I went to my very first TNA house show tonight. I’d heard that they were very fan-friendly, but I was genuinely shocked at just how accesible everyone was, with one notable exception that I’ll talk about later.
Regarding the attendance, Jeff Hardy said on Twitter it was sold out. There was an entire row of empty chairs in the fifth row across the aisle from where my little sister and I were (fourth row ringside right by the ring entrance). But, the place was 98 percent packed. (Editor’s Note: TNA reportedly had a turn-away crowd, so it was a sell-out based on turning away fans at the door.)
The $20 grab bags went very fast, as did the programs, and I have to commend TNA on being so efficient with hustling their merch to the crowd and keeping the long lines moving quickly. Don West was on the mic all night, screaming at us to shell out our cash, and he hyped up the crowd very well before the first match of the night.
Mick Foley was signing programs for people up until the start of the show. I noticed TNA was using a Mac ringside to play entrance themes via iTunes, which made my sister lose it laughing. WWE isn’t the only promotion with a MacBook involved during their shows.
(1) Ink, Inc. (Shannon Moore & Jesse Neal) beat Beer Money (Robert Roode & James Storm). Beer Money got a ton of heel heat for demanding that no fans be given backstage passes. We may have been the only people in the building who decided to cheer for them, as they did a great job getting the crowd to hate them. Of note, Shannon Moore’s pants are quite sparkly in person.
(2) X Division champion Douglas Williams beat Jay Lethal to retain the X Division Title. Pretty lame match. Lethal did a lot of Flair gestures throughout to pop the crowd, but three minutes in, we were bored with the act.
(3) Knockouts champion Madison Rayne beat Angelina Love to retain the Knockouts Title. This one was pretty fun. Angelina got a huge ovation, and Madison did a great job of heeling it up, screaming at two guys on the front who were loudly supporting Angelina. During the match, Madison got in Earl Hebner’s face and he kissed her, which earned a big cheer.
(4) Jeff Jarrett beat Desmond Wolfe. Good match. Not outstanding, but for a house show, pretty good. Desmond looks great in person, and it looked to me that he was carrying the load of the match.
After the match, Jarrett thanked the fans for coming. He then brought out some new Army recruits and had them take the Army oath in the middle of the ring, since Fayetteville is a military town. This is when intermission started. Hebner was signing his t-shirt (why a ref needs his own t-shirt is beyond me) at the sales booth, and Madison Rayne was signing programs. I managed to get a free picture with Madison Rayne just for smiling and waving without having to shell out $25 for a program. Sweet!
(5) Jeff Hardy beat Matt Morgan. “Hometown” Hardy got the biggest pop of the night. The place was deafening, and my sister got to squeeze his hand as he walked past us, much to her joy. I think Jeff blew up in the first minute or so of the match, because he got out of the ring and took a knee by the barricade. I was right there looking at him, and it seemed like he was struggling to catch his breath. Whether this was selling or not, I don’t know. His weight gain is very noticeable, and he was pretty sloppy, though he nailed the Swanton. Morgan was the most hated man in the building for beating up on the hometown boy.
After the match, Hardy got on the mic and thanked the hometown crowd for their support. He declared that next time TNA came to Fayetteville, they’d be in the Crown Coliseum, which can seat about 13,000, and not the Expo Center, which had maybe 2,000 tops tonight. Fat chance.
(6) TNA World Hvt. champion Rob Van Dam beat A.J. Styles to retain the TNA World Title, with Mick Foley as special referee. This was the match of the night by far. RVD was the best athlete in the ring tonight, bar none. It was ridiculous how much he put into the match. I was very impressed by him, and the crowd loved him. He was second to Jeff Hardy for biggest pop. A.J. acted like a hilarious brat, talking about how stupid RVD’s entrance theme is. For the record, I think he’s right. Foley asked for RVD’s music to play again, and he concluded that the music was “really, really awesome.” A.J. was heeling it up like mad, shoving Foley around when a count didn’t go his way. This led to Foley pulling out Socko and threatening him with it. At one point, A.J. looked directly at us from the ring apron and called us, “stupid people,” for screaming at him. Great heel work. RVD hit the frog splash and that was that.
The show ended, but TNA wasn’t done yet. They let fans get into the ring with a very sweaty RVD for photo-ops ($20 a pop, no thanks), while some TNA stars went around signing programs. Now, I have to call out some people. Robert Roode from Beer Money seemed very disinterested. There was a gaggle of little boys with programs, and he scribbled on them as quickly as humanly possible before bee-lining to the back. A kid had the program turned to the wrong page and Roode refused to sign for him. It was really abrupt, but the other kids were too happy about getting signatures to care. Desmond Wolfe was a little better, but stayed for only a few minutes before booking it out of there. Jay Lethal was much better, signing programs, hats, even the back of a kid’s Rey Mysterio t-shirt.
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