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November 9, 2009

WWE house show report from Liverpool, England

Courtesy of reader Jon Laughlin, here is a report from Sunday’s WWE house show in Liverpool, England.

Take it away, Jon:

My friend and I went to the Raw DX Invasion Tour [Sunday] at Liverpool. Overall, the event was really good, though some of the matches left a bit to be desired.

First up, Kofi Kingston against Chris Masters. Kofi got a nice pop, Masters just got booed for the sake of it really. The match was good, one of the best of the night simply because of Kofi whose high energy was a good opener to the show. The match progressed with Masters in charge and Kofi attempted to come back, but Masters thwarting his attempts. In the end, Kofi fought back, there were a few near falls, but Kofi won after about 10 minutes with Trouble In Paradise.

Next was an ECW match between Hurricane and Paul Burchill. I was surprised there was no support for Burchill even though he is English. The match was fairly simple and there was pretty much zero crowd reaction throughout and Hurricane won in around 5 minutes.

The third match was Sheamus v Primo. Before it began Sheamus got on the mike, and bashed Liverpool as a city and then the football teams saying they were a 'joke'. Primo recieved some support and got in a little bit of offense but Sheamus won in around 5 minutes again with his kick to the head.

The next bout was between Evan Bourne and Jack Swagger. Swagger attacked Bourne on his entrance which got him a lot of heat, then he proceeded to beat him down, Bourne rallied and teased the Shooting Star Press a few times, but Swagger always got up before he could do it. This match was a good technical match and Swagger won by reversing a Bourne move and pulling him up into the Powerbomb.

Then The Miz fought MVP for the US Title. Pre-bout Miz got on the mike and asked why people chanted he sucked when he was the only Raw member to win at Bragging Rights, and he's awesome. Miz had tons of heat and was loving it. This match was very mat based and contained many submissions. Miz won in around 10.

Santino v Chavo was up next. Santino got a good pop and cut a promo saying he had been beaten by Chavo so went to the library and got out 7 books and 2 DVDs and learned martial arts. He had created his own martial arts Marella Martial Arts and was going to use his new move the Cobra which could paralyse his opponent. I had heard he cut promos about this before but he was genuinely funny, and throughout the match the 2 worked really well making the crowd laugh with Marella going to use his Cobra move. There was also a nice spot where Chavo went to the top rope for the Frog Splash and Marella rolled to the opposite corner so Chavo went to that corner and Marella rolled to the opposite one again. A decent match with some nice reversals and Santino won with a roll-up.

Then there was a Divas Tag match between Jillian and Alicia Fox and Melina and Kelly Kelly. Jillian started singing a Beatles song but was thankfully cut short by Kelly's entrance! The match was OK Kelly was exposed and teased the tag for a while before finally Melina got in and cleared house before pinning Jillian.

Chris Jericho v Mark Henry was next. Jericho cut a great promo talking about why the crowd was saying he sucked when it wasn't possible because he's not a scouser (a derogatory term for someone from Liverpool), he was brilliant on the mike and said that the reaction to him after he had flown a long way to be there meant he was going to leave, but Henry's music hit stopping him going. The bout took a long time to get going as Jericho was not prepared to lock up with Henry. Henry dominated, but Jericho tried to target his back and neck to keep him down, when this was failing he got a chair and hit Henry in the midriff and back to get disqualified, leaving Henry the winner. I thought it was good Jericho kept his momentum but a realistic finish without him cleanly beating Henry. Henry got his revenge and hit the Worlds Strongest Slam after the finish.

Finally, the main event was Cena and DX against Orton and Legacy. The match was good and fast-paced as you'd expect with a 6-man tag. There was a funny spot with Cena and DX pulling Orton and Legacy's trunks down to reveal their buttocks and the superstars seemed to be having fun with the match. The finish was a nice go home moment for the fans with the faces winning each one hitting their finishing move on a separate person.

Overall, the crowd took a while to warm up but was electric for the main event. Cena and DX got the biggest pop followed by Kofi, while Orton and Legacy got the most heat followed by Jericho.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 2:27 PM | | Comments (11)
        

Comments

Thanks for posting this Kevin. It means a lot on the best wrestling blog on the net!

I always love hearing reports from house shows. It's very interesting to compare them with televised shows. Thanks, Kev (and Jon!).

I saw a Cena+DX/Legacy six-man match a couple nights after SummerSlam to close out the SD! taping, and I assumed it was to get DiBiase & Rhodes more experience with main event caliber matches before the other PPV matches with DX continued, but if this six-man tag is continuing after the DX/Legacy program, WWE must be serious about making DiBiase and/or Rhodes a quality main eventer.

I remember thinking The Rock was out of place the first time I saw him in a dark main event after a RAW taping, but then he was a regular headliner within the year, and my brain's lightbulb went off -- "oh, they were grooming him!"

That seems to be the case here with Cody Rhodes or (more likely) Ted DiBiase.

Thanks so much for posting this; always interested in house shows, esp. overseas.

This card sounds okay, but frankly I'd hoped for a lot more nationalistic pandering! Getting the crowd pumped up and rabid with hometown pride strikes me as a big part of the fun and any road show...

What exactly did you mean by "Kelly was exposed"?

I too was at this show. My first live WWE event and I did enjoy it....Jericho's promo was great even though he pronounced Scouser incorrectly! Though he shall be forgiven for this.

I thought you might have mentioned Hornswoggle's involvement in the 6 man tag - his interference, and sweet chin music, well sweet knee music on Orton effectively costing them the match...as well as him copying the stars post match.

Marella was awesome....that was my fave part of the evening. Kofi is destined for big things, of that I am sure, and The Miz.....is Awesome.

Let us not forget that WWE Diva Gail Kim greeted everyone and asked families in attendance questions and moved them to the front row, and also was the gal pal of the Honey Monster an overstuffed character whose cereal company is the sponsor of this series of Raw events in England, Scotland and Wales. She night not have wrestled, but she was there too.

I have been there too.
Nice show, even though the crowd seemed not very hot, except for the main event. Looked like all the kids were waiting for Cena and DX only.
I loved Miz on the mic, that guy really knows how to get the heat of a crowd.
And Paul Burchill really deserves a push.
One last note: Is it just me but sometimes I feel pretty old when attending a WWE house show, all those little kids.

Going to The Undertakers Rest in Peace tour on Saturday night in Dublin,hope its a bit better than this,although Chris Jericho wont be there so major disappointment already!!

It's not just you, XDreamItchy... I am only in my thirties but I am a little self-conscious at how much younger most of the people at live events are, the last couple years.

This is especially noteable because getting good and hammered (to better scream your insults and encouragement) has always been an important aspect of attending a wrestling show, but ya kind of feel like a jerk being a sloppy shouting drunk with 10,000 little children on all sides of you.

I´ve been to the SD show in Stuttgart, Germany yesterday and I liked it way better than the RAW show.
The crowd was really hot, good matches and the absolute highlight for me was Christian vs. Regal. I believe it was one of the funniest matches I´ve ever seen.
Christian´s so good and the face expressions of Regal when the hole arena chanted "p----" towards him were priceless.
And Drew McIntyre and Eric Escobar made believers out of me. Very good mic and ring work.
Oh, and not so many little kids like in the U.K., thank God.

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About Kevin Eck
The Baltimore Sun's Kevin Eck blogs about professional wrestling. Listen to Eck Wednesdays at 3 p.m. on WNST 1570 AM.
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