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Arena Reports
9/4 WWE in San Juan, P.R.: Undertaker & Triple H vs. Punk & Legacy, Carlito vs. Primo, Ziggler vs. Morrison Sep 6, 2009 - 2:24:47 PM
WWE Smackdown/ECW house show report
September 4, 2009
San Juan, P.R.
Report by Ferdinand Ocasio, Torch VIP member
The arena was two-thirds full (probably because people are attending the other house shows on the weekend). Great atmosphere. The show started on time which is a rare thing on the island. Every kid seemed to have a Rey Mysterio mask.
(1) Matt Hardy beat Mike Knox. Great pop for Hardy. Good heat for Knox. Hardy chant to start the match. Lots of stalling and restholds. Slow match but people ate up everything that Hardy did. Hardy won with the Twist of Fate. (**1/2 mainly because of people's reaction to Hardy.)
Eve did the skit where she hands ringside tickets to a family. She asked who was the World champion is.
(2) Women's champion Michelle McCool beat Melina. Okay pop for Melina. Zero heat for McCool (too bad). Collar and elbow tie up that led to the outside to start the match. Good action throughout with great moves, although McCool didn't have any heat. Awesome move by Melina when she used the ropes to elevate herself while McCool was trying a baseball slide dropkick. McCool won with the Style Clash. Great effort by both women. (**)
(3) Great Khali beat Kane via DQ. Good pop for both wrestlers. Slow match that ended by DQ when Kane smacked Khali with a Kendo stick. (1/2*)
(4) Unified tag champions Chris Jericho & Big Show beat Hart Dynasty (Tyson Kidd & D.H. Smith) and Cryme Tyme (Shad Gaspard & JTG) in a triple threat match. Okay heat for Hart Dynasty. Great pop for Cryme Tyme. Great heat for Jerishow and an Y2J chant. Jericho took the house mic and spoke Spanish. He told people not to call him Cristina which, of course, started a Cristina chant. Huge heat. Jericho had the entire audience at the palm of his hand. That's why he is the best in the world. Huge "pato" (which means gay) chant for Jericho . He got showered with it every time he entered the ring. Everyone played their part well. The end came when Big Show hit a Knockout punch to Shad when he was distracted and made the pin to retain the belts. (** 3/4)
ECW General Manager Tiffany came out to announce the ECW championship match.
(5) ECW champion Christian beat William Regal, Tommy Dreamer, and Shelton Benjamin in a fatal four-way match. Small pop for Regal, Dreamer, and Benjamin. Great pop for Christian. Good match that ended when Christian hit the Killswitch on Regal after everyone hit their finishers. (**3/4)
[Intermission]
(6) Intercontinental champion John Morrison beat Dolph Ziggler. No heat for Ziggler (people were still coming in from intermission). Great pop for Morrison. Good mat wrestling exchanges to start. Ziggler's heat grew as the match progressed. Morrison won with the Starship Pain. (**3/4) ... Of note: Rey Mysterio was probably dropping the IC Title belt to Morrison on the taped Smackdown show around the same time Morrison was defending the title against Ziggler at the house show.
(7) Primo Colon beat Carlito Colon. Biggest pop until that point for Carlito followed by a huge pop for Primo. The hometown boys saluted before the match. Huge pop for Primo for putting Carlito in the figure four (it was their father's finishing move). Good heat for Carlito for doing the same move. Finish came when Primo escaped and put Carlito again on the figure four for the submission. Good for Carlito to put over his little brother in front of the family and a really great match. (***)
I have to say that the first time that Raw came to the island, Carlito did the Carlito's Cabana segment that was a much bigger hit than this. Too bad WWE hasn't used him properly.
(8) Triple H & The Undertaker beat World Hvt. champion C.M. Punk & Legacy (Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase, Jr.) in a handicap match. Biggest heat of the night for C.M. Punk. Legacy got a nice reaction too. Biggest pop for Undertaker, followed very closely by Triple H. Incredible. The faces had nice chants to start the match. Undertaker hit the Tombstone on C.M. Punk to end a great back and forth match that saw a lot of triple teaming from the heels on Triple H. (***1/2)
The match sent everyone home happy. Great show. They have to do another pay-per-view here. I attended New Year's Eve 2005 and the place was packed. I know whatever PPV they bring is going to be a sellout. (The arena holds about 15,000 for wrestling.)
Biggest pop
1. Undertaker
2. Triple H (very close second)
3. Carlito and Primo Colon
4. Matt Hardy
Most Heat
1. C.M. Punk
2. Legacy
3. JeriShow
4. Dolph Ziggler
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