WWE Live Event
Kennewick, Wash.
Report by Dot Net reader Gerrard620
  
1. Goldust defeated Ted DiBiase with his rolling neckbreaker finisher. Match time was a little over 8:00 min from the bell. Goldust was waaaay over with the crowd and especially this reader. Goldust came out with Ted's belt and hid it under the ring before Ted came out. Goldust grabbed the belt after the match and left Ted lying in ring. Great opening match with the crowd firmly behind Goldust. So glad to see Goldust getting a good spot again who is in better shape than I can ever remember. Team Goldie all the way for me.

2. Ezekiel Jackson defeated Zack Ryder. The GM sound beeped in the building and Justin Roberts read the e-mail. He said the GM wanted a dance off between the two and we're the judges. Zack Ryder actually was entertaining and did some funny stuff. Boos of course. Ezekiel did one small wobble with his finger and then decided he wasn't here to dance and went in his corner to get ready for the match. It didn't matter that he didn't actually dance and Ryder did. Zeke won the crowd by a landslide. The match finally started and lasted under two minutes by my count.
 
Kelly Kelly came out to a big pop from the crowd and let a child who answered a question about the next PPV be the guest bell ringer
 
3. Hart Dynasty(w/Natalya) defeated The Usos (w/Tamina) in a little over 11:00 minutes. Natalya was waaay over with our crowd (almost to the point that she was more over than the Harts). I think due to the fact that she's being featured prominently on TV right now. It's a good sign its working well for them. DH Smith started the match but wasn't in for long before tagging Tyson in. With our crowd slightly undersized we were all very loud actually. Tyson was the workhorse of this match with lots of good back and forth before a spot finally where Taminia kicked him below the belt with the ref distracted. At this point the the Uso's used the Bella gimick and did the switch a few times to stay fresh. Tyson couldnt make the tag.

The crowd was very hot for the match at this point with Tyson playing a great babyface getting beat down unfair. Finally after a while there was a spot where Natalya was able to scoop slam one of the Uso's on the outside and then knock down Tamina to what was the loudest pop of the night so far. Kennewick loves Natalya no question. Tyson finally made the hot tag and after a little more back and forth was able to apply the sharpshooter while Natalya and Tyson had the other two members busy.

Great long form house show match showing how tag teams can be used and generate good response even from a small crowd. No sign of any trouble between the Harts so maybe that story has been dropped(I hope) or maybe just taking the night off from that. Either way this was my second best match of the night.
 
4. Chris Masters defeated Alex Riley in under 8:00 min. Alex was out first and cut a good promo about how the Miz will be picking him to be the seventh member of team Raw for Bragging rights. He then proceeded to pick on a kid in the front row. He asked the kid to whisper in his ear what he was saying. The kid got right in his ear and yelled "You Suck" then also something about him needing the Miz. Alex proceeded to explain that he didn't need the Miz and "Alex Riley is always right!" It sounded like a new catch phrase possibly.
 
Masters came out to a decent reaction which grew louder once he posed on the turnbuckle. Decent Match but slow at times. Not bad but not much memorable after the great promo time beforehand. Masters won with the Masterlock submission.
 
The GM buzzed again and Justin Roberts proceeded to tell us that in honor of Bragging Rights the card for the night would be changed. We will now see the two teams captains fight. The card originally had Big Show taking on CM Punk, Miz taking on Daniel Bryan, and Dolph taking on Kofi Kingston.

Justin then said we will also now see and Champion vs. Champion match up next - Daniel Bryan vs Dolph Ziggler. I'm all for this as I could see Bryan and Ziggler putting on a good match and I've seen Kofi vs Ziggler done to death lately. This is going to be an extremely fresh and athletic match up. It was also something I haven't seen on TV at all yet so I have no idea what to expect out of these two.
 
5. Daniel Bryan defeated Dolph Ziggler in over 13:00 min in the longest match of the night. Ziggler came out first to good heel heat from the crowd. He's over in a good way. People know him and know his gimmick. Daniel's "Ride of the Valkyries" music played and got a smaller reaction than I expected ( I think some wrestling fans aren't used to this kind of music yet. Ric Flair used a classical piece his whole career, maybe Bryan's will get over eventually). As soon as he walked through the curtain, though, Bryan got the biggest pop of the night so far.

Bryan was introduced as "Washington's own Daniel Bryan." The crowd settled into their seats as the bell sounded. I stood up and started a Daniel Bryan chant, which got me a point and chuckle from Bryan. The crowd followed my lead with that one with little effort on my part. For the whole match, the crowd contiued to start a "Daniel" chant every couple of minutes. These two put on such a good match with great back and forth and lots of stiff shots.

If I hadn't have gotten so wrapped up in the match myself, I would probably have better details. Bryan and Ziggler both got in most of their signature moves. I could tell Daniel was really enjoying himself with the full support for him this night. Daniel's corner back flip over Dolph got a big pop. Daniel eventually won with the LeBell Lock. Both men looked pretty good and I could see this going over well someday down the line with a program. If I had saw that on a PPV, I would have been very satisfied.
 
Intermission
 
After the break, Kelly Kelly came back with another strong crowd reaction (she was easily the second most over Diva of the night behind Natalya and neither one of them even wrestled.) She tossed shirts into the crowd after Justin said he cant throw so she would do it. I guess Kelly Kelly can throw a shirt better than Justin? Ok then...
 
6. Eve and Gail Kim defeated Maryse and Alicia Fox in slightly over 4:00. A Divas Tag match with Gail getting a good reaction when her name was announced. I was happy to see people remember her with her lack of TV time lately. There's an underutilized Diva. The two heel Divas did their part well. Maryse may not be the best in ring yet, but is very high in the charisma factor. Eve looks great live in person I'll just say that. Gail got the pin with the "Eat Defeat" or however they spell that move of hers

7. Kofi Kingston defeated CM Punk in about a little under 12:00. Punk cut a long promo that went after the bell. Punk came out first to a good heel pop. Not the face pop he had on Raw. Wow! CM Punk has died his hair blonde again! I haven't seen Punk blonde since ROH. Punk took his sweet time coming to the ring a trash talking with multiple ringside fans. His song actually played until its finish.

Punk got on the mic and got the biggest heel heat of the night when he referred to us (knowing that we weren't) as Spokane Washington. Justin Roberts reminded him that this was Kennewick. Punk criticized us for letting Zeke win the dance off against Zack Ryder when he clearly didn't dance at all. Great call back to the early match. Punk has some stand up skills with stuff like that. 

Punk went on to insult us all more and kept saying this was Spokane witch drew huge boos. Kofi came out finally to big cheers. Punk walked around ringside and trash talked with a few more fans for a couple minutes before finally getting in the ring. Kofi threw his shirt into the crowd and Punk teased throwing his before dropping it just over the ropes. A good match with two of the more athletic members of the roster this evening. Kofi got the win with Trouble in paradise.
Man it is all babyfaces going over here. The crowd does not mind.
 
Justin Roberts announced that it was time for the main event and said they look forward to coming back to Kennewick soon. (Heres hoping they give us another try with a full roster and are smart enough to realize that they might not be able to draw here without full star power and dont simply stop due to this less than stellar attendance.)
 
8. Big Show defeated The Miz (w/Alex Riley) in under 9:00. Miz came out to great heel heat. Big Show came out to the biggest pop of the night. At the beginning of the match, Big Show got in two of his "Shhh" slaps to the chest and even a third after the crowd chanted "One more time." Miz's chest was as red as Sheamus's gets at this point. Ouch. Riley tried his best to distract Show and allowed Miz to work Show's leg a lot during this match. Big Show finally gets the upper hand and chokeslammed Miz for the win.
 
After the match, Alex came in and nailed Show in the leg with the MIB briefcase. Miz, hurt and leaning on the ropes, called for the heels to come out. All the heels from the night rushed the ring and ganged up on show. Finally, all the faces ran to the ring and cleaned house on the heels, leaving Miz and Alex as the last two surrounding them.

Alex and Miz agrued with each other and Miz shoved Alex into Show, who finished off Miz with the knockout punch to send us home happy. The lights came on and Miz sold in the ring to very end even when half the crowd had left already. He was eventually helped out of the ring.
 
Notes: All in all, I enjoyed the show with a great tag team match and a brilliant Daniel Bryan vs. Ziggler match that was very fresh. It was great seeing Bryan in his home state as this will probably be the last time for a while for him. I'm glad I got to shake his hand last Sunday in Yakima with front row seats. This was the most different show I've been to with a different roster than usual. But even with the crowd being smaller than usual and lack of that "Big Name," I must say I enjoyed this show more than others I've been to. If it was on video, I would recommend it to say the least.

This was set to be quite a different show from the moment they first advertised this. WWE has only been to our town twice before. The first time was a Raw house show back in 2006. In 2008 (I think that was the next year) It was a Smackdown house show. Those two shows both had big rosters at the time. Cena and Edge were highlights of the Raw house show and the year that the Smackdown show came we had Triple H and the Undertaker.
 
This was different as the top stars this time were Big Show, Miz, CM Punk, Goldust, and Daniel Bryan to name some. The two previous shows that we had were near sell outs with the popular stars and lack of live WWE shows in our town.

This show was quite a different sight. I would say we only had about 60 percent of the arena full. Most of the floor seats were sold with hardcore fans and lots of the cheap seats in the two ends of the arena were packed with families and kids. But the mid price level east and west sides were scattered.
 
This was being reported on the Torch as WWE's "B show" as the big names like Orton, Sheamus, Undertaker and Kane among others were all in Denver at the same time tonight. I can only think of two good reasons why WWE stacked the Denver show with this strange roster mix.
 
They have been all over our area this past week more than they ever have in the last few years. I attended the Yakima show last sunday and that was about 85 percent full from my view. Of course Monday Night Raw in Seattle which I also attended was very packed as well. They also went to Portland on Tuesday for Smackdown, which is just as far a drive from Kennewick as Seattle is. About three and half hours.

Then just last night they were in Spokane for another big Raw house show, just a two-hour drive from Kennewick. So for the average person from my area there could have been to plenty of big WWE shows with no more than a three and half hour drive over the course of a week.
 
The other reason in relation could be the fact that they have a great track record of near sell outs in my town and figure that they can just advertise WWE and we'll buy it up.
 
The combination of those two things I think is the reasoning for the lack of "Big Star" power.
 
Its possible many people who would have normally attended our show, had attended the others around the northwest this past week. Of course WWE may have also been testing just to see how well in town with limited WWE live exposure, and past success of near sell outs, how they would fair with a slightly different roster.
 
I hope they choose to come back with one of the full brand rosters again, as I'm sure a Randy Orton or a Rey Mysterio or a especially John Cena would have brought in the extra 500-1000 tickets for the more fringe fans in our town willing to pay some extra money for a chance to see one or two of the "Big Names"
 
Biggest Pops
1. Big Show
2. Danile Bryan (but only after he came through the curtain)
3 Tie between Kofi and Goldust.
Honorable mention: Natalya. Her scoop slam to one of the Uso's had probably the biggest single move pop of the night. The crowd went crazy when that happened.
 
Biggest Heat
1. CM Punk with his Promo.
2. The Miz
3. Dolph Ziggler
Honorable Mention: Alex Riley when he got in that kid's face at ringside.

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