Damn Write! Soul goes to the matches!

The WWE came to town!

It is rare that the WWE does a show in Augusta, Maine. Even during the Attitude Era or the Hogan era, the company tends to do Portland or Bangor far more often. In fact, they did a show in Bangor the night before. This is the show where Heath Slater conked heads with Titus and opened up that large gash on his head. But since the WWE did come to town, Me and a friend of mine decided to go.

This was an early evening show that started at 5pm. We arrived a little after 4pm (I don’t live far away) and not only did we get good parking, but we were able to get our tickets and walk right inside. The last time we went to a show here, we stood in line going nearly down the road for tickets. We elected for cheap seats high up in the nose bleeds since we like to have room around us with being crammed in. Attendance was not nearly full. They closed off the bleacher seats on the other side of the building completely and even then it was only about 60% full. I’ve heard other reports of about 2000 people, but those number only come in when the place is full and the bleachers were open. I’d say it was probably 1500 at best. We were seated straight up from the gorilla position and got to check out the software they use to put these kinds of shows together. Four different computers running, two just showing what time it was.

Since there was a lot of time to kill before the show started WWE played a lot of videos on the small video wall above the entrance. They played videos of for the network, Battleground, Cena’s new Love everyone video, and even did a vote to show highlights of a Summerslam match before we got started. The winner was Steve Austin vs Undertaker and no one in the arena cared. The had the “host” of the event, Mike Rome and the Ring announcer woman who I never got the name. A new thing I’ve never seen them do is they had one camera they used to show video on the train for Rome and before and after matches. Nice addition, especially since the lighting for the ring was absolutely terrible. Thing promptly kicked off at 5pm, better than they usually do for shows in this building.

Enzo & Cass defeated The Dudleys: Before the show started they played a video of the Dudley’s saying that they were in Maine and had to talk real slow for us to catch on. Enzo and Cass were over big time. The match began with Bubba stealing a kids sign and Enzo snatching it back for the kid. Mostly a comedy match with Bubba talking through most of the match. Enzo and Cass win with the rocket launcher.

Sasha Banks defeated Summer Rae: Sasha got a huge reaction. Not only because she started here career here in Maine. The match was nothing of note with Summer throwing some awful looking kicks and strike but Banks landing some real moves. Banks won with the Bank Statement.

Golden Truth defeated Breezango: Truth’s entrance was very over with the crowd. Since Fandango is from Maine there were some Welcome Home shout outs from the crowd. Another comedy tag match as Breezango did the old Midnight Express run to the corner and hug bit, and during the match, Goldust got reverse Atomic drops on everyone, including R-Trtuh. Seeing what he had done he took Truth’s arm and gave himself an atomic drop. Gold Truth got the win with an R-truth sunset flip.

IC Title: Darren Young defeated The Miz by count out: When Maryse came out my friend noted that a lot of Mainers speak french so she better watch her language. Darren got some cheers but people were more happy to see Bob Backlund. I checked and the last time he was at the Augusta Civic Center was March of 1983 where he faced Kung Fu Superstar Billy Graham. Anyway, the match was alright. Young did a lot of amateur offense with waist locks and takedowns. He got the crowds attention with a straight punch to Miz’s face, though. Maryse was tossed for interference and walked right out of the building. Miz tried to bolt but Bob stopped him in the aisle. Miz faked that Bob punched him so Bob was tossed as well, but he just hid behind the Entrance. Eventually, the match ended when Miz bailed out through the crowd and Young and Bob celebrated for a bit.

Big Show and Kane defeated the Vaudevillians: This was a squash. The villains came out first and then Kane made his entrance. They beat on Kane before the Big Shows “ran” out. The Vaudevillians got in little offense at all and they were double chokeslamed within 3 minutes. My friend noted that they once were the contenders for the tag titles and now they are being squashed, you might as well call them the Vaudvictims.

We had an intermission. A Ceasaro signed T-shirt was tossed into the crowd. Whoever the new guy is, he has a heck of a throwing arm.

Charlotte defeated Alicia Fox: Oh man was this one bad. Dana Brooke was with Charlotte and interacting with some guy in the crowd that the wrestlers seemed to know. The crowd was into Charlotte being Ric’s daughter than the match itself. Charlotte was decent but Fox was absolutely terrible. The match was six minutes long, but the way Alicia struggled to get her moves off you’d think she’d been out there for an hour. Charlotte got the roll up and the win. She and Dana started beating n Foxy before Sasha Banks came running out to wake the crowd up. I got the feeling that Alicia may not be long for the company, especially after the draft.

Baron Corbin defeated Titus O’Neil: I wondered what would happen since this was supposed to be Titus and Slater. The brawled at the very beginning but eventually the bell ran to actually start the match. It didn’t last very long. Corbin won with a rollup and his feet on the ropes.

Main Event 4 way for the US Title: Rusev defeat Kalisto, Sami Zayn, and Caesaro: Lane came out a called Augusta a “Tiny Pathetic Villiage”. Well..actually… Anyway, this was the best match of the night as all four guys put their effort into this one. The match started with Rusev dominating everyone before the tide began to turn. Everyone got in some good spots and they even pulled off a tower of London spot that wowed the crowd. Rusev won after getting Kalisto in the Accolade and wrenched back so far on it Kalisto was on his knees. Afterward, the faces all took their shots of Rusev and got in their moves. As they were leaving Ceasaro pulled out Kalisto’s trampoline and jumped onto the entrance stage. They even danced around on the entrance before the show ended. It should be noted that the victory was in no doubt as in the Gorilla position they just kept Rusev’s entrance video on standby on one of the PCs.

All around a good show. Hardly the best one I’ve ever been too, even in this building. The Main Event helped make this enjoyable, but between the short matches and the crap lighting, they could have done better. Maybe they will remember that in 4 of 5 years when they come back to Augusta. But it was a fun night out regardless and people seemed to have fun.