From Andrew Binge:
I attended tonight’s (jun 19th) Raw and Smackdown house show at MSG and wanted to send some notes. I went with my 77 year old grandma, who is a life long wrestling fan, and who hasn’t yet figured out wrestling is scripted entertainment!
Crowd was pretty darn hot right from the start with everyone doing the Ric flair WHOOOOOOO before the show even started
Show starts with Kofi Kingston’s music, and a huge pop from the live crowd. He is slated to defend the IC title against Drew McIntyre. Drew enters to a huge amount of heat. It was deafening! I decided to cheer for Drew to the ire of some 8 Y.O. kids next to me. Crowd is behind Kofi all match, which ended with Kofi winning with his finisher. Drew attacks after the match, and Matt Hardy makes the save to a huge pop…Matt is chased off my security and refs, and returns from another aisle to continue his attack. Kofi gives drew a Trouble in Paradise, and Matt gives Drew a Twist of fate.
Gallows and the masked SES member are in tag action next. Decent heat. Their opponents are MVP who entered to nice pop, and Christian who is extremely over with the crowd! The reaction to his entrance gave me chills. Pretty dull match. I was more into listening to the many kids around me boo SOS. MVP hits his paydirt finisher for the win. That masked man is really short and small, whoever it is.
Kelly Kelly is announced as the guest hostess to a huge pop, and comes and asks a trivia question that i couldn’t even hear. Some kid answers correctly and gets to sit ringside as the guest time keeper or something.
CM Punk enters, and the crowd doesn’t really react. I thought he would have gotten a ton of heat, but people don’t seem to care too much…until Serena tells them to show Punk respect. As soon as punk talks the boos fill the arena. His opponent is kane. Big pop for Kane, despite his recent attacks on Rey and Big Show. Kane wins after a chokeslam, in an okay match.
Miz enters, and once again, the crowd doesn’t seem to react too much…until he starts talking. Way over as a hell. He tears down the crowd and says the Knicks will never get Lebron. He is defending the US title in a fatal four way against Evan Bourne (who got a huge pop) Mark Henry (who gets a nice reaction) and R-Truth (who had the whole crowd into his theme song.) Faces gang up on Miz in the early going. Nice match, that saw Bourne hit Truth with a beautiful SSP only for the Miz to chuck Bourne out and steal the win.
Next up is a no dq match for the WHC. Huge heat for the champ Jack Swagger. Big show comes out to perhaps the biggest reaction of the night thus far. He is way over as a babyface. During the match Swagger hits Show in the back with a steal chair, which show no sells, and punches away. Swagger also hit Show in the head with the title belt for only a two count. In a continuation from the last two Smackdowns Kane comes down, and Swagger rolls out. Kane choke slams Show and leaves, and Swagger rolls back in and picks up the easy win. While celebrating Kane returns and gives Swagger a chokeslam. When Swagger gets up he turns into a huge knock out punch from Show.
Intermission
We return for a 6 divas tag match (also known as second intermission) Lay Cool and Maryse get a huge amount of heat, and Eve and the Bellas get a large pop. Sadly this excitement ended when the match actually started. The crowd has officially died. A “THIS IS BORING” chant fills the arena. A weak pop when a face diva gets the hot tag, and a huge cheer when the faces win, with kids next to me yelling “Finally!” I actually felt bad for this divas in this match.
*interestingly during this match a kid next to me, excitedly mentions TNA to the other kid next the him. The kids responds by saying “that show sucks”. And then asks the other kid if he realizes that TNA just has old WWE guys. He then names a few like Jeff Hardy, Mr. Anderson and Kurt Angle. I thought their conversation way hilarious, and was impressed that kids so young remembered Kurt was in WWE.
I’m not sure if it was because of the really bad divas match, or what, but Edge enters to a huge ovation. People in my section were even singing along to the theme song! His opponent, Randy Orton, however, blew the roof off of the garden. Once again I got chills just hearing the huge ovation they gave him… Orton is WAAY over. A really nice match, that wasn’t too short or long. Orton didn’t looked injured in this match! Quite a bit of reversals until Orton finally hits edge with a sudden RKO (so sudden i actually blinked and missed it) for the win.
Sheamus is out for the main event, which is for the WWE championship. Cena enters to a reaction that was extremely loud. Very loud cheers, with clear boos underneath. The crowd was hot for the main event. Many cheers going back and forth from “Let’s go Cena’ ‘Cena sucks” to “‘Let’s go Sheamus’ Let’s go Cena'” Either way a hot hot crowd reaction. sheamus did a springboard like shoulder tackle from the apron to the inside of the ring twice (missing the second time) that i never saw before. It was similar to Punk’s springboard, without sheamus jumping onto the top rope. Pretty cool! The finish saw Wade Barrett enter from the crowd and into the ring, Cena was able to dispose of him and get Sheamus up for a AA for the win. After the match Barrett runs back in only to get thrown out again. Then all the NXTers enter and beat down Cena. Sadly i was on my way out, and didn’t see what happened next but it looked like some raw guys ran down again to help Cena clear the ring. The night ended with Cena giving a heartfelt speech about WWE and New York, and his disdain for the NXTers.
Overall a great night, with a very hot crowd.
Biggest Pop:
Cena
Orton (a very close second)
Big Show
Christian
Biggest Heat:
Cena
Drew (once again a very close second)
The Miz
Edge (after his initial pop)
Quick Results:
Kofi (c) over McIntrye
MVP and Christian over SES (gallows and masked man)
Kane over Punk
The Miz (c) retains against Bourne, Henry, and Truth
Swagger (c) retains against Big Show
Eve and Bellas over Laycool and Maryse
Orton over Edge
Cena over Sheamus