TNA Impact Wrestling Gets Results It Wanted: Fans

TNA Impact Wrestling Live’s first foray for its Thursday night Spike TV show away from Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla., was a smashing success. Into turnbuckles. Onto the mat. Onto the floor outside the ring. An enthusiastic audience at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Ill., enjoyed seeing the wrestlers in person, even if some of the results might not have been what all the fans wanted.

What I like to think of as work: Posing with Loop Rock Girl Shannon at the TNA Impact Wrestling event.

Then again, one of the fun aspects of pro wrestling is not everyone favors the same entertainers. While some of us might have been rooting for Gail Kim and Tara to defeat Velvet Sky and Mickie James, others were cheering otherwise. Velvet Sky and Mickie James ultimately prevailed on the women’s match on the card.

In that Tara was wearing a Chicago-themed outfit, it seems reasonable to think most of the fans were in her and Gail’s corner. Can’t win ‘em all.

Speaking of Tara, she was the featured guest on the March 14 “Sports & Torts” co-hosted by David Spada and Elliott Harris on talkzone.com. She was a wonderful interview. Because of the wrestling card also being on March 14, we had to do the interview in advance and conducted it Saturday at The Squared Circle — her restaurant (2418 N. Ashland, Chicago) that opened Thursday.

Sting enjoys a moment at TNA Impact Wrestling at the Sears Centre.

Of course, when we conducted the interview, the walls did not have wrestling memorabilia on the walls (as they do now) and the chairs did not have seat bottoms (as they do now).

The restaurant, which features gourmet burgers and pizza and has a bar area (plus a sufficient number of televisions on the walls for watching wrestling), is definitely a comfortable spot for dining, drinking and viewing.

For those who missed the interview with Tara or for those who enjoyed it the first time around and would like an encore performance, you can access it by clicking here.

In a perfect world, this site would have additional interviews with TNA wrestlers. And that was the original plan. But sometimes plans don’t pan out. Especially technology conspires against you. Such was the case Wednesday night/Thursday morning.

Hulk Hogan makes an appearance at TNA Impact Wrestling at the Sears Centre.

As the editorial staff at elliottharris.com was working feverishly to produce Thursday’s product, the internet decided to stop working. As did the telephone and television. Oh, the joys of bundling. This occurred slightly before 3 a.m. A call to Comcast produced a recorded response that acknowledged a problem in the area and said it would be fixed by 7 a.m. Far later than your humble correspondent is accustomed to posting. And far more uncomfortable than your humble correspondent is with the idea of posting that late.

A subsequent phone call to an actual human being (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) produced a response that said the problem would be solved by 5 a.m. So being the eternal optimist (OK, the occasional optimist), I stayed up until 4 a.m. With no internet, telephone or television. And nothing posted on this site for Thursday.

Thankfully, The Wife is an early riser and was able to wake yours truly around 6 a.m. With Comcast having solved the problem, I was able to finish the post that reported on Lisa Marie Varon (Tara) and her restaurant’s pre-opening party with her wrestling friends (let the record show that Matt Morgan departed the event with a large pizza box).

Going back to sleep around 7:30 was not the easiest thing to do, particularly because of having to get up to be at the aforementioned “Sports & Torts” show. By mid-afternoon it became apparent that journeying to Hoffman Estates to interview the wrestlers at about 3:30 was not going to happen. Too little sleep, not enough time. Can’t win ‘em all.

On the bright side, we were able to make it to the Sears Centre with time to spare before the evening’s wrestling activities. The first familiar face seen there was Loop Rock Girl Shannon, who — like Lisa Marie –was a guest (a few weeks ago) on “Sports & Torts.”

Shannon was gracious enough to pose for a photo (the one that appears above). Yes, this is what I like to think of as work. Or as close to work as it gets around here. And once again, we had the chance to see new friend Matt Goldberg, the film-maker who is chronicling Lisa Marie with his “Tarafied” movie. On this night, however, he was merely a wrestling fan who was there for the fun and not the filming.

All in all, not a bad night. One that will conclude momentarily when this is posted. Well, provided that the internet connection stays functional.

Some video from the TNA Impact Wrestling event at the Sears Centre:

And some non-wrestling video:

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