TNA house show report
May 17, 2008
Poughkeepsie N.Y. at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center
Report by Phil Strum, PWTorch.com reader

I'd say there were about 700-800 people in attendance at the show, if I had to give a ballpark figure.

(1) TNA World Tag Team Champions LAX defeated Team 3D when Homicide pinned Brother Devon following a frog splash. Solidly worked opener. Bubba mentioned that he and Devon worked the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in ECW, WWE and TNA to a big pop. Then he turned himself by mentioning at all three stops, the fans of Poughkeepsie sucked. I thought this was a really good choice for an opening match because it kept the crowd interested.

(2) Alex Shelley pinned Consequences Creed in a match that was billed as an X Division contenders match after Sliced Bread #2. Good fast-paced stuff here. Shelley seemed to be the crowd favorite here with a couple of chants throughout. There were some highspots interspersed in. The wrestlers shook hands before and after the contest. This match was originally billed as Petey Williams defending the X Division title, but Williams did not appear, and Johnny Devine switched matches.

(3) Awesome Kong & Jacqueline defeated Traci Brooks & ODB when Kong pinned ODB after the sitout Awesome bomb. The crowd rally knew Kong and even chanted for her at times. ODB always seems to be a favorite. Then again, so is Traci Brooks. Brooks seemed to have some fun after reviving ODB with the flask. No lulls in this one really.

(4) Matt Morgan defeated Johnny Devine after the F5. Devine came out and complained about Poughkeepsie calling us "slack-jawed troglodytes" at one point. Devine complained about not being one of the four men chosen by Jim Cornette on Impact, so he had something to prove. He was subsequently crushed by the enormous Morgan pretty quickly. Morgan was originally facing Tomko and then Kip James on the various lineups that came out for this show. The card is always subject to change.

(5) Rhino pinned Cowboy James Storm after a gore. Storm did a heel bit where he and Jacqueline did a prayer, basically asking God to have mercy on these awful people in Poughkeepsie, or at least that's what I think I heard. The crowd was solidly behind Rhino from the 30-year-old building's history with ECW. These two work very well together and had a very nice match. They brawled a little on the floor too.

INTERMISSION

Kurt Angle came out after intermission and said he came to TNA to do to things; 1. be the best wrestler in the world and 2. kick WWE's ass. He said he was happy to come to Poughkeepsie, apologized for being injured and said the next time he was in Poughkeepsie, he would be challenging for the TNA World Title.

Jeremy Borash did his in-ring TNA Today segment for the website. I must say, Borash is a very good emcee at live events. He really gets the audience going.

(6) "Showtime" Eric Young (as Super Eric) pinned Rellik (killeR spelled backwards, you know) after a flying elbow. With Rellik winning the match, E.Y. went under the ring and changed into the Super Eric getup and turned the tide. This went over very well live. Eric Young really knows how to work an audience. At the beginning of the match, a fan yelled out "Hey, there's Super Eric!" and Young said "where?" and started looking at the ceiling.

(7) TNA World Heavyweight Champion Samoa Joe pinned Tomko after a muscle buster. Pretty good reception for both men. This was originally supposed to be Joe vs. Tomko. Joe got his topé in, as well as the facewash and the kicks and kneedrop. I enjoyed the match. Joe is a legitimately talented guy and I've always found Tomko to be terribly underrated as a talent.

Notes: Overall, a fun live event. I felt bad that more people didn't go, but it is their first foray into the market. Hopefully, they come back and are not deterred by the small crowd. They did the usual autograph signing with photo ops and Angle in the ring for twenty bucks. The talent was very accomodating and I saw no one rejected myself.

I will post an interview I conducted with Samoa Joe at an autograph signing later and will have photos from the show on my blog at http://pojoslam.blogspot.com.

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