By James Witcombe
TNA Cardiff Report
Not sure if you've already had one so I'll give you mine.
Building was almost full, but not as packed as when I saw WWE here. JB opened the show with the usual spiel.
1. THREE WAY DANCE NO. 1 CONTENDERS MATCH: Amazing Red V Suicide V Chris Sabin
Very good opener with some nice three way spots and dives to the outside. Red won with Code Red from second rope and standing shooting star press on suicide.
2. KNOCKOUTS TAG MATCH: The Beautiful People V Taylor Wilde and Sarita w/ Special Referee Hamada
Started with JB announcing 'most infamous, most controversial referee' Earl Hebner. Hebner didn't come out and JB said he wouldn't until he was shown the respect he deserved and then announced Hamada.
Decent women's match about the normal BP standards. Started with Beautiful People mocking Wilde and Sarita's Entrance, which was funny. Finish came when Madison argued with Hamada over a near fall. Hamada then headbutted her and Taylor rolled her up for three.
Hebner came out dressed as Bret Hart to ref the next match.
3. GLOBAL TITLE MATCH: Eric Young V Rob Terry
Terry was extremely over with his hometown crowd. Match wasn't much. Power moves (mainly shoves) by Terry, small heat by Young. Terry got the win with the running powerslam to a big ovation. They were recording this and had interviews with his family. Should be shown on Impact.
4. SIX MAN TABLE MATCH: Hernandez/Pope/Rhino V Team 3D/Kurt Angle
3D came out without a partner. They did a promo saying first that Cardiff will be their partner. Bubba then said that everyone knew who their partner was. 'He's a good young wrestler', laughed hard at that. Angle said lets have a tables match. Pope was awesome. His mannerisms are so over. When 3D and Angle made it a table match he said that women had been coming up to all day saying they wanted wood. Good match. Loud 'we want Angle' whenever he wasn't in . The first tag by Devon to Bubba got a big boo. Angle mainly did his suplex spots and Angle slammed Rhino through the table for the win. Hernandez also seemed really over.
After the match they brought in two young fans to give a piece of the table. When their names were announced they were chanted. Awesome.
After Intermission Dixie came out and thanked the fans..
5. I QUIT MATCH: Samoa Joe V Daniels
We want blood chants early. Very good match with Joe doing the Ole kick, Daniels doing BME and getting caught in the rear naked choke and saying I Quit. Biggest pop in the match was for Joe saying 'kiss my ass' when asked if wanted to quit.
6. USA V UK MATCH: Beer Money V British Invasion.
British Invasion got cheap heat early by saying they were English. Loud 'Wales' chant. They said they were sick of babysitting Big Rob. Beer Money are so great. James Storm asked if there were any beer drinkers in the audience. He said they would give backstage passes to the loudest fans and they could party together. Another good match which finished after the 'Beer Money' suplex.
7. TNA CHASMPIONSHIP MATCH: AJ Styles V Desmond Wolfe
Best match of the night by far. Loud 'this is wrestling' chants throughout. AJ was complete babyface and many fans seemed unaware of his heel turn. AJ did his flip dive to the outside.Lots of mat wrestling. Great nearfall with Wolfe hitting Towers of London and Styles getting his feet in the ropes. Chants for Slick Rick Johnson and Nigel McGuinness. Finished with a pele kick followed by a styles clash. Styles cut a short promo beginning with a woooo and saying that TNA+Wrestling=AJ Styles.
Really good show. Crowd was really hot all night. Loudest pops were for Terry and Angle. Daniels seemed to be the biggest heel. The thing that struck me was the fact that the best performers were the ones that are being ignored on TV. Wolfe had a great match, Pope was the Pope, Beer Money continued to be the best Tag Team in the world. Joe and daniels had a good match. This show showcased the things that are great about TNA. Shame they are not highlighted on TV.
James Witcombe
By Tom Elliott
ell, my condolences for the tough time you've had recently.
I attended the TNA 'Maximum Impact' show at the Cardiff International Arena last night, and thought I would send along the results and a couple of quick thoughts. We got a very different card to what was advertised, which was really no surprise to myself, but there seemed to be a lot of fans present who were expecting Hogan, Flair and Lashley. One interesting note is that when waiting outside the arena, the name on all the kids' lips was AJ Styles, not Kurt Angle. There were a ton of people in Beer Money shirts, even before the merch table opened. Really interesting mix in the crowd too, tons of families with kids, quite a few young ladies who came with their partners and quite clearly were not enjoying themselves, and your usual wrestling fans.
The set-up for the show was very professional, apparently far better than the WWE's presentation on their last UK tour according to people I spoke to. There was a huge video screen above the entrance, which was a raised ramp. Above the ring was a large lighting array, including a scrolling 'T N A' in lights around the rig. Sound was crystal clear all evening too. I really wasn't expecting such a professional look, and the company came off like a big deal as a result.
Jeremy Borash was our M.C. for the evening, and as an aside, he's just fantastic in the role. He announced the usual 'loudest fans go backstage', which is a simple but effective way of getting the crowd to make some noise.
Match 1: Amazing Red beat Chris Sabin & Suicide
Really fun X-Division opener, crowd really enjoyed Suicide and Red. Nothing totally crazy, a couple of dives and a top-rop Code Red.
Match 2: Taylor Wilde & Sarita beat Velvet Sky & Madison Rayne
Hamada was the guest referee for this. A good match, nothing earth-shattering but tons of fun. Beautiful People are so entertaining live, I really enjoyed their various antics.
Earl Hebner was introduced to the crowd, and he came out wearing perhaps the worst Bret Hart impersonation gear ever.
Match 3: Global Title: Rob Terry beat Eric Young
As noted on the site, Terry won the title. The match itself was good. The interesting thing behind the story is that Rob Terry is actually from Swansea, which is Wales' second city, and absolutely massive rivals with Cardiff, the capital. They announced Terry as being from Cardiff, and as a result 90% of the crowd absolutely loved him, which helped the match. There was a vocal minority in the audience who were heckling him the entire time with anti-Swansea chants. Terry is just beyond huge in person, he legitimately looks like a cartoon character.
Match 4: Team 3D & Kurt Angle beat Hernandez, Rhyno & The Pope
Team 3D introduced Angle on the mic, who received a massive reaction. The match itself was one of the longer matches on the night, and started off slow. They announced it was a Tables match beforehand, but the finish was Angle putting Rhyno through a table... then pinning him. I didn't understand but people really didn't care. Nothing crazy in the match, no big dive from Hernandez for example. An entetaining 12-or-so minute match leading into intermission. They brought some kids into the ring afterwards and gave them signed table fragments. Early in the match Brother Ray was given the hot tag and was cleaning house, and hit a pretty dodgy flapjack on Pope, where it looked like Pope landed directly on his shoulder.
Intermission, Dixie came out to applause, said we were the greatest fans in the world etc.
Match 5: I Quit: Samoa Joe beat Daniels
Really good match, focused around Daniels working over Joe's arm for most of the match. They worked really well together, as you'd expect, and everything was crisp and smooth. It's been noted that Joe has got into better shape recently, and he looked far, far thinner in person than he has on TV. Same finish from the night before with Daniels going for Angels Wings, Joe reversed it into the rear choke.
Match 6: Beer Money beat British Invasion
Beer Money were very popular, while British Invasion tried to sing the (English) national anthem beforehand, to a less than warm reception.The England vs. Wales rivalry is perhaps even more heated than the aforementioned Cardiff vs. Swansea! The match itself was good, everyone worked really hard.
Match 7: TNA Heavyweight Title: AJ Style beat Desmond Wolfe
AJ Styles coming out was a legitimately big deal, and he came out 100% babyface. We got the proper title introductions, which was a nice touch. Desmond is of course from England, so there was no way anyone was getting booed against him. They wisely had AJ work babyface the entire match. The match itself was excellent, a really great way to top off the show. AJ hit his big flip dive over the top rope, and at least two springboard forearms. Desmond did his usual array of really enjoyable technical work, working over AJ's arm. AJ won with a Styles Clash. Aside from sporadic 'woos', there was no mention of the 'New Nature Boy' gimmick.
Overall a fantastic show; it went the perfect length, was family-friendly and the crowd were into everything. Nothing got nuclear heat or anything, and a fair percentage of the crowd were sat on their hands for a lot of the time, but they got into the big moves and near-falls. They seemed to have sold the majority of seats they had on sale, which at the CIA is roughly a couple of thousand, depending on how many floor seats they had out. I'd estimate between 1500 and 2500, apologies for the vagueness. I'd strongly recommend anyone thinking of going to the remaining shows on the tour to go, a really enjoyable night of professional wrestling, and who knows how things will change over the next year, this might be the last time for a while we get a show of this quality. They were selling a new Hogan shirt with 'Hulkamania' along the top, and 'CHANGE' beneath the Hulkster's face.
Apologies for this being so long, feel free to cut out as much as you wish.
Best Wishes,
Tom Elliott
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento