WWE Smackdown live event
Detroit, Michigan
Report by Dot Net reader Frank Heinrich

The new set that debuted in Pittsburgh also debuted in Detroit tonight too. It looks a lot better than the setup they had for the house show in East Lansing back in April.
 
1. Ted Dibiase defeated Jinder Mahal. The stereotypical USA chants were prominent during the match, especially after Ted Dibiase cut a promo and acknowledged the National Guardsmen that were in attendance. Ted wound up winning with Dream Street.
 
2. Sheamus defeated Wade Barrett in a Street Fight. Prior to the match, Tony Chimel announced that due to an injury, Randy Orton would not be attending tonight's event. Refunds were offered, but must have been claimed by 8:25.

Wade Barrett cut a typical heel promo, dropping the usual derogatory Detroit comments, and also mentioned that Randy Orton would be out for six months due to what he did to him that night before at the Smackdown taping. There were some pretty cool spots in the match (a good three minutes of fighting in the crowd/Wade Barrett being thrown into a concrete wall dividing the lower and upper bowl/ a barrage (pun intended) of chair/kendo stick shots). Drew McIntyre came out during the match and gave Sheamus the Future Shock, but he kicked out at two. Sheamus won with Brogue Kick.
 
Booker T's music played, but he was immediately attacked from behind by Cody Rhodes. While Booker was behind attended to, Cody came to the ring and cut a decent promo on how he planned on putting people out the rest of the night.
 
3. Seth "Tyler Black" Rollins defeated Tyson Kidd. Sadly, not many people knew who Seth was, as far too many people took a trip to the restrooms/concession stands during this match. Seth came out to a generic theme song/no video. Many cool moves from both. Seth looks more than ready for the main roster. Seth won with the Avada Kedavra superkick (which was preceded by a very cool powerbomb into the turnbuckle).
 
4. Justin Gabriel defeated Hunico (w/Camacho). Typical match from both these guys. Hunico got a slight amount of heat from the face happy crowd. Justin won with the 450 splash.

After the match, while Justin Gabriel was celebrating, Cody Rhodes came out and gave him CrossRhodes. He then proceeded to get on the mic and said that he was going to end things with Booker T tonight.
 
5. Booker T defeated Cody Rhodes by DQ in an Intercontinental Title match. Booker T wrestled quite well, considering he hasn't had a full schedule in quite some time and he is 46. It was pointed out to me by Jeff (also in attendance with me) that Booker's legs take up more than half of his body. Never really noticed this. After some back and forth action, Cody got himself disqualified when he pushed the referee. Booker T sent us all home happy with a spinarooni...yay!!!
 
6. A.J. and Alicia Fox defeated Tamina and Natalya with Aksana as special guest referee. All of the divas were wearing some form of Christmas gear. It was a very sloppy match. Natalya deserves so much better than to be placed with the rest of this junk. A.J. and Alicia won out of nowhere with a rather lame move. Not going to lie, I really wasn't paying that much attention to this match.
 
7. Air Boom defeated Primo and Epico (w/Rosa Mendes) to retain the WWE Tag Titles. Kofi and Evan were on the show for a one night only special treat. (I'm guessing this has something to do with the extreme lack of talent on the Smackdown roster with the injuries that have taken place over the past couple months). A lot of Primo sucks chants from the kids in attendance. Evan Bourne hit a sweat standing huracanrana on Primo while he was on the top turnbuckle.

Primo and Epico originally won the match, but the ref missed Kofi putting his foot on the bottom rope. Primo/Epico/Rosa celebrated their win. A second referee came out and made the actual ref aware of what happened. The match was restarted, and within a minute, Kofi and Evan hit both of their finishers for the victory.
 
8. Daniel Bryan defeated Mark Henry and The Big Show in a Triple Threat Cage Match. The Big Show received more cheers during his entrance than Daniel Bryan did for his. I still cannot take the Big Show seriously when he wears that god awful WMD knit hat to the ring, but that's besides the point. In the early going, Big Show gave Mark Henry three or four big splashes on the apron into the cage, knocking him out for most of the match.

Big Show got most of the offense in while he was down. Daniel Bryan locked in the Lebel Lock on Show, but Mark Henry came to and broke it up. Henry was clearly favoring his groin injury, and its clear he is still legit hurt. After numerous attempts to escape the cage, D Bryan finally was able to elude Big Show and hit the arena floor for the victory.

While celebrating, Wade Barrett and Drew McIntyre hit the ring and attacked both Show and Daniel Bryan. Show and Bryan got the upper hand and Show hit them with a chokeslam to end the night. He handed the belt to Daniel and they raised each others hand.
 
Notes:

-It was my girlfriend's first live event. It's very cool to go to one of these with someone that has never been before.

-Super face heavy show. Do #heels ever win at house shows?

-It is very obvious that someone from the Raw roster needs to come over, especially with the injury to Orton. As much as I love Daniel Bryan as a wrestler, from a crowd standpoint, he is not over quite yet. Just felt like the show was very lacking in talent area.

-Somewhere in there, Hornswoggle headed up a dance contest between three fans. A kid won and was allowed to go meet his favorite superstar in the back.

-A return date was announced for a Raw Supershow (April 23) with tickets going on sale in February.

-Just a minor disappointment that there were no Daniel Bryan t-shirts available for sale. He is your champion right now, and to not have his shirts for sale is a little baffling. There were four different kinds of John Cena shirts though...
 
Most Cheers
1) Booker T
2) Sheamus
3) Big Show
 
Most Boos
1) Cody Rhodes
2) Wade Barrett
3) Primo/Epico

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