WWE Raw house show
Rochester, Minn. at the Mayo Civic Center
Report by Dot Net reader Dan Strauss of Goodhue, Minn.

The place had a few hundred empty seats.

1. MVP beat Jack Swagger. Good move to start the show with two upper mid-carders (in my opinion) to get the crowd fired up.

2. Evan Bourne beat a newcomer. Before the newcomer spoke after grabbing the mic, some local yelled "who are you?" Pretty funny. New guy said he'll be getting attention on Raw like the other new guys in the months to come. Bourne sold most of the match then won with his version of the Shooting Star Press.

Just like other house shows, Cody Rhodes came out to attack Bourne. Primo made the save, which led to the next match.

3. Cody Rhodes beat Primo. Nothing special, but the match made Cody look strong.

4. Gail Kim and The Bellas beat Jillian, Alicia Fox, and Maryse. Santino was announced as the special guest ref. We were all disappointed he didn't get any mic time, but he was absolutely his hilarious playing the role of the awkward male in the ring with all the females and definitely played up his conflict of interest.

5. Chris Masters beat Carlito. A brief intermission followed.

6. The Miz beat Kofi Kingston to retain the U.S. Championship. Standard Miz promo before the match. Pretty good match. Between these two and maybe Swagger and MVP, WWE could really get a good U.S. Championship division going much like they did back in the day when the Intercontinental Title was actually coveted.

7. Sheamus beat Mark Henry to retain the WWE Championship. Taking into consideration his size and athletic limitations, I thought Henry did pretty well in this match. Sheamus can really set up his dominance by no-selling and using power moves.

8. DX beat Big Show and Randy Orton to retain the Unified Tag Team Titles. Triple H did his usual bit, then asked the crowd if any of us had noticed it's "frickin cold here." Bad timing Hunter, it was almost 17 degrees Sunday, our warmest day in a week. Big Show came out first for the heels. He cut a promo on the champs. He must read Dot Net, because he asked DX why, with all the titles and accolades between the two, they feel the need to come out and promote their petty merchandise just to make some extra money.

Orton came out next. In a match filled with campiness and little kiddy pops, Orton just didn't fit in. That isn't to discredit him, because Orton is one of the top heels we've seen in years; his character is just so no-nonsense that it made weird fourth member for this match. Probably at least five minutes between the opening bell and the first actual wrestling, and it was getting annoying to many fans. After the match actually started, it was pretty slow-paced, and finished with Sweet Chin Music leading into The Pedigree.

Notes: Overall a pretty good show. I would've liked to have seen John Cena (save it Cena-haters). Good production and for the most part I don't believe anyone mailed it in. There was quite a bit of stalling and rest moves in the matches, which resulted in the women's match being one of the actual faster-paced matches. I was pretty happy with the show and wish I was headed north to Minneapolis tonight for Raw.

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