WWE Raw/ECW brand house show results
February 28, 2009
Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
Report by Jack Hale, PWTorch.com correspondent

I attended the Raw/ECW house show at the Wachovia Arena on February 28. The floor and just about all of the lower section was sold out. Maybe a third of the upper section was filled. Surprising that we just got a house show as we have had six TV tapings since the last house show in January 2005, including the '07 Draft.

Right at the start Tony Chimel announced that John Cena would not be here and refunds are available.

(1) Women's champion Melina beat Beth Phoenix (w/Santino Marella). Santino is gold as a manager. Finish came when Beth missed a corner charge and posted herself, Melina then hit a combination Canadian Destroyer/Sunset Flip to win. Santino comforted Beth and then got on the stick, ran down the crowd, and challenge any "Dummy from the Back." Kane answered the challenge setting up the next match.

(2) Kane beat Santino Marella (w/Beth Phoenix). Santino spent three minutes stretching and shadow boxing. Match started and he attempted a punch, Kane blocked, and chokeslammed Santino to win. Beth carried Santino over her shoulder to the back. Kelly Kelly was then in the upper deck giving a family of four front row tickets for knowing which WrestleMania is coming up.

(3) Mike Knox beat Goldust. It had Goldust so it was what it was. Knox did hit a nice Bossman Slam into a backbreaker into his finisher to end it.

(4) Finlay (w/Hornswoggle) beat Mark Henry (w/Tony Atlas) in a Belfast Brawl. Pre-match, Henry called Chimel to the apron and then chokes him into reintroducing him as an Olympian and World's Strongest Man. Match featured trash cans, kendo sticks, and trash can lids. Finish had Henry dumped to the floor, Finlay went after him, Atlas became involved/chased into the ring and taken out by Finlay, Hornswoggle hit Atlas with the Tadpole Splash, Henry took out Finlay with a lid, Henry threatened/pushed Hornswoggle, Finlay used the Shillelagh to win. Post-match, Finlay, Hornswoggle, and about ten kids celebrated. Finlay invited Chimel to do the heel click and then pushed Chimel out of the air as he attempted it.

[Intermission]

Kelly Kelly comes to the ring to introduce a kid as guest timekeeper, Layla comes out and berates Kelly and the crowd. The Boogeyman comes from the back and tries to scare Layla but William Regal comes out and attacks Boogey. They briefly go back and forth until Layla brings in a chair that Regal fails to use. Regal flees to the back leaving Layla with Boogey but she escapes before any worming. Boogey does his thing with the worms and actually tosses many into the crowd. ECW GM Teddy Long comes out and introduces his champ Jack Swagger, who does a decent job on the mic getting the crowd to hate him. Teddy then puts Swagger in a title match with Christian.

(5) ECW Champion Jack Swagger beat Christian. Very good match, though no arm-selling from Christian in this match unlike the ECW TV main event. Finish was just like their TV main event but instead of hitting his finisher, Swagger rolled up Christian with a handful of tights. Back in August, we saw Swagger lose to D-Lo Brown in a dark match here. Now he's a World Champion.

(6) Chris Jericho beat Kofi Kingston. Jericho played his awesome dick self in his entrance and on the mic pre-match. Wished they were selling a shirt so I could reward him. Finish was similar to the six-man tag before No Way Out, with Jericho catching Kofi off the top rope with the Codebreaker.

(7) Intercontinental champion C.M. Punk & Shawn Michaels beat World Heavyweight Champion Edge & Randy Orton. All four were supremely over, and they put on a pretty good formula tag match. First Michaels was in peril then Punk. Finish had Michaels tuning up the band on Edge, Orton attempts to stop with a RKO which get pushed off and over the top rope, Edge attempts a Spear but Michaels leapfrogs him, Punk then hits the GTS on Edge who stumbles into Sweet Chin Music from Michaels who pins Edge.

A solid show with a hot crowd. It was great seeing the top three heels in the company, with Swagger creeping his way into that company. Not having Cena didn't hurt the show at all; in fact it showed that Punk could hold his own easily in the main event. The only thing that disappointed me was a personal one. My main reason for going was the belief that Tommy Dreamer would be here. It may seem odd but Dreamer has been my favorite wrestler since the days of watching ECW on MSG. Even now, he is the reason I continue to watch ECW, though Morrison/Miz/Bourne/Swagger/Christian do help as well. I bought my ticket in order to have one last time seeing Dreamer in case this is his farewell tour. Sucks that he wasn't on the card but hopefully the retirement is a work and not a shoot.

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