My lovely bride and I had the opportunity to spend the evening watching a WWE House Show in Charleston, WV. We live only about 40 minutes from the show, so it was a fun evening out. I won’t go too in depth with my recap of the show, but I’ll share pics of the event with the results of the night. I hope you enjoy my wonderful photography skills, haha.
Zack Ryder vs. Cesaro
Winner: Cesaro
This was a good opening bout, but nothing too special. Ryder was given a decent amount of time, which doesn’t happen too often. Our West Virginia crowd was behind him pretty solidly and while there was some support for Cesaro, he was definitely the heel. I was disappointed that we didn’t see the Cesaro Swing, but there was a Broski Boot in this match. Cesaro won, I believe, by his Neutralizer.
Cesaro vs. The Great Khali
Winner: The Great Khali
After his match with Ryder, Cesaro got on the mic and issued a challenge for anyone in the back. Here’s the answer by the Punjabi Playboy…
It was funny how much people supported Khali as he came out. My wife and I had enough sense to just sit and laugh about it. I know I said in the intro that there won’t be any in-depth play-by-play or anything, but I’ll make the exception for this match….
Khali did an overhand chop. Khali pinned for the win.
There it is. The crowd popped for it, so I guess it served its purpose. My wife mentioned beforehand that we might at least see the Swing on Khali and that would have redeemed this for me, but as you can read in my novella of play-by-play commentary, no such Swing happened.
Slater Gator vs. Los Matadores (w/El Torito)
Winners: Slater Gator
If you’ve read enough of my writing, you know I LOVE Slater Gator. Not only did I get to see them, I saw them in West Virginia, Heath Slater’s home state. Slater was given a hero’s welcome, for sure. The match was simple; Slater was first in and got beat down for a while as Fernando and Diego kept doing their “Ole” pose. This established them as the heels and the crowd booed more and more viciously as time went on.
Slater finally made his way to his corner and tagged in The Gator, Titus O’Neil. Titus had a strong showing but he too found himself the victim of the Matadores. This was simple wrestling psychology, as the match was building to that one hot tag to Heath Slater at the end. When he finally got it, the crowd went nuts. So did my wife and I. Slater Gator won, because I deserve at least that much in life.
Slater Gator was the personal highlight of the night for me.
Adrian Neville vs. Tyson Kidd (NXT Championship)
Winner: Adrian Neville
This was a treat that wasn’t advertised. Tyson came out before the match started and told everyone how he wanted to be known as more than “Nattie’s husband.” He paused at this point, expecting a chant, but none started. He got mild heel heat in his match, but people didn’t react too much to the guy. Neville was highly impressive. The match wasn’t too long, but it was cool seeing the Red Arrow live. That is such an impressive move.
Sheamus vs. Bray Wyatt (w/Erick Rowan) (US Championship)
Winner: Sheamus
Sheamus got one of the bigger pops of the night. People went nuts for the guy. This, along with the tag match later in the show, was one of the best matches of the night. I was surprised that neither the Sister Abigail nor the Brogue Kick happened during the match, but it was still well built. Sheamus won with a roll-up. Post-match, there were shenanigans (good choice of wording for the Celtic Warrior, right?!) involving Erick Rowan. Rowan became the victim of the Brogue Kick and Sheamus took the time to high-five pretty much everyone in the front row.
Intermission
Paige vs. Natalya (2 out of 3 Falls – Diva’s Championship)
Winner: Paige
This match had a stipulation that the fans could vote on. The other option was a Submission Match, which I might’ve liked better. I remember that the first fall of this match came via countout against Natalya. There was a spot where the two girls were rolling around on the mat and they rolled over top of the ref. The ref acted like he won the lottery and went to celebrate on the corner turnbuckle, but stumbled and took a second jump to get up there. I don’t remember the second fall, which Natalya obviously won, but Paige won the third fall with a roll-up pin.
The Usos vs. Gold & Stardust vs. Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods (w/Big E) (Tag Team Championship)
Winner: The Usos
I really liked this match and was very excited to see the two challenging teams. My wife only really wanted to see the Rhodes boys and it was fun cheering for Kofi and Xavier against her.
There was a cool spot where Goldust was beating up on Xavier and Xavier almost made it to tag Kofi, but Goldust knocked him down so Woods couldn’t tag him in. Then, after he fought off Goldust he made his way to the Usos’ corner. Just when he almost had the tag, both of Rikishi’s sons backed away from the corner to leave him stranded and helpless in the ring. It was by far the coolest thing I’ve ever seen those brothers do. Usos won the match, by the way.
John Cena vs. Kane (Street Fight)
Winner: John Cena
The biggest pop of the night was for John Cena and it wasn’t even close. WV really, really, loves Cena. I was able to get his entrance on video and you can see the pop he gets…
My wife and I left midway through this match, because we’re old and wanted to beat the traffic home. Our strategy worked, by the way. While I don’t regret missing the match, I do regret missing what happened after the match. Apparently, Heath Slater came out to sing “Country Roads” with John Cena. Well, poop. That probably would’ve been fun to see. Oh well, I was well rested when my three year old son woke me up the next morning to show me his Thomas train.
I hope you enjoyed reading about my live WWE experience. I had a good time with my wife, one of the rare times we’ve gotten out without the kids. She’s a trooper for letting me drag her to these kinds of things, haha.
As always, please follow me on Twitter @MitchNickelson. It’s the best way to not miss anything that I do. Also, visit my website MitchNickelson.com to listen to the most recent podcast of SBP Wrestling. I do that with a couple of friends and I’m having fun with it. Just press play immediately below and give us a listen.
Thanks for reading.
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