WWE Raw House Show in Albany, NY

[nerdinitupagain]

So I was up visiting my parent's in Albany, NY and my dad grabbed some tickets to the Raw house show at the Pepsi Arena.

Here's a quick summary of the event...

Got there right as the show opened.
First match
Cryme Tyme vs. Cade and Murdoch
Rather uninteresting match. Generic tag match, with generic reverse the finisher into the finisher finish. Crowd was hot for Cryme Time. Was about 8 minutes or so. Most of the match I was waiting to get my first beer.

Second Match
Val Venis vs. Vladimir Kozlov
Okay, the guy does not impress. He works an extremely soft style for a big man and doesn't really seem that intimidating. His moves had no impact. It was disapointing thinking Vince and TNA were fighting over this guy... on the other hand, props to Val. Worked the crowd really well and got everyone into it. Crowd was hot for him. Vladimir won with Torture Rack slam Abyss uses. Val sold the finish like crazy afterwards. Went no more than 5 minutres

Third Match
Big Vis/Chalie Haas vs. Highlanders

Highlanders won with that finisher of theirs. Crowd crapped only on Hass. Kind of weird considering WGTT just reunited and I had heard they were booked for the Raw house shows. Oh well. Really boring match. About ten minutes in length. Haas played the heel role really well, as opposed to Vis who did nothing but try to pop the crowd... and well, got a bunch of "We Want Mabel" chants.

Fourth Match
Ladder Match for the IC Title
Shelton vs. Carlito vs. Nitro vs. Jeff Hardy

This was worth the 5 dollar drafts and time spent to get there. Really solid ladder match, not a whole lot of spots, but think of it like Razor/Shawn with four men. Great psycholgoy.. lots of 1 on 1 action while two guys were knocked out. Finish came with a double ladder spot and Hardy knocked over Nitro's ladder. Shelton had some extremely impressive moves that popped the crowd including a slingshot from the top rope to clothesline Carlito off the ladder. Really solid match. Crowd was super hot for Hardy which was good to see. 20 or so minute match.

Intermission - Afterwards Maria came out and did something.. I went for more beer.

Duggan vs. Eugene

What a waste of mat space. Duggan won. Usually Ho's and USA's... but crappy match.

DX/Flair vs. Rated RKO/Kenny

Exactly what you thought. Flair and HBK get dominated by the heels... HHH gets the hot tag, destroys Edge and Orton. It was a no DQ match btw... Edge gets a chair, backfires, HHH hits everyone. Gets Sledgie, Orton and Edge hightail to the back... Kenny gets destroyed by HHH.


Cena vs. Umaga
WWE Title bout.

Left.

But here's the story..
Cena overcame the odds/got screwed.

It was a disapointing show. Only reason I really went was my dad got free tickets through his work and to spend time with him and away from the rest of the Christmas headache that is my family. The last time I went to a house show with my dad was an ECW house show in DC YEARS and YEARS ago, so needless to say he too was disapointed depsite not really being a wrestling fan.

The show really felt like it was just phoned in. No one got on the mic to really liven the crowd up besides Vladimir to tell us who he was. I would not recommend going to this if you have to pay.

Highlights of the night..
The Fink was announcing.
Ladder match.
Beer and peanuts
Missing traffic by skipping out on Cena/Umaga.

I repeat. It's a waste of time if you have to pay for it and you want to see some decent action.

[Shy Guy]

a ladder match at a house show?

[nerdinitupagain]

tmizzle521 said:

a ladder match at a house show?

Yep. I was surprised. They played it smart though.. it mostly 1 on 1 action with two guys resting on the outside.

[Ishmeal Loves Kaseyhausen]

My favorite part of the house show was noting the difference in the crowd from that the year before at New Year's Revolution. The house show, with its cheaper tickets, had a more Cena-friendly crowd (not including myself) than the PPV last January, as that crowd was mostly anti-Cena. But in the end, when you go to a house show, you should know what to expect. The ladder match was a pleasant surprise, though.

["St. Louis Viper" Buck Summers]

I'm going to a house show in East Rutherford on Thursday. Hope mines better, I paid for 5 people to go to this sumbitch as Christmas presents.

[Pierre the Renaissance Man]

buckyayo said:

I'm going to a house show in East Rutherford on Thursday. Hope mines better, I paid for 5 people to go to this sumHootie Hoo! as Christmas presents.

Yea ill be there 2. Cant wait for the ladder match. First one im gonna see live.

[REDUNBECK~!]

I thought this was actually a pretty good show. Well, the Kozlov/Venis and Eugene/Duggan matches were stinkers (duh), but the rest of the matches were, I thought, good, some very good. The crowd certainly made it easy on the wrestlers, because this audience was super hot for just about everything.

For anyone remotely interested, the main event ended in DQ when AAE ran in to break up the STFU. And speaking of AAE, man was he on fire. He was out there the whole match going progressively crazier and crazier as the match went on, to the point that he was like Ric Flair doing one of his "Crazy Flair" freak outs from back in the day (hair all huged up, clothes disheveled, madman look in his eyes). It was huging hilarious.

Overall, the show was good because most of the guys (even Carlito, amazingly) worked really hard and avoided any major botches. They also really knew how to work the crowd to get the heat even stronger than it already was (and trust me, I meant it when I said this crowd was super hot already). The only guys who looked bad were Vladamir Kozlov (whose offense consisted of tying Val up in the ropes and stretching him, and strangling Val over the top rope, and that was about it. Yeesh.) and Eugene (granted, his match was basically a squash in Duggan's favor, but still, Eugene looked bad from bell to bell. The whole "I'm an evil retard" act seems to be limiting him even more than the "I'm a happy retard" act used to.).

All-in-all, though, I had a really good time at this show, and I think my money was well spent (Floor seat!).

[akkountent]

One of my Christmas presents from my wife was two tickets to tonight's RAW house show in Rochester, NY, and i'm sure the same matches and people will be there. From reading down the card, it seems like a good house show; Title match, ladder match, DX - RKO, chance to see Vladimir in action, etc. I'm looking forward to it.

[Chainsaw]

Boy, I'm glad I didn't go now. Outside of the surprise ladder match, sounds like a waste of time.

[Fundertaker]

I'm going to a house show in East Rutherford on Thursday. Hope mines better, I paid for 5 people to go to this sumHootie Hoo! as Christmas presents.

Well, at least you'll have a "exclusive in-ring announcement".

www.wwe.com/inside/news/majorannouncement

[Chainsaw]

fundertaker said:

I'm going to a house show in East Rutherford on Thursday. Hope mines better, I paid for 5 people to go to this sumHootie Hoo! as Christmas presents.

Well, at least you'll have a "exclusive in-ring announcement".

www.wwe.com/inside/news/majorannouncement

The major announcement...next year's Wrestlemania will...face DA UNDAHTAKAH, one on one in the ring tonight!

Holla holla holla!

[Fundertaker]

It's a RAW event, not SD!'s

Besides, Teddy will already have his big announcement regarding the WHC this Friday.

... 1-on-1 against THE UNDAHATAKAHHH!!!

Holla holla holla, playa!

[Big Daddy Bad Booking]

My sis (who is Eeriebagel on this board) and my bro double-teamed to give me this as my X-Mas present. I was amazed, and couldn't wait for the proceedings. Here are some of my thoughts:

-Opener between Cryme Tyme and Cade and Murdoch was awesome as hell. All four men worked great, and Cade's little mic work really put him over as a heel. The people LOV3D Cryme Tyme.
- My brother and I started a "WHAT?" chant at the Ukranian guy. Everybody took our lead.
- The Women's title match had the best wrestling maneuvers of all the matches (in terms of pure wrestling).
- Oh my god, the ladder match!!!! The title was held high and Fink introduced it to us as a ladder match, so I thought it was one-on-one. First off, my bro and I marked out like 6 year olds, then Eerie finally marked, and we knew this was going to be special. Well, here comes Benjamin, then Carlito, then Nitro, then Hardy, which easily got one of the biggest pops of the night. These matches look like they hurt on TV, then live, I wonder how no one is crippled. Carlito got his pops too, but nothing like Hardy's. Hardy won with a pretty anti-climatic push-heel-of-the-top-of-the-ladder maneuver, but still match of the night right here.
INTERMISSION
-All I wanted to get is a pretzel and a Dew, and the fricken line was so long, my bro and I missed Hacksaw. We marked for him on the concession stand though.
DX TYME!
-We ran to our seats as the "dyk" was introduced, and after it was announced to be a no DQ match. The three heel guys got booed like hell. Flair came out to all of our usual "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"'s, and then people marked out for DX like pre-adolescent teens, then they started brawling. Solid 15 minute match with Flair using the 4 on Dykstra in a pinning predicament. Trips came back out to the Pedigree the former Squad member. We all cheered.
WWE Title
- Umaga and Estrada came out first and did their heel shtick, then Cena came out to an explosion greater than Fort Sumter. Surprisingly good brawl that saw Cena win by DQ (not by submission).

Before I go...

I must tell you about the parking garage. Everybody in our clan (me, my sis, my bro, bro's gf and my sister's bf) were in the car, waiting to be released from our spot, which was on the 4th floor. We were stuck for a good half hour. However, there were two drunken guys in a GMC Jimmy who were frustrated, so my bro being the driver decided to have some fun with them. They were yelling WOO, and HO, then had a horn-bonking contest the likes the world has never seen before. Seems like the horn bonking originally started on the first floor, then travelled upwards, and my brother was like, "Just one time...."....

Then he bonked the horn.

And for the record, this was all of our first wrestling events attended in person, and it was a kick-ass experience. If the TV is bad, do not expect that crapiness live. It is much better in a smaller arena where people actually treat this as a once-in-a-life time deal. I loved it, and I can't wait for it to happen again.

[nisi]

House shows are just fun in their own right, and a ladder match is pure frosting.

[justamark]

you sayiun cena has to turn heel? weird. don't like the sound of it. stupid way for him to win by dq which is freaking retarted. John Cena shoulda won by submission! Dumbassed freaks who script this stuff should actually do a good show and have him win by submission. or by fu but that is because these storywriters need to be freakin TOLD WHAT TO DO because they don't seem to know otherwise! obviously a suckass show and wasn't worth the price of admission. sucks that they would have cena in a brawl he is a great wrestler and sucks at brawling. i mean his brawling is lame and bullshit. fricken everything i like about the guy is bein torn away and ruined. his brawling sucks ass and him bein in wwe is bad enough. him not bein in wwe isnt much better. i hate everything happening!!!! Cena is professional,respectful, he is a great guy who is terriffic and nice as hell. not just that but/and is phenomenally outstanding on the mic he sucks as a brawler and is able to wrestle, all the wwe suparstahaz are, you know. if you don't like what i say okay fine. but hell im just giviing my take on it. ladder matches suck when wrestlers get hurt and cena is makin people want to kill everyone for trying to get him to be what he aint and he does have talent in the ring but not as much. i hate his wrestling he needs more mic time,skits and comedy type moments. why the hell is he gettin dissed when he is the most talented guy they got?

i ask you.

this is because most are unknowledgeable about what consititutes true and real talent in WWWE@ the present time!

now not everyone knows or understands the fact that John
Cena is absolutely brilliant,intense,funny and greatly outstanding on the mic and when he wrestles you don't want to watch because he is so damned good that it makes you want to be in the ring wrestling instead of only bein a fan/supporter

house shows suck ass in their own right and way and what would really be frosting is cena actually being able to spend time with uh..........well, i cant say who exactly just yet but if i said who you would know who. so i wont say. (you would be able to guess)

cena is a talented and outstanding guy when it comes to promo and mic skills, unparalled nearly....save for The Rock. Or Steve Austin or....whoever else you want to add.;