WWE house show results, Johnson City, TN 12/4: Reigns vs. Sheamus

By Johnathan Thacker

Opening match was Big Show over Ascension in handicap match. Show tied for 3rd loudest Face response of night, although some of that was the First Match response. Ascension didn’t do much, and he pinned both of them at the same time.

Adam Rose & Bo Dallas vs the Hype Bros. – the crowd didn’t seem to care much about any of these guys or any thing that happened here. The group with me were vocal in responding to Bo Dallas, who seemed to be the only one trying to do more than sleepwalk through this, but we seemed to be about the only ones.

Miz beat Fandango next. Miz seemed to have some heat, but when he started to talk, people started filing out to the concessions/restrooms, so it may not be the kind of heat they’re going for. Several of the people with me popped for Fandango, mostly out of shock that he was still on the active roster. I liked the guy in NXT a lot…damn shame about the gimmick. Miz went over decisively and it wasn’t long. 

Post match, Miz demanded real competition. Jack Swagger emerged to a loud pop, and promptly mopped the floor with Miz in a brief ultra squash. Swagger’s “We the people” mouth along may have gotten the single loudest mouth-along moment from the crowd of the night.

Miz recovered, got mic and said he would defeat anyone else. Mark Henry’s music hit to a shockingly loud and very sustained ovation. This was probably the 2nd loudest face pop of night…which , considering how poorly Henry has been booked in the last few years, I was very surprised by. Miz then said he wasn’t allowed to finish and said he would defeat anyone in a Dance contest. He put on Irish music and river danced. Mark Henry seemed stoic, as if he was about to pummel Miz, but instead gestured for the announcer to hand him some things. Lights went down, he put on a hat and glove and started dancing to Billie Jean . Crowd absolutely loved this. Miz laid into him after about 30 seconds, while his back was turned, mid dance. Then Mark Henry briefly dominated Miz, before landing a Word’s strongest slam, and leaving to another loud ovation. 

Goldust vs Stardust was next. Goldust got a decent pop. Starudst didn’t get much. My hopes were high when I saw it would be these two. They didn’t deliver. Goldust seemed less active than in recent years. Maybe he’s still not totally recovered from the injury he just returned from, or maybe at his age he goes easier at non-televised events. Whatever teh case, this wasn’t exactly awful, but if this is what they’ve been working around the loop, then I can see why WWE was reluctant to let them have a prolonged feud on tv, let alone work a WM in a 1 on 1. It  also felt much longer than it needed to be.

New Day vs Lucha Dragons vs Dudleys. New Day probably got the best Heel response of the night. Xavier was working the trombone and E had more energy than a sentient bag of cocaine. E did not stop moving the entire time , from squatting and strutting on the apron when not in, to  patrolling it, facing outward and individually berating fans. Both Luchas also brought their A game, and probably got the loudest pops from their spots of anyone all night. the idiots in attendance chanted for tables the entire time that the dudleys were in, but there were no tables ringside and none anywhere near by to be broken. D-von looked to be having a real off night. a highlight was a fan ringside who had a New Day sign. Kofi went over to him, and like  a great heel, promptly berated him for its poor quality, saying it looked like he forced a small child to make it. a nearby Xavier irritatingly chimed in “SMALL CHILD!”. New Day and Lucha’s put on the match of the night, by far, when they were in the ring together. Which was thankfully the majority of it.  This match alone made it all worth while. New Day and Cesaro have been the only dependable highlights for awhile, with the other guys who I really enjoy usually getting booked in such a downright depressing manner (Neville, Ambrose, ADR, Barrett, Rusev, Titus, Ziggler), that it gets hard to sit through after awhile. and it’s been a long while. 

On a related note, me and 2 other friends went to buy New Day shirts. Of the 2 Merch tables, only 1 had them, and we were told they were all out of anything bigger than a Large . We were going to pick up two 1 XL’s and one 2 XL, to save on the shipping, while we were there. But they seemed suspiciously low in supply. This was 35 minutes before start time. There was tons of Reigns, Charlotte and Rollins merch in supply though, and not much of it seemed to be moving. 

Intermission

Charlotte vs Paige. Paige got loud response and it seemed to be 60/40 face. Charlotte’s response was almost as loud, but it seemed surprisingly closer to 70/30 heel. Which we found surprising, but hilarious. Paige also became the 2nd person of the night, following Stardust, to knock a sign out of the hands of the same guy in a red hat at ringside, who seemed like a plant. He ludicrously over-reacted to various things throughout the night, seemed to be constantly getting told things by some guy in a black wwe shirt, and he had a high dollar camera with him. Paige seemed to be more into the match than Charlotte. Not sure if her getting so much heat, threw off some of her plans, but Charlotte was clearly having an off night. I hope her and D-von Dudley had  a high dollar wager going in the back about who got botch more spots, otherwise, the two of them were really having a bad time of it. Charlotte went over. and engaged in a prolonged lap around the rail slapping hands post-match. a 9-ish looking year old boy near aisle leaned up and screamed out “YOU SUCK CHARLOTTE!” at her with all the lung power he could muster, to which she replied “that’s not nice” before finally  exiting.

R-Truth vs Harper. Truth rapped more of his song than usual. Then he got a pre-match promo about various things, such as Little Jimmy’s upcoming Christmas, and how greatfuly he was to be getting a WWE title shot here tonight. Announcer came over and leaned into his ear, “explaining” to him that he did not have a title match. which was the cue for Harper’s music. This match was very good, probably second best of the night. R-Truth got to show more of his offense than he usually gets to while getting treated like a jobber during his increasingly rare television appearances. Harper got to really get his Brody on too, and when he went on the offense, he was savage. Harper went over and while hooking the leg during the pin, he untied Truth’s shoe. It was subtle, but noticeable if you were looking. Not sure why that happened though.

Sheamus vs Reigns was next. Sheamus got loud heat, but not quite as much as New Day. He did try to up it though, by grabbing the mic and talking about how much this “no-account village full of hillbillies sucked and should be grateful for his presence”, which was a nice touch. Reigns, unfortunately, did get the loudest pop of the night, for which he repaid the crowd with the worst worked main event I have seen in over two decades of attending live wrestling shows. Shaemus, who I enjoyed tremendously as a cowardly bully hill in 2010-2011, and thought was a fairly good face up until 2014, seemed to be better here than he has lately. I thought Shaemus and Cesaro had a GREAT match about a month ago, but for most of 2015, Shaemus has kind of sucked. His best heel work seems to be as  a bully/coward Heel, not as a Bad-Ass heel. Since Reigns has gotten the worst over-push since 98 Goldberg, Shaemus is almost forced to once again backpeddle, because god forbid someone not make Roman Reigns look like he could kick the entire planet’s ass in a handicap shoot. So, I give Shaemus a ton of credit for doing all he could here, but like Regal said of his match with Goldberg “I can only do so much out there myself, I cant start kicking myself in the head”. Reigns didn’t even break out the entire full 5 different offense spots he seems to know, and instead  spent all night just clotheslining and punching. Clothesline, punch, clothesline, clothesline, punch. punch punch repeat. go on defense and sell. punch pun punch. spear. then Sheamus went for a chair to get DQed because god forbid Roman not get “protected” at a spot show in a nowhere town. post match, he hit the spear, which Shaemus sold like a he had been shelled by the Schwerer Gustav. Reigns then pranced about making goofy faces. the end.