8/5 WWE Raw in Dothan, Alabama: A second look at the show featuring John Cena vs. Big Show in a cage, CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan in a street fight, and Dean Ambrose vs. Alex Riley

Dot Net reader Jason Campbell attended the WWE Raw house show event in Dothan, Alabama and sent along the following report.

An energized, FULL house at the Dothan Civic Center was treated to a very nice RAW house show for the 2ndstraight year. Here’s the rundown:

1. Brodus Clay vs. Heath Slater. Slater declared if he won he would get to take the Funkadactyls with him. Slater actually got a figure four on Clay at one point but victory was not to be, as Clay scored the pin with the big splash after a nice, but short match to get the crowd going.

2. Kofi Kingston and R-Truth defeated Prime Time Players w/AW to retain the Tag Team titles. PTP got the win and were awarded the titles after Darren Young’s finisher but Kofi’s foot was under the ropes. GM AJ Lee came out and restarted the match where Kofi and Truth immediately hit their finishers and got a double pin. Darren Young appeared to get his nose bloodied in the match. Good entertaining match.

3. Layla defeated Alicia Fox to retain the Divas title. Fox played a reluctant heel in the match and Layla laughed and danced her way through a pretty poor match. Layla hit her neckbreaker for the pin.

4. Alex Riley defeated Dean Ambrose. Ambrose cut a short promo but was interrupted by Riley who got a massive ovation and was very good with the crowd. Ambrose showed some cool body language but not much else as Riley hit a swinging neckbreaker for the pin.

5. CM Punk defeated Daniel Bryan to retain the WWE title. Fans voted by text for a Street Fight over a 2 out of 3 falls match. AJ Lee announced the match style at the start. Probably the match of the night with Punk playing the major babyface. They really got the crowd into the match as Bryan didn’t want anyone chanting “yes” and refused to go outside the ring for a street fight. He said he would participate in a “wrestling” match only and would immediately slide back into the ring after being thrown out. Eventually, it went full on street fight with the kendo sticks and chairs before Punk hit the GTS for the win and a big crowd reaction.

Brief intermission.

6. Santino Marella defeated Jack Swagger to retain the US title. Almost nothing but comedy here. Santino secretly put on the cobra sleeve while Swagger was showboating. Swagger kept tapping Santino on the back to get him to turn around. Santino laughed several times before finally turning around to hit the cobra and get the pin.

7. Chris Jericho and Zack Ryder defeated The Miz and Dolph Ziggler. Great action throughout the match. All the superstars were very over. Miz and Ziggler got a good bit of cheers. Jericho was especially good with the crowd and scored the pin with a Codebreaker on Miz. Jericho went around the ring and shook hands with the fans afterwards.

8. John Cena defeated Big Show in a steel cage. It was interesting to watch the ring crew piece together the cage beforehand. Cena came out to a mix of mostly cheers but some boos. The match started off very slowly with several sleeper and bear hug spots but the match picked up nicely with several near escapes. Some nice “Let’s go Cena, Cena sucks” chants occurred also. One memorable moment had Show crawling out the door while Cena was going over the top of the cage right above the door. Cena had to push Show back in as Cena climbed back in though the door from the outside. After 2 failed attempts to lift Show for the AA earlier, Cena finally hit his finisher for the pin victory. Surprisingly, Cena didn’t stick around long and went straight up the ramp to the back.

Overall show was very well done and the Dothan crowd went home very happy.

Biggest Pops:
CM Punk
John Cena
Jericho
A-Ry

Biggest Heat:
Daniel Bryan
Big Show
PTP
Swagger