by TNA Impact has had some thin years, but perhaps none worse than 2014. Allow me to explain why this year was legendary bad for all the wrong reasons with one giant misstep after another. It was so bad, by the end of 2014 they were moved off Spike TV, never to return and have been bounced around ever since.
The tail end of 2013 for TNA was very hard and spelled the impending doom that 2014 brought on, nearly killing the company. In the final quarter of 2013, Sting, Hulk Hogan, Matt Morgan and AJ Styles left the company while their once red hot angle Ace’s and Eights finally fizzled out for good. It was a tough stretch for the company but nothing like the utter Hell that 2014 would soon bring.
With Dixie Carters heel turn off to a miserable start the company made things even worse by bringing in the zero-charisma having no talent sponge that is MVP to be the babyface foil. It only took a few months to realize the fans had zero interest in getting behind him before eventually turning him heel. So, now the company had a heel owner in Dixie Carter and a heel Director of Operations in MVP, it made no sense.
Their answer to fix their sudden disaster of a company, same as always, rip off the WWE and that is exactly what they did. With Daniel Byran easily the most popular wrestler in the world as the spunky underdog the fans fell in love with, they forced Eric Young to grow a long beard and look as much as Daniel Bryan as possible to the point that in one night, they had him win a gauntlet battle royal and then stun Magnus for the TNA World Championship. It was a direct ripoff of the WWE who had done the same thing with Bryan only two weeks earlier at WrestleMania 30.
Despite how terrible the angle was, Young was so beloved by the TNA fans and had an amazing in ring work ethic that by some miracle, he actually started to get the angle over. Young was building all kinds of momentum when TNA did what they do best and destroy his run with a out of nowhere loss to Bobby Lashley in June, causing him to lose the title. Lashley may have been solid in the ring but was a dud on the promo and the fans just didn’t care. A terrible ending for Young who worked his butt off to get it over.
What did the TNA crew do next? Pull the panic button just like they did in 2010 and try to bring back a watered down version of ECW that few cared about. They did this with once again using Tommy Dreamer to bring back the, “originals”, even more out of shape and past their prime then they were 4 years earlier and it was even worse then imagined. This was despite a cool venue of the Hammerstein Ballroom in which they filmed a few shows to at least try and make it good.
Weird character changes and turns were also a part of 2014 going downhill fast. This included non sensical ones such as James Storm turning heel, while natural heels Bobby Roode and Bully Ray went babyface. Perhaps the most bizarre one was Jeff Hardy warping into a completely different character named Willow that was damn right laughable.
The death blow of 2014 came towards the tail end when they replaced their version of WrestleMania, Bound for Glory with a Japanese version of the show. It made no logical sense as they focused the entire show on Japan talent.
Bound for Glory 2014 as the first Bound for Glory to not feature either the NWA World Heavyweight Championship or the TNA World Heavyweight Championship in the main event. Due to the time difference between the United States and Japan, the PPV aired on tape delay. Instead, it was a bizarre collaboration with Japanese promotion Wrestle-1 (W-1). It took place on October 12, 2014 at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan.
While Bound For Glory 2010, 2011, 2012 and even 2013 saved some hazy years for the company, this version of BFG pretty much put the seal on the worst year in company history. A total disaster that saw the year start off with a growing young champion Magnus with a ton of potential and a decent rebuild plan in place that eventually went off the road quickly and never got back on track.
TNA Impact has had some thin years, but perhaps none worse than 2014.
