5/27 WWE in Springfield – Detailed Report on Reigns-Styles, Charlotte vs. “Birthday” Natalya, The Club vs. Hype Bros.

WWE Live Results
May 27, 2016
Springfield, Ill.
Report by P. Alphin, PWTorch reader

I was on fence about going to the show Friday night, but I talked myself into going because of Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens. They are a major reason why I returned to wrestling. I purchased a group lot of wrestling DVDs on eBay few years back. In that lot, I discovered El Generico and Kevin Steen from a couple of PWG shows and I have been hooked since.

(1) Enzo & Big Cass beat the Dudley Boys. E&C had great reaction and both teams played to the crowd a bunch. Seeing Enzo was fun; he was another reason I went. Good match overall.

(2) Titus O’Neil beat Viktor. Titus had a marginal reaction and Viktor none. The match was very lacking. I think Titus’s finish was just throwing Viktor.

They aired a Kevin Owens promo saying how he doesn’t want to be here in Springfield and he shouldn’t have to face Sami, as he’s already proven he’s better.

(3) Goldust beat Tyler Breeze. Goldust had a good nostalgia pop. I personally thought seeing Tyler was neat unfortunately not much reaction for him. Fandango came down to cheer on Tyler, but then R-Truth came down to beat up Fandango. I don’t believe either interfered, so this was odd. Truth sang his song at the end of the match, and Goldust played a skit that he couldn’t dance.

They aired a Sami Zayn promo about wanting to win against Kevin Owens tonight.

(4) The Club (Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows) beat the Hype Bros. (Zack Ryder & Mojo Rawley). Both received decent pops. Mojo seems to be on something.

(5) Sami Zayn beat Kevin Owens. Good match, but they seemed to hold back for the main matches to stand out. Mid-match, Kevin cut a promo about how he had enough. He also said he likes Shelbyville more (the “Simpsons” reference seems old), then he walked off. But, Sami chased him down and the match resumed.

[Intermission]

(6) Apollo Crews beat Sheamus. Sheamus cut some sort of promo at the beginning about wanting to be king, or something. Okay match, but nothing special.

(7) Women’s champion Charlotte beat Natalya on her birthday. This was a very good match. Charlotte worked on Nattie’s knee or shin throughout, then put feet on the ropes to secure the pin. Nattie received a standing ovation at end of the match as they had crowd on edge most the match. She displayed a limp to play up post-match emotions.

(8) WWE World Hvt. champion Roman Reigns beat A.J. Styles. This was also a very good match. I could say this or the Women’s match were match of the night. They had some people on the nearfalls. As for reaction, Roman seemed to get two-thirds cheers and one-thirds boods, so mid-to-low markets are mixed, too. A.J. got a mixed reaction, too, and was about the same, but maybe closer to 50/50.

The loudest pop was either Roman or Natalya post-match – pretty much everyone was cheering for that moment.