10 Best TNA PPV Main Events Ever

Despite all of its backstage issues, TV network trouble, and Dixie Carter, TNA Wrestling is still with us and is still churning out content for its dedicated fanbase.

The company once known as Total Nonstop Action - or TNA, because they just couldn’t help themselves - has overcome some considerable odds to stay alive, thanks in part to the amazing matches it has put on since its formation in 2002.

This list is not going to include any of the weekly pay-per-views that the company ran during its early days, instead beginning at their first official major show, Victory Road 2004.

These are the 10 best pay-per-view main events in TNA history.

10. Samoa Joe vs. Kurt Angle - Genesis 2006

Spoiler: this is not the first time you’ll be seeing these two men in the same match on this list.

Genesis 2006 was built around what many considered to be a dream match. Kurt Angle, who had debuted for TNA just one month earlier after years as one of WWE’s top stars, was booked to square off against one of the promotion’s biggest names, the ruthless Samoa Joe.

These two competitors were tailor-made for each other.

Both were insane athletes who married strength, power, and speed to great effect, and they were ruthless, blood-thirsty killers, who would stop at nothing to crush their opponents.

Although this encounter only lasted 14 minutes, both guys threw everything they had at each other, hitting stiff strikes, vicious suplexes, and spectacular dives in this brutal, bloody affair.

In the end, Angle made Joe tap, breaking his 18-month undefeated streak and damn near snapping his ankle in the process. A great opening battle between these two icons, but the best was still yet to come.

9. Bobby Roode vs. Austin Aries - Destination X 2012

Before one of them was glorious and the other was blacklisted by basically every major promotion on the planet, Bobby Roode and Austin Aries were two flag-bearers for TNA.

Aries had previously been the company’s X-Division Champion, but had used the dreaded Option C to bin that belt off and challenge for the world title instead.

His opponent was Bobby Roode, the longest-reigning TNA World Champion ever at the time. Aries had been built up very effectively as an underdog babyface challenger, so now all that was needed was a killer match. Luckily, that’s precisely what happened.

With a rabid crowd behind the challenger, the participants slowly built and built to a mighty crescendo, which featured all sorts of bells and whistles including a low blow and a ref bump spot.

Even these unwanted distractions couldn’t hurt what was a brilliantly worked match with a gripping story.

Furthermore, the fans got to go home happy after Aries hit the brainbuster on Roode to pin the champ and consign his record-setting reign to the history books.

8. Lucha Brothers Vs. LAX - Rebellion 2019

Our most recent match on this list was between two of the top tag teams in the world at the time.

Under the guidance of Konnan, the new version of the Latin American Exchange - that’s Santana and Ortiz - were involved in a bitter rivalry with Rey Fenix and Pentagon Jr, aka The Lucha Brothers, in 2019.

After months of animosity, the two teams squared off in the main event of the Rebellion 2019 show a Full Metal Mayhem Match.

These two monumentally talented pairs were easily capable of putting on a great match, but it was the feud leading up to this point, plus the introduction of weapons, that really put this encounter on a different level.

After 20 minutes of utter carnage, Penta got powerbombed through a table covered in thumbtacks to allow LAX to pick up the win.

7. Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles vs. Christian Cage vs. Chris Harris - Slammiversary 2007

TNA used to have a reputation for taking an existing stipulation and needlessly overcomplicating it. See the baffling Reverse Battle Royal concept for further proof.

Then there’s the King of the Mountain, which is a ladder match where you have to hang the belt up instead of pulling it down. There are also some rules about pinning people and a sin bin.

There have been numerous King of the Mountain Matches in TNA history, all of varying quality. The best was definitely the one that closed out Slammiversary 2007, pitting Kurt Angle against Samoa Joe - there they are again - AJ Styles, Christian Cage, and Chris Harris.

The calibre of the men involved easily distracted from the stip’s shortcomings, as they all worked extremely hard to put on a showcase for the ages. In the end, it was Angle who reigned supreme, hanging up the title to become TNA World Heavyweight Champion for a second time.

Thrills, spills, and a historic moment - if you’re going to watch any King of the Mountain match, make it this one.

6. Jeff Hardy vs. Austin Aries - Turning Point 2012

You know how Austin Aries was a massive babyface when he beat Bobby Roode for the title at Destination X 2012? Well TNA quickly changed that to make Aries a heel against Jeff Hardy.

About three months after his much-celebrated win, Aries lost the TNA title to Brother Nero at Bound for Glory, which meant that Jeff was allowed to bring back that hideous customised belt design of his.

Not one to take things lying down - just ask Johnny TV/Nitro/Bloodsport/Hennigan/IMPACT - Aries accepted a challenge from Hardy to run it back at Turning Point in a Ladder Match.

These two were both built for the ladder match environment, as they could use their agility and quickness to innovate exciting spots.

The closing moments of the match exemplified this, when both participants fell off a ladder onto another ladder resting on the top rope, only for Jeff to then hit a Twist of Fate on Aries to the outside! Amazingly, none of that went wrong and it was a fine end to an exhilarating outing.

5. AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels - Final Resolution 2009

AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels are such good friends that both men named one of their children after the other. That’s sweet and all, but it hasn’t stopped them from absolutely battering each other over the years.

The former members of Fortune have fought many, many times throughout history - some have been good, some have been bad, and some have been absolutely brilliant.

Thankfully, we’re not talking about their match at Bound for Glory 2011 where Daniels tried to maim Styles with a screwdriver. Instead, let’s talk about when these two pals met in the main event of 2009’s Final Resolution for AJ’s TNA world title.

Though they were both capable of flipping like nobody had ever flipped before, this was a mostly technical battle with the story revolving around the targeting of various body parts.

Still, these two were so in sync that they made that work too, delivering a masterclass in psychologically-sound wrestling that ended with an insane top-rope Styles Clash to give The Phenomenal One the W.

4. AJ Styles vs. Abyss - Lockdown 2005

In many ways, the Lockdown series of pay-per-views ruined everything. Its gimmick of “all the matches are in a cage” quite possibly inspired WWE to make their pay-per-views themed around a certain match type, which severely watered-down concepts like TLC and Hell in a Cell.

On the other hand, Lockdown also gave us matches like this.

The NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship, which was TNA’s primary belt at the time, was not on the line on this show, on account of Jeff Jarrett being involved in a Lethal Lockdown Match.

The main event instead was for the number one contendership to said belt, and it was fought between AJ Styles and Abyss. Despite being about as different as a chicken a cucumber, Styles and Abyss worked wonders together inside the six sides of steel.

From the moment AJ hit a plancha onto his opponent before the bell even rang to the closing spot of a sunset flip powerbomb onto thumbtacks, this was an all-out war and the fans ate it up.

In even more good news, Styles won his title match… although he did lose the belt after just 35 days.

3. America's Most Wanted vs. Triple X - Turning Point 2004

At Turning Point 2004 (just the second-ever monthly pay-per-view in company history), two of TNA’s most beloved and talented teams squared off inside a cage with the loser being forced to disband forever. Now that’s what we call drama.

On the same night that Randy Savage made his last in-ring appearance, America’s Most Wanted of James Storm and Chris Harris took on Christopher Daniels and Elix Skipper of Triple X.

In stark contrast to a middle-aged Slim Jim salesman making a weird run-in minutes earlier, these four super athletic young men showed everyone what the future of wrestling was going to be, as they blended traditional selling with high-octane, high-risk super-moves.

The most famous was easily Skipper’s terrifying cage walk hurricanrana to Harris, a clip that has been repeated more often than old episodes of Friends over the years.

Sadly, Skipper’s stunt wasn’t enough to win his team the day, as Storm pinned him to send Triple X packing for good. Still, after a match like this, the real winners were the fans.

2. Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe - Lockdown 2008

For our third visit to Angle-Joe island, we take a look at what many consider to be the quintessential tussle between these two titans.

Three years after the original Lockdown, the brand was still going strong and it was about to prove why people have loved watching men fight in cages for roughly a hundred years.

Angle was defending his TNA World Heavyweight Championship against his fierce rival Joe, only this time there would be decidedly MMA flavour to their clash.

The Olympian and Samoan Submission Machine proved that a worked UFC-style fight could be done well, as they mixed standard wrestling slams and holds with realistic-looking strikes and submissions.

The whole thing had a deadly serious tone to it, as if the crowd were watching the final stages of a Hollywood blockbuster play out in front of them. Two years after losing to Angle at Genesis, Joe got his payback by pinning Kurt with a Muscle Buster and claiming the first and only TNA World Heavyweight Title of his career.

1. AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels vs. Samoa Joe - Unbreakable 2005

It had to be this, didn’t it?

It’s one of only two Dave Meltzer-rated five-star TNA matches in history, it’s the match that helped put the promotion on the map, it was the match so good that they didn’t do another show called Unbreakable until 2019!

We are, of course, talking about the legendary three-way X-Division Title encounter between three of TNA’s greatest exports - Christopher Daniels, AJ Styles, and Samoa Joe.

This match had all the chemistry and technical soundness of the previous Daniels/Styles match with the added brutality and chaos of Joe thrown in for good measure.

The three men worked wonders together, flawlessly transitioning from move to move without ever fumbling or breaking immersion. It was like a ballet of violence, with most of said violence being directed at Daniels.

To describe this match would be to do it an injustice - it has to be seen to be believed. It set the benchmark for every other triple threat match going forward and established TNA as the place to go if you liked your wrestling fast, exciting, and fresh. That wasn’t always the way for TNA, but they sure had their moments.