WWE Raw/ECW brand house show report
January 11, 2009
Des Moines, Iowa
Report by Andy Catron, PWTorch reader

(1) ECW champion Matt Hardy beat Jack Swagger in 20:00. Hardy controlled early on after getting a big reaction from the crowd. Swagger hopped out of the ring while looking frustrated. Hardy continued to taunt him by doing jumping jacks and push ups, after which he pointed at Swagger and stated "You Suck." Swagger got back in and started to dominate. After about five minutes of that, Hardy hit the Side Effect to the delight of the crowd. When both men made it to their feet, Hardy hit an elbow to the back of Swagger's neck and went for a second Side Effect. Swagger reversed this into the gut wrench powerbomb, but Hardy countered and hit the Twist of Fate for the win. Hardy posed for a bit while Swagger sulked.

(2) Women's champion Beth Phoenix beat Melina. Thank you Lord for putting me on the side where Melina does her splits. Beth dominated for most of the match with Melina getting in some offense. Was a solid match but not really much to report. Beth got the win with her underhook face buster.

(3) World tag team champions John Morrison & The Miz beat Cryme Tyme (JTG & Shad Gaspar). Morrison does a lot of overdramatic moves while removing his shirt. JTG mocks him and gets a huge response. JTG controls the early-going before getting double-teamed by JoMizzy. Shad comes in at around six minutes to a nice pop. After a good amount of brawling, JTG comes back in and gets pinned after the Moonlight Drive. More entertainment than sport, but that's not really a bad thing for these guys.

(4) Finlay (w/Hornswoggle) beat Mark Henry (w/Tony Atlas) in a Belfast Brawl. Henry gets some heat after yelling at the announcer to reintroduce him as a two-time Olympian and the World's Strongest Man. Finlay brings in some objects around the five-minute mark, including a 2x4 that he does the Hacksaw routine with. They start to brawl with the weapons until Henry is dumped out of the ring. Finlay drags in Atlas and wears him out with a Singapore cane, setting him up for a Tadpole splash. Atlas stumbles to the back while Henry knocks down Finlay and turns toward Hornswoggle.

Horny gets all fired up and throws his jacket to the ground and goes to hit Henry with a Singapore cane. Henry catches it mid swing and breaks it over his knee. He then turns around and gets nailed with the shillelagh. The nine-year-old on the balcony below me completely loses it as Finlay makes the pin. After the match, Finlay grabs five kids and they dance around the ring. Tony Chimel tries to get in on the fun but Finlay throws him out. The kids than grab their plastic belts and get on the top turnbuckles as the spotlights shine on them. Truly heartwarming.

[Intermission: Got a sweet C.M. Punk shirt.]

(5) IC champion William Regal beat Kofi Kingston in 10:00. Oh God, this match was terrible. It was also slightly comical when Kofi was making his entrance and Regal was running in the ring with that robe billowing around him. He looked like a fat English Batman in trunks. Kofi didn't do any of his exciting moves and the only thing Regal wanted to do was wear down holds. Regal won with a running knee in the longest ten minutes of my life.

(6) Randy Orton & Cody Rhodes beat Rey Mysterio & C.M. Punk. Punk, Mysterio, and Orton all got huge reactions from the crowd. Orton yelled at audience members throughout the match. Punk did most of the in-ring work. Rey got a huge pop off the hot tag. The ending was impressive as Punk got tagged in at the same time as Rhodes. Punk came in with a flying clothesline and hit various kicks and his knee-bulldog combo. On the outside, Mysterio took out Orton with a seated sentaun off the apron, only to be thrown in the guardrail after Orton got up. Rhodes tried to hop over Punk in the corner only to get caught in the fireman's carry position. Orton tagged himself in right before Punk hit the GTS. As he went for the cover, the ref explained that Orton was the legal man while Orton slithered up behind him. Punk turned around only to get RKO'ed and pinned. Easily the best match of the night. Went about 40 minutes. I hope WWE takes this as a sign to give Punk a championship push again, or at least have him as the no. two babyface.

(7) World Hvt. champion John Cena beat Chris Jericho. Jericho cut one of his awesome heel promos that had everybody wanting to see Cena destroy him. Missed most of the match, but caught the ending. Cena hit the five knuckle shuffle, than went for the FU. (Asst. editor's note: The Throwback.) Jericho reversed and hit the Codebreaker. Cena kicked out at 2.975. Jericho than locked in the Walls of Jericho, and after about two minutes Cena reversed into the STFU and got the win.

Altogether a very enjoyable show.

[John Cena art credit Grant Gould (c) PWTorch.com]

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