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Hulk Hogan is the reason why non-boxing fans and people who don’t go to carnivals know what professional wrestling is. Hogan was the fertilizer that caused wrestling to grow. But once the ‘90’s got underway, Hogan became the s*** that poisons things. Hogan was the man with the reverse-Midas touch. Everything he touched turned to crap. For some reason, TNA President Dixie Carter assumed this would be a step up for her company. So she hired Hogan as a business partner. And TNA is still in critical condition.
Let’s look at some of the more confusing story lines from Hogan’s FIRST year in the company.
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>The Terror-Dumb</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
The Terrordome match was the first match of the Hogan-era. Unlike all other Terrordome matches, this was a tag team match. Four teams would compete in this cage match. The first person to escape through the hole in the domed roof would win the match for his team.
Let’s forget about how one of the cage walls was not fixed in place properly. Let’s also forget that Alex Shelley almost won the match in two minutes because literally no-one else in the match saw him climb up. The match ended in a disqualification when Homicide hit everybody else with a nightstick. He even hit his own partner Kiyoshi too, but that is the least confusing part. Homicide did not go into the cage with the nightstick, but a crew member passed it in to him. Why was this crew member handing a weapon to a participant in any match?
And why was Homicide and Kiyoshi disqualified in the first place? It was a cage match. You cannot lose a cage match by disqualification. But yet Homicide got disqualified.
After attacking everybody else, Homicide then attempted to climb up to the roof to taunt the fans. He had trouble getting out of the cage, and after a minute he fell back into the ring. But while he was escaping, the match quietly restarted as a regular Terrordome match. Why?
When Homicide finally escaped the cage, he was declared the winner (of a no disqualification match that he had already lost by disqualification). This was the moment that Jeff Hardy announced his return to TNA. Hardy climbed the cage and attacked Homicide. But why? Was Hardy joining the tag team division without a partner? Was he returning to the X-Division? Was he about to feud with Homicide? Nope, none of the above. It turns out that Hardy had no particular reason for attacking Homicide.
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Sign of things to come</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
The first thing that Hogan did was attend the press conference to announce his new role in TNA. The second thing he did was take a 3 month paid vacation. During this absence, TNA did the prep work for Hogan’s arrival. Literally every storyline involving male performers was changed to fit in Hogan’s impending arrival. It was advertised at least once for every 15 minutes of TNA television time. Footage from the press conference was shown at least twice per show. Announcers discussed it before, during and after every match. TNA even took out newspaper and billboard ads. They even fired Cody Deaner based on a rumour that he didn’t like the gimmick. They also offered contracts to Scott Hall, Ric Flair, the Nasty Boyz, Jimmy Hart and Bubba the Love Sponge just to keep Hogan happy.
During Hogan’s first night, co-founder Jeff Jarrett went to the ring to address TNA fans. He said that it was the fans that made TNA what it was. He asked fans to support Hogan because he would make the company better. Hogan then interrupted him and said that Jarrett was lying.
That’s right. Hogan said that Jarrett was lying about Hogan making the company better. Hogan also said that TNA (the company that the fans were just told they had built) was “complete crapâ€.
Hogan could not understand why he was booed. He blamed it on TNA not doing enough to promote his return.
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Pre-emptive Revenge</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
Just before Hogan arrived, the combined World Elite stable blamed all of their problems on British Invasion member Rob Terry. During a pre-taped episode of Impact, Terry tried to cash in his ‘Feast or Fired’ contract for an X-Division Championship shot. Just before the match began, British Invasion leader Magnus took the contract away from Terry and gave it to teammate Douglas Williams. Williams cashed in the contract and then won the title for himself. As this was a pre-taped show, these events were not official until they were broadcast.
As an act of revenge, Rob Terry challenged World Elite leader Eric Young for the TNA Global Championship at a live event in Wales. Terry won the match and the title. Later that night, Magnus announced that Terry was no-longer a member of British Invasion or World Elite. As this was a live event, this was official as they happened.
The pre-taped episode of Impact was aired the night after the live event in Wales. So in effect, Terry enacted revenge for something that wouldn’t happen until the next day.
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Nasty Logic</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
The Nasty Boyz, who had only one match in the past decade, joined TNA and crushed Team 3D, who are arguably one of the greatest tag teams of all time. Did I forget to mention that neither member had been medically cleared to compete during their TNA run?
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Lockbox Sux</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
There has only been one lockbox match in TNA history, and this is for good reason. A lockbox match is similar to ‘Feast Or Fired’, but with keys instead of briefcases. Each of the numbered keys would open a lockbox. The person who acquires the key gets the contents of the relevant lockbox. Oh yes, the match featured only Knockouts.
To begin with, there were four keys and eight participants. This meant that literally half of the participants would have to win something. But this is assuming that there was a possible way for Tara to win. She went into this match as the defending TNA Knockouts Champion. And one of the other prizes was her pet spider, which had been stolen by Daffney. So even if Tara managed to win something, she would have to forfeit something. If she didn’t get a lockbox key, she would lose her title and her pet to somebody else. Even if she did get a key, there was a 50% chance that she would suffer the same fate anyway. If she got a key that allowed her to keep something, she would still lose something. If she got the title belt, she would remain champion but her pet would belong to somebody else. The good news for Tara is that she got a key, and she got her pet spider back. But by getting her pet, it meant that somebody else won the title.
Tara’s new friend and tag team partner won the TNA Knockout’s Championship. Their arch rival and Beautiful People leader Velvet Sky won a special contract. The contract allowed her to demand a match against any other Knockout at any time she wanted, with an added stipulation of her choice. The only restriction was that she could not book herself in a title match. The final prize was actually a humiliation. This was a direct order to perform a full striptease in the ring before Impact went off the air. If the person who won this “prize†failed to do this, she would be fired. Daffney picked up this honour.
Daffney was ordered to get down into the ring and perform the striptease, or be fired. Almost as soon as Daffney had begun, she was suddenly attacked by Beautiful People member Lacey Von Erich. This was actually a very clever plan. If Daffney can’t perform the striptease, then she would be fired, and TBP would have one less rival to worry about. But that is not why she did it. Von Erich did it because she wanted to do the striptease. Daffney didn’t get fired because Von Erich attempted to do the striptease instead.
While this was going on, Tara and Love got into a literal fight over who deserved to be Knockout’s Champion. Instead of letting a rival team implode, Sky convinced them to stop. Sky then cashed in her contract immediately, challenging Love to a ‘Leather and Lace’ match. Sky would be dressed in leather while Love had to compete in lace underwear. But why did she pick this moment to announce the match? She didn’t want to be shown up by Von Erich.
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Not a lotta love</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
Rosie Lottsalove was hired specifically because she didn't look like Lacey Von Erich or Velvet Sky. She was quickly fired for the same reasons.
Roxxi and ODB were also both fired at one point for the exact same reason. In Roxxi's case, she only learned during a live pay-per-view that her final match would indeed be her final match. She had no idea until Madison Rayne came out and announced that Roxxi would have to leave if she lost (and she was indeed booked to lose).
TNA refused to hire Sara Del Rey because she "didn't have what the Beautiful People have".
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>nWo? NO!</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
Kevin Nash was a member of World Elite, working as Eric Young’s enforcer. When Nash heard that Hulk Hogan was returning, he also learned that Scott Hall would be returning too. So he quit World Elite so that he may reform the nWo wish Hall and Hogan.
When Hogan returned, Nash reformed the nWo with Hall and Syxx-Pac, they called it ‘The Band’. They invited Hogan to join too, but Hogan refused. Hogan pointed out that he hadn’t actually hired Hall or Syxx-Pac either, and he wasn’t going to.
Nash asked Eric Young to help him get TNA contracts for The Band. Young agreed and they were successful. The Band thanked them both by turning on Nash.
Nash then asked for Young’s help in running The Band out of TNA. Again, Young agreed. But this time, Nash turned on Young and re-joined The Band.
Nash cashed in his ‘Feast Or Fired’ contract, and he and Hall won the TNA Tag Team Championship. Syxx-Pac, who was out of action due to health issues, was also recognised as a co-champion because he was a member of The Band. Health issues prevented Hall and Syxx-Pac from defending the titles, so Eric Young was invited into The Band. Young was not recognised as a co-champion, but he was still allowed to defend the titles on behalf of the stable.
When Hall and Syxx-Pac were fired for real, Nash was stripped off the titles. Nash then told Young that he would be better off if they went their separate ways.
Thanks for everything, Eric.
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>The Beautiful People – The Ugly Truth</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
Before Hogan returned, Angelina Love had to take a break from TNA to get visa issues sorted out. She invited Madison Rayne back into The Beautiful People so that the stable could stay alive in her absence. As soon as she left, Velvet Sky assumed control of the team, and hired Lacey Von Erich to replace Sky. Sky openly blamed Love for all of the group’s problems and kicked her out of the group.
On Hogan’s first night, Love returned and sought revenge on Sky for kicking her out of TBP. While Sky and Von Erich ran from the threat, Rayne voluntarily faced Love head-on.
In fact, Rayne would prove to be TBP’s most effective weapon. She would win both the TNA Knockout’s Tag Team Championship and TNA Knockout’s Championship for the group. She ran ODB, Roxxi, Tara and Daffney out of the company. When Tara returned, she aligned with TBP. She convinced Sarita to turn on her tag team partner Taylor Wilde and align with them. And she prevented Love from getting her revenge against Sky too. Sky and Von Erich spent that time running from rivals and losing the titles.
For whatever reason, Sky found Rayne’s actions unacceptable. So she quit TBP to team with Love. They then convinced Von Erich to join them too. They then defeated Rayne and Tara for the rights to the TBP name and theme music. That’s right, Love forgave Sky for kicking her out of the group, and forgave Von Erich for replacing her. But she couldn’t forgive Rayne for keeping TBP alive, which was the reason why she was brought into the group in the first place.
(Note: The real reason why Rayne was removed from TBP was because Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff did not think that Rayne was pretty enough to be in the group).
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>We’ll I’ll be Van Dammed</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
Rob Van Dam made his debut at a monthly pay-per-view. One month later, he played a pivot role at LockDown. He won the first cage match against mid-carder James Storm. He got busted open in the process. He then scored the win for his team in the Lethal Lockdown main event. He was in the match for almost the entire duration, missing only the first 5 minutes. He was again busted open.
The next night, he defeated main-eventer Jeff Hardy in a match. Later in the same night, he defeated main eventer A.J. Styles to win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship in a shorter match. By this point, Van Dam had around 8 career matches in TNA, with 4 of them happening within a 24 hour period.
If Van Dam managed to overcome all that in order to defeat the TNA World Heavyweight Champion, then Styles must’ve been really tired to lose so easily? Not exactly. He defended the title against mid-carder D’Angelo Dinero in a very short match, which he won by using a weapon.
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Hogan accusses Nash of Hogan-ism</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
During one poorly scripted segment, Hogan claimed that Nash was bad for business. This was because he was only interested in politicking and money. He accused Nash of trying to manipulate the people in charge in order to make himself look good.
Did Hogan suffer a concussion and forget the last 20 years of his life?
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Rankings: Pointless</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
One of the few good ideas that Bischoff had was the ranking system. This is where all of the top 10 contenders for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship would be clearly defined. So no more non-contenders suddenly getting title matches without earning their way up. What made the story line even more exciting was the Kurt Angle twist. Angle, who originally ranked #2 pulled himself out of the rankings. He then vowed to work through the rankings from the bottom and win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship once more. He also vowed that if he lost a singles match before completing this task, he would leave TNA.
Now the problems. Van Dam had a limited number of shows that he can be asked to do during a year, and TNA burned through most of them very quickly. So they needed to write him off television for a while. They did an injury angle and stripped the title from him. Instead of picking new contenders from the Rankings, they held a tournament instead. And no, they didn’t get the participants from the Rankings either. So this made the Ranking system completely pointless. And Angle’s plan to work his way up was also pointless.
To make matters worse, Van Dam returned half-way through the tournament. Despite the fact that he never lost the title, he was completely left out of contention. When the final actually happened, it was a three-way match. Both Jeff Hardy and Kurt Angle made it to the finals, despite neither of them winning a semi-final.
Jeff Hardy won, which meant that Kurt Angle lost. And due to Angle’s earlier agreement, he lost a match before winning the title, so he had to quit. Angle did quit, and was off television for three months. But TNA had no story line for him. They didn’t plan for what would happen when Angle lost.
</div>
All this is BEFORE mentioning Claire Lynch or that time Abyss distracted Joseph Park.
Let’s look at some of the more confusing story lines from Hogan’s FIRST year in the company.
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>The Terror-Dumb</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
The Terrordome match was the first match of the Hogan-era. Unlike all other Terrordome matches, this was a tag team match. Four teams would compete in this cage match. The first person to escape through the hole in the domed roof would win the match for his team.
Let’s forget about how one of the cage walls was not fixed in place properly. Let’s also forget that Alex Shelley almost won the match in two minutes because literally no-one else in the match saw him climb up. The match ended in a disqualification when Homicide hit everybody else with a nightstick. He even hit his own partner Kiyoshi too, but that is the least confusing part. Homicide did not go into the cage with the nightstick, but a crew member passed it in to him. Why was this crew member handing a weapon to a participant in any match?
And why was Homicide and Kiyoshi disqualified in the first place? It was a cage match. You cannot lose a cage match by disqualification. But yet Homicide got disqualified.
After attacking everybody else, Homicide then attempted to climb up to the roof to taunt the fans. He had trouble getting out of the cage, and after a minute he fell back into the ring. But while he was escaping, the match quietly restarted as a regular Terrordome match. Why?
When Homicide finally escaped the cage, he was declared the winner (of a no disqualification match that he had already lost by disqualification). This was the moment that Jeff Hardy announced his return to TNA. Hardy climbed the cage and attacked Homicide. But why? Was Hardy joining the tag team division without a partner? Was he returning to the X-Division? Was he about to feud with Homicide? Nope, none of the above. It turns out that Hardy had no particular reason for attacking Homicide.
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Sign of things to come</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
The first thing that Hogan did was attend the press conference to announce his new role in TNA. The second thing he did was take a 3 month paid vacation. During this absence, TNA did the prep work for Hogan’s arrival. Literally every storyline involving male performers was changed to fit in Hogan’s impending arrival. It was advertised at least once for every 15 minutes of TNA television time. Footage from the press conference was shown at least twice per show. Announcers discussed it before, during and after every match. TNA even took out newspaper and billboard ads. They even fired Cody Deaner based on a rumour that he didn’t like the gimmick. They also offered contracts to Scott Hall, Ric Flair, the Nasty Boyz, Jimmy Hart and Bubba the Love Sponge just to keep Hogan happy.
During Hogan’s first night, co-founder Jeff Jarrett went to the ring to address TNA fans. He said that it was the fans that made TNA what it was. He asked fans to support Hogan because he would make the company better. Hogan then interrupted him and said that Jarrett was lying.
That’s right. Hogan said that Jarrett was lying about Hogan making the company better. Hogan also said that TNA (the company that the fans were just told they had built) was “complete crapâ€.
Hogan could not understand why he was booed. He blamed it on TNA not doing enough to promote his return.
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Pre-emptive Revenge</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
Just before Hogan arrived, the combined World Elite stable blamed all of their problems on British Invasion member Rob Terry. During a pre-taped episode of Impact, Terry tried to cash in his ‘Feast or Fired’ contract for an X-Division Championship shot. Just before the match began, British Invasion leader Magnus took the contract away from Terry and gave it to teammate Douglas Williams. Williams cashed in the contract and then won the title for himself. As this was a pre-taped show, these events were not official until they were broadcast.
As an act of revenge, Rob Terry challenged World Elite leader Eric Young for the TNA Global Championship at a live event in Wales. Terry won the match and the title. Later that night, Magnus announced that Terry was no-longer a member of British Invasion or World Elite. As this was a live event, this was official as they happened.
The pre-taped episode of Impact was aired the night after the live event in Wales. So in effect, Terry enacted revenge for something that wouldn’t happen until the next day.
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Nasty Logic</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
The Nasty Boyz, who had only one match in the past decade, joined TNA and crushed Team 3D, who are arguably one of the greatest tag teams of all time. Did I forget to mention that neither member had been medically cleared to compete during their TNA run?
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Lockbox Sux</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
There has only been one lockbox match in TNA history, and this is for good reason. A lockbox match is similar to ‘Feast Or Fired’, but with keys instead of briefcases. Each of the numbered keys would open a lockbox. The person who acquires the key gets the contents of the relevant lockbox. Oh yes, the match featured only Knockouts.
To begin with, there were four keys and eight participants. This meant that literally half of the participants would have to win something. But this is assuming that there was a possible way for Tara to win. She went into this match as the defending TNA Knockouts Champion. And one of the other prizes was her pet spider, which had been stolen by Daffney. So even if Tara managed to win something, she would have to forfeit something. If she didn’t get a lockbox key, she would lose her title and her pet to somebody else. Even if she did get a key, there was a 50% chance that she would suffer the same fate anyway. If she got a key that allowed her to keep something, she would still lose something. If she got the title belt, she would remain champion but her pet would belong to somebody else. The good news for Tara is that she got a key, and she got her pet spider back. But by getting her pet, it meant that somebody else won the title.
Tara’s new friend and tag team partner won the TNA Knockout’s Championship. Their arch rival and Beautiful People leader Velvet Sky won a special contract. The contract allowed her to demand a match against any other Knockout at any time she wanted, with an added stipulation of her choice. The only restriction was that she could not book herself in a title match. The final prize was actually a humiliation. This was a direct order to perform a full striptease in the ring before Impact went off the air. If the person who won this “prize†failed to do this, she would be fired. Daffney picked up this honour.
Daffney was ordered to get down into the ring and perform the striptease, or be fired. Almost as soon as Daffney had begun, she was suddenly attacked by Beautiful People member Lacey Von Erich. This was actually a very clever plan. If Daffney can’t perform the striptease, then she would be fired, and TBP would have one less rival to worry about. But that is not why she did it. Von Erich did it because she wanted to do the striptease. Daffney didn’t get fired because Von Erich attempted to do the striptease instead.
While this was going on, Tara and Love got into a literal fight over who deserved to be Knockout’s Champion. Instead of letting a rival team implode, Sky convinced them to stop. Sky then cashed in her contract immediately, challenging Love to a ‘Leather and Lace’ match. Sky would be dressed in leather while Love had to compete in lace underwear. But why did she pick this moment to announce the match? She didn’t want to be shown up by Von Erich.
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Not a lotta love</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
Rosie Lottsalove was hired specifically because she didn't look like Lacey Von Erich or Velvet Sky. She was quickly fired for the same reasons.
Roxxi and ODB were also both fired at one point for the exact same reason. In Roxxi's case, she only learned during a live pay-per-view that her final match would indeed be her final match. She had no idea until Madison Rayne came out and announced that Roxxi would have to leave if she lost (and she was indeed booked to lose).
TNA refused to hire Sara Del Rey because she "didn't have what the Beautiful People have".
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>nWo? NO!</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
Kevin Nash was a member of World Elite, working as Eric Young’s enforcer. When Nash heard that Hulk Hogan was returning, he also learned that Scott Hall would be returning too. So he quit World Elite so that he may reform the nWo wish Hall and Hogan.
When Hogan returned, Nash reformed the nWo with Hall and Syxx-Pac, they called it ‘The Band’. They invited Hogan to join too, but Hogan refused. Hogan pointed out that he hadn’t actually hired Hall or Syxx-Pac either, and he wasn’t going to.
Nash asked Eric Young to help him get TNA contracts for The Band. Young agreed and they were successful. The Band thanked them both by turning on Nash.
Nash then asked for Young’s help in running The Band out of TNA. Again, Young agreed. But this time, Nash turned on Young and re-joined The Band.
Nash cashed in his ‘Feast Or Fired’ contract, and he and Hall won the TNA Tag Team Championship. Syxx-Pac, who was out of action due to health issues, was also recognised as a co-champion because he was a member of The Band. Health issues prevented Hall and Syxx-Pac from defending the titles, so Eric Young was invited into The Band. Young was not recognised as a co-champion, but he was still allowed to defend the titles on behalf of the stable.
When Hall and Syxx-Pac were fired for real, Nash was stripped off the titles. Nash then told Young that he would be better off if they went their separate ways.
Thanks for everything, Eric.
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>The Beautiful People – The Ugly Truth</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
Before Hogan returned, Angelina Love had to take a break from TNA to get visa issues sorted out. She invited Madison Rayne back into The Beautiful People so that the stable could stay alive in her absence. As soon as she left, Velvet Sky assumed control of the team, and hired Lacey Von Erich to replace Sky. Sky openly blamed Love for all of the group’s problems and kicked her out of the group.
On Hogan’s first night, Love returned and sought revenge on Sky for kicking her out of TBP. While Sky and Von Erich ran from the threat, Rayne voluntarily faced Love head-on.
In fact, Rayne would prove to be TBP’s most effective weapon. She would win both the TNA Knockout’s Tag Team Championship and TNA Knockout’s Championship for the group. She ran ODB, Roxxi, Tara and Daffney out of the company. When Tara returned, she aligned with TBP. She convinced Sarita to turn on her tag team partner Taylor Wilde and align with them. And she prevented Love from getting her revenge against Sky too. Sky and Von Erich spent that time running from rivals and losing the titles.
For whatever reason, Sky found Rayne’s actions unacceptable. So she quit TBP to team with Love. They then convinced Von Erich to join them too. They then defeated Rayne and Tara for the rights to the TBP name and theme music. That’s right, Love forgave Sky for kicking her out of the group, and forgave Von Erich for replacing her. But she couldn’t forgive Rayne for keeping TBP alive, which was the reason why she was brought into the group in the first place.
(Note: The real reason why Rayne was removed from TBP was because Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff did not think that Rayne was pretty enough to be in the group).
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>We’ll I’ll be Van Dammed</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
Rob Van Dam made his debut at a monthly pay-per-view. One month later, he played a pivot role at LockDown. He won the first cage match against mid-carder James Storm. He got busted open in the process. He then scored the win for his team in the Lethal Lockdown main event. He was in the match for almost the entire duration, missing only the first 5 minutes. He was again busted open.
The next night, he defeated main-eventer Jeff Hardy in a match. Later in the same night, he defeated main eventer A.J. Styles to win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship in a shorter match. By this point, Van Dam had around 8 career matches in TNA, with 4 of them happening within a 24 hour period.
If Van Dam managed to overcome all that in order to defeat the TNA World Heavyweight Champion, then Styles must’ve been really tired to lose so easily? Not exactly. He defended the title against mid-carder D’Angelo Dinero in a very short match, which he won by using a weapon.
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Hogan accusses Nash of Hogan-ism</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
During one poorly scripted segment, Hogan claimed that Nash was bad for business. This was because he was only interested in politicking and money. He accused Nash of trying to manipulate the people in charge in order to make himself look good.
Did Hogan suffer a concussion and forget the last 20 years of his life?
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Rankings: Pointless</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
One of the few good ideas that Bischoff had was the ranking system. This is where all of the top 10 contenders for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship would be clearly defined. So no more non-contenders suddenly getting title matches without earning their way up. What made the story line even more exciting was the Kurt Angle twist. Angle, who originally ranked #2 pulled himself out of the rankings. He then vowed to work through the rankings from the bottom and win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship once more. He also vowed that if he lost a singles match before completing this task, he would leave TNA.
Now the problems. Van Dam had a limited number of shows that he can be asked to do during a year, and TNA burned through most of them very quickly. So they needed to write him off television for a while. They did an injury angle and stripped the title from him. Instead of picking new contenders from the Rankings, they held a tournament instead. And no, they didn’t get the participants from the Rankings either. So this made the Ranking system completely pointless. And Angle’s plan to work his way up was also pointless.
To make matters worse, Van Dam returned half-way through the tournament. Despite the fact that he never lost the title, he was completely left out of contention. When the final actually happened, it was a three-way match. Both Jeff Hardy and Kurt Angle made it to the finals, despite neither of them winning a semi-final.
Jeff Hardy won, which meant that Kurt Angle lost. And due to Angle’s earlier agreement, he lost a match before winning the title, so he had to quit. Angle did quit, and was off television for three months. But TNA had no story line for him. They didn’t plan for what would happen when Angle lost.
</div>
All this is BEFORE mentioning Claire Lynch or that time Abyss distracted Joseph Park.
