8/31 WWE SuperShow in Boston: Curtis Axel vs. CM Punk, Dolph Ziggler vs. Big E Langston, The Shield defend their titles, and Randy Orton vs., Daniel Bryan for the WWE Championship

WWE SuperShow in Boston, Mass.
Results courtesy Dot Net reader Mark..

The balcony was completely empty. Not a huge house. The national anthem kicked things off at 7:32pm.

1. Dolph Ziggler defeated Big E Langston. Ziggler was a bump machine for Langston. Langston controled the match with power moves. Ziggler got a hope spots then was cut off again. Good heat and pace. Ziggler works better as a babyface in my opinion. Lots of false finishes. Ziggler worked hard and had the crowd behind him. Ziggler won by pinfall after 10 minutes. Great start.

2. Dean Ambrose defeated Rob Van Dam to retain the United States Championship.
Slow start to this. Ambrose is a future top guy, you can see it already. This did not match the energy of the Ziggler/Langston match. Lot of rest spots employed by the champ. Lot of outside work too. Ambrose won by reversing RVD's high-cross body with a pull of the tights after 15 minutes. As Stephanie McMahon would say, a solid B+.

Vickie Guerrero came out. Loud boos. Can't understand what she said. More heel heat than Jeff Jarrett ever had. Divas came out. Natalya, Naomi, Kaitlyn, Layla, Bella Twins, AJ. App had fans vote for either a dance off or a match. We apparently have a 6-Diva Tag match.

3. Natlaya, Kaitlyn, and Naomi defeated AJ Lee, Layla, and Brie Bella. Not sure which Bella it is, and what's the difference anyway? (Shore Has to be Brie, Nikki is hurt.) Kaitlyn pinned AJ after eight minutes. Not too bad.

4. Kofi Kingston defeated Ryback. This was almost Ziggler/Langston II, with the smaller babyface bumping for the big heel. Sporadic "Goldberg" chants. Despite very little offense, Kofi won clean via pinfall with a roll-up. Quick, okay match that was booked to look fluky, which I guess protects Ryback. If that even matters in this day in age.

5. Mark Henry and Big Show defeated The Shield by disqualification in a WWE Tag Team Championship match. The Shield began the match by putting over their size/strength disadvantage. They begged off the way good heels do. Lots of ring psychology here to start. They kept a slow pace but the crowd was into it. Henry took the hot tag and cleaned house. Crowd was really into this one. Ambrose came in with a chair to get The Shield DQ'd. RVD maked the save. If this were 1985, they'd book a "return" six-man tag next month.

INTERMISSION

6. The Wyatt Family defeated R-Truth and the Usos. Bray sat on the rocking chair, so it was a 3 on 2 to start. Bray eventually tagged in. Random "USA" chant, which was totally out of place. Okay match. Bray pinned Truth after Sister Abigail.

7. CM Punk defeated Curtis Axel (w/Paul Heyman) in a no disqualification match. Paul Heyman grabbed the mic and exercised article 17.4 of Axel's contract which made this match non-title due to the no-DQ. Punk came out with a kendo stick and cleared the ring. He won via pinfall in literally 3 minutes. Then he beat on Heyman with the kendo stick. Then he went back in the ring and took a chair to Axle.

8. Randy Orton defeated Daniel Bryan to retain the WWE Championship. Bryan is over big. Orton came out slow, selling the strap. Orton got a huge face pop too, which was weird. Orton, perhaps realizing this, began mocking the "YES!" chants, which drew some boos. Good back and forth. Crowd was into the match. Again, as much as Orton worked as a heel, the crowd here seemed to love him. The fact that the crowd isn't totally behind Bryan is making this match strange for me to watch. Orton superplexed Bryan at one point, tipping a cap to his old man. Good action. Bryan had Orton ready to tap until Brad Maddox pulled the ref out of the ring. The Shield interfered and Orton pinned Bryan after an RKO. The Shield beat down Bryan until Ziggler, RVD, and Mark Henry make the save and beat down The Shield. And we were outta there at 10:30pm.