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7/2 RAW BRAND RESULTS FROM MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - ZACK RYDER DEFENDS HIS NEW TITLE

Raw World Tour
Saturday 2nd July
Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, Australia

Crowd: 95% Full (roughly 11,000), impressive considering it's a Saturday Night, and there was Aussie Rules football as competition across town, drawing 43,000 people incidentally. Predominantly families with kids, but there were still a good number of mid-20s who clearly were longing for the Attitude Era to return (myself included). Cena gear was noticably the most prevalent, with sporadic Punk, D-X and Stone Cold outfits too.

The night started with Justin Roberts doing the "CM Punk is suspended from TV, but not from live events" bit, which inevitably brought out the man himself, CM Punk.

Punk then proceeded to talk down to the crowd, and even attempted to trash-talk the McMahons, which caused the mic to cut out, naturally. Punk was less than pleased with this outcome, and berated the ringside technician, and then proceeded to trash the ringside area, tossing the stairs around, lobbing chairs into the ring for the ref to remove, and engaging the crowd in arguments. During this tantrum, Rey Mysterio made his entrance, and after lots of stalling, the first match begun.

MATCH 1: Rey Mysterio def. CM Punk via Pinfall

A good match, very typical of the great matches these two had on PPV in 2010 & 2011. Lots of wear-down holds from Punk, hope spots and 619 attempts from Rey. After roughly 15 minutes, Rey hit the 619 and a splash for the Pin. After the match, Punk was exiting the ring and appeared to stumble and fall, whacking his knee on the ring steps. It appeared to be part of his act, but its not always easy to tell. Either way it was a nice touch to end the segment.

MATCH 2: Kelly Kelly vs. Brie Bella for the Divas Title ended in a no-contest

Before the bell, Brie and Nikki double-teamed Kelly, bringing the run-in from Beth Phoenix (complete with music) to make the save. The Raw GM emailed in and changed the match to a tag team match.

MATCH 3: Kelly Kelly & Beth Phoenix def. The Bellas via Pinfall

A fairly basic and short-ish divas match. Beth was worked over for the majority of the match before Kelly made the hot (in all senses of the word) tag and hit all her main spots (stinkface, Thesz press, bulldog) and the K2 for the Pin on one of the Bellas (couldnt tell which).

MATCH 4: Zack Ryder def. Primo via Pinfall

Ryder got a good reaction, and was introduced as the Internet champion, complete with a small belt. Primo dominated early, even claiming via the mic to be the new Internet champ. Ryder made the comeback at about the 7-minute mark, and hit the Broski Boot and Rough Ryder to score the Pin.

MATCH 5: Evan Bourne def. Jack Swagger via Pinfall

Pretty good match, with Swagger garnering plenty of attention from the ringside fans, arguing and gesturing with them throughout the match. Swagger had control early, before Evan countered and unleashed a flurry of offence, including kicks, a standing moonsault and a double knee takedown. Swagger then worked over Evan's right leg, attempting the ankle lock twice before Bourne hit a knee to the face, and took flight with the Air Bourne for the Pin. Match lasted 10-12 minutes.

MATCH 6: US Title Match - Dolph Ziggler def. Kofi Kingston via Pinfall

Ziggler took the mic before the match, and talked about his greatness as US champ, and the greatness of the US in general. He then proceeded to describe (PG-rated, but suggestive, naturally) how he was looking forward to heading back the US to celebrate with his girl Vickie Guerrero (although I dont think they are technically together according to TV at present). Vickie's name provoked more boos than most of the talent on the night, despite her not even being there.

Kofi came out, and the two proceeded to have a decent match, although for two guys who have been in a program for most of the last 2 years, I thought they messed up quite a few spots. In the end, Kofi went up for a crossbody, but Dolph reversed the pin attempt into one of his own for the Pin.

Before the intermission, Kelly Kelly (pulling double duty) and Justin Roberts hosted a dance off, won by a kid with some breakdancing skill, who, when prompted, said he would like to meet all of the superstars in the back, instead of just one.

INTERMISSION

MATCH 7: WWE Tag Team Title Match - Nexus (Otunga & McGillicutty) def. Santino Marella & Vladimir Kozlov via Pinfall

Missed a lot of this match, due to long beverage lines, but in the end Kozlov set up Otunga for a ChokeBuster, only for Santino to accidentally distract the ref, allowing McGillicutty to reverse the hold, and Otunga to hit the World's Most Dangerous Spinebuster for the Pin.

Next up, The Miz came out and lamented the fact he was not in the main event, as WWE Champion, and blamed the whole thing on Alex Riley. After requesting, unsuccessfully, for the crowd to be quiet while he said his catchphrase, Riley came through the crowd and attacked Miz. Raw GM emailed again and set up a Street Fight.

MATCH 8: Street Fight - Alex Riley def. The Miz via Pinfall

My favourite match of the night, simply because it was different to everything else. Very little technical wrestling, but lots of plunder, with a chair, mic, Singapore cane and table all being involved. The cane shots were many and stiff, and the finish came when Riley avoided a Skull-Crushing Finale, and picked Miz up and drove him Spear-like into the table setup in the corner for the Pin.

MATCH 9: WWE Title Match - John Cena def. R-Truth via Pinfall

Truth came out first and berated the crowd for being "Little Jimmys" and booing him for (he claimed) no reason.

The main event was typical Cena-style fare, with Truth dominant for long, LONG periods, before the SuperCena comeback. Just as Cena looked to score the win with an STF , CM Punk came out and GTS'ed Cena, but the ref was knocked out just prior to the STF and only counted 2. Punk argued with the ref on the apron, which gave Cena the comeback opportunity which led to the AA and the Pin.

The "Little Jimmys" got to go home happy.

Overall: A lackluster show. Probably not worth the price of admission, as there was little to write home about, other than the Punk-Rey and Miz-Riley stoushes. Cena really bores me to tears, but it was impressive how he drew the kids in the crowd into his match.

Biggest Reactions: Cena, obviously, was over huge, as were Ryder and Mysterio. Miz, Swagger and Ziggler all worked well in garnering heat. Punk was great too, but he had too many fans on his side to hear a clear reaction, one way or the other. Overall the crowd was pretty vocal.
 

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