WWE Smackdown house show report
March 3, 2012
Albany, Ga. at Albany Civic Center
Report by Patrick Garner, PWTorch reader

I arrived at the Civic Center an hour before show time amid a thunderstorm and tornado watch. Large crowds gathered around the building and my mother-in-law and I were forced to seek shelter from the elements until the doors opened at 7:00 p.m. After we found our seats, I went out in search of a merchandise stand. There was only one merchandise stand in the entire arena and that never had fewer than 100 people gathered around it in a mob-like fashion. Many people spent in excess of $100 on merchandise, buying t-shirts and such for every member of their family. I was disappointed that there were no “WrestleMania XXVIII” t-shirts given that this event was billed as “The Road to WresleMania.” I left the stand having only purchased a program.

I returned to my seat and thumbed through the program as I waited for the show to start. The program wasn’t personalized for the show, and was pretty much a glossy magazine featuring pictures of the WWE Superstars, which included a poster. However, unlike the TNA programs (when TNA had a show in Albany), there were no opportunities to have the pictures autographed by the wrestlers. The show started on time at 7:30. The arena was packed. In fact, there were more people in attendance than who attended a WCW pay-per-view I was at in Chicago in 2000. Albany deserves a real Smackdown and/or Raw TV taping.

(1) Great Khali beat Jinder Mahal. Great Khali staggered to the ring like a 70-year-old man. If Bully Ray has the most impressive calves in wrestling, then Great Khali has the least impressive calves -they looked like twigs. Great Khali wore sweatpants to hide his stick-like legs. This match was terrible, but Great Khali got a pretty big pop from the crowd because he was the first wrestler to make an appearance. Jinder Mahal was booed, which wouldn’t make much sense to someone who doesn’t follow Smackdown given that he was the much smaller underdog in the match. Occasionally, Khali would toss Mahal out of the ring and then stagger about waiting for Mahal to return to the ring. After the sloppiest DDT in history, Khali got the pin. Cody Rhodes ran to the ring afterwards and beat up Khali.

(2) Ted DiBiase beat Hunico. Hunico rode a bicycle to the ring. He got off his bicycle and spoke to the crowd in Spanish. The crowd was 50 percent Caucasian and 50 percent African-American. The Caucasians booed while the African-Americans, perhaps more in tune with the legacy of racism, didn’t boo. DiBiase came to the ring, took a microphone, and launched into a redneck diatribe ending with “God bless the South and God bless the USA,” which prompted a USA chant. After the match, Rhodes ran to the ring and beat up DiBiase.

(3) Heath Slater beat Drew McInytre. Before the match, McIntyre told the crowd that he was fired, but that he hoped to be hired again after he won a match. This made no sense because if he was fired, what was he doing wrestling in the arena? I think his opponent was Slater but I couldn’t be sure because the announcer’s voice was garbled and the opponent had no video on the screen like the rest of the wrestlers. After dominating the match and occasionally pausing to cry over being fired, McIntyre got rolled up by Slater for the pin.

(4) IC champion Cody Rhodes beat Justin Gabriel to retain the Intercontinental Title. Justin Gabriel’s name sounds too much like Justin Credible. After the match, Cody tried to leave but Great Khali and Ted DiBiase brought him back to the ring, where the two of them plus Justin Gabriel beat up Rhodes.

During intermission, hoards of people ran to the merchandise stand to purchase framed photographs of Randy Orton, who the announcer assured the crowd had personally autographed each of the portraits.

(5) Divas champion Beth Phoenix & Natalya beat Alicia Fox & Tamina. I think Alicia Fox’s partner was Tamina. Again, this wrestler didn’t have a video package and the announcer’s voice was garbled. This was mostly a comedy match involving a lot of butt-slapping and hair-pulling. Alicia Fox got some good moves in, but this paled to the in-ring action of TNA’s Knockouts.

(6) Sheamus beat Alberto Del Rio. Before the match, Del Rio worked the crowd by telling them that when he was recovering from surgery on his groin that he would think about how much he hated the fans. He claimed to be the real winner of the “Royal Rumble,” but later said that the only reason Sheamus won was because Alberto Del Rio didn’t participate. This was a good back and forth match, on par with the quality of matches that one would expect from a Raw or Smackdown taping.

(7) World Hvt. champion Daniel Bryan beat Big Show and Randy Orton to retain the World Title. Big Show came to the ring with his torso heavily taped. The girls in the crowd absolutely lost it when Randy Orton came to the ring. They acted like he was Justin Bieber. Daniel Bryan excelled in playing the cowardly heel who let Randy Orton do most of the work against Big Show. After Big Show was severely weakened by Orton, Bryan threw Orton out of the ring and forced Big Show to submit. Big Show chokeslammed Daniel Bryan after the match. The main event was really good and the action was buoyed by the enthusiasm from the crowd.

After the match, my mother-in-law and I ran out of the arena as fast as we could into the tumultuous downpour. The parking lot was covered with water and I chided myself for wearing Birkenstock sandals. I was forced to act like a jerk when I left the parking lot, not letting any cars get in front of me because I had to make it home by 10:00 p.m. to catch the Strikeforce MMA card on Showtime that evening. I barely made it. My mother-in-law, who is from Kazakhstan, was very impressed with her first pro wrestling experience. I was sufficiently entertained, but she’s still talking about the show.

Biggest Pops

(1) Randy Orton
(2) Big Show
(3) Sheamus

Most Heat

(1) Daniel Bryan
(2) Alberto Del Rio
(3) Cody Rhodes until he reminded the crowd that he was from Georgia

[Torch art credit Cory Gould (c) PWTorch.com]

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