WWE Raw house show report
April 19, 2011
Cardiff, Wales
Report by David Hobbs & Charli James, PWTorch readers

(1) Evan Bourne beat Ted DiBiase. Solid opening match to whet the appetite of a sold out MotorPoint Arena (Cardiff International Arena) in Cardiff. Ted earned a lot of heat from the excitable crowd and kept Bourne grounded for most of the bout. Evan won in his regular fashion with a high-flying moveset followed by Air Bourne.

(2) Santino Marella (w/Tamina) & Mark Henry beat Jimmy & Jey Uso. The Usos attacked Santino as he made his way to the ring and beat the Milan Miracle down. Mark Henry’s music hit to make the save. As per the orders of the anonymous Raw General Manager, the match was made into a tag match. Henry received a big pop having made a meet-and-greet appearance at a toy store in Cardiff earlier in the day, which drew a very large crowd. The Usos worked over the unlikely pairing of Henry and Marella before the combination of a Cobra and the World’s Strongest Slam was enough to pick up the victory.

(3) Divas champion Brie Bella (w/Nikki Bella) beat Eve to retain the Divas Title. This match-up was advertised as a title match by announcer Justin Roberts. Standard Divas match, which finished with the Bellas using twin magic to defeat Eve with their face-buster finisher (basically X-Pac’s X-Factor!). The twins beat down Eve at the end, but Natalya made the save. Nattie was very over having attended the same signing with Henry earlier that day.

(4) John Morrison beat Dolph Ziggler in a Street Fight. It was a Fan's Choice match, with the other option being a two-out-of-three falls match. The crowd reaction determined it would be a Street Fight. This bout was possibly the best of the night. The two Superstars used mainly kendo sticks as offense. Lots of close finishes with Morrison kicking out of the Zig-Zag at one point. A steel chair was also used at the very end, as Morrison picked up the victory with the Starship Pain.

Alicia Fox then hosted a dance-off. Justin Roberts picked five members of the WWE Universe in attendance to earn the chance of meeting the Superstars and Divas backstage. Funnily enough, I was chosen, but got booed out of the ring by 8,000 of my hometown crowd! I did stick out like a sore thumb in my ringside seats, so I wasn’t surprised at being picked. An amazing experience, though, and a small kid won to the delight of the crowd.

[Intermission]

(5) Sin Cara beat Primo. WWE’s newest "international sensation" surprisingly had one of the loudest pops of the night and was clearly over. It's interesting to note that a trampoline was used for his entrance. Primo gained heat after he cut a promo about how he should be respected after an initial blank reaction from the audience. There was nothing different from what we’ve already seen of the new Mexican Superstar and Sin Cara picked up the victory with a sunset-flip powerbomb.

(6) U.S. champion Sheamus beat Daniel Bryan to retain the U.S. Title. Bryan had a very mixed reaction, as Wales couldn’t decide whether to back their Celtic compatriot Sheamus or not. The U.S. champ ended up playing the face and was eventually over in Cardiff. Bryan ended up receiving some bad heat and looked uncomfortable. Sheamus retained the title with the Brogue Kick despite Bryan’s attempts of applying the LeBell Lock earlier on.

(7) John Cena & Randy Orton beat The Miz (w/Alex Riley) & C.M. Punk. A decent, 20-minute-long main event match that was preceded by a promo from Miz. The WWE Champion did his usual thing on the microphone by saying how he keeps improving and proving people wrong as Alex Riley reinforced his words. The babyfaces and heels went back and forth to a spot, which involved referee Justin King being knocked out by Punk. Riley attempted to get involved in the match as the ref was down, but his actions ultimately caused Cena and Orton to hit the AA and RKO simultaneously on Miz and Punk. King was back up at that point and was able to count the 1-2-3.

Afterward, the victors posed for pictures, signed autographs, and embraced the crowd to send the WWE fans in Cardiff home happy.

WWE Smackdown will return to Cardiff, Wales on Sunday, November 6 as part of WWE's next European Tour.

[Torch art credit Grant Gould (c) PWTorch.com]

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