Report by Bill Zdon and F4WOnline.com …
Well, this was my first TNA house show or any TNA show for that matter. This was apart of their “Basebrawl” series which means they used our triple A baseball stadium. The weather cooperated and was absolutely perfect. The attendance was … a little disappointing. At first I thought I saw a pretty big crowd but when everyone was seated, it appeared as though it was around 800 people. And that’s probably a generous guess. To their credit, they were a loud 800 fans.
Jeremy Borash opened the show doing his usual gig about the loudest fans/backstage passes etc.
Austin Aeries vs Ion opened the show. Ion did the hair spraying gimmick quite a bit which generated a lot of heat. Aries was pretty over. Solid work by both men. Not many high spots, just a lot of safe wrestling. Aries won with an unsafe looking brain buster. JB noticed an Aries sign and gave the fan a backstage pass which was a nice touch. He sure knows how to get the crowd going. Aries really came across like a star.
Earl Hebner came out to a nice reaction. He took off his ref shirt and revealed his “Damn right I did it” t-shirt which got some good heat. He proceeded to do some crotch chopping to some random fan. Fans ate it up.
Miss Tessmacher beat Gail Kim. By knockout/diva standards, this was actually pretty decent. Maybe I don’t pay enough attention to either gal in the ring but both worked well together. Tess has come a long way. What an ass on her, btw.
Next up was a BOUND FOR GLORY series match.
Mr. Anderson came out and looked for a mic to come down from the sky. Unfortunately nothing came down. So Jeremy Borash got on a chair and lowered his mic down which got a nice response. Anderson made a bunch of asshole jokes and then saw some kids and made some little butthole jokes and then mentioned Sandusky. After that he said, “too soon??” I have to admit, I’m normally annoyed by his mic work but he was pretty good here. He then did his spiel but before he got to say his last name some fans said KENNEDY to which he replied, “No, he died in a train wreck” which got a good response. And then he said something about “You can see that trainwreck every Monday night.” Fans did the classic “ooooh” as if they just saw Slater vs. Zack Morris for the first time. Anyways, he did his asshole bit way too much here. There was a ton of kids at this show. Not sure doing the asshole thing around the kids is such a good idea. Joe won, surprisingly. 7 POINTS FOR JOE.
Kaz and Christopher Daniels came out. Daniels was THE STAR of the night. He was dancing all the way down to some theme I didn’t recognize but it was very upbeat. He did these hilarious pelvic thrusts and the crowd ate it up. Kaz showed absolutely no charisma compared to Daniels. They did some mic work about Buffalo sucking or something like that. Daniels was awesome on the mic. I can’t stress how great this man was tonight. The crowd was chanting “Daniels sucks!” every time they could. Angle and AJ came out separately. AJ was presented like a star. He came out after Angle. He got the hot tag after Angle took a lot of the beating. He got the pinfall. Crowd loved it too. Angle had some nice moments too, suplexing both guys like crazy. Pretty safe match (you could say that about every match). Crowd viewed Angle and AJ as stars.
Intermission time.
The guy who is replacing Don West is NO Don West. His name is Jimmy J. Meh. He’s just average. During the intermission he gave away a ton of free stuff. He also did this before the show began. During the intermission you could BUY EARL HEBNER’S shirt and he would autograph it. Tessmacher was also signing autographs. Pretty long line for her. I’d do her, that’s for sure.
ANOTHER BOUND FOR GLORY series match.
Robbie E came out. James Storm followed. E did some mic work about a fist pumping contest. Storm countered and said there was more beer drinkers here than fist pumpers. He also remarked about E’s pink trunks and said something about E getting fist pumped in the butt. No lie. These fans (who were a sight to see) loved it.
Instead of the fist pumping contest, Storm challenged E to chug a beer. E tried to chug it but kept taking little sips and Storm eventually super kicked him and pinned him very quickly. That was it. A quick 7 POINTS for Storm. Fans treated him like a star. I think they’ve got something with him. Chicks were dancing to his theme (which is pretty hilarious when you listen to it all the way through)
Borash announced the main event was next. Kinda seemed rushed, IMO.
Jeff Hardy, one of the most over guys in the ballpark came out. SO MANY Jeff Hardy fans here. Made me think, maybe he should be a top guy because of all the Jeff Hardy merchandise I saw on kids. Bobby Roode slowly came out. He did his usual stalling gimmick. Decent match. Roode won with the help of Gunner. People didn’t have a clue who Gunner was. Afterwards Hardy gave Roode a twist of fate (Roode was trying to hit him with an extra belt shot after the match) and his music played and the crowd approved. Borash announced that your group or family can get a picture with Hardy for $20 and a HUGE line formed.
One thing I noticed is TNA knows how to make money off their merchandise. Tons of people bought the brown backpack deal that is filled with DVDs and t-shirts. Tons of people bought that ridiculous Hebner t-shirt and tons of people lined up for Hardy’s autograph.
Pretty fun show. I’d definitely go to another show if they come back to the area.
