I'm not sure if this warrants its own thread, but after reading the discussion for Victory Road and the main event debacle, it got me thinking about all the different, and better, ways TNA could have handled the main event. They claim they didn't know how bad it was until Hardy finally walked out, but anyone with a brain could have seen that he was absolutely bombed. In WWE he would have been sent home as soon as he walked through the door.
So I really thought about how TNA could have turned bad news into good news, kind of like how when Kevin Nash didn't make it to the main event of Bound for Glory in 2005. They had built up a fairly lame match between Jarrett and Nash, which everyone had seen before and knew Jarrett would retain. But because Nash wasn't there, the entire night was built around who would face Jarrett, culminating in a battle royal right before the main event, which immediately led to Jarrett facing Rhino, now competing in his third match of the night. The match was no good, but the emotion was there and I think it worked out better this way. Or WWE No Mercy 2007, which took John Cena's injury and turned it into something even more unpredictable.
So, let's say TNA actually used their eyes and saw that Hardy was in no condition to compete when he arrived earlier in the day. I only thought of this in a little bit so surely they could have written all this and more.
Here's how the night could have played out.
-Play the opening video package for the event
-Show begins, cut to Tazz and Tenay
-Show video footage: "Earlier today..." which would be a brief video of Sting and Jeff Hardy fighting backstage, and then have Sting pummeling Hardy. Even though Hardy was a mess, they could have filmed a minute long segment of Sting just wailing on him enough to write him out of the main event.
-Back to Tenay and Tazz, talking about the uncertainty of tonight's main event.
-Sting's music hits.
-Sting comes to the ring, talks about what happened earlier in the day, how the main event came earlier and Sting took out all his frustrations on Hardy in one moment. Then he could say how he has been informed that Hardy was taken to the hospital and won't make it to the main event.
-"Which leads to the reason I came out here. I don't have a dance partner for tonight's main event, so I'm issuing an open challenge to any member of the tna roster to face me for the TNA World Heavyweight Title...specifically, any member of Immortal. I hate each and every one of you and I want an opportunity to pummel another one of you just like I did Jeff Hardy. Who's it gonna be?"
-Back to Tenay and Tazz to build up who it's going to be.
-Dreamer/Ray
-KO Tag Title match
-Morgan/Hernandez
-Cut back to Tenay and Tazz. Ric Flair's music hits. He doesn't go to the ring and stays on the stage with a microphone.
-"I'm out here for one reason, and one reason only...pauses...to accept Sting's open challenge tonight for the TNA World Heavyweight Title. You wanted any member of the TNA Roster. You wanted any member of Immortal. Well, you got it."
-Tazz and Tenay react at the huge news, briefly talk about all the history.
-Ultimate X
-Backstage interview with Sting, Christy Hemme looking for a reaction to the big news that Flair has accepted. Have Sting cut a promo about how he's not surprised and that he couldn't be happier. How taking out Flair would cut off one of the heads of Immortal. Have him talk about their history: Clash of the Champions, winning his first world title from Flair, and how fitting it is that they last faced each other ten years ago in the last offical WCW match ever. Sting could say that the result was always the same, with him the victor, and tonight, will be no different.
-Tag title match
-Styles/Hardy, make mention of how Flair is NOT at ringside, preparing for his match later on tonight against Sting.
-RVD/Anderson
-Backstage promo with Flair.
-"I'm glad to hear Sting talk about how many times he's beaten me. He has. He's a great competitor. He's kicked my ass all around the world for fifteen years...I'm glad that he's going to bring the same game that he brought over twenty years ago, because I'm bringing something different. Every time Sting beat me, a little part of me died, because I knew that the tide was turning, that the torch was being pulled from my hand whether I wanted it to or not. And for the last DECADE, it has eaten away at me that not only did I never beat Sting, but that in our last match together, the match that closed the doors on WCW forever, he beat me then, too. The final memory of the company that I helped beat was of Sting. And that stayed with me. And it's been eating away at me for exactly ten years. So it is fitting, yes, that ten years later I can finally get my revenge. When I came to TNA over a year ago, I knew Sting was here. I knew what he was about. But I told myself that when the opportunity came, that I would take it. And tonight, the opportunity has come. The opportunity for me to redeem myself for ten years ago, for twenty years ago, to redeem myself of every loss I ever took at the hands of Sting, the opportunity to pry the torch back out of his cold dead fingers, to finish one of the greatest rivalries in professional wrestling history, once and for all. This is TNA, we're in a different, and tonight, you and me Sting are going to turn back the clocks, and we're not just going to be making history, we'll be rewriting it, too, with a much different ending. Woooooo!!!
-Cut to the ring.
-Eric Bischoff comes to the ring. Kind of repeats what he said at VR, talks about Immortal not being prepared for Sting, so Sting should not be prepared for the suprise that this match is no "No Disqualifcations."
-first out Flair. Then Sting. Have them have a real face to face stair down. Talk about this being the first match they'd had together in ten years, how they closed out WCW.
-Have them just trade holds and wrestle a straight match for 3-4 minutes. Have Flair getting the upper hand. Then it starts to get nasty, takes to outside the ring and through the crowd. Now Sting controls more, but they're still brawling. Another 2-3 minutes.
-Back to ringside. Introduce weapons. Flair busts open Sting. Back to the ring. Flair controls. Sting makes a comeback, busts open Flair. Another 3-4 minutes. Sting is kicking Flair's ass. Close to winning. Out comes Immortal: first Gunner and Murphy. Sting takes them out. Then Rob Terry. Sting takes him out. Then Matt Hardy, who twist of hates Sting, but is then taken out by AJ Styles. Sting is laid out. Flair is still out from the beating. Flair crawls over for a pin, but Sting kicks out at 2. Another 3-4 minutes. Flair and Sting get to their feet, go through a bit of a finisher fest: figure four, Sting doesn't tap, scorpion death lock, Flair doesn't tap, Sting hits the death drop, Flair kicks out, Flair hits a low-blow, Sting kicks out. Finally, Flair goes for another figure four, turns around to lock it on, Sting kicks him into the ring post, hits a second death drop, 1, 2, 3.
Figure almost a 20 minute match, full of wrestling, brawling, blood, good interference, trade finishers, a bit of suspense, a nice throwback, and fans get to go home happy. I think that this would have been much better, especially in comparison to what we got. What does everyone else think?
And sorry that everything is closely spaced together. It all kind of came out as one big thought.
So I really thought about how TNA could have turned bad news into good news, kind of like how when Kevin Nash didn't make it to the main event of Bound for Glory in 2005. They had built up a fairly lame match between Jarrett and Nash, which everyone had seen before and knew Jarrett would retain. But because Nash wasn't there, the entire night was built around who would face Jarrett, culminating in a battle royal right before the main event, which immediately led to Jarrett facing Rhino, now competing in his third match of the night. The match was no good, but the emotion was there and I think it worked out better this way. Or WWE No Mercy 2007, which took John Cena's injury and turned it into something even more unpredictable.
So, let's say TNA actually used their eyes and saw that Hardy was in no condition to compete when he arrived earlier in the day. I only thought of this in a little bit so surely they could have written all this and more.
Here's how the night could have played out.
-Play the opening video package for the event
-Show begins, cut to Tazz and Tenay
-Show video footage: "Earlier today..." which would be a brief video of Sting and Jeff Hardy fighting backstage, and then have Sting pummeling Hardy. Even though Hardy was a mess, they could have filmed a minute long segment of Sting just wailing on him enough to write him out of the main event.
-Back to Tenay and Tazz, talking about the uncertainty of tonight's main event.
-Sting's music hits.
-Sting comes to the ring, talks about what happened earlier in the day, how the main event came earlier and Sting took out all his frustrations on Hardy in one moment. Then he could say how he has been informed that Hardy was taken to the hospital and won't make it to the main event.
-"Which leads to the reason I came out here. I don't have a dance partner for tonight's main event, so I'm issuing an open challenge to any member of the tna roster to face me for the TNA World Heavyweight Title...specifically, any member of Immortal. I hate each and every one of you and I want an opportunity to pummel another one of you just like I did Jeff Hardy. Who's it gonna be?"
-Back to Tenay and Tazz to build up who it's going to be.
-Dreamer/Ray
-KO Tag Title match
-Morgan/Hernandez
-Cut back to Tenay and Tazz. Ric Flair's music hits. He doesn't go to the ring and stays on the stage with a microphone.
-"I'm out here for one reason, and one reason only...pauses...to accept Sting's open challenge tonight for the TNA World Heavyweight Title. You wanted any member of the TNA Roster. You wanted any member of Immortal. Well, you got it."
-Tazz and Tenay react at the huge news, briefly talk about all the history.
-Ultimate X
-Backstage interview with Sting, Christy Hemme looking for a reaction to the big news that Flair has accepted. Have Sting cut a promo about how he's not surprised and that he couldn't be happier. How taking out Flair would cut off one of the heads of Immortal. Have him talk about their history: Clash of the Champions, winning his first world title from Flair, and how fitting it is that they last faced each other ten years ago in the last offical WCW match ever. Sting could say that the result was always the same, with him the victor, and tonight, will be no different.
-Tag title match
-Styles/Hardy, make mention of how Flair is NOT at ringside, preparing for his match later on tonight against Sting.
-RVD/Anderson
-Backstage promo with Flair.
-"I'm glad to hear Sting talk about how many times he's beaten me. He has. He's a great competitor. He's kicked my ass all around the world for fifteen years...I'm glad that he's going to bring the same game that he brought over twenty years ago, because I'm bringing something different. Every time Sting beat me, a little part of me died, because I knew that the tide was turning, that the torch was being pulled from my hand whether I wanted it to or not. And for the last DECADE, it has eaten away at me that not only did I never beat Sting, but that in our last match together, the match that closed the doors on WCW forever, he beat me then, too. The final memory of the company that I helped beat was of Sting. And that stayed with me. And it's been eating away at me for exactly ten years. So it is fitting, yes, that ten years later I can finally get my revenge. When I came to TNA over a year ago, I knew Sting was here. I knew what he was about. But I told myself that when the opportunity came, that I would take it. And tonight, the opportunity has come. The opportunity for me to redeem myself for ten years ago, for twenty years ago, to redeem myself of every loss I ever took at the hands of Sting, the opportunity to pry the torch back out of his cold dead fingers, to finish one of the greatest rivalries in professional wrestling history, once and for all. This is TNA, we're in a different, and tonight, you and me Sting are going to turn back the clocks, and we're not just going to be making history, we'll be rewriting it, too, with a much different ending. Woooooo!!!
-Cut to the ring.
-Eric Bischoff comes to the ring. Kind of repeats what he said at VR, talks about Immortal not being prepared for Sting, so Sting should not be prepared for the suprise that this match is no "No Disqualifcations."
-first out Flair. Then Sting. Have them have a real face to face stair down. Talk about this being the first match they'd had together in ten years, how they closed out WCW.
-Have them just trade holds and wrestle a straight match for 3-4 minutes. Have Flair getting the upper hand. Then it starts to get nasty, takes to outside the ring and through the crowd. Now Sting controls more, but they're still brawling. Another 2-3 minutes.
-Back to ringside. Introduce weapons. Flair busts open Sting. Back to the ring. Flair controls. Sting makes a comeback, busts open Flair. Another 3-4 minutes. Sting is kicking Flair's ass. Close to winning. Out comes Immortal: first Gunner and Murphy. Sting takes them out. Then Rob Terry. Sting takes him out. Then Matt Hardy, who twist of hates Sting, but is then taken out by AJ Styles. Sting is laid out. Flair is still out from the beating. Flair crawls over for a pin, but Sting kicks out at 2. Another 3-4 minutes. Flair and Sting get to their feet, go through a bit of a finisher fest: figure four, Sting doesn't tap, scorpion death lock, Flair doesn't tap, Sting hits the death drop, Flair kicks out, Flair hits a low-blow, Sting kicks out. Finally, Flair goes for another figure four, turns around to lock it on, Sting kicks him into the ring post, hits a second death drop, 1, 2, 3.
Figure almost a 20 minute match, full of wrestling, brawling, blood, good interference, trade finishers, a bit of suspense, a nice throwback, and fans get to go home happy. I think that this would have been much better, especially in comparison to what we got. What does everyone else think?
And sorry that everything is closely spaced together. It all kind of came out as one big thought.