Chapter Ten "The Place To Be"
2008 was the year that the NWA finally caught the WWE. Every week was a ratings war as both teetered weekly as the top wrestling program. Things escalated as NWA atttracted more WWE stars as the year progressed, as they saw NWA as the future of the business. The first shocking big name to switch was commentator, Jerry Lawler. Lawler with his good friend, Jim Ross and his son, Brian Lawler being with the NWA instead seemed like a logical choice. On air the move was explained as NWA owner, John Layfied fired Dusty Rhodes after Rhodes criticized him. This was the first of many for 2008.
Kurt Angle rolled right into 2008 as the champ and kept up his feud with Randy Orton. Angle came out successfully at two pay per views eeking out victories in both. In the second match, Orton suffered a serious injury costing him the rest of the year. The NWA sprung into action with one of their top stars out and Angle was attacked by newcomer Bobby Lashley, who signed up for a six month contract during the Orton injury. Angle and Lashley was a great feud as Angle used his techincal prowess to overcome the strenght of Lashley, After a team war where Lashley's team came out victorious, they faced at the next pay per view where Lashley won via countout. This outcome led to a third pay per view matchup as Angle defeated Lashley after reversing the Dominator into an Angle Lock. After the match Lashley turned on his boss, John Layfield fed up with the verbal abuse. Layfield then activated himself and defeated Angle at the next pay per view. Layfield as owner and champion made Angle go the back of the line and denied him a rematch. Layfield though found himself against his former employee, Bobby Lashley. After help from his bodyguard, Matt Morgan, Layfield picked up a victory at the next pay per view over Lashley. Lashley then tricked Layfield into a steel cage match next for the title. Layfield put in the stipulation that if Lashley lost he would leave the NWA. At the end of the match, Layfield got hand cuffs through the cage from Morgan and locked Lashley to the turnbuckle allowing himself to escape. On the next episode of "Impact" the startling return of Jeff Jarrett arrived as he challenged Layfiled. John though made Jarrett jump through ropes before finally giving him the match. At the next pay per view, Jeff Jarrett won the NWA World Championship after hitting the stroke on Layfield after Matt Morgan turned on the owner. It was soon found out that Layfield had lost a great portion of his wealth and had to sell the NWA. A broken Layfield was booed out of the "Impact Zone" after making the announcement and wasn't seen the rest of the year. The final three pay per views saw the feud of Jarrett and Edge, where Jarrett one the first one only to lose the title to Edge in the second. Edge then took on Jarrett in a ladder match where he retained the NWA World Title going into 2009.
As United States Champion, Booker T, used his wife Sharmell definately to his advantage as she paid off helping Booker T keep the title for the first six months of 2008. We saw Abyss, Christian Cage, and Sean O'Haire all try unsuccessfully to try to pry the title away from Booker. Then finally Booker T lost the title in a four way matchup to Antonio Banks in the summer. Banks as champion was ten times worse then Booker T. Banks couldn't be more full of himself during his three month reign as champ. He welcomed back his old tag team partner, Ken Anderson, back from injury only to find out Anderson wasn't his biggest fan of late. Anderson took the title from Banks in October ending one of the best promo feuds in NWA history. Anderson was quickly becoming one of the fan favorites in the NWA until he ran into Jim Cornette's monster, the undefeated Oleg Prudius. The big Russian defeated Ken Anderson after help from Cornette in December, vaulting him as one of the most hated wrestlers on "Impact".
The most hated wrestlers title belonged to the NWA World Tag-Team Champions, The Beautiful People. Johnny Superstar and Frankie Hollywood along with their "girlfriends" Velvet Sky and Angelina Love rubbed everybody the wrong way. Everybody wanted to shut them up but somehow the team held onto the titles for all of 2008. The Dudleys, The Samoan Family, The Hooligans and a team of Christian Cage and Rhino came out unsuccessfully.
For rest of the roster 2008 saw some interesting feuds. Angle after losing the title went on vacation and came back in the fall and found himself in a feud with Antonio Banks who stole Angle's gold medal and started wearing it as his "bling". The feud was still going hot and heavy into 2009.
Sting was on and off again the shows the whole year nursing injuries. He feuded with Edge for the first part of the year, only to find himself attacked by the mysterious Abyss after the last match with Edge. Returning three months later, Sting sought revenge from Abyss and feuded with him into early November, ending the feud victorious in a street fight with the monster. Sting then found himself as the enemy of Booker T after Booker accused him of messing with Sharmell. After denying the accusations, they had a match with Sharmel on the line after Booker demanded it. Sting won the matchup in December and the backlash is yet to be seen as Booker T isn't happy about it.
After his US title loss, Sean O'Haire went to Japan in the NWA talent exchange. Internationally, O'Haire became bigger then ever defeating The Great Muta for the Triple Crown Championship. Although still signed with the NWA for a long period, nobody knows when O'Haire will come back to the States.
Christian Cage found himself wondering about his future after being left out of the main event scene for all of 2008. He found himself in feuds with Antonio Banks, Ekmo, James Storm, Finlay and the new developmental call-up Ted Dibiase Jr.before ending the year tagging up with Rhino. With Cage's contract nearing it's end, nobody knows what the future has in store for "The Instant Classic".
Before attacking Sting, Abyss kept up his feud with Vampiro, crushing him in a NO-DQ matchup. Vampiro then left for a tour of Mexico and Japan. After the Sting matchups, Abyss saw the return of his old nemesis James Mitchell and his new protege Matt Bloom. The two giants were still waging war going into 2009.
Finlay made him some fans as he chose to fight anybody. He had great matches with Cage, Robby Roode and Rhino throughout the year. Although he mostly found himself jobbing in the matches, his backstage challenges that preceded the feuds made people start to cheer for the Irishman.
Broke free from Layfield. Matt Morgan quickly started running off with impressive squash matches. Jim Ross and Lawler praised him as the next big star and the future of the business, things looked bright for Morgan. In December in a number one contender's match for the US title, Morgan was attacked out of nowhere by Scott Steiner. Steiner stated his opinion that Morgan was a joke to the wrestling world and that "Big Poppa Pump" would prove it, in 2009 we will see.
The tag team scene was mostly jumbled away from the titles as the biggest news outside of that became the break-up of the Samoan Family and the new team of "Beer Money". After failing once again in their matchup for the titles, Ekmo had enough of Kishi's way of doing things and viciously attacked his relative. This led to a new persona of Ekmo who destroyed Kishi in one on one matchups in the fall and gave Christian Cage all he wanted in their matchups. 2009 could be the year of Ekmo.
During the 2008 year, Heidenreich, Black Reign and Rodney Mack was giving walking papers as none of the stars could find solid places on the show.
On Impact, 2008 saw returns of big stars and debuts of new ones. Jeff Jarrett and Oleg Prudius came out of nowhere to win gold as others like Randy Orton, Kurt Angle and Sting missed long period of times. But through it all, "Impact" kept up with the WWE in ratings and proved itself as the place to be.
Chapter Eleven " X=Prime Time"
TO BE CONTINUED
(2 more chapters left before actual shows start)
2008 was the year that the NWA finally caught the WWE. Every week was a ratings war as both teetered weekly as the top wrestling program. Things escalated as NWA atttracted more WWE stars as the year progressed, as they saw NWA as the future of the business. The first shocking big name to switch was commentator, Jerry Lawler. Lawler with his good friend, Jim Ross and his son, Brian Lawler being with the NWA instead seemed like a logical choice. On air the move was explained as NWA owner, John Layfied fired Dusty Rhodes after Rhodes criticized him. This was the first of many for 2008.
Kurt Angle rolled right into 2008 as the champ and kept up his feud with Randy Orton. Angle came out successfully at two pay per views eeking out victories in both. In the second match, Orton suffered a serious injury costing him the rest of the year. The NWA sprung into action with one of their top stars out and Angle was attacked by newcomer Bobby Lashley, who signed up for a six month contract during the Orton injury. Angle and Lashley was a great feud as Angle used his techincal prowess to overcome the strenght of Lashley, After a team war where Lashley's team came out victorious, they faced at the next pay per view where Lashley won via countout. This outcome led to a third pay per view matchup as Angle defeated Lashley after reversing the Dominator into an Angle Lock. After the match Lashley turned on his boss, John Layfield fed up with the verbal abuse. Layfield then activated himself and defeated Angle at the next pay per view. Layfield as owner and champion made Angle go the back of the line and denied him a rematch. Layfield though found himself against his former employee, Bobby Lashley. After help from his bodyguard, Matt Morgan, Layfield picked up a victory at the next pay per view over Lashley. Lashley then tricked Layfield into a steel cage match next for the title. Layfield put in the stipulation that if Lashley lost he would leave the NWA. At the end of the match, Layfield got hand cuffs through the cage from Morgan and locked Lashley to the turnbuckle allowing himself to escape. On the next episode of "Impact" the startling return of Jeff Jarrett arrived as he challenged Layfiled. John though made Jarrett jump through ropes before finally giving him the match. At the next pay per view, Jeff Jarrett won the NWA World Championship after hitting the stroke on Layfield after Matt Morgan turned on the owner. It was soon found out that Layfield had lost a great portion of his wealth and had to sell the NWA. A broken Layfield was booed out of the "Impact Zone" after making the announcement and wasn't seen the rest of the year. The final three pay per views saw the feud of Jarrett and Edge, where Jarrett one the first one only to lose the title to Edge in the second. Edge then took on Jarrett in a ladder match where he retained the NWA World Title going into 2009.
As United States Champion, Booker T, used his wife Sharmell definately to his advantage as she paid off helping Booker T keep the title for the first six months of 2008. We saw Abyss, Christian Cage, and Sean O'Haire all try unsuccessfully to try to pry the title away from Booker. Then finally Booker T lost the title in a four way matchup to Antonio Banks in the summer. Banks as champion was ten times worse then Booker T. Banks couldn't be more full of himself during his three month reign as champ. He welcomed back his old tag team partner, Ken Anderson, back from injury only to find out Anderson wasn't his biggest fan of late. Anderson took the title from Banks in October ending one of the best promo feuds in NWA history. Anderson was quickly becoming one of the fan favorites in the NWA until he ran into Jim Cornette's monster, the undefeated Oleg Prudius. The big Russian defeated Ken Anderson after help from Cornette in December, vaulting him as one of the most hated wrestlers on "Impact".
The most hated wrestlers title belonged to the NWA World Tag-Team Champions, The Beautiful People. Johnny Superstar and Frankie Hollywood along with their "girlfriends" Velvet Sky and Angelina Love rubbed everybody the wrong way. Everybody wanted to shut them up but somehow the team held onto the titles for all of 2008. The Dudleys, The Samoan Family, The Hooligans and a team of Christian Cage and Rhino came out unsuccessfully.
For rest of the roster 2008 saw some interesting feuds. Angle after losing the title went on vacation and came back in the fall and found himself in a feud with Antonio Banks who stole Angle's gold medal and started wearing it as his "bling". The feud was still going hot and heavy into 2009.
Sting was on and off again the shows the whole year nursing injuries. He feuded with Edge for the first part of the year, only to find himself attacked by the mysterious Abyss after the last match with Edge. Returning three months later, Sting sought revenge from Abyss and feuded with him into early November, ending the feud victorious in a street fight with the monster. Sting then found himself as the enemy of Booker T after Booker accused him of messing with Sharmell. After denying the accusations, they had a match with Sharmel on the line after Booker demanded it. Sting won the matchup in December and the backlash is yet to be seen as Booker T isn't happy about it.
After his US title loss, Sean O'Haire went to Japan in the NWA talent exchange. Internationally, O'Haire became bigger then ever defeating The Great Muta for the Triple Crown Championship. Although still signed with the NWA for a long period, nobody knows when O'Haire will come back to the States.
Christian Cage found himself wondering about his future after being left out of the main event scene for all of 2008. He found himself in feuds with Antonio Banks, Ekmo, James Storm, Finlay and the new developmental call-up Ted Dibiase Jr.before ending the year tagging up with Rhino. With Cage's contract nearing it's end, nobody knows what the future has in store for "The Instant Classic".
Before attacking Sting, Abyss kept up his feud with Vampiro, crushing him in a NO-DQ matchup. Vampiro then left for a tour of Mexico and Japan. After the Sting matchups, Abyss saw the return of his old nemesis James Mitchell and his new protege Matt Bloom. The two giants were still waging war going into 2009.
Finlay made him some fans as he chose to fight anybody. He had great matches with Cage, Robby Roode and Rhino throughout the year. Although he mostly found himself jobbing in the matches, his backstage challenges that preceded the feuds made people start to cheer for the Irishman.
Broke free from Layfield. Matt Morgan quickly started running off with impressive squash matches. Jim Ross and Lawler praised him as the next big star and the future of the business, things looked bright for Morgan. In December in a number one contender's match for the US title, Morgan was attacked out of nowhere by Scott Steiner. Steiner stated his opinion that Morgan was a joke to the wrestling world and that "Big Poppa Pump" would prove it, in 2009 we will see.
The tag team scene was mostly jumbled away from the titles as the biggest news outside of that became the break-up of the Samoan Family and the new team of "Beer Money". After failing once again in their matchup for the titles, Ekmo had enough of Kishi's way of doing things and viciously attacked his relative. This led to a new persona of Ekmo who destroyed Kishi in one on one matchups in the fall and gave Christian Cage all he wanted in their matchups. 2009 could be the year of Ekmo.
During the 2008 year, Heidenreich, Black Reign and Rodney Mack was giving walking papers as none of the stars could find solid places on the show.
On Impact, 2008 saw returns of big stars and debuts of new ones. Jeff Jarrett and Oleg Prudius came out of nowhere to win gold as others like Randy Orton, Kurt Angle and Sting missed long period of times. But through it all, "Impact" kept up with the WWE in ratings and proved itself as the place to be.
Chapter Eleven " X=Prime Time"
TO BE CONTINUED
(2 more chapters left before actual shows start)
