TNA house show
St. Cloud, Minn. at the National Hockey Center
Report by Jason Powell

1. Hernandez defeated Sheik Abdul Bashir. Strong opening match. Bashir was a great opponent for Hernandez, who was able to show off his power via repeated military presses and a great standing suplex. The live crowd loves to hate Bashir, and was really behind Hernandez. Bashir's character is ho-hum on television, yet gets great heat on the house shows even when he's not working the opener.

2. Homicide defeated Daniels. Another fun match. Daniels didn't go all out for the small house show crowd, but he did enough and was over with the crowd. Homicide wore New York gear and riled up the Twins-loving crowd with pro-Yankee talk. Homicide got the win with his feet on the ropes. It looked like referee Earl Hebner might restart the match, but eventually the pinfall stood.

3. Matt Morgan defeated Eric Young. Lots of stalling to from Young to start the match. There were two or three fans who yelled, "You can't wrestle" at Morgan throughout the match. He flipped them the bird and had some fun with it. The rest of the crowd was behind him, and he got the win with a nasty looking Carbon Footprint that caught Young on the forehead.

4. Beer Money defeated The British Invasion and The Motor City Machine Guns in a three-way elimination match. Strong work from all three teams. The Guns hit some flashy offense and scored a few nice pops from the crowd. However, they were eliminated first by the Invasion. Beer Money was arguably the most over act of the night. They delivered a great mix of comedy and hard work and came out on top via their finisher. This match is pay-per-view ready.

Intermission

5. ODB defeated Madison Rayne to retain the TNA Knockouts Title. ODB was introduced as a former member of the hockey team, which is legit. She wore a St. Cloud jersey to the ring and delivered some mic work before the match, which received a strong reaction. It was cute watching the young girl in the row in front of me pop huge for everything ODB did. Madison seemed much more confident wrestling solo.

Madison had The Beautiful People act down and showed some nice heel facials throughout the match. Plenty of comedy in this one with unmasked Shark Boy as the ref obliging ODB's request for a slap on the ass, and then expressing disappointment when Madison wouldn't let him slap her ass. ODB hit her finisher and scored the clean pin.

6. A.J. Styles defeated Samoa Joe to retain the TNA Title. A quality main event with good work from both men. Styles laid in a couple of strong punches to Joe's forehead that drew some gasps from the crowd. Joe scored a really nice near fall at one point that drew the crowd into the match. Joe got plenty of offense, but Styles hit the Pele Kick for the win. These two must headline a series of pay-per-view matches at some point.

Powell's POV: A disappointing turnout. The floor was filled, but there weren't many people in the lower bowl. I'm guessing the advertising was weak, which is a shame given that it was a college town on a Saturday night.

Jeremy Borash had the crowd pumped throughout the show with his usual backstage pass teases. He has his routine down perfectly and seems much more enthusiastic than the WWE ring announcers I've seen over the years.

Former AWA announcer Mick Karch was in attendance, as were a large group of Borash's family and friends. I was told that D-Lo Brown was the backstage agent for the show.

I couldn't help but notice that the show was void of veteran wrestlers. I suppose that could have affected the turnout, but my guess is it had more to do with poor advertising. If TNA is truly making a youth movement, they are in good hands. This was a fun house show with good work from everyone, especially considering how small the turnout was.

Granted, the crew wasn't in pay-per-view intensity mode, but everyone worked hard to deliver a quality show for the fans who turned out. The post-show autograph party went over well, as most of the fans stuck around for the free autographs at ringside or the $20 in-ring autograph session with Styles.

My only criticism is that it seemed odd for Styles to deliver the big speech about the autograph party and then be the only wrestler fans had to pay money to get an autograph (and photo) from. I still dig the overall concept because the time the wrestles spend mingling with the people can create wrestler and company loyalty.

Once again, I highly recommend the TNA house show experience. I just wish the company would do more to promote themselves. A big thanks to the readers who stopped to say hell after the show. It was great meeting you.

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