TNA House Show Report (8/5/2012) – Tulsa, OK

Hello,

My name is James White and I went to the TNA house show in Tulsa on Aug 5th. Overall, it was a lot of fun. The evening started off with a battle royal, with the same 8 guys that were in the one at OKC (James Storm, Zema Ion, Frankie Kazarian, Christopher Daniels, Samoa Joe, Mr. Anderson, Jeff Hardy, and Douglas Williams). The last three were Kaz, Christopher Daniels and Jeff Hardy. Daniels and Kaz tried to double team Hardy, but when Kaz held Hardy and Daniels tried to hit Hardy, he ducked out of the way and Kaz was eliminated. Then Hardy sent Daniels out. So the main event was Jeff Hardy vs. Austin Aries.

1st actual match – Gail Kim vs. Miss Tessmacher. It was a decent match. Gail Kim was in control for 2/3rds of the match, and showed a bit of her athleticism off; especially when she did a bridge and held Tessmacher in some kind of front face lock. Gail then flipped her legs back into a head stand, and rotated over into a headlock. Gail later missed a move, and Tessmacher hit some variation of a facebuster for the win.

Zema Ion vs. Douglas Williams – I personally think Zema Ion overdid it with the whole hairspray thing. Doug made it funny when he sprayed his arm pit with it on the outside of the ring, and then shoved Zema’s face into his pit. It kind of reminded me of what the Nasty Boys used to do. Very funny. Zema Ion won, but he was clearly pulling the tights. Douglas Williams looked really good in the ring.

Christopher Daniels (with Kaz) vs. The Pope – Daniels and Pope went back and forth and did a really good job, but Kazarian interfered when the Pope was going to go for the DDE, and Daniels took advantage and hit the BME (best moonsault ever) for the win.

Intermission – many people went to the back, those who had passes, and slowly small groups of people would reappear from the back until everyone was back in the arena. Apparently, the World Titles sold out, so they offered a few more superpasses for sale at the concession stand.

James Storm vs. Samoa Joe – Fantastic match. Both guys hit some of their signature moves. Joe was trying to play the heel, but there were several people in the crowd who were chanting for him. Joe won on a roll-up victory, and he actually hi-fived some people on his way out. The crowd then gave James Storm some applause too. PPV quality match for sure.

Kazarian (with Christopher Daniels) vs. Mr. Anderson – the tag champs came out and got over as heels by insulting Oklahomans, and saying that Lebron made the Thunder his “bitches”. Kazarian even referred to Oklahomans as “toothless”. Lots of heat on the tag champs. Mr. Anderson came to the ring, and he waited for the microphone to drop. When it didn’t, the ref went outside the ring, grabbed a chair and a wireless microphone and went back in the ring. He got behind Mr. Anderson, stood on the chair, and pretended to lower the microphone. Biggest laugh of the night. It was hilarious.

Daniels tried to interfere early on, but the ref sent him to the back. Excellent back and forth action, but towards the end Kaz was dazed and confused for sure. The fans were starting to chant for the “mic check”, and a minute later that’s what happened. This was a good match, not quite as good as Storm vs. Joe. Anderson really got over with the crowd when he let a little kid do his “Mr…..Anderson……Anderson” stick.

Jeff Hardy vs. Austin Aries – Both came out to strong pops, but clearly the crowd was behind Hardy. Aries said on the mic that he was going to have a clean match, but he was the first one to throw a punch. Aries also raked the eyes of Hardy, and did other stuff to get over as a heel. Both guys were on their game tonight. Aries did a dive from in the ring to the outside, and did a fantastic job. It went back and forth, and Hardy at one point had Aries down, but missed the swanton bomb. Later on, Hardy went for the twist of fate, but Aries held on to the ropes. Aries went for the pin, but had his feet on the ropes and got the win. Excellent match, but I still think Joe vs. Storm was match of the night.

Aries tried to shake Hardy’s hand, but then lied and said that he didn’t have his feet on the ropes. The crowd was very loud pointing to the ropes, but Hardy went to shake Aries hand anyway; only to turn it into a twist of fate. Aries was grabbing his neck as he slowly snuck away from the ring. That’s when JB got into the ring and offered any group of people 20 bucks for a picture with Jeff Hardy, no matter how big the group is.

Overall, I had a fantastic night. I think the guys at TNA worked harder than the last time I saw a WWE live event. The only thing that bothered me was that RVD, Robert Roode, Bully Ray, and Kurt Angle were not there. I was surprised at how close to the entrance way I could get to the wrestlers. The only bad thing about the crowd was that when I tried to start chants like “This is wrestling” or “TNA” no one responded.

James White,
Stillwater, OK