Thanks to Jacob Niehaus for sending in the following:
WWE Live Event Results
1/16/15
St. Louis, Missouri
(1) Opening match: Dean Ambrose vs Bray Wyatt – Match was alright, but it wasn’t a “street fight” like originally advertised. Both men got a decent amount of offense back and forth, but the finish really came out of nowhere with Dean Ambrose winning. It wasn’t on TV so naturally Ambrose wins.
(2) Cesaro vs. Justin Gabriel – I totally forgot Gabriel was still working for the WWE…as did most of the crowd. It was an okay match, but highlighted by Cesaro consistently opening the ropes for Gabriel like how Charles Robinson would do for Ric Flair. Cesaro wins again because this is not a televised match.
(3) Fandango vs. R-Truth – This match was not good except for a Fandango heel promo at the beginning. R-Truth plugs the Network before the match starts and it wasn’t anything memorable. R-Truth got the win out of nowhere.
(4) Chris Jericho vs. Luke Harper – Crowd loves Y2J. Jericho comes out and does an impromptu “Highlight Reel” talking about growing up in Chesterfield, MO since his Dad played on the St. Louis Blues and brings up his big matches he’s had in STL. Talks about the Authority and calls Stephanie a jokey name and tells the crowd he can’t say “what he normally calls her anymore.” Harper’s music hits and he comes out to the ring and hits the mic out of Jericho’s hands so they start to have a match. Good match. Chris wins with Code Breaker.
(4) Daniel Bryan & Roman Reigns vs. Big Show & Kane – This was weird as it was advertised that these four were going to have their own individuals matches with Bryan vs. Kane and Big Show vs. Reigns but I thought it was disappointing they put Bryan and Roman as a tag. Crowd was LOUD for Bryan and my section was very vocal in the anti-Reigns chants. Bryan takes most of the punishment while building towards the hot tag for Roman towards the end. Match ends with Bryan and Reigns winning when both of them hit their finishers and both pinned Big Show and Kane, even though Bryan was the legal man. Reigns was barely in the match.
– Intermission
(5) Nikki Bella (with Brie Bella) vs. Natalya – Crowd could vote whether they wanted Brie to be at ringside and apparently 60% voted yes to allow her to be there? Whatever. Match was a typical divas match you’d see on RAW, it made me want to go home and watch a Charlotte match on NXT. Nikki wins.
(6) Rusev vs. Jack Swagger – Rusev and Lana come out to major heat as Lana insults St. Louis’ sports team. Swagger comes out to a massive USA chant and the crowd is really behind him. They had the same kind of match we’ve seen before and Swagger again is beaten with a Rusev submission hold. Crowd seemed genuinely stunned by this win.
(7) John Cena vs. Seth Rollins [Cage Match] – This match was pretty hot back and forth between these two. It was booked in the same fashion that the cage match these two had about a month ago on RAW was. Good offense by Rollins and even though house shows tend to bring out mostly John Cena kids, it seemed like Rollins had a good number of supporters too. Rollins had plenty of hot spot moments where it looked like he was going to pick up the victory but naturally Cena got the win with an AA to send the crowd home happy. Rollins out wrestled him by far though.
All in all, I haven’t been to a WWE house show since 1998, but with the Royal Rumble coming up I thought I’d check it out again. I had a good time as the people in my row were really fun to talk to which was good, because sometimes a weird crowd can dictate how you feel about a show sometimes. Even though we just saw it this week on Smackdown and it’s booked again for next week, I was really looking forward to the Daniel Bryan vs. Kane match just to see him wrestle a singles match again…so again I was bummed to see him delegated to teaming with Roman. Fun show with lots of filler.
Biggest Pops:
1. Daniel Bryan
2. Chris Jericho
3. Chanting USA
1. Rusev
2. Big Show
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
