WWE Live show results
November 12, 2014
Paris, France
Report by VIP member Daley in Paris

Tonight I attended the WWE house show at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy here in France. The listed capacity for boxing is 16,000 people. I would say that at the absolute maximum Bercy was two-thirds full. The entire area behind the stage was blocked off and there were many empty seats, especially in the upper decks.

The last time I attended a house show in Bercy was for the Smackdown brand while Christian and Randy Orton were feuding over the Heavyweight Championship a few years ago. I would say that attendance was better then despite not having quite as strong a card as this evening.

As far as demographics go, I didn’t notice a huge difference compared to Raws I have attended in Brooklyn (March 2014) and in London (April 2013). The results seems to correlate with the other house shows on the tour...

(1) Sheamus beat Luke Harper (w/Eric Rowan). Sheamus got a deafening pop from the crowd. This was a fast-paced match for these two and the crowd was into it from the opening bell. Eric Rowan was ejected early by the referee and Sheamus won with the Brogue Kick.

(2) Jack Swagger (w/Zeb Colter) beat Curtis Axel. The crowd was still hot after the first match, but they struggled to get quite so behind these two. Neither of them really showed good timing or charisma, which was a shame. Still, the crowd was forgiving. Jack Swagger won with the anklelock.

Following the match, Zeb Colter attempted to cut a promo. The thing is that he didn’t make any effort to slow down his speech or to soften his accent. Coupling that with the acoustics of a large arena, his promo was lost on this audience. He just made a crack about moving a car from the parking lot. It didn’t really have anything to do with anything, so no harm was done.

(3) Los Matadores beat Slater Gator. This was a really funny spot-fest of a match. The crowd was given the option of voting between a six-man and a dance-off. The six-man won with 59 percent of the vote. Slater was fantastic as usual; every time I see him live I realise why he’s being kept around. It was a little too much for me as a match, but the kids in the arena loved it.

(4) Big Show beat U.S. champion Rusev via DQ; Rusev retained the U.S. Title. Lana made a good effort to soften her accent and speak to be understood. Anti-Russian sentiment is pretty high in France right now, so the gimmick was over. Big Show got a massive pop. He was up there with John Cena tonight. This match was notable for Big Show’s mat work and his flying dropkick off the second, rope which led to a two count. Rusev was disqualified when he hit Big Show with a chair.

After the match, Mark Henry came out to beat down on Show. But, Show eventually hit Henry with the KO Punch and left to his music.

[INTERVAL]

The French commentary team came out to do ring introductions for the next match.

(5) Divas champion A.J. Lee beat Nikki Bella (w/Brie Bella) and Paige in a three-way match. The Divas all received great reactions. Brie particularly, although I couldn’t work out if that was because she is using Daniel Bryan’s “Yes” chants or if indeed she is really over. Nikki was excellent on the microphone given that she was in a non-anglophone setting and drew good heat. She seems much more at ease at house shows than she does on TV. AJ won with a roll up after Brie distracted Nikki. Paige started the match as a heel and made a face turn by the end. When given time, the Divas really can put on good matches.

(6) It's A New Day (Kofi Kingston & Big E.) beat The Miz & Damien Mizdow. At the start of the match, Miz cut a basic promo in French on the crowd, which drew lots of boos. (Maryse would be proud.) I think that Big E. tried something in French, too, but it was lost on me. Everyone loved Damien Mizdow. His comic timing was spot on without over-doing it. This match got a great reaction.

(7) John Cena beat Seth Rollins in a Street Fight. This match went pretty much the same was as on the other shows on the tour with Cena finishing Rollins with an AA through a table off the second rope. Cena got the biggest pop of the night, but not by far.

After the match, he absolutely massacred the French language, but got his message across, which drew him many rounds of applause and appreciation. It was great that he tried!

It certainly would have behooved some of the other stars to make at least a little bit of effort with the language. In Paris people are usually pretty good at English but in an arena setting it’s a different beast. All those who tried were rewarded by the crowd who got into their matches even more. I wouldn’t expect anyone to be fluent (the closest I’ve ever seen is Santino), but a little something here and there really serves to ingratiate the performer with the crowd.

Overall, the crowd was super hot all night. It was a very old-fashioned show in that the crowd was behind the babyfaces and against the heels. There were not smart-arse chants and very, very few dueling Cena chants. And I think I know why: the commentary. Personally, I can't stand the French commentary team. They’re overdubbed and over-enthusiastic and it just sounds false to my ear. (Plus, I prefer to watch shows in their original language.) However, what they do do is take everything seriously. They commit to it being real from the start to the finish. And it showed tonight. The crowd got invested in each of the performers and played their role splendidly. It made for a much better show.

Top Babyface Reactions:

(1) John Cena
(2) Big Show
(3) Brie Bella (?!)/Sheamus

Top Heel Reactions:

(1) Rusev & Lana
(2) Nikki Bella
(3) Seth Rollins

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

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