Second Set of WWE House Show Results 9.19.14: Charleston, West Virgnia

Credit: Bruce Hayes and Prowrestling.net

Full house in Charleston. A good number of die hard freakazoids, including a guy with a spot on replica Intercontinental Championship belt that was sweet, but mostly attended by families and children.

1. Cesaro defeated Zack Ryder. The crowd was hot for Ryder. Cesaro is a beast. Abnormally strong human being. This was more of a classic match with elbow and collar lock ups, headlocks and arm bars. They did a good job telling a story in the ring. I was surprised by the amount of high spots from Ryder – top turnbuckle dives, over the top rope dives and from the ring to the floor throws. Eventually, Cesaro handled business and defeated Ryder via the Neutralizer. Afterward, Cesaro worked on his heel promo skills (keep working bro…still have a ways to go). Cesaro mocked Ryder and him being a lack of a challenge for him and then called out anyone from the locker room to give him a real challenge. Cue the Great Khali’s music.

2. The Great Khali beat Cesaro. After the hour and half it took Khali to get to the ring, the bell rang. Cesaro jawed with the ref. Khali gave him the chop and pinned him for the win in literally three seconds. Nice paycheck for three seconds of work.

3. Heath Slater and Titus O’Neil beat Los Matadores (w/ El Torito). This was the most interesting match of the night for me, which in it of itself shocked me. To my surprise, the local fan base, which I pegged as casual fans at best, apparently knew that Mr. Slater is a native of Pineville, West Virginia. The entire arena was behind their hometown boy. It took the participants a few minutes to understand that the crowd was behind Slater big time…and they flipped the script. Seemingly on the fly. Fernando and Diego, started doing classic heel-ish things. As before they came out as baby faces. Playing the the crowd for their Ole’ gimmick and looking for laughs from the kids. When they saw how hardcore the crowd was for Slater, the entire dynamic changed…Jekyll and Hyde. Amazing. Even El Torito changed his character. I could be reading way too much into it. and I may have been taken for a ride on this, but I was very intrigued and impressed. As for the match, Slater started the match, and got worked over. He finally made a hot tag to Titus, who cleared the ring, but was over run by the masked marauders. Eventually, Titus made a hot tag back to Slater, El Torito missed a cheap shot from the top turnbuckle and hit Primo…er um, Diego…whatever….Slater cleaned house, hit his DDT finisher for the win and the crowd went nuts. Pretty cool.

4. Adrian Neville beat Tyson Kidd to retain the NXT Championship. Kidd came out and cut a heel promo trying to get heat from the crowd. His promo centered around him carving a name out for himself, and not being known simply as “Natty’s husband”….dude’s cooking with lame sauce…his promo anyway. His in ring prowess was very enjoyable. He took the time to yell at the crowd. Kidd continued to jaw with the front row while having Neville in locks and such. Good job Tyson…keeping the old school flavor of classic ‘rasslin alive. Now, as for Neville….I have to admit, I’ve not checked him out on NXT as much as I should and this was my real first viewing of him. Holy smokes this kid is a beast. First, his physique would tell you he’s slow and awkward in the ring and that he’s trying to be an undersized bruiser. This dude is anything but. His athletic ability was amazing. He’s agile, limber and a high spot machine. These two guys stole the show…seriously. My wife said she would love to see Neville and Kofi Kingston go at it. She loved this match. Long story short ( I know…too late)…Neville retained the strap via the backwards 540 splash deal. Neville’s legit.

5. Sheamus defeated Bray Wyatt (w/Erick Rowan) to retain the U.S. Title. Most notably, no Luke Harper. I’m not sure what the deal is. The second biggest pop of the night was for Sheamus. Dude is a stud in the Mountain State and adored by most. Let me tell ya, this match was worked VERY snug. I don’t know Sheamus could be delicate even in a coma…borderline slobber knocker is what this match turned into. Bray played coy and stayed away from Sheamus in the beginning. Eventually, they lock it up and it was a snug, pop, thud, Ooooh and Aaaaah match. Sheamus got most of his schticks in, and Rowan got in some cheap shots. Wyatt did his inverted crab walk which 1.) I failed at getting on film because I suck and 2.) completely freaked out my wife. Eventually, Sheamus rolled up Wyatt for the win. Weak finish. However, Sheamus spent five minutes making two laps around the gate greeting folks and taking pics with kids and they played REALLY well in house. Sheamus could run for Governor in WV now and win by a solid majority….which might not be terrible, in retrospect.

6. Paige defeated Natalya in a best of three falls match to retain the WWE Divas Championship. This was another surprise to me. Natty was super smooth and technically sound in the ring. Mercy, that chick was seamless in her hold transitions. She made Paige look like a real champ in there as well. Too bad that doesn’t translate to TV for her. The crowd was really hot for her, especially the high population of young girls in attendance. Natty took a cringe worthy bump the thug from which I could hear 10 rows back. This resulted in Paige winning the first fall in a count-out. Natty regained composure and wins the second fall via the Sharpshooter. And going back to the well, we all love in Diva’s matches, Paige retained the title via a roll up. Freaking splendid.

7. The Usos defeated Goldust and Stardust, and Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods (w/Big E) in a Triple Threat to retain the WWE Tag Team Championship. This was nothing less of a cluster muck. Pretty much everyone got their stuff in. False finishes, high spots and general lack of respect for the rules of the match. However, it was entertaining which was the point. I would like to say what a treat it was to say that I’ve seen Dustin Runnels in action live. I watched the guy in the early ’90s with grandfather. I remember when he was a lumbering mountain of a man-child wrestling in WCW and to see him really reinvent himself into a leaner and meaner version of Goldust is great. It was really my honor to see him tonight. The guy is a living legend in my opinion. Glad to see the older fans gave him the respect he deserved as well.

8. John Cena defeated Kane in a Street Fight. Again, it was my privilege to see Kane in action. You have to respect the crap out of this guy. Just to know his age, history and his ability to still go to house shows and lay it on the line is phenomenal. Kudos, sir. The biggest pop of the night goes to Cena. The building almost imploded when his music hit. Nonetheless, this street fight stayed in the ring for a majority of the contest. Kane first brought a chair into play, which Cena reciprocated. The action spilled out of the ring. Kane set the ring stairs upright and vertical in the aisle and then proceeded to suplex Cena onto the ramp….which shocked me…I mean there is a PPV in a few days, but what do I know? Cena then Irish whipped Kane into the aforementioned stairs. Cena introduced a table into the ring. After some back and forth, Kane was Irish whipped into the table which was placed vertically into the corner. Kane made a comeback, and violently slammed Cena to the canvas with a chokeslam. Kane grabbed another table and set it up in the ring. Cena eluded the chokeslam attempt through the table and then hoisted Kane onto his shoulders and gave him an AA through the table. 1-2-3 for the win.

On the mic post match, Cena recognized the crowds affection earlier for the Mountain State native Heath Slater and asks him back out. They both sing the state’s adopted anthem Country Roads. I was then obligated to scream “Beat them Sooners”…it was almost involuntary (big game on Saturday).

All in all, a really good house show, constant energy from the crowd, and I was genuinely surprised in a few spots. Call me a happy camper.