Kellie
05-12-2009, 05:40 AM
WWE Smackdown/ECW House Show - 5/11/09 - Roberts Stadium - Evansville, Indiana
By Thomas Green
The place was barely 2/3rd's of the way packed, which was strange considering the recent reports of houses being up at the live events. You were able to get seats down towards the floor the day of the show. One noticeable thing was, like the recent trends, kids/families made up the majority of the crowd, and you rarely saw a kid not wearing a CM Punk, Rey Mysterio, or Jeff Hardy shirt. It was weird in a way, as it was more like going to see something like Rugrats on Ice or another traveling entertainment show from a popular television product, in that the crowd pretty much played sing-along for the sections they knew they needed to (not just signature spots, but even particular sections of the formula of your average match that sometimes don't get a reaction if executed poorly were reacted to exactly as you'd want even if they weren't timed at the right time or executed well, but it was just calm enough to where you could tell something about it was unnatural).
1) Evan Bourne d. Tyson Kidd. Short, to the point opener; same basic match as the other weekend shows where Bourne's arm got worked over before he got a short comeback and hit the Shooting Star Press. Bourne got the "first star of the night" reaction, but seemed to be legitimately over enough that Tyson Kidd, who you could hear people asking amongst themselves about who he was, got booed from his entrance on just because he was Evan Bourne's opponent.
Angela Fong, the ring announcer for the weekend, pitched to Maria, who did the usual trivia question to a family in the cheap seats (and considering this family was sitting alone at the top of the building, it looked kind of minor league for WWE). The family's young son knew that Melina was the Women's Champion, so they got moved down to the front row.
2) Vladimir Koslov d. Finlay. Same match as the other house shows; about as absurdly basic as possible and it was beautiful in many ways. Seeing Koslov try to play a more traditional heel who yells at the people and shows a bit of character at the house shows is kind of amusing. They worked a bearhug for what seemed like over half of the match, but Finlay's timing and the way he sold kept the crowd into it the whole time. Koslov won after hitting his bootleg Rock Bottom after a nearfall with Finlay hitting Koslov with the shillelagh behind the referee's back.
3) John Morrison pinned Shelton Benjamin after turning a flying headscissors into a tornado DDT. Despite the abruptness of his turn and the automatic demotion from Chris Jericho to Shelton Benjamin, the people seemed to, at least in Evansville, be legitimately into Morrison (especially the ladies) as a real superstar, as while it wasn't nearly as loud, he got the same type of rock star-esque reaction that Hardy usually gets for his entrance. The match featured lots of acrobatics, though some timing issues caused the heat to die off towards the middle of the match. However, with some polish, this could be replicated into a really good TV match sometime soon.
4) Gail Kim & Eve Torres d. Natalya & Layla. You could blatantly tell at moments that this was the experienced workhorse girls trying to teach the green girls on the job. The execution wasn't the best at times, but this was when it became obviously clear that only the best guys on your average independent show (if that) are as sound as the worst workers in WWE, as this was the worst match on this show, but this was technically fine, in terms of the timing and pacing of things. There was one really scary moment towards the finish where Layla was late breaking up a neckbreaker spot and threw a dropkick anyway, landing on Gail Kim's head in a similar fashion as when Chris Nowinski took the double dropkick at Royal Rumble '03 that concussed him.
5) CM Punk d. Umaga via DQ after Umaga beat Punk down with the Money in the Bank briefcase. After the match, Punk got the briefcase and hit Umaga hard enough to knock him out of the ring, though Umaga barely sold the shots since they were to the head, and well, he's Samoan. Punk was easily the third most over guy on the show, behind Rey and Jeff, but people didn't really seem to be into Umaga. The match wasn't anything much and Punk, at moments, looked sloppy as heck (at one point, he botched a springboard bodypress so bad that even scattered little kids were groaning).
Maria brought some kids into the ring and they threw t-shirts out into the crowd. Cue intermission.
6) Christian & Tommy Dreamer d. Mark Henry & Jack Swagger. Unlike the other house shows this weekend, they just announced it as a tag instead of morphing it from a singles match. Christian, by leaps and bounds, was the hardest working guy on the entire show. At the house shows, a lot of guys rely on stalling, posturing, and taunting the crowd for reactions; Christian didn't do much of that but, by the end of the match, went from a semi-cold babyface judging by his entrance pop, to getting the second-biggest reaction of the night for getting the pin. Of all the guys on the entire show, him and Morrison seemed like the only ones with huge upward momentum, and Christian's was entirely through hard work from bell to bell. Also noticeable through this match is that Jack Swagger is really fantastic at working the corner during a tag match, moreso than you'd think, given his experience and lack of tag match experience. After the match, Dreamer literally jumped in the air, having Christian catch him in a hug that fell apart comically, then both posed for almost the entire length of Christian's music, teasing that Dreamer was going to hit Christian with the ECW belt at one point before putting it on Christian's shoulder.
7) Rey Mysterio d. Chris Jericho for the Intercontinental belt. Jericho was fantastic as usual, setting up the finish perfectly in his promo by mocking that the people of Evansville were only smart enough to put together three numbers (6-1-9) and that he couldn't be hit by it. It was teased 4-5 times throughout the match, including Jericho, at one point, avoiding it by leaping out of the ring and running halfway up the bleachers (and avoiding a lady in the crowd who had to be held back from hitting him). There was a lot of that dramatic stalling that WWE's top heels are using very often, but I can't complain much since it worked for Jericho, as his heat only got more and more intense as the match grew. The finish was really clever, as Jericho brought a chair into the ring, but the referee grabbed it and put it back outside. As Jericho yelled at the ref, his head was between the ropes. They gave the people enough time to realize the positioning, then Rey popped up from selling and hit the 6-1-9, followed by a quick springboard splash for the win.
8) Edge d. Jeff Hardy for the World Title after Jeff hit his head on an exposed turnbuckle (the pad was removed by Edge a minute earlier), stumbling right into Edge's spear. Edge, much like Jericho, stalled a ton and I can't fault him since it still worked, but it felt like the master of the tactic (Jericho) was followed by a guy who was trying to be as good as him at the exact same thing. Hardy's crowd reaction was something else; everything people say about him being like pro wrestling's rock star is true times ten; he would slap hands with young girls and they'd then begin to turn to their parents or friends and begin to cry in happiness. When Jeff was selling, you could see kids running up the stairs to one of the exits with money in their hands and come back with Jeff Hardy armbands, like they thought showing their support in that way would help Jeff win this battle. It was an awesome site to behold. The match itself was unspectacular and at times boring, but observing this crowd and how strongly they felt about Jeff Hardy was incredible. After the match, Edge missed a belt shot on Jeff, who downed Edge and hit the Swanton Bomb to send people home happy.
By Thomas Green
The place was barely 2/3rd's of the way packed, which was strange considering the recent reports of houses being up at the live events. You were able to get seats down towards the floor the day of the show. One noticeable thing was, like the recent trends, kids/families made up the majority of the crowd, and you rarely saw a kid not wearing a CM Punk, Rey Mysterio, or Jeff Hardy shirt. It was weird in a way, as it was more like going to see something like Rugrats on Ice or another traveling entertainment show from a popular television product, in that the crowd pretty much played sing-along for the sections they knew they needed to (not just signature spots, but even particular sections of the formula of your average match that sometimes don't get a reaction if executed poorly were reacted to exactly as you'd want even if they weren't timed at the right time or executed well, but it was just calm enough to where you could tell something about it was unnatural).
1) Evan Bourne d. Tyson Kidd. Short, to the point opener; same basic match as the other weekend shows where Bourne's arm got worked over before he got a short comeback and hit the Shooting Star Press. Bourne got the "first star of the night" reaction, but seemed to be legitimately over enough that Tyson Kidd, who you could hear people asking amongst themselves about who he was, got booed from his entrance on just because he was Evan Bourne's opponent.
Angela Fong, the ring announcer for the weekend, pitched to Maria, who did the usual trivia question to a family in the cheap seats (and considering this family was sitting alone at the top of the building, it looked kind of minor league for WWE). The family's young son knew that Melina was the Women's Champion, so they got moved down to the front row.
2) Vladimir Koslov d. Finlay. Same match as the other house shows; about as absurdly basic as possible and it was beautiful in many ways. Seeing Koslov try to play a more traditional heel who yells at the people and shows a bit of character at the house shows is kind of amusing. They worked a bearhug for what seemed like over half of the match, but Finlay's timing and the way he sold kept the crowd into it the whole time. Koslov won after hitting his bootleg Rock Bottom after a nearfall with Finlay hitting Koslov with the shillelagh behind the referee's back.
3) John Morrison pinned Shelton Benjamin after turning a flying headscissors into a tornado DDT. Despite the abruptness of his turn and the automatic demotion from Chris Jericho to Shelton Benjamin, the people seemed to, at least in Evansville, be legitimately into Morrison (especially the ladies) as a real superstar, as while it wasn't nearly as loud, he got the same type of rock star-esque reaction that Hardy usually gets for his entrance. The match featured lots of acrobatics, though some timing issues caused the heat to die off towards the middle of the match. However, with some polish, this could be replicated into a really good TV match sometime soon.
4) Gail Kim & Eve Torres d. Natalya & Layla. You could blatantly tell at moments that this was the experienced workhorse girls trying to teach the green girls on the job. The execution wasn't the best at times, but this was when it became obviously clear that only the best guys on your average independent show (if that) are as sound as the worst workers in WWE, as this was the worst match on this show, but this was technically fine, in terms of the timing and pacing of things. There was one really scary moment towards the finish where Layla was late breaking up a neckbreaker spot and threw a dropkick anyway, landing on Gail Kim's head in a similar fashion as when Chris Nowinski took the double dropkick at Royal Rumble '03 that concussed him.
5) CM Punk d. Umaga via DQ after Umaga beat Punk down with the Money in the Bank briefcase. After the match, Punk got the briefcase and hit Umaga hard enough to knock him out of the ring, though Umaga barely sold the shots since they were to the head, and well, he's Samoan. Punk was easily the third most over guy on the show, behind Rey and Jeff, but people didn't really seem to be into Umaga. The match wasn't anything much and Punk, at moments, looked sloppy as heck (at one point, he botched a springboard bodypress so bad that even scattered little kids were groaning).
Maria brought some kids into the ring and they threw t-shirts out into the crowd. Cue intermission.
6) Christian & Tommy Dreamer d. Mark Henry & Jack Swagger. Unlike the other house shows this weekend, they just announced it as a tag instead of morphing it from a singles match. Christian, by leaps and bounds, was the hardest working guy on the entire show. At the house shows, a lot of guys rely on stalling, posturing, and taunting the crowd for reactions; Christian didn't do much of that but, by the end of the match, went from a semi-cold babyface judging by his entrance pop, to getting the second-biggest reaction of the night for getting the pin. Of all the guys on the entire show, him and Morrison seemed like the only ones with huge upward momentum, and Christian's was entirely through hard work from bell to bell. Also noticeable through this match is that Jack Swagger is really fantastic at working the corner during a tag match, moreso than you'd think, given his experience and lack of tag match experience. After the match, Dreamer literally jumped in the air, having Christian catch him in a hug that fell apart comically, then both posed for almost the entire length of Christian's music, teasing that Dreamer was going to hit Christian with the ECW belt at one point before putting it on Christian's shoulder.
7) Rey Mysterio d. Chris Jericho for the Intercontinental belt. Jericho was fantastic as usual, setting up the finish perfectly in his promo by mocking that the people of Evansville were only smart enough to put together three numbers (6-1-9) and that he couldn't be hit by it. It was teased 4-5 times throughout the match, including Jericho, at one point, avoiding it by leaping out of the ring and running halfway up the bleachers (and avoiding a lady in the crowd who had to be held back from hitting him). There was a lot of that dramatic stalling that WWE's top heels are using very often, but I can't complain much since it worked for Jericho, as his heat only got more and more intense as the match grew. The finish was really clever, as Jericho brought a chair into the ring, but the referee grabbed it and put it back outside. As Jericho yelled at the ref, his head was between the ropes. They gave the people enough time to realize the positioning, then Rey popped up from selling and hit the 6-1-9, followed by a quick springboard splash for the win.
8) Edge d. Jeff Hardy for the World Title after Jeff hit his head on an exposed turnbuckle (the pad was removed by Edge a minute earlier), stumbling right into Edge's spear. Edge, much like Jericho, stalled a ton and I can't fault him since it still worked, but it felt like the master of the tactic (Jericho) was followed by a guy who was trying to be as good as him at the exact same thing. Hardy's crowd reaction was something else; everything people say about him being like pro wrestling's rock star is true times ten; he would slap hands with young girls and they'd then begin to turn to their parents or friends and begin to cry in happiness. When Jeff was selling, you could see kids running up the stairs to one of the exits with money in their hands and come back with Jeff Hardy armbands, like they thought showing their support in that way would help Jeff win this battle. It was an awesome site to behold. The match itself was unspectacular and at times boring, but observing this crowd and how strongly they felt about Jeff Hardy was incredible. After the match, Edge missed a belt shot on Jeff, who downed Edge and hit the Swanton Bomb to send people home happy.