WWE Live UK, Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff
This post was written by Ross Owen Williams, my better half, who attended WWE Live UK with Grace and two family friends. I was at home looking after Rex.
Just this last Saturday, Grace and I, along with a couple of our family friends, went along to the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff for a star-studded WWE Live UK show that featured the superstars of Smackdown, including Daniel Bryan, Rey Mysterio, Jeff Hardy, Randy Orton, the New Day, and WWE Champion AJ Styles.
Table of Contents
Changes to WWE Live UK tour
As soon as we got there, the first thing we noticed about WWE Live UK was that the staging had changed from what we’ve seen previously at the Motorpoint – the new set was much better and had been brought more in line with what you’ll see each week on the main WWE shows, Raw and SmackDown. Accompanied by impressive concert lighting, graphics on the LED backboard and entrance videos, each wrestler’s entrance to the arena came in grand fashion, setting the tone for a fantastic evening of entertainment.
Wrestlers Stamina
Something a lot of people don’t realise is just how much travel these performers go through and the toll that takes on them, physically and mentally. In this case, 13 of the performers had wrestled at an event in Saudi Arabia just the previous day. That’s 10 hours in the air absolute minimum, plus waiting time at airports… and, of course, they had to get from the USA to Saudi Arabia in the first place for that show, which is an even more challenging commute. Many of the wrestlers must have been exhausted but, to their credit, everyone gave a good performance from top to bottom.
The First Half
The ten-match show started with Randy Orton defeating the wildly popular Jeff Hardy – and the fact that a match between two multiple time World Champions opening the event goes to show the depth of talent WWE brought to Wales. A tag match followed between two families where twins Jimmy and Jey Uso beat cousins Primo and Epico Colon in short order and, next, a match from the WWE NXT UK division saw Mark Andrews vanquish ‘Wild Boar’ Mike Hitchman. The crowd weren’t particularly familiar with either of the UK wrestlers, especially Hitchman, but responded well to Andrews’ spectacular high-flying moves and greeted his victory with enthusiasm.
Only a week or so removed from WWE’s first ever All-Female special event, Evolution, several of the women wrestlers were given plenty of time to shine on this card, firstly in a tag team match between the fan favourite team of Asuka and Naomi, and Australian irritants The Iconics (which should, technically, be spelled with two I’s at the beginning but it looks ridiculous, so I’m not writing it…). Naomi and Asuka are both capable performers but the Australian Billie Kay and Peyton Royce aren’t yet at the level one would expect of WWE superstars, so this match lost the crowd somewhat.
The following bout, however, drew the crowd back in hugely – United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura defended his title in an excellent three-way match against Andrade ‘Cien’ Almas and lucha legend Rey Mysterio. Notably Mysterio, who has been away from WWE for four years, looked motivated and energetic, getting the crowd firmly onside until the chant of ‘619’ (the name of his finishing maneuver) boomed throughout the Motorpoint Arena. It wasn’t to be his night though, as Nakamura capitalised after Rey finally landed the 619 on Almas, throwing Mysterio out of the ring and pinning the fallen Andrade for the win.
The final match before the intermission saw Hollywood wannabe The Miz face unquestionably the most popular superstar of the evening, Daniel Bryan. Leading the crowd in his traditional ‘Yes!’ chants, Bryan was given a hero’s welcome while his obnoxious opponent was booed out of the building (figuratively, not literally…) After an entertaining bout, Bryan emerged victorious to the delight of the audience.
The Second Half
After the break, a mixed gender tag match between the husband-and-wife team of Rusev and Lana and the just-good-friends team of R-Truth and Carmella was played solely for laughs and mostly featured dancing and attempted feats of gymnastics (culminating in the 270lb Rusev failing to do the splits). Rusev and Lana won in a nice change of pace.
This led to a final run of championship matches, firstly with Tag Team Champions Cesaro and Sheamus successfully defending their titles defeating the highly popular New Day combination of Big E and Kofi Kingston. This was followed by Becky Lynch defeating Charlotte Flair to retain the SmackDown Women’s Title and, true to form for most crowds around the world, even though Lynch was supposed to be the villain, the Cardiff collective cheered her wildly and certainly more than her supposed heroine opponent.
The Final Match
Finally, AJ Styles brought the night to a close, defending his WWE World Championship by defeating the burly and vicious Samoa Joe in a no-disqualification match. While these two have wrestled a number of times on WWE TV, it was good to see the company offer up a different type of match with the no-DQ stipulation. This helped the crowd feel it wasn’t simply watching a re-run of things it had already seen. A few hard shots with a kendo stick from each man had the crowd “oohing” along and AJ moving at the last second to send Joe barrelling into – and through – a propped up foldaway table was a superb visual and exciting way to end the main event of the night.
Our Thoughts
Overall, it was yet another great evening of entertainment supplied by WWE. Even though it was our fourth year visiting the Motorpoint Arena for a WWE Live show, the promotion keep it interesting by upgrading their AV system and cycling their roster, so there are always wrestlers you’ve never seen before performing, mixed in with firm favourites. This time, it was seeing Shinsuke Nakamura and Daniel Bryan in action that was most enjoyable for me, given I’ve been a fan of both wrestlers for some time but never seen either wrestle in person. Grace enjoyed the New Day and Asuka, but was most taken with Rey Mysterio, especially since I hadn’t told her in advance that he would be appearing, so her astonished and enthusiastic reaction to his appearance made my night by itself!
Thanks once again, WWE, for a fantastic evening out!
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Disclosure: Thank you to the organisers of WWE for providing us with tickets in return for this review. Please note that all words, images and opinions have been formed by the owner of this blog and have not been influenced in any way. Please do not reproduce any of the content or images on this post without prior agreement from Verily Victoria Vocalises.
