Courtesy of reader Aaron:

WWE Supershow Report: May 16, 2009
Bloomington, IL; US Cellular Coliseum

The arena was about 80% full. Lots of WWE fans chatting at the local bars and pubs. Lots and lots of kids in attendance! Tony Chimmel was on announcing duty. This was the first show WWE has run in Bloomington, as the arena was constructed like 2 or 3 years ago. TNA ran a house show here last summer, which I also attended. The arena was WAY more packed for this show than the TNA show, which was headlined by Samoa Joe vs. Scott Steiner and AJ Styles vs. Robert Roode.

1. CM Punk vs. Shelton Benjamin: This was a solid opener. The crowd was strongly behind Punk, an Illinois native. Punk started out strong, but Shelton dominated most of the match. There were a lot of holds/counterholds balanced with hard-hitting wrestling. Lots and lots of CM Punk chants during the match. Punk won by hitting the GTS and getting the pinfall.

Before the second match, ECW Interim General Manager Tiffany appeared in the crowd to hype ECW and ask a child a trivia question. Since he got the question right, he and his family got to move to ringside seating.

2. Tyson Kidd w/ Natalya vs. Evan Bourne: This was a pretty good match. The crowd definitely died down for this one a little bit. Tyson Kidd hit his finisher after David Hart Smith came out to ringside and distracted Bourne. Then, the New Hart Foundation posed for the crowd.

3. Sheamus vs. Jimmy Wang Yang: Sheamus (no longer being billed as Sheamus O’ Shaunessy) came out and introduced himself to draw heat. Overall, a lackluster match. Sheamus got the pinfall after hitting his finisher.

4. WWE United Tag Team Championship Match – The Colons vs. Legacy:
Great match. Legacy beat down on Carlito for a greater part of the match, but eventually he got the hot tag to Primo who started kicking ass in the ring. The finish came when Dibiase was thrown out of the ring, grabbed a chair, and hit Primo in the back against the ropes to get Legacy DQ’d. The match was really starting to gain momentum, so the DQ finish really drew Legacy a ton of heat.

5. R-Truth vs. Dolph Ziggler: R-Truth’s entrance is extremely
entertaining live. Dolph came out and got on the mic. He tried to
introduce himself a bunch of times, but the crowd was so all over him that he couldn’t talk. At one point, R-Truth grabbed the mic and made fun of him: “Dolph’s soles are so thin that he stepped on a piece of gum and knew what flavor it was!” Great, hard-hitting, back-and-forth match between these two. It was a good match at this spot in the card, as most of the other matches were heel dominated for the majority of the time. R-Truth got the pinfall after hitting his flying corkscrew elbow move. Seriously, Dolph had so much heat; way more than Orton, Edge, or Show.

***Intermission***

6. Beth Phoenix & Rosa Mendez vs. The Bella Twins: Beth was cheered about as much as she was booed, though the most surprising part of this match was that the Bellas can both work pretty well. Average match that ended with Hornswoggle coming out to distract Beth, who ran after him, leaving Rosa to get pinned. Then, the Bellas and Hornswoggle celebrated in the ring. Good pop for the leprechaun actually.

7. ECW Championship Match – Christian vs. Jack Swagger: Swagger came out first and tried to cut a promo. He got a bit more out that Ziggler, but not much. Basically, he was demanding the crowd respect him because he’s an “American hero.” Christian came out to a decent pop. Great back and forth match, complete with some aerial work by Christian, lots of reversals, and a bear hug by Swagger than he turned into a pin attempt by locking the hold and putting Christian’s shoulders to the mat. The match ended with Christian hitting the Killswitch after being blocked a few times throughout the course of the match. Christian’s reception was a little lackluster, given most of the youngsters in the crowd are
probably too young to have joined the rest of us in the Peepulation.

8. Big Show, Edge, and Randy Orton vs. John Cena, Jeff Hardy, and Batista: I think Orton’s entrance took about 5 minutes. He really does walk slowly, but I guess he is a “viper” after all. The crowd was clearly on the side of the faces in this match. Basically, your standard 6-man tag match, but really fun for everyone. Each superstar got their chance to shine. The heels beat down on Cena for a while, then worked over Jeff. Batista came in and cleaned house. The match ended with Batista and Cena double suplexing Big Show. Then, Batista double-clotheslined Edge and Orton. Jeff hit the Swanton on Show, then Cena picked him up for the Attitude Adjustment. Overall, this was a really fun match that was definitely the match of the night. The heels high-tailed it to the back while the babyfaces celebrated with the crowd.

Overall, this was a really fun show that lasted 3 hours. I sat 5th row in a lower bowl section and only had to pay $17.50 for my ticket, so I got my money’s worth and then some. I’ve been to many WWE TV tapings, house shows, and pay-per-views (Wrestlemania 22, No Mercy 2007, Summerslam 2008), and this was one of the better wrestling events I’ve attended live. I’ll be in attendance at Judgment Day tomorrow, and this was definitely a great preview show for that. I’m pumped, and being an Illinois native, I know a lot of us here are pulling for Punk to cash in MITB in Chi-town (his hometown) tomorrow night!

Biggest Pops:
1. John Cena
2. Jeff Hardy
3. Batista
4. CM Punk
5. R-Truth

Biggest Heat:
1. Dolph Ziggler (not even a contest for this one)
2. Jack Swagger
3. Legacy (especially for the DQ finish)
4. Main event heel team
5. New Hart Foundation

See photo of Sheamus O’Shaunessy from last night’s WWE show (>>)