WWE Raw house show results
August 5, 2012
Dothan, Ala.
Report by Marc Hall, PWTorch correspondent

(1) Brodus Clay beat Heath Slater. Slater wanted to make a music video with Brodus's dancers, with the stipulation that if he wins, he wins the girls. Short five-minute match - about what you would expect. Good starter match and kids danced in the ring afterwards.

(2) WWE tag champions R-Truth & Kofi Kingston beat Prime Time Players (Titus O'Neil & Darren Young w/A.W.) to retain the Tag Titles. Good action. Same finish as the rest of weekend with the PT Players getting the pin and named Tag champions before A.J. came out and told the referee that Kofi had his foot on the rope. The match was re-started, and R-Truth and Kofi instantly hit both opponents and pinned both of them to retain the titles.

(3) Divas champion Layla beat Alicia Fox to retain the Divas Title. Short and not interesting at all. Not much to talk about here.

(4) Alex Riley beat Dean Ambrose. Both played old-school face and heel roles very well. This was my first look at Ambrose - he came out on the mic and talked about how we probably haven't heard about him since it takes a while for communication to make its way to Alabama. I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing Ambrose on television soon.

Next was Punk vs. Bryan for the WWE Title. This 30-minute part of the house show was worth admission. A.J. came out to announce that fans voted this a Street Fight. Daniel Bryan then made a big deal that he wasn't going to participate in a Street Fight - he wanted to wrestle. During the intro, Punk had the ring announcer add to his announced hometown of Chicago that he was currently looking for real estate in Alabama. These two played to the crowd with perfection. Bryan made a young girl at ringside cry when he tore up her sign, so Punk went over to hand her his t-shirt.

(5) WWE champion C.M. Punk beat Daniel Bryan in Street Fight to retain the WWE Title. This one lasted 15-20 minutes. Both guys did "Yes!" and "No!" kicks. There was a funny moment where both repeatedly bounced off the ropes and exchanged several blows to each other with the crowd yelling "Yes!" for Punk's hits and "No!" for Bryan's. The match included chairs and kendo sticks and several nearfalls.

(6) U.S. champion Santino beat Jack Swagger to retain the WWE Title. The second half of the show opened with Santino's humor really playing well for crowd. Not a lot of wrestling in this short match. Santino won with the Cobra.

(7) Chris Jericho & Zack Ryder beat IC champion The Miz & Dolph Ziggler. Fun match. It started with Jericho and Ryder taking the upperhand. The action went outside the ring for a few minutes, then Ryder spent good part of match taking the beating waiting for Jericho's hot tag. Jericho moonsaulted Miz and then applied the Walls of Jericho. Dolph tried to hit Jericho with his MITB briefcase, but Jericho hit him with the Codebreaker, then pinned Miz for victory. It was kind of cool to know this was Jericho's last house show - at least for a while.

Next was Cena vs. Big Show in the main event. The Dothan Civic Center holds about 2,500-3,000 and it appeared to be very close to a sell-out. Cena's entrance prompted by far the loudest ovation of the night. Kids wearing the green Cena t-shirt was most dominant of any t-shirt in the arena.

(8) John Cena beat Big Show by pinfall in Steel Cage match. This match was really better than I thought it had any right to be. Both men gave good effort for a small house show. Several well-executed spots included (1) Cena trying to climb over the cage but Big Show bringing him back in, (2) both men taking turns dragging each away from the cage door as they tried to leave, and (3) Cena climbing over the cage door to slam it on Big Show before Big Show caught Cena and chokeslams him back into the ring. The finish was normal with Cena hulking up after taking a beating. He applied his finisher after knocking Big Show from the top rope to straddling the ropes with a mid-section hit.

This was my first live WWE event in probably a decade. The mini-Titantron adds so much to the house show with intro videos and backstage promos. This was an excellent card with everyone giving great effort. I was very impressed and even my wife enjoyed most of the show for her first live wrestling show ever. This was a very family-friendly event.

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

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