[0.0] "An underrated contender for the worst show of all time, have no idea how the rating is so high for this show or how TNA survived it. You have the opening to "Total Nonstop Action" having absolutely no action for absolutely ages while we wheel out commentators, old timers and owner Jeff Jarrett before a whole bunch of people bury the upcoming main event (which in fairness does sound shit). You have a tag team debut who are literally meant to be penises...and they WIN their match pinning James Storm. A fucking weird race angle after an interview segment where two blokes talk about fucking NASCAR, genuinely that whole segment is one of the worst things in wrestling ever. A fucking weird incest gimmick with "The Dupps" who fucking suck, beating an actual promising team. A massive dose of homophobia with the Bruce stuff. Elektra hilariously blaming Francine for single handedly bankrupting ECW. A country music performance - fucking dogshit. Ricky Steamboat having no idea how to use a 5 count as he bizarrely counts up to 6. A little people match that is absolutely fucking horrendous. An absolutely terrible main event after one of the most boring battle royals ever that goes like half an hour and spends a lot of time just basically demonstrating TNA have a lot of ex-WCW guys who weren't stars (outside of Scott Hall) and have a guy cosplaying an actual star in Scott Steiner with "Del Rios", with the final entrant being goddamn Grandmaster Sexay to further demonstrate the lack of star power Jarrett came out to bury the main event one more time before the show ended, so that was nice. And then fucking Ed Ferrara attempts to make a Special Olympics joke, as if this show didn't have enough bad taste shit on it, fuck that guy. Utterly horrific and has aged like milk, I started watching TNA about 5 or 6 months in, if I'd started watching here I'd have never continued. The opener is very entertaining but everything else is the sort of shit you pray people don't walk in on you watching."

[3.0] "I am trying not to be overly negative as this is me rewatching it. The beginning segment of the show was pretty good while im not a double J fan he did look good in it and the crowd popping for him actually made me believe he could possibly be a main eventer. now fallowing this segment is where it takes a dip as we go from that to the 'Midget Killer' segment. the Six Man tag brought it back to some decent quality but from their it was just.... rough untill we get to the Gauntlet which wasn't bad got to see a Ron Killings make his debut, Malice looked like a beast. But that short main event for the NWA Title left alot too be desired, Now if this was an episode of Impact i would get it but this is a PPV Give the people a full match. not a great start would only reccomend the first match and final match the rest is pointless to watch"

[3.0] "Honestly, it is hard to believe that TNA survived as long as it did when this was their opening salvo. It will never stop making me laugh, for example, just how much of the opening segment is dedicated to three of the promotion's top stars - two of them faces! - absolutely burying the main event and only able to agree on how fundamentally stupid a battle royale for the world title is. Like, damn, who cosigned that? Then we transition into: wrestling Elvis impersonators, a midget match (and a promo from Puppet the Midget Killer), numerous women who appear miserable cattily bickering to set up for a lingerie showdown, and then the reveal of the Johnsons, the wrestling dicks owned by Mortimer Plumtree. Like, what are we really doing here? And we have the Dupps? The horrifically racist "Ron Killings calls out the NASCAR drivers only for cringe white rapper Brian Lawler to humiliate him and make comments about 'your kind' and 'my kind'"? Anything involving Bruce and Lenny and the Rainbow Express? So much of the show is terrible, and while we do get early appearances from AJ Styles, Jerry Lynn, and Low Ki being awesome, James Storm back when he was a goofy comedy cowboy, and even a cameo from pre-mask Abyss as Justice, it's hard to like any of this. And yet, you know what? I was never bored. There is something compelling about TNA's unique brand of terribleness. Maybe that's why it's still around in a nutshell."

[3.0] "It's such a goddamn Russo show. They get a bonus point for this being the first event and at least initially making it feel like a hot product, but I wouldn't buy the next PPVs after this. Short matches, cringe comedy, lots of tits and ass, Ferrara on commentary... It's obvious they don't have a competent booker, and it's no wonder Jerry soon left his son with this fiasco. The only decent match here is the opener - still flippy bollocks, but at least it felt fresh at the time. The rest, including the opening segment where they decided to bury their main event right out of the gate, is mediocre at best. There's some dumb midget action, the debut of The Johnsons, poor Trevor Murdoch working as a dumb hillbilly, and James Storm doing some awful work, looking nothing like his future self. At least they got a huge pop for Shamrock's title win, so the fans left happy."

"For a debut show this was a solid show. yes it had a couple of mis steps (i.e. the Shane Twins dressed as condoms and the alleged inbred tag team) but aside from that it set the foundations for what was to come as well as setting the stage for all 3 titles. A nice mix of stars and new faces also was nice to see. Having said all that it was a just above average show for me but it was strong enough for me to want to see what followed."

[5.0] "A great start to the show with the X-Division doing what it always did best and Jimmy Yang really standing out in the match. The event unfortunately went downhill fast as what followed were mediocre-to-bad matches and desperate attempts to duplicate the more outrageous elements of the Attitude Era with midgets, caged dancers, a catfight, continual sexual innuendo, a penis-themed tag team, an inbred tag team, et al. One would think that NWA-TNA would've tried to put its best foot forward on its inaugural show, but this was generally more embarrassing than entertaining."

[7.0] "They really weren't kidding with the name - other than certain points of the battle royal, there was truly never a stop to the action this whole pay-per-view. A great debut for a budding TNA that featured the usual Jeff Jarrett shenanigans, the first X-division match, and the first Gauntlet for the Gold. Some matches could have been improved with a little less gimmick and a little more thought, and the in-between segments and promos could really use some work (The Dupps in particular), but even celebrity appearances like Sterling Marlin and Toby Keith felt somewhat natural and you couldn't tell exactly where the story was going the moment they stepped on screen. The main event was a bit lackluster, but not as bad as it could have been. I wouldn't seek it out again, but I was thoroughly entertained."

[2.0] "Looking at the card I wondered really how bad could the first TNA PPV could be, and wow it this show is a total stinker. TNA was sopost to be a alternative to the fed and proved why they are no different with shit like the "midget matches" and a tag team named "The Johnsons"... Most of the matches are wayyy to short for a ppv aswell. Nothing to go out of your way to watch on this. Match of the night is easily the opening 6 man match."

[3.0] "You know, I think everyone would expect this historic event to really set the tone for TNA moving forward. Instead, you had Vince McMahon style sports entertainment. Hell, I think I might rather watch some of his shit than whatever the fuck this confusing mess was. Jarrett said this show was like this to appeal to the biggest demographic. Do people want to see a psychotic dwarf? Elvis impersonators? NASCAR drivers? A TAG TEAM THAT ARE LITERALLY DICKS? TOBY FUCKING KEITH? Honestly, to me that was probably the worst part of this show. Ya really gotta broadcast some pro-war American propaganda on your show huh? I popped when Jarrett interrupted him. Hes a hero in my eye for that one. Let me talk about a few more of the terrible segments here. And after that, Im not shitting you, were only gonna be left with the opening segment and the main event. The lingerie battle royal. Oh boy. You know, thankfully the knockouts division would actually turn out to be very progressive and way ahead of their time. This company eventually treated the female wrestlers with respect. You had Awesome Kong, Gail Kim, The Beautiful People, Daffney (whos actually in this show), and Mickie James just to name a few. But before that, we had this mind-numbing misogynistic segment. I dont want to see Ed Ferrara with the stupid cornrows being an utter creep. I really dont. We also had this angle involving a bunch of hillbillies? Am I supposed to know who the Dupps are? Either way, Im really not a fan. They just seem to have such a stupid and quite obviously disgusting gimmick. So the shits out the way, lets talk about the good stuff. Im not gonna lie, the in-ring action in the AJ & Lo-Ki & Lynn match was tactually enjoyable. I just feel like everyones talent is being wasted though. And whats worse is that AJ fucking Styles took the pin for an ELVIS IMPERSONATOR. I loved the opening segment. Mike Tenay rattling off these facts about the NWA title with so much respect, all the NWA legends coming out, the whole spectacle of it all was great imo. I heard that Dan Severn was supposed to be the champion but he didnt want to sign so they vacated the title for the main event battle royal. Imagine if Severn was in TNA. Imagine Severn vs Angle. Oh well. The main event was fun too. Shamrock winning was deserved too. I just wish everything in between was better than it was."

[5.0] "A mediocre start to TNA. The opener was good and entertaining but rest of the show not much to write about if honest. I like Shamrock winning the NWA title and they made Malice look decent but my biggest gripe really with the show is the segment with Don, Ed & the female competitors was absolutely cringe and degrading (I felt so sorry for Daffney having to be in this segment) but I know the knockouts division is a long long way from here so Im not shocked at same time. So overall a bang average show if your interested in seeing how TNA started you should still watch but dont expect too much going in."

[5.0] "The show was decent, even though a lot of things could have made say the opposite. The opening angle was nice and the opening match was pretty cool too although it was way too short. The last two matches weren't very good but still fun at times, I didn't really like anything that happened between the opener and the main event. Jeff Jarrett was maybe the best wrestler of the show along the participants of the first match, he was entertaining to watch."

[2.0] "Terrible debut. The opening match is what we would consider "fine" and the final Royal Rumble-style match was interesting for being wacky, but alllllll the squashes and horrible associated gimmicks tainted TNA from the beginning. When people have good memories of these shows, it's of individual workers like AJ Styles or people who came later like Samoa Joe, never The Johnsons and The Dupps."

[5.0] "Man did things go downhill after the first match, which was very entertaining despite having no psychology and Sonny Siaki looking like he wanted to murder whoever made him dress like Elvis. Jimmy Yang's enthusiasm made up for that. The 'little person' match sucked, even if it looked like they actually punched each other hard. Psychosis and James Storm apparently lost a bet in the back and had to job to giant phalluses, and the RC Cola version of the Hardy Boyz lost to rednecks who I guess diddle their cousin. The gauntlet match itself at the end was ok, I guess. It had a good amount of talent from ECW and WCW, and they made Malice look pretty good, even if Shamrock beat him at the end. Also, there were women in cages like a skeezy strip club, so they had that going for them. Cool to see some legends show up like Ricky Steamboat and Jackie Fargo jawing with Jarrett. What the world didn't need was Toby Keith getting the best of the company's top heel on the first night, and some NASCAR guys showed up for some reason. It's PPV you already have your audiences money, I can't imagine someone was buying that hoping to see Sterling Marlin stand around in a ring. Overall it was a bookend show, strong opening, decent closing with a whole lot of forgettable stuff in the middle."

[5.0] "Giving this show a better grade than it deserves due to the historic value. Enjoyed the opening of the show but having the 3 biggest stars in the main event talk about how the rules are bad was certainly an interesting choice. The opening match was fun, and it was the match of the night. A lot of the segments have not aged well like the Dupps and Johnsons. The battle royale had its moment. Main event just fell flat for me. Overall not a great start for TNA but did show some potential at least."

[3.0] "In a lot of ways it is unfair to judge wrestling shows all the same. Some shows are meant to build up feuds, some are meant to be big extravaganzas and some are meant to build stories. With all that said, this show is the first show of a new major company and it just doesn't feel like a show that is supposed to build up a new company. More time is spent on strange comedy matches than actually working to build up stars, Jarrett is right, a Battle Royale just doesn't work for the start of a new champion for a new promotion. It also feels like the Battle Royale itself has very little substance to it. Mostly consisting of come in, get your spots in and get thrown out. Once again, no attempt to create storylines (in a match type that is known for creating storylines). Looking back, it's shocking that TNA is still alive after this PPV, it felt like they were using the exact same formula as 2000 WCW complete with using wrestlers who are past their prime and terrible storylines."

[6.0] "This was fairly satisfactory. First off I'll address the elephant in the room and note that there was an absolute ton of gross offensive crap here. R slurs M slurs sexism racism etc etc. It made this a hard watch, but when they weren't going for the "haha we're so offensive u mad bro? " Style of "humor" this was a fine show. The opener was the clear match of the night but the battle royal was pretty good too. Everything between those two matches was fillery filler and it was only fun in a campy trainwreck way, but there was like 11 minutes of wrestling during that time because they were trying to copy that late 90s car crash attitude era style wrestling show, which is kind of funny considering people paid for this, so you'd think they could give some decent matches to their paying audience but whatever. Finally it's worth noting that Ken Shamrock won his only world title on this show which is neat, even if he leaves not long after winning the title. 6/10"

[4.0] "This was an alright first PPV for TNA. They made some statements, some good and some not so good. From the get go the X-Division is a great thing for this company. The opening segment to this show is pretty fun, though goes a little long. The end stretch to crown a new NWA World's Champion was pretty fun. It's interesting to go back and watch this. In terms of the biggest negatives of this show I could just say everything we're not allowed to rate. To be more specific though the Johnsons gimmick sucks and the promise of a lingerie match next week, and also the "midget" match."

[3.0] "Wow this show sure was somthing huh. To start us off we have a line of legends hedlined by the drgon who tallks about the importence of the nwa belt and says that he will refere the 1v1 portion of the guntelt for the gold. Jerte comes out and complians about it being a battle royal. Shamroke comes out and dose the same, same with scot hall, good joob burying the main event of your first ever show for the most importent belt in pro wrestling. The first match is a fun X devisoen spot fest with the face team of aj lo-ki and jerry lyn vs the flying elvises. This match was pretty good, jimmy yang was a standout (7/10) Then we had a miget match wich was bad but not as bad as i expexxted (1/10). Then we got a prewive for nexst weeks women btaller royal with all the women who are going to debase theslfes for TNA (yay) incluiding a youn micky james :( what are you doing here micky. Then we had a promo setting up the johnsons witch gets us to match 3. The 3rd match is very bad the johnsons are uselss but atleast james strom looked ok (2/10) thenwe got a promo with the dupps to get ther hick charters over before they have a shit match with joey mercury (1.5/10) Also we see jeff jarret choke out jacki fargo. We the. See some country singer (kith somthing )and he sings befor jarret brages in and starts the gutlent for the gold . The rumbel portion of the guntlent has a nice start with the jarret elimnting evryone but then apolo came in and it slowed way down. Liemd the bit with rick stiner and ironcly loved super man brain christhoper elimnting everyone. Anyhow the last 2 are jen and malice they have a bad match that was boked to make mlice the heel look like a face (3.5/10) This was not a good start to the life of tna but i aprove of the opener and think that there might be somthing to jeff and fargo"

[7.0] "It's probably not fair rating this 21 years after the event, but I thought this was a fun show. I had forgotten how politically incorrect wrestling was back then and cringed watching and listening to it. But, there was a great match on the show (opener) and the title match overdelivered in my opinion. Watching two men dressed as stiff penises is something I never expected to see on TV either. The stuff with the women was out of touch with modern sensibilities to say the least. But....i've not had this much fun watching a 2 hour show in ages. Looking forward to following along with these shows each week with Bryan and Vinny for sure."

[2.0] "The first TNA match is really rought to see. A midget match is horrible and shoudn't have taken place on a serius company; the preview segment of the womas was awful; The Johnsons and the Dupp are stupid gimmicks to put over when you have better talent on the card; in the first segment some of the main eventers shit on the booking on the first show of a new company. The only good match is the first one, the 6 man tag, which is higly recommended. Jarrett segments were good, stablishing himself as the top heel of the company. But the rest is a forgettable and bad show, with really bad booking."

[5.0] "A pretty memorial first show but it was obvious that they simply didn? t have a lot of talent to fill in the card. The battle Royal was entertaining and there opening match was also good. James Storm and Psychosis in a team was amazing for a fan like myself. Too bad they lost to? . Well ya know"

[3.0] "AJ Styles, Low Ki & Jerry Lynn vs The Flying Elvises: (**3/4) Hollywood vs Teo: (1/4*) The Johnsons vs Psicosis & James Storm: (*) Christian York & Joey Matthews vs The Dupps: (*) Gauntlet For The Gold: (***)"

[5.0] "The first TNA show is a fun watch because of the matches on it from the brilliant X-Division advertising 6 man tag to the battle royal. The only thing that brings this show down is the segments. While the opening segment with the NWA legends and Jeff Jarrett, Ken Shamrock, and Scott Hall was enjoyable the lingerie, Toby Keith, and Sterling Marlin segments were just the pits. I do recommend this to anyone as it is a bit of history in professional wrestling."

[8.0] "This PPV was not the best in terms of wrestling but as a show was very entertaining and enjoyable, with fun segments and fun matches, I think this is a good start for TNA."

[5.0] "1)6 man tag: ***1/2 2)Midget match: DUD 3)Promo for the Lingerie battle royal: Don West mistakes WCW Daffney for ECW Daffney. Ferrara and West are two sleazy, drooling creeps. This is good ol' T&A. You feel dirty after watching it but you can't take eyes off your screen. 4)The Johnsons vs Psychosis and James Storm: Johnsons look like condoms but they're built as tanks. What is even their gimmick? *3/4 5) NASCAR time. By now, it's pretty obvious what is the current target audience of NWA-TNA in 2002. Ron Killings was booed out of the building and I don't think it's because he dissed the drivers. 6)York & Matthews vs The Dupps: Alabama crowd is too much into the incest redneck gimmick. * 7) Country singer, crowd loses its shit. 8) Gauntlet for the gold: **/34 Pretty good match for its era 9) Shamrock vs Malice: **"

[6.0] "Okay show. The six man tag and Gauntlet for the Gold were the best matches. Some questionable booking and gimmicks. Could've been better."

[3.0] "Not exactly a great PPV to open things up for NWA-TNA; probably not a horrible one either - it was a mix of some really good ideas with some... really bad ones. The best thing on this show, by far, was the opener - while it was short, it was awesome for what it was, a fast-paced trios match giving spotlight to some wrestlers the company would build its X-Division on later. Unfortunately, it was followed by a midget match, which could've been easily replaced by any normal wrestling match which would've been way better. The following tag match was passable only because of Storm & Psicosis, it's not like The Johnsons put any positive value into this match. Ah - obviously, Storm and Psicosis lost, which makes so much sense considering that Psicosis would be featured in the following week's main event! Then there's another tag match. It's even worse. The wrong team - The Dupps, in this case - wins again. Then, there was the gauntlet for the gold. Fun at times, but definitely not a great match. It was very far from one... Luckily, another good match this show delivered was Shamrock vs. Malice. It was pretty good and they kept it short enough for it to be fairly interesting. So the match quality on this show wasn't exactly great. The only thing worth watching is the opener, and it's really worth watching. Short and incredibly fun. There were also some segments on this show. Yeah. For example, the opening one, where the biggest stars of the company decided to express their dissatisfaction with the idea of the gauntlet match deciding the new NWA champion. Ed Ferrara and Don West hyped a lingerie battle royal, an idea representing many awful things about American mainstream wrestling of the late 90s. The only other segment of note involved a NASCAR driver, K-Krush and Brian Lawler. It actually set a regular singles match up for the next show and the audience responded quite well, so it was ok, I guess. Pretty weak show, overall, but not terrible to the point of unwatchabi"

[2.0] "Not all bad but pretty bad... the X Division six man is pretty great and worth watching, and the Gauntlet is actually good in spite of some flaws (Toby Keith, come on... ). Shamrock winning the title got a good reaction and he had a perfectly ok match with Malice, not the most exciting but at least logical with a good story told. After all that, this event really falls off a cliff. We start with an image of classic wrestling exploding into flames, then Mike Tenay tells us we are here to honor tradition. Ed Ferrara comes to do commentary and my god, he is one of the worst I have ever heard in my life. A bunch of wrestlers, both heels and faces, appear at the start of show to say the main event is stupid. What? Really bad midget match, really awful women's segment, and then perhaps the most embarrassing thing in wrestling history, the "Johnsons", AKA two men dressed as penises, complete with Ferrara attempting to make jokes (and failing miserably). Lengthy segment for some NASCAR drivers, and supposedly Ron Killings is the heel for breaking it up. Not in my book. Tons and tons of Jarrett focus even though he's probably not in the top 5 most over people on the show. Following tag match was meh, then we watch an extended Toby Keith video followed by a Toby Keith live performance. What is this, Wrestlemania? And more confusing Jarrett garbage at the end. Talk about starting on the wrong foot."

[0.0] "Oh my god, this is just a shit show from start to finish. "The Asylum Years, " as they've come to be called, were uniformly terrible, but these first fucking shows... These are painful to watch. We start the show with ten minutes of introductions for /incredibly/ old men. They announce the main event will be a "Gauntlet for the Gold" for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. They're interrupted by heels /and/ faces, who say that this is stupid. We started the show with /everyone burying the main event/. And it didn't get better from there! Hell, /multiple/ wrestlers got physically outshone by non-wrestlers on this show! Exactly one match on this card had any excitement to it, and that was the six-man tag after all the opening promos. The rest was a parade of horrible angles, horrible gimmicks, horrible promos, and horrible matches."

[3.0] "I just was not satisfied with the start of TNA. Sure, the homage to history and past NWA title holders appealed to my nostalgia, but if you discount the historical factor of being the first TNA show and just focus on the quality of the matches, there wasn't much there after the 6 man tag match. Midgets, Johnsons in weird suits, the Dupps, and a mediocre gauntlet don't appeal to me."

[3.0] "I remember it was cool seeing Jeff Jarrett and Ken Shamrock, it was more of an angle show. You got a midget match, a tag team called The Johnsons, some ambiguous WCW people on the show, NASCAR to show how southern this thing is. Jeff Jarrett is entertaining and I love whatever he did, Gauntlet for the Gold is the only entertaining match just to see who appears like Norman Smiley, a Puerto Rican called Apolo who Jeff tried to get over, someone called Slash, Joel Gertner, Rick Steiner, Scott Hall, Gangrel, Crowbar, Ken Shamrock, the roster is looking very thin already."