TAKE PWTORCH
WITH YOU! Get our iPhone App (FREE!): Click Here Or enter "PWTorch.com" on your Blackberry or other Smart Phone browser for mobile-version of PWTorch.
Arena Reports
7/26 WWE Raw in Wheeling: Punk vs. Batista vs. JBL, Cena & Cryme Tyme vs. Jericho & Rhodes & DiBiase Jul 27, 2008 - 11:02:02 AM
WWE Raw show
July 26, 2008
Wheeling, W.Va. at WesBanco Arena
Report by Bill Chappo, PWTorch.com readers
They drew about 65-70 percent capacity.
(1) D-Lo Brown defeated Lance Cade with the frogsplash.
(2) Matt Striker gets beat someone whose name I didn't get.
(3) Mickey James & Kelly Kelly beat Beth Phoenix & Katie Lea. Santino comes out after the match and cut a funny promo. Wheeling has it's Italian Days festival this weekend, and Santino said while it was nice to honor him with "Santino Days Festival," no one asked his permission so he asked security to arrest the festival organizers. He then turned to Beth Phoenix and said that he thought about their encounter on Raw all week. He kept talking until Beth shut him up with a big smooch. Santino the bragged about a new hold he has developed called the Maserati Clutch, and that you will see this move when facing "a wrestler who is retiring." Out comes Hacksaw Duggan, who pins Santino in five seconds. Guess we have to wait to see this brilliant move performed for another day. Beth then flung Santino over her shoulder and carried him back to the locker room.
(4) Kane beat Jamie Noble. First Noble comes out and hits on Generic Diva, who amazing accepts his offer to "head for the local watering hole for a good time." Kane's music hits, Noble defeated 1-2-3.
Time for intermission.
(5) Kofi Kingston defeated Paul Burchill to retain the IC Title. Kofi hit his usual leapfrog spots and the standing jump to the top rope, getting the pin with the Death Kick To The Grill. Kofi is over big with the kids, and throws a great dropkick, ala Jim Brunzell.
(6) John Cena & Cryme Tyme defeated Chris Jericho & Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase. Y2J cut a long promo before the match, saying how good he felt putting HBK on the shelf and so on. If you came to boo Cena, you were alone as Wheeling LOVES John Cena. Cena gets in some early offense, then the match settled down to Crime Tyme getting the beatdown. J.T. would tag Gaspar for a flurry of offense, then getting the beatdown himself. Cena worked hard on the apron getting the fans into it, and putting over the fact he needed to be tagged in. Hot tag, crowd goes nuts, boom boom boom Y2J gets FU'd for the pin. There was much rejoicing.
(7) C.M. Punk beat JBL and Batista to retain the World Hvt. Title. JBL is out first and cuts a funny, heat-getting promo, bitching about waking up in New York, then having to come to this "Third World Toilet, Wheeling West Virginia!" He says it is a shame that he will win his belt back in such a hole, and that when he is champ, the WWE will never come back to West Virginia again. Batista comes out next to a big pop, then the Champ. Batista got a bigger reaction than Punk. The usual three-way formula followed, with one guy taking a powder outside with the other two in the ring. The finale came when JBL brought a chair in the ring, Batista cut him off but got tossed to the outside, Punk grabs the chair and KO's JBL for the duke.
TIPS FOR SENDING IN HOUSE SHOW REPORTS
If you attend an arena event in future, either house shows or TV tapings, we encourage you to send us a report for publication. You can direct your reports to pwtorch@gmail.com.
We accept reports in any format, but if it's not much trouble, please format your report like you see above, with the matches numbered like this (1) , (2) , (3) , with the opening line of each match paragraph stating who beat whom (don't just say Wrestler A vs. Wrestler beat with the result listed later; instead, state up front who won so those readers who don't have time to read the entire report (i. e. their boss walks past their cubicle all the time looking beat their shoulder) can at least quickly assess the results.
Also, please list tag teams using the & symbol as opposed to stating and. Reserve use of and when listing results in a three-way or four-way match where there are no teams (i. e. Wrestler A beat Wrestler B and Wrestler C in a three-way match ) so it is easy to differentiate a handicap match from a three-way match.
If you know HTML coding for bolding, you can also bold out the first line of each match description. If you don't know HTML symbols, then we can add those ourselves.
Special thanks to everyone who helps us with reports on live events!
INCREDIBLE BENEFITS! Over 50 full-length audio updates per month (iPod compatible)... New weekly award-winning Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter (text and printable pdf versions) with latest exclusive insider news, new Torch Talks, great columns, Keller's cover story, much more... Hundreds of full-length back issues of PWTorch Newsletter from late-'80s to today... Ad-free access to PWTorch.com's Main Listing... VIP Forum with interaction with other subscribers and Torch staff... Torch Talk Library with text and audio of hundreds of interview installments from last 20 years... Great layout... Deepest archives on pro wrestling history anywhere... Keller's PWTorch Today PDF Bulletins with email alerts... VIP Email reports on major PPVs and TV shows... Staff Roundtable Reviews (text and audio) followiing major events... The best staff of writers and world class reporting since 1987... We'd love for you to join us and experience the most entertaining, authoritative, experienced staff of professional reporters and commentators in the business...
Compare the value of four or five months of PWTorch VIP content to the price of just one PPV. Can you cut 25 cents a day from your budget to make room for PWTorch VIP?
AND NEW FOR 2009! Monthly "Vintage Audio Torch Talks." We are releasing for the first time ever audio versions of our text Torch Talk updates, the historical first series of insider interviews ever. Wade Keller's newsmaking in-depth interviews with wrestling's biggest names are now being made available exclusively to VIP members. But you must be a member each month, as these are not archived, so they are replaced with a new one each month! This debuted in January 2009 with a 68 minute interview with the late "British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith. Who's next? Hulk Hogan? Eric Bischoff? The Rock? Goldberg? Jeff Hardy?