House Show In Evansville, IN Fan Report

God · 03-21-2008, 09:10 PM

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I just got home from the TNA house show in Evansville, Indiana, and this was an extraordinary show. And believe me, Evansville has seen its share of great wrestling. We've had WWF/E house shows and Raws, WCW Nitros, and of course USWA/Memphis wrestling featuring Jerry Lawler, Bill Dundee, Jeff Jarrett, etc. weekly for several years back in the day. This show lived up to the hype that I think a lot of people are giving their house shows and, I'd say, surpassed it.

The show started promptly at 7:30 with Petey Williams facing Jimmy Rave, with Christy Hemme. I'll be honest and say this was the match I was anticipating the least and was sure it would go on first just to get it out of the way. But it was quite the contrary - they put this one on first to build up to the evening that was to come. Williams and Rave both did an excellent job. The back-and-forth match that looked like it would surprisingly go to Rave at one point (after Rave broke up Williams trying to give the Canadian Destroyer to Hemme) eventually ended with Petey using the Destroyer on Rave for the win. Great bout.

They followed this up with the LAX taking on the team of Kaz and Curry Man. Hernandez is pretty unreal, and if LAX had any kind of microphone skills between the two of them they'd be right back to where they were when they had Konnan with them. But back to Hernandez - the guy was doing all of his usual power stuff while also showing off his uncanny aerial tactics. A really great showing by Hernandez in particular. On the other side, Curry Man was doing terrific job of pleasing the crowd with his comedy. He continued it through what turned out to be quite a long match, and it never got old, which is saying something. There's a lot of creativity to that character, and the audience ate it up. Meanwhile, Kaz was showing off his athleticism that we all know he has now. The leaps, the high kicks, and all the other athletic feats that we've become accustomed to with Kaz were all displayed. In the end, LAX took the win with a pin on Kaz.

From there, we went to Awesome Kong defended the Knockouts Championship against ODB. The crowd was very much behind ODB. Lots of chanting and plenty of jeers for Kong. TNA is successfully getting people to care about the matches their women put on, which is something that has been hard to come by in recent times. ODB played nicely to the crowd, to her credit, and Kong played up the giant, dominant role very well. The match ended with Kong doing her spinning powerbomb for the victory.

Booker T. then took on Robert Roode. Booker had a video camera with him and was taking video footage of the crowd. He got on the microphone and I believe explained something about working on a documentary. It was hard to hear, as the crowd was loving seeing Booker. Roode had Payton Banks with him. Sharmell didn't come out with Booker at first, but did later to cheer on her man. She eventually got into it with Banks, we got to see a Spin-a-roonie (though Roode thwarted the axe kick) and eventually a book end after blocking the fisherman's suplex. Booker with the W.

There was then an intermission, during which Booker T. hung out at the merchandise area and met with fans. Very cool of him.

Back from intermission, the TNA Tag Team Titles were on the line as AJ Styles and Tomko took on The Motor City Machineguns. This match was fantastic and was, at this point, the match of the night. And that's saying a lot, because the other matches hadn't exactly been dull. Styles and Sabin, in particular, worked very well together in the ring - reversing, countering, and chain wrestling to their heart's content. There was a lot of terrific double-team wrestling done by the Machineguns, which delighted the crowd. However, the audience was decidedly behind Styles. They would not be disappointed, as Styles and Tomko eventually would take the win following their double team finisher. This match was - no pun intended - phenomenal.

I say that match was the match of the night AT THE TIME because up next was the TNA World Heavyweight Title Match. Kurt Angle vs. Christian Cage. Before the match began, Christian took the microphone, addressed his peeps, and called Angle an "asshole." This got a lot of cheers. The match itself was utterly fantastic. Back and forth wrestling like you wouldn't believe. They were going at each other like it was a pay-per-view, putting their all into seemingly every single move. The "Let's go, Angle," "Let's go Christian" chants were amazing to hear live. The end of the match is so impossible to describe. For several minutes, it seemed like it was just back and forth reversals of finishing and signature moves. Including each OTHER'S finishing moves. The crowd was red hot for this, and my friends and I definitely concluded it was the best match we've ever witnessed in person. In the end it was Kurt Angle with the ankle lock, hooking Cage's leg with his own. Even then - after all the reversals, near falls, and counters, as Christian kicked at Angle's face to try to free himself, you thought he might - MIGHT just make it out of the the hold or get to the ropes. But he would eventually tap, and the match would end with Angle retaining the championship. You say "Duh," since it was a house show, but trust me when I say that crowd was so caught up in the moment it wouldn't have been a surprise to anyone if Cage had pulled it out.

After a very exciting show, they had Kurt Angle come back out into the ring where he took polaroid pictures with fans that came with an autographed paper TNA frame. This cost 20 bucks, but TONS of people (myself included) did it anyway. For any critic who might say it's wrong to charge, I say there's no way they could have accomodated everyone there if they'd have done it for free - AND you did get to stand in a TNA ring, get your picture taken with Angle and the World Championship belt, and get the autograph. Not a bad deal, really.

Also, Curry Man, Kaz, Homicide, Jeremy Borash, and ODB came out and took pictures with people and signed autographs around ringside.

Overall, just a true class showing by TNA and one awesome event. I'd say if you get the chance to attend a TNA show of any kind, do so. But especially a house show. They really know what they're doing when it comes to that more than anything. The wrestling speaks for itself.

Doug Sharp
Evansville, IN

I am yet to read a negative comment from anyone who has attended a TNA Event.