7/3 TNA Results: Asbury Park, New Jersey
John Bertollo sent this report in:
The arena was about half full. Before the show, they held a meet and greet with the wrestlers coming out to sign autographs at ringside. Don West began the night with his black bag specials. They were selling Flair shirts plus 4 dvds for $20, Rob Van Dam and Jeff Hardy signed photos for $20, and some other great merchandise. Prior to the show, Team 3D was signing free autographs. Jeremy Borash is the host and ring announcer for the show.
1) X-Division Three Way Match: Amazing Red def Homicide and The Brian Kendrick after a standing shooting star press on Kendrick.
2) Knockouts Match To Determine Who Wrestles Madison Rayne later: Angelina Love def Sarah Del Ray (I’m pretty sure that was her name) Earl Hebner was the referee and got his own entrance with music. When the crowd started chanting “You Screwed Bret”, he started doing the Bret Hart strut and took off his referee shirt to reveal his “Your Damn Right I Did” t-shirt.
3) After the match, Madison Rayne attacks Angelina Love and announces the title match starts now. Knockouts Title Match: Madison Rayne def Angelina Love with a roll-up. During the match, Earl Hebner ends up kissing both Madison Rayne and Angelina Love.
4) Jay Lethal def Desmond Wolfe.
5) Kurt Angle is announced. He comes out for a promo. He says that due to injury, he cannot wrestle tonight, but wanted to come out and show respect to the TNA fans who used their hard earned money to attend the show.
6) Jeff Hardy def Abyss.
7) 30-minute intermission with Angelina Love signing autographs (and Earl Hebner signing his “Damn Right I Did It” t-shirt for $10.
8) Team 3-D def Ink Inc in a Tables Match when Team 3D put Jesse Neal through the table with the Dudley Death Drop. The match was announced as a tag team match. When the Dudleys came out, Bubba Ray had a mic and asked the crowd if they want to see a boring tag team match. The crowd screamed no. Bubba Ray asked what kind of match we want to see and the crowd chanted “tables” so the match was changed to a tables match. After the match, D’Von got two kids from the crowd and brought them into the ring. They were given two big pieces of the broken table.
9) TNA World Title Match: Rob Van Dam def AJ Styles with 5-Star Frog Splash. After the match, Rob Van Dam stayed in the ring for $20 pictures, Kurt Angle signed free autographs by the souvenir stand, and many wrestlers came back down to ringside to sign autographs.
Overall, it was a very entertaining house show. Lots of fan interaction and it was much friendlier than WWE shows I have been to. One thing about TNA is they really do try to make it friendly towards the fans and children. Also, a big credit goes out to Don West who was running around the entire night with black bag specials, back stage passes, and even selling shirts at the end. That man earns his money. And for Earl Hebner being such a veteran in the ring, he is still a very classy guy and had lots of great interaction with the fans throughout the night.