Complete TNA house show report 12-4 Portland, ME

Complete TNA house show report 12-4 Portland, ME

By Dan Graulich

1. Amazing Red pinned Suicide with the sunset flip power bomb to keep the X Division title. Other than one messed up Japanese arm drag spot, the match work was solid and a great opener. Suicide was incredibly over with multiple chants going on during the match.

2. Amazing Kong & Hamada beat the Beautiful People (Madison Rayne and Velvet Sky) when Kong pinned Rayne (I think) with the implant buster. Mostly a comedy match at the beginning because Kong started the match for her team and neither Rayne nor Sky wanted to be in with her. So it was a cat and mouse game of tagging back and forth between them. Eventually, they got to the match and I was praying for them to go back to the back and forth tagging comedy again. They are giving Kelly Kelly, Maria, Eve and Layla a run for the money in awful wrestling. It boggles the mind that Lacey Von Erich is so much worse. Speaking of which, she wasn't there.

3. Abyss pinned Dr. Stevie with the black hole slam. Stevie did some mic work noting that the crowd needed some therapy, but he was going to give Abyss his final session first. Decent match for what it was.

4. Kurt Angle pinned Nigel...err...Desmond Wolfe with an Angle slam after he blocked the Tower of London. Solid match, arguably the best of the night, although it felt a little short.

Intermission with Abyss, Suicide and the Beautiful People out signing autographs.

5. Beer Money and Matt Morgan beat World Elite of British Invasion and Sheik Abdul Bashir when Beer Money used the DWI on Magnus. World Elite did mic work running down Portland specifically and New England in general. Beer Money came out and got lots of chants going back and forth in the crowd. It must have been more than 10 minutes before the match started. The first move of the match was an attempt at a hip toss, which Magnus blew completely, knocking Roode off his feet and barely getting over. Roode got on the mic and asked the crowd if they thought Magnus "f-ed up", which started a "You f-ed up" chant right out of the old ECW but without the profanity. Magnus didn't seem too bent out of shape about it and Roode was smiling so it might have been pre-planned. Storm kept getting beers from the crowd during the match. Morgan looked really good in the ring and I still can't figure out how McMahon missed the boat on him.

6. Main event was A.J. Styles defending the TNA World Heavyweight Title against Daniels. They had a really good match, in the 3 1/2 to 4 star range. They used all the usual moves and everything flowed smoothly and built well. Finish was Daniels going for the BME, Styles rolling out of the way and Daniels landing on his feet. Daniels went off the ropes and tried a hurancanrana which Styles blocked and hit the Styles Clash for the pin.

Afterwards, they had an autograph session at ringside with a lot of the talent and people could get pics taken with Styles in the ring posing with the belt (for $20).

All in all a good show. Much better than the Smackdown house show we had in September.

Dan Graulich
Shapleigh, ME