klunderbunker
Welcome to My (And Not Sly's) House
This will have NXT results, Superstars spoilers, full Smackdown spoilers and basic observations so be forewarned.
First up was a Mania video with Rock and Taker getting the biggest pops.
The camera side was mostly empty at first but filled up pretty well throughout the night. The top section was totally tarped off but when I was buying my ticket I asked about that. They said those sections weren't opened for sale until the rest of the arena was sold out. This was kind of odd as those were the $15 seats which were the main focus of the advertisements on TV.
Dark match was Barrett vs. Colt Cabana. Crowd was into Cabana and this ran about 3:30. It was fine for what it was and it was pretty basic. Wasteland looks great in person and was what ended the match. Cabana got a chant post match.
Regal, Striker and Grisham came out for NXT.
NXT
We got a recap video of the 2-1 feud from the last few weeks.
O'Neil came out and said he's dominated NXT. Bateman's video started early so we knew he was coming out soon. The heels came out and said they were awesome and Titus asked for a tag match. The heels picked his partner and chose Striker, which got a BIG pop. he wasn't sure about this because he hadn't been in the ring for four years.
JTG vs. Vladimir Kozlov
Kozlov was "gangsta" here which was pretty funny. The comedy got a good reaction but the crowd was dead for the match. Kozlov won in about 8 minutes with the Iron Curtain. He planked on JTG's body afterwards.
Tyson Kidd came out and talked about how he got rid of Tatsu. We get a video of the post match attack last week. He talked about how he he comes from the Hart Family and that in his WWE, there's only room for him.
Titus O'Neil/Matt Striker vs. Derrick Bateman/Darren Young
AJ/Hornswoggle were on commentary. AJ looks like she's about 12. Squash to start and Striker came in. All things considered, he looked great. Eventualy he played Ricky Morton and then made the hot tag to Titus who cleaned house and hit a weak Clash of the Titus for the pin. Striker telegraphs a lot of moves and a lot of the time you would ask "why did he do that?" Match ran about 11 minutes and that was the end of NXT.
Superstars
Nothing special here. Alicia Fox beat Kaitlyn in a 5 minute Divas match which was nothing special. Brodus Clay beat a jobber from Lexington (BIG pop for that) in like 2 minutes with a cross body. Yes Brodus clay did a cross body.
Smackdown
Show started at roughly 8:15.
We opened with a Sheamus/Henry video. It's about how Henry has been awesome and no one will fight him. When Sheamus says "I'll Fight Him" the place lit up. It's AWESOME and makes Sheamus look like a total hero.
Sheamus vs. Great Khali
This was about 6:30 and wasn't all that bad. Khali dominated for awhile and Sheamus kept hammering on him. He broke the vice grip, hit a knee to the ribs and the Brogue Kick to a kneeling Khali for the pin, which got a nice pop. Henry vs. Sheamus at Summerslam.
WWE All-Stars video. ultimate Warrior of all people got the best pop.
Slam of the Week is Beth turning on Kelly.
Natalya vs. AJ
Crowd kind of liked AJ but loved the Sharpshooter than ended it in like 2:00. Nattie turned heel afterwards saying she's with Beth: no more princesses.
There's a State of the Showski later. Ryder's face on the screen got almost nothing from the crowd.
Orton says Christian can't beat him clean. Crowd loves Orton.
Video on Gabriel in South Africa, which is different from last week.
Tyson Kidd vs. Daniel Bryan
Barrett was on commentary. I'm sorry IWC, but Daniel Bryan got about 1/4 of the pop that Matt Striker did. I mean there was NOTHING. Oh and he has new music which sounds like something out of a thriller movie trailer. This ran about 7:45 and the fans got into it more and more each time. There was a short Bryan chant as Kidd worked on the leg a lot. Loud match and bryan won with a guillotine choke then stared at Barrett. No fighting though.
Ryder came out for his state of the showski address. before he could get going though, Big Zeke came out and interrupted him. He got NOTHING from the crowd. I mean they did not care. Jackson wants to know why he was in a handicap match last week but Legacy came out. The fans seemed to like Cody. Cody says Zeke makes the title look bad and he's going to take the title eventually. Ted is going to come beat him now though. Zeke tells Ted to be free. Ryder says let's have the match because he's assistant GM.
Teddy comes out and says no no no, you're the GM's assistant, not the assistant GM. He makes Ryder vs. jackson which is a quick squash ended by the Rack in about 3:00. Ryder was heel here....I think.
Teddy is in his office and a woman comes in, totally in leaather. It's Aksana who now has jet black hair. She wants to set up an appointment with Teddy so he gives her his business card. She asks for hsi personal number and kind of flirts with him. There's bad romantic/porn music in the background.
Mark Henry is coming tot he ring and it seems like we're going to commercial.
NOW we get to the fun part of going to the arena for a show as this isn't going to be on TV.
Ryder is still in the ring and here's HHH to the pop of the night so far. I mean the place exploded. He talks to Ryder about how Ryder is the assistant to the GM and is supposed to get Teddy coffee or refill his viagra prescription or whatever he needs. HHH says he's had this job forever and it's wearing on him. It even makes him want to hang himself (Benoit? Anybody?) dealing with guys like Ryder.
He talks about having a lot of stress and asks if the fans can keep a secret. He tells the tech guys to cut the cameras and the lights. The tron and everything goes off other than the lights above the ring. HHH asks Ryder to hold the mic and there go the jacket and tie. Since he's the COO now, he has certain rules he can't break. However, if no one tells what's about to happen, it should be ok. With that, he kicks Ryder in the gut and lays him out with a Pedigree. AWESOME moment and a roar from the crowd. HHH poses on the stage and leaves Ryder laying. This was one of the coolest things I've ever seen in an arena.
Mark Henry vs. Vladimir Kozlov
Vlad isn't gangsta anymore. Squash, World's Strongest Slam, maybe 75 seconds.
Post match Vlad gets his leg pillmanized and Sheamus makes a late save with a chair. Vlad goes out on a stretcher.
After a break Sheamus talks about how Henry has injured so many people and taken their will to do this. No matter what though, no one can ever break his will. Total face promo here. He says that because he's Irish, he has the Luck of the Irish, including a, and I'm not making this up, a lucky horseshoe in his arse, which is going to leave hoofmarks all over Henry face. Then Sheamus is going to drag him to Santa Monica, California to Sea World where he can be with Shamu and all his other friends. This was Ultimate Warrior levels of weird at the end.
David Otunga/Michael McGillicutty/JTG vs. Usos/Trent Barreta
Just a six man. The tag champs pin Trent after the finisher they used last night on Raw. Nothing to see here.
Johnny Curtis debuts next week, with the writing on the wall about it.
Christian says he isn't surprised that HHH made the no holds barred match. Truth pops up to say it was a conspiracy. He mentions Little Jimmy. Affter he leaves, Christian wants to know who Little Jimmy is.
Randy Orton/John Morrison vs. R-Truth/Christian
Orton gets a pop that could rival HHH's from earlier. Morrison gets no pyro here for some reason. I'm assuming on a commercial, Christian runs into the crowd and Orton says bring it on. Morrison gets beaten down a lot and finally makes the hot tag to Orton (loudest pop of the night for the tag). He gets a bunch of near falls and everything breaks down. he RKOs Truth but walks into a Killswitch for the pin. My notes say this was 20 minutes but that sounds very long.
Post show Teddy says let's have a street fight for the title. christian says no but it happens anyway. Christian runs a lot and then gets caught. Orton sets for the RKO but Legacy runs out for the distraction. Christian uses said distraction for a spear and pin at about 6:30. Post match Orton hits RKOs on all three to send the fans home happy.
At the end of the show Orton was leaving but then came back. I saw a path to get towards the ring and went down to the railing. He was signing autographs so I pulled out the pen and a blank piece of paper I was using to take notes. I didn't get him to sign it (he was mainly signing for kids so I have no problem with not getting it) but I did get a high five which was very cool indeed. I left after that.
Overall rather fun. Not as fun as Raw last year but I had better seats for that. Still though, for $40 (not counting parking, drink ($5.75 for a "collector's cup" so I went with a medium) and nachos (tradition for me)), it was worth the money and I have a good time. Also it helps that I left my house at 625 and was in my seat at 641.
Regular reviews will be up this week, assumiung my site is fixed by then.
First up was a Mania video with Rock and Taker getting the biggest pops.
The camera side was mostly empty at first but filled up pretty well throughout the night. The top section was totally tarped off but when I was buying my ticket I asked about that. They said those sections weren't opened for sale until the rest of the arena was sold out. This was kind of odd as those were the $15 seats which were the main focus of the advertisements on TV.
Dark match was Barrett vs. Colt Cabana. Crowd was into Cabana and this ran about 3:30. It was fine for what it was and it was pretty basic. Wasteland looks great in person and was what ended the match. Cabana got a chant post match.
Regal, Striker and Grisham came out for NXT.
NXT
We got a recap video of the 2-1 feud from the last few weeks.
O'Neil came out and said he's dominated NXT. Bateman's video started early so we knew he was coming out soon. The heels came out and said they were awesome and Titus asked for a tag match. The heels picked his partner and chose Striker, which got a BIG pop. he wasn't sure about this because he hadn't been in the ring for four years.
JTG vs. Vladimir Kozlov
Kozlov was "gangsta" here which was pretty funny. The comedy got a good reaction but the crowd was dead for the match. Kozlov won in about 8 minutes with the Iron Curtain. He planked on JTG's body afterwards.
Tyson Kidd came out and talked about how he got rid of Tatsu. We get a video of the post match attack last week. He talked about how he he comes from the Hart Family and that in his WWE, there's only room for him.
Titus O'Neil/Matt Striker vs. Derrick Bateman/Darren Young
AJ/Hornswoggle were on commentary. AJ looks like she's about 12. Squash to start and Striker came in. All things considered, he looked great. Eventualy he played Ricky Morton and then made the hot tag to Titus who cleaned house and hit a weak Clash of the Titus for the pin. Striker telegraphs a lot of moves and a lot of the time you would ask "why did he do that?" Match ran about 11 minutes and that was the end of NXT.
Superstars
Nothing special here. Alicia Fox beat Kaitlyn in a 5 minute Divas match which was nothing special. Brodus Clay beat a jobber from Lexington (BIG pop for that) in like 2 minutes with a cross body. Yes Brodus clay did a cross body.
Smackdown
Show started at roughly 8:15.
We opened with a Sheamus/Henry video. It's about how Henry has been awesome and no one will fight him. When Sheamus says "I'll Fight Him" the place lit up. It's AWESOME and makes Sheamus look like a total hero.
Sheamus vs. Great Khali
This was about 6:30 and wasn't all that bad. Khali dominated for awhile and Sheamus kept hammering on him. He broke the vice grip, hit a knee to the ribs and the Brogue Kick to a kneeling Khali for the pin, which got a nice pop. Henry vs. Sheamus at Summerslam.
WWE All-Stars video. ultimate Warrior of all people got the best pop.
Slam of the Week is Beth turning on Kelly.
Natalya vs. AJ
Crowd kind of liked AJ but loved the Sharpshooter than ended it in like 2:00. Nattie turned heel afterwards saying she's with Beth: no more princesses.
There's a State of the Showski later. Ryder's face on the screen got almost nothing from the crowd.
Orton says Christian can't beat him clean. Crowd loves Orton.
Video on Gabriel in South Africa, which is different from last week.
Tyson Kidd vs. Daniel Bryan
Barrett was on commentary. I'm sorry IWC, but Daniel Bryan got about 1/4 of the pop that Matt Striker did. I mean there was NOTHING. Oh and he has new music which sounds like something out of a thriller movie trailer. This ran about 7:45 and the fans got into it more and more each time. There was a short Bryan chant as Kidd worked on the leg a lot. Loud match and bryan won with a guillotine choke then stared at Barrett. No fighting though.
Ryder came out for his state of the showski address. before he could get going though, Big Zeke came out and interrupted him. He got NOTHING from the crowd. I mean they did not care. Jackson wants to know why he was in a handicap match last week but Legacy came out. The fans seemed to like Cody. Cody says Zeke makes the title look bad and he's going to take the title eventually. Ted is going to come beat him now though. Zeke tells Ted to be free. Ryder says let's have the match because he's assistant GM.
Teddy comes out and says no no no, you're the GM's assistant, not the assistant GM. He makes Ryder vs. jackson which is a quick squash ended by the Rack in about 3:00. Ryder was heel here....I think.
Teddy is in his office and a woman comes in, totally in leaather. It's Aksana who now has jet black hair. She wants to set up an appointment with Teddy so he gives her his business card. She asks for hsi personal number and kind of flirts with him. There's bad romantic/porn music in the background.
Mark Henry is coming tot he ring and it seems like we're going to commercial.
NOW we get to the fun part of going to the arena for a show as this isn't going to be on TV.
Ryder is still in the ring and here's HHH to the pop of the night so far. I mean the place exploded. He talks to Ryder about how Ryder is the assistant to the GM and is supposed to get Teddy coffee or refill his viagra prescription or whatever he needs. HHH says he's had this job forever and it's wearing on him. It even makes him want to hang himself (Benoit? Anybody?) dealing with guys like Ryder.
He talks about having a lot of stress and asks if the fans can keep a secret. He tells the tech guys to cut the cameras and the lights. The tron and everything goes off other than the lights above the ring. HHH asks Ryder to hold the mic and there go the jacket and tie. Since he's the COO now, he has certain rules he can't break. However, if no one tells what's about to happen, it should be ok. With that, he kicks Ryder in the gut and lays him out with a Pedigree. AWESOME moment and a roar from the crowd. HHH poses on the stage and leaves Ryder laying. This was one of the coolest things I've ever seen in an arena.
Mark Henry vs. Vladimir Kozlov
Vlad isn't gangsta anymore. Squash, World's Strongest Slam, maybe 75 seconds.
Post match Vlad gets his leg pillmanized and Sheamus makes a late save with a chair. Vlad goes out on a stretcher.
After a break Sheamus talks about how Henry has injured so many people and taken their will to do this. No matter what though, no one can ever break his will. Total face promo here. He says that because he's Irish, he has the Luck of the Irish, including a, and I'm not making this up, a lucky horseshoe in his arse, which is going to leave hoofmarks all over Henry face. Then Sheamus is going to drag him to Santa Monica, California to Sea World where he can be with Shamu and all his other friends. This was Ultimate Warrior levels of weird at the end.
David Otunga/Michael McGillicutty/JTG vs. Usos/Trent Barreta
Just a six man. The tag champs pin Trent after the finisher they used last night on Raw. Nothing to see here.
Johnny Curtis debuts next week, with the writing on the wall about it.
Christian says he isn't surprised that HHH made the no holds barred match. Truth pops up to say it was a conspiracy. He mentions Little Jimmy. Affter he leaves, Christian wants to know who Little Jimmy is.
Randy Orton/John Morrison vs. R-Truth/Christian
Orton gets a pop that could rival HHH's from earlier. Morrison gets no pyro here for some reason. I'm assuming on a commercial, Christian runs into the crowd and Orton says bring it on. Morrison gets beaten down a lot and finally makes the hot tag to Orton (loudest pop of the night for the tag). He gets a bunch of near falls and everything breaks down. he RKOs Truth but walks into a Killswitch for the pin. My notes say this was 20 minutes but that sounds very long.
Post show Teddy says let's have a street fight for the title. christian says no but it happens anyway. Christian runs a lot and then gets caught. Orton sets for the RKO but Legacy runs out for the distraction. Christian uses said distraction for a spear and pin at about 6:30. Post match Orton hits RKOs on all three to send the fans home happy.
At the end of the show Orton was leaving but then came back. I saw a path to get towards the ring and went down to the railing. He was signing autographs so I pulled out the pen and a blank piece of paper I was using to take notes. I didn't get him to sign it (he was mainly signing for kids so I have no problem with not getting it) but I did get a high five which was very cool indeed. I left after that.
Overall rather fun. Not as fun as Raw last year but I had better seats for that. Still though, for $40 (not counting parking, drink ($5.75 for a "collector's cup" so I went with a medium) and nachos (tradition for me)), it was worth the money and I have a good time. Also it helps that I left my house at 625 and was in my seat at 641.
Regular reviews will be up this week, assumiung my site is fixed by then.
