WWE Raw brand house show results
June 6, 2010
Columbia, S.C.
Report by Justin James, PWTorch reader

(1) U.S. champion R-Truth beat John Morrison and The Miz in a triple threat match to retain the U.S. Title. John Morrison got an amazing pop when he took his shirt off. Before the match, The Miz got the mic and asked Morrison if he'd like to team up again against R-Truth. I missed most of the match because I had to take my son to the bathroom, but R-Truth won. What I saw of the match was fairly slow, with The Miz hanging on the outside and breaking up pins.

For the next match, Wade Barrett came out first to little reaction. As a testament to his promo skills, he got a lot of heat with a short promo without resorting to "cheap heat" tactics. He just bragged about winning NXT and said that earlier he had issued an open challenge to the locker room. The guy is really solid on the mic. Goldust came out to a pretty good reaction.

(2) Wade Barrett beat Goldust. The match was typical house show stuff, with a little more comedy (like Goldust really exaggerating his uppercut to Barrett who was looking for a back body drop) than you would see on TV. Both performers did well, and I was really stunned by how much the crowd loved Goldust. They consistently supported him more than JoMo or R-Truth in the match before. The match had a few too many holds. I really felt like they were working the matches long to compensate for how thin the roster was, as the rest of the match lineup will show. Barrett won clean with his finisher. As a side note, he is still coming out to the NXT music and does not have his own theme. I was slightly surprised that Jericho was not involved somehow in this to help get him over.

The Bella Twins came out and picked a special guest bell-ringer. The young kid won the privilege by knowing two of the participants in one of the Fatal Four-Way matches at the upcoming PPV.

(3) Divas champion Eve beat Maryse to retain the Divas Title. The match was a bit slow, but the moves looked more fluid and well-executed than I am used to seeing from these two. Maryse is pure gold in her mannerisms, though. I get the feeling that she's watching a lot of Jericho's tapes because you can see Jericho in her in-ring heel mannerisms (slaps to the back of the head, pie-facing Eve, etc.). At one point, she was lightly spanking Eve to humiliate her, much to the delight of the crowd. Maryse gets a huge, positive reaction to her entrance, but she was treated as a heel for sure. Eve won with a Cross Rhodes-like spinning DDT.

Dos Caras cut his usual promo on the crowd for not speaking Spanish. This got lots of cheap heat in Columbia, S.C. Yoshi Tatsu came out to a good reaction to challenge him.

(4) Dos Caras beat Yoshi Tatsu. I enjoyed this match a lot. Dos Caras has some nice moves, a good look, and speed. Dos Caras won with a nasty looking step up enziguiri with Tatsu in the corner.

The Usos (with Tamina) came out to face The Hart Dynasty for the Unified Tag Team titles. The Hart Dynasty got a very good reaction.

(5) Unified tag champions Hart Dynasty (Tyson Kidd & D.H. Smith w/Natalya) beat the Uso Brothers (w/Tamina) to retain the Unified tag titles. I missed a good part of the match (bathroom break for my boy), but what I missed was clearly very exciting. When I came back, the Usos were working over Tyson Kidd in their corner. One of the Uso brothers hit their double-team Samoan Drop - I love the way they do it so quickly and naturally, like it's a finesse move, not a power move. At one point, they double-teamed Kidd and Kidd pulled off a sweet dropkick that looked like a fadeaway jump shot that knocked them both down, and got the hot tag to D.H. Smith. The crowd was eating this up. At one point, Smith hit a wicked powerbomb that I've never seen him do on TV. He needs to bring it into his arsenal on a regular basis. At the end, Tamina tripped D.H. Smith as he was running the ropes, Natalya jumped her (the crowd popped big for that), and Smith got the Sharpshooter on. The crowd blew the roof off the house when Smith applied the Sharpshooter. It took about ten seconds for one of the Usos (I can't tell them apart, even though they were different trunks) to tap, but the crowd was going insane. Smith was so smooth and fluid tonight; he was moving like a cruiserweight. Very exciting match, great work by all participants, and easily the best match of the night.

Intermission - the Bella Twins threw out a few shirts and Justin Roberts hyped copies of the John Morrison DVD "personally autographed" by John Morrison.

Ted DiBiase came out to a surprisingly weak and mixed reaction. Then, Evan Bourne came out to a fantastic crowd reaction.

(6) Evan Bourne beat Ted DiBiase. The match was pretty good, and we got to see Bourne hit every one of his signature moves, like the suplex reversal into double knees, spinning heel kick, the running knees to DiBiase in the corner, etc. This was not the usual "Bourne wins despite the odds" match. It looked like a fair fight and, if anything, DiBiase looked weaker than Bourne. Bourne won with the Air Bourne. The crowd was absolutely insane for this move after seeing it coming and rising to their feet. It looks even better in person than it does on TV. Good match, overall. I would like to see this as a 15-minute match on Superstars.

Sheamus got great heel heat when he came out for the semi-main event. Mark Henry came down to a very good pop. Oddly enough, Sheamus looks much less pale in person.

(7) Sheamus beat Mark Henry. This match had me bored to tears. I wish my son needed to go to the bathroom now instead of during the tag team match. Sheamus won with the pump kick.

Edge vs. Jericho was the main event. It was announced as a "WrestleMania 26 re-match" and a "street fight." Jericho got a good amount of heat, but I think Sheamus barely had more, which surprised me. Edge got the best pop of the night. The crowd just loved him.

(8) Edge beat Chris Jericho in a South Carolina Street fight. The bell rang and Jericho grabbed the mic to cut a promo promising that we wouldn't see a spear tonight. As expected, a "Spear! Spear! Spear!" chant broke out. Edge then got the mic and had the line of the night: "I can't believe you guys hate someone more than me," which played perfectly into the current TV storyline of Edge not being able to be a face. Jericho then started shadow boxing to make the crowd laugh, and Edge started beating up Chris with boxing-like moves. The match itself was decent, but hardly a "street fight." They had a brief brawl through the crowd. At one point, Edge was in the Walls of Jericho and got a rope break, which made no sense to me; why would Jericho break the hold in a No DQ match? The crowd was begging for tables, but the audience only saw a trashcan and two traffic cones. Edge got hit with the can lid and that was it for the weapons. Edge won with the spear to a great reaction, then beat up Jericho a bit more with the trash can. The crowd loved the match for the star power and some of the antics (like Jericho doing his hammock-in-the-corner routine).

Best Pops:
Edge
The Hart Dynasty
John Morrison's abs

Best Heat:
Sheamus
Chris Jericho
Dos Caras

Overall thoughts: The line-up was insanely weak. The last house show I show in Columbia was main-evented by Undertaker, Jeff Hardy, Big Show, and Umaga. This show really proved that the Raw roster has been depleted. There were no face main-eventers, and even with Edge against Jericho, it was clear the crowd wanted Randy Orton or John Cena there. The last house show I went to at the same arena was filled from top to bottom. Today, the arena was about one-thirds full. There was only one merchandise stand (last time, there were two), and it was poorly stocked. I don't want to take anything away from the performers, as they all did a good job and exceeded my expectations for a house show, but the overall experience was not what I expected compared to my previous house show experience.

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