TAKE PWTORCH
WITH YOU! Get our iPhone App (FREE!): Click Here Or enter "PWTorch.com" on your Blackberry or other Smart Phone browser for mobile-version of PWTorch.
Arena Reports
1/11 WWE in Des Moines: Cena vs. Jericho, Hardy vs. Swagger, Regal vs. Kofi stinker, 40-minute match! Jan 12, 2009 - 3:57:34 PM
WWE Raw/ECW brand house show report
January 11, 2009
Des Moines, Iowa
Report by Andy Catron, PWTorch reader
(1) ECW champion Matt Hardy beat Jack Swagger in 20:00. Hardy controlled early on after getting a big reaction from the crowd. Swagger hopped out of the ring while looking frustrated. Hardy continued to taunt him by doing jumping jacks and push ups, after which he pointed at Swagger and stated "You Suck." Swagger got back in and started to dominate. After about five minutes of that, Hardy hit the Side Effect to the delight of the crowd. When both men made it to their feet, Hardy hit an elbow to the back of Swagger's neck and went for a second Side Effect. Swagger reversed this into the gut wrench powerbomb, but Hardy countered and hit the Twist of Fate for the win. Hardy posed for a bit while Swagger sulked.
(2) Women's champion Beth Phoenix beat Melina. Thank you Lord for putting me on the side where Melina does her splits. Beth dominated for most of the match with Melina getting in some offense. Was a solid match but not really much to report. Beth got the win with her underhook face buster.
(3) World tag team champions John Morrison & The Miz beat Cryme Tyme (JTG & Shad Gaspar). Morrison does a lot of overdramatic moves while removing his shirt. JTG mocks him and gets a huge response. JTG controls the early-going before getting double-teamed by JoMizzy. Shad comes in at around six minutes to a nice pop. After a good amount of brawling, JTG comes back in and gets pinned after the Moonlight Drive. More entertainment than sport, but that's not really a bad thing for these guys.
(4) Finlay (w/Hornswoggle) beat Mark Henry (w/Tony Atlas) in a Belfast Brawl. Henry gets some heat after yelling at the announcer to reintroduce him as a two-time Olympian and the World's Strongest Man. Finlay brings in some objects around the five-minute mark, including a 2x4 that he does the Hacksaw routine with. They start to brawl with the weapons until Henry is dumped out of the ring. Finlay drags in Atlas and wears him out with a Singapore cane, setting him up for a Tadpole splash. Atlas stumbles to the back while Henry knocks down Finlay and turns toward Hornswoggle.
Horny gets all fired up and throws his jacket to the ground and goes to hit Henry with a Singapore cane. Henry catches it mid swing and breaks it over his knee. He then turns around and gets nailed with the shillelagh. The nine-year-old on the balcony below me completely loses it as Finlay makes the pin. After the match, Finlay grabs five kids and they dance around the ring. Tony Chimel tries to get in on the fun but Finlay throws him out. The kids than grab their plastic belts and get on the top turnbuckles as the spotlights shine on them. Truly heartwarming.
[Intermission: Got a sweet C.M. Punk shirt.]
(5) IC champion William Regal beat Kofi Kingston in 10:00. Oh God, this match was terrible. It was also slightly comical when Kofi was making his entrance and Regal was running in the ring with that robe billowing around him. He looked like a fat English Batman in trunks. Kofi didn't do any of his exciting moves and the only thing Regal wanted to do was wear down holds. Regal won with a running knee in the longest ten minutes of my life.
(6) Randy Orton & Cody Rhodes beat Rey Mysterio & C.M. Punk. Punk, Mysterio, and Orton all got huge reactions from the crowd. Orton yelled at audience members throughout the match. Punk did most of the in-ring work. Rey got a huge pop off the hot tag. The ending was impressive as Punk got tagged in at the same time as Rhodes. Punk came in with a flying clothesline and hit various kicks and his knee-bulldog combo. On the outside, Mysterio took out Orton with a seated sentaun off the apron, only to be thrown in the guardrail after Orton got up. Rhodes tried to hop over Punk in the corner only to get caught in the fireman's carry position. Orton tagged himself in right before Punk hit the GTS. As he went for the cover, the ref explained that Orton was the legal man while Orton slithered up behind him. Punk turned around only to get RKO'ed and pinned. Easily the best match of the night. Went about 40 minutes. I hope WWE takes this as a sign to give Punk a championship push again, or at least have him as the no. two babyface.
(7) World Hvt. champion John Cena beat Chris Jericho. Jericho cut one of his awesome heel promos that had everybody wanting to see Cena destroy him. Missed most of the match, but caught the ending. Cena hit the five knuckle shuffle, than went for the FU. (Asst. editor's note: The Throwback.) Jericho reversed and hit the Codebreaker. Cena kicked out at 2.975. Jericho than locked in the Walls of Jericho, and after about two minutes Cena reversed into the STFU and got the win.
Altogether a very enjoyable show.
[John Cena art credit Grant Gould (c) PWTorch.com]
Re: Regal/Kingston. Kofi's "exciting moves" aren't wrestling. Regal is a
wrestler (one of the very few in WWE). Too bad the reviewer isn't
knowledgeable enough to appreciate good wrestling when he sees it. Nor is
Regal fat, but anyone would look fat next to some of the skinny runts that
attempt to pass themselves off as wrestlers these days. Oops, I forgot.
These are ENTERTAINERS, so I guess they shouldn't look like wrestlers. My
mistake.
J-Lo
12 Jan 2009, 14:18
I cannot believe WWE has gotten so kid friendly that they actually change
the names of the FU & STFU to the throwback and stf, completely retarted!
TheGuy
12 Jan 2009, 14:28
Somehow I doubt that Regal/Kofi was a bad match. Apparently someone just
isn't a Regal fan. That's interesting that a match went 40 minutes at a
house show. Why can't Raw do that more often? I'd definitely love to see
that particular match go that long on Raw.
By-Tor
12 Jan 2009, 15:10
Regal is not good. Sorry folks. His style might fly in the bushes but it
doesn't work in the big time. You'd think a supposedly great wrestler
would learn how to work WWE style in 8+ years, but not our boy Willie. The
true greats like Jericho, Eddie, Rey and that dude who killed his wife and
son could, and they ended up having the best runs of their careers, why
can't Regal? Reason- he's just not that good. Great sports entertainer,
crap wrestler.
ferez67
12 Jan 2009, 15:35
WWE is smart in marketing to kids again!! After all who of us that has
children can refuse ALL the time what our sons and daughters ask for in a
WAL-MART or wherever?? As for the comment about the move being
retarted(J-Lo), check your spelling, it is not retarded(correct spelling),
it is what is called for right now. Any of you others that second guess a
billionaire's decision-making fly in your private jet and correct him!!
Dan
12 Jan 2009, 16:20
By-Thor, you could show a little class. Referring to Chris Benoit as "that
dude who killed his wife and son" shows a complete lack of class, respect,
and tact.
StevenD
13 Jan 2009, 11:26
By-Tor, why would anyone who is a good wrestler (as Regal certainly is)
want to learn how to work the crap that is "WWE Style?"
Some of the most interesting matches of the past year were the ones between
Punk and Morrison, who most definitely didn't work them in that style.
The second worst thing about WWE (the first being the booking) is that
nearly all of the matches have a sameness to them. Why anyone pays to see
it is beyond me.
By-Tor
13 Jan 2009, 13:53
"By-Tor, why would anyone who is a good wrestler (as Regal certainly is)
want to learn how to work the crap that is "WWE Style?"
Because that "crap" is what works. Like 2% of uber-geeky fans might cream
their pants over Regal's archaic style, but the rest of the world thinks he
sucks as a wrestler. Maybe Regal's 70s/British/Strong Style...whatever the
hell it is... would work in the sticks, but it most certainly doesn't work
in the big time.
Like I said, the true greats not only adapted, but thrived under WWE style.
Regal either can't, or just refuses too. That makes him untalented or
just plain stupid.
Regal hasn't had a good match in a decade that didn't involve Chris Benoit
or Matt Hardy.
"Some of the most interesting matches of the past year were the ones
between Punk and Morrison, who most definitely didn't work them in that
style."
Punk's overrated too. I liked his matches with Morrison and he had a
couple good ones with Rey and Jericho, but for the most part he hasnt't had
a ton of good WWE matches either. He's another one of the most overrated
wrestlers in the 'E.
To the guy who think there's an 'H' in my name- that's my backhanded
compliment of a murderer. Deal with it
INCREDIBLE BENEFITS! Over 50 full-length audio updates per month (iPod compatible)... New weekly award-winning Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter (text and printable pdf versions) with latest exclusive insider news, new Torch Talks, great columns, Keller's cover story, much more... Hundreds of full-length back issues of PWTorch Newsletter from late-'80s to today... Ad-free access to PWTorch.com's Main Listing... VIP Forum with interaction with other subscribers and Torch staff... Torch Talk Library with text and audio of hundreds of interview installments from last 20 years... Great layout... Deepest archives on pro wrestling history anywhere... Keller's PWTorch Today PDF Bulletins with email alerts... VIP Email reports on major PPVs and TV shows... Staff Roundtable Reviews (text and audio) followiing major events... The best staff of writers and world class reporting since 1987... We'd love for you to join us and experience the most entertaining, authoritative, experienced staff of professional reporters and commentators in the business...
Compare the value of four or five months of PWTorch VIP content to the price of just one PPV. Can you cut 25 cents a day from your budget to make room for PWTorch VIP?
AND NEW FOR 2009! Monthly "Vintage Audio Torch Talks." We are releasing for the first time ever audio versions of our text Torch Talk updates, the historical first series of insider interviews ever. Wade Keller's newsmaking in-depth interviews with wrestling's biggest names are now being made available exclusively to VIP members. But you must be a member each month, as these are not archived, so they are replaced with a new one each month! This debuted in January 2009 with a 68 minute interview with the late "British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith. Who's next? Hulk Hogan? Eric Bischoff? The Rock? Goldberg? Jeff Hardy?
WWE Raw/ECW brand house show report
