WWE Smackdown/ECW house show
Hershey, Pa.
Report by Dot Net reader Erik Beaston

Just got back from the Smackdown/ECW house show in Hershey and thought I'd send in a report. A pretty decent-sized crowd for a Sunday afternoon show. I'd say 3/5 full. Tons of Jeff Hardy merchandise sold. I'd love to cash that check when it arrives in about a month. Anyway, onto the matches.

1. John Morrison defeated Mike Knox. The last thing I want to do is rag on Knox because I've always thought he was a talented big man but he had no business being in the ring with Morrison here. He couldn't keep up, step-for-step and he obviously did not match up well agility-wise either. Let's just say there was a big disparity in quality of performers. The match was a solid opener, however, with Knox working over the midsection of Morrison before the comeback. The finish saw a springboard kick from Morrison, followed by the Starship Pain for the win. Big pop for Morrison being the first face out. **1/4

2. The Hart Dynasty (w/Natalya) defeated Evan Bourne and Hurricane Helms. Big heel heat for the Hart Dynasty, especially considering at fifty percent of the people around me admitted to not watching ECW. That said, Natalya is more than decent when it comes to her mic work and just implying Tyson and DH were better than Bret Hart or Davey Boy Smith is enough to rile up a crowd.

Bourne entered to a pretty nice pop, followed by Hurricane, who was a nice surprise. It took a few minutes to remind everyone of the Hurricane gimmick but at the very first "WASSUPWITDAT?!" the crowd was on board. Nicely-fought tag match that showed how solid Kidd and Smith have become as a tag. Surprisingly, for only being their second time together, Bourne and Helms showed some promise. The finish saw a springboard Hart Attack on Helms for the victory. Big heat for the heel win. **3/4

3. Ricky "the Dragon" Steamboat defeated Drew McIntyre. The crowd was not into McIntyre or his heel schtick at all. He tried but being so infamiliar with him, the crowd seemed to forego booing him and instead, gave no reaction. Steamboat received a huge pop, the biggest of the show to that point. Once the match started, however, the crowd died. The rest holds from McIntyre probably didn't help the situation any. The finish got the crowd back into it as Steamboat executed a high cross body block for the win.

There was both good and bad here. The bad is that WWE keeps throwing these young guys out there on house shows, essentially to die a slow death since no one is familiar with them. It also doesn't help that they do little or nothing to establish themselves. On the other hand, I love the idea of having Steamboat face the developmental guys. Who better than Ricky Steamboat to teach a young guy on the job? Also, it gives the WWE the extra advantage of advertising a legit Hall of Famer for their shows and adding more interest for the night's card. **

4. Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho pinned Rey Mysterio. Very good match, as can be expected from these two. Jericho is at a level right now that I haven't seen from a heel in a long time. Every time he takes a microphone and speaks, there are legitimately people who would love nothing better than to see him beaten nearly lifeless. That is the mark of a fantastic heel and tonight was no different. Rey entered to a phenomenal ovation, the second biggest of the night.

Very fast-paced, spot-after-spot match that saw Jericho have a counter for just about every move Mysterio tried to make before Rey mounted a comeback and came oh-so-close to picking up another Intercontinental title reign. In the end, Jericho grabbed the ropes for leverage and pinned Mysterio. Major, major heel heat for the finish. Moreso than any other match on the card. It is always refreshing to see a gem like Chris Jericho performing at their absolute peak and I'm not sure Y2J isn't exactly what he says he is: the "best in the world at what [he] does." ***

5. The Great Khali defeated Dolph Ziggler.
After the hot title match, this featured a ton of comedy spots. The most I can say about this was that Ziggler sold like a champ and that, well, Khali is really, REALLY big. Next.

6. Women's Champion Melina, Gail Kim, and Eve Torres defeated Alicia Fox, Natalya, and Layla. After a brief intermission, the Divas competed in a six-woman tag. The match was better than anything on Smackdown since the Gail Kim-Michelle McCool matches a few months back. Eve played the role of Ricky Morton after a quick initial start from the faces. Alicia, Layla, and Natalya all took turns working over the injured leg of Eve before the hot tag to Melina. As Gail and Eve speared Natalya and Layla, taking them to the outside, Melina executed her sunset-flip finisher for the pin on Alicia. **1/2 (Without any sympathy "it's the Divas" scoring system)

8. ECW Champion Tommy Dreamer pinned Jack Swagger. Interim general manager Tiffany--who, on a sidenote, maybe the most beautiful woman I've ever seen in person--introduced the match. I'm not sure what to make of this one. The stalling at the beginning really hurt it, to the point that it was hard to get back into the match once it picked up.

Swagger is developing into a really good performer and, much like Morrison earlier in the night, completely out-worked Dreamer. With that said, Tommy was able to muster up a nice offensive string of moves in the end to amount to a hot finish that saw Jack miss a charge into the corner before eating the DDT for the win. After the match, Dreamer asked Tiffany into the ring and allowed her to hold the ECW Championship before celebrating the victory. In a nice moment, Tommy lifted Tiffany on his shoulder in a very Macho Man-esque way.

9. World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk pinned Jeff Hardy. Get this on pay-per-view NOW! Very good, long house show title match. Hardy entered to a huge ovation, easily the loudest of the night. As a matter of fact, I would say without hesitation that it rivals John Cena's from last December when the Raw crew invaded the Giant Center. And there were less people in attendance tonight than there were in the winter.

Punk also received a strong pop but not on the level of Hardy. A very mat-based match that saw Punk wear down Jeff with headlocks and chinlocks early before targeting the knee. There were a few moments where Punk turned on heel tendencies, such as arguing with the referee or showing frustration, but never enough to foreshadow whether he would, in fact, turn heel in the future.

Hardy made the big comeback, accompanied by the shrieks of women, girls, and children throughout the arena. Very good, convincing near-falls and GTS or Swanton Bomb teases followed. The finish saw Hardy go for the Swanton Bomb, only to miss. Punk landed a stiff kick to the head and the GTS. There wasn't much heat on Punk. It was just a very, very pro-Hardy crowd. As a matter of fact, other than a few anti-Punk fans sitting behind me, I didn't hear much booing over his victory at all. Afterwards, Hardy grabbed the mic and said that, despite his loss, with fans like those in Hershey, he'll always feel like a winner. ***3/4 I'd like to think I'm not being generous with that rating.

Notes: Overall, I'd say it was a very enjoyable show. The big names, such as Cena, Triple H, Undertaker, and Edge were nowhere to be seen but I don't always think that's a bad thing. While Edge and Christian disappearing from the card mid-week was a little disappointing, Mysterio, Hardy, Punk, and Jericho more than made up for the slack. Couple that with great work from the future of the company (Morrison, Hart Dynasty, Bourne) and it made for a very entertaining three hours. Major props to Hardy and Punk for delivering what could have been a pay-per-view quality match.

RECOMMEND THIS ARTICLE: