Thanks to rajah.com reader Steve Diamond for sending this in!
Steve Diamond reporting from Raleigh
Dasha Fuentes as announcer
Prerecorded Daniel Bryan welcoming us and leading a Yes! Chant.
1. Miz vs Orton. Huge heat on Miz, who opened with a Rick Rude vocal impression to
mild applause (from the old folks who know who he was). There were mega pops for
Orton throughout the match. Miz. Orton landed the ddt and the Viper hit the RKO for
the win.
2. 8 man tag. Heath/Rhyno, Mojo Rawley and Apollo Crews vs. Breezango and the
Vaudevillians. Babyfaces were way over. Breezango got some boos, no response for the
Vaudevillians, except for some mock clapping when English took a bow. Awesome “he’s
got kids” chants during Heath’s intro and throughout the match. Back and forth
action and boos good heat for English and Gotch. Huge “we want Rhyno” chants and
the crowd stayed hot once he came in. Match turned into a back and forth with all 8
alternating offensive move on each other. Breeze was celebrating on the top rope and
a huge “GORE GORE GORE” chant erupted, after which Rhyno hit the gore on Breeze for
the pin and the win.
Pretaped Baron Corbin promo about Dean and WM.
3. Kalisto vs. Curt Hawkins. Big pop for Kalisto. crickets for Curt. Kalisto for
the win
4. Bray Wyatt (big pop, lots of fireflies) vs Luke Harper for the WWE Championship.
Not much reaction for Harper beyond polite clapping. Bray sought to negate his pop
by taking the mic and called us poor, simple and pieces of trash, which got some
boos. Bray berated Dasha for her poor introduction of him and bullied her into
redoing it. More boos than cheers this time. He made her announce it again, which
she did, to more boos. She then reintroduced Harper to more cheers. As the match
continued, Bray repeatedly demanded to be announced and acknowledged as the champ.
This happened several times to boos each time. Match was both in and out of the ring
with good pops for both. Huge fan response during a back and forth punch exchange
during which Bray suddenly hit the sister abigail for the win. Fireflies and
cheers came back out after the match, thwarting Bray’s attempts to get heel heat. He
left and Luke was left lying in the ring. Once Bray left, Luke grabbed a mic and
told us he really tried and we are looking at the future WWE Champion to good
applause and cheers.
Video package about the history of Orton and Wyatt was shown, and then dosha hyped
authentically signed Cena Ambrose and styles posters on sale for $20 each. We then
went into intermission.
Intermission
6. Dasha introduced Mickie as special guest ref for the 3 vs. 3 womens’ match. Becky
(huge pop) Lynch is first out, followed by Tamina (with a Raw heel highlight reel,
so no one knew if they should cheer or boo) and Asuka (major surprise pop). Bliss
(mega pop) Natalya (mega pop) and Carmela (big boos until James Ellsworth came out
with her, and boos turned into cheers). Nattie taunted the crowd , Alex badmouthed
security and Carmella faked throwing the hat to the crowd to get some heel heat.
Tamina got good pops, especially when going after Carmella and James. Good action
with Alexa submitting to Becky’s armbar after Alexa was arguing with Mickie.
7. IC title match – Baron Corbin vs Dean Ambrose. Huge pop for Ambrose. Mid level
heat for Corbin. Series of power moves from Corbin to open and an alternating “lets
go Corbin/Corbin sucks” chant took place. More power moves and punches from Corbin
(WWE is really trying to sell Corbin as a monster, but it doesnt seem to be working)
alternating with the crazy act from Ambrose. The match went on (a bit too long),
including another Rick Rude tribute, when Ambrose snuck in a Rude Awakening. Dean
then went on offense and after 3 failed attempts to hit the Dirty Deeds, Baron went
on offense, brought in a chair and got DQ’d. He left Ambrose lying in the ring, but
having still retained the belt. Corbin then took and raised the belt to a chorus of
boos before Ambrose woke up, hit him with the Dirty Deeds and celebrated his
victory.
8. Main Event: “Raleigh street fight” Cena vs Styles. Great match with the hottest
crowd of the night. (After intros, the arena screens and mini tron power all died,
so we lost all visual besides our live eyes.) Aj had to get on the mic to heel talk
the crowd three times, as they were cheering too much. He used a chair and the mic,
Cena grabbed a table and set it up in the ring. Aj moved it to the corner post and
took the action to the metal ramp, on which he suplexed Cena to a mix of boos and
cheers. Cena recovered and hit Styles with a fan’s MiTB case, then carried styles
back to a railing but fell victim to a reversal and landed on it. Action then
returned to the ring where Aj flipped Cena through the table he had set up in the
corner earlier. AJ then went out and got another table, set it up and tried to toss
Cena through it again. Cena reversed and Aj went headfirst into the table to a HUGE
pop. Cena then got the steel stairs into the ring, trued to throw them at AJ
(missed) and AJ hit Cena clean with the Clash. Cena kicked out at 2 and the crowd
chanted “this is awesome!” AJ grabbed a third table and set it up, only to
immediately fall victim to Cena, who hit the attitude adjustment for the win and the
biggest pop of the night. Crowd went crazy and Cena celebrated in the ring
Great show. No garbage matches.
Biggest Pops
Cena (“lets go Cena/Cena sucks” chants were mixed in)
Styles
Dean
Randy
Becky