4/27 WWE Live Event Report – Birmingham, U.K.: Cody vs. Balor headlines, notable crowd reactions for Bayley and Belair, Lashley vs. Theory, Seth vs. Miz

WWE LIVE EVENT REPORT
APRIL 27, 2023
BIRMINGHAM, U.K.
REPORT BY NICK-MILTON KEYNES, PWTORCH VIP MEMBER

Arena was 95 percent full just some seats at the top of the bowl not sold.

Sarah Shreiber was ring announcer, promoting merch, getting the crowd going, and ringing the bell so a busy night for her but she was great at getting the crowd involved and setting the scene

(1) Seth Rollins defeated The Miz

A really quality opener which got the crowd going early. Miz with lots of talk on the mic – he is so under rated in my opinion – if WWE made him a bit more serious, he can put on a really good match – Seth was Seth and the crowd lapped it up

(2) Rick Boogs defeated Baron Corbin

This was dumb – Boogs came out and rolled Corbin up and got the 3 count, NO OTHER MOVES – then he just ran to the back – such a waste of time, I can’t stand Rick Boogs – he is like the Ultimate Warrior if you bought it from Wish.com – wasn’t even a proper match

Then Corbin said he wasn’t ready etc and then out came Butch and they had a really good match! Corbin can get a good match out of anyone and I think Butch is from Birmingham?

(3) Butch defeated Baron Corbin

(4) Bobby Lashley beat Austin Theory via DQ, so Theory retained the U.S. Title

A good match. Lashley was strong and Theory is looking so good live. I don’t appreciate how big he is on TV. Bronson Reed attacked Lashley causing a DQ. Lashley was really over with the crowd, but I can’t stand that fist pump thing!

(5) Alpha Acadamy defeated Maximum Male Models (Mace & Mansour without Maxine)

No Maxxine at ringside, by the way. A fun match – I like AA as faces; they are both so likeable and Chad Gable is some wrestler. Gable kind of took Mace and Mansoir to school a bit without making them look foolish. Otis did the worm and everyone was happy with this one

(6) Bianca Belair beat Asuka and Bailey (w/Iyo Sky, Dakota Kai) to retain the Raw Title

A wierd one. Bailey is so over here, the crowd was just singing her name (I remember the same at Clash at the Castle) so she had to really work hard to stay face and take the crowd out of the match which she did brilliantly! Just the right amount of presence from Damage CTRL as well. To be honest, Auska didn’t need to be there; she just muddied the waters when it was her versus Bianca. What can we say about Bianca? Her gimmick is stale, I can’t stand the hair twirling and ass slapping, but she is so over with the young female audience which I have never witnessed before last night and is outside of my sphere of reference in my normal life as I don’t know any young girls! So I can see why she keeps it up – they are SO ENGAGED with her, so don’t expect that to change anytime soon.

(7) Bronson Reed defeated Dexter Lumis

Wasn’t a squash match but as close as you can get without making Lumis look like a jobber. Reed won quite comfortably and then Lashley came out for a bit of revenge and was followed by Theory who was made to look a bit of a chump so the crowd thought that was funny

(8) Damien Priest (w/Dominik Mysterio) defeated Dolph Ziggler

Priest was great. Dom was making a pest of himself just enough without it being annoying. He is so good on the mic and it was my highlight of the night seeing him. Ziggler was Ziggler – stale and boring. The crowd was pretty cold on him, but he is athletic and can still work so he was the perfect bumping opponent for Priest who introduced…

(9) Cody Rhodes defeated Finn Balor

Cody didn’t get as big of a reaction as I thought he would, but the crowd warmed up as the match went on. Dom and Priest didn’t interfere too much but were sent to the back at the end of the match. Very competitive. Cody won with the Crossroads ,but felt like he was wrestling from underneath which was odd considering Balor’s size. I suppose the interference was supposed to tell the story. Cody then spoke to the crowd about how grateful he is for the UK when he left WWE as he was over most months for independents such as Whatculture Wrestling so that was a nice way to send the fans home

FINAL THOUGHTS: Had a great time. My ticket was £75 and the view was great, really close to ring in 1st tier of seating – centre ring. The only disappointment was not seeing L.A. Knight – he is my jam! Great time was had by all. I’d rate the show an 8.5 out of 10. I would deffo go again – couldn’t get a ticket for Money in the Bank, though.

(If you attend a live event from WWE, AEW, or any other wrestling promotion, please send a report formatted like the above report with as much detail and analysis as you like to pwtorch@pwtorch.com.)