WWE Raw house show report
September 5, 2009
St. Paul, Minn. at the Xcel Energy Center
Report by Michael McGivern, Torch reader

Lower Bowl was about 80 percent full, so I'd say around 7,000 in attendance. Good Crowd.

(1) Evan Bourne beat Chavo Guerrero in 15:00. Decent back and forth stuff. Chavo received good heat and these guys are definitely working out kinks on some highspots for a TV feud. Hornswoggle distracts Chavo to set up Air Bourne. Truly amazing to see live. Crowd loves Evan. After the match, Horny put Evan on his shoulders and walked around the ring. Pretty Impressive.

(2) Chris Masters beat Alex Riley in 10:00. No heat to the match with some scattered "Masterlock" chants. Riley certainly has the size and look. He reminds me of Lance Cade in that respect. Masters hooks on the lock for the win. Good effort by both.

(3) Sheamus beat Santino in 10:00. Great comedy throughout by Santino. Sheamus certainly has something. As good of a match as you'll see out of Santino.

(4) Divas champion Mickie James & Gail Kim beat Beth Phoenix & Rosa Mendes in 10:00. Pretty good stuff from these four. Rosa has some talent. Fun divas match that showed off the athletic talents of these four.

(5) U.S. champion Kofi Kingston beat MVP and The Miz in a three-way match in 15:00. Pre-match, Miz generated off-the-charts heat for a half-full house show. God, I want to see him main-eventing. Usual talking points of Kofi being a loser just like Brett Favre. All the fans boo him and all he does is tell the truth, etc. Great reactions for the faces and a fun match. Well-timed near-falls at the end leading to Kofi doing his now-patented "last second, out of nowhere" save and Trouble in Paradise on Miz. Really fun 15-minute version of the TV cluster matches.

(6) Mark Henry beat Jack Swagger in 10:00. Surprised to see this right after intermission. Test of strength stuff for a lot of the match. Not bad by any means but I hope they aren't testing this for a feud because Jack Swagger doesn't need to be humbled. Shoot him to the top already. Swagger goes for a cross-body block only to get caught by Henry into the World's Strongest Slam.

(7) Triple H beat Legacy (Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase, Jr.) in a handicap match in 20:00. Rhodes and DiBiase got some heat pre-match talking about how DX is the past; they're the future, etc. Cody can talk with the best of them on this roster. Trips comes out to a great pop. He gets on the mic and says when the guys in the crowd chant a certain two-worded phrase they don't want you two (Legacy) to actually do it. Long form, solid match that was a replay of the Raw main event from a month ago. Trips nails Rhodes with a chair and gets the pedigree on him for the win. Commence a Legacy beat down to big heat. Lots of HBK chants, but obviously to no avail.

(8) John Cena beat WWE champion Randy Orton via DQ in 20:00. Orton didn't have as many cheers as I'd thought. Cena's entrance was nuts; crowd loved him 100 percent. Really good main event with a lot of the stuff we saw at Summerslam. Both guys nailing their finishers to near falls. Cena had locked the STFU on Orton when Legacy came in for the beat down. Triple H made the save for Cena and everyone goes home happy.

Notes: All in all everyone worked hard and everyone I heard around me went home really happy. Tony Chimel introduced Kelly Kelly as the "special guest host." She asked a couple kids a trivia question; they got it right and won front-row seats. Kelly traveled God knows how long to make a two minute appearance. Waaaaaaaaaaaaay too many grown men - we're talking 30+ year-olds - doing the crotch chops for DX. Had to break it to a 25ish-year-old that Jeff Hardy was going to be taking a long vacation and you'd think I ran over his dog. Can't help but think we'll get Legacy vs. DX and John Cena Hell in a Cell next month.

Biggest Pops
1. Cena
2. Triple H
3. Evan Bourne finisher

Biggest Heat
1. The Miz (not even close)
2. Legacy
3. Orton

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