Big E. vs Jack Swagger - Zeb Colter did a funny promo where he confused Hidalgo with El Paso, which is 700 miles away. Then he said we were just northern Mexico, and asked if any of us even speak English. He said he would talk Spanish to us since that's all we knew. He said a few basic phrases, and also, "Yo tengo un gato negro con pantalones" ("I have a black cat with pants"), which made everyone laugh. E. came out to loud chants. After E. does the corner spot with the ten punches, Swagger takes over by picking him up and slamming him. Swagger works him over with a abdominal stretch, which is helped by Colter sneaking his hand to Swagger's hand to give him leverage. E. hip tosses Swagger, and gives him a back body drop over the top rope to transition back into offense. After E. hit his running splash, Swagger catches him in an ankle lock. E. escapes, tries Big Ending, but Swagger escapes and hits a gut wrench power bomb. Referee counts to three, awards Swagger the match but E. had his foot on the rope. Brad Maddox comes out, restarts the match. Swagger tries to hit the Vader Bomb, but E. bounces back up and catches Swagger in mid-air to hit the Big Ending for the finish. Very good match.
Darren Young vs Fandango - Young came out to a NO H8 hoodie. At about two minutes, Young jumped off the apron, looking like he was trying to hit a double axe-handle (or something along those lines) on Fandango. He went down, clutching his leg. The referee briefly conversed with him. The referee did his "X" signal, and counted him out. It was very awkward live, and went only about two minutes.
Nattie Neidhart vs Alicia Fox - They had a poll where the fans could decide via text and Twitter whether this would be a dance off, or an actual wrestling match. 52% voted for the match, while 48% voted for the dance off. Short match. Fox got heat working a headlock. Neidhart came back and won with the sharpshooter. Neidhart interacted with the fans afterwards, and the crowd liked her a lot.
Big Show vs Damien Sandow - Sandow did his entrance twice, cause he didn't like how loudly the fans were booing him. It got him even more heat the second time around. He threw out an open challenge, and said how his goal was to go undefeated now in this post-WM season. Brad Maddox came out, and introduced his opponent -- the Big Show. Crowd gave Show one of the loudest reactions on this card. Sandow tried to shake hands with Show, but Show just gave him an overhand slap. Show started sitting on Sandow's face in the corner, and doing his version of a stink face. Show did his quiet down the audience, and slap the chest spot. After a handful of those slaps, Sandow poked Show in the eye and got on the offense. It was short lived as Show got back in control and chokeslammed him for the win. Crowd ate up all of Show's shtick.
The Usos vs The Rhodes Brothers vs Rybaxel - Usos got a huge pop coming out. First part of the match was Goldust and the Usos working fast pace sequences. Ryback blind tagged in, and pulled Goldust out of the ring, to work him over. They get heat on Goldust, and they start working these fantastic hope spots, as he searches for the tag. They really milked it for all it's worth. He comes close to tagging Cody on a few occasions but gets cut off. He finally manages to toss out Ryback out of the ring, and is about to tag the Usos in, but Ryback and Axel pull the Usos off the apron. Crowd pops big when Goldust finally tags Cody. Cody starts making a huge comeback, hits the moonsault for a nearfall. While doing the disaster kick, one of the Usos slaps Cody in the back to tag in. This leads to a great dive train -- Goldust hits a running somersault off the apron, Cody does a plancha off the top, and one of the Usos does a running dive over the top rope. The Usos then hit a superkick-big splash combination on Ryback to win the match. People would have liked this match a lot if it was on TV or PPV. Really good match. People cheer the Usos a lot afterwards, but also give Goldust a nice reception as well.
INTERMISSION
Sheamus vs Titus O'Neil - Titus gets a lot of heat blowing his whistle. He says he got instructions from the back to talk very slow because they told him half the audience is uneducated, and the other half can't speak English. Crowd is booing loudly, and then pop big when Sheamus comes out. Early on, O'Neil gets his whistle, goes to the outside to ask for a time out. Match is really physical, the hardest hitting match of the night. You could loudly hear a good amount of the forearms and slaps thrown by both guys. O'Neil has some great power spots. At one point he gives Sheamus a huge fallaway slam that looked really impressive. Another great spot was O'Neil catching Sheamus in mid-air, after Sheamus attempted a flying cross body block off the ropes. O'Neil had hit two Stinger Splash's, but Sheamus finally countered on the third attempt. Sheamus does a running knee into O'Neil in the corner, a flying shoulder block off the top rope, and the forearm clubs while tied on the ropes spot. He pounds his chest and hits the Brogue Kick for the finish. Both guys worked really hard, and produced a good, strong match.
Antonio Cesaro vs Dolph Ziggler - Cesaro had his old music. Match opens up quickly to a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker by Cesaro. He got in control for a little bit before Ziggler came back, and they started working nearfalls. They both started doing all their signature spots, like the famouser, x-factor off the top rope, the big, the big European uppercut spot, superkick, jumping DDT from Ziggler, the superplex off the apron, etc. The finishing run was worked good, but I was surprised at how quickly they rushed to that part of the match. It felt like the opening part of the match was missing. But the crowd responded positively to the match. Match ended after Cesaro moved out of a Stinger's Splash, which caused Ziggler to go face first into the corner. Cesaro hit the giant swing, then hit neutralizer for the finish.
John Cena and The Shield vs The Wyatts and Kane - All eight of these guys were treated like huge stars by the audience, but Cena was a level above. Always funny seeing how badly he gets booed on TV and PPV, but every single time he works here in Hidalgo, he gets some of the loudest cheers I've ever heard, in any sport or entertainment. Really good match. Rollins started off with some quick pace offense, including a tope, before he got cut off and started being worked over by the heels. After a while, he finally makes a hot tag to Reigns, who starts to clean house. He hits his apron kick spot, then tags in Ambrose. He goes on the offense briefly before he gets caught coming off the top rope by Kane. The heels take over again. After a good segment where he gets worked over, Ambrose makes the tag to Cena a little bit after he hits Nigel McGuinness' rebound lariat. Cena's pop is monstrous. Crowd is going nuts when Cena does a double five knuckle shuffle on Kane and Rowan. Everyone starts hitting their signature moves at this point. It's laid out really well, and a lot of these guys get their little moments, before Reigns hits the Superman punch on Rowan, who stumbles into Cena's Attitude Adjustment for the finish. Crowd was molten hot for most of the match, and I think if it was on TV, fans would have been raving about it. It was a really good match that came off even better because of the crowd.
Overall, an excellent show. Big E.-Swagger, The Usos-Rhodes Brothers-Rybaxel, Sheamus-O'Neil, and Cena & The Shield-The Wyatts & Kane were really good matches. In no particular order, those were the four best matches of the night.
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