WWE Raw house show report
January 23, 2010
Evansville, Ind.
Report by David Barton, Torch reader

(1) Yoshi Tatsu beat Zack Ryder (w/Rosa Mendes) in an ECW special match. Surprise match with a good pop for Tatsu and some heat for Ryder.

(2) Mark Henry beat Jack Swagger when he threw Jack over the top rope with one hand in an All-American American Over-the-Top Challenge. Swagger insulted the crowd then said "American" about a hundred more times. Mark Henry got a surprisingly large pop.

(3) Legacy (Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase) beat Evan Bourne & Primo Colon. Cody did a short promo about respecting DiBiase more as "bonafide movie star." Cody pinned Bourne after Cross Rhodes. Mixed reaction on both sides. Mostly "Evan" chants but a surprising amount for Legacy as well.

(4) Chris Masters (w/Eve) beat Johnny Curtis. Curtis came out first to absolutely no reaction except for a few "who are you?" reactions around the arena. Johnny talked about how we didn't know who he was but we would after he made an example of whoever came out. Quick match with Curtis fading out while in Masterlock.

(5) U.S. champion The Miz beat MVP and Carlito in a triple threat match to retain the U.S. Title. Miz came out to a "half-and-half" crowd and made Justin Roberts put the mic in his hand, which was kind of funny. MVP had a medium pop and Carlito was ignored. MVP did his finisher, then Miz came in the ring and stole the win.

(6) Gail Kim & Bella Twins beat Alicia Fox & Jillian Hall & and Maryse with Santino as special guest referee. Santino got a huge pop and was hilarious the entire match. Maryse and Alicia Fox were very out of character the entire match. At one point Alicia even started singing "teamwork" while doing a dance. One of the highlights; very fun for the crowd.

[Intermission]

(7) Randy Orton beat Kofi Kingston. Best match of the night by far. A surprising amount of cheering for Orton; he even seemed quite shocked himself. He kept giving us weird looks every a "Randy" chant would start. Match ended after two RKOs.

(8) Triple H beat Big Show in No DQ match. Triple H came out to by far the biggest pop of the night. Lots of talking and joking first couple minutes of match. Otherwise good match until Hornswoggle came out. A lot of celebrating by Hunter and Horny with lots of high-fiving and giving away of merchandise; Triple H even gave his elbow pad to a little boy in the crowd.

(9) John Cena beat WWE champion Sheamus via DQ; Sheamus retains the WWE Title. Sheamus came out to a sea of boos and, as soon as Cena came out, he was met with the loudest cheering I've ever heard at any event I have been to in the last five years.

One of the best shows I have ever been to - great matches, great mic skill, and great crowd reactions. The only problem I had was that they hurried Cena out of there very quickly after his match.

Biggest pop: Cena
Biggest boos: Sheamus
Best match: Randy Orton vs. Kofi Kingston

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

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