TNA Impact Wrestling

TNA Impact Wrestling - Hulk Hogan

It’s a cold late January evening, and shaping up to be a good one as we head toward Nottingham’s Capital FM Arena. On the march, we’re joined by grown men with giant foam fingers, girls in full face paint, kids with homemade placards and one incredibly tan ‘Ric Flair’ in full red entrance gown. Total Nonstop Action is on the cards tonight, because we’re about to check out some epic level man panto courtesy of TNA Impact Wrestling, taking prime seats at right up at ringside, no less!

TNA Knockout Christy Hemme took up the mic to be our mistress of ceremonies for the evening and not only did a sterling job of whipping up the crowd with her announcing skills but also presented a pleasing sight to put up with entering and exiting the ring in-between bouts. She introduced the first match to whet the enthusiastically appreciative crowd with and kick off the night’s proceedings, as obvious favourite and one half of the British Invasion tag-team Doug Williams opened up the show against the ill-humoured Gunner.

Hailing from North Carolina and seemingly quite peeved to be here, Gunner made it clear in no uncertain terms that he was no Anglophile - and if you can’t guess how that match went and who won, then maybe you need a bit of schooling in how professional wrestling works on this side of the water. Suffice to say, the cheers in the arena soon warmed up the frosty evening and we were soon catapulted into our next match, featuring Crimson against the one man Nation of Violence, Samoa Joe. Clearly warmed by the heartfelt chants of ‘Joe’s gonna kill ya!’ from the choral Notts crowd, he kindly sat Crimson down for a breather in a steel chair mid-match, and administered some running boots to the face.

Ever attentive to fan needs, he also felt obliged to issue some repeat performances after hearing the calls of ‘One more time!’ Perhaps one too many, as eventually Crimson stood up and regained the offensive. A disqualification did little to marr spirits though – especially of those fans who been asked to put up a boot on the guardrail for Joe to slam poor old Crimson’s head onto!

Ladies favourite, the Motor City Machinegun’s Alex Shelley graced the turnbuckles next in a three-way dance between Austin Aries and Mark Haskins. A Brit, Haskins was being billed tonight as "Nottingham’s own," which got a respectable pop – even though he’s an Oxfordshire lad. One can only assume that the Californian Ms. Hemme was somehow mistaken, and so no hard feelings. In fact the only hard feelings felt were likely to be from the fantastic brainbuster drop delivered by the self-proclaimed ‘Greatest Man That Ever Lived’, the modestly talented Austin Aries, in order to ensure he retained the X-Division Title Belt.

Strong, solid wrestling followed from Tara and Mickie James in what is usually (and somewhat cruelly) considered the rest and refreshment break amongst ‘rasslin’ aficionados: the women’s match. It showed that these sprightly lady wrestlers were a cut above the usual ring candy, and indeed Madison Rayne’s shrill cries of ‘Hello Nottingham!’ while working the ropes with her teammate Gail Kim at least felt like they could’ve cut glass from where we were sitting. Meanwhile on the other side of the guardrail, one member of the audience also made their presence known. Looking for all the world like some local Jake the Snake, the vocal local regaled the audience with his heartfelt opinions on whom should beat whom and what should happen to those ‘dutty cows!’ Unperturbed, the Tag Team Champions retained, and Tara and Mickie had to be content at least with being the winners in the eyes of the audience.

TNA Impact Wrestling - Sting

Our Main Event of the evening was to be both members of recently split-up tag team Beer Money, Inc. featuring The Cowboy James Storm as our beer drinking hero vs. Bobby Roode as the now-dismissively arrogant TNA Champ. Storm was another runaway favourite amongst the creative contingent of sign bearers, and had a wink and a smile for those fans firmly in his corner. Another DQ halted proceedings prematurely, but that was soon washed away by a parade of wrestling legends as the match was rebooked on the fly by the explosive appearance of the man called Sting (the innovator of the Scorpion Deathlock rather than the 80’s guitarist), quickly followed by the legitimate American Olympic hero Kurt Angle and the abrasive Bully Ray.

A hot point of contention throughout the evening had been whether one particular star would be putting in an appearance this evening? Whereas I personally was most excited to get a chance to see the Stinger back in UK action, as the front-and-centre headshot of the tour poster my hopes were high for his arrival, but we were still left sceptical as to whether he would be there... But when Survivor’s guitar riff to Eye of the Tiger hits, we were left in no doubt. The Immortal Hulk Hogan was in the building and even almost thirty years later, Hulkamania was still running wild! 

It’s odd to be humbled by something so amazingly nostalgic and yet it’s not often on a Nottingham evening you can say that you hi-fived Hulk Hogan! This show marked the Hulkster’s first time at a British wrestling event since 1994, but certainly the kids who’d rushed to ringside between every match who surely hadn’t even been born at that point made up for this, shouting themselves horse at the yellow and red one’s arrival. All the right highlights and moves and shirt-ripping later and it was celebrations with the crowd all round, just as it should be.

Certainly my pick as the hardest worker of the night had to be Bully Ray. The ECW alumni had already wrestled in a strong match with the Phenomanally popular AJ Styles earlier in the night ensuring the re-ignition of a post-intermission crowd. Endearingly, the crowd seemed to realise the good work he was putting into being bad and dubbed him "Pussy Ray" in their chants. Surely this was due to his cat-like poise and grace in the ring against the highly agile Styles and was nothing to do with calling out a chap (called Mike) in the audience to fight him, then getting security to take him away after he faced him down.

Certainly he gained the MVP for garnering crowd ire – whether lazily raising double-fingered salutes, confiscating Union Jack flags or catching self-propelled spitballs out of the air back in his mouth. He did a masterly job of working up the crowd, but perhaps he’d have fared better if the Maximum Impact Tour had visited Birmingham, having once been a Dudley Boy after all.

Still, there was an electric atmosphere in the arena as we left, and I’m still pumped that I was there to see possibly Sting’s last UK appearance and clasp hands as a fan – although it does seem there’s a certain never say never in wrestling... We shall see. When Impact Wrestling returns to Nottingham, we’ll certainly be looking forward to seeing another great show!

TNA Impact Wrestling

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