Post by Seoul Survivor on Aug 28, 2016 20:33:50 GMT -5
Went to a Big Time Wrestling event tonight in Raleigh, NC at the Dorton Arena. First time going back to a wrestling show since 2012 back when Roman Reigns was still Leakee, and Big E still had the "5" gimmick. First event I've been to since 2009 with a meet and greet too. When we got there, there were several wrestlers scattered around the arena. Ivan Koloff, Gangrel, the Nasty Boyz, Cody Rhodes, Broken Matt Hardy, Brother Nero, Senor Benjamin, Hurricane Helms, Ricky Steamboat, Ric Flair, and a handful of local wrestlers. One interesting wrestler was "WWE Superstar" James Ellsworth. He was one of the wrestlers who fought Braun Strowman a while back on Raw, and teamed with AJ Styles recently on Smackdown. To start the show, Ricky Steamboat came out and talked about the history in the Dorton Arena. He talked about how he remembers about 39 years ago when he was the new kid in the territory, and Ric Flair said he saw something in Steamboat, and how Flair gave him a great oppurtunity. He talks about how back then they would wrestle hour-long matches on and off for 17 years in their feud. This lead to Flair coming out and having a moment with Steamboat. He also talked about the history in Dorton Arena, and some of the stories from way back when. First match was former ECW wrestler CW Anderson vs a guy who looked like a mix of Carlito and Rey Mysterio. Second match was James Ellsworth vs a big ole hillbilly looking guy, forgot his name. Third match was the BTW Champion Flex Armstrong vs. one half of the Rock 'n Roll Express; Ricky Morton. After that, I believe it was the triple threat match. Besides the main event, this was my favorite match. A good amount of high flying moves from all three guys, and very energetic. The next match was Teddy Goodz w/Jimmy Valiant vs. a guy whose name escaped me and his manager. The faces won that match of course. I've never really heard of Jimmy Valiant before, but seeing him as thin as he was, I'm sure he was a lot bigger back when he was active. He looked about Colin Delaney's size now. After that match there was a tag team match beween TA (not Magnum TA, although he did make an appearance and a brief speech) and Man Scout vs. the Nasty Boyz. This match was fun from the get go. Nasty Boyz came out with trash cans and weapons and went to town from the time the bell rang. The match immediately went into the crown, with Knobbs taking one side of the arena, and Sags to the other side. I was on the side Sags went, and he was throwing Man Scout through a table and trash can before taking it back near the ring. Knobbs busted the other guy open with a cheese grater, and they both hit some more weapon spots in the ring. Nasty Boyz won, and after the match they brought a Make-a-Wish kid from the crown in the ring, gave him one of the trash can lids and their chains as a souvenir after the kid went to each turnbuckle and hyped up the crowd. Very cool to see the wrestlers do that for him. The semi-main event was former X Division Champion Trevor Lee vs. TNA's newest sign, Cody Rhodes! This match was awesome! Before the match, Lee bragged how he was a former X Division champion. Cody said "that's cool and all, but who here was a six time tag team champion and two time Intercontinental Champion?" to a good pop. Again, the match was awesome! After Rhodes won with Cross Rhodes, Gangrel came out to attack Rhodes with Lee. Then Broken Matt Hardy and Brother Nero came out to even the field, which led to the main event of Trevor Lee & Gangrel vs. the Hardys. I'll say this, last night was the first time I've watched TNA since 2010, and Matt Hardy's new gimmick is hilarious. The whole "delete delete delete" chant. Seeing them live with this gimmick compared to when I last saw em back in WWE was like watching two completely different people. Matt's character was fun to watch for sure. They all put on a great match, and at one point, Lee or Gangrel was going to attack one of the Hardy's and Cody came back out to make the save. All the classic Hardy moves were hit, minus Whisper in the Wind. They did Poetry in Motion, Matt hit Side Effect and Twist of Fate, leading to Jeff hitting the Twist of Fate and Swanton for the win. After the match, Matt thanked the crowd, and said how when he and Jeff were younger, they'd watch guys like the Four Horsemen, and Cody's dad Dusty Rhodes wrestle in the very arena they are at now. Pretty emotional speech that made Cody tear up a bit. Cody then got a "Dusty" chant going which was also pretty emotional. After that, Rhodes and the Hardy's celebrated in the ring while Jeff got the Make-a-Wish kid from earlier back in the ring. He letthe kid hit him with a Twist of Fate and a pin, which was pretty cool of him. They all celebrated with fans to end the show. At the end of the show, the promoter(?) announced Big Time Wrestling will be back on February 10th, 2017 with Sting as the main guest. Very excited for that, and look forward to coming back.
On to the pictures!
On to the pictures!
