TNA Epics TV show report
Aired May 29 on Bravo in the UK
Report by Dot Net reader Adam Milne, Scotland

By the way, this program is sponsored by The Wrestler on DVD and Blu-Ray. Beats WWE sponsoring its show with its own video games. We kick off with Foley in the "studio," describing himself as "the world's most polite wrestler." He welcomes us to a episode about the "Pay Per View summer spectacular Slammiversary" with one of the best tag team matches of all time, and Team 3D against "two of the most prolific names in tag team wrestling." Clearly not prolific enough to say who they actually are.

1. NWA World Tag Team Championships Match: America's Most Wanted ("Cowboy" James Storm and "Wildcat" Chris Harris) (c) with Gail Kim vs. "The Phenominal" AJ Styles and "The Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels
From: Slammiversary 2006

Clip starts with the referee calling for the bell and with all four men in the ring. Within the first minute Gail Kim gets mentioned three times, and gets a long close up shot of her at ringside. The action is shown fully as is, until after Styles' dive to the outside onto Storm and Harris with the help of Daniels pulling down the top rope. [c]

Back to action, and further on in the match where Styles hits the Pele kick to Storm as he's perched on the top rope. The match is almost shown fully again, except for two big edits. When Daniels gets hit with the chair, and when the beer bottle is used to set up the ending, we cut to crowd shots for the blow and then right back to action afterwards.

However, there's no editing when the handcuffs-assisted punch spot is shown, nor for when Sirelda chokeslams and then throws Gail Kim to the outside. So, big women on women violence good, but guys hitting each other with stuff very bad? Oh dear... The clip ends after the win and when Tenay states "How's that for a little history at Slammiversary." No Foley break, it's straight into...

2. TNA World Tag Team Championships Match
Team 3D (Brother Ray and Brother Devon) (c) vs. "The Dog Faced Gremlin" Rick Steiner and Road Warrior Animal
From: Slammiversary 2007

The info graphic for the clip stated "Tag Team Legends" instead of listing teams like it did for the first match. It kicks off with Steiner's entrance. The match gets shown as is until after Devon drops an elbow on Steiner for a two count, and then the TNA Epics logo flashes up for an edit. Only to bring us right back to the action moments later in the match as Steiner reverses an Irish Whip attempt from Devon. Then the rest of the match is shown in full until after the finish and Team 3D collecting their belts. [c]

Back to the studio and to Foley and his black, tasseled cowboy jacket and his own merchandise T-shirt. After some uninteresting, bland chatter putting over the matches we've seen, he leads us into the "TNA Epics Main Event."

3. "The Phenominal" AJ Styles vs. Kurt Angle with Tomko
From: Slammiversary 2008

Clip started with a close up of Tomko with Tenay and West infuriated that he's even out here. When Tomko was getting thrown out, there was another edit when Angle threw Styles into the guard rail for the second time we cut to a crowd shot (not for the first, which was completely missed by cameras, a fact pointed out by Tenay. That mess-up couldn't have been edited out instead?). We get the match in full action until Angle sets Styles up top and lands a punch that has Styles dangling over nearly falling. [c]

Back to action, just moments later as Angle pulls Styles back in to set up for the superplex countered into a super-front suplex spot. Then it's the full match as is right to the end, including the appearance of Karen Angle and her involvement in the finish. The only edits were audio - Kurt's swearing/insults to Karen Angle being bleeped out. No outro by Foley again this week, the show ends with Karen raising AJ's arm in victory to fade out and the Cross The Line graphic.

The Good

Overall show - I have very few complaints about this episode as a whole. The AMW vs. Styles/Daniels was good to watch but not spectacular, and while the 3d vs. Stenier/Animal had name value, I wouldn't have minded not seeing it. Angle/Styles being shown in full makes up for it all, and was worth waiting through half an hour of OK wrestling for. Not so many random, match missing out edits as in the past, and a good selection between wresting action and name dropping from the past.

The Bad

Violence replaced with crowd shots - this happens with wrestling broadcasts pre-watershed here in the UK, both for WWE and TNA product. Any chairs, weapons, even shots into the crowd barriers or ring steps are not shown and instead replaced with generic crowd shots. However, TNA Epics has a post-watershed time slot. Also, in past episodes we've seen lots of violence, including massive bloodshed and the use of a coathanger to strangle. Why suddenly has there been a huge change to not showing violence? Especially when in the same program where this editing happens, we do see big violence (handcuffs, Gail Kim being chokeslammed and thrown outside). This is conserning as it spoils the show for wrestling fans, and it's contradicts to what's been already shown on previous episodes.

Not name dropping Rick Steiner or Road Warrior Animal - It's understandable why TNA wouldn't hype Gail Kim or Tomko being seen in matches. But the whole point of the Epics program is to both show great matches from the past and show some of the big names who've been involved with TNA. To brush off Animal and Steiner just as "legends" is just insulting. Names like theirs are exactly the kind that TNA should be hyping as appearing on the show to attract viewers, not just slipping in as a "oh by the way" like they were.

Foley minus corny comedy - Yes I'm scraping the barrel for bad points, but Foley needs to stick to what he's good at, even in this short role as "host." The starting crack about being the most polite was good, especially considering how unpolite his character on Impact is. But his filling chatter later on was boring and predictable, and not even the throwing up of the thumbs up with the classic grin couldn't save him. More jokes please, even if they're at the expense of Shark Boy like last time.

Final Thoughts: AJ Styles against Kurt Angle was the "main event" of the show with good reason, and in comparison the "mid card" of tag team matches felt just like that. Looking past the minor editing out of violence and my own feelings for lack of name dropping, this was a great show that's stacked up well with previous ones. When Foley stated first off that this would be a Slammiversary special, I wondered if it would be all matches from just a single Slammiversary event. Thankfully it wasn't the case, and leaves me wondering if in a future TNA Epics will there be a best off from Destination X or Bound For Glory? It will be a case of wait and see as again, no teases for what's on next week's show.

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