TNA house show report
June 4, 2009
Kent, Washington
Report by Michael Henrichsen, Torch reader

For those who don't know Kent, Wash. is a smaller city about 15 miles south of Seattle. On TNA's West Coast tour, I'm assuming that TNA expected big numbers in terms of attendance. Arena officials claimed 800 people would be at the show. All of the floor seats were sold out, granted you could still buy a third row seat the day of show. Had a big turnout of people buying at the box office with a quite generous crowd seeing how poorly this show was promoted. Remember this area just had 12,000 fans go to No Way Out back in February.

(1) X Division champion Suicide and Daniels went to a 15-minute draw. Second best match of the night, right behind - go figure - a later on triple threat match with two of the above mentioned wrestlers. Quite shocked the amount of effort given for just a house show. Crowd popped huge for the BME. (**1/2)

(2) Taylor Wilde beat Velvet Sky in 8:00. Typical women's match, nothing much to it. Crowd kinda died down during this segment. (*)

(3) Knockouts champion Angelina Love beat Taylor Wilde in 4:00. This match followed the last women's match and again, not much effort from both women. (*)

(4) Eric Young beat Matt Morgan in 8:00. A very short match, nothing exciting. Eric Young was way over and Morgan drew a fair amount of heat. (*)

-- 15-minute intermission. (Text TNA mobile to win backstage passes.) TNA was very high on using the "you can get backstage" pitch to get the crowd riled up tonight.

(5) Legends champion A.J. Styles beat Daniels and Suicide in a three-way match in 18:00. WOW. After a subpar first half of the show, the crowd and wrestlers came alive for this match. The ridiculous bumps and moves performed for a house show caught me way off guard. Easily the best match of the night and better then most TNA PPV matches I have seen recently. Crowd was RED HOT for this match and very appreciative of all three men's efforts. Styles wins with the Styles Clash on Daniels. (***3/4)

(6) TNA tag champs Team 3D (Brother Ray & Brother Devon) & Jeff Jarrett beat Beer Money (Robert Roode & James Storm) & Sheik Abdul Bashir in 20:00. Team 3D and Jarrett won with a double team 3D through a table on Sheik with Jeff Jarrett helping Devon lift up Sheik. Some good wrestling, nothing to complain about. A good match with a crowd pleasing ending. (**)

-- After the show, Borash and Team 3D hyped up the possiblity of a PPV coming to Seattle, saying we were the best crowd on the tour so far. After drawing just 800 fans, I would be hard pressed to believe a PPV would be in this area anytime soon. They gave a piece of the table to a kid who had TNA shaved into the back of his head... a bit much. Also gave thanks to a soldier in the audience and got the token USA chant. TNA then charged 20 bucks for a pic with Team 3D after the show. There were also ringside autograph signings with Young, Daniels, and Styles.

Given that three wrestlers (Daniels, Wilde, and Suicide) worked double duty tonight, Seattle got the shaft in terms of talent. A total of 14 wrestlers were on the card - six were in the main event and three wrestled twice. If you want to draw a crowd, you must bring some more variety then this.

I went into this show with no expectations and went out glad I went to the show. If you didn't show up and are a TNA fan, you didn't really miss much besides the amazing three-way Dance. After attending a WWE, TNA, and ROH show in the past year, I have to give it up to Ring Of Honor. No one puts on a better show with the work ethic of their wrestlers and a fun atmosphere.

For TNA, I think if they wanted a large crowd, they could have picked a venue in the actual city of Seattle and have Vancouver and Portland fans drive down. There's potential for a future TNA show to draw 1,500.

MVP's of the night easily go to Styles, Suicide, and Daniels.

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