Before the show, Bob Backlund was posing for pictures in a WWE booth set up on the concourse. While the price was a little steep, Backlund was great in his interaction with the fans.
The show started with Big Show coming to the ring for a match. Brad Maddox came out and said that HHH had canceled Big Show’s match, but that Big Show must sit at ringside during the main event and not interfere or he would be suspended without pay.
Match 1: The Shield defeated Prime Time Players to retain the Tag Titles when Seth Rollins pinned Titus O’Neil after Roman Reigns speared O’Neil. Ok Match. Pretty much paint by numbers. Rollins bumped like crazy.
Match 2: Zack Ryder defeated Curt Hawkins. Don’t really remember much about this one.
Match 3: Natayla defeated Brie Bella with a Sharpshooter. The fans got to choose between a match and a dance off. Match won, but Brie wanted to dance so she had music played. They played Dancing Queen and Brie danced badly. Natayla then danced, but was attacked by Brie and the match was on. Decent Divas match. Natayla was the first star to really interact with the crowd.
Match 4: Tyson Kidd defeated Jack Swagger with a Roll Up. Antonio Ceasaro was in Swagger’s corner. Kidd got busted open above his left eye early in the match. They didn’t really do anything to change the match due to the blood. How the mighty have fallen. Swagger went from Wrestlemania headliner to losing to Tyson Kidd on house shows.
Match 5: Rob Van Dam defeated Heath Slater with a 5 Star Frog Splash. As expected in Michigan, RVD was over huge. Lots of working the crowd from both men.
Match 6: Ryback defeated Santino with the ShellShock. This was a comedy match, then a squash.
Match 7: Miz defeated Fandango with the Figure Four. Miz was over huge! Fandango had a decent entrance as well. I pretty much people watched during this match. Nothing really kept my attention during this one.
Match 8: Daniel Bryan defeated Dean Ambrose by DQ after interference from Rollins and Reigns. The US Title was on the line. Bryan got the best reaction of the night. Slightly edging out RVD. Yes! chants galore. This was a pretty good match. It went about 20 minutes of mostly action including a dive to the floor by Bryan that I was surprised to see on a house show. The end came with Bryan having Ambrose in the crossface when the Shield attacked. RVD made the save. Shield then attacked RVD until Big Show made the save. Bryan, RVD, and Big Show all celebrated and the crowd went home happy.
No return date announced. Crowd was good sized and loud all night.
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.
