2/23 WWE Live Results: Vancouver, British Columbia
Thanks to Brett in Vancouver for sending in this live report.
Went to the house show in Vancouver last night, despite the snow storm. It seemed not to deter many people as there was probably around 5500 people there or so. That said the show started a little late, not sure if they expected a late arriving crowd but most people showed up early due to the weather. Decent amount of Ronda shirts already in the crowd.
Woken Matt Hardy def. Bray Wyatt
Matt came out cut a promo and sang the Jeff Hardy Obsolete song. Played big to the crowd, the match actually consisted of very little wrestling, both missed multiple finishers. Matt ultimately won with the Twist of Fate.
At this point, I noticed for some reason there were 2 ring announcers, neither of whom are a TV presence.
Kalisto and Gran Metalik def. Drew Gulak and Ariya Daivari
Lots of lucha things here, flips and dives, head scissors etc. Both Kalisto and Metallic hit multiple dives to the outside, Kalisto spent a good portion of the match taking a beat down from the heels ultimately winning with the Salina del Sol. For what it’s worth, we saw “comedy” Gulak here, often playing to the crowd signalling for no flying and he wasn’t nearly as aggressive as on TV recently.
Goldust def. Curt Hawkins
Goldust is so old, I remember seeing him in this same building 20 years ago against Double J in a Strip Tease match at In Your House: Rock Bottom with involvement from Commissioner Michaels and the Blue Blazer. Kind of a nothing match, lots of the crowd didn’t really seem to know who Hawkins even was as he’s a non-factor on TV. Goldust played up his age a bit doing the mid match pause. Hawkins tried to lay down for Goldy and then roll him up. Didn’t work, the finish came with Goldust hitting the drop down uppercut then a roll up. Hawkins threw a tantrum taking more bumps after than he did during the match.
The Club def. The Revival
Good reaction for the Club, lots of too sweets being thrown up. Anderson took a lot of the punishment to build to the hot tag for Gallows. Some good mat wrestling from the Revival. Club wins via Magic Killer.
After the match the Revival cut a promo about being the best tag team around and challenged anyone in the back. Cue Braun’s music. Crowd goes nuts. He comes in, hits a pair of power slams. As they walk back up the ramp he grabs them both, back to the ring, powerslams again and his night is done. Disappointing not to see Braun in a match, but the crowd had fun with his involvement.
The Bar def. Finn Balor and Seth Rollins to retain the Raw tag titles
Huge reactions for both the babyfaces as one would expect. Sheamus was doing some oddly sexual things, lots of air humping and some new day style hip swirls. Very strange. Good match though of course. Lots of the standard spots you’d see from all four. No big swing. At one point the ref got in a shoving match with the heels and that got a pretty good reaction. Balor seemed to get beat down forever leading to the hot tag, fire up by Seth, lots of striking, then gives the bar the suck it sign before hitting a suicide dive to the outside.
Sheamus hit a Brogue Kick really tight in, looked more like a knee, but it seemed to catch Seth or at the very least looked really stiff. Double team white noise from off the top for a near fall. Heels grabbed the titles and started to walk away only to get attacked from behind. Finn goes up top but Sheamus pokes him in the ribs with a chair to fall then Cesaro rolls him up for the clean-ish win.
Post match beat down, The Bar goes for a double Celtic Cross, Seth makes the save with a chair. Curb stomp, Coup de Gras, then the audio guy hits Finn’s tron video with The Bar’s music.
Intermission
There was a promo for the Andre doc, looks very good, advertised as by HBO, but the ring announcer said it’d be available on the network.
Rhyno and Heath Slater def. The Miztourage (sans Miz)
Strange to have 3 tag matches back to back, but this match wasn’t much of anything. Pretty basic and quick match, though a decent reaction from those who had made it back to their seats already. Rhyno pins Axel with a spinebuster.
Asuka def. Nia Jax
After the demise of yet another last name this week, the name Jax can’t be long for this world can it?
People love the Asuka entrance, lots of people, mostly guys, doing weird Asuka dancing. Standard big man/small man type match. Nia had lots of aggressive power spots. In a cool spot I’ve never seen Asuka goes for the hip attack to Nia on the apron, Nia steps aside, grabs the hair and hits Asuka with a knee to the back.
Later Asuka turned a hip attack into a TJP style knee bar, but Nia powered up out of it to lots of oohs and aahs from the crowd. Torture rack from Nia. Asuka slips out into a front guillotine with the hooks in. Nia slips out of THAT and turns it into a vertical suplex. Nice little sequence there. Nia hits the sloppy samoan drop, into a lazy cover but Asuka turns it into an armbar. Nia powers out again into a tossing powerbomb.
Later Nia is sent into the ring post, which is a tough sell since it makes no noise, then ultimately gets counted out. Asuka thwarts the post match attack.
Main Event Time
Elias comes out to a pretty good reaction. TV style setup, he doesn’t do an entrance, just lower the lights and then he’s magically there with a spotlight. Much like Bobby Roode did at the recent NXT house show here, he plays the baby face until turning last second in his promo. Always gets a good reaction. Sings a pretty lackluster song. Wasn’t even much of a song, can’t blame him for saving the best stuff for TV.
Then he starts singing again and gives us a more typical Elias song. Says he wished we all froze outside, then rhymed the people being inconsiderate with the kids being illiterate. Interrupted by a chorus of boos and people standing up for Roman Reigns.
Roman Reigns def. Elias
Well past 10:00 pm (from a 7:30 pm start) at this point, once people saw what the main event was there was definitely lots of people leaving the building. Between it being late and the bad weather it seemed this match didn’t have their attention. Lots of them were wearing Cena gear and maybe once they figured out he wasn’t coming, they decided to head home.
Slow match and more people leaving during the match as it progressed.
Rest hold into a yay/boo spot, Reigns missed the Superman punch into a huge jumping knee from Elias, looked really good, nice near fall. Let’s go Roman, Roman sucks chants. Reigns comes off the ropes and hits a quick Superman punch for a 2 count, didn’t garner the same reaction as the knee did. Elias counters a drive by and throws Reigns into the stairs. Big elbow drop off the top rope from Elias, which was a surprise to see him up there, 2 count. Trade punches back and forth, Reigns ducks one, hits the ropes, spear for the pin fall.
The crowd definitely didn’t go home HAPPY, but since we only get the main roster once maybe twice a year it’s always nice to have a show. Hard to say if anything was left off the card as the weather had wreaked havoc with flights all day long.
3 hours just about on the dot, nothing really stood out. The tag title match probably should’ve gone on last, it had the most star power and good in-ring work. When the card isn’t really star heavy, I don’t think you can go out with a match like Reigns and Elias on top.
Great main event with roman reigns at road to wrestlemania #WWEVancouver pic.twitter.com/8hFCKvt3V8
— Chris (@chris1247493) February 24, 2018