The following are results from the WWE live event in Gdansk, Poland from Friday, November 11, 2011. The report comes courtesy of Marcin Zagrodzki and F4WOnline.com.
Ergo Arena was packed in around 95% – something around 10k people I believe, but I’m terrible with assesing a crowd so that’s a shot in the dark.
The show started with an announcement that WWE is going to return on 12th April with it’s Wrestlemania Revenge tour – that pretty much blew the roof off.
Daniel Bryan/Tyson Kidd/Justin Gabriel
Bryan got a huge pop – there were also loud “Let’s go Dragon” chants throughout the entire match. Tyson Kidd was really good as a heel here, the crowd was jeering him very loudly. The match started with Kidd rolling out – leaving Gabriel and Bryan to do a couple of spots alone. When Kidd tried to get in, Bryan and Gabriel double-teamed him for a while until Kidd faked an injury and got escorted outside the ring. He later ran back, and tried to pin Bryan shouting “I’m going to be the first one to win in Poland.” Unfortunately for Kidd, Bryan ended up winning with the LeBell Lock. At the end, Kidd started pushing Bryan and Gabriel around which earned him a beating and a bonus 450 splash to end the segment. Really good match.
Dibiase/Clay
Brodus Clay is amazing – simply due to the fact that he looks so different from anyone else on the roster. Dibiase was kinda over with the crowd – but there were people chanting for Brodus throughout the match. Solid match with Brodus pinning DiBiase.
Mahal/Jackson
Jinder came out to little reaction – so he cut a promo before the match in Hindi(I think) which got him a lot of jeers. I guess not using English works everywhere. Ezekiel Jackson came out to a nice reaction – crowd was really hot for him, and he spent a lot of time playing to the crowd during the match, Zeke won after bodyslamming Mahal.
Hunico/Yoshi Tatsu
Hunico came out as Sin Cara to a huge pop – lots of Sin Cara fans in the crowd. He did the trampoline entrance and all, picked a “I
The match itself was bad – wasn’t really fluid, there weren’t any great spots, and there were a couple of botches. Hunico beat Tatsu. Crowd kinda died on this match, there were “boring” chants near the end.
Sheamus/Barrett
Barrett came out to a mixed reaction – good thing he didn’t wear his trunks with the sign inspired by the Polish Uprising since that would turn him babyface in Poland anytime. Sheamus got a HUGE reaction – possibly the biggest of the night, at the very least the same as Orton. They had a solid match, they managed to get the crowd hot again after Hunico/Tatsu – dueling chants but by far louder for Sheamus. Sheamus won after hitting the Brogue Kick. Sheamus then went around the crowd posing for pictures and signing stuff.
Natalya/Alicia Fox w. Aksana as the special referee
Match started with the announcement that Teddy Long appointed Aksana as the referee for this match. Out of the 3 Divas, Natalya was the most over one. Crowd was really into her, and I think they missed the mark here with her working as a heel, since the crowd really prefered to cheer on her – Sharpshooter on Alicia got a big pop. Match was pretty much supposed to be comedy, with Alicia slapping Natalya on the ass whenever she had the chance – and Aksana doing the same once when she had the chance to. Alicia Fox won after a rollup, and Natalya got mad and started blaming Aksana – they got into a slap fight and Aksana called for the bell to start a new match, She then did a rollup on Natalya and won, leaving Natalya shouting. It was what it was.
Orton/Rhodes
I’ll just preface this by saying that Rhodes without the mask and the voice is so much better. Match was announced as a non-title Street Fight. Cody came out to a loud mixed reaction – dueling chants of “Let’s go Cody”/”Cody Sucks” on his way to the ring. When he got there, he grabbed a mic and cut a good promo on the crowd and Poland which got a lot of heat. Orton came out to a monster pop, with some people shouting “Orton Sucks” as well. Match was really good – the highlight for me was Orton casually showing the finger to someone in the crowd who I guess was doing the same while Rhodes and Orton were brawling outside the ring. Finish was Cody reaching under the ring to grab his mask, followed by Orton grabbing it out of his hands and whacking Cody over the head with it, followed by the RKO. Really good match, crowd was really into it. It’s probably down to personal opinion whether this or the Kidd/Bryan/Gabriel was the best match of the night.
Henry/Big Show
Billed as the match for the World Heavyweight Championship. Was what you’d expect of these two – a giant hoss-off. Henry did a lot of stalling during the match which got him a lot of heat. Ending was Henry hitting Show with a chair for the DQ. Then Barrett and Rhodes did a run-in and they all teamed up on Big Show. Shortly afterwards, Sheamus and Orton came in to save the day, they cleared the ring and went around the arena, signing stuff for people before leaving.
Really enjoyable show – the only thing I think was a glaring oversight was not telling anyone what had happened to Christian – I heard a lot of people after the show not knowing why he wasn’t on the show. A short mention at the start would be enough here, and I don’t know why they didn’t do it.
