Live WWE Saturday Night's Main Event Report

Credit: PWInsider.com & Brandon

Here are some live thoughts from tonight's event at Cobo Arena.

First off, let me preface this report by saying that Cobo Arena is terrible. The section markers are terrible, and because of that we didn't get to our seats until Triple H came out. As a somewhat interesting side note, security moved us over and down a couple of rows due to NBC needing room for camera angles. FYI, while searching for our seats, I did hear Big Show pin Carlito in a dark match.

Trips/Cena vs. Angle/Rey/Orton

Trips got a mixed reaction for his intro. More on Cena later. Angle and Rey got great pops and Orton got decent heat, and more on him later. I was at Survivor Series back in November and sent in a live report for that show as well where I commented that Cena at best got a 50/50 reaction. This time, it was even worse. There were many anti-Cena signs and lots of audible Cena Sucks chants. Towards the end, there was a fairly loud Cena chant. The loudest pop of the match was when Trips Pedigreed Cena, although Cena got a decent pop for the pinfall. What I remember most from this match was probably never on camera. There were at least two, if not three Eddie chants during the match. The first chant, I noticed that Orton clapped and pointed to the sky. It had me thinking that off camera, he was still trying to pay his respects. However, during the second Eddie chant, he looked under the ring and shrugged and mouthed the words, "He's not here." Real classy.

The Booker backstage injury angle didn't really illicit any audible reaction. Even after he smiled, there wasn't anything. Long got decent heat for cancelling the match.

I'm not sure if this is where it aired, but somewhere there was the Hall of Fame promo. Gene and Sherry got good pops. People didn't know who Gagne was. Eddie got a loud pop and an Eddie chant. Bret got the biggest pop of the segment.

The Cutting Edge w/ Mick Foley

Edge came out during commercial break to rag on Foley a bit. He then went backstage and told us "dumbasses" to give us the reaction he deserved. When he came out the second time, he had huuuuuuuuuuge heel heat. Apparently it worked. One of the most disappointing things the whole night was the small reaction for Mick Foley. It was quite disappointing for such a legend. The segment itself was decently over, but nothing too great. The thumbtack bump got a decent reaction as did the Conchairto.

As for the Booker/Boogeyman backstage skit, you'll have to excuse my lack of observation since my eyes were fixated on Sharmell the whole time. I did notice a pretty good pop for Boogeyman.

Beer Drinking Contest

JBL got mostly heel heat, but he also had a decent size face pop during his entrance. His promo was over huge. The crowd genuinely hated everything he was saying, except for the Kwame Kilpatrick comment which got a huge face pop. Austin's pop was off the hook. He was over huge in Detroit tonight. The crowd thoroughly enjoyed the segment.

Candice Michelle/Victoria vs. Trish Stratus/Mickie James

Very meh. Mickie's heel turn wasn't that well received as the reaction wasn't that noticeable. Her backstage promo (they showed the latter half on SNE) got more of a reaction than the actual turn.

Henry got basically no reaction. Taker's entrance got a huge pop, as did the Tombstone onto the casket. The fire at the top of the Titan Tron was very, very intense in person. I'm not a Taker fan, but he has the best entrance by far in WWE.

Shawn Michaels vs. Shane McMahon

Shane got some decent heat. Shawn had a good pop, but not as loud as I thought it would be. The opening table/superplex spot got probably the loudest reaction of the night. It was awesome to see live. I don't think they showed this on SNE (I skimmed through it on TiVo, so I could be wrong), but there was a spot where HBK set the ladder up in the corner and climbed
to the top, but Vince wacked him twice with a Kendo stick and he fell down, then Shane went with the two ladder shots. If they did show it, ignore this, but if they didn't, it's because that the Kendo Stick shots were extremely weak looking and not believable at all. As soon as Shane locked in the Sharpshooter, the crowd knew what was going to happen, and when the bell rang, the crowd booed like hell. Nothing else happened after the show went off the air.

Now that I'm recapping this night, the show doesn't seem like it was that impressive. It was amazing live, but pretty lackluster in execution. I went to the TNA House Show last night and had a much better time. Even still, WWE is fantastic live.

Loudest Heat
3. JBL's promo
2. Edge
1. Vince "screwing" Shawn

Loudest Pops
3. HBK
2. Taker
1. Austin