Courtesy of Aaron R. Gierhart:
Hey guys! Below are the house show results for the Raw brand from last night at the iWireless Center in Moline, IL.
We showed up a few hours early to see the wrestlers come in and
potentially get some photos. The only superstars to approach the fans were Mickie James and the Bella twins. Mickie was a class act and spent 25 minutes making sure everyone got an autograph or photo. She’s absolutely gorgeous in person! I also got to meet Brie Bella, as the twins kind of split between the crowd and headed in a bit quicker, as they arrived a bit later than Mickie.
We didn’t see all the talent arrive, but we saw many of them. Miz rode in with Maryse (someone called her Kelly Kelly on accident and she gave them a really dirty look!). Kofi Kingston rode with Hornswoggle. Triple H rode solo in a huge tour bus. The Colons rode with Mickie James. Jamie Noble came in with Dean Malenko. Cody Rhodes came in with his brother Goldust.
The arena was about 60-70% full. The floor seats and lower bowl all appeared to be sold out. The middle of the upper bowl facing the ring was pretty full but the rest of it was almost all empty.
That new Diva Angela Fong was on ring announcing duties for the event. She’s definitely good looking and was pretty natural on the mic.
1) Santino vs. The Brian Kendrick: Short match but pretty fun. Santino played the comedy angle and kept talking trash and looking surprised at getting the upper hand on Kendrick. I think he rolled him up for the pin or something at the end. Then, Santino celebrated outside the ring.
Before the next match, the Bella twins did a trivia question in the upper bowl with a family and gave them front row seats.
2) Sheamus vs. Jamie Noble: Sheamus cut a promo about how he’s from Ireland and how they’re better than the U.S. Then he drew heat by ripping on Moline. Noble came out to a strong reaction. Lots of U.S.A. chants. Sheamus hit some of of powerbomb finisher for the win. He’s improved a lot in the ring and on the mic since I saw him wrestle Jimmy Wang Yang in Bloomington, IL, last month.
3) Miz vs. Goldust w/ Hornswoggle: Miz came out and cut a promo on his awesomeness. He referenced his altercation with Goldust and Hornswoggle on Raw from the previous week. Great match with lots of back-and-forth action. Miz got the win via The Reality Check. He kicked Hornswoggle down in the ring after Hornswoggle tried to get into it with him.
4) US Championship Triple Threat Match: Kofi Kingston vs. MVP vs. Matt Hardy: Great match with lots of spots. Kofi has got crazy hops! Kofi picked up the win by pinning Matt after a high kick to the head (I think).
INTERMISSION
5) Unified Tag Team Championship Match: The Colons vs. Legacy: Rhodes cut a promo on how they’re great and second-generation like the Colons but they were born better. Carlito cut a promo and talked of how they hang out with Randy Orton and have tanning parties. The Colons won via DQ after Dibiase hit Primo with a chair in the back from outside the ring. This was the exact same finish they used in Bloomington last month, but the match quality was much better. Their match at The Bash should be pretty good. Legacy seemed to get into it with some people in the crowd towards the beginning of the match.
6) Maryse vs. Mickie James: Mickie had a good pop, part in thanks to her time with many of the fans outside before the show. Slow-paced match but some good, fun spots. I think if they can work together more and get some chemistry together, they’ll have a decent title match on PPV or Raw. In my opinion, it’s time for Mickie to get the strap.
7) Big Show & Randy Orton vs. John Cena & Triple H: Great match with lots of verbal interactions. They worked the match in two cycles with the heel team working over HHH for an eventual hot tag to Cena. Then, they eventually worked over HHH for a hot tag to Cena. Orton kept trying to duck Triple H throughout the match. The face team won the match with Cena hitting an Attitude Adjustment on Show and Triple H hitting a Pedigree on him afterwards for the pin. Then, they posed for the crowd and did some Hogan-like crowd interaction seeing which side could be loudest.
Overall, a pretty fun show. I’m of the persuasion that thinks Smackdown is the best “wrestling” brand, but Raw definitely has some great in-ring work happening too.
BIGGEST POPS:
1) Cena
2) HHH
3) Kofi Kingston
4) Hornswoggle
BIGGEST HEAT:
1) The Miz
2) Legacy
3) Randy Orton
4) Big Show/ Brian Kendrick