How the “Fire Russo” Chants Started: TNA’s Last Rites Match

Not all gimmick matches can be winners. Unfortunately, when Vince Russo is around, they rarely ever are. TNA’s Last Rites match at Destination X 2007 between Sting and Abyss was one of those occasions.

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What Is A Last Rites Match, You Ask?

That’s is a good question, and a question many were asking at Destination X, as TNA didn’t bother to explain the rules before the PPV.

So, Mike Tenay and Don West were left with the unenviable position of laying out the match rules just before the match started. To quote commentary, the rules were thus, "Where the competitors must call for the death bed to be lowered from high above the ring, and then you gotta take that beaten down opponent, you gotta put him inside that death bed, slam it shut and send it to the ceiling".

So, it’s a Casket Match, but instead of the casket being at ringside, the casket (death bed) gets lowered from the ceiling when it’s called for, then you put your opponent in the casket, then the death bed rises to the rafters and then you’ve won.

How Sting And Abyss' Feud Began

The feud up to this point was as follows: Sting thought Father James Mitchell was corrupting Abyss. Sting, for some reason, saw good in Abyss and so thought the guy literally dressed like the devil probably wasn’t a good influence on him. Abyss, however, was well under the control of Mitchell at this point and was incensed that Sting was doubting the honor of Mitchell. At Against All Odds 2007, Sting fought Abyss in a pretty good Prison Yard Match, which left Father James Mitchell incapacitated.

With Mitchell out of the way, Sting finally saw the chance to reason with Abyss by… killing him. Sting’s logic was that Abyss needed to die to become a new man, to break away from the pull of James Mitchell.

So… The feud got weird.

Sting started prophesizing on a death bed, with horrendous Russo dialog, of course. Sting’s speeches where leaning heavily into religious themes, talking about Abyss dying and being reborn. It was supposed to be that Sting was showing Abyss the light but it just kind of looked like Sting was trying to brainwash him. Trying to help Abyss get away from Mitchell is all well and good but was this really the best path to go down, Sting?!

This brings us to the match…

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“Fire Russo”

So the match starts, it quickly turns into a hard-core match with the candelabras and tombstones being used as weapons. There is a vicious candelabra shot from Abyss which bloodied Sting for a cool visual and since he had the upper hand, Abyss calls for the death bed!

The death bed lowers… slowly. The spooky portion of the match had started so the lights flicker and dim, the ring becomes engulfed in smoke.

The death bed is still coming down… slowly. This is the moment when a massive “Fire Russo” chants breaks out.

Anyway, the death bed finally comes down to the ring and Abyss tries to get Sting in the casket to a mild reaction from the crowd. Hilariously, half the crowd couldn’t see the match at this point considering the death bed structure was filling half the ring. They wouldn’t have been able to see Sting, just Abyss struggling with the casket lid.

So Sting fights out of the casket and picks up a tombstone to a loud “Boring” chant. He lays the tombstone against Abyss’s head and swings a baseball bat at it, shattering the tombstone.

The next big point in the match was Abyss chokeslaming Sting onto the casket, it was a great spot and even managed to garner a “TNA” chant from the crowd, a clear sign the Impact Zone was holding no ill will to Sting or Abyss. All the heat was on Russo and as the match goes on, the “Fire Russo” chants get more and more apparent.

Sting wins the match by throwing Abyss off the top rope through a tombstone and two chairs, he then puts Abyss in the death bed and then sends Abyss to wherever it is the casket is raised to.

It was the end of the match, but it was just the start of the “Fire Russo” chants. They would live on for many years to come whenever a match or segment was deemed too Russo-y for the crowd.

The chants actually got their wish as eventually Vince Russo was indeed fired by TNA. Then rehired. Then fired again. Then rehired as a creative consultant. Then fired for the final time.