King Silva
King of Kings
Number of posts : 32652
Age : 34
Location : Sacramento, California
Favorite WWE Wrestler : ---
Current and Former:
The Rock, JoMo, Ziggler, Edge, Orton, Y2J, Hardyz, + Rhodes!
Favorite WWE Diva : -------
ALL TIME
# 1} Lita
# 2} Trish Stratus
# 3} Mickie James
# 4} Gail Kim
# 5} Michelle McCool
Favorite TNA Wrestler : ----
Favorite TNA Knockout : ---
Registration date : 2009-09-30
 |  Subject: 11/3 WWE Results Nantes, France: Detailed Report on Punk vs. Del + More Sun 06 Nov 2011, 7:48 am | |
| http://pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/Arena_Reports_10/article_54900.shtml
WWE Raw house show results
November 3, 2011
Nantes, France
Report by Tonydx, PWTorch reader
Here is a rundown of the Thursday Raw house show in Nantes, France.
Before starting, I should mention this was my first-ever WWE live event. I have followed WWE since 1992/93, but I had never attended a WWE show before since WWE went a long stretch without shows in France and I wasn't interested enough in their product in 2007 when they started coming back. Right now, my interest into their product is at an all-time low, but it dawned on me that after all the time and money spent on wrestling, and WWE primarily, this was one of the few things I had to do before dying. I could wait until I like the product better but who knows if that will happen one day, and even if it does, with the popularity of WWE in this country on a downslide, who knows if they will still be coming to France by that time?
A three-hour trip brought me to eighth row ringside for 88 Euros (equivalent of $110 U.S). I don't regret the trip, but I may have a rosy view because it was my first show. A few sections were tarped off and I would say the arena was 80 percent full with probably 5,000-6,000 people there. Plenty of kids, but not as many as I expected. Tons of Cena merchandise, tons of Punk as well (the Best in the World t-shirt) mostly with adults, and third was probably Miz shirts, which surprised me.
Long story short, this was the same show as Dublin the night before, but sans Mick Foley. The announcer was Justin Roberts. Referees for the night were Mike Chioda and Chad Patton alternating one match each.
The advertised card was Cena/Punk vs. Del Rio/Miz on top and Ziggler vs. Morrison as the semi-main event. Two weeks before the show, it was changed to Cena/Punk/Morrison vs. Del Rio/Miz/Truth and Ziggler vs Ryder. So, of course, it ended up as a completely different card, albeit a better one, I thought. Kelly Kelly and Evan Bourne were the only two advertised who did not appear and we know why for Bourne following his Wellness suspension.
(1) Santino Marella beat Drew McIntyre in a nothing match. Before the match, Marella spoke perfect French saying one of his grandfathers was French, so he was 25 percent French. It worked, as he got "Santino" chants throughout. The match ended with the Cobra.
(2) Alex Riley & Primo beat David Otunga & Michael McGillicutty. The crowd didn't seem to know the face team, which tells you how quickly people can be forgotten when they are not in the limelight as it was, what?, less than six months ago, when Riley was beating Miz. It also tells you where the Tag Titles stand when the former champions of three months ago are now losing to two guys not even on TV anymore. This was a better match than I expected due to Riley and Primo having to work harder than most of the guys to get a reaction.
On their way out, the faces were jumped by Jack Swagger, who proceeded to cut a heel promo, mainly anti-French stereotypes about us smelling and needing deodorant. I would say it was lost on half of the crowd due to the language barrier, but they still booed him like crazy just because they were supposed to. He issued an open challenge, answered by Mason Ryan.
(3) Mason Ryan beat Jack Swagger. Swagger got dueling chants. As basic a match as you can imagine, carried by Swagger.
(4) U.S. champion Dolph Ziggler beat Zack Ryder and Kofi Kingston in a triple threat to retain the U.S. Title. No Vickie. Second best match of the night, with Kofi the most over guy thus far. Ziggler pinned Ryder clean. Really good. Then, the faces cleared the ring and left together.
Roberts threw free t-shirts to the crowd and plugged autographed Cena pics at the stands. I thought nobody would understand what he was saying but I was wrong as tons of people lifted their hand at the mention of free shirts. Still, I remember hearing that in the '90s, WWE would bring ring announcers speaking the local language when they were overseas, most times one of the local commentators. They stopped doing it a dozen years ago. I don't know why because I think it would be a better experience for those not speaking English.
[20-minute intermission. I went to the stands and I was not surprised to see overpriced shirts (30 Euros) and programs (20 Euros). I judged these were not worth these prices. They still sold well, though.]
(5) Divas champion Beth Phoenix beat Eve to retain the Divas Title. The surprise of the night to me, as I coudln't believe how into this match the crowd was given their stuff is always treated like filler on TV. I was dumbfounded at how over Eve was as well. I imagined how it could have been with Kelly in her spot. The surprise of the match to me was Beth bending over and lifting her skirt toward the crowd to tell them to kiss her ass. That didn't seem very PG. It ended clean with the Glam Slam. Beth left and Eve slowly got back up and left to her music since the theme of the night was the faces shining at the end of EVERY match.
(6) John Cena & John Morrison beat The Miz & R-Truth. Third best match. Miz and Truth did their rap, then Miz cut pretty much the same promo as Swagger earlier about deodorants. Cena got the Superstar reaction with some boos, but they were drowned out. The first 10 minutes was just stalling to the point that some fans were growing impatient. Once it got going, it was good. The match ended with a double pin - AA on Miz and Starship Pain on Truth. It was weird seeing Morrison with Cena here when he's buried on TV. It was also weird not to see Cena in the main event.
The fans realized what was coming and loud "C-M-Punk" chants started even before anything was announced. Ricardo Rodriguez was there doing his shtick for WWE champion Alberto Del Rio. Punk was super over, which surprised me given how his character has been handled on TV since the summer. Punk was in a mood to have fun as he could be seen ribbing Chioda and they were laughing together at several points during the main event.
PunkCMArt_130GG_179.jpg
(7) C.M. Punk beat WWE champion Alberto Del Rio via DQ; Del Rio retained the WWE Title. A little bit of stalling again to start, but by far, the best match of the night including spots I wasn't expecting to see on a house show like a tope suicida, a superplex, and the Savage Elbow. Rodriguez interfered several times. At the end, Punk pulled down Rodriguez's pants, but his underwear came with it (planned?, accident?, Punk ribbing him?) Thankfully, Ricardo's shirt was hiding what it needed to. He pulled them back up, brought a chair and hit Punk in the ribs with it for the DQ. He went to hold Punk while Del Rio went for a chair shot, but Punk ducked and somehow on that spot, Del Rio ended up hitting Rodriguez in the back. I understand why, but that did not look natural.
Afterwards, Truth and Miz ran out. Cena and Morrison evened the odds and even Eve - for some reason - was there. The faces cleaned house and the heels retreated, leaving Miz behind. When he realized the situation, he offered to shake the guys's hand and even kissed Eve's hand. Well, they still attacked him, each did his orher finisher on him, ending with a top-rope Eve moonsault. All four celebrated with Morrison taking a French flag from a fan in the front row. Puck stayed last and celebrated alone for five more minutes shaking everybody's hand in the front row. Totally wild scene at the end with 95 percent of the ringside fans standing on their chair, arms up in the air with deafening "C-M-Punk" chants. Great, great atmosphere at the end.
All in all, since I had such low expectations going in, and since it was my first time, I wasn't disappointed at all. As a matter of fact, I had the most fun with WWE in years. And now I can die happy, well... the later the better, of course. | |
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