TNA house show results
August 19, 2011
Rome, Ga.
Report by Jason Hawkins, PWTorch reader

The Impact Wrestling World Tour came to The Forum in Rome, Ga. Friday night in front of around 1,200 fans. The crowd was super-hot all night long and responded very well to everything presented.

Before the show, I attended the meet and greet session, as I won a local radio contest, which included backstage access, $100 in free merchandise, and the chance to manage a Superstar for the night. Abyss, Crimson, The Pope, Mexican America, Magnus, Don West, and Gunner all came out and signed. Everyone was very cool, friendly, and appreciative of the fans attending.

Before the matches, Velvet Sky and Mickie James also did $10 photo-ops, which was doing good business. Don West is amazing at his job of a merchandise pitchman. Merchandise was selling like crazy, and I bet there were about 100 fans taking them up on the Jeff Jarrett guitar offer for $175 and an offer for backstage access to Jarrett, RVD, Anderson, A.J. Styles, and Beer Money.

Bruce Prichard and D-Lo Brown were there running the show. Dixie Carter and her whole family were also there, as Dixie’s dad and grandparents are from Rome. They filled up an entire row and Dixie was very friendly and excited to interact with fans.

On to the show: TNA tag champions Mexican America came out and cut a heel promo to get the crowd riled up to start the show.

(1) Crimson beat Magnus in the opener. Basic, yet good match. One of the backstage hands said that Crimson had never gotten that big of a pop and they all seemed pleased.

(2) Mickie James & Velvet Sky beat Angelina Love and Knockouts champion Winter. I got to be Velvet Sky’s manager, so I met the Knockouts backstage right before their match. All four were very friendly, and Winter even walked up and said “Hi, my name is Katie.” Earl Hebner wore his "I Did It" t-shirt and Bret Hart sunglasses. Before the match, I spent about ten minutes with Earl, who was awesome to talk to.

(3) Beer Money (James Storm & Robert Roode) beat "The Pope D'Angelo Dinero & Gunner in a Bound for Glory Series match when Storm rolled up Gunner. Beer Money was way over with the crowd. Afterwards, they invited Dixie into the ring and played the storyline of her being robbed of her company by Hogan and Bischoff. She said that her whole family had to buy tickets to attend, but spoke of her history in Rome and vowed to get the company back.

(4) Rob Van Dam beat Abyss. Good match with both guys working hard. Pretty even match until RVD rolled up Abyss to send everyone to intermission and the merchandise tables happy.

[Intermission - Angelina Love and Winter signed at the merchandise table. When I went through the line, Winter actually gave me the thumbs down motion and boo’ed before signing since I managed the babyface Knockouts team.]

(5) Mr. Anderson beat Jeff Jarrett with the Mic Check. Some stalling at the start, but the crowd ate it up. Once they got going, this was a really good match with both guys getting in their usual spots.

(6) A.J. Styles & Kazarian beat TNA tag champions Mexican America (Hernandez & Anarquia) in a non-title main event. A.J. was super over in his home state and Kazarian was popular as well. The crowd was all over Mexican America. A.J. rolled up Anarquia for the win to send the crowd home happy.

After the show, A.J. teased that Impact may be taped in Rome soon, which the crowd went nuts over. Jeremy Borash also hyped that, and even mentioned a pay-per-view being held in Rome.

They offered the $20 in-ring photos with Beer Money, A.J., and Kazarian to end the show, and the line was across the arena floor into the lobby.

On the way out the door, Jeff Jarrett was in the lobby signing for everyone and was super-friendly with the fans. All in all, a perfect evening and a lot of fun. When it comes to fun house show events and fan friendly interactions, TNA cannot be touched.

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

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