Jabroni’s Corner: TNA House Show Report from Lincoln, NE
Hi there fellow jabronis. Last week, TNA Wrestling made a stop in my “home away from home”, Lincoln. I knew right away we’d have a good time because we managed to meet one of the TNA stars at the bar before the show. I’ll have more on that later, though. On to the show…
TNA’s debut in Lincoln, NE took place at the Pershing Center. The center can hold about 7,000 people and I’d esitmate that there were about a thousand. It looked empty, but if you think about it, 1000 people isn’t that small of a crowd. I don’t think any other promotions outside of WWE can draw that many to a show, so hopefully TNA wasn’t too disappointed with the size of the crowd and will return to Lincoln. Our seats were very close; maybe fifteen rows back, and it was very cool seeing the six-sided ring up close.
Jeremy Borash served as the ring-announcer/hype-guy for the night. He did a pretty good job at it, but I would have liked to see him run around in circles yelling like the Wrestling Society X guy used to. A really nice touch about Borash is that he would announce each match with the old standard “This match is scheduled for one fall with a 20-minute time limit” and announce each wrestler’s weight and home town. I still like it when they at least try to make it seem like a sporting event. Remember: Jabroni’s Corner Rule # 1 of Entertaining Professional Wrestling: “Fake Sport” is better than “Bad Soap Opera.”
Match # 1: Curry Man vs. Sonjay Dutt. This was a great way to open the show. I’ve never like Sonjay Dutt, and I wish Christopher Daniels would drop the Curry Man gimmick, but they really managed to entertain. Dutt played the heel in this match and did a great job. He grew the obligatory facial hair and used a lot of old school heel tactics. While I’m not a fan of the Curry Man gimmick, he got the crowd into the match. Curry Man is also a testimony of how great Christopher Daniels is, since it’s a completely different character and move-set than his other character. And the mask covers up his gigantic head, which is always a good thing. Curry Man won the match with the “Spice Rack.”
Match # 2: ODB vs. Gail Kim in a “number one contender” match. For reasons unknown, the woman with the hardest name in wrestling to spell, Jacqueline, inserted herself into the match. ODB was really over here, but I have to confess, I’m not on the ODB bandwagon. She just reminds me of G.L.O.W. Gail Kim pinned Jacqueline to win the match.
Match # 3: Kip James vs. BG James w/ “Bad Ass” Joel. “The New Age Outlaws Explode!!” So here’s the fun part. We were at a nearby bar before the show. Some guy and his wife were there taking shots. A local radio promotion had a contest for to find a fan to be a “manager” for on of the matches. And sure enough, the guy sitting at the bar taking shots was the man who would become “Bad Ass” Joel. We chatted for a little bit, and then he and his wife stumbled on to the show. He got to say something on the mic (I don’t remember what) before the match started. I knew I should have entered that contest. The match was so-so, with BG James pinning Kip while grabbing his tights.
Match # 4: James Storm vs. Rhino. This was match of the night. Storm gave a good heel promo before the match, pointing out the fat chicks in the crowd and complaining how he can’t find a girl in Lincoln in that weighs less than 200 lbs. He earned a “Brokeback Mountain” chant in return. Rhino played a good face and won the match with the gore.
Match # 5: Samoa Joe and Jay Lethal vs. AJ Styles and Tomko. I like Joe, Styles, and Tomko. Lethal is a great worker, but man I hate the Macho Man gimmick on him. Tomko is huge up close. Samoa Joe is huge, but in a different way. Everyone worked pretty stiff, and the finish saw Styles pin Lethal with a spring board splash.
Match # 6: Booker T vs. Robert Rude. A “Bobby sucks!” chant caused Robert Rude to do the “I will leave this building” bit. Booker T got a good babyface reaction and Rude played an incredible heel. Match ended with Booker T doing his normal finishing move-set to win the match. These guys, along with Samoa Joe and AJ Styles should be fighting for the TNA title (which is currently held hostage by part-time wrester, Kurt Angle.)
After the show, Booker T stayed in the ring for a $20.00 autograph signing. Other wrestlers signed autographs for free at ringside.
Other thoughts: TNA is definitely a fan-friendly company. I would highly recommend attending a house show if they show up in your area. You’ll get great seats for a reasonably price. Everyone worked hard and the audience was live. My only complaint is that in TNA, the top guys are not full time wrestlers (Kurt Angle, Sting, Christian Cage.)
This week’s homework assignment: Post an idea about how TNA could become a better wrestling company. And try to keep it positive.
Tags: Kurt Angle, Wrestling, Christian Cage, TNA, Lincoln, Nebraska, Pershing, Jabroni, Samoa Joe, Tomko, Sting, Booker T, ODB, Gail Kim, bar, house show, debut, six-sided ring, Borash, Wrestling Society X, Curry Mann, Sonjay Dutt, Chris Daniels, Jacqueline, Kip James, BG James, Bad Ass Joel, The New Age Outlaws, James Storm, Rhino, Brokeback Mountain, Gore, Jay Lethal, Black Machismo, AJ Styles, Robert Roode, autographs
April 12, 2008 at 11:25 am
Remember when Taz held the FTW belt in ECW. “FTW” meant “Fuck the world,” which I always thought was stupid. I always thought that it should have meant “Full Time Wrestler” instead, since Shane Douglas sat out for most of the year with an injury.
So one way to improve TNA, would be to do that storyline with Joe. Have Angle and Joe start a storyline where Angle is refusing to wrestler. Since he is already only wrestles once and month, they should make that an angle. Joe could start carrying around a “Full Time Wrestler” belt, maybe have him win the X-Division title and use it for this, and giving face promos about how he wrestles for the fans and travels for the company, while Angle sits at home and defends the title a little as possible.
April 12, 2008 at 12:38 pm
I think TNA was rocking it before Russo came along to reiterate everything that has already been done. The great thing about TNA was that they were smart enough to pull in guys like Christian, but then they did exactly what McMahon would do–hold them down and not let them carry the crowd.
TNA should do away with scripts for guys like Christian and let him run his mouth.
TNA should hold Russo accountable for coming up with something NEW and INTERESTING.
Most of all, allow the X-Division to go crazy again. Stop inserting people like Nash and Joe and just let the crowd have something that McMahon won’t give us.
I don’t know if those three things would FIX TNA, but I’m not really sure it’s broken right now. It just needs to separate itself from Vince McMahon to really be a contender.
April 14, 2008 at 5:15 pm
I agree with James that they should try new and interesting. Like I said earlier, the MMA style match wasn’t the best thing I ever saw but I was glad to see someone have the balls to try something new. And I really think they need to push their true TNA guys. Having Angle and Booker as the face of the company is okay but they should be setting themselves apart by pushing guys like Joe and Matt Morgan. And I don’t know - people that cry about WWE having crappy technical wrestlers love TNA and people that don’t care for TNA wrestlers’ mic skills stick with WWE. So maybe there’s a happy medium somewhere like the one WWF found between WCW and ECW back in the day. Above everything else TNA should stay fun. I know a lot of people don’t like guys like Curry Man but I think there’s something there.