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WWE Smackdown/ECW house show
September 15, 2008
Montgomery, Ala.
Report by Paul Lucas, PWTorch correspondent

Last night WWE presented Smackdown and ECW live from the aging Garrett Coliseum in Montgomery, Ala. Overall it was an entertaining show, high on family-friendly content with some raucous fans in attendance. I dare say however, that WWE would probably be a little disappointed with the turnout. This was the first WWE live event in Montgomery for four years yet the Coliseum was only around half to two thirds full. Personally I'd blame this on a lack of advertising. I only discovered the event myself because I regularly check WWE.com and but for a couple of commercials run during Smackdown, and an article over the weekend in the Montgomery Advertiser, there was really nothing done to promote the show at all.

The arena isn't the greatest in the world. It's clearly seen better days from the time that Elvis Presley performed here – as my wife pointed out she'd seen him live - and the lack of air conditioning was troublesome, particularly when sat next to a guy who hadn't bothered with deodorant. Wrestling shirt? Check. Popcorn? Check. Deodorant? Nah. There was no tron and no pyro – but in many respects that added to the old school appeal and created more of an atmosphere. The audience were predominantly families and adult marks – no real smart marks in attendance, or at least if they were, they weren't vocal.

On to the show then and Justin Roberts kicked things off with the usual "text message your vote" stunt to determine the stipulation for the ECW World Championship match – two out of three falls, falls count anywhere or no disqualification.

(1) Carlito and Primo Colon defeated John Morrison & The Miz. A nice crowd-pleasing opener, with the crowd heavily behind Carlito - I was surprised at the level of chants for his name considering he has played a heel for the best part of a year until last week's Smackdown. Primo threw out some flashy offence including a series of Ricky Steamboat armdrags that would make Walter Kowalski turn in his grave. Morrison and The Miz played their roles perfectly - playing to the crowd with Rick Rude gyrations and a series of provocative ‘we're not gay, honest!' antics. The Miz has progressed into an impressive heel and John Morrison is money. In the end the Colons picked up the victory and it seems that tag team wrestling, at least on Smackdown, may have new life.

Eve Torres then showed up in section D asking one family where next year's WrestleMania would be held. The Johnsons (no, not the TNA tag team) answered correctly and took their place at ringside.

(2) Chavo Guerrero (w/Bam Neely) defeated Jimmy Wang Yang. I've always been in the camp that thinks Chavo has a job because his last name is Guerrero, but having seen the guy live he's a classic old school heel and a heat magnet. He played well with the crowd during his entrance - one fat guy told him to ‘suck it', to which Chavo picked up the mic and said: ‘I've got two words for you - Jenny Craig'. Chavo and Bam played off their recent on-screen tension with Chavo positioning Neely further and further away from the ring by moving his chair up the aisle way. This was a good cruiser-weight match, with Wang Yang hitting most of his signature moves before missing a moonsault and being hit with a spinning heel kick from Chavo for the three count. After the match Chavo insisted Neely raise his hand and then hold Wang Yang down for a frog splash. At the last minute Neely pulled Yang out of the way and then Jimmy hit a moonsault on Chavo to leave the crowd cheering.

Back to Eve Torres who had now found her way to ringside where she asked who would like to see some diva action up close and personal. A little boy named Matthew was the lucky recipient - he got to be guest timekeeper, not invited back to the showers, which is what I thought Eve was implicating.

(3) Michelle McCool defeated Maryse (w/Victoria) to retain the WWE Divas Championship. Ah Michelle McCool, how I hate thee. Rarely has there been a diva that WWE has force-fed to us so much and yet who gets so little crowd reaction. While she's improved in the ring, she just comes across as false and has no charisma. Maryse on the other hand could be a real asset for the company if used correctly - she has heel presence, charisma and has improved at a rapid rate in the ring. When the divas title was created I hoped they'd put the belt on Victoria or Natalya as the better workers on the show, but now Maryse too would be a better choice than Michelle. Anyway, Maryse dominated the bulk of the match - yes a girl who has only been wrestling on TV for six months carried Michelle through the match. However, when Victoria (who seems to have put on a lot of muscle mass) interfered on Maryse's behalf, Eve slammed her into the ringpost and then speared her in the ring. As Maryse disposed of Eve, Michelle hit her front face-buster finish for the victory. Titles don't change hands at house shows, but still, I cringed.

(4) Jeff Hardy defeated WWE United States Champion Shelton Benjamin via disqualification. The pop for Jeff Hardy was extraordinary and blew away anything that had come previously on the show. Girls and marks everywhere blew the roof off the coliseum - if WWE doesn't put the championship on this guy in the near future, they could be missing a serious money-making opportunity. As you'd expect the Hardy/Benjamin affair was the best match of the night in terms of athleticism with both guys going above and beyond what I'd expect from a house show performance. In the end Vladimir Kozlov interfered and attacked Jeff causing the disqualification. He hit a series of head-butts and a front kick before picking up the mic and demanding better competition in Russian generic promo number 423, before telling us he would just destroy Jeff Hardy in the meantime. He then charged at Jeff who hit a drop toe-hold sending Kozlov into the turnbuckle. A swanton later and the crowd was happy as Kozlov retreated up the aisle. I appreciate how WWE has built Kozlov so far but he's going to have to do a lot better than this if he is to break through the glass ceiling. He just seems a touch generic at the moment and he's not a foreign heat magnet compared to classic heels like the Iron Sheikh, or more recently, Muhammad Hassan.

(5) Finlay (w/Hornswoggle) defeated Mike Knox. Knox came out to notable apathy. My wife who was taking pictures and videoing entrances throughout the night commented that she wouldn't bother with Knox - he's ugly. And no-one cares. Finlay on the other hand came out to a strong reaction, particularly from the kids in attendance. He played off it to a tee, dragging Knox into the front row during one portion of the match so an old lady could hit him over the head repeatedly. In the end Hornswoggle got involved, distracting Knox and the referee long enough for Finlay to use the shillelagh (an inventive finish at last!) for the three count. This was followed by Finlay bringing four or five kids, and the aforementioned old lady, into the ring for an Irish jig. When they had departed, Justin Roberts also got in on the action, only to be smacked with the shillelagh. Ah, unnecessary violence and bullying, what a role model Dave Finlay is! Seriously, as much as I'd like to see Finlay return to his killer persona of old, the Hornswoggle routine is hugely popular and given that the bulk of the audience is children you can't blame WWE for running with it.

Intermission followed - grab your merchandise! Incidentally the merchandise stand featured only Hardy Boys, Triple H and Undertaker shirts, along with a few John Cena shirts, some MVP wristbands and a Hornswoggle toy and hat. More variety needed, I think.

(6) Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins defeated Jesse and Festus to retain the WWE Tag Team Championship. Ryder and Hawkins haven't been presented as strong champions on TV, but they're a decent duo who got good heat and bizarrely the only heel chant of the night - I didn't see that coming. Jesse is a strong worker and Festus is, well, Festus. Decent match, although with a long rest-hold in the middle, that ended with a roll-up on Festus and a successful title defence for the champions.

(7) Matt Hardy defeated Mark Henry (w/Tony Atlas) to retain the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. As my wife pointed out, Matt Hardy gets nowhere near the reaction of his brother, albeit he's still fairly popular. I noted a few kids singing along to Mark Henry's theme song too - somebody's gonna get their ass kicked! Well, it is catchy! No surprise that ‘no disqualification' won the alleged text voting with 72 per cent - although it was followed with an SMS message from Theodore Long to Justin Roberts informing him that Tony Atlas couldn't touch Matt Hardy or Henry would lose the match. Hmm, on what grounds? A disqualification maybe? Anyway, a trashcan was used, Tony Atlas took a steel chair shot to the back and Hardy tripped Henry into the steps that had been placed inside the ring before hitting a Twist of Fate for the finish. Probably the second best match of the night. Good performances all around.

(8) Triple H & The Undertaker defeated MVP & The Great Khali. No Khali can't wrestle, as this match exemplified, but one look at him live and you see why WWE keeps him around - the guy is a monster. Triple H and The Undertaker got extraordinary reactions - the response to Triple H in particular nearly bust my ear drums. There is no doubt who the stars were on this show. Anyway, the match began with a lot of stalling by MVP and Triple H - which was kind of old at this point as it had been used throughout the night. MVP unsurprisingly did the bulk of work for his team - firstly on the receiving end of Triple H and Undertaker's offence, then, after a brief Khali appearance, he was the guy to dish out most of the attack. Khali locked in the vice-grip which Taker powered out of before a hot tag to Triple H who cleaned house. A stereo choke slam to MVP and pedigree to Khali finished the bout before Undertaker and Triple H took turns posturing to the crowd as they began to file out of the arena.

All in all a really fun night - an entertaining show that went around three hours. Notable absentees were Big Show, The Brian Kendrick, Evan Bourne and Maria but everyone who was advertised made an appearance. Clearly WWE is big on family friendly content at these shows and you can see why given their audience but it would be nice to see the odd bone thrown to the more mature fan too.

Biggest pops:

1) Triple H
2) The Undertaker
3) Jeff Hardy
4) Finlay and Hornswoggle
5) Matt Hardy

Most heat:

1) Mark Henry
2) MVP
3) The Great Khali
4) Chavo Guerrero
5) John Morrison/The Miz

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