Source: Wrestling News World
Wrestling News World reader Nathan Phipps sent in the following report:
Hey guys! I attended my first TNA House Show at the MEN Arena in Manchester tonight, and what an amazing show it was! I have been to 3 Raw tapings and 3 Smackdown tapings, but none of those shows come anywhere near what I witnessed tonight. Although only about half of the arena was used, but it was pretty full for what looked like quite an impressive crowd for a TNA house show! The crowd were hot all night, and I now have a very sore throat from chanting so much.
The night was hosted by JB, which was great to see after being taken off TV recently, and he introduced all the matches, and sporadically gave away backstage passes to those deemed the loudest (i.e. whoever they came to first in the front row of the crowd). The first match of the night was a 3-way X-Division match between Chris Sabin, Amazing Red and Suicide. All three wrestlers were very over with the crowd, and Sabin was very entertaining playing up to the crowd, with Suicide maybe over the most. They put on a very good opening match as you’d expect from the three, with Amazing Red getting the win.
Next up was Eric Young versus Rob Terry for the TNA Global Championship. While Terry played the face and had some of the crowd behind him, he still got quite an audible “you can’t wrestle” chant, and there were plenty cheering on Eric Young. I must admit to being surprised that Terry wasn’t quite as bad as I expected him to be wrestling the first proper match I’ve seen him in, but that’s not saying too much. He eventually picked up the win and posed to the crowd.
The 3rd match of the night saw Rhino take on ‘The Pope’ D’Angelo Dinero, and the crowd were very much mixed here between chanting for Pope and Rhino. I got the first ‘Pope is Pimpin’ chant going (in my section anyway), and I think by the end more of the crowd were behind Dinero after Rhino heeled on us several times. Pope got the win after a good match with a pin after the DDE. Very cool seeing one of my personal favourites in the Pope!
The last match before the interval was a bit of a surprise as I thought it would be the main event, but it was AJ, Joe, Daniels and Hernandez in a ladder match for the TNA Championship. Well, it was supposed to be, but with AJ’s new heel persona, he strutted to the ring, and didn’t look happy about the match. He got on the mic and said he’d spoke to Flair and they’d had the lawyers look over the contract, and nowhere did it say about putting the title on the line in a ladder match. He then tried to walk away, but Dixie was in the front row with a mic, and told him that he had to wrestle tonight. Turned out being a Four Way Tornado Match, but sadly with no ladders after AJ had the officials take it away. Only 2 were in the ring at a time, and the other 2 had to tag themselves in, but although AJ and Daniels worked together a lot of the time, they soon turned on each other. This was a very good and entertaining match, and the crowd chanted “We want ladders” quite a bit throughout. Joe was getting by far the most chants throughout the whole match, and he looked genuinely surprised and humbled by the reception he got. He also seemed very relaxed and played with the crowd a lot, showing a side of him I’ve not seen before. Much different to his on-screen, serious and angry persona. Top guy! AJ won the match in the end with a Styles Clash.
After the interval, JB introduced Dixie Carter who came out with a girl she had been twittering and a little boy, and she addressed the fans and thanked us for coming and helping TNA continue to grow etc.
Then another surprise was the first match after the break, which again I had been expecting to be the actual main event, of Desmond Wolfe v Kurt Angle (with a 20 minute time limit). Desmond came out to a nice reaction from the crowd, but he soon got on the mic and said though it’s nice to be wrestling in front of an English crowd, it’s not so good as he has to wrestle in front of us “gap toothed, inbred, northern monkeys” which cemented him as the heel for the match (he’s from London in the South, and the North and South have quite a rivalry). Angle came out to a fantastic reaction, and the 2 had their usual brilliant wrestling match, with plenty of holds and reversals. The crowd were great fun during this match again, and we got a great ‘Chelsea Rentboy’ chant going at Wolfe for most of the match (he announced himself a Chelsea FC fan, claiming they’d win the league before the match), which he played up to by continuingly giving us the 2-fingers, which he got back from us all. He even took it in great spirits when he messed up trying to put Angle on the top rope, and got a loud “you f*cked up” chant, smiling, showing us the fingers, and then showing off when he did it right the second time. Great match to see live, and Angle picked up the win with the Angle Slam.
The penultimate match was a Knockout’s match, refereed by Hamada, which was Velvet Sky and Madison Rayne v Taylor Wilde and Sarita. I was quite lucky as I was sitting on the 3rd row and had Sky/Rayne stood right in front of me the whole match while waiting to be tagged in. I actually had to watch most of the match through their legs, which I wasn’t complaining about! It wasn’t the greatest of matches, with the best wrestling coming from Sarita and Wilde as you’d expect, but it wasn’t too bad, and they had a lot of fun in there so kept the crowd entertained. TBP showed off at the start of the match, imitating and mocking Wilde’s entrance, and trying to see who was the sexiest. Wilde and Sarita won the match in the end after Velvet hit Hamada, who knocked her backwards, only to be rolled up for the win.
Finally, the main event was a surprise to me, but actually was the highlight of the night, so was the right call in the end. It was a three way tag match with TBI v Beer Money v Team 3D. With TBI in the ring, Beer Money came down and got the crowd doing the ‘BEER!’ … ‘MONEY!’ chant, pointing to either side of the arena. They were hugely over with the crowd, and were enjoying themselves out there. TBI played the heel role, stealing some backstage passes that Beer Money were going to hand out, offering them to fans, and then ripping them up. Team 3D came down with a table, and were very over too. They got quite a lot of cheers when Bubba said they want to give fans what they want, and that’s a Tables Match! The ref didn’t seem too happy with that, and the match kind of just got under way without any announcement of whether it now was a tables match. Very entertaining match again, with both Beer Money and 3D working as the faces, and it was pretty much always one of them in with one of TBI, sometimes the 2 teams working together on moves. The finish came with 3D putting Brutus through a table and getting the 3 to win the match. Afterwards, 3D called BMI back and said how they were the future of the tag-team division, which got a huge ‘TNA’ chant. They called out Dixie, and they all signed a piece of the table and gave it to a small boy from the crowd. They got the crowd to chant the boys name, and got him to do the dual ‘BEER!’ … ‘MONEY!’ chant pointing to either side of the arena. Amazing scenes and should make the little boys year, very good from TNA there and shows you can still give back to the kids, and not have to ruin your whole product with PG nonsense in doing so.
The event ended with much beer drinking and horsing around from 3D and Beer Money, and they seemed to be having a really good time messing around and chasing each other around the ring. I have to say that I’ve never been to a show that was so good and so much fun, and as I said earlier, I’ve now got a very sore throat from so much chanting. No real disappointments, other than would have been nice to see Matt Morgan, Abyss, Tara and Kong etc, but in no way can anyone complain about the show we were treated to. If only TNA could concentrate on having their weekly TV shows more like this, with good short promo’s getting over the matches, and a LOT of great wrestling, then I think there could be no complaints from anyone.
The 2 best memories I’ll take from the night are how Joe was with the crowd, as he seems such a genuinely nice and funny guy and had good fun goofing around for us, and then the incredible way that Beer Money were over, and the whole main event and aftermath in the ring. A night I won’t be forgetting in a LONG time!
Quick results.
Amazing Red b. Suicide and Chris Sabin
Rob Terry b. Eric Young
‘The Pope’ D’Angelo Dinero b. Rhino
AJ Styles b. Daniels, Samoa Joe and Hernandez
Kurt Angle b. Desmond Wolfe
Sarita and Taylor Wilde b. The Beautiful People in a tag team match
Team 3D b. The British Invasion and Beer Money in a tag team (tables?) match
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