TNA Wrestling 2011 The McMahon war

[CM Hero]

In June 2011 after the TNA Slammiversary Pay-Per-view, TNA president Dixie Carter held a press conference to the discuss the future of TNA. In the conference held in Madison Square Garden, Dixie announced that Total Nonstop Action would be put up for sale. There were rumours that Vince McMahon was interested in buying TNA but that was never confirmed by Vince himself. Another McMahon was interested in buying TNA although ; Shane McMahon. Shane still felt like he had to step out of his dad’s shadow and wanted to do it by knocking his own father off the number one spot in the wrestling business. Shane was not alone though, being backed by a wealthy Dubai company that had not been named. The deal was finalized in late July and was said to have been sold for around $12.5 million.

Shane held an all-staff meeting and declared there would be many cuts to the roster, from wrestlers to staff. This scared many of their workers who feared they may out off a job if they couldn’t get a contract with WWE. Ironically Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff both handed in their resignation to Shane right after the meeting and this was followed up with the leaving of co-founder Jeff Jarrett who left in protest of a McMahon running his company, Karen Jarrett followed as well. Many cuts were also made to the roster, seeing the likes of Scott Steiner, Rob Terry, Robbie E, Kid Kash, Devon Dudley, Gunner, Murphey. Abyss and Crimson. Matt Morgan and Mr.Anderson also left TNA to sign with the WWE on a five year contract. This annoyed Shane very much and although not a huge signing that would affect WWE, Shane was able to buy out Seth Rollins and Dean Ambroses FCW contracts, renaming them back to Tyler Black and Jon Moxley. Shane was also able to steal Chris Hero from under WWE’s nose, a man who WWE had tried to sign for many months now. This was followed with the signings of Low Ki, Paul London and Kevin Steen as Shane promised TNA would be the alternative to WWE and lived up to that promise as the first Impact main event of the Shane McMahon era saw Robert Roode defeat World Champion Sting in a cracking main event.

Fans at the taping of Impact saw a new revamped stage and the return of the long awaited six-sided ring. TNA was seen very differently over the next week few weeks as they built solidly into the first McMahon PPV Destination X was raved as a very solid PPV, the best one so far of 2011. The PPV saw Kurt Angle dethrone Sting in a solid match to win the TNA world title, Samoa Joe and Low Ki both went on 4-0 winning streaks since the takeover, Robert Roode defeated Rob Van Dam in a street fight and afterwards saw the debuting Kevin Steen beat down and attack Rob Van Dam, storyline injuring him with a broken leg. The main event of the night, used to promote the X Division saw Austin Aries defeat AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels in a classic three way match that many people compared to the Unbreakable three way match many years ago. The other huge talking point of the show was the return of Jeff Hardy who hadn’t been seen since Victory Road, Hardy was shown staring down at Kurt Angle from the ramp, teasing he wanted his title back.

Another big talking point was outside the ring as TNA would be announcing a new head booker and creative team. Vince Russo and Matt Conway were still writing the shows under Shanes booking but many felt, including Shane, that the company needed a new direction and the journey for a new booker was set. TNA first contacted Paul Hayman for the job, offering him full control of the booking and say of who was to be in his creative team but Hayman turned it down claiming he had ‘’other gigs going on first and couldn’t dedicate all of his time to TNA’’. Many rumours was spread to who would be the new booker as Shane wanted somebody who understood the wrestling side of booking and was in touch with what the fans wanted, an alternative. Many were not surprised by the mid- august when TNA announced now former wrester and now retired Scott ‘’Raven’’ Levy as head booker as Raven was always said to have a mind of a booker. Raven was allowed to pick his own booking team as well, opting to go for Lance Storm and Mike Tenay.

Hard Justice and No Surrender proved to be another solid outings for TNA as Kurt Angle successfully defend his TNA championship at both PPVs, pinning Christopher Daniels at Hard Justice and beating Jeff Hardy by the skin of his teeth at No Surrender which many fans chanting for a rematch, Hardy at this had done more than enough to make up to management for his earlier mistakes and was again in favour at TNA and with the TNA fans as one of the top babyfaces on the roster. TNA would also continuing to push the younger talent as Austin Aries was pushed up to the upper-card and involved in a feud with the ‘’icon’’ Sting who announced his final wrestling match would be at Bound for Glory as Austin demanded Sting pass the torch down to him. Robert Roode and AJ Styles battled to a 30 minute draw at No Surrender and were given a shot at Kurt Angles World Heavyweight title as Jeff Hardy was also added in, making it a fatal four way elimination match for the world title as the main event. Tyler Black and Jon Moxley battled over the TV title, bringing their FCW feud to TNA as they produced some of the greatest Impact matches in recent memory and would do battle for the final time at Bound for Glory in a 2 out of 3 falls match.

In a dream match for the IWC, the undefeated Samoa Joe would take on the undefeated Low Ki and Chris daniels in a three way match with the winner getting a future world title match at a time of their choosing and was promoted as an intense feud. Rob Van Dam returned to TNA at No Surrender, attacking Kevin Steen. They both went hard at each other for the upcoming weeks with Kevin Steen package piledriving Rob Van Dam off the stage and through a table being the highest amount of violence from it and it would be announced as a monsters ball match. This was being hyped as TNA’s biggest show to date and would take place in the Hammerstein Ballroom, New York City ...yes in Vince McMahons own playground, Shane was willing to outdo his own father in his own city, Vince had been said to be furious at Shane for going to war with him but made no comments about it.


[B][I]Roster

TNA World Heavyweight Champion: Kurt Angle
TNA X Division Champion: James Storm
TNA Television World champion: Jon Moxley
TNA World Tag Team Champions: Murder City Machine guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin)
TNA Knockouts Champion: Madison Rayne
Jeff Hardy
Robert Roode
Rob Van Dam
Sting
Austin Aries
AJ Styles
Christopher Daniels
Samoa Joe
Low Ki
Kevin Steen
Chris Hero
Paul London
Tyler Black
Hernandez
Doug Williams
Eric Young
Shannon Moore
Brain Kendrick
Tara
OBD
Angelina Love
Velvet Sky
Mickie James
Sara Death Ray
Melina Perez

Ring Announcer: Jeremy Borash
Announce team: Taz, Mike Tenay.
Backstage Interviewer: Christy Hemme

[CM Hero]

Bound for Glory. October 16th 2011

Four-way Elimination match for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship
Jeff Hardy vs. AJ Styles vs. Robert Roode vs. Kurt Angle

Stings final match.

‘’Icon’’ Sting vs. ‘’The greatest man that ever lived’’ Austin Aries w/Ric Flair

Winner receives a future world title match
Low Ki vs. Samoa Joe vs. Christopher Daniels

2 out of 3 falls match for TNA Television championship
Tyler Black vs. Jon Moxley

Monsters Ball match
Kevin Steen vs. Rob Van Dam

TNA World Tag Team championship
Murder City Machine guns vs. Team Workrate (Chris Hero and Doug Williams)

TNA Knockouts championship
Melina Perez vs. Madison Rayne vs. Sara Death Rey

TNA X Division championship
James Storm vs. Paul London

[unbeatableone05]

Looks like a nice set up thus far, I'll be checking this out once the first event is posted.

[CM Hero]

Wrestlingnews.com special report!
TNA President Shane McMahon is too hold a special pre-show the night before Bound for Glory. The show will feature three special matches as Kurt Angle and Sting will face off one last time in a non-title match, Beer Money Inc reunite to take on Austin Aries and Jeff Hardy and AJ Styles will meet Paul London and Tyler Black in a three way non-title match.

The show will also feature a special press conference as Shane McMahon, TNA World Champion Kurt Angle and other stars will be answering questions from the fans and media. Sting and Austin Aries will have a live weigh in contest as well. Much more will be happening at this show in the final attempt to promote Bound for Glory at the Hammerstein. Fans who will be attending BFG can attend the show for free while tickets are still available for those without tickets to get in.

In other news, Shane McMahon has promised to reveal the ''biggest signing in TNA history'' at one of the upcoming shows, many have rumoured on who it is, some are saying Jeff Jarrett may be making his return to TNA after falling out with AAA in Mexico while some say Shane has signed a star many in WWE and around the world have heard of, supported and love ...and still is relevant and can wrestle.

.

[DramaShark]

Looks very nice so far. Roster seems authentic, and unlike most TNA/WWE creativve crossovers, this isn''t just WWE with the TNA logo stamped on it.