WWE Raw house show results
April 17, 2013
Rotterdam, Netherlands
Report by Michael, PWTorch reader

A pretty large (I would guess close to 10,000 people) and excited crowd showed up for the first WWE event in the Netherlands since 1992. Perhaps this long gap contributed to the crowd being rather diverse: although the majority of the people seemed plugged into the current product, there were quite a few fans who only seemed to recognize old-timers such as William Regal and Kane. The set looked quite nice for a house show.

(1) Zack Ryder beat Heath Slater. The crowd was eager to see action and Ryder got a decent pop. The match itself was slow-paced and uneventful.

The crowd was told that Dolph Ziggler would face Daniel Bryan later during the night. The announcer said that we would get to decide whether Ziggler would have to put his title on the line. What initially seemed like a nice way to get the crowd pumped for the match (a massive "Yes! Yes!" chant broke out) turned out to be a social media plug: we were to cast our Yes/No vote on Twitter. Ah, the WWE machine...

(2) R-Truth beat Antonio Cesaro. R-Truth got a nice pop. A short and not very good match with lots of stalling, which did pick up a bit near the end. I thought Cesaro looked pretty good in the ring.

A promo by Ziggler was shown on the screen. Unfortunately, there were some technical difficulties, which made it almost impossible to hear anything Dolph had to say except his last two familiar words. We were again encouraged by the announcer to cast our vote on Twitter.

Vickie Guerrero came out to the ring and announced a Divas tag team match.

(3) Divas champion Kaitlyn & Cameron & Naomi beat Tamina Snuka & The Bella Twins in a six-Divas tag match. Some pretty good high-paced action during this bout.

(4) William Regal beat Michael McGillicutty. A nice surprise to see Regal, who had not been advertised for the tour. He got the biggest pop of the night thus far. Ironically, people started to chant "You still got it," (and "You never lost it" in response) before Regal even attempted a move. As over as Regal was, the match seemed to take ages to get going, to the point where some people started to chant "boring." After that it was decent, although a couple of corny comedy spots did not help. Regal played the wise older wrestler who outsmarted the arrogant young guy.

(5) World Hvt. champion Dolph Ziggler beat WWE tag champion Daniel Bryan to retain the World Title. Both guys got good reactions, Bryan in particular. Ziggler came out to a mix of boos and cheers. After both guys made their entrances, we were told that the votes were counted (really?) and that the majority wanted the match to be for the title (you don't say...). This was a very solid 15-minute match. Ziggler won with the Zig-Zag after A.J. pushed Bryan off the top rope. Bryan put Ziggler in the No! Lock after the match, and grabbed and help up Ziggler's belt to a loud applause.

This match was followed by a brief intermission.

(6) Brodus Clay & Tensai beat Rhodes Scholars (Damien Sandow & Cody Rhodes). The crowd was pretty hyped for this match. Solid tag team bout.

(7) WWE tag champion Kane vs. Big E. Langston went to a No Contest when Ziggler and Bryan interfered. Kane got a very big pop. A few minutes into the match, Ziggler came out to save Langston. Bryan got involved to settle the score, which prompted Vickie to turn it into a tag team match.

(8) WWE tag champions Daniel Bryan & Kane beat World Hvt. champion Dolph Ziggler & Big E. Langston (w/A.J. Lee). Ziggler and Bryan really put in their work tonight. The match ended with Bryan pinning Ziggler. Post-match, Kane and Bryan argued over who got to hold up the title belt. I was not a big fan of this corny skit (which seemed to never end), but the majority of the crowd seemed to enjoy it.

Main Event time with John Cena vs. Ryback. The crowd responded enthusiastically to the announcement that this would be a tables match. Ryback came out to a mix of boos and cheers. Big pop for Cena, which turned into the familiar "Let's Go Cena/Cena sucks" chant as he entered the ring.

(9) WWE champion John Cena beat Ryback in a tables match to retain the WWE Title. A decent table match. At one point, one of the legs of the table broke, which prompted Ryback to throw the table out of the ring (which immediately broke in half upon hitting the floor). Ryback had Cena on his shoulders for the Shell Shock, but Cena countered into an Attitude Adjustment through the table.

Overall, it was a stellar and fun show. The first half was very slow-paced and dragging a bit, but the Ziggler-Bryan match (the best of the night, in my opinion) made up for it and the second-half was entertaining. Part of the crowd seemed preoccupied with coming across as a 'smart' crowd, trying to show that they know all the chants they hear on TV, rather than actually reacting to the matches (e.g. singing Fandango's theme, which, by the waym started as spontaneous fun and already feels very contrived a week-and-a-half later). The crowd was pretty hot throughout the night, though. Biggest pop of the night went to the anouncer, when he told us on behalf of WWE that they look forward to coming back to Rotterdam in the future.

[Torch art credit Travis Bryant (c) PWTorch.com]

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