The Big Show is really big live. Glad I finally got to see that for myself.
I haven’t been to a WWE house show in four years. It was a RAW show, the week before Survivor Series, so we got a couple of fun “dress rehersal” matches for the PPV and TV, some nice playing to the crowd (including Christian calling himself an asshole in Spanish), and a tag team cage match main event where Randy Orton and Chris Jericho were the baby faces going over HHH and Batista. So, that’s weird in retrospect. HHH is still the world champ of his show, though, so some things don’t change.
The place was packed. They had to turn away people at the ticket window. So, hopefully it will take them less than a year to get back down here again. The arena is right by the Mexican border, so that may help if they continue to try and expand their market down there.
Results:
Finlay over Jack Swagger, Irish Walking Stick of Doom– Showed up in the middle of this, actually, thanks to a traffic jam slowing us down. Saw a fair chunk of it over my shoulder as we got in to the arena. Would have liked to have seen the whole thing, but what I did see was good. Crowd was really in to Finlay. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to a bunch of kids cheering for him, though. Hornswoggle was conspicuous by his absence. I was kind of disappointed by that, because I knew my dad would get a kick of out of him.
Divas Championship Match: Michelle McCool over Maryse, Angel’s Wings(really; a sit out double underhook facebuster)– Probably better than their PPV match at Unforgiven, actually, because McCool sold really well, so all of the leg work meant more. A little girl was chosen out of the audience to be McCool’s manager, which was cute, even if she didn’t do anything but pose for pictures with the champ after the match.
U.S. Championship Match: Shelton Benjamin over MVP, Paydirt– This was the kind of solid match you’d expect from these two. Since both guys were heels, the crowd was kind of aimless, though; they treated Shelton like the defacto face at the beginning of the match, but MVP got a couple of strong chants throughout the match, where Shelton didn’t really get much heat one way or the other (he didn’t cheat, but he didn’t do anything out of the ordinary for one of his heel matches, other than power out of a camel clutch with an electric chair). Shelton busted out the pop up superplex, which was definitely a highlight. Probably the best match of the night from a work rate standpoint.
Ezekiel Jackson over Kung Funaki, uranage/chokeslam thing– Well, that was certainly a squash. Funaki came out in full Karate Kid regalia, with a gi and headband. He did the crane stance as a taunt. His one attempted offensive move as a chop. That worked about as well as you’d expect. The Kendrick was notable by his absence, but he did thankfully appear after the intermission.
R-Truth over The Brian Kendrick, Axe Kick– Killings’ “wassup” is way over live, and the fans hated everything Kendrick did pretty much entirely due to his mannerisms (I don’t want to say that they were effiminate, but one guy in my section yelled “You’re gay!” at him), so this match had some heat. That said, the fans didn’t really get behind Killings when he was selling, so he’s not that over yet. That said, he’s getting pretty great reactions for a guy that was an unknown to most of the fanbase before he debuted, and it was nice to see him get in more offense than he usually does on Smackdown.
WWE Tag Team Championship Match: The Colons over Ryder and Hawkins, Backstabber- Carlito was more over than anyone other than HHH and the Undertaker. He got a nice chant, and played to the crowd really well. He and Primo were the only Latinos, so that had something to do with it, but it was still interesting to see him get that kind of reaction. There was a while there where I was convinced he could be a huge face, filling a Chris Jericho role as the guy who runs down the heels. So, it was nice to see him getting heat again, after a rough couple of years.
The match was fine formula tag stuff, but Ryder and Hawkins are just duller than dishwater. The Colons did some nice, smooth double team stuff (they’re no Motor City Machine Guns, but it’s probably as close as anyone in WWE will get, at least until Kofi and Punk gel), and Primo’s a very good face in peril, so that made it a solid match live. My only problem is Hawkins and Ryder’s generic offense.
WWE Championship Match: HHH over Vladamir Kozlov, DQ– So, no matter what the majority of smarks may think of him, HHH is over. Really over. I know we can all tell that from TV, but it’s really great to be able to go to a house show or PPV in a bar/family dining restaraunt to see what the non-obsessed fan thinks of the product. I mean, we know women and kids love Cena, but until you watch a PPV that’s standing room only in a bar, you don’t really know. It’s the same with HHH; we all know the fans have taken to him since his face turn, but it’s something else all together to actually experience it. His entrance got a huge pop, and he was able to keep that heat up all match.
His being over helped make this match entertaining, partially, as the fans were in to everything he did, to the point where they were trying to will him in to a comeback when Vlad had control. Which was most of the match, really.
The other part of what made this match entertaining is that it was actually a solid match. Not great, but they kept it very old school, as Vlad controlled with mat wrestling and threw in some things I haven’t seen much of in his move set (Lesnar-esque chained backbreakers and a fall away slam) to up his game a bit. He got a near fall off the headbutt. I really think if he had a cooler finisher (or used the scorpion death drop more), I’d have an easier time accepting him.
A nice thing about the crowd; while there were some “USA” chants, and a few “Russia sucks” chants, Vlad’s heat didn’t devolve in to total jingoism. So, hey, we can overcome cliches some times.
Hunter eventually got his comeback. I have to come clean; I popped pretty heavily for the spinebuster. Vlad blocked the Pedigree but got dumped, almost killing ring announcer Justin Roberts in the process. That led to the finish, as Vlad stole the house mic and thumped Hunter in the head with it for a DQ. Vlad tried to cave Hunter’s head in with a chair post match, but it was blocked by the KICK WHAM PEDIGREE.
Hunter then took between 10 and 15 minutes for his curtain call, doing all of the usual playing to the crowd the top face usually does, and slapping as many hands as he could from the arena floor. So, that was nice, especially since the face in the main event had an in character reason not to play to the fans after his match.
Main Event, No DQ Match: Undertaker over Big Show, Gogoloplata– Big Show got the most consistent heel heat of anyone on the show. The fans were more chearing HHH than booing Vlad; here, the crowd dogged show every time he was on offense, although the Undertaker got a ton of cheers (and the only chants) himself. Maybe my perspective of Show’s heat is skewed because on guy in the row in front of me kept yelling “Big Jabroni” at show all match. To the point where I was hoping Show would call a time out, come in the stands, and ask him to stop, really.
‘Taker’s entrance was cool live. Even without the bells and whistles you get on TV/PPV, the moment when the lights drop and the gong rings still have a mystique, especially with all of the cell phones/cameras in the crowd. His entrance was as long as it is on TV, too, as he methodically made his way down the ramp and made every part of his routine a big moment. I’m self conscious enough to have felt a little weird cheering for a guy taking his hat off, but hey, why go to a wrestling show just to sit on your hands?
The match itself suffered a bit in comparison to their shockingly good one at No Mercy. The pace was much slower (which makes sense, considering they were on last) and Show used my least favorite rest hold ever, the nerve pinch, for a good chunk of the match.
Another somewhat disappointing thing was the lack of really taking advantage of the No DQ stip. Show used a couple weapons and there was some brawling, but that was it. Not that I expected flaming tables or barb wire, but it would have been nice to see an undone turnbuckle pad or two.
That said, the crowd never lost interest in the match, and the finish was pretty hot. ‘Taker went for the Old School Ropewalk, but Show caught him off the flying chop and chokeslammed him. He tried to crawl in to the cover, but ‘Taker caught him in the gogoloplatta and got the tap out. I guess that did take advantage of the stip, since Vickie banned it.
So, all in all, this was a fun show with a hot crowd. Not really all that different than an episode of Smackdown (although a lot of the matches got TV main event level time) and lacking ECW guys (understandable due to the talent share with RAW, although the Hardys were really conspicuous by their absence on both shows), but still an enjoyable night of sports entertainment. Hell, I got to see the Undertaker live, so that was one thing off my checklist of things to do as a wrestling fan before I die. Nice to get that done.
