TNA Epics TV show report
Aired May 22 on Bravo in the UK
Report by Dot Net reader Adam Milne, Scotland

The show kicked off with host Mick Foley in a "studio" (lots of metal poles with screens on them with the Epics logo) and SHOCK HORROR! Foley isn’t wearing a flannel shirt! Instead it’s a pale blue shirt, but he does have a Destination X shirt on under it so we can forgive him. He said that they went "deep, deep, deep, deep into the TNA library" for a special about X Division Championship matches, and to make sure we understood he made an X with his fingers as he said it. He finished off with "These guys are going to take you for the ride of your life, yeah!" with a thumbs up.

1. Four man "Double Elimination" Match to crown the first NWA-TNA X Champion: AJ Styles vs. Psicosis vs. Low Ki vs. Jerry Lynn; Special Referee for final fall – Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat
June 26th 2002.

Well, Foley wasn’t lying about going deep into the archives. Old school, early days TNA with the old chunky logo, and if you looked carefully you could see the cages with the dancing girls in them. The graphics stayed the same along with the audio. The onscreen graphic flashed up with "NWA X Championship" while Jeremy Borash announced that this match was to crown the first "NWA-TNA X Champion."

As Styles walked to the ring Tenay put over that despite being a three year pro, he has "dozens of jaw-dropping, high risk moves." Psichosis received similar buttering up and called a former WCW Cruiserweight Champion of the World. With Low Ki’s entrance we got a maths lesson, TNA style from Tenay "Just a four year pro, but started when he was 18. The 22 year old from Brooklyn, New York." Lynn came out but a third announcer, called "Edge" during the match but never stated by full name, put him over as a 14 year pro.

Styles and Psicosis starting out first as Tenay talked up Lynn as well, but stopped to say, "but let’s focus on the action in the ring." That proves how early in TNA this match was. They helpfully went over the rules of a Double Elimination Match – you must be defeated twice to be eliminated, a new competitor enters when someone’s been pinned.

Styles nails a sweet superkick to deck Psicosis and Don West pipes up to freak out about the move. Psicosis lands a Spinning Heel Kick that’s described by Tenay as a "Spinning Leg Attack," Sigh. After surviving a great top rope Guillotine Leg Drop (correctly called) Styles counters a huracanrana attempt into the Styles Clash for a three count. Psicosis out, Low Ki in.

Ki lands two kicks to the chest, poses, and Styles nips up from his back to snap of a head scissors that makes all three announcers freak out. After hitting a jumping Enzugiri West comments that watching Low Ki "is like watching Bruce Lee in there," Styles counters a handspring to catch Ki and try a Styles Clash, Ki escapes to just hit a kick to the back, then sets Styles up top.

Ki locks in an inverted facelock for what I assume was a Bite of the Dragon over the turnbuckle, but as he leaned back Styles went with him, resulting in a sick looking DDT of sorts that was either well planned or a very covered up botch, as Ki kept his hold for a Dragon Clutch, but the ropes saved Styles.

Ki goes for a Phoenix Splash, or as Tenay described it "twisting move off the top" but Styles rolled out of the way and Ki landed on his feet. Sharp clothesline folds Ki in half to the pleasure of West. The Styles Suplex Special of a German suplex followed into a belly to back wheelbarrow facebuster puts away Ki for a three count.

Jerry Lynn in now. Nails a clothesline, then the Cradle Piledriver, and gets the three count. Psicosis hits a Missile Dropkick to the back of Lynn’s head to send him down. Tenay states that "This is what Total Nonstop Action Wrestling is all about, I’ll say it for you!" and West agrees with "Amen!," Lynn hits a tilt-a-whirl headscissors before an underbed of music plays, and we’re off for a break. [c]

Back to the action, with Low Ki and Jerry Lynn. Guess Psicosis’ elimination wasn’t interesting enough to be shown. Lynn dares Ki to kick him, so he can grab the leg and hit an Enzuigiri. Later on, Lynn again lures Ki in to try a shoulder thrust through the ropes, only to jump up and land a leg drop across the back of the head.

Ki counters the Piledriver by jumping up and locking in a Triangle Choke but to Tenay it’s "right into the armbar," Lynn escaped by lifting Ki up, and dropping him down with a Powerbomb for a very close near fall. So close Slick Johnson had to do theatrics and shout "No good! That shoulder was up!" A close up showed Ki with a bloody mouth. Ki attempted the Ki Krusher by Lynn countered into a DDT that nearly went into the turnbuckle. Soon after a Short-Arm Clothesline followed by the Cradle Piledriver eliminated Ki from the match.

AJ in, Discus Clothesline gets a two count. Styles Clash countered into a slightly off the mark headscissors. A high spin kick from Styles gets another two, and called a "Spinning Leg Attack" by Tenay. I think I’ll give him that one. A Tilt-a-whirl Backbreaker by Lynn also gets two, and Tenay comments that this match is "15 minutes in," Styles vaults over the top rope and lands a very nice Corkscrew Splash for a two count, while a jumping Tornado DDT gets Lynn two.

The announcers noted that Styles had already been eliminated once, Lynn none so he needs one pin to win, while Styles needs two back to back. Styles hits the Styles Clash to get a three count to even things up. Now Rick "The Dragon" Steamboat is in wearing a referee’s shirt to call the last fall. Wait, what? Steamboat on the show and not mentioned at all before hand? Urgh.

A TNA Epics logo flashes up and we’re back into action with an info graphic reminding us that it’s still the same match. Lynn locks in the Gory Special and spins around on the spot with it held on but Styles escaped, only to be caught as her tried a huracanrana, spun out and slammed face first for his trouble, but only a two count.

Steamboat counted both men down, and stopped with Lynn was up at nine but Styles was still down on his hands and knees. Screw job! Lynn should be the winner! A sick, Screwbuster brainbuster by Lynn just gets a two. The finish came with Styles pushing Lynn off the top, nailing the Spiral Tap and getting the pin.

Pyro goes off in the lighting, confetti falls down, and even Steamboat has a "WTF?" look when a loud final pyro explosion goes off in the direction of the staging. West gushes that this will be a match that "fans will tell their kids, their grandkids, their great grandkids." While Steamboat is raising Styles’ hand and awarding him the belt, Slick Johnson in the background is posing for photos, and even raises the arm of one for a photo. [c]

Back from commercial and to Foley in the studio. He talked about the "high fling, zooooom! No limits stars" of the X Division. And yes, he did do a hand gesture of something going past quickly when he said zoom. He mentioned names "AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels, and Shark Boy! OK, maybe not so much Shark Boy," He said that this next match some have called the greatest of all time.

2. Three Way Dance for the TNA X Division Championship
AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe vs. Christopher Daniels (c)
TNA Unbreakable – September 11th, 2005

Well, Foley got this right. Starts off with the formal in-ring introductions, and the match was shown in full until after Daniels nailed the jumping Enzuigiri to Joe and Bulldog to Styles combination. Then a random TNA Epics logo flashes up, and we’re back in to Styles pushing Daniels into an STO from Joe. There also looked to me like a slight edit after AJ hit the Spingboard Shooting Star Plancha to the outside.

The camera and audio quickly cut from the crowd back to AJ. Was somebody in the front row wearing a WWE shirt? Falling TNA logos in and out of full screen replays rather than TNA Epics logo like there was last week, so that too was as is. Joe lands his kicks and running Senton combo to Daniels for a near fall before we’re off to the last commercial. [c]

We’re back, and right to AFTER Samoa Joe hit the Corkscrew dive over the top rope. AFTER! With no replay of the spot, just to the fans chanting Joe and him throwing Daniels back in. Urgh! After that, the match is shown as is, no breaks etc through to the aftermath of AJ celebrating with the belt with a slightly bloody nose. No throwback to Foley either, as the copyright logo appears on the screen and then to the Cross the Line graphic. No mentions of what next week’s show will be about or feature.

The Good

Match choice – Almost a timeline of the X Division from literally the very start to the best (so far) X Division title match there’s been. The three way doesn’t need any more phrase, and the "Double Elimination match" was a thrill ride to witness. Any fans new to TNA would have been blown away by both, and perhaps wondering why they don’t see this on the current shows.

No random music video – Last week during the debut show, a random music video comprised of spots from Lockdown matches and hype clips of TNA stars for this year’s Lockdown popped up without warning during the LAX vs. Styles Daniels match. It wasn’t particularly interesting, and the placing was beyond rational thinking. Hopefully TNA has learned from that mistake and won’t do that again.

The Bad

Lack of background info – Why was the X Division Championship called that NWA TNA X Championship to begin with? Who was the third announcer with Tenay and West? Why was Ricky Steamboat a Special Referee for only the last fall? Sure, most people knowledgeable about TNA will know the answers, but there will still be a segment of fans, especially that have followed TNA only from programming shown on Bravo, who will be confused about it.

Even the WWE in its best of DVD have started putting announcer credits on matches, would it have hurt to pop that in one time. And surely TNA missed a trick by not mentioning before hand that Rick Steamboat would be featured, even in such a small role. That’s a name many will know of, and would have drawn in viewers to see what he does.

Choice of edit points – I understand that it’s a one hour show, and something has to be cut out to fit it in, but it’s a matter of picking when and where. One moment Psicosis is battling Lynn, and the next it’s Low Ki? A tiny replay to show the elimination wouldn’t have gone amiss, and as for completely editing out Joe’s dive over the top...

Once again worries creep up that this show will turn into a rushed together mess of clips to fill a time slot. Especially when we had Foley introduce the show, but not close it out. Even WWE Experience has a close out. Yes we still get new episodes of it here in the UK.

Overall thoughts: TNA Epics is continuing to do what it promised by providing great matches and this week’s show showed great promise of things to come with a 2002 match. Also by featuring Lynn and Psicosis, it can have fans wondering who else that they may know or have at least heard off will appear next.

Despite my feelings about the editing aspects, overall this show was much better than last week. Two matches shown almost completely full is a step up than two matches with chunks out and a third with a huge portion removed like we had last week. This is going in the right direction, and here’s hoping that next week’s follows the trend. A thumbs up from me.

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