Crossfire TV taping results
November 3, 2012
Nashville, Tenn.
Report by Jimmy Eaton, PWTorch Common Fan specialist

My wife and I went to the first-ever Crossfire Pro Wrestling HD/3D TV taping at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds (formerly the original TNA Asylum) in Nashville, and...it was a pretty good experience. Ironically, as we got there a bit later than we wanted to due to some bad weather in Nashville, I almost walked right into "Cowboy" Bob Orton and Tito Santana. Usually I'd shy away from bothering anyone, but with no people around I just walked up, said hello, and thanked them after a handshake. Pretty sweet way to start the night! I saw them later posing for a photo with fans who walked up to them in passing, which was cool, too. They seemed classy in that regard. My wife thought they looked annoyed, but after a few hours of meet and greets I would be, too.

After grabbing some nachos, the show kicked off right as we sat down. We probably missed the introduction and dark matches because right away it was Shane Douglas coming out to brawl with Arrick Andrews.

- Shane Douglas beat Arrick Andrews. This one was pretty brief and we missed some of it with Shane Douglas picking up the win.

After this was another announcement to start the show so the first match may have not been for TV (they didn't say which were or weren't). They had two big screens by the entrance way that looks pretty good in terms of the video quality. After a former American Idol contestant performed the National Anthem, the show officially began around 7:15 p.m.

- First, there was a singles match that I believe involved Johnny Davis, Matt Taven, and Jimmy Vegas. My apologies for not getting the right info on this, as I could not find official results and did not take notes during the show. Yes, I know, I'm an awful broadcast journalist, but my wife would've yelled at me for taking notes when I paid to watch a show! This was a fun opener with some good nearfalls. The heel got the win via pinfall/frogsplash around the 10-minute mark. (**)

- "King" Shane Williams came out and cut a promo saying how he was going to retain the Crossfire World Title against Carlito. He bashed Carlito a bit and put himself over before Carlito came out to a good reaction, listened a little more, and tried to interrupt before getting cut off again by Williams. He then spit his apple in Williams's face before leaving to the crowd's cheers. Williams sold disgust.

- Cassidy Riley & Chase Stevens beat Diamonds in the Rough. Another fun match with the crowd absolutely loving Riley and Stevens. They got by far the largest reaction of the night. Hot tags were aplenty here with the face team of Riley and Stevens picking up the win. Simon Diamond (If I'm remembering correctly) moved and bumped very well for his size and age as well. Big kudos to those involved here. Cassidy and Stevens got the win via pinfall around the 10-minute mark. (**)

The crowd then welcomed Matt Hardy against Paul Burchill, who looks much bigger than I remember.

- Matt Hardy beat Paul Burchill. This was a slower match, but Hardy did his best and looked to be in better shape then I remember him in TNA. He didn't rush and seemed to really appreciate the crowd reaction. It looks like former TNA referee Rudy Charles is now a regular in Crossfire, so he got a lot of "Rudy!" chants. Hardy got the win via pinfall to the Twist of Fate around the 8-minute mark. Post-match, "The Hurricane" Shane Helms came out to ringside and clapped before walking to the back.

Maria Kanellis came out to a nice reaction for an appearance hyping the women's division of Crossfire. That match was next.

- Jillian Hall beat Angel Dust. This was a quick women's match that was still probably better than what you'll see on WWE TV. Considering this is the first time that I've seen Angel Dust, I noticed her size barely being five-feet-tall. My wife swore she was only 12-years-old, but of course that wasn't the case. For her size, though, she was very impressive and athletic. It's nice to see Jillian Hall actually wrestle for once, too. (*)

Post-match, Jessicka Havoc came out and put the boots to Angel Dust, but Reby Sky made the save to a good reaction. She came with a good ol' plastic chair to scare off Havoc.

- "King" Shane Williams beat Carlito. This was a very good match and easily the best of the night for me. Williams is very good at getting heat despite being from Nashville and he sold like a champ for Carlito, who also looked good in the match. They had multiple spots to the outside and I feel like I haven't seen Carlito wrestle this much ever since he wasn't used in this capacity during his time in WWE. Overall, afun match that saw Williams take the backstabber from Carlito, but he rolled out of the ring, which led to a small cradle when Carlito rolled him back in to steal the win and retain the title around the 15-minute mark. (***)

- Cassidy Riley & Chase Stevens beat Derrick King & Tatt2 around the 7-minute mark. This was the second tag match of the night that was basically the same as the first. A solid match with good selling and a hot crowd for Riley and Stevens once again. Post-match, Riley and Stevens cut a basic promo about beating whoever they face next. Nothing special, but the crowd reaction helped. (*/12)

- Chris Adonis (formerly Chris Masters in WWE) beat Brian Christopher around the 5-minute mark. This was by far the slowest match of the night, but I've seen much sloppier matches before. I can't say that Adonis oozes charisma, but he was certainly trying. He really reminds me of D.H. Smith in this regard. A challenge was made by Adonis for anyone to break his "Adonis Lock," and Adonis insulted Nashville a bit before Christopher came out to accept. It was a short match with Adonis ultimately winning via submission with the "Adonis Lock." One thing I hated in this match was a ref bump to set up an open chair shot from Adonis to Christopher. Yes, the chairs are plastic, but in today's age, this is completely unacceptable to the point where I almost walked out. (n/a)

Lastly, Hammerjack was interviewed and he was attacked, setting up a brawl on the outside. (It was funny to see fans jump from their seats to run outside and see.)

- Jerry Lynn vs. Kid Kash in a chain match occurred. I missed this match after leaving early, but @Randelic tells me that Kash got a ton of heat, and did as well as at the August TV taping.

Finally, I wouldn't have been shocked if Reby Sky took on Havoc, but since we ended up leaving early (around 8:45 p.m. since our backs were starting to kill us from the bleachers), there may have been a few other matches we missed. Regardless, for around 30 bucks including food, parking, and two tickets, it was a fun experience that we'd do again. It was probably cheaper than a movie at least and it seems that the whole event was around two hours. Sorry for my lack of 100 percent complete information, as I may have some of the matches or segments out of order, but most of it should be correct.

January 5 was announced as the next show date. Overall, the wrestling was solid with some good matches including both tag matches featuring Cassidy Riley and Chase Stevens, along with the Shane Williams-Carlito championship match. Some of the matches were on the slower side, but no major botches or abominations of wrestling occurred from what I could see. The crowd was pretty hot throughout and reacted strongly to some of the hometown guys, particularly "King" Shane Williams and the team of Chase Stevens & Cassidy Riley.

The sets (as pictured below) were actually pretty nice, too, with solid lighting and a decent entrance. Honestly it wasn't much of a stepdown from ROH in my estimation. They did take some jabs at TNA before kicking off the show saying that "another wrestling company was here, but they left! Show them that they made a mistake!" I laughed at that because there are much better venues then this out there, but for the sake of fans who live here it would be nice to have wrestling again on a regular basis. I certainly won't complain either. However, I won't give this show an overall score due to the fact that I left a tad early and missed a few matches.

I've now been to a Crossfire Wrestling taping in Nashville, TNA taping in Orlando (multiple times), and an ROH taping in Louisville where OVW tapes. In all honesty, Crossfire flowed the best with little interruptions with much easier access to seating. Also, Crossfire had solid audio with no issues in quality that I could hear. They had a guy named The Voice doing a good job in-between matches and each wrestler also had music that, while it was generic at times, still felt prolific enough to fit with their setting. In a nutshell, Crossfire comes across as a more professional and straightforward compared to the two formers when it comes to TV tapings experiences. So, kudos to Crossfire in that regard, and for only $10 a ticket (General Admission), I'd recommend checking it out if you're in the area. Granted, this is despite my wife's general reaction of "meh, it was okay," but she's used to the bigger names/setting/pyro in WWE and I appreciate her coming regardless. We paid around 30 bucks including food, parking, and our two tickets. It was a fun experience that we'd do again and it was probably cheaper than a movie, too. I believe the taping was just under three hours including the pre-show.

The next TV taping on Jan. 5 will be the company's one-year anniversary show featuring Rowdy Piper, Dutch Mantel, and Ricky Morton of the Rock and Roll Express. More info is on the Crossfire website here. To close this out, I have a few pictures below from where my wife and I were sitting in the top bleachers so you can see what the set looks like. Thanks for reading and until next time; goodnight and stay classy, San Diego.

Photo Gallery - Storify.com



Agree? Disagree? Keep the debate rolling on Twitter- @TheCommonFan

Jimmy occasionally writes a Retrospective/Perspectives of of the Common Fan column for the Pro Wrestling Torch on nostalgia/independent scenes and can be found on Sean Radican's Wrestling Community Audio page/show yapping about independent wrestling from time to time. He also blogs about gaming, sports, movies, and other entertainment mediums via his website, www.potcf.blogspot.com. Speaking of which, be sure to "Like" the Radican's Wrestling Community Page! - SeanRadicanRWC.

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