WWE Raw house show
Daytona Beach, Fla.
Report by Dot Net reader Derek Morse

1. Vladimir Kozlov and Santino defeated The Uso Brothers (w/Tamina). The match started with some stalling by Santino, with the Uso's eventually taking control of the match, dominating Santino on there side of the ring. Santino finally makes the tag to Kozlov, who took over the match with some power moves.

Santino eventually tagged back in and hits some arm drags and a body slam the crowds delight, but the Uso's took over once again. The match ended with Kozlov hitting his finisher on one of the Uso's and pinning him for the three count, while Santino hit the other one with the Cobra. Santino also gave Tamina a big kiss on the lips when she stood on the apron trying to distract the referee.

My thoughts: A fun way to open the show. The crowd was really in to Santino and was really hot for this opening match.
 
After the match, all seven members of the Nexus ran into the ring and inflict a seven on two beatdown of Santino and Kozlov. Wade Barrett then grabbed the mic and cuts a short promo, getting incredible heat from the crowd. Heath Slater and Darren Young both also cut short promos. They basically announce that there will be a six-man tag in the main event featuring the Nexus vs Cena, Morrison, and Jericho and the Nexus will give us a preview of how they will dominate at Summer Slam. Standard heel promo, but got great heat from the crowd.
  
2. Great Khali defeated Ted DiBiase (w/Maryse). DiBiase came out first with Maryse and cut a heel promo on the crowd. He spoke about how he is so much better than everyone in the audience and how he has more money than the entire arena has combined. He mentioned that he doesn't blame anyone for being jealous of him. He then mentioned that John Cena left him off his SummerSlam team and challenged anyone in the building from that team to come out and face him so he can prove that he belongs on the team. The Great Khali's music hit, and DiBiase gets a worried look on his face.
 
DiBiase goes outside and stalls for a little while and keeps rolling back in the ring and then rolling out before Khali can make contact. Khali finally gets his hands on Dibiase and tosses him in the ring, dominating with the standard Khali offense of chops and clotheslines. DiBiase rolls out of the ring and acts like he is going to leave, but he comes back to the ring and is able to briefly gain the upper hand. on Khali, and even nails him with a DDT. Khali eventually gains the advantage back and ends up winning the match via submission with some kind of nerve hold or head vice.
 
My Thoughts: Kind of a slow plodding match, but again, the crowd was hot and seemed to be into Khali, so at least the crowd was happy. Definitely not a 5 star classic, but what can you expect with Khali?
 
3. Yoshi Tatsu defeated Primo Colon. Fun, back and forth match between these two, but the crowd was pretty silent throughout. Yoshi Tatsu won the match via pinfall, but the big story was a run in by Chris Jericho, who nailed Tatsu with the Codebreaker and asked for a mic...this oughta be good...
 
Jericho basically cut a promo on how much he hated being in Daytona Beach, and then proceeded to calls us all hypocrites, liars, cheats, and morons. He then went on to tell everyone that he is the true leader of the SummerSlam team and tried to get the crowd to chant "Team Jericho, Team Jericho." The crowd doesn't think thats a good idea and Jericho stormed away back to the locker room.
  
My thoughts: Match was fast paced and fun, but most in the crowd didn't care and were very quiet. Jericho got them making noise again with a hilarious heel promo. Just absolute classic Jericho on the mic, had me cracking up the whole time and had the crowd in the palm of his hand.
 
4. Goldust defeated William Regal. This match started with a lot of stalling by both wrestlers. Regal was jawing with a fan in the front row and Goldust was trying to get the crowd to chant "USA" to upset Regal. The match finally started after probably 3-5 minutes of stalling and it was what you'd expect from two veterans: a solid match up with solid psychology. Nothing spectacular, but nothing horrible either. Regal dominated the match on the mat, but Goldust won the match with a surprise roll up from behind.
 
My thoughts: Two veterans doing a solid, old school match. The crowd wasn't going crazy, but it was a good match for the fourth spot on the card.
 
5. Randy Orton defeated Sheamus by DQ in a WWE Championship match. Orton's music hit suddenly to a huge pop and the ring announcer looked confused. Orton grabbed the mic from her and and said he wasn't going to wait until SummerSlam or later tonight, he wanted to face Sheamus for the WWE title right now. Sheamus's music hits and we had ourselves a WWE title match!
 
This was easily match of the night and was totally a PPV quality match. It was fast paced, with both guys hitting there big moves: Sheamus with the big boot and the backbreaker and Orton with his DDT with Sheamus hung up in the middle ring rope. Both guys had a ton of near falls and Sheamus eventually grabbed a steel chair and tried to use it on Orton.

When the referee tried to get it from him, Sheamus pushed him over and got disqualified. In the meantime though, Orton recovered and nailed Sheamus with the RKO to the delight of the crowd. Orton then posed in the ring and headed back to the locker room while Sheamus laid in the middle of the ring, selling the RKO.
 
 My thoughts: Match of the night that was worthy of a PPV, minus the screwy finish, but its a house show and you know the title isn't going to change, so for what it was, an excellent match that makes me more excited to see what these two can do in a PPV setting at SummerSlam. The crowd was hot throughout and those in the audience who weren't aware that the WWE would never change there world title at a house show were completely buying all the near falls (yes, there are still people who are still clueless to the inner workings, even in the age of the internet).
 
After this match, we got a 15 minute intermission so all the little kids can drag their parents to the merchandise table and buy their John Cena foam fingers t-shirts, autographed photos, etc...
 
6. Eve and Gail Kim defeat Jillian and Alicia Fox via pinfal. Not much to report here. Eve got the pinfall victory and it was hard to see the match, with anyone who didn't go to the concession stands at intermission, going during this match.
 
My thoughts: WWE's women's division has gone way downhill since the days of Trish Stratus being their top ladies star and the silence of the crowd and the mass exodus to the restrooms and concession stands shows that they have a long way to go to get people to care about the Divas again.
 
7. The Miz defeated Evan Bourne via pinfall to retain the United States Title. The Miz came out first and and cut a funny promo. He said that many are probably asking why he didn't cash in MITB while Sheamus was lying unconscious in the ring. He then said that the reason he didn't is because he did not want his first world title win to be in Daytona Beach, FL. Funny stuff!
 
Evan Bourne then came out to a huge pop and the match was on. The Miz dominated the smaller Evan Bourne for most of the match, with Evan coming back with his brief flurry kicks and high flying moves. Evan finally got Miz in position for the Air Bourne, but Miz got his knees up at the last second and pinned Evan Bourne for the three count.
 
My Thoughts: Fun match, with Miz dominating, but Bourne making his babyface comebacks at just the right time. Bourne does a great job at being the sympathetic babyface getting beat down by the heel, but not giving up and continuing to fight back. The crowd clearly loves the guy and they could have marketable young star on there hand if he is handled right. The Miz, on the other hand, is already a star. Without a doubt, this guy has "it". He can work a great match and he is probably the best guy in the WWE on the stick besides Chris Jericho. The Miz is the future of the WWE and he will be main eventing more than one Wrestlemania in the future, there is no doubt about that.
 
8. John Cena, John Morrison, and Chris Jericho defeated Wade Barrett, David Otunga, and Skip Sheffield by DQ. The Nexus came out first to huge heel heat. From there, Morrison comes out to a nice pop, then Jericho came out to a heel reaction...and then Cena's music hit and the place exploded. Now, I have been WWF shows when Hulk Hogan was in his prime and when Steve Austin was at the top of his game, and John Cena's crowd reaction rivals those two. Whether it is boos or cheers, it is loud in there and he elicits a huge reaction from the crowd. I'm not insinuating that Cena is a bigger star than Hogan or Austin, because that simply is not true, but I am arguing that I've seen all three of them at live shows and the crowd reaction is equally as loud for all three.
 
Anyways, onto the match: Jericho and Cena argued about who will start the match and in the interest of peace, Cena stepped aside for Jericho. Jericho and Wade Barret started the match and Jericho talked some trash to him and took him down with a few wrestling moves. They went back and forth for a bit, with Jericho teasing the Walls of Jericho, and eventually Jericho runs into his corner and slapped Cena on the back and told him to get in the ring.

Cena hit some of his usual offense, but eventually he got caught in the Nexus corner and was dominated. They did a great job of teasing the hot tag only to have Nexus drag Cena back to there corner for more punishment. Finally, Cena was able to make the hot tag to Morrison, who hit a brief flurry of offense before ending up in the same predicament as Cena. Again, great job of keeping Morrison in the Nexus corner and teasing the hot tags only to have Morrison dragged away.

Finally, Morrison returned the favor and gave the hot tag to Cena who cleaned house and hits all his signature moves. The match then broke down with all six men going at it. Cena tossed Otunga and Sheffiled out of the ring and locked in the STF on Barrett. Just before he could tap out, the rest of Nexus ran down and attacked Cena for the DQ. From there, Jericho ran away and it was a 7 on 2 beatdown of Cena and Morrison.

Suddenly, here comes reinforcements: Santino, Koslov, Yoshi Tatsu, Great Khali, Evan Bourne...and Randy Orton. The Raw babyfaces cleaned out the ring, leaving Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel in the ring. They took turns holding the two remaining Nexus members up so Great Khali could chop them. From there, Cena hits the Attitude Adjustment on one of them while Orton RKO'd the other. They then stacked the two Nexus members on top of each other and Evan Bourne nails the Air Bourne on them to send the crowd home happy. The Raw babyfaces then stood in the ring with their arms raised, and Cena was the last to leave, shaking hands with all the fans at ringside.
  
My thoughts: The story of the match was Nexus dividing and conquering and although the match was pretty slow, there was very good tag team psychology and Nexus did a great job of cutting the ring in half and keeping the crowd on the edge of there seat awaiting the hot tag. My one complaint is I don't know how much it would hurt Nexus to have one of them tap out to the STF at a house show that only a few thousand people will see, but at the end of the day, the babyfaces stood triumphant and the crowd went home happy.
 
Overall thoughts: As a wrestling fan since the mid 1980's as a child, I have always enjoyed attending House Show's. Attending Monday Night Raw is fun, but there is too much downtime and you never know when you are going to attend the show that is nothing but angles but little or no wrestling. House shows give you that old school feel with the arena darkened and only the ring lit up.

The matches all have a more old school feel (likely because guys like Arn Anderson and Ricky Steamboat are back there booking the finishes) and you are sure to see 7-8 fun matches. This night was no exception. A fun house show with a hot Daytona Beach crowd made for a very enjoyable Saturday night for my wife and I. I complain about the WWE's booking as much as the next guy, but they know how to entertain the crowd and always seem to give you your money's worth at these house show events. 

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