For my birthday last year, my ex-housemate bought me tickets for this TNA tour. Despite not being a huge wrestling fan himself, he joined me for the show, which featured a steel cage match in the main event. Taking our seats, we settled in to enjoy the show...
Chavo Guerrero & Hernandez vs Bad Influence
Pretty solid choice for an opener. Chavo and Hernandez were pretty over in Nottingham, which surprised me as UK fans often seem to side with entertaining heels, which the Bad Influence boys certainly are. We kicked off with some comedy early on, as a mix-up led to Kazarian accidentally working over the arm of his tag partner on the apron, as well as a spot where Hernandez held Kazarian up for a vertical suplex, whilst his partner rammed Daniels' head into every corner of the ring, before Hernandez finished the move. Chavo eventually got isolated, and Bad Influence worked the crowd terrifically to build up to the hot tag. This was the best possible use of Hernandez, who looked like a tank in taking out Daniels and Kazarian. Eventually, Chavo hit a frog splash on Daniels for the win.
Marty Scurll vs Rockstar Spud
Two of the stars of British Bootcamp paired up here. Spud, despite being absolutely tiny, is great at projecting himself to a big crowd. The Rockstar gimmick has probably added years to his career, both by making him more interesting as a character, but also by limiting the insane stunts which he went for early on in his career (as my friend put it tonight, "Spud appears to have more poses than moves"). Which doesn't mean Spud wasn't impressive here, as he hit a swank tope and a nice Code Red that got a 2 on Scurll. Marty also looked great here, schooling Spud on the mat early doors and looking great in the process, as well as nailing the Rockstar with a perfect tornado DDT. Marty went for his backbreaker finisher a few times, but Spud slipped out and rolled Scurll up for three. Great showcase for both of them.
The Blossom Twins vs Tara & Gail Kim
I missed the last episode of British Bootcamp, so I'd never seen the Blossoms wrestle until tonight, and I was pretty impressed. They looked comfortable in the ring with two relative veterans, and you never got the impression they were being carried. The heel team were having some communication problems throughout, but managed to isolate Holly Blossom and worked her over. The Blossoms look too sweet to be wrestlers, so they were able to illicit sympathy pretty easily, and they achieved a decent pop for the hot tag. Kim managed to hit Eat Defeat on a Blossom, but was pulled off from making the cover by her own partner. Tara then tried to take control, but again the heel bickered. This allowed the Blossoms to switch places in the ring, and roll up an unsuspecting Tara for three. After the match, the heels attacked the Blossoms, but Velvet made the save, managing to have the worst looking offence of the match in her minute long save section. The Blossoms look like they'd be a good addition to the TNA roster.
Rob Van Dam vs Zema Ion
This was better than I was expecting. RVD seems to go through the motions a lot in TNA and, while he didn't set the world on fire here, at least he seemed to be having fun. Ion did a fair bit of schtick work early on, reapplying his hairspray after every RVD attack, until Van Dam stole it, spraying the head of a bald chap at ringside. The match was exactly what you'd expect, though Ion looked pretty good on offence here, with a sweet looking tornado DDT. RVD won a short match with the Five Star.
Magnus & James Storm vs Austin Aries & Bobby Roode
Apparently, the previous night had seen a triple threat match between Storm, Roode and Aries that Storm claimed had ended up more like a handicap match. To combat this, he brought out his tag partner Magnus, who got a huge reception. This match was really good, as you'd expect with workers of this standard, especially with Storm and Roode being so well versed as tag workers. Roode and Aries stooged nicely in the early going, allowing themselves to look foolish to show their opponents superiority. After working through the heat period, we ended up with all four guys in the ring. Aries tried to spit some beer in the face of Storm, but ended up getting Roode instead. Storm hit Roode with the superkick and Magnus followed that with a top rope elbow for three.
The main event was held in a steel cage, so Jeremy Borash had to work the crowd for the ten minutes that the cage was being assembled. All in all, he did a good job, though his attempts to find a Notts Forest fan in the crowd didn't go as well as he hoped. Still, he did a tricky task well.
Sting & Kurt Angle vs Devon & Doc
We actually ended up getting a handicap match for most of this, as Mike Knox attacked Angle before he got in the cage, leading to Sting having to take on both Aces & 8's members alone. The drama of the match came from this, as Angle made repeated attempts to get into the cage only for Knox to keep beating him down everytime he got close, whilst Sting took a battering in the ring. Eventually, Angle hit a low blow on Knox and was able to enter the cage, cleaning house in the process. However, as he had Doc in the ankle lock, a fourth Aces member came in and nailed him in the head with a hammer. Suprisingly, this didn't kill Kurt instantly, as he kicked out at two. A table got set up in the ring, which cued Bully Ray to come to the rescue. He joined up with Sting to hit a Wassup Drop on Doc, before Devon got double chokeslammed through the table for the winning three count.
All in all then, a pretty good night of entertainment. None of the matches were jaw-dropping, but none of them were less than decent either. All the wrestler seemed to be having fun, and the time seemed to fly by. Can't complain too much about that.
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