David Kruse sent this report in:
WWE Live Smackdown Tour
Grand Arena, Grand West Casino
Cape Town, South Africa
6th July 2011
The Smackdown team are running a five-event show in South Africa. The first Smackdown Live show just took place at the Grand Arena, Grand West Casino in Cape Town. They’ll be running another show the following day (7th July 2011) and I’ll be happy to report back on that show as well.
Kane & Ezekiel Jackson vs Wade Barrett & Sheamus
Crowd were pretty pumped up for the first match. Kane got a good reaction but Jackson got quite a rapturous amount of applause and cheers. Barrett was booed big time. The match was solid and quite physical. Kane won with a chokeslam to Sheamus while Ezekiel was doing his torture rack to Barrett at the 15 minute mark.
Jinder Mahal vs Daniel Bryan
Also a solid match. Bryan hit all his signature spots perfectly and made Mahal look like a superstar. Crowd desperately wanted Bryan to win but Mahal finished him off with his Full-Nelson slam for the win at 10 minutes. Damn.
Yoshi Tatsu vs Mark Henry
Shortest match of the night. Henry caught and finished Yoshi with the World’s Strongest Slam when he attempted his flying spinning heel kick. Match was done in under 6 minutes.
Justin Gabriel vs Sin Cara
HUGE applause for the hometown hero Gabriel. Sin Cara also got a good response from the crowd. Match was very good while it lasted. On a side note, these two have good chemistry and should maybe have a series of singles matches. After 5 minutes Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase interrupted and caused a DQ. Gabriel took the mic and said he doesn’t want to disappoint his home fans, so they changed it to a tag-team match.
Justin Gabriel & Sin Cara vs Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase
DiBiase and Rhodes hardly seemed to feature while Sin Cara and Gabriel stole the spotlight. On another side note, Sin Cara and Gabriel would probably make a great tag team if given some more time. Gabriel won with his 450 splash after 10 minutes while the crowd went wild.
Alicia Fox vs Natalya
Audience was fairly quiet after intermission, but popped when the divas match was announced, but soon went quiet for the rest of the match. Natalya is a great athletic female wrestler, and she won after 7 minutes with the Sharpshooter. I thought divas matches were supposed to be bad?
Special Raw match
Alberto Del Rio vs Big Show
Del Rio came out and talked some heel talk to the crowd. Crowd booed. Big Show came out and looked ready to do some damage to Del Rio. Big Show won with a chokeslam at 6 minutes. Show left without much fanfare looking a bit peeved, probably because his luggage was stolen at the airport. What was the point of this match?
World Heavyweight Championship match
Christian vs Randy Orton w/ Bret Hart as the special match enforcer
Christian came out and the audience was confused whether to boo or cheer him, mainly because he just recently turned heel on our slightly outdated TV episodes. He cut a good promo telling the audience that he was indeed a bad-guy. He mentioned his luggage was stolen and the crowd cheered. He asked if that was the “South African way” and the crowd cheered again, to my horror. Orton eventually came out to possibly the biggest reaction.
The match itself was excellent and on par with the previous matches these two have been having. At one point Christian tried taking off the turnbuckle pad and Bret intervened. The match finish came when Christian tried a Edge-style spear but Orton jumped over, Christian then climbed straight onto the turnbuckle and attempted a flying sunset flip but was met with an explosive RKO. Nice one!
Orton then attacked Christian post-match and Bret applied the sharpshooter, while Christian tapped out immediately to close the show. Nice ending to a great house show overall.
Regards,
David Kruse