Thanks to Brian Frederick for sending the following report:
I just got back from TNA’s Destination X and thought I’d send some live thoughts.
First off this was the first event I’ve attended for TNA in about 6 months. The ticket/entry situation is still somewhat jumbled and chaotic, but vastly improved from my last visit.
The “Black and Blue Carpet” idea was fairly lame for a preshow. I am definitely of the camp that enjoys a warm up match or two and none of the segments seemed to hit home, with the exception of The Great Muta showing up since a lot of us didn’t get that spoiler ahead of time. Sadly my friend asked who “the Great Buddha” was.
I missed the Eric Young/Roode segment while waiting in line for refreshments. Was cute to note that Jim Cornette’s “Office” we see on Impact is a small make shift cubicle behind the souvenir stand.
The crowd was hot for the 3D/Lax brawls and popped huge for all the big spots. Most people near me couldn’t figure out Alex Shelley’s interference.
The bull-rope match was there, the crowd loved the women going at it, any attempt at the Canadian Destroyer, and being all over Storm. Glad there was no appearance from Chris Harris.
Senshi/Starr came off REALLY well and I know they impressed a lot of the folks around me who weren’t that familiar with them. Oh and Backlund gets one of the biggest pops of the night.
The crowd didn’t really seem to know what to do during VKM and the Heart-breakers except totally HATE the former Throbs. Don’t know if it was good heat or more “X Pac” heat.
Major controversy broke out during the X Division match, not sure how it came off on TV but a brawl broke out in the main Pit seating area and all the fans rushed to it just like when the boys fight in the crowd. TNA security, Orlando PD and a few on-lookers kind of broke it up and removed a few un-ruly parties from the arena. However one man protested and started a fight back up again prompting Don Harris to apply a rear naked choke to the man that I swear would kill a gorilla. This is when the TNA chant started in the crowd. It was really something else to see and I hope it didn’t take away from the match on TV.
Everyone was totally into the Elevation X match and totally scared one of them would get hurt. The crowd popped for just about everything here and loved how they played the match out.
Then the trouble hit. Angle/Steiner came off as looking really bad and the crowd wasn’t into it. But it was nothing like the Abyss/Sting match. We totally hated it. While they set up the props a “this is stupid” chant broke out. And I know the fire Russo chant made it on TV.
Luckily Joe/Christian woke everyone back up. Everyone totally into it, with most of the crowd completely into Joe, but definitely Christian supporters as well. The match had a “big match feel” to it and the crowd popped for all the near falls and were quite surprised by the finish.
After they went off the air, they teased a bit where Rudy Charles was going to restart the match but didn’t and Joe and the champ got into another brawl leading to Christian tapping to the Kokina clutch.
Overall probably the best TNA event I’ve seen live and way worth the effort it took to get in.
