WWE Houseshow Results from Wheeling, WV 7-25-04 (Eugene returns)
Submitted by Mr. Tito on Monday, July 26, 2004 at 10:28 AM EST





WWE Houseshow Results
Sunday, July 25th, 2004
Wesbanco Arena
Wheeling, WV

The crowd was anywhere between 1,500-3,000. There were plenty of empty seats, and from my understanding, the venue for wrestling can hold 5,000-6,000. It was an embarrassing turnout for the WWE, given the loads of advertising done in my area AND for Wheeling's Italian Festival being down the street from the Wesbanco Arena. It should be especially disappointing when Triple H vs. Benoit, as your main event, doesn't draw a bigger crowd.

Ring Announcer: Howard Finkle, with local television/radio personality, Tony Summers, calling one match.

Match #1: Hurricane/Rosey vs. Mike Bucci/Chuck Palumbo.
The crowd was quite into the opening match. Bucci's character was strange, in that he'd do some workouts in the middle of the ring to draw heat. Entertaining tag match, with Hurricane/Rosie winning when the Hurricane hit the Shining Wizard on Bucci (I think he took it).

Match #2: Rodney Mack w/ Jazz vs. Steven Richards.
OK match I guess, with Mack dishing out powermoves and Richards taking them. Mack won on a bodyslam off of othe ropes.

Match #3: Tyson Tomko vs. Val Venis.
The Wheeling crowd usually cheers for Venis heavily, and this was still the case. OK match, with Val defeating Tomko with the backslide pin. After the match, Tomko "got his heat back" by giving Venis a devastating big boot.

Match #4: Batista vs. Maven.
Total squash, which saw Batista defeating Maven rather quickly with the sitdown powerbomb. Batista is pretty ripped in person.

Match #5: Jazz vs. Victoria.
Victoria was pretty over, but probably since she was one of the few wrestlers who gave "high fives" to the crowd. Match went back and forth until Rodney Mack came down to ringside. He tried to interfere, but Steven Richards in drag stopped him. It enabled Victoria to hit her finisher for the victory.

INTERMISSION.

Match #6: Kane vs. Chris Jericho.
Kane came out, saying he was upset at Lita for causing some recent losses, mainly to Matt Hardy at Vengeance. He called her out and she responded by coming to the ring, repeating roughly the same speech at RAW last week or 2 weeks ago, saying that Matt was more of a man than Kane was and that the baby is HERS, not Kane's. Kane then grabbed her, and that prompted Chris Jericho to save the day. They then had a match, which was pretty solid to say the least, better than some of their RAW efforts. Jericho won by pinning Kane using leverage from the ropes.

Match #7: La Resistance vs. Rhyno/Tajiri for the tag titles.
Pretty good tag match here, with Rhyno and Tajiri having good tag chemistry together to make themselves worthy opponents. Tajiri did the same act with the USA chants, and La Resistance had a lot of heat. La Resistance won when Rhyno was rolled up and tights were held!

The WWE entrance way curtains came crashing down after this match, which was funny to see road agents and referees panic to put it back up.

Match #8: Triple H vs. Chris Benoit for the World Title.
Great match! Benoit and HHH worked well together, and I got the impression that this was a "finishing touches" type of match. They worked on a lot of counters to moves and practiced using weardown moves at certain points. The crowd was all over HHH with the "You Tapped Out" chants. The match ended with the referee getting bumped, Batista coming down for a beatdown on Benoit, and Eugene saving the day! Eugene hit the Stunner on Triple H, from what I remember, and then Benoit applied the Crossface for HHH to tap. It was nice seeing HHH tap out in person.

Decent show overall and the ability to see HHH vs. Benoit was an honor.

Most Face Cheers:
1) Eugene
2) Hurricane/Rosey
3) Chris Benoit
4) Rhyno/Tajiri

Most Heat:
1) Kane
2) Triple H
3) La Resistance
4) Mike Bucci/Chuck Palumbo









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