Thanks to Richard Trionfo ([email protected]) for these:
I was at Final Resolution on Sunday night, and I wanted to send in some comments about the show from someone in attendance:
Tonight’s crowd was the largest that I have seen at the TNA tapings and pay per views in Orlando. Since they took the chair out of the ‘Pit’ sections across from the hard cameras, they appeared to pack people in those areas. I would not be surprised if they turned people away from the show.
After his match against A.J. Styles at the last Impact tapings, I was hoping that they would give Cassidy Reilly the match against Chris Candido, and both men did a good job in starting things off.
The crowd was very live throughout the show, and it might have allowed things to come off better on the broadcast.
I was not shocked to see 3 Live Kru in the first match because they are over with most of the Orlando crowd, and it was a good way to start things off.
The Elix Skipper/Sonjay Dutt match was a good way to keep the crowd involved early in the show.
It was interesting to see one half of the participants in the Six Sides of Steel match in the first two matches of this pay per view.
I thought the Kash/Rhodes match would be a clash of styles, and it might have gone a bit too long for the crowd to stay in that one.
I don’t know who gave fewer bangs for the buck with TNA, Jonny Fairplay or Randy Savage.
I don’t think they should give Raven a live mic after one of his matches because it sounded like an obscene phone call with all of the gasping. Maybe he should change his catchphrase to ‘Quote the Raven . . . oxygen’
It looked like a fan in the crowd helped push Erik Watts off the ramp to the floor.
The Abyss run in was a surprise to everyone around me in the crowd, and I think it saved the Scott Hall/Jeff Hardy match.
I don’t know if it made it on the broadcast, but Monty and Page shook hands after the elimination match.
I thought the tag title match was good, even though it was hard to focus on the match starting off with fighting happening on both ramps. The only thing that I did not like about that match was that it seemed like they were kicking out of too many finishing moves.
The match of the show was definitely the Ultimate X match, even though I was surprised that Chris Sabin did not win the match. I thought the finish was good because I was afraid they were going to do the ‘two champions’ thing again. The crowd was definitely split during this match, but I don’t think a lot of people would have been disappointed to see either of the three men win.
Since the weather in Orlando was cooler than normal, there were a lot of people dressed in hooded sweatshirts. I don’t know if it made it on the broadcast, but there were about five or six people next to me who mimicked A.J. Styles’ entrance before the Ultimate X match.
Speaking of that part of the Pit, it was like a mosh pit during of the show.
After seeing the WWE ‘copy’ the Team Canada with two titles (including the tag titles) after this week’s Smackdown, it was interesting to see that Team Canada now has no gold.
To say that the Orlando crowd was not happy with the results of the main event would be a significant understatement. I almost thought there was going to be a riot after Jarrett retained the title. The main event also brought the crowd down after the Ultimate X match.
I don’t know if the reaction would have been the same if there was interference to help Jarrett retain the title.
I was shocked that they didn’t have Kevin Nash interfere, but with the crowd noise, it was hard to hear any of the backstage segments, so I don’t know if it was mentioned during their segment before the main event.
Because of the main event, it will be interesting to see how the crowd will react to Jeff Jarrett on Tuesday night at the tapings.
As I was watching the main event, it reminded me of most Bradshaw title matches because they fought outside the ring and in the crowd, without the blood. Of course, they also incorporated some Triple H match features with the sleeper and the use of foreign objects that the referee somehow forgets to disqualify the champion.
The crowd at this show was much louder and livelier than the crowd at the Smackdown tapings that I attended last Tuesday night in Tampa (and the crowd was about one-seventh the size.
