WWE Raw house show
Dublin, Ireland at the 02 Arena
Report by Dot Net reader Stephen Cooney

1. Jack Swagger won a 14 man Battle Royal to earn a shot at the WWE Championship later in the night. The match featured Kofi Kingston, Mark Henry, Sheamus, MVP, Cody Rhodes, Ted Dibiase, The Miz, Chavo Guerrero, Jack Swagger, Chris Masters, Randy Orton, Evan Bourne, Primo and Santino.

Kofi eliminated himself and Randy Orton early in the match. The match came down to Cody, Ted, Swagger and Mark Henry. Swagger ended up eliminating mark henry to earn a title shot against John Cena in the main event.

2. Chavo Guerrero beat Hornswoggle. Chavo had to wrestle this match on his knees. Typical "comedy" match that lasted way too long. Hornswoggle won with the tadpole splash.

3. Sheamus beat Evan Bourne. Sheamus cut a heel promo on the Dublin fans to avoid him getting the hometown cheers. It was effective and worked with the younger members of the crowd. This match was designed to highlight Sheamus as a powerouse. He won in the end with his finisher (can't remember then name of it right now)

4. The Miz (c) beat MVP to retain the U.S. Championship. Good back and forth match with Miz hitting a fairly sloppy looking Skull Crushing Finale for the win.

5. Melina (c) beat Alicia Fox to retain the WWE Divas Championship. Jillian was introduced as Guest Ring Announcer for this one, and treated us to a lovely rendition of Sinead O'Connor's song "Nothing Compares to You." The crowd popped slightly for the entrances but you could have heard a pin drop during the match, which is impressive when you consider there were approx 11,000 people in the crowd. Melina eventually won with her leg-across-the-throat finisher (does it even have a name?)

6. Mark Henry beat Chris Masters. An awful match that was saved in some way by the crowds reaction to Mark Henry. Everybody loved him, and cheered each of his power moves. Masters played the cocky heel who gets pummeled very well. Henry ended up winning with his body slam. Post match Henry played to the crowd for a few minutes leading us into a 15 minute intermission.

7. Randy Orton beat Kofi Kingston. A great match that showed a lot of promise for their current feud. Kofi got a lot of offence in and looked to have Orton beaten on multiple occasions. Orton ended up winning after Kofi missed with the Trouble In Paradise, and walked into an RKO out of nowhere. Kofi got a big reaction from the crowd after this match.

8. DX (Shawn Micahels and HHH) beat Legacy (Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase). Long intro spiel from Hunter and Shawn for this match, which really got the crowd going. Easily the biggest reaction of the night thus far. Great match with Legacy getting the majority of the offense and keeping Shawn and Hunter separated from being able to tag each other throughout the match. The match ended with HBK hitting Sweet Chin Music on DiBiase, while Hunter hit Rhodes with the Pedigree to get the three count.

9. John Cena (c) beat Jack Swagger to retain the WWE Championship. As this was a mostly younger crowd, the place absolutely erupted when John Cena came out. There were dueling "Lets Go Cena" and "Let's Go Swagger" chants throughout. The match started very slow with Swagger use a lot of mat based amateur wrestling holds. Cena ended up winning after eventually working through his signature moves and hit the Attitude Adjustment for the win.

Notes: The venue holds approximately 11,000 people and the place was about 95 percent sold out, I would guess. Interestingly, a Smackdown/ECW show is taking place on Saturday November 14 in the same venue, but that show is completely sold out. I was surprised to see that as Raw would be traditionally regarded as the bigger show.

Between every match, we were treated to the ring announcer trying to sell us merchandise and encourage us to buy Survivor Series etc. The crowd really stopped appreciating that after about the third match.

With the exception of the opening Battle Royal and the US Championship Match, the first half of the show did not hold much interest for any one over 10 years old. Thankfully they really stepped it up in the second half.

Seeing all the wrestlers in the opening battle royal (with the exception of DX and Cena) seemed to dampen the reaction some of them received later on when they came out for their one-on-one matches. Some of the lesser names were greeted with reactions which suggested that seeing them once in a night was enough.

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