James Storm has recalled one match from his time in TNA that became infamous for all the wrong reasons.
Although The Cowboy is one of the cornerstones of the TNA brand as he was there since the beginning and part of 2 of the most successful teams in company history, not every match was a career highlight. After betraying his America’s Most Wanted tag [artner Chris Harris by striking him with a beer bottle, Harris sustained a storyline injury where he only had vision in one eye. Returning to feud with Storm, a match was set up where Storm would have to have the same disadvantage as his partner.
Taking place at Lockdown 2007 on April 15th, Storm and Harris faced off in a blindfold match inside a steel cage. Fans quickly turned on the match, called for creative team member Vince Russo to be fired, and were hoping that it ended quickly.
One of many infamous TNA stipulation matches, others including the reverse battle royal and the fish market street fight, the blindfold steel cage match won the worst match of the year in the Wrestling Observer awards and was not one that was ever repeated.
James Storm Recounts TNA Disaster
While speaking with Chris Van Vliet, Storm first recounted the stipulation being pitched and how he had reservations from the outset:
“Oh, man, me and Chris were in this big feud. I was supposed to have put his eye out and everything. So they’re like to even the field, you should have to see like he does, and be in a blindfold match. This isn’t 80s no more. That match is so hard to pull off, especially in those times, even today. I was just like all right, well if that’s what you want to do. Then I was like, Wait, this is inside of an electrified cage too? There’s so many gimmicks going on in here. But thank God the cage wasn’t on when we did it. But it wasn’t until like 30 minutes before our match started that they realized that they didn’t have the blindfolds, so they ran to somewhere and just got two black bags and just put them over our heads that didn’t have draw strings or anything, so they keep falling off.”
Later in the interview, the former TNA World Champion also stated that it got to a point where he had had enough of the match and chose to call the finish early:
“There’s a point in the match when I look at Chris and I said, ‘No, to hell with this, we’re taking it home.’ He’s like, really? I was like, yep. I think it was the beer bottle and for the finish or whatever. I was like, we’re going home.”
Concluding, Storm added that he confronted Vince Russo in the back, who was responsible for the stipulation and was very apologetic. Thankfully for Storm, he was given the match he wanted afterwards:
“I got to the back, and to his credit, Vince Russo, he was standing right there, he knew it too, and I just lit into him. He goes, ‘I am so sorry, blah, blah, blah. I understand if you want to punch me.’ I said, ‘Oh, I’m not going to punch you. I want to.’ He goes, ‘To make it up, I’ll let you do any match that you want to do.’ And then that’s when we did the Texas death match.”
In other TNA news, more information on The IInspiration’s return has been provided.
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