TNA Impact Wrestling at Universal Studios Florida, Feb 28, 2013

I'm a big wrestling fan, and have seen wrestling on TV since I was a kid back in the 1980s. I watched all the major and small wrestling promotions that had a TV show.  I knew that Total Nonstop Action (TNA) wrestling shot their TV tapings at one of the soundstages at Universal Studios Florida, but never knew exactly which days they taped.  On February 28, 2013, I was at the right place at the right time because I saw this sign as soon as I crossed the main entrance to Universal Studios Florida.

Sign for Impact Wrestling TV taping

I asked one of the Universal Orlando team members where I could get tickets to this TV taping.  He directed me to the special events/live events office that is at the main entrance (it is to the right as soon as you cross the ticket gates).  The tickets were free and they told me to come back to the entrance of Soundstage 21, which is next to the amphitheater and Rockit Rollercoaster, at 5:00pm that same day.

When I came back at 5:00pm, there were huge lines that were staged in front of the amphitheater.  What I did not know until then was that there were two classes of ticket holders: the regular ticket holders, and the VIPs.  To get the VIP tickets, you needed to email TNA in advance to send you the VIP tickets.  The VIP ticket holders got to go in the Soundstage 21 first and get the prime seats for the TV tapings.  There were two lines in the park (one line for VIPs, one line for regular ticket holders), and two lines outside the parks (one line for VIPs, one line for regular ticket holders).  It was not required to have park admission to see the TV taping.  We had to wait for about two hours to get into Soundstage 21.  Once I made it into the soundstage, I found seats near the entrance way.  Unfortunately, I found that my smartphone battery was running low, so I had to pick and choose which scenes that I could to take pictures of.   Below is a video and pictures of my view of the ring and the entrance way from my seats.

Before the start of the TV taping, TNA announcer Jeremy Borash would tell the audience what to expect during the TV taping, and be giving out TNA merchandise to random people in the audience.  Below is a picture of Jeremy Borash in the ring.

As soon as the TV taping began, TNA wrestlers Bully Ray (formerly Bubba Ray Dudley of the ECW and WWE tag team champions The Dudley Boys) and Jeff Hardy came out to the ring and cut promos.  I have video and pictures of Bully Ray and Jeff Hardy doing promos in the ring.

The next match that I took pictures from was the match between Tara (formerly WWE Women's Champion Victoria) and Velvet Sky.  This was a good women's wrestling match.

The next match that I took pictures of was the X-Division Title match between the X-Division Champion Rob Van Dam vs. Kenny King.  Rob Van Dam surprisingly lost the match and title to Kenny King.  The bigger surprise that I would learn when I got back to my hotel room was that this match was Rob Van Dam's last match for TNA and that he would sign a contract to wrestle with the WWE.  This was a great match between these to wrestlers and I felt that I was a part of history.

The next segment that I took pictures of was the confrontation between the Aces and Eights, and the Main Event Mafia.

The final event that I took video and pictures of is the Main Event tag team match between Christopher Daniels and Ken Kazarian vs. Bully Ray and Jeff Hardy.  This was a really good tag team match between experienced tag team wrestlers.

This was a great night of wrestling.  I got to see all my favorite stars from the past and present for free. Also, I was able to enjoy my day at both Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Florida before seeing this event.  When I got back to my hotel, I found out that I attended the last TV taping for Impact Wrestling at Universal Studios Florida.  I was sad that I thought that I would never get another opportunity to watch another TNA TV taping at Universal Studios Florida.  TNA has now changed their mind and are going to resume TV tapings at Universal Studios Florida on November 21, 2013.  More information on the TV tapings can be found at http://www.impactwrestling.com/.