WWE Live show results
June 13, 2014
Saginaw, Mich.
Report by Jason Ditz, PWTorch correspondent

This was the second recent WWE house show in Saginaw, with the last one being the night before Night of Champions, at which Daniel Bryan vs. Dean Ambrose was the main event. This was initially sold as part of the Yes! movement's victory lap, but Bryan's injury forced substantial changes to the card. Still, WWE drew pretty well. I'd guess in the realm of 3,500 fans, though attendance was not announced.

(1) Rob Van Dam beat Alberto Del Rio. There was nothing specifically wrong with this match, but I feel like I've seen it too many times before. Del Rio came to the ring heeling it up, hassling Justin Roberts in the ring, then there was a match that was very similar to the previous PPV matches between these two, ending with a Five-Star Frogsplash and pin. The fans were huge into this match, and Van Dam got the biggest pop of the night in his home state.

(2) Summer Rae & The Funkadactyls beat Layla & Eva Maria & Rosa Mendes in a six-Divas tag match. Standard Divas fare. Layla avoided Summer Rae with tags, and when the situation broke down Summer chased her backstage, while Naomi hit the Rear View on Rosa for the pin. The crowd was sort of ho-hum.

Next was Cesaro vs. Big E. Paul Heyman appeared on the scoreboard in a pre-recorded promo announcing he would not be in Saginaw tonight. He mistakenly built the rest of his promo on the idea that the fans were cheering that he wasn't there, but the fans actually seemed quite disappointed. He played up Cesaro's merits, and reminded us that his client, Brock Lesnar, defeated The Undertaker's undefeated streak at WrestleMania.

(3) Cesaro beat Big E. The match itself was quite good; fans seemed split down the middle for much of it. Early on, Cesaro teased the Giant Swing, even doing the takedown that sets it up, before dropping Big E.'s legs and mocking to the crowd. Big E. eventually started getting the better of him, but Cesaro took the far turnbuckle pad off. As the ref was distracted putting it back on, Cesaro nailed Big E. with a chair and the Neutralizer for the win.

(4) WWE tag champions The Usos beat Cody Rhodes & Goldust and Luke Harper & Erick Rowan in a three-team match to retain the Tag Titles. As awesome as this match sounds on paper, it seemed a little sluggish, with the Wyatts hanging out on the arena floor early on before tagging themselves in. Once they got in, they beat down Goldust and got some nearfalls before things fell apart. Lots of jumping over the ropes into the guys standing outside, and some close falls by Rowan before one of the Usos managed to get a very anti-climactic pinfall.

[Intermission. Last year Bob Backlund was signing autographs. This year, no one was, but Sheamus's autograph was for sale at the concession stand, apparently.]

(5) Sin Cara beat Fandango. The crowd was still filing back into their seats when this began, and seemed pretty dead for the brief encounter. Sin Cara started getting the better of Fandango, then when Layla climbed into the ring to try to encourage him, Summer Rae ran to ringside to interfere. She slapped Fandango hard, setting up Sin Cara for a top-rope pinfall.

(6) Kofi Kingston beat Ryback. As much as I thought the Tag Title match underperformed, this match blew me away. Easily match of the night, as Ryback (who got a surprising amount of cheers) dominated Kofi, and played the great overconfident heel strongman against the smaller face. Ryback hit some big moves, got some near pins, and got really mad at the ref a few times for not getting the three. Eventually (about 15-20 minutes in), he went for Shell-Shock, Kofi reversed into a failed sunset flip, and caught Ryback with a Trouble in Paradise for the win. The crowd was huge into this, with some "Let's Go Ryback!" chants and some younger kids chanting "Ryback Sucks!"

(7) U.S. champion Sheamus beat Kane via DQ after Kane delivered a low blow. A good match, but made somewhat weaker by how invested in the last match the fans were. They show could have used a cool-down in between to get the crowd into this more. Sheamus got a nice pop, but there were some weird "USA!" chants going on during the match, and I'm not clear why. Sheamus got a nearfall with White Noise, Kane chokeslammed him hard, got a close two, and Kane went ballistic, complaining to the ref, rolling out of the ring, and grabbing a folding chair. He didn't hit Sheamus with it, though, because Sheamus attacked him on his way back in. Sheamus then went for the Brogue Kick, which Kane caught, then while holding his foot kicked Sheamus hard in the groin for the DQ.

Post-match, Kane proceeded to work over Sheamus with the chair for a while, before stopping to taunt, allowing Sheamus to recover and hit a Brogue Kick.

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

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