After skipping out on us for 2009, World Wrestling Entertainment finally came back to Michigan State University’s Breslin Center in East Lansing, Michigan this past Friday night as a part of their “Road to Wrestlemania” tour…
Pretty entertaining show. The last time they were here was Mother’s Day 2008 (also a Raw-branded show) and there weren’t many stars and a few advertised wrestlers & matches never happened (with no explanation). That main event ended up being DX vs. Umaga & JBL. The turnout then was probably about 4,000 and that’s being generous.
Friday night was a different story. Everyone you’d expect was there really, with the exception of Orton & Big Show (who weren’t advertised anyway). The top section was closed off, but I overheard the rest was a sellout, so attendance was probably in the 8,000-9,000 range. Crowd was hot the entire night. Mostly made up of kids and families in Cena & DX gear (no surprise), so they kept the energy flowing all night. It was pretty fun listening to them.
Here’s the recap:
- Yoshi Tatsu beat William Regal with his roundhouse kick. I was surprised to see an ECW match on the show. Both guys were very over and Regal was great as usual playing the heel.
- Kelly Kelly graced us with her presence while seeking a volunteer to ring the bell for the next match.
- Evan Bourne beat Chavo Guerrero after the SSP. Really boring match that seemed to go on forever. No one really knew who Evan was (or maybe they did but realized he’s just a jobber these days). Chavo controlled the whole way and would get some decent heat whenever he taunted the crowd (his heat was INSANE when they were here in ’08). Evan hit a few huracanranas and then the SSP, which everyone popped huge for.
- Masterlock Challenge. Yes, they brought it back. Masters came out with Eve and laid out the challenge and Santino came out. He said he wanted Masters to put Eve on the line, which Eve agreed to saying she knew “her man” was going to win (everyone was playing the face here but it all just came off as odd). Santino lost, Eve and Masters helped him up and they all celebrated. Santino then gave Masters a light slap in the face and ran off.
- US title: Miz beat MVP and Kofi Kingston after pinning MVP when Kofi accidentally hit him with the Trouble in Paradise. Nonstop action, good match. The heat for Miz was off the charts and he cut a really good promo. Kofi didn’t have much of a pop when coming out, but MVP did. Then during the match, everyone seemed to have sided with Kofi. East Lansing EXPOSED themselves though. All that heat Miz got in his promo and then they popped when he won. Then they got mad again! It was hilarious.
- DX (Shawn Michaels & Triple H) beat Cody Rhodes & Jack Swagger after the usual superkick/pedigree combo. Long match simple match, both sides were very over. Swagger is really funny with his Donkey Kong mannerisms. He filled in for DiBiase. Cody cut a promo saying Teddy couldn’t make it because of the weather. We got to see Cody & Jack’s bare buttocks when DX pantsed ‘em both. HHH cut a promo before the match explaining how Shawn was wrestling tonight after saying he career was over on Monday. The story is Shawn gets frustrated and “quits” nearly every week and always ends up coming back when it’s time to hit the road again… It’s just that for once, one of his quitting tantrums happened while on camera. I thought that was pretty cool they didn’t ignore the storyline. Hornswoggle showed up towards the end and super kicked Jack in the knee, which lead to DX doing their finishers.
I should point out that three pairs of DX glow stick were thrown back towards the ring once DX had arrived. I say “towards” and not “in” because whoever was throwing them kept hitting people in the front rows. DX never even noticed. On one hand, it was funny on the other hand it was stupid because that person probably paid for those glowsticks just to throw them and it’s just wrong to throw stuff at people in the first place.
*Intermission*
- Gail Kim & The Bellas beat Maryse, Jillian & Alicia Fox when Gail hit her “inverted stomp facebreaker” (I looked it up!) on Maryse. Decent match actually. Maryse is such an awesome evil woman. She was holding onto one of the Bellas’ hair while on the outside and kept slapping her in the face. Gail rode Maryse around the ring while slapping her on the butt! This was the match that REALLY made me wish the battery in my camera didn’t die. Oh well, I got to see Eve, the Bellas, K2 and Maryse all in person and that’s all that matters.
- Mark Henry beat Carlito with the World’s Strongest Slam. Henry was very over. I was surprised. Crowd was chanting his name. About what you’d expect. No one cared about Carlito. WHERE’S PRIMO ???
- WWE Title: John Cena beat Sheamus by DQ after Sheamus threw the ref in a moment of frustration. Long match, but it was pretty good. Both were insanely over. Cena chants nonstop. Sheamus cut a promo saying that the MSU Spartans, just like Cena, are a fallen empire. He didn’t even need to go for the cheap heat, as soon as he walked out the crowd was all over him. He went old school and tore up some kid’s Cena sign on the way to the ring. Sheamus hit his big boot on Cena who kicked out and that’s when Sheamus got mad and threw the ref down. Cena put the STF on Sheamus, Sheamus tapped, ref rang the bell, everyone thought Cena won the title but it was actually a DQ win… you know how it goes. Sheamus started beating on Cena, but he ended up hitting the FU and Sheamus bailed.
Really fun show that was way better than last time. Hopefully they don’t take two years to come back.
Most Cheers:
Cena
DX
Yoshi
Henry
Kofi
Most Jeers:
Sheamus
Miz
Rhodes & Swagger
Regal
Chavo
