We’re onto disc 3 of the Jeff Jarrett epic King of the Mountain. As far as big DVD sets go, this has been an interesting look back through the history of TNA, through the matches and storylines of its top star and founder. The matches showcased so far have been mostly solid to good, as one would expect with Jarrett being the focus, although the Russo booking for periods and the over use of the guitar finish have both become a little wearing at this point.

As before, I will be running a Run-in Counter for every match in order to illustrate the amount of repetitive booking on display (hmmm… maybe I should have used a Guitar Shot Counter as well?), and the documentary part of the DVD won’t be touched on; suffice to say it is very good, but I believe that me describing actually what is being said takes away from the point of buying the DVD! Anyway, on with the matches…

Jeff Jarrett vs Monty Brown

This is from TNA on Fox Sports, not their later match that headlined a PPV, and is from in-between their first two big shows, Victory Road, and Turning Point. At this time, many thought that Brown was going to be the next big thing (pun intended) in TNA, and was basically the uncrowned champion. Unfortunately, he would go on to fluff his higher profile chance at the Gold, and needlessly turn heel, before winding up (and bombing) in the WWE, after his spot was basically taken by Samoa Joe. Anyway, this is a great match as far as Impact goes, and the crowd is totally behind Brown.

I don’t think Jarrett was given enough credit here at the time (the sign of a good worker?), but he carries Brown to a good match at a time that his flaws in the ring were not so well known. The guitar gets involved, but Brown no sells, and Jarrett has to resort to interference from Scott Hall (complete with a goofy Pounce bump), and two nasty chair shots to get the job done. Good match overall though!

Run-in Counter
Scott Hall

Jeff Jarrett vs. Kevin Nash

This was following Nash’s face turn on Jarrett, later in 2005, and headlines the Against All Odds PPV. Can Nash have a good match? Surprisingly the answer is yes! This is a total brawl, with every trick in the book used to camouflage the fact that Nash is pretty limited here. I’ve always been a bit of a Nash fan, dating back to his Diesel days, and this match is pretty damn good, albeit totally overbooked.

From the outset the commentators harp on about Nash’s knee surgeries, which they are still doing 4 years later… The big selling point is that Jarrett is not allowed to use his guitar, so of course they go with a Cello (ha ha) as a substitute. This is probably Nash’s match of the century so far, although I could see a couple of his efforts against HHH from 2003 being right up there. Along with all the brawling through the crowds and weapon shots, there is loads of interference, with the DX b-team basically running in and fighting amongst themselves, leading to Jarrett scoring the pin off hitting the Stroke twice. Another decent match if you’re a fan of this sort of thing, and the crowd loved it, really buying into Nash as a legitimate contender.

Run-in Counter
Billy Gunn
Sean Waltman
BG James

Jeff Jarrett vs. Rhino

I think this is going to be very similar to the last match. It’s not that Rhino is as limited as Nash, just that the garbage brawl is the sort of environment that he does best in really. This is from the main event of the Turning Point PPV in 2005, and Rhino is another one of those WWE cast-offs who was signed up by TNA and immediately pushed to the main event scene, despite not having only tagged with Taijiri in the lower card for most of the latter part of his WWE career.

The match does follow the pre-described pattern, albeit in a more energetic fashion than the previous match, as they brawl into the crowd following a Rhino slingshot tope, and go on to do a number of nutty spots, including Rhino taking a nasty bump off some scaffolding through a table, and Rhino goring Jarrett back down through the Impact entrance ramp/set. Following this, both men are down, but Team Canada come down and try to allow Jarrett to win via count-out, but Rhino just makes it back to the ring and decimates a large part of TNA’s future midcard (and A1).

Jackie Gayda also gets involved somewhere down the line, and Scott D’amore inevitably smacks Rhino with a kendo stick prior to an aborted Rhino-driver (ouch!) spot, allowing Jarrett to hit the Stroke from the middle rope through a couple of chairs (also ouch!) for the pin.

Run-in counter
Scott D’amore
Bobby Roode
A1
Eric Young
Petey Williams
Jackie Gayda

Jeff Jarrett/Chris Harris/James Storm/Abyss vs. Rhino/Ron Killings/Brother Devon/Brother Ray

This is one of those multi-man tag matches that TNA tends to put on as headline attractions for their ‘off-brand’ PPVs; each of Jarrett’s side has a manager/valet (Gail Kim, Jackie Gayda, and Jim Mitchell respectively) so I expect some interference right off the bat. This is another crazy brawl from the outset, before it settles back into more of a standard tag match about half way through.

All of the participants are motivated, and I believe each of the members of the teams had their own feuds going with members of the opposing team i.e. Rhino/Abyss, and AMW/Team 3D, although a don’t remember a particular issue between Jarrett and Killings. 3D were another act that had come over from WWE fairly recently, and were working with a passion here in order to try to live up to their reputation, as well as prove they weren’t washed up.

Everyone gets their big spots in, including a humorous double diving headbutt spot involving Gail Kim, and a good bit involving Killings and some handcuffs, before Jarrett pins the former and future Truth following a stroke. Shockingly, apart from the involvement of those seconds already at ringside, there wasn’t any interference here. Yay!

Run-in Counter
None!

Jeff Jarrett/AMW/Scott Steiner vs. Sting/AJ Styles/Ron Killings/Rhino)

In TNA’s further efforts to innovate their product, they decided that introducing their own version of Wargames was a good idea, and hence we got Lethal Lockdown in this match, basically a one ring version of the WCW classic that features a descending roof with weapons. The opening portion of this match, featuring the participants coming out at the two-minute intervals, with the heel team invariably ending up with unfair advantage, is classic Wargames stuff. Scott Steiner’s section is apparently his TNA in-ring debut, and he looks scary here, chucking around people with ease, and really excelling in an environment where his stamina issues can be exposed, as they were in his 2002-04 WWE run.

The problem I find with the Lockdown match in particular, is that when the roof lowers, and the weapons become available, whatever story the match was developing up until that point stops, and the match immediately dissolves into a series of mindless weapon shots. This is certainly the case here, and the daft spots taking precedence over the development of the match with AJ Style’s admittedly insane splash on James Storm from the rafters of the building through a table on the roof of the cage. Sure it looks cool, but surely the whole point of the match was to have it inside the cage, and it did nothing apart from remove two of the participants.

Sting wins this one with Scorpion Deathlock on Chris Harris; an exciting match, albeit fundamentally flawed in concept. Again, no run-ins, I know it’s a cage match with eight people and weapons, but you never can tell with TNA…

Run-in Counter
None!

Jeff Jarrett/Scott Steiner vs. Sting/Samoa Joe

Samoa Joe, long an independent wrestling darling via ROH, had debuted in TNA in the summer of 2005, and since then had been billed as their next mega-star in waiting by TNA fans, taking the place of by-then-afterthought Monty Brown. After working some incredible matches in the X Division, this was Joe’s first glimpse of the main event scene, and the fan’s first chance to see how he would gel with likes of Jarrett and future dream match opponent Steiner.

This match is all about Joe, and he really takes the ball and runs with it, in particular his strong-style Japanese style exchange with Steiner blows the roof off the Asylum, and provides a great prelude to their future singles match (see it if you haven’t already). Joe hangs with the three former WCW champs, and then is really put over, by actually getting a clean pinfall on Jarrett via the muscle buster.

The post match handshake angle with Joe and Sting, followed by Joe’s desertion of his partner, further sow that Joe is ready to move up the ranks in TNA. A decent match that accomplished its purpose in getting Joe over as a main event guy, and kudos to Jarrett for doing the right thing here and crating a new star for his company in the process. My enjoyment of this match is furthered by the fact that there were again, no run-ins!

Run-in Counter
None!

That’s the end of this disc. Another solid effort, that again proves o be just as much of a biographical piece on the evolution of TNA as of Jarrett. The final disc features matches up until last year, and also contains special bonus footage of Jarrett’s early career. See you next week!

James Mustoe
james@ifight365.com