TNA Louisville House Show

[cabbageboy 0]

I went to TNA's house show tonight at the Louisville Gardens and it was a really great show. Definitely miles better than the dreary Raw house show I went to that had Cena vs. HHH. I'd say there were about 2,000 people there (6,000 is the capacity). Both Borash and Cornette seemed to indicate that TNA will be back in the fall and it might well be a PPV. Here's the rundown:

 

Sonjay Dutt/Petey Williams over Eric Young/Robert Roode. This was a fun match with some comedic spots as you might guess. Eric walking over Roode along with the faces was fun, as well as him standing in the corner with Petey. There are some logic gaps in the storyline, but it plays better at an arena where people can get into the guys easier.

 

Christopher Daniels over Senshi. Mildly disappointing match, which seems to be the Senshi Standard of late. Pretty good, but not really worthy of the "This is awesome" chant it got. Daniels was working his new heel persona and the match was mostly designed to get that over. Eye poke, angel's wings, sayonara.

 

LAX over The Naturals. I dunno if I'd say this match sucked exactly, but The Naturals definitely do suck. They were probably the worst guys on the entire show, which is appropriate since they aren't even on TV anymore. Homicide seemed legit pissed off after the pinfall and just stormed off to the back. There were several odd spots where it didn't seem like Stevens and Douglas were cooperating with Homicide, including the Gringo Killer. Homicide was either hurt or he was really pissed, at least that is what I thought.

 

Jim Cornette came out and was excited to be back at the Gardens (as was I, first time I'd been there since a Raw taping in 1995). This ended up with him calling Eric Young back out, Robert Roode beat down Eric for not revealing his friend, and then Jarrett came down to a big pop to make the save. I'm assuming JJ is the friend here, but it was never stated as such. Jarrett needs new ring music, since his usual theme is really grating and heelish.

 

Rhino over Doug Basham (w/Danny Basham aka The Damaja), Derby City Street Fight. I was personally pissed that Abyss wasn't in the match but he was selling the beating from Impact. Bashams made their TNA debut here. Crowd got pissed since they were brawling by a stage area that was totally dark and the spotlight wasn't on for some reason, so about 3 mins. of the match was in darkness! Eventually they got back to the ring and Rhino hit the gore through the table and got the win.

 

Intermission...LAX signed autographs at the merchandise stand.

 

Gail Kim/Chris Harris over Jacqueline/James Storm. This started as just the women wrestling, but the guys ran in so much they made it a mixed tag. Pretty decent back and forth action, with Kim getting the pin on Jackie. Crowd was more for Jacqueline I'd say, but she was Ms. Texas in the USWA around here for years so that was obvious.

 

Samoa Joe over AJ Styles. Yeah boy! While it wasn't quite as good as the one Dec. 2005 PPV match, this was damn good and certainly worthy of the "This is awesome" chant. AJ damn near countered the Kokina Clutch, but Joe nailed him with the Muscle Buster. Best match of the show and pretty much PPV caliber.

 

Christian Cage over Kurt Angle, NWA title match. Dueling chants for both guys, but Christian got on the mic and badmouthed the fans and arena to fully assert his heel persona. Solid enough match but Christian outta quit stalling so much. It was drawing moderate heel heat but cutting off the flow of the match. Styles came back out for a run in and eventually cost Kurt the match. The supposedly hurting Abyss did come down for a run in to chase Christian and Styles.

 

Overall I had a really good time. The level of work from TNA was loads better than the WWE guys on house shows. TNA's main problem has always been their booking on TV and PPV. When the guys are allowed to just go out and wrestle without the BS, they deliver a really good show. In fact it might be just about the best house show I've been to. It's either that or a WWF Nov. 1994 house show that had UT vs. Yokozuna in a Casket Match along with Razor vs. Owen for the IC title.

[Corkscrew_Senton 0]

Thanks for the report cabbageboy! Looks like a pretty solid card. I've always heard the Bashams were good outside of WWE. What did you think of Doug's work?

 

I hope TNA can get a decent house show routine going. Might help get the word out more than their horrific advertising.

[cabbageboy 0]

Personally I'd have rather Danny/Damaja been in that street fight instead of Doug. Damaja was at least a solid brawler in some hardcore matches in OVW. Doug's match with Rhino was decent enough last night but as I said a big portion of it was fighting on the staging and in the crowd and it was so dark no one outside of that area could see.

 

The advertising for the show was curious to say the least. As in almost nonexistent until the week of the show when some local radio stations got involved and pushed it a bit. I've heard more ads for the Raw house show on May 18 and that is still almost a month away.

[Danville_Wrestling 0]

Thanks for the report cabbage. I wanted to go this show but had so much school work I had to do this weekend that I couldn't make the trip down to Louisville to see it. Also, the friends that I wanted to go see it with were at a debate tournament so that also messed up plans.

 

Just looking at your match descriptions I agree that the card looks a helluva lot better than the Rupp Arena RAW show I went to 2 years ago (can't believe it's been that long ago) that had the first ever Cena-HHH match. That show was terrible until the second half when we got 20 mins of Carlito-Shelton, Flair-HBK, and then Cena-HHH.

[cabbageboy 0]

Yeah that was pretty much the same crappy Raw show I went to in 2005. Aside from getting to see Flair/Michaels it was a lousy show. It was kinda amusing seeing Viscera/Tomko open the show though, and both guys got big pops!

[Danville_Wrestling 0]

Yea, I remember Tomko stealing a guy's hot dog in the front row and offering it to Viscera. My dad came with me because his friend was at the show as well and was like "I don't like that big black guy because he's humping the other guy and that's just wrong."