The following is courtesy of Will Benson from WZ:
So here we were again – same company, same ring, same building – practically the same seat. Yup, we were back in the Liverpool Olympia for the second night of their first ever UK tour. This show had been a sell out for a good few months, and the majority of the 1,650 were already in their seats at least half an hour before the 7pm bell time.
Before the show TNA president Dixie Carter was out in the crowd opposite our section, signing autographs and taking photos. More on her later. As the night before, Jeremy Borash welcomed us to the show and again promised the loudest fans would go backstage. He then kicked off the nights wrestling by introducing a tag team match featuring the Motor City Machineguns taking on Petey Williams and Sonjay Dutt. This one saw plenty of activity both in and out of the ring, with Dutt trying to blind Sabin with a bag of white powder. Obviously, Sabin ducked and the powder caught Petey Williams in the face. The match ended with the blinded Williams giving his own partner, Sonjay Dutt, the Canadian destroyer, with Chris Sabin pinning Dutt for the win.
The second match of the night saw TNA Knockouts Champion, Awesome Kong retaining the title, defeating Gail Kim in a pretty decent match. Kong was all over Kim during the match, but Kim did manage to get some moves in. Kong got the win with a powerbomb.
Next up was a TNA World Tag Team Championship Match, which saw LAX defeat James Storm and Robert Roode. The match was decent but I thought it was very similar stuff from LAX to the night before. At one point in the match, Homicide was chasing Roode around the ring and in the process knocked a chair from the timekeepers table into the entranceway. This came into play later on in the match when Storm was thrown out of the ring and not noticing the chair, hit his face on the corner of it, busting him open the hard way. It looked pretty nasty but he managed to carry on for at least 5 minutes before Roode was then pinned by Hernandez for the LAX win, while Storm was helped out by medical staff.
Next up was JB with more video from the TNA game. After the video he announced the game would be released on September 2nd in the UK. He then introduced Earl Hebner, to huge boos from the crowd and of course the obligatory ‘You Screwed Bret’ chants. Earl wasn’t just out here to get booed, he was out to referee a match.
And that match featured AJ Styles taking on Jay Lethal and Doug Williams in a three-way-dance. A good match, with several highspots from Styles, including one which saw Lethal throw him into the barrier, only for Styles to jump the barrier with a split-second to spare. Styles just missed hitting a small child, but both laughed about it. Styles ended up pinning Lethal after a Styles Clash. After the match Styles got on the mic and just like the night before, he put over the Liverpool crowd and how it was his decision that the Liverpool Olympia is a playable arena in the upcoming TNA game. He also officially welcomed Doug Williams to the TNA family, seemingly indicating this is more than just a short-term deal.
After this, JB took us into the intermission which saw Dixie Carter again out in the crowd, taking photos and autographs. After the break, JB was back with the TNA Today camera, scanning the crowd for the loudest TNA chants which will be featured on the TNA website soon. He then introduced Dixie Carter as “the coolest boss ever”. Dixie expectedly put over the crowd and thanked us for coming. She also thanked Jeff Jarrett for the work he’d done in TNA, to which Borash confirmed Jarrett was in the building, although he never appeared in public.
Up next was Rhino taking on Booker T. Now all night we had a seat next to us with a ‘reserved’ tag on it. Nobody had sat on it all night so we actually forgot it was there. Then, during Booker T’s entrance, Dixie Carter sat next to us, as if she was just another fan. We had a quick talk chat with her and I have to say she’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. Back to the match, and Rhino had made his way out. This led to the biggest crowd reaction I’ve ever seen at a wrestling event, with both sides of the arena duelling with ‘Let’s go Booker’ and ‘Let’s go Rhino’ chants. This lasted for nearly 5 minutes without any sign of dying down. It was so loud even Booker and Rhino had to stop and take it in. I’d just put my camera away but I managed to catch a quick 30 seconds of the chanting before it stopped. During the actual match, Booker teased the spinaroonie, but then gestured that the fans could kiss his ass. Later on in the match, Rhino did his own spinaroonie which was simply hilarious. The match ended when Rhino missed a gore and Booker rolled him up for the pin, in what was easily the best match of the night in my book.
Borash then introduced Kurt Angle who came out to a huge pop. As with the night before, he cut a very face promo, and there was the customary rip on WWE. He also ran down some of the great matches he’s had in the UK, and listed names like Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero. Benoit’s name got a mixture of cheers and boos, whereas Eddie was all out cheers.
The main event was up next and saw Samoa Joe take on Abyss. All the usual spots you’d expect, with Abyss getting a chokeslam on Samoe Joe, and Joe with the ‘Ole’ kick to the face. He actually did it twice, with the second time after doing a full lap around the ring to very loud ‘Ole’ chants. Referee Rudy Charles was then taken out in the corner by Abyss, which led to a clear 123 on Joe, but with no ref, it didn’t matter. Dixie Carter was still sat in our section and mentioned to a guy behind us that she always tries to sit in the crowd for Chris’ (Abyss) matches. Earl Hebner came out to make the count, but Joe managed to kick out at 2. There were then very loud ‘Fire Russo’ chants, and naturally a lot of people looked at Dixie for her reaction, and she just seem to laugh at it. Joe won the match after hitting Abyss with a German suplex for the cover. Rudy Charles then revived and looked angry at Hebner for taking over the match. Hebner played up to the boo’s he was getting and clothleslined Charles and walked off.
After the main event, Jeremy Borash thanked us again for coming and said he had it on good authority that TNA would be back in Liverpool soon. As with the night before, there was a post-show meet and greet, which was still pretty chaotic but slightly better organised than the night before. After getting a couple of autographs and photos, we left around 10pm.
Overall, it was another fantastic night. Taking the both nights into consideration, I was very impressed with the shows. There’s still two shows left on this tour and they’re already hinting towards something being announced for UK fans soon. After the reaction they got in Liverpool these past two days, they’d be stupid not to come back soon.
The shows have also improved my opinion of TNA on a whole. Who knows, TNA may just have found another fan, and I don’t think I’m the only one walking out of the Olympia thinking the same. Thanks for reading these two reports, and any feedback or comments are welcome to will@merseymedia.net
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