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*Finlay (with Hornswoggle) pinned Mark Henry (with Tony Atlas). They did a lot of comedy with Hornswoggle, including giving Atlas the Tadpole Splash. They brought a ton of kids in the ring after the match to dance and run around with Hornswoggle.
*Kelly Kelly & Melina defeated WWE Women's champ Beth Phoenix & Jillian Hall when Melina pinned Hall with the split legdrop following a botched Code Red when Hall didn't catch Melina's foot under her arm. All four were working hard here. You can see Kelly is working hard to learn. Kelly was holding her ribs after the match and it appeared she and Melina left the ring early instead of celebrating.
*ECW champ Matt Hardy pinned Jack Swagger with a Twist of Fate. This was Swagger's MSG debut. He did a lot of stalling early. OK. Hardy got a big pop coming in and out.
*WWE World Tag Team champions John Morrison & The Miz defeated Cryme Time. CT did an entrance from the crowd since they were in their "hometown." Miz's improvement is insane from even a few months ago. Morrison took some really good bumps here.
*Shawn Michaels (with JBL) defeated Kane with a pair of superkicks (well, they didn't come close to connecting, but that's life) after Kane had JBL by the throat on the apron. Before and after the match, JBL took credit for Michaels appearing, saying it was a Christmas gift from JBL. The storyline was that it was supposed to be Michaels vs. JBL but now that Michaels works for him, JBL changed the match. He played it up as if Michaels wouldn't have wrestled if he hadn't allowed it. Of course, Kane vs. Michaels has been advertised in recent weeks while Michaels vs. JBL was never advertised in the NYC market. At one point, they were advertising Michaels vs. Orton. Match was OK. JBL was outside working as manager while Michaels scowled about the situation.
*Santino Marella came out and attempted to use the mic but was chased off into the crowd by The Boogeyman.
*WWE Intercontinental champ William Regal defeated CM Punk in a solid match after Layla El got involved. Lots of traditional wrestling and suplex variations. Punk got a nice sized chant after the match. Regal seemed off.
*Rey Mysterio & Kofi Kingston defeated Randy Orton & Cody Rhodes (with Manu) in an entertaining tag match. Orton got a mixed reaction with a lot of cheers. He's got something bubbling with the fans and you can see down the line, he's going to end up a babyface. This was Manu's first MSG appearance. The biggest reaction of the show by this point in the night was a dueling chant for Orton and Mysterio as they went back and forth. Mysterio hit the 619 on both Orton and Cody then hit a big splash on Rhodes for the pin.
*WWE World champ John Cena defeated Chris Jericho in a steel cage match. Huge pop for Cena. It looked like security removed a girl who attempted to flash the champ as he came to the ring. Fun main event. They did a ton of teased escapes and lots of throwing each other into the cage. No blood.
Notes: In a surprising bit of news, Vince McMahon wasn't in attendance at tonight's show, which is something of a small shock since the McMahons have always considered the Garden to be the mecca and the measuring stick of what's working and not working when it comes to the company's direction....The show was a legitimate sell out with only scattered seats available the day of the show. Still, there wasn't a lot of reaction for the undercard stuff as it seemed like the crowd was either just watching or waiting for the top bouts....Since Lilian Garcia was on vacation, Howard Finkel was used as the ring announcer. Due to tradition, Finkel should always be the MSG ring announcer, but that's another story....Since WWE got into the venue immediately after a New York Knicks game, they didn't have time to do a pyro set up, so there were no fireworks tonight....New York Mets General Manager Omar Minyana and his family were sitting in the front row....WWE didn't announce a return date, instead pushing this Tuesday's Smackdown taping at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, NJ with Jeff Hardy vs. Edge vs. Triple H announced as the main....
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