WWE Live Event
Oakland, California
Report by Dot Net reader Sean Faulkner

This was my first house show since I was probably around ten (16-ish years ago), so it was interesting to see how the non-televised shows have changed since then. This was my girlfriend's first WWE show (she has gone to a handful of local indy shows with me), so I will include some of her comments from the night as I think it is interesting to hear what non-fans react to.

1. Big E defeated Fandango and Ryback in a Triple Threat match to retain the Intercontinental Title via Big Ending on Fandango. This was probably my favorite match of the night.

2. Curtis Axel defeated Zack Ryder. During Axel's entrance, my girlfriend said "I have never even heard of or seen this guy." Axel bores me so we used this as a break to get food. Ran in to a friend of mine out there who used the match for the same purpose.

3. Cameron defeated Alicia Fox (w/Aksana). The crowd voted for the match to be a dancing contest. Alicia danced first to the Macarena. Cameron danced to her theme before Alicia and Aksana attacked her and fled. Cameron got the mic and challenged Alicia to an actual match, which she won. My girlfriend thought the dance part was great/hilarious and asked why the men don't do that.

4. Mark Henry and Xavier Woods defeated the Real Americans (w/Zeb Colter). Dutch/Zeb cut an entertaining promo saying he was happy to be in San Francisco, until Jack Swagger pointed out we weren't in SF and Dutch changed his tune and ripped on Oakland sports teams and pointed out illegal immigrants in the crowd. A good match with Woods doing most of the work for his team until he made the hot tag to Henry, who won the match. 


After the match, Henry's music stopped and Xavier Woods's music started (I didn't know he had his own music) and he started dancing in the ring and tried to get Mark back in the ring to dance with him. Mark resisted before coming in to dance for a minute. My girlfriend's wish came true.

Intermission. I think it is noteworthy that they were still selling CM Punk shirts and pendants at the merch stand. Most of the merch available was for guys not even on the show (Punk, Daniel Bryan, The Wyatts, The Usos, Batista), along with Randy Orton and John Cena stuff.

5. Darren Young defeated Titus O'Neil. CAN I HAVE SOME DECORUM PLEASE. Wade Barrett came out after Darren won and said he had some bad news, his scheduled opponent did not show up. This led to some pretty loud CM Punk chants. Barrett challenged Young to a match.

6. Darren Young defeated Bad News Barrett via backslide pin.

7. Alberto Del Rio defeated the Miz via submission. Del Rio cut a promo before the match about Batista. Right when the AWESOME sound byte played, my girlfriend said, "Oh, I forgot about the Miz, where is he?" I laughed and said that he was coming out right now. She was very excited because "he was her favorite Real Worlder in 8th grade." There were some pretty loud CM Punk chants during this match.

8. Randy Orton defeated John Cena in a cage match to retain the WWE World Heavyweight Championship by escaping through the door in a steel cage match.
The crowd was 95 percent pro-Cena. Randy got some cheers, too. Some guy near me tried to get the dueling "Let's go Cena/Cena sucks" chants going, but he was doing both parts himself. Pick one, don't say both. During the match, my girlfriend said, "God, I can't wait for this match to end." Apparently, she would fit in well amongst the IWC.
Orton won via a low blow which allowed him to escape. He came back in with a chair but Cena reversed a chair shot attempt in to an AA to send the crowd home happy.

No return date was announced (that I heard, at least) and I thought it was strange that there were no plugs for Mania 31 in Santa Clara, which is less than an hour drive away.

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