WWE Raw/ECW house show
Huntsville, Ala.
Report by Dot Net Member Vic Schiavone

There was a nice crowd, especially considering that the start time was moved up to 1:00 p.m. so everyone could get home in time for the Super Bowl.

Before the first match even started, it was announced that due to injuries he received at the Royal Rumble, Jeff Hardy would not be present. Lots of boos. They said that anyone who wanted a refund had until the end of the first match. I didn’t see anyone leave. Some of that might be they announced that the Main Event would be a triple threat match for the WWE Title between Edge, Vladimir Kozlov, and Triple H.

1. MVP defeated Shelton Benjamin in a non-title match. Not a bad match, and the crowd was really into it. I couldn’t believe the pop that MVP received. I guess the face turn is working.

At this point the Bella Twins came out and asked a member of the audience a trivia question.

2. Umaga squashed Jimmy Wang Yang. A quick and merciful match. Umaga got a nice pop.

3. Kizarny defeated Chavo Guerrero. This match did a nice job of dampening the crowd’s enthusiasm. Kizarny isn’t a bad worker, but his gimmick really turned the crowd off. My three youngest sons, who have been counting the days since Christmas for this show, went to the bathroom during this match – that’s how bad it was.

4. The Great Khali squashed Eric Escobar. This was a fun match. Escobar (who is from FCW) came to ring and got some mic time. He talked to the crowd in Spanish (which worked in Alabama for some good heel heat) and told them that it didn’t matter who he wrestled they were going to be a stepping stone for him. Khali came out (to a huge pop) and crushed the guy. A real crowd-pleaser.

The Bella Twins came out again and chose four kids out of the crowd to help them welcome their “friend”. R-Truth came out through the crowd (singing) and joined them in the ring, then danced with the kids. A cute spot, but I guess it shows that the WWE isn’t sure what to do with R-Truth at this point.

INTERMISSION

5. Carlito and Primo Colon defeated Ezekiel Jackson and The Brian Kendrick in a WWE Tag Team Title Match. Pretty good match. I couldn’t believe how big Zeke looks in person.

6. Eve defeated Natalya in a Divas match. Not bad for what it was, but it is sad that the WWE is using Natalya as a jobber at house shows.

7. Edge defeated Vladimir Kozlov and Triple H in a triple-threat match to retain the WWE Championship. Great match. Triple H came out to a HUGE pop (no matter what people say about this guy, he is still one of the company’s top draws). To start the match, Edge was encouraging Triple H and Kozlov to go at it. In a funny spot, Triple H took the mike and told Kozlov that Edge was talking a bunch of trash about him backstage.

Kozlov then went after Edge while Triple H lay on top of the turnbuckle in the corner. Kozlov did quite well in the match; his in-ring skills are coming along nicely. The finish came when HHH hit the Pedigree on Kozlov, then Edge pulled him out of the ring at the two-count, threw him into the ring post, and jumped in the ring to get the pin on Kozlov.

After the match, Triple H pedigreed Edge and left him lying in the ring. After Edge recovered, Triple H came back and did the same thing. After Triple H finally left, Edge pulled the referee back in the ring and started to work him over. In a great finish, the referee ended up throwing Edge into the ropes and then dropkicked him. Edge then beat a hasty retreat while the referee celebrated in the ring.

Notes: All in all, it was a great show. It was the first time the WWE had been back in Huntsville in two-and-a-half years, and judging from the response they will be coming back a lot sooner.

After we got outside, we watched the wrestlers as they were leaving. Shelton Benjamin signed quite a few autographs before he left. MVP told everyone he couldn’t stop because he didn’t want to miss the Super Bowl (funny). Everyone else left pretty quickly, except Carlito went out to his car and then came back and signed autographs for awhile. The Bella Twins also signed a few autographs (I got a nice picture of one of the Bella Twins in an Arizona Cardinals shirt). There was no sign of Triple H or Edge.

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