10 Times TNA Went Way Too Far

7. The Chair Shot Heard Around The World

In 2010, giant Welsh fishcake Rob Terry was being groomed for epic things, and being booked as an unstoppable force was the next step in that process. To get him over properly as such, Terry was booked to take a massive, completely unprotected chair shot to the head, causing significant hardway bleeding. So far, so brutal €“ but not unknown in pro wrestling €“ except that this was shortly after the WWE had banned unprotected shots to the head over fears that repeated concussions were far more detrimental to the health of wrestlers than previously considered. It was also aired two days after Chris Kanyon committed suicide, and all the talk at the time was that Kanyon had been suffering the ill-effects of a half-dozen untreated concussions throughout his career, which may have led to his taking his own life.

The guys at the Wrestling Observer Newsletter podcast called for the agent in charge to be fired, and wrestling veteran Lance Storm threw up his hands in disgust and quit watching TNA, writing an editorial on the subject on his website. Others called for a boycott until TNA apologised. As brutal as the chair shot was, the callous indifference to timing and context was worse.