TNA Wrestling Tour Review
Who out there knows who TNA Wrestling is?(www.impactwrestling.com) They are the other wrestling league other than the WWE. They have been around for 10 years and have been slowing gaining respect and admiration. This past Friday 4/20, I took my son to the show they had at the Ft. Lauderdale War Memorial Auditorium. This was the first time they did a show in this city and from what I saw and what Jeremy Borash was saying, it won’t be the last time they come.
Also, before the show, I had a chance to interview Bully Ray; he’s one of the top heals (bad guy for all you non-wrestling fans) in the company and in the industry. He was part of most decorated tag-teams around, the Dudley Boyz. Other than him wrestling now he also runs a wrestling school up in Orlando, Team 3D Academy (http://www.team3dacademy.com/index2.html).
Now mind you, my son is not a wrestling fan as of yet but the way the show was presented, he was able to get into it and had a lot of fun. I told him that it could be a living comic book. As the first match started (X-Division title Zima Ion vs. the champ Austin Aries) my son started booing Zima (mainly because I told him who the bad guy was). The two of the started into their fast paced match that is the hallmark of the X-Division and I was amazed how well they were able to pull off their moves. Zima was really taunting the crowd and getting a good reach, or pop, from the audience. Bully told me that if he could change anything, it would make the storylines more real. Find out whom has a problem with whom and have them feud.
The next match was the Knockouts with Velvet Sky taking on the champion Gail Kim (two of the most attractive women on the planet if you ask me). Again, they played to the crowd and everyone was into the match. My son asked me if Velvet liked Wonder Woman because her outfit kind of looked like hers.
The third match was the tag champions of Samoa Joe and Magnus versus Kazarian and “The Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels. I asked Bully Ray about the status of tag-team wrestling, “It’s a dying art form. It really doesn’t exist in the WWE anymore. There’s no one team that’s truly credible.” But these four men put on a fast paced match that had a lot of teamwork. The audience was really into this with chants of “Joe’s gonna kill you!” and “Magnus, Magnus, Magnus!” It was a real fun. Another thing I asked Bully Ray was the differences between tag wrestling and singles. “It’s weird, going from four to two. There’s no one to tag out to when you need to take a breath.”
The next few matches were solid all around. Jeremy Borash was announcing and he was also picking out the loudest fans (not really because he didn’t pick my son) to go backstage and meet the wrestlers. Also, Gail Kim was signing autographs after her match, as well as one of the most famous referees Earl Hebner. He was also taunting the people sitting ringside.
The main event was a “three-way dance” with Bully Ray and Jeff Hardy against the World Heavyweight Champion Bobby Rude. Bully Ray came out and started out addressing the audience making them hate him even more than they do. When I asked him about where his character came from, he said it was an extension of himself from his ECW days. “I don’t want them to hate me, I want them to despise me! To try and knock this chip off my shoulder.” And the crowd ate it up, booing him mercilessly. In my humble opinion the next time they’re in town, go see the show. I give it 5 caps out of 5.