The new (well old now) house show set does help things a lot. it’s nothing great or flashy but it makes things feel a lot more special than just walking through a black curtain. There are two mini trons and a big X which has the theme of the wrestler (i.e. Sheamus’ is green, Del Rio is red, white and green etc) and a mini ramp. It’s a BIG upgrade and makes things look a lot better.
We were told to tweet our pick of the stipulation for the main event: No DQ or 2/3 falls. No DQ was up about 80 to 20 when they stopped showing the results.
We got the standard videos from WWE: Wrestlemania Reading Challenge, Saturday Morning Slam, WWE App etc.
The main shirts I saw were Cena and Rock with a few Rybacks throughout the arena. Mainly Cena though.
Kofi Kingston vs. Heath Slater
The crowd was white hot all night and this was no exception. My theory of Kofi as the modern day Tito Santana continues to grow. Kofi was INSANELY over and looked great all match. The crowd booed Slater but it was nothing compared to the pop for Kingston. It was a pretty basic match with Kofi working on the arm until the other 3MB members distracted him. There was a funny spot where Kofi did the air guitar and hip shake which got a good reaction from the crowd. In a very impressive move, Kofi hit a dropkick and from where we were sitting, Kofi’s entire body was above the ropes. That’s INSANE when you think about it.
The big spot of the match was Kofi kicking Slater down and using him as a stepping stone to hit a big dive onto 3MB. Mahal and McIntyre were thrown out after about five minutes and Slater started taking over. Slater beat on Kofi with some basic stuff and hit a pretty sweet neckbreaker for two. Kofi made his comeback and hit the Boom Drop but Trouble in Paradise missed. Slater went up and jumped into Trouble in Paradise for the pin at about 12:00.
Rating: C+. The ratings will be shorter than usual here. This was a great choice for an opener and the fans loved Kofi. The main thing here was that the match was kind of slow at times, but that’s more than forgivable. This was probably the second or third best match of the night.
Aksana vs. Alicia Fox
This ran about NINE minutes and the crowd started filing in. My entire notes about the match: Aksana sucks, Alicia isn’t bad, ax kick hits back for pin (for Fox).
Rating: D-. The match sucks and it’s ALL on Aksana, who looked lost doing anything of note.
Chimmel was plugging the Twitter thing again when Shield interrupted him. They talked about Orton and Sheamus being brought to justice tonight and get in a great line: “It’s Evolution or Extinction.” That line is ten years too late and it’s awesome.
Fandango vs. Yoshi Tatsu
Yep, I got to see Fandango, and he’s still Johnny Curtis. No one cared about Fandango, like at all. he had some chick that was dancing with him during his entrance but she went to the back for the match. Both guys danced a bit with Tatsu doing the Rick Rude hip swivel. Fandango was very generic with his stuff and came off like any guy from NXT. That’s the problem with the gimmick: it has nothing interesting at all to it and there’s zero reason whatsoever to boo him. He’s just a guy who dances. We have no idea if he’s a good guy, a bad guy, or anything about him at all. Anyway the generic heel (assuming that’s what he was) broke up a springboard attempt by Tatsu and hit a spinning downward spiral for the pin at about 6:40.
Rating: D. If this is any indication of what’s coming, Fandango isn’t going to last long. There’s no reason to care about him and while it was clear he’s a heel, there’s no reason to know that other than he’s fighting Yoshi Tatsu. I don’t remember him cheating, I don’t remember him acting arrogant, I don’t remember him doing anything evil. He just dances, and I guess that makes him bad?
Wade Barrett says he’ll win the main event and the world title.
Randy Orton/Sheamus vs. Shield
Handicap match here. Orton and Sheamus got by far the biggest pops of the night respectively. This was a brawl to start after Shield came through the curtain instead. It was about what you would expect from this kind of a match. In one funny bit, Rollins was in trouble and Orton stopped the other two before they came in. During the distraction, Sheamus choked Rollins in the corner and shrugged at the fans as if to say “it’s not cheating if you don’t get caught.” Rollins got beaten down to start, Sheamus got beaten down for a bit, and Orton got the hot tag. Orton hit his usual stuff and loaded up the RKO but the other Shield guys came in for the DQ at about 11:00.
Rating: C+. This was a fun match but a clean ending would have been nice. it wouldn’t have been smart, but it would have been nice. You certainly can’t have Shield losing in a 3-2 match and expect them to beat Ryback, Cena and Sheamus at the same time. Anyway, fun match and the fans were going nuts for Orton. Sheamus had his fans too and was very over, but Orton’s pop for the hot tag was insane.
Post match Sheamus Brogue Kicked a chair into I think Rollins’ face and it was RKO’s and Brogue Kicks all around. The heroes went around high fiving everyone and signing a bunch of stuff. THat went on for probably close to ten minutes.
15 minute intermission.
Sin Cara/Great Khali vs. 3MB
That’s a pretty odd tag team on the face side. This was about what you would expect: Khali started and cleaned house, Cara got tagged in and got beaten down, Horny beat up Heath Slater, hot tag to Khali and the Plunge ends Mahal at a time that I forgot to check. It was less than ten minutes for sure though.
Rating: C-. This was fine. The main thing to note was how Sin Cara botched the one main high flying move he has still: the spinning armdrag out of the corner. Basically he didn’t rotate enough and McIntyre wound up on top of him instead of falling over.
Cara seemed to be favoring his shoulder post match but it didn’t seem that bad.
Conor O’Brien vs. Brodus Clay
Conor is from NXT and is the only member left of Ascension. He got to do his full entrnace minus the lights and with the big coat. It didn’t do much for the crowd but for NXT fans it was awesome. he needs a partner though. O’Brian cut a promo about not being happy and says he’ll destroy our hero and then rise. This would prove to be incorrect as Conor did next to nothing significant and Brodus came back with his usual to win with the splash at 5:40.
Rating: D+. This was short but decent all thigns considered. O’Brian needs the full entrance for the character to work and it looks stupid in the light. Clay and the Funkadactyls (who now have pom poms) danced a lot.
Tony CHimmel dances with Brodus and company post match, holding his heart after the fact. Funny stuff.
The fans vote for No DQ.
Smackdown World Title: Alberto Del Rio vs. Wade Barrett
BIG pop for Del Rio after Barrett said he hated Louisville and said the crowd clearly wanted barbarism by picking a No DQ match. Barrett stalls for a long time to start which suckers Del Rio in. He pounds on Alberto for a bit and then gets kicked a few times. Barrett goes to the floor and tries to walk out with the belts, only to be stopped by Ricardo. Wade chased him around and Del Rio hit a sweet baseball slide to stop Barrett cold.
Barrett brought in a kendo stick and accidentally tapped the referee int he head with it before laying out Del Rio. That got two and Del Rio came back again, only to get beaten down by a chair. He went shoulder first into the psot to give Wade two but Del Rio came back with some LAME kendo stick shots. The Winds of Change got a two count as did the Backstabber out of the corner. Del Rio brought in a table but got sent into a chair int he corner. Ricardo distracted Del Rio and a bulldog put Barrett through the table to retain the title at about 17:30.
Rating: B. Definitely the match of the night here with the fans being WAY into Del Rio’s comebacks. Barrett looekd good in a match he had no chance of winning here which is a good sign for him. The match worked quite well and Del Rio continues to be on a roll. The table was a nice touch and something you don’t see much anymore. Good stuff here.
Del Rio signed some autographs to end the show.
Overall Rating: C+. As you can see, the biggest problem with this show was the lack of star power. After Orton, Sheamus and Del Rio, things drop WAY off. The show was definitely fun and entertaining enough for the price ($15 each) and we had a great time, but it was nothing I’ll remember in a week or so. Raw had a show at the same time in Missouri which had Punk, Ryback, Jericho, Ziggler and every other major star I’m forgetting. Anyway, good stuff here and it was a fun, although forgettable experience.
