WWE Live Event
Orlando, Florida at the Amway Center
Report by Dot Net Member Michael Lightner

1. R-Truth defeated Fandango (w/Summer Rae) by pinfall. Good, average opener to get the crowd going. It's worth noting that like any good manager, Summer never stops working the ref or the crowd. I hope the addition of her to the Total Divas cast leads to big things for her going forward.

2. The Funkadactyls defeated Aksana and Alicia Fox. Prior to the start of the show, the WWE Universe was encouraged to text or tweet their choice for this to be a "Diva Dance-Off" or a Divas Tag Match. Brad Maddox came out to announce the result, which was that the match would be a normal Divas Tag Match. Cameron pinned Fox.

There was a pre-taped promo from Randy Orton where he bragged about beating John Cena at TLC, at Royal Rumble, and said he would beat him again tonight.

3. Titus O'Neal defeated Curt Hawkins by pinfall. Titus cut a promo saying that he carried Darren Young for the last two years and that he came to the WWE to be a champion and that it was time to move on without Darren. As he was getting booed during the promo, he said "my friend Dwight said that you were going to boo me." He said that he was from a real championship program (University of Florida) and not from UCF. Pretty standard "heel insulting the hometown teams" type promo, but effective.

4. Adrian Neville defeated NXT Champion Bo Dallas by pinfall in a non-title match. Despite living in Orlando, I haven't had a chance to make it out to an NXT taping, so this was a real treat. Bo is a great heel, and I'm really looking forward to seeing more of him and everyone else on NXT when the WWE Network starts. Bo cut a promo before the match saying he was a fighting champion, but couldn't defend the NXT Championship until the Live Special on Feb 27 on the WWE Network, so this would be a non-title match. This was a really good match. I would seriously recommend to anyone who is curious about NXT to check them out when the Network starts. Neville won with a corkscrew senton off the top. Incredible!!

5. Goldust and Cody Rhodes defeated The Real Americans (w/Zeb Colter). Before the match Zeb cut a promo and mentioned that we were in Tampa, Swagger corrected him, and Zeb basically said Orlando, Tampa, it's all the same and no one cares. Another great long match (probably 20 mins) between these two teams. Zeb was great to watch ringside. Personally, I'm a fan of the old-school style of managers (Bobby Heenan/Jimmy Hart) and Zeb would fit in perfectly in that era. I'd love to see a few more managers back in the WWE. Cody pinned Swagger.

15 minute intermission

6. Sin Cara and Los Matadors defeated 3MB. One of the Matadors got a hold of Slater's vest, and whenever Slater went to get the vest back, the Matador would pull away causing Slater to fall. This got a few laughs. Decent match. Sin Cara won via pinfall.

7. Big Show defeated Kane by pinfall. Kane wrestled in slacks as he did in the Rumble. Big Show took a choke slam off the top rope, pretty impressive to see Show take that big of a bump on a house show. Big Show wins with the KO Punch.

8. John Cena defeated WWE World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton by DQ. Pretty good match for these two. There were a lot of great false finishes that had the crowd going, including the ref bump spot from the Rumble. Cena got Orton up for the AA, Orton wiggled out and hit Cena with a low blow to get DQ'd.

At this point I left to run out to the box office to buy tickets for WWE's return to Orlando for SmackDown on July 22, so I missed any post match antics. (Although, I'd assume Orton took an AA to send everyone home happy.)

Notes: Overall, it was a good show. WWE hasn't ran a house show in Orlando since Aug 2005, so it was a welcome change of pace to see a house show in place of the usual Raw/SmackDown tapings. At the house shows, I always feel that things are a lot more relaxed and leads to more interaction with the crowd. It's worth noting the additions the WWE has made to the house shows over the past few years have enhanced the experience. Having a few video screens playing the entrance videos and a smoke machine give the house shows a little bigger feel. The days of a house show being a ring and nothing more are gone.

There was a pretty solid crowd, with the floor and most of the lower bowl full. There were a decent number of seats filled in the mid/club level, and the upper bowl was tarped off.

PS: I just signed up for a premium membership the other day and am enjoying the additional content. Looking forward to what should be an interesting WrestleMania season!

RECOMMEND THIS ARTICLE: