WWE Raw house show results
March 23, 2012
Lakeland, Fla.
Report by John Bell, PWTorch reader

Decent crowd for the Raw house show in Lakeland; not too many empty seats (although the Lakeland Center is not very large). It was very much a "mark" crowd, which reminded me of this week's True/False/TBD article from Jon Cudo on the Torch this week about "smart fans" making up a small percentage of WWE's audience. There were grown men in John Cena t-shirts as far as the eye could see. I was ringside five rows back, so I had a great view of the ring. A family of four sat in the adjacent seats, and the mother was right next to me reeking of alcohol and cigarettes. More on that later.

The show started out hot with Santino making his entrance. He’s very over with the crowd. Out came Jack Swagger to a decent amount of heat.

(1) U.S. champion Santino beat Jack Swagger to retain the U.S. Title. Great back and forth match, with a lot of humor from Santino and psychology from Swagger. Santino missed the Cobra, Swagger put him in the ankle submission, Santino reversed Swagger into the turnbuckle, and Santino hit the Cobra for the win. Huge pop. Santino brought a few kids into the ring to do the trumpet celebration with him.

Leo Kruger from Developmental came out next, to no heat at all. He got on the mic and got some cheap foreign heel heat, before declaring, “None of you know who I am right now.” Kruger issued an open challenge to anyone in the back. I expected Brodus Clay. Zack Ryder’s music hit to a good pop, but nowhere near as loud as Santino's reaction.

(2) Zack Ryder beat Leo Kruger. Kruger got some offense in, but Ryder controlled most of the match. Pathetic sounding “Let’s Go Ryder / woo woo woo” chants sprinkled through the match, mostly led by children. Zack did his signature offense and hit the Rough Ryder for the 1-2-3.

Out came Eve to a decent amount of heat. She got on the mic and talked about Ryder. The audio was horrible, though, and you could barely hear what anyone was saying on the mic all night. She didn't react to my catcall for Eve to use me a la Ryder. Out came her opponent, Kelly Kelly, to a decent pop.

(3) Eve beat Kelly Kelly. Sloppy Divas non-sense for a few minutes to start. Eve wrapped Kelly upside down in the ropes with some move that got a big reaction from those of us sitting on that side of the ring based on how Kelly was positioned. KK hit a sloppy Thesz Press, but Eve rolled up Kelly and got the win with her feet on the ropes.

Next out was Alex Riley, who got an okay pop. He looked very energetic on his way to the ring. Ryback (formerly Skip Sheffield) was his opponent. His music hit to no reaction. He was wearing something that looked like an RVD throwaway - it's the same style and airbrushed.

(4) Ryback beat Alex Riley. Ryback hit a lot of power offense, and slapped his head multiple times after every move he hits. Someone in the audience loudly yelled, “Give him the Jackhammer, Goldberg!” to a mild reaction from the audience. Powerslam by Ryback for the glorified squash.

R-Truth came out next to his old theme and rapped, “What’s Up?” Again, the mic was so muffled that it was barely audible. Truth played very well to the crowd, and his interaction with “Little Jimmy” got a huge reaction. Out came Kofi to a decent pop. Primo and Epico were announced, and apparently this match is for the Tag Titles. Rosa did her dance and while she danced in the ring, Kofi and Truth mocked her and did their own dancing. Justin Roberts got on the mic and announced John Laurinaitis has determined this match will be non-title, in order to punish Truth and Kofi for some previous actions. Upon mention of Big Johnny’s name (he wasn’t actually in attendance), he got massive heat. Kofi’s reaction to this news was so embarrassingly over-the-top.

(5) Kofi Kingston & R-Truth beat WWE tag champions Epico & Primo in a non-title match. Truth interacted with Little Jimmy in the ring to start the match, which drew a big pop. Primo called Jimmy over and had a conversation, getting a laugh from the audience. Primo then kicked Little Jimmy out of the ring in a hilarious moment. Truth then lost it and tackled Primo. Truth/Kofi dominated the first half of the match, then the tide swung in the second half. Hot tag to Truth, Rosa got on the apron, and Kofi hit Trouble in Paradise on Primo, who staggered into Truth’s Little Jimmy finisher for the win.

Intermission. After intermission, Miz’s music hit. Big mistake, as it killed his heat by having him come out directly after intermission, as so many people are still in the concession area. It should be noted he was wearing his previous “Awesome You are Not” t-shirt, and his new shirt was not on-sale in concessions; I wonder if it has been pulled, as it was a hideous shirt. Miz cut a promo similar to the ones he has been doing on Raw. His "awesome" catchphrase was then interrupted by Brodus Clay’s music. Clay came out to a decent pop, but nothing that made me think he’s as over as some people like to think he is. Miz did so much more crowd interaction in this house show than I’ve ever seen him do. Before the bell, he did this odd striptease while taking off his t-shirt, and got a good reaction from the females. After teasing taking his shirt off for over a minute, he took it off, played to each side of the crowd, got ready to launch the shirt, then threw it directly next to the ring, and laughed at the audience.

(6) Brodus Clay beat The Miz. Clay with all of the early audience, and I was afraid this was going to be another squash at first. Brodus yelled out his “Shee-moves” names every time he did any sort of offense. The crowd was quiet while he jiggled his fat, so I took the opportunity to yell at Clay, which got a few parents to glare at me. Miz took over on offense and while Clay was on the mat, he mocked the Pterodactyl dance, which got a pop. More offense from Miz, and again Clay was on the mat, so Miz mocked Clay’s dancers, much the same way Kofi and Truth did to Rosa. Miz tried to execute the SCF, but Clay reversed and won with a big splash. The match took about six minutes, so I’m sure Clay was all blown up, as he looked terrible being out there that long.

John Cena was up next, and the "marks" that were in full-force blew the roof off the place for him. Kane came out to okay heat, but I think the audience is beginning to tire of him.

(7) John Cena beat Kane in a Last Man Standing match. Kane with most of the offense early on. “Cena, Cena” chants were loud throughout the match. There was never a. “Let’s Go Cena” chant started at any point, I found that peculiar. Some guy tried to start a “Cena Sucks” chant, but he was literally by himself. The 6-year-old behind me was yelling “Don’t give up Cena” every 15 seconds. Kane with the ring bell on Cena, but it didn’t keep him down. Kane with the microphone to Cena’s head, which sounded weak. Kane with the chokeslam on Cena, but Superman answered the call before ten. Kane put Cena through a table, which almost pulled a Cena, because it didn’t look like it was going to sell. Kane went for another table, and Cena threw a chair into the ring. Cena then reversed another chokeslam attempt into an AA through the table for the win. This was the shortest LMS match I’ve ever seen, as it was about eight minutes.

Main event time. Dolph Ziggler came out to massive heat, and he did it without Vickie Guerrero. It looked odd to see him without her. Punk’s music hit to a huge pop, but there was a smattering of boos. I give Cena the nod on biggest pop of the night. Funny moment - when Punk was doing his "four-corners crowd pandering" pre-match, he caught his feet on the middle turnbuckle and tripped to the mat after bouncing up and down on the middle ropes. He had to play it off. It wasn’t as bad as a Sin Cara entrance botch, but was very noticeable, and he was noticeably cautious about scaling the ropes before and after the match.

(8) WWE champion C.M. Punk beat Dolph Ziggler to retain the WWE Title. Great back and forth match with tons of psychology and spots. Ziggler is crisp and he moves like a million bucks in the ring. Ziggler got all of his signature offense in, including the sleeper and he reversed a GTS attempt into the fameasser. Punk’s knee to Ziggler’s face in the corner looked brutal, and Dolph spitting his gum out right on time added to the effect (the Cena kid behind me yelled it was his tooth). Punk failed to deliver the GTS twice, so he went for it again, and knocked out the ref. Most of the crowd started looking towards the entrance ramp for Chris Jericho, but he never showed up, so I felt the bump was unnecessary, as it didn’t affect the outcome of the match. Next, Punk hit the Randy Savage elbow while the ref was out and the crowd counted 1-2-3, then booed. The ref woke up, entered the ring, Punk hit the GTS, and that's it.

Post-match, Punk called a kid into the ring to lead a Happy Birthday song. Punk interacted with the crowd for a few minutes and the show was over. Decent enough house show, but if you were in attendance, hopefully you are a fan of babyfaces, as only Eve and Ryback won on the heel side (a Diva and Superstars-level wrestler).

Biggest Pops: John Cena, C.M. Punk, Santino.
Biggest Heat: Ziggler, Laurinaitis (not even in attendance), Miz (after his initial disastrous entrance).

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

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