By Craig Broadfoot
WWE House Show report
14 May 2014
Glasgow, Scotland
SSE Hydro
This was the first WWE show in the new Hydro arena which was legit sold out. The building looked very impressive and is a big step up in comparison to the Braehead arena which they ran for years.
Justin Roberts opened the show and announced that Daniel Bryan was not going to be here. He was interrupted by Randy Orton who challenged Roman Reigns to a match then and there.
1. Roman Reigns wrestled Randy Orton to a no contest (1:00) when Ryback and Curtis Axel ran in. Rollins and Ambrose made the save.
Brad Maddox came out onto the stage and announced a Reigns v Orton rematch in a steel cage for the main event, and RybAxel v Rollins and Ambrose right now.
2. Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose beat Ryback and Curtis Axel (12:00) when Rollins pinned Axel with the curb stomp. Great opener, really good crowd reaction. Heels got the heat on Ambrose until Rollins got the hot tag. Good fun.
3. Intercontinental Champion Bad News Barrett beat Jack Swagger (with Zeb Coulter), Rob Van Dam and Big E. in a Fatal Four Way match when Barrett pinned Swagger. Good match again. Finish saw RVD hit the frog splash but Barrett ran in the tossed him off and stole the pin. Went about 10 minutes.
4. Mark Henry and Fandango (with Layla) had a dance contest. This was announced as a Fan’s Choice match. The choice was a match or a dance contest. Everyone boo’ed the dance contest but Maddox put a graphic up which showed the dance contest got 54% of the vote. Fandango did his usual, Mark Henry stuck on a silver glove and danced (badly) to Billy Jean by Michael Jackson. Big pop. Henry even did the splits. Fandango jumped him and the bell rang. Looked like we were getting a match but Henry chased him off. He danced with a kid after the contest. Waste of time.
5. Rusev (with Lana) pinned Sin Cara. Short squash, Cara botched and springboard and got papped in the camel clutch and tapped out.
6. The Big Show beat Kane in a Last Man Standing match. This is the third time I’ve seen this match live. It didn’t improve with age. We had some Singapore cane, chairs and some tables. It didn’t help. Finish was botched. Firstly Kane broke the first table from under the ring while trying to put it up. Show ended up bumping through it in the corner. The finish was to be a KO punch by Show to put Kane down through the 2nd table. Unfortunately, Kane took an odd bump and fell OVER the table! They repositioned themselves to the corner where Show punched Kane off the middle rope and through the table. He thankfully couldn’t answer the 10 count. Afterwards Kane sat up and went after the two referees. Brad Maddox (!) made the save and got chokeslammed for a pop. Bad stuff.
INTERMISSION
7. NXT Heavyweight Champion Adrian Neville pinned Bo Dallas in about 10 minutes with the sky twister press. Not a lot of heat which is understandable with neither guy on TV. They kept the crowd with them though and it was a good match.
8. Paige, Naomi and Cameron beat Tamina Snuka, Layla and Rosa Mendes. Chants for Paige throughout and she worked well. Finish saw Paige pin Tamina with a downward spiral deal.
9. Roman Reigns beat Randy Orton in a Steel Cage Match. Rules were pinfall or cage escape. Match went back and forth and was ok. Randy kept control for the majority of the match hitting hit trademark chin lock and stomps. Cage didn’t come into play much. Roman hit the superman punch for very near fall. Randy blocked the spear with an uppercut which busted Reigns wide open. Randy hit the draping DDT but Roman reversed the RKO. Ryback and Axel ran in and locked the cage door. Ambrose and Rollins made the save. Plancha off the top of the cage by Rollins wiped out RybAxel. Reigns (who looked totally out of it – either good selling or he was actually hurt) hit the superman punch and got the pin. Slow match, went about 15 minutes and picked up well at the finish.
The lack of Daniel Bryan really hurt the show. However overall they did the best with the guys they had over. Crowd was fairly hot throughout and the presentation in the new arena was excellent. Would be good if they did TV here at some point as I think it would look excellent.
Craig Broadfoot
craig.broadfoot@gmail.com
