TNA Weekly PPV #7
Tennessee State Fairground Sports Arena
Nashville, Tennessee
July 31, 2002

TNA X-Division Championship
Elix Skipper vs. AJ Styles©

Jerry Lynn was on commentary discussing his issues with Styles. They went back and forth for a little while before Skipper hit a Dragon Suplex and took control. Styles tried to fight back but Skipper dropped him with a back drop. Skipper did a headstand in the corner and span into a leg drop. AJ went for a dropkick but Skipper reversed into a powerbomb. Skipper went for a Northern Lights but Styles countered into a Dragon Sleeper. Skipper hit a corkscrew crossbody to the floor. Skipper went for a springboard, AJ kicked his legs out from under him and Skipper took an extremely nasty looking fall. Styles immediately followed with the Spiral Tap for the win. Styles and Lynn left together happily. So they’re getting along again for a while. The match was solid but Styles and Skipper seemed on different pages at various stages throughout. **1/2

Monty Brown dropped Elix Skipper after the match because Skipper left him hanging the week before.

Jeff Jarrett came to the ring with a person trapped in a sack. Todd Stone, a midget wrestler, was trapped in the sack. Jarrett beat him up. Puppet The Psycho Dwarf came to the ring. Jarrett called himself the Dwarf Destroyer and challenged Puppet to a fight. Puppet pulled a gun on Jarrett. That’s not a joke. That’s actually something that happened. Security distracted Puppet long enough for Jarrett to hit him with a chair. Ricky Steamboat came out and tried to re-establish order but Jarrett challenged Steamboat to a match. Steamboat feigned accepting but Scott Hall jumped Jarrett instead. Jarrett vs. Hall in a Stretcher match will be the main event. I can just imagine the booking meeting for this match:

“So we need to do an angle to set up Hall vs. Jarrett in the main event.”

“How about we have Jarrett come to the ring with a midget in a body bag. Jarrett attacks that midget until another midget comes out and pulls a gun on Jarrett. Jarrett waits until he’s distracted and hits him with a chair. This is all to set up Steamboat distracting Jarrett so Hall can attack him.”

*quietly ponders*

“Perfect! Let’s do it! Somebody go find me a gun!”

How does nobody ask what the hell the point of somebody pulling a gun here was, other than to be “edgy” I suppose?

Slash vs. Sonny Siaki

James Mitchell was on commentary talking about the Ark of the New Church, a little box he had with him, which apparently contained the blood of the audad. Having done a spot of Googling, an audad is apparently a North African sheep. And James Mitchell has its blood! Slash controlled much of the match but missed a senton bomb attempt. Siaki hit a pumphandle suplex but Slash reached the ropes. Mitchell distracted the referee, Slash placed a bag over Siaki’s head for some reason, hit a neckbreaker before immediately pulling the bag off his head and pinning him. I have no idea what that was about. Mitchell said the audad blood can be used to anoint or to desecrate and then proceeded to paint Siaki with the blood. Don Harris made the save.  This was all very odd. The New Church was much better off a little later on when it revolved around the Slash and Brian Lee team. *

Ron Killings came out and approached a cage dancer claiming she was forced to be there against her will. Killings mocked her ambitions to be a dancer and then called her a two dollar whore, saying she belonged on a street corner. He then appeared to start unbuckling his belt before Monty Brown attacked him. Ricky Steamboat called out Killings and asked him to explain his vendetta against “them”. Killings pointed out that Steamboat never got a push in the WWF and asked Steamboat to explain why. Steamboat said Killings will get an NWA title shot against Shamrock next week. So Killings accused TNA of being racist in order to get his NWA title shot.

Malice vs. Apolo

They brawled around ringside and Apolo tried to out speed Malice but Malice caught him with a powerbomb. Apolo was busted open, which seemed a little excessive considering this was a throwaway midcard match. Apolo hit a tornado DDT and scored the pin after a superkick. The announcers put this over as a big upset win. That’s all well and good until you realise that Malice hasn’t actually won a match in TNA yet. Don Harris tried to make the save but got overwhelmed by The New Church before Mitchell put some sheep blood on his head. *

Taylor Vaughn vs. Bruce

Before the match Bruce challenged Vaughn for her TNA crown. Vaughn threw her shoe at Bruce and followed with a suplex. Bruce eventually won with a tilt-a-whirl slam. This was no good. No good at all. DUD

Jerry Lynn vs. Low Ki

AJ Styles was on commentary and Mike Tenay had to remind production to turn on his microphone. They had a very tentative opening stage with both men feeling each other out before Low Ki took control with strikes. Lynn hit a leg drop and followed with a Gory Bomb for a near fall. Lynn went for a Cradle Piledriver but Low Ki reversed into an arm bar. Lynn escaped and hit a front suplex. They began exchanging strikes but Low Ki shut Lynn down with a springboard kick. Lynn countered a cartwheel kick into a sit out powerbomb for a near fall. That was really neat. Lynn hit a tornado DDT for another two count. Lynn looked for a Cradle Piledriver but Low Ki countered with a rolling Liger kick. Styles left commentary and kicked Lynn to cause the DQ. Low Ki kicked AJ right in the face. Thank goodness for this match because this show was dying a slow, horrible death. Low Ki’s strikes were convincing and brilliantly timed and these were a bunch of great sequences stuffed into this match. The finish was to set up Styles vs. Lynn vs. Low Ki on the next show. ***1/2

Glenn Gilbertti introduced Goldylocks as the first guest on his new talk show Jive Talkin’. He promised she’d show her breasts but she declined. She talked about her music career while he mocked her. He then demanded she showed her breasts and she demanded Girbertti show his “hairy ass balls” instead. The crowd booed when Goldy refused to show her breasts. Goldy kneed Gilbertti in the nuts before Paulina Thomas, from the first season of Tough Enough apparently, choked her out. She lasted a whole two weeks in TNA.

Don West ran down the card for the following show and he was so damn excited and convincing that I’ll be damned if anybody watching this show at the time could resist buying the next PPV. Don developed into a damn solid announcer over the years and in many ways was TNA’s most undervalued asset.

Stretcher Match
Scott Hall vs. Jeff Jarrett

You win by pinfall or submission but you can use the stretcher as a weapon. They brawled around the building before Jarrett used the stretcher as a weapon to gain the advantage. The stretcher they were using was really flimsy so it didn’t make for the most convincing weapon. It is quite unfortunate that they worked the whole match around stretcher spots. Hall hit the Razors Edge but Ron Killings pulled the referee out. AJ Styles, Monty Brown, Don Harris, Malice, Slash and Jerry Lynn all also got involved. Hall attempted to strike Jarrett with the stretcher but Jarrett ducked and Hall hit the referee. Jarrett looked to hit Steamboat with a chair but missed and the chair rebounded into his face. Hall also tried to use the chair but Steamboat stopped him allowing Jarrett to hit the Stroke onto the chair and score the win. This was an absolute mess. Overbooked is too mild a term to use. *1/2

Final Thoughts: Watching these shows back makes it clear how important the X-Division was to TNA because it was the only shining light in the company. Everything else was stupid, offensive or poorly conceived. Lynn vs. Low Ki was lots of fun, Styles vs. Skipper was decent and the rest was rubbish.