WWE RAW Live Event Results
September 6th, 2009 – Madison, Wisconsin
Report by PWInsider, Gregory Davis
The venue was only about half full. Your ring announcer was Tony Chimmel. There was no diva “guest hostess”, as I’ll get into in a minute.
Evan Bourne defeated Chavo Guerrero with the Air Bourne. Fun opener, which was mostly dominated by Chavo. He is very underrated, getting under the crowd’s skin with ease. Of course, Hornswoggle appeared from under the ring as a distraction, leading to an Air Bourne for the win. Afterward, little Horny put Evan on his shoulders. Again, what does that say about Evan?
Chris Masters defeated Alex Riley with the Masterlock. Dull match. Unlike the last few weeks where he had been portraying a college athlete, Riley was simply a high-fiving generic babyface, and there was simply no reason to care about him. Heck I lost track of who was who at times. By the end, the crowd was somewhat cheering for the Masterlock, just so the match would end.
Sheamus defeated Santino Marella with a Rock Bottom backbreaker. These two played off each other well. Santino thought he saw a ghost, and encouraged the crowd to chant something along the lines of “get some sun!” By the way, Sheamus arrived with Arn Anderson before the show, just so you know.
Kelly Kelly and Gail Kim defeated Beth Phoenix and Rosa Mendes with a K2 (a jumping famouser). Mickie James wasn’t here tonight, despite being advertised, and appearing on the tour’s other shows, so Kelly was removed from her guest hostess role and placed in the match. Ironically, the same thing happened in Madison earlier this year, when Beth disappeared off the road mid-tour, and was replaced by Candice Michelle. Anyway, it was a decent match, with the match being good or bad depending on when the veterans and young guns were in the ring.
Kofi Kingston defeated The Miz and MVP with Trouble in Paradise to retain the United States Championship. The Miz came out first, and Tony Chimel, while not having Lillian’s legs, is still a great ring announcer, announced Miz’s name in a quick “THA MIZ” manner that he had done on the Dirt Sheet, which I really enjoyed. Miz noted that they booed him, despite all the charity work he’s done, name dropping each charity, including one in Madison. I’m not sure what point he was trying to make there. This was the usual solid work from all involved. One fun sequence saw one roll up the other in some manner, while the third would break it up, roll him up, and the process repeated about ten times. The TIP was hit on Miz for the win. Afterward, Kofi and MVP raised each other’s hand, which I found odd.
A couple kids came out to model some T-shirts and throw more in the crowd, which means it was time for intermission.
Mark Henry defeated Jack Swagger with the World’s Strongest Slam. This was sorta slow, but OK. By the way, I haven’t really mentioned this, but in all the Raw live shows I’ve seen of late, Henry has worn his traditional black ring gear, even though he’s been wearing the unflattering red ring gear on Raw. I’m going to buy into the theory that someone is trying to bury him. Anyway, it was the usual “chop down the legs” match. Swagger never really had a chance.
In a complete and total surprise of the decade, Triple H defeated Legacy, Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes, with a Pedigree. Legacy did some mic work, noting the DX signs and glow sticks, saying they were going to revenge what happened at SummerSlam. When HHH came out, the lights were shut off, cueing everyone to break out the DX glow sticks, although he still came out to The Game. Hunter did some mic work, noting how they enjoyed performing two on one. In fairness, Legacy did dominate most of the match. But in the end, Cody fell to the Pedigree. Afterward, Legacy took him out and laid him out. At this point, the WWE-constructed ring light starting going on and off, prompting the crew to shine the spotlights on the ring for the rest of that moment. We though it was some how related to the Triple H entrance, but then someone checked under the ring from where the cables were hooked up to, so there was some accident. There were no further incidents.
In the main event, John Cena defeated Randy Orton by DQ; Orton retained the WWE Championship. Orton is slow. By the time he posed with the belt on a corner, his song had played entirely. Chimel did an old-school boxing announcement. It was your standard house show match between the two. Cena was in control early, Orton dominated a lot, and Cena made a couple comebacks. When Cena put on the STF, Legacy hit the ring for a DQ. Triple H made the save, and the two hit stereo Attitude Adjustments and Pedigrees. I left at that point, but I’m sure they played with the crowd for about ten more minutes.
Another note is that for the last few shows, one of the matches has been “sponsored” by the nearest MyNetwork TV station.
As always, I’ll have photos from before and during the show (twas too dark to do anything afterward) on my Flickr account at http://www.flickr.com/chicago38
