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Arena Reports
10/11 WWE in Toledo, Ohio: John Cena vs. Randy Orton again, The Miz vs. Kofi, Bourne needs Hornswoggle's help to beat Chavo Oct 11, 2009 - 9:08:16 PM
WWE Raw house show report
October 11, 2009
Toledo, Ohio
Report by Fred Vallongo, Torch reader
The new Toledo Arena (opened this past week) hosted the WWE Raw brand. The arena holds 12,000 and appeared to be at least two-thirds full. The crowd was red-hot for the entire show.
(1) Mickie James beat Beth Phoenix in the opener. It was a match that was long enough for them to show what they can do with more time. The crowd was solidly behind Mickie the whole way.
Santino, also very over with the crowd, came out and talked about a new martial art he had developed, which included a "cobra strike" maneuver that Santino was going to use to defeat "The Masterpiece," Chris Masterson.
(2) Chris Masters beat Santino. The match itself was back and forth. When Masters began to overpower Santino, Santino signaled that he was going for the "Cobra Strike," which he delivered with absolutely no effect! Masters then clamped on the Masterlock for the finish. Good comedy match!
(3) Jack Swagger beat Jamie Noble and Primo in a three-way match. Swagger just has "future greatness" written all over him! The match itself was pretty predictable, but still entertaining.
(4) Evan Bourne beat Chavo Guerrero. This was a highly competitive looking match. When Chavo appeared on the verge of winning after delivering "three amigos," he went for the frogsplash, but Hornswoggle ran out for the save. Bourn then won with the Shooting Star Press off the top rope. Bourne appeared to botch a couple of spots during the match.
After the intermission, the Miz came out to face Kofi Kingston in a U.S. Title defense. Miz cut a pretty good promo, drawing "you suck" chants when he told the crowd "I told you so! I told you I was going to win the U.S. Title."
(5) U.S. champion The Miz beat Kofi Kingston. The crowd was about 95 percent behind Kofi and gave him about the same reaction that Mickie got. Didn't actually see how Miz won, as there were people waving signs and blocking my view of the ring.
(6) Mark Henry & MVP beat Legacy (Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase, Jr.). Henry won for his team with his version of a powerslam on Cody Rhodes.
(7) John Cena beat WWE champion Randy Orton via DQ. The most notable thing was the HUGE pop for Cena. It was by far the biggest of the night. The match itself was nothing new and totally predictable (even a little stale). That was my opinion. The crowd was into it all the way, though! Cena won when Ted DiBiase intervened on Orton's behalf.
My peeve of the evening was that, for some reason, video screens were not used. For much of the show, and all of the main event, it was very difficult-to-impossible to see much of the action without moving to the steps and open areas. Bad decision by somebody.
-- Loudest pops: Cena (no contest), followed by Mickie James, Mark Henry, Kofi Kingston.
-- Most heat: Legacy, Randy Orton, Miz
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