*UPDATE*
I forgot to mention, Jeff Jarrett smoked Angle over the head with a guitar. Angle bled, and Joe covered. Therefore, Double J is back. He got a huge pop. Mick Foley was supposed to appear – TNA’s site had a pic of his smiley with “Have a Nice Sunday” on it, but Foley was not in the building. He was doing an autograph signing at 4pm in the States somewhere, so obviously he couldn’t make it. Kevin Nash also did not make the trip to Oshawa.
First off, let me start by saying that this was nuts. Standing out in the rain, in line at the General Motors Centre in Oshawa, Ontario, waiting to see TNA No Surrender. It didn’t occur to me until a few days ago that TNA is loaded with Canadian talent – and many of them are champions (or were) – Christian Cage, Petey Williams, Robert Roode, Angelina Love, Taylor Wilde, Eric Young, and a few more.
Before the actual show, security is weak. The stub my ticket, don’t scan it, and let me in. I can sit wherever I want, with minimal security to stop me. Out seats are epic (thanks to Sean Chin) – we’re sitting in the second row of the second section at ringside, meaning, the wrestlers’ entrances are coming out towards us. We’re directly behind the ring, meaning everyone standing up stops everyone behind them from seeing. But our seats are so close that you can hear the wrestlers yelling (when they yelled), and they were easily within distance to throw something at them, count their teeth, and maybe even close enough to distinguish eye colour. Having said that, let’s start the show.
- Opening pyro. Very good stuff, very impressive considering what TNA usually does for iMPACT (bottle rockets, Coca Cola and Mentos, etc.). They’re pyro throughout the night was very well done. It also helped that the crowd was on *fire* for the whole night, chanting during the good stuff and the bad.
- Sting opens with a promo. Decent promo, but he used a Bret Hart reference for a cheap pop, which I didn’t like. He’s still boring us with the Joe-AJ-respect angle. Snore.
- The Prince Justice Brotherhood defeat The Rock ‘N Rave Infection. Christy Hemme has a fantastic bum. Really, it’s epic in itself. A few times, they were playing on Hemme’s boobs/butt being touched/grappled/headlocked into, etc. which was good and fun once, but it happened like six times. The match itself was mediocre at best. Some nice double teams from RNR, but that was about it. A lot of ‘Fallen Angel’ chants whenever Curry Man did anything.
- Awesome Kong defeats ODB. A good match for a women’s match. Falls Count Anywhere means weapons, and we saw two tables. One, ODB was supposed to powerbomb Kong through it, but the table didn’t budge – both talent went flying over the table, and it appeared as though both were hurt from landing on the table. That’s Canadian lumber for you, baby. Kong eventually speared ODB through a table for the fall. Kong is enormous. ODB is built.
- Abyss & Matt Morgan defeat Team 3D. Not a good match. Four guys in the ring who generally need someone good to work with them didn’t spell out the way TNA had hoped. A lot of chants for ‘Get the Tables’. Johnny Devine interferes, but no fall afterwards. Abyss gets the cover with a Black Hole Slam, but he and Morgan are jumped after the match by Team 3D and Devine.
- Bashir defeats Petey Williams and Consequences Creed for the X Division Title. It sucks that Petey Williams lost in Canada (he’s Canadian…you know, Maple Leaf Muscle?), but the match was good. We saw a Canadian Destroyer live, which is something every wrestling fan should see live at least once.
- Taylor Wilde defeats Angelina Love. These chicks have amazing bodies. More on that later, trust me. Wilde introduces Rhyno as her friend. The match itself was not good, just a typical women’s match with a typical finish. Kip James tries to interfere, gets gored by Rhyno, and Wilde hits the bridge and gets the cover. Man, Love and Velvey Sky are gorgeous (I’m foreshadowing, keep reading).
- Sonjay Dutt defeats Jay Lethal. Best match of the night, bar none. This match was almost equivalent to the last ladder match that WWE held at WrestleMania. A lot of suicide dives, jumps off of ladders, etc. So Cal Val low-blows Lethal for Dutt to grab the ring and win. They proceed to make out.
- Beer Money Inc. defeats LAX. Another mediocre match. Some flips over the top, but nothing jaw-dropping. Roode got booed despite being Canadian, which baffled me. Typical Beer Money finish with the beer-spitting and Jacqueline help from outside.
- No Contest between AJ Styles and Frank Trigg. AJ is amazing, first of all. To book him in a bad match is tough to do – but TNA managed. Throughout the match, people chanted “This is Bullshit”, “This is Boring”, “We Want Wrestling”, and my personal favourite, “Fire Russo”. Just terrible stuff. Thankfully they didn’t finish the second round of the MMA match, it was just dreadful. Lot’s of circling, lots of quick body hits, takedowns, holds, etc. It was like a bad technical-wrestler’s match. Worst part of the night. At the end of the match, AJ smoked Trigg in the head with a Kendo stick, which is Phenomenal (get it?). He beat him down a fair bit afterwards, but got a no contest because of an accidental low blow once AJ snapped and went nuts with knees and forearms. Come to think of it, the chair shots and kendo stick hits were extremely loud.
- Samoa Joe defeats Christian Cage and Kurt Angle. Booker T (I mean, Whoopie T) couldn’t make it to the show on account of Hurricane Ike, so it’s a three-way now. Cage has a ridiculous pop every time he did anything. The match was good – an Angle slam over the top rope, a double ankle lock on Cage and Joe at the same time, an Unprettier, a Muscle Buster, etc. The only thing that sucked was that Cage didn’t walk out with the strap.
Final Thoughts: A good PPV. It’s tough to differentiate between a good PPV and a bad one since firstly, I attended it live, rather than watching it on TV or something, and secondly, because we were so close to the ring, even the Styles-Trigg match looked great. The match quality for some were regular tag matches, but the show stealer was easily the Dutt-Lethal match. I know that No Surrender is one of TNA’s big four PPV’s, so they did do a fairly good job with the show, especially when you look at how bad iMPACT is fairly often. Big pops for the Canadian content, but the crowd was loud the entire night. A lot of ‘This is Awesome’ chants for suicide dives, chair shots, top rope jumps to the outside, ladder shots (Lethal’s match was wicked), and anything else TNA tried to do creatively. The MMA match didn’t work out…at all. Realistically, Trigg would tear AJ apart, as would any other MMA wrestler, so to put one of them against a “sports entertainer” is stupid – AJ’s a high flyer, not a grapper. It’s like putting Ken Shamrock against Rey Mysterio. Give me a break. Or Brock Lesnar against Jeff Hardy. It’s just dumb.
Other than the good PPV, one thing that still bothers me about TNA is how gimmicky it is. Tonight alone, we saw a “Four Ways to Glory match”. What’s the difference between that and a fatal four way? Why do you have to be fancy, it’s already a four-way with four huge names in TNA, you don’t need to call it something stupid like that. Then, we had a “Ladder of Love” match. Although it was a good match, it’s stupid in essence. Why does this bimbo need a match to decide who she loves? Lethal needs to MachoMan her ass, smack her around a little bit. Stupid Vince Russo stuff, as usual. Then, we saw a “Challenge Match”. Really? A challenge match? What’s wrong with a regular match? We know it’s a challenge or else it wouldn’t be happening. It’s like calling a regular one-on-one a “Wrestling Match” because it’s a wrestling match for a wrestling show. Idiots.
On to the talent. Tonight, we saw a man dressed as Curry, a guy who thinks he’s a shark who thinks he’s Stone Cold Steve Austin, a guy who’s turned from autistic to a ‘super’ version of himself, a female Stone Cold Steve Austin, a Buddhist, a guy who thinks he’s the Macho Man Randy Savage, two guys who play Guitar Hero, a large Mankind, a Spanish D-Generation X, a JBL-tag team, and two whores.
Overall, it’s tough to rate it, since I was live and over-hyped about Christian Cage being less than 20 feet away from me, but it was still good. I’d give it about an 8. I forgot to mention that Earl Hebner was booed as much as John Cena at a One Night Stand PPV.
Now, for pictures.
- First, we met Dixie Carter, President of TNA Wrestling. She’s hot. Very hot. I got to hold the REAL TNA World Heavyweight Championship when I got my picture taken with her. She’s very beautiful. Never would you see Vince McMahon doing this with WWE – and that’s one of the few things I like about TNA more than WWE. Fan interaction is big in TNA, and WWE almost feels like they’re too good or something. But by the same token, this is Vince McMahon, and if I were him, people would have to earn a photo with me. Carter was very fan friendly and shook hands with the fans, signed stuff, etc.
- Paul Diamond. I didn’t even know who he was until my friend pointed him out. He wrestled in WCW years ago, but is by no means a superstar. He was a nice guy too, he took photos with us, shook out hand, and stuff.
- Hector Guerrero. Hector is the late Eddie Guerrero’s brother. When Hector came out, he got a huge pop, with lots of “Eddie” chants. It’s amazing how identical he and his late brother look. It’s almost eerie. All in all, we went to stand beside him, and he said, “You guys can’t be here, but it’s alright.” Very nice guy, very fan friendly and interactive with the fans.
- Angelina Love and Velvet Sky. They appear in the stands hugging and talking with family and friends, so of course, we rush over. As we’re about to take pictures with them, they say to me, “We have some family and friends here, can we take care of them first?”. So we let them through, and eventually, we get a photo with Velvet Sky. Both girls, although drop dead gorgeous, were kind of snobby and stuck up. They had a lot of tattoos – kind of skanky, and they had a ton of makeup on, but I’m not complaining. I touched Velvet Sky and Angelina Love, so I can die happy. They signed stuff and took pictures, but they didn’t seem to happy about it.
Because of lack of bandwidth, I can’t upload all the hi-resolution pictures, so if you want them, email me at marc_valeri@hotmail.com, or your best bet is to add me to Facebook, as they’re all being uploaded there.
Finally, two more pieces of news, and I’m gone:
- As reported here several weeks ago, the Habs interest in O’Sullivan has intensified over the weekend. According to three seperate sources, the Habs and Kings are discussing a deal that would involve O’Sullivan going to Montreal in exchange for Chris Higgins. GM Bob Gainey has been shopping Higgins since the trade deadline, so a deal with LA would logically feature Higgins.
- Ducks’ defenceman Mathieu Schneider was almost an Ottawa Senator. According to “a very credible source” out of Ottawa, Anaheim was on the verge of trading Schneider to Ottawa in exchange for Chris Neil. The deal was in it’s final stages when Bryan Murray backed out of the deal, which Brian Burke is obviously not happy about. As reported here weeks ago, Burke wants to resign Teemu Selanne, but is short on cap room, and is looking to dump salary – primarily Schneider’s. It is not yet known why Murray backed out of the deal.