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

This is Erik Beaston. I was at the Smackdown/ECW house show in Reading last night and all-in-all, it was a fun, entertaining way to spend a Monday night minus Triple H, thirty Legacy run-ins, and special guest hosts who know little about wrestling. Anyway, the turnout was not good, presumably because of it being a Monday night show. It didn't seem to deter any of the wrestlers.

1. Yoshi Tatsu defeated Shelton Benjamin. Very good opener. Benjamin did a great job of leading Yoshi through the match and to his credit, Tatsu didn't seem lost at all. Very fast-paced, technically sound match that saw Yoshi land a stiff kick to the head for the win. Big pop for Shelton early but he turned the crowd in Yoshi's favor by the end. ***

2. Melina pinned Katie Lea Burchill. I've heard some mixed reports about their matches over the weekend, but tonight they both seemed on. Very smooth match between the two with Katie seemingly having a counter for everything Melina did. End saw Katie miss a missile dropkick and Melina execute her flip bomb, for lack of a better name, for the win. On a sidenote, Katie Lea may be even hotter in person than she is on TV. **1/2

3. Finlay pinned Ezekiel Jackson. Perhaps the only 'bad' match on the show. And it wasn't bad out of a lack of trying. Zeke and Finlay just didn't seem to have much chemistry at all. Add to it the finish was the same old, tired 'Finlay uses shillelagh on opponent X' and it seemed disjointed, if not repetitive on the Finlay front. *1/2

4. Drew McIntyre defeated Jimmy Wang Yang. McIntyre looked much better here than he did two months back in Hershey. Maybe it's because he picked up another month or two of experience on the road but he definitely looked like he could be put on TV right now. What he may lack in in-ring skills, he definitely makes up for in playing to the crowd. The Reading crowd, if you could call it a crowd, didn't know him before the match but as it went on, he definitely generated more and more heat. The match for itself wasn't anything more than you'd see on Smackdown or ECW, just a little longer. **

5. Cryme Tyme (w/Eve Torres) beat The Hart Dynasty. The first really, REALLY good match of the night. These four have the type of chemistry where it doesn't hurt to watch them wrestle every week or every night. This was no different. I've also come to the conclusion that Cryme Tyme has a match format that is the same every time but never gets old. Smith and Kidd worked over JTG for the majority of the match with plenty of false hot tags. When JTG finally did make the hot tag to Shad, the building exploded. Finish saw Natalya hold Tyson Kidd down, preventing a suplex into the ring. Eve took Natalya down with a spear while Kidd forearmed Shad away. Kidd attempted a springboard but Shad caught him and took him over with an STO for the win. BIG pop for Shad, JTG, and Eve. ***1/2

6. Christian defeated William Regal to retain the ECW Title. Huge pop for Christian and the typical, tremendous heat for William Regal. Honestly, if they'll give Hardy the opportunity to be champion after his two strikes, can we not get gold around Regal's waist, stat? After hearing about these two and their matches over the weekend, I was disappointed here. A lot of stalling to start. Once the match got underway, there wasn't much of one to speak of. Christian hit his spots, Regal met him with a nice t-bone suplex mid-way through. A few teased Killswitch attempts netted nothing because the finish saw Christian come off of the middle rope with a sunset flip for the win. **

7. Rey Mysterio defeated Dolph Ziggler to retain the Intercontinental Title. This is more like it. Phenomenal, pay-per-view quality match here between Rey and Ziggler. Fast-paced, little resting. Rey did seem to be favoring his left knee, though, despite Dolph not targeting it at all during the match. Wouldn't be surprised to see "Mysterio tweaks knee over weekend" popping up somewhere during the week. It didn't ruin the match at all as Rey moved fine despite the pain. It's hard to provide any play-by-play because of the speed of the match and everything they packed into the fifteen minutes they had. This should have been the Night of Champions match. Hopefully we get a SummerSlam rematch and these two get more time to show what they can do. Just really great stuff. Finish saw Mysterio hit the 619 after teases earlier in the match, followed by the springboard splash for the win. ***3/4

8. CM Punk defeated Great Khali and Kane in a Triple Threat, Number One Contender's Match. Teddy Long announced the match before hand, to a nice pop. When Punk's music played, he received a mixed reaction. When he appeared, he was heavily booed, easily receiving the biggest reaction of anyone in the match. Khali was met with indifference and Kane actually got a nice little face pop. Horrible match but very funny comedy mixed throughout.

Punk tried recruiting Khali to team with him and beat Kane. Khali responded with a chop to the head. When Kane saw what happened to Punk, he looked worried but tried acting like a big man. After a few minutes of classic chain wrestling from Kane and Khali, Punk attacked Khali from behind, only to be flattened again. Rinse, repeat with Punk bumping for both guys. Finish saw Kane chokeslam Khali, only for Punk to roll in, take out Kane, and cover Khali for the win. Major heat for that. Post match saw Khali take Kane down with a straight punch to steel chair Kane brought into the ring. *

Biggest Pops:
1. Rey Mysterio
2. Cryme Tyme
3. Christian
4. Finlay
5. Melina

Most Heat:
1. William Regal
2. CM Punk
3. Dolph Ziggler
4. Hart Dynasty
5. Drew McIntyre

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