3/16 WWE in New York City at MSG: Cena & Nikki wrestle as a team, Lesnar vs. Kane vs. Strowman, Alexa tells Nia it wasn’t her, plus Styles, Nakamura, Reigns, Asuka

WWE LIVE EVENT REPORT
MARCH 16, 2018
NEW YORK CITY, N.Y. AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN
REPORT BY MIKE OMANSKY, 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.

I’d estimate a crowd in the 12,000-13,000 range. Not sold out, but close. They announced a return date for Saturday, July 7, a house show which will feature Ronda Rousey’s MSG debut. Presale code is “WWELIVE.”

(1) Shinsuke Nakamura beat Kevin Owens via DQ. It was scheduled to be a tag match with A.J. Styles & Nakamura vs. Owens & Sami Zayn. The babyfaces were each introduced and entered the ring.  The heels appeared out of nowhere and attacked the faces. They threw Nakamura out and then double-teamed Styles and attacked his leg with chairs. Styles helped out. It was announced that he couldn’t compete so it would be a one-on-one match. In the official match, as Nakamura was finishing Owens off, Zayn charged the ring. After another two-on-one attack, the referee DQ’d Owens. Styles ran back to the ring with a chair and slammed Owens and Zayn. The babyfaces cleared the ring.

(2) Cedric Alexander beat Drew Gulak after a Lumbar Check. The crowd was mildly interested.

(3) Asuka beat Mandy Rose (w/Paige) with the Asuka Lock. It only went about five minutes, but it was fine for what it was.

(4) Bray Wyatt beat Matt Hardy with Sister Abigail after about 9 minutes. Standard back and forth match, but all well done. Decent match.

(5) Sheamus & Cesaro beat The New Day (Kofi Kingston & Big E w/Xavier Woods) vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson and Titus O’Neal & Apollo (w/Dana Brooke) in a Fatal Four-way match. Very good match, loads of action. In the end, The Bar double-teamed Kofi and got the pin. After the match, Gallows and Anderson chastised Kofi for coming to New York and losing. New Day then charged and cleared the ring.

(6) Brock Lesnar (w/Paul Heyman) won a triple threat match over Kane and Braun Strowman to retain the Universal Title at 5:28 exactly. Lesnar got biggest reaction of the night coming out.  At the bell, he first suplexed Strowman, then Kane.  Much of the crowd stayed on its feet for this match. In the end, outside the ring, Strowman tried to attack Lesnar with steps, but missed. Lesnar took him out with two hard chairshots. Lesnar came back to the ring and within a half a minute, he hit the F5 on Kane and scored the pin. Best match of the night.

(7) Alexa Bliss (w/Mickie James) beat Bayley and Sasha Banks in a triple threat match to retain the Raw Women’s Title. In the end, Bliss tossed Bayley out of the ring and then pinned Banks. Decent action.

After the match, Nia Jax came out.  Blisss tried to explain that it wasn’t really her talking on Raw, it must have been photo-shopped. They hugged, and Jax turned it into a bear hug and threw her down.  James attacked, but Jax took her out as well.

(8) John Cena & Nikki Bella beat Elias & Sonya Deville when Nikki pinned Deville after an Attitude Adjustment. Cena did the AA simultaneously on Elias, but the women were the legal ones in the ring. Cena and Elias worked most of the match, the women worked the last two minutes. Elias sang before the match.

(9) Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins & Finn Balor beat The Miz & The Miztourage (w/Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas) when Reigns gave Miz a Superman Punch and scored the pin. The much weaker heel team dominated a good part of the match, which went about 20 minutes.  Good performances by Miz, Rollins, and Balor.  Reigns was booed coming in for the most part, although the reaction was subdued.  Fans counted at one point happily as Miz repeatedly kicked Reigns.

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 THIS PREVIOUS REPORT: 3/13 WWE Smackdown HOLT Report: On-site observations of what happened off camera, crowd reactions, non-TV matches