WWE Smackdown/ECW house show report
January 11, 2010
La Crosse, Wis.
Report by Cody Endres, Torch TV contributor

The crowd was a bit smaller compared to a Raw house show one year ago. The La Crosse Center was probably three-fourths full with lots of younger fans in attendance.

(1) Kane beat Dolph Ziggler. People were familiar with Ziggler, as he had a ton of heat. Before the match, Ziggler bragged about his matches with Kane the past two weeks on Smackdown. Solid match that the crowd really got behind. Kane won with a chokeslam.

(2) Vladimir Kozlov & Goldust & Yoshi Tatsu beat William Regal & Tyler Reks & Zack Ryder (w/Rosa Mendes). Regal made his entrance first and talked about spending his Christmas vacation in England. He ripped on America and even mentioned Kozlov becoming an American citizen recently. This prompted Kozlov to run out and attack him. Soon the members of both teams were all in the ring brawling. Many of the fans had no idea who Reks, Ryder, and Mendes even were. The finish came when Kozlov pinned Regal following his Iron Curtain finisher.

-Savannah introduced some fans near the top of the building and asked them what the name of the upcoming PPV was. The fans correctly answered the Royal Rumble and they were given front row seats.

(3) Eric Escobar beat Mike Knox. This is where the crowd died. The only highlight was Knox fitting in that awesome running crossbody spot. Escobar won out of nowhere with a quick roll-up. Fans booed the finish.

-While Escobar made his way down the aisle, The Hart Dynasty ran out and attacked him. They then entered the ring and Natalya cut a short promo. She mentioned Bret Hart and said that unlike Bret, The Hart Dynasty would never get beaten up by a 65-year-old man.

(4) The Hart Dynasty (Tyson Kidd & D.H. Smith w/Natalya) beat Slam Master J & Jimmy Wang Yang. Way better than expected. The Hart Dynasty got heat on Yang for an extended period and the crowd popped big time when Slam Master J got the hot tag. The Hart Dynasty picked up the win after isolating Slam Master J and hitting him with the Hart Attack.

(5) Mickie James beat Beth Phoenix. Above-average women's match that was given time, but the crowd really didn't care. Mickie caught Beth with a DDT for the victory.

-Tony Chimel announced it was intermission time and he tossed some t-shirts to the crowd.

(6) IC champion Drew McIntyre beat John Morrison and Matt Hardy in a three-way match to retain the WWE Intercontinental Title. McIntyre cut a promo and complained about the cold weather. He claimed that Kozlov was backstage huddled in a corner even though he was from Russia. A large gathering of military personnel starting heckling him. McIntyre said he didn't have to show them respect since they weren't "his" army. Typical three-way match where one person sells while the other two work. Morrison attempted to hit McIntyre with the Flying Chuck, but accidentally kicked Hardy and sent him flying outside the ring. McIntyre capitalized on the situation and put Morrison away with the double-arm DDT. After the match, Morrison and Hardy reconciled and led the crowd in a "USA" chant.

(7) ECW champion Christian beat Ezekiel Jackson to retain the ECW Title. Christian did a bunch of comedy spots and bumped like crazy to make this match five times better than it had any right to be. Christian finished Big Zeke with the Killswitch.

(8) Main Event: Rey Mysterio beat Batista via DQ. Batista played his over-the-top heel character to perfection which included making his entrance twice (since the pop on the first wasn't good enough), pulling his hand away from children so they couldn't touch him, kicking the ring steps in frustration, and constantly posing. Good main event after all of the stalling. Both men ended up battling outside the ring when Batista grabbed a weapon (looked like the ring bell) and smacked Mysterio with it for the DQ. Fans were not happy with the finish and chanted "bull----." After the match, Mysterio hit Batista with the 619 and knocked him out of the ring with a (safe) chair shot to send the crowd home happy.

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

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