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Hey everyone, just got home from a fun filled day seeing TNA, er Impact Wrestling, live from Bam Bam Bigelow's old stomping grounds - Asbury Park NJ. Was basically the same card as yesterday, but still a fun show, tons of kids in the audience, and TNA always does a good job making these live shows feel important.
Doors opened at 7 with the opener at 7:30 p.m. Coming out first was JB, who I think did his own introduction to the ring. He tweeted all day about running around the boardwalk with Eric Young, so least they got to enjoy some of the nice Jersey weather we've been having. Anyway, after his usual backstage passes schpiel, the opening contest began.
1. Eric Young, Orlando Jordan and Amazing Red beat Robbie E and the British Invasion. Robbie E was out first, and since he was near Jersey Shore territory, he actually had most of the crowd fist pumping along with him. He was surprisingly one of the most over people of the night. Now I've never been to a Chikara show, but I imagine this match would fit in well with all the comedy spots. We had at one point all three members of the heel team miss elbow drops on Eric Young, including the ref, and then we also had a 30 second spot of every single person in the match, the ref, and Cookie running around the ring in a circle. Fun little match that saw Amazing Red hit the CodeRed on Robbie E for the win. Also if EY gained like 50 pounds, he would be a dead ringer for Zach Galifianakis from the Hangover. Just sayin.
2. Mickie James beat Angelina Love with Winter. I attended the TNA show last year in Brooklyn at the Cyclone stadium, and this was a near carbon copy from the match that I believe saw Angelina beat Madison Rayne. But it was basically the same match lay out, with Earl Hebner coming down to the ring, doing the Bret Hart pose, wearing his "Damn Right I Did It" t-shirt, etc. (By the way, who would have expected Hebner to get more mileage out of the screwjob than Bret or HBK, but I digress). Mickie won with her Last Kiss Goodnight Kick, in probably the longest match of the night. Not a bad contest by any means, but Earl def takes away from the bout with his antics.
3. AJ Styles beat Jeff Jarrett. Honestly for me this was probably match of the night. Jarrett is a great heel, working the crowd into a frenzy. He challenged one member of the audience to fight him, and this guy took his shirt off and jumped over the bannister, but security grabbed him before he could charge the ring. Styles as always was on top of his game, hard not to be impressed with what he brings to the table, and match ended after a Pele and a Styles Clash. Real solid bout here.
4. WHOOOOO. After reading what happened last night in Brooklyn, I was afraid we wouldn't get to see Naitch in Asbury Park, but right after the Styles-Jarrett match, JB hopped in the ring and said there was a special guest, the greatest wrestler in history, Ric Flair. Flair came out to a huge ovation, with I'd say nearly half the crowd bowing to him. He gets in the ring, and first thing out of his mouth is, "You know I'm a bad guy right?" to which the crowd cheered him even harder. He then said he was bad to the bone, and he was in the best shape of his life. Somehow this brought up him talking about wrestling Andre the Giant (was weird for us too, he tends to ramble in his promos) and how he wants a shot at the world heavyweight title. He then pointed out a blonde woman in the crowd, told her he would entertain her All Night Long, whoo'd loudly and left. He actually waited on the ramp for the woman in the crowd to join him and seemed kinda bummed she didn't leave with him, but otherwise was great to see Flair in the ring giving some kind of promo.
5. Bully Ray beats Devon in Bound for Glory Series. Bully Ray was next out, and if he wasn't a wrestler, he could be one of those comics that just heckles the crowd relentlessly. Legit did five minutes on the front row, calling people ugly, saying someone was so hideous that their mom and dad must be brother and sister, etc. Then called out Devon for a street fight. Pretty solid brawl, lot of plunder. Odd part of the match with the ref holding open Bully Ray's legs for the WHAZZUP head butt, then pushing Devon and telling him to get the tables. Thought the ref wasn't supposed to be biased. Ah well. Anyways Devon gets the tables, sets it up, gets lowblowed from Ray and pinned. Devon then spinebusters Ray through the table and gave pieces of the table to the kids at ringside.
6. Intermission, a.k.a. The Don West Show. Fun intermission with Don West talking for what had to be 20 min straight. He plugged Mickie James signing autographs, as well as a deal where if you bought Earl Hebner's ref shirt for 10 bucks, him and his son would sign it. He went on to say Earl just celebrated his 79th birthday, and he had 32 illegitimate children with 7 ex wives he had to pay alimony too, so everyone should go buy a shirt from Earl. Funny enough, a good group of people in the crowd did buy them. Also during intermission, Flair exited the building with security, and I joked with my friends about what Carlito would think about him leaving early (search YouTube for the clips if you don't remember what I'm talking about). Following suit were Bully Ray, Devon and Angelina.
7. Crimson beat RVD in a Bound for Glory Series match. The fifth match of the night saw Crimson in a heel role of sorts vs. RVD. Good match, if they turn Crimson fully heel it could work well. End came a bit out of nowhere, with RVD getting shoved off the top ropes into the guardrail when he went for the five star. Crimson then simply rolled him into the ring and pinned him. Strange there was no finisher by Crimson, thought RVD might actually be hurt, but maybe they just ran low on time for a finish.
8. Kurt Angle beat Mr Anderson in a non-title match. Pretty good match here. Anderson did his usual schtick before the match, waiting for the mic to drop and getting mad. He then said Asbury Park was "Too cheap for a microphone, and too cheap for air conditioning!," as it was pretty hot in the building all night. I thought Anderson looked like he gained some weight, but maybe that was just because he was standing next to Kurt Angle who looked better tonight than I remember in a while. Solid match here, with Angle winning via the Apex Predator Slam. There actually was a pretty big "C-M Punk!" chant midway through the match, which I imagine was directed at Angle due to his recent twitter comments. Post match I actually got in the ring and took a pic with my four friends and Angle to end the night. First time ever in a ring, think I would have paid $20 for that alone, so the experience itself was real cool.
So overall, this show was not as good wrestling wise as the ROH show I attended last week at Hammerstein, but not much is going to be. This was still a fun top to bottom show though, with some familiar faces and a card that made the crowd go home happy. I thought they could have added some more matches to the card, since 6 matches is kinda weak, and we did not get to see wrestlers like Samoa Joe, Pope, Beer Money, Morgan, Kendrick, Abyss, Kaz etc., but overall it was enjoyable, and if you just want to spend a fun, inexpensive night out with some friends, TNA is a pretty good option. Happy July 4th everyone, and keep supporting this great site!
@zmanjets86 on Twitter
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