By Gary Mehaffy 

WWE Raw House Show, Belfast, Northern Ireland, November 13th, 2008.

It’s funny how some things slip your mind when you have so many things going on in life. Suffice to say, it was brought back superbly during the course of this show.

Match 1 – Stone Cold Charlie (Haas) Austin pinned Snitsky. I’d almost forgotten big Gene was employed. He seemed to have less acne than he’s had in a while. I’m sure it’s purely coincidental that his pecs were a little saggier and his gut a little larger than the last time I saw him at a house show. Anyway, Haas was a little over, probably due to him being the first wrestler, sorry, sports entertainer, ah, I mean, entertainer on show pinned Snitsky with a roll up.

Match 2 – Beth Phoenix pinned Candice Michelle after hitting her finisher. Kelly Kelly was the guest referee and Mickie James was the guest timekeeper. Kelly I could accept, but Mickie played no real part, other than rolling Beth in after the match for a double dropkick from Kelly and Candice. Hey, it’s a few extra dollars in her pocket, so who’s complaining! At least Candice didn’t fall off the top rope this time when she climbed it, like she did at the previous Belfast house show. Passable match. Just.

Match 3 – Kane beat D Lo Brown. There were two really strange aspects to this match. D Lo came out and received a nice reaction from the adult fans who remember him. he then cut a heel promo about how the office, the boys in the back and the fans could hardly have known he’s been back for five and a half months as he’s not been used enough. He challenged anyone from the back to come out as ‘I love to fight’. No, Finlay didn’t appear, even though it is his home town house show. Kane came out, to a babyface reaction. Eh, is he not a heel at Survivor Series still? To be honest, I would prefer a feud between these two as opposed to Kane/Rey purely due to the fact that D Lo is bigger and you don’t have to suspend reality just as much. Ok match.

Match 4 – Kofi Kingston/CM Punk beat Manu/Cody Rhodes after Punk hit Rhodes with the GTS. Manu and Rhodes got precisely no reaction, Kofi got a polite one and Punk got a really big pop, as the first true babyface superstar of the night so far. This was a good match. During the match Punk used the three amigos suplex spot, which a handful of fans booed, and then it hit me – tonight (13th) is the third anniversary of Eddie Guerrero’s death. And when I looked closer, Punk had ‘Eddie’ written on his tape. At the end of the match, Punk pointed to the ceiling (which very fans at this point got the meaning of) and he and Kofi spent about 4 weeks greeting the fans. Well, not quite, but you get my point.

After the interval, this was where things really kicked into overdrive.

Match 5 – William Regal pinned Santino Marella after a knee to the head. Regal’s music played and Tony Chimmel introduced him, but Regal didn’t appear for what seemed like an eternity. I don’t know what went wrong, but something evidently did. When he hit the ring he cut a great promo, and when it got tot the point when Santino’s music should have interrupted it, it didn’t. You could see Regal anticipate it, but it never came. After a few glances around, he cut a promo about how he would destroy Finlay if they were on the same brand, Eventually Santino’s music came, and he said that if he came from Belfast he would be proud, etc, and the match was on. They worked the crowd really well, and Santino received a great reaction from the fans. No Beth with him, so maybe they’ll be splitting properly in a couple of weeks on Raw.

Match 6 – Shawn Michaels pinned JBL after hitting Sweet Chin Music. JBL is THE MAN on the mic. He cut a long promo – like, really long – but it was superb. It even included him getting an American flag from the crowd, having Chimmel and the referee hold it, getting onto his knees in front of it and singing ‘God Bless America’. Superb. Michaels hit the ring and they had a really good match, maybe even better that that. It was probably the best I’ve seen JBL in the ring at a house show. He’s in better shape that he has been in a while and HBK is one of the best ever in the ring, and tonight they just clicked.

Match 7 – Batista/Rey Mysterio beat Y2J/Randy Orton after a Batista bomb on Orton. This was just fantastic. Y2J cut another long promo at the start, and they had the fans dying to see them destroyed. Much as I liked his serious tones during his feud with HBK, this was more entertaining and his crowd baiting techniques are simply superb. This was a super match, miles better than most of the TV matches this year, and it sent the crowd home happy.

BUT THERE’S MORE! Sometimes, it pays to wait to leave for a few minutes after the bell rather than as soon as the referee counts three so that you beat the traffic on the way home! After the match, Batista took the mic. Just before he did, about ten or a dozen of us at ringside started to chant Eddie’s name, and Dave and Rey smiled. Batista then cut a promo saying that it was three years since his death, that he missed him like crazy and that he lived on through him, Rey, the boys and the fans. He led the crowd in a HUGE Eddie chant, and Rey took the mic. He said that Eddie would have been looking down smiling and then shouted ‘Viva La Raza’. Finally, in a lovely touch, they played Eddie’s ‘Latino Heat’ tune in the as Batista, Rey and the fans remembered him. Great touch. I was really proud to have been there to see this. Eddie was in the greatest match that I have even seen at a house show (a tag with Eddie/Chavo v Kurt Angle/Chris Benoit) and it was nice to have been there for this celebration of his life.

I’ll be back next week with another column on someone from ECW that is sorely underpushed.

Gary Mehaffy