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On Sunday night, November 2nd, I attended a WWE house with a couple of coworkers for about 20 bucks. The show was at the OnCenter in Syracuse, NY.
Surprisingly, the arena was maybe 55% full. The show started at 5pm, so maybe that played a part into the lack of people there, I don’t know. Usually there is a strong crowd when the WWE visits.
The show started off with Damien Mizdow taking on Jack Swagger. At first, most people thought we were seeing the Miz and when the music hit the place booed pretty loudly. Then, when everyone realized it was Damien, the booing went away. When he turns face in the next few months he is going to be over. Fans are entertained by him and don’t want to boo him, I think. The match was okay, nothing memorable. Swagger won with the Patriot Lock.
Next, R-Truth, who I had forgotten about in the WWE teamed with Mark Henry to take on Luke Harper and Eric Rowan. Considering Henry turned heel last Monday, everyone expected a heel turn and sure enough that is what happened. The whole situation made Truth look like an idiot for trusting Henry. Everyone in the arena saw it coming. Harper and Rowan won the match after a splash/clothesline combo on Truth. Afterward, Henry was pissed because Truth didn’t tag him in earlier.
The Diva match for the evening was Alicia Fox picking up an upset win over Paige. Could have been an awful match, but they tried hard.
We actually got to see the Miz as he wrestled WWE United States Champion Sheamus. Mizdown was at ringside and was great in his role. He is distracting from the actual match which could be a problem when it comes to a serious match. Some solid action between these two with Sheamus winning with the Brogue Kick to retain the title.
Los Matadores and El Torito fought Slater Gator and Hornswoggle in a six man tag match. A complete waste of time for a comedy match. Torito won after a springboard moonsault on Hornswoggle.
Big Show got a win over Rusev, but by disqualification when Rusev used a chair on Show. Rusev and Lana got great heel heat from the crowd. Mark Henry came to the ring after the match and was promptly knocked out by Show.
The main event was a street fight between Rollins and Cena. These two are capable of a great match, but it was tamer than what we should have gotten. A few chair shots, and two tables were used. Cena hit the Attitude Adjustment off the middle rope through a table for the win. Cena’s act is really, really old and predictable.
So, we got seven matches and really two of them were semi-decent. The main event was the match of the night, but nowhere near being worth the price of admission alone. WWE also had a house show in Binghamton at 5pm as well. Seems like their roster isn’t strong enough to be splitting up the road like that. Let’s take a look at what was on that show and compare.
Sin Cara over Curtis Axel
NXT Champion Adrian Neville over Sami Zayn
Emma & Natalya over Cameron & Nikki Bella
WWE Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler over Cesaro
Zack Ryder over Justin Gabriel
Jimmy Uso over WWE Tag Team Champion Stardust
Dean Ambrose and Bray Wyatt wrestled to a double count-out.
Just on paper that looks to be a more interesting show. Neville/Zayn has always provided really good matches and they are both hungry to make the main roster.
Ziggler and Cesaro had a really good match at the last WWE house show in May of this year. Ziggler reminds me of the 1996 era of Shaw Michaels who was always trying hard no matter the show.
Ryder actually winning a match would have been neat to see.
Ambrose is the most interesting guy on the roster and his feud with Wyatt should be sweet.
Binghamton show seems to have better work rate wrestlers in comparison to the Syracuse show.
Back to the Syracuse show, I’d give it a 4/10. The matches that were entertaining were rather basic and are matches we’ve seen on television a million times before. A poor showing for a veteran WWE show. The kids loved it, though.
If you attended either show, leave your opinions below!
Thank for reading.
Bob Colling of WrestlingRecaps.com
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