(I know what the name of this board is, so I apologize if it's off-topic. I'll tie it in with WWE somehow, I promise)
Someone lent me a copy of Victory Road and thus, my first exposure to TNA. Basically, this seemed like Nitro to me, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but I was never a huge WCW fan. First thing I saw was a 20-man X-Division battle royale. Lots of cool moves (and a lot of crisp headscissors), but it didn't take long before I got bored. It was all spots, no selling and the bumping was fun but a bit too over-the-top for it to look like anything else than an exhibition.
The rest of the PPV was basically built around people I don't need to watch in 2005 (Scott Hall, Jeff Hardy, Erik Watts, Roddy Piper, Jimmy Snuka, Jeff Jarrett and the list goes on). I knew these wrestlers were in TNA, but actually seeing them hammered home the feeling that this is closer to WCW than, say, ECW (though it seemed the crowd wanted it to be the latter).
ANYWAY, the one thing that impressed me more than anything was AJ Styles. The guy is so slick and crisp, it's insane. So fluid and so charismatic, I can't believe they're not building TNA around this guy. Again, something often repeated but actually seeing him performing made a believer out of me. He really stood out from all the X-Division guys and more than anyone (including heavyweights), he LOOKED like a fuckin' star. They're kinda half-arsing it and putting him in a Sabu-in-ECW spot, but what they do need to do is pull the trigger now.
I actually thought about an alternate universe where AJ Styles would be holding Randy Orton's spot right now. Both are young, good-looking wrestlers. I haven't heard any Styles promo, but you can tell by the way he carried himself around the ring that he has enough charisma to reel the fans in. But then again, who knows if he'd be who he is if he had to conform to the WWE style.
― alex in montreal, Monday, 7 February 2005 21:32 (twenty years ago)
We've deviated from WWE-talk to general wrestling talk on other threads, so I wouldn't worry about being "off-topic".
I haven't seen any of their recent PPV's, which have been very good according to many people. In particular, the XXX vs AMW cage match from their PPV in December was hailed as the MOTY 2004 by most people who saw it.
I've seen the odd TNA match over the years, most of them being X-division matches, so I've seen my share of Styles. Yeah, he's good, but he's small. He'd be jobbing to Viscera on Heat if he was in the WWE.
― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Monday, 7 February 2005 22:50 (twenty years ago)