TNA Impact TV taping report
June 25, 2014
New York City
Report by Scott Lunn of Holly Springs, N.C., 10+ Year Torch Reader

- Overall Notes: The Grand Ballroom at The Manhattan Center is quite small and the layout they used was maybe designed to seat about 2,000-2,500. The floor seats were almost entirely full and tightly packed together, but the balconies were maybe one-third-full at best. I'd say actual attendance was more likely 1,500 at most, and that might be generous.

This was very unlike a WWE crowd and was very vocal despite small numbers. Chants also contained a ton of profanity and whoever edits the audio for TNA has their work cut out for them.

July 17 Episode

The taping started with Kurt Angle in the balcony bringing up a lot of old names and talking about the history of TNA. Basically, he mentions it's a relaunch and they're excited about the future. He introduced Taz in another area of the balcony, and brings up NYC roots and drops many ECW references.

(1) Ethan Carter III & Rhyno beat Bully Ray & Tommy Dreamer. Dreamer and Ray dominated, but Rockstar Spud came out for the distraction and EC3 scored a roll-up on Dreamer.

(2) Austin Aries won an X Division Title Gauntlet match. Aries started off against Eddie Edwards. Order of entry was Manik, D.J. Z, Davey Richards, Tigre Uno, Crazzy Steve, and Sanada. Basically, a spotfest with no rhyme or reason. After top rope eliminations, the final two were Aries and Sanada. Good back and forth with Aries coming out on top.

(3) Eric Young & Bobby Roode beat MVP & Kenny King via DQ. MVP sold his knee injury and avoided contact throughout. Roode and EY gained the upper hand until MVP brought in his crutches for the DQ and beat down.

(4) Madison Rayne beat Brittany. Fans immediately resorted to catcalls and "going into business for themselves" and gave no attention to this match. Rayne got the win after a short back and forth. Not as bad as fans made it out to be.

(5) TNA World Hvt. champion Bobby Lashley beat Jeff Hardy to retain the TNA World Title. Big pop for Jeff and good heat on Lashley, too. The match was solid, though Lashley didn't show a ton. Some brutal work with the stairs and by far the biggest moment of the night when Jeff Hardy went for a Swanton onto Lashley on the steel steps, but Lashley rolled out of harm's way. Lashley rolled Jeff into the ring and hit him with a spear to retain the title.

Rockstar Spud came out and introduced Dixie Carter, who was flanked by EC3 and Rhyno. Dixie had so much heat that I barely heard half of what she said. Dreamer and Bully Ray came out and cleared the ring, cornering Dixie. Rhyno recoverd and helps Dixie escape through the crowd and out came Devon for a Dudley reunion, which saw EC3 get the wassup/3D through a table.

Taped for Xplosion

(a) KO champion Gail Kim beat Velvet Sky (w/Angelina Love) to retain the Knockouts Title. A little more respect shown than the previous KO match, but not by a ton. Pretty typical match for the two with the finish coming when Earl Hebner stopped counting Sky's pin attempt as she was holding the ropes. He kicked her hands free and Kim got the roll-up to retain.

July 24 TV taping (presumably)

(1) Low-Ki squashed D.J. Zema. Bro-Mans came out and ran their mouths, then Low-Ki made his return. Essentially a squash as Low-Ki got in all the offense for the win.

Great Muta was out next presumably to promote the partnership with his company and Bound for Glory heading to Tokyo. Robbie E. quickly interrupted and an impromptu fight broke out.

(2) Great Muta beat Robbie E. Muta got a quick win. Then, James Storm hit the ring and said he's the legend in TNA and Muta's reputation is worthless. He beat up on Muta until Sanada came out for the save. Storm cleared the ring and then Sanada turned on Muta, hitting him with a chair and a moonsault.

Jeff Hardy was next out, selling the effects of the missed Swanton on the steps. He talked about everyone wanting Jeff Hardy back, but that we'd see Willow again (met with boos). He also said he has brought back somebody important, so introduced Matt Hardy. Matt entered to a nice pop and explained his absence. He said he has come back because the Hardys have made history winning multiple tag titles, but he thinks they've got one more run in them. He challenged The Wolves at Destination X, which brought them out. There was a respectful agreement and the match was on for next week (taped tomorrow night).

Kurt Angle came down to the ring and introduced Austin Aries. He says Aries has to decide if he wants to exercise Option C and cash in his X Division Title for a shot at Lashley and the Heavyweight belt. Aries started to speak on the importance of the X Division, but was quickly interrupted by Lashley and MVP. MVP ran down Aries, saying he's no match for Lashley. Aries did some good mic work and got the crowd behind him, ultimately handing Angle his belt, and choosing to face Lashley at Destination X.

Dixie Carter was in the balcony along with King Mo, talking to Jeremy Borash. She said she's sick of Dreamer and the Dudleys and that she should have never given into Dreamer's requests to revive those three letters. Mo says almost nothing, and the segment is over.

(3) Ethan Carter III & Rockstar Spud & Rhyno beat Tommy Dreamer & The Dudleys in a New York Street Fight. Typical spots with chairs, trash cans, a cookie sheet, and a cheese grater. Dreamer and the Dudleys were dealing out punishment when a man in a black hooded sweatshirt jumped the rail and battled Bully Ray. As security tried to keep them apart, another man dressed the same came from the other side of the crowd and took out Dreamer, allowing EC3 to score the pin. The men were revealed to be Ezekiel Jackson and Snitsky. Dixie and King Mo made their way to the ring and they all stood tall to end the episode.

After all this, Jeremy Borash announced another match being taped for Xplosion. Bro-Mans came out but the crowd was heading for the exits for the most part, myself included. We were a full three-and-a-half hours in at that point and had run out of steam in the hot, cramped ballroom.

I have never been to a TNA show and in fact, only ever attended WWE and WCW arena shows. This was a very different environment for sure. The crowd was entertaining at times, but even got admonished by Borash for putting themselves over instead of the action in the ring at one point.

Speaking of Borash, that man earns his money. He was very good at hyping the crowd all throughout the night. I was a bit underwhelmed as a whole by the show, as there was very little direction or purpose for the most part and they didn't really explain what was being taped for when most of the night. The second episode contained practically no actual wrestling, so I'm curious to see what gets put where on the broadcasts.

There was a lot of ECW nostalgia going on and it seemed very much like many of the talent were trying very hard to make it seem like NYC should be the new home base for the show. Borash basically ripped Orlando completely at one point. Anyways, for all the talk of reboots and the future, there sure was a ton of trying to ride ECW coattails going on.

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