11/8 WWE Raw in Newcastle, England: Mick Foley serves as special referee for Kevin Nash, The Miz, and R-Truth vs. John Cena, Kofi Kingston, and Zack Ryder, Alberto Del Rio vs. C.M. Punk for the WWE Championship


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11/8 WWE Raw in Newcastle, England: Mick Foley serves as special referee for Kevin Nash, The Miz, and R-Truth vs. John Cena, Kofi Kingston, and Zack Ryder, Alberto Del Rio vs. C.M. Punk for the WWE Championship
Nov 9, 2011 - 11:10 AM


WWE Raw live event
Newcastle, England
Report courtesy of Twitter.com/Wrestlingscribe.


The arena was very close to sold-out, with a noticeable distinct difference in demographics: the young boys covered almost head-to-toe in John Cena merchandise, and the men wearing the "Best in the World" CM Punk t-shirts. The exception to this division was when the men were fathers to the boys, otherwise it really was a case of "separating the men from the boys."

This was the night after the airing of Monday Night Raw "Supershow" live from Liverpool and meant there were a few switch-ups to what has become a consistent pattern in matches and results from this European tour.

1. Santino Marella beat David Otunga. This was quite a laboured match which gave the Harvard Law graduate a generous amount of offence before falling to the Cobra. Nice enough short and sweet crowd pleaser to start with.

2. Mason Ryan defeated Curt Hawkins. Hawkins emerged with rock pants and walking cane and reminded me of Brian Pillman until he got into the ring and let the charisma be drained from him by opponent Mason Ryan, who - despite Justin Roberts introducing the Welshman as hailing from, simply, "the United Kingdom" - didn't generate much of a pop or, indeed, a great deal of crowd interest for this match. It was painful to watch Hawkins just bump around for Ryan, who hit his finisher for the pinfall win and the second babyface victory.

3. Alex Riley defeated Michael McGillicutty. The third face triumph in a row came courtesy of Newcastle crowd favourite Alex Riley, who engaged in a decent exchange of moves with the wasted potential of Mr Perfect Jr, Michael McGillicutty before going on to win. This provided a much-needed boost of wrestling action, and it was fun to see Riley so over.

Speaking of "perfect," the US Champion of self-proclaimed "perfection," Dolph Ziggler (sans Vickie) cut a promo en route to the ring and a title defense in a triple threat match including the popular John Morrison and Drew McIntyre.

4. Dolph Ziggler defeated John Morrison and Drew McIntyre in a Triple Threat to retain the United States Championship. McIntyre interestingly, split the crowd (so close to the Scotland border, heel McIntyre was both jeered and cheered as well). The heels took turns taking bumps to the outside for breathers, and there were a few rest holds, but overall a good match making most of the three-man dynamic. Ziggler retained, of course, but the most interesting result from this match was the fact that, despite a self-aggrandising promo from "Heel Ziggler," Dolph enjoyed a scary amount of applause and even some chants in his favor. How long before heel Ziggler becomes face Ziggler?

In true British house show fashion, fiendish actions were required post-match in order to provoke an incident where the face could stand tall: Dolph went for a belt shot to add insult to injury, only for Morrison to come back and blast Ziggler with Starship Pain, which truly does look incredible live. Morrison deserves more than the Melina-induced de-push of late.

For a pre-interval segment, the Bella Twins came out to pick four fans for a dance contest, the winner of which would get to go backstage to meet the WWE Superstars. In what seemed too good to be true, each contestant was from different nearby rival localities representing the mixed north-east crowd: Newcastle, Middlesbrough, Sunderland, and the country across the border, Scotland. From two young women, a young man, and a small Scottish boy, it was astonishing to witness the biggest pop by this point thus far coming from the young lad's victory.

5. Beth Phoenix defeated Eve to retain the WWE Divas Championship. Beth kissed the belt before handing it to the referee to raise above his head. Beth regressed into hissy fit heel mode, stalling and garnering some heat with reverse psychology, telling the fans to quiet down. None of this worked particularly well, as - despite a really impressive move set from Eve with several minutes allocated for her to perform - fans were seemingly conditioned to not care about the divas division or its title. Beth retained, then - a la Ziggler - attacked Eve after the bell to provoke none other than Kelly Kelly, running to the ring to make the save (or rather, cantering to the ring in street clothes and taking an eternity to do so). I felt bad for Eve, who worked so hard and then Kelly stole the spotlight. Perfect reasoning for a future heel turn.

A real treat was Mick Foley being introduced as special guest referee in street clothes for a six-man match between John Cena, Kofi Kingston and Zack Ryder - all of whom were over, but none as much as Foley himself who inspired chants as he plugged his comedy show and induced a cheap pop. The heels were Miz and Truth - and, in another unexpected surprise, Kevin Nash.

6. John Cena, Kofi Kingston, and Zack Ryder defeated Kevin Nash, The Miz, and R-Truth with Mick Foley as special referee. Nash, frankly, phoned it in, after emotionlessly walking to the ring and then emotionlessly walking back after Cena pinned Miz following a Foley retaliatory shove. It was a joy to see Foley live. The usual "Let's Go Cena" and "Cena Sucks" chants ebbed and flowed throughout the match.

7. C.M. Punk defeated Alberto Del Rio by DQ in a WWE Championship match. The match started after a Ricardo Rodriguez introduction and a delayed entrance by Alberto, who came out in a t-shirt that only served for a match spot where Punk ripped it off him then dragged him around the ring with it. Rodriguez got involved behind the back of the referee, who later ejected the pseudo ring announcer then took a bump, thus missing Punk's pin attempt until Rodriguez returned only to take a chair shot to the back after Punk ducked.

The Straight-Edge Superstar then took a chair shot to pick up the DQ win so that Del Rio could retain the title, before Ziggler and Awesome Truth ran in and inexplicably assaulted Punk. This, again, proved to be contrived to provoke babyface dominance, with Zack Ryder, Kofi Kingston and even Eve and Foley coming in to run out the heels and deliver respective finishing moves on the dazed Dolph. Foley, Punk, and Cena offered words on the mic, before the latter made more digs about the Rock and Hollywood.

Punk stood tall, alone in the ring, for the close of the show which all in all was a decent offering, an otherwise standard house show fare elevated by one or two pleasant surprises.

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