(Subtitled: The ‘Dixie Carter is a lovely person’ Report)

Friday, 12th June, 2008

By Stephen Lyon.

This was the second night of TNA’s two night double-header in the Liverpool Olympia building, during their first ever tour of the U.K. The show sold out three months ago, within a couple of weeks of tickets going on sale. It was a capacity crowd of 1,650 fans, meaning TNA had drawn over 3,200 fans to the same building in the last two days. Doors opened at 6pm prompt, for a 7pm bell-time. I spoke too soon last night about TNA attracting a different audience than ROH to this building, as the smart marks were out in force tonight. This was by far the hottest crowd for a show that I have ever experienced, in my 16 years of going to live events, and because of that, it was probably the most enjoyable.

Pre-Show:

The first person I saw when I walked to ringside to take up my seat at 6:40pm was TNA President, Dixie Carter herself. That was quite the surprise. She was mingling in the crowd (though did have a bodyguard close by at all times, who resembled a jacked up Scott Hudson), signing autographs and posing for photos with fans. She seemed extremely nice and very approachable. She wasn’t getting mobbed, so not everyone was totally aware of who she was (either that or they didn’t recognise her), but there were a steady line of people wanting to meet her.

The Show:

I made limited notes on some of the matches tonight, so forgive me if I miss anything out. Similar to last night, Jeremy Borash came out to start the show and received a loud crowd pop. He introduced the first match.

1) Motor City Machine Guns beat (!) TNA X-Division Champion, Petey Williams & Sonjay Dutt. Dutt was very over as a heel, and seemed to be channelling the Hulkster tonight, wearing bright red tights and wrestling most of the match wearing a red do-rag. Very good opener, better than last night’s opener. MCMG did a series of planchas on to Williams and Dutt on the outside. Dutt tried some shenanigans in the finish, as with the referee distracted, Williams held Sabin, and Dutt pulled out a big bag of mysterious white powder, which he then threw at Sabin. Naturally Sabin ducked and the powder went into Petey’s eyes. The Guns combined to give Dutt a double DDT, then the blinded Petey gave his partner, Dutt, the Canadian Destroyer by mistake. Sabin then pinned Dutt. Real good opener.

Should be noted that Dixie Carter was sat in the front row of one of the two balcony boxes directly next to the ring, watching most of the matches. She seemed really into the show, always smiling, but wasn’t particularly animated.

2) TNA Knockouts Champion, Awesome Kong retained the title, defeating Gail Kim in another good match, in around 10 minutes. Both worked at a very fast pace. I could watch these two wrestle all day long, as Kim is great as a babyface, and Kong, well, as a monster heel she is just ‘awesome’. Kong won with a powerbomb.

3) TNA World Tag Team Champions, L.A.X. defeated James Storm & Robert Roode in another good match. Crowd went crazy for L.A.X. The key spot was Homicide doing a killer dive on to both Storm and Roode on the outside, and Storm smashed the left side of his face on the wooden floor and was busted open hardway. Hernandez pinned Roode to win the match. Afterwards, Storm was helped out by E.M.T.’s. He reappeared for the autograph session at the end of the show, and his eye looked like hell close up. He told me that he’d had a couple of stitches put into a cut, and he was already developing a black eye underneath as well. Nasty.

Borash then introduced a commercial on the big screens for the new TNA video game. He said that the game will be launched on September 2nd in the U.K., and that the Liverpool Olympia building is one of the ‘playable arenas’ in the game. I was sceptical at first, thinking this was J.B. looking for a cheap pop, but A.J. Styles mentioned a similar thing in a promo later on, so there maybe something in it. Then came the spectacle of J.B. introducing ‘the most infamous and controversial referee in wrestling history’, Earl Hebner. Hebner came out to Raven’s old ECW music, ‘Come Out and Play’ by The Offspring. Now that was bizarre.

4) In a triple threat match, A.J. Styles defeated ‘Black Machismo’ Jay Lethal and Doug Williams. One of these things is not like the other. Actually that is incredibly unfair on Williams, as he was outstanding in this match, despite the difference in wrestling styles (pardon the pun). Still, three babyfaces in a triple threat match? Talk about making hard work for yourselves. Styles did several dives outside the ring on to both Lethal and Williams, including one on to Lethal which was over the ring barrier and into the crowd. He narrowly missed what looked to be a five year old child by mere inches. There were tons of highspots in this match, too many to write down in my notes. Styles pinned Lethal after a Styles Clash. After the match, Styles, Lethal and Williams all embraced. Styles cut a promo putting over the live crowd. A twenty minute intermission followed. During it, Dixie Carter was again mingling in the crowd, asking fans if they were enjoying the show.

Following the break, Borash brought Dixie Carter into the ring for a quick interview. She heavily praised the fans and said the U.K. is their best international market. Yeah, that was a shocker. She said that Jeff Jarrett was in the back, which got a loud crowd pop. Nobody seemed to see him before the public at the show, so who knows.

5) Booker T pinned Rhino, after Rhino missed a gore. This was an insane match, due to the crowd reactions. There were duelling ‘Lets go Booker/Lets go Rhino’ for three minutes solid before the two even locked, to the point Booker and Rhino were openly cracking up laughing. The duelling chants continued throughout the match, and you could tell the wrestlers were absolutely loving the intense crowd heat. Booker did a spot where he teased doing the spinarooni, but told the fans to kiss his ass. Later, with Booker down, Rhino imitated Booker’s mannerisms and did a terrible looking spinarooni of his own, which was hilarious. Finish came when Rhino missed a gore, and hit the corner, and Booker rolled him up for the win.

Borash then brought Kurt Angle out for an interview. Very similar to last night. He cut an out-of-character babyface promo, praising the fans and all the wrestlers in the back. He seemed more emotional tonight, as the chants for him were more sustained, and he appeared to wiping his eyes and trying to compose himself at various moments. In something different, he said he remembered all the great times he’d wrestled in the U.K. over the years and mentioned two opponents by name….. Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero. Yep. And in that order too. Benoit’s name received some boos but the majority were loud cheers, which really shocked me. Guerrero’s name was cheered by everyone.

6) In the main event, TNA World Champion, Samoa Joe defeated Abyss. This was hilarious, for numerous reasons, and it’s not often you say that about a Samoa Joe match. Very loud ‘Ole, Ole’ chants eventually led to Joe brawling with Abyss to the outside, setting him up in a chair at ringside, then doing a running face-wash into him. Then Joe decided to do a lap around the ring before another ‘face wash’ kick….. except he tripped on an upturned ringside mat on the home straight and fell over, and the spot was blown. Best was yet to come though. The section where I was sitting was very rowdy, as we were all standing up (the people behind me were standing on their chairs) and were generally leading the various chants. Dixie Carter came down from the balcony box and stood with us in our section for the duration of the match. They did a ref bump spot where Rudy Charles was squashed in the corner by Abyss, and Abyss had a visible three count on Joe, with no referee. Earl Hebner came running in to take over the count, but Joe kicked out at two. It was at this point that everyone around me began chanting ‘Fire Russo’. With Dixie stood, right there, next to us. She smiled. I think. Finish came when Joe gave Abyss a German suplex and pinned him. After the match, Rudy revived and was mad at Hebner for taking over. Hebner turned heel and clotheslined him and walked out. Joe posed for the live crowd, then left. The show finished at 9:25pm.

Post-Show:

Similar to the first night, Borash announced that there would now be a free autograph/meet-and-greet session in various rooms in the building and also at ringside. It was slightly better organised than the previous night, although was more rushed as you could tell the talent wanted to be back on the tour bus by 10:30pm. Security began to empty the building of fans at 10:10pm.

Overall verdict:

Another very enjoyable evening. As I mentioned before, it was the hottest crowd that I’ve ever experienced for a live show. The wrestling was good to very good. I could have done without hearing the Chris Benoit name, or more precisely, his name being heavily cheered (that was kind of depressing), and also the ref bump in the main event and the silly Hebner heel turn, but hey, this was TNA after all. I’d wholeheartedly recommend attending a TNA house show, even if you hate the tv shows. The remaining shows on this tour of the U.K., in Coventry and Brentwood over the weekend are both sold out, so close to 9,000 fans will have seen TNA over this four day period. They must have made a ton of money from this tour and I’ll be shocked if they don’t return within the next year. They already seem to be alluding to another U.K. tour on the TNA website, so I guess we’ll find out soon.

Hope this was of some interest. Viva la merger~!

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Thanks,

Stephen Lyon,

St Helens, England, U.K. {plug}