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How I Would Have Booked the Main Event of Victory Road

2K views 25 replies 15 participants last post by  eyebrowmorroco 
#1 · (Edited)
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.
 
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#9 ·
here's how i would have booked it:

Jeff Hardy comes out trashed as fuck, and almost trips on his way to the ring. then Sting comes out, and he's all "i'm ready to wrassle." so before the match starts, Eric Bischoff comes out and whispers to Jeff "u hai? lol" and then he says some random bullshit out loud on the microphone as an excuse to get close to Sting, which he says "that dude hai. lol" and then he says some angry things and gets punched and falls down and Jeff almost falls over top of him. then Eric falls out of the ring and Jeff plays hide and seek with his tee shirt for a couple minutes before dropping it, and Sting slams him down and pins him for the 1-2-3.


yup. thats right folks. it was in fact a work, and i am in fact Vince Russo. suck on deez nuts.
 
#11 ·
Amazing :lmao

Instead of what the OP said, how about a quick backstage scene of Jeff on a stretcher and Hemme saying that he was attacked on his way to the ring. We all think that it was Anderson or RVD that did it. Being the bitch that he already is, Anderson tries to get his title match right then and there. Cue your typical run ins, swerve is the word, clusterfucks and ref bumps and despite all of this, Sting comes out on top. While he's celebrating his win, the lights come off, when the lights come back on, Sting is down and Kernel Mustard with the candle stick is hovering over him with a menacing laugh.

End scene.
 
#6 ·
I would have had Bischoff tell Sting that Hardy was fucked, and to squash him. I'd have told Hardy that Sting just quit and threatened to take the belt to the WWE, so screw him and we'll cover it. Then enjoyed the show.

Seriously though, your idea is okay, the match feels very overbooked but a Flair main event at this stage of his career would need to be to cover it. It'd definately have a big match feel, even now, and would definately be a better watch that a 90 second, one move title bout. Only issue is it's reliant on TNA being aware of Hardy's condition at the top of the PPV, which they absolutely couldn't be. No company is THAT dumb.
 
#2 ·
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.
tl;dr;dc
 
#5 ·
?
 
#3 ·
1st problem. Sting during the night had flat out refused to have any dealings with Hardy. Its not safe to pretend to fighting someone who is high. You dont know how they will react. Look at some of Jake the Snakes indy work for examples.

So your idea has already gone. Then Do you honestly believe Sting can last 20 minutes??? There wasnt much time left after the main event had finished so they were only looking for around an 8 minute match anyway.

Finally notice how much shit TNA is getting on this forum and other for having Sting in the M.E anyway. Now times that by a thousand if they give Ric Flair a title shot.
 
#10 ·
Skip the "video footage" and just have Tazz and Tenay tell us as soon as the show started. Maybe just do like Survivor Series '08 and have a shot of Hardy knocked out backstage. And instead of 20 minutes, Sting could easily do 10-15, especially if half of it is brawling and run-ins. Look at RVD/Sting last year. They had a brawl right before the ppv on impact and all they did was brawl, and it was a lot better than the match they had anyways. The run-ins will take up time anyway. There's a way to colorfully book Sting/Flair so that they wrestle, fight, bleed, deal with the run ins, and the match gets a good running time. Look at a match like Shawn Michaels vs. Mr. McMahon, that match is 20 minutes long and almost none of it is an actual fight between those two.
 
#4 ·
Honestly, there are so many Flair marks on the net, they probably would have praised TNA for doing this. I personally don't want to see Flair anywhere near the ring, much less a main event.

But the basic point here is the same. TNA needed to do SOMETHING and when you think about it, this kind of behavior from Jeff Hardy should be an expected thing, so you'd think a contingency plan would be in place. But nah.
 
#7 ·
Since they made it a no DQ, why not have Immortal kick the shit out of Sting with Hardy sitting on the turnbuckle and laugh maniacally, which plays exactly into the state of mind Jeff was in.

Granted, him sitting there on the turnbuckle would be risky (danger of him falling off and break something) but thats the risk you have to take. ;-)

Then have EB cut a promo on how they (Immortal) from now on run things with that '100% in control of the company' story

Not the best and most satisfying but given the circumstances much better than what went down on Sunday, right?
 
#8 ·
So how would you get out of that without giving Hardy the belt back?
 
#12 ·
I would've just had RVD/Anderson go main event and give them 25+ minutes with a winner.

In a shocking result, Sting vs Jeff Hardy for the World Title goes on before RVD/Anderson. Why? they don't need to explain, just do it. Fans will realize, with Jeff Hardy's actions, why it's not main event...

Done, simple, easy.
 
#14 ·
-Announce that Jeff Hardy is too sick or "in no condition" to wrestle
-Pick a replacement. Any of the following would do:
Jeff Jarrett
Samoa Joe
Pope
Abyss (returning early)
Douglas Williams
Kurt Angle
Ric Flair
Scott Steiner

Not that difficult.
 
#16 ·
Alot of ways this could've been done. Firstly, since reports are saying he may have been passed out in the bathroom and was missing til the main event, I would've still called the audible and had Sting squash Hardy. Then Sting gets on the mic and says something along the lines of "that's what happens when you get complacent, that's what happens when you don't take the SPORT of professional wrestling seriously, oh and don't drop the soap Jeff" as he is escorted away. Then Sting continues, "I'm tired of this crap, this regime, and we all know what failed company this BS reminds you of. You fans deserve a main event and you will get it. I'm throwing an open challenge to all the guys in the back who never get a chance, who bust their ass and never get a decent paycheck or tv time. We are having a battle royal for my title so any guy in the back who didn't get a match, this is your chance to shine on PPV, but I warn you I am not going out without a fight, my blood is boiling from this and I will not let our title be disgraced and will fight tooth and nail to keep it". Then get everyone from the back who's there, preferably if they haven't ever been world champ, (D. Williams, Magnus, Kendrick, A. Red, Sabin, J. Lethal, OJ, E. Young, and Okada would be ideal to make it an even 10 men with Sting in the ring) they go at it and since battle royals aren't too hard to put together you could have everyone get some spots in to showcase themselves on PPV, the guys listed above have a mix of skills so you could have some power moves, some flying, and some brawling, and it could easily fill 20 min without Sting having to kill himself, he could retain and it would make lemonade out of one of the biggest lemon's ever seen on a PPV.
 
#18 ·
Well Hindsight is always 20/20 and to be perfectly honest, I don't think I would have been able to come up with anything on the spot.

That said, here's an idea I just thought of. It isn't very good, but given the circumstances, what do you do?

- Have Sting come out first and then Bischoff goes into his speech about a surprise that Sting couldn't prepare for just to be fair for what happened to Hardy. Sting will be forced to go through all the members of Immortal one by one in a gauntlet match & if Sting loses any one of the matches, Jeff will become World Champion.
- Sting gets by Gunner, then Murphy, but then is forced to go against Rob Terry who beats him down and then gets himself DQ'd so that Sting's torture will continue.
- Then Sting gets tossed around by Hernandez who does the exact same thing as Terry, which brings out Matt Hardy following the DQ. Matt lays out Sting with a big high flying move, but when he has him beat, Hardy gets himself counted out to allow the slaughter to continue.
- Ric Flair comes out next and immediately slaps the Figure Four on Sting, who refuses to tap. In an act of desperation, Sting manages to get to the ropes, but Flair doesn't break the hold & is ultimately DQ'd.
- With nobody else left, Jeff Hardy gets ready to come out, but is then ambushed by Fortune backstage. Fortune evens up the playing field and carries Hardy out to the ring and throws him to Sting. Sting is then able to hit the Scorpion Deathdrop on Hardy for the impossible victory.

Again, not the greatest idea, and fans are still only getting a short match between Hardy & Sting, but like I said, what else do you do? My idea at least gives the fans a lengthier main event, makes Sting overcome impossible odds to win the title, furthers the build up between Immortal & Fortune, & makes up for the fact that Hardy was fucked up out of his mind. He could definitely handle a beat down, carried to the ring, & then dropped on his ass immediately for the pin.
 
#19 ·
Problem with that is you have to explain that to Jeff who is off his face. Again attacking someone who is high/drunk is dangerous. Thats why Sting took his time picked his spot to throw the few punches got him down held him down then got the hell out of there. There was no planning in how the main event went down. Im guessing the idea of the no DQ was to cover whatever mean Sting needed to take to keep Hardy down.
 
#21 ·
If Jeff was as messed up as reports say, no way could TNA involve him in whatever backup plan they should have come up with. Without knowing who was or wasn't there since so many fly into Orlando, I would have done an injury angle (with Christy giving the update as an ambulance speeds off) and then Bischoff holds off announcing who Sting would face as a way to get back at the network. Jeff Jarrett isn't the best idea, but he was there, is about the highest profile member of Immortal besides Hardy, the Impact Zone does hate him, and he doesn't lose anything when Sting beats him. Plus they could still do the Anderson/RVD finish, stupid as it may be.
 
#25 ·
Yeah, it would be a dead giveaway, because only a few times has the world title match not gone on last at a tna ppv, and always with good reason. Putting RVD/Anderson last may make for a better main event, but it doesn't change the fact that people still got screwed out of the world title match.
 
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