WWE house show report 12-30 Portland, ME
WWE RAW House Show -
Civic Center - Portland, ME/Tuesday, December 30
Provided by Josh Nason (
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)
- Goldust def. Santino Marella: Marella came out and did some mic work, pushing a new finisher he calls the Masserati Clutch. He said when he signals for it, watch out! He challenged anyone from the back to come out and dare face him and Goldust emerged. Goldust got the win with a suplex slam. There was no Beth Phoenix with Marella and no Masserati Clutch.
- Mark Henry w/Tony Atlas def. Ricky Ortiz: Henry got quite a few cheers as Ortiz wasn't doing it for the fans, who popped for all of Henry's power moves. Henry caught Ortiz coming off the second rope and hit the powerslam for the win. Atlas is well known in Maine for his days in ICW and other local indies, but that wasn't mentioned.
- Cryme Tyme def. Cody Rhodes/Manu: Nice tag match that was really well-paced. JTG worked mostly with Rhodes, leaving Shad to get the hot tag. He got the pin on Manu after his Rock Bottom-style finisher.
- Kane def. Kofi Kingston: Another mix of young and veteran, the fans were popping hard for Kane. The end came when Kingston avoided one chokeslam and came off the top rope, only to be caught in another for the pin.
- Melina/Kelly Kelly def. Women's Champion Beth Phoenix and Jillian Hall: Pretty pedestrian women's tag match with Kelly taking most of the action and showing off her t-back for most of the match. Easily the most missed spots of any match of the night. The end came when Melina got the Canadian Destroyer on Hall for the pin.
-Intermission came at 8 pm, just an hour after bell time. The first hour was really fast-paced with matches with little-to-no lag time.
- Jack Swagger pinned Tommy Dreamer: I assume I'm not the only one who thinks Swagger's arm length is similar to Brock Lesnar's, am I? Swagger hit his gut-wrench power bomb for the win.
- I-C Champion William Regal w/Layla def. CM Punk: Match went approximately 10-12 minutes and was really a solid match. Both Regal and Punk did the crowd work you just don't see on TV or PPV matches that really brought everyone into it. The end came when Punk was going for the GTS finisher and Layla jumped on the apron, faking an ankle injury. Punk got distracted and Regal hit a kick to the head for a pin. Again, very well-done and fun match.
- World Champion John Cena def. Randy Orton: This one was probably between 15-20 minutes and really, really good. Orton was on top most of the match and was awesome as a more demonstrative heel, playing to the fans and mocking their cheers for Cena. At one point, Orton was interacting with John Cena Sr. at ringside and a fan rushed up to pat Orton on the back. Before security could usher her away, Orton mock swung to get her away from him. As he got back in the ring, Cena asked the girl to come back and then gave her a hug. Great perception by Cena to pick up on that, which Orton later mocked as well. The two traded an STFU and an RKO and while Orton was setting up for another RKO, Cena kicked him off and hit the FU for the pin. This was better than any match I've seen on TV for quite some time. If they do this match at Wrestlemania 25, I think people will be happy with the quality.
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