I attended the Raw house show in Providence on Saturday night. The most noteworthy aspect of the show, in my opinion, was the no-show of C.M. Punk, who was the only prominently-advertised performer for the event, besides the participants in the main event six-man tag (Cena, Sheamus, and Ryback vs. Shield). In fact, Punk's face was actually on the digital marquee alongside Cena's as the crowd entered the arena, but his name was never mentioned during the event, and he never appeared.
Matt Striker was the ring announcer for the evening. It was a pretty packed house at the Dunkin' Donuts Center for Providence's first WWE event in a year - I'd guess maybe 8,000 or so fans in attendance.
(1) Brodus Clay & Tensai beat 3MB (Heath Slater & Drew McIntyre w/Jinder Mahal). This one ended when of the Funkadactyls gave Slater a huracanrana while the ref's back was turned, then Brodus and Tensai double-splashed him for the win.
(2) Zack Ryder beat Darren Young. Ryder won with the Rough Ryder. After the match, The Shield broke up Ryder's celebration by destroying him, then cut a promo encouraging the crowd to believe in The Shield. On a side note, Young's mannerisms were quite entertaining before and during the match.
(3) Divas champion Kaitlyn beat Tamina Snuka (w/Vickie Guerrero) to retain the Divas Title. Kaitlyn pinned Tamina with a spear. Hard to believe this is supposed to be the world's best female wrestler and the number one contender.
(4) Chris Jericho beat Dolph Ziggler (w/A.J. Lee and Big E. Langston) in a No DQ match. The "Fan's Choice" options were 2/3 Falls or No DQ - though Striker basically told the crowd to choose No DQ. Despite the "anything goes" stipulation, the ref chose to eject A.J. from ringside for interfering (which apparently doesn't qualify under the "anything" in "anything goes"). Also, Langston opted to wait until the ref's back was turned before interfering a few times, not wanting to risk disqualification in a no disqualification match. This one ended when Ziggler tried to hit Jericho with the briefcase and accidentally hit Langston instead - then Jericho followed up with a Codebreaker for the 1, 2, 3.
Following intermission, Striker encouraged fans to get back to their seats quick, or they'd regret missing what was next. He then proceeded to introduce R-Truth and Titus O'Neal.
(5) R-Truth beat Titus O'Neil. Truth won with a roll-up. The highlight of this one came before the opening bell, when O'Neil asked the heckling crowd to shut-up, and told audience members to raise their hands if they had something to say.
(6) U.S. champion Antonio Cesaro beat The Miz and Kofi Kingston in a three-way match to retain the U.S. Title. This was easily the best match of the night. There were a couple of entertaining series of back-and-forth roll-ups in which the participants each scored a number of nearfalls in succession. It ended when Miz hit the Skull Crushing Finale on Kofi, then Cesaro re-emerged, threw Miz out of the ring, and covered the beaten Kingston for the win. One interesting note - Miz received a huge pop and seemed to be supported by the pro-Cena crowd along party lines. I was shocked by the reaction since the awkward babyface Miz character is pretty much intolerable on TV.
(7) John Cena & Ryback & Sheamus beat The Shield via DQ in a six-man tag match. The good guys received probably the three biggest pops of the night (although I swear the Miz's pop was right up there with Sheamus' and Ryback's... go figure!). This was a long, plodding affair. The Shield was disqualified when Rollins used a chair. You know what happens next ... Brogue Kick, Shell-shock, and Attitude Adjustment on the bad guys, sending the kids and Miz fans home happy.
