by Leon Peters and Mike Omansky
From Leon Peters:
Tony Chimel was ring announcer.
After a brief pyro display in the ring, William Regal came out for the first match.
1. Primo Colon vs William Regal.
The arena is far from full, but I'm guessing people are coming in late. Regal dominated most of the match with uppercuts and headlocks and rode him on the mat most of the time. Primo won by reversing a move into a quick backslide for the pin. 8 minutes.
Kelly Kelly was shown in the audience asking a fan a trivia question. Where was WrestleMania 24 held? Orlando. They got it right and won 2 front row seats.
2. D'lo Brown vs Lance Cade.
Big pop for D'lo. Cade won in 10 minutes with the sitout spinebuster after D'lo missed the. Frogsplash.
Kelly was back and picked a kid out of the front row to be a guest manager later on.
3. Beth Phoenix vs Mickie James
Really good match. Beth won with the double chicken wing-face plant in 8 minutes. I wish they would let them have these kind of matches on tv. Held nothing back.
4. Jamie Noble vs Snitsky
Noble was with the kid manager Michael, who was picked by Kelly. Snitsky pulled out a crippler crossface 3 minutes in... and kept going back to it throughout the match. Noble applied a guillotine out of nowhere and Snitsly tapped at the 9 minute mark. After the match Snitsky hit a big boot and left Noble laying. Noble was helped out of the ring.
5. Ted DiBiase & Cody Rhodes vs Cryme Tyme
Rhodes cut a promo before the match saying their belts were stolen last Monday by New York thugs. DiBiase then ripped the crowd by saying they're better than all of us and their only in their only 20's. Biggest pop of the night thus far for the hometown team. They came out wearing the Tag Team belts around their waists. Major crowd heat for this match. They were into everything. Rhodes got the pin on Shad after DiBiase hit him in the back of the head with a punch. Match went 9 minutes. Every match tonight is being given the same amount of time it seems. Afterwards Cryme Tyme jumped the Champs and re-stole the belts.
Still plenty of scattered empty seats. Chimel shilled the merchandise and then we had intermission. The WrestleMania 24 highlight video played followed by the clip of Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho from SummerSlam which was cut short when Kelly Kelly came back to the ring to pick a kid out of of the front row to be guest time keeper.
6. Santino Marella vs Kofi Kingston
Beth Phoenix was out with Santino. Santino cut a hilarious promo. He sang "New York, New York", changing the words to describe him as Intercontinental Champion. He went on to say that he has developed a new move that will guarantee hom victory, the mazarati clutch. Decent match. Santino signaled for the mazarati clutch, but Kofi stopped him before he could even apply it. Kofi attempted a monkeyflip out of the corner, but Beth held onto Santino's singlet and Kofi went flying. Santino covered him quick and got the pin in about 10 minutes. Didn't keep the exact time.
7. John Cena & Batista vs Chris Jericho & Kane
This was supposed to be Jericho vs Cena and Batista vs Kane, but it was changed to a tag match. Jericho was out first and the crowd chanted "HBK". Jericho said Shawn home with his wife because it was our fault she got a broken jaw. We support a liar and cheater like Shawn Michaels. Monster pops for both Cena and Batista. It's about 90/10 pro Cena for his entrance. Jericho forced a ring attendant to sweep the pyro ashes out of the ring for 5 minutes before the match started. Longest match so far. Went 16 minutes. Cena got the pin after hitting the fu on Kane. Post match saw both men celebrate with the music changing back and forth between their respective themes. Really surprised by the NYC reaction to Cena. Much more positive than the last MSG show at the Rumble.
Another intermission to give the ring crew time to assemble the cage for the main event. I was hoping for the oldschool blue cage, but no such luck.
8. CM Punk vs John Bradshaw Layfield
Before the match, Chimel announced that the next Garden show will be Sunday December 28th with another Raw house show. Tickets go on sale next Saturday morning. JBL talked about how Ali, Bruno, Hogan, Rock and Austin all had glory in MSG and now it's his turn when he wins the World Title. Nice reaction for Punk. Obviously not on the Cena level though. Towards the end of the match there was a problem with the cage door opening. The wrestlers killed time while 3 refs came down and tried to get the door open. The crowd cheered once the refs got it open. A cool spot saw CM Punk climb to the top and tease doing the Superfly splash, but he instead did a legdrop, but JBL moved out of the way. The ending came with both guys by the door slugging it out. JBL hit Punk with a right and knocked him out of the cage. Punk wins in 22 minutes. Good match. Punk celebrated in the ring for another 5 minutes by climbing to each corner of the ring and raising the belt.
{plug}
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