10 YRS AGO – WWE Live Event Report (3/15/2014): The Usos vs. Real Americans vs. Rhodes Brother, Cena vs. Orton in a cage match, plus Kofi, Mark Henry, Natalya, Sheamus, Del Rio, Barrett, more

The following report originally published 10 years ago this week here at PWTorch.com…

WWE Live show results
March 15, 2014
Austin, Tex.
Report by PWTorch VIP member Jason Embry

Half of the roster was in Austin on Saturday night and half was at a house show in Laredo – and, boy, could you tell. I saw several families walking in with signs for wrestlers who were nowhere in sight, like Daniel Bryan and The Shield.

(1) WWE Tag Champions The Usos beat the Real Americans and the Rhodes Brothers in a three-team match to retain the Tag Titles. Good, fast-paced opener. Lots of action. Usos got the win with a splash off the top rope onto Jack Swagger. No overt signs of dissension with the Real Americans. Swagger, who went to Oklahoma, came out taunting the UT fans in Austin.

(2) Darren Young beat Titus O’Neil. O’Neil cut a heel promo on the Longhorns beforehand. Young came out in a NoH8 hoodie to a pretty good response. Young rolled him up in less than a minute. O’Neil said he kicked out at two and he wouldn’t leave until he got another opponent. So, Kofi Kingston came out.

(3) Kofi Kingston beat Titus O’Neil. Kofi rolled him up in less than a minute. Then, “Bad News” Barrett’s music hit. The bad news was that Kofi had to immediately face Barrett. Barrett and Titus started to beat up Kofi, but Young ran in. So, Raw GM Brad Maddox made a surprise appearance to make a tag match.

(4) Kofi Kingston & Darren Young beat Titus O’Neil & Wade Barrett. Decent match. Kofi pinned Titus.

(5) Sheamus beat Alberto Del Rio. Somewhat mixed reaction for Del Rio, as is usually the case in Austin. The crowd was really into this match. Lots of nearfalls. Sheamus won with the Brogue Kick.

Afterward, Sheamus shook a lot of hands. Without being asked or anything, when he saw a seven-year-old sitting next to me at ringside, he took his armband off and gave it to the kid. As the father of two young boys myself, I thought it was an awesome moment – the kid was in awe. Very cool.

[Merchandise break. I mean, intermission.]

(6) Natalya & Eva Marie beat Alicia Fox & a returning Layla. Not a great match. Only Natalya got much of a reaction walking to the ring, helped by the Bret Hart music. Natalya won for her team when Fox submitted to the Sharpshooter.

(7) Mark Henry beat Damien Sandow. Sandow did some great heel mic work before the match. Really good at getting heat. Henry was very over in his home market, winning with the World’s Strongest Slam. Afterward, he said he knows there has been talk about retirement, but he has a lot of “gas left in the tank.”

Next was John Cena vs. Randy Orton in a steel cage main event. I thought Cena said their recent Raw match would be their last. Also, this was the dark match main event (minus the cage) when Raw was here in December. Anyway, both guys got mixed reactions, but more boos than cheers for Orton and more cheers than boos for Cena.

(8) WWE World Hvt. champion Randy Orton beat John Cena in a steel cage match to retain the WWE World TItle. Lots of near-escapes, finishers hit and kicked out of, etc. Ultimately, the ref was bumped, Orton landed a low blow, and he escape through the door to retain the title.

After the match, he returned to go after Cena with a chair, but Cena turned things around and Orton left the cage. Surprisingly, no post-match talking from Cena. But, he did make a great effort to greet kids and soldiers at ringside. The show ended.

Overall Thoughts/Other Notes:

— Not a fan of the split roster. The hottest acts (Bryan, Shield, Wyatts) were absent. The result was only six real matches (counting all the Titus stuff as one).

— The arena was about 40 percent full. No mention of a specific return date. There were no “Yes!” chants all night.

— Biggest pop by far was Cena. Best of the rest: Sheamus, Usos, Natalya, Henry, Orton.

— Just looking around my section, Cena merchandise (some old and some newly purchased) far exceeded all others.

— There were several WWE Network plugs from ring announcer Justin Roberts.