Posted By James Walsh on 07/15/26


TNA Wrestling Saved My Love of Pro Wrestling:

Hi, I'm "Arizona" James Walsh. And, I'm a wrestling fan. If you know me or have known me at any time in my life, the fact that I'm a wrestling fan would be part of your description of me somewhere near the start of the conversation. For example, "James is an honest guy. But, he sure does love his wrestling!" Or, "James is a hard worker. He strangely loves pro wrestling, though!" You get the picture?

When WCW and ECW closed up shop and the WWE was the last standing company in 2001, I stopped watching new wrestling all together. From March of 2001 to June of 2002, I watched only 1 match and that was The Rock and Hulk Hogan from WrestleMania X8. Other than that, I was out. Then came TNA! Just like the line from the Godfather, "Just when I think I'm out, they pull me back in!"

TNA Wrestling was the desperate bastion of hope for fans who were simply not going to fall in line with the Evil Empire and be a WWE fan. It was the Hail Mary toss of a team down a touchdown with seconds left in the game. After the Huckster and Nacho Man skits, I swore off WWE for life and have never gone back. If my options were WWE or nothing, I selected nothing. But, TNA came along and rekindled my love affair with pro wrestling. It was a risk no one had to take. Jeff Jarrett did, however. It was something special for a while. But, it did eventually become the "little engine that couldn't", as Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff once said.

When TNA started on June 19, 2002, it was a pay-per-view only format. For just under $10 per week, you would get to see 2 hours of quality produced pro wrestling that didn't resemble what you were getting from the WWE in any way, shape, or form. In its infancy, TNA gave us elements of what became the backbone of the promotion during the years of which it mattered most. You had Jerry Lynn and AJ Styles delivering X Division style matches that sadly has become the expected style of wrestling these days. You had foul mouthed, scantly clad women from WCW and ECW such as Francine, Elektra, Daffney, Bobcat, Jasmin St. Claire, and others who really delivered the T&A of the TNA innuendo. The main event scene was filled with talent such as Jeff Jarrett, Scott Hall, Ken Shamrock, Curt Hennig, and other established names that the fans were happy to have a chance to see work. Those Wednesday night pay per views were a delight. When did I start to lose my love for the company?

The Sided Ring Sucked and FOX Sports One Was Too Tame:

In 2004, TNA changed the shape of their ring from the traditional 4 sided ring to a 6 sided ring. The ring itself looked different but often threw off the logistics of wrestling to the viewer. Plus, the different shape resulted in tighter ring ropes, a more taut ring mat which means the wrestlers were taking bumps on a harder than necessary surface, and the awkward nature of shooting a wrestler off to the ropes now could result in a buckle bump instead of them bouncing back ala an Irish whip. It was a change that some loved and some didn't. As you can tell, I didn't. Why was it done? Expansion.

While the Wednesday pay-per-views carried on until September, TNA bought time on FOX Sports Net at 4 p.m. on Friday afternoons to bring TNA to the mainstream audience. It was a gamble. But, the gamble paid off with some help from a pissed off David Sahadi wo helped get TNA Impact on Spike TV, now Paramount Network, in October 2005 just after WWE RAW moved off Spike and went back to the USA Network.

With an 11 p.m. slot on Saturday night, the show did OK numbers. When Kurt Angle came in, the nature of the beast changed a little.

So, why change the ring shape?

Having done wrestling media for 30 years, I was around at the time the ring shape was changed as well as all the subsequent times wrestling fans asked people in power at TNA when the ring would go back to being shaped like an actual wrestling ring and not a Mexican styled visibly smaller disaster area. The answer I, as well as everyone else, got was something that sounds a little like this:

"We want people flipping through the stations to see our product and realize we're not WWE."

Here's how I'd tell that they're not WWE if I didn't already know. WWE didn't run 250 seat sound stages (and I'm friends with Eddy Mansfield who originated doing prow restling at the Universal theme park in Orlando back with the IWF in the early 1990's) nor does WWE fly a TNA logo the size of the tiny ring that is in every camera shot. No one was going to confuse the look of TNA with the look of WWE. And, when the talking heads saw fit to bash the Monday Night War concept that came back in 2010, those talking heads buried the excuse for the stupid shaped ring by admitting that production wise, TNA looked nothing like WWE.

Jeff Jarrett Deserves Credit:

Jeff Jarrett created TNA. He didn't have to. Many tried to talk him out of it. The WWE fans, which the majority of IWC fans are deep down, wrote TNA off before it started and subsequently have written it off hundreds if not thousands of times since. They eventually were right because the product on TV today is a joke and everyone knows it. I digress, Jarrett took a risk. That risk was a worthy one. The wrestling business, as a whole, owes him a debt of gratitude for the risk.

But the risk failed and failed early.

Dixie Carter Deserves Credit Too:

If I owned a burger joint and my burger joint ran out of money, for whatever reason, so I had to sell it, I should not be surprised that the new owner didn't want to keep that burger joint running the same way it was when we ran out of money. When Panda Energy and Dixie Carter's family bought the majority of TNA, it stood to reason Dixie Carter would take a more vested interest in her investment, the origin of the word "vested" for my English enthusiasts out there. While Jeff Jarrett did continue runing the company for years with Dixie having only a minor obvious input into the show, it should never have been assumed by anyone, including Jarrett, that there would be a possibility of Dixie Carter becoming more involved.

If Dixie Carter and her family didn't step in, TNA would have died in late 2002. That isn't an opinion. It is a fact.

In 2006, I did a pretty good interview with Dixie Carter on my AM radio show. Dixie, who agreed to the interview and then tried to back out last minute because of being a mother again fairly recently and being tired but still came on in spite of her exhaustion, we talked about her understanding of pro wrestling. She told me about living in the same apartment complex as Jeff Jarrett when the Jarrett family took over World Class Championship Wrestling at the Sportatorium and changed it to the USWA before it became the GWF. She new these names. She knew this history. She knew Jeff Jarrett 12 plus years before they ever started doing business together. She might not have lived her life as a die hard wrestling fan watching every bit of footage of pro wrestling that ever existed and knowing every move, name, and piece of history. But, she was not the clueless dunder that the Dark Side of the Ring documentary sought to make her out to be.

Being blunt, I've forgotten more about pro wrestling history than Dixie Carter ever knew and ever will know. Also being blunt, Dixie Carter has forgotten more about business in general than I ever have or will know. Sometimes you need a business person to make decisions and not a bleeding heart hstorian. Dixie provided that.

Kurt Angle and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Drug Problem:

Kurt Angle was released from WWE fur one reason and one reason only. That reason was Eddie Guerrero had died in November of 2005 and Kurt Angle showed every sign of being the next WWE talent to die. Angle, due to his neck, was on enough pills to down a bull elephant. Vince McMahon and WWE didn't want that PR disaster. So, they released him. So, what does TNA do? Sign Kurt Angle... Because, he's Kurt Angle!

Kurt Angle gave his all to TNA. I might not be the world's biggest Kurt Angle fan. But, I sure respect his heart and effort. With that said, his drug problem followed him into the Impact Zone. As discussed during the Dark Side documentary, Karen Jarrett was already separated from Angle. Angle had, in a somewhat public affair, been linked to Dawn Marie in 2005 just prior to her pregnancy, your rumor here. No one on that level of pills could maintain a personal relationship that was healthy. Karen was brought in, on screen, to help Kurt Angle garner heat. Se was also brought in, off screen, to keep Kurt Angle from himself.

In 2018, I interviewed Rhaka Khan. Khan, real name Trenesha Biggers, went into great detail about the life and times she had as Kurt Angle's girlfriend in the late 2000's. She talked about his drug rages and how he once knocked her over a couch and stomped her over a disagreement over what she would make for dinner. Oh yeah, Kurt Angle has pulled the nose of his plane up for sure. But, the apples from the Angle family tree did not fall that far from each other as one of his siblings murdered his wife.

Karen started dating Jeff Jarrett shortly after Jill Jarrett, Jeff's wife, passed away. Can you blame Jeff? Karen was a dime. Jeff was also a good person in a business full of sharks. So, why shouldn't these two have found each other? I'm glad they did.

2009 Sucked and It Was Time for a Change:

What I find shocking is Dark Side ran the clip of Dixie Carter's meeting with the TNA locker room addressing the talent and telling them it was time for a change and you were either with her or you stood against her. The documentary presented this as if it was a terrible thing and she lost the locker room with that speech.

No one ever proclaimed "It is time for a change" when shit was going well with their company.

No matter what you're told, 2009 was a terrible year for TNA. Kurt Angle had already wrestled Samoa Joe. The Main Event Mafia, which always sucked, had long since run its course and was a drag to watch be dragged out. AJ Styles had already faced Christopher Daniels 4,692 times and the matches were evidence of diminishing returns in every measurable category including fan interest. And, the show had been a schizophrenic wonderland of crash TV for 3 years and even the most ardent TNA fans had punched out.

It was time for a change. That change was coming with Dixie Carter's decision to hire Hulk Hogan.