WWE RAW Live Event Results
August 16th, 2009 – Cape Girardeau, MO
Report by Hunter Hendricks
Not a huge turnout for this particular event, which is odd. WWE live events usually get close to selling out here, as they did back in February, but there were plenty of noticeably empty seats tonight.
Santino Marella def. Chavo Guerrero (Pinfall, Hornswoggle distraction into a roll-up)
Santino’s schtick was pretty funny, and Chavo played the grumpy heel just fine. Near the end, Hornswoggle came out from under the ring to keep Chavo busy until Santino rolled him up for the win. Not too bad of an opener.
Primo def. Alex Riley (?) (Pinfall, top-rope crossbody)
I’ll take the audience’s side on this one: “Boooooooo-ring!” Primo’s personality is practically non-existent. Riley wore a sleeveless letterman’s jacket, playing a variation of Striker’s old gimmick with an “improv” twist. He asked the crowd for topics suggestions in his pre-match promo, deciding on, “How did you get to be such a good athlete?” (Of course, no one actually suggested that…) The match was nothing to write home about, in the end.
The Miz def. Jamie Noble (Pinfall, something-or-other)
Great pre-match promo from the Miz, who asked the fans, “This is the Show-Me State, huh? Well, have you seen enough yet?” Technically decent match, though the ending was tough to follow–after Miz threw Noble shoulder-first into the turnbuckle, Jamie stumbled back, and a seemingly botched sequence led to the pin by the Miz. (Wasn’t aware Noble was even still employed…)
Evan Bourne def. Jack Swagger (Pinfall, Shooting Star Press following MVP distraction)
The crowd was hot for Bourne, considering how close Cape is to St. Louis. Great match, with lots of power-move domination by Swagger, leading to an exciting comeback sequence by Bourne. Toward the end, Bourne almost hit the SSP, but Swagger blocked it and sent him to the apron. MVP strolled out to the entryway to get Swagger’s attention, and a rope-assisted kick to the back of the head by Bourne led to the SSP and the pin. Aside from the main event, this was the match of the night, both in wrestling and “sports-entertainment” quality.
United States Champion Kofi Kingston def. Carlito to retain the US title (Pinfall, Trouble in Paradise)
The original advertised title defense here was supposed to be Kofi vs. Swagger, and though we were treated to Bourne vs. Swagger instead, this match suffered as a result. Kofi was very over with the predominantly young crowd, but Carlito was like a black hole of audience heat–the silence during his offensive sections of the match was deafening. Fortunately, this was kept relatively short.
After the (very brief) intermission…
Mickie James & Gail Kim def. Beth Phoenix & Rosa Mendes (Pinfall, Mickie pins Rosa after a handstand roundhouse kick)
Yet again, nothing really of note here. Gail’s moves were very crisp, and when she and Beth were the legal women for their respective teams, the in-ring action was great. Everything else was just filler. Humorous moment post-match when Beth carries the “unconscious” Rosa to the back over her shoulder.
The Big Show def. MVP (Pinfall, chokeslam)
Once again, the crowd was hot for MVP, but the match was paint-by-numbers. (Giving credit where it’s due, Big Show drew a considerable amount of heat as well, but it didn’t help the actual wrestling any. Perhaps notably, Show also didn’t bring his Tag Team titles to the ring with him.) This seemed to be more of a set-up for the post-match segment where Swagger got his revenge on MVP by nailing him with a gut wrench powerbomb, though the first time that Jack lifted him, MVP apparently sandbagged, and Swagger had to try twice on the lift. It wasn’t obvious whether this was intentional or not, but MVP stuck around after the show and signed autographs for longer than any other superstar, so if he was dissatisfied with something, he didn’t show it…
Main Event: John Cena, Triple H, and Mark Henry def. Legacy (WWE Champion Randy Orton, Ted Dibiase Jr., and Cody Rhodes) in a six-man tag-team match (Double Pinfall following the Pedigree and the Attitude Adjustment on Dibiase and Rhodes)
Even though a large portion of the crowd was expecting HBK to replace Henry in this match, they didn’t seem disappointed — Henry was actually very over with the fans once the match began. Lots of comedy spots here: Orton took a hat off of the head of a fan in the front row and hurled it into the crowd (twice!), prompting Cena to take the house mic and inform him that, “you know we’re about to beat the hell out of you, but if you keep acting up like that, these people are going to beat the hell out of you!” None of Legacy wanted to be in the ring against Henry, leading to lots of blind tags on the heel side of the ring to their unwilling partners. Dibiase was in particularly bad shape, as he kept slipping through the middle rope to get the referee to force Henry back, which eventually led to Henry spanking Dibiase–literally–while his back was turned. Great psychology by Legacy too: once they isolated HHH in their corner, they would literally tag in and out of the match like an assembly line, rotating the legal man every few punches, stomps, or kicks as they worked their way around the apron clockwise. Everybody got to hit their trademarks, and in the end, Henry chased Orton to the back while Cena and HHH hit simultaneous finishers for the win.
Not the best live WWE event to ever come through Cape, but certainly not the worst, either. Though a good contingent of the superstars seemed to be going through the motions (specifically Show, Noble, Primo, and Carlito), lots of others stepped up their game (Miz, Bourne, Swagger, and the entire main event) to send the fans home happy.
Biggest Pops:
1) John Cena
2) HHH
3) Evan Bourne
(Also: Kofi, MVP, and Mark Henry)
Most Heat:
1) Randy Orton
2) The Miz
3) Jack Swagger
(Also: Dibiase/Rhodes)
