TNA house show report
January 15, 2010
Reading, Pa.
Report by Jack Hale, Torch reader

TNA's house show was held at the Sovereign Performing Arts Center, which isn't your usual wrestling venue. Instead of an open place like an arena or gym, it is a theater. It was odd seeing the ring up on the stage, but it did work and didn't hurt the show. To start things off, Mick Foley was signing autographs at the merchandise table. Don West was working the merch table and signing stuff. Jeremy Borash came out to warm up the crowd, or should I say put them into a frenzy with backstage passes. Any time passes were mentioned, this crowd exploded.

(1) Homicide beat Shark Boy. Homicide was hated by this crowd and he told the crowd not to call him "Homocide," which they naturally started calling him. A decent match that ended with Homicide reversing the Chummer with a Gringo Cutter. Homicide then tried to take Shark Boy's mask, but that was stopped by a Chummer.

(2) "Black Machismo" Jay Lethal beat Rhino. Rhino had a very loud section of the crowd cheering for him and the old ECW. Even when he got on the mic to turn on them, they mostly still cheered him. Lethal tried to get the crowd on his side, but it wasn't until later in the match that he started to win the crowd. The finish was Rhino going for the Gore, but Lethal side-stepped and rolled up Rhino to win.

(3) Abyss beat Dr. Stevie with Mick Foley as Special Enforcer. Foley and Abyss were very over. Foley threatened Richards not to cheat or he would get the sock. Abyss dominated until Stevie started cheating. Eventually, Stevie low-blowed Abyss and got a chair from ringside. He attempted to use it, but Foley took the chair from him. Stevie then turned around into the Black Hole Slam to end it. After the match, Foley and Abyss celebrated and Foley got the mic to make an announcement. Richards interrupted saying that the announcement should be a DQ for Abyss cause Foley cheated. Foley then punched Stevie and gave him the Socko Claw. Foley then announced that there was going to be a Haiti Fundraiser at the Belvedere Inn in Lancaster hosted by Awesome Kong and other wrestlers after the show. He said that for $500 Brutus Magnus would take a pie to the face, $1,000 the Beautiful People would do something sexy on the bar, and for $2,500 that Foley would match the donation.

(4) TNA Knockout tag champions Awesome Kong & Hamada beat the Beautiful People (Velvet Sky & Madison Rayne). Even though Kong/Hamada were supposed to be the faces, the crowd was chanting for the Beautiful People since they were the best-looking women in the place by far. The match was better than the Impact match they had, with Kong actually being the face in peril after some double-teaming. That didn't last long, as Velvet would end up taking an Implant Buster followed by a Hamada Moonsault.

[Intermission was the Beautiful People signing autographs.]

(5) Beer Money (Robert Roode & James Storm) beat TNA World tag team champions British Invasion (Brutus Magnus & Doug Williams) in a non-title Reading Street Fight. The Invasion came out and declared they wouldn't defend their titles since Beer Money blew their last chance. They then sang the U.K. National Anthem, which pissed the crowd off to no end. Even without that, Beer Money would have been over, but that put it over the top. Storm would then challenge the Brits to a street fight, which meant they fought some at ringside and hinted at throwing the Invasion into the crowd. The finish was Magnus taking Storm's Last Call and Beer Money taking out Williams with the DWI. Post-match, Beer Money brought a kid in a Beer Money t-shirt into the ring to celebrate.

(6) TNA World Hvt. champion A.J. Styles beat Daniels with Jeff Jarrett as the Guest Referee. I have to say that A.J. Styles was by far the most over face on the card. From before his music hit, to throughout the match, there was an A.J. chant. It reminded me of seeing RVD in the old ECW. During the match, Jarrett tried to punch Daniels, but he ducked, so Styles took the shot. Daniels hit the BME for a two count, and he then hit Jarrett. Daniels then attempted the Angels Wings, but Styles eventually reversed it into a Styles Clash. Daniels made it to the ropes to stop the move, but Jarrett kicked his hands and Styles hit it and won an excellent match. After the match, Daniels and Styles jawed at each other until Atlas Security took Daniels to the back.

TNA then did the usual routine of telling the crowd they can all go backstage, only to be denied, so backstage came to the crowd. Styles did pictures in ring for $20 a group. Jarrett signed at the merch table. Borash, Lethal, Abyss, Shark Boy, Beer Money, and Dr. Stevie signed around the stage.

This casual audience was into every match on the card. I have been to some WWE events where crowd apathy killed the event. This one enhanced a pretty good show and none of the matches sucked. I don't know how many people were in the balcony, but all of the ringside seats on stage appeared filled, as well as roughly 95-97 percent of the lower seats. Maybe 500 people total, but that could be very off.

A very good show that blew away the Roethlisberger Raw I attended a few months ago. The only complaint I have is the same one I had after the last TNA house show. After Styles did his thing on the mic setting up the after-show, he signed a few autographs at ringside until the camera people were ready to do the pics. There is no way to get an autograph due to the hurried pace the camera people and security have. Then after the pics are done, security rushed Styles to the back without signing anything. I don't know if its a deal of having to clear the arena by a certain time, Styles not wanting to do anything after spending the better part of hour in ring, or something else. But it's annoying that the one guy most people want an autograph from doesn't sign.

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