Tales From The TNA Tryouts - Part 1, The Maniac

As we head towards the very first official Impact Wrestling tour to be held in Australia, some may remember the TNA 2010 Maximum Impact Tour that was eventually cancelled. A nation wide TNA tour to be held in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, starting on the 24th of February and finishing up on the 5th of March.

Fans speculated online as to the reason behind the cancellation. Was it a change in the US TV schedule? Chugg Entertainment CEO Michael Chugg said the following on the cancellation..

“We were very excited to be the approached by TNA to put together their first tour of Australia, and are disappointed that we have had to cancel these dates due to their filming commitments. We do understand that television is where it all began for TNA and we support them in honouring their obligations. We’re in discussions about a new time period and hope to have the TNA team in Australia soon.”

Was it poor ticket sales? “Award Winning Ben” posted on the wrestling.net.au forums..

“It’s the awful ticket sale performance. Not Hogan, Not production issues, it’s ticket sales. The fact they’re automatically refunding all credit card purchases says one thing – there is no new date. This is a cancellation, with a short press release discreetly announced in a few months saying there will be no new dates.”

Appearing on the September 6th 2009 episode of ROVE, Jeff Jarrett announced that an Australian talent will be part of each show.

“We’re having a casting call, we’re going to make an Australian part of each of our 5 shows. Martin Place in Sydney on Tuesday (September 15) around Midday, its going to be myself, we got Jeremy Borash down here the host”.

In the coming days and weeks leading up to June 30 PWdowunder.com caught up with some of the Australian talent that performed at the tryouts in Martin Place.

Wayne “The Maniac” Mattai

So from what I remember of the TNA try outs in 2009, I remember I wasn’t going to go but Vulcan was running the event for TNA and he called me personally and said “Bro you need to come to this, let them see you”.

So I still wasn’t convinced and the day before the show I was like fuck it, I will go, so I got a flight and the next day and I travelled to Sydney for the try outs. Mind you I took no gear with me at all, I was in jeans, a t shirt and a leather jacket. The only thing I did was I put my white contacts in.

So when I arrived I took a taxi straight to Martin Place in the city. Found the ring set up and spoke to Vulcan.

He goes “Bro get in your gear and warm up”, I was like I didn’t bring gear with me. He was like “WTF” and I’m like Yea Nah couldn’t be bothered.

So the matches started and Jeff Jarrett and Christy Hemme were the judges along with the TNA ring announcer / commentator Jeremy Borash.

It was about the second to last match and Vulcan was like “bro you need to do something”, so I was like ok. I took off my jacket and did a run in on a match and grabbed one of the wrestlers and gave him a huge chokeslam and the just roared at everyone, the crowd went nuts.

As I was getting out of the ring I remember stopping and glaring at Jeff and Christy from the apron with my evil white eyes and I remember hearing the TNA announcer saying “He’s got the look, He’s got the size, He’s got those eyes, I smell MONEY”.

So I went back and stood with Vulcan and watched the last match and then I left and never heard a thing back from them at all.