WWE Raw show
July 11, 2008
Lexington, Ky.
Report by Nick Harris, PWTorch.com reader

I attended the Raw brand house show held at Rupp Arena in Lexington, KY with a friend of mine. Both of us are long-time fans who know our stuff. The show featured an interactive element that I had not previously encountered at a WWE event. Throughout the night, Kelly Kelly made her way around the audience, asking trivia questions and picking kids to either serve as "guest manager" to a face or act as the bell ringer. In addition, Howard Finkel announced that fans would be able to choose the stipulation for the World Heavyweight Title match via text message. I will get back to this later.

(1) Jamie Noble vs. Charlie Haas: The action started out very slow, with both wrestlers attempting to draw any kind of heat from the reluctant Lexington audience. After a few "boring" chants, the action got underway. For some reason the crowd really got behind Noble and cheered for him loudly. Noble picked up the win with a knee drop from the top onto a standing Hass.

(2) Santino Marella vs. D-Lo Brown: Marella came out first and cut a pretty entertaining promo on Lexington. He referred to Lexington's college football team as the Cardinals and claimed that the Kentucky Derby is held in Lexington. He alsom lamented that, try as he might, he could not find any bluegrass. When D-Lo's music hit, I had this weird moment of nostalgic recognition before I finally realized who it was. I was excited to see him back. He looked the same and was every bit as good as he used to be. The guy behind me had to explain to his girlfriend who he was and the audience as a whole seemed confused. D-Lo hit all his signature spots (including a toned-down version of his powerbomb) and won with the Lo Down.

(3) Paul London vs. Chuck Palumbo: London was accompanied by his "guest manager", a kid that looked to be about 10. London garnered a lot of adulation from the crowd as he flipped and flew all over the place and even stole Palumbo's Slash-esque hat. London got the victory with the best-looking Shooting Star Press I've ever seen.

(4) Kofi Kingston vs. Paul Burchill w/ Katie Lea for the Intercontinental title: Kingston seemed to be very popular amongst the Lexington crowd as I saw many people imitating his self high five mannerism. This was a pretty even match that saw Kingston impressing everyone with high-flying manuevers and Burchill furthering his trademark nasty offense. At one point, Burchill delivered a vicious bell-to-back that almost caused Kingston to his head on the bottom turnbuckle. Kingston hit a surprise Trouble in Paradise for the pin.

(5) Micky James vs. Beth Phoenix: This was a very fluid match that was up there with the London-Palumbo match in terms of well-matched offense. The crowd seemed to be into the match and cheered when Micky pinned Phoenix after a flying Thesz press from the top.

(6) Lance Cade vs. Shawn Michaels: I was in the lobby when Michaels' music hit and the crowd reaction was very loud, even from outside of the arena. This was a fairly standard match. It's amazing just how unremarkable Cade really is. When I re-entered the arena, I intially thought he was a local jobber. Michaels hit all of his signature moves and won with an out-of-nowhere Sweet Chin Music.

(7) Batista vs. C.M. Punk for the World Title in a No-Disqualification match: At the beginning of the show the crowd was given the option of choosing a Falls Count Anywhere match, a Best 2 out of 3 Falls match, or a no DQ match. Of course, my friend and I voted for the second option as we knew it would make for a longer, more-competitive match. Our second choice was the Falls Count Anywhere match, as it would entail No DQ rules, but also give us the chance of seeing the wrestlers up close. Apparently, over 66% of the audience overlooked that fact and voted for the No DQ match. The match itself was much better than expected. The two men worked a very physical, back-and-forth match that we thought was PPV quality. Batista received most of the crowd's support, with Punk even being booed in places. In my area, I counted four people cheering for Punk: Myself, my friend, a mom in front of us, and a kid behind us. The wrestlers brawled outside of the ring, using the steel steps, a chair, and even the ring bell hammer against one another. Both wrestlers got in equal amounts of offense. The finish saw Batista charging at Punk looking to hit the spear with Punk rasing a chair to shield his midsection at the last second. Batista rammed the chair headfirst and was down for the three count. Punk was cheered mildly. Batista eventually recovered, stood eye-to-eye with Punk and then hit the Batista Bomb. Despite this being a very heelish move, the crowed cheered loudly.

(8) John Cena & Cryme Tyme vs. Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase Jr. & Kane. I wasn't quite sure why this was the main event and was even more confused about the heel trio. Cena got a huge pop that had a very high pitched tone to it, indicating that the kids were cheering loudest. We were not at all interested in this match and decided to leave to beat the rush. I would assume Cena's team won and would go so far as to say that it was Cena who got the win.

Notes: With the exception of the PPV quality match between Punk and Batista, this was pretty standard stuff. Based on what we saw at Rupp Arena, the Punk Batista match at the Bash should be very good if booked in a similar fashion to their No DQ match. I was surprised with how well those two worked together and glad to see that Punk is wrestling a more methodical, main-event style match now that he is champion.

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