WWE Raw house show results
April 20, 2012
Paris, France
Report by Simon Diguet, PWTorch reader

The arena was not fully packed, lots of seats were empty. (I heard that three years ago when they came here it was a sell-out crowd. Another sign that WWE is slowly losing steam in France.) There were a lot of kids with parents, and John Cena merchandise was all over the place, followed by C.M. Punk t-shirts. The crowd was mostly pro-Cena (more on that later).

(1) Kofi Kingston & R-Truth beat WWE tag champions Primo & Epico (w/Rosa Mendes) via pinfall in a non-title match. It was supposed to be a title match at first, but John Laurinaitis appeared on the screen to announce that it was now a non-title match. Lots of heat on Laurinaitis, even if most of the crowd did not understand what he said, mainly because his voice was covered by the boos. Primo and R-Truth interacted with Little Jimmy before the match, and Kofi mocked Rosa's dance much to the crowd's delight. The match itself was great, with lots of back and forth action and Primo & Epico controlling most of the offense. Kofi was very over and won with Trouble in Paradise.

(2) David Otunga beat Alex Riley via pinfall. Before the match, Otunga did his show-off stuff for a long time; they even cut his music to put on some random epic theme and focus the lights on him while he was showing off. Riley came out to a small pop. The match was not spectacular, but the crowd slowly rallied behind Riley. Otunga seemed to be a bit lost at times and he has trouble performing a simple armdrag, but he is good at being a heel. He won with the Verdict.

(3) Zack Ryder beat Dolph Ziggler via pinfall. Ziggler came out first to a lots of boos and a few cheers (including my friends and I). Ryder then came out to an honorable pop. They had a very good match together, reminding me of their championship match at TLC last year. I was surprised to see that Ryder is quite over in France (there were a lot of "Woo Woo Woo" chants). Ziggler is an even more amazing performer live. Ryder won with the Rough Ryder, and Ziggler took it like a champ.

(4) Lord Tensai beat Tyson Kidd via referee stoppage. Kidd came out first to a mix of boos and indifference. Since he is not featured on TV, most of the crowd did not now that he was supposed to be a face. Things got much clearer when Tensai came to small boos. Kidd got a bit of offense at the beginning; he showed some spectacular athletic moves and the crowd started to really like him. However, Tensai stopped him brutally. He won via referee stoppage after he did all his signature moves. Not much heat on him, though.

Next was Santino vs. Jack Swagger for the U.S. Title. Santino came out to an amazing pop. He is massively over here in France and everybody was chanting his name. He talked a bit before the match in French, saying that Paris was his favorite city, that he wanted to stay after the show, and that he is 25 percent French. That got him some cheap heat, but it was still a nice touch since his French is really good. Swagger came out to loud boos.

(5) U.S. champion Santino Marella beat Jack Swagger via pinfall to retain the U.S. Title. Swagger first refused to fight, avoiding Santino and mocking him. The match was slow with most of the domination going to Swagger. Ziggler came out for the distraction and Swagger managed to hit the gutwrench powerbomb. He got the three count and started to celebrate, but a ref came out to explain that Santino had his foot on the rope. They re-started the match and Santino hit the Cobra to an amazing pop. He then celebrated with the crowd. Great moment.

Intermission. I managed to get out faster than the others and got three C.M. Punk t-shirts!

(6) Bella Twins beat Divas champion Beth Phoenix & Eve via pinfall. Eve came out first to boos, then Divas champions Beth Phoenix to a mix of boos and cheers (she seems to be rather popular here). The Bella Twins then came out to a small pop. Interesting to see the Bellas playing the face here. Maybe it's because they are supposed to be not much longer with WWE. Anyways, they played their role fine. The match was a bit sloppy and not amazing in terms of wrestling, but nonetheless fun. There were a few "Hoeski" chants during the match. The Bellas won with a small package after using Twin Magic.

Next was John Cena vs. The Miz. I noticed several people cheering for The Miz when he came out to a small heat. However, he took the mic and cut an amazing promo to get some heat back. He first started by saying, "I will talk to you very slowly," and explained that thanks to him, John Laurinaitis is now the most powerful man in sports entertainment. He then spoke French by saying that he hates French people, he hates baguette (French bread), he hates cheese, and he is magnificent, fantastic, and awesome. Amazing promo. The entire building was booing him when John Cena's music hit to the biggest pop of the night.

(7) John Cena beat The Miz via pinfall. The crowd was totally pro-Cena. It seems that he is still incredibly over in France. The match was good, the crowd was very invested. Miz hit the Skull-Crushing Finale, but Cena kicked out and managed to hit the Attitude Adjustement to get the pinfall. The crowd went nuts. I was booing Cena during the match, but seeing so much people cheering for him was a sight to see.

Next was the main event of Punk vs. Jericho. First, the lights went out and Jericho came out to huge heat, but several people were chanting "Y2J." C.M. Punk came next to a huge pop (still below Cena). Jericho cut a small promo by saying that we should not chant C.M. Punk because Jericho is the best in the world at what he does, and Punk is going to become an alcoholic like his father. Punk then jumped him to a good reaction and the match began.

(8) WWE champion C.M. Punk beat Chris Jericho via pinfall in a No DQ match to retain the WWE Title Best match of the night, by far. They went around the ring using chairs, stairs, and kendo sticks to fight. At one point, Jericho managed to get Punk down in the ring and took a beer bottle from under the ring. He poured some beer on Punk and drank the rest. The finishing sequence saw Jericho counter the GTS into the Walls of Jericho, then counter into the Anaconda Vice. Otunga ran out for the distraction, but Punk punched him, then Jericho surprised him with the Codebreaker. Punk kicked out to a very close nearfall and managed to throw Jericho into a chair that everyone forgot was in the corner of the ring. He then hit the GTS to a huge pop and got the pin. Great, great match. The crowd was very over and both guys worked hard.

Closing comments : It was my first WWE live event, so it may explain why I think that all the match were awesome. Still, I think WWE managed to put on a very good show with a lot of top-tier talents, and I will definitely be coming back to see them when I can.

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

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