Our Take On 12.31.07: The 2007 TNA Wrestling Awards Spectacular

Introduction:
On behalf of my esteemed colleague Steve Cook I would like to welcome one and all to The 2007 TNA Wrestling Awards Spectacular! For the FOURTH year the band is back together, the 411 Impact Players Steve Cook and I are here to give you what we feel are the best and worst things about TNA Wrestling. It has been a crazy year in TNA land, as always, and we have the daunting task of deciding what was the best and worst of the year. As mentioned this is our fourth year doing the awards, something we look forward to every year. At the end of the awards you’ll see winners from the past years for a comparison, its fun to look back and see things in hindsight. But the topic at hand is this, “what was the best and worst of TNA in the year 2007?” Let’s find out.

Steve Cook – Winner: Pacman Jones: Don’t get me wrong, there have been many football players to make a successful transition to wrestling. Names such as Bronko Nagurski, Ernie Ladd, Wahoo McDaniel, Bill Watts, Bill Goldberg, Steve McMichaels & Lawrence Taylor come to mind. Heck, Frank Wycheck looked pretty good in the match he had at Slammiversary. Theoretically, Adam Jones could have been a solid performer in the wrestling ring. Bringing him in was a colossal mistake on several levels. First of all, the Tennessee Titan franchise wasn’t going to let one of their contracted players take part in an activity that could get him hurt. Even if the guy was suspended and wouldn’t be playing in the 2007 season anyway, the Titans see him as somebody that could contribute down the road, and they don’t want him getting dropped on his head. More important than that, Pacman Jones is a known miscreant that’s caused nothing but trouble the last several years of his life. TNA thought that associating themselves with a “known” football player would raise the value of their company, but it managed to alienate traditional wrestling fans that had no interest in seeing Pacman and make themselves the butt of jokes all across the country. Hell, people in the sports media thought Jones was degrading himself by appearing with a wrestling organization that had less appeal than Arena Football. This was a failure on every level possible.

Larry Csonka – Winner: PACMAN JONES – TNA TAG TEAM CHAMPION: With all of the backstage drama, drug addicts, lack of time for people under contract, losing money and everything else that they were going through, TNA thought that this was a good idea? No, this is beyond stupid. This is no buys, no extra ratings. It DID get some mention on Sports Center, but they have had mentions on there before and it did NOTHING for them, just lie this time. This company is the new WCW right now. Put the title on him, continue to hire other problem children, fuck anyone with talent and your chances of growing. Some said that this is going to be like Tyson and WWE, but Pacman is nowhere near the star level that Tyson was. Piss it all away TNA, that’s the only thing that you are good at right now. Jeff, you’re an idiot. You’re supposed to be the one smart for the business, but you’re the one making the stupidest decisions. Let’s get Chris Henry and Tank Johnson along with Vick and form a stable of rich assholes that will take TV time from the deserving people. Maybe they can get Michael Vick to come in and be the manager for Pitbull Gary Wolfe. And then if that wasn’t bad enough, they couldn’t even have him wrestle because of his football contract. So not only did they hire a guy with a VERY checkered criminal past, but the team that owns his NFL contract decided to but the KIBOSH on things so he doesn’t get injured; just incase they bring him back. This is just one gigantic clusterfuck, and really, one shouldn’t be surprised, THIS IS TNA: WE ARE BULLSHIT. So now they have this guy under contract, he can’t do anything physical and they went ahead and had him pin STING and WIN the TNA TAG TEAM TITLES! The stupid, it hurts so much. Ron killings worked so hard here because he always does and I feel bad for voting for the team, for the simple fact that I feel like I am bashing him, but the sad thing is that this team was stupid, it lost money, it was the definition of NO BUYS and they were bad. Thank God he is gone.

Larry Csonka – Winner: TOMKO: First Cook’s choice below is excellent, and in many ways I agree. But when I think of this award I do try to think of someone that made an impact that wasn’t expected too. And that is why I have selected Tomko. Many expected Tomko to be nothing more than muscle to Cage, a big guy being an obstacle for potential challengers, working some tag matches and nothing much more. But Tomko has drastically changed from his former WWE persona, where he was what I explained earlier and turned into a really good big man worker. The time in Japan has certainly helped Tomko as he worked a predominantly Japanese style, which has integrated well in TNA. He has surprised on many occasions and his tag team with AJ Styles has been a pleasant surprise. Add to that his overall presence and timing in vignettes and he has been great.

Steve Cook – Winner: Awesome Kong:She’s only been in TNA for three months, but she’s easily the most dominant figure in the promotion. Awesome Kong has laid waste to most of the Knockout division, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. Kong has a unique look for a woman in the business and wrestles a style that you don’t see many other women wrestle. I’m not as high on her as some of my compatriots are, but she is one of the better things going for TNA these days. I’ll pay attention when she’s squashing some poor hot chick.

Steve Cook – Winner: Black Reign: One of TNA’s many mistakes this year was their placing Black Reign in the first match of the first two hour Impact. Dustin Rhodes was a darn good worker back in the day, but that day has long since passed. Now we’re stuck with a guy who’s past his prime wearing a ridiculous black Goldust outfit walking around with a rat. There’s a story behind that, but I really don’t care about it. Just get him off my TV. Please?

Larry Csonka – Winner: VKM/BLACK REIGN: That’s right, the Old Age Outlaws, The James Gang, The Voodoo Kin Mafia. One in the same, and they all suck right now. They are guys living off of their past that constantly worry about their past, always try to run off of their past and on top of that, they sandbag and constantly no sell their opponents in an effort to make them look bad. Well guys, you are not fooling anyone here, many others and myself see right through your little tricks. You don’t and haven’t meant anything for a long time. TNA has officially gotten as much out of you as they can, and it is time for you to go. You are a plague on the roster, and since I am letting you go you can go back to the WWE; although I doubt you guys could pass the wellness test. Finally, TNA just doesn’t need them. You already have Team 3D, LAX, The Steiner’s (occasionally), AJ and Tomko, The Rock and Rave Infection (who could end up working well in the tag team setting) and other possibilities. Good tag teams, and that means that there is no room for a couple of guys that will not sell and suck the life out of feuds while living off of a gimmick that was hot in 1998. See ya later and don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

And then there is Black Reign. First of all, Dustin is not the most reliable person right now. His last stint with TNA was ended when he no showed an event, due to him being arrested on domestic dispute issues. Secondly, he is still having back issues, which forced him out of the WWE a while back. Thirdly in the span of two weeks he no showed the Bad News Allen Tribute Show, kept the deposit paid to him and cashed in his plane ticket. On top of that he blew off WWE for Saturday Night’s Main Event, and put Dusty in a particularly rough position. Fourthly he gave no rub to Chris Harris, and helped derail him. No one is excited to see Dustin Rhodes, why? That brings us to point #5. Outside of his early NWA career, Dustin Rhodes has never been nor ever will be anything without the Goldust Gimmick. Finally, #6; TNA is going to try and turn Dustin Rhodes into a character as close as they can to Goldust without getting sued by WWE. This is all Vince Russo, as this was his plan back in WCW in 2000 or so. Dustin Rhodes will add nothing to the shows, no good matches, no ratings, no buy rates and he will not elevate anyone. Good day to you.

Larry Csonka – Winner: THE KONG BOMB: You know I was thinking of going a different direction with this, but then I thought about the importance of finishers, and when it comes down to it, many of them aren’t very protected and you see a lot of escapes and or kick outs, hence they really don’t finish the match. The fact is that thus far in the booking of the TNA Women’s division the KONG BOMB has either laid out or finished every man or woman that has taken it thus far, which is why I give it the nod this year. A finisher that means something, go figure!

Steve Cook – Winner: Awesome Bomb: I’m voting for this because I’ve seen this move end more matches than anything excluding TNA’s favorite way to end matches, the “screw job finish”. It’s a standard sit-out powerbomb, but nobody has kicked out of Awesome Kong’s version yet. That makes it a pretty darn effective finishing move in my book.

Steve Cook – Winner: Jeff Jarrett getting over as a babyface: I never thought the Impact Zone fans would cheer Jeff Jarrett. Jarrett had gained the hatred of TNA fans for almost five years by pushing himself at the top of the promotion and holding the NWA World Title longer than anybody thought humanly possible. TNA fans hated Jarrett for holding people down and hogging all of the TV time…anybody who read anything about TNA from 2002-2006 knows exactly what I’m talking about. So when he came back on Impact in April as a babyface, I was fully expecting the TNA fans to continue booing him. Much to my surprise, Jarrett was treated like a conquering hero in Orlando and was also cheered when he appeared at the TNA house show I attended in Louisville. It just goes to show that while fans may have been irritated with Jarrett, they did respect him. Absence made the heart grow fonder. Unfortunately, Jeff’s wife Jill passed away in May & Jeff hasn’t been back in the ring since.

Larry Csonka – Winner: Jeff Jarrett Eulogizes his Wife (Slammiversary): This was shocking in a moving way. Before the main event match at Slammiversary, Mike Tenay hit the ring and said we would see a special interview on the big screen. The interview was with Jeff Jarrett. We saw the interview, with JJ saying this is a big milestone for the company. He reminisced about TNA’s early days, including the Hogan deal, which has been replayed 800,000 times. He talked about sitting with his dad and wife Jill at the dinner table and starting TNA. He was very emotional and when discussing her and says she is the one that gave him the strength and encouragement and that is how he got through this all. She was his rock and she was a huge part of making TNA succeed. He discusses her battle with cancer. She was in pain all the time and on May 23rd she passed on. He will not come back until he is prepared, and being in a ring is the worst place for him right now. He thanked us for our support, and thanked us on behalf of Jill. Some people feel that this wasn’t needed, but I feel differently. This was a heartfelt eulogy, thank you and goodbye from a husband to a wife. If you aren’t married I don’t think that you can fully understand this. She was a big part of his life and of TNA; and now that she is gone it has to be hard for him to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the company. This was well done and I had no problem with it at all. After it was finished, they showed the crowd, with people crying and hugging their loved ones and they chanted “Thank you Jill, Thank you Jeff.” Something I will remember for a long time I think.

Larry Csonka – Winner: KAZ: In 2004 I was positive that the combo of Shane, Kazarian and Brooks were people to watch out for, it’s even down below in case you want to check. I thought the combination of the hot chick and a talented, young tag team would be able to set TNA on fire. Unfortunately a number of things happened and it just never came to be. Shane and he were de-pushed, Brooks was taken from them, Kazarian left and came back, Serotonin happened and we all know the rest of the history up to now. But then it slowly appeared that Kaz was going to get a push. Many thought it would be in the X-Division, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Kaz made it to the finals of the Fight for the Right Tournament, lost through shenanigans and then got one more chance against Christian Cage. They had a great ladder match, which Kaz won in a defining moment and earned a title shot against Kurt Angle. This was a damn fine TV match, one which Kaz looked great in and he certainly gave Angle all he could handle. Over the course of a few weeks they were able to do good repair work and made people care about him. I think that 2008 could be a huge year for young Kaz, if the booking is with him.

Steve Cook – Winner: Whoever WWE lets go next: The one way to ensure getting a push in TNA is to have already been in WWE. Name value is so important to these people…if you don’t have it, you don’t matter. Look who’s in the main event of the next TNA PPV…Kurt Angle & Christian Cage. These are two guys that made their bones in WWE and have been dominating TNA ever since they arrived. You could make the argument that TNA needs “name talent” to draw PPV buys, but they aren’t drawing all that much as it is. I fully expect TNA never to learn anything and to keep bringing in WWE guys and pushing them to the moon. They’re not the first promotion to employ this strategy, and they won’t be the last.

Steve Cook – Winner: Motor City Machine Guns: Things didn’t look good for Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin not too long ago. They lost to VKM in 90 seconds, for crying out loud! In the last couple months they’ve finally received the opportunity to shine, and they’ve been doing so with good matches with teams like Team 3D. One has to wonder if this 3D vs. X-Division program will actually get them over for good or not, but they’ve done as well as possible with it. Honestly, the competition for Tag Team of the Year hasn’t been all that great. TNA Tag Team title holders include Kurt Angle by himself, Samoa Joe by himself, Team 3D, AJ Styles & Tomko, and Team Pacman. LAX did well early in the year but got forgotten about after they lost the straps to Team 3D and Konnan’s managerial services to AAA. The Rock & Rave Infection has a cool name and Christy Hemme, but they also have Lance Hoyt & Jimmy Rave. Voodoo Kin Mafia…well, the less said the better there. Shelley & Sabin have persevered to become a top tag team in TNA, and will likely hold the tag team titles sooner rather than later.

Larry Csonka – Winner: AJ and TOMKO: Cook makes an excellent selection here in the MCMG’s, but while I agree with much of what he has said I have to go in a different direction and name AJ and Tomko my TNA tag team of the year. LAX was hot early on, the MCMG’s have come on strong as of late and 3D has been solid overall. But I really feel that AJ and Tomko have delivered. Their work with Christian has been great in and out of the ring. Sure AJ is a goof, but for the first time ever he is effective on the mic and that is a huge step for him. I feel that Tomko also came up huge as well. You look at this, add it all up and I feel that they have been the most effective tag team in TNA through out the year.

Larry Csonka – Winner: Christopher Daniels: This is one of those cases where Cook and I are, again, sharing a brainwave. This is a case of what could have been. The feud with Sting could have been huge to Daniels. It was planned to be a long feud with Sting giving the rub to Daniels. TNA got cold feet, didn’t want Sting to job and they cut the balls off of the feud and Daniels with the one off. Then, as a consolation prize, XXX was reformed. Again, this is great on paper, but they were derailed and never had any direction. They also balked at a previous stipulation, something they had done well on. In the end, he was just another guy and as Cook so eloquently puts it, a once respected performer is out of the loop, and it is a damn shame.

Steve Cook – Winner: Christopher Daniels: I had such high hopes for Daniels this year…early on he was actually getting something resembling a push and they were going to debut this new persona for him. He came back and it looked like he was going to have a lengthy feud with Sting. But something happened and Daniels only faced Sting one time. He got beat pretty handily by Sting and got sent back to the mid-card. They then reformed Triple X, which was cool in theory but poor in execution. Triple X did nothing for a few months and then Daniels got “fired” on Impact in December. Did anybody care? Not really. At one time Christopher Daniels was one of TNA’s brightest stars and most respected performers…now he’s just another guy. It didn’t have to be that way.

Steve Cook – Winner: Bound For Glory: TNA’s flagship event had everything you could possibly hope for. Ultimate X. Team Pacman losing the tag team titles. The first TNA Knockouts Champion being crowned. Samoa Joe choking out Christian Cage. Monster’s Ball. Sting winning the TNA World Title. There were some downsides, like the reverse battle royal, but this was still TNA’s best PPV offering this year. I’m still not sure why Bound For Glory is TNA’s flagship event, but they’re doing their best to make that tag stick.

Larry Csonka – Winner: Bound for Glory: TNA’s TV product has been beyond frustrating this past year. The PPV has toned down a lot from mush see shows to pretty good shows with the guys busting their asses and poor booking holding them back. This show was a pleasant turn around over all I thought. The opener was hot, while the booking getting there is suspect the guys delivered. The FFTR deal is what it was, bad, the tag titles needed to change hands and did in a good match and Creed had one hell of a first showing. Jay Lethal, who had been subject to horrible booking got to look like a champion tonight in a good match with Daniels, while the tables match was what it was, with the “hot-lanta” crowd being very forgiving. Gail Kim becomes the first TNA Women’s Champion in a good baby face moment for the show, ala Lethal winning as well and people like that stuff. Samoa Joe finally got the big win over Cage in what was an excellent match, those men have clicked and they deliver. There was no “enforcer turn on the face” deal, he just did his job for once and that was good. The Monster’s Ball is what it is, not that this is a bad thing because there is an audience for it. Sting and Angle delivered a great main event match and if you can get past all of the bullshit at the end, Sting stood tall and they ended the big show with the happy face moment. Overall I went with a 7.75 out of 10 and a very strong recommendation to order the show. While there were some moments that TNA just could not resist, the overall is very good and it makes this show TNA’s best of the year. It was almost as if they wanted to apologize for Hard Justice and the shitty TV shows. If they would have dropped the reverse battle royal shit, the Nash stuff and extended a few matches and celebration times this would have been an 8.0 or above easily.

Larry Csonka – Winner: Steiner Brothers vs. Team 3D: When it was rumored that this feud was going to happen, most people had the same thoughts: “If this was 7-10 years ago it would have been great and meant something.” And then people shit all over it and said that no matter what it would suck. And really, you can’t blame people for thinking that. 3D walked through what could have been an excellent feud with LAX and seemed unmotivated. Scott is a jacked up juice monkey but has been hit and miss in the ring, if you remember he had a great match with Joe, and very good turned shitty match with Angle. Rick is out of wrestling for the most part, taking an occasional Indy booking while working Real Estate and serving on the School Board. Add into it that they are both in their 40’s and Rick is far from ring shape, and yes, it looked under whelming and like it could suck. The fact is that they had “fine” matches. They were far from bad, but not all that great either. But the thing is people DID get excited for them, and that was because of the great promo work they did. Sure Scott is jacked up and Ray is fat as hell, but these guys carried the feud on the stick, made you feel that they hated each other and in the end, I loved it and would have spent my own money on it. MANY BUYS~! This was excellent stuff and it was nice to see them reclaim some former glory here.

Steve Cook – Winner: Steiner Brothers vs. Team 3D: The matches weren’t important. What was important about this feud is that Scott Steiner gave two of the greatest promos of all time during it. Here’s the first, and here’s the second. Scott was pretty awesome this year, no doubt about it. You really got the feeling that these two teams hated each other, and there wasn’t the ridiculousness that surrounds most of TNA’s feuds these days. Good times.

Steve Cook – Winner: Kurt Angle: It’s hard to argue against a guy who has been TNA World Champion, TNA X Division Champion, TNA Tag Team Champion & the IWGP Fake Champion all in the same year. For a guy who was on his deathbed last year (if you believe all of the whiny message board posters that were begging him not to go to TNA because he might get hurt), Kurt Angle’s had a surprisingly productive year. Sure, there’s been a lot of ridiculousness involved (Kurt in a sauna receiving therapy, Kurt wandering around backstage with no clothes on, Kurt & Karen either arguing or not arguing depending on what week it is), but when it’s time to get in the ring and wrestle, Kurt’s been very, very good. Heck, Powerslam Magazine thinks he’s been the best wrestler in 2007. I wouldn’t go that far, but nobody has been more valuable to TNA than Kurt Angle.

Larry Csonka – Winner: Christian Cage: Cook once again eloquently states his point so well that I find it difficult to argue with him; difficult, but not impossible. You see while all of that is true about Kurt Angle, I truly feel that the MVP of TNA this year was Christian Cage. To me Cage was great all year on the mic, he has a string presence on TV and the most consistent in ring performer TNA had. Joe was in great matches, but his booking didn’t allow him to shine. If you remember my Top 10 TNA Matches of the year, Cage was involved in five of those. And while he didn’t win every major title at once in the company, he was world champion, he have great matches, was excellent on the mic and did a lot to put Kaz over in their great ladder match. To me Cage had a great 2007, unfortunately most don’t see it because of the booking of the promotion, which blinds a lot of people to where they don’t see the good anymore.

Larry Csonka – Winner: TNA CREATIVE CAN’T PULL THEIR HEADS OUT OF THEIR ASSES: Let me break this down in a simple metaphor. The creative team is supposed to be a like a good prep cook. They get every thing set, the service, the ingredients, they remind the chef of the recipe and how many people they are going to serve. The wrestlers are the chefs. They need to take this outline from the prep cook and make art out of it, they need to be Gordon FN Ramsey out there. But instead of helping the cooks out and giving them what they need, they are giving the cooks a piece of chicken and a bag of shit and told to make Orange Chicken, when we know they can’t even make chicken salad from that. In TNA what I see month after month is an extremely talented roster of guys working harder than about anyone else in wrestling but they get knocked and shit on because they are involved in free TV ladder matches where the winner has to wear a fucking reindeer suit. That’s one example, but it sucks when one of the most talented guys in the industry is killing himself in a ladder match just so he can wear a reindeer suit, Make it a jack ass next time while your at it. There are numerous examples from through out the year, but to keep this some what short, the thing that constantly disappointed me about TNA all year was the simple fact that TNA CREATIVE COULD NOT PULL THEIR HEADS OUT OF THEIR ASSES and help their roster succeed.

Steve Cook – Winner: Sting’s 2 day title reign after BFG: I hate short title reigns. One of the best things that happened in pro wrestling since the end of the Attitude Era is the lengthening of title reigns. For awhile there titles were changing hands more often than JT changes his underwear. Granted, that’s once a month, but my point still stands. For the second straight year, Sting went into Bound For Glory as the challenger for TNA’s World Championship. For the second straight year, Sting overcame all odds to win the title. And for the second straight year, Sting lost the title shortly afterwards. But they outdid themselves this time…Sting only lasted until the second episode of Impact taped after the PPV. A whopping two days. How well do you think it would have gone over if the Ultimate Warrior lost the WWF Title back to Hulk Hogan on the television taping right after WrestleMania VI? If Bound For Glory is the flagship show, you can’t have guys winning the title in the main event only to lose it two days after the event. That sends the message that your flagship show doesn’t mean all that much in the long run. It’s like shooting yourself in the foot…which unfortunately has been the theme of TNA 2007. I still care about the company and want it to succeed, but it’s becoming harder to have confidence in their methods.