Credit: Eric Sturrock and Pwinsider.com
Before the show I met Eric Young at the Poughkeepsie galleria, TNA’s Jimmy Jay was with him. There was around 50 people there when I was at 2pm.
TNA had a tiny entrance way setup with some lights on it. On the stage was TNA Production and the hard camera. Crowd was about 90% full some rear row floor seats were empty.
Jimmy Jay was the ring announcer from backstage, but he was ringside once during one of the last matchs of the night. Between every match Borash would come out to do his usual fluffing up of the crowd, “Man we shouldn’t be in Orlando taping TV we should come here to Poughkeepsie.” Borash told the crowd to cheer throughout the night to get to meet Jeff Hardy after the show. I’m guessing between every match they will add in backstage interviews & video packages like they usual do for the One Night Only PPVs.
1st Match: Chris Sabin vs. Sonjay Dutt vs. Austin Aries (w/o X-Division title). Referee Brian Hebner. Aries got the biggest pop of the night next to Hardy. The crowd was cheering for Aries the entire match, quiet for Dutt & Sabin. Dutt & Sabin tried to work together but disagreed later on. Aries won with the brainbuster.
2nd Match: Ethan Carter III vs. Dewey Barnes. Referee Earl Hebner. Carter came down to the ring. Ethan said, “Hello Earl” and said since tonight is #OldSchool he needs to face one of his longtime rivals that started him on his rise to the top. He said his opponent is TNA’s own merchandise salesmen Dewey Barnes. Dewey came out from the Civic Center concourse wearing his wrestling trunks already with a flannel shirt and hat on. Dewey acted surprised to be called out to wrestle tonight. Carter dominated but Dewey had some offense in and the crowd started chanting “Dewey”. Carter won with his finisher and had Earl roll Dewey out of the ring. Ronnie Lang of Atlas Security helped pick up Dewey after the match and hand him off to Brian Hebner.
3rd Match: Bully Ray vs. Tommy Dreamer in a Falls Count Anywhere Match. Referee Earl Hebner. Bully ripped up a HOH sign on his way to the ring, Bully is back using his pre-Aces & 8’s theme music. Bully said he ended Terry Funk’s career for good at House of Hardcore 3. Tommy came down to the ring with a kendo stick. They had a stare down and Bully spit right in Tommy’s face. They brawled in the ring and some ringside but never went out of the ringside arena. As they brawled ringside, Tommy grabbed a beer and spat it in Bully’s face. Tommy then hit Bully with 3 cups of beer. Bully got a table out from under the ring and Tommy dropped kick it into him. Bully & Earl argued while Tommy stalked Bully with his Singapore cane. Earl went to punch Bully and Bully cowered in the corner to turn around into Tommy hitting him with the cane. Bully got out a cheese grader but Tommy got it away from him. Tommy put it between Bully’s legs and pulled it away. Tommy got out a steel barrier from under the ring but Bully used it against him. The crowd started chanting “Cheesy balls” at Bully, which made Bully grab his junk. Bully climbed the top rope but Tommy grabbed him and hit a Dreamer driver through a table, but Bully kicked out. Tommy got knocked down from the top rope with a piece of metal from the broken table when Bully hit him with it. Bully hit a suplex off the top rop, but Tommy kicked out. Bully got a third table out and set it up and got out lighter fluid but Tommy punched him down. Tommy put the entire bottle of lighter fluid on the table and lit a match, but Bully spun him around and hit a cutter for the win.
4th Match: Velvet Sky & Bad Influence vs. Bro Mans & Lei’d Tapa w/ Special guest referee: Eric Young. Eric Young came down to the ring. Eric said he’s as disappointed as all of us of Mrs. Carter’s doings. Eric’s dream Is to be in control. He wants to be President. Eric said he needed everyone to swear not to say this next part on twitter, because he’s a married man. He said his favorite knockout if Velvet Sky and he brought her out to the ring. Then Bad Influence came down to the ring. Daniels asked the fans if Velvet is their favorite knockout. He says everyone knocks Kazarian but he has the best eyes in wrestling and that he has the greatest butt. Bromans(w/o Tag titles) came down to the ring. Bromans said they are the best tag team in TNA and Velvet Sky is not a real woman. Velvet lifted her skirt to check. Robbie E said they are friends with a real woman and brought out Lei’d Tapa. Eric said he had a idea, and said since there is 1 boy, 2 boys, and 1 girl, and 1 boy, 1 boy, and 1….. Bromans held Tapa back. Eric said as President he making a 6 person tag match with him as guest referee. Tapa wrestled with Daniels & Kazarian in the match, with Tapa hitting some bodyslams on Daniels. During the match Eric tried to get the fans to cheer around with Velvet & Bad Influence by pounding on the top rope. Velvet hit a crossbody on Tapa later in the match. Bad Influence picked up Velvet and tossed her out of the ring laying out Tapa. Bromans knocked Daniels out of the ring and double teamed Kazarian but Daniels pulled Robbie out of the ring. Bad Influence hit the high & low on Jessie for the win.
5th Match(Main Event of PPV): Samoa Joe vs. Magnus(TNA Champion) for the TNA Heavryweight Championship. Referee Earl Hebner. Crowd was quiet besides cheering for Samoa a few times. Jeremy Borash said this was the main event of the #OldSchool PPV so this match will air last on the PPV. Jeremy did the in ring introductions and stayed at ringside for the match. Magnus grabbed a microphone and said Samoa hit him with a closed fist and wants Earl to give Samoa his first public warning as per Kings rules. Some near falls in the match. The finsh was really botched. They did a ref bump with Earl Hebner layed out. Samoa hit the muscle buster but no ref. Brian Hebner came running out and counted to 3!, Ethan Carter III then pulled him out of the ring. Brian Hebner argued with Carter and Samoa hit a suicide give laying out Carter and walked back into the ring to get hit by the title by Magnus who then pinned him as Earl counted to 3 and rang the bell. Earl took forever forever to get up just leaning against the ropes rumping his eyes during the brian/carter/samoa deal. Brian Hebner just walked away after the match ended. Borash yelled at Earl after the match. Samoa got a microphone and yelled he and everyone here heard the referee hit the mat and count to 3. Samoa said when a referee counts to 3 you win. Samoa said this won’t stop him and he will win the TNA Championship. Really good angry promo by Joe which the crowd loved but he had to his back to the hard camera during most of it, so it may not air.
6th Match: Mr. Anderson vs. Kurt Angle. Referee Brian Hebner. Crowd was quiet throughout the match and some chanted boring at one time. Kurt hit two belly to belly suplexs and tried the ankle lock a couple times. Kurt won with the Olympic Slam.
7th Match: Booby Roode vs. James Storm in a Last Man Standing Match. Referee Earl Hebner. Crowd was quiet until weapons were introduced. Storm tried throughout the match to get the fans into it. Earl was counting pretty quick until towards the end when he slowed down in counting to 10. They brawled at ringside and Storm took someone’s drink from the ground and smashed Roode with it. Roode brought some steel chairs, a garbage can, a cookie sheet, and a crutch into the ring. Storm put the garbage can on Roode’s groin and hit him with the crutch. Roode went to hit Storm with a garbage can but ate a super kick. Roode just barely beat the 10 count as he fell after standing for a second at the 9 count. Storm set up two chairs facing each other and went to use the Eye of the Storm to drop Roode on them but Roode got free and slammed Storm onto the chairs, breaking one. Crowd chanted “Holy Shit” and “This is Awesome”. Storm beat the 10 count so Roode got out a pair of handcuffs and handcuffed Storm with his hands behind his back. Roode hit with with a cookie sheet and garbage can to the head but Storm got up. Roode got a beer bottle from under the ring and hit Storm with it. Storm could not get up for the 10 count so Roode wins.
Borash did one more bit of fluffing and said the PPV will be on DirecTV, Dish, & OnDemand and over 120 countries. As he talked TNA staff brought out barbed wire and other things and put it under the ring.
8th Match: Abyss vs. Jeff Hardy in a Monster’s Ball Match. Referee Brian Hebner. Fun match. Ringside Abyss threw Hardy into the post which cut Hardy’s head open. Hardy hit abyss with some chairs shot and Hardy ran headfirst into a chair Abyss set up in the corner. Abyss got thumbtacks out from under the ring and poured them out towards the corner. Hardy went for a Swanton bomb but Abyss got up and struck him with a chair sending Hardy out of the ring through a table that was set up earlier by Abyss between the ring & barrier, really awesome. Crowd though did not go insane. Abyss got Janice (the board of nails, not Dixie’s Mom) out from under the ring. Like in the past, Janice got stuck in the turnbuckle when Hardy moved. Hardy got Janice loose and Abyss knocked Hardy down and Brian Hebner removed Janice from the ring. Hardy completely missed a whisper in the wind on Abyss but Abyss sold it. Abyss choke slammed Hardy into the thumbtacks. Hardy entire upper back was covered in tacks and he was picking out thumbjacks out of his hair the rest of the match. Abyss got out 3 barb wired boards out from under the ring and set one up in the corner. Hardy knocked Abyss down onto one barb wire board and Hardy made a Abyss barbed wired sandwich by placing another on top of Abyss and hit a Swanton Bomb for the win.
The show ended about 10:15pm. I would order the PPV when it comes out as most of the show was enjoyable.