Reported by Bob Magee of WrestleView.com
On Saturday, June 10, 2006 at 8:01 AM EST

TNA debuted in Philadelphia last night with "Hardcore War" before a packed crowd at the ECW Arena.

The organization of the seating and the staff was impressive, especially given that this was the first large scale house show run by Hermie Sadler of UWF, who has been running the house shows thus far, which up to this point had been smaller shows in Southern venues. The degree of organization was something other independents could stand to learn from, including within the Philadelphia market.

Match results:

Shark Boy defeated Simon Diamond with the Dead Sea Drop

Jay Lethal defeated Sonjay Dutt with a release dragon suplex

"The Monster" Abyss defeated a bloodied Spik...er, Brother Runt of Team 3D after giving him a Black Hole Slam into thumbtacks. This "David vs. Goliath" style match was the kind of sleeper match of the show that PWinsider.com's Mike Johnson predicted it would be. When seeing Spik...er, Brother Runt, the crowd broke into "You're a Dudley". Spik...er, Brother Runt, finally broke down and did his goofy ECW wave of the hand to a big pop.

In a match that seemed to not get the reaction desired (namely, throwing two attractive women in front of a high-testosterone Philadelphia wrestling crowd), Traci defeated Gail Kim with Christy Hemme as referee. While the match was a good one, some in the crowd crapped on the match, wanting to see the wrestling they identify with TNA.

"The War Machine" Rhino defeated "King of the Mountain" Jeff Jarrett with a Gore. Jarrett cut a killer pre-match promo and drew great heat, as one would expect, ragging on everything and everyone from "smart marks" to ECW to Paul Heyman.

Team Canada's Petey Williams defeated Jerry Lynn with a great looking Canadian Destroyer

X Division Champion Samoa Joe successfully defended the X Division title against AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels when Joe submitted AJ Styles via the clutch

Post-match, America’s Most Wanted hit the ring and attacked AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels…

America’s Most Wanted vs. Team 3D vs. James Gang

America’s Most Wanted then got on the microphone, and issued their "open challenge" – the lights went out and The James Gang appeared standing in the ring.

Yawn.

The James Gang traded insults with America’s Most Wanted until Team 3D appeared on the Arena's big screen and joined in on the mike work, with comments ranging from references to Brokeback Mountain, Billy Gunn's need to get out of Barry Bonds's "kit bag" (their words, not mine), and Brian James's looking for a crack pipe.

At first, Team 3D said they were doing a "taped interview" for Philadelphia. After a promo that ran a bit long, told those in the ring to "look behind them"…

Everyone in the arena turned to see Team 3D standing at the entrance to the arena and the place erupted as they made their way to the ring. The match ended up a Philadelphia Street Fight with America’s Most Wanted vs. The James Gang vs. The Dud...er, Team 3D.

The finish...or rather, non-finish occurred when Bubb...er...."Brother Ray" called for a repeat of the infamous chair throwing incident from August 13, 1994 which apparently caused the match to be thrown out. It was kind of a flat end to a great evening...as there was no reason to end with a non-finish.

Post-match the The Dud...er, Team 3D, Spik...er, Brother Runt, Christopher Daniels and AJ Styles celebrated the show, with "Brother Ray" putting over Styles and Daniels over bigtime as the future of wrestling.

No return date was announced for TNA at the ECW Arena.

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