I attended the TNA house show at the Cardiff CIA on January 27 and below are the results and my thoughts on the show:1) Amazing Red Beat Chris Sabin And Suicide In A Three-Way X-Division Match To Determine The New No 1 Contender To The TNA X-Division Championship:
This was a great, all-action opener (albeit a little on the short site). Sabin was the most popular competitor, although there were healthy cheers for Red and Suicide also.
This match featured some incredible high-risk moves, such as Red hitting both his opponents with a somersault splash to the floor and Suicide hitting a flying “Diamond Cutter” on Sabin.
The finish came when Red hit Suicide with a superb “Code Red” (sunset-flip power-bomb) from the top rope and then followed it up with a standing moon-sault.
2) Taylor Wilde & Sarita Defeated The Beautiful People (Velvet Sky & Madison Rayne W/ Special Guest Referee Hamada):
The Beautiful People (not accompanied by Lacey Von Erich) were super-over with the fans in Cardiff (they got a much bigger reaction than Taylor and Sarita, despite being the heels). The crowd was particularly into Velvet Sky, who was treated like the “real star” of this match.
Hamada was announced as the Special Guest Referee after Senior Official Earl Hebner apparently refused to appear until (according to Jeremy Borash), he received “the respect he deserved” (Hebner appeared in the next match).
Taylor started strong for her team but Sky and Rayne used double-team tactics to ground Sarita and prevent her from tagging Taylor back in.
Madison argued with Hamada about her pin fall counts throughout the match and eventually made the mistake of slapping her across the face!
Hamada responded with a head-butt and Sarita rolled up Rayne for the victory!
3) Rob Terry Beat Eric Young To Become The New TNA Global Champion:
“Big Rob” was announced as hailing from “Cardiff, Wales” (for the record he IS a real Welshman) and worked the match as a very popular face (this match had a great “patriotic” atmosphere. Terry came out with a Welsh flag and there were regular chants of “Wales” from the crowd).
Earl Hebner refereed the match, after coming to the ring dressed as Bret Hart (this got him a tremendous amount of heat from the fans). To his credit, Hebner really played it up, talking back to the fans and walking with a swagger whilst being bombarded with chants of “You Screwed Bret!”
Before the match, Eric Young talked about how Rob Terry “worked for him” in World Elite (World Elite’s continued existence was news to me; I thought the faction died when the “new era” began on January 4) and said that it wasn’t too late to back out of the match like a “Welsh coward”. Of course, “Big Rob” went through with the match, much to the delight of his countrymen.
The match quality was ok, but for me, it was more about the story behind it (Rob coming back home and getting a hero’s welcome as he tried winning TNA gold). It was mainly a power display from Terry (who looked quite decent in the role, it must be said), with Eric begging off and baiting the crowd.
In the end, “Big Rob” beat “EY” with a running power-slam (made famous by another famous Brit, the late Davey Boy Smith). This meant that Rob Terry was the new TNA Global Champion and had given TNA their first title change outside the U.S.
4) Team 3D & Kurt Angle Defeated Hernandez, “The Pope” & Rhino In A 6-Man Tag-Team Tables Match:
This was enjoyable enough, although like the X-Division match earlier on, it was a little short (plus considering it was a tables match, there wasn’t much hint of anyone going through the wood prior to the actual finish).
I was surprised to see “The Pope” there, considering he fell sick at the start of the tour. I was also surprised to see Rhino and Team 3D playing fan favourites (no reference was made to their recent exploits on TV), but then again, this was a house show and the overall theme of the night seemed to be that this was a special “one-off” event not related to what we see on TNA programming (it should be noted that the names “Hulk Hogan” and “Eric Bischoff” were not mentioned once during the show).
There was a scary moment in this match when “The Pope” took a nasty-looking face-first flap-jack from Bubba, and landed on his head (but he got up soon afterwards and didn’t appear too out of it later on).
Kurt Angle got a big cheer when he cleaned house on everyone and the finish came when the former TNA World Heavyweight Champion drilled Rhino with an “Angle Slam” through a table.
Post-match, Team 3D called two young fans into the ring and along with Angle, they signed a piece of the table to them and posed for pictures. This was a nice touch and 3D and Angle were great with the kids.
5) Samoa Joe Beat Daniels In An “I Quit” Match:
This match came after the interval and was a great bout with some good psychology. Daniels (who received a mixed reaction but was not as popular as Joe) worked on Joe’s arm but the “Samoan Submission Machine” fought back and hit “The Fallen Angel” with his trademark “Olay” kick at ringside and eventually got him to yell “I Quit!” into the microphone with a reverse choke-hold.
6) Beer Money Defeated The British Invasion
The Brits got a mixed reaction but they lost quite a few supporters when they officially broke ties with Rob Terry and said that they had been “babysitting” him, just like England had been “babysitting” Wales for years!
From this point on, Beer Money was the most popular duo and at one point, had the crowd going back and forth with chants of “BEER!” and “MONEY!”; from one side of the arena to the other!
This was a fun match, but again a bit short (although in fairness, they still had to make room for the main event). It also wasn’t fought under “Flag Match” rules as advertised, although no one in attendance seemed to mind.
Brutus Magnus and Doug Williams used some illegal double-team moves to keep Robert Roode down, but when James Storm received the hot-tag, the momentum shifted to Beer Money. They soon got the win with the “DWI” on Magnus.
7) AJ Styles Retained The TNA World Heavyweight Championship Against Desmond Wolfe:
AJ was the favourite here (he showed no “heel tendencies”, either), although Wolfe wasn’t too far behind him for cheers. This was a commendable effort from both men, and their styles (no pun intended) complimented each other well.
At one point, Styles broke out his leaping “cannon-ball” dive to the floor and also took flight from the tope rope with a flying forearm smash.
Wolfe tried to better AJ with some technical wrestling and “strong-style” submission moves and even managed to hit the “Tower Of London” on the champ.
However, in the end, AJ finished off Desmond with the “Styles Clash” to send the crowd home happy.
After the show, Styles said a few words on the microphone and Jeremy Borash thanked us all for coming. Throughout the night they’d given out free backstage passes to some of the “loudest” sections of the crowd and “JB” promised that TNA would be back in Cardiff soon.
Dixie Carter also appeared following the interval and thanked the TNA fans in Wales for their support (I thought it was great of her to make the effort and fly over here with the talent. When was the last time you saw Vince or any of the McMahon’s (excluding HHH) at a WWE house show?). She was accompanied by a TNA fan whom she’d been in touch with on Twitter and had invited him to join her as her “guest” as she spoke to the crowd.
Overall, I thought it was a great show, far better than some of the WWE house shows I’ve attended in recent years. While I’ll admit that a few big names were missing (I knew Hogan was a virtual impossibility, but I would loved to have seen Mick Foley, Eric Bischoff and Jeff Jarrett) and some of the matches were a little rushed (mainly due to time constraints), the general vibe of the show was great; there was a superb atmosphere and all the talent involved made a real effort to make it a night to remember.
Full Report To Follow Shortly!
Source: http://attitudesmash.blogspot.com/
