6/17 TNA Results: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Mark Holdsworth sent this report in:
TNA Impact Wrestling Results from Toronto, ON Canada for June 17th, 2011
Reported by Mark Holdsworth
Main Event (Non Title Match)
Olympic Gold Medalist Kurt Angle def. World Heavyweight Champion Mr. Anderson via an Olympic Slam
“Big Poppa Pump” Scott Steiner def. “The Blueprint” Matt Morgan via two consecutive Steiner Flatliners
World Tag Team Championship Match
James Storm & Robert Roode with Alex Shelley def. The British Invasion (Williams and Magnus) via the DUI
(Shelly was suppose to replace Roode, but the angle was that he was not cleared by a US doctor to wrestle, but in Canada a Canadian doctor cleared him)
X Division Championship Match
“The Monster” Abyss def. Kazarian via the Black Hole Slam
Knockouts Tag Team Action
Knockouts Champion Mickie James & Tara def. Angelina Love & Winter
“King of the Mountain” Jeff Jarrett def. Eric Young w/ Orlando Jordan via the Stroke
“The Phenomenal” AJ Styles def. “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero via the Styles Class
Overview of Show
-solid show, crowd was into the whole event from start to finish
-from top to bottom there was no bad match, ironically the quietest match was the main event with Anderson and Angle
-no real “X Division” matches on the card, yet still a very entertaining show
-Everyone in attendance seemed to have a great time and most likely would return again. TNA continues to do a great, “fan friendly” experience. They may not average much more than 1,000 to 1,200 a house show, but they probably at least double their gate via merchandise and VIP wrestling experiences (ie: after show photos with main superstars).
-With the exception of Steiner, Anderson, Tara and Angelina Love, all wrestlers at some point sign autographs for the fans.
-Kazarian, Jarrett, Shelly, James and Storm were especially nice when signing autographs for the fans. Spending a moment to make the fan feel special.
-Everything was still TNA (ring, banners, entrance) and they did not use the term Impact Wrestling during any promos. That said; it may be just the fact that this is their travel ring set up and they have not created a new “Impact Wrestling” set. Although they were selling new Impact Wrestling t-shirts as part of the Don West Brown Bag Special.
-decent crowd of 1,200 people, 90% of floor seats were sold, but only a handful of people in the stands/100 level. That said, you’d think they might have a larger crowd considering this is the first time TNA has run a show in downtown Toronto. (previously they have held house shows in Oshawa Ontario – 45 mins out of downtown Toronto, and Hamilton Ontario 90 mins out of downtown Toronto, plus they also ran a PPV “No Surrender” in 2009 in Oshawa, although they did often bill it as Toronto).
-Between entrance gate and merchandise, I would estimate they most likely took in close to $100,000 which is very decent
-It was impressive the quality of the show and length of matches considering many of the roster will be heading to Mexico City tomorrow morning for “Triplemania” (Jarrett, Abyss, Anderson, Mickie James, Angelina Love)
-Only drawback of show was “Don West”, as much as he is a great pitch man, and probably has turned around TNA’s house shows due to his great merchandise selling skills, he does come off a little “unfriendly” trying to push through fans so quickly through autograph lines. As much as he is correct in not having people pose for pictures with the wrestlers as they would never get through lines, you can’t keep pushing that in the fans face. A good example of this was during a Mickie James signing session during the intermission. The line up was half way around the hockey rink and Don was trying to push them through quickly and stopping fans who were trying to get a quick photo with her, but I think Mickie was starting to feeling a little uncomfortable.. That said, he’s just doing his job and doing a good job at that of selling LOTS of merchandise.