I was able to attend the TNA house show last night in Fargo, ND. Holding a ringside ticket allowed me, and the rest of the fans with ringside seats, access for a pre-show meet and greet with the wrestlers. Don West warmed up the crowd and plugged some merchandise before letting us in, and if you have ever been to a TNA show in the past, the meet and greet was pretty much just like the after show autograph signing. I was hoping for a little more, but it made the floor ticket a little more meaningful.
The show itself was fun to watch as usual, although TNA still runs the same style of show as they have been for the past four years. The format is simple: fire up crowd with backstage passes, have four matches, have an intermission, and close the show with two more matches before the wrestlers come out for autographs and pictures. For $20, fans could get in the ring and have their picture taken with Kurt Angle. The photos are then uploaded to a website where they can be purchased for an additional fee.
Gunner & Murphy started the show by coming out as Jeremy Borash was telling the crowd that the loudest fans would get backstage passes. The two said they didn’t want fans going backstage and decided on a stipulation that if they beat Ink Inc., no fans would be allowed backstage. Gunner & Murphy controlled most of the match by working over Jesse Neal, however, he made the hot tag to Shannon Moore and the match was over pretty quickly after that, with Ink Inc. picking up the victory.
Madison Rayne defended the TNA Knockouts Championship against Angelina Love in the second match, with Earl Hebner as the referee. Prior to the match, Hebner, who was getting a lot of “you screwed Bret!” chants, took off his referee shirt to reveal a t-shirt that says “Damn Right I Did!” This t-shirt was available at the merchandise stand. As for the match, Madison retained her championship by pinning Angelina while holding her tights.
Brother Devon defeated Hernandez in the third match and was probably the low point of the night with nothing special or spectacular taking place.
The fourth match saw Mr. Anderson defeating Bully Ray with a Mic Check. Anderson did his usually entrance although no microphone came down from the ceiling. He then chewed out JB, who grabbed a chair, stood on top of it, and lowered a regular microphone in his hand. Anderson got some boos from the pro Minnesota Vikings crowd when he named Green Bay, Wisconsin, as his home town, but was probably the most over wrestler of the night.
After the intermission, the Pope came out to take on Samoa Joe. They had an amusing spot prior to the match where the Pope teased a kid in the front row by giving him his sunglasses before taking them back. When Joe made his way to the ring, he picked up Pope’s shades and gave them to the kid. Pope then attacked him to get the match started. The match itself was pretty good and it was nice to see them wrestle without any stupid, pointless, storyline getting in the way. Thankfully, Okato was nowhere to be seen.
Jeff Jarrett and Kurt Angle faced off in the main event with Jarrett working the crowd pretty well in the opening moments. After stalling a bit, Jarrett finally went up against Angle with Angle getting in an ankle lock before finally taking Jarrett out with an Angle Slam for the pin fall victory to close out the show.
The merchandise stand had the usual fare of TNA items, with the big sellers being the TNA program and Don West’s Brown Bag Special, both available for $20. The Brown Bags included four DVDs and a Jeff Hardy shirt that West claimed was made just to sell at house shows and was not available online or in stores. Due to this I only picked up one Brown Bag, plus I didn’t have much luck with the one that I bought as I ended up getting three DVDs I already owned.
Overall it was a great time, however, as this was the fourth TNA house show that I have been to over the past few years, I am hoping that TNA will eventually switch things up. Don’t get me wrong, the formula works and the 500 or so fans in Fargo seemed to be entertained, but after seeing the standard TNA house show for the fourth time it had a ‘been there, done that’ feel to it. Hell, I had even seen the main event take place at a different house show a couple of years ago.
The fan interaction with the wrestlers really makes up for the formulaic show, although I wish they could have handled the meet and greet a little better. Being that this was the first time something like this was offered at a show I was at, I was expecting a little more than what was delivered. For the most part, the meet and greet is pretty much the same experience all of the fans get once the show is over.
The fans got to line up around the guard railing while the wrestlers walked around and quickly signed autographs on programs, t-shirts and DVDs. The wrestlers moved around so much that it was hard to get any photos or autographs from the wrestlers, especially in the area where I was at. I was passed by at least five wrestlers and I got no autographs or photos whatsoever. Setting up tables for the wrestlers to sit at with fans going up to them would be a better solution, plus it would give the fans who paid extra money a more memorable experience.
Furthermore, I have to say I was surprised that a couple of wrestlers were missing from the meet and greet, namely Kurt Angle and Jeff Jarrett.
Like I said before, the fan interaction is what sets TNA house shows apart from the rest, but next time they come around I might settle for a cheaper seat instead. You pretty much get the same experience, and Don West seems to toss more merchandise to those areas as well.
As always, I took a ton of photos of the event and posted some of the good ones on the web site.
Quick Results
- Ink Inc. defeated Gunner & Murphy by pin fall.
- Madison Rayne defeated Angelina Love by pin fall to retain the TNA Knockouts Championship.
- Brother Devon defeated Hernandez by pin fall.
- Mr. Anderson defeated Bully Ray by pin fall.
- Samoa Joe defeated D’Angelo Dinero by submission.
- Kurt Angle defeated Jeff Jarrett by pin fall.
I was at this show as well, and had 2nd row ringside tickets. I disagree with you on a lot of your excerpts from the show.
I got to meet Kurt Angle 3 different times throughout the night, and jeff jarrett was signing autographs at the merch stand right after the main event (which don west announced) most wrestlers (on my side of the ring anyways) stuck around a long time to sign autographs and i have pics with some as well. they also had everyone come out afterwards for meet and greet
I was also able to get autographs (so was my brother) from all the wrestlers except for Madison Rayne, who seemed like she ran through the fans quick and skipped a lot of them.
I was also disappointed that I was told Angelina Love would be backstage, but she was signing at the table up front instead, but i still got to meet her and go backstage no big deal.
However, if Broash wasnt jerking us about having a PPV there, they will need to bring a few more big names to draw people such as hogan (even if its just to talk) flair, rvd, matt hardy, etc….Jarrett and angle are cool, but they aren’t hulk goan