Raw House show, Trenton NJ, 08/04/08

[greeby]

WWE house show report 4-8 Trenton

by Mike Mahoney Jr.


WWE Raw House Show
April 8 2008
Trenton NJ


1. Raw GM William Regal came out, and ran down the card, which included "Umanga" lmao.

2. Brain Kendrick b Carlito. They started off really slow, and didn't do much at all, which was a big disappointment. At one point Carlito did the clap to get the people to turn against him, instead they joined him, which amused him. Kendrick won with the Sliced Bread #2. *

3. Paul Burchill b D H Smith (or whatever his new name is... Canadian Bulldog?). Very dull, and nothing noteworthy happened. Burchill won with a roll up and his feet on the ropes. DUD

4. Ron Killings b Charlie Hass. Hass got no reaction and I felt bad for him. No reaction for Killings at first, and he started his "What's up" shtick, and the crowd slowly got behind him. During the match the ref put up the "X" sign, so I knew the y were going home fast, and they did. Killings his Hass with his Ax kick fast for the win. Some ref and the medical staff came down, to check on him. He left on his own power, couldn't tell what hurt. * 1/2

5. Snitsky b Val Venis. Nothing much here, basically a squash. Pumphandle slam on Venis for the win. DUD

6. Maria & Mickie James b Beth Phoenix & Katie Lee (?). Katie didn't even come down with Burchill earlier in the night, which I thought was strange, and I noticed they've dropped the whole brother-sister love gimmick thank gawd. The crowd came alive for this match, which was dead just minutes before. Katie and Maria are very green, and it showed here. Maria took most of the heat, until the hot tag to Mickie. The finish saw Mickie give the implant DDT to Katie for the win. * 1/2

7. World Tag Team title: Cody Rhodes & Hardcore Holly b Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch. Decent heel heat for the heels. and decent pop for the faces. Cody took much of the heat, which is the way to go. I don't think people by Holly taking the heat, since he is supposed to be the bad ass babyface. The finish saw Holly go for the AL Slam on Tervor, but Cade broke it up, and then Holly still rolled up Trevor for the win. * 3/4

8. Umanga (that's what Regals calls him) b Santino Marella. Santino graced us with some great and funny mic work before the match. Umango came out to a huge pop, since he was the first real star of the night. Santino tried to convince him to be his friend, and they're better as a tag team. He answered by grabbing his throat, and gave him the Spike for the win in like 10 seconds. DUD but funny.

9. WWE title: HHH b Randy Orton via DQ. Huge pop for HHH, which was expected. Orton came out to huge heel heat. Typical fare from these two, which Orton holding on to the headlock, most of the way. HHH made his comback, but then they bumped the ref. Orton then hit the RKO, and he fell out. Orton covered HHH for a two count, and cue Regal. Regal started to distract the ref, while Orton grabed the belt, to try to hit HHH. HHH stopped him, and hit him with the belt. Regal came in to break up the count, thus causing the DQ. HHH made his comeback. **1/4

www.wrestlingobserver.com/wo/news/headlines/default.asp?aID=22528

Katie Lea green? I don't think so, more like ring rust

[mysterydriver]

Nothing like an overly smarky report to warm my heart.

One thing though...did he enjoy the show?

[comahan]

WHATS UP!

[Deleted]

Apr 9, 2008 7:16:49 GMT -5 mysterydriver said:

Nothing like an overly smarky report to warm my heart.

One thing though...did he enjoy the show?

There are days that I question if Smarks can enjoy anything wrestling related.

[nealo]

wat a dull sounding show

[Steveweiser]

Looks as though Katie will be wrestling during the European Tour, which is good news - better news that it's against Mickie. They could have Maria doing jobs for Beth, whilst Mickie beats Katie.

[Bobby Womack]

the writer does seem like a jaded smark but even disregarding his side comments it still sounds like the show sucked

[seano]

Umanga was the first big star of the night? On the next-to-last match??

[BoomerJack]

While I did not write the review that has been posted here, I did attend this show. While it wasn't the greatest show ever, it was decent enough. There were a lot of kids there, who I'm sure were upset when they realized there would be no Cena.

Kendrick/Carlito was good, as were the two tag team matches and, of course, the main event. Due to arriving late and long lines at the concessions, I missed Burchill/Smith and Haas/Killings. Snitsky/Venis was as you would expect. Santino was the star of the show for me. The man had Tony Chimmel and referee Chad Patton laughing at him.

My only complaint about the show would be the length. It started at 7:30 and was over before 10:00 and that included a 15-20 minute intermission. Well that, and they had the "Thank you Ric" shirt, but not the other awesome Flair shirt that's on shopzone.

[SassovsHart]

Here's a report I found on Gerweck.net, which had a bit of a more glass half-full look, taking the show for what it was.

Credit: FanSlamWrestling.com

Last night I went to the WWE house show in Trenton, NJ to promote my upcoming Fan Slam Wrestling Fan Festival 15th Anniversary Convention on June 21st in Totowa, NJ. After passing out a ton of flyers (and thank you goes out to Tiger Mulligan and Dr. Juan for helping me out), we went inside to check out the show. I have to say I enjoyed myself. It's been the first time in a few years that I went to a house show. I'd say it was about only 75 percent filled, as the entire upper tier was empty.

William Regal opened the show putting over what the fans were going to see during the show. Nice touch for an opener. Having the general manager open up the house show gave it that "special feel" to it. The kids in attendance (and the majority of them where) thought they were going to see something special.

The show opened up with Carlito working against Brian Kendrick. Good opener. The match started out with Carlito as the heel but midway through he was working like a babyface. By the end of the match Kendrick was babyface again and went over clean. Nice opener. Carlito worked the crowd really well, including going into the crowd a few times.

Paul Burchill was up next against DH Smith. There was nothing wrong with the work in this match, but both guys didn't interact with the crowd at all. That's the problem with Burchill. While he might be a great ring general, he doesn't know how to work the crowd what so ever. Neither did. They went through the motions. The fans didn't care at all about this match. They called DH Smith the Canadian Bulldog. Why not just call him the new British Bulldog? They dropped the ball on this kid. They should build him up and showed old video packages of his father. Whatever.

Charlie Haas was up next against Ron Killings. Killings came out to some really bad music. I hope they don't keep him with it. I can't see them doing so. Killings was over with the crowd, which is a good thing. I think he will get over with the audience once he debuts on TV. Haas is a great worker. He knew how to work the crowd very well and everything he did looked good. Too bad WWE can't seem to find something for him to do. Killings went over and it appeared he hurt his shoulder. The referee put up the X symbol and they brought out a stretcher for him. Killings walked back to the locker room though.

Snitsky was up next against Val Venis. No matter how bad they jobbed out Venis through out the years, he's still over with the audience. I still think they can do something with him in a mid-card storyline with someone. Nothing special. The entire crowd started chanting "brush your teeth" at Snitsky. At least the fans knew the current storylines. Snitsky over.

Next up was a Diva's tag team match that saw Marie and Mickie James against Beth Phoenix and Katie Burchill. Fans were into Marie and Mickie BIG TIME. Decent match for what it was, with the babyfaces over clean.

They then had an intermission. They announced they will be back in Trenton on December 27th. The new Thank You Ric shirts were there for sale. They are going to be a hot seller.

Hardcore Holly and Cody Rhodes took on Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch. Good match. Murdoch looks great and lost a ton of weight. Cade and Murdoch were great working the audience, especially Murdoch. Fans were into this match. Babyfaces got the win and Cade and Murdoch teased the break up again. Cade left Murdoch.

Santino Marella was up next and cut a great promo that had the audience in stitches. He's so entertaining. He talked for a few minutes and Umaga came out to a BIG POP. He squashed Santino. If they were testing Umaga as a babyface at this house show, it went over big time. I think Umaga can be over huge as a babyface. They need the right storyline though to get him over. He was also so over as a babyface because Santino did an AWESOME job getting him over. Santino was the most entertaining part of the show.

The main event had Randy Orton defending the title against Triple H. Very good match. These two guys work great with each other and this match was no different. It was a real good old school match. Regal interfered for the DQ. Triple H gave Regal the pedigree afterwards. Triple H then gave Orton the pedigree as well to send the fans home happy.


With there not really being any big names on the show, I thought the crowd really enjoyed the show and it was pretty good. Was it loaded up with big stars? No! Was there dream matches you couldn't wait to see? No! But it was an entertaining show promoted on a Tuesday night in New Jersey featuring some of the superstars of Monday Night Raw. Did the fans leave happy? Yes! In a small town like that, that's all that matters.