Thanks to WZ forums member Conspiranoid for sending in the following:
WWE Live Event Results
11/13/14
Palacio De Vistalegre, Madrid, Spain
First of all, it was legit sold-out, totally packed. No need to tarp any sections. I was seated 3rd row opposite the entrance, and you could see no empty seats anywhere around the arena, a covered multiuse bullring. Secondly, the organization was quite crappy, the seaters were nice, but the rest of the crew was meh, the queues to enter the venue were terrible, the setup was bad (seats really close to each other, very little space to move around while seated, despite paying 100€ for ringside seats), and how they organized crowd movement was really bad, but the local promoter and/or venue are to blame for that. And third, the (two) merchandise stands were truly abysmal – they literally had 7 shirt varieties to offer (Rollins, Reigns, Paige, generic “live tour”, BNB, and of course, 2 of Cena’s), plus Cena caps, towels and 3 varieties of “signed” photos. I was expecting the kind of merchandise stand we see on TV when they have a falls count everywhere match and end up in the corridors, hoping to at least catch an AJ or Ziggler shirt, maybe Cesaro or Neville, or even Punk (one can dream, right?), but the choices were absolutely terrible, and they sold out pretty quickly, even. Really sad.
Anyway, the event itself… Lilian Garcia talked in Spanish the whole night between matches, except for wrestler introductions, and spoke about how she lived in Madrid for 8 years, singing in Spanish, and whatnot. And that included a couple quite funny mistakes, saying there would be a “lucha de pajeras” (female masturbator fight) instead of “lucha de parejas” (tag match), and later “lucha de cajeras” (female cashier fight) instead of “lucha callejera” (street fight). They sold the Network a couple times during the night.
20:00 – start of the event (half an hour delay), with tons of promos on the minitrons, and a pre-recorded generic message from Triple H.
20:05 – Sheamus vs Luke Harper (w/ Erick Rowan). Quite nice match, despite me not being a huge Sheamus fan at all. Harper is a damn good worker, and surprisingly agile. Rowan was ejected mid-match. Sheamus with the Brogue Kick for the win.
20:25 – Curtis Axel vs Jack Swagger (w/ Zeb Coulter). Curtis came out to a good reaction, almost face-ish with the crowd, until Swagger showed up, and started to play the heel. Axel repeatedly running away, and back in, with a cocky, almost Rick Rude-ish attitude, and Swagger with the We The People schtick too many times. Not as good as the opener. Swagger won with the Patriot Lock.
20:40 – Los Matadores and Torito vs Slater Gator and Hornswoggle. Comedy match, with Slater Horny Gator playing heels really badly. Torito is awesome, I gotta say, really entertaining. In the end, Torito pinned Slater for the win, and the three brought out some España shirts and a flag, to celebrate with the crowd. Not too sure I’m OK with a couple puertoricans playing a deeply stigmatizing stereotype, but oh well.
21:00 – Rusev (w/ Lana) vs Big Show for the US Championship. Lana taunted the crowd as usual, calling us stupid and whatnot. Show got a nice reaction. Slow match, but not as bad as I was expecting – not Show vs Khali levels, luckily. Tough battle, with many exchanges. In the end, Rusev grabbed a steel chair while outside and hit Show with it when he was trying to get out of the ring, causing a DQ. After that, he put Show in the Accolade, and once he let him go, Mark Henry came out to punish Show some more, until he got a KO punch out of nowhere. And damn, Lana is hot.
21:15 – Intermission, with Lilian trying to sell us how wonderful the merchandise stands were. Innocently, I thought “maybe they brought out the good stuff now”, but it had the exact same crap as before, but with moderately renewed quantities.
21:40 – Paige + Nikki Bella vs AJ Lee + Brie Bella. Nikki brought up the “you do as I say” thing to make the match a 2 on 1. It was all Nikki vs AJ, with Nikki teasing a tag when she was dominating AJ, and pulling the hand away. As expected, when she needed the tag, Paige retaliated, and walked away. Brie was cheering AJ and bringing the YES! chants during the whole match, with Nikki answering with NO! chants herself. AJ wins with the Black Widow, Nikki physically punishes Brie afterwards. Also, Nikki looks better in person than on TV, but I gotta say, Brie and AJ look stunning, and Paige looked really good as well.
21:55 – The Miz + Damien Mizdow vs Xavier Woods + Big E (w/ Kofi Kingston). Miz playing the heel big time, cheering for Barcelona, and Mizdow mirroring. Worth noting that Kofi stole the mic from Miz, and introduced the group as being “Xavier Woods, Big E Langston, Kofi Kingston, and we’re The New Day” (he was wearing the outfit shown in his new promo, without the cape), so I guess they plan on having the stable with the new gimmick? Played the “hala Madrid” thing (without knowing there’s Atlético de Madrid as well, not sure if the Atlético fans liked it too much). The star of the match was Mizdow, without a doubt, mirroring all of his partner’s movements, even holding himself between ropes when Big E did several backbreakers to Miz. Also turning towards us and whispering “Madrid, Madrid” while Miz cheered for Barcelona. He even got a huge ovation from our section, and had a big smile on his face about it. Pretty much a comedy match as well, but with much more action. Woods and Big E with a Big Ending + turnbuckle smash combo for the win, the faces continued celebrating and cheering for Real Madrid.
22:15 – Seth Rollins vs John Cena, in a street fight. As expected, the crowd was 80% pro-Cena, 20% anti-Cena. My section was mostly anti-Cena, luckily. Seth Rollins played the heel awesomely, despite having lots of support from our section. Several steel chairs, 2 broken tables, steel steps, etc involved. They each kicked out from their opponents finishers once, and in the end, Cena won with an AA from the turnbuckle thru a table. Cena celebrated with the crowd, taking pictures from the turnbuckle.
22:40 – Lilian sent us home, yet again in Spanish.
All in all, nice show, although I would’ve preferred a bit more midcard/lowcard action (I envy the other tour with Ziggler v Cesaro, Y2J, Neville vs Zayn, etc). Crowd was quite hot the whole time, even in the Divas match. And a fight almost broke out in the end when Cena threw his armband and 2 old-teens / young adults fought for it at ringside.
Biggest pops: Cena (obviously), Big Show, Sheamus
Biggest heat: Rollins (once Cena came out), Rusev, Nikki Bella
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.
