I had the opportunity to attend the TNA UK Fan Party in London yesterday evening, a great deal of fun. I'll give a full rundown of the event below for those who are interested, but here's some of the more interesting notes from the evening, mainly coming from TNA President Dixie Carter, who was at the event:
– Dixie was asked (asked: read, a group of people chanting PPV, PPV over and over again!) about TNA having a PPV here in the UK. Dixie said she was receptive to the idea, but wanted any live event to be viewed by as wide an audience as possible.
– As a follow up to that. She said that she had had thoughts about doing a live Impact from the UK, although she didn't elaborate much further on that.
– With regards the TNA Maximum Impact Tour in Europe in early 2014, I think she said the following (although the message confused me a little bit): All four TNA events in the UK next January/February will be taped for TV. That's Glasgow, Manchester, London and Birmingham. She did also mention that they're looking to do a "same day taping" during the Glasgow event. The Glasgow event is on the Thursday, so I think she meant they will tape the show in Scotland, and then run it on Spike TV the very same evening, US time.
– She touted the success of the first TNA British Bootcamp that appeared on our screens earlier this year in the UK. She said that they are looking to do another one, although that would be up to Challenge TV (the channel that shows all TNA programming here).
– On the subject of British Bootcamp, one of the contenstants "Party" Marty Scurll was present. Nothing was revealed about his status with TNA, although there were loud "sign him up" chants. The Blossom Twins (the female tag team from the show) weren't present, but Jeremy Borash said that they were at OVW (TNA's developmental) and were "in the system". So no official word on whether they've signed for TNA, but it would appear they have. Borash also said that British Bootcamp winner Rockstar Spud was "tearing it up" at TNA live events in the US.
– Dixie was asked about an inductee for TNA's Hall of Fame this year. She didn't really say much, acknowledge various shouts from the audience including Jeff Jarrett, AJ Styles, Jeff Hardy and even RVD (I say "even", as RVD's contract status is up in the air. She didn't acknowledge it in a way that I could get a read from as to RVD's future, let's say that).
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That's all I can remember "news" wise. It was a terrific event, held in a small-ish upstairs area in a bar in central London. I'd guess between 150-200 people were there. Jeremy Borash was host as always, and always does a terrific job with these events. They taped two "Spin Cycles" for TNA Xplosion. The first was a "celebrity" spin cycle. This included Ricky Martin (no, not "Livin La Vida Loca" – Ricky Martin who won the 2012 UK Apprentice – he used to be an indy wrestler), Mark Labett (from ITV quiz show "The Chase"), stand-up comedian Nathan Caton, and some bloke from Big Brother. The second spin cycle was "Darts vs Wrestling", which saw Paul Nicholson and George Noble representing darts, and Ricky Martin and "Party" Marty Scurll representing wrestling.
All in all a really fun night. TNA does a terrific job with these. Dixie Carter had been doing media all day (having not slept following her arrival in London) and still found time to chat with fans and take photos after her Q and A.
