WWE Raw Tour in Topeka, KS on Friday, February 3, 2012
Show started with Brodus Clay coming out with the Funkadivas (or whatever they're called) and the crowd seemed to be into him (House shows in medium sized markets appear to have a far greater amount of families than hardcore middle aged fans and young adults, as later reactions give that away). Michael McGullicutty came out second and had a decent match that went longer than the recent squash matches that Clay has had on television. Match ended following a Hulk-up by Clay and going through his set-up splash in the corner and cross body splash for the pin.
Alex Riley came out for his match with David Otunga coming out as the boss for the evening talking him down and then introducing Ryback (formerly Skip Sheffield). It was actually a far better match than expected with Alex Riley being able to get the crowd into the match for multiple comebacks. Alex Riley should expect to be a long-term employee, even if the WWE never realizes what they have in him, as he is just somehow able to connect with the crowd. Ryback ended up with the win with an F-5. Otunga came out to talk down Riley and as Riley looked like he was about to hit him, Otunga threatened to call John Laurinaitis. This then caused Riley to just walk away.
Next match was Santino Marella versus some wrestler billed from Chesterfield, England that looked like Tyler Black. I did not hear clearly what the name was. The match dragged as Santino seems to not be the type of veteran wrestler to be able to carry another wrestler in a match for more than ten minutes, as this match went about that long. If it was Tyler Black, he doesn't have the WWE pace down, as he seemed to fill the regular WWE spaces with attempts at replicating what Randy Orton would do circa 2007 and even Triple H, to the point even doing what Triple H would do immediately after delivering a spinebuster. Crowd was not into this match at all. Santino then did his comeback at the end along with the cobra sock puppet coming out followed by a pin. Crowd enjoyed the last part of the match and the post match celebration, until Otunga came out to talk down to Santino and use the Laurinaitis threat again.
Jack Swagger vs. Kofi Kingston was next and since most people have seen what they can do when given time, I will just say it was a really good back and forth match. The end came with Swagger putting his feet on the middle rope to score the pin and he began celebrating excessively. This then lead to Kofi knocking Swagger out with a Trouble in Paradise while Swagger was running around. Crowd greatly enjoyed this match.
After intermission, it was Beth Phoenix vs. Eve for the Divas championship was next. It was a decent match with some back and forth. Beth won it with her finisher after showing some amazing strength throughout the match.
R-Truth & John Cena vs. Kane & Miz was next and this is where it was clearly a majority family outing, as Cena was over huge with cheers drowning out the boos and "Cena Sucks" chants. R-Truth spent most of the match being beat down by Kane & Miz, while using some good tag team tactics and psychology, but eventually Cena made the hot tag, took no punishment, hit the Attitude Adjustment on Miz, 1-2-3, and the crowd was into the whole thing.
Next up was CM Punk vs. Dolph Ziggler for the WWE championship with Otunga naming himself the special outside enforcer for the match. The crowd was about half the level into Punk as they were for Cena (telling me it was a family majority crowd). It was an excellent match and they both worked hard for the crowd. One nice touch was early on when Dolph Ziggler did some small move and then jumped on the middle turnbuckle to pose for the crowd as if he just scored a pin. This lead to Punk hitting some small move, then replicating Ziggler's celebration and finally going outside the ring to high-five every fan in the front row around the ring. There was a referee bump and Punk applied the Anaconda Vice, but instead of going into the ring to take the down referee's place, Otunga ran to the back to get another referee while Ziggler was tapping. Otunga brought out a referee but kept him distracted by having his back to the ring while Ziggler used a chair on Punk, then letting the referee go into the ring to count to 2. Otunga got in the ring to tell off the referee, Punk then got in his face, there was shoving, and then a GTS on Otunga. Then there was a GTS for Ziggler and a pin. After the win Punk made sure to stay and celebrate longer than expected and even hit every access from ringside to high-five fans even in the corners by the entranceway.
Overall it was a great show and I highly recommend a WWE House Show over a WWE Raw show any day. Also, I was able to get in free being apart of the Kansas Army Nation Guard and WWE's free ticket program for those in the military, so that is an excellent program they have.
