TNA house show report
February 12, 2010
Norfolk, Va. at the Ted Constant Center
Report by Stephen Ownby, Torch VIP member

My roommate, girlfriend, and I drove three+ hours to Norfolk from Longwood University in Farmville, Va. It was the first TNA show for all three of us, and I must say we were impressed. We met Ric Flair before the show and Ric was very reserved and classy, even as TNA staff rushed fans past him.

***imae2***Great action throughout the show, especially in the Kurt Angle vs. A.J. Styles main event. The Pope was way over. If Norfolk was any indication of other crowd reactions to Dinero, TNA is going to have to do major things with this man.

After the show, we got autographs from Angelina Love, Generation Me, Jesse Neal, Earl Hebner, Consequences Creed, and D'Angelo Dinero. We were very impressed with the effort TNA makes to give the fans that little extra. Also, Neal and Dinero were especially fan-friendly and signed autographs for a good amount of time. Dinero had to be shuffled away so that the crew could take down the ring. A total class act.

Don West's "insane deal" was a Ric Flair t-shirt, TNA bag, and 4-DVD combo for $20. Not bad at all.

Jeremy Borash did almost everything at this show. He handled the MC/ring announcer duties, reacted in pro-babyface fashion to the matches, and even handled the music during the post-show signings with iTunes on his laptop. I honestly don't know if TNA could run without JB.

So, altogether, a great show. The Angle-Styles match ranks just below a Jeff Hardy vs. Edge match I saw last year as the best live match I have ever seen. TNA really puts a lot of effort into creating grassroots support. While the show felt less "larger than life" than WWE, it made up for this with accessibility and fan interaction.

Biggest pops: Ric Flair (by a lot), Angle, A.J., Beer Money, Jarrett, and Pope.

Most heat: Daniels and Wolfe got a lot of boos. Daniels can really work a crowd as well as anybody. The British Invasion gets that cheap, xenophobic heat that should no longer be present in 2010.

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