TNA Weekly PPV #9
TNA Asylum
Nashville, Tennessee
August 14, 2002

Ron Killings came out and officially dubbed the Tennessee State Fairground Sports Arena the TNA Asylum for the first time. Killings said somebody in the WWE said he couldn’t make the mistakes others could because of the colour of his skin. He called himself a legend before being interrupted by Jeff Jarrett. Jarrett and Killings will challenge AJ Styles and Jerry Lynn for the tag titles in the main event. Jarrett was upset at not receiving a title shot and asked for one. Killings accepted but Bill Behrens wearing a silly hat came out pretending to a tough cool cowboy guy and said Jarrett vs. Killings wasn’t going to happen. Brian Lawler attacked Jeff Jarrett. Lawler tried to take a chair from a fan but the fan refused to turn it over and appeared to have an iron grip so Lawler, defeated, gave up. Lawler and Jarrett were broken up as Lawler shouted “I know it was you Jarrett.” The highlight of this was Lawler’s inability to commandeer a steel chair.

The SAT (Amazing Red, Jose and Joel Maximo) vs. Kid Kash, Shark Boy and Slim J

Kash wrestled most of the early exchanges for his team before hitting a slingshot hurricanrana to the floor. Slim J hit a moonsault to the floor before Red and Kash followed with dives of their own. The SAT unloaded some fun triple team stuff. Kash particularly seemed to enjoy using Slim J as a weapon. Kash nailed Red with a top rope exploder suplex. Kash hit a double springboard hurricanrana followed by a tornado DDT. Kash hit the Money Maker on Red but Jose broke up the pin. The Maximos connected with the Spanish Fly on Slim J and Red followed with the Infrared for the win. This was a total spotfest and a load of fun for it. The second week in a row The SAT has looked great. ***1/4

Bruce vs. Tina Hamilton

The crowd chanted “You suck dick” at Bruce. I have no clue who Tina Hamilton was and so far as I can ascertain this was her only ever match. Tina dominated Bruce but Bruce caught her with a quick roll up for the win.

Last Man Standing Match
Don Harris vs. Malice

Harris had a symbol which resembled Nazi imagery on his shirt, which I have no idea how anybody would allow on TV. I’ll talk about that a little more at the end. They brawled for a while, including plentiful unprotected chair shots. Malice backdropped Harris through a table but Harris still got up first and won. Solid walk and brawl. Malice and Harris bumped fists after the match. **

Dupp Cup
Bo Dupp vs. Teo

Stan Dupp had a fear of midgets because of oompa loompas. Stan was carrying a wooden board which said “no li’l people” on it. Stan Dupp lost points for his brother for “screaming like a pussy.” I’m not even going to try and keep track of the point scoring here. Poor Don West was breathless trying to keep up with everything. Teo won the Dupp Cup after shoving Bo’s head in an outhouse toilet.

Detroit Street Fight
Monty Brown vs. Elix Skipper

Weapons brawls where people just take turns hitting each other with things have really aged badly. Less has become more in these kinds of matches. There needs to be an actual sense of intensity, a sense that things have resorted to attacking each other with weapons for a reason. Otherwise it just feels like aimless carnage. At the very least they need a sense of energy to help carry them to something more. This was predominantly the former rather than the latter. Monty won with an Alpha Bomb onto a trash can. **

TNA X-Division Championship
Jorge Estrada vs. Sonny Siaki vs. Jimmy Yang vs. Low Ki©

This was a four way elimination match as opposed to a handicap match. The Elvises dominated Low Ki with the numbers advantage. Estrada and Yang started fighting each other before Low Ki was eliminated which made them look incredibly stupid. Yang eliminated Estrada with a sloppy Boston Crab where it wasn’t clear whether Estrada actually submitted. Siaki crotched Yang on the top rope and Low Ki eliminated him after a Ki Krusher. Yang returned to cost Siaki the match soon later. This was bland from a wrestling standpoint and nonsensical from a story standpoint with Estrada and Yang fighting each other. **

Glenn Gilbertti introduced Dean Baldwin, supposedly of the famed Baldwin family, as his guest for this edition of Jive Talkin’. It was Shark Boy without his mask. It was a fake celebrity interview. The crowd chanted boring. Brian Lawler came out and attacked the fake Baldwin. This was pointless.

NWA World Tag Team Championships
Jeff Jarrett and Ron Killings vs. Jerry Lynn and AJ Styles©

Lynn attacked AJ Styles earlier in the show and started the match alone. Styles came out shortly into the match. Lynn hit a top rope bulldog but Jarrett made the save. Jarrett and Killings got the heat of Lynn before Lynn hit a tornado DDT and tagging in AJ. Styles and Lynn worked together a little before Styles inadvertently took out referee Scott Armstrong. Jarrett hit Lynn with a Stroke while AJ hit Killings with a Spiral Tap and two referees counted each pin resulting in a draw. Bob Armstrong announced the belts will be held up until further notice. Armstrong booked Lynn vs. Styles, Jarrett vs. a mystery opponent and Killings vs. Monty Brown for the next weeks show. This was a perfectly competent, but not overly engaging, main event. **1/4

Final Thoughts: This episode was posted on TNA’s YouTube channel last Thursday and has since been pulled due to the Nazi imagery mentioned earlier. I’m honestly not a fan of that choice, even if I entirely understand it. Shows like this are part of TNA’s history. They are, for better or for worse, a part of TNA’s identity. Recent weeks have featured awful levels of homophobia, dreadful treatment of female characters, and at one point a sexual assault which was endorsed by the babyface announcers. All of that was absolutely dreadful. It set back the image of TNA as a company, and the broader industry, by decades. This was also in the same general time period as the likes of Katie Vick and Hot Lesbian Action. However to whitewash these things and to bury them would be a mistake in my opinion. These things should be available to be viewed, discussed, understood with the context in which they happened and, most importantly, it should be made clear the wrestling industry needs to never allow things like this happen again. While there are still cases of homophobia, questionable treatment of women, and poor female characters (though thankfully so far as I’m aware no Nazi imagery) wrestling is, albeit quite slowly, improving on these issues. Pretending these issues didn’t happen is not the route to preventing them in the future. Pretending they don’t exist is to potentially pretend the lessons that need to be learned from them don’t exist either.