TNA made it's first trip to Columbus tonight and like the TV ratings, they drew about 1/3 of the WWE audience. Raw had a house show here in October and drew about 9,000. Tonight's TNA event drew about 3,000. However, I was entertained more at this show than I have been at a wrestling event in a while.

1. "The Prince of Punk" Shannon Moore defeated Kazarian in a #1 Contenders Match for the X Division Title. Moore came out to a decent pop. Kazarian got very little reaction at first. Typical X Division match with lots of quick spots and working the mutual respect angle. Eventually, Kaz started to get heel heat, so he went with it and worked as a standard heel. They teased a time limit draw when JB began counting down with a minute to go. They started hitting quick pinning combinations (cradles, sunset flips, schoolboy rolls, etc). Moore finally hit a roll up with about 10 seconds left for the clean win.

2. The Beautiful People (without Lacy Von Erich) defeated Tara and Angelina Love in a Knockouts Tag Title Match. Hotness. Pure hotness. The temperature in the building seemed to go up about 20 degrees as both teams made their entrances. Angelina is over big time. Good match from a technical standpoint. The finish came about 10 minutes in when Velvet Sky hit Angelina Love in the back with one of the title belts while Slick Johnson was admonishing Tara. Tara and Angelina got revenge after the match to get their heat back.

3. Jeff Jarrett defeated Rhino. Rhino and Jarrett came out to about equal pops. Jarrett actually came out to music tonight. I guess Eric Bischoff was not in the building. The match was about what you'd expect from these two. About 15 minutes in, Rhino hit the gore, but Jarrett rolled out of the ring. A couple of minute later, Rhino missed a gore in the corner and got hit with the Stroke for the clean pin.

4. "The Pope" Angelo Dinero defeated Desmond Wolfe. Wolfe got little reaction during his entrance, but his heelish mannerisms in the ring quickly got the crowd fired up. Dinero came out to the biggest pop of the night so far. Good match that ended when Dinero countered the Tower of London and hit an uppercut in the corner. When Wolfe got back up, Dinero hit the Express for the 1-2-3. Dinero can be a huge star if they push him right.

5. "The Blueprint" Matt Morgan and Big Rob Terry defeated Team 3D to retain the World Tag Team Titles. JB hyped the Hernandez injury angle. He got on the mic and said that the Tag Titles were scheduled to be defended tonight, but because Hernandez was injured at Impact on Monday, Matt Morgan would have to choose another partner. Morgan came out and said he didn't need a partner, but TNA stuck him with one anyway. Rob Terry came out, and man is he HUGE. He still looks a little uncoordinated, though. Morgan had the most heel heat by far of anyone who has appeared tonight. Team 3D came out and the place went nuts.

During the match, Morgan played a great chicken-heel only tagging in when Terry had one of Team 3D in trouble. About 20 minutes in, Terry hit Brother Ray with a chokeslam for the win while Morgan and Devon fought at ringside. Morgan jumped Terry and beat him down post-match. He set up a table and was going to but Terry through it, but Team 3D snuck up behind him and hit the 3D on Morgan through the table to a massive pop.

6. Kurt Angle defeated "The Phenomenal" AJ Styles (without Ric Flair) in a non-title match. Styles got on the mic and delivered a weak promo about not giving Angle a title shot because the "champ always gets what he wants". Angle came out to a similar pop to Team 3D. Very loud for he building only being about 1/3 full. They did their "standard" 4.75 star match and hit all their signature spots and reversals. On the 3rd attempt, Angle finally hit the Angle Slam for the clean pin. Angle got on the mic and thanked the crowd, especially the soldiers in the crowd from nearby Fort Benning.

Notes: All of the matches were great, better than the overall card that came for Raw in October. TNA is definitely more fan friendly than WWE. The last two matches were very entertaining, and the Angle vs. Styles match was probably the best live match I've seen in years. WWE has female talent, but they are not utilized the way the Knockouts are. The Knockouts match was just a good tag team wrestling match regardless of gender. TNA may not catch WWE for awhile, but they have the talent to do so eventually as evidenced by this show. I'm hoping they come back again soon and bring RVD and Jeff Hardy with them.

Biggest Pops:
Kurt Angle
Team 3D
Angelo Dinero
Angelina Love

Most Heat:
Matt Morgan
AJ Styles
Desmond Wolfe

VersionOne wrote:moore, dinero, and angle going over kazarian, wolfe, and styles.

tna homegrowns all playing heel roles and losing to the superstars. tna!

Joe5150 wrote:Mogan & Dinero really are seen as "TNA guys" than "Former WWE guys". TNA has given them the chance to shine/use them right.

ITT: VO continues his angry smark/former ROH guys didn't go over former WWE guys, complaining.

TiceMan wrote:Then why do you continue to watch? It's obvious you hate the company so quit watching maybe?