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I didn't do the pre-meet and greet. The line (when I arrived) had to be more than 200 people deep. AJ Styles was signing autographs for free in the concourse.
There were about 2000-2500 people in attendance. (based upon security reports) It was a beautiful cloud free night/perfect for an outdoor event. There were a lot of TNA cameras there.
Onto the matches:
Kazarian vs. Eric Young with Orlando Jordan: Great opening match. EY came wearing a batters hat and did a lot of baseball style moves. (He was the only wrestler who did that) Tons of comedy sports with some great moves tossed in as well. Kazarian won.
Tara vs. Winter: slow match-crowd wasn't much into the match. Tara won with the widow's peak.
Matt Morgan vs. D'Angelo Dinero: This match was announced as being taped for IMPACT this Thursday. A great match that showed Matt Morgan victorious.
James Storm & Alex Shelley w/ Robert Roode vs. The British Invasion: Beer Money was way over with the crowd. This was the longest match of the night at about 20 minutes. Roode interfered in the match giving Beer Money the win. James Storm ran into the crowd to celebrate his win.
INTERMISSION
There was a long line of those who got to go backstage. Earl Hebner was signing his shirt in the lobby and it was $10 for the shirt and autograph. (good deal). The Pope was out playing to the crowd.
AJ Styles vs. Gunner: Both men worked their tails off. Slow to begin with and then lots of great moves and 2 counts towards the end. Styles kicked Gunner in the face and legit cut Gunners nose. It was bleeding the whole rest of the match. In a surprise, Gunner won.
Kurt Angle vs. Scott Steiner: Then they brought of the special enforcer for the main event. Hulk Hogan. The crowd went crazy. Hogan was recording his entrance on his phone.
Then they brought out Scott Steiner. Steiner got on the mic and berated the women in the audience. However- TNA should have known that there were a lot of kids in attendance. Parents near me were not happy with his language. Then Kurt Angle came out. Crowd went crazy.
The match consisted of Steiner throwing Angle into the ring post and kicking him out of the ring. Then Hogan would beat on Angle and toss him back into the ring. They repeated this over and over and some boring chants were heard. Finally Beer Money came walking out and chased Hogan away (no physical contact) letting Angle get the pin over Steiner. Steiner seemed winded in the match. As Hogan was walking away, Roode put his beer bottle on the ground and did the Hogan leg drop on it., it was funny.
When Hogan first showed, the crowd was hot....when he left...no one really cared. Why? (personal note here: Why would TNA advertise and bring in Hogan and not once give him the mic to talk to the crowd or interact in any way? A small point, but it was obvious the crowd was not happy)
After the match, you could get your pic with Angle and Beer Money for only $20. The line was outrageously long. They must have been there for hours! And as usual with any event at the baseball field, we were entertained with fireworks. (Angle seemed more preoccupied watching the fireworks than anything else.)
Afterwards, Matt Morgan was signing TNA merchandise in the concourse for free. I had him sign my program and took a pic with him. He is one HUGE massive guy.
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