WWE Smackdown house show report
April 12, 2012
Dublin, Ireland at the O2
Report by Steve Cooney, PWTorch reader

Lilian Garcia, looking stunning, was our ring announcer for the evening on the WrestleMania Revenge Tour show. Nice change from Tony Chimmel!

(1) The Great Khali defeated Jinder Mahal. Not much to this, as you can imagine. The kids were excited to see Khali, but little reaction for Mahal. Pretty one-sided with Khali winning with the Punjabi Plunge. He signed autographs for some kids as he headed to the back, which was pretty cool of him.

(2) Alberto Del Rio defeated Yoshi Tatsu via submission. Ricardo Rodriguez (Ric Rod) handled the introduction for Del Rio, which was great. Del Rio would really be lost without him, in my opinion. There was zero reaction for Tatsu; I'm not sure people actually knew who he is. Super-quick match that ended with Tatsu tapping in under a minute to the armbar.

After the match, Del Rio took the mic and did the usual Ireland/England mix-up that heels do here for cheap heat. He soon got sick of talking to us and handed the mic back to Ric Rod, who informed us that Del Rio has no challengers left, leading to Zeke Jackson coming out to the delight of no one. It might have been an idea to actually introduce him since very few people knew of him. This turned into a match.

(3) Albert Del Rio defeated Ezekiel Jackson via submission. Another bog standard match with Del Rio putting Zeke away with the armbar after about four minutes.

Next was William Regal in a tag match. Regal got on the mic before the match and dropped some gems. He said this was usually when he tries to get people to hate him, but he said he was genuinely honored to be performing for us. He sympathized with us having to stare at his "body like a badly-made bed" and hit on a woman at ringside with my new favorite chat up line, "If you had a limp and a lisp you'd be my ideal woman." He thanked us again and I got the feeling he doesn't expect to be doing this much longer.

(4) William Regal & Tyson Kidd defeated Hunico & Camacho in a tag team match. As for the match, Regal and Kidd complimented each other quite well, surprisingly. Kidd won the crowd over with some flashy moves and Regal entertained with some light-hearted cheating behind the ref's back. Lots of Regal chants here, which was great to see for him. After Kidd played the face in peril for a good few minutes, he got the hot tag to Regal, who cleaned house. Regal then picked up the win after a kick to Hunico's face.

(5) IC champion Big Show defeated Cody Rhodes to retain the Intercontinental Championship. Cody got on the mic before the match and reminded everyone of the last time he was here when Priceless faced DX and how badly the crowd treated him. Basic stuff but good to refer to past shows, I think. Not much to the match itself. Show won with the KO Punch shortly after taking two beautiful disaster kicks to the face.

[Interval time]

Lilian was back to introduce Hornswoggle as Special Ref for the next match.

(6) A.J. Lee defeated Natalya. Lots of "Yes!" chants for A.J. Natty played heel for this one. Okay match, but Hornswoggle being there meant it was comedy match of the night. The kids love him, though. A.J. won after she crawled behind Natty and Hornswoggle pushed her over for the three count.

(7) Randy Orton defeated Mark Henry in a Street Fight. Henry talked briefly before the match - it was his usual "Hall of Pain" material. Big enough reaction for Orton, but I expected bigger based on the amount of Orton t-shirts around me. Good back and forth match with Orton taking Henry out for the three count via RKO after Henry ran into a chair that was set up in the corner. Orton celebrated with fans for a decent amount of time afterwards.

Time for the main event of Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan. They did the introductions while both men were in the ring, which is a nice touch for title matches. Strong reaction for Bryan with multiple "Yes!" chants. But, nothing compared to the reaction to the hometown boy Sheamus. Huge response from the 8,000 strong crowd. Sheamus was clearly emotional and overwhelmed by the atmosphere. Sheamus used to be a bouncer at this venue, so to come back as Champ in the main event can only have been amazing for him.

(8) World Hvt. champion Sheamus defeated Daniel Bryan to retain the World Heavyweight Championship. They teased a repeat of Mania with Bryan nearly turning around into a Brogue Kick in the face after the bell rang, but thankfully he avoided it. I was glad to see they got some time for this match. Big chants throughout of "Ole, Ole," which was adopted by the Irish for sporting events many years ago. Also, chants of "18 seconds," which Bryan sold anger at very well. Good back and forth match with the end coming after Sheamus broke out of the LeBell Lock and hit the Brogue Kick for the win.

After the match, Sheamus got on the mic and talked about the pride he felt being back home as World Champ. Lot of love for Sheamus tonight. And, that ended the show. Before the main event, Lillian announced that the Raw crew would be here for a house show in November.

Notes:

- With the exception of one small section at the very top of the venue, this was a packed house. WWE always does well here, even with a Smackdown roster short on big names.

- This was a short show with the total run time, including a 20-minute interval, being only two hours and 15 minutes.

- Cena and Orton merchandise seemed to be the biggest sellers, with honorable mention to D-Bryan and C.M. Punk. Surprisingly little was bought for Sheamus from what I could see.

- The first half of the show was rough, with only Regal saving it for me. The lower card on Smackdown is very thin if this show is anything to go by. I was surprised it wasn't padded out with FCW talent, to be honest.

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

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