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Jeremy Borash and Christy Hemme are our hosts and they will count us down through the top 20 moments in TNA history, starting with...
#20: Kurt Angle vs Samoa Joe (Lockdown 2008)
This match was over a year in the making, as Angle came into TNA, broke Samoa Joe's nearly two year undefeated streak, and pretty much replaced him as the best wrestler in the company. The feud never came to a conclusive finish until Joe and Angle faced off in this match, which took place inside the six-sided cage and had a very MMA feel to it, as Angle came in barefoot with his ankles taped and wearing boxing shorts instead of his usual tights, and they spent much of the match going for submissions than more traditional wrestling moves. Joe hits Angle with the Muscle Buster to pin Angle and finally win the TNA World Title and come out on top of his war with Angle.
#19: Austin Aries vs Bobby Roode (Destination X 2012)
Austin Aries made history by innovating "Option C" and giving up the X Division Title for the chance to challenge Bobby Roode for the TNA World Title. Roode was long believed to be on a collision course with James Storm for the title at Bound For Glory, but Aries had gotten so over during his X Division Title reign that TNA decided to take a chance and put him over Roode for the title here. Aries pinned Roode clean in the middle of the ring with the brainbuster in what Roode would maintain for years was a fluke win.
#18: Beer Money vs Motor City Machine Guns (Victory Road 2010)
This was the last match of a best of five series between the two teams that, as I recall, was the only thing worth watching on Impact for that entire summer. Beer Money had been tag champs three times, but the Machine Guns had yet to climb the mountain despite consistently strong performances. They did a double pin finish where one ref thought each team won, so they restarted the match and the Guns came through in under a minute of the restart to put Roode (who still had the long hair he now looks so weird with) away for the win.
Before we get to the next moment, we see a bunch of really silly stuff like Stone Cold Shark Boy, Big Fat Oily Guy, Eric Young in a bikini contest, the Woo off between Ric Flair and Jay Lethal, the Aces & Eights funeral, Rob Terry dancing, overweight Shark Boy eating in the office, Eric Bischoff getting dumped in a port-a-potty by his son Garett, and the Eric Young/ODB wedding.
#17: The Ric Flair-Jay Lethal Confrontation (Impact 7/7/2010)
This was probably one of the greatest things I've ever seen on Impact, where Lethal comes out to the top of the ramp to interrupt a Fortune promo to do a dead on Ric Flair imitation, and gets into an argument with Flair while playing as Flair. This was so funny, especially because Flair was so obviously trying not to crack up during this whole thing. I cannot do this justice, look it up on Youtube because it was just that great.
#16: Ultimate X (Bound For Glory 2009)
This was Christopher Daniels, Suicide, the Motor City Machine Guns, and Amazing Red. Honestly, if you've seen one Ultimate X you've seen them all. Suicide (who I think was Kazarian under the hood at this time) nearly kills Daniels with what looked like an STO off the cables, then Red fights off both Machine Guns to claim the belt.
#15: Bully Ray vs Jeff Hardy (Lockdown 2013)
The Aces & Eights angle hit its high point here as Bully Ray, who spent months implementing an intricate plan to gain the trust of Hulk Hogan and his daughter Brooke, finally revealed himself as the President of Aces & Eights and the man who had been tormenting Hogan, Sting, and everyone else in the company since day one. Everyone knew Bubba was turning here, but he played it all the way by even helping Hardy beat up Garett Bischoff and Wes Brisco when they tried to run in. That turned out to all be a ruse of course, as Aces & Eights ran back in, Devon tossed Bubba the hammer, and to the shock of nobody but Hulk, Brooke, and Sting, laid Hardy out with the hammer and pinned him to win the TNA World Title. This segment closes with the first part of the excellent "how Bubba did it" series of vignettes from the following episode of Impact.
Of course we need some fresh material, so we go to Indian Guy, who was apparently dumped in the middle of the woods at night and left to fend for himself. With his shirt torn to pieces and no apparent hope, he drops to his knees and appears to pray to his gods before collapsing to the ground and passing out.
#14:Knockouts Battle Royal (Bound For Glory 2007)
This match crowned the first ever Knockouts Champion, and Amazing Kong was obviously the heavy favorite coming into this match, but then Gail Kim came into the match and led the rest of the girls in the ring in eliminating Kong, causing her boobs to flop out as she went over the top (it was blurred out here). This match was notable for including Angel Williams and Talia Madison before they became Angelina Love and Velvet Sky, and they actually spent much of their time fighting each other in this match. It comes down to Gail Kim and Roxxi LeVeaux, and Gail puts Roxxi away with an Air Raid Crash.
#13: The Jeff Jarrett-Karen Angle Wedding (3/3/2011)
Ah yes, the long-running Angle-Jarrett feud that could have been one of the greatest in TNA history given the real-life situation it played off of, TNA instead played the storyline for yucks and ruined the hwole thing. Angle attacks Jeff and smashes Karen's face into the cake earlier in the night, but since he was contractually bound to walk his ex-wife down the aisle, he played nice during the actual ceremony, then brought out A DAMN AXE and chased the Jarretts off with it before using it to destroy the trellis and pretty much everything else. Some guy from the NY Jets comes out and gets in Angle's face for some reason, so Angle takes him down and puts him in the anklelock.
#12: Bobby Roode vs Bobby Lashley (10/29/2014)
We just saw this one a few weeks ago, as Roode defeated Lashley to regain the TNA World Title. Lashley counters an attempt at the Roode Bomb to a sunset flip, and Roode cradles him for the win.
#11: Hulk Hogan vs Sting (Bound For Glory 2011)
This was the blowoff to the failed Immortal storyline where Hogan turned heel, stole TNA out from under Dixie Carter, and formed a pseudo NWO group to run the joint. Jeff Hardy was the champion, but was a sidekick in the whole storyline because it was all about building to Hogan vs Sting, a decade and a half after it mattered. Both men bled, Sting tapped Hogan out to the Scorpion Deathlock, and then Immortal ran in and attacked Sting. They do the Return of the Jedi finish where Sting begs Hogan for help, Hogan inexplicably turns good out of nowhere, and he helps Sting lay out all the friends who ran in to help him.
That does it for this week, I'll be up even LATER next week since the last episode airs at midnight! Thanks for reading, and see you then!
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