TNA live event (Toledo, Ohio)
Report By John Morrison and ProWrestling.net
Decent turnout, I would say about 500 fans, and most were happy to be there. The show started with an over the top introduction of Jeremy Borash calling him something like “the man with the plan.”
1. Austin Aries defeated Jesse Sorensen to retain the X Division Title. Standard match we have seen between them, which seems to happen every week on Impact. Aries played to the crowd a lot and they loved booing him. The finish was when Sorensen went from a high cross body from the top rope, he hit Aries and then Aries just rolled with him for the 1-2-3.
2. Velvet Sky beat ODB to retain the TNA Knockouts Title. Before the match, Earl Hebner was introduced. He challenged some guy in the crowd to a fight and then took off his referee smock to show his “I Screwed Bret” shirt. He put on the Bret Hart pink sunglasses and walked around the ring like Bret does for like two minutes.
This was was the longest match of the night (or at least felt that way). Velvet was over huge. The crowd popped for her and everyone ran to the guardrail when she first came out. Hebner got a few gropes of both women when he separated them as he used their boobs to push them away from each other once or twice. A couple of blown spots by Velvet but she won with the X-Factor.
3. James Storm beat Magnus. No reaction for Magnus. o one even knew who he was it seemed. Magnus came out and made fun of Ohio and America, and walked around the ring called everyone names. Storm came out, cut a promo about not saying anything about America, and challenged Magnus to drink a beer. Magnus asked the crowd if he drinks will they think he is “more of a man.” They said yes. He grabbed the beer, turned around to the crowd, and drank the beer. He then walked into the Last Call and Hebner counted 1-2-3. That was the whole match.
4. Mr. Anderson beat Abyss by DQ. Abyss dominated the whole match and then got himself disqualified after hitting Anderson in the gut with a chair. Abyss then posed for the crowd, and walked into the Mic Check. Anderson then pulled a young’n in the crowd to pose and gave him the mic for the Mr. Anderson schtick. The kid and crowd loved it.
40-minute intermission where Velvet signed autographs, posed for photos, and Hebner was schilling his awful t-shirt, which he would sign if you bought it. Don West was playing to the crowd the whole time.
Ric Flair came out (VERY VERY over everyone was yelling) and asked which woman wanted to ride Space Mountain. Flair then put over TNA and the wrestlers as the best wrestling show in the world. Yeah, no one believed you, Ric.
5. Rob Van Dam defeated Gunner and Scott Steiner in a Triple Threat. Steiner got on the mic before the match and called a couple out of shape and white trash. RVD was very over, second most over of the night (over Flair but less than Jeff Hardy). The match was pretty sloppy as Steiner fell over a couple of times after doing moves and Gunner/RVD did all the work. The finish came when RVD hit Steiner with a kick. He then slammed Gunner and hit the Five Star Frog Splash.
6. Jeff Hardy beat Bully Ray. Ray got on the mic beforehand and called out people from the crowd for about five minutes, telling people who pissed in your gene pool, saying who would want to be seen with this guy, etc…It was actually very entertaining and the crowd ate it up.
Hardy came out to the biggest reaction of the night. The match last about 10 minutes, decent back and forth. Hardy hit the Whisper in the Wind, the Twist of Fate and the Swanton in that order to put away Bully Ray. After the match, Borash invited fans in take photos with Hardy in the ring for $20.
Notes: Decent show. I am happy I paid the $15 (instead of the $30-$50, It wasn’t worth that at all) then moved down to the third row main floor when it wasn’t filled all the way around. No one stopped us or asked us to move back.
