10 Fatal Mistakes That Destroyed The TNA Brand
9. Rowdy Roddy
More Vince Russo insanity, as Rowdy Roddy Piper enters the earliest version of TNA to cut a worked shoot promo that flies way, way off the rails.
The company's original weekly pay-per-view format bizarrely suited the style Russo had purported to have mastered as WWE's Attitude Era creative head.
Though both he and the company denied a working relationship beyond his on screen role, most believed he was in the ear of Jeff Jarrett and company heads, especially considering the machine gun booking that saw hundreds of ideas blasted onto screens each with the hope at least one thing connected with viewers.
Alongside women, weapons and (occasionally) wrestling, TNA was littered with old legends lending star power along with a live microphone to council themselves through post-WCW stress disorders.
Piper's segment was the worst of the bunch.
Fresh off an atrocious WWE run, Piper used the appearance first to plug his website, then his book, before going off on Vince Russo's on-screen character. It rapidly turned real when he called TNA 'the last place Russo hasn't killed', before committing a vicious character assassination on the vilified scribe.
After suggesting that 'there are young men that have a future, and this guy will deliberately kill those guys dreams', he got darker, saying 'did you write in my cousin Owen's death?' The crowd fell uncomfortably silent as the segment careered into infamy.
Predictably, it all went nowhere. The peek behind the curtain didn't produce a lengthy feud or even one match. TNA just looked like an awkward wasteland for a week before going off to search for another ranting icon.