WWE Raw/ECW brand house show results
February 27, 2009
Long Island, N.Y.
Report by Andrew Fiero, PWTorch.com correspondent

(1) Intercontinental champion C.M. Punk beat William Regal. This was a longer version of their TV matches, which is not a bad thing in my book. A lot of stiff shots by both guys. Fun match and a good way to start the show. The pop C.M. Punk got really amazed me. Punk won with the GTS.

(2) Mike Knox beat Goldust. This was pretty much a stretched-out squash match, although Goldust did get a bit of offense towards the middle. Gotta say Mike Knox seemed to be taking it easy after the mishap with Jamie Noble on Monday.

(3) Women's champion Melina beat Beth Phoenix (w/Santino Marella). These two, as well as Santino, brought the goods. SHIMMER quality match from the two as they were given enough time to really shine. They did the a version of the spot where Beth makes Melina kick herself in the back of the head, but this time they were standing in the corner while it happened. Another great moment - Beth on the ground while Melina ran against the ropes and did a split with her front foot kicking Beth in the face. My only problem with this match was that it, along with a few other matches, was for a title. Really spoils the ending for a house show because there's no chance of a title change.

After the match, Santino gets on the mic and says she's going to make it up to Beth by beating anyone in the back who has the guts to come out and face him. The Boogeyman's music starts playing and out he comes. Once in the ring, he lets the worms leave his mouth and Santino screams and runs to the back. The scream was comedy gold, by the way.

(4) Kane beat Kofi Kingston. This match had its moments, but it seemed like they were just going through the motions. Kane wins via chokeslam.

(5) Finlay (w/Hornswoggle) beat Mark Henry (w/Tony Atlas). Last match before the intermission was a Belfast Brawl. Match was pretty fun despite a small amount of weaponry. We were in the forth row and a fun part had Tony Atlas running away from Finlay and jumping over the barricade right by us. We, along with a few people around us, were cheering for him and he seemed completely surprised so he started high-fiving everyone. Great out-of-character moment. Best spot of the match by far though was Finlay giving a stiff kick to a crushed garbage can that was between Mark Henry's legs. The collective groan from the male audience was hysterical. Match ended with Atlas interfering, getting a tadpole splash for his attempts. Henry comes back and throws Finlay out and gets ready to attack Hornswoggle who has a kendo stick. Henry takes the stick and snaps it over his knee but turns around in time to get hit with the shillelagh for the pinfall.

Post-match: Finlay invited a few kids into the ring to dance with him and Hornswoggle. Each kid got to pose on the turnbuckle facing their parents. Really cute stuff, I gotta admit. Makes me wish I was five years old again.

As the intermission ends, Teddy Long is in the ring to make an announcement about the next time WWE will be in the Long Island area. He then interviewed Jack Swagger. Swagger comes out and talks about how we might not like him (I personally do) but we will have to respect the title and its holder. Teddy says that speaking of the title, he's going to have a title match tonight. Out comes Christian.

(6) ECW champion Jack Swagger beat Christian. Wrestling-wise, this was miles away the best of the night. These two brought on the same great quality matches that they have on ECW and did not hold anything back. Somehow during the course of the match, Swagger's nose got busted open. Not sure on how though, as one point they were outside on the other side of the ring that I was and with floor seats it became hard to see. Lots of close falls including one that the ref seemed to have to slow down for. Swagger reversed the Killswitch into an inside cradle for the win.

Our two main events were supposed to be Shawn Michaels vs. Koslov and Cena/Triple H vs. Orton/Jericho, but the show seemed to be running late so they decided to combine the two. Not a bad thing in my book because I'm not a big Koslov fan and this limited him. The heels came out first. While HBK was coming down, the three of them were saying/doing something (I have no clue what) that had the ref literally red in the face laughing. I really wish I knew what had happened.

Cena comes out to a big pop. Triple H's music hits but he doesn't come out. Orton gets on the mic and says the rest of Legacy couldn't be here tonight because they were taking care of some business. That business being Triple H, who would not be there tonight. At this point I figured Mysterio would come out, but once he didn't, the run-in later on was the obvious way to go. He offered HBK and Cena the chance to run off to the back and give up, but instead they charged the ring and the match began.

(7) John Cena & Shawn Michaels beat Chris Jericho & Randy Orton & Kozlov. Pretty standard stuff with all the guys running through their moves. HBK and Jericho still work really well together. After a ref bump, all hell breaks out for a second and it all ends with Orton RKO'ing HBK and lining up for the punt. Triple H's music hits right before Orton goes in for the punt. He comes out and tackles Orton and starts punching him. This was big for us because it was kind of like we got the payoff from the last couple of Raws before others will. He throws Orton around a little and then goes to the outside to get his sledgehammer. Crowd is now going nuts.

He gets in the ring and Orton backs into the corner pleading with Triple H not to him. Koslov comes in and interferes, taking Triple H to the outside. Orton runs off. Inside the ring, HBK is recovering from the RKO and in comes Jericho with a chair, slamming it against the mat waiting for Michaels to get up.

Behind him, Triple H has returned to the ring with the sledgehammer. He just stands behind Jericho staring him down. Michaels gets up but Jericho has realized what's going on behind him. Turns around to Hunter, then when he turns back to HBK, he's met with Sweet Chin Music. Cena comes back in and gives him the "Attitude Adjuster" as the ref wakes up for the three count. The three of them pose for a while and shake hands to send the crowd home happy.

Overall surprisingly great show. I've been to house shows before where it felt like they phoned it in, but this was a great one.

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