1/17 WWE Smackdown in Anchorage report: Alberto Del Rio vs. Big Show in a No DQ match for the World Hvt. Championship, Wade Barrett vs. Sheamus in a non-title match, Randy Orton, Kane, and Daniel Bryan vs. The Shield

WWE Smackdown live event
Anchorage, Alaska at Sullivan Arena
Report by Dot Net reader Jodi Stuart

We were lucky enough to have excellent seats right off of the ramp, four rows back from the ringside barricade. I spoke with local professional wrestler, Michael Madness, and he had a chance to do the meet and greet earlier that evening. Sadly, only Prime Time Players were available. Sheamus and Orton were nice enough to sign a huge stack of pictures to be sold at concessions, but it was too bad that there weren’t more of the guys/gals out to do the meet and greet. At 7:22pm the Tony Chimel introduced 9 new recruits for the National Guard. Those recruits came out and did the oath in the ring.

1. The Uso's beat The Prime Time Players. Usos of course get a nice reaction from the crowd upon their arrival. Darren Young starts the match against Jimmy. There’s basic back and forth using the ropes until Jimmy stops in the middle of the ring after Young does his dance move to do moves of his own. They really played to the crowd. The Uso's did a lot of quick tags as they took it to Young. O’Neil barely looked interested in the corner. Young continues to get pummeled and finally has enough. He crawls out of the ring and motions a “time out.” The crowd completely got behind the Uso's and began a consistent boo for the rest of the match. Finally, after Young gets back in the ring and as they do a back and forth off of the ropes, O’Neil does a blind tag while Young is in mid-air. The Uso's win with a double diving head butt.

Chimel comes back out and makes an announcement that the main event between Big Show and Del Rio will be audience choice. He gives information about how to vote, but honestly, he just had to wait for the crowd chant of “No DQ.”

2. Justin Gabriel beat Curt Hawkins. Hawkins plays to the crowd to get them riled up by getting on the mic and talking smack. When Gabriel comes out, he comes out to a huge pop. When the match got under way, Gabriel slips off the ropes almost immediately. Hawkins jumps on this and there was an awkward series of blows between the two of them. Gabriel rallies and does a cross body on Hawkins outside of the ring. Back in the ring, there was a flurry of kicks that turned to be sloppy and slow. They seemed more in training than performing at a live event. There were three close call pins followed by Gabriel moving to the top rope where he awkwardly does a jump over Hawkins and almost does a face plant. Gabriel picks up the win after a back flip off the bottom rope. Hawkins recovers after Gabriel leaves and gets booed out LOUDLY just walking back down the ramp.

3. Layla beat Aksana. Aksana does her fake outs with the fans on her entrance. Layla makes her entrance to the ring. Aksana goes to ringside and does another fake out, to which Layla goes and gives the same fan a hug. Huge pop for Layla before the match event starts. The two lock up, and Aksana claims there was hair pulling. She locks up with Layla and actual hair pulling by Aksana occurs. Very slow start to the match until Layla drop kicks Aksana and begins mocking her in the ring while Aksana recovers. Aksana comes back into the ring, and the two lock up leading to Aksana doing a number of pins. The crowd completely goes quiet with Aksana in control. Although Aksana kept the momentum of the match going, Layla gets the win even though she was certainly not the better performer this night. At the end, Layla recognizes a fan’s sign and walks down the ramp.

4. Kofi Kingston beat Heath Slater (w/Jinder Mahal). Slater does the traditional heel smack talk to the crowd and riles everyone up for Kofi’s entrance. Kofi interrupts Slater and Mahal and gets the crowd booming with him and booing Slater. Mahal is at ringside. Kofi laughs off antics of Slater’s air guitar, and they lock up. Kofi does a nice drop toe hold on Slater. Kofi continues on the offense with the crowd completely behind him until Slater decides to take a walk out of the arena. Kofi brings the fight to Slater outside of the ring, but Slater is the one to put Kofi into the barricade. Slater does an awkward headstand before changing it into a bridge pin. Kofi tries to fight out of the Slater offense, but Slater does a flurry of moves off of the ropes keeping Kofi down. Slater takes Kofi to the corner top rope where Kofi gets a cross body slam on Slater. Slater’s performance was better than expected even with his obvious mistakes. Jinder gets in Kofi’s face at ringside allowing Kofi to take advantage of the distraction by backing away from Jinder as Slater comes forward for a clothesline. Jinder takes the hit and falls to the ground. Kofi took the win after a Trouble in Paradise to Slater. Jinder takes to the mic again, and Kofi kicks them both out of the ring to the cheers of the crowd.

Big Show comes on the TV screen in the arena and calls out Del Rio.

5. Daniel Bryan, Kane, and Randy Orton defeated The Shield by DQ. Hell No come out separately. Chants of yes reverberate off of the walls. Orton comes out to a huge pop. The three of them are in the ring when The Shield’s music starts, and the spotlight goes around the arena until they stop on The Shield as the come through the crowd. Sadly, there were no fan reactions as they make their way to the ring. When The Shield gets to the ring, Kane and Bryan start the match early before the bell. Kane starts the official match against Seth Rollins. Kane audibly begins calling the match. There’s a double team by Ambrose and Rollins on Kane in The Shield’s corner. This double team turns into a three on one moment. Kane fights out and tags Bryan. Bryan beats Rollins into the corner and does his no chant. While Rollins sits in the corner, Bryan takes off his shirt to cheers and throws it into the crowd. Rollins suffers a blind tag by Reigns. Reigns slams Bryan and tags in Ambrose. Bryan awkwardly blocks hits by Ambrose in the corner. The Randy chants start while Bryan suffers through a series of quick tags. Bryan tries to get back into control and gets Ambrose into a small package. Ambrose kicks out and drags Bryan back to his corner. Bryan finally fights his way out with Reigns recovering from a series of kicks in the corner. The roof blows up as Orton looks like he will be tagged in by Bryan. When Orton is tagged, Rollins brings in a chair causing a disqualification. Hell No/Orton take the win due to disqualification. Orton, Bryan, and Kane stand in the middle of the ring when “hug it out” begins (Smackdown spoiler). Orton becomes the meat in a sandwich of Kane and Bryan. Orton, as he makes his way out of the arena, does autographs and pictures around ringside.

Chimel makes announcements about the Rock at Royal Rumble and Shopzone products leading to 15 minute intermission.

6. The Great Khali (w/Hornswoggle) beat David Otunga. Otunga comes out and does several bodybuilding poses in the ring. It was reminiscent of Lex Luger during his early days in WWF. It was a surprise to see this match as it wasn’t advertised before or during the night. Khali and Hornswoggle come out to cheers with Khali starting the match with a chop to Otunga. After that, Otunga maintains control of the match with various leg maneuvers and submission moves. The match had a lackluster crowd reaction. Hornswoggle attempts to get the audience involved, but the cheers end quickly. Things didn’t get interesting until Hornswaggle actually got into the ring. Hornswoggle mimic’s the Ultimate Warrior which received more heat than the rest of the match combined. Khali takes the win with the aid of Hornswoggle.

Chimel promotes Tout.

7. Sheamus beat Intercontinental Champion Wade Barrett in a non-title match. Barrett walks out to the ring and begins complaining about Alaska and calls the crowd cheeky. He continues to use the third person references-Rock jealous maybe? He then introduces Sheamus himself. Sheamus and Barrett start slow with basic lock ups and rope work. Barrett continues to slow things down even more by walking around the ring. Sheamus brings Barrett back in and proceeds to do his 10 chops. Barrett clotheslines Sheamus outside of the ring in response. Another count starts. Barrett goes after Sheamus and gets a shoulder block for his troubles. Barrett maintains control for the middle of the match. There were two solid kicks by Barrett leading to a close pin. Sheamus turns things around by getting Barrett into a modified Boston Crab while the crowd shouts for the Brogue Kick. Sheamus tries a White Noise but Barrett kicks out of it. Sheamus takes the win with the Brogue Kick after Barrett dodges from the first one. Sheamus signs autographs and chats with fans afterward.

8. Alberto Del Rio (w/Ricardo Rodriguez) beat Big Show in a No DQ to retain the World Hvt. Championship. The match turned into a No DQ match with 76% of the votes. Show starts off the match calling it audibly. It immediately goes to the outside which gets Chimel and Ricardo to move up the ramp from their place at the sidelines. Big Show and Del Rio do some back and forth with Show shoving Del Rio back into the ring. Show takes a chair and brings it in the ring, but Del Rio uses it on Show’s back. Del Rio keeps up the attach until Show goes outside the ring again. Del Rio follows him out only to get hit repeatedly with Chimel’s mic. Audience chants of we want tables fills the arena.

Del Rio does a drop kick on Show, and he then jumps on Show’s back for a sleeper hold. Show drops on Del Rio breaking the hold and goes to ringside for the first table. He brings the table to the corner of the ring, but Del Rio reverses the Irish Whip on Show sending him through the table. Del Rio tries to jump over a fallen Show, but stumbles. This allows for Show to pull himself out of the ring for the second table. As he pulls the table in Ricardo tries to stop him but gets a table to the gut. Show sets ups the table in the ring and places Del Rio on top. Show climbs to the top rope to drop onto Del Rio; Ricardo gets up just in time to hit Show in the head with the bucket which allows Del Rio to get off the table. Show gets off balanced and falls through the table allowing Del Rio to take the win. Show, as he reaches the end of the ramp, does a Taker move by raising one fist in the air.

In other words, even with some iffy matches, Alaskans had a great night of WWE fun. Fairbanks’ show would probably be very similar in style.