World Wrestling Entertainment's SmackDown! brand held a house show last night at the Black River Coliseum in Poplar Bluff, MO. Here are the full results...
Ring announcer Justin Roberts welcomed everyone to the show and told the crowd that SmackDown! General Manager Vickie Guerrero, who was not in attendance, had decreed that the first match of the evening would be a non-title contest.
R-Truth defeated WWE United States Champion Shelton Benjamin in a non-title match. Finish saw Truth hit a scissors kick on Benjamin for the pinfall.
The arena spotlight appeared on Maria in the upper section of the arena. She picked out a family of four and asked one member a trivia question that, if she could answer it, would allow the family to move to front row reserved seats that were unfilled. The question was "Where will WrestleMania 25 be held?" The girl answered Houston, TX, correctly and her family was allowed to take a front row view of the show.
Umaga defeated Jimmy Wang Yang after hitting him with his Samoan spike finisher. The finish followed a blotched top rope spot by Wang Yang.
Justin Roberts introduced the special referee for the next match, who turned out to be Kung Fu Naki. The match was a "divas match" between Natalya and Eve Torres.
Eve Torres defeated Natalya by rolling her up into a pinfall as Natalya was trying to place her in the sharpshooter.
Vladimir Koslov defeated Hurricane Helms.
Kizarny defeated MVP after hitting him with a double arm DDT into a pinning combination.
Justin Roberts put over the concession and merchandise area as we went into an intermission. He also added that Jeff Hardy armbands were on sale and that Jeff had personally autographed five pair that were mixed in with the rest of the armbands being sold.
Maria came back out at the end of intermission and tossed T-shirts to members of the crowd. She also selected a young girl named Elizabeth to serve as guest "bell ringer" for the next match.
Carlito and Primo defeated Ezekiel Jackson and The Brian Kendrick to retain the WWE Tag Team Championship when Carlito pinned Kendrick following a "back cracker."
The Big Show defeated the Great Khali after hitting him with a "knockout punch."
Main Event: Jeff Hardy defeated Edge with a "twist of fate/swanton" combination finisher.
RassleNotes: Good house of approximately 4,500...Easily the biggest crowd to ever see a wrestling event at the Black River Coliseum, smashing the 2,600 attendance figure from an August 2006 ECW (WWE version) only house show...The crowd was hot early as they always are in Poplar Bluff...Their energy died somewhat toward the middle of the show, but picked up during the final two bouts...Crowd actually cheered Umaga heavily after his win...Eve Torres tried hard, but you could easily see that Natalya was a superior worker in the ring...Crowd seemed a little anger when Hurricane Helms came out to face Koslov as opposed to Triple H, who was initially advertised during early promotion of the show...MVP "quit" following his loss to Kizarny, who got a few laughs but I think the crowd was still bummed from the non-Triple H appearance against Koslov...Great Khali got a good pop as did Big Show when he came out. Khali had kissed a local girl from the crowd before Show entered and Show got on the mic and told him that he needs to worry about wrestling him tonight and stop kissing hillbillies. Instant HEAT! Was great...Hardy was easily the most over babyface and Edge was great as usual in his role as the brand's top heel. His facials were priceless...The main was also the best overall match and had a nice serious of false finishes at the end...With a bigger crowd than usual in Bluff, it was harder to scope out any local wrestling personalities in attendance, although I did see "Krusher," who lives in the Bluff area.
