WWE Raw House Show - Live Report From Cape Girardeau - 2/1/09

Well, look who is in that picture!!! It is the one and only Shawn Michaels. And I went crazy cheering when he came to the ring. People with me had fun watching my reaction to seeing him. Only the second time that I've seen him and I got to see him wrestle for the first time. I attended my 20th live event on Sunday afternoon at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau. VERY fun show. I want to thank my crew that I had with me at the event. That is the most fun that I've had at an event in a while. We laughed so much and just had fun goofing off while enjoying the action.

We rolled into town around 1:00 and saw some of the superstars entering the building. We saw Randy Orton and Rey Mysterio entering into the building. Rey was signing autographs. The line to get in left everyone confused. They only opened up one entrance leading one single line looping all around the parking lot. The concern turned to whether people were going to be inside at the start time. They then opened up another set of doors in the front getting people in much quicker. We found our seats right at 2:00. We sat down and the show started. Incredible timing. I should point out first that this was a great crowd. There was a section up in section 108 that was making a lot of noise. They stood for most of the night and were loud. They made the show even more fun!! We even had this group of girls in front of us that were cheering for a lot of the heels as well.

The show opened with Tony Chimel making his way to the ring to the Raw theme song. He announced that there would be an Elimination Chamber qualifying battle royal on the show which I thought was a really cool idea giving house show attendees an exclusive. He also announced what I knew was coming and that was that John Cena was not there which was met with a round of boos. Cena was off of the lineup on the building's website but the local TV advertising still had him on it. Chimel said that fans could get a full refund if they wanted one by the time of the start of the second match. WWE has really got to stop advertising the big names and not delivering. I felt bad for the kids that were there wanting to see Cena and then not getting to see him. The show opened with Kofi Kingston coming to the ring. Good reaction to him from the fans. He took on Dolph Ziggler. Dolph opened the match talking and then the match was on. Kofi is fun to see live with all of his high flying moves. Kofi won the match with a spin kick to the head. Solid match. Next, Chimel introduced Mickie James who would be out and about in the crowd throughout the night. Her deal for the night was to pick some fans for various things throughout the night. We looked around for Mickie and she was just a few rows up from us. Her mic wasn't working so she had to yell what was going on. Chimel helped her out as well. She picked out a couple of kids to ask a trivia question to which was where the location of WrestleMania 25 is. They got it right and were moved up to front row seats. This brought us to the women's match of the afternoon with Melina defending the women's title against Beth Phoenix. Melina's splits entrance is fun to watch. Just incredible. The match was solid as well. Get ready for those comments to be a theme in this recap. The start of the match had Beth shaking Melina yelling at her to "give me back my title". The finish had Beth with a standing vertical suplex back into the ring but Melina countered it into a small package for the win. Melina celebrated while the ref had to hold back Beth from her frustration of the loss as she wanted to go at Melina. Beth stood in the ring for a bit very upset over the loss. The next match was a really fun one. On the announced lineup, Jack Swagger was supposed to defend the ECW title against Matt Hardy. It was understood that the match likely wouldn't happen cause it would make no sense now story line wise. So, the replacement was Tommy Dreamer challenging Swagger. Good ECW chant from the crowd especially up in section 108 which I of course jumped in on. I was thrilled to be cheering on Dreamer. Dreamer cut a promo before the match talking about his contract and how he has promised to win the title by the time his contract ends or he'll retire. He said that he was going to win the title that afternoon and that Cape would then see the biggest contract signing in history. I was thinking automatically that this match was unfortunately going to be a squash. I couldn't be more wrong. Very back and forth match and a lot of fun. Swagger kept taunting Dreamer to wrestle him on the mat. Swagger got down on all fours in the ring and then Dreamer just ran and kicked him which got a pop. Dreamer then proceeded to mock him with pushups and began dancing. Swagger ended up on the floor and Tommy ran off the apron doing a flip landing on Swagger. He jumped up on the rail yelling to the crowd "that's what I'm talking about". There was a lot of near falls toward the end of the match. The finish had Dreamer getting posted and then hit with a Swagger suplex for the win. I was so happy that the match was a good competitive one. That gets us to the next match. Rey Mysterio vs. Kane. Kane is just a monster in person. Rey got a big pop from the fans. It took him a while to get down the aisle as he was greeting the kids with the masks in the aisle. I believe he got every one of them. The size difference between the two of them is just wild. This match was a lot of fun. Kane's offense just looked nasty on Rey. I just have to think that the big guys love wrestling little guys cause they can do so many moves with such ease. At one point, Kane just wrapped Rey around the post and pulled him. Everything Kane hit on Rey looked nasty and we had a lot of fun and laughs during this one cause everything looked so brutal. Rey went for a 619 attempt which got a big pop but Kane avoided it with a clothesline. Rey ran off the apron and jumped on Kane at one point. They got back in the ring. He climbed up on Kane landing punches in the corner with the crowd while Kane continued to throw him off. The third attempt to run back with the punches got a nasty boot in the face. The finish had Rey going for the 619 again but Kane caught him in the choke. As he lifted him for the chokeslam, Rey countered it into a rana sending Kane into the ropes. That set up the 619 and the springboard splash for the win. Really fun match. A mad Kane chased Chimel around after the match. Intermission time after about one hour into the action. Mickie James was reintroduced to the crowd and she made her way back to the ring. She was going to pick a fan out of the audience to be the guest bell ringer for the next match. She picked this little girl out of the crowd and the two of them sat by the ring. Next was Randy Orton taking on CM Punk. I loved Orton's entrance as he just made his way out slowly staring down people along the way. His theme music played straight through once telling how long his entrance was. He leaned down and stared down Mickie and the girl at ringside. There was a guy dressed as Gene Simmons at ringside which I'll talk about later. Orton stared him down as well which was hilarious. Orton was very over in Cape Girardeau including getting a big RKO chant from section 108. Orton is from St. Louis so that had something to do with it but the fact of the matter is that Orton is becoming a heel that fans are getting behind regardless. CM Punk got a good ovation coming out and this was my first time seeing him. I gave big cheers and chants for him throughout the match. Orton kept getting major chants from the crowd and was definitely the crowd favorite. He tried to deflect it by saying that St. Louis was his home but there was no way that he was claiming a lousy town like Cape as his own. That didn't deflect the cheers. Section 108 was very rowdy for Orton chanting his name. He then took the mic and walked to the floor. He looked up at them saying that he didn't need their help and to sit down. It was hilarious and actually just egged them on even more cheering him. ha ha. I do have to say that I like Orton more and more when I see him at live shows. He always puts on a great show in Cape. We had a nice battle between the Punk and Orton fans with cheers and chants. Yep, I was on the Punk side. However, like I said, I like Orton more and more. Section 108 was ripping on Punk even going to yelling "Chicago sucks". Orton hit his top rope propped up DDT which looks nasty!! We had a LOT of laughs during this one cause the crowd environment for this match was just GREAT. Lots of great back and forth action. The finish had Punk going for a springboard and getting caught in the RKO. They mistimed it slightly so it didn't look that great. So, Orton picked up Punk and hit another one for the win. Next was the 6 man battle royal for the Elimination Chamber spot at No Way Out. The participants were odd as far as who you knew wasn't going to get the spot as it was Dolph Ziggler, Cryme Tyme, Ted Dibiase, Cody Rhodes, and Mike Knox. I thought for sure that either Cody or Dibiase would win it. The order of elimination had Cody out first following a skin the cat move by JTG that sent Cody over the top rope. Wow, couldn't believe he was the first out. JTG was then thrown out by Ziggler and someone else that I missed. Knox got Ziggler on to the apron of the ring and then Shad sent Ziggler to the floor for the elimination. That left a last three of Dibiase, Shad, and Knox who stared off before going at it. Knox eliminated Dibiase which left me shocked that one of Legacy didn't make it to the end. There was no doubt who was winning it at that point cause Shad sure wasn't going to win it. Knox hit a dropkick that looked good and we said that might be his best move EVER. ha ha. Knox won with a big boot to the face that sent Shad over the top rope. Knox qualifies for the Elimination Chamber. Main event time as Chris Jericho made his way to the ring. Jericho got on the mic saying that it was a good thing that the barricade was there to protect the fans cause he would have beat up every man, woman, and child in the building. It was great stuff!! We laughed a ton at his comments. Shawn's music hit and he got a huge pop from the crowd. Section 108 was big time into Shawn. They loved him. All the fans loved him. They kept wanting him to hold up the DX sign which he kept looking at them asking if that was what they wanted. He'd hold up the DX sign while Jericho would get furious over it. Great back and forth matches and one of the best matches I've ever seen live. First time that I've seen Shawn wrestle live!! Shawn sells like a mad man. There was one spot that left us laughing cause it was so awesome. Shawn got whipped into the corner and sent him into his turnbuckle flip landing on the apron. Jericho does his springboard dropkick and Shawn CRASHES on the apron and then to the floor as he spit up into the air. It looked incredible. We were all is awe of it with how nasty it looked. They did a lot of pin reversal attempts including bridging up which looked cool. Shawn kipped up and went for the superkick. Jericho ducked it and hooked him into the walls of Jericho. Jericho thought that he won the match when the ref made him break the hold. However, Shawn had gotten to the ropes. As Jericho argued, he turned and got superkicked. Shawn then gets the pin and the win. Great match. Shawn celebrated afterwards applauding the fans and roaming around ringside. He signed some autographs including signing a kid's HBK cowboy hat.

We roamed outside to see the wrestlers leave. Several signed autographs. Several had left by the time we got out there. The fans over on the side were yelling for autographs. I can't remember if it was Cody or Dibiase, but I think it was Cody, went over like he was going to sign autographs and then turned around walking back. Pretty funny heel move. Mickie James and Melina were riding together. They honked as they left and Melina blew kisses to the fans. Tommy Dreamer walked out and went to sign several autographs. He was incredibly gracious with the fans. Shawn walked out to a big ovation and he waved to all of the fans. Jericho made his way out. He did the same heel tactic of looking like he was going to sign autographs and turning around. He laughed as he did it which was hilarious. He was riding by himself. Everyone was out of there pretty quickly. I was sure they would all be leaving quick to go watch the Super Bowl.

Other notes from the show. There was a fan that was there dressed as Gene Simmons. Wow, it was very realistic. I kid you not that this guy had a line of fans wanting pictures with him at intermission and also after the show. There was a WWE guy shooting video of the battle royal which I thought would air on Raw but it didn't. Instead, they just showed still images of it. Like I said, great crowd!! This crowd made the show even more fun. Best crowd ever in Cape of shows that I've been at.