TNA Epics TV show report
Aired June 27 on Bravo in the UK
Report by Dot Net contributor Adam Milne, Scotland

Host Mick Foley asks us if we’re ready for some of the greatest world title matches, and that if we have then we’ve come to the right place. He gives a warning to his kids, “Huey, Mickey, off to bed because things are going to get a little rough!”

1. Jeff Jarrett defeated Raven w/h The Gathering of Alexis Laree (WWE’s Mickie James) and Julio Dinero to retain the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. This match took place at The Asylum on April 30, 2003. The whole match had an nwatna.com watermark at the bottom corner, not the first time in an episode of Epics. Only about 30 seconds in Tenay describes the match as “great.” Way to spoil it for us.

The story at the start of the match was Raven surprisingly outwrestling Jarrett with bodyslams and hiptosses, and then Jarrett beating Raven at his game by throwing him into guard rails. Laree distracts the ref and Dinero tries to interfere with a chair, and ends up hitting his master Raven when Jarrett dodges, then moments later Double J vaults over the top with a cross body to wipe out The Gathering. Note to WWE, get Mickie James wearing jean skirts immediately.

Raven then joins in the fun with a not so pretty looking cross body onto Jarrett. Raven’s bleeding, he pulls something out his wrist tape, a wide camera shot doesn’t show what’s happening, and next shot we see of Jarrett he’s now busted open. Later Laree distracts the ref again (can you blame him?) allowing Raven to get in his Drop Toe Hold spot onto a chair. Although the ref doesn’t mind the chair being in the ring when Raven goes for a cover. Our first edit comes in after Raven does a spot off the middle rope with his knee on the back of Jarrett’s head to drive it into the mat.

Back and Jarrett hits The Stroke for a two count. Raven hits the Raven Effect DDT for two. Later Jarrett fights off Dinero so he can jump off the middle part of the ring post, putting Raven through a table with an Elbow Drop. Jarrett gives Raven his own DDT, but The Gathering pulls Rudy Charles out so he ejects them from ringside. In karma for getting Laree of camera Charles gets knocked off the apron when Raven throws Jarrett into him. Then all hell breaks loose as the Sports Entertainment Xtreme and New Church stables start brawling at ringside and then through the crowd.

Raven motions and Extreme Revolution charge down with weapons. Jarrett takes a beatdown with a trashcan to the head by New Jack, The Sandman and Justin Credible using Singapore canes, Perry Saturn hitting a Death Valley Driver (clearly so bad he doesn’t need weapons), and Raven and Saturn handcuff Jarrett to make him take a “Superkick Con-Chair-To” (chairs at the sides of his head, dual superkicks to the chairs). Raven readies the chair, but lights out, and Sabu has just slid into the ring to toss his chair into Raven’s face. After hitting “Air Sabu” onto Raven, Sabu jumps from the chair to the top rope, then somersaults onto Revolution before jumping into the crowd and wiping out a fan in the process.

Jarrett dodges a chair so Raven hits the top rope then himself in the face. Charles is back in, and Jarrett makes a cover for two. Charles tries to unlock the cuffs but screws up, so Raven shows him how it’s done as Tenay and West freak out about why he’d do such a thing. After they’re unlocked, Raven proudly states “There you go. GET UP!” while Tenay exclaims “Is there a method to the madness?!?”. Raven Effect gets two, but Jarrett hits The Stroke and wins the match. As the announcers proudly state the title stays with the NWA, Dusty Rhodes comes out, white hat and all, and shakes Jarrett’s hand before raising his arm. [c]

2. Raven defeated Rhino in a “Raven’s Rules” Match to retain the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. This took place at the 2005 Unbreakable Pay Per View, and there was plenty of brawling and weapon shots in this one. Kicking off as Raven enters the ring for his entrance and West talking about the weapons, “I even saw a plunger in there!”

Stalling at the start as Raven tosses weapons down at Rhino on the outside. The fans chant “Staple Gun” but Raven uses the pizza cutter instead so a chant of “We want pizza!” starts instead. Raven slams Rhino’s head into a beer keg by the announce table and in the background you could see Dixie Carter who quickly gets out of sight. Back in the ring after some cane shots to get a two count, Raven applies an Ankle Lock but Rhino gets to the ropes before we get an edit.

Back in action with Raven down in the corner, getting a trash can put in his face before Rhino takes a running kick into it. Rhino tries a running facewash but Raven counters into a gravevined Ankle Lock, and that’s escaped when Rhino stands up in it and smashes a can over Raven’s head. Then a flash of white means an edit and Raven’s down again and Rhino is using a chair on him. Rhino tries a Splash off the top but Raven rolls away so the War Machine just hits the chair. Raven gets both his clothesline-turnbuckle spots in but only gets a two.

Cassidy Riley (remember him?) runs down to distract the ref to help Raven, but he’s done just fine hitting the DDT and when the ref finally turns around it’s only a two count. “I’m sorry Boss!” Riley pleaded afterwards. Later Raven powerbombed Rhino into a ladder lent against a chair to bend the ladder in half but only got a two count. Rhino used the bent ladder for a see-saw spot but only got two. Rhino brought in a shopping cart, only to get sent into it when he went for a Gore. Jarrett runs in with the title belt, but Jeff Hardy runs out and snatches it away, distraction enough for Raven to hit the DDT on Double J, followed by one on Rhino to put him away for the three count. [c]

Back to the studio, and Foley approved of the matches previous. He stated that “MMA Superstar” Tito Ortiz is special enforcer, and that he himself likes to watch the following footage over and over again.

3. AJ Styles defeated Jeff Jarrett to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship; with Special Guest Enforcer Tito Ortiz. This took place at the 2005 Hard Justice Pay Per View. West gushed over Ortiz while the fans chanted for Styles to “F--- him up AJ, F--- him up!” And no, the chant wasn’t edited out. Plenty of lock-ups early on with each being broken up by Ortiz and him shoving Jarrett way back. Jarrett slides out to avoid Styles’ dropkick spot and heads up the ramp while motioning that he’s the smart one while So Cal Val in the background has a hand on her hip and girl did not look impressed one bit Mister.

When Ortiz was slow in starting to make the first pin count of the match, the announcers tried to cover by saying that this was his first refereeing of a pro wrestling match and “the wrestlers will need to give him a little leeway”. Jarrett takes control after countering Styles to throw him up and down onto his knee for a Gutbuster. [c] Back to action with Jarrett relaxing in the corner, counting along as Ortiz counts Styles out of the ring, but Double J charges with a knee to knock the challenger off the apron to make another count happen.

Jarrett tries again but Ortiz throttles him and forces him right back. Jarrett gets the guitar but Ortiz gets in his way to stop him before daring Jarrett to hit him, and in the background Val is going through every scared/worried expression/motion she knows . Styles grabs the guitar, but Ortiz won’t let him use it either, so Styles does the only sensible thing – smashes it against the post to destroy it. Jarrett counters a Sunset Flip to hit the Styles Clash on Styles himself, but only gets a two count. Then Styles hits Double J with his own Stroke and only gets two.

Monty Brown runs in as Styles is setting up for the Clash, and dodges so Brown hits the Pounce on Jarrett. Ortiz orders Brown out, and Rudy Charles runs in to make the count but gets pulled out by Ortiz since he is the referee for this. Styles argues with Ortiz about this, allowing Jarrett to hit a low blow. Jarrett shoves Ortiz one time too many and takes one punch but sells it like he’s just dropped dead. Styles hits the Spiral Tap to win the title, and the show ends with him posing in the corner for the fans with the championship around his waist.

Overall Thoughts: Well it’s always nice to see Mickie James, whatever era. On a serious note, this episode can be best described as simply solid. The brawling matches with Raven were what they were, typical Raven stuff which isn’t a bad thing at all, it just was exactly what it would say on the tin. And Styles/Jarrett’s wrestling action was overshadowed and hijacked by the story of Ortiz as the referee. I would go as far to say that this was the weakest edition of Epics to date, and considering last week was essentially a clips show of promos with two squashes and one decent match thrown in at the end (and apologies for not supplying a report on that) that’s saying something.

Not many complaints about the edits from the Raven matches, we saw all we needed to from them, but again this was not the most stand-out of episodes. Not terrible, but just not completely exiting. Even with all the appearances from ECW stars, and even Jeff Hardy’s blink and you’ll miss it showing, it didn’t do much. And why wouldn’t Sandman or Sabu’s appearance be worthy enough of a mention before the match? Even a reference to “a young lady who would be come a Diva who’s “so fine she’s blows my mind, hey Mickie!” (don’t pretend you’re not imagining Foley delivering that line) i.e. Alexis/Mickie would have been a name drop to attract attention. Wasted potential once again. This episode was listed as “Volume 1” so it can be assumed in a future episode we’ll see more World title matches. Let’s hope they’re stronger than these three were.

RECOMMEND THIS ARTICLE: