WWE Raw live event (Belfast, Northern Ireland)
Report by William Cully and ProWrestling.net
Just back from the show in Belfast. It was a good crowd and was very close to sold out. Went to it with my future wife Laura. The show started on time! All matches were the usual length. The United States Championship and Randy Orton vs. C.M. Punk might have been slightly longer!
1. Evan Bourne beat Alex Riley. Good opening to the show. Riley played heel brilliant and had the crowd booing him out of the building several times. Bourne included all his usual offensive spots and won with his usual shooting star.
2. Percy Watson beat Tyson Kidd. Decent match. The crowd wasn’t very into it really, but Percy looked improved from NXT.
3. Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov beat The Uso’s. The Uso’s cut a promo on Santino being on his own and referring back to WrestleMania and that he’s dumb for starting the match on his own. The match was mainly about Santino trying to overcome the odds and he was down and out several times. The Uso’s looked like a really polished tag team. Ten minutes into the match, Kozlov’s music hit and he sprinted to the ring leading to a comeback. Really good surprise! They even had me suckered in.
4. John Morrison beat Dolph Ziggler. To be honest I was bored. Same match we see all the time! I ended up going to buy a t-shirt.
5. Brie Bella defeated Eve to retain the WWE Divas Championship. Brie took control early and Eve was trying to comeback.
6. Randy Orton beat C.M. Punk in a street fight. Street fight was a fans choice, as the other option was two out of three falls. The match was good but slow at times. They used a cane, chair, steps, and even had a brief stint in the crowd! Good match, both guys brought it…even if it was a house show.
R-Truth and Melina came out to the crowd and held a contest to bring a competition winner backstage. They held a dance off. A kid won. The rest were adults. R-Truth was really into it.
Intermission
7. Sin Cara beat Primo. Primo played heel really well and talked about how Sin Cara was just as good of an international star as he is. Really good heel work as he was taunting kids too. Sin Cara came out to a decent ovation. During the match, he had them all sucked in. His spots were perfect. Several high caliber arm drags and huracanranas had the crowd cheering. Good match. Better than the one on Raw. You can tell Sin Cara isn’t used to the WWE style, his selling isn’t great.
8. Sheamus beat Daniel Bryan to retain the United States Championship. Daniel Bryan came out as babyface as the crowd assumed that it was the norm. Sheamus came out to a big ovation and was clearly babyface for this evening due to the Irish connection. Bryan was a great heel slipping in and out of the ring and taunting the crowd from the outside. Sheamus didn’t get a lot of offense in and was making his comeback. Sheamus Irish whipped Bryan into the corners three times and each time the ring actually moved!! Both guys worked hard as hell. Sheamus won from a Brogue Kick from outside to Bryan’s head on the middle rope. He got in the ring and did another one. Awesome match!
9. John Cena defeated The Miz by DQ in a WWE Championship match. The match opened with a typical promo from Miz and Riley. Recapping on Mania. The match started and both guys had equal offense. Riley interfered causing the DQ. Both began attacking Cena, and R-Truth ran down to help. They cleared the ring and Cena hit his spots. Cena cut a promo and shook Truth’s hand and said how “Truth is true to the championship” Cena hung out until the crowd was almost gone.
Great show. Best house show I’ve been to in several years. The younger guys are getting more confident it seems.
