TNA house show report
January 29, 2011
London, England
Report by Mohammad Z., PWTorch reader

I went to the Wembley Arena show today and it was a capacity crowd. It was jam-packed with just a few seats empty here and there at the back. Dixie Carter claimed it was the largest crowd in TNA history.

Jeremy Borash did his whole schtick with the backstage passes to get the crowd going.

(1) X Division champion Kazarian beat Shannon Moore and Chris Sabin in a three-way match to retain the X Division Title. Sabin was the crowd favorite, though they were chanting "Motor City" rather than Sabin. Kazarian was over as well. Even though Moore was playing a babyface, he was mostly booed. It was a so-and-so match and the wrestlers appeared to be just calling it in. Kazarian won with his reverse piledriver finisher.

(2) Matt Morgan & Mickie James & Angelina Love beat The Pope & Madison Rayne & Tara. Believe it or not, the crowd actually sang along to "Hardcore Country," which is strange because this is London and country music isn't that popular. Let me just state how over Morgan is as a babyface. Overall, this was a lousy match and most of the crowd seemed to be waiting for it to be over. There was one odd scene when Pope held Mickie James from behind and the crowd started screaming "Rape! Rape!"

(3) Jeff Jarrett beat Johnny Moss, a local independent wrestler. I think JB mispronounced Moss's name in the beginning. This was another very basic match with Jarrett winning with the guitar to the head, which received a huge pop even though Jarrett was booed throughout.

(4) TNA tag champions Beer Money (James Storm & Robert Roode) beat Brutus Magnus & a new partner to retain the TNA Tag Titles. Match of the night. Beer Money has got to be one of the most over acts in TNA right now. They received by far the most unanimous support throughout the night. Another amusing note - while walking to the tube station after the show, imagine a couple thousand people screaming "Beer" and almost every single person in the vicinity shouting back "Money." This continued all the way to the station.

(5) Rob Van Dam beat Matt Hardy. Matt Hardy was booed throughout his match against RVD, who was super over. RVD won with the Five-Star Frogsplash.

(6) Ric Flair beat Doug Williams via submission. JB introduced Douglas Williams as a future wrestling legend against a current legend, Ric Flair. Both men played babyfaces and both of them were cheered. Ric Flair won with the figure four leglock.

(7) TNA World Hvt. champion Mr. Anderson beat Jeff Hardy to retain the TNA World Title. Hardy was booed. London really seemed to dislike the Hardy Brothers. The crowd was clearly pro Anderson, who came out to a big pop. There were two kids behind me who were dressed in Hardy Boys gear, and seemed to be the only ones screaming "Let's Go Hardy." Anderson won, even after interference from Matt Hardy. Lot's of referee bumps in this one.

All in all, pretty good in comparison to a WWE house show, but not quite up to the standards they set in the previous year. I guess due to A.J. Styles, Angle, and Shelley missing, something had to give. On another note, the whole presentation was really nice. It looked even better than the Impact Zone, in my opinion.

[Torch art credit Grant Gould (c) PWTorch.com]

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