Report from Smackdown House Show in Bangor, ME

Per usual, I wanted to drop in and talk a bit about the show I went to this evening. I know a lot of people like seeing how house shows go, and I enjoy attending them, so when I go to when, I always try to provide WF with as detailed a description as possible.

Tonight I attended the Smackdown/ECW show in Bangor, Maine. Since I'm not nearly as into the product as I used to be, I don't travel much anymore, but I still try to catch house shows when they hit Maine. Luckily enough, I now reside in Bangor for college, so it was just a five minute ride to the arena this evening.

I was sitting front row, dead center. Great view of the action all night. Had a really good time just sitting back and enjoying the show, something I rarely find myself doing nowadays.

Good crowd for Bangor. The place holds just under 6,000 and I'd say there were about 4,000 in attendance. Definitely much more full than usual.



Cryme Tyme defeated The Hart Foundation (w/ Natalya). Excellent way to kick off the night. Cryme Tyme was super-over and the Hart Foundation are a great heel tag team. Natalya's energy was unmatched, she was stationed in front of me the entire match and she really gets the crowd riled up. I enjoyed this team before, but tonight gave me a whole new respect for them. Natalya is a perfect heel manager and Kidd and Smith get things done in the ring. Solid back and forth match with JTG playing the face in peril for the majority of the match. Shad picked up the pinfall in the end, and the Hart Foundation left in a hurry, still claiming victory despite their loss.

Justin Roberts introduced the Bella Twins, who were standing high up in the nosebleed seats. They asked a guy a trivia question. He got it right, and he and his family got to move down to the front row for the rest of the show.


Drew Mcintyre defeated R-Truth. Standard house show match, nothing to see here. I wasn't overly impressed by Drew, seems incredibly green. I never really got into R-Truth much, either. Crowd was behind R-Truth, but you could tell they were just holding out for the next match. Mcintyre picked up the win and left R-Truth laying out. Truth seemed visibly shaken up, another ref was called from the back to help him out. He left the ring on two feet with the referee's help, but he wasn't in great shape. Wouldn't be surprised if he was injured in some way or another.


Vladimir Kozlov & Ezekiel Jackson defeated Tommy Dreamer & The Hurricane. Kozlov and Jackson are both huge in person, but terribly underwhelming in the ring. Run of the mill tag team match, little action for Dreamer, a lot of double teaming on Hurricane. Very cool to see Helms back in action after so long, the crowd was loving it and he really looked like he was having a good time. Decent enough match. Jackson got the pin on Dreamer while Hurricane and Kozlov were down on the outside after a diving crossbody from The Hurricane. Dreamer and Hurricane were both definitely feeling some pain after the match.


Melina defeated Layla. Really solid divas match, I was surprised. Couple of botched spots, both of which could have ended horribly wrong, thankfully no injuries though. Melina can get a crowd in the palm of her hand, which isn't something I can say for a lot of the divas. Layla looked impressive. Quick match, but quite entertaining. Melina finished her off with a move that ends in a split pin. I'm not sure what it was.

On a side note, one of the coolest things I saw all night was from Melina. She, like most other babyfaces, went around the entire perimeter of the ring before entering for the start of the match. When she got to the area I was in, a few girls from the second row reached in front of a bunch of people in the front row and Melina caught their hands rather than ours. She immediately noticed it, backpedaled, came back to where i was sitting and made sure to slap everyone's hands. She looked at me and grabbed my wrist and said, "sorry about that, thanks for coming out!". Always nice to see someone like that. I've always enjoyed Melina's work, but that just struck me as really kind of her.


Christian defeated Zack Ryder to retain the ECW Championship. Good match here, albeit slightly slow-paced. Ryder got the crowd going, looks like he could actually amount to something. Christian's reaction was monstrous, further proof that this guy needs to get out of ECW and onto the main event scene of Smackdown. Christian had the crowd in the palm of his hand the entire match. Back and forth for the most part, Ryder played a lot to the crowd. Finish came after Christian countered a top rope axe-handle into a kick, followed by the Killswitch for the win.

T-shirt throwing and a brief intermission were next.


Kane defeated Finlay. Kane may be a heel but you sure wouldn't know it judging his reaction in Bangor. Kane has always been popular in Maine for one reason or another, and tonight was no different. Little kids seemed to favor Finlay, but all the adults in attendance were all about Kane. Slow-paced match, not much to see here. Kane got a huge gash on his stomach somehow that bled quite badly. He even seemed confused by it when he first saw the blood. Kane removed the turnbuckle padding which distracted the ref, which allowed Finlay to use the shillelagh. Kane rolled outside, eventually made it back in, and countered Finlay for a chokeslam and the victory.


John Morrison defeated Dolph Ziggler to retain the Intercontinental Championship. Ziggler came out to tremendous heat. He cut a promo about being the next Intercontinental Champion, blah blah. Morrison interrupted him, grabbed the mic and initiated a chant of "Mr. Ziggler", which continued throughout the whole match. I have a feeling thats going to stick with poor Ziggler for the rest of his career. Good stuff here, Ziggler really had a chance to show what he could do. Plenty of near falls that had the crowd gasping. Superstar reaction for Morrison, honestly. Really a testament to what this guy could eventually be. Great sequence of events at the end of the match - Morrison goes for a springboard kick, Ziggler bats it away. Morrison kicks Ziggler on their way to their feet, heads to the top for Starship-Pain. Ziggler beats Morrison to his feat, catches him in mid air with a powerbomb for a near fall. Morrison counters Ziggler to the ground, Starship-Pain for the win.

Justin Roberts (who, by the way, was having a great time all night talking with fans and wrestlers) thanked us all for coming and introduced the main event...




CM Punk defeated Matt Hardy to retain the World Heavyweight Championship. Originally slated to be Punk/Khali, I was delighted to find out Khali had been replaced with a much more viable competitor, Matt Hardy. Punk was absolutely incredible, cutting one of the most ruthless promos we've heard from him as a heel yet. He got in fights with anyone who looked at him the wrong way. His crowd interaction was top notch fantastic. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, CM Punk stole the show before his match even started. There's a reason this guy is World Champion right now. Huge reaction for Hardy, biggest of the night, which showed me he really can be bought as a legitimate main event competitor. Match was excellent. I'd be willing to bet the bout spanned about twenty minutes in it's entirety. Punk was ruthless throughout, playing with the crowd and egging them on to chant "you suck". Hardy hit the side effect and set Punk up for the Twist of Fate. Punk countered into a GTS position, which Hardy slid out of, again locking Punk in for the Twist of Fate. Punk pushed Hardy away and rammed his shoulder into the ring post. Hardy walked right into Punk, who nailed the GTS for the clean win.

Nothing to talk about after the show, Punk smirked and left, Hardy was helped to the back and that was that.

Biggest Pops:
1. Matt Hardy
2. John Morrison
3. Christian
4. Cryme Tyme
5. Kane

Most Heat:
1. CM Punk
2. The Hart Foundation
3. Dolph Ziggler
4. Zack Ryder
5. Kozlov/Jackson

I know for some people, it may seem like a somewhat uneventful show, but I couldn't have asked for much more. I got to see three of my favorites currently competiting actively (Punk, Morrison, Christian), a couple of really solid matches, and an overall great effort from WWE. Would have been nice to see Shelton Benjamin, and of course Jericho, but you can't have it all.

A few good pictures will follow in a bit, I took a couple hundred, but I can never get great shots in WWE's lighting.