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Arena Reports
9/3 TNA in New York: Angle vs. Cage, LAX vs. Triple X, Joe vs. Styles, Harris vs. Storm Sep 3, 2007 - 8:56:00 PM
TNA house show report
September 3, 2007
Syracuse, N.Y. at the New York State Fair
Report by Shawn from Binghamton, PWTorch.com reader
-Prior to entering the coliseum there were several outdoor loud speaker announcements for "wrestling" or "TNA wrestling" at the Coca-Cola Coliseum at 2 pm. I was waiting for the announcer to say "TNA at the coliseum" which might have drawn some attendees out of curiosity (or complaints given the family friendly atmosphere of the fair), but no such luck. All the announcements emphasized wrestling, so I don't think should have been confusion over the awkward "TNA" name.
-A rough estimate of the attendance from my vantage point is 750. The ringside general admission was packed with seating on the dirt floor surrounding the ring. I got there about 20 minutes before the show started, and was stuck sitting a good ten rows back from the ring, which were the only "ringside" seats available. The arena general admission was at best one-third full and there were probably better arena seats available there than my more expensive ringside seat. The good news was that I could stand up to see the action without blocking anyone's view.
-Jeremy Borash was the ring announcer and came out to a pretty good pop to start the show. He mentioned that this was the first ever TNA event in the state of New York. Also, throughout the day, Jeremy made reference to Spike TV cameras filming the event, so there will probably be highlights on an upcoming TNA on Spike.
-Earl Hebner was the ref for most of the matches, although, he did not ref for Triple X vs LAX or Christian vs Angle matches. Later in the night, Earl also thanked the fans for coming out to the first ever TNA event in NY. There were a couple guys near me that kept yelling "You screwed Brett" at Earl at various times throughout the day.
(1) Eric Young defeated Robert Roode (w/Ms. Brookes) in 9 minutes by pinfall. Loud "She's a crack whore" chants early in the match directed at Brookes. Eric's pinfall came after using Brookes as a battering ram on Roode when Roode was sitting on the top turnbuckle, followed by Eric carrying both Roode and Brookes on his back, then double-slamming the two and rolling up Roode for the 3 count.
(2) Black Machismo Jay Lethal defeated Sonjay Dutt & Kaz in an X Division #1 Contender's 3 Way in 8 minutes. Pinfall was on Sonjay Dutt. Lethal was announced prior to the match as the number one contender to the X Division Title.
(3) Jackie Moore defeated Ms. Brookes in 5 minutes. Jackie used the DDT on Ms Brookes for the pinfall. At the half-way mark, Ms Brookes took a hard fall through the ringside barrier (a white heavy plastic thing, not the typical metal barriers, though) , actually knocking that segment of the barrier down. Brookes sold a back injury for the rest of the match. Of course, more catcalls directed at Brookes throughout.
(4) LAX defeated Triple X in 8 minutes. -Christopher Daniels was pinned.
(5) Samoa Joe defeated A.J. Styles in 11 minutes in the best match of the day -Pinfall after the Samoan Slam on A.J. -During this match there were brief "2CW" chants (a regional independent promotion that's had some shows in the area over the past few months).
-Following the match, there were a couple of guys handing out little 4" by 6" cut-outs promoting "Jessica" who is apparently going to be part of the next WWE Diva search. I'm really not at all looking forward to another Diva search contest on Raw, but according to the cut-out next week's Raw on the 10th will be the start of the contest.
20 minute Intermission with Somoa Joe signing autographs
(6) Abyss defeated Tomko in 5 minutes in a no-DQ match. Pinfall after chairshot followed by Blackhole Slam. Following this match Borash asked how many folks would like to have TNA for 2 hours on Spike to a modest reaction. He said things are in the works and he's hopeful that TNA we'll be getting another hour sometime soon.
(7) Chris Harris defeated James Storm w/Jackie Moore in 8 minutes. Pinfall came after Jackie Moore got into the ring, then Harris threw powder into the eyes of both Moore and Storm, then Moore (accidently?) low-blowed Storm with her arm Moore looked silly at the end of the match, as the announcer correctly proclaimed Harris the winner, yet Moore afterwards with powder still in her eyes raised the hand of Harris as if she thought he was Storm. She then ran away when she realized it was Harris. Harris was funny in the spot and thanked her for her help. Why would Moore raise Storm's hand after the announcer had clearly stated that Harris was the winner? Maybe the powder affected her hearing as well as her eyesight?
(8) Kurt Angle defeated Christian Cage in a TNA heavyweight title match with the Ankle-lock submission in 11 minutes. -A pretty good heel promo from Christian at the start of the match (and the only wrestler to have any mic work). He also got cheap heat by ripping on Syracuse for losing to Washington "on Saturday" (the game was actually Friday, though).
-Kurt wrestled as a face doing nothing to try to provoke the fans, nor did he resort to any heel tactics against Christian
-Overall, not a bad first event for NY. Only two no-shows (Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley). Nothing noteworthy from a story-line perspective (unless the hint of a Moore heel turn is noteworthy). The matches were generally too short… the two top matches Angle vs Cage and Joe vs Styles barely exceeded 10 minutes. I don't think anyone would have been disappointed to see those matches go for at least 20 minutes, even with the nice day and Fair activities going on outside.
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