Hard Justice (2008) - Background

Background

The event featured seven professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds, plots, and storylines. Wrestlers were portrayed as either villains or heroes in the scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.

The main event at Hard Justice was a Six Sides of Steel Weapons match for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship between the champion, Samoa Joe, and the challenger, Booker T, who was accompanied by Sharmell. At TNA's July PPV event, Victory Road, Joe retained the championship by default in a match with Booker T. It ended in a no contest as a result of Joe assaulting security, referees, and Booker T, which caused Sting to enter the arena to try to calm Joe down. Joe ignored Sting's request and continue his attack on Booker T, which provoked Sting to attack him with a baseball bat. Booker T then covered Joe and Sharmell counted the pinfall victory, since the referee had earlier in the match been scripted to seem unconscious. Booker T and Sharmell then left the arena with the World Heavyweight Championship. On the July 17 episode of TNA's primary television program, TNA Impact!, authority figure Jim Cornette demanded that Booker T give the championship back to Joe, which Booker T refused, so Cornette set up a rematch between Joe and Booker T for Hard Justice to determine the true champion. Joe then entered the arena and declined Cornette's offer for Booker T to give him the championship back; because he did not feel that he deserved it since he was pinned by Booker T at Victory Road, though Joe was still recognized as the official champion. On the July 24 episode of Impact!, Joe challenged Booker T to contest their championship match inside a 16 foot (4.9 m) high steel structure with six sides known as Six Sides of Steel, which Booker T accepted and added the stipulation that weapons would be allowed in the match. On the July 31 episode of Impact!, while Joe and Booker T were fighting in a ring surrounded by the Six Sides of Steel, a baseball bat; similar to the one that Sting used at Victory Road; was dropped from the ceiling by a rope to Booker T, which he used to knockout Joe.

Kurt Angle versus A.J. Styles in a Last Man Standing match was second main match on the card. Before TNA's June PPV event, Slammiversary, Angle and Styles had a scripted physical altercation during an episode of Impact!, which was later revealed to have been motivated by Angle believing that Styles was romantically involved with his real-life wife, Karen Angle. Angle and Styles fought at Slammiversary in a standard wrestling match and at Victory Road in a Six Man Tag Team Full Metal Mayhem match, with Angle partnering with Team 3D (Brother Ray and Brother Devon), and Styles with Christian Cage and Rhino. In a Full Metal Mayhem match, two or more competitors fight to either gain a pinfall, submission, or climb a ladder to retrieve an envelope or a championship belt in no disqualification rules. On the July 31 episode of Impact!, Styles came to the ring and demanded that Sting come out an explain his actions at Victory Road and if he was involved in helping Booker T attack Joe, which had just taken place. The lights went out in the arena and when they came back on, Styles was standing in the Six Sides of Steel with Angle standing behind him. Angle then grabbed Styles and lifted him up and slammed him down to the mat in a move that Angle dubbed the Olympic slam, which he performed three times in succession. Afterward during an interview, Styles challenged Angle to a match to end their rivalry at Hard Justice, which was later announced to be contested under Last Man Standing rules. In a Last Man Standing match, two competitors fight until one is unable to reach to his feet before a referee counts to ten.

Team 3D's (Brother Ray and Brother Devon) and Christian Cage and Rhino's rivalry began at TNA's May PPV event, Sacrifice, when Cage and Rhino lost to Team 3D in the semi-finals of The Deuces Wild Tag Team Tournament for the vacant TNA World Tag Team Championship. Their rivalry continued with Cage and Rhino helping to protect LAX's manager, whom Team 3D were having a storyline rivalry with at the time over the World Tag Team Championship; from attacks by Team 3D. Before and after Victory Road, multiple altercations took place on Impact! between Team 3D and Cage and Rhino. In one instance, Brother Ray lifted Cage up onto his shoulders and threw him down from the top of one of the six padded turnbuckles through a glass table in a moved called a powerbomb on June 26. On July 31, Team 3D cost Cage and Rhino a match against Beer Money, Inc. (Robert Roode and James Storm) to be number one contenders to the World Tag Team Championship. After the match, Cage challenged Team 3D to a match contested under no disqualification rules, which Cage dubbed a New Jersey Street Fight, at Hard Justice; Team 3D accepted.

In the tag team division, The BB and Beer Money, Inc. were having an on-screen rivalry over the TNA World Tag Team Championship. At Victory Road, The BB successfully defended the World Tag Team Championship against Beer Money, Inc in a match where real-life fans where placed around the ring with a leather straps to whip anyone who came outside the ring in a match TNA called a "Fan's Revenge" Lumberjack Strap match. In the following weeks, Beer Money, Inc. assaulted both a planted fan, an actor posing as a fan, as well as LAX's manager. On the July 31 episode of Impact!, Beer Money, Inc defeated Cage and Rhino to gain a chance to fight LAX at Hard Justice for the World Tag Team Championship. On the August 7 episode of Impact! after a match pitting the team of The BB, Cage, and Rhino against the team of Team 3D and Beer Money, Inc, Team 3D introduced a glass table into the ring, however, Beer Money grabbed Homicide and powerbombed him through it, while in the process injuring his right eye, according to the plot.

Jay Lethal and Sonjay Dutt were involved in a rivalry over SoCal Val's heart, according to the narrative. At Slammiversary, Dutt ruined Lethal's and Val's wedding reception by confessing he was in love with Val. After Lethal turned to check on Val, Dutt struck him with a tower that was part of the set. As a result of the confrontation, Lethal and Dutt fought in a match at Victory Road, which Dutt won. After a series of events between Dutt and Lethal, TNA began to promote a Black Tie Brawl and Chain match between the two at Hard Justice. A Black Tie Brawl and Chain match is a match where both of the participants wear tuxedos and are attached by a steel chain; the winner of the match is the first to remove his opponent's tuxedo or score a pinfall.