Second Set of WWE House Show Results – Cincinnati, Ohio

Credit: Jeremy Moses & PW.net

Before the show and again during intermission, they had a WWE version of “Most Wonderful Time of the Year”. It was harmless and I must say I got a kick out of a cartoon Vince McMahon flying out of a chimney with his ass on fire. They pimped a fan vote for the divas match on the show, which was a choice between a six diva “Santa’s Little Helpers” tag match and a straight up one on one. The six diva match would win by 85/15.

1. Sin Cara defeated Justin Gabriel by pinfall. Good, fast paced opener. Post-match Bray Wyatt appeared, beat the hell out of both men, and told the crowd he was going to permanently end Dean Ambrose. (Ambrose is, as many know, a Cincinnati native — so this was an easy way for Bray to turn this crowd…though when he made his entrance later, there were still PLENTY of phone lights.)

Wade Barrett came out and teased his return before delivering the “Bad News” that he wouldn’t do it on this show. Save it for Raw or the Rumble, either is fine by me.

2. Los Matadores defeated Hornswoggle, Titus O’Neil and Tyler Breeze. This was the comedy match, and I got a kick out of a spot they did early on, where El Torito had Hornswoggle pinned. Hornswoggle would kick out, and El Torito would land in the ref’s arms. The ref would then put him back on top of Hornswoggle and count again, and the same thing would happen twice more. God help me, I laughed at that. Otherwise, this wasn’t much.

3. R-Truth defeated Adam Rose via pinfall. A good match, but it felt like another comedy special. Though, I will admit Truth had this crowd in his hand…when he was doing his “What’s Up” routine, at one point he changed it to “Whoop, There it is”…and the crowd did it back! They would do that another couple times during the match — but Adam Rose would only get booed when he tried it.

There was a break, and they showed the “Connor’s Cure” video. If there’s one thing that you’ll get Cincinnati and Pittsburgh to agree on this weekend, this cause would be it. (There’s been quite the national spotlight on Cincinnati for a local college basketball player, Lauren Hill, who is battling a similar cancer.) Consequently, the crowd popped for this video.

At this point, Hulk Hogan was introduced, and he began a rambling promo about his various past experiences here in Cincinnati (though he conveniently left out TNA and somehow got Three Rivers involved…which I could have sworn was in Pittsburgh). I really thought they brought Hogan in to do more like promote an upcoming show. He mentioned, however, in a radio interview he did to promote the show that his wife is from the area (Mount Healthy, to be precise, about 15 minutes from the building) — that may have been the only reason we got him. That brought out Rusev and Lana to verbally blast Hogan, which in turn brought out Roman Reigns to set up the next match.

4. Roman Reigns defeated Rusev by DQ in a match for the U.S. Championship. Rusev retained when he appeared to hit Roman low. Basic big man match, but the crowd loved Roman.

After intermission, the results of the aforementioned poll were revealed.

5. Natalya, Charlotte, and Naomi defeated Cameron, Summer Rae and Sasha Banks. This is the kind of women’s match we need to see on the main roster, though I can do without the “Santa’s Little Helper” gimmick. Natalya got the win via Sharpshooter for her team.

6. New Day (Kofi Kingston and Big E) defeated Tyson Kidd and Cesaro and Goldust and Stardust for the number one contendership to the WWE Tag Team Championship. Solid semi-main. All six guys busted their ass. Both Kidd & Cesaro and the Dust Brothers ragged on the Bengals for easy heat, at least with me as a diehard Bengals fan. New Day’s song is…disturbingly catchy and almost too positive for me. And I’m a guy that HATES negativity. Chew on that one for a minute.

7. Dean Ambrose defeated Bray Wyatt in a “Cincinnati Streetfight”. The roof damn near came off the place from where I was sitting when Dean came out. This crowd was hot for EVERYTHING he did. Tables, chairs and a kendo stick got injected into the match. I think I even heard a couple “we want ladders” chants, but alas, no ladders. In the end, I believe Dean hit Dirty Deeds to pin Bray. After the match, Ambrose went all around the floor of the building high-fiving fans and that was that. I didn’t hear nor see a return date announced (and I did check at the box office before I left), so unless I didn’t catch it there isn’t one, but I’m hoping for the summer. I would say the arena was at LEAST half full as the lower bowl and floor were totally occupied, possibly a little more than that — if this were a week or two later, as opposed to two days post-Christmas when many families are likely still out of town, we might have filled the place. As is, WWE should be proud of this show.

Best Pops
1. Dean Ambrose (was not even CLOSE from where I sat, and that’s not a knock on anyone else — Cincy loved their hometown boy)
2. Roman Reigns
3) R-Truth

Most Heat
1) Bray Wyatt (for everything, especially the post-match attack on Sin Cara and Justin Gabriel)
2 and 3) (tie) Dust Brothers and Cesaro/Kidd for the Bengals comments