HOUSE OF HARDCORE & TNA: WHAT'S GOING ON AND MORE HOH WEEKEND NOTES

For those who have asked whether the House of Hardcore announcement that Bully Ray was pulled was chapter one of some sort of inter-promotional angle, that is not the case. Tommy Dreamer was informed that Bully Ray had been pulled from the weekend at the last minute. Since Ray was working the shows as part of the deal where Dreamer's HOH helped TNA fill the house when they ran a One Night Only taping in Poughkeepsie, obviously he wasn't thrilled about having to change a main event that had been advertised for some time. When Dreamer cut the promo on Friday about Dixie Carter, he specifically noted it was not part of the show and was only for the live fans in attendance. Obviously he was making Carter and TNA the heels in an attempt to pop the live crowd (which worked big-time, as it was one of the biggest reactions of the night) but for those who were asking if this was chapter one of a planned angle or storyline that would bleed over to TNA TV, that was not the case when Dreamer went to the ring. Dreamer is still, as of this writing, working as an agent for TNA. The Bully Ray offer to meet any fans who had a HOH ticket stub at any of the upcoming TNA events in PA or NY was something Ray, not TNA, offered, although TNA had to approve it. But, none of this was any grand planned angle.

Ben Ortiz suffered a concussion at HOH5 during his match against Drew Gulak and Lance Anoia. No one is exactly sure when it happened but backstage, it was obvious something was wrong with him and he was taken to a hospital for a CTscan. He was diagnosed with a concussion and I was told is doing far, far better today.

Hale Collins legitimately injured his arm at HOH 4 when he struck it hard on the metal between the ringpost and the turnbuckle while facing CW Anderson. By the end of HOH4, it was swelled up with a big goose-egg, so he was held off from HOH5 as a precautionary measure.

Those were the only major injury although Tommy Dreamer and Abyss both took bumps on thumbtacks, so they had the assorted bumps and cuts that come with that sort of style. Kevin Steen tweaked his knee a little on Friday as well.

Both HOH events drew in the 1,300-1,500 range, which the promotion was very happy with. The crowd was a little down in Poughkeepsie, but that was somewhat expected as it was the first time they had run the market on a Friday and running that night was an experiment to see how it would do. Philadelphia ticket sales were slow early but picked up in the last week. One theory on that was that there had been so many shows announced and canceled at the last minute in the market that fans might have been wary of buying early.

In a funny "only in wrestling" story, The Sandman showed up in Poughkeepsie on Friday, even though Tommy Dreamer had never booked him for the show. So, he was written in. Dreamer often jokes that Sandman is his "lucky charm."

TruTV's "Impractical Jokers" filmed a segment on Friday at HOH4. That was the national TV series Dreamer was referencing, although some seemed to assume he meant TNA Impact. The producers had been wanting to shoot a pro wrestling-based segment for some time and reached out to Dreamer after a scheduled shoot with Extreme Rising went to hell when Rising canceled their final announced events in Philly. The segment sort of died live as the audience had no idea what was taking place - the premise is that three comedians put a fourth into an embarrassing scenario to see how far he goes as they feed instructions to him via an earpiece - but I was told that the producers were thrilled with how everything will come across when it's all edited.

Danny Doring and his wife are expecting twin baby girls any day. Our congratulations to them both.

Former ECW and ROH star Tony Devito worked backstage at the HOH shows in his usual capacity helping with music cues, agenting, etc. Beulah McGuillicuty was also obviously at the events.

Gabe Sapolsky was backstage visiting before HOH5 but left before the event began.

Cerebus who worked the shows was the former Wolfie D. of PG-13.

Mark the Bagger from the Howard Stern "Wack Pack" was visiting Philadelphia.

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