TNA house show report 10-11 Mankato, MN

TNA house show report 10-11 Mankato, MN
By Jed Highum

Hey Dave, wanted to send you some results/thoughts from the TNA house show here in Mankato MN's Verizon Wireless Civic Center from this afternoon. A lot of the fans didn't know the product or it's stars as much as I would have expected though at times. Could have been a good number of comps in the crowd and that may explain it. With that said, crowd really got into the matches at times despite the apparent lack of product knowledge and the show was excellent and overacheiving for house show standards, everyone worked hard and fast paced.

It was a much better overall event in terms of both the in-ring work and general fan interaction experience than WWE had done at this same arena about two months ago for a Smackdown/ECW house show in August, headlined by a horrible Kane/Khali lumberjack match main event. In fact, it was like the complete opposite of how WWE did it overall. Justin Roberts didn't even thank the fans for coming out to the show after it was finished last time in August, whereas Borash really came off good in making the event feel special (the company does a great job with this at house shows) and the entire TNA babyface roster came out after the main event and signed autographs, thanked the fans personally, etc. They didn't do the in-ring picture deal with Styles like they had done on Friday and Saturday's shows, probably because Styles still seemed a little under the weather. But anyone could take a picture with him (or any of the other workers) at ringside after the event. Show started soon after the Vikings game and right before the Twins game started, so it was perfect for your typical MN sports fan.

Hernandez over Eric Young- quick but heavy hitting, Young and Hernandez did some good brawling around the ring and good back and forth, ending with what I thought was going to be the border toss, but turned into his dropdown faceplant finisher. Good strong opening match reaction to Hernandez.

Homicide v. Daniels v. Sabin v. Shelley - really fast paced action from start to finish, ppv calibur stuff. Sabin won after Shelley head kicked Homicide, who was on Sabin's shoulders, leading into a Sabin cradle shock for the finish. One of the better matches I've ever seen for a standard house show really. After the match, Homicide tried to rile up the crowd by wishing good luck to the Yankees against the Twins.

ODB over Madison Rayne - Mostly comedy with the girls doing a goofy spanking spot with the ref. Probably Madison Rayne's best TNA match Ive ever seen, she worked hard and played up her Beautiful People role up alot more than I've ever seen her do so far, working the crowd more than normal to get heat. ODB was really over, being from the state. Not nearly as dull of a match as one may expect. Crowd really liked it. Given they worked the weekend against each other already, that seemed to help.

Beer Money over British Invasion - probably the loudest heel heat for Invasion than anyone on the show. They tried singing the UK anthem before the match. Good back and forth action with everyone working hard once again.

Matt Morgan over Bashir - Morgan has a hell of a charismatic presence given his height and size. He got over huge, easily to the level of Styles, if not more. What I figured was going to be a glorified squash ended up being rather competitive with Bashir working the knees of Morgan for most of the match. Really strong babyface comeback by Morgan leading to the wheelkick finish. Bashir appeared to be a little slow in there, perhaps a nagging injury as I saw him grabbing the shoulder a bit.

Styles over Samoa Joe to retain the TNA title - both guys went pretty stiff early and often and worked a solid 8 to 10 minute match that did, however, seem to end out of nowhere with the pele kick to Joe for the pin. Seemed like the crowd was just starting to get into it good when the finish came. Alot of the expected Joe/Styles spots for fans of their previous matches, such as the AJ taking the bump on the ring apron after getting his legs taken out from under him from a stiff Joe kick. Joe wasnt wearing any of the silly face paint anymore which was a nice change and seemed to bring back alot of old stiffness we always saw from him before.

A good number of us who had meet and greet backstage passes (they were giving out alot during the show and we had ours from a local radio station) got to go meet a handful of workers during intermission behind the curtain. D-Lo Brown was also backstage, working as the road agent for the show and should be commended for helping put together a really fun card along with the strong effort from all of the workers. I cant imagine anyone left the show feeling unsatisfied.

Borash announced to the crowd they will try to return to the area soon for a pay per view (more than likely Minneapolis), which he hinted to me may be early next year after the show when everyone was interacting with the crowd. I think if they did get a pay per view up here, especially in the Twin Cities, it would sell well as any word of mouth from fans who went to this show (or apparently any of them from the weekend given the reports) would bring people from other parts of the state, as well as the actual Minneapolis/St Paul crowd. TNA did their first Minnesota house show back in March in Rochester which I also attended, and both that one and the Mankato show today were equally as strong. They're starting to establish a good following here in the Midwest and I hope they don't give up on it.

I'll be heading to Bound for Glory next weekend in Irvine as well to see the next live show on TNA's schedule - this was a great lead-in to it

-Jed Highum