Thanks to Kevin B for sending in the following:
WWE Raw World Tour, 9/10/10. Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Not a huge crowd for the Air Canada Centre, the upper deck didnt have any lights on so if they did sell any tickets for up there they must’ve moved people down to the lower bowl. As the show went on, most of the lower bowl of the ACC was filled.
1. Santino d. Zack Ryder: After both made their entrance, we hear that oh so annoying general manager email noise (NOOOOOO!!!! Not at house shows too!!!!) and the crowd lets out a collective groan. Justin Roberts tells us he has received an email from the gm that says we need to have a dance off between the two before the match. Ok. Zach Ryder does some fist pumps followed by the Macarena, while Santino busts out some breakdancing and gets a good reaction from the crowd. So Santino wins the dance off and the match after he dodges Ryder hits him with an arm drag, and then his vaunted Cobra. The match was about 10 seconds long. Good pops for Santino he always gets a good reaction in Toronto. Then the nexus (minus Justin Gabriel)comes running to the ring and beats up both Santino and Ryder, and tells us they are glad the world has their eyes on the Toronto Film Festival so they can see what they do to our fellow canadians Edge and Jericho later tonight in a tag match and show us they are stronger than ever.
2. John Morrison d. Ted Dibiase w/Maryse:
Good match, probably about 10 minutes long. Maryse took someones sign from the crowd, ripped it up and started fanning herself with it at one point. Morrison tryed kicking Ted on the apron but missed and kicked the ringpost instead. Morrison counters teds Million dollar finisher, whatever he calls it, and Maryse then distracted the ref later when Morrison was pinning Dibiase. Morrison comes over to Maryse, Dibiase tries to take advantage but Morrison moves and Ted almost hits Maryse by accident. Morrison gets one of his flying kicks to the face in on Ted and hits him with Starship pain for the win. He was selling a hurt ankle after kicking the ring post the whole time. Pretty good pace to the match definitly, and Morrison put on a good show. Both guys had good energy.
3. Goldust d. Primo:
The bella twins came out before the match to pick someone from the crowd to be a special bell ringer for the match, and picked a kid. He must’ve had fun with it. Goldust gets the win in the match. Goldust had pretty good energy out there, he came off well.
4. US championship: The Miz d. Evan Bourne:
Miz came out first with his money in the bank briefcase and got to cut a promo about how he is living his dream and we are too afraid to live our dreams and thats why we’re watching. Then he started doing his "Im the Miz…. and I’m…." before he cuts off the crowd telling them they dont get to say his catch phrase, if anyone wants to say anything to him they raise their hand. Most of the crowd raises their hands and Miz starts asking a few people what they have to say, cant really hear what they say, but quipps how we should go back to working at Tim Hortons. And then He tells us how hes the Miz, and then Bournes music hits.
Pretty good match, Bourne had a couple of wicked looking hurricanrannas, and lots of leg kicks. Miz dominates mostly with power moves. Bourne got Miz in position for Airbourne, went for it and Miz lifted the knees as Evan landed, and got the pin after that. Not a bad match, pretty good, and Miz gets a very good reaction from the crowd when his music hits.
5. Hart Dynasty d. The Usos w/Tamina:
Tyson Kidd started out the match looking good with some nice athletic moves. DH smith had a classic davey boy moment as he held one of the Usos in the air for a suplex for about 15 seconds. Then the Usos dominated the match for a good portion with good teamwork and double teams as the ref gets distracted and such. Then Smith finally got tagged back in after Kidd got isolated for a while and went to work with some power moves, he went for one of Davey boys powerslams but whichever Uso he had up (does anyone know which Uso is which? Bonus points for you if you do) for it slipped off and countered and mayhem ensued with Kidd and Natalya taking one of the Usos to the outside of the ring when the ref was distracted by Tamina trying to get involved, and Natalya body slammed either Jimmy or Jay on the outside! I popped for that one that was huge. Then shortly after, DH was setting up one of the Usos for the hart attack as he lifted him above his shoulders, the other Uso got back in the ring to try to help out his partner as Tyson kidd springboarded for the clothesline, he also simultaneously kicked one of the Usos with one leg as he clotheslined the other Uso for the Hart Attack in mid-air. Hart Dynasty covers for the pin and the win. Haven’t seen that before from Kidd, I have to say that was an awesome finish to the match, and the crowd popped pretty good for it. Another pretty solid match.
The Bella twins came out again and threw some shirts into the crowd, crowd went pretty nuts for this actually, and then we head to intermission with Roberts plugging the merchandise.
As the intermission ends, we hear a womans voice start screaming at us to get back in our seats, I think most were a little startled by it including myself not knowing who it was. Some people around thought it was Vicky Guererro just from how shrill it was, but we find out it is Alicia Fox as she appears from the entrance way with the mic. She cuts a pretty good heel promo, where she continues to yell at people, yes literally yell at people to get back in their seats, saying she doesn’t care if we have to go to the bathroom, or are bloated, get back to our seats because she has something to say. Lol, wow, this was a little startling, it was kind of like her raw promo from last week as she walked to the ring, but turned up a few notches (and no mention of becoming the ‘undefined champion’ this time). Im guessing shes testing this out as a new direction for her character, and I think it came off pretty well as a heel promo I think, so I figure we will see more of this on TV in the future with her character. Anyways, triple threat divas match for the divas title ensues.
Melina d. Alicia fox, and Gail Kim in a triple threat:
Melina got the biggest pop, Fox got some decent heat, and Gail Kim got a little pop for being the hometown girl, but nothing too much. The two ladies double teamed Fox to start the match, and Alicia and Gail Kim kind of took turns being hurt and recovering on the outside as the other two girls battle in the ring. There was a really cool sequence near the end of the match where Gail leapfrogged over Alicia on the ring apron, cant remember what exactly happened enough to describe it, but it was kinda cool. Melina then picked up the victory with her finisher on Alicia Fox as Gail Kim ended up on the outside somehows and unable to break up the pin somehows. Gail Kim raises Melinas arm in victory after.. awwwww.. shes too nice haha.
Next up we have the Nexus vs Raw tag match, as the team of Barrett and Tarver come out with Otunga and Slater to take on Jericho and Edge. We get the GM email chime noise as Roberts informs us that Otunga and Slater are banned from ringside. The two of them then spend about 5 minutes arguing with the ref before they finally leave.
Chris Jericho and Edge d. Wade Barrett and Michael Tarver:
Jericho comes out to a good pop, and actually starts playing to the crowd to make some noise for him, followed by Edge who also gets a really good pop. Tarver gets on the mic to tell us there will be no spears tonight, Jericho then gets on the Mic and mocks him, while Edge says people want to see a spear, and he thinks we want to see these Canadian boys kick some ass. Edge and Jericho going full out face tonight as they play to the crowd for the hometown face reactions instead of trying to get us to boo them by downplaying their Canadian roots as they usually do when they are heels. Anyways, lots of headlocks and things of that nature in this match, as Edge gets the crowd to clap for Jericho and vice versa. Ive yet to see Michael Tarver do anything impressive in this match, or ever, other than look like hes gonna rob someone at gunpoint when he wears his bandana or whatever over his mouth. Barrett had a goot boot to the face at one point as Jericho sent some spit flying into the air. Jericho hit a lionsault, and put on the walls of Jericho on Tarver I believe. That got broken up and the typical mayhem that breaks out in every tag match ensued. Jericho hit a codebreaker and I believe Edge hit a spear after. Canadian boys picked up the victory, in an ok match, good finish to see the Canadians hit their moves. Edge got on the mic to say thank you, and play to the crowd one more time by saying “I don’t know if its going to happen, but go Leafs go”.
Roberts tells us its main event time for the wwe championship:
Orton d. Sheamus by DQ (So Sheamus keeps the title obviously).
Pretty long match actually, probably had to be at least 15-20 minutes. Pretty good match, probably similar to their last ppv match in which Sheamus got himself DQ’ed as well. Heat for Sheamus and big pop for Orton. Back and forth match, with both guys getting a good amount of offense in. Orton has some good looking clotheslines, he really looks like he would knock the big guy down with these things, which isn’t easy to pull off with the size discrepancy between the two, but Orton puts some good speed and power into those things. Sheamus gets some close near falls in the match, especially after hitting his pump kick on Orton pretty solidly at one point, in which Orton kicked out. Went for the Celtic Cross, Orton squiggled out and hit his backbreaker. He then went into his viper smacking the mat pre-rko rage, and Sheamus pushed Orton off when he went for the RKO, and then pushed the ref after to get himself DQ’ed. Orton did a good job of selling his anger with this with the ref, as Sheamus rolled out and grabbed a chair and hit Orton in the gut with it as he came back into the ring. Sheamus then goes for a chair shot to the head, misses and gets an RKO. The Miz then runs out with his money in the bank briefcase to give to the ref but also gets an RKO. He should really wait till Orton is out too if hes going to keep trying to do that, but a nice surprise to see him come back out and try it. Then the 4 members of Nexus run out to surround Orton, Orton fights them off until the Hart siren blasts. The crowd was chanting for Cena, I think he was doing his movie premiere tonight so there were im sure alot of little kiddies disappointed by the absence of their hero. I thought it would be Bret for sure as the Hart music started, just for the Canadian pop, but it was the Hart Dynasty again. Then Jerichos music hits followed by Edges and they all run out to clear the ring of Nexus, except for Otunga who got laid out in the ring and left behind as the others fleed. Randy hits an RKO on Otunga and heads out. Edge then spears Otunga, and gets on the mic and says he thinks he sees a possible new team Canada standing in the ring, as the Hart Dynasty, him and Jericho surround a fallen Otunga. Edge decides to start singing the Canadian national anthem to Otunga as he lies in the middle of the ring, as the crowd sings along with him. As he gets near the end (yep he sang the whole thing), Otunga stumbles back to his feet and eats a Codebreaker as Edge finishes off his rendition of Oh Canada to him. Edges music hits and I think that was all for the show, so thats when I headed for the exit.
Biggest pops:
1.Orton
2.Jericho
3.Edge
4.Hart Dynasty
5. John Morrison
Biggest heat:
Nexus
The Miz (although it was also kind of a pop when the music hit)
Sheamus
Alicia Fox?
Overall a pretty good show, the wrestling content was better than the average Raw telecast, and thankfully I didn’t have to listen to Michael Cole this way. Some matches had too many headlocks, but overall the energy and effort from the wrestlers was pretty good I thought. Not knowing what to expect from a house show, I came away pretty pleased with what we got.
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.
