TNA house show results
September 17, 2010
Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
Report by Jack Hale, PWTorch reader

Before the show, there was a meet and greet for the people who had $50 tickets. They had most wrestlers going around ringside signing and taking pictures, including Rhino, Styles, Shelly, Sabin, Pope, Kazarian, Abyss, Rayne, and referees Slick Johnson and Brian Hebner available. Also, Don West was leading the event and selling merchandise. When they opened the doors to the general public, Moore and Neal signed at the merch table.

Jeremy Borash came out and hyped the crowd and talked about giving passes. A guy came out and said that A.J. Styles didn't want any passes. Borash over-ruled and started giving them out. This brought out A.J., who took the passes from JB. This brought out Jarrett, who challenged A.J. to a match for the right to have passes.

(1) Jeff Jarrett beat TNA TV champion A.J. Styles in a non-title match. Good match that had the ref get knocked out during a Styles Clash attempt. Styles then grabbed the TV Title and hit Jarrett, getting the win. That was until JB and the guy from the skit complained to the ref and got the match re-started. An angry Styles argued with Hebner and then slapped the ref. Hebner pushed Styles, who got rolled up by Jarrett to win.

2) Velvet Sky beat Madison Rayne. Madison is now rocking brown hair. There was a lot of booty shaking between the two, especially taunting each other over entrances. The match was better than the usual Impact Knockouts match since it had more time and the crowd actually cared. Velvet hit a DDT for the win.

(3) "The Pope" D'Angelo Dinero beat Rhino. Both men played face, although Rhino used some heel tactics in the ring. The crowd dug both guys, and we got another good match. The finish had Rhino trying for the Gore, but he missed and crashed into the turnbuckles. This allowed Pope to hit the DDE for the win.

(4) TNA tag team champions Motor City Machineguns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) beat Ink, Inc. (Shannon Moore & Jesse Neal) to retain the TNA Tag Titles. The crowd loved both teams. We got a very good match with lots of high-flying. In the end, Neal was taken out by a Shelley suicide dive, which left Moore alone with the Guns, who hit the Skull and Crossbones for the win. After the match, the Guns showed Ink, Inc. respect and posed with them.

[Intermission had Madison Rayne signing autographs and taking pictures.]

(5) Samoa Joe beat Kazarian. Another good match with Kaz hanging with Joe by hitting some of his springboard moves. After hitting his corner uranage, Joe tried for the Muscle Buster, but Kazarian escaped. Kaz tried a roll-up that Joe countered into a rear-naked choke that caused Kazarian to tap out soon after. After the match, Joe got the mic and put over TNA for having the best wrestling and the fans for being great.

(6) Jeff Hardy beat Abyss in a Monster's Ball match. Hardy is still very over with the crowd among all demographics. Hardy was favoring a leg, which Abyss used to his advantage. Not long into it, weapons were brought in. Both hit each other with chairs, cookie sheets, garbage cans, and their lids. After hitting a chokeslam for a two count, Abyss brought out the tacks. He tried to superplex Hardy into them, but Hardy blocked and ended up powerbombing Abyss into the tacks. Hardy then nailed a Swanton Bomb to win a very good match. Abyss's arm was bleeding from the bump, so he wasn't taking it easy for the house show.

After the show, Hardy signed photos in the ring for what seemed to be 98 percent of the crowd. Machine Guns, Ink, Inc., and The Pope then signed autographs again at ringside. Jarrett and Velvet signed at the merch table.

It was the second time for TNA to come through the area. Their first visit was last November at an ice rink in Scranton. This was a big step up. The Mohegan Sun Arena is good for a WWE TV event every eight months. Some of the building's highlights are the 2007 Draft a/k/a Vince Blows Up, the Roethlisberger Raw, and just recently the "Serena falls off the wagon" Smackdown. For WWE events, they can put around 8,000 people in. TNA didn't use half of the arena, but they put around 650-700 people in. Considering that this event was not really promoted, they did well attendance-wise and the crowd was into every match. After all, there were few commercials during Impact and even the "Coming Soon" ticker on Impact only mentioned the show once or twice.

Overall, TNA put on a show that blew away most of the WWE shows I've attended. It was a much friendlier event than anything WWE puts on. While TNA's booking can be frustrating, their live events are a must to attend when they come to your area.

[Torch art credit Joe Borzotta (c) PWTorch.com]

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