Report from TNA IMPACT WRESTLING BASEBRAWL at AutoZone Park in Memphis-July 14, 2012

At noon on Saturday there was a special meet and greet held at the Direct Auto Insurance building on Covington Pike in Memphis. They had a neat setup with local radio station K97 on hand. Also they had all sorts of ticket giveaways and other drawings for a chance to win some TNA merchandise. The fine people at Direct even hooked us up with water and Domino's pizza. How cool is that! There was a great turnout to meet IMPACT WRESTLING Superstars "The Pope" D'Angelo Dinero, “The Cowboy” James Storm, Velvet Sky and The World Heavyweight Champion Austin Aries. This reminded me of the good ole days back in Tupelo when WCW would run a pay-per-view and have wrestlers signing at Southern Housing, Roper Toyota and Blockbuster Video. I'm sure there's a few of you out there that remember that.





Not only did you receive just an autograph from Austin Aries, but from time to time "A Double" would label it with authenticity by adding "The Greatest Mustache Ever Drawn"


At around five thirty, fans that purchased the fifty dollar tickets were able to enter AutoZone Park for a special meet and greet before the show. However, before this could happen, Don West's Apprentice, Jimmy J, had to give us the lowdown on all of the INSANE deals for the night. First, he went through all the goodies that the Jeff Hardy VIPs would be getting along with the custom made purple Louisville Slugger baseball bat. The famous Brown Bag Special consisted of the program, celebrating ten years of TNA, a new IMPACT WRESTLING t-shirt, an action figure and four dvds for only thirty bucks. Next, was a deal for twenty dollars you would get one of the last remaining packages of Beer Money action figures and get to go backstage to get both “The Cowboy” James Storm and "The It Factor" Bobby Roode to sign it. Finally the last deal was for the new Official TNA Heavyweight Championship Replica Belt. For three hundred and seventy-five dollars not only would you get the belt, but pretty much everything else. You would also receive all the items in the Brown Bag Special, the Beer Money figures and a special meet and greet with Austin Aries and Jeff Hardy at the end of the night.

Speaking of DVDs, wrestler Sal Rinauro, from The Wrestling Road Diaries fame was working the gimmick table. Here he is pictured with Katelyn.



Once "Handsome" Jimmy.....I mean Jimmy J was done with his sales pitch, we were able to go to our seats where IMPACT WRESTLING STARS Devon, Garett Bischoff, "The Pope" D'Angelo Dinero, Magnus and The World Tag-Team Champions, Kazarian & "The Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels came out of the tunnel to sign autographs on the field.



It's showtime! Since Jeremy Borash was over in the UK, None other than Memphis Announcing, Wrestling, Managing Extraordinaire and Host of 101.7 Kiss FM Jonesboro's Morning Show, Brandon Baxter, would serve as the honorary host for the night's festivities!





Opening Match-Knockouts Action-Madison Rayne defeated Velvet Sky with a schoolgirl, by pulling the pigeons' feathers....uh tights.









Senior Referee Earl Hebner made his way to the ring to a warm round of boos. Once inside, Earl took his official's uniform off to show off his, "Damn right I did!" shirt. However this time, he put on a pair of Bret's signature sunglasses and did some crotch chops and pelvic thrusting. The place went nuts! Madison must have got him some blue pills.





Bound For Glory Series Match-Mr. Anderson defeated "The Pope" D'Angelo Dinero with The Mic Check to earn seven points. After the match, Mr. Anderson went up to a couple kids, getting them to say, "ANDERSON!!!"









Bound For Glory Series Match-“The Cowboy” James Storm defeated Magnus with the Last Call Superkick to earn seven points. During the match, while outside the ring, Storm was going around getting the fans to put their feet up so he could throw Magnus into them. At one point, a fan took off his prosthetic leg and gave it to Storm to use and Storm did just that. You could tell "The Cowboy" was loving it.

The weather was looking rough so to avoid a possible rain delay like last year, Brandon Baxter announced that they were gonna continue without having an intermission to make sure everybody got to see all the matches.






"The Charismatic Enigma" Jeff Hardy defeated Crimson with the Twist of Fate. Hardy received a HUGE pop as always.







World Tag-Team Champions Daniels & Kazarian defeated Television Champion Devon & Garett Bischoff with a hi-lo finisher on Garett. Daniels and Kaz were dancing on the way to the ring. Daniels even quoted a few lines from a popular Rod Stewart song saying, "If you want my body and you think I'm sexy" Kaz was talking about Memphis being the home of Rock and roll, but the people lacked the proper hygiene. That was entertaining. Garett still is a working progress.








Main Event-World Heavyweight Championship Destination X Rematch-Champion Austin Aries defeated Bobby Roode with the brainbuster to retain. Roode got a TON of heat. Didn't think he was going to make it to the ring because he was having an intense confrontation with IWA Referee, Dontavis Wakin in the tunnel. Aries and Roode fought all over the place, out on the field and even into the stands at AutoZone Park. After the match, Roode didn't take things too well. Imagine that. He chased after Brandon Baxter, Referees Earl and Brian Hebner, Jimmy J and other TNA staff. After Roode's fireworks, it was announced that three months ago, Senior Referee Earl Hebner after thirty plus years in the business refereed his 100,000 match. Wow! What a milestone. Jimmy J said that Earl Hebner would be signing his t-shirt at the merchandise table for ten dollars.









As an extra added bonus, while leaving I got to meet Brandon Baxter and Randy Hales for the first time ever, so that was a definite GOOD CALL!

Good Call/Bad Call-MARCHO MADNESS

Oooooh yeah!!! Thanks for joining me for an ALL-NEW Edition of Good Call/Bad Call, here on the WNC! There's no other way to start March Madness than with the incomparable and legendary "Mr. Madness" himself. While on the subject, I got my bracket filled out. It's sure to start bleeding like Flair as soon as the first game tips off.

The following views are a product of my silliness alone. I swear it's not paid for by Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Alan Nunnelee, Bob Backlund or Kony.



All aboard, Everybody!!! We are almost there on The Road to WrestleMania 28! This is one of the best times of the year. Can't wait to see all the action of this year's Showcase of the Immortals. Rock or Cena? Who will prevail? These two have been going back and forth for over a year now. You know these two have an enormous amount of pressure riding on them, but the real question is this. Can they possibly top the other battle that culminated after a year-long buildup? Talking about Sting vs Hogan, Starrcade 97? I think so. No contest. Rock vs Cena will top that with their entrances and crowd response alone before they lock up. Miami is gonna be muy caliente!

Next, we have The Undertaker versus Triple H, again. To be honest, I was pretty much sick of this after the first week because it's already been done, but they sparked my curiosity by making it a Hell in a Cell with HBK as special guest referee. Things got interesting in a hurry. How will this end? Hmmm, the endless possibilities. The more I think about it, the more I feel that DX is gonna screw Taker and break the streak. Sure hope I'm wrong, but there's more money to made if it happens. Break it down. WWE Shop will actually become such a cyber wmd due to so much new DX merchandise and with the production of about ten more dvds that every PC and mobile device are sure to crash. Maybe that's what Jericho was talking about?

Speaking of Jericho, his match with Punk is sure to be an instant classic and should steal the show.

Sheamus and Daniel Bryan will be a knock-down, drag-out. Both of these warriors are gonna beat the hell out of each other. Sheamus is gonna whoop Bryan's arse with his hands and Bryan is going Steve Blackman on the fella with lightning kicks. One of these two if not both may be sidelined after this one.

Tripping out on Big Show's Embarrassing WrestleMania Moments. Really just looking forward to all the matches.

Switching gears now to the Impact Zone. They've been having some decent shows as of late. Nothing to jump out of your seat over. The problem I'm having is that I have a hard time remembering anything I just saw five to ten minutes after Impact ends. Maybe it's because they are spending waaaay too much airtime on Garett Bischoff. Don't get me wrong, I like the guy. I'm rooting for him, but last week's main event was hard to watch. I understand he's got a "target" on his back, but maybe that's because he's just not ready to make the leap into main event caliber matches just yet. That target may have got a tad bit larger thanks to dear ole dad's recent comments.

Digging TNA's collection of champions at the moment. Roode is definitely doing his thing as the World Champion with monikers such as, "The It Factor of Professional Wrestling" and "Leader of the Selfish Generation". A Double is the man in the X Division. Very entertaining. Knockouts Tag Champs, ODB/Eric Young, and the Television Champ, Robbie E are also good for laughs. On a serious note, the newly formed and current World Tag-Team Champions Samoa Joe/Magnus are a force to be reckoned with. They should hold them belts for awhile. At the moment, they are clicking on all cylinders and have brought a small glimmer of hope back to the Tag Division. That only leaves my all-time favorite women's wrestler, The One, The Only and Current Knockouts Champion, Gail Kim! It's a damn shame I can't cook. Whoa...Wait a second. You can call me Chef Boyardee, Baby!!! Giggity Giggity Gail!



WARNING: Hoeski Alert



Really enjoyed the recent angle between Bully Ray and Brandon Jacobs. I usually don't care for stuff like this, but I'm a little bias toward this one because it involved one of my beloved New York Giants. Well, at least until they released him last week:( Still got the Super Bowl to celebrate though. Feast your eyes on tha salsa.



And Bully, if things don't work out at Impact Wrestling. I got a new career idea for ya, Calf-zilla. Moooooooo!!!


The Call List

The Return of The Jerry Lawler Show-Good Call

Kevin keeping Memphis Wrestling alive-Good Call

Sheamus winning the Royal Rumble-Good Call

Promo 2 Wrist-Bad Call

Knobbs talking trash to New Jack-Bad Call

Computerized smoke coming from Carl Edwards car a few weeks back on RAW-Bad Call

TNA at Wembley-Good Call

The Return of Power Pro Wrestling-Good Call

NRG-Good Call

Gambling..................on a brief hiatus

Rising gas prices-Bad Call

Anything with Abyss-Bad Call

Jermaine Jones-Bad Call

Balls Mahoney puking at show-Bad Call

Booker T calling AJ an "In-house Rat"--AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW Shucky Ducky Quack Quack!!!

The Ultimate Fighter Live-Good Call

Juan Pablo crashing into the jet dryer at Daytona-Bad Call

Getting pulled over in New Albany for "throwing a cigarette out the window" when I don't even smoke-Bad Call

The Funkasaurus-Good Call

Greg Davis-Bad Call

That new Hardee's commercial-Good Call

One more thing

Read where the WNC 2011 Awards are still creating a buzz. Wow! Never thought it would create an uproar quite like this. Nevertheless, here's my theory on the matter, for what it's worth. The common trend among the past three years have been that one promotion has won the most awards. In 2009, it was IWA, 2010-ASWF and last year was F.T.W. You see it's very simple. Everyone has the same amount of time to both nominate and vote for their favorites. What you do with that time will either increase or decrease your odds of winning. It's virtually Up 2 U, like the new gum. The more you campaign for your promotion or someone, the better their chances will be. Obviously, IWA, ASWF and F.T.W. spread the word wisely and got the support needed to win. I see nothing wrong with that. Look at Zack Ryder. He's not the best wrestler in the world, but he got the support he needed from all the people to get a push on WWE programming. Seems to me that we need a lot less hatin' and a little more congratulatin' in 2012. Try it. Say something good about someone. You may like the feeling. And if Bruno is not down with that, there's only one other way that I see this score being settled.....Two words-TUXEDO MATCH


As Daniel Bryan and Marv Albert say, "YES!!!"


Thanks for reading and Good Calls to All!!!

D-Rock-Good Call






Good Call/Bad Call is brought to you by D-Rock Entertainment in conjunction with Adams Media & Productions, hollywoodjimmy.com and wrestlingnewscenter.com. © 2012 Trademark. All Rights Reserved.

Good Call Special Edition-F.T.W

Hello, darlin'! Nice to see you! It's been a long time. Ok, enough karaoke. By now, I'm sure you've heard about the BIG F.T.W/WNC Award Show that took place in Newbern last Saturday night. You can check out Axeman's results @ http://wrestlingnewscenter.blogspot.com/2012/02/ftw-one-year-annjiversary-show-results.html

I would like to add my two cents on the unforgettable night. What a great visit! It was so cool being on hand to present the 2011 Wrestling News Center Awards alongside Axeman and F.T.W General Manager Billy Russ.



Everything was going fine until they decided to bail on me, leaving me scared to death and all alone to present the Tag-Team of the Year Award to Psycho & Pappy, The Asylum. What's up with that? At this time I would like to thank Psycho, Pappy, Kayte and Trigger for not killing me. Also a good thing I chose Depends for the evening.




Here's another look at all the F.T.W WNC Winners. Be sure and check out all of Tia's great pictures @ http://wrestlingnewscenter.blogspot.com/2012/02/wncftw-award-ceremony.html















Other Notes:

Approximately 268 paid attended

Love the Rocky Top Arena setup-Very Nice

Billy Russ introduced a brand new F.T.W Heavyweight Championship belt-(Bling-bling)

Axeman joined F.T.W's Announce Team, Big Dave and "Lying" Leon to call the night's action. This was entertaining the whole night.

You can feel the tension between Trigger and Ding-a-ling in the locker room

"Hollywood" Jimmy Blaylock returned to the area

On behalf of Jason "The Brain"-Silly string is a BAD CALL and will only lead to certain fans getting the bejesus beat out of them




There was even Tebowing


Mark Justice said somebody caught "Hollywood" out back and tarred and feathered that ass


There was a total of five title changes on the night.

Mark Justice became the NEW F.T.W Hardcore Champion-He announced that the belt will now be defended under 24/7 rules

Lil Bit won the F.T.W Divas Championship by defeating Rebecca Raze in one of the best wrestling matches I've seen in awhile. Lil Bit delivered a super belly-to-belly suplex off the top that was AWESOME!

The Asylum won the F.T.W Tag Team Championship after "Superman" Jason Reed took the chair away from Ricky Andrews. Jason Reed was the proverbial thorn in NRG's side the entire night, costing them title after title.

Sarge O'Riley won the new F.T.W Heavyweight Championship by defeating the returning Jeremy Moore with the rest of NRG at ringside thanks again to help from Jason Reed.

Soon after Sarge's match. Mad Money Mike, Mark Justice and Billy Russ brought out a birthday cake commemorating F.T.W's One Year Anniversary. They would give Sarge a Booker of the Year t-shirt. But wait, there's more. The entire locker room then cleared out and they presented Sarge with a special F.T.W ring. This was truly an emotional moment for Sarge as he thanked all the workers for busting their asses and all the fans for supporting them. So happy I got to see that. Way to go, Sarge! GOOD CALL




The night ended with a bang! A BIG BANG! As J-Weezy defended the F.T.W Extreme Title against Biscuit and NRG's "Mr. Everything" Anton Leveigh in a TLC match. Check out Jason "The Brain's" video of this bloody epic battle @ http://wrestlingnewscenter.blogspot.com/2012/02/ftw-extreme-title-match-from-2-4-12.html

I must say I was honestly concerned about those guys wellbeing. I'm sure they are still feeling the effects of that one and will be for a long time. They put their bodies in danger and delivered an incredible match that will probley be the front runner in a couple categories for this year's awards. After "Superman" Jason Reed made his presence felt again, it was Biscuit who managed to pull down the strap and become the NEW F.T.W Extreme Champion. They stole the show and blew the roof off the Rocky Top Arena. All I can say is WOW! They are superhuman! Great job, guys!




I would like to thank everyone at F.T.W for their excellent hospitality and for putting on the best wrestling show I've seen in quite sometime. The show was great from start to finish. I gotta old school ECW feel at times, not just because of the NRG t-shirts (which I must have). While watching the show, I was thinking, "I'm witnessing something special here." I encourage everyone to go to Newbern and experience F.T.W for yourself. You'll dig it!


Thanks for reading and Good Calls to All!!!








Good Call/Bad Call is brought to you by D-Rock Entertainment in conjunction with Adams Media & Productions, hollywoodjimmy.com and wrestlingnewscenter.com. © 2012 Trademark. All Rights Reserved.

Report from TNA BASEBRAWL at AutoZone Park in Memphis-June 11, 2011

Don West greeted everyone at the gate that had field level seating and the Sting VIP package. Don West gave an itinerary of what was about to take place that evening. He stated how there would be plenty of things going on with various superstars signing autographs and taking pictures. He also sold TNA programs mentioning how it was the most important thing to have at the event and announced his famous Brown Bag Special for the night which consisted of a limited edition Sting t-shirt, that he said was only going to be sold at the Memphis show, four dvds and a TNA bag for twenty dollars.



TNA Stars Cookie, Robbie E, Tommy Dreamer, Winter, Matt Morgan, AJ Styles and Eric Young came out of the tunnel to sign autographs on the field.






The rain came down, causing a slight delay. Cool thing about this was everytime lightning would strike, the crowd would go "Woooooo!"


Jeremy Borash along with Rockey the Redbird welcomed everyone to the show.

Opening Match-Eric Young w/ Rockey the Redbird defeated Robbie E w/ Cookie-Hilarious moment during this one as techno music started playing with Robbie E busting out the fist pump and dancing with Cookie. Then, the referee jumped in, grinding on Cookie in the corner while Robbie E was backing it up on Rockey the Redbird, whom he thought was still Cookie. Funny stuff!

Knockouts Action
Velvet Sky defeated Angelina Love w/ Winter-Referee Earl Hebner called the match and came out rocking his new shirt that said, "Damn right I did!" "You screwed Bret" chants rang throughout AutoZone Park when he was introduced. Earl welcomed their jeers.

Kazarian defeated Matt Hardy-It started back raining towards the end of the match. Hardy had a strong fan base.

Rain delay #2

Tag Team Action
“The Phenomenal” AJ Styles & Devon defeated Bully Ray & Tommy Dreamer-Afterwards, Bully Ray was lashing out at Tommy Dreamer for losing the match. Tommy ended up beating up the Bully and sending him out of the ring. An emotional Devon announced that this was Tommy Dreamer's last night with the company and that he was his best friend and if it wasn't for him there would be no Team 3D. Fans chanted, "Thank you, Tommy!"

Legendary Memphis Wrestling Announcer and WMC-TV Chief Meteorologist Dave Brown was honored with a special award and received a wonderful round of applause.

Tag Team Action
Olympic Gold Medalist Kurt Angle & “The Blueprint” Matt Morgan defeated “King of the Mountain” Jeff Jarrett & “Big Poppa Pump” Scott Steiner-Angle made Jarrett tap out with the ankle lock. Didn't think Steiner was going to make it to the ring he was getting so much heat, flipping everyone the bird.

Main Event-World Heavyweight Championship Match
“The Icon” Sting defeated Mr. Anderson-After the match, it was announced that fans would get the incredible opportunity to meet and take a picture with "The Icon" Sting for twenty bucks. Immediately following the announcement, all hell broke loose as the massive fireworks extravaganza erupted and scared the Snitsky out of me.