Lots Of TNA News: Hardy vs. Abyss, Hulk Hogan Shoots, Foley Tour

Partial Source: Pwinsider.com

— An article from India on TNA’s promotional tour is available at http://www.indiantelevision.com/ TNA Wrestling Director of International Marketing Dan Stevenson says in the article that the tour has three objectives: promoting TNA’s partnership with ESPN Sports Star, planning live events in India and finding the next great Indian wrestler.

— Announced for this weekend’s TNA house shows in Bloomington, IL and LaPorte, IN are Jeff Hardy vs. Abyss in a Monster’s Ball, Ink Inc. vs. Beer Money, TNA Knockouts champion Madison Rayne vs. Taylor Wilde, plus AJ Styles, Jeff Jarrett, Kevin Nash and more.

— TNA’s Generation Me will appear at the Pro Wrestling Destination show in Reno on September 17th. More details are available at http://www.pwdwrestling.com/

— Andy sent this one along:: I just finished reading the Slam Wrestling recap that you linked to on the site and it in no way does this show justice. It was, at times, very entertaining – at others, a complete and utter train wreck. The theatre holds about 1000 people – I’d say there were between 600 & 700 fans there, but the paid attendance would’ve been a lot less. Tickets were very easy to come by in the days leading up to the show. Some highlights: When asked what his worst match was, Hogan said it was against Jake “The Snake” Roberts. That fits in with the story Jake told Mike last week about how the crowd chanted “DDT” during their match while he was working heel and Hogan was the monster babyface. Hogan also said he saw Randy Savage at a doctors office a few months ago and they were very friendly & chatty. Who knows if this is actually true. When asked who they’d like to wrestle from the current generation of stars, no one on the panel named a TNA wrestler. Not even Hogan. Hogan initially said he thought Randy Orton was the best worker in the business today, but since he’s already wrestled him, he’d like to work a program with John Cena. In an answer that gave all wrestling fans the heeby-jeebies, The Nasty Boys said they’d want to work with The Hart Dynasty. A young kid, no more than 6 or 7 years old, stepped up to the mic and said: “I have a question for The Nasty Boys. What is your future?” The whole theatre erupted in laughter and Sags said, “I have no idea – my wife asks me that everyday.” I can’t believe I’m saying this, but thank god The Nasty Boys were there. Besides them and Hogan, the panel was not filled with great storytellers. In fact, many of the guys had trouble remembering things that people asked about. At one point, Greg Valentine was asked about his memories of wrestling The British Bulldogs and he said his fondest memory of them was he & Brutus Beefcake beating them for the WWF Tag Team Titles. A few moments later he realized that they didn’t actually beat the Bulldogs, but it was the other way around. Say what you will, Knobbs & Sags knew when the stories were dying and were able to jump in with some badly needed comic relief. There were very few TNA-related questions, but by the end of the night, every fan who stepped up to the mic asked Hogan for a Wolfpac sign. Hogan eventually said “damn…this Wolfpac thing is STILL over!” Hogan said he thought The Band was starting to click just as Scott Hall started to have problems. He didn’t rule out Hall returning, but said he had to get healthy again. The biggest weakness of the night was the total reliance on fan questions. None of the guys prepared stories in advance. They referenced this several times by saying “this is the first time we’ve ever done anything like this”, so all of the stories that were told were generated by fan questions. While there were some good questions, unfortunately when you give a group of wrestling fans an open mic for 2 hours and serve beer all night, it doesn’t take long for the quality of the questions to spiral downward. I actually left when one fan was arguing with Hogan over who he gave “the finger-poke of doom” to. Hogan said it was Nash, but the fan insisted that it was Sting. The fan started eventually screamed “look back at the video Hulk, it was Sting!” Good god, almighty. Reading this, don’t you wish you had been there ;)

— Mick Foley will be doing a series of book signings this fall to promote the release of his new book Countdown to Lockdown. Announced so far:

10/1/10 12 Noon at Borders Books – Broadway. New York, NY.
10/1/10 7:00 PM at Book Revue – New York Avenue. Huntington, NY.
10/2/10 11:00 AM at BookEnds – East Ridgewood Avenue. Ridgewood, NJ.
10/2/10 4:00 PM at Borders Books – Commons Way. Bridgewater, NJ.
10/3/10 2:00 PM at the Ocean County Library – Washington Street. Toms River, NJ.
10/4/10 7:00 PM at the Portsmouth Public Library – Parrott Avenue. Portsmouth, NH.
10/5/10 7:00 PM at the Boston University Bookstore – Beacon Street. Boston, MA.

— For more great exclusive TNA coverage like what you just read above including 4 rumored ECW matches for TNA Hard Justice (Sandman vs. Sabu), visit our TNA website only at TNAWrestlingNews.com.

4 Matches For TNA’s ECW PPV – The Sandman vs. Sabu, RVD vs. Lynn, Dreamer vs. Rhino!