Tag: house show results

Submitted by Stephen Lyon

– Neville beat Stardust in the opener with the Red Arrow. Okay match. Neville got a pop for his finisher.

-Damian Sandow beat Heath Slater in one minute with a roll up. Sandow was back in his old blue robe intellectual gimmick. This was a head scratcher. Either give these guys at least five minutes or don’t do the match at all. Why you would fly these guys to Europe to do a one minute match is baffling.

– Luke Harper & Braun Strowman & Erick Rowan beat Ryback & the Usos. Decent match. Ryback did impressive standing suplex spots with both Harper and Rowan, but ‘couldn’t do it’ with Strowman, putting over how big Strowman was. Strowman made one of the Usos submit in his sleeper finisher.

– King Barrett beat Fandango with the Bull Hammer. Crowd cheered Barrett and had no reaction for Fandango. Virtually nobody in the crowd did his dance.

– Lucha Dragons beat Los Matadores and the Ascension in a triple threat match. Los Matadores came out, clearly as heels (they made fun of El Torito not accompanying them to the ring), yet virtually nobody in the youthful audience picked up on it. The finish saw the song ‘Bad to the Bone’ play out of nowhere (I was having Steve ‘Dr Death’ Williams NWA flashbacks, given it used to be his entrance theme for a period) and El Torito ran out, cleaning house on both Fernando and Diego. Kalisto pinned Viktor with the Salida del Sol. Crowd enjoyed doing the ‘Lucha Lucha’ arm wave.

– NXT Women’s Champion Bayley & Natalya beat Sasha Banks & Naomi. It seemed like about 10% of the audience knew who Bayley was, and the rest didn’t. There was a very weak NXT chant that didn’t catch on and lasted just a few seconds. The work itself was fine, and amongst the better matches of the night. Banks was funny tying her hair back and mocking Bayley. Finish saw Natalya make Naomi tap in the sharpshooter.

– U.S. Champion Alberto Del Rio beat Jack Swagger. This was the second best match on the show. Del Rio was great as a heel, begging off from Swagger and getting on his knees with his hand extended. Del Rio shook hands with both the referee and a fan in the front row to try convince Swagger to shake his hand, but it was all a heelish ploy. At one point Del Rio grabbed the mic and berated the crowd for being dead and asked why Liverpool Football Club suck so much.

This got a mixed reaction, with some fans cheering because there are two Premier League soccer clubs in Liverpool, with there being Everton Football Club fans in the building, all happy at that comment. Swagger kicked out of a superkick and broke/reversed Del Rio’s armbar, before eventually submitting to the cross armbreaker.

– Roman Reigns beat Bray Wyatt in a No Holds Barred match. Most heat and reaction on the show, and best match on the show. Crowd was 95% behind Reigns. They used a kendo stick, chairs and the ringside stairs as props. Reigns eventually brought a table in too. Reigns won after nailing Wyatt with a Superman punch, sending everyone home happy.

Notes & Observations —

– This felt like the least star power on a WWE house show on a U.K. tour for several years. The arena was packed. There were no sections curtained off, and I couldn’t see any empty seats in any sections, so I’d estimate the crowd to be at least 5-6000. It was mostly families with lots of kids, especially given the family-friendly 5pm start time.

I’m aware of all of WWE’s current limitations at this time, and that this was at the start of a lengthy tour, and that some guys may have taken notice of Rollins injury and may be working even more safe than usual. But to me, this felt like a boring show. It was, essentially, a near-three hour version of WWE Main Event/WWE Superstars. Okay matches, featuring limited star power, involving people the main tv shows don’t feature. Even something as simple as the show’s tour programme told a story. The cover of the programme featured seven people, and only four of them (Paige, Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, Kofi Kingston) are on the tour. And of those, only Reigns was on this show. The other three – John Cena, Brock Lesnar and Seth Rollins all aren’t even on the tour. I guess Rollins was, and his absence through injury was very unfortunate.

There was a scary lack of crowd heat and crowd reaction for anyone or anything on this show, bar Del Rio vs Swagger (entirely due to Del Rio’s excellent work as a heel, predominately on the mic) and the Reigns vs Wyatt main event. People didn’t react to anything. Even kids didn’t seem that excited or were starting any chants.

The “Rollins tour” headed to the Frist Direct Arena in Leeds, England, last night with a newly shuffled line-up. Dean Ambrose and Kevin Owens main evented a show that was full but not a sell out. They had the top section tarped off with probably around 8,000 in attendance. 

– Ric Flair opened the show to a nice pop. He looked frail as he moved down the small ramp to the ring. He anounced that Seth Rollins was injured and that, therefore, the main event was Ambrose v Owens.

– The Dudley Boyz b WWE Tag Team Champions The New Day in a non-title tables Match when The Dudleys used the 3D on Xavier Woods through a table.

– Cesaro b The Miz in a long match. Miz was a great heel here.

– WWE NXT Champion Finn Balor b Sheamus in an non-title match. Sheamus took most of the match but Balor was tremendous. These two worked extremely well together, and probably had the best match of the night.

– Curtis Axel b Bo Dallas in under a minute. There were kids around me commenting on how big Dallas has gotten. Dallas got on the mic and called out for some more opposition and R-Truth came out and they had a dance off. Truth took a cheap shot from Dallas but eventually this turned into a match, somehow, and Truth pinned him.

– Kane b Big Show in a tables match with a chokeslam through a table. This was just what you’d expect. I’d have been seriously annoyed if I’d been In Cardiff on Thursday when this was the main event.

– Dolph Ziggler b Tyler Breeze (w/ Summer Rae) in a very good match. Rae was sent to the back by the ref after she hit Ziggler with one of her shoes.

– Becky Lynch & Divas Champion Charlotte b Brie Bella & Alicia Fox. Paige was the special guest referee. After the match, Paige attached Becky and Charlotte. They fought her off and celebrated on the ramp.

– Dean Ambrose b WWE Intercontinental Champion Kevin Owens by DQ after Owens used a chair. After a good match, Owens used the chair twice and Ziggler came out to make the save. Then the ring filled with Sheamus, Cesaro, The New Day and The Dudley Boyz all coming out. The faces stood victorious to send people home happy.

Notes:

Merchandise on sale was Cena, Balor, Reigns, Rollins and tour shirts. Programmes were a ridiculous £20. Kids were eveywhere drenched in Cena merchandise and many clearly had no idea that he was going to be there. Every year, I find this so irritating that they don’t do more to communicate to parents who is going to be there.

Submitted by Carlos Gascó

From the sold-out Barclays Center. Yesterday’s Barcelona show was also sold out.

– Lilian Garcia welcomes us to the show singing in Spanish.

– Neville defeated Stardust after the Red Arrow, and gets a standing ovation.

– Damien Sandow defeated Heath Slater with a roll up in less than a minute.

– The Wyatt Family defeated Ryback and The Usos after Jay Uso tapped to a submission by Strowman.

– Fandango defeated King Barrett with a roll up. Before the match, Barrett did a speech talking about being the real king of Spain.

– The Lucha Dragons defeated The Ascension and Los Matadores after Salida del Sol from Kalisto to Viktor. During the match, Matadores wore Spanish soccer team t-shirts that, in the middle of the match, they threw out. doing a turn heel. Torito interfered to help the Dragons.

– Natalya & Bayley defeated Team Bad (Sasha & Naomi) w/Tamina. People are chanting “NXT NXT”. Natalya submitted Naomi with the Sharpshooter.

– WWE U.S. Champion Alberto del Rio def. Jack Swagger. ADR did a pre-match promo in Spanish. ADR retained after a foot stomp from the top rope.

– Roman Reigns def. Bray Wyatt in a street fight match that featured chairs, tables and kendo stick shots. Reigns wins after a spear.

Submitted by Gary Sweetapple

– From London’s O2 Arena

– Dudleys over WWE Tag Team Champions New Day in a non-title handicap tables match when Xavier took the 3D through the table. Crowd was hot for this and was a good start to the evening. Both teams worked very professionally.

– Cesaro over the Miz with the sharpshooter after a short swing. This was a standard and safely worked house show match, good crowd work by both men.

– Becky Lynch over Brie Bella with the armbar. Funny that people still Yes the Daniel Bryan spot with the kicks from Brie. Crowd felt a bit flat for this, it was ok.

– Curtis Axel over Bo Dallas in a short match. He lost quickly and then asked someone to come out from the back to fight as the first fight wasn’t fair. R Truth came out and Bo wanted a dance contest. He danced to “I’m Too Sexy” by Right Said Fred with some goofy moves. Then, as R Truth went to dance, Bo attacked but was quickly beaten again. You can mark this under fun filler.

– Kane over Big Show in a street fight. Ending was a top rope choke slam through a table. Kane was over and Big Show even got a respectable round of a applause as he left. The match was well worked.

– WWE Divas Champion Charlotte over Paige. She got the win with the figure eight. Paige was over with the crowd, Charlotte was booed. Both girls worked hard and put on a respectable match. Much better from these women.

– NXT Champion Finn Balor over Sheamus. Finn won with the double diving foot stomp. Both guys worked well together and worked hard to put on a show. Finn didn’t get the superstar reaction but Sheamus did. However, Finn won over a few people by the end. Match of the night.

– Dolph Ziggler over Tyler Breeze with the zig zag outta nowhere. Tyler, much like Finn, didn’t get a superstar reaction but Ziggler was a welcome star for the crowd. Summer played her part well and both guys worked hard. Good little match.

– Dean Ambrose over WWE Intercontinental Champion Kevin Owens by DQ. Well worked with the usual Ambrose & Owens spots, which are always good. They worked well together but a chair shot DQ ending was lame. Cesaro, Sheamus, Ziggler, New Day and Dudleys all came out for the brawl at the end, ending with Big E taking a 3D, then Owens surrounded by the babyfaces and taking Dirty Deeds before Ambrose’s music hit, sending the crowd home fairly satisfied.

Notes:

– Well attended. The o2 was pretty much full, although the show ran a little long and people started to leave during the main event. It’s not the fault of the guys or the quality of the main event. It’s was a little late (10:30 local time) and with it being a very young crowd, people need to get home Everybody worked well, especially the last few matches of the night.