So, last night’s house show was pretty good. Key Arena was relatively packed - not a sellout, but i’d say 6,000 or so people in attendance, and they were loud and ready to have a good time. I picked up a Dean Ambrose anarchy shirt, but my seat five chairs down from the ramp was just too far away to slap any hands this time.
Erik Rowan beat Fandango in the opener. Not much of a match, but the crowd was hot for Rowan and he got in some nice power moves. The look of confusion on his face when Fandango tried to grind at him was priceless.
Up next Tony Chimel announces a tag match, and… Look, everybody! IT’S TYLER! Prince Pretty himself makes an entrance to a big pop, with his selfie-cam (no stick, tragically) playing on the arena big screens and the mini-titantron at the entrance. Bo Dallas, making his big return, comes out as his partner, and cuts a promo congratulating Seattle for bolieving in ourselves, and he and Tyler both do a thumbs-up victory lap. Who could possibly beat these two? LU-CHA! LU-CHA! LU-CHA! That’s who. Sin Cara got the pin with a frog splash after a great match. All four guys were over and there were some strong “NXT!” chants.
R-Truth vs. Luke Harper was up next. As much as Truth is just a comedy jobber on TV, at house show’s he’s almost like a black Hulk Hogan - he even “hulked up” to beat Harper after taking a lot of offense. Truth came out with the intercontinental title belt, but midwaay during the match Bad News Barrett ran out and stole it back.
There was a Twitter poll to decide what the Divas match should be - Summer Rae vs. Natayla, or Summer Rae and THE BOSS Sasha Banks vs. Natalya and Emma. The tag match won by about 95%. It wasn’t an NXT quality match, but it was better than any main roster Divas tag I’ve seen, and Emma even got her bubbles for her entrance. I tried to get a “Sasha’s ratchet!” chant going, but it didn’t catch on. Nattie, who was working babyface and had her pink and black Hart family gear on (no denim booty shorts) got the win with the sharpshooter.
End of the first half was Roman Reigns vs. Big Show. Roman’s reaction was better than some TV tapings, but there was definitely a lot of boos mixed in with the cheers. Big Show got more than enough heat to make up for it, though, so the crowd was definitely behind Roman. There were lots of boos in my section, but I think I must have been seated in Smark Central - there was one guy behind me heckling the ref every time he missed a dirty spot, and others calling out every time a guy sold too early or the punches clearfly weren’t connecting. Roman ate a choke-slam, but kicked out and landed a spear for the win. I noticed while Big Show was coming down the ramp that he isn’t really as tall as they make him out to be - I’m 6’0" and he couldn’t have been more than a few inches taller than me tops. A guy on the other side of the ramp had a sign with a giant pair of underwear attached to it and waved it right in Show’s face as he was doing his post-match walk of shame to the back, and Show quite visibly cracked up laughing.
After the intermission it was the Ascension vs. New Day. Konnor went right for the cheap heat, making fun of Seattle and our sports teams. Big E was in the corner for this match and cut a surprisingly charismatic promo of his own about how great Seattle is, which resulted in a loud Seahawks chant breaking out. (Side note: People in Seattle are crazy about the Seahawks to the point of cultishness. I never understood it since I’m from San Diego, and we all know there that rooting for the home team is an exercise in futility.) Anyway, another solid match, Xavier Woods pins Viktor for the win.
Up next is Dean Ambrose vs. Bad News Barrett with the IC title on the line. Could the Lunatic Fringe be the first man in 13 years to win that prestigious belt at a house show? (Spoilers: If you think that would actually happen, I’m afraid I’ve got some BAD NEWS.) On TV, WWE likes to constantly job the champs in non-title matches and then have them retain at the PPV, but at house shows it’s the opposite - the title is always on the line, but never changes hands - either the face retains clean, or the heel champ gets DQed. I guess it makes the match feel more significant to the kids in the crowd. But I digress - Barrett gets DQed after hitting Ambrose with the belt. After the match, Ambrose hits Barrett with Dirty Deeds and tries to steal the title, but then Luke Harper runs back out, attacks him, and steals it - only for R-Truth to sneak up from behind and steal it again, thus putting us right back where we started, and with a greater sense of internal continuity than Randy Orton’s feud with Rollins has had.
The main event is Daniel Bryan vs. Korporate Kane in a street fight, and the hometown crowd predictably goes apeshit before Bryan even emerges from the curtain. There isn’t a soul in the house not yes-ing. It’s a pretty brutal match - kendo sticks, chairs, the steps, and tables all come into play. The leg breaks off one of the tables before they can do the spot, so Bryan stares at it stroking his beard for a moment, then grabs the leg and uses that as a weapon. A second table gets brought in and Bryan gets choke-slammed through it, but kicks out and ultimately gives Kane a chair-assisted running knee for the win. He cuts a post-match promo about how last time he was in Key Arena was the 2013 Slammies, when the crowd hijacked the main event by refusing to stop chanting for Bryan, and he says that that moment changed his career. And so, he has only two words for the audience. (No, he says - he may have been trained by Shawn Michaels, but he wasn’t thinking of those two words.) He says “thank you” and promises that next time he comes to Seattle he’ll wrestle in blue and green.
Overall, great show. Most of the matches were ten minutes or longer and there weren’t really any duds. In a little while I’ll be driving down to Portland for the afternoon house show there, which I’m sure will probably have more or less the same card, but it’ll be interesting to see how differently it goes.
