TNA House Show Results (6/17): Dayton, OH

Source: Justin McClelland and The Wrestling Observer
TNA made their first ever stop in Dayton Ohio at the Nutter Center Thursday, June 17 (They had previously stopped in Troy, Ohio, about a half hour away, but hadn’t even been there since November 2008). Crowd was probably around 1,200 fans, maybe a little more. No where near enough to fill the Nutter Center, which hold like 8,000. They probably should have gone to the smaller Hara Arena across town. Regardless of size, the crowd was very hot all night and reacted to everything and seemed to be up on who the heels and faces were.
1.) Jay Lethal defeated Homicide – Homicide got a huge face reaction coming out first but managed to turn most of the crowd by insulting Dayton. The pair worked a good but disappointingly short match, clocking in at only 5 minutes. Lethal does a pretty good Flair impersonation, but not on the level of his Macho Man. Homicide went for the stunner (is that the 187 – I can’t remember) but Lethal managed to push him off the quickly pull him back in to hit a huge spinning neckbreaker for the pin. Afterwards, Lethal had the ref, who was announced as being from Dayton, do the Flair strut.
2.) The Beautiful People (Velvet Sky and Madison Rayne) defeated Taylor Wilde and Sarita. Both the Knockouts Tag Titles and Raynes Knockouts Singles title were on the line. Lacey was not present. The Beautiful People’s pre-match intro – with the rope straddle and the pair nearly making out – would definitely not be allowed on the current WWE television. Also it took about 5 minutes to complete. A lot of comedy spots throughout the match until the Beautiful People got heat on Wilde. Finish came when Serita knocked Sky into Rayne who then fell into the ref’s arms. The ref kissed Rayne and then went crazy in pimpesque strutting. Shortly thereafter Rayne legtripped Serita and pinned her with Rayne’s feet on the ropes. Match was about 10 minutes, not counting lengthy pre-match routines.
3. International Champion Rob Terry defeated Orlando Jordan. Jordan got tremendous heat, even without using the mayonnaise. He did a few “feeling up his opponent” type moves early in the match, but nothing super-risque. Match was probably twice as long as the opener at nearly 10 minutes. Seemed to be pretty much a copy of their match at Slammiversary with Jordan working the leg for a lengthy period of time. Jordan missed his knee drop and Terry used a choke slam of sorts for the pin.
Jeff Jarrett came out to thank the fans and put over TNA’s 8th birthday, which he said was Saturday. He listed the three big moments in TNA as signing Kurt Angle, Jeff Hardy, and RVD. He also put over being on Spike on Thursday night’s without pointing out that if you were at this live event you were in fact missing Impact. Mentioning RVD was a mistake because it really made it obvious later when RVD wasn’t there. Of course, selling Sting masks and Hogan shirts at the merchandise stand probably had the same effect.
4.) Kurt Angle and Mr. Anderson defeated Eric Young and Matt Morgan – Mr. Anderson is very over and Kurt even more so. Good tag match. Kurt hit just one German suplex. Finish came when Morgan straddled the ropes going for a big boot on Anderson and he and Anderson then toppled to the outside to fight. After some reversals between Young and Angle, Young went for a piledriver but Kurt turned it into a ankle lock for the tap out victory.
5.) X Division Champion Doug Williams beat Shannon Moore
– Another decent 10 minute match, although Williams uses a lot of headlocks, perhaps because the nature of his no-flying gimmick. At the end, Moore set Williams up for a top rope rana but Williams slipped under Moore and crotched him. Williams then used his rollup into a German suplex for the pin.
6.) Jeff Hardy defeated AJ Styles – Styles got a tremendous ovation until Hardy came out. Hardy was far and away the most popular guy on the show, which is probably a surprise to no one. Lots of comedy prior to the match with AJ refusing to wrestle. The ref kept saying he had until 10 to get back into the ring or face suspension so AJ would race to get back in the ring and do some comedy pratfalls. Match was excellent, best of the night and also longest at about 14 minutes. AJ used a ugly looking figure four, but little else from his Flair protoge gimmick. AJ tried a springboard move but Hardy ducked, then hit a twist of fate and a swanton for the pin.
Decent show, although a little short at 2 hours 15 minutes, including intermission, and only 6 matches. Crowd was very enthused. JB said TNA would return to Dayton but didn’t mention specific dates or anything.