WWE Smackdown house show report
April 9, 2010
Dublin, Ireland
Report by Joe Quinn, Torch reader

The 16,000-seat capacity O2 Arena was about 95 percent full with only a scattering of seats in the top tier unsold.

(1) Kane beat Ezekiel Jackson. Pretty limited showing by these two in the opening match. Jackson played the heel role well and drew good heat with his cowardly actions. Kane won the match with a chokeslam after blocking Jackson's finisher.

(2) Beth Phoenix beat Layla. This was much better than I expected. They put on a great show with Layla especially surprising me. Far better than the standard Divas TV or PPV match. Phoenix hit the Glam Slam for the win.

(3) Hart Dynasty (Tyson Kidd & D.H. Smith) beat Caylen Croft & Trent Barreta. Most of the crowd seemed mystified as to who Croft & Barreta were. ECW TV ratings on this side of the pond weren't great either, but they cut a good, simple promo putting over Northern Ireland & England, which drew great heat. They were essentially establishing themselves as the heels to make sure the audience recognized Hart Dynasty turning face. This turned into an excellent tag team match with unique offense from Croft and Barreta. Tyson sold brilliantly for half the match. Smith took the hot tag and both executed simultaneous Sharpshooters for the win.

(4) R-Truth beat Dolph Ziggler. This was one of the best matches of the night. Ziggler started by cutting an excellent heel promo then went on to have an amazing match with Truth, whose "What's Up?" entrance sent the crowd wild. The match went back and forth with excellent work both inside and outside the ring. After multiple false finishes, Truth won with a roll-up after some nice work from the pair.

(5) John Morrison beat Luke Gallows (w/Serena). Nice pop for JoMo. Great heat on Gallows & Serena. This was a decent match with JoMo doing most of the work. Serena interfered behind the ref's back on a number of occasions, then Morrison finished off Gallows with the Starship Pain, which brought out C.M. Punk from the back to begin a beat down on Morrison. Rey Mysterio then ran out to make the save.

(6) Intercontinental champion Drew McIntyre beat Matt Hardy to retain the IC Title. Exact same match as the two had on last Friday's Smackdown. McIntyre cut an excellent promo before the match telling an Irish joke, which brought equal boos and laughs. McIntyre won with the futureshock DDT after smashing Hardy's head off the ringpost.

(7) Rey Mysterio beat C.M. Punk. Excellent match from these two and the crowd was very much into the action. The only disappointing thing from my personal opinion was no C.M. Punk promo, which would have been apt as he was in a country well known for its liking of an alcoholic beverage or two. Punk at one stage donned a Lucha Libre mask given to him by Gallows and attempted to give Mysterio the 619. The finish came after Gallows and Serena incessantly interfered - stopping three 619 attempts - and John Morrison came out to distract Gallows, allowing Mysterio to hit the 619 on Punk for the win.

(8) Edge beat World Hvt. champion Jack Swagger via DQ; Swagger retained the World Hvt. Title. Pre-match, Swagger cut a nice promo drawing good heat and announcing that people would be ejected for mocking his speech impediment or chanting Spear, which brought out Edge. He came back with a promo on Swagger's speech impediment and got the crowd to chant Spear. Decent match between the two, but not matching up to the Mysterio-Punk or Ziggler-Truth match. The Irish crowd seemed disappointed to get Swagger in the main event with no sign of The Undertaker or Chris Jericho. Edge won after Swagger was disqualified for using the title belt as a weapon. Edge then hit the spear to a huge pop to send Swagger limping to the back. Edge then sat in-ring and cut another promo, putting over Ireland, Guinness, and his status as a Canadian of Irish descent. "My second name's Copeland for God's sake," he said before going around ringside to the fans shaking hands before heading to the back.

Overall a very good show, only one poor match (Kane vs. Jackson) and a disappointing main event. The timing of the show was unlucky, as Swagger isn't established as a champion yet. There was some great work from Ziggler, Truth, McIntyre, Morrison, Punk, Mysterio, and Edge that made it a worthwhile show.

On a funny note, twice a WWE official sitting at ringside jumped into the ring when the lights went out, firstly during Kane's entrance, then during Mysterio's, and attacked Tony Chimmel putting him on the mat. During the Mysterio entrance, the referee had to make the introduction as Chimmel was being restrained. Very funny and just the kind of thing that makes a house show fun as it's good to see the WWE staff having fun.

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