WWE Fan Appreciation Day
Hartford, Conn. at the XL Center
Report by Dot Net reader Mike S.

There was a relentless barrage of pro-WWE propaganda to subject us fans to. There were a ton of "behind-the-scene" players, such as those who work in the offices who were praising the virtues of WWE and what a wonderful place it was to work for.

One gentleman was going on about how he had suffered a stroke and the company rallied behind him 100 percent of the way until he was healthy enough to return to work there. It's funny how quickly Jim Ross came to mind, but I digress. It was a good 20 minutes of WWE beating us over the head with their desire to have us stand up for them.

We were fortunate enough to get a night of the Fink. I'll take him over Justin Roberts ten times out of ten. There were lots of cameras, boom mics, and things that you don't see at your normal house show. Something tells me that you'll be seeing a recap on Monday.

1. Big Show won a 24-man battle royal to earn a shot at the Intercontinental Title. This was a fun little opener to start the card. Nexus members Heath Slater, Justin Gabriel and David Otunga were the last ones to join the other wrestlers in the ring. No surprise here, the WWE guys converged on the Nexus faction and made sure that they were the first ones eliminated.

The last five guys in the ring were Mark Henry, Big Show, Jack Swagger, Drew McIntyre and Cody Rhodes. After the heels eliminated Henry, they started celebrating a little prematurely. Enter Show, who was pretty well over with the crowd all night. He eliminates Swagger in pretty convincing fashion and sets his sights on Rhodes. Cody took a rather humorous exit from the match by eliminating himself, rather than having a showdown with Mr. Wight. Big Show disposes the ring of McIntyre and we now know who will get to face Ziggler later in the card.

2. Daniel Bryan beat The Miz (w/Alex Riley) to retain the United States Championship. The Miz heads out to the ring first with Alex Riley in tow. I can say this much. The Miz is the only one who generated any real heel heat all night. There was a funny line in which he pulled an old routine from The Rock where he stops everyone from "singing along" with his catch phrase. He tells the crowd that he will only let the audience members speak if they raise their hands first and waits for him to call on them.

The whole arena put their hands up in unison. The Miz finished his promo and Daniel Bryan came out to a decent pop. As you'd expect, a very good match between these two. Does anyone remember when the Miz couldn't wrestle a lick? He's pretty damn good these days. A few "Daniel Bryan" chants throughout the match and some really good spots with Daniel Bryan getting the win via a pinning combination that I couldn't see due to six rows of meatheads that wouldn't sit down. There is something to be said about sitting in the stands instead of the floor. Not much of a surprise when Riley and Miz gave Bryan a post-match beatdown. I don't see a point to that on a house show, but a very entertaining match.

The Anonymous General Manager bell tolls and a laptop is rushed down to ringside with the Fink playing Michael Cole's role, complete with "and I quote." It's announced that we will be made to suffer through a diva dance-off. I'll rush through this. People always remark on how much bigger the wrestlers seem in real life. The very same can be said about the Diva's bust sizes.

The Caucasian contingent did little to displace the old rumors of white people not being able to dance (although Maryse's cabbage patch was a sight to behold). In case you were wondering, Kelly Kelly hasn't improved a smidge since her Expose days on the revised ECW program. The biggest pops went to Melina and Layla El (mercifully, without Michelle McCool). Melina won and my daughter was happy. Despite Santino coming down to do his usual comedy spot, I was glad that it was over.

Vince McMahon came out to a huge pop and announced that we might think that he's coming out to talk about politics, but there was nothing further from the truth. He wanted to let the WWE Universe how much he appreciates them. He then went on about his mission to beat us over the head regarding the previous Stand Up for WWE nonsense and thanking us for not buying into what politicians and the media say about them. I feel bad for anyone that has actually been persuaded enough by this relentless onslaught of feel-good sentiment from this company that they'd show up to the polls in their fancy WWE garb.

3. Sheamus over John Morrison. Sheamus came down to some obligatory heel heat, and John Morrison got an okay welcome from the Connecticut part of the WWE universe. John Morrison was recording the fans as he walked down the aisle. There really wasn't a lot to write home about during this match. John Morrison's high adrenaline style just didn't mesh as well with Sheamus this time, compared to their falls-count-anywhere match from a few weeks ago on Raw. The end came when Sheamus put his knees up to avoid Morrison's Starship Pain maneuver. One axe kick later and this one was in the books.

4. Randy Orton defeated Wade Barrett to retain the WWE Championship. Orton got the biggest pop of the night to that point with Barrett got less of a reaction than I really thought he would have received. Like the previous match, this one wasn't exactly a barn-burner. The Nexus rushed to the aid of Michael Barrett to no avail and the crowd got the RKO that they'd been dying for. I'm really hoping that these two work on their in-ring chemistry to make for a better match for the next PPV.

We got the tolling of the Anonymous GM again and we're informed that with the Big Show winning the battle royal, he would be removed from the World Title match against Kane, and we would get a surprise opponent instead. Because Triple H was advertised as a one-night only contestant, we all naturally assumed it would be him. This led us to intermission.

5. Dolph Ziggler defeated The Big Show (w/Hornswoggle) via countout to retain the Intercontinental Championship. My heart sank as I saw Hornswoggle come out with the Big Show. We had our comedy match of the night. Dolph Ziggler reminds me so much of classic heels like Curt Hennig. Lots of stalling from Ziggler to start the contest.

Watching him play the coward role as he was crawling on his knees at hyper speed in and out of the ring to avoid Big Show amused the crowd quite a bit. Once caught, Ziggler was on the receiving end of quite a beatdown with lots of Big Show paws across the chest. I did like the sleeper through the ropes finish with Ziggler getting back in at the last second for the count-out victory. Of course, redemption was had when Ziggler went to beat up Hornswoggle. Big Show arrived. Knockout punch. Tadpole splash. Moms and kids celebrated.

6. Triple H defeated Alberto Del Rio. Mr. Rodriguez introduced Del Rio to a respectable reaction from the crowd. He got on the mic and informs us that Rey Mysterio couldn't make it. He wasn't sure if it was a visa issue or if he couldn't find his mask, and said that he didn't really care. He wanted his hand raised in a forfeit victory. The ref refused to do it and as Del Rio made his argument, Triple H's music played. Hartford went bananas at this point as Triple H came down to the ring in street clothes.

Del Rio informed Triple H that Hartford doesn't want to see him, while the crowd protested. He then asked us if we wanted to see Triple H versus Alberto Del Rio. The crowd popped and he pointed at Triple H and said, "Then it's on.....just not tonight." He got out of the ring and started making his way to the back with plenty of boos to go with him. Triple H chased after him, beat on him, and got him back in the ring.

It really was a short affair with Triple H pretty much dominating the match. He nailed The Pedigree, got the pin, and had Hartford eating out of his hand. A Pedigree for Ricardo Rodriguez made the crowd happy and we're onto our last match. With the crowd anticipating Triple H being the surprise for Kane, the supporters and haters of one unadvertised man led everyone to the same conclusion....

7. John Cena defeated via DQ in a World Hvt. Championship match. John Cena got a very hot reaction from the crowd, mostly positive. If you would've told me that this was going to be the best match of the night with guys like Daniel Bryan, The Miz and Alberto Del Rio on the card, I would've told you to cue Vince McMahon's theme song. This was a very good match with lots of false finishes, kicking out of finishers and a great all-around match.

Unfortunately, you knew how it was going to end up, especially since John Cena had ripped off the Nexus armband about halfway through the match. Cena slapped on his second STF and the Nexus ran down for the save. Orton ran down to the ring and joined the fight for Cena against Nexus. The heel part of the roster ran down to pretty much pummel Cena and Orton. The faces then saved the day and it was a finisher bonanza on Sheamus and the Nexus to close out the show and let everyone leave happy.

Notes: This was the first show I'd seen live from the WWE in over a decade and it was a completely different experience than it was during the Attitude era. All in all, it was a fun night for the kids and I. I'm under the impression that I'm going to have to take them again sometime soon....and that's not a bad thing.

Biggest Pops:
1. Triple H
2. John Cena
3. Randy Orton

Biggest Heat:
1. The Miz
2. The Nexus
3. Alberto Del Rio/Sheamus

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