Gauntlet Match - Low-Ki vs. Psicosis vs. AJ Styles vs. Jerry Lynn
Leg 1 - AJ Styles vs Psicosis
AJ shoulders him over and hits chops. Psi drops him on his face and chest. AJ superkicks him for 2. Psi spinning heel kicks him then top rope legdrops him for 2. AJ hits a styles clash off a hurricanrana attempt and pins Psi.
Leg 2 - AJ Styles vs Low-Ki
Ki hits kicks and AJ hurricanrana's him from the mat. AJ flips over Ki's back. Ki pele kicks him. Ki cartwheels but is caught. AJ goes for the styles clash. Ki gets out and pops-up AJ, crotching him on the top rope. Ki tries a hanging dragon sleeper in the corner but they fall down. Ki keeps the hold on though and they have to ropebreak.
Ki misses a phoenix splash then AJ spinning lariats him. AJ germans him then drops him on his face and chest. AJ gets the win.
Leg 3 - AJ Styles vs Jerry Lynn
Lynn comes in and hits cradle piledriver. Lynn pins him.
Leg 4 - Jerry Lynn vs Psicosis
Psi top rope dropkicks him off the top rope in the back. Lynn flying headscissors him. Lynn boots him out of the corner and diving facebusters him from the 2nd rope.
Psi headscissors Lynn over the top rope. Psi tope con hilos him. Psi spinning heel kicks him off the top for 2. Lynn reverse ddt's him for 2. Psi jumps off the top and gets caught with a dropkick. Lynn hits a cradle piledriver and pins him. Psicosis loses twice and is eliminated.
Leg 5 - Jerry Lynn vs Low-Ki
Ki hits kicks. Lynn back body drops him and hits lariats. Ki turns a cradle piledriver into a triangle. Lynn powerbombs him to escape it. Lynn tries to reverse a suplex with his own and slips, turning it into a ddt. Lynn lariats him then hits a cradle piledriver. Lynn then gets the pin.
Leg 6 - Jerry Lynn vs AJ Styles
AJ spinning lariats him. Lynn hurricanrana's him and AJ spin kicks him. Lynn tilt-a-whirl backbreakers AJ for 2. AJ blocks a slingshot sunset flip then slingshot corkscrew splashes him.
AJ moonsaults off of him then spinning ddt's him for 2. AJ neckbreakers Lynn out of a suplex attempt. Lynn running sitout powerbombs him for 2. AJ hits a styles clash and pins him.
Leg 7 Final - Jerry Lynn vs AJ Styles
Both guys have been beaten once so this is a tiebreaker. Ricky Steamboat is the ref for this leg. They trade punches. Lynn sunset flips him for 2 and they trade pin attempts for a bit. They then lariat each other down. AJ dropkicks him.
Lynn stunners him over the top rope and throws him into the rails outside. AJ moonsaults off the apron into a reverse ddt on him on the floor. AJ gets a 2 count in the ring. Lynn drops AJ gut first on the top rope and bridging ddt's him for 2. AJ avoids a vertebreaker. Lynn has him in the powerbomb position and flips him forward onto his chest. AJ drops him on his knee off the fireman's carry for 2. Lynn spinning brainbusters him for 2.
Lynn hits him a sleeper. AJ jawbreakers him. Lynn superplexes him for 2. AJ hits a top rope spiral tap and wins.
Thoughts: This match had a rare format. I've never seen this type of much done before or since. We had 7 different singles matches here. As a whole it was a good match. The various legs could have been better though that is always the case with gauntlets. It got lots of time as well which was nice and I thought they did a good job in establishing Lynn vs AJ as a rivalry going forward. Without question, this was the best match of the first two PPV's shows and the only thing so far that gave me any hope of this promotion maybe being better. It's beyond clear that the people in this match and Hall/Jarrett/Krush need to be the focus of this company going forward.
Next week has a one night tournament to crown the first NWA Tag champs. We also have Scott Hall and Brian Christopher vs K-Krush and Jeff Jarrett.
Overall thoughts: The main was the best thing on here without question. I thought it demonstrated the direction this company needed to go in and it was one of the few bright points on an otherwise bad show. Jarrett/Hall wasn't bad, but the finish was all messed up and the same thing could be said for Krush/Christopher. I don't know what we were supposed to think of Cheex's debut, but whatever they went for, it didn't work. The lingerie battle royal was horrible from a wrestling stand point and didn't offer much besides girls in their underwear. The stuff with Bobcat got David Young off to a bad start and ruined his match. The Rainbow Express did not have a great debut either, but at least Storm and Harris got put over. As a whole, the show was bad and similar to last week's show. I thought they did a poor job of introducing various wrestlers though they did a good job with recap videos from last week to remind you of why people are fighting. As often with Russo shows, they may not be good but they certainly aren't boring and do not leave you with a lack of anything to comment on. The main is maybe worth seeing but not much else. I'd give this a 3 out of 10.
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