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WWE Live Event
Saint John, New Brunswick at Harbor Station
Report by Dot Net reader Josh Kotsab
1. Cesaro and Sheamus defeated The Revival to retain the Raw Tag Team Titles. Really good match. The crowd was super hot for the first match and Cesaro and Sheamus were super over as a babyface tag team. Lots of playing to the crowd by both teams and cheap heat by Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson. Sheamus got the hot tag and finished off the Revival with a Brogue Kick.
2. Jason Jordan defeated Elias. Kudos to WWE. Harbor Station is a small venue and they managed to sneak Elias, his guitar, his stool and mic in the ring with most missing it. Lots of heat for Elias, who sang about our city’s landmarks and people. Cue Jason Jordan. I never understand this about WWE and they do this every time they’re here, they are in Canada and they have an American come out as the conquering hero whenever someone bashes us. Elias is dumping on our city and people then Jordan’s music hits with his image draped over an American flag on the tron. The crowd went MILD. No reaction. Same thing happened when someone bashed our city and then Jack Swagger came out for the save a couple years ago. Nothing against the USA or Americans, but Canadians don’t care for over the top patriotic American gimmicks and it showed here. Aside from a couple “Who’s your Daddy” chants to Jordan, he was mostly ignored.
3. Alexa Bliss defeated Nia Jax and Sasha Banks in a Triple Threat to retain the Raw Women’s Championship. Big pop for all three women. Great match, but it was very quick, maybe eight minutes or so. Nia did a great job throwing Sasha around. Bliss threw some stiff shots to Jax. Great show. The match ended when Sasha had Nia in the Bank Statement but Bliss came from behind with a school boy.
4. Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins defeated Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson. Gallows and Anderson came out first followed by Rollins. The crowd assumed Gallows and Anderson would be working the Hardy’s and before Rollins’ music hit there were very loud “DELETE!” chants. Turns out Jeff can’t cross our border though. Rollins hopped on the mic and explained why he missed the Halifax show, but then said Dean Ambrose was unable to make this show due to issues getting from Halifax. The crowd booed. Rollins said he’s fine with a handicap match. Good work for the handicap portion. Gallows and Anderson work Rollins over, then Ambrose’s music hit towards the end. Ambrose ran to the ring and hopped on the apron for the hot tag. Ambrose cleaned house with his typical spots and hit Dirty Deeds on Anderson for the W. After the match Rollins and Anderson shook hands, but Ambrose denied Rollins the hug. Each man went their separate ways and shook hands with the crowd. Rollins and Ambrose were super over.
Intermission
5. Neville defeated Akira Tozawa to retain the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. Not a bad match. Neville was great at playing the crowd. In my section, Neville seemed to get more cheers than Tozawa. Lots of “Neville Level” chants. One thing that stuck out to me was that Tozawa had almost zero offense with the exception of a couple of weak chops and a suicide dive. Neville got the clean win via tap out in the Rings of Saturn
6. Finn Balor defeated Bray Wyatt by DQ. Big pops for both guys. Crowd was doing the firefly bit for Wyatt and throwing their arms in the air on cue for Balor’s entrance. One thing I noticed about Wyatt on the house show circuit is that he seemed to have more fun. Wyatt gave Balor a DX chop to some laughs from the audience. Wyatt seemed less sinister in the beginning of the match and more goofy. He got more into his regular character as it progressed. The match ended when Balor went for the Coup de Grace only for Wyatt to slip out of the ring. Balor tried to grab him but gets a shot from a chair for the DQ victory. Post match, Balor fought back and ends up hitting Coup de Grace.
7. Roman Reigns defeated Samoa Joe and Braun Strowman in a Triple Threat. Big pops for Braun and Joe. Massively loud reaction to Roman. It sounded like mostly boos, but the kids loved him. Lots of hard hitting moments. Braun is massive in person. He made Joe look like a little person. There were a couple of cool spots where crowd thought the match was over. Roman hit a Superman punch on Joe, who gave a great near fall kick out at 2 3/4 and then Strowman did the same thing moments later after he launched Roman into the air who came down with a Superman punch. The steel steps got involved at one point. They eliminated Strowman from the equation leaving Roman to hit the spear on Joe for the win. After the match, Roman shook hands with everyone at ringside and took selfies.
One thing about Joe. I’ve never liked it when guys come to small towns like Saint John and do it half assed. I got the vibe he didn’t care about being there. I get that it’s a small city and these guys aren’t going to be going full tilt like it’s WrestleMania but come on… An example being, Joe walked to the ring looking like a bad ass like he usually does. He got in and went face to face with Braun, then seconds later was whispering something to ring announcer Mike Rome and then both of them start chuckling with one another. Another thing about him was his spots seemed extremely telegraphed. It was a shame I picked up on these things because I usually love his work.
Notes: It was actually a really good show. I typically find the house shows here to be a little drawn out and dull with only one or two big names and the rest of the card filled with the low card talent. Not tonight though. Stellar show and the guys and gals worked really hard. One flaw that stood out before I talk about the event was the merch stand. I don’t wear a lot of wrestling gear, but I always like to buy at least one t-shirt from each event I’ve been to just as part of my collection that I display. The merch stand was busy, but it’s like WWE had nothing to sell. Hardys, Seth Rollins, AJ Styles, Dean Ambrose, and Roman Reigns shirts all sold out minutes within the doors opening. The Alexa Bliss and Sasha Banks shirts were in ladies sizes only and other merch only available in kids sizes after a few minutes. I walked away with a program so I could at least display something that I bought at this show, but the program was from last summer and all it had detailed was the “new” roster for Raw and Smackdown after last year’s draft including the Dudleys featured on Raw and babyface Usos with face paint on Smackdown.
Biggest Pops
3- Balor
2- Rollins
1- Ambrose when he came out half way through the match
Most Heat:
3- The Revival
2- Elias
1- Roman from the adult men
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