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Aug 20 “Summerslam Japan tour” Day 1 At Ryogoku-Sumo Arena
Attendance:9,120 (almost sold out)
Match 1 Goldust def Ted Dibiase (7:21)
Goldust got nice reaction and Dibiase who has wrestled as a NOAH wrestler in Japan got huge pop. I thought match was a typical opener. Goldust connected his finisher and won.
After the match, Nexus beat up Goldust and cut promo of “either Nexus or against us”. Unfortunately, almost all Japanese didn’t understand what they’re saying.
Match 2 Eve & Bellas def Maryse, Alicia Fox & Jillian (5:44)
A woman who got the biggest pop in this match was none other than Maryse. She got massive pop. Nothing special, another typical divas match.
Match 3 WWE Tag team championship Hart Dynasty /w.Natalya def Evan Borne & Mark Henry via submission(9:34)
Due to Skip Sheffield’s ankle injury, they had to book face vs face match during this tour. Hart Dynasty entered with new tag title belts which had been introduced just few days before this tour. This was a solid tag team bout, especially during Kidd facing Borne. Borne missed SSP which led to Kidd’s sharpshooter.
Match 4 WWE championship Randy Orton def Sheamus via DQ (15:05)
Orton got huge pop and, surprisingly Sheamus get neither pop nor heat a lot. Apparently, Orton was bad condition as he involved tough international tour. Therefore, they delivered very slow paced match. Sheamus got DQ’d by pulling ref and got RKO’d like they did at Summerslam.
Match 5 Rey Mysterio def The Miz (13:22)
Miz cut “don’t steal I’m awesome line” promo which drew massive heat. Surprisingly Miz got offence most of match. Definitely “awesome” match, second best match of the night I think. Mysterio won a match by 619 and spring boat combination.
Match 6 Chris Jericho def Yoshi Tatsu via submission(25:00)
Needless to say, Yoshi is Japanese and Jericho has a lot of history in Japan as he cerebrate 42th visiting Japan. Both guy got a huge reaction and crowd went nuts big time. Occasionally, there was Y2J chant and boo for Yoshi. Definitely, this was back and forth, decent and PPV quality match. Both kicked out opponent’s finisher which is code-breaker and high kick. They tried to mix Japanese and American style consciously during this match. Eventually, Jericho made Yoshi submit by walls. Clearly, this was a match of the night.
Main event John Cena & Big Show def Nexus (Wade Barrett and David Otunga) (13:18)
Biggest pop of the night sent to Cena I expected some “Cena sucks” chants, but 99% of the house were in Cenation. Bit disappointed main event because Y2J and Yoshi had already stolen the show and Cena was also looked bad condition. Cena delivered Attitude Adjustment on Barrett and Big Show also delivered Choke Slam on Otunga at the same time to send us home happy.
Biggest Pop
Cena
Orton
Y2J/Yoshi
Biggest Heat
The Miz
Nexus
Aug 21 “Summerslam Japan tour” Day 2 At Ryogoku-Sumo Arena
Attendance:11,850 (sold out)
Match 1 WWE Tag team championship Hart Dynasty /w.Natalya def The Miz & Ted Dibiase /w.Maryse (11:01)
Miz cut promo which drew massive heat like yesterday. Even though challengers supposed to know how to call a tag team match as ex-tag champs, this match was nothing special. At the end of a match, Natalya closelined Maryse which led to Hart Attack on Miz.
Match 2 David ”A-list” Otunga def Goldust (6:27)
I hate to say this, but to be honest, this match was quite boring. Crowd was completely dead. Obviously, many of fans didn’t know much about Otunga. Otunga picked up victory with his finisher.
Match 3 Bellas def Alicia Fox & Jillian special guest referee Eve (7:48)
Typical divas match, contained some comedy skits with Jillian’s song. Crowd wasn’t really into a match. Finish was Bellas switch like they’ve done on TV several times.
Match 4 Rey Mysterio def Evan Borne (14:00)
Match of the night I think. Even though slower paced match than I expected, they still delivered high flying and Japanese-American mixed style match. Great back and forth match ended with Rey’s Huracan Rana by escaping from Air Borne.
Match 5 Big Show def Mark Henry (7:39)
The match that we’d never expected to see live actually happened. Certainly not competitive match and was typical crash of titan, but crowd seemed to enjoy this live experience. Big Show knocked Henry out to win.
Match 6 Wade Barrett’s Open challenge Randy Orton def Wade Barrett (9:26)
Unlike Otunga, Barrett drew nice heat from crowd. He ripped about Japan, then issued open challenge. When voices hit, crowd went nuts big time. Orton seemed better condition than day 1, but still not good. At the end, Otunga showed up and tried to interfere, but eventually Orton hit double RKO to pick up victory. I thought this was better than Sheamus vs Orton of Day 1. Barrett showed why he’s gonna be main event by mic and match.
Match 7 John Cena & Yoshi Tatsu def Sheamus & Chris Jericho (23:36)
Like yesterday, we had a full of Cenation. Crowd reacts crazy for all men except Sheamus like yesterday. Still there was some booing for Yoshi. This was OK match, certainly not decent or great because a match slackened off. The beginning of the match, crowd was really hot. But longer the match went, crowd went dead. The problem was that Yoshi got beaten up too long. The match could be described that he got offended during most of the match, then Cena ended in one seconds. Eventually, Yoshi high kicked Jericho, then Cena connected Attitude Adjustment to him to finish.
Biggest Pop
Cena
Jericho/Yoshi
Orton
Biggest Heat
The Miz
Wade Barrett
Jillian’s song
Notes
In autograph session, Jericho announced Fozzy was working on Japan tour in December.
I had a chance to greet Tyson Kidd. When I talked about Bret Hart, he revealed Hart Dynasty would probably team up with Bret at Survivor Series.
Some Japanese fan felt they wanna see real house show and not Yoshi on main event. This is why there was some boo for Yoshi. But, despite he’s been not used on RAW, I think he proved he deserves for TV-time.
They showed the video which supposed to feature China tour, but in fact, this video contained a Japanese tour stuff.
Overall, good house show. Considering their tough international schedule, they delivered the best they could.
