TNA Year One Documentary - DVD Review - January 11, 2010

Over the Christmas holidays, I watched the TNA Year One documentary DVD. It was an interesting documentary which only covers the first year of the company’s existence. Lots of people were interviewed for it including Jeff Jarrett, Dixie Carter, Jeremy Borash, Don West, Mike Tenay, Bob Ryder, AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, James Storm, Chris Harris, and many more. The documentary starts with talking about how the company was put together and all the planning that went into it. The decision to go straight to PPV was discussed as a way of going about getting TV without having a TV network. The company knew that they couldn’t get TV at that time cause wrestling just wasn’t wanted at the time so the weekly PPV concept was tried. They knew it was a gamble to get fans to spend money on just giving a company a chance. Interesting story from the beginning where they talk about the first show. They had a wrestler named Cheeks who wrestled in the dark match before the PPV portion of the show went live. He bounced off the ropes and broke part of the ring. Keep in mind that they are about go live right after this and starting with a hot six man tag team match. So, Ron and Don Harris go to ringside immediately to begin working on the ring. What I loved to is that they played the communication backstage about the scramble of what to do while this work was done. The plan was made to switch the segments to open the show with the legends being introduced and then go to the six man tag team match. As the show goes live, you can see the Harris brothers running away from ringside as they had just gotten the ring fixed. They weren’t sure if it was going to hold or not but they did what they could. It held up and the show went fine. You get to hear stories of the struggle of that first year of TNA with so many people predicting their demise. Talk turns to talent being signed with some being signed immediately after watching a Bert Prentice show in Nashville which featured Harris vs. Storm. They were signed right after that into TNA. The company hit financial problems and that was when Dixie Carter got into the mix. It is really interesting to hear just how hands on that she was with the company immediately including physically working on the set. How ironic of a story too with Jarrett and Carter talking about how they lived next to each other before they worked together. They met at one time at the same apartment complex that they lived at and then would become business partners. The move to the Asylum in Nashville is talked about and I’m glad to see that this was discussed big cause that building really was important to TNA. Everyone puts over how the Asylum is always going to be an important time in TNA’s history. Harris and Storm talk about how they were put together as a tag team but neither had any interest in it. They wanted to be singles stars but ended up making magic together. The X-Division is focused on saying that the company needed something to stand out as unique. The Jarrett/Raven feud is talked about with how big it was for the company. Don West talks about arriving at the Asylum and having to park forever away cause there was such a crowd there to see the match. They show footage of the huge line there trying to get inside for the match. They had to turn away thousands. Everyone talks about how they were so glad to have that experience of the first year of TNA to talk about knowing what a fight it was to keep going but that they wouldn’t want to go through it again. During the documentary, there are year one moments thrown in showing big happenings. One thing that I found odd was that Vince Russo’s name was not mentioned once in the documentary but footage involving him is shown in the year one moments. I remember watching the first three shows of TNA’s weekly PPV’s and enjoying them. Then, I heard Russo was on board and I bailed. LOL. I had seen enough of his booking over the last couple of years that I didn’t need anymore. Overall, I enjoyed the DVD. I do think that there needed to be some more footage of shows and matches kind of mixed in to break up the interviews at times. One thing that I thought was kind of glossed over was the big names that they brought in over the first year. There is an extra that just shows the various talent but I thought it deserved more. Another extra worth checking out is the Curt Hennig tribute where various talent talks about Hennig being in TNA for a little while and then discussing his passing. The Storm/Harris match that got them signed by the company is shown on the DVD in highlights. That was fun to watch. Matches included as extras include: AJ Styles vs. Jerry Lynn vs. Psichosis vs. Low-Ki to crown the first X-Division champion, Lynn vs. AJ vs. Low-Ki in the triple ladder match for the X-Division title, AMW vs. The New Church for the tag team titles, and Jeff Jarrett vs. Raven for the championship. I give this DVD a thumbs up. I enjoyed it.