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8/30 WWE Raw in Brisbane: Australian regular disappointed by lack of the annual battle royal and advertised matches not taking place, plus C.M. Punk vs. John Cena vs. Big Show in a Triple Threat for WWE Championship

Posted in: WWE Live Events
By
Aug 30, 2012 - 09:22 PM

WWE Raw Live Event
Brisbane, Australia
Report by Dot Net reader Beau Dabron


1. Brodus Clay over Jack Swagger via pinfall. Very slow opening match. Cameron and Naomi were both present and did their best to keep the crowd engaged. After the match, half a dozen kids were brought to the ring to dance with Clay and the Funadactyls. Yawn.

A pre-taped promo from Daniel Bryan was shown on the video screen. He complained about the crowd chanting "Yes!" when he says "No!" He finished by saying that he would defeat Zack Ryder, which set up the next match. An Australia presenter from Channel 9's TODAY Show made an awful entrance to massive heat to be guest ring announcer for the next match.

2. Zack Ryder over Daniel Bryan via pinfall. Quite an entertaining match. Plenty of crowd interaction with chants like "Yes!", "No!", "Woo Woo Woo." There was even a huge "goat-face" chant. Justin Roberts chimed in to tell the crowd that Daniel Bryan does not have a goat-face.

The Miz came out and cut a promo before his match. He talked about being champion this time he is in Australia, being champion last time he was here, and that nothing the crowd says will change that. He went to deliver the "I'm Awesome" line to massive heat then played the crowd "like a bunch of puppets" as he put it. Every time he put the mic to his mouth, the crowd booed. Every time the mic was pointed at Justin Roberts or the ref there were massive cheers. As always, Miz's promo was a highlight of the night. He definitely knows how to use the audience to get the reaction he wants.

3. The Miz over A-Ry to retain the Intercontinental Title. A fantastic back and forth match with Skull Crushing Finale for the win. A-Ry is definitely underutilized. He has an awesome in-ring ability. He wound up crowd with the "Reily" chants throughout the match as well.

Post-Match, Tensai came out and hit his finisher minus the green ooze stuff on A-Ry. Tensai said he loves, wants, and needs to fight. He issued a challenge, and said he wanted an answer before the end of the night.

4. Kofi Kingston and R-Truth defeated Primo and Epico (w/Rosa) to retain the WWE Tag Team Titles. Usual tag team action. Huge pop for Little Jimmy. Primo pretended to play with Little Jimmy while Truth and Kingston watched. Primo and Epico then got a pin to win the titles. Moments later, A.J. came down to re-start the match since Rosa knocked Kofi's foot off the bottom rope during the pinfall. Kofi and Truth retained after the restart.

(20 min Intermission)

5. Layla beat Rosa Mendes via pinfall to retain the WWE Divas Title. The usual forgettable match with back-and-forth dancing to begin. Layla got the win. It's such a shame that this was such a forgettable match. Every Divas match I have seen at house shows in Australia since 2007 have been decent matches and better than whats on TV. This one was a real letdown.

Raw Rebound showed on the mini-tron. Justin Roberts hyped Tout and Twitter.

6. Santino Marella over David Otunga via pinfall. Otunga came out first and posed before Santino made his entrance. Massive, distinctive pop for Santino. He did some comedy mostly mocking Otunga's posing. He hit the Cobra for the win. 

Tensai came out and hit his finisher on Santino. A.J. returned and said she had some guys to help fulfill his fight request - Clay, Ryder, Truth, and Kingston ran to the ring. They joined Santino and each hit their finisher on Tensai. 

7. C.M. Punk over John Cena and Big Show in a Triple Threat match to retain the WWE Championship. A disappointing match for what it could have been. Cena and Punk went straight after Show to begin. One-on-one action between Show and Cena or Show and Punk until Cena hit Show with the stairs. After Show recovered and took an AA, Punk hit Cena with the belt then covered Show for the pin.

Afterwards, Big Johnny came out and hit Cena with a chair, but then took an AA for his efforts. He was helped to the back. Cena wound down the night with some mic work. He said how much he loves Australia and thanked the crowd. He attempted to sell NOC to the crowd to send the us home happy. 

Notes: All in all this was a very underwhelming show in comparison to the previous seven years, but still a decent show overall. The new house show set is amazing. The usual "Brisbane Cup" battle royal which opens the show was nowhere to be seen nor mentioned. None of the advertised matches that have been hyped for months on our TV screens were shown (Punk vs. Bryan in submission match, Cena vs. Show and Tensai with Big Johnny). Personally, while I enjoyed the show, it felt as though the event was slapped together at the last minute.

Music and video cues were off. Justin Roberts fumbled when hyping Tout and thanking us for the night. They kept tightening the same turnbuckle on the ring (which was a little concerning). The merchandise stands were also sold out of everything well before the start of the night unless you were a seven year-old kid that likes John Cena. I usually purchase for floor seating, but as I booked the tickets at the last minute, I was in the stands. To be honest, if I had bought the floor tickets, I would have left feeling I wasted my money this time round.

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