WWE Smackdown/ECW brand house show results
May 9, 2009
Grand Rapids, Mich.
Report by Brandon P., PWTorch.com reader

I was ringside for this great house show. Most of the matches on the card were warm-ups for the Judgment Day PPV. Total running time for the show was a little over 3 hours long.

(1) Evan Bourne beat Tyson Kidd. Pretty good match. Lasted about five minutes. Kidd worked Bourne's arm and shoulder for most of the match. Bourne pins Kidd with the Shooting Star Press.

(2) Vladimir Kozlov beat Finlay. Another decent match. Unless I missed it, Kozlov seems to be wearing different attire. Black trunks instead of white with the Russian logo on them. Pound and ground match for about ten minutes. Kozlov went to unwrap one of the turnbuckles. As the ref tried to re-attach it, Finlay hit Kozlov with a foreign object. Kozlov ended up kicking out and pinned Finlay after catching Finlay coming off the second turnbuckle and hitting a spinebuster-type slam.

(3) John Morrison beat Shelton Benjamin. One of the best matches for me tonight. Another solid ten minute match. Lots of great moves in and out of the ring. Morrison pins Benjamin after hitting a corkscrew flip off the second rope.

(4) Gail Kim & Eve beat Layla & Natalya. Gail and Natalya had some great exchanges, but Layla and Eve were godawful. Gail pinned Natalya to end the short five minute match.

(5) C.M. Punk beat Umaga by DQ. This was a better match than what I thought it was going to be. They gave the two about ten minutes to work with. Obviously the big selling point for the match was if C.M. Punk could hit the GTS on Umaga. Punk was able to actually lift Umaga on his back, but could not bring him around his head and ended up falling forward. Umaga grabbed Punk's briefcase and hit him with it, setting up the DQ win for punk. Punk got back his momentum by avoiding a second attempt by Umaga and hitting him with some briefcase shots of his own.

[There was a brief intermission. Maria came out for some T-shirts. Pretty standard stuff.[

(6) ECW champion Christian & Tommy Dreamer beat Mark Henry & Jack Swagger. This actually started out as an ECW Championship match between Swagger and Christian for the first three minutes. Great matwork between the two until Henry came out to interfere. Apparently this match was under no rules, since no DQ was called. Dreamer came out for the save. Christian then hopped on the mic and asked for a tag team match instead. If I remember correctly, Dreamer pinned Henry after a DDT. Match ran about a good 20 minutes including the intended singles match.

(7) Intercontinental champion Rey Mysterio beat Chris Jericho. Very strong response for Mysterio, and an even hotter response for Jericho for the heat he was getting on the fans. Great 20 minute match with many 619 teases. Mysterio actually kicked out of a Codebreaker, setting up Jericho heading to the outside for a chair. The ref hopped outside the ring to grab the chair, while Jericho conveniently leaned on the second rope to argue with the ref. Mysterio hits the 619 and pins Jericho.

Two odd things to point out in this match. Jericho made it a point to take off Mysterio's mask during the match, which I hope they don't actually do in their program. There were too many times that Jericho tried to get the mask off instead of working on Mysterio. Jericho actually succeeded in taking the mask off of Mysterio completely as he threw Mysterio out of the ring. I don't know for sure if it was intended, but Jericho was holding Mysterio's mask in ring, while Mysterio was outside on the floor without a mask. He grabbed a two-year old's mask and put it on himself (the child was not a plant; I can confirm that). Mysterio then hopped back in the ring, and when they had a chance, Mysterio put his old one on, and threw the kid's mask on the ring apron. The kid was crying because his mask was taken. The worst part was, when Mysterio won the match, he didn't even acknowledge the child and head back to the locker room first. Most of the crowd saw what happened and actually yelled for Jericho to grab the mask, which he didn't; obviously he wanted to stay in character. The security that WWE hired actually thought the child's mask was a prop, so he grabbed it and threw it under the ring apron. The ringside crowd started a nice "get his mask" chant, and the guy seemed sorry, and proceeded to grab the mask and give it back to the young boy.

(8) World Hvt. champion Edge beat Jeff Hardy. Hardy came out second, and went beyond the first couple of rows to high-five the child who lost his mask in the previous match, probably to make up for the mix-up earlier. Great match here that almost went 30 minutes. Lots of outside ring action. Lots of nearfalls and pinning combinations. Edge used the sharpshooter for a good pop on Hardy. Edge pinned Hardy with a spear in the middle of the ring. After the bell, Edge tried to hit Hardy with the belt, but Hardy blocked, gave Edge a Twist of Fate, and hit a Swanton Bomb to end the show. Great show overall. Good pre-cursor for the PPV in a week.

Biggest Pops
(1) Mysterio
(2) Jeff Hardy
(3) Christian

Biggest Heat
(1) Jericho
(2) Edge
(3) Kozlov

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