It’s time for the Road to Bound For Glory, but before we get to BFG we’ve got a few stops along the way including the up and coming Victory Road event.
See before it was relegated to being an Impact Plus Special, Victory Road was one of the company’s yearly pay per views, in fact it was the very first pay per view (outside of the weekly stuff) to bare the TNA Wrestling name with this once yearly PPV now yearly Impact Plus Special having some of the company’s low-key best matches in it’s history
But that’s not what were here to talk about today, no instead were here to talk about some of the worse matches to take place at Victory Road.
10. Rhino vs. Monty Brown (Victory Road 2006)
Some wrestling matches don’t really need a well thought out and intricate brand of storytelling to get the fans invested into the match, sometimes all it takes is taking two or more talented wrestlers put them against each other and watch out the crowd loses their minds seeing these wrestlers go back-and-forth.
This is the overall idea for Rhino and Monty Brown at the 2006 edition of Victory Road with both men battering the crap out of each other all while the fans enjoy every minute of it…or at least they would have had the match actually had a finish.
See both Brown and Rhino went after each other even before the bell rang and by the time it did ring, Referee Andrew Thomas would end up getting sqaushed by both men in various parts of the match leading to a number of refs checking on Thomas’ condition all while the two big hosses fought into the crowd before the match just ends in a no contest in an almost five minute match-up.
The fans by the way would never get a proper conclusion to this feud as the next pay per view saw both men fighting each other and Samoa Joe in a fall count anywhere match where Joe won…because reasons, and then a match between Rhino and Monty was set on the September 21st edition of Impact only to end in another no contest thanks to the outside interference of Christian Cage.
9. Basham & Damaja vs. Voodoo Kin Mafia (Victory Road 2006)
What happens when one of the most legendary tag teams of the WWE’s Attitude Era takes on one of the most forgettable tag teams of the WWE’s Ruthless Aggression Era inside a TNA six sided ring on pay per view?
The answer: A very boring tag team match…Which is perhaps the nicest way to describe it.
Yes, for a little over seven minutes a bunch of former tag team champions shuffle around the ring exchanging moves all to sound near complete silence from the Universial Studio crowd and not even the appearances of Christy Hemme, Lance Hoyt and a debuting Roxxi Laveaux could get the fans interested.
I generally don’t have anything else more to say about this match other then it was a tedious seven minute match that felt like it took half an hour.
8. Hernandez vs. Matt Morgan (Victory Road 2011)
Get use to hearing about Victory Road 2011 a lot on this list because this show (along with another Victory Road event I’ll talk about ) is often regarded as one of the worse pay per views in company history and this match is a reason why.
Now to be fair, Matt Morgan and Hernandez did have good match at the 2010 editon of Victory Road inside a Steel Cage but this was a far cry from that with both men just trading some un-interesting blows at each other before a random fan later revealed to Anarquia (remember him?!?) interferes in the match before Hernandez sprays some fake blood on Morgan only for Referee Jackson James (aka Eric Bischoff’s son with a fake name) to come out and award the win to Hernandez despite the fact he saw Hernandez bleed first before he saw Morgan.
A completely nonsensical finish to a match, but thankfully this feud would end with a more sensible ending with Morgan defeating his former tag team partner once again inside a steel cage at the following months Lockdown PPV…I guess these two tend to have good matches in steel cages…I guess.
7. Matt Morgan vs. Christopher Daniels (Victory Road 2009)
Sticking with Matt Morgan for a little bit more were go back two years since the previous entry to talk about this match between ‘The Blueprint’ and Christopher Daniels…who for some reason was only called by his last name for much of 2009.
This match basically consisted of the big man dominating Daniels, a whole lot of show boating from Morgan to the crowd, a small flurry of offense from Daniels and then rinse and repeat for 10 minutes.
Sure the crowd were into the match, but I think that has more to do with the fact that TNA was still white hot at the time, you now before a certain red and yellow WWE superstar came to change all of that.
Regardless, not even the crowd reaction could save what was a glorified sqaush match with ‘The Blueprint’ emerging victorious…Poor Christopher Daniels had to be relegated to jobber status in this match mere months after returning to the company, but ‘The Fallen Angel’ wouldn’t be the only TNA Original to lose to a much larger opponent on this show.
6. Kevin Nash vs. AJ Styles (Victory Road 2009)
So you know how people would accuse TNA back in the day of pushing established, middle aged wrestlers from elsewhere over their young up-and-coming talent…well if you ever needed a match that shows this point to be true, step right up Kevin Nash vs. AJ Styles at Victory Road 2009.
In a match for the TNA Legends Championship, the fans had to bare witness to AJ trying to get something that resembled a good match out of the former WWE World Champion but instead it ending up be a contest where AJ mostly did punches, kicks and an attempt at a submission hold until Nash finally started unleash some offense including a big boot in the corner that took AJ to outside of the floor and looked like it nearly injured Styles.
The finish also did this match no favors as Nash pinned AJ not after hitting a Jack Knife Powerbomb but with a weak looking chokeslam leading to ‘Big Sexy’ winning the title and further adding salt into the wound that was pushing wrestlers from yesteryear over the stars of the future.
5. Jeff Hardy vs. Jeff Jarrett (Victory Road 2004)
On paper, a ladder match involving ‘The King of the Mountain’ Jeff Jarrett and ‘The Charismatic Engima’ Jeff Hardy for the NWA World Championship in the main event of a pay per view should be a fun time, sadly this match was far from the exciting thrill ride we’ve come to expect from a ladder match which is doubley disappointing considering that one of those wrestlers is a master of this kind of match.
The mid 2000’s was not a good time for Brother Nero as his substance abuse problems and refusal to go to rehab resulted in many of his matches being slow, sloppy and showcasing some very unpredictable behavior which tragically has been a reoccurring theme in various parts of Hardy’s career.
Anyway, the match itself was subpar and that’s putting it nicely with the storyline going into the match being that Kevin Nash would be in Hardy’s corner to deal with both Jarrett and Scott Hall, however by the time Nash did show up sporting a black tracksuit and two guitars he gave one of them to Hall without any hesitation and both men including Jarrett took shots at Hardy with the guitars leading to an overbooked mess of a finish for what was already messy excuse for a main event…also Jarrett wins lol.
4. Sarita & Rosita vs. Angelina Love & Winter (Victory Road 2011)
I think most of us can agree that the Knockouts Tag Team Titles have booked pretty good since coming back at Hard To Kill 2021, with many of the teams who have held these belts having some kind of chemistry with each other and are able to produce some impeccable matches.
Well a little over a decade ago that wasn’t the case as seen with this title match at Victory Road 2011 between defending champions, Angelina Love and Winter vs. Sarita and Rosita (aka the future Zelina Vega).
Much like what’s happening with WWE today, there wasn’t really much focus on the female tag division in the early 2010’s in TNA and this was made clear with one of the bigger storylines going into the match was the bizzare infatuation Winter had with Angelina Love (which would only get weirder as the months went on by the way) all while teasing some tension between Love and her long time partner, Velvet Sky.
The match itself was riddled with clunky action and a large amount of botches throughout especially with the finish where Rosita is holding onto one the tag belts to use as a weapon only for Velvet to miss her cue by several minutes, ending with referee Earl Hebner taking a while to re-enter the ring to make a three count.
To make this even worse, this was the only Knockouts match on the card and it went on for almost five minutes which seems ludicrous for many of us today who’ve grown up watching a women’s match in TNA/IMPACT lasting around 15 or more minutes; At least Zelina Vega won a championship in her career and she’s still reconigized as the youngest woman to ever win the Knockouts tag titles at just 20 years old…So that’s nice.
3. Angelina Love vs. Madison Rayne (Victory Road 2010)
One year before the debacle that was the Knockouts Tag Title match, The Beautiful People were involved in yet another title match this time for the Knockouts Championship but this one involved good ole Andrew Thomas…And as we saw in the Rhino/Monty Brown entry, dusty finishes are not too far way when he referees.
Angelina returned to TNA in January of 2010 and she was annoyed to see Madison Rayne (who was Knockouts Champions at the time) as the new leader of the Beautiful People and this eventually led to a Knockouts Title match at Victory Road with the stipulations being that if Angelina lost then her career in TNA was over, but if Madison lost or was DQ’d because of outside interference by Velvet or Lacey Von Erich, the Rayne would lose the title.
While the action between Love and Rayne was good, the finish absoutely spoils it when a mysterious woman wearing an all black and a motorcylce helmet soon grabs Angelina and sends here head first into the ring post right in front of the ref which you think would end in a disqualification win for Love, but Madison would retain.
Andrew Thomas tries to see who the mysterious woman is when he gets shoved which forces him to ring the bell and end the match… again Love was sent into the ring post in front of the ref but no DQ but when Thomas get shoved then it’s time for the DQ…weird officiating right there.
As underwelming as a DQ finish to this match would be…what happened next both confusing and stupid as Thomas awards the title to Angelina making her the new Knockouts Champion because Thomas just assumes the mysterious woman was either Velvet or Lacey; Making this the second worse way Angelina Love has won the Knockouts Championship, but at least this one didn’t include any Lockbox nonsense oh and the cherry on this already rotten sundae: the company just awarded the belt back to Madison a few weeks later when it was discovered that the mysterious woman wasn’t Velvet or Lacey but later revealed to be Tara…TNA Wrestling in 2010 folks.
2. Jenna Morasca vs. Sharmell (Victory Road 2009)
And capping off our trio of horrible Knockouts matches at Victory Road, we come to what is arguably the worse of them all with this five star stinker from Victory Road 2009 pitting the Main Event Mafia’s own Sharmell against reality TV star turn member of the Main Event Mafia, Jenna Morasca with Knockouts Sojournor Bolt and Awesome Kong in their respective corners.
What follows is near six minutes of the worse wrestling you will ever see with most of the offense in this match consisting of slaps, kicks, a few wrestling spots from Sharmell that could best be described as fairly decent; There’s also moments of Jenna trying to re-create the beautiful People’s entrance to cringey level of success, a spot where both ladies roll top of Earl Hebner and a very drawn out moment where both Jenna and Kong have funny with a piece of Sharmell’s hair.
God bless Sharmell for trying to make this match competitive, but when your opponent is as green as Jenna is well now that is quite a task…I hope Sojo Bolt and Kong got paid well for there involement in this crap especially Kong who manage to get the only bit of crowd reaction from the fans by splashing on top of Jenna after the match.
At least the crowd was left cheering after the match was over, sadly…positive crowd reaction was nowhere to be found with this last entry.
1. Jeff Hardy vs. Sting (Victory Road 2011)
I mean how could it not be this…How could not be the single biggest embrassment in the entire history of TNA Wrestling from a match perspective.
At Victory Road 2011, Sting was set to defend his TNA World Heavyweight Championship against the man he beat for it: Jeff Hardy, however once Jeff entered it was clear that Hardy was not in the right mindset to compete as the Charismatic Engima looked wasted, high or both when the cameras picked up on him.
By the time Sting enters the ring, you can see Referee Brian Hebner throw up the X sign in the background which in wrestling terminology means that there is a serious emergency. After more shots of Hardy still looking like his spaced out and Sting not even trying to hide how pissed he is, Eric Bischoff comes out to secretly inform both men that the match is gonna be wrapped up quick before declaring this bout a No DQ match which leads to Sting punching out Bischoff.
Cue Hardy taking an awkwardly long time teasing the fans on if he will throw his t-shirt, a few punches by Sting, a Scorpion Death Deathlock, Sting pinning Jeff hard enough to make sure he doesn’t kick out and thenthe ref counts three as Sting retains.
The fans quickly broke out into boos and chants of ‘Bullshit’ to which ‘The Icon’ infamously responds with ‘I Agree’ as the show quickly reaches it’s end.
Really the only thing I can say about this whole thing is that at least this led to Hardy getting act together and he spent the rest of his time in TNA from late 2012 to 2017 sober so at this there was a happy ending when it came Jeff’s time in TNA and looking at his current status in AEW let’s hope Hardy keeps himself clean and out of trouble.
And that’s my list, What do you think was the Worse Victory Road Match in TNA/Impact Wrestling History?
Leave thoughts down below and be sure to come back in a few weeks when I do my list on the Top 10 Greatest Victory Road Matches in TNA/Impact Wrestling History. You can follow me on Twitter @FullertonHakeem and I’ll see you for the next article.