TNA house show results
April 20, 2012
Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
Report by Nick Sidel of Fort Lauderdale, PWTorch reader

The first thing I noticed walking in was that the set-up at the War Memorial was a little different. Now, I've been going to shows at the War Memorial Auditorium since ECW came here in '95, was at their third PPV, Hardcore Heaven '97, saw MLW, and attended a recent ROH show. TNA's twist on the set-up was having the guys come down from the front stage down the middle, instead of off the side. Maybe for less fan interaction? I'll get to that later.

Another thing I noticed was that the crowd was surprisingly smaller (should I really have been surprised?) and a little more family-oriented (more kids and elderly) than the Friday night ROH show a few weeks back. However, the crowd was vocal and into the show, but they were nothing compared to the ROH crowd. ROH's style brings out the hardcores and causes fans to go bananas, while TNA, for the most part is very tame and WWE-ish. Now, on to the show.

Jeremy Borash started the show hyping the crowd, which he did throughout the show. He told us that the main event championship match was being changed to a triple threat match.

(1) X Division champion Austin Aries beat Zema Ion to retain the X Division Title. All right match, with both guys playing to the crowd a lot. Aries did his usual spots, except for his awesome speeding bullet running dive, which I was waiting for. Aries eventually won with the brainbuster. After seeing ROH here a few weeks ago and knowing what these guys could do if they were allowed, I was disappointed, but not surprised. I was hoping that at a house show there was a chance they could go. Didn't happen.

(2) Knockouts champion Gail Kim beat Velvet Sky to retain the Knockouts Title. Pre-match, Borash introduced Earl "The Pearl" Hebner - he was doing his madman gimmick and tried to go after an obese man in the front row. The fan played along and took off his shirt, which was funny, but wasn't a pretty sight since he could've used Velvet's sportsbra or at least Kramer and Mr. Costanza's bro/manzier. Speaking of Velvet, she looked great. The match was the same stuff as always, seemed to last forever, and featured too many clotheslines. I blinked and missed Kim win with the Eat Da'feat.

(3) Crimson beat Matt Morgan.

(4) TNA tag champions Samoa Joe & Magnus beat Daniels & Kazarian to retain the TNA Tag Titles. Pretty good match. Daniels was really charasmatic continually doing a doggystyle humping dance and other things. Kazarian was jawing with a goofy guy pretending to be Ric Flair, wig and all. Nothing special match, and Joe was okay, but just seemed to be going through the motions. Magnus got the pin after the elbow drop off the top.

[ INTERMISSION. Don West actually made an appearance and was doing what he does best, hocking overpriced items. Gail Kim was doing pics and autographs and had a really long line. ]

(5) TV champion Devon beat Gunner to retain the TNA TV Title. Devon was really over. I don't know what anyone sees in Gunner. He might want to consider a name change, as anyone who's been locked up knows what the other meaning of being a "gunner" is. I know someone has to have told him by now, so I can't understand why he's keeping the tag.

Next was the three-way main event of Roode vs. Hardy vs. Bully Ray. Bully came out first and really milked it. He spent what seemed like forever until he got on the mic and berated the crowd, specifically the obese guy Hebner went after earlier. He said he wouldn't let any of the skanks down here touch his calves, which was funny. Jeff came out and the place went crazy, no one on the card came close. Such a shame and waste of his talents, but I can relate to his situation, it's a tough problem to have.

(6) TNA World Hvt. champion Bobby Roode beat Jeff Hardy and Bully Ray in a three-way match to retain the TNA World Title. The heels double-teamed Hardy, who made a comeback, which was the theme. Hardy hit a Twist of Fate on Bully, Roode threw Jeff out the ring, and Roode copped the pin. The match was too quick and paled in comparison to the ROH three-way a few weeks ago, which I didn't think was anything special.

After the match, they announced Jeff would be posing for pics at $10 a pop and he didn't even go to the back to wipe the sweat off. It seemed like half the crowd stayed for that, so he made some good money. That goes back to something I said earlier about fan interaction. The guys gave off the feeling like "let's get to the ring, get this over with, and let's get out of here." They didn't go around the ring to play with the crowd at all even after the matches. For some reason, that stood out to me, maybe too many heelish characters?

Overall, I had fun and the show was decent, but definitely the worst out of anything I've seen at the WMA. Also, it finished very quickly, barely cracking two hours. Once again, comparing it to the ROH show, which went three hours and had some great stuff on it, they look like the number three company or barely above an independent show if it wasn't for all the big names. Speaking of big names, where were all the stars of Impact Wrestling? I read the line-up going in, so I knew who was not going to be there, but for those who read this, check out a list of all the guys who weren't there: Styles, Storm, Angle, Flair, RVD (who would've been crazy over down here), Eric Young for the kids, Machineguns, Anderson, and Kash just to name a few. The show could have been a lot better with some of them. Maybe next time? Borash said they'd be coming back, we'll see.

[Torch art credit Grant Gould (c) PWTorch.com]

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