On Friday evening, I attended the WWE house show in the Odyssey Arena, in Belfast, Ireland. I had fairly low expectations for this one, partly because of the draft completely messing up the schedules over the past few weeks, and partly because this was the last touring event before the Backlash PPV, and I expected an “easy” night on the part of some folk.

In my time, I’ve seen these events deliver (Raw was here a year or so ago, and hit the right notes with Orton/Hardy, and Hunter/Umaga) But Smackdown’s produced a few rocky efforts, (including a Tajiri/Rikishi vs. FBI Main Event a few years back.. Argh!) and with the in-ring reports suggesting the Hunter/Taker shows were the better offering, and Cardiff’s show looking especially bad, the cynicism was strongly with me.

Luckily, it was much more impressive than I could have imagined. Yes, the card was stacked with guys off the old Smackown roster at the top, and Raw at the bottom, but complaining is rather pointless- these guys have lives too, and schedules planned ahead of time. Although my ticket referred to this being a “Raw” show, it was definitely exciting to see the rules broken. There was still a good balance of stars, and undercard wrestlers, and a couple of fresh looking matches to boot.

- I arrived in my seat about fifteen minutes prior to match time. By the time everyone took their seats, the arena was full- with the odd pockets of space cropping up, in the upper parts of the tiers. Unusually, most of the Sky-Boxes were occupied- something that I’ve not noticed at past shows in the Odyssey arena. Crowd, was of course, mostly kids, but quite a few couples, and the odd group of Twenty-something, single males. Their attempts to start chants throughout the show didn’t work, and seemed really out of place, amongst their smaller counterparts.

Kofi Kingston vs. William Regal w/Layla

This was a decent opener with the crowd-pleasing Babyface victory for Kofi. They worked smoothly together, and actually got a fair amount of time, and Regal drew a lot of heat, as he always does in this arena. I noticed that even in this environment, Layla was pretty active on the outside. The kids were really fired up from the start, with a few in my section dancing (?) to Kofi’s music. Strange, but hey.

Kane vs. Dolph Ziggler

Ziggler came out first, and was met with “Who are ya” chants from crowd, which always bugs me, but he played up to it and did the “My Name is…” shtick. Kane was extremely over with the young un’s in the crowd as he interrupted Ziggler to provide a “surprise” opponent.

The match was as basic as you get, with Ziggler taking advantage of an error a few minutes in, allowing him to take control and work the knee. Kane was able to mount the comeback though, and got the win with the choke slam. The best part of the entire match was probably the fact that Kane sold the knee the entire way to the back afterwards.

Not good at all, and I got the impression from here, that the fans would be pretty quiet for anyone who’s not a big star on Raw or Smackdown.

Melina & Kelly Kelly vs. Santina & Beth Phoenix

The crowd popped massively for Santino as his female alternative. Actually, Melina got a massive reaction (bigger than for Kane), while nobody cared about Kelly Kelly. The dads fairly perked up for this one though, but the wrestling wasn’t good. More of a comedy interlude than anything, with Santina cutting a really lousy pre-match promo that was nowhere near the standard of what he gives on Television. It earned huge heat regardless though. The Heels took the win, and Santina celebrated like he won the lottery. Entertaining.

The Miz vs. Goldust

Much of the audience was surprised to see Goldust, and a lot of the older fans popped big for him.

Sadly, the excitement died down swiftly, as the young crowd didn’t especially make noise for his comebacks, nor did they care about the prolonged heat period in the match.

I have to admit, I can’t even remember who won- though I think it was The Miz. Nothing memorable took place here, but it was nice to see Goldust, who added a little character to the match. Miz was not impressive as a straightforward heel here. 

Carlito nails the Back Cracker in Belfast

Unified Tag Title Match: Carlito & Primo vs. The Hard-Knox Connection

Looks like they’re testing out the new tag combo of Mike Knox and Charlie Haas, “The Hard-Knox Connection. Both men sported boring black trunks, and played no-nonsense heels. They actually look fairly natural together, though they could change their friggin’ colours, because nothing is more stale than turning heel and somehow coming to the conclusion that your trunks must be super-generic.

Right from the get-go, this was fast-paced, and really tightly worked action. In other words, a really pleasant surprise, and these four could have some quality TV outings ahead of them.

They worked their usual big spots, and the fans really came alive for some of the champions trademark sequences. The Irish fans were really well-behaved to be fair, because even during the longer matches, they were paying attention (albeit a little more quietly), which isn’t always the case. Carlito nailed the Back-cracker for the finish, after doing the apple-spitting routine, which was way over with the crowd. I’ve said it before, but Knox’s facial wig is a hugely impressive beast, that’s an inspiration to all men…

John Morrison vs. Jamie Noble

No reaction for Noble coming out, which is pretty sad, because the guy’s an awesome talent, but lack of TV time killed him for this crowd. Stick him in a tag team already and allow him to play up to the old redneck character.

Fans gave the star treatment to Morrison, which is good, because he’s going to be a bigger part of the future programming than they realise. Some even did his slow-motion pose, which if you’ve seen seven-years olds perform, is pretty disturbing.

Erm, anyways… a good match, as athletic as the last one, and good enough to reel in the unsuspecting crowd, who came alive during the big moves, and loved Morrison’s victory. At the end, Noble was greeted with a nice round of applause (although it started with some negative chants from younger fans first).

CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho

CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho

Jericho received the biggest reaction of the night at this point, by a mile, and once he got on the microphone, the best heat of the night. He just looked in an absolute class of his own as he ran down the crowd for being failures. Great stuff. Immense cheers for CM Punk, and lots of chanting- as much amongst the kiddies, as the older teens and twenty-something’s.

This bout took a long time to get started, as both guys played to the crowd, but it worked, because they were both so over.

Great action, once it got started, as they exchanged holds in the early going, with Punk eventually getting the advantage. Punk really came across as a star, and obviously knows a thing or two about playing to the crowd, while Jericho’s expressions were phenomenal.

The story of the match was that both guys would outsmart each other, and gain the advantage, but neither could put the other away.

Jericho evaded a Go to Sleep tease, while Punk escaped the Walls of Jericho, and kicked out of the Code breaker. While Punk would heroically struggle on in this situation, Jericho became petulant, and went for a chair. At this point, Ricky Steamboat ran to the ring, and stopped Jericho from hitting the chair shot. Punk nailed the Go to Sleep, and we had a winner! Afterwards, Punk brought Steamboat into the ring, and they celebrated together, to a huge response, while both guys alternately had their music played.

A good mixture of technical work, and a collection of high-impact moves towards the end, delivered with sensational timing. This was easily the best match I’ve seen in recent memory at a WWE house show and the appearance of Steamboat was really cool treat for the older fans.

-They played the Druid music for the Undertaker’s entrance, which had the entire arena coming unseated. Really distasteful because he obviously wasn’t on the tour, and it’s a deceitful way to announce the next show. They did this with the DX reunion deal as well, and it’s proved to be just as off-putting.

John Cena & Rey Mysterio vs. Big Show & Edge

Big Show vs. John Cena

Interesting that they just ran through the entire show, and didn’t announce this as the main event earlier on the card. Big Show came out first to a big pop, which turned to boos throughout the contest. Edge got massive heat, while Cena and Rey both aroused star responses.

Cena in particular, was by a huge margin, the most over, and popular guy in Belfast. The place went absolutely bananas for him. Good to see.

Lots, and lots of comedy to commence, with Edge the main culprit. That was fine though, because it was at least funny. The Rated R Superstar made a complete clown of himself, falling over, and off the apron.

Big Show comforted him, and occasionally mocked him, while both did Karate Kid poses at Rey Mysterio- who always looks impressively tiny alongside Show. They worked two heat periods, with Rey suffering the first, and making the hot tag to Cena, whose comeback was thwarted, leading to him doing the same. Eventually they went to some fast-paced double team action, and Rey hit a Double 619. He nailed his crazy splash, while Cena hit a Attitude Adjustment simultaneously, and they got the three count.

The most notable parts of this tag bout though, were undoubtedly Big Show nailing both a dropkick, and a Sunset Flip (on Cena). The Dropkick wasn’t great, but the flip was pretty spectacular to see, and rocked the surprised crowd. In general, it was a good match, and the perfect way to close the show, and send the fans home happy. The Babyfaces enjoyed an extended celebration, and interacted a lot with the fans, though they didn’t do anything special. As soon as the bout ended, the fans rushed out of the building to head for their cars (the car-parking situation at the Odyssey is downright disgusting), which always happens at WWE shows here.

Overall ?

A really enjoyable show. Punk versus Jericho was far-and-away the finest clash of the night, but several others were nothing to sneeze at either. The Tag Title Match was second best, and is the one that I’d most like to see featured on television in the next few weeks. The Main Eventers did a swell job in the finale, mixing comedy with the expected high-spots, and a few unexpected ones for the hell of it. Seeing Steamboat was a huge treat for the live crowd, and probably a complete surprise for the older fans, if they hadn’t seen any other results from this tour.

John Cena was the star of the show obviously, with very little booing during his match. The excitement for his entrance was on a completely different level to everything else on the show. But the fans loved Rey, Punk, Steamboat and Kane, and in general, were pretty respectful towards everyone.

If the return show in November is anything like this, then it will provide a great night’s worth of entertainment for you and your kids. The line-up will be pretty similar, but with The Undertaker as the star, and potentially Jeff Hardy instead of Cena, it’s one with enough depth to better this.

Michael Campbell
michael@ifight365.com