WWE Supershow results
January 29, 2012
Evansville, Ind.
Report by Mark Redfern, PWTorch VIP member

I attended the WWE Supershow at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana Saturday night. Approximately 6,400 attended, with most of the upper deck filled. I believe it was WWE's first show in this newer facility.

The Bella Twins served as the announcers/hostesses for the evening.

(1) Sheamus pinned Jindar Mahal with the Brogue Kick in 10:00. Odd choice for an opener, but Air Boom was unavailable due to Evan Bourne "flying high." Sheamus is quite over as a face, and Mahal is quite green as a heel. Thankfully, no "USA" chants broke out, as that would have been awkward considering Sheamus is Irish. (**)

U.S. Champion Jack Swagger came out to run down everyone before he issued an open challenge. R-Truth accepted.

(2) R-Truth beat U.S. champion Jack Swagger in a non-title match in 10:00. They had a decent match. Truth's offense looked good and these guys have pretty good chemistry. After Truth pinned Swagger, David Otunga came out to tell the crowd that Truth in fact did win the watch, but since the match was non-title, he did not win the championship. Truth was playing babyface, but the crowd still doesn't quite know how to respond to him. (**1/4)

(3) Divas champion Beth Phoenix beat Eve in 7:00. Standard Divas fare here. (*1/2)

Santino came out to a good pop. David Otunga then reappeared to announce his opponent would not be an easy one. This brought out the "Sin City Cyborg" Ryback (Skip Sheffield).

(4) Ryback beat Santino. Ryback disposed of Santino in about five minutes after some Santino comedy. (*3/4).

"Y2J" Chris Jericho made an appearance, hyping the crowd and doing his no-talk, all-smile show. Otunga came out again and reprimanded Jericho for wearing a jacket that could cause epileptic seizures (fantastic). In order to insulate WWE from lawsuits, he demanded that Jericho remove the jacket. Y2J then put him in the Liontamer. Jericho grabbed the mic and reminded everyone that tomorrow night at the Royal Rumble, "It's the end of the world as we know it."

(5) Randy Orton beat Wade Barrett. Good match from these two. Orton won with the RKO in 12:00. (***1/4)

After intermission, IC champion Cody Rhodes came out. He cut a promo about his overall greatness. Justin Gabriel then came out to face him.

(6) IC champion Cody Rhodes beat Justin Gabriel. Decent match from them. Rhodes won with Cross Rhodes in about ten minutes. (**3/4)

(7) Big Show beat World Hvt. champion Daniel Bryan via DQ; Bryan retained the World Title. Wade Barrett and Jindar Mahal interfered for the DQ. Great story from Bryan, playing the cocky, comedic heel. He worked over Show's left leg for most of the match when he wasn't running scared. Just good, over-the-top classic comedy heel stuff from Bryan. Bryan and Show seemed to be two of the only wrestlers who weren't phoning it in tonight. No sign of Mark Henry, who was advertised for a three-way match with Show and Henry. (***)

(8) John Cena beat Kane via DQ after Kane hit Cena with a chair. Pre-match, Cena did his own ring introduction. I suppose he thought the Bellas's intro was inadequate. After the DQ finish, Kane chokeslammed him, walked away, came back to the ring, only to be hit with AA to send the crowd home happy.

Post-match, Cena brought the Bella Twins into the ring and acted very non-PG with them.

No C.M. Punk. He had the night off in Chicago and I sat dejected. Overall, a basic house show from WWE. Nothing really stood out except Bryan's heel work and the Orton-Barrett match. From here, WWE heads to St. Louis for the Royal Rumble.

[Torch art credit Travis Beaven (c) PWTorch.com]

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