TNA Sacrifice 2007

TNA Sacrifice 2007 is a rather interesting show with some bit of backstory and in order to understand the significance of this show as well as my wanting to check it out, we need to bring up a bit of history beforehand.

The company known today as Impact Wrestling began life in 2002 as NWA-TNA and it was, at the time, the flagship promotion of the then-fledging National Wrestling Alliance. Once the major name in professional wrestling, it was relegated to an afterthought once World Championship Wrestling (formerly Jim Crockett Promotions before being bought out by Turner) seceded the NWA in 93 and pretty much buried after Shane Douglas tossed his newly won NWA title to the ground in '94. And while it got some exposure on WWF television and especially on some UFC shows with Dan Severn as NWA champion, the brand pretty much floundered.

The Jarretts - Jeff and Jerry - were looking to start a new promotion and decided to pursue a partnership with the NWA that would feature the World and Tag-team titles on their new program. So from its conception in 2002, TNA was a member - perhaps its most notable member - of the National Wrestling Alliance before parting ways in 2004. Despite no longer being a member, TNA were still able to use the NWA titles for a couple more years.

In 2007, on the morning of the day in which TNA would air their Sacrifice PPV, then-NWA president xxx decided to sever all ties with TNA, citing refusal to have the NWA World and Tag-team champions defend the titles in other NWA promotions. And as a result, NWA had stripped reigning World champion Christian Cage and reigning Tag champions the Dudley Boyz of their titles, with the World title being the contested in a multi-person tournament called Reclaiming The Gold, which included a number of notable independent stars including Bryan Danielson, and the man who would eventually win the title, Adam Pearce.

Meanwhile, TNA was business as usual; as far as they were concerned, Christian Cage was still the World Champion and the Dudleyz (now Team 3D) were still the tag champs. They just weren't going to use the NWA branding, even though they still possessed the physical NWA belts. However, a couple nights later, TNA would subsequent introduce new TNA championship belts and we proceed to go along on our merry way.

Well, sort of...

X-Division Chris Sabin defeated Sonjay Dutt & Jay Lethal to retain the title.

Robert Roode defeated Jeff Jarrett in a surprisingly good match.

Christopher Daniels defeated Rhino with a baseball bat.

Basham & Damaja defeated Kip James... Kip is the former/future Billy Gunn.

Chris Harris defeated James Storm in a Texas Death Match.

Jerry Lynn defeated Alex Shelley, Senshi (Low Ki - why did they change his name?), and Tiger Mask IV in a MOVES match. If you like MOVES, this is the match for you.

World Tag-Team Champions TEAM 3D defeated LAX and Scott Steiner & Tomko to retain the titles in a perfectly acceptable triple threat match. That's all I got for this, folks.

Samoa Joe defeated Aj Styles. Good match, bro.

The match between Not-NWA World Champion Christian Cage, Kurt Angle, and Sting ended in a clusterfuck finish that saw Sting tapping out to Kurt Angle's ankle lock while scoring the pinfall on Cage... but somehow, Angle is the one who won the title here... though that decision wouldn't stick as the next Impact would see the title declared vacant and contested at the next PPV, which I believe is Slammiversary.