WWE Smackdown/ECW brand house show results
May 31, 2009
Bowling Green, Ky.
Report by Kameron Scott, Torch reader

(1) Great Khali beat Dolph Ziggler. Great response for both entrances. Everyone here loves the big man. Not much action early with Dolph escaping to the outside three times. He jawed with the crowed before Khali "placed" him back inside, generating cheers from the fans. Middle was good with a couple of exchanges. Khali wins and a surprisingly good reaction from the crowd for such a meager match. Ziggler milked the loss very well struggling to leave the rings to loud boos.

Tiffany killed time with a trivia question that moved a family ringside while they fixed the ring lights.

(2) Drew McIntyre beat Jimmy Wang Yang. Drew ran his mouth about how pathetic Americans were. I was surprised Wang didn't try to get a USA chant going but that obviously wasn't their job tonight. Wang was worked over most of the match aside for a few offensive stints here and there. I don't even remember how this one ended aside from Wang not winning it. It was just a match to get McIntyre some ring time that's not on TV.

(3) Evan Bourne beat Tyson Kidd (w/Hart Dynasty). Tyson came out accompanied but the rest of the Hart Dynasty. David Hart Smith attacked Evan right after he entered the ring, which prompted Tiffany to eject David and Natalya from ringside. Tyson went to work on Evan's injured arm and focused on that quite a bit the whole match. The way the match ended with Evan hitting the Shooting Star Press got all the kids out of their seats, but left me wanting more. I feel Evan won too quickly.

(4) John Morrison beat Chris Jericho. Another mundane promo by Chris talking about how we're all pathetic and yada-yada. The WWE is doing a good job trying to turn Morrison into a babyface by putting him against a big heel like Jericho. There were a couple of miscues on a couple of exchanges, but the normal fans wouldn't have noticed. Jericho jawed with the crowd the entire time. Spent a lot of time on the mat trying to keep Morrison grounded. Managed to lock in the Walls of Jericho, but Morrison rolled out of it. A spinning heel kick led to a corkscrew moonsault or the win.

(5) Tommy Dreamer & ECW champion Christian beat Jack Swagger & Mark Henry. All four men got great responses from the crowd. Henry did the best actually inciting a fan to come out of his seat and approach the railing. Mark came out of the ring and both men jawed back and forth for a few seconds before they separated. The match was typical Swagger. His wrestling is very deeply-rooted in his mat-based skills and not much else, so it was kind of boring minus his high impact slams and clotheslines. Mark did his usual running guys over. No real skill aside from his ability to take a hit and his strength. Dreamer is really milking his career. Christain's charisma is what kept this match going. Good thing ECW has him. Dreamer and Christian did get the win with some very good double teams.

[Intermission]

(6) Melina & Gail Kim beat Natalya & Alicia Fox. Alicia Fox is NOT a wrestler. Gail and Natalya did most of the work in this match that went way to long. The lady sitting next to me asked several times when it was going to be over and I was waiting for it too. I was upset to see Melina get the pinfall after not getting much action, but the people got to see who they wanted to win.

(7) C.M. Punk beat Umaga. Best part of the match hands down was Punk's entrance. A woman had a sign that said "I had a beer with Punk!" He was given the sign and he tore it up laughing. Classic. The match was really cut and paste. Punk tried to hit the G2S twice and failed. Makes you wonder how he's going to win that strap match. He won on a roll-up. I considered it a fast count on Umaga, but the fans got what they wanted again.

(8) World Hvt. champion Edge beat Jeff Hardy to retain the World Heavyweight Title. Edge got on the mic and told Hardy to walk away before he got hurt. Hardy responded with a kick to the stomach and took control. Hardy worked Edge on the mat early an often. He hollered his name from the mat to get the crowd more into the match. People did seem to be a little burnt out even for a Jeff Hardy match. Working one body seemed to be a trend in all eight matches tonight. They worked outside where Hardy was thrown into the steps and made it back in the ring just before the ref got to ten. Hardy never seemed to recover from that, as he missed the Twist of Fate and the Swanton, which allowed Edge to hit the spear for the win.

To end the show, Edge brought the title into the ring to hit Hardy. Hardy ducked and forced Edge into the turnbuckle he exposed during the match and then hit the Twist of Fate to leave the ring to his music. Edge then shoved the ref down. When the ref stood, Edge tried to whip the ref into the ropes, which the ref reversed and hit Edge with a dropkick. The show ends with a ref standing in the ring instead of the champ or Hardy. Not a good finish. That and I noticed the ref in the Umaga-Punk match loosened the turnbuckle prior to leaving the ring before the Edge-Hardy match. Way to help out. Good sized crowd - maybe 3,000.

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