BCR is Wrestling #12 - We've Crossed The Line, So Should You. Final Part

[Box Car Rocco]

BCR is Wrestling #12 - We've Crossed The Line, So Should You. Final Part

Welcome everyone to the 12th edition of BCR is Wrestling. As always, I am your host, Box Car Rocco. Since most of you don't keep up with TNA, I'd like to give congratulations to Tara. On the most recent Impact, Tara captured the TNA Knockout's title for the very first time. Some say this is too early for her to be winning the title but my congratulations are out to her, she decided to cross the line and look what it got her.

We've Crossed The Line, So Should You.

Last time I had the privilege of getting to know a bit about Tara, Daffney and Matt Morgan. It was a pleasure to hear their thoughts on what it has been like for them since they've crossed the line and my little plot to get you, the readers, to cross the line has marginal success as Kano said he'd be watching the next episode of Impact. Some of you might of just brushed off those I interviewed last time as a couple of women and a WWE failure, well this time I'm increasing the star power. This time I've brought to you two former TNA World Champions and one all-round awesome guy.

Line Crosser #4 - Mick Foley

I’m Mick Foley, executive shareholder for TNA and in September last year I made a decision that would renew my career, I crossed the line. If there’s one word, just one word I could use to describe TNA it would have to be relaxation. That’s not a bad thing either, working for Jeff and Dixie is much more relaxing then working for Vince and the WWE. I thought commentating next to Michael Cole would have been an extremely enjoyable experience, I was wrong. Cole isn't useless like a lot of people seem to think so, the blame isn't going to be put on him. The blame goes to one man and one man only, Vincent Kennedy McMahon.

Now don't get me wrong, Vince is great to work with, he really is. He just wants the best for his product and I understand that but if he let us, the performers, go out and do what we do best. Even though I was quite new I thought it would have been best to let me learn from mistakes in my own time but that wasn't what Vince wanted, Vince wanted to yell and scream at me whenever he got the chance. I thought that when long time friend Jim Ross came over that things might change as he is the best commentator to ever live, I was wrong. What this experience made me realize is how tough commentators actually have it and it made me respect guys like Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, Michael Cole, Joey Styles and Matt Striker even more. Commentating wasn't for me though, I had to get out, I had to cross the line.

Crossing the line, one of the best career decisions I've ever made. TNA is on the rise and getting to be a part of that and give back to the business that's given so much to me over the years feels great. Working with the likes of AJ Styles, Chris Sabin, Alex Shelley, Samoa Joe, Jay Lethal and Consequences Creed has been great, they all have a great future and it's been amazing to watch them weekly. It's also been good to catch up with veterans such as Sting, Kurt Angle, Kevin Nash and Scott Steiner. Say what you will about them but they are helping out the young guys in TNA a great deal, they still have a lot to offer when it comes to wrestling as they all have great wrestling minds.

TNA has reinvigorated my career so much that I decided to step back into the ring for one last match. That match was a blur, all I remember is having a sore leg for the next week! Something must have went right though as I was ready to wrestle more often. My Impact debut was something special, it was full of great moments and was a lot of fun for me as a performer. Fun, what a magical word fun is. Fun is also why I hit Sting with a chair in my previously mentioned Impact debut. As a matter of fact, that whole feud with Sting was fun. My character as a power hungry mad man was one of my favorite characters that I've ever had to play. I also got to work with those young punks from the Motor City finally putting an end to our mini feud that we had going a few months earlier. Those guys where great to work with as they both have a huge amount of talent and even though they won with the help of Sting, I still maintain that their segment earlier on in the night with the M.E.M aswell as the match itself got them recognized as future stars.

Winning the world title at Lockdown gave me mixed emotions. For starters, I was happy that TNA trusted me with their top belt even though I was in horrible shape. On the flip side, there were probably a lot of other people who should have taken the belt off Sting such as AJ Styles, Kurt Angle or even Matt Morgan with enough build up. Either way, I was going to go out there and it give the fans one last Mick Foley title reign. Jeff and I had came to an agreement that it'd be best if I kept my ring work to a minimal, that's probably why I wrestled a cardboard cutout of Rocky Balboa in the main event leading up to Sacrifice. What a blast that was.

My title reign would last one more month and I can honestly say that I enjoyed every moment of it. Getting one last shot at the top while letting others such as Chris Sabin, Alex Shelley and AJ Styles shine around me was great and I can only hope that they have learnt a lot from working with me because I've definitely enjoyed working with them. Being a part of the great tour TNA did all through the UK was another moment that was great. It's amazing how 8000 fans can sound like 80000 fans. I'd never have got experience that, or many other things if I didn't cross the line. Cross the line, you won't regret it. Bang! Bang!

Line Crosser #5 - Kurt Angle

Hi, I don't need introducing but I will introduce myself anyway. I’m Kurt Angle, Olympic gold medalist but most important, the best wrestler alive. When TNA signed me back in 2006 they had given me a second chance and pretty much saved my life. I loved professional wrestling but Vince McMahon was ruining it for me. The lies that I had to deal with would be more then a lot of people go through in a decade, I didn’t know who to trust when I was in the WWE. I’m certain that Triple H and Shawn Michaels were telling Vince to hold me down or put me in a program with such and such because they were always jealous of me. They couldn’t handle the fact that a real wrestler, someone with actual talent, was succeeding in their world. All of this shit changed though, it all changed when I crossed the line.

One thing that Jeff Jarrett and Dixie Carter know how to do is to make sure their workers are happy, that's exactly what they've done with me. They have realized what I great talent I am and knew exactly what it would take to secure my services. They've taken care of me and I've done more then my fair share of taking care of TNA. I've done things like; promoting TNA through radio interviews, put on great match after great match, garnered record breaking ratings aswell as creating new stars.

While we're on the topic of how I created new stars, my favourite match since crossing the line has to be against my match against Jay Lethal. The match itself was great but what really made it special was the fact that Jay Lethal won. Here was a kid who was, at the time, a comedy character in the X-Division while I had every title in TNA. No one expected Lethal to win let alone put up a fight, yet I made them believe that he had a chance. Sure, he pinned me after a surprise roll-up but it was enough to get the fans behind him for good. Watching Jay celebrate after the match with a few of his friends also added to the moment, I would never have experienced that if I hadn't crossed the line.

I like to think that when it comes to TNA, we have a quality of quantity attitude. The WWE have too many shows to count while we have one wrestling based show, this allows us to put all of our focus on our main show. The people here at TNA also have a belief that both tag team and womens wrestling has a place in wrestling. Heck, if Spike allowed men on women violence I'd love to work with Awesome Kong, the matches we could put on would be amazing. There's no one else like her or any of the other female wrestlers in TNA anywhere else in the world, that's just one of many reasons as to why crossing the line is a smart move.

With all that being said, I still wouldn't say never to returning to the WWE. Vince is a great businessman....

*Kurt Angle's phone rings as he gets up and excuses himself. He returns ten minutes later.*

As I was saying, Vince McMahon can go fuck himself. I know the internet has been spreading rumors saying that I'm going to be returning to the WWE, well fuck them. TNA is the best wrestling company in the world, hands down. Everything from the way stars are made to the light schedule to the quality wrestling completely blows anything the WWE does right out of the water. Crossing the line has practically saved my life, in the WWE I was a miserable train wreck ready to go off my nut. Luckily, I did the right thing. You should to.

Line Crosser # 6 - Box Car Rocco

My name is Box Car Rocco and I crossed the line just over a year ago. At the time, I was only just getting back into wrestling thanks to the discovery of The Wrestling Menu amongst other things. I was still not watching the shows that the WWE were putting out at the time on a regular basis but I couldn't be blamed for that. What I needed was a show on at a time suitable for me. As I was browsing some random forum I saw the headline, "TNA Coming To Australia". The one thing that this gave me was an option, an option to cross the line.

Now while most people complained about TNA's time slot, it was absolutely perfect for me. A lot of people claimed that it wouldn't work since most people go out after the various football matches but for me it was perfect as I'm too young to go out and party. The numbers didn't lie either, TNA garner around the same ratings as the weekly WWE shows that are aired down here. I'll tell you this though, Austar did a piss poor job of advertising Impact as I forgot it was on the first week it aired, thankfully I remembered to watch it the very next week.

My memory isn't that great however, the only things from the first episode of TNA I watched that I remember are a Christian promo where he called Bubba Ray fat and watching Sting wrestle for the first time, that was awesome. Now most of what happened for the next few months is a blur to me at this stage, I remember a few matches here and there such as the X-Division King of the Mountain and Beer Money vs The Motor City Machine Guns but nothing else really stands out. Things changed just after Slammiversary though.

Now here's where business really picked up and it was mainly because of one man, Booker T. As Booker's ego grew, so did my interest grew. It's probably a coincidence, but Booker was truly on top of his game at around that time and he was constantly the highlight of Impact. Just as my viewing habits became steady I was suddenly put off by the return of Sting and Jeff Jarrett. I'd never Jarrett wrestle before but I knew enough about him to have high hopes, what I didn't like however was the fact that he was feuding with Angle about the history of TNA. I had no interest in the history of TNA as I was only a new fan and wanted to hear about the present. Come Bound For Glory, I was excited about it for many reasons and from all reports, it was a good show. This is when my fandom for TNA really became apparent.

It was TNA's first Impact outside of Orlando, I was excited just like any other TNA fan as no one knew what would happen. Now many people complain about the lack of wrestling on that show but big things happened that night that are still being carried on today. The legends title, the M.E.M and Mick Foley as co-shareholder all came from that one night. Since that night, my appreciation for the veterans of TNA has grown week in week out, they've been doing some really good stuff and for people like Kevin Nash and Sting, this may be there last real run in terms of being in a major angle and they were definitely making the most of it.

TNA had done what they had set out to do and that was hook me in with their veterans, now that they had done that I was slowly starting to take a liking to some of their newer stars. Guys such as Chris Sabin, Alex Shelley, Jay Lethal, Suicide and Consequences Creed where tearing things up in the X-Division while L.A.X, Beer Money Inc Team 3D where proving that tag team wrestling was alive and well. It took me a while to become a huge fan of the heavily hyped knockouts division but I got there. Daffney played a huge role in that, never have I seen a womens wrestler have that good of a character and play as good as she has. Everything just seems to be meshing for TNA right now and they just keep getting stronger and stronger.

TNA has pretty much rejuvenated my fandom for wrestling. From the style of wrestling, to Don West's commentary and even the fucking Impact Zone, it all gives off a feeling that when your watching TNA, anything can truly happen. It doesn't always come off in a way that you'd hope, but damn it's entertaining. Crossing the line is great, I just can't wait until TNA decides the come and tour Australia. That'll be awesome *Clap Clap Clap Clap Clap*.

Well there we have it, I actually completed this two part series unlike my last one. This was much longer then I expected it to be but either way, it was fun to write. I'll be back next week with another TNA related column but in the mean time, I should have a non-Australian collab column out within the next week so look out for that. See you all next time.

[Freeman]

Well I'll always admit when I'm wrong...

Having now seen the second part, I concede that you made the right choice in running this as a two part series. It worked well, and I found the choices of Kurt Angle and Mick Foley to be very interesting. There were a couple of errors, but no to worry too much.

In the future, can I request you do the same thing but the other way round? By looking at the TNA stars who crossed over to WWE and their reasons for it? Just a suggestion...

Anyway top stuff dude, and a nice little mini series overall. Catch you next time, whenever that joyous occasion may be.

[Andy]

Nice work BCR. You managed to hold my interest even though I'm not a real TNA fan, so well done. The comments from Angle and Foley seemed realistic aswell! Those little errors can be easily fixed with an extra read through. Like Freeman, I would like to see a series on wrestlers who went from TNA to WWE.

Anyway, good stuff and I'll read next time.

[Super Chrisss]

I liked this one much better than the first part, mainly because this was MUCH longer.

I also liked how you incorporated yourself into the column. Nice little twist there.

It's a shame there's no part 3, but you did well my man.

[Box Car Rocco]

Freeman - Just like I proved you wrong about Big Dave ? Jk man, that is a good suggestion though and something I may look into at a future date.

Andy - Glad that you found them realistic and that I held your interest.

Super Chrisss - That was the main reason I did this in two parts. The first part was to introduce it and get feedback so I could improve, then throw myself in last as a mini swerve of some sort.

Thanks to everyone who read.

[sir sam]

Well I have never watched TNA and unfortunately I don't have Austar so it isn't really an option.

However, if they do tour Australia I'd be more than happy to go and see one of their shows and as you put it, cross the line.

Just a quick note too about one of your past columns: I think they tried to ban climbing Uluru after reading about your plans to put a wrestling show on top of it.lol

Anyway, nice work here. Good to hear a column about how some one is really enjoying wrestling, there are too many depressing columns out there about how ppl don't like the direction being taken, bla, bla, bla.

[The Korean]

Well, this is certainly well written no doubt. If I didnt even know what TNA was I would definitely try it.

But its a shame I know what pure garbage it can be.

To be honest, to me, you are just glorifying garbage that TNA puts up. Foley as a world champ....What a joke. The man hasnt wrestled for years until he came to TNA. Its really sad to see him wrestle at this point. I have no problem with TNA signing Angle and Sting and other veterans and using them but when you put them over younger stars who built the company, and is the future, thats incredibily short sighted and its fucking boring. We have seen best of them in WWE/F and WCW, They aint getting younger and they certainly dont have anything to show off that they already didnt. But whatever. The vets will have to retire someday and I would love to see TNA go bankrupt at this point.

But KO division and tag team division is nice.

[Uncle Joe]

God knows why, but I died laughing at this part

My name is Box Car Rocco and I crossed the line just over a year ago.

Fuck man, I dunno, but shit gets me now.


Also, fuck Mic Foley and fuck Kurt Angle; dudes easily one of the 3 most overrated wrestler's of our generation. Fag.


You did write this nicely though, so major kudos Boxie.

[steve bullshit]

TNA has pretty much rejuvenated my fandom for wrestling. From the style of wrestling, to Don West's commentary and even the fucking Impact Zone, it all gives off a feeling that when your watching TNA, anything can truly happen. It doesn't always come off in a way that you'd hope, but damn it's entertaining. Crossing the line is great, I just can't wait until TNA decides the come and tour Australia. That'll be awesome *Clap Clap Clap Clap Clap*.

I feel the same way

[SIMS]

Well Box Car i've gotta say that I really enjoyed the column. Theres not too many people that I see around the CF that talk positive about TNA! I am finding myself getting very angry with TNA sometimes, but I keep coming back now every week.

Whereas I cringe when Foley's been in the ring for more than a minute, I like how he always finds an excuse for a 'restarooney', so he lets the guys who can wrestle competantly for a length of time take over.

Angle is just a machine.

As for Don West, yeah hes annoying but how different the sound of TNA would be without him. Hes a damn site better than Boookaaaa T's commentary this past week, man that was awful. Couldn't understand a word.

Read you next time.