Skip to main content

Yearly Review: NWA-TNA June 2002

It’s the beginning of NWA-TNA. Who became the first champions for TNA? Plus, a country singer gets physical in the ring with a former wannabe country singer.
NWA-TNA World Championship Scene: (currently held by: vacant) It didn’t take long for the NWA-TNA World Championship to have an owner as there was a twenty man battle royal on the first show to determine a champion. Some of the notable names include Jeff Jarrett, Buff Bagwell, Konnan, Scott Hall, and Steve Corino. However, none of them would be the final two. Instead, the final two men were Ken Shamrock and Malice (The Wall from WCW). They had a singles match as the main event for the show and Shamrock won the championship after a belly to belly suplex.

On the second show, Shamrock was attacked by Malice after James Mitchell distracted him. It was made obvious that Shamrock wasn’t done with the monster Malice.

NWA-TNA X-Division Championship Scene: (currently held by: vacant) The second show was dedicated to the NWA-TNA X-Division Championship as it was contested under double elimination rules with four of the top X-Division wrestlers TNA had to offer. AJ Styles made history by beating Psicosis, Low Ki and Jerry Lynn to become the first X-Division Champion in TNA history.

NWA-TNA World Tag Team Championships Scene: (currently held by: vacant) The tag team championships had yet to be introduced into the company.

Other Happenings:

- Jeff Jarrett started a program with Toby Keith and Scott Hall. Yes, the country singer. On the first show Jarrett and Keith would have a confrontation and Keith would actually eliminate Jarrett from the battle royal. At the second show, Jarrett would lose a singles match to Scott Hall, who had Toby Keith in his corner.

- Ron Killings had a confrontation with Hermie Sadler and Sterling Marlin on the first show but was attacked by Brian Christopher, setting up a match the following week, which Christopher won.

- Ricky Steamboat is the acting authority figure for NWA-TNA at this point as well.

What were your first impressions of TNA? What guys grabbed your attention? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!

Also, check out my blog Wrestling Recaps and if you enjoy the series support the blog by liking it on Facebook

Thanks for reading and for your support!

Comments