TNA house show report
October 3, 2009
Dublin, Ireland at 02 Arena
Report by Brian Leahy, PWTorch ROH Specialist

O2 Area, two-thirds full, approximately 5,000 people. Large number of teenage fans, older demographic than WWE show I've seen in the same venue. Loads of Beer Money shirts, quite a lot of Motor City Machine Guns shirts, too.

Show started at 8 p.m. sharp. Jeremy Borash came out, used usual back stage pass stick. Crowd ate it up. Put a little heat on the MEM saying that they didn't want any passes handed out, but proceeded to hand them out anyway.

(1) Sheik Abdul Bashir vs. Herandez. HUGE pop for SuperMex. Match starts off with powershows from Herandez and stalling from SAB. Ole chants for Herandez. Bashir worked the leg early, but SuperMex soon took over with a few power moves and finished it off with a sit-out powerbomb in approx. 8 minutes. Okay match, worked very light with no bumps until the last minute.

JB introduced Earl Hebner complete with music and rope poses. Usual booing and "You Screwed Bret" chants from kids far too young to even remember what happened.

(2) Taylor Wilde vs. Kong vs. Velvet Sky. Nothing much to say; Kong overpowers both other women, then gets lowbridged to the floor. Taylor with a northern lights on Sky for the win. 3 mins. Worthless wastefull fluff considering I know they can do more.

More ass kissing from JB. It's actually uncomfortable to hear, to be honest, but the kids love it. He says they've brought TV cameras here tonight and they'll be filming "every single fan" later on in the night to show the world. Likely.

(3) X Division Championship Match; Samoa Joe vs. Jay Lethal. Joe's wearing ROH C.M. Punk-style shorts and no face paint. Really good match, dives to the floor by both and more bumps per minute than both other matches combined. They both get all their spots in. Joe teases an Ole kick on the floor, flips the fans off, then Lethal hits an Ole kick of his own (Ole chant count-3). Joe wins at 12 minutes with a half and half suplex followed by a rear naked choke.

(4) The British Invasion vs. Beer Money (non-title). Magnus and Williams come out to MASSIVE heat. Scarily hot crowd. Williams talks about Irelands EU referendum and suggests that they have another referendum on whether or not Ireland should join the UK. At this point I'm genuinely fearing for the safety of Williams and Magnus. Beer Money come out to the biggest pop of the night. Lead the crowd in a "Beer"/"Money" alternating chant. Massively over. Beer Money dominate first 5 minutes, nice double simple double spots. Three minutes of heat on Beer Money before the hot Hot HOT tag to Storm. Big double team suplex, comedy crotch spots in the corner, then Beer Money tried for the DUI. The Brits swung back briefly before a huge powerbomb/electric chair/superplex stack in the corner. Beer Money hit the DUI for the 1,2,3 at 14 minutes. Great great match. Match of the night.

Intermission.

JB is back with more fan passes. Six minutes of telling the crowd how great they are, then filming the crowd going crazy. This I could really do without.

(5) Suicide vs. Rhyno. It's really disturbing to hear young fans chanting "Suicide" over and over. Rhyno looked huge. Got on mic and told the crowd they sucked. Suicide took the early advantage before Rhyno nestled down to a couple of chinlocks. Suicide made a comeback before taking a super fishermans suplex and a gore. Late, late kickout from Suicide. Rhyno sets up for another Gore, but falls victim to a sunset flip. Suicide with the win, and the crowd goes mild. Ok match. 7 minutes.

Earl Hebner gets on the mic to tell everyone he's "Glad he screwed Bret". Whatever.

Mick Foley out to the second biggest pop of the night. Usual Foley stuff. Says he's here to tweak the main event. He makes it no dq and sits at ringside.

(6) Scott Steiner & Booker T & Kurt Angle vs. Team 3D & Abyss. Full entrances for all. Steiner gets on mic and says Ireland was a cess pool and that it was better before it left the UK. Really cheap heat off the back of the British Invasion earlier. 3D enter through the crowd. Tables chant early on. Match runs as a regular tag match with rules enforced despite the stipulation. Senseless. Everyone tags in and out for a bit before Devon gets isolated. Steiner nearly kills himself falling off the apron while jawing with a fan. Then proceeds to pieface two front row fans. THEN nearly kills Devon with a botched top rope belly to belly suplex. Eventual hot tag to Abyss. 3D bring table into the ring and Steiner brings in a chair before Foley steps in with socko then feeds Steiner to 3D for a... D onto but not through a table for the 3 count. Match over in about 13. Angle did absolutely nothing to earn a pay day.

After the match, Team 3D put over how tough Irish tables are. Bubba suggested using JB to break the table, Foley says that JB is his friend. Devon brings in a piece of table that was broken at ringside during the match and 3D and Foley sign it and bring a kid into the ring to give him the table. Foley says safety is important in TNA and ties the kids laces. Crowd chats "Use the Kid" (put him through the table) and Brother Ray laughs it off. Devon picks up the kid in a bodyslam position but puts him down again. Kids family gets into the ring. "Use the Family" chant ensues. More laughs from 3D and Foley. Devon kisses mother of family. Lucky woman. Ray leads crowd in a "Foley" chant (ala Ole chant). Babyfaces flood the ring with beers. Devon dares Ray to kiss Taylor, but Foley intervenes and kisses her himself after saying they should show her the respect she deserves.

Show ends with faces all drinking beers in the ring.

Notes: Fun night. I could have done without the constant JB fan stuff, but otherwise a very enjoyable evening. I feel like TNA created some fans on the night, whereas WWE would just have gone though the motions. No return date announced despite TNA returning to the UK in January.

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