Reported by Adam Martin of WrestleView.com
On Sunday, April 6, 2008 at 4:01 AM EST

Drew Kendall sent this report in:

Hello everybody, I’m Drew and I’m bringing my report of TNA’s house show from the Pershing Center in Lincoln, Nebraska on April 5, 2008.

Pershing Center was at about half capacity…but boy did they try to fill the arena with chairs…not much of a ringside area and the ring did look kind of small but I’m willing to chalk that one up to perspective. And landing on the ring sounds painful, I don’t know if they had microphones under the ring or what…but each time somebody hit the mat, you could hear it all the way to the back.

JB makes his entrance and does his best to pump the crowd up, including talking about how much the WWE ignores Lincoln, which is true, I haven’t seen them here since…I’d say before Wrestlemania 19. Also note here…big props to whomever the referee was for the night, he was working from start to finish for the event.

First match: Curry Man vs. Sonjay Dutt
Surprisingly slow paced match in the beginning from these two. After a little submission wrestling the two had a…”Show we shake hands or bow moment?” Which led to hugging obviously. I think that Sonjay must have had multiple personality disorder during the match though…he started impersonating Ric Flair doing the strut, the Ultimate Warrior with some rope shaking, and then Batista with a “Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down sign.” Yeah, I know Batista does the rope thing too but…just going with who it made me think of first. Finally the two starting picking up the speed and after some great flying spots, Curry Man picks up the win after the Spice Rack. Crowd wasn’t into this match as much until they started picking up the pace.

JB pumps the crowd up more…and offers bribes of backstage passes and throws DVD’s to the crowd.

Second match: ODB vs. Gail Kim for the Number One Contender Status.
Two things to note here…1) ODB has a strong Nebraska following apparently and 2) Gail Kim looks amazing in person. But the match was interrupted by Miss Jackie which turned the match into a triple threat match. Basically it was one of the three is thrown out the ring and the other two fight, then that first person comes back and throws another one out and…you get the point. At one point, Gail and ODB team up to attack Miss Jackie which lasted just long enough to inflict some damage. Eventually Gail pins Jackie for the win. Afterward Gail and ODB make up by sharing a drink, ODB from the flask and Gail from its lid. You ever wonder how much that flask must hold if she drinks out of it so much?

Third Match: James Storm vs. Rhyno.
Storm comes out and starts his usual rants about how much he hates us all…how ugly and fat our women are, and how the best part of being here is leaving. Okay, I know he’s the heel, but you’ve got to give him credit for making us all hate him so much so quickly. Rhyno comes out with some contest winning kid I’m assuming. “ECW” chant starts, which he replies, “That’s great but this is TNA!” And insert Brokeback Mountain joke here. Great back and forth match with plenty of Storm taunting the crowd. But one Gore with extra altitude and Storm is walking to the back the loser. Rhyno wins. And I swear after this point in the match, the ring has moved a foot to the left. It just kept swaying after somebody got

Fourth Match: BG James vs Kip James.
Kip enters first and…he is huge in person! BG enters with a DJ from a local radio station and does some talking before Kip asks him…”How’s your daddy doing?” These two have a very intense physical match-up highlighted by a painful looking neck-breaker counter to BG’s punching combo. BG James wins after his second attempt at the punching combo and one of his Road Dogg style knee drops. Kip seemed ticked off at the end of the match as he kept saying “That was two!” And half the audience was agreeing with him.

Break time…you don’t care what happened here although I found it funny that there were people passing out this little pieces of paper or putting stacks of them in the rest rooms advertising the Encore Classic Cup on May 3. They have an account on MySpace: Myspace.com/encoreclassic so, I’ll leave it to you to learn about it. Although they’re advertising: Koko B. Ware, Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake, Heidenreich, and Gangrel. That’s Old School right there.

The fifth match: TNA Tag Team Title Match - Jay Lethal and Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles and Tomko.
This was the match the crowd was waiting for apparently, oh to all of you who bring signs to these events, please have some consideration for those of us who aren’t as close to the ring as you are and not hold your signs up for the entire match. So the parts I saw that weren’t blocked by signs combined to create a great match. Funniest part was in the beginning, AJ was bouncing on the ropes and “accidentally” launched himself over the top rope and landed in a heap in the ring. Cue the “Princess AJ” chant here and Tomko puts his hands over AJ’s ears so he doesn’t have to hear it. Otherwise, a solid match, including that Lethal Combination…hell of a move to see in person. Great action from all four competitors. AJ pins Lethal after…well I’d call it a Slingshot Body Splash going from ring apron to mid-ring. Styles and Tomko retain

Post Match: Whole new ballgame here folks. All four men start brawling ending with Tomko being thrown out of the ring and AJ taking a Muscle Buster from Joe and a top rope elbow drop from Lethal. Again, a great match and I think they should let Joe and Styles team up on air some more.

J.B. once more pumps the crowd up and does the TNA cam…so there should be something on the site about our House Show. Oh and apparently we’re the loudest crowd yet…and at only half capacity too. Just think if the whole place had been full of people, we’d have probably caused a lot of people to go suddenly deaf.

Sixth match: Robert Roode vs. Booker T.
At the last minute a no disqualification stipulation was added to the match. Robert makes the ref hold the ropes open for him as he enters. Crowd is red hot for Booker. Oh interesting fact, last time wrestling came from the Pershing Center, Booker T was in a no disqualification match for the main event, he lost that to HHH in what would become a preview to Wrestlemania 19, okay tangent over. Robert leaves the ring and the crowd starts a “Bobby Sucks” chant. Roode threatens to leave and never return if they don’t refer to him as “Robert.” Tangent again, this is a tough spot as a fan to be in…on one hand you don’t like the guy and want him gone but on the other…if he leaves the main event never happens. Booker responds by starting the “Bobby Sucks” chant again. Roode and Booker hook up and…physical match up here, counter signature move for counter signature move. Although Roode didn’t have a counter for the Spinaroonie…Roode better hope Booker doesn’t use that at Lockdown or it might all be over. Roode brings in a chair but fails to use it…twice. Honestly, for a NO DQ Match…not much that normally would cause a DQ. One chair and I don’t think it ever connected. Booker T wins after a Book End.

And that’s that…great show all together, especially when you consider how few people were wresting on at the event. Don’t know where Angle or Cage were, but the show was great despite their absence. Hope that either brand or company comes back to Lincoln soon.