WWE SMACKDOWN ON-SITE REPORT (6/30): What happened off-air, top crowd pops, more in-person observations

WWE SMACKDOWN ON-SITE REPORT
JUNE 30, 2023
LONDON, ENGLAND
REPORT BY ARJUN, PWTORCH CORRESPONDENT

Top of the Pops (British TV show reference)

1. Sami/KO – first act on the main show. Crowd was singing throughout

2. LA Knight – initial pop explosion and LA Knight chants throughout until he showed up

3. Roman Reigns – was a long entrance, not much cheering/booing but people were standing throughout and arms up ☝️

Special mentions: Big pop for the Usos and Logan Paul was booed a lot. Wade Barrett also got a nice pop when he entered. Bayley got her usual British chants!

Merchandise

Apologies, I forgot to take a photo, but they had MITB briefcases, mini briefcases, MITB “I was here” t-shirts with Seth Rollins on the front, a few commemorative t-shirts including “London 3:16.” A Bloodline Civil War t-shirt. A KO shirt (a lot of people wearing those). Bloodline hats. Title belts, WWE necklaces.

The t-shirts were £35 ($45) each. It’s more than I’d prefer to pay. But I expected it to be a lot more. So I suppose it’s reasonable?

Attendance/View

I’ve attached a photo but it was pretty full by the time the show started. The arena is split into Ground, 100 level (where I was), VIP 200 level, and 400 level. It was packed. Even at the 400 level.

I can’t imagine there would have been a bad view in the whole arena really.

I paid about £300ish ($380) for both SD and MITB in a combo ticket. Same seat for both nights.

Demographics

55% men. 40% women. 5% kids (mainly boys).
I’d say it was mostly adults who were 25+ and the kids were 11 or younger. Didn’t see many teenagers or university students.

Pre-TV Dark Matches

(1) The LWO beat The OC

Post-TV Dark Matches

Sheamus vs. Austin Theory

Karrion Kross vs. A.J. Styles

I didn’t stay for the post show matches, but they seemed to be practice matches for the upcoming MSG show.

Event Flow

Only one backstage recording to explain Ridge Holland vs Austin Theory. The show actually started at 8 p.m. in the UK (preshow at 7:40), and ended at 9:45 minus the post show dark matches. So it flowed really well because of the lack of screen watching.

(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.)