WWE Raw live event
Nottingham, England
Report by Dot Net reader Mark Olley

Having attended yet another Nottingham house show (I've lost count of how many I've been to, that's loyalty for you Vince!). I thought I'd give you my comprehensive coverage of what was an above average show. The attendance was the smallest I recall having seen at a Nottingham show but what the crowd lacked in numbers they made up for in noise. I was joined on the evening by long time fan but first time attendee, Daniel McGill.

Please excuse the lack of play by play when covering the matches as my memory is shocking. The choice in merchandise was better than usual with the white Punk shirts and new Cena shirts flying off the shelves, I was also surprised to see the Broski shirts selling well and the new Santino shirt up for sale at all.
Justin Roberts made his way to the ring unbeknownst to me as he was no where to been seen when the lights were killed but he was stood there as happy as ever in the ring when they came back on.

1. Santino Marella defeated Drew McIntyre. Santino made his way to the ring first to a moderate pop. He partook in his usual comedy skits with the fans at ringside and the referee. Drew made his entrance to decent heat and a few cheers, he looked like a beast even from distance.

The match itself was relatively short with Santino attempting to hit the cobra early on. As the match progressed Santino hit more offense than you'd usually see in a TV match while Drew worked over Santino's arm in hope of sidelining the cobra (I shit you not!). The match ended after Drew missed with a shoulder in the corner and fell right into the afore mentioned cobra for the 1 - 2 - 3.

2. Alex Riley and Primo defeated Michael McGillicutty and David Otunga. Myself and Mr Mcgill popped huge for the return of our favourite tag team (I kid, although their music is infectious). The former tag champs were followed to the ring by Riley and Primo, not surprisingly to A-Ry's music. The match followed the blueprint of your typical tag bout with the faces taking the early advantage only to be screwed out of it by the heels. During the match Primo especially looked impressive while Riley didn't seem to be showing any ill effects from his recent injury.

Following a few well worked tag manoeuvres by Otunga and McGillicutty on a stranded Primo, the second generation star managed to escape their clutches and make the hot tag. Riley soon cleared house with help from his tag partner and picked up the victory following his impressive looking finisher (the Riley Elevation apparently). The match was predictable but very well wrestled, Primo celebrated his victory as if he'd never won before (or maybe he'd just forgotten how winning feels).

3. Mason Ryan defeated Curt Hawkins. Curt Hawkins made his way to the ring to no reaction, which is a shame as the guy is talented, although I'm not too sure about the pimp cane he was carrying. He was followed to the ring by Mason Ryan, who hails from the United Kingdom now as opposed to Wales. The match was basically an extended squash with Hawkins doing the clean job in only a few minutes. Mason Ryan showed great intensity and got the fans behind him because of it and although he's slow in the ring, with the right opponent he could come off as an effective monster, he's an impressive sight, but going forward he'd be more effective with a mouthpiece.

4. Dolph Ziggler defeated John Morrison to retain the U.S Championship. When Justin Roberts introduced the following match as a US Title bout I knew the show had kicked into gear, moved on from the job squad and onto the good stuff. Mr Ziggler made his way to the ring first and delivered a more than solid promo covering the usual, claiming we'd paid to see him, that he's the best "sports entertainer" in the business and that we're jealous because we're not him - It was routine stuff but delivered with confidence and conviction.

He was followed to the ring by John Morrison, who was greeted with the pop of the night so far. Being a fan of both men I knew we'd be in for a good match, especially having seen them deliver on Raw but even I was pleasantly surprised by what was no doubt the match of the night and dare I say a PPV quality encounter. The early part of the match was similar to what we got on Raw but with less rest holds and a breakneck speed. The match started to slow following a body vault to the outside by JoMo. With both men back in the ring we were treated to a number of signature spots with each guy looking great, Dolph's reversal to Morrison's vaulting DDT particularly impressed.

These guys showed great chemistry together and didn't miss a beat, we even saw Morrison hit a Moonlight Drive, the most reversed move this year. The majority of the crowd (myself and McGill included) thought it was over following the ZigZag but Morrison kicked out and we were treated to another few minutes of action. Having teased a Sweet Chin Version of the Superkick which was inevitably reversed Dolph finally picked up the clean win with a more suprise version of the kick coming out of a reversal. As Ziggler made his way up the ramp, he decided to turn around and headed back to the ring to add more misery to Morrison, as he teased attacking him with the belt JoMo got the better of the champ and sent the fans home happy (well, not home) after hitting an inch perfect Starship Pain.

In a nice touch, I noticed Ziggler sign the odd autograph while heading up the ramp selling the effects of the match, class act. I can't tell you how good this match was, Dolph could sell a hooker to the Pope and is headed straight to the top and I hope to the lord that Morrison is out of the doghouse and away from Melina so he can get that contract renewed, with a few tweaks he could be back to his best, delivering show stopping performances week after week.

Before the interval the Bella twins, looking stunning, made their way to the ring, luckily they weren't in their ring gear. They got four people out from the crowd and said we'd get a dance contest, with the winner heading backstage to meet the superstars. This was the first time I recall such a contest happening at a live event and it was a nice touch, relatively painless and the crowd ate it up.

We had a douchey looking hipster guy up there, two young (teenage/early twenties) women and one little kid. Like morons, the older contestants stated their actual hometowns (London, Loghborough and Sheffield I beleive) as opposed to pretending to be from Nottingham whereas the kid was a local and got cheered for it. The dancing was pretty atrocious and, to my utter amazement, the kid won the popularity contest (half the guys in the back would kill for the kinda pop he received from the fans.)

(Interval)

5. Beth Phoenix defeated Eve Torres to retain the WWE Diva's Championship. With plenty of the crowd still hitting the toilets and refreshment stands the show restarted. Beth made her entrance to little heat followed by Eve to her new (and wank) music. The match was worked to a slow pace early on and the live fans were, for the main part, respectful towards the action but not particularly engaged. The match was refreshingly quite long but not as good as their encounter from Vengeance, thats not to say both women didn't impress though as I saw more physicality in this match than I'm used to from the Divas and Eve in particular looked crisp in everything she did.

A small group of morons brought out the "boring" chants for no other reason than to try and look cool, it was not warranted at all. Beth took the clean win following her second attempt at a Glam Slam with the first having been converted into a roll up for a very near fall. Much like the previous title match, Beth headed back to the ring to hand out more punishment but was stopped in the nick of time by Kelly Kelly, who looked stunning in street clothes and who also received a healthy pop for her troubles. There was no sign of Nattie throughout.

6. Zack Ryder, Kofi Kingston and John Cena defeated The Awesome Truth (The Miz and R-Truth) and Kevin Nash. The crowd popped big for the announcement of a 6-Man Tag match but soon brought out the best heat of the night for the entrance of The Awesome Truth, who made their way to the ring rapping the "You Suck" version of Truth's theme. When in the ring, Truth and Miz delivered a great promo in which they had the fans in the palm of their hands. They continuously teased their catchphrases, even involving Justin Roberts and Mike "The unlikliest wellness violater since the dawn of time" Chioda in the fun. They eventually delivererd on their teases and then introduced us to their tag partner, Kevin Nash.

At the time me and McGill were getting all giddy thinking we were witnessing Nash's return match, not knowing he had performed in Newcastle the previous night. With Nash in the ring, Ryder made his entrance to a huge pop (say what you want about this guy, but there is no doubt he has got himself over big), he was followed by Kofi and finally John Cena, who's entrance was greeted by the noise of the night, initially screaming then followed by booing but unavoidably loud never the less and damn impressive.

The match itself was shorter than I anticipated with Ryder having a strong showing initially before being outwitted by Big Daddy Cool. Later, Kofi tagged in and after a short flurry of impressive offense was soon beaten down by the heels. Nash looked strong, his time in the ring was short and impactful and although he never wrestled a fast pace (obviously) he looked good, imposing and dangerous and sold well, taking bumps on his side as opposed to his back. Back to the match, Kofi finally got the fresh man, Cena in this case, into the ring and he quickly took advantage of all the mayhem (each wrestler hit their finisher on an opponent) to adjust the attitude of The Miz (I think?) for the win.

7. CM Punk defeated Alberto Del Rio by DQ but Del Rio retained the WWE Championship. Ricardo Rodriguez was introduced to some heat as he made his way to the ring and in turn introduced Del Rio, who also garnered strong heat. Soon after, Living Colour hit and Punk made his long awaited entrance. He got a more positive response than Cena but the noise wasn't quite as intense, never the less I was impressed with what I heard. With both men in the ring Justin Roberts made the introductions again, this was followed by rivaling cheers and boo's from the crowd for each man.

When the bell rang Del Rio played the classic heel role of evading Punk at all costs only to finally bait him into the ring for the quick attack. Alberto had most of the early offense, working over Punk's arm and head with various rest holds. As Punk got more into the match, Ricardo started to interfere on a pesistant basis till the referee had finally had enough and banished him form ringside, much to the joy of the baying crowd. Ricardo was entertainingly over the top as he made his way to the back. Meanwhile, back in the ring Punk had the advantage as the ref took a bump.

Following a GTS it all looked sewn up untill, of course, there was no one present to make the count. RicRod took it upon himself to sprint back to ringside and attack the second city saint to little effect, he was laughed off by the fans untill Punk turned round and basically murdered him. However, the numbers game got the better of Punk and following the introduction of a steel chair into the match, it's use led to Del Rio getting DQ'd. While attempting another chair attack on Punk, Del Rio inadvertently took out Ricardo and Punk looked to beat down the champ only to be outnumbered by the interferring Ziggler, Otunga and Mcgillicutty.

It wasn't long till Ryder, Cena, Kofi and Eve (Wierd, I know) evened the odds and got the better of the heels, removing all but Dolph from the ring. After Ziggler tried to befriend the faces he took a finisher from each of them, starting with Cena and ending with Eve hitting her top rope moonsault. The faces celebrated in the ring together for a short while before the majority of them left, leaving Punk to soak up the adulation of the fans as he made his way round everyone at ringside showing his appreciation before finally heading backstage and leaving the fans happy.

Notes: Overall this was a better than expected house show with one great match and two or three really solid matches. Needless to say no titles changed hands but the workrate and effort from the crew was evident and appreciated greatly by all in attendance.

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