4/15 WWE Raw in Champaign, Ill.: Reigns and Braun brawl, Hardys, Jericho & Seth vs. Owens & Joe, Neville vs. Aries

WWE LIVE EVENT REPORT – RAW BRAND
APRIL 15, 2017
CHAMPAIGN, ILL.
REPORT BY ADAM MORANTZ, PWTORCH CORRESPONDENT

(1) Matt & Jeff Hardy beat Enzo & Cass, Gallows & Anderson, and Sheamus & Cesaro. Fun opener to get the crowd going. Went upwards of 15 minutes. Jeff Hardy took most of the heat from Gallows and Anderson. He finally made the hot tag to Matt and chaos ensued. Everyone got their stuff in on each other and Matt Hardy pinned Karl Anderson after a Twist of Fate followed by a Swanton from Jeff.

(2) Sami Zayn beat Curtis Axel. Went about nine minutes. Sami won with the helluva kick.

(3) Neville beat Austin Aries to retain the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. Went ten-plus minutes. Neville worked Aries’ shoulder for most of the match. Aries mounted a comeback and locked in the Last Chancery. Neville raked Aries’ eyes to escape, threw Aries shoulder first into the ring post and got the submission win with the Border City Stretch.

They showed clips of Braun Strowman’s beatdown on Roman Reigns from Raw and JoJo announced that due to the attack Reigns was not medically cleared to compete tonight. Braun came out to cheers and boos and said this is his yard and he doesn’t care who comes out to face him tonight – Romain Reigns, Brock Lesnar, or anyone else. As Strowman left the ring, Roman’s music played and he came out to a pretty good reaction of screaming women. His shoulder was taped up and hanging at his side. The two met in the middle of the entrance ramp and started brawling. Strowman threw Reigns into the ringside steps. He threw Roman in the ring and played to the crowd, giving Reigns time to recover and connect with a Superman Punch. Reigns went for a spear, but Braun caught him in a powerslam. Braun grabbed a table under the ring and set it up in the corner. He whipped Reigns into the table, but Reigns blocked it and hit another Superman Punch and then speared Braun through the table. Reigns’s music played and he left.

Intermission

(4) Bayley beat Charlotte, Sasha Banks, and Nia Jax to retain the Raw Women’s Championship. Went about 12 minutes. Bayley hit the Bayley-to-belly on Charlotte for the win and hugged a handful of fans at ringside on her way out.

(5) Big Show beat Jindar Mahal in about 10 minutes. Mahal worked Show’s leg the entire match but eventually got caught with a chokeslam. Not very exciting stuff. Titus O’Neill came out to run down the fine city of Champaign, Illinois. He said Show beat a pretty formidable opponent tonight in Mahal (eh) but that he was better. Titus got in Big Show’s face and Show hit him with a knockout punch.

(6) Chris Jericho & Seth Rollins beat Kevin Owens & Samoa Joe. Owens came out to trash the fans. He said the city shouldn’t be called “Champaign, Illinois” but rather “Cheap Generic Gas Station Wine, Illinois.” The match was about 12 minutes with Jericho pinning Owens after a Codebreaker. Afterward Jericho put us all on the list. HOORAY! Rollins and Jericho took selfies with fans at ringside on the way out.

FINAL THOUGHTS: A fun and very efficient show in just about two-and-a-half hours… Jericho and the Hardys got the best reactions by far… It was the first time WWE was in Champaign in three years due to renovations at the arena. Not a huge crowd – guesstimating 5,000 tops – considering capacity for basketball is 15,000. Could be attributed to the holiday weekend. No return date was announced…

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