1) The Samoan Submission Machine:
''Joe's gonna kill ya!'' On the face of it, it's a pretty hollow chant. But like all the best workers, there's something about Samoa Joe's ring craft that convinces you he's capable of inflicting real damage. The company's most recent Triple Crown Champion, the big man is a credible compatitor in any division who, if called upon, can be either a humongous heel or a blubbery, butt-kicking babyface.
Just as both Jeff Jarrett and A.J. Styles have previously been the faces of the federation, so Joe has his sticky mitts all over the TNA of today. And if being a most compelling in-ring performer wasn't enough, he cuts a good interview and he dances pretty damn well for a big guy.
2) The X Division:
While certain other companies have all but crushed their cruiserweights, one of TNA's biggest selling points has always been this high-flying, spot-heavy division. Capable of attracting talent from as far afield as Japan, Mexico and the UK, without the X Division it's quite possible that A.J. Styles wouldn't be where he is today.
Likewise, TNA itself might have struggled to distinguish itself if it didn't have a division whose unique format (remeber: ''it's not about weight limits, it's about no limits'') enables guys like Elix Skipper and Sonjay Dutt to duke it out with such gravity-defying giants as Samoa Joe. Though Kevin Nash and Team 3D have both tried to kill it, as long as TNA is a going concern, it seems that X will always have it's spot.
3) Hexagonal Hell:
Before TNA adopted it, the six-sided ring was soley the province of the Mexican wrestling scene (specifically AAA). And when it first imported the idea, many of the company's workers expressed concern about how the new playing field might effect the way they worked.
But while some might have taken a lot longer than others to get used to the new dimensions (see Sopp, Kip), the hexagon has presented its performers with a range of exciting oppertunities while ensuring that TNA is immediately distiguishable from its American opponents. And given the company's emphasis on high flying, the addition of two extra turnbuckles has given Jay Lethal, Homicide and co even more opportunities to explore their intrest in death defiance.
4) Tag Team Turmoil:
The Road Warriors, The British Bulldogs, The Hart Foundation, Harlem Heat - such is the storied history of tag wrestling that it's sad (not to say a might disrespectful) of Vince McMahon to have awarded his straps to Dusty Rhodes' green little lad and the artist formerly known as Sparky Plugg not too long ago.
Thankfully TNA still has keen intrest in tandem grappling, the efficient units such as The Motor City Machine Guns and The Rock & Rave Infection vying for the gold. As for the reigning champions, the militant LAX are what The Mexicools might have been had Juvi and friends been asked to play colours-sporting, Che Guevara-revering rebels, rather than lawnmower straddling Latinos with a nice line in boiler suits.
5) Stylin' & Profilin':
If Sting is considered WCW's franchise player then Allen Lloyd Jones holds the same position in TNA. Part of the federation since the very first match of the very first weekly pay-per-view. A.J. Styles has held every title, carried even the most limited of performers to great matches and endured his fair share of indignity along the way.
In his current feud with the estimable Kurt Angle, the master of the Styles Clash has again had a chance to prove that, whether he's taking to the air or going toe-to-toe, he's a performer with a truly rare talent. And now that the once muted A.J. has added serious mic skills to his repetoire, Mrs Styles' little boy can claim to be truly phenomenal.
6) Divas Need Not Apply:
Forget separating the men from the boys - this is where the girls rule the roost. Unless you follow the American or Japanese indy scenes, you could be forgiven for thinking that a female's role in wrestling consisted of a) standing around and looking pretty, or b) grappling really unconvincingly while looking pretty.
Thanks to producer Scott D'Amore and some superbly cherry-picked talent, TNA is reminding fans that there's more to women worker than blown spots and big, fake funbags. Gail Kim, Roxxi, Velvet Sky - they're all lookers, sure, but it's what they do in the ring that really counts. And with the likes of Mickey ''Mosse'' Knuckles recently added to the roster, these Knockouts look set to deliver killer blows for many years to come.
7) Pay-Per-Viewtiful:
With pay-per-views often so alike that you'd think they came from the same cookie cutter, TNA has strived hard to stand apart from the pack. Hence lockdown, in which each match takes place withing ''The Six Sides Of Steel'', and Slammiversary, the annual celebration capped off with The King Of The Mountain Contest - a compelling blend of Ladder Match and elimination wrestling.
Futher efforts to shake things up include Destination X, where the showpiece match sees two or more grapplers battling a full 20 feet above the canvas. Now factor in a healthy, diverse roster and a keen - perhaps even too keen - desire to surprise the punter and you have a promotion whose PPVs have a rare air of distinctiveness.
8) The Airborn Ultimatum:
If the X Division is TNA's signature subculture, the Ultimate X Match is the group's standout, specialist bout. Take one six-sided ring, suspend two ropes across it 15 feet above the canvas and then pit any number of performers against one another, the winner being the one who clings, climbs or catapaults along the ropes to retieve objects of desire from the ''X'' where the cables cross.
Inaugurated at the company's 58th weekly PPV, and reahing its zenith at 2006's Destination X, an Ultimate X Match remains an x-tra special event. Indeed, if there is ever a controversy surrounding the X Division Title, it's best resloved with this match - the greatest high in wrestling today.
9) Awesome Kong:
Meet Kia Stevens, a lovely large lady from California who's the most destructive force in women's wrestling since the days of Dump Matsumoto. As animalistic and incredible as her name suggests, Kong is a true old school villain, capable of convincing the audience to feel genuine sympathy for her opponents.
Never better than when squaring off against the petite Gail Kim, the long-time Japanese favourite has taken the American women's scene in a truly thrilling direction. She's so dominant that she puts any male competitors to shame. So while WWE continues to persist with uncoordinated colossuses, allow Ms Stevens to remind you what a monster should really look like.
10) Joe Versus Angle:
It's epic feuds that fuel ticket sales and pay-per-view buys and, in Samoa Joe versus Kurt Angle, TNA has a bona fide battle for the ages. From the moment the former Olympian left WWE, fans longed for him to lock horns with The Samoan Submission Machine.
After their initial trio of incredible contests, it took a brilliant bit of booking - together with some smart cribs from the UFC - to bring the battle back to the boil and give American wrestling its first taste of a new, MMA-friendly style of action. The undisputed highlight of this year's Lockdown, we can only hope it's not long before TNA's biggest attraction headlines again.
This is taken from the British wrestling magazine Fighting Spirit. I hate it myself terrible magazine. But this amused me. It's a promotion of sorts. It's on about how TNA is now on BT Vision. So this they want to advertise that fact, and they paid FSM to give ten reasons to tune. What is onbvious from the list is that the writers of the magazine really struggled to come up with a top 10.
So, do you agree with the top 10, what would be your top 10 (don't list), any you would add, take anywa etc.
THIS LIST WAS NOT WRITTEN BY JAKE. IF YOU'D READ THE WHOLE POST YOU'D KNOW THAT.
''Joe's gonna kill ya!'' On the face of it, it's a pretty hollow chant. But like all the best workers, there's something about Samoa Joe's ring craft that convinces you he's capable of inflicting real damage. The company's most recent Triple Crown Champion, the big man is a credible compatitor in any division who, if called upon, can be either a humongous heel or a blubbery, butt-kicking babyface.
Just as both Jeff Jarrett and A.J. Styles have previously been the faces of the federation, so Joe has his sticky mitts all over the TNA of today. And if being a most compelling in-ring performer wasn't enough, he cuts a good interview and he dances pretty damn well for a big guy.
2) The X Division:
While certain other companies have all but crushed their cruiserweights, one of TNA's biggest selling points has always been this high-flying, spot-heavy division. Capable of attracting talent from as far afield as Japan, Mexico and the UK, without the X Division it's quite possible that A.J. Styles wouldn't be where he is today.
Likewise, TNA itself might have struggled to distinguish itself if it didn't have a division whose unique format (remeber: ''it's not about weight limits, it's about no limits'') enables guys like Elix Skipper and Sonjay Dutt to duke it out with such gravity-defying giants as Samoa Joe. Though Kevin Nash and Team 3D have both tried to kill it, as long as TNA is a going concern, it seems that X will always have it's spot.
3) Hexagonal Hell:
Before TNA adopted it, the six-sided ring was soley the province of the Mexican wrestling scene (specifically AAA). And when it first imported the idea, many of the company's workers expressed concern about how the new playing field might effect the way they worked.
But while some might have taken a lot longer than others to get used to the new dimensions (see Sopp, Kip), the hexagon has presented its performers with a range of exciting oppertunities while ensuring that TNA is immediately distiguishable from its American opponents. And given the company's emphasis on high flying, the addition of two extra turnbuckles has given Jay Lethal, Homicide and co even more opportunities to explore their intrest in death defiance.
4) Tag Team Turmoil:
The Road Warriors, The British Bulldogs, The Hart Foundation, Harlem Heat - such is the storied history of tag wrestling that it's sad (not to say a might disrespectful) of Vince McMahon to have awarded his straps to Dusty Rhodes' green little lad and the artist formerly known as Sparky Plugg not too long ago.
Thankfully TNA still has keen intrest in tandem grappling, the efficient units such as The Motor City Machine Guns and The Rock & Rave Infection vying for the gold. As for the reigning champions, the militant LAX are what The Mexicools might have been had Juvi and friends been asked to play colours-sporting, Che Guevara-revering rebels, rather than lawnmower straddling Latinos with a nice line in boiler suits.
5) Stylin' & Profilin':
If Sting is considered WCW's franchise player then Allen Lloyd Jones holds the same position in TNA. Part of the federation since the very first match of the very first weekly pay-per-view. A.J. Styles has held every title, carried even the most limited of performers to great matches and endured his fair share of indignity along the way.
In his current feud with the estimable Kurt Angle, the master of the Styles Clash has again had a chance to prove that, whether he's taking to the air or going toe-to-toe, he's a performer with a truly rare talent. And now that the once muted A.J. has added serious mic skills to his repetoire, Mrs Styles' little boy can claim to be truly phenomenal.
6) Divas Need Not Apply:
Forget separating the men from the boys - this is where the girls rule the roost. Unless you follow the American or Japanese indy scenes, you could be forgiven for thinking that a female's role in wrestling consisted of a) standing around and looking pretty, or b) grappling really unconvincingly while looking pretty.
Thanks to producer Scott D'Amore and some superbly cherry-picked talent, TNA is reminding fans that there's more to women worker than blown spots and big, fake funbags. Gail Kim, Roxxi, Velvet Sky - they're all lookers, sure, but it's what they do in the ring that really counts. And with the likes of Mickey ''Mosse'' Knuckles recently added to the roster, these Knockouts look set to deliver killer blows for many years to come.
7) Pay-Per-Viewtiful:
With pay-per-views often so alike that you'd think they came from the same cookie cutter, TNA has strived hard to stand apart from the pack. Hence lockdown, in which each match takes place withing ''The Six Sides Of Steel'', and Slammiversary, the annual celebration capped off with The King Of The Mountain Contest - a compelling blend of Ladder Match and elimination wrestling.
Futher efforts to shake things up include Destination X, where the showpiece match sees two or more grapplers battling a full 20 feet above the canvas. Now factor in a healthy, diverse roster and a keen - perhaps even too keen - desire to surprise the punter and you have a promotion whose PPVs have a rare air of distinctiveness.
8) The Airborn Ultimatum:
If the X Division is TNA's signature subculture, the Ultimate X Match is the group's standout, specialist bout. Take one six-sided ring, suspend two ropes across it 15 feet above the canvas and then pit any number of performers against one another, the winner being the one who clings, climbs or catapaults along the ropes to retieve objects of desire from the ''X'' where the cables cross.
Inaugurated at the company's 58th weekly PPV, and reahing its zenith at 2006's Destination X, an Ultimate X Match remains an x-tra special event. Indeed, if there is ever a controversy surrounding the X Division Title, it's best resloved with this match - the greatest high in wrestling today.
9) Awesome Kong:
Meet Kia Stevens, a lovely large lady from California who's the most destructive force in women's wrestling since the days of Dump Matsumoto. As animalistic and incredible as her name suggests, Kong is a true old school villain, capable of convincing the audience to feel genuine sympathy for her opponents.
Never better than when squaring off against the petite Gail Kim, the long-time Japanese favourite has taken the American women's scene in a truly thrilling direction. She's so dominant that she puts any male competitors to shame. So while WWE continues to persist with uncoordinated colossuses, allow Ms Stevens to remind you what a monster should really look like.
10) Joe Versus Angle:
It's epic feuds that fuel ticket sales and pay-per-view buys and, in Samoa Joe versus Kurt Angle, TNA has a bona fide battle for the ages. From the moment the former Olympian left WWE, fans longed for him to lock horns with The Samoan Submission Machine.
After their initial trio of incredible contests, it took a brilliant bit of booking - together with some smart cribs from the UFC - to bring the battle back to the boil and give American wrestling its first taste of a new, MMA-friendly style of action. The undisputed highlight of this year's Lockdown, we can only hope it's not long before TNA's biggest attraction headlines again.
This is taken from the British wrestling magazine Fighting Spirit. I hate it myself terrible magazine. But this amused me. It's a promotion of sorts. It's on about how TNA is now on BT Vision. So this they want to advertise that fact, and they paid FSM to give ten reasons to tune. What is onbvious from the list is that the writers of the magazine really struggled to come up with a top 10.
So, do you agree with the top 10, what would be your top 10 (don't list), any you would add, take anywa etc.
THIS LIST WAS NOT WRITTEN BY JAKE. IF YOU'D READ THE WHOLE POST YOU'D KNOW THAT.