2/24 WWE in Denver, Col.: Styles defends WWE Title in four-way, Shinsuke celebrates his birthday, Roode vs. Mahal for U.S. Title, Rawley, Kanellis, Usos, New Day

WWE SMACKDOWN LIVE EVENT
FEBRUARY 24, 2018
DENVER, COL. AT PEPSI CENTER
REPORT BY JON EKS, PWTORCH CORRESPONDENT

Please send results of live events you attend to pwtorch@pwtorch.com. Thank you! Also, please include any photos you take of either the arena setting, entrance stage, and clear pictures of wrestlers on way to ring or inside the ring.

The Pepsi Center holds about 16,000 people. I’d guess there were 5,000-6,000 people in attendance. Here’s how it went:

Fans got to vote on which match they’d like to see before the event started. Kurt Angle vs Shawn Michaels from WrestleMania XXI won, so we got highlights from it.

(1) The Usos beat New Day and Chad Gable & Shelton Benjamin and Rusev & Aiden English for the WWE Tag Team Championship. Ton of comedy and hilarious bullsh– including Big E slingshotting Aiden English into Chad Gable’s nuts. The Usos retain after a double superkick to English coming off the top rope. Every team in the match was over and the crowd was very into it.

(2) Sin Cara beat Mike Kanellis with a Swanton. Entertaining match. Crowd in Denver was also good for this. Kanellis managed to get nice heel heat and looked really good.

(3)  Mojo Rawley beat Tye Dillinger. Crowd was pretty dead for this, which wasn’t surprising considering the match quality wasn’t great. Mojo won with some sort of shoulderblock.

(4) The Bludgeon Bros. (Luke Harper & Erick Rowan) beat Breezango. Comedy match that lasted roughly two minutes. Harper slapped Rowan, so Breeze and Fandango slapped each other trying to mimic the hype up. It was funny. Bludgeon Bros win with an assisted powerbomb.

(5) Bobby Roode beat Jinder Mahal to retain the U.S. Title. The heat for both Jinder and Roode were tremendous, especially after the dead crowd for the previous two matches. Really fun match that the crowd was into. One of the Singhs tried to distract the ref, Roode moved as Jinder ran into him, Roode hit the Glorious DDT, and won. Crowd was geeked for him.

INTERMISSION

(5) Naomi & Becky Lynch & Charlotte beat The Riott Squad. Great pop for the faces, less so for the heels, who the crowd was largely apathetic toward. There was a “We want Charlotte” chant and all the faces were very over. Sarah Logan tapped to the Figure-Eight.

(6) Shinsuke Nakamura pinned Dolph Ziggler. It was Shinsuke’s birthday, so Dolph led the crowd in “Happy Birthday,” then tried to cheapshot him. Shinsuke saw it coming, countered, and rode him and spanked him. Not as much heat as I expected, but an okayish match that saw Shinsuke win with the Kinshasa.

(7) A.J. Styles beat Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens and Baron Corbin to retain the WWE Championship. Sami and Kevin were so obnoxious that Styles and Corbin had to join up at the start of the match. Really solid match. Corbin has presence that is better appreciated in person. A.J. won after hitting the Styles Clash on Zayn.

Best pops:
1. AJ Styles
2. Bobby Roode
3. Charlotte

Most heat:
1. Kevin Owens/Sami Zayn
2. Jinder Mahal
3. (Tie) Gable/Benjamin and Mike Kanellis

Please send results of live events you attend to pwtorch@pwtorch.com. Thank you! Also, please include any photos you take of either the arena setting, entrance stage, and clear pictures of wrestlers on way to ring or inside the ring.

NOW CHECK OUT THE PREVIOUS REPORT: 2/22 NXT in Ontario: Ricochet’s first match in WWE, Ember vs. Bel Air match cut short after injury, Gargano & La Rae vs. Almas & Vega