Shades of Gray #19: TNA House Show Report

Last night at the John Labatt Centre in London, Total Non-Stop Action Wrestling held its second-ever live event in Ontario. TNA had a small house show tour of Quebec and Ontario last winter and produced a fairly strong gate in Oshawa at the General Motors Centre (where the No Surrender PPV is taking place tonight). I attended the show in Oshawa last December – it was filled with solid wrestling and fan participation, and I greatly anticipated last night’s event. So I grabbed a couple buddies, had a few beers, and headed downtown "to cross the line." Here’s a run-down of the show . . .

Non-title X-Division Match : Showtime Eric Young vs. Johnny Devine vs. Petey Williams

Devine and Petey worked most of the match with Showtime waiting under the ring. When Showtime finally re-appeared, it was as Super Eric, and he cleaned house for the win (with a double death valley driver). I wish it would have involved more Showtime (he’s definitely the best worker of the group even if he doesn’t get the chance to show it on “iMPACT!), but it was a solid opener nonetheless.

“The Guru” Sonjay Dutt vs. Consequences Creed

This was really confusing because both guys played heel. First, Creed came out with his Apollo Creed gimmicks, playing up the stars and stripes. Then Sonjay Dutt came out, collected some money from fans at ringside, stole it and continued taunting the crowd throughout the match. Creed won with rollup in a match where the crowd was booing both workers.

TNA Knockout Women’s Championship: Taylor Wilde vs. Angelina Love w/ Velvet Sky Special Referee: Traci Brooks

This was probably being used as a rehearsal for their match tonight in Oshawa. Unfortunately for the women, the fans were more interested in the other TNA in this match, chanting “We want puppies?” Seriously? People still chant that? Anyways, Traci accidentally ended up as a heel ref when she barred Sky from ringside– the fans were loving the view Sky was providing with her short skirt up until that point. Wilde won with some help from Traci.

A.J. Styles vs. Sheik Abdul Bashir

This was definitely the match of the night up to this point. Just your classic, simple match with A.J. throwing in his aerial arsenal for the high spots. A.J. won with the Styles Clash.

Kurt Angle came out (with a goofy smile on his face) to address the fans, saying that Canada had the best fans in the world, and it's reactions like the one he received that keep him from retiring. He went around ringside shaking hands with all the fans in the first couple rows. It sucked that he didn’t wrestle, but I guess he was resting for the PPV tonight.

TNA Tag Team Championship: Beer Money vs. Motor City Machine Guns

This match was the most newsworthy of the night. First of all, Jackie had her front teeth knocked out when Robert Roode accidentally hit her with a forearm on the apron. I could see the teeth fly out of her mouth, and she was crouching over at ringside holding her mouth immediately after the forearm- she looked hot and went straight to the back after Roode made the pin.

Apparently James Storm was hurt during the match too (I think I missed it because I was watching Jackie at ringside). It's being reported that Storm was knocked out cold in the match, taken to the hospital and diagnosed with a concussion. It will be interesting to see if Storm can go tonight- Roode will likely do most of the work in what will be a short match with LAX. And expect to see a toothless (the front ones anyways) Jackie in Oshawa.

~Intermission~

Abyss vs. Rhino

This was originally advertised as Booker T vs. Rhino, and I was very disappointed that Booker wasn't on the show. I'm a huge Booker T mark and the people who went with me were most looking forward to seeing Booker as well. Rhino won a spear after ducking Abyss' swing with the ringbell.

TNA World Heavyweight Championship: Samoa Joe vs. Christian Cage

Along with A.J.'s match, this was another match of the night candidate. I’d say the crowd was about 70-30 in favour of Christian. Joe won with a musclebuster and Christian put him over on the mic afterwards as well.

After the main event, a collection of talent (Petey Williams, Showtime, Traci, Taylor Wilde, MCMG, and others I can't remember) signed autographs for any fans in attendance who wanted one.

Other thoughts . . .

Jeremy Borash deserves credit for riling up the crowd before the start of the show and in between matches. I still think he's really annoying, though.

There was a pretty low turnout for the show. They used less than half the arena and there were hundreds of empty seats in the lower bowl - it really accentuated the difference between TNA and WWE, which routinely sells out the JLC for its televised events and house shows.

Overall, I'd say it was a pretty average show, and definitely did not meet the expectations set by the house show last year in Oshawa. No Kurt Angle (wrestling, that is), no Booker T, and no Cody Deaner didn't help either. There was definitely no match that made me say, "I'm really glad I saw this match." Maybe the boys were saving themselves for the PPV tonight.

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