WWE Smackdown/ECW house show
Greenville, S.C. at the Bi-Lo Center
Report by Dot Net reader Matthew Owens from Spartanburg, SC.

A good sized audience on hand for the show. Far from filling the place up, but it was good.

1. Finlay defeated Drew McIntyre. A decent contest.

Maria was in the upper bowl with a family, they answered "Who is the Women's Champion" correctly, and were allowed to come sit front row. Probably made those kids' night.

2. Eve and Melina defeated Natalya and Katie Lea Burchill. The match was OK. I've seen a lot better from all four girls, and they all seemed.. "off" tonight. Crowd was absolutely dead, aside from the anticipated cat-calls and whistles. The girls finally worked the crowd into the match, and Melina got the win for her team after her Code-Red flip-bomb type maneuver.

3. Dolph Ziggler beat John Morrison. Ziggler had tons of heel heat, even before cutting a promo. They did the whole "heel runs from face for several minutes" with Dolph rolling in and out of the ring to break the 10 count. Once the match got going, they traded some nice moves back and forth, and the finish came with Dolph hitting his jumping flatliner finisher. Disappointed we didn't get to see any of Morrison's signature moves like the Starship Pain. The crowd was way into Morrison.

4. Great Khali defeated Kane by DQ. Kane went up against Khali in what was probably the worst match of the evening. The crowd wasn't really into it, and only popped for the aftermath. Kane hit Khali with a low blow to get DQ'd. Khali wailed on Kane with a chair after it was over. Meh.

5. Cryme Tyme defeated The Hart Dynasty (Kidd/Smith). One of the best matches of the night. The crowd was really into Cryme Tyme, and Shad came through the crowd on our side. Not sure if JTG did or not on the other. Good match from both teams. I can't say I was disappointed at all.

Intermission.

6. Tommy Dreamer beat Christian and William Regal in a Triple Threat to retain the ECW Title. Great match from all three men. Tommy hit the DDT on Regal for the win. The crowd was really honestly into all three guys.

Chris Jericho came out to cut a promo. He cut one of the best promos I've heard (what do you expect, it's Chris freaking Jericho), and upon calling us all "failures", a fan legitimately jumped the guardrail and clammered into the ring. Security barely got him by his ankles and jerked him out the floor on his face. They carted him off to the back while Jericho played it off perfectly, telling security to let him back in the ring so he could whoop his butt, he'll whoop any of our butts. "I hope they press full charges on you junior," he said as they carried him back out of sight.

7. Ricky Steamboat defeated Chris Jericho. Steamboat came out to a huge pop, and he and Jericho had an outstanding contest with one another. Steamboat actually picked up the victory after a roll up, which was shocking to me. I expected Jericho to win, especially after he caught "The Dragon" with a Codebreaker as Ricky attempted a cross-body off the top. Great match.

8. C.M. Punk defeated Jeff Hardy in an Extreme Rules match to retain the World Heavyweight Championship. The crowd was extremely pro-Hardy, with myself and my girlfriend (along with a small contingency of Punk fans near us) being the only ones pro-Punk. They used chairs, trash cans, and even a ladder in the match. Good back and forth match. The finish came after they traded finisher counters, and Punk finally nailed the GTS on Hardy. Hearing the crowd erupt in a chorus of boos as Punk won was glorious.

A fun show with several memorable matches.

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