WWE Live show results
June 19, 2015
Saginaw, Mich.
Report by PWTorch correspondent Jason Ditz

The show started promptly at 7:30, with a video package of the Prime Time Players. Titus O'Neil urged us to stand and cheer during their title defense, because he heard "this town" was great that way. Conspicuously, he did not name the town, so I suspect the package will be re-used a lot.

First out was Bo Dallas. Dallas came to the ring and cut a promo on the audience, promising to show that even people in a crappy town like this can reach their dreams if only they Bo-lieve, just like he's going to attain his dream and getting out of this crappy town with a win.

(1) Adrian Neville beat Bo Dallas via pinfall. Fans were really hot for this match, and it was arguably the best of the night. We've seen these two on TV lately, but they can really put on a great match when they're given enough time. Neville eventually won with Red Arrow.

The Miz then came out, touting his segment on Smackdown as the best performing segment on the show, saying he only works with stars, and that his tag team partner tonight will be a great star... cue drumroll. Heath Slater, because of course. Slater talked about having his own show about rock & roll and being a one man band before Damien Sandow and Curtis Axel came out to a decent pop.

(2) Mega Powers (Damien Sandow & Curtis Axel) beat The Miz & Heath Slater via pinfall. The match was a slow but fun comedy match with a lot of silly spots. Conspicuously, Axel did a couple of atomic drops... I haven't seen those in a while. Eventually, Axel hit the big boot and leg drop to win.

(3) Alicia Fox & Emma beat Cameron & Summer Rae via pinfall with Layla as special guest referee. The crowd was allowed to Raw-active vote - even though this was a Summerslam-branded show. We were asked whether we wanted a Divas single or tag match. The reported vote was 90 percent for a tag match, apparently having more faith than me in the number of good Divas who would be in the back. Apparently Alicia Fox and Emma are faces now? That's not how I remember the storyline, but admittedly none of them are on Raw very often. This match took all the air out of the room... you could have heard a pin drop for most of it as the Divas plodded around the ring for what seemed like forever. Layla got into a shoving match with Cameron for some reason, then Fox got the pin with a kick to the face. I don't like hating on the Divas, as they're not given much room to breathe in WWE, but this was just ridiculously lazy for a match. Literally any Divas match on NXT, ever, would have been better.

(4) Dolph Ziggler beat King Barrett via pinfall. This was the pre-intermission main event. Barrett came out demanding everyone got on their knees. (Not on this filthy floor.) The crowd was really hot for Ziggler, and this was an excellent match. Typical of a Ziggler match, Dolph worked from underneath almost the whole time. Barrett hit Winds of Change for a two count, then acted like he was out of ideas even though it's a signature move that hasn't been a "match winner" in probably half-a-decade. Barrett continued with the advantage until R-Truth showed up at the entrance, wearing his own king garb and wielding his plunger. This distracted Barrett, and Ziggler got an immediate win with a Zig-Zag.

Post-match, Truth and Ziggler played around in the ring for quite a while after this. Truth knighted him with the plunger and gave him his ceremonial robe, which said King What's Up on it.

Intermission lasted 10 minutes tops. I'm not the kind to get out of my seat, but I think this really hurt the first match back because a lot of people were still shambling around in the aisles for the first part so there wasn't much pop until the end.

(5) Cesaro beat Erick Rowan via submission. Cesaro and Rowan both came to the ring without much response, and spent the early part of the match playing with Rowan's sheep mask. Cesaro put it on for a top rope splash, and Rowan acted furious. Good pacing of the match later on, with Cesaro eventually winning a new submission combination. He put Rowan in a Giant Swing, didn't let go when he stopped, and rather turned it into a Tyson Kidd Sharpshooter for a quick tap.

Next was the Tag Title match. New Day came out to a fair bit of heat. This was compounded by Xavier Woods incorrectly identifying the town as Kalamazoo, which is actually their Sunday night show. The crowd was pretty into the "New ... Day Sucks" chant, though one of the kids behind me persisted by saying "New ... Day Rocks."

(6) Prime Time Players (Titus O'Neil & Darren Young) beat New Day via pinfall to retain the Tag Titles. Slow match, but not bad. Lots of hot tags that didn't lead to anything, and Titus eventually hit a Rydeen Bomb for the three count. The crowd didn't seem overly enamored with PTP, but liked booing New Day.

Next was the main event of John Cena vs. Kane in a steel cage match for the U.S. Title. This was originally advertised as Cena vs. Rusev in a cage before Rusev's injury. It was then billed as Cena vs. Owens, but then changed in the last week to Cena vs. Kane. Since a cage is traditionally the blow-off match for a feud, I guess we'll pretend this is early 2012.

Kane came out to little reaction. Then Cena, which just wow. TV doesn't do it justice how loud the little kids are when Cena shows up. He is to them what the Beatles were to girls in the '60s. The kids were very loud to the point of being extremely annoying from bell to bell, with "Cena!" being screamed, at times shrieked, every time something happened. Some fans tried unsuccessfully to get a "Cena Sucks" chant going. Not much momentum there.

(7) U.S. champion John Cena beat Kane in a steel cage match to retain the U.S. Title. The match was a very generic cage match. Mostly false escapes. Kane missed a kick and knocked out the outside referee with the door. Cena hit an AA, but knocked the inside referee out, so he couldn't get the pinfall. He woke up the ref, Kane hit a chokeslam, but didn't get the three either. Cena began climbing the cage as Kane comically slowly tried the door. Cena then managed to slam the door on Kane on the way down, knocking down Kane, and getting the win by escaping.

Final Thoughts: This was WWE's third year in a row in Saginaw after a long absence. It was also the third straight year the main event dramatically changed due to injury. Year 1 was to be Cena & the Prime Time Players vs. The Shield in a 6-man, but Cena got hurt (this was after Summerslam), and became Ambrose vs. Daniel Bryan. Year 2 was to be Bryan vs. Kane in a Street Fight, but Bryan got hurt (this was after WrestleMania) and it became Sheamus vs. Kane in a regular match. This year, Rusev vs. Cena in a cage became Kane vs. Cena in a cage. It's no one's fault, just a weird coincidence.

The show was mostly quite good, apart from a Divas match that felt like ten minutes of life that we'll never get back. Cena was worth seeing just to appreciate the reaction from kids, but it was so loud it was also off-putting.

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

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