Craig King sent this report in.
So, again I was off to WWE with my nephew as they visited as part of their UK and European tour. The show was a sell-out as usual. The event kicked off at 7:30pm and was finished for around 10:35pm. Great show, a lot of star-power.
Match 1
Santino Marella defeats Drew McIntyre
Whoever produced this show is either stupid or incredibly cruel. I knew Drew had been losing at all the events to Santino, but this was his home country and when SmackDown came here in April 2010, he was treated like the main attraction.
Santino was treated like a heel and McIntyre was the face. It was a good, competitive match that showed Santino has talent and McIntyre was clearly enjoying himself being back in his country, he was aggressive and energetic but then Santino hit The Cobra and won, they shook hands, McIntyre shrugged his shoulders and left to cheers. Such a disappointing start to the show, the arena was sort of deflated that he had lost in the opening match to Santino in his home country. I was not amused.
The way it went down I half expected him to appear at the end with the big stars after the main event, but nothing. Poor show, WWE.
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Match 2
Michael McGullicutty and David Otunga vs. Alex Riley and Primo
No reaction to McGullicutty or Otunga until their names were read as no one recognized their music. Primo came out with Alex Riley but the cheers were all for Riley. He was the most over in what was a decent match, Primo did quite well actually and it’s a shame they don’t use him more. Crowd went mad when Riley exploded in off the hog tag and Riley picked up the win by pinning McGullicutty.
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Match 3
Mason Ryan vs. Curt Hawkins
Mason Ryan got little reaction but that improved as the match went on. Hawkins got pretty much zero reaction. Shows what little TV time does for you. He was also carrying a cane for some reason. Your typical squash with a lot of stalling from Hawkins not wanting to get in the ring with Ryan.
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Match 4
WWE United States Championship
Dolph Ziggler vs. John Morrison
Second best match on the card, really enjoyed it. I think Morrison is talented but I don’t think he’ll ever reach the top bracket in the WWE. Dolph Ziggler is a main-eventer waiting to happen, been on the bandwagon since early 2009, been great to see him grow as a performer. He was on the mic beforehand saying everyone wishes they were him because of how good he is and that if he wasn’t Dolph Ziggler, he’d want to be. Ziggler actually got a mixed reaction when he came out but he turned it into mostly boos.
John Morrison then came out to a big reaction, he called Ziggler a ‘dober’ (Scottish slang for calling someone a ‘dick’ although I haven’t heard someone use that word in ages) and then for the first five minutes or so there were chants of ‘dober’ directed at Ziggler. Funny. Ziggler played up to it brilliantly refusing to get in the ring.
When the match did get under-way, it was a great contest. It was obvious Ziggler was winning but it went back-and-forth and Ziggler eventually won with a superkick. Ziggler came back down the ramp afterwards to attack Morrison some more but Morrison hit back with the Starship Pain after ducking a belt shot.
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Just before the intermission, The Bella Twins came out playing up to the crowd as faces saying ‘What’s up Glasgow?’ and such. They said they were going to have a dance contest and the winner could go backstage and meet a WWE Superstar. So, eventually they pick four contestants. A guy, two girls and a small boy.
The Bellas seemed awful careful with the little boy, he seemed really shy. They asked them all which part of Scotland they came from, they got to the shy wee boy who quietly said his name and then ‘Scotland’. Funny.
Everyone got booed apart from the little boy who got a massive cheer, the Bellas took him backstage and then we went for intermission.
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Match 5
WWE Divas Championship Match
Beth Phoenix vs. Eve
Beth got a decent heel reaction, Eve didn’t get much of a reaction until her name was actually announced. Before the match, Beth spent ages looking into the title as a mirror. Decent match, best match I’ve seen from Eve in a while and they both worked hard. It went long and at times the crowd were into it but it had the usual feel of a Divas match in that there was little reaction.
Beth played her heel role brilliantly too, arguing with a fan at ringside challenging him to get in the ring and arguing with the ref before throwing a hilarious temper tantrum ala Christian. Phoenix failed at the first attempt at a Glam Slam with Eve fighting out and a few minutes later hit the winning Glam Slam.
Beth obviously wasn’t satisfied and went to go for the Glam Slam again but Kelly Kelly’s music hit, she ran down the ramp and Eve and Kelly disposed of Eve before celebrating together. Kelly got a huge reaction when her music hit. She was very popular.
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Match 6
John Cena, Zack Ryder and Kofi Kingston vs. The Miz, R-Truth and Kevin Nash
Two big matches to finish the show as the WWE title match was still to come. Anyway, Miz and R-Truth came out first to huge heat saying ‘Scotland sucks’ and doing their remix. Miz talked for a bit and then said he wanted absolute silence while they introduced themselves, everytime they raised the microphones to their mouths, the crowd booed. Miz then put the microphone to Justin Roberts lips and there was a cheer, then to the referee and there was a cheer, then to himself to boos, then Justin for cheers then Justin again for cheers. He did it really fast trying to catch us out.
They did their introductions over the boos and then introduced Kevin Nash. Nash got a mixed reaction simply because I don’t think a lot of people expected him to be there. He didn’t join the live event side of the tour until after Monday’s RAW.
Zack Ryder got a great reaction, Ryder is one of my favourites right now and Kofi got a great reaction too. Cena was split right down the middle, usually he is cheered in Glasgow. Loads of Let’s go Cena/Cena Sucks chants throughout. Match was great, Nash looked decent in the short spell he was in there and Ryder is helluva over. In the end, they all cleared each other out with their finishers, Ryder hit the Rough Ryder before launching himself onto Nash on the outside leaving Cena to hit an Attitude Adjustment for the win.
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Main Event
WWE Championship Match
CM Punk vs. Alberto Del Rio
Del Rio got boos as did Ricardo Rodriguez. The introduction is funnier in person. Del Rio took ages getting to the ring but eventually did. CM Punk came out to the best reaction of the night, easily the most over man there. Before the match began, Del Rio pointed to a fan’s sign and mouthed off to him before taking a microphone and sayign we are stupid, CM Punk isn’t the best in the World, Alberto Del Rio is.
Anyway, fantastic match. Really long. PPV quality match for me only hindered by the predictable disqualification finish. After several interuptions by Rodriguez, he was sent out. We had the referee bump that allowed Punk to hit the GTS, Rodriguez came out and started pounding on Punk’s back with his fists, he slowed down realizing it was having no effect, funny again, Punk grabbed him for a GTS. He escaped it and they began beating on Punk for the disqualification.
Loud ‘CM Punk’ chants throughout the contest and Punk hit all his big moves. After the bell rang, Rodriguez and Del Rio tried to take down Punk but Punk fought back only for the heels (McGullicutty, Ziggler, Otunga) to rush out. Cena, Ryder, Kofi and Eve came out and cleared the ring. Ziggler was left in a circle of the other four. Each of them did their signature taunts simultaneously. So they all did Woo-Woo-Woo, You Can’t See Me, Boom Boom Boom and yes, Eve’s booty shake all at the same time!
Ziggler then ate a Trouble in Paradise, Rough Ryder, GTS, Attitude Adjustment and Moonsault in succession. Punk was the last man to leave the ring and his music re-started he was there so long. He knelt in the ring and clapped all four sides of the arena before clapping fans hands at ringside. He went up the ramp before running back down into the ring to another cheer, he circled the ring and then left up the ramp again. His music went off and it was cool as then it was just the crowd (what was left of it as people were filling out) chanting CM Punk.
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Few videos if you’re interested in them too:
CM PUNK ENTRANCE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGVXUmkmdRo
ALBERTO DEL RIO ENTRANCE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps6uRnzVer0&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
ZACK RYDER, KOFI KINGSTON AND JOHN CENA ENTRANCE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Msvv_UU4hU&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
BETH PHOENIX ENTRANCE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycds7D22yRw&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL