WWE Smackdown/ECW house show
Dublin, Ireland at O2 ARena
Report by Dot Net reader Stephen Cooney

1. John Morrison defeated Matt Hardy to retain the Intercontinental Title in 12 minutes. Matt was definitely the crowd favourite here. Surprisingly, Morrison came out to a mixed reaction, which quickly turned to a full chorus of boos once the match started. Lots of near falls, with Hardy having the advantage for most of the match. Both men went for and missed their respective finishers, with Morrison eventually hitting the Starship Pain to get the pin. Both men shook hands afterwards, but as Morrison turned around Matt hit the Twist of Fate, to a huge cheers. Hardy left Morrision lying in the middle of the ring.

2. Shelton Benjamin beat Zack Ryder in eight minutes. Zero reaction for Ryder when he came out, but the crowd loved Shelton. This match started off pretty fast flowing but dragged in the middle when the rest holds kicked in. The pace picked up again leading to the the finish with Shelton hitting the Paydirt for the win.

3. Drew McIntyre beat Finlay in 14 minutes. Before the match Drew cut a heel promo on Ireland. Basic stuff talking about how as a Scot he had no respect for the Irish because we gave up our own currency to join the Euro. Slightly over some of the kids in the audience’s head but still basically effective. Massive pop for the (somewhat) local boy Finlay. Finlay works well at house shows as he knows how to involve a crowd. He managed to get a reaction from the fans for every move he hit, even basic punches and arm drags. Very impressive to watch him at work in person. Not so much on TV in my opinion. Drew eventually won the match after pinning Finlay with his feet on the ropes.

4. Mickie James and Katie Lea Burchill beat Diva’s Champion Michelle McCool and Beth Phoenix in a Diva’s tag team match in 11 minutes. Before the match there was a lot of playing to the crowd from both teams, with Beth lifting Michelle up on one shoulder and parading her around, followed by Mickie climbing on the Katie Lea’s shoulders and doing likewise, a little less impressively then Beth, though. As far as the match goes all four women can work, so this was by no means the clunker that I sat through on the Raw show last week (Melina vs Alicia Fox) .It was a good match that kept the crowd interested. Katie wins with a roll up on Beth after Beth had thrown Mickie through the ropes to the outside.

5. Ezekiel Jackson beat Goldust in five LONG minutes. First thought when I saw Zeke...”I’ve a bad feeling about this." To focus on the positives here, this served as a bathroom break for a lot of people. Goldust got some offense in but it may as well have been a squash. Jackson wins with an awful looking choke slam.

6. Rey Mysterio beat Dolph Ziggler in 16 minutes. Big reaction for Rey, slightly less than I expected though. I think this was Undertaker's night as far as the crowd excitement goes. Was surprised to see this before the interval as this was one of only 2 advertised matches that WWE had listed for the show, the main event being the other. This was a great match, and was very fast paced. Both guys worked hard in this one. Dolph can definitely hang with big names if this crowd's anything to go by. They reacted to everything he did and reacted with cheers to everything Rey did and the crowd stayed with the match all the way through. Lots of convincing near falls for both men with Dolph coming close on many occasions although the finish was never really in doubt. Rey won with the 619 followed by his slash from the top rope.

Interval

7. ECW Champion Christian beat William Regal in nine minutes. Gladly they avoided the temptation to have Regal do any standard anti-Irish promo. I guess Drew McIntyre took care of that one earlier. Great reaction for Christian. Before the match Christian warmed up the crowd raising his hand to cheers and pointing to Regal to have the crowd boo. This lasted about 2 minutes much to the joy of the crowd, and the frustration of Regal. This was the same match we’ve seen from these two previously, but it’s still enjoyable and Christian really knows how to work the crowd. Christian hit the Killswitch for the win.

8. R-Truth beat Eric Escobar in five seconds. R Truth's entrance is even more irritating in person. Ah well at least he didn't come through the crowd. Why on earth was this match in the second half? Surely Rey and Dolph would have been better placed here. That said good reaction for Truth, zero reaction for Escobar. Truth danced about a bit for the crowd before the “match”. The match itself lasted about 5 seconds after Truth
rolled up Escobar after a missed clothesline attempt. Harmless enough I suppose. Didn’t do much for Escobar, though. He threw a pre-TNA Christian-style tantrum in the ring, much to the enjoyment of..well no-one really, as no-one cared about him.

9. The Undertaker beat CM Punk in a casket match to retain the World Hvt. Championship in nine minutes. This is what people are here to see. Huge heat for Punk from the second he comes out. No straight edge promo tonight. Predictably the place explodes for Taker's entrance. Yes it's long, but it's so effective and people love it. Very short match for a title match. Taker really looks beat down these days and has a very noticeable limp when walking. Punk hit a GTS and got Taker into the casket but when he went to close it Taker grabbed him by the throat and escaped. Formula casket match stuff really. Taker won after blocking an attempted chair-shot and hit the tombstone. He rolled Punk into the casket and closed the lid for the win.

Notes: Despite the Raw house show last week not being a sellout I was glad to see that this Smackdown/ECW show was a legitimate capacity show. The venue holds approx 11,00 people so that is good going. There were a few empty seats scattered around but I put this down to the fact that the Irish football team had a crucial match against Feance that took place in Dublin tonight at the same time as the show. This was only announced in the last few weeks, so from what I can tell some people who had tickets for this show ended up going to the football instead.

In the Raw show, I felt that the first half was very weak and that the show was saved by the strong second half. However, in this case the first half was surprisingly strong, and it was the second half that let many people down. R-Truth vs Escobar nearly killed the crowd and for me the short title match was disappointing. The second half seemed very rushed in my opinion.

No Jericho...he was on the tour and had appeared on both the Raw and Smackdown.ECW brand shows, but he was not in Dublin for either of the shows I
was at...very dissappointed by that. Tonight;s show could have really used some
strong mic work, and Jericho is just the fit for that.

WWE needs to be careful on the over reliance on finishers being reversed almost all non-squash matches. Many matches now end with one wrestler going for his finisher, only to have it reversed, but to hit the move successfully a move or so later. From what I could tell most of the crowd no expect this and the first attempt at many finishers tonight drew little to no reaction from the fans. It was only at the second attempt that there was any anticipation that the move may end the match.

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