WWE Live Event
Cardiff, Wales
Report by Dot Net reader Andy Smith (@RingGeneral)

1. Los Matadores (w/El Torito) beat The Real Americans (w/Zeb Colter. Colter made some Wales/Scotland references before the match and gave his usual across the borders speech. Everyone joined in with the We The People bit. A "We The People" chants broke out. Cesaro did his Giant Swing routine in which he completed around 14 cycles. I've read that he once done 100 spins whilst working for Chikara. Los Matadores were their usual energetic selves, with flips, hurracanranas and Ole''s. They won the match and El Torito gored Colter.

2. Wade Barrett defeated Zack Ryder. Barrett came out to cheers before cutting a promo criticizing the Welsh football team. He then removed his shirt to reveal an England football shirt to mega heat, he then stated that England would win the 2014 World Cup. Funny. He was also going by the name Bad News Barrett but still mentioned the Barrett Barrage. Ryder was sporting short hair and a goatee.  Decent match between the two. Though Ryder had changed his appearance, his in-ring style and moves were the same. Barrett won with the Bull Hammer Elbow.

3. Natalya defeated Aksana. Natalya came out a to load cheers. Aksana flirted with the referee throughout and had the majority of offense before Natalya beat her with Sharpshooter.

4. Kofi Kingston beat The Miz. Both guys played face to start the match. "Kofi Kingston" and "Miz is Awesome" chants broke out midway through. They had a decent match with some good technical wrestling in the middle, not something you would see from Miz on a TV match. Towards the end, The Miz began working more heelish generating some boos. Kofi won with Trouble in Paradise. Miz headed toward the back and gave the crowd displeased look.

5. Cody Rhodes, Goldust and Big E Langston defeated The Shield. The faces got a lot of cheers and chants especially Goldust. A very good match with The Shield working on Goldust before he was able to make the hot tag. Big E was in and cleaned house, but before the heels were back in. There was a spear and a Beautiful Disaster Kick before Cody got the win with a roll up.

6. Santino beat Fandango (w/Summer Rae). Fandango entered with the crowd singing his theme tune, Santino then entered to cheers. The Twitter poll was in and the result.... A dance off. Each competitor(?) bust their moves, threw some shapes, strut their stuff... which obviously concluded in Santino winning. This displeased Fandango, who attacked Santino who then fought back and sent Fandango packing.

7. Damien Sandow defeated Dolph Ziggler. Sandow had the mic and made fun of us Welsh, he claimed he was still the uncrowned champion even though he no longer had his briefcase and that we were welcome. Good match between the two with some good near falls. Ziggler done his usual crazy selling, get that man on the concession stands! The crowd was into the match with Ziggler chants and everyone buying into the near falls. Ziggler hit his Fameasser for a close two count before Sandow won with his Full Nelson Slam.

8. Randy Orton defeated Big Show to retain the WWE Championship. Randy Orton vs. Daniel Bryan had been advertised both by WWE.com and the Arena/Ticket office website as the main event. Instead, Big Show came out in his place. "We Want Bryan" chants broke out before Orton grabbed the mic and said that was tough because he had put him in hospital back in the U.S. Poor, very poor by the WWE that this was the way his no-show was addressed. They had even been showing Tweets on the big screens from fans hash-tagging #WWECardiff inside the arena who were saying they 'couldn't wait to see Bryan beat Orton Yes! Yes! Yes!'

So the match started to a chorus of boos. The usual match between the two. Orton hit his draping DDT and Show hit the chokeslam before Corporate Kane's music hit and appeared on the stage in a suit. In the meantime, Orton hit an RKO (which I think everyone missed as we were all looking towards the stage), he then pinned Show for the win. Kane came to the ring and was joined by the Shield, they all began to beat down the Big Show. Show fought everyone off, throwing a few KO punches sending the heels packing. He then got on the mic and thanked everyone for coming and apologized for Bryan not being there. 

Notes: The arena was full with loads of kids, mostly sporting John Cena attire. It was very good show until the main event. The Bryan no-show put a massive downer on the event with fans not really interested in the final bout. I appreciate that the card 'is subject to change' and while the reshuffling of undercard matches can be expected, the change of the main event is pretty low for a major entertainment company such as WWE, especially the way it was handled. 

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