TNA Weekly PPV #11
TNA Asylum
Nashville, Tennessee
August 28, 2002

Kid Kash vs. Amazing Red

They tried to outwrestle each other to a standoff followed by a bunch of armdrags. Kash turned the tide by throwing a chair right at Red’s face. Red hit the Red Eye for two. Red went up top but got cut off by Kash with a top rope Press Slam for two. Kash put Red away with Bankruptcy. Red extended his hand after the match but Kash decked him. The SAT made the save. Very fun opening match. Red has impressed in every TNA outing so far and Kash looked really good as well. Red bumped like a madman. ***

Monty Brown vs. Sonny Siaki

They brawled around ringside for a while before Monty took total control in the ring. That was a weird approach structurally because babyface Monty Brown totally dominated heel Siaki for ages. Siaki teased a comeback but Monty cut him off. Siaki eventually made a comeback but Monty cut him off again with a suplex. Brown took forever to hit a spinning slam that he calls the Alpha-lution. Jeff Jarrett came out and distracted Brown allowing Siaki to hit a low blow and roll up Brown for the win. This was the oddest match. I’d guess the idea was that Brown controlled so much of the match and looked so dominant because he was eating the fall in the end but it was just bizarre to watch play out over ten minutes. And not all that compelling. Jarrett and Brian Lawler brawled after the match. *

Goldylocks interviewed Slash. Quotes included “there are no friends when you live in the womb of hell”, referring to his friend Kobain (Flash Flanagan) “the thrill of suicide is what he lives for, his own pain is his very ecstasy” and “in my dreams I overdose from the sweet, sweet nectar of my own pain”. Kobain’s entire character seemed to consist of the fact that he was a suicide risk and that made him extra tough. Nobody appeared to be concerned for his safety or anything.

Elimination Match
Backseat Boys (Johnny Kashmere and Trent Acid) vs. The Disciples of the New Church (Slash and Kobain) vs. The Hot Shots (Chase Stevens and Cassidy Riley) vs. James Storm and Chris Harris

The winner of this match would enter last in a gauntlet match for the vacant NWA Tag Team titles on the next PPV. Riley and Acid hit stereo moonsaults from the turnbuckles and Chase Stevens followed with a Shooting Star to everybody on the floor. Slash eliminated the Backseat Boys after hitting the Slash and Burn. Harris hit some chops on Riley that Riley sold so convincingly that they looked like the most devastating thing on earth. Storm eliminated The Hot Shots after a Swinging Noose on Riley. Kobain hit a less than graceful senton to the floor on Storm. I suppose it got the job done. Brian Lee and Ron Harris came to ringside and moaned about not being in this match in spite of losing to Harris and Storm last week. Both teams exchanged near falls before Harris put Slash away with the Catatonic. This was fairly solid but it peaked with the dive sequence and never hit that level again for the rest of the match. Ron Harris and Lee destroyed everybody after the match. **1/2

Miss TNA
Bruce vs. April Hunter

The crowd chanted “You suck dick” and “He’s a homo” at Bruce. Tenay said that he’s hoping there’s a Miss TNA we can all be proud of. I suppose you can argue we should dislike Bruce because he’s fighting women but that’s clearly not what’s being presented here; we’re supposed to dislike Bruce because he’s gay. Hunter came flying out of the gate but Bruce cut her off with a suplex. Bruce put Hunter away with a powerbomb.

The SAT (Jose and Joel Maximo) vs. The Flying Elvises (Jorge Estrada and Jimmy Yang)

Yang and Estrada hit gorgeous stereo springboard moonsaults to the floor. Those two should take up synchronised diving because they were perfectly in sync there. The Elvises worked over Jose before he made the tag to Joel. The match then totally lost its form for a little while as the hit moves without there being any real rhyme or reason as the crowd lost interest. The SAT went for the Spanish Fly but Sonny Siaki interfered and crotched them on the top rope. Yang then totally missed the Yang Time only to improvise a sort of suplex to score the win. This was going pretty well right until the Maximos made their comeback and it lost any real structure or intensity from there. **

Goldylocks interviewed Brian Lawler trying to get to the bottom of his issue with Jeff Jarrett. Lawler proceeded to call Goldylocks a whore. Poor Goldylocks was relentlessly abused on these shows. Lawler kicked her out of the ring and then talked for a little while without ever saying what Jarrett did. Ron Killings interrupted Lawler and was upset Lawler (accidentally) hit him with a chair last week. Lawler started calling Killings dawg and homie. Killings said Lawler would pay for what he did and left. Lawler then started attacking a photographer for taking pictures of a woman he identified as his girlfriend. This was woeful. The idea is we’re supposed to be super intrigued as to why Lawler has problems with Jarrett but I’d rather watch dried paint.

Jeff Jarrett vs. The Bullet

They wrestled for a little while before Jarrett handcuffed The Bullet to the ropes. Jarrett grabbed a chair but Bob Armstrong tried to take it off him. Jarrett then struck Bob Armstrong right on the head with a chair twice. Security stopped Jarrett as he was about to unmask The Bullet. A 62 year old man being pounded square on the head with a chair is not something I want to see.

TNA X-Division Championship – Triple Ladder Match
Jerry Lynn vs. AJ Styles vs. Low Ki©

They started with a few relatively ladder-less minutes which included Low Ki Ki Krushering Styles into Lynn. Styles and Low Ki then battled it out atop a ladder bridged between the rail and the apron before Lynn dropped both men face first onto the ladder. Don West began to suggest that ladder matches should be outlawed because of the violence. Styles beat the hell out of Low Ki with strikes but turned into a huge clothesline from Lynn. That brought the crowd into the match. Styles and Lynn hiptossed Low Ki onto a ladder. Low Ki went for the Tidal Crush, Lynn caught him and sought to powerbomb him onto a ladder but Low Ki reversed into a hurricanrana into the ladder. That was a tremendous exchange that called back to a spot they did a few weeks earlier. Styles got hung up in a ladder and Low Ki proceeded to kick the hell out of him. Lynn backdropped Low Ki off a ladder. All three ladders were brought into the ring side by side, allowing Low Ki to lock a Dragon Sleeper on Styles atop the ladders. Lynn pushed Styles off a ladder to the floor and hit a Cradler Piledriver off a ladder on Low Ki to give him the opportunity to climb the ladder and win the X-Division title. Of TNA’s “early classics”, this one has aged the poorest for me. The opening stretch, while understandable in its intent to build to the use of ladders, is too slow. And there are periods of the match that simply didn’t seem to connect to the broader picture. But at times there were true glimpses of an absolute classic in here and these three really did try and go all out to do something special. Don’t get me wrong, it was a very good match. However it was short of being a truly remarkable ladder match. ***3/4

Final Thoughts: There was a pretty clear trend in the earliest TNA shows. The heavyweight and tag team divisions didn’t deliver anything worthwhile (though that would change over time with the development of AMW and the movement of Styles into the heavyweight division as well as the introduction of Raven), while the X-Division repeatedly stood out as TNA’s true selling point. This was a perfectly fine show, bookended by a fun Kid Kash/Amazing Red opener and a hugely enjoyable three way ladder main event.