10/17 WWE Raw in Columbus, Ga.: Older woman has to be restrained after being spat upon, WWE developmental wrestler scores impressive heat with his promo, John Cena and Triple H team two nights before their Raw match

WWE Raw House Show
Columbus, Ga.
Report by Dot Net reader Pepper Spurlock

The Columbus Civic Center holds about 12,000 with the seats on the floor for wrestling. I'd say there were about 9,000 people in attendance. LOTS of DX glow sticks in the crowd.

1. Evan Bourne defeated Chavo Guererro in 14:12 with the Shooting Star Press. Lots of chain wrestling early on. Evan hit a double knee dive onto a standing Chavo off the top, but Chavo rolled through and countered with a single crab. Awesome counter. At 11:30, Evan missed a huracanrana off the top rope and bumped awkwardly. Chavo set up for the frog splash, but Hornswaggle hit the ring. Chavo beat him up, but Evan caught him with a standing huracanrana which set up the win with the shooting star press.

After the match, Evan and Horny threw DX glow sticks into the crowd. Kelly Kelly had a wireless mic in the crowd and asked a trivia question (What is the name of the next PPV?) The kid got it right (Bragging Rights) and they gave him and his family front row seats. Nice gesture.

2. Primo Colon defeated Heath Slater in 8:27 with the Backstabber. Slater, who looks like Christian circa 1998, is a former FCW champion apparently. He came out and cut a promo which was effective because he had more heat than most of the other heels on the card. That is amazing since no one knew who he was. They opened with a comedy spot, but Primo settled in on offense shortly after. Slater cut him off and went with a rear chin lock. The rear chin lock seems to be the bulk of Slater's offense. He isn't bad, but he definitely works a SLOW pace. Kinda like Orton. Primo hit the backstabber out of nowhere for the win.

3. Chris Masters defeated Santino Marella in 6:32 with the Masterlock. Masters had no heat, mainly because everyone was in awe. He is an impressive physical specimen. Santino came out to a huge pop. He cut a promo on Masters, basically calling him "gorilla boy" and something about dating a girl named Georgia. They opened with comedy spots early, but the match was basically a Masters squash. Santino "hulked up" at 5:00 which was hilarious, but he eventually submitted to the Masterlock.

4. WWE Divas Championship Match: Melina defeated Jillian Hall in 5:50 with the split leg lariat-leg drop combo. Hugh pop for Melina. Biggest face pop of the night so far. Standard divas match with lots of sloppy offense. Melina hit her finisher for the win.

5. Jack Swagger defeated MVP in 10:33 with the gut wrench powerbomb. Swagger came out to some good heat; he had the most heat so far. MVP came out to a descent pop. Swagger worked the crowd and a LOUD MVP chant broke out. At 3:00, Swagger punched MVP with an uppercut in the corner and spit ended up hitting a little old lady in the front row. She went off!!! Security had to restrain her. MVP hit the "Ballin" spot at 9:30 and the crowd played along. From there it turned into a false finish-fest. MVP missed a big boot in the corner and turned around into the gut wrench powerbomb. Swagger left the ring to a chorus of boos. MVP got the sympathy chant.

6. WWE United States Title Match: The Miz defeated Kofi Kingston in 15:17 with the Skullcrushing Finale. Miz came out to even more heat than Swagger had. He cut a promo, but I couldn't catch most of it because the crowd was booing so loud. He ended with the "I'm the Miz, and I'm awesome." I got that much because the crowd stopped booing long enough to sing along before starting the booing again.

Kofi came out to a decent pop. They billed him as being from Jamaica instead of Kenya. This was a compete trainwreck-style match with LOTS of near falls. We know Kofi can go, but dang, the Miz kept up with him at every turn. At 12:45, Kofi hit the Boom Boom double leg drop spot. At 14:45, Miz untied the turnbuckle pad. While the ref was busy fixing it, Kofi rolled Miz up and had him pinned for about 10 seconds. The crowd nearly came unglued. At this point the ref had the most heat. At 15:00, Miz crotched Kofi on the top rope which led to the Skull Crushing Finale and the win.

7. WWE Championship Match: John Cena defeated Randy Orton in 7:40 by DQ. Orton took 1:47 to walk to the ring. Huge heat, but oddly not as much as Miz. Cena came out to a MASSIVE pop. Orton took a powder as soon as the bell rang. They worked the 2 bumps and powder routine. At 3:30, Orton raked Cena's eyes and took over. At 7:20, Cena countered the RKO with the STF. At 7:40, Legacy hit the ring and attacked Cena. HHH came out to make the save.

8. John Cena and Triple H defeated Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes, and Ted DiBiase in 14:38 in a handicap tag match. The brawled to the floor to open. Early on, the faces work over Ted and Cody. At 3:00, Cody cuts off Cena. They spend the next 4 minutes working over Cena. Hot tag at 7:30, and HHH tries to pedigree Cody. Orton makes the save. They spent the next nine minutes working over HHH. HHH finally makes the hot tag again at the 18:00 mark. Cena does the "You can't see me" spot, but the proverbial "pier six brawl" breaks out before he can cover DiBiasie. Orton powders and leaves Cody to get pedigreed while Ted gets the attitude adjustment. HHH pinned Cody.

Notes: Overall, it was not bad for a house show. My six year-old son had a blast. Columbus is notorious for not attending events well. We couldn't even sell out the building for the '96 KISS reunion tour. Our minor league baseball and basketball teams skipped town due to low attendance. WCW used to come to town to tape Thunder and would have to rope off half the arena. WWE used to tape Smackdown here, but stopped due to low ticket sales. So, for a house show I'd say it did very well. Perhaps WWE will consider coming back for Smackdown or Raw again.

Biggest pops:
Cena - not even close
HHH
Melina
Santino
Kofi

Most heat:
Miz
Orton
Legacy
Heath Slater
Swagger