WWE SmackDown/ECW Live Event Results
August 15th, 2009 – Mankato, Minnesota
Report by F4Wonline, Aaron Goff
First match- Findlay beat Mike Knox with a shilleilagh shot. Nothing special other than a typical back and forth match.
Second match- Vladimir Koslov beat Jimmy Wang Yang. Glorified squash match. The only thing I can say is too match Koslov wasn’t around during the Hogan area because he would have been the perfect opponent for him.
Third match- Melina and Maria beat the Bella Twins. I am not a big fan of Diva matches as you can insert any of them into a match and they all do the same moves and are basically eye candy. Melina pinned one of the twins with her split legdrop.
Fourth match- Dolph Ziggler beat R-Truth. This match went 20 minutes and 10 of it was Dolph Ziggler channeling his obvious influence of Larry Zybyszko as he stalled and argued with the crowd for literally half the match. He did good job of getting heel heat but is went on too long. If they go ahead and plan on putting the IC Belt on him and get behind him, he can be a major player. Good match with Ziggler winning with downward spiral unnamed move.
Fifth match- Cryme Tyme and Eva beat the Hart Dynasty when Shad pinned Kidd. Fun match, but the only disappointing thing was Kidd being the best worker in the match didn’t get more time in the ring.
Sixth match- CM Punk beat John Morrison. They have done a great job in making Punk into a believable main event heel. Good back and forth match with all their big moves with Punk winning with the GTS.
Seventh match- Christian beat Tommy Dreamer, Shelton Benjamin, and William Regal when Christian pinned Benjamin with the Killswitch. Really good match. It really emphasized how really good and how underutilized Benjamin is.
Eigth match- The Great Khali vs Kane in a lumberjack match. I do not know about the average wrestling fan, but as a main event, I was disappointed. I am sure the lumberjacks were added to help what they knew was going to be a crappy match. Khali won with his tree slam and ended the evening dancing in the ring with R-Truth and Cryme Tyme.
I live in the the Minneapolis area and decided to travel the 90 miles to go to Mankato. Big disappointment that Jeff Hardy and Rey Mysterio did not show up. Fans have already been conditioned to know that nothing major happens at house shows and you basically go to see the stars you see on tv and when neither of the brand’s biggest stars even bother to show up, it really sends a message to that city and is probably a reason for poor attendance in a small town that does not get much live wrestling action. The RAW crew will be in St. Paul in a couple of weeks and because it is a big city, I assume most of the big names will be here, but if they keep treating the small towns like an afterthought, then they should be surprised that attendance keeps dwindling every time they come back.
