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WWE Live show results
November 7, 2015
Leeds, England
Report by long-time PWTorch reader Adam Leggott
The show opened with Eden Stiles introducing Ric Flair to the crowd to a great reception. Flair did his usual routine before giving us a brief rundown of some matches we could expect to see. Flair specifically mentioned that Seth Rollins would not be there, but we would get Dean Ambrose challenging Kevin Owens for the IC Title instead. People seemed happy about that (including me, as I’ve not previously seen Owens live).
(1) The Dudley Boys beat WWE tag champions New Day in a three-on-two handicap tables match. Great to see the Dudleys live – a team I never caught during their initial WWE run. Plenty of crowd interaction and a good, fun match. Great for an opener. The Dudleys picked up the win with a 3D on Xavier Woods through a table. They then picked a young fan out of the crowd to present a piece of the table to, which was great to see.
Tyler Breeze and Summer Rae appeared on the video screen. Breeze promised to defeat Dolph Ziggler later in the night.
(2) Cesaro beat The Miz. Decent reception for Cesaro and The Miz got some good heat beforehand with his mic work. A great spot involved Cesaro putting on The Miz’s sunglasses and delivering some offense whilst wearing them. Cesaro won after a big swing (22 revolutions by my count!) into a Sharpshooter.
(3) NXT Champion Finn Bálor beat Sheamus in a non-title match. The Battle of Ireland here, and I definitely had not expected to see Bálor tonight. I’d heard he wrestled this match in Dublin, but assumed it was just a one-off as it was his home country. Again, Sheamus got heat by ripping on the crowd and the local football team. Good, solid match, with Bálor winning via his third attempt at the Coup de Grace. Interestingly, Bálor wasn’t as over as I’d thought he might be, perhaps owing to the amount of kids present who might not be overly familiar with NXT.
(4) Curtis Axel beat Bo Dallas. Prior to the match, Dallas proclaimed tonight would be the start of his winning streak. So, predictably, he lost in about two minutes via a roll-up. Post-match, he challenged anyone to a match, which brought out R-Truth…
(5) R-Truth beat Bo Dallas. Dallas said he would not fight “Mr. Truth,” but instead challenged him to a dance-off. Dallas danced to “I’m Too Sexy”, and when Truth got into his routine to Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean,” Dallas attacked him. Truth recovered quickly and picked up a pinfall win. In fairness this was an entertaining segment which went down well with the kids especially.
(6) Kane beat The Big Show with Street Fight Rules. Decent big-man match with gimmicks – Singapore canes, chairs, and tables – as you might expect from two veterans like these. It is painfully obvious in person that Kane’s hair is a wig, unfortunately. Kane won when he chokeslammed Big Show off the second turnbuckle through a table, in possibly the most visually impressive spot of the night.
A bit of fun after the match when Big Show got up looking dazed, staggered, and fell back down. The referee covered Show and counted himself a pinfall, but Show kicked out at two. He got angry and the ref scampered quickly to the backstage area. Show received appreciative applause for the spot they’ve done previously on the tour.
After the intermission…
(7) Divas champion Charlotte & Becky Lynch beat Brie Bella & Alicia Fox with special guest referee Paige. Good reception for Paige and Charlotte/Becky, which was pleasing to hear. Surprisingly big pop for Brie, too – presumably the work going into Brand Bella is paying off. Good solid match, and for the finish Charlotte accidentally speared Paige, meaning a replacement ref made the call for Charlotte winning via the Figure-Eight. After the match, Paige attacked Charlotte, but Becky made the save.
(8) Dolph Ziggler beat Tyler Breeze (w/Summer Rae). Match of the night for me, and if these two get 20 minutes or so on a PPV they will steal the show. It also served to show how good an asset Breeze can be to the main roster for years to come. Breeze had his fans, but Dolph was super over. After Summer hit Dolph with her boot, she was ejected from the match. A series of nearfalls ended with Ziggler nailing the Zig-Zag and collecting the win.
(9) Dean Ambrose beat IC champion Kevin Owens via DQ; Owens retained the Intercontinental Title. Another good match. Kevin Owens is just such a fantastic heel and plays the crowd superbly. Owens showed frustration at being unable to put Ambrose away even after two superkicks into a pop-up powerbomb, so took a steel chair to his opponent, causing the DQ.
Post-match, various faces and heels from throughout the evening ran out for a big brawl which ended with the faces surrounding Kevin Owens. Ambrose hit Dirty Deeds on Owens to end the night.
Notes: he building was more full than any of the previous shows I’ve been to here. Of the available seats, I’d say 80-85 percent were filled, at least. I’m assuming much of this was down to it being a Saturday, so parents were more willing to take their kids. … It was great to see so many recent (and one current) NXT wrestlers on the show, which contributed to a higher wrestling quality than the previous two years, in my opinion. I will be attending the NXT show in Sheffield next month, so it will be interesting to compare the presentation of the two shows. … Strangely every babyface won tonight, which I’m fairly certain hasn’t happened in any of the previous dozen or so WWE shows I’ve attended.
Biggest Pops
(1) Dean Ambrose
(2) Dolph Ziggler
(3) The Dudleys
Most Heat
(1) Kevin Owens
(2) The Miz
(3) Sheamus
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