TNA’s Impact Blues, TNA’s Biggest Show Ever…

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There has been a lot of talk internally in TNA about what their biggest negatives are in regards to their TV product. The feeling is that they can deliver a better product than WWE but that they never actually get a chance to show the audience that they have great wrestlers capable of great matches because things are so rushed. The steady PPV audience knows that the PPVs usually deliver at least a couple of good matches but unless you were one of the regular buyers the TV show would not convince you. The recent Angle/Christian match on Impact, which was advertised from the start of the show but wound up being nothing more than an 11 second formality as a backdrop to various brawls with Joe, Sting and Tomko, was listed as an example.

TNA had its biggest crowd in history in Lisbon, Portugal on 01/05. They drew about 5,000 fans to the 8,000 seat arena. Portugal has been a huge WWE market in recent years, having a bit of a wrestling boom, but even though TNA does air on Eurosport they have nowhere near the recognition. Most of the crowd was kids with parents, WWE fans who heard there was an American wrestling show in town, and were detached as they did not know the personalities. They popped for entrances and the minority of hardcore fans gave Samoa Joe and A.J. Styles decent pops but most people only really knew Kurt Angle and Christian Cage. Runt pinned Jerry Lynn to open the show; in a 1PW match Jonny Storm defeated Jody Fleisch, Spud and Pac; Team 3-D beat VKM, who worked as heels; Abyss pinned Christian to retain the title (Christian’s first pinfall loss in TNA, though it won’t count as it isn’t on TV); Rhino pinned Styles with a Gore; Christopher Daniels pinned Storm to retain the X Title (and did the Curry Man dance); Christy Hemme defeated Gail Kim; Angle defeated Joe cleanly with the Ankle Lock.

TNA is still trying to sign Chris Jericho, who has yet to accept or reject their offer.

There has been talk of creating a Women’s Title.

Credit: Wrestling Observer newsletter (click here for subscription information)