When The Rise And Fall Of ECW came out a few years ago it quickly became a smash hit amongst wrestling fans for having offered what was a great look back at the history of a company that innovated and revolutionized the pro wrestling world. Over the past 5 years, TNA has been the one who has been innovating and revolutionizing the way wrestling is presented nowadays, and the new TNA DVD entitled History of TNA : Year One, gives every TNA fan a package worthy of comparison to the rise and fall, without the fall that is.

 

The History Of TNA :Year One could go down as the greatest DVD release in the companys history, As For the first time ever you get a full length documentary that gives you an account of just how much work it took to get a national wrestling company off the ground in the months following the collapse of the wrestling industry. Jeff Jarrett, Dixie Carter, Jeremy Borash and Bob Ryder, all offer in depth honest answers and accounts of the ups and downs of the first year and are joined by numerous TNA stars who have been around since those days such as Chris Harris, James Storm and AJ Styles.

 

The thing I enjoyed most about the documentary was that, for once, everyone was "shooting" as opposed to offering the kayfabed textbook company answer that often withholds information. Some stories touched on include the execution of the first show, and how just minutes before going live to air on PPV, the ring supports snapped due to a rather large 450 pound wrestler in the dark match was too much for the ring to handle. You hear exclusive audio between Mike Tenay and Don West seconds before the show goes to air, West warning Tenay that the script was out the window and they were going to go on the fly, Mike Tenays line "Welcome to world of live PPV my friend" sums up the story of that show. Other stories covered that you wouldnt expect to be covered included the problems with dealing with PPV companies, the financial backers jumping off nearly causing the demise of the company, and the arrival of Dixie Carter, who talks honestly about the company losing money in the beginnning and how she went from running a large marketing firm to investing in a wrestling company and finding herself spray painting half the building they ran in, trying to make it look decent for PPV.

 

This is only the tip of the mountain of topics covered, and for any TNA fan this documentary is a must watch, some of us may consider ourselves smarks but I guarantee youll learn something about TNA that you didnt know when watching this, and even a non TNA fan may learn about how a big wrestling company has to work nowadays just to get started.

The documentary isnt perfect as little is mentioned in relation to the deal with the NWA, and TNA continues to put in random intro boards to switch to the next topic instead of smoothly transitioning, not to mention that a lot of the Year One Flashbacks could have been put in as one big package in the Bonus section instead of interrupting the documentary, but trust me when I say these are only small complaints I had about the documentary portion.

Due to the length of the documentary (over an hour and forty five minutes) the amount of matches and bonus features are limited, but still offer some gems from the first year of TNAs existance. Including the crowning of the first ever X division champion where AJ styles was in a 4 way with Jerry Lynn, Senshi, and Psichosis. Also a ladder match involving Lynn, Styles and Senshi is on the DVD, and not to forget the classic battle between Raven and Jeff Jarrett for the NWA World Title, in what was the biggest match in the companys first year of existance.

 

Bonus Features include a try out match between James Storm and Chris Harris, which actually got them their deal with TNA. A tribute to Mr Perfect Curt Hennig, and original commercials aired in Nashville hyping the debut of the company, as well as a retrospective of all the special guest appearances from TNAs first year of existance.