No Surrender was last week and as this article was made weeks in advance, we here at Lace ‘Em Up can only hope that the first TNA Wrestling show post the D’Amore Era was a success in terms of both profit and a great night of professional wrestling.
As we reflect on the matches and outcomes that took place at this year’s No Surrender, what better time than now to look back at some of the best moments in this event’s long and storied history.
From debuts to history making title wins, these are the Top 10 TNA No Surrender Moments.
#10. SoCal Turns on Black Machismo: No Surrender 2008
After proposing to SoCal Val (TNA’s ring girl and backstage interviewer), ‘Black Machismo’ Jay Lethal got the answer he wanted and the two were set to marry at Slammiversary 2008. On the show both Jay and Val were about to become man and wife when Lethal’s friend and fellow X Division wrestler, Sonjay Dutt grabbed the microphone and ask SoCal to marry him instead…Much to shock, confusion and anger to those in attendance.
Unsurprisingly, Lethal wasn’t too happy about his ‘friend’ that the snatch up his soon-to-be wife on their special day and soon a feud that lasted for several months occurred with the whole thing reaching it’s climax at that year’s No Surrender PPV with Lethal and Sonjay competing in a “Ladder of Love” match where the object was to grab the wedding ring that was on top of a pillow which was held high above the wrestling ring.
Towards the end, SoCal low blows Jay which allows Sonjay to grab the ring and win the match before putting said ring on Val’s finger and the two shared a very passionate kiss…much to digust and anger of Mike Tenay, Don West and the entire crowd.
This angle quickly began to lose steam by the end of year and by early 2009, Dutt would be gone from the company while the animosity between Val and Lethal would continue on and off.
#9. Eddie Edwards Turns Heel: No Surrender 2022
The build up to Team IMPACT versus Honor No More at No Surrender 2022 had everything: a new group bullying their way into the company, a host of well established names lining up to defend the company’s honor not to mention a series of replacements in Team IMPACT and misdirections all the way to the event itself and it was all done wonderfully.
The match itself was great too with the action being surperb and the fans were invested in front beginning to end; Speaking of the end, the final moments of the match saw Eddie Edwards who was orginally on Team IMPACT but was replaced after being “taken out” in the backstage area, came to the ring with a kendo stick and grabbed former Ring of Honor/TNA/WWE star, Maria Kanellis-Bennett who was going to be hit with a ‘Gore’ from former world champion, Rhino.
However when the War Machine was about nail the former Knockouts Champion with his move, Eddie Edwards nailed Rhino in the head with a shot from the Kendo Stick and this soon allowed Honor No More to pick up the win and gain access into the IMPACT Zone.
Eddie’s unexpected turn on the IMPACT locker room was a nice change of pace for a wrestler who desperately needed something to refreshen his character after years of being a white meat babyface and his crazed kendo stick wielding persona had long lost it’s steam. Considering this event also saw then Leader of the Bullet Club, Jay White turn on the Guerillas of Destiny during their tag title bout with the Good Brothers, seeing two high profiled swerves from two different promotion on one show was quite stunning.
#8. Bobby Roode Returns/Storm Gets Screwed: No Surrender 2012
At No Surrender 2012, the second annual Bound For Glory series was set to cap off with the semi finals seeing James Storm and Bully Ray squaring off against each other just one year after their previous BFG semi-final which ended in a screwy finish win for Bully thanks to some beer related shenanigans.
The story going into this match was a recently turned good guy in Bully Ray accused Storm of being the masked leader of Aces & Eights who were still causing chaos within the locker room, but Storm tirelessly denied the allegations. Thing did take awhile to get started as Bully Ray decided to spend sometime stalling and pandering to the crowd….F###ing Hell, Bully that’s the second time in a row you wasted precious time in the BFG series waddling around the outside of the ring, geez.
Anyway the match itself was good, but unfortunately for Storm he would get screwed for the second time in the semi-finals again for beer related reasons. Out came Bobby Roode, Storm’s former tag partner turn bitter rival who smashed one of Storm’s beer bottles over the cowboy’s head leaving him knocked and allowing Bully Ray to head to the finals for a second time…where he would go on to lose…again for the second time.
While it absolutely sucks that Storm was done dirty two years in a row with the same weapon, in the same match, with the same person…At least this led to incredible Street Fight between Roode and Storm at Bound For Glory 2012.
#7. Tommy Dreamer’s Eye Gouging: No Surrender 2010
At this point we might need to called Tommy Dreamer a TNA Wrestling legend because between his times in the company from 2010-11, 2013-15 and 2018 to the present day Dreamer has been with the promotion for nearly…11 years and counting!!!
That’s longer than his time as a wrestler in the original ECW, the dude has got some longevity; While some fans may not be too keen on seeing Dreamer step into the gear once again…and for good reason, you can never say that he doesn’t bleed for the sport he loves as this next entry demonstrates.
In 2010, ECW originals like Rhino, Raven, Sabu Tommy Dreamer and Stevie Richards came to TNA for the very first Hardcore Justice pay per view which was an event to honor the extreme legends. On the following episode of IMPACT, the group were targeted by Fortune which led to a feud between both sides going into that year’s No Surrender where EV2 were down two losses after Douglas Williams defeated Sabu to retain the X Division Championship and “The Monster” Abyss was able to defeat “The War Machine” Rhino in a falls count anywhere match, so it was up to Tommy Dreamer to defeat AJ Styles in an I Quit match.
Seeing how Dreamer is an hardcore legend and the amount of injuries and bumps his sustained for decades, you would think it would be virtually impossible to make him say ‘I quit’, well it turns out if your nickname just so happens to be “The Phenomenal One” you can find a way.
In the final moments of the match, Dreamer is instructed by the fans to use a metal fork that was brought in earlier but AJ manages to stop him before Styles himself pulls out a fork out of one of his knee pads and proceeds to stab Tommy in the head and attempts to gouge out one of the man’s eyeballs out of it’s socket which force the Innovator of Violence to say I Quit and save whatever amount of vision he had left in his eye.
#6. The Debut of the War Machine: No Surrender 2005
The main event of the very first No Surrender PPV saw Raven successfully defended his NWA World Heavyweight championship against “The Monster” Abyss in a brutal dog collar match but once the match was over Jeff Jarrett who was hellbent on recapturing the title, came out with a guitar and was looking to beat up his rival in the middle of the ring.
As Jarrett climbed onto the ring apron, he mentions to Raven to turn around where he is met with a vicious ‘Gore’ that nearly splits the NWA World Champion in half.
This marked the first TNA Wrestling appearance of Rhino who would ally himself with Double J until the two would have a falling out a few months later leading to the ‘Man Beast’ winning his only piece of singles gold in the company at the inaugural Bound For Glory.
#5. Roode Wins The Inaugural BFG Series: No Surrender 2011
In June of 2011, TNA announced the debut of a twelve man tournament called the Bound For Glory Series (or BFG series for short) which would last for months until the final four became the final two and by the end of that year’s No Surrender pay per view a winner would be crowned and that person would go on to challenge for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship in the main event at Bound For Glory.
By the time of No Surrender 2011, the four finalist were James Storm, Gunner, Bobby Roode and Bully Ray with semi-finals seeing Bully pick up the disqualification win over James Storm and Roode making Gunner tap out thus punching their tickets to the finals.
After a hard fought contest between himself and Bully Ray, Bobby Roode pulled off one of the biggest wins in his career at the time and won the first ever Bound For Glory Series making him the new number one contender for Kurt Angle’s TNA World Heavyweight Championship in main event of that year’s Bound For Glory event…But let’s not talk about how that match ended.
#4. Taylor Wilde & Sarita Win the Knockouts Tag Titles: No Surrender 2009
On the August 20th 2009 edition of IMPACT, it was announced that there would be a eight team tournament to crown the very first Knockouts Tag Team Champions…Jesus christ, TNA Wrestling certainly love themselves a tournament at No Surrender apparently
It all came down to two teams: Wilde and Sarita, who became fan favorites within this tournament and The Beautiful People who looked like the easiest pick to crown as inaugural tag team champions due to their history as a well established group.
The opening contest of No Surrender 2009 saw both teams compete in a servable tag match except Madison Rayne substituted for Angelina as she was let go by the company early in the month to address issues regarding her visa.
In the end, the makeshift team of Taylor Wilde and Sarita defeated the Beautiful People to become the very first Knockouts Tag Team Champions, but the feud between both teams continued on with their rivalry taking up not one but two PPV’s at Bound For Glory and Turning Point.
#3. New Japan Renews Partnership with IMPACT: No Surrender 2021
Following a No Surrender 2021 event that at times were underrated and below average in places the show ended with Moose destroying Rich Swann, who just retained his IMPACT World Championship against 50 year old wrestling legend, Tommy Dreamer in the main event.
If you checked out immediately after Moose’s display of dominance then it’s safe to say you missed one of the biggest WTF moments of the entire year. Right after the IMPACT logo comes on to signal the end of the show, a video package showing buildings and the NJPW logo starts to flash up on the screen.
‘Ok, I guess there’s NJPW show coming up, I better head out’ is what I imagine many folks probably thought to themselves upon seeing this, then suddenly two men (soon revealed to be David Finlay and Juice Robinson) come closer to the screen and pose right in front of the camera with the feed coming to an end and this whole sequences of events indicating that for the first time since 2011, New Japan Pro Wrestling and IMPACT/TNA Wrestling were working together again.
It was a massive Holy Sh## moment for fans of both companies after almost a decade of bad feelings over their last collaboration and it began a surge of NJPW stars making their way into the IMPACT Zone and producing some never before seen dream matches and even lead to Juice and Finlay winning the IMPACT World Tag Team Titles not long afterwards.
#2. AJ Styles Become TNA World Champion: No Surrender 2009
If you don’t consider his multiple runs as NWA World Heavyweight for some reasons…then “The Phenomenal One” AJ Styles never became a world champion in the company he made famous until 2009; By that time AJ was (in kayfabe) looking to retire due to him losing his passion for the sport until “The Icon” Sting came out to told Styles to reconsider which he does by thanking and hugging the icon for his compassionate words.
AJ soon got involved in a five match world title match against then champion, Kurt Angle Matt Morgan, Sting and Hernandez who got involved thanks to his world title feast or fired briefcase. The match itself was rubbish and filled with the kind of convoluted stuff that makes you question the booking decisions in the company, but the ending was great..bit clunky, but great.
Sting sends Matt Morgan out of the ring after “The Blueprint” dropped Kurt Angle with his signature “Carbon Footprint”; Sting begins to survey the situation and looks at AJ from across the other side of the ring before the icon makes the unusual decision to not go for the pin on Angle or got after Styles but instead leaves the ring and jumps off the apron to finish off Morgan.
Realizing the situation, AJ hits a springboard 450 splash onto Angle which allows Styles to become the new TNA World Champion as friends and fans begin to populate the ring and hold AJ high up on their shoulders as confetti begins to drop heavily from the sky. This sequence of events would lead to Sting and Styles facing off in the main event of that year’s Bound For Glory but also began AJ’s then record long title reign at 211 days.
#1. Kurt Angle’s Coming to TNA: No Surrender 2006
Could it be anything else….It’s still one of the all time greatest moments in TNA History and perhaps one of biggest free agent signings ever in all of North American Wrestling, which is really saying something.
In mid 2006, WWE shocked the wrestling…I mean Sports Entertainment world when it was announced that they granted the Olympic gold medalist, Kurt Angle his release from the company due Kurt’s issues with drugs and needing to take time off to heal.
Many could only speculate where Angle would show up next but about a month later the wrestling world would get it’s answer when then authority figure and wrestling’s real-life eqivalent of ‘Old Man Yelling at the Cloud’ Jim Cornette confronted Jeff Jarrett in the middle of the ring to announce that on November 16th at 9pm eastern time, TNA Wrestling was going to prime time on Spike TV before announcing it was time for ‘THE ANNOUNCEMENT’.
Suddenly on the screen, a darkly light room sees a mysterious bald headed figure inside the six sided ring performing grappling moves and even holding the up the American Flag while the late/great TNA Narrator, Barry Scott introduces this man as ‘Arguably One of the Greatest Athletes in the Industry Today” before the figure reveals himself to be none other than Kurt Angle before looking directly at the camera and saying “It’s Real…It’s Damn Real!!!”
The reactions from Jeff Jarrett, the crowd and the commentary team after the show ended truly encapsulates just how epic and how earth shattering this news was; Kurt would make an equally iconic debut on an episode of Impact headbutting Samoa Joe and Angle’s run in TNA saw him become the first TNA World Champion almost a year later and would be a fixture for the promotion right up until his 2016 departure.
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