10 Biggest TNA Wrestling Controversies Ever

Total Nonstop Action is back, with TNA Wrestling having been brought back from the dead earlier this year.

One thing those currently in charge of TNA will not want to see return is the sheer volume of controversy that seemed to follow the Jarrett-founded league following its 2002 inception.

Backstage fights, arrests, torrid love triangles, lawsuits – you name it, TNA experienced it and often responded in the worst possible way.

These are the 10 Biggest TNA Wrestling Controversies.

10. Cookiegate

When the WWE crew booked out a Universal Studios soundstage in November of 2004 to shoot the commercial for their upcoming Royal Rumble pay-per-view, the TNA boys and girls across the way sensed an opportunity to cause mischief.

BJ James, Ron Killings, Shane Douglas, Abyss, Konnan and Traci Brooks ‘invaded’ the shoot, offering WWE wrestlers and crew cookies and balloons while scoffing their catering and demanding to see Vince McMahon.

They also filmed several WWE stars – including an unmasked Rey Mysterio – without permission and generally acted like fools until they were sternly asked to leave.

WWE’s legal department didn’t see the funny side of the publicity stunt and sent letters warning TNA against airing any of the footage, lest they want to be sued.

Much was made of the threats and what TNA could possibly have on that videotape but, in the end, they ended up showing some rather innocuous footage that showed a blurred Mysterio and Luther Reigns and was only amusing due to the former Road Dogg’s cracks about mahi-mahi.

9. TNA fires Jesse Sorensen

Disaster struck in the opener of TNA Against All Odds 2012, when Zema Ion’s knee struck Jesse Sorensen in the head as he was attempting a moonsault to the outside of the ring.

The move messed up Sorensen’s neck, fracturing his C-1 vertebrae, and there was genuine concern the young performer could have been paralysed.

Thankfully, that wasn’t the case, though the road to recovery would be long. Dixie Carter vowed to stay by Sorensen’s side and TNA gave him a job in production to provide him with an income while he convalesced.

Then they fired him. Sorensen would later claim that TNA and Carter made ‘false promises’ to him after the accident, including reassuring him he’d have a job for life and that his medical bills would be paid for.

Neither of those things turned out to be true and Sorensen’s poor mother ended up going bankrupt trying to cover the costs.

According to former TNA Talent Relations VP Bruce Prichard, the company ended up reaching a settlement with Sorensen. He later returned to the ring and even worked some enhancement matches for NXT and AEW.

8. Bubba The Heat Magnet

No, we’re not talking about Bubba Ray Dudley, but Bubba the Love Sponge!

Awesome Kong found out who Hulk Hogan’s one-time best BROTHER was when she ran into him backstage in TNA. By ran into him we mean she physically attacked Mr Love Sponge.

Kong was mad at Bubba due to comments he had made on his radio show about the Haiti earthquake relief project in early 2010. The former Knockouts World Champion had been raising money for the relief fund and didn’t take too kindly to Mr Love Sponge’s insensitive remarks.

Kong was suspended and ultimately released, though there were other underlying issues that contributed to her departure.

Real name Kia Stevens, she also sued Bubba (real name Todd Clem) over an alleged threatening phone call. Clem himself was ultimately fired by TNA for verbally confronting Kong on another radio show, which included him challenging her to a shoot fight.

7. Kurt Angle & Rhaka Khan

Kurt Angle was the biggest acquisition in TNA’s history when he signed for them in the fall of 2006.

Though he was one of the best wrestlers in the world and a marketable name who could, and did, make a difference, the Olympic Hero also came with baggage. As well as his well-documented substance abuse issues, Kurt also attracted negative publicity due to his tempestuous relationship with TNA knockout Rhaka Khan.

Things came to a head on August 15, 2009, when Khan – real name Trenesha Biggers – filed an order of protection against Angle and had him removed from his own house after she claimed he had attacked her in the home nine days prior. Angle denied the claims, but was also hit with charges of harassment, drug possession and driving with a suspended license related to his arrest.

The charges were ultimately dropped and Angle and Biggers were ordered to stay away from one another.

Many years later, Biggers continued to speak out about the past relationship and accused Dixie Carter and Kurt’s manager Dave Hawk of ‘hiding bodies’ for the former TNA Champion

6. Austin Aries

While he was undoubtedly a talented performer between the ropes, the unprofessional behaviour of Austin Aries inside and outside of the ring marred his professional wrestling career and attracted scrutiny to TNA.

In May of 2013, A-Double decided to intimidate ring announcer Christy Hemme after she had called his and Robert Roode’s tag team ‘Bad Influence’ by accident. Backing Hemme into a corner, Aries climbed the second turnbuckle with her pinned against it so that his crotch was directly in his face.

This unscripted incident got Aries accused of sexual harassment, with Hemme talking openly about how it made her feel very uncomfortable.

Aries wasn’t let go, but he was warned about his conduct, given a steep fine and pressured to apologise for the incident. The way the situation was handled was also a factor in Aries deciding to leave TNA the following year.

He’d be back years later, of course, and Aries drew headlines when he decided to completely no-sell Johnny IMPACT’s finish while dropping the IMPACT World Title in the main event of Bound for Glory 2018. Aries has maintained the situation was a worked-shoot and was supposed to lead to a rematch with Johnny IMPACT but Aries passed on signing a new deal with TNA and he hasn’t been back since.

5. Samoan Shoot Machine

Despite his much-publicised personal issues and unreliability, TNA continually went back to Scott Hall because of his star power.

The Bad Guy was booked to be part of the six-man tag team main event of Turning Point 2007, just a month after his return, when he no-showed the pay-per-view.

As well as replacing Hall with Eric Young, TNA attempted to rectify the situation by having one of Halls’s scheduled partners – Samoa Joe – cut a promo addressing his absence.

After putting over the full-time hard-working TNA originals and slagging off the part-time superstars who came from elsewhere, Joe finished his promo on the former WWE Intercontinental Champion by saying ‘I’ll tell you what, Scott Hall. Chico, kiss my ass. You punked out and you’re a punk’.

Joe’s other partner – Scott’s best mate Kevin Nash – was far from happy with the unscripted comments and smacked the Samoan Submission Machine twice when they got to the locker room.

Not realising the extent of Hall’s personal issues, Joe apologised to Nash at the next set of IMPACT tapings and the two men patched things up and became friends once again.

4. Pacman Jones

No, this is not what Taz would call a popular 80s arcade video game character, but rather a disgraced former American football player who TNA hired back in 2007.

While suspended from the NFL for the full year, Jones rocked up to the IMPACT Zone and even won the TNA World Tag Team Titles with Ron Killings. However, due to an agreement with his team the Tennessee Titans, who didn’t want their player doing anything with TNA at all, Jones was unable to get physically involved in the action and basically did much of nothing in Orlando while collecting a hearty paycheque.

This, naturally, rubbed some of the boys in the back the wrong way. Pacman’s mere presence also rubbed fans and critics the wrong way, because of his extensive criminal history - which included an incident at a strip club that saw Jones allegedly physically assault an exotic dancer, before a member of his entourage returned to the club and fired his gun at patrons.

One of the shooting victims – former professional wrestler Tommy Urbanski, who was paralysed from the waist down when a bullet hit him – ultimately received an $11 million payout from Jones, whose TNA run was costly and generated nothing but bad publicity.

3. TNA and Scott Steiner sue each other

Scott Steiner had a decent six-year run with TNA, which saw him create many memorable moments, such as the infamous ‘Steiner math’ promo and pretty much all of his stint as a member of the Main Event Mafia.

In early 2012, Big Poppa Pump opted against re-signing with the company and left TNA. In keeping with his whole personality, Scott Steiner did not leave quietly either.

Shortly after news of his departure leaked, Steiner took to Twitter to blast TNA, Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff, Ric Flair, and Bruce Prichard in a long stream of profanity-laced tweets.

TNA reacted by getting litigious and suing Steiner over the tirade, claiming the Genetic Freak had breached his (by then expired) contract by disparaging the company. Steiner countersued, claiming TNA had breached his contract by failing to provide royalty payment statements.

He filed another lawsuit against TNA not long after, seeking $750,000 in damages while claiming he had suffered numerous injuries while wrestling an under-the-influence Jeff Hardy on a house show.

He ended up rescinding his suits, while TNA’s complaints against him were dismissed in court.

2. Victory Road 2011

There was no victory lap for TNA to take after Victory Road 2011, a terrible pay-per-view that was capped off with one of the most lamentable episodes in the promotion’s history.

After disappearing for hours during the day, Jeff Hardy finally showed up for his TNA World Heavyweight Title headline bout with Sting (one of his all-time favourite wrestlers) in no condition to perform, right before he was due to make his entrance.

In Hardy’s own words, he was ‘all soma’d up’, a reference to the muscle relaxer he had been abusing while he was MIA. Realising that Hardy was a danger to himself and his opponent and with nobody else in a position of authority present, Eric Bischoff called an audible and asked that Sting end the match as soon as possible.

The champ got the pin within 90 seconds after a single Scorpion Death Drop, much to the dissatisfaction of a very disappointed Stinger, not to mention fans in attendance and watching on pay-per-view.

TNA subsequently apologised for the whole charade, while Hardy was immediately slapped with a suspension. While he was away, Jeff completed a four-month drug rehabilitation programme and ultimately returned to TNA.

1. The Angle/Jarrett Love Triangle

Every now and then, a real-life situation develops involving professional wrestling stars that is far juicier than any storyline scripted for them.

After months of rumour and innuendo, it was revealed in July of 2009 that Jeff Jarrett had been in a long-term relationship with Karen Angle and had moved in with her and Angle’s children following Kurt and Karen’s divorce.

Dixie Carter, incensed that Double J had previously denied the relationship when confronted about it, suspended Jarrett for six months and set about removing his allies from the company.

Jarrett would later say that Carter did this as a power-play, not because of any concern for her favourite gold medallist.

When Jeff returned in early 2010, the former TNA World Heavyweight Champion no longer wielded the backstage pull he once did. Things were, naturally, tense backstage, though Kurt, Jeff and Karen ended up working a programme over the real-life situation and everyone was professional throughout.

Karen and Jeff married that year, while Angle later remarried too.