TNA house show (Oklahoma City, Okla.)
Report by ProWrestling.net reader SlimReaper of GeekWeek.com
Christy Hemme was our Jeremy Borash for the evening. She was getting the crowd going with the promise of backstage passes when a cat in a green shirt (local guy?) called her over and she let us know that Fortune had declared that no one was allowed backstage. Well, feisty Christy was ready to overturn that when Kazarian’s music and video came up (to absolutely no heat). Kaz quickly got his heat by calling the crowd “Oklahomos” which brought out the founder, Jeff Jarrett, to a huge pop and of course, the stip of backstage passes if he beat Kazarian.
1. Jeff Jarrett beat Kazarian with The Stroke. Good back and forth between the two, and maybe I’ve read too many house show reports, but I think we all knew how this was gonna end up.
2. Douglas Williams beat Eric Young with a rolling bridge suplex. Eric Young was introduced as being from Nashville. And here I was, trying to explain to my buddy that he used to be on Team Canada. Ah, well. Young came out filming the crowd with his phone, rocking John Cena-esque jean shorts and something that looked like a corset or maybe taped ribs or maybe his undies were pulled up really high. The match started out with straight comedy, including a spot where Young took Brian Hebner’s shirt and became the ref as Hebner got Williams in a headlock and assisted Young with a double underhook Slam on Williams. Williams got it back by hooking the bridge suplex for the win.
3. Velvet Sky beat Madison Rayne. The two started out in the ring with some kind of booty-shaking, second rope straddling contest. Velvet got all the pops. I just wanted to be the second rope. Decent match overall, some sloppy spots, but after a series of well-timed reversals, Velvet got the pin.
4. Samoa Joe beat A.J. Styles with the Muscle Buster. Everything you’d expect from these two. Joe dominated the first part of the match, AJ found his in, and they both got in a lot of their classic spots, which no matter how many times I’ve seen them, always impress. Joe countered two Styles Clash attempts and got in the Muscle Buster for the win.
5. Motor City Machine Guns beat Beer Money to retain the TNA Tag Team Titles. You aren’t gonna have a hotter feud than these teams, and all four brought it (though it seemed to me at one point that James Storm was really not eager about tagging in, but blame it on that beer). Sabin and Shelley hit a number of great double team moves including a double plancha to the floor, culminating with their finisher for the big win. Action-wise, best of the night.
6. Matt Morgan beat Brian Kendrick with the Carbon Footprint. I know people always say this about the big guys, but MAN is Morgan impressive looking live. Kendrick put up one hell of an offense all things considering, but Morgan took care of business pretty easily. There was a spot after the match where Morgan was set to take out Kendrick with a steel chair, but Kendrick thwarted it and mocked Morgan to a decent pop. There could be some money in a David vs Goliath program down the road between these two, if that’s what they’re trying out on the road.
7. Kurt Angle beat Ric Flair with the Olympic Slam into the Anklelock. Flair of course is money on the mic. The Sooners suck. The Longhorns are better (rivalry heat!). The woman in the arena are all too fat (Weight Watchers was referenced a few times). It just didn’t seem like a fair one-on-one once Kurt was introduced. The man is in great shape. It seemed like Angle was slowing down a lot for Flair, but the match was good. Flair pulled his Dirtiest Player in The Game tricks, but it would have been silly for Angle to lose, and he won in classic Angle fashion.
This was a Fortune stacked show, yet almost no mention was made of the faction except at the very beginning of the show during the backstage pass segment. There were a number of fans with Sting masks and Jeff Hardy and Mr. Anderson shirts. Angle and Velvet Sky came out to do the 20 buck ring pose after the show, Madison Rayne was signing autographs at the merch booth at intermission, and Jarrett held down autograph duties at the booth after the show. All in all, a good house show that had the crowd involved all night.
The show will be discussed in more detail on a video podcast from a fan vs. first-time wrestling event spectator view this Sunday on GeekWeek.com, Live with the USB Boys, Sunday, 6PM PST. Join us for beer and irreverence then!
