Another Set Of Detailed Results From Last Night's WWE Live Event In Chicago
Thanks to WrestlingINC.com reader Patty Torres for sending in this detailed report of last night's WWE SmackDown live event in Chicago, IL:
Matt Striker was the announcer for the evening, arena was pushing a good 80% full, only the last few rows of the upper section were empty.
First match was a battle royal for an Intercontinental Championship match later in the evening, making it a three way match Kofi vs Wade vs whomever won. Participants to my memory were: Jinder Mahal, Heath Slater, Drew McIntyre, Tyson Kidd, Justin Gabriel, Fandango, Michael McGillicutty, Primo, Epico, Alex Riley, and Alberto Del Rio. I brought one of two signs that night and found out Chicago hates 3MB but they appreciated my "3MB Brand Air Guitar Picks" sign and so did the three of them. McGillicutty gave me flack for the sign. It came down to Heath Slater and Del Rio.
Winner: Del Rio
Divas tag match of Layla and Alicia Fox versus Tamina and Aksana. People were majorly behind Layla in this match despite her little time in the ring. Tamina and Aksana were barely getting a reaction so in order to pull heat Tamina took a 'I <3 Layla' sign and ripped it up. Layla later went to the fan and hugged him and did a photo opt. Match was solid with the exception of a double dropkick spot where it appeared Alicia collided with Layla's knee. Layla pinned for the win.
Winners: Layla and Alicia Fox
We were asked to look at the nearest monitor and Wade Barrett proceeded to cut a promo.
Next up was Ted DiBiase against Fandango. No one liked the new version of Johnny Curtis. Ted was the saving grace of the match by mimicking Fandango's gimmick. He would periodically stop and dance after performing a move, he knew the Gangnam style dance. Apparently so did the referee. Fandango got the win and Ted was helped into the back, he landed wrong on a spot and must have tweaked something in his leg.
Winner: Fandango
Matt got on the microphone to say one of the tag matches tonight would have a special holiday stipulation, losers would have to sing a song from whatever we voted. Choices were Jingle Bells or Rudolph the Red nosed reindeer. We were asked to tweet or text our vote.
Not even going to lie on this one. Alex Riley and McGillicutty and I sat on twitter the entire match. They are trying hard to push Riley as a face and he ended up winning. Sorry for A-Ry fans I don't have a detailed report on this match.
Winner: Alex Riley
There was a 15 minute intermission
We were given a bonus match. 3MB members Heath Slater and Jinder Mahal with Drew McIntyre against Tyson Kidd and Justin Gabriel. Drew kept interfering and Justin got the brunt end of 3MB in the ring. Entertaining match on both sides and it really made me question why neither team was in the running for tag team championship titles. I think it boils down to how out of the five men out there Heath Slater is the only one who can have work a microphone and that's saying something. Justin set up Tyson for the win.
Winners: Tyson Kidd and Justin Gabriel
The special holiday stipulation match was announced losers would have to sing. The Great Khali and Hornswoggle with Natalya escorting them and their opponents was Primo and Epico with Rosa ringside. Comedy act ensued with Primo and Epico refusing to get in the ring with Khali, Hornswoggle was tagged in at one point and was tossed around. Rosa attempted to distract Khali but Natalya yanked her off the apron with a catfight starting. Khali did his finisher then dragged the dead weight for Hornswoggle to perform the tadpole splash for the win.
Winners: The Great Khali and Hornswoggle
Children were picked from the crowd to dance in the ring, the losers tried to escape but were stopped and coaxed back to the ring to sing. Rosa got on the microphone to start singing the winning song "Rudolph," Primo and Epico joined but forgot the words and busted into "Feliz Navidad" instead. The crowd knew it and sang with them.
Triple threat match for the Intercontinental was up. Wade Barrett, Kofi Kingston and Alberto Del Rio with Ricardo ringside. Sorry to go off on a tangent but this was the highlight of my evening with my second sign being noticed. I'm guessing since it was a house show they were lenient on the PG rating. I would like you remind you this was a bet that I wouldn't make it and bring it to the show by my best friend. I am a solid Wade Barrett fan and since the poor guy has fans few and far between I held it up with pride as I wore my Barrett Barrage shirt. I will share what it was since Wade stopped to read it and then proceeded to get wide eyed and be rendered speechless. The sign said "All I want for Christmas is a taste of England", take it as you will. Wade ended up being the ping pong in this match having Kofi and Del Rio provide a majority of the offense throughout the match. Del Rio locked the armbar in twice, once on the canvas and once on the ropes to Barrett. When Wade would try for the finisher Kofi would counter with the Trouble in Paradise. Kofi got the pin on Wade.
Winner: Kofi Kingston
Our main event was Big Show and Sheamus in a steel cage for the World Heavyweight Championship. The production crew started to come out and assembled the cage but Wade stormed back out and yelled at them all go take the damn thing away. Cutting another solid promo, he ranted and raved on the mic demanding a rematch and he got it. It was short lived and Kofi won. Wade laid out on the mat for few minutes and people thought he was injured, he was in fact stalling and talking to the ref. Wade once again got on the microphone and issued an open challenge to anyone with Ted DiBiase Jr in street clothes accepting it. USA chants broke out and Ted won. Three in a row Wade Barrett lost, now making his losing streak 10 matches in a row.
The cage was set up and the main event finally happened. It was very back and forth with Big Show and Sheamus. It is either that Chicago is a huge wrestling city or reports of Sheamus not connecting with fans is a lie. He is very over with the crowd by everyone. The cage almost gave away a few times with Show launching Sheamus several times into it and with him climbing it. I saw out of the corner of my eye towards the end of the match Matt Striker exchanging hand signals with someone in the back and they wrapped up the match. Sheamus' Brogue kick was met with a WMD and Big Show escaped through the door.
After the match everyone was starting to prepare to leave since it was 10:15 but Matt said that since we were such an amazing crowd there yet another bonus match. If we hung out for five minutes it would be worth it, and it was. He announced Ryback just arrived. I threw a text to my friends and found out that Ryback and Team Hell No vs The Shield opened the Raw houseshow. How the hell they got them from Michigan to Chicago under two hours on such short notice is something short of magic, it's a four hour drive. My guess is O'Hare is a layover to NYC from Detroit. Ryback came out to a huge pop. Daniel Bryan was out next and as usual YES! chants broke out. Kane was next and from my seats I had a perfect view of The Shield entering the arena. Ryback ended up pinning Dean after connecting with Shellshock. There was a spot after the match and Team Hell No hugged. Daniel tried to hug Ryback but chickened out.
We were thanked for being a wonderful crowd but surprisingly there was no announcement of the next show arriving in Chicago. It was 3 1/2 hour show and with there being no Punk or Cena it was still an evening worth every penny.
Biggest pops:
Sheamus
Kofi
Ryback
Daniel Bryan
Biggest heat:
Wade Barrett
3MB
The Shield
Patty Torres contributed to this article.