WWE Live show results
November 9, 2014
Leeds, England
Report by Adam Leggott, PWTorch correspondent

Reporting on WWE’s third visit to Leeds at the First Direct Arena a year on from my first attendance (I missed the show here in May). The introduction on the video wall was made by heel authority figure Triple H; he was unsurprisingly met with boos.

(1) Adam Rose beat Justin Gabriel. Some fun in the opener, with Gabriel playing a clear heel (teasing throwing his t-shirt into the crowd and heckling us on the house mic). Adam Rose was up to his usual in-ring shenanigans. The Bunny came back to ringside and I was anticipating some further confrontation with Rose given recent TV developments, but instead he eventually provided a distraction for Rose to win with the Party Foul.

(2) NXT champion Adrian Neville beat Sami Zayn. Match of the night, in my opinion. Good reactions for both, but Neville got a bigger pop when it was announced he was from England. Interestingly, after Neville frustrated Zayn with early offense, Zayn began to show a few minor heel characteristics and received some boos. Some great, believable nearfalls before Neville won with the Red Arrow. After the match, Zayn reluctantly shook hands with Neville and both men were applauded.

Ring announcer Eden polled the crowd to see whether they’d prefer a Divas singles match or a six-Divas tag. Hence...

(3) Natalya & Naomi & Emma beat Layla & Summer Rae & Cameron in a six-Divas tag match. Natalya won via Sharpshooter on Summer Rae. Basic Divas match but decent enough - better than last year’s effort between the Bellas and A.J. & Tamina. Natalya was about the only Diva to receive any kind of positive reaction.

(4) IC champion Dolph Ziggler beat Cesaro to retain the Intercontinental Title. Another very good match. The irritating vocal group (more on that in the Notes below) began chanted “We The People” at Cesaro, which caused him to get on the house mic and chew them out because that was [quote] “three months ago." Ziggler did the Ric Flair strut a couple of times to elicit “woooos” from the crowd. Plenty of counters in this match. Ziggler hit the Zig-Zag for the pin.

[Intermission]

(5) R-Truth beat Fandango. Truth gpt a good reaction for his “What’s Up?” catchphrase and he also began a “Whoomph, there it is” chant. Basic action until Truth got a pin out of nowhere after less than five minutes for the win.

Fandango then got on the mic to complain that he kicked out and the ref missed it. So, he wanted another match with "anyone." Ryback's music played to a good pop.

(6) Ryback beat Fandango. Fandango told Ryback that he can’t wrestle because he just pulled his back. He apologized before nailing Ryback with the mic. Fandango discarded the mic, turned around, and took the Meathook clothesline. The bell rang and Ryback hit Shell Shock to get the immediate win. He led the crowd in “Feed Me More” chants after the match.

(7) WWE tag champs Rhodes Bros. (Goldust & "Stardust" Cody Rhodes) beat The Usos (Jimmy & Jey Uso) to retain the Tag Titles. Solid tag team action and the crowd were into the Usos, again with some nearfalls. The win came when Stardust hit his finisher on one of the Usos.

(8) Dean Ambrose beat Bray Wyatt & Kane in a handicap match. Apparently Kane has forgiven Wyatt for kidnapping him all those months ago. Seemed a bit of a random match to put together, but the crowd were hot for Ambrose. Good match leading to some disagreements between Wyatt and Kane when Bray accidentally hit Kane. Kane ducked a rebound lariat from Ambrose, who caught the ref instead. He then hit a double rebound lariat on both Kane and Wyatt before retrieving three steel chairs. Kane and Wyatt overpowered him, though, and grabbed the chairs. Dolph Ziggler ran in to make the save, allowing Ambrose to hit Kane with Dirty Deeds for the win.

Afterward, Ziggler and Kane fought to the back and then Wyatt laid out Ambrose. He got on the mic and asked if we wanted to see him destroy Dean Ambrose. Mostly boos, a couple of cheers. Wyatt: “You’re a sick individual if you do.” He got a table from under the ring, but Ambrose countered and got Wyatt onto the table. He climbed the turnbuckles, but the table collapsed under Bray’s weight, drawing groans and laughs from the crowd. Ambrose improvised by hitting Dirty Deeds on Bray then retrieving another table. He gave Bray a choice: “Shake my hand, or get what’s coming to you.” He KO’d Wyatt with the mic, then put him through the second table to loud cheers.

Notes: The arena was probably around half full, which would mean about 7,000 attendees. No return date was announced, but WrestleMania tickets were plugged... The Vince McMahon apology video aired regarding the delay of WWE Network in the U.K., which got heavy boos... Prior to the show, a highlights video was shown of all vehicular-related angles throughout the last 20 years or so. Included was the Vince McMahon “explosion” death scene...

I cannot overstate how good the NXT match was. As a testimony my 10-year old niece, who was attending her first live show, was clearly enthralled by it, reacting to every nearfall and leaping up to celebrate Neville’s victory. She had never heard of either wrestler beforehand, as she does not watch NXT... There was a small but irritating group of vocal fans who seemed to want to just chant for all the heels, with the exception of Ziggler apparently. Whether they thought this was just funny I don’t know, but if this is what is considered to be “smart” now, then it could be something to do with WWE’s booking of faces lately.

Biggest Pops:

(1) Dean Ambrose
(2) Dolph Ziggler
(3) Adrian Neville getting the pin

Most Heat:

(1) Bray Wyatt
(2) Cesaro
(3) Goldust & Stardust

Overall, it was enjoyable, but compared to last year it lacked a little star power (last time out we had John Cena, Daniel Bryan, and C.M. Punk on the show in addition to Heyman & the Wyatts). I feel that’s probably a fair reflection of WWE’s current roster, as well as running simultaneous house shows.

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

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