Thanks to Paddy Stanton for sending this in:
Firstly, as the show was taped, the reactions will differ on TV to what they were live, such as an immense amount of heat directed at John Cena. I was sitting at the very front next to the entrance way(you will be able to see me with my CSR sign) and here is my view of the show.
Before we kicked off with the action, there already was a huge chant of "Cena sucks" that echoed the arena, the Cena fans tried to come back with the usual "Let's go Cena" but were unable to match the noise of the Cena haters.
We started off with a dark match between Derrick Bateman & Trent Barretta(heel) vs The USO's. The USO's entered with there usual entrance by performing the hacker at the top of the stage which was pretty cool. The match is what you would expect from a dark match, the heels getting in most of the offense with consistent tags, then the USO's came back with a babyface comeback with one of them getting the hot tag to the other (sorry I got mixed up between The USO's lol.) Uso's got the clean win around the 3/4 minute mark. Typical dark match. Fans didn't really care for it.
There was a about a 10/15 minute wait for them to set everything up for Superstars, during that time the crowd chants of "CM Punk" were getting louder and louder, which would be the trend all night as Punk was the most over of the roster tonight.
Then we kicked things off with Superstars, the first match being Curt Hawkins vs Justin Gabriel in what was a solid in ring performance from both of these wrestlers. I feel these guys meshed welll together, Hawkins got the offence throughout the match with constant grapples and submission holds, really wearing down Gabriel. The crowd started to get into this near the end, with a few "Gabriel" and "Let's go Justin" chants circling the arena. Gabriel started the comeback with many of his reliable kicks, eventually leading Hawkins to grab a weapon of some sort that he entered the ring with (a stick? I dunno what the hell it was my bad) His attack backfired, eventually leading Gabriel to hit the 450 Splash around the 6 minute mark. Solid match from two solid in-ring performers. Next match we saw Alex Riley vs Mic….. Joe Hennig. Riley came out to a loud pop, one of the biggest babyface reactions of the night IMO. This was a standard Superstars match, not great, but solid. Riley got some good offense in, seems to me like he's improving in the ring, good back and forth action between these guys ending in a clean win for Riley with an Inverted Samoan Drop.
Now we come to Raw, the opening was with who else but Cena. Man, I really hope they don't edit it out because he got so much heat it took me back to when Hogan turned heel and the ridiculous boo's he recieved, which goes to show how much of an awesome heel Cena would make. Alas, this will indeed be edited out as he got the best heel heat of the night. Before he even managed to get a word in, the usual chants of "Cena Sucks" echoed the arena. He began with a sarcastic comment "Wow what a reception" then began to comment about last week and began hyping the upcoming Survivor Series Pay-Per-View, telling us what the whole world knows, that he and Rock are teaming up. Queue for Awesome Truth to enter with another solid promo from these two guys, the got the usual heel heat and "What" chants during there promo. They beat on Cena, until Ryder comes in for the save, getting an awesome reception, second best face reaction of the night, Liverpool really loved Ryder. Obviously this set up are main event, overall a good start to the show, the crowd were really invested in this.
Next we had John Morrison pick up a surprising clean win over are United States Champion Dolph Ziggler, in a pretty solid televised Raw match between two great athletes. I myself was marking out when Ziggler entered, but the rest of the crowd booed him like hell, good heel reaction. The match was nothing special, just good with some hard-hitting action and many good near falls. Morrison picking up the win off a reversal into a crucifix pin.
Up next was none other then JTG on Raw of course! Wait… Anyway, typical squash match against Mason Ryan with Ryan dominating. He walked out to a pretty good reaction, there seemed to be many Welsh fans present as during the match people started singing the Welsh national anthem. Not much too say about the match really, Ryan looked dominant, looks like he is too improving, still green as goosesh*t, but improving.
Before I go into the next match, I need to add that Ricardo Rodriguez was getting an amazing reaction! Chants all over the arena of "Rodriguez!" typical English humour, cheering for an announcer they know nothing about, this was hilarious. Then entered, "El Patron" Alberto Del Rio, taking on Kofi Kingston in a good match from two exciting workers. The ground and pound game was much in effect in this match as you would expect from Del Rio, Kingston got in some solid offence by showing flashes of his high flying ability, eventually ending up in Del Rio moving out the way of his suicide dive which was a pretty sweet spot. The ending was kinda botched, which i'm sure they'll edit, Kofi taps to the cross armbreaker in an above par TV match. This lead to the next part of Raw, CM Punk coming out to the loudest ovation I have ever heard at a wrestling show I have been to. It was crazy, all the "little Jimmy's" were even going crazy for him. Awesome. This promo was great, great back and forth from two good talkers, although Del Rio could not get a word in at all, the whole promo the whole arena was erupting with "CM Punk" chants, and the odd "Who are yeee" to Del Rio in a typical English fashion. Del Rio was going for a lot of cheap heel heat here, insulting the Country and it's people, it seems like he was struggling up there next to "The Best in The World" but who can blame him? There was a huge roar when Punk said he will make the WWE Championship more interesting again. It eventually ends up Punk saying no to cancel the match between the two at Survivor Series, Del Rio does a beat down, Punk Counters, Del Rio runs away leaving Punk to GTS poor Ricardo Rodriguez. The crowd really ate this up.
Jack Swagger vs Santino Marella from a rematch from the week before was the next match. This match was short, probably just WWE's way of making Swagger look strong as he lost the same match last week. The crowd broke into a loud "Santino" chant during Swaggers offense, but continued to get beaten down. The match wasn't very good, it did its job in making Swagger look dominant, but other than that not much happened. Vickie did not recieve as much heat as normal here, no "Vickie Sucks" chants, nothing.
We then had Laryngitis introduce the returning Kevin Nash. As soon as I heared that old NWO music, I marked out like a 5 year old. Nash got pretty good heel heat, except from yours truly. Nash had definitely either not been scripted here, or been working on his mic skills as I thought he cut a great promo, going into detail on his rumble return and his legends contract etc. Nash got the crowd invested here, with "Triple H" chants breaking out in different parts of the arena. Big improvement from Nash.
I think we would of had a Brodus Clay match next, seems to me like they ran out of time. Anyway we had the backstage segment between Punk beating Otunga down and Del Rio beating Punk down, good build for the feud IMO.
Which then leaves us to the Main Event. Awesome Truth vs John Cena & Zack Ryder. These two teams played to the crowd magnificiently. The match got a good amount of time, possible stemming along the lines of 10 to 15 minutes. Cena came out to another heel-like reaction, and Ryder, my god, Ryder was/is so over! As the match got underway, Cena and Miz began to battle it out, with a florry of offence between both guys using various grapple and chain holds. As cena was getting booed, the whole arena erupted with "We Want Ryder" chants, Cena couldn't believe it, Ryder couldn't believe it, I couldn't believe it! Ryder eventually got the tag which then followed a huge cheer from the crowd and a "Let's go Ryder" chant. Back and forth action between Ryder and Miz, Truth then distracts the referee leading Awesome Truth to gain the upper hand with many submission holds and consistent tagging. Ryder then begins the comeback, as soon as he does this he and Truth clothesline each other at the same time, knocking each other down in the process. Truth tags in Miz, Ryder gets the hot tag on Cena, thus beggining Cena's offense or the "5 Moves of Doom" as some people like to refer to it as. Awesome Truth get knocked down by Cena, resulting in a double 5-Knuckle-Shuffle from both Cena and Awesome. That was cool, nuff said. Cena then goes for the AA, Miz breaks out and goes for the cover, resulting in a 3 count, due to R-Truth holding down Cena's legs. The finish was weak, I also think they botched it as when Raw went off the air they came out and randomly did the same. As Raw goes off the air, Cena and Ryder panter to the crowd, Cena getting a Ryder sign from the crowd that read "next US champ" which eventually led Awesome Truth to come back out, followed by Dolph Ziggler, and they begin to gang up on Cena and Ryder in a 3-on-2. At this moment in time, I had my Foley is Good sign ready at the go, just waiting for him to enter. Then Punk's music hit, so I was like, fine. They began to brawl 3-v-3, the babyfaces eventually cleaning house. Miz and Truth ran off, leaving Ziggler in the ring on his own to get slaughtered by the faces. Ryder and Punk hit there finishers collectively, then this is were Punk's and Cena's awesomeness (?) of playing to the crowd begins. Cena's goes for the AA, getting an extremely loud boo, takes Miz off his shoulders and passes him to Punk who gets a huge cheer, this happens back and forth, Punk the huge face and Cena the mega heel, until Ryder gets in the mix and hits the Ruff Ryder for the second time. Punk then hits a GTS, followed by an AA performed by Punk to Ziggler. Ziggler leaves hurting, Cena let's Ryder and Punk have there moment with the fans, as Cena leaves he tells me to sign the Zack Ryder petition because he liked my sign (of course I already have.) Then Justin Roberts did the usual telling us goodnight and to drive safe. Overall this was a good show, really enjoyable.
Best Face Reaction
1. CM Punk
2. Zack Ryder
3. John Cena
Best Heel Reaction
1. John Cena
2. Kevin Nash
3. Dolph Ziggler
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
