The Rise & Fall Of TNA | Wrestling Timelines

14. March 13, 2011 | Victory Road

Sting Vs. Jeff Jarrett is meant to headline TNA Victory Road 2011. It doesn’t happen because Jeff Hardy, who has somehow evaded everybody in the promotion after running through the match earlier in the day, is badly under the influence. 

This becomes immediately apparent when Hardy makes his entrance in slow-motion, with a blank expression visible even underneath layers of face paint, and trips over the ring steps. Hardy is a liability, running afoul of the law constantly. This isn’t surprising - Hardy is due in court for drug trafficking charges days after the show - and yet, Bischoff has to intervene at the last second and hastily, in full view of the iMPACT Zone and the PPV audience, relay new instructions to the wrestlers. Hardy can’t understand, but Sting gets it, and after an initial struggle very quickly holds Hardy down for the pin. There is no replacement opponent. There is no contingency plan, even though Hardy had nearly been pulled from the most recent PPV due to concerns over his wellbeing. This is significantly worse than some idiotic booking decision. It is the absolute height, or nadir, of unprofessional behaviour and rinky-dink damage limitation. It is the biggest disgrace in the history of a company defined by its incompetence. If the battle between LOLWCW and LOLTNA is the irresistible force versus the immovable object, TNA might have just won the Iron Man match. 

If there was any trust in the TNA process whatsoever, the Victory Road debacle shatters it. By 2012, many TNA PPV buys are cut in half from the prior year. Since the company was always very bad at converting TV viewers into paying customers, something must have gone badly wrong.

TNA is a joke, but that joke isn’t funny anymore.