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World Wrestling Entertainment's Raw brand kicked off their 2017 Holiday Tour live events at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Tuesday 12/26, continuing a decades old tradition of the company running MSG the day after Christmas.
Before the show, WWE played a plethora of videos, including an animated holiday song featuring South Park-esque looking versions of their talents and a rundown of the Top Ten Things that happened on Raw before also airing a Top Ten countdown of events that had happened on previous Tribute to the Troops events. Jo Jo came out and welcomed the crowd in between videos and disappeared again. WWE had several Christmas inflatables set up on the entrance stage.
They played the national anthem without any sort of notice to open the show.
*Matt Hardy pinned Bray Wyatt with the Twist of Fate. This was weird in that there was no ring announcements for the talents. Bray came out and did his entire entrance and got a big reaction, then slow piano music began playing for Hardy, who came out on stage and started the "Delete" chants. The fans didn't seem to know how to react to the slower music but certainly reacted to Hardy's mannerisms and "Delete" chants. Bray cut a promo saying he was going to give Hardy a chance to run away but instead Hardy did his laughing and called for deletion. They had good chemistry in the ring and some nice near falls. In the end. Wyatt went for Sister Abigail's Kiss but Hardy escaped, kicked him and nailed the Twist of Fate. Hardy looked to be having the time of his life out there, as this was the first time the Broken character made it to MSG.
*Absolution defeated Mickie James, Bayley and Sasha Banks. When ring announcer Jojo announced the six woman tag, the Garden exploded with one of the biggest pops of the night. Sasha Banks and Bayley got big reactions with Mickie getting a respectful one as well. Big reaction for Paige. Mandy Rose is going to be a star as long as nothing unforeseen happens. This was her MSG debut and she had a lot of family in the house. This was also Deville's debut and she showed some nice intensity, including mouthing off and challenging young fans all the way up the aisle after. This was a really good tag match with lots of back and forth action. Mickie James made the hot tag after Bayley was worked over for some time but was nailed with the Rampaige as everyone else battled on the floor. Extremely entertaining and this was the better of the two women's matches on the show.
*The lights were out and when they returned, Elias was in the ring with Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson. Elias said he was going to play with the Good Brothers. They claimed a fan yelled out for "Freebird" so Elias said he would only sing it if everyone sang along, which the crowd did and they enjoyed that. Elias then said he was going to sing a special verse alone and it was ripping apart MSG and New Yorkers. The crowd turned on that. Before he could continue, out came Heath Slater and Rhyno. Gallows and Anderson disappeared up the aisle. That was an easy night for them!
*Goldust, Apollo Crews, Titus O'Neil, Heath Slater and Rhyno defeated The Revival, The Miztourage and Curt Hawkins when Rhyno pinned Hawkins after a big spinebuster. Elias stayed at ringside but didn't get involved. This was all action with the highlight being Goldust being worked over by The Revival. In the end, it was all big moves. Everyone ended up on the floor and Elias was knocked off the apron onto everyone by Rhyno. The crowd thought Rhyno was going to dive but Hawkins hit the ring and was caught with the spinebuster.
*WWE Cruiserweight champion Enzo Amore pinned Kalisto with the Eat Defeat. Enzo got a massive reaction coming out and the crowd was really into his mic work until he talked about how he used to come to MSG and as a kid watched the stars, then became one and did what stars are supposed to do, get out of this hellhole and move to Hollywood. Kalisto's speed and offense got some nice reactions, especially a 450 splash off the top and a running tope. They did some comedy with Enzo wearing the wig they sell to fans. Kalisto stole it off his head and wore it over his mask before throwing it at Enzo, who was in the aisle. When Kalisto hit his tope suicida, Enzo, who was holding the wig, tossed it up into the air as he was hit. As a character, Amore was very entertaining but in the ring, there were several miscues, including an attempted tornado DDT off the ropes but Kalisto that ended up looking like he just yanked Enzo's arm down to the mat with him. He followed up to save it with a DDT. Amore's character was so over that the crowd didn't pick up on the issues. OK overall. Kalisto got a decent reaction coming out and got greatly booed going back to the locker room.
*Samoa Joe choked out Finn Balor in less than ten minutes. Balor, dressed in an all white ensemble, came out and got a nice reaction. He cut a promo saying that while he wishes he could be home with his family for the holidays, if he can't, he is happy he was in MSG and said tonight, it was the Balor Club. Joe came out looking like he had a chip on his shoulder and wrestled like it after. They had a short back and forth match that seemed to be designed to make Joe look like a killer and then he choked out Balor clean, which stunned the crowd. Joe strutted around the ring like he had just killed a king and taken over the kingdom. For fans who were hoping for a great, kickass back and forth match, this was a disappointment in that the bout wasn't executed that way and seemed way shorter than you'd ever expect given who was involved.
*Asuka and Dana Brooke defeated WWE Raw Women's champion Alexa Bliss and Nia Jax. Asuka got a big reaction. The crowd really reacted to Bliss and Nia. Brooke was worked over for a long time before making the tag to Asuka. In the end, Asuka wiped out Bliss with a big kick to the head and scored the submission with an armbar, making the champ tap, which was the right finish given Asuka announcing she was going to compete in the women's Royal Rumble and was coming for Bliss. Brooke was trying hard but still needs work. Nia looked good.
*Braun Strowman defeated Kane via DQ in about five minutes. Big reaction for Braun with lots in the crowd throwing their hands up and screaming like he does when his scream played in his theme music. They brawled in the ring, then went to the floor, where Braun got the better of Kane. Braun went under the ring and tossed a table into the ring. Before he had a chance to use it and set it up, Kane had recovered, grabbed a steel chair and nailed Braun. Kane set up the table and went for a chokeslam through it but Braun escaped and nailed the powerslam through the table, which got a big reaction. Braun really played up to the crowd after, almost like Hulk Hogan, before tearing off his "Monster Among Men" shirt and posing.
*In what was far and away the best bout featuring the male performers, new WWE Raw Tag Team champions Seth Rollins and Jason Jordan defeated The Bar. Jordan got no reaction coming out alone. You could hear crickets in Connecticut a State away, it was such as "Meh" response. Rollins got a nice reaction, as did the Bar. The rules here were that there could be an escape or a pinfall. Both members of the team had to escape in order to win. The Bar tried to scramble out of the cage at the bell but were stopped. Lots of good back and forth stuff here. At one point, Rollins escaped the cage but Jordan was stopped, leaving him to be beaten in a two on one and almost pinned. The crowd got really into Rollins looking at them and wondering what to do and exploded when he climbed back up. He ended up hitting a flying bodypress off the top of the cage onto the Bar, which got a nice reaction. The crowd went absolutely nuts every time there was a near escape over the top and that made the match really easy to get into. Jordan and Rollins both tried to escape and this time, Jordan made it over while Rollins was stopped. The Bar beat Rollins down and then each tried to climb over a side of the cage. Cesaro made it to the floor but Jordan came up under Sheamus as he was descending down his side and pulled Sheamus down onto his shoulders, as if he was going to have a chicken fight. As this was going on, the crowd went nuts, and Rollins scrambled over another side of the cage. Cesaro nailed Jordan to help bring Sheamus to the floor but Rollins hit the floor first to give the new champions their first official title defense. Great finish and really, a hell of a match. Rollins grabbed his knee after coming down from the cage, but seemed to walk away fine, so it may have been a selling job. Sheamus and Cesaro played off fans all the way up the aisle.
*WWE Intercontinental champion Roman Reigns pinned John Cena with a spear in what was only Cena's second-ever pinfall loss in MSG since becoming a star. Of the two, Cena got the bigger, more favorable response but there were parts of the crowd that were booing each man. Cena looked so happy just being there. This, to me, was way better than their PPV match a few months ago, but depending on how old you were and how you view pro wrestling probably colored how you felt about the match. The kids in the building were going completely nuts for every big move and near fall and most of the kickouts following big moves were perfectly timed with the crowd reacting in a major way. If you were looking for snug work, well, you weren't going to get it here as it was obvious a number of times that moves weren't perfectly connecting, especially when Roman Reigns was nailing clotheslines. If you are the type that notices that sort of thing, it probably drove you nuts. However, for the majority in the building, families with kids, they were eating all of this up. The near falls towards the end were so good, fans legitimately thought Cena was about to win the IC belt. Cena raised Reigns' arm after to endorse him. A nice way to end the night.
Notes: The show was not sold out, but looked to be the biggest Madison Square Garden crowd in some time...WWE announced a 3/16/18 return to MSG for a Raw house show featuring WWE Universal champion Brock Lesnar appearing. There is currently a pre-sale via Ticketmaster.com using code WWE2018....Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon was sitting in the first row with his father for most of the first half of the show. Also sitting in the first row were Impractical Jokers cast members Brian "Q" Quinn, and Salvatore "Sal" Vulcano and YouTube personality Rudy Mancuso....WWE were selling signed photos of John Cena, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Finn Balor and Dean Ambrose at the event for $20....They are also now selling miniature inflatable "Bayley Buddies."...Oddly enough, at no point was any specific merchandise pushed to the crowd by Jojo, not even before intermission. That seemed weird as it was the perfect way to try and get kids excited enough to ask their parents for merchandise....Cue my usual comment about how it's a shame they don't bring in Howard Finkel as a surprise, at least to do the main event, here.
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