WWE Raw house show results
March 15, 2013
Bridgeport, Conn.
Report by Bryant Mooney, PWTorch correspondent

I attended the Friday night Raw house show in Bridgeport, and it was a pretty packed crowd with about three-fourths of the arena full. Matt Striker did the announcing for the evening.

Striker started the show with a fan interaction match option for the U.S. Title match later in the show. It would either by Antonio Cesaro vs. The Miz or a triple threat match adding Kofi Kingston, which was to be decided when the match began.

(1) Brodus Clay & Sweet T (Tensai) beat 3MB (Heath Slater & Drew McIntyre) via pinfall in around 12 minutes. Brodus and Tensai won with a double splash on Slater. Drew McIntyre was selling his ribs from getting attacked by Ryback and Mark Henry on Raw. Pretty much a comedy match for the most part to get the crowd and kids into it. One notable moment was when Naomi (I believe) of the Funkadactyls did a huracanrana on Heath Slater, which got a good pop from the crowd. Clay, Tensai, and The Funkadactyls then brought kids in the ring and danced with them afterwards. Brodus Clay is perfect in that aspect when it comes to kids.

(2) Zack Ryder beat Darren Young via pinfall in around 8 minutes. Ryder won the match with the Rough Ryder. Ryder got a huge pop, which I expected, so it was good to see he still gets great crowd reception despite his slot on TV. Darren Young at first pulled a Fandango by saying he's not starting the match until his correct music is played, which got decent heat, but he eventually agreed to wrestle the match. Decent match and can't really complain.

After the match, The Shield came out and attacked Ryder. The Shield eventually nailed Ryder with the Triple Powerbomb and delivered a promo about how they will win the main event against John Cena, Ryback, and Sheamus. This drew strong heat from the crowd and chants of "Feed Me More."

(3) Divas champion Kaitlyn beat Tamina Snuka (w/Vickie Guerrero) via pinfall in around 7 minutes to retain the Divas Title. Kaitlyn won with a spear. Before the match, Vickie out to massive heat, which really is amazing to see in person. She introduced Tamina Snuka to face Kaitlyn, who got a nice reaction. Overall, decent match here and can't really complain; good effort by both women.

Matt Striker then revealed the results for the fan poll for the United States Championship match, which was unanimously voted (don't remember the percentage) as a Triple Threat Match adding Kofi Kingston.

(4) U.S. champion Antonio Cesaro beat Kofi Kingston and The Miz in around 17 minutes to retain the U.S. Title. Cesaro won the match after Miz hit Kofi with the Skull Crushing Finale, then he threw Miz into the ringpost and pinned Kingston. Very good match here. They played to the crowd a lot in the beginning, including Miz imitating Rick Rude and Hulk Hogan at one point, which the crowd ate up. Each man spent time outside the ring to make it one-on-one for a good part of the match.

After the match, Cesaro came back out to attack Miz some more, but Kingston broke it up and they double-teamed Cesaro to please the crowd. This led to intermission, including highlights from this past Monday's Raw.

Coming back from intermission, Matt Striker noted that this next match was a "Special Attraction Match."

(5) R-Truth beat Titus O'Neill via pinfall in around 8 minutes. R-Truth won with a neckbreaker (I think, as I looked down one second and the match was over). This was definitely the worst match of the night and the least interesting. This was not what the crowd was thinking of for a "Special Attraction Match."

Matt Striker then went back on the mic and stated that anything can happen at a house show, then suddenly The Undertaker's music played, which drew a massive pop from the crowd. But, C.M. Punk's music played, which drew jeers from the crowd, but most of the men strongly cheered.

Punk was in street clothes, which meant he wasn't going to wrestle. Punk came out with the urn and played around with it, dropping it a few times and mocking Undertaker's signature pose with Paul Heyman holding the urn a la Paul Bearer. Punk did a promo about how he was going to defeat The Undertaker at WrestleMania and The Streak will go to 20-1. One notable line was where the crowd was chanting "You suck" and Punk stated, "Show some respect for Paul Bearer, he does not suck!" which drew some oooh's from the crowd. I'm guessing they wanted to play it safe with Punk after he reportedly suffered an injury at Raw on Monday.

Matt Striker then stated the Main Event was next.

(6) John Cena & Ryback & Sheamus beat The Shield via DQ in a six-man tag match in around 20 minutes. Seth Rollins hit Ryback and Sheamus with the chair to cause the disqualification. A lot of strong action and The Shield was just as impressive to see in-person. This was definitely match of the night for me and the crowd was into it the entire way. All three faces got strong cheers from the crowd and The Shield got strong heat from the kids mainly.

After the disqualification, The Shield continued to attack Ryback until Sheamus and Cena came into the ring. In the ring, Sheamus threw Reigns over the top rope while Cena and Ryback did their finishers simutaneously to send the crowd home happy. On the way out, they high-fived the fans at ringside.

Overall, this was a very entertaining and enjoyable house show for the most part.

[Torch art credit Travis Beaven (c) PWTorch.com]

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