My house show experience

[Slyfox696]

This is the report I e-mailed to Ryan Clark a few minutes earlier. I've bolded some of the most important things.

This is Slyfox696 from the Wrestlezone wrestling forums, passing along a report from the Cape Girardeau house show.

Results:

1. DH Smith & Super Crazy vs. Trevor Murdoch & Charlie Haas - Smith pins Haas in approximately 12 min.

2. Jim Duggan vs. Paul Burchall - Duggan wins via DQ in 3 min. after Katie Lea is caught choking Duggan on the middle rope.

3. Snitsky pinned Brian Kendrick in 7 min.

4. Hardcore Holly & Cody Rhodes vs. Santino Marella & Carlito - Holly pin Marella in approx 12 min.

Intermission

5. Mickie James & Maria vs. Beth Phoenix & Jillian Hall - James pins Phoenix in about 10 min. after Phoenix is distracted by Candice Michelle's music and appearance.

6. Jericho submitted Kennedy in 12-15 min.

The first six matches all followed a basic Pro Wrestling 101 match layout. Good guy starts strong, bad guy controls middle portion, good guy comeback, finish.

7. Orton pinned Hardy in 15-20 min. The only match on the card that deviated from the same general layout, but not much. After Hardy blocked the RKO, Orton blocked the Twist of Fate and delivered an RKO. After the match, Orton attempted to punt Hardy, but Hardy countered with a Twist of Fate (I believe). Then we got a Swanton to end the show and send the fans home happy.

Other notes:

Jericho botched his Lionsault during the match with Kennedy, and appeared to genuinely hurt his neck. They did an impromptu finish with Kennedy tapping to a Boston Crab, but after the match, Jericho appeared hurt. The referee made two "X" signs to the back, and had to help Jericho to the back, as Jericho was clutching his neck. Jericho walked under his own power, but may be something to keep an eye on.

No Candice Michelle match, but she got a VERY good pop when her music hit during the Diva tag match.

It's amazing how Jim Duggan, at his advanced age, who was never known as a good wrestler, can still manipulate a crowd better than 75% of the roster. Duggan was what wrestlers at a house show should be like. More about entertaining the crowd, less about character development and such. Duggan put to shame everyone on the card, with the exception of Jericho, Hardy and Orton.

The first hour was a complete dud. Boring matches, boring wrestlers, just boring. The second part was much more interesting than the first, and the crowd was finally given something to cheer for.

Biggest pop of the night:
1. Hardy
2. Orton
3. Jericho
4. Kennedy
5. Candice Michell

Overall, a decent house show, but nothing too memorable. The Smackdown house show a few years back was far more entertaining. The lack of the full complement of the Raw roster hurt this show. No HBK, HHH, Umaga, Big Show, Cena, McMahon, Hornswoggle, and JBL really cripples the house show entertainment value. Obviously, one shouldn't expect those guys, but still.

One other thing I'll say. Most of you know how little I respect Kennedy, but last night he cut a VERY good interview, one the crowd was totally into. He seemed SO much more comfortable last night than I've ever seen him on TV. It was the first time I've ever been impressed with Kennedy, and the match was a solid house show affair as well.


EDIT: I meant to put this in the "Live Discussion and Spam Zone". Could I have this moved?

 

[Y 2 Jake]

In general I find house shows to be a lot better. You don't get breaks to allow for ad breaks, usually just 15 minutes or so. And wrestlers are trying out different things.

That's why I can't wait for the TNA shows in England. You get to see all the TNA wrestlers performing how they should be on TV. Instead of in convoluted storylines.

 

[Slyfox696]

In general I find house shows to be a lot better. You don't get breaks to allow for ad breaks, usually just 15 minutes or so. And wrestlers are trying out different things.

That's why I can't wait for the TNA shows in England. You get to see all the TNA wrestlers performing how they should be on TV. Instead of in convoluted storylines.

Generally I agree with you. They're usually more fun and interesting, but this one simply was not. It was just basic basic wrestling, every match. With the exception of Duggan and Jericho none of the undercard guys even tried to involve the crowd in the match. It was like they were just there to go through the motions. Duggan, for his part, did a great job of working the crowd, he's just terrible at everything else.

The Smackdown show a few years back that came here was much better.


Thanks for moving the thread as well.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

I find that they're usually a lot more child friendly.

But I notice there's no HBK or HHH. I hate the HHH on TV. But at house shows there's nobody better.

 

[Slyfox696]

I find that they're usually a lot more child friendly.

But I notice there's no HBK or HHH. I hate the HHH on TV. But at house shows there's nobody better.

I don't think I've ever seen HHH on a house show. The number of stars not on this house show, was enough to make a whole other show. It was kind of disappointing, even if expected.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

I guess it's different for UK fans then. They're over here for Raw & Smackdown so we get pretty much the whole roster. They go on for about 4 hours. So if anything they're a bit too long.

 

[DJ]

House shows rock.I gotta see JBL come out of retirement to be in a match!Your show didn,t sound great with the lack of stars though.........

 

[Slyfox696]

House shows rock.I gotta see JBL come out of retirement to be in a match!Your show didn,t sound great with the lack of stars though.........

It really wasn't all that special. The second hour was fun, the first hour blew.

TNA is coming to St. Louis (about 2 hours north of here) in a couple weeks, so I'll probably go that house show. See how it is compared to this one.

 

[HBK-aholic]

I love house shows over here, I get excited about them for months before and are never let down.
I agree, HHH is one of the best at house shows, I love him.
I've never seen Shawn at a house show, because the other I've been to have been televised Raw episodes, which are also better live. And I don't think Shawn doesn house shows anymore.
The last house show I went to I completely fell in love with Santino Marella's and Mr. Kennedy's mic work, it was one of the funniest parts of the night.

 

[Slim Pickns]

I love house shows over here, I get excited about them for months before and are never let down.
I agree, HHH is one of the best at house shows, I love him.
I've never seen Shawn at a house show, because the other I've been to have been televised Raw episodes, which are also better live. And I don't think Shawn doesn house shows anymore.
The last house show I went to I completely fell in love with Santino Marella's and Mr. Kennedy's mic work, it was one of the funniest parts of the night.

Unfortunately the only house show I saw HHH at was before the INYH Final Four PPV. This was when Shawn had just lost his smile, before DX. HHH was on his own and not doing to well. He lost a short match to Flash Funk, so we didn't get to see much of him.

On a positive note, due to Michaels pulling out of the show, we got the PPV main event with a slight variation. The PPV had an over the top rope four way between Hart, Vader, Austin, and Taker. We got an elimination Fatal Four way that was far superior to the PPV one. The original main event was HBK/Ahmed Johnson vs Bret Hart/Psycho Sid. Sid ended up facing Faarooq and got a huge pop.

 

[Mr. TM]

I could see WWE doing two different Raw tours at the same time

HHH
HBK
JBL
Snitsky
Umaga
Rhodes
Holly
Cade
Murdoch
Duggan
Super Crazy
Burchill
Ron Simmons*
Maria
Ashley
Jillian Hall
KL Burchill

Chris Jericho
Mr. Kennedy
Randy Orton
Carlito
Marella
Kendrick
London
Smith
Hass
Robbie McAllister
Rory*
Venis
Mickie James
Melina
Beth Phoenix
Candice Michelle

There is enough talen to do a lot of matches, it may just not give some of the stars enough time off, and crate injuries, or could do the opposite, giving each set a day off, while the other one goes at it.

 

[Lil Wes]

Seems like a horrendous show although I bet the Hardy/RKO match was good.

And you got to see the greatness that is Mr. Kennedy in person..











































Kennedy.

 

[Slyfox696]

Hardy vs. RKO was ok. Nothing memorable about it really. And yeah, Kennedy impressed me with a mic interview for the first time.

 

[Lil Wes]

Meh, should be more like 100000 time.

 

[ExtremeIronChef]

I've only been to two house shows in over 15 years of being a wrestling fan (yikes).

The first was a WCW event in 1998 which was pretty good, though out of all the big stars only Goldberg, Big Show, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall were there. The main event was Goldberg vs Giant (Big Show) for the WCW world title, which ended in Giant getting the Jackhammer. I can't remember who Hall or Nash wrestled. After the event Goldberg was in the parking lot and signed a shit load of autographs. Hall and Nash were also seen leaving together.

The second was a WWF/E event during the attitude era in 1999, so the big stars were all there, except for Austin who was replaced in the main event by X-Pac (that got massive heat.) Rock, Taker, HHH, Kane, Mick Foley (as Mankind) etc were all there. The main event was, if I remember correctly, Rock/Foley/X-Pac vs Taker/HHH/Kane. Paul Bearer and Chyna were both at ringside and seemed to get in a little argument (don't know if this was kayfabe or not.)

I was also at a RAW in 1997, but this was not a house show. It was the one where Austin drove his truck in through the audience while The Rock (I think) was in the ring with the Nation. Stone Cold was feuding with Rock for the IC title at this time, so it was around November or December of 1997.

 

[Freedom 35]

Ive got floor sets to the house show next Saturday night

advertised matches are Hardy/Orton and DX against Kennedy and Umaga
also appearing
Jericho
JBL
and many more

should be fun

 

[Shocky]

Hardy vs. RKO was ok. Nothing memorable about it really. And yeah, Kennedy impressed me with a mic interview for the first time.

I've said he needs to move back to Smackdown, because he simply isn't the same guy Live on Raw. The editing of Smackdown helped him out a ton. Kennedy on Smackdown is such a good move right now it's ridiculous.

I used to go to houseshows all the time. I don't anymore, because like Sly said, the newer guys don't know how to keep the crowd involved.

I've gotten to see some gems though. I saw that Final Four match as well with Vader/Austin/Taker and Hart, that was pretty solid.

Let's see. I got to see Hart vs. HBK in 92 in a steel cage with HBK spitting on someone in the crowd from the top of the cage.

Hogan vs. Earthquake in a cage.

Warrior vs. Rude, in a cage.

Actually, I"ve seen more cage matches at house shows then I have at a live taping.

 

[Slyfox696]

Looking back now, my most memorable wrestling house show moment was watching Ultimate Warrior vs. Andre the Giant. To think I got to see Andre the Giant wrestle is something special, especially considering my age.

Although wrestle may be stretching it a bit. Andre must not have been feeling too good that night, as he was the first to the ring. Warrior's music hit, he came out, ran around the ring 3 times, jumped in the ring, clotheslined Andre down, did a splash, and pinned him, just like that. I don't think they had even stopped Warrior's music.

Still though. Quite memorable.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

The shows I saw in the early 90's are more memorable than anything I've seen since. Bret Hart vs. Papa Shago sounds shit on papwer, but there were bigger reaction then. And I cared about outcomes. House Shows today can keep there Taker vs. HHH main events.