Second report of 4/21 WWE event in Glasgow, Scotland

Craig King sent this report in.

Here is my report guys…

So, after seeing RAW live in London on Monday night, it was back to our usual Glasgow live event. This time it was SmackDown and the show featured ‘surprise’ appearances by Booker T and Christian. It was a sell-out as it always is when they come here, around 5,300 or just over that. WWE don’t use the SECC which is bigger (13,000 +) but I think it’s because Braehead is cheaper to hire and then there’s no guarentee they’d sell out the SECC and I don’t think the layout of the SECC is suited to them as they’ve only ever did like two events there.

Anyway, show kicked off bang on 7:30pm and was finished for around 10:28pm. Great show and we had another Drew McIntyre homecoming. This time he was treated well, still can’t believe he was jobbed to Santino here in the first match in November when on RAW. Our seats were great, for the past three or four events we’ve had seats in the same area either a little bit closer, a couple rows back or a couple rows along so always got great views of the ring. Tiered seating, relatively close to the ring is the best to get as unless you’re front row, you don’t see a thing with everyone standing as I’ve had trouble with twice. Since March 2004, I’ve been to fourteen live events now (two TV tapings) but I’ve been taking my nephew along for the last few as he is right into it now and really enjoys it so it’s fun to take him.

Match 1
Brodus Clay vs. Jinder Mahal

Lillian Garcia sang Flower of Scotland, the national anthem before the first match. I saw Brodus in London on Monday but he doesn’t lose his appeal, still as funny. Mahal came out to a smattering of boos, not a lot and then Brodus got a big cheer. He told everyone to wait a minute and introduced his ‘little brother’ Hornswoggle who inevitably got a huge cheer. Hornswoggle was actually funny aswell. The match was okay, Clay dominated most of it but Mahal did get some offense in. Not sure if I’m sold on Mahal ever becoming anything major in WWE but he did alright here.

Clay won, if I remember correctly, with his big splash. Cue his music and a lot of dancing from the Funkettes, Brodus and Hornswoggle. Hornswoggle did the splits after Cameron had which was quite funny. Brodus posed with the Scottish flag on the ramp afterwards.

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Daniel Bryan appeared on one of the screens and said that tonight he was going to beat Sheamus and WrestleMania was a fluke. Lots of ‘yes’ chants aswell as ‘no’ chants.

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Match 2
The Usos and Mason Ryan vs. Curt Hawkins, Tyler Reks and Percy Watson

[/B]WWE changed the card a bit from the Newcastle show the previous night. Khali had fought Mahal then but was facing Del Rio tonight while Del Rio had faced Ryan in Newcastle. Watson was playing a heel after teaming with the Usos in Newcastle. McIntyre was replaced in this match by Watson. This was a good little match, Ryan was pretty well liked and was announced as being from the UK rather than just Wales so he got a decent reception and the Usos got cheered and a lot of ‘U-SO’ chants.

Was good to see these guys get time to actually put together a match and they did well. In the end, Ryan hit his finisher on Hawkins and picked up the three.

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Match 3
Alberto Del Rio vs. The Great Khali

[/B]Ricardo Rodriguez got a pretty loud cheer when he was announced. The guy is very entertaining, he does his job well. He introduced Del Rio who got little cheers but mostly boos. Del Rio spent an age getting to the ring and then Khali’s music hit, rather quietly, took people a while to realize he was coming out even though his video was playing on the screen but he did get a decent reaction. Khali did his usual dancing thing which Ricardo funnily mocked in the ring before stepping back acting scared, Del Rio then kept encouraging him until Khali entered and Rodriguez and Del Rio scampered out of the ring. Del Rio eventually got in the ring and feigned throwing his shirt to a little boy in the crowd who I think they were messing around with. Del Rio acted to throw the shirt but then threw it right at Rodriguez to boos, Ricardo rolled around laughing like a maniac and apparently the kid was actually crying.

Few ‘You Can’t Wrestle Chants’ at Khali but Del Rio did alright. Not a very entertaining match as Khali can’t do much but Del Rio was good playing to the crowd and eventually won with his armbar submission.

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Match 3
Natalya vs. Alicia Fox

I was gutted that AJ wasn’t there. I knew she wasn’t going to be as reports through the week said she wasn’t and was only on the first-half of the tour. I would’ve been less disappointed if I’d seen her in London but she only appeared on the titantron during RAW. Anyway, Alicia Fox had taken her place and Aksana had taken Hornswoggle’s place as the referee. Aksana’s porn music is quite cringey in person, it’s bad enough playing in segments but when she makes an entrance to it, it’s quite cringeworthy. She got a polite reaction I suppose, mainly as Lillian asked us to welcome her. Natalya got cheers mixed with boos but I’d say she was getting more cheers than boos and she pretty much acted as a face clapping fans hands and the like. Fox didn’t get much of a reaction until her name was read out.

Match was actually quite good, both of them worked hard and both used their big moves. Fox with her Fisher(woman’s) suplex and Natalya with the Sharpshooter. The end came when Natalya was arguing with Aksana and Aksana pushed Natalya back in to a roll-up for all three. Quite a few ‘Natalya’ chants.

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Match 4
Intercontinental Championship
Big Show vs. Cody Rhodes

Rhodes came out, as expected, to boos. He cut a promo about how since WrestleMania something has been missing and that Show’s victory was a fluke. He referenced a few American upsets regarding the Yankees, Babe Ruth and someone else but he didn’t expect us to get them as no one successful has ever came out of Scotland. He said it’s bad when the only thing your country is known for is a movie which has an Australian as it’s lead actor. Rhodes continued to a lot of heat until Big Show came out. Show spent a lot of time clapping fans hands before entering the ring.

I enjoyed the match, crowd was solidly behind Show. A lot of rest holds and the end came after Show missed a Knockout Punch but then followed up with a ChokeSlam. Rhodes’ Beautiful Disaster kicks are very cool in person as are Show’s hand slaps in the corner.

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Lillian Garcia came into the ring after the match and reminded us that the souvenir stands are open during and after the event and you can get the official programme featuring all your favourite WWE Superstars, the usual, to try and sell it. She handed one to someone then did the same thing with the ‘I Was There’ t-shirt. She then said she wanted to give this to a special person and gave it to a little boy in the front row. I’m assuming this was the same boy that was crying earlier. She then said it was time for an intermission.

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Match 5
Drew McIntyre and Booker T vs. Christian and Mark Henry

[/B]After the intermission, Lillian said it was her honour to introduce Scotland’s own Drew McIntyre. The place went crazy when his music hit and McIntyre made his way to the ring wearing a Scotland football shirt. He milked the entrance and posed with the flag before entering the ring and taking a microphone. Loud ‘Drew’ chant also. Drew said ‘Oh My God’ a few times. He said that just a few weeks ago he wrestled in front of 80,000 people at WrestleMania but it’s nothing compared to coming home and wrestling in Scotland. He said he isn’t just saying that, he means it from the bottom of his heart. He then said he wanted to give us a little history, he says that he’s been drunk in a lot of places, Japan, Australia etc, he can’t remember half of the places he has been drunk but last Friday (13th) he was on Sauchiehall Street and he met up with old friends from Glasgow Uni and they went to all the local nightspots, Garage, Campus and when they closed at 4am they went to Corinthians until 7am. Cheers for the local mentions. He then said something else and that whatever it was he said was because we were Scottish and we were mental. Was something about being drunk anyway.

McIntyre then said he wanted to find his mum and dad who were in the crowd, he was looking and telling people to point them out to him and for his parents to wave. A few people waved leading McIntyre to say ‘that’s not you’. Funny. Eventually, he found them and they were actually only a few rows behind us. McIntyre says he wants the crowd to give his parents a round of applause because if it wasn’t for them turning the lights down low twenty-six years ago, having some romantic time and coming together there would be no Drew McIntyre. They then got a great cheer. McIntyre said he had one more thing to say but Christian interupted to boos. Christian said how Scotland sucks and how we were all stupid and ‘dobers’. I’m assuming McIntyre told him to say that, local word for ‘idiot’ but I’ve not heard it in ages. Henry then came out and Christian said Drew’s homecoming match would be special because it’d be a Handicap Match.

Cue Booker T, huge pop. The match started with lots of ‘Christian Sucks’ chants. Christian was really over as a heel. McIntyre and Booker won eventually when Booker hit the Scissor Kick. After the match, Booker thanked the fans for all the love and said that when Booker T gets a new partner, they need to do the Spin-a-rooni. McIntyre did a pretty awful version before doing a kip-up. T and Drew clapped fans hands before exiting up the ramp. Great part of the show.

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Match 6
Randy Orton vs. Kane

Crowd popped for the No Disqualification announcement. This was actually a good match and I’ve enjoyed this feud a lot more than I thought I would. I didn’t want to see a WM match between these two but they did not bad and their Extreme Rules Match should be good. Orton was really over and it was good to see Kane up close again. Not a lot of weapons used, only a steel chair and a kendo stick but that satisfied the audience. Kane introduced the kendo stick first but Orton used it first and then Kane introduced the steel chair.

Kane hit the chokeslam at one point but it didn’t win the match, Orton hit both a DDT which Kane kicked out of and an RKO on the steel chair for the victory.

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Lillian Garcia announced that WWE had loved coming to Glasgow and that they would be returning with the RAW brand in November. Tickets go on sale April 27.

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Main Event
World Heavyweight Championship
Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan

Daniel Bryan got a mixed reaction, lots of ‘yes’ chants as he made his way to the ring. He was unsurprisingly followed by Sheamus who got a good reaction, he was over with the crowd. Before the match, Bryan got on the microphone and said a small minority were chanting saying ‘yes’ while others were cheering for Sheamus. He said that shows how stupid Scotland is. The match was very good and shows what these two can do with time but I expect them to get time at Extreme Rules. Crowd was hot for this match, loads of ‘Let’s go Sheamus/Daniel Bryan’ dual chants although it was the young kids chanting for Sheamus. There was a good ‘yes/no’ sequence with right hands between the two.

Quality match though and Sheamus won with the Brogue Kick and spent ages clapping fans hands as they do at the end of these events.

Terriific show and well worth the cash.