10 Times TNA Went Way Too Far
6. From Injury To Insult
Veteran wrestler Chris Candido jerked the curtain in a tag match in the very first annual Lockdown pay-per-view, in which all the matches were contested in a steel cage. Quite why the powers-that-be at TNA thought this was a good idea, heaven only knows it originally stemmed from a sarcastic remark made by Dusty Rhodes during a booking meeting, suggesting to a gimmick-happy Dixie Carter that perhaps then every match on the card should be a cage match. It seems Carter had no idea that a), the Dream was joking or that b), it was a terrible, heat-sapping idea that would kill the main event of her show. Candidos match, with Lance Hoyt against Apolo and Sonny Siaki, Candido landed poorly after a dropkick from Siaki, and broke his leg in two places, dislocating his ankle. After surgery a few days later, he developed a blood clot and passed away. He was only thirty-three years old. TNA would honour Candido via a memorial on the episode of Impact, as well as a salute and tribute on the next pay-per-view, Hard Justice. More than that, they initiated the first ever annual Chris Candido Memorial Tag Team Tournament, where a rookie would be paired with a veteran in brand new teams to determine the final participants in the Four Way Elimination tag match at Unbreakable the following month. The trouble was, it was a cynical cash-in. TNA had already point blank refused to pay Candidos partner Tammy Sytch (aka WWEs Sunny) one red cent in respect of the money owed to his estate. Even though the pair were childhood sweethearts whod been together for half their lives, the fact that they werent married gave the company a loophole to avoid shelling out. Eventually, they sent her a ham as a consolation gift. The Candido Cup didnt make it to become an annual event: once the publicity from Candidos tragic death dried up, there was no reason for TNA to continue to trade on his name, reputation and fanbase.