WWE Live show results
October 5, 2013
Albany, N.Y.
Report by Kevin Burke, PWTorch reader

The Times Union Center in Albany welcomed WWE on Saturday night and I decided to take my 13-year-old daughter to her first-ever live show. The place was half-full. The entire upper deck was curtained off, and there were large clumps of empty chairs throughout the venue. We were on the floor and even there I had no one sitting directly next to me. Still, I felt the people who showed up did a good job of making some noise. The crowd was family-friendly (almost everyone had kids with them) and every reaction was exactly what WWE wants out of its audience, i.e. cheering the faces and booing the heels.

(1) The Great Khali defeated Jinder Mahal by pinfall. Both men came out alone so you knew Jinder had no chance without his 3MB buddies providing a distraction. He played the coward for a while and then got in some offense focusing on the leg, but eventually Khali hit his big chop of death for the easy win.

(2) Kaitlyn & Natalya defeated Divas champion A.J. Lee & Tamina Snuka. The crowd got an "A.J.'s Crazy!" chant going and then when it quieted, I said, "She's not crazy, she just has bad luck with boyfriends." The kid next to me said, "Ummm, no." My daughter commented that A.J. is way too skinny. As you can tell, not much to say about this match. A.J. submitted to Natalya's sharpshooter.

(3) Justin Gabriel defeated Damien Sandow by pinfall. Sandow came to the ring with a microphone, but cut himself short to ask if we even cared what he was saying. He then channeled Stone Cold because we would yell, "No!" and he would say "What?" A back and forth match ended after Gabriel hit a moonsault off the middle of the top rope. I considered this an upset even though Sandow does tend to lose a lot. Afterward, he took the mic and cut another short promo while lying on the mat, coughing and asking the parents to assure their children that he would be all right.

(4) Los Matadores defeated Heath Slater & Drew McIntyre of 3MB. No Jinder; I assume he was mad at his partners for not supporting him earlier. Or, the Khali Chop was too much to bear on this evening. This was not much different from the televised Matadores matches that aired this week. They do a lot of flashy showboating stuff and the crowd seemed to like it. No surprise that they pinned McIntyre after their double-team backdrop move. After the match, Slater interrupted their celebration to do his rock star dance and El Torito dove on him off the top turnbuckle.

(5) Rob Van Dam defeated World Hvt. champion Alberto Del Rio via DQ; Del Rio retained the World Title. Even with the tiny crowd, the pop for RVD was ear-splitting. No Ricardo, though. This was the best match of the night even though it was obvious the World Title wouldn't change hands on a non-televised show the night before a pay-per-view. The match ended after a blatant low blow from Del Rio.

Post-match, Del Rio tried to use a chair, but RVD kicked it into his face. Then, he put the title belt on Del Rio's chest and gave him the Five-Star Frogsplash. Sandow raced down to the ring with a ref and was about to cash in his World Title MITB briefcase, but RVD super-kicked him in the face to stop it. I don't know why he wouldn't want a guy who just lost to Justin Gabriel to become champion. I guess it would be too easy.

After a brief intermission...

(6) Ryback defeated Zack Ryder with Shell Shocked. Typical "Goldberg" chants, nothing interesting to see here. I was just glad to see that the heels did not get shut out.

(7) Wyatt Family (Luke Harper & Erick Rowan) defeated The Usos. This was not the squash match I expected from the Wyatt clan. I guess the Usos have to be somewhat protected as the so-called #1 contenders. They got in a lot of offense and even teased the upset, but Harper countered the top-rope splash by getting his knees up, then hit his wind-up clothesline for the clean pin. After the match, Bray threw one fallen Uso into the guardrail, hung upside down in the corner for a moment before finally hitting Sister Abigail on whichever Uso it was who took the pin.

Main Event time of Punk vs. Axel & Heyman. This was a classic WWE "rigged, but not rigged Poll" match where the audience could decide by Twitter or text if this would be No DQ or 2/3 falls. They never showed the final poll results but throughout the night it was trending about 90-10 in favor of No DQ. Before the match, Heyman correctly pointed out that we are stupid because No DQ favors the bad guys. Punk also got on the mic beforehand and said that even though he is from Chicago, he would love to live in Albany. Total pandering! But, it worked because the crowd loved him.

(8) C.M. Punk defeated IC champion Curtis Axel & Paul Heyman in a No DQ handicap match. I can't believe I'm typing this, but Curtis Axel dominated this match. It was obvious they were telling the story of a heroic babyface getting beaten down and making a comeback, but they overdid it a little. Punk had a few spurts of offense here and there, but mostly got his butt kicked. The end came when Axel had Punk down and invited Heyman into the ring to get in some shots. The tables got turned, Heyman got some lashings, and Axel took the GTS to give Punk a hard-fought win. No sign of Ryback. Punk celebrated and posed to end the show.

Overall, as a "smart" fan who does things like read PWTorch, I would give this show a C, but as a father taking his daughter out for a relatively cheap night, which she really enjoyed, I'd give it an A. RVD and C.M. Punk were definitely the stars of the night, getting the most buzz they possibly could out of a largely empty arena.

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

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