WWE Smackdown/ECW house show
June 14, 2008
Adelaide, Australia
Report by Rhys Wood, PWTorch.com reader

Justin Roberts welcomes everyone to the Smackdown/ECW tour show. He then tells the crowd that the WWE has reached an agreement with Vickie Guerrero and the Undertaker for him to appear tonight, same as with the New Zealand shows. Kelly Kelly then goes to some fans in the crowd and asks them who's the current US champion; they get ringside seats as a prize for answering Matt Hardy.

(1) Kofi Kingston defeated Shelton Benjamin with the Trouble in Paradise. Pretty good opener. Lots of support for Shelton from the over 20s, Kofi was popular too with his dancing down to the ring. Good tempo match that got the crowd into the show real early, every move Shelton hit got a decent pop but no attempted Exploder's.

(2) John Morrison & The Miz defeated Shannon Moore & Jamie Noble to retain WWE Tag Team titles with a roll-up. Typical WWE tag team match. Some good playing with the crowd by Miz and Morrison, most didn't seem to know who Moore and Noble were which was funny. Morrison got the pin with a roll-up following Miz taking out Moore.

(3) C.M. Punk defeated Chavo Guerrero Jr. with the Go To Sleep. Quite a grounded match with Chavo showing some things we don't see on TV too regularly, a lot of mat work in the first five or so minutes till they picked up the pace. Smattering's of Eddie Guerrero chants from the over 20s, again. CM Punk got a huge pop from the crowd, one of the biggest of the night. He won when Bam Neely messed up some interference and hit the GTS. Match of the night.

(4) Michelle McCool & Kelly Kelly defeated Victoria & Nattie Neidhart with a Wings of Love. A surprisingly good match for the diva's. Kelly Kelly was pretty popular and I met Michelle McCool during the day at a signing session. Nattie Neidhart got a pop from the over 20s and a small Hart Foundation chant. Fast paced but not crap diva's match that had Kelly Kelly doing a lot of the wrestling with Nattie. It ended with Michelle hitting her facebuster finisher on Victoria.

(5) Finlay (w/Hornswoggle) defeated Great Khali with the shillelagh. Another match that surprisingly didn't suck given Khali was in it. Typical beat down by Khali for the first few minutes, then he went after Hornswoggle. We got some comedy when Hornswoggle sprayed Khali with a water pistol and then tried to juggle, only to throw the balls at Khali. Finlay won when Hornswoggle gave Khali a low-blow, and Finlay then hit him with the shillelagh. Hornswoggle is seriously over with kids.

(6) Matt Hardy defeated Chuck Palumbo to retain WWE United States title with a Twist of Fate. Hardy did a good job of getting Palumbo over as a heel, because nobody knew what he was when he came on the bike, in a fairly stock standard match. Usual affair that ended after Palumbo missed a big boot in the corner and Hardy hit the Twist of Fate.

[Intermission]

(7) Undertaker & Kane defeated Mark Henry & MVP with a Tombstone. Undertaker got the biggest pop of the night with his entrance which is damn cool live. The usual moves were done by the Brothers of the Destruction with MVP taking most of the bumps. Crowd was heavily into this because of the Undertaker but also Kane, who got a nice chant for himself. MVP was popular too. It ended when Undertaker hit a second attempted Tombstone on MVP. After the match 'Taker did his usual pose but Kane didn't do his fire-from-the-ring-post.

(8) Vladimir Kozlov defeated Sho Funaki with a DDT. Least interesting match of the night, crowd booed a little as they thought it was the main event. Funaki was pretty popular though, I cheered for him. Squash match, Funaki hardly had any offence whatsoever.

(9) Batista defeated Edge by DQ. Batista came out, did his usual thing, but Edge was great. He was the only one to cut a promo as he got on the mic and did the heel thing: insulted the city, the crowd and then said "I don't know what a wanker is, but I'm not a wanker!" which had the crowd chanting that throughout the match. Edge then spent a few minutes running from Batista and standing back up the stage. Match was largely dominated by Edge, Batista then starts gaining momentum until Chavo and Neely came out and did a beat down. Undertaker's music hits and he comes out and cleans house with a massive pop.

BIGGEST POPS
1. Undertaker
2. CM Punk
3. Kane/Matt Hardy

MOST HEEL HEAT
1. Edge
2. The Miz & John Morrison
3. Chavo Guerrero Jr.

Overall, quite an entertaining show. It was a lot better than what I expected.
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