NWA: Total Nonstop Action

When NWA is on top of its game, delivering exciting, innovative, high-flying wrestling action the casual wrestling fan (WWE) has never seen before, NWA TNA looks absolutely stellar. When NWA is struggling, segments can be just brutal.

Make no mistake about it, this promotion has talent. With breakout stars like A.J. Styles, the S.A.T., and Lo Ki, and more established talent like Jeff Jarrett and Ken Shamrock, this product can certainly deliver in the wrestling department. For example, a recent 6-man tag match witnessed one SAT member perform a Boston crab on Shark Boy. Then, another SAT member threw Shark's partner, Slim Jay, face down onto the mat right under the Boston crab. The second SAT then proceeded to place his back against the upside down body of Shark Boy and execute a camel clutch on Slim Jay. Then, the third and final member of the SAT, the Amazing Red, finished the display off with a drop kick to Slim Jay's head. As convoluted as that may read, moves like these are truly sights to behold.

While a typical NWA superstar could make Rob Van Dam and Jeff Hardy look tame by comparison, the one area where the show could use some improvement is in production. Some of the backstage vignettes come off looking somewhat bush-league and lack the polish and efficiency of the WWE. Thankfully, these shortcomings do not detract significantly from the quality of the product.

Overall though, if you like professional wrestling for exciting in ring action, NWA is definitely the place to spend your Wednesday night. In my view, this is the place wrestling is going in the future, and I can't wait.

If you like wrestling instead of sports entertainment, you have found it. Fantastic matches that tell a story and action that the WWF has lacked for years. Highly recommended from a fan of the sport for over 4 decades!!

IMO, NWA: TNA is the best wrestling you can watch in America. Plain and simple. WWE RAW is just an awful show. In the last couple of years the best episodes of RAW have been average shows. And most shows have been just horrible. WWE SmackDown on the other hand has some fantastic wrestling. Kurt Angle, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, etc. All great wrestlers. But the show suffers from too much McMahons. Vince really does think that the people would rather see him and his daughter than actual wrestling. And on top of that some of the best talent is so under used it's almost criminal. Zach Gowen didn't wrestle for months, Spanky and Ultimo Dragon never get to wrestle on the main show. Matt Hardy can't get a steady push to save his life, etc.

So if you're sick of all that as I am you'll want to check out NWA: TNA. This show is just fantastic. You know you'll recognize a lot of people even if you've never seen TNA before. Road Dogg (who now goes under the name BG James), Konnan, K Kwik (now known as Ron Killings), D'Lo Brown, Raven, Crash Holly (now known as Mad Mikey) and Jeff Jarrett are all on often. Then there are some of the hottest talent in the indy scene today. AJ Styles, Chris Daniles, Elix Skipper, Jerry Lynn, America's Most Wanted, Chris Sabin. These guys are all fantastic wrestlers and bust their asses each week.

Now a lot of you might think $9.99 a week is a lot to ask for wrestling, but think about it. A month's worth of TNA shows costs as much as one WWE PPV. And you get 5 more hours. What would you be missing by not ordering the next WWE PPV? Remember Backlash of 2003? Bad Blood? Would you really have been sad not to see those shows?

I seen all the reviews that came before mine and I heard good things of NWA TNA. I decided to spend my ten bucks to see this, and to tell you the truth I was kinda disappointed. I let all the hype from those whom previously viewed TNA get to me and I was treated to lengthy promos and matches that were sub-par. I liked some of the later matches but nothing the WWE (Especally Smackdown!) can't do.

I did like that they didn't have embarrassing gimmicks or stunts like the WWE in place of that NWA: TNA had Erotic Dancing girls in a cage (a far cry from the Nitro Girls of days gone by). I like Glen Gilbberti, Sandman, Juvi, Jerry Lynn and Goldylocks on commentating.

However the X-Division is overrated especially Jason Kross and Kid Kash. To be quite frank I will watch the show if they get a network deal, but until then my Ten bucks is going to something more important, my WWE T-Shirt.

Why the praise? Are wrestling fans this desperate for an alternative to the down right insulting WWE product? Just like WCW, the fed that TNA has a terrible time not looking and sounding just like, the production values, announcing and cheese totally overshadow the talent. It's seriously like watching WCW Thunder week end and week out.

However, this fed has a lot of good points. Most X-Division matches, while complete spotfests, are good and exciting... thanks entirely to the talent and no one else. They say the tag team cage match from a few weeks back is looking like the Match of the Year, but that's BS. Anybody can mat wrestle for five minutes then randomly jump off a cage for ten more.

One thing I do like about this promotion is that the main event matches often are better and more exciting than the undercard, something that's hardly ever been seen. Raven's the only reason to watch... he makes it believable, even overtop of Don West's rambling.

2/10 for a promotion, 8/10 for the talent.