TNA House Show Report 06.14.08 – Coventry, UK

Thanks to 411 reader Adam Henley for this report.

TNA continued their UK tour tonight with a near sell out visit to the Coventry SkyDome.

The venue holds around 4500-5000 in all and there were only about 100 empty seats (just for reference the WWE did not sell this building out on a recent SmackDown tour.

The evening starts with JB coming out to a pumped crowd and then proceeds to pump them up even further by the promise of backstage passes – oddly enough only those at ringside get given these !! Worth noting early on that the crowd stayed pumped all night and would often chant TNA in approval rather than individual wrestlers (although this did happen as well).

The opening Bout is a tag team match between the team of James Storm/ Robert Roode and the Motor City Machine Guns. The crowd is very into this fast paced opener and dishes out some strong heel heat on Roode but then chant for Storm. Sabin plays face in peril for a few minutes prior to the hot tag. There were some nice false finishes before Shelley pins Roode following a double kick to the head just after the 10 minute mark.

The next bout begins with JB whipping up the crowd about Earl Hebner and 97 is revisited with a venue wide “You Screwed Bret” chant. The bout is a Women’s title match between Gail Kim & Awesome Kong. Again the crowd split into support of both but the action did not quite live up to recent efforts and Kong finished things just after 5 minutes with the implant buster and that was that.

SHILL – new TNA Video Game – looks good on the screen – Ultimate X but no 6 sides of steel.

The crowd split again in the third bout with a battle of the big men – Abyss vs. Rhino. This was a slightly sluggish affair which never quite got out of second gear as they didn’t seem to mesh. Strong ECW chants for Rhino which seemed to throw him for a second. Worth noting that Abyss looks to have gained some weight during his time off and was blown up well before the end. Finish came after 15 minutes with an Abyss win via Black Hole Slam following a low blow.

The ring crew came out and tightened up the top ropes just before the final first half bout – which suggested a high flying match and the 3 way dance between Doug Williams, Jay Lethal & AJ Styles did not fail to deliver. It was a slightly odd 3 way in that no-one played heel so all 3 just went at it and delivered. One of the highlights was a Lethal tope onto Styles followed by a Williams dive – v. lucha libre. The 10 minute contest came to an end far too soon with Williams performing a rolling suplex combo onto Lethal which left Williams vulnerable to the Styles Clash for an AJ win. This was the match of the night and AJ probably got the biggest reception of the night as well. All 3 faces raised arms in celebration at the end…

Post intermission, JB is in the ring with Dixie Carter to record TNA today for tomorrow’s youtube (today for tomorrow …never mind !!). JB hypes the fact that the tour is sold out and Dixie lets us know that they will be back in January 09… after she leaves, JB builds the crowd by floating the idea of an international PPV some time soon (I wont hold my breath though !!).

The second half actions starts with a tag team defence between LAX and Petey Williams/Sonjay Dutt. This was a good bout overall with good high flying as well as power moves. LAX were super over whilst Dutt had the largest heel heat of the night so the crowd stayed with this action. Pitting Hernandez against these two seemed reminiscent of a school bully and he held Dutt in the delayed vertical suplex for nearly a minute prior to dropping down (impressive power). The 15 minute bout ended with a Border Toss on Dutt with authority and that was that…

Having seen earlier House Show results, I knew we wouldn’t see Kurt Angle wrestle tonight and he came out to do another interview. He stayed on message although he did claim to having jumped rather than pushed. He then spoke of the vision behind the company and introduced his special guest – J E Double FF J A Double RR E Double TT !! Jarrett spoke from the heart thanking the fans and the roster and was clearly emotional. Nice touch from the crowd of immediate applause when Kurt mentioned Jill Jarrett … followed by a Thankyou Jill chant.

The main event pitted Champ Samoa Joe against number one contender Booker T. The former King did come out to a strong ovation but then did some mic work to turn the crowd (You need to buy the Merchandise – have you seen the state of my dressing room) – straightforward but funny. JB then did the Super Special Ring announcing and we were off …

The match itself was a stiff 20 minute brawl which went around ringside as well. Highlight of this was Joe paint brushing Booker following a run-up. Just after he handed back the chair, the crowd demanded one more time so he got another chair and did it in another corner (the railings never stood a chance). The match itself was going quite nicely and then the ending appeared from literally nowhere. Both were down, The Book hit the spinarooni only for Joe to cinch in the Kokina Clutch for the tapout …

All in all, a good evening with a strong pumped up crowd. Am going back to the SkyDome next Saturday for the ProWrestlingNoah show… will be interested to compare the two!!