WWE Smackdown house show results
August 1, 2010
Melbourne, Australia
Report by John and Andrew Walton, PWTorch readers

Before the show started, Tony Chimel announced the Intercontinental Title changed hands to Dolph Ziggler and Kofi Kingston was demanding a re-match tonight. Editor's Note: the title change will air on Friday's episode of Smackdown after being taped on Wednesday. WWE also announced the title change on the first night of the tour in Sydney.

(1) Unified tag champions Hart Dynasty (Tyson Kidd & D.H. Smith without Natalya) beat Straight Edge Society (Joey Mercury & Luke Gallows without Serena) in 12:00 to retain the Unified Tag Titles. The Harts came out to a big pop as the first wrestlers (and babyfaces) out followed by Joey Mercury and Luke Gallows to loud boos. The crowd was a little dead at the start of the match, but they warmed up with both sides playing strong faces and hell. Overall, it turned into a good match with good crowd interaction. (Luke managed to get a guy in the front row mouthing off to him.) The Harts won with a Hart Attack on, I believe, Joey Mercury.

After the match, Kane came down and cleared house on both teams, then cut a promo about the Undertaker's attacker, Rey Mysterio. (It was odd to see continuity here, but not for the IC Title change before it airs.) Kane told the crowd he would seek vengeance tonight.

(2) Alberto Del Rio beat Chavo Guerrero via submission in 9:00. Alberto came out first and cut a promo in Spanish, followed by telling us Australians that now we know how he feels because he can't understand a word we say either. He then explained his disappointment in the country after being here two days and not seeing a single Koala or Kangaroo. (I was laughing through the whole thing; he's a great heel live.) Chavo came out to a good reception and some cheers in respect of Eddie. The match was solid, with the story being Del Rio working over Chavo's left arm, which eventually led to a submission win via modified armbar. It was an impressive move to see live. Also, Chavo actually hit the Three Amigos properly.

(3) Kelly Kelly & Natalya beat Co-Women's champion Layla & S.E.S. member Serena in 12:00. This was a reasonably good women's match. They were given plenty of time and all did really well. It was a pretty formulaic tag match in which Natalya was beat up for several minutes until Kelly came in for the big save near the end. Serena was impressive considering how little in-ring time she has in WWE. Notable spots include the Kelly Kelly stinkface on Layla (big pop) and Natalya vs. Only one or two spots looked a little off; it was a reasonable match otherwise.

(4) Drew McIntyre beat Matt Hardy in 9:00. When Drew's music hit, there seemed to be a mixed reaction of cheers and boos, which quickly became all boos as he slowly made his way to the ring in that arrogant and cocky way of his. This was followed by a very good pop for Matt Hardy. It was a good match with a couple of teased comebacks for Matt, but in the end, Drew hit his Future Shock DDT for the pin and win. On a quick side note, Drew looked to be having a lot of fun in this match. I caught him grinning a few times at the audiences chants of "You are a wanker."

(5) Soon-to-be-officially IC champion Dolph Ziggler beat Christian and Kofi Kingston in 15:00 in a three-way match to retain the Intercontinental Title. Yet another good match. Ziggler cut a good promo at the start of the match announcing that Australians are losers and that he would give us one thing we could never get ourselves: a winner. Ziggler was thrown out of the match early on as Christian and Kofi went back and forth. Eventually, Ziggler pulled Kofi to the outside and kept kicking him in an attempt to get back into the match. Dolph eventually retained after a good sequence of teased finishes.

[Intermission]

(6) "Dashing" Cody Rhodes beat MVP in 15:00. This was another good match. Cody cut an hilarious promo to MVP saying he was happy to put on a wrestling exhibition, but his perfect teeth cost him $20,000 - that's $2,000 a tooth apparently. He asked if they could agree to no punches to the face, to which MVP hit him, of course, in the face. Good back-and-forth match with Cody hilariously dropping to his knees and completely shielding his face to a lot of laughs. Cody won with the Cross Rhodes. One thing that was interesting was Cody seemingly pulling a few moves out of Hardcore Holly's moveset, most notably the Alabama Slammer.

(7) Big Show beat Jack Swagger in 5:00. Both correspondents said this was a disappointing match. Jack came out to big heat followed by Big Show to what was surely tied for the biggest pop of the night (if not even a tad louder). The match got off to a pretty slow start and ended after Jack did his running Vader Bomb followed by a straight right hand from Show into a chokeslam for the win. It was nearly a squash for Show and a forgettable match.

(8) World Hvt. champion Kane beat Rey Mysterio to retain the World Title. Mysterio got a pop on par with Big Show, who, for some reason, is insanely popular here in Australia. Kane came out to a mixed reaction from the crowd. The match went back-and-forth with three attempts from Rey to hit the 619, but Kane put him away with a chokeslam from hell.

After the match, Kane went to Tombstone Rey, but Big Show came out for the save. Jack Swagger then came out to stop Big Show, and this was followed by Drew McIntyre to help the heels, followed by Kofi Kingston to help the faces. Eventually the faces cleared Jack Swagger (Big Show's KO Punch) and Drew McIntyre (Kofi's Trouble in Paradise). This left Kane to take the 619 from Mysterio followed by a splash off the Big Show's shoulders. The faces then posed in the ring to Rey's music to send the crowd home happy.

Overall, I an enjoyable show with the exception of the far-too-short match between Show and Swagger. The pyro was there for most of the entrances and all of the performers seemed to put in their best effort to make it an excellent show.

Biggest Pops:
(1) Rey Mysterio. (No question - the 12-year-olds in the audience have spoken.)
(2) Big Show
(3t) Kofi Kingston & Matt Hardy.

Biggest Heat:
(1) Kane signaling the Tombstone. (The 18+ men in the audience loved it, but were very much the minority.)
(2) Kane after the Tag Title match.
(3) Jack Swagger.

Oddest Reactions:
(1) Drew McIntyre drew about 60 percent heat, 40 percent applause during the entrance for his match.
(2) Kane was very much a tweener tonight - the crowd loved and hated him in equal measure.

Audience:
The arena was easily 90 percent full on the floor and in the stands. Mostly younger children with mom or dad; a small percentage were 18+ men and women.

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