WWE Live show results
May 15, 2015
State College, Pa.
Report by Dan of Dingmans Ferry, Pa.

I attended Friday's WWE Live house show at the Bryce Jordan Center. Naturally the 15,000-plus seat arena was nowhere near a sell-out, but the crowd was enthusiastic throughout. Daniel Bryan was billed as the headliner when I purchased my tickets so there was extra disappointment on my end from his injury report this week.

(1) WWE tag champions New Day beat Cesaro & Tyson Kidd. Decent heat for New Day, but I think being the opening act helped. Interference via a Kofi Kick to Kidd while the ref's back was turned resulted in the win for New Day. Their celebration was interrupted by Cesaro giving Kofi the Big Swing.

(2) Fandango beat Adam Rose (w/Rosa Mendes). Rose wasted too much time playing kissy-face with Rosa on the apron allowing Fandango enough time to recover and hit him with a powerslam for the pin. This match was lame. I was hoping to see the leg drop from the top rope as the only saving grace for this throwaway match. Didn't happen.

(3) Zack Ryder & Prime Time Players beat Bo Dallas & The Ascension in a six-man tag match. Bo Dallas had a couple messed up spots, most notably after he got up from the canvas prematurely before realizing O'Neil was prepared to bodyslam Young on top of him So what did Bo do? Laid back down on the canvas. This polite crowd just went silent and gave him a mulligan. Ryder ultimately rolled up Dallas for the win after multiple reversals. I can see the potential in PTP (notwithstanding their awful comedy cameos on Raw dressing down heel tag teams), particularly Titus O'Neil. He also picked up a little kid from the audience after the match and did the Millions of Dollars dance while holding him. Pretty cool spot.

(4) Dean Ambrose beat Luke Harper . Ambrose hit Dirty Deeds for the win. Ambrose brought a good amount of intensity, while Harper did a lot of posing and flexing during his controlling portions of the match. This didn't seem to fit his character as I understood it. I think his identity is in flux since the demotion back to tag competition.

[Intermission]

(5) Damien Sandow beat Heath Slater. Sandow worked the crowd pretty well on the mic and noted that he and Curtis Axel will be "paying tribute" to Hulk Hogan and the late Randy Savage at Payback. Sandow got the win via a variation of the bulldog from his knees.

(6) The Bella Twins (Divas champion Nikki Bella & Brie Bella) beat Naomi & Tamina. Brie was "injured" early on and was out for the majority of the match while Nikki carried the action. Nikki scored the roll-up pin on Naomi for the win.

Post-match, Tamina and Naomi started putting a beat down on Nikki when Paige's music hit to clean house for the save. I must say that the Divas really brought it and put on one of the most physical matches of the evening. Nikki took some shots tonight and I was impressed.

(7) U.S. champion John Cena beat Rusev (w/Lana) in a steel cage match to retain the United States Title. Cena esaped The Accolade and hit an AA leaving both men motionless on the canvas. While they were down, Lana shoved the outside referee monitoring the door to the steel cage, then came in the ring and poured water on Rusev to revive and direct him to exit the open steel cage door. While Rusev crawled towards the door, Cena quickly climbed over the top of the cage, and kicked the open door into Rusev's head before landing on the outside for the win.

Post-match, Cena hit Rusev with another AA after Rusev verbally berated Lana. No mic time by Cena at all tonight, which I was surprised by. It was a completely pro-Cena crowd tonight as well. No "Cena sucks" chants at all.

This was the first live wrestling show I've seen in many years, and I can't say I will be itching to get to another any time soon. I realize this was a house show two days before a pay-per-view, but this roster was lame. This was a very bland card for the money I paid. The show was billed for 7:30 to 10:30 p.m., but I was out the arena door by 9:45. While it was cool to see WWE action again, this experience was not memorable. Another major star or two should have been included to make up for the loss of Daniel Bryan.

- Biggest Pop, in order: Cena, The Bellas, Ambrose.
- Most heat, in order: Rusev, New Day, Harper.

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

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