Detailed TNA House Show results from Cincinnati

Houseshows, Reviews, Shows

I decided to go down to the TNA house show tonight here in Cincinnati.  I had heard it hadn’t been selling well and well, it hadn’t as me and a couple friends went down and bought tickets there right before it started, and had good seats.  It was at the Cincinnati Gardens, with half of the arena blocked off.  I would guess there were 1500-2000 people there.  The upper parts of the arena were still empty but I’m guessing all of the floor seats made up for it.  The crowd was into it all night.

Jeremy Borash came out to hype the show at right about 7:30 PM when it was scheduled to start.  He hyped up that it was TNA’s first time in Cincinnati (obviously), and then handed out some backstage passes to get everyone excited.  They were supposed to be rewarded to the “loudest fans” but it ended up just being a couple people in the first row.  He called out all of the matches all night and the wrestlers just came out through a curtain.  Apparently they released the card on their web site today and none of the matches that were on it happened, including appearances by NJPW wrestlers. I didn’t see it so I can’t speak for that, but what took place.

The card:

– Consequences Creed def. Johnny Devine

Solid, short opener.  Creed got a lot of “U-S-A” pop from the crowd.  Devine used quite a bit of armbars before Creed got whatever his finisher is for the win.

– Traci Brooks & Roxxi def. Angelina Love & Velvet Sky

Pretty good woman’s tag match here.  Traci was pretty well over with the fans while the blondes got a nice reaction from shaking their asses while getting into the ring.  Love and Sky attacked them after the match and ODB hit the ring to take care of them and then all three of them took a while to get beers to drink from the crowd and drink out of the flask (which Traci and Roxxi spit out after taking a swig).

– Eric Young def. Kip James

Comedy match that went on FAR too long.  Could have been slimmed down by about ten minutes.  As expected, James was in control most of the match and Young snuck under the ring to come out as “Super Eric” and get the win.  After the match, James gave the crowd the DX chops which was … odd.

– Abyss & Kaz def. Scott Steiner & Petey Williams

Was hoping to see the X belt on the line, oh well.  Steiner played mega-heel by coming out and ripping on Cincinnati with an assortment of references to the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry and calling some women on the floor bitches.  It worked, and he had the whole crowd jawing at him the whole match while he was on the apron.  The in-ring stuff between Kaz and Williams was expectantly good.  Not necessarily news, but Steiner is simply painful to watch these days.  Abyss got a pretty big pop for being local.  The faces ended up getting the win after Abyss hit a very nice Black Hole Slam on Petey.

– 20 minute intermission –

Prior to the intermission Borash said that the second half would be aired for Impact.  Not really sure if that was true or not as I never saw any cameras.

To kick off part two after the intermission, James Storm was wheeled out to ringside on a stretcher.  Borash asked him what was up and he told him that he had a “knee injury”, though he was wearing a neck brace.  He had a doctor’s note to prove that he couldn’t compete tonight.  Shark Boy then came out and talked about how now he has no match tonight and that he doesn’t buy Storm’s injury.  But he still wanted a match and that led to:

– Shark Boy def. “Meat” (Cincinnati radio DJ)

“Meat” was the alias of a DJ who does a morning show for Cincinnati’s FM rock station WEBN.  Apparently they set this up when Meat insulted him during an on-air interview to hype the show a week before.  At first Shark Boy taunted him while he stood at ringside.  He walked away but Shark Boy used the dreaded Pittsburgh insult which caused him to hit the ring.  Shark Boy immediately hit him with the Deep Sea Drop which he totally botched, so he did it again rather nicely.  Afterwards Storm came in I think to hit him with a beer bottle, and he got the same treatment.

– Curry Man def. Robert Roode

Roode got probably the most heel heat besides Steiner, even though he had his fair share of supports as well.  Curry Man came out and did his dance routine for a while.  Back and fourth match with Roode getting a couple of near falls.  Roode bumped the ref and got a chair, and the lights went out for a good couple of minutes before AL SNOW appeared in the ring in front of him.  With the lights flickering, everyone anticipated it to be Sting.   This allowed Curry Man to get the win.  After the match Curry Man got a little kid out of the stands to come in the ring to dance with him.

And for the main event …

– Samoa Joe def. AJ Styles to retain the TNA World Title

Great main event.  It went a lot longer than an Impact match, and was easily ***1/2+.  Both guys got a lot of their spots in with some very close near falls by Styles, including a near Styles Clash.  A lot of nice reversals and counters.  Joe ended up getting the pin after the Muscle Buster.  Crowd was pretty 50/50 split on who they were cheering for.  Styles and Joe shook hands and hugged after the match to huge pops.

End of show.

Afterward, Joe an Borash both got on the mic to announce that, just like at the previous show, the wrestlers would be coming out to ringside to sign autographs, and they did.  Also, you could get your picture taken in the ring with both Joe and Styles for $20, where as it was just Joe at the last show.  The line was pretty long for everything and it being a Sunday night, we just ended up heading out.

Overall, a pretty fun show.  Well worth a $20 ticket, as there isn’t a bad seat in the house with the area being so small, a great main event and autographs afterwards.  My only complaint is the amount of “time wasting” they did between Borash on the mic the whole night and the amount of stalling during the comedy matches, but oh well.  The faces won every single match, but hey, when you are doing house shows as rarely as TNA, I guess that’s a good thing for the fans.  I would definitely recommend going to one if it comes near you.