Black Widow
08-10-2008, 11:48 AM
1) Kane defeated Matt Striker- Striker came out made a comment about being in the home of the Blue Hens (the name of the University of Delaware sports teams) and posed the question, "Why are the hens so sad?" I don't know if most people got it, but I was amused. He then repeated his deal from Monday saying GM Mike Adamle was going to give him an opponent he could show of his wrestling acumen against...cue Kane. Striker bailed and debated if he should take his sweater and go home. Match got underway as Striker was the first of many to get a "you suck" chant. Not much offense from Striker and what he tried Kane mostly shrugged off. Striker started to get it going but a big boot followed by the chokeslam ended his night.
2) D-Lo Brown defeated Snitsky- D-Lo out first, then when Snitsky's music hit, D-Lo wasn't pleased to find out who it was. Crowd was half chanting for D-Lo and half with the "you suck" chant. Told you it was popular tonight. As they went to lock up, D-Lo sold the bad breath and yelled to the ref to "tell him to brush his teeth." Eventually the "Brush your teeth" chant started, but they had to work the crowd into doing it. Kinda slow and plodding as D-Lo is too big to do a big man/small man match with. Snitsky used a version of the crossface 3 separate times. Eventually D-Lo got on track with a missile dropkick of the middle rope, then hit the "Sudden Impact" followed by the "Lo Down" for the win.
3) Johnny Curtis defeated Charlie Haas- I'm pretty sure Charlie and his late brother Russ worked the show here that Jim Kettner's ECWA ran back in November of 2000. Just a little history lesson. Curtis got his start in the New England indies after training with Killer Kowalski and has been working WWE developmental in Deep South and more recently FCW. After he came out, Haas got into the face a fan at ringside which got the place going. Haas started out with some nice amateur moves and Curtis came back with a spinning heel kick that sent Haas bailing to the outside. From there the match really slowed down. I've actually always liked both these guys from their early indie days, but this match didn't do a lot for me. Curtis got the pin after a really ugly looking roll up.
4) William Regal defeated Jamie Noble- Noble came out as the babyface, which kinda surprised me as I didn't think they had really established his character one way or the other. Regal (sans spandex tank top) was out second. Noble has a little history in this area of Delaware as well, having worked the 2002 ECWA Super 8 including a tremendous second round match against AJ Styles, but I digress. This match wasn't anything flashy, but I personally enjoyed it. Both these guys do so many little things that really help make a match work. Regal worked on Noble's arm early with a key lock. When Noble got the advantage, he worked the leg of Regal. Regal sold the leg really well and hit some really tight knee drops but afterwards would get up and try and "shake feeling back into his leg." Noble made a comeback and got a 2 count following a dropkick off the top, but Regal came right back hitting an overhead belly-to-belly with the leg trapped and follow it up with a running knee to the head for the pin. After the match, Noble got a big "Jamie Noble" chant from the crowd...weird, but cool.
5) Kofi Kingston defeated Santino Marella to retain the Intercontinental Championship- Santino is out first and is tell the fans it is a pleasure for them to see him. He claims he's going to make history and regain his IC championship and do half the job before his "Winner takes all" match at SummerSlam even happens. He then informs us that it will also be a historic night because tonight we will see him do "this" (he makes a weird looking M shape with his arms in front of his body), "Which means M; which stands for Maserati." And "this" (makes a clutching to movement with his arms), "Which means clutch...which stands for...clutch." He says it is the greatest Finisher in the history of wrestling. Kofi gets a real nice reaction, probably second to Kane thus far. I still don't know what to think of Santino's actual ring work, but he's so out there with his mic skills that he can cover for that. Kofi does his usual leaping around and when Santino is on the offense he works over Kofi's lower back. Santino calls for the "Maserati Clutch" but then gets cut off before doing anything. And let me say, that is a great gimmick if he claims he has this great finisher than he NEVER gets to actually use. Golden. Kofi hits "Trouble in Paradise" for the win. Afterwards, Santino gets on the mic to let us know he's okay.
Kelly Kelly comes out and asks to see the signs some people brought. She picked a person with a Cena sing to get to go and meet him. Chimel reminds us (i missed it the first time) to text for the stipulation for the World Title match between Punk and JBL. Choices tonight are Falls Count Anywhere, 2/3 Falls and No DQ. And now intermission.
6) Mickie James defated Katie Lea to retain the WWE Women's Championship- Lots of weird stalling early, like they were pulling some small rib on Marty Elias. When the match got started there was the usual decent action we've seen on TV from these two recently. Katie Lea continues the story of working over Mickie's shoulder from a couple of months ago and hits a couple of nice moves including a belly-to-back suplex with the arm hammerlocked behind Mickie and a nice looking "divorce court" arm bar take down. Mickie would eventually hit a Thez Press off the top, but Katie Lea quickly came back with a nice looking shoulder breaker (the move was nice looking...but i guess the shoulder was okay looking as well) for a 2 count. Katie Lea went for a kick to the head, but Mickie ducked and came back with a "Mick Kick" of her own to finish Katie off.
7) C.T.C. (Crime Tyme and Cena) defeated Cody Rhodes, Ted DiBiase and Chris Jericho- Jericho got more cheers than boos out to the ring, but he quickly remedied that with some (as usual) very good mic work. He repeated that the best thing about what he did to Shawn Michaels was that he felt like he was doing it to "each and every one of you." And then said if he had the time he would do the same thing to everyone there...man, woman or child. He finished by saying he was going to leave Cena in a pool of his own blood. Huge ovation for Cena...just insane to hear such a small venue pop like that. The heels were run off early and Cena called Jerichio back in. Pretty much the same match between Cena and Rohdes/DiBiase that we've seen on TV for 3 weeks now. Cena took the heat for a few minutes and eventually made the tag to Shad who came in with some big power moves. JTG got the tag and looked to have gotten lost as Rhodes cut him off front the outside but it took JTG a moment to sell it. The heels then worked over JTG for a few minutes until he made the hot tag to Cena. Shoulder tackle, shoulder tackle, blue thunder bomb to DiBiase, blue thunder bomb to Rhodes...double 5 knuckle shuffle. Other than the double move there, it's the same thing every tag match Cena works. It all breaks down and we go to the "everyone hits their finisher" spot, JTG with a flying neckbreaker on Cody, DiBiase with the Million Dollar Dream/Russian Leg Sweep on JTG, Shad with an STO on DiBiase, Jericho with the Code Breaker on Shad and finally Cena with the FU to Jericho followed by the STFU on DiBiase for the submission.
8) CM Punk defeats John Bradshaw Layfield to retain the World Heavyweight Championship in a no DQ match- JBL comes out and asks "Who in the hell booked me in Newark, DE?" He had a really large brace on his left knee, much bigger than I've seen him with before and it looked really makeshift. He goes on a rant about being too good to work this show and says the only reason he is, is because Punk is here and he has the world title. Punk's music hits and he gets, what probably was the second or third biggest pop of the night. It's clobberin' time. Chimel tells us that No DQ won with "67% of the vote." Last night it won with only 55%. Newark dislikes rules more than Wildwood, NJ. The action spills outside right away and Punk takes the lead early putting JBL face first into some chairs. After throwing JBL back into the ring pun ascends the top rope and comes off with a crossbody for a 2 count. JBL rebounds with a thumb to the eye and then a beatdown in the corner. Bradshaw goes to the outside and starts grabbing the plunder from under the ring. 3 Cookie sheets, a trash can and a chair. Punk gets a sheet and nails JBl with it, and then does the same with the garbage can. JBL avoids a second shot from the can by going low on Punker. To the outside again where JBL picks up the top portion of the steps and introduces them to side of Punk's head. He tosses the steps, then Punk into the ring. JBL looks to piledrive Punk on the steps but gets backdropped. Back out to the floor and into the crowd. Punk gets backdropped over the rail back to ringside. JBL then slows things down a little and holds control of the match until he goes for a superplex onto a chair but Punk stops it and hits a tornado DDT. Punk sets JBL up for the Go To Sleep, but JBL gets out and nails a clothesline for a near fall. Punk gets back up though and this time sets JBL up for the GTS and hits it for the win.
All in all, a pretty average show, but enough star power in a small venue like that to send most of the fans home happy. Punk and Kane got pretty big reactions, but Cena's just blew everyone out of the water.
Michael C. Grimaldi of CarltonPrescott.com
2) D-Lo Brown defeated Snitsky- D-Lo out first, then when Snitsky's music hit, D-Lo wasn't pleased to find out who it was. Crowd was half chanting for D-Lo and half with the "you suck" chant. Told you it was popular tonight. As they went to lock up, D-Lo sold the bad breath and yelled to the ref to "tell him to brush his teeth." Eventually the "Brush your teeth" chant started, but they had to work the crowd into doing it. Kinda slow and plodding as D-Lo is too big to do a big man/small man match with. Snitsky used a version of the crossface 3 separate times. Eventually D-Lo got on track with a missile dropkick of the middle rope, then hit the "Sudden Impact" followed by the "Lo Down" for the win.
3) Johnny Curtis defeated Charlie Haas- I'm pretty sure Charlie and his late brother Russ worked the show here that Jim Kettner's ECWA ran back in November of 2000. Just a little history lesson. Curtis got his start in the New England indies after training with Killer Kowalski and has been working WWE developmental in Deep South and more recently FCW. After he came out, Haas got into the face a fan at ringside which got the place going. Haas started out with some nice amateur moves and Curtis came back with a spinning heel kick that sent Haas bailing to the outside. From there the match really slowed down. I've actually always liked both these guys from their early indie days, but this match didn't do a lot for me. Curtis got the pin after a really ugly looking roll up.
4) William Regal defeated Jamie Noble- Noble came out as the babyface, which kinda surprised me as I didn't think they had really established his character one way or the other. Regal (sans spandex tank top) was out second. Noble has a little history in this area of Delaware as well, having worked the 2002 ECWA Super 8 including a tremendous second round match against AJ Styles, but I digress. This match wasn't anything flashy, but I personally enjoyed it. Both these guys do so many little things that really help make a match work. Regal worked on Noble's arm early with a key lock. When Noble got the advantage, he worked the leg of Regal. Regal sold the leg really well and hit some really tight knee drops but afterwards would get up and try and "shake feeling back into his leg." Noble made a comeback and got a 2 count following a dropkick off the top, but Regal came right back hitting an overhead belly-to-belly with the leg trapped and follow it up with a running knee to the head for the pin. After the match, Noble got a big "Jamie Noble" chant from the crowd...weird, but cool.
5) Kofi Kingston defeated Santino Marella to retain the Intercontinental Championship- Santino is out first and is tell the fans it is a pleasure for them to see him. He claims he's going to make history and regain his IC championship and do half the job before his "Winner takes all" match at SummerSlam even happens. He then informs us that it will also be a historic night because tonight we will see him do "this" (he makes a weird looking M shape with his arms in front of his body), "Which means M; which stands for Maserati." And "this" (makes a clutching to movement with his arms), "Which means clutch...which stands for...clutch." He says it is the greatest Finisher in the history of wrestling. Kofi gets a real nice reaction, probably second to Kane thus far. I still don't know what to think of Santino's actual ring work, but he's so out there with his mic skills that he can cover for that. Kofi does his usual leaping around and when Santino is on the offense he works over Kofi's lower back. Santino calls for the "Maserati Clutch" but then gets cut off before doing anything. And let me say, that is a great gimmick if he claims he has this great finisher than he NEVER gets to actually use. Golden. Kofi hits "Trouble in Paradise" for the win. Afterwards, Santino gets on the mic to let us know he's okay.
Kelly Kelly comes out and asks to see the signs some people brought. She picked a person with a Cena sing to get to go and meet him. Chimel reminds us (i missed it the first time) to text for the stipulation for the World Title match between Punk and JBL. Choices tonight are Falls Count Anywhere, 2/3 Falls and No DQ. And now intermission.
6) Mickie James defated Katie Lea to retain the WWE Women's Championship- Lots of weird stalling early, like they were pulling some small rib on Marty Elias. When the match got started there was the usual decent action we've seen on TV from these two recently. Katie Lea continues the story of working over Mickie's shoulder from a couple of months ago and hits a couple of nice moves including a belly-to-back suplex with the arm hammerlocked behind Mickie and a nice looking "divorce court" arm bar take down. Mickie would eventually hit a Thez Press off the top, but Katie Lea quickly came back with a nice looking shoulder breaker (the move was nice looking...but i guess the shoulder was okay looking as well) for a 2 count. Katie Lea went for a kick to the head, but Mickie ducked and came back with a "Mick Kick" of her own to finish Katie off.
7) C.T.C. (Crime Tyme and Cena) defeated Cody Rhodes, Ted DiBiase and Chris Jericho- Jericho got more cheers than boos out to the ring, but he quickly remedied that with some (as usual) very good mic work. He repeated that the best thing about what he did to Shawn Michaels was that he felt like he was doing it to "each and every one of you." And then said if he had the time he would do the same thing to everyone there...man, woman or child. He finished by saying he was going to leave Cena in a pool of his own blood. Huge ovation for Cena...just insane to hear such a small venue pop like that. The heels were run off early and Cena called Jerichio back in. Pretty much the same match between Cena and Rohdes/DiBiase that we've seen on TV for 3 weeks now. Cena took the heat for a few minutes and eventually made the tag to Shad who came in with some big power moves. JTG got the tag and looked to have gotten lost as Rhodes cut him off front the outside but it took JTG a moment to sell it. The heels then worked over JTG for a few minutes until he made the hot tag to Cena. Shoulder tackle, shoulder tackle, blue thunder bomb to DiBiase, blue thunder bomb to Rhodes...double 5 knuckle shuffle. Other than the double move there, it's the same thing every tag match Cena works. It all breaks down and we go to the "everyone hits their finisher" spot, JTG with a flying neckbreaker on Cody, DiBiase with the Million Dollar Dream/Russian Leg Sweep on JTG, Shad with an STO on DiBiase, Jericho with the Code Breaker on Shad and finally Cena with the FU to Jericho followed by the STFU on DiBiase for the submission.
8) CM Punk defeats John Bradshaw Layfield to retain the World Heavyweight Championship in a no DQ match- JBL comes out and asks "Who in the hell booked me in Newark, DE?" He had a really large brace on his left knee, much bigger than I've seen him with before and it looked really makeshift. He goes on a rant about being too good to work this show and says the only reason he is, is because Punk is here and he has the world title. Punk's music hits and he gets, what probably was the second or third biggest pop of the night. It's clobberin' time. Chimel tells us that No DQ won with "67% of the vote." Last night it won with only 55%. Newark dislikes rules more than Wildwood, NJ. The action spills outside right away and Punk takes the lead early putting JBL face first into some chairs. After throwing JBL back into the ring pun ascends the top rope and comes off with a crossbody for a 2 count. JBL rebounds with a thumb to the eye and then a beatdown in the corner. Bradshaw goes to the outside and starts grabbing the plunder from under the ring. 3 Cookie sheets, a trash can and a chair. Punk gets a sheet and nails JBl with it, and then does the same with the garbage can. JBL avoids a second shot from the can by going low on Punker. To the outside again where JBL picks up the top portion of the steps and introduces them to side of Punk's head. He tosses the steps, then Punk into the ring. JBL looks to piledrive Punk on the steps but gets backdropped. Back out to the floor and into the crowd. Punk gets backdropped over the rail back to ringside. JBL then slows things down a little and holds control of the match until he goes for a superplex onto a chair but Punk stops it and hits a tornado DDT. Punk sets JBL up for the Go To Sleep, but JBL gets out and nails a clothesline for a near fall. Punk gets back up though and this time sets JBL up for the GTS and hits it for the win.
All in all, a pretty average show, but enough star power in a small venue like that to send most of the fans home happy. Punk and Kane got pretty big reactions, but Cena's just blew everyone out of the water.
Michael C. Grimaldi of CarltonPrescott.com