Saturday, November 10, 2007

WWE in Sydney Results; Holly & Rhodes Wrestle Three Times

From PWInsider:

WWE Raw Survivor Series Tour - 9 Nov 2007
Sydney Olympic Park - Acer Arena

Stadium was full except for some nosebleed seats, attendance must have been 17,000 +.

Show starts off with Tony Chimel coming out to probably 'Click Click Boom' by Saliva, can't really remember.

Tag Team Tournament Round 1
Hardcore Holly & Cody Rhodes vs. World's Greatest Tag Team

Since these four guys were the first to appear, they got great reactions. Huge heat and pop for WGTT and Holly/Rhodes respectively. WGTT works over Rhodes, eventually Holly gets the hot tag, cleans house, hits the Alabama Slam on Charlie Hass for the pin.

Women's Championship
Beth Phoenix vs. Mickie James

Mickie gets a good pop for her entrance, subdued heat for Beth. This was much longer than your average women's match on Raw. These girls actually had one of the best matches of the night. Back and forth action at the beginning, Beth gets the upper hand mid-match and maintains it throughout, Mickie makes a comeback, tries to hit her jumping implant DDT finisher, Beth counters with the delayed cradle suplex for the pin.

Jillian Hall comes out after the girls got to the back. Huge heat for her from the Australian crowd which did not want to hear her sing. She did exactly that saying since she is in Australia she will sing one of the hits of Aussie pop star Kylie Minogue. She starts singing 'Can't get you out of my head', and the crowd vehemently craps on her. The music of Santino Marella hits, which gets cheers from the crowd since it interrupted Jillian's singing. He tells her to stop singing cause it's just terrible and then tells her "get out of the way", which got the crowd popping again, at which point he adds "just like Australia got out of the way, when Italy knocked Australia out of the World Cup last year. Remember?" This got major heat from the crowd, of course Santino was referring to the 2006 soccer World Cup round of 16 knockout match which Australia narrowly lost to eventual champions Italy. He himself starts singing terribly some song which I couldn't make out, then Hacksaw Jim Duggan's music plays. Hacksaw gets a huge pop when he exchanges his American flag with an Aussie one with a fan and starts waving it. Santino says he will "give an education about how to beat up a old mans".

Hacksaw Jim Duggan vs. Santino Marella

A short match, Hacksaw wins with the three point stance clothesline. The guy next to me tells his buddy "Is that Hacksaw? Wow maybe Piper will show up too! Or Jake The Snake." Snitsky comes out and big boots Duggan after the match. Santino pats him on the back with gratitude, Snitsky clotheslines him, then gives him the pump handle slam. He leaves with mild jeers from the crowd.

Tag Team Tournament Round 2
Hardcore Holly & Cody Rhodes vs. The Highlanders

The crowd died down for this one, and so they should, cause it wasn't the most exciting match. The Highlanders take turns working on Cody when all of a sudden he schoolboys the bald Highlander, Rory McAllister for the pin. William Regal comes out post match to the entrance ramp, congratulates Holly and Rhodes, and tells them their victory earned them a tag team title shot, and the match starts "NOW".

Tag Team Tournament Final - Tag Team Championship
Hardcore Holly & Cody Rhodes vs. The Redneck Wrecking Crew

The uneventfulness continues, the difference in reactions to Holly and Rhodes in their 1st and 3rd matches was like night and day. Cody gets a couple of close falls for his team which gets the crowd back but in the end Cade hits the big boot on Holly after he has spun like 10 times with Trevor on his head in preparation for the Alabama Slam, allowing Murdoch to sunset flip Holly onto victory.

Intermission - No T-shirt cannons.

Chimel comes back out and says "Good evening Sydney once again", and some other jibberish.

William Regal vs. Brian Kendrick

Regal plays off the crowd a lot, getting himself a ton of heat. He grabs the mic and says "I couldn't possibly suck, I am in Australia" in response to deafening chants of "Regal sucks!". "Regal is a wanker" chants emanate the arena in a crescendo soon after. Kendrick wins this one after a comeback which includes a couple of dropkicks, a heel kick and a Sliced Bread #2.

Chimel says it is now time for a triple threat WWE Championship match. The crowd goes nuts.

Triple Theat match - WWE Championship
Randy Orton vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Mr. Kennedy

Kennedy comes out first to the 3rd biggest pop of the night. Once in the ring, he takes his place in the middle of the ring, and looks up and motions for the mic to descend. Nothing comes down. The mic never lowers. The mic doesn't exist. The crowd laughs. He hand signals one more time for the mic and Chimel gets behind Kennedy, and pretends the mic is landing from above onto Kennedy's hand. Kennedy runs down Chimel telling him never to introduce him with such crappy announcing ever again. He also tells him no one wants to listen to his nasally voice. He's right. Kennedy tries to say his name but people are saying along so he stops. He stops another time. He gets through on the third try, and perches himself onto the middle ropes in one corner. He stares at some girls in front of where he is standing and says "This is a family show and we have porn stars in the front row". Crowd pops for that. Kennedy says "Kennedy" one more time. Jeff Hardy comes out to probably the biggest pop of the night, I have a suspicion it was louder than H's, if not then at least as loud. Randy makes his way to the ring to a mixed reaction. The finish of this match sees Kennedy hitting Jeff with the Green Bay Plunge or Lambeau Leap (rolling fireman's carry slam off the second rope), Randy then tosses Kennedy out of the ring and finishes Jeff off with the RKO.

Chimel thanks the crowd and said WWE will be looking to return in the near future.

No DQ Match - Main Event
Triple H vs. Umaga

Triple H's gets an enormous ovation from the crowd. I'm not sure if his pop was louder than Jeff's but I am sure as hell H's lasted way way longer. Sydney was bowing down to the king big time. His long entrance which included much milking of the crowd was only shorter than his prolonged exit. In between he manages to beat Umaga with a sledgehammer shot to the head as Umaga was coming off the 2nd rope for a splash and a pedigree. They did not do anything risky here, only teased that one might fall off the ramp to the floor when they were fighting there. A trash can was used by H - when he went to get it under the ring people were anticipating the sledgehammer instead. The crowd popped through the roof when H finally got the sledgehammer out later on. Post match H gets each sections to cheer when he points to him ala Hulk Hogan, but minus the poses. Then he claps hands with everyone on the floor, going all the way from start to the end of an aisle, then coming back and starting over for the other side. He does one final pose up the ramp with pyro and that's a wrap folks.

Biggest Heat - Santino Marella, Jilian, William Regal, Randy Orton, WGTT
Biggest Pop - Triple H, Jeff Hardy, Mr. Kennedy, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Holly/Rhodes, Mickie James

Funny to note at the back lobby of the arena where the superstars leave, which is adjacent to the parking lot where a lot of fans had gathered on its many levels to look at the stars aboard their bus, Shelton Benjamin, Ken Kennedy, Trevor Murdoch and Santino Marella (all heels) were leading the fans with the "Aussie Aussie Aussie" call chants for fans to respond "Oi Oi Oi". Kendrick came over and shook hands with fans on the ground parking floor. Most of the other guys waved, bowed, clapped, danced (Jeff Hardy) to the fans before boarding the buses. It was a fun night on a cold rainy night in Sydney.

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