| TNA history |
| NWA TNA began June 18th 2002 as the first weekly ppv wrestling promotion in the history of the sport. The main event of the show was a Gauntlet for the Gold match that was to decide the vacant NWA world title. (the previous champion Dan Severn was unable to make the event due to a booking clash, and was therefore stripped of the title). The match worked as a battle royal that was contested by pinfall or submission when it came down to the final 2 men. The last two men were the late Malice (known as The Wall to WCW fans), and Ken Shamrock who would go on to win and become the first NWA world champion of the TNA era. TNA also introduced the X division. A cross between crusierweight and hardcore wrestling, it is acclaimed throughout the wrestling world for being the most exciting division in wrestling today. The creation of TNA brought the NWA world and tag titles back to their former glory, and gave TNA a long history to build from before they even started. TNA also gave the NWA its biggest audience taking over the popular NWA Wildside division of NWA. Over the next year TNA featured some of the sports most recognisable names including Scott Hall, 6 pac, Vader, Sting, Jimmy Hart, Hulk Hogan (though Hogan never turned up and faced Jeff Jarrett's challenge) the Road Warriors, Curt (Mr Perfect) Hennig, Terry Funk Lex Luger and Dusty Rhodes. By the time one year had passed, TNA had showed the world that they meant business, and proved wrong the doubters that said that they wouldn't last. TNA had its downpoints as well as its high points though. Over the short 3 year period that TNA has been around some of their featured superstars have passed away. These include world title contenders Malice and Curt Hennig, the always entertaining Mad Mikey, Hawk from the legendary Road Warriors tag team and Chris Candido who sadly died following complications from a broken leg he suffered at the Lockdown 05 ppv. By mid 2004 TNA announced that they were introducing another weekly show, known as iMPACT!. Unlike the weekly ppvs iMPACT! would be shown nationwide across the US on the FSN in a Friday afternnon slot, making it the first wrestling alternative to WWE to be shown on a national tv channel since WCW shut shop in March 2001. With iMPACT! came the Six sided ring which gave more pssibilities for the wrestlers. Within a few months TNA stopped the weekly ppvs in favor of 3 hour monthly shows instead. The first was Victory Road in November 2004. Over the next several months TNA earned itself the reputation of month by month putting on more exciting ppvs then its billion dollar rival the WWE was putting on. On these ppv shows TNA introduced many new ideas including Six sides of Steel, an idea that lead to Lockdown, wrestlings first ever all steel cage ppv. By June 2005 TNA left FSN in favor of an unannounced tv deal. This was eventually announced as TNA joining Spiketv after WWEs deal with them ended. |