11/9 WWE in Birmingham, England: Big Show apologizes for Daniel Bryan's absence, Randy Orton vs. Big Show for the WWE Championship, Dean Ambrose vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Big E Langston for the U.S. Title

WWE Live Event
Birmingham, England at the LG Arena
Report by Dot Net contributor Darren Gutteridge

1. Diego (w/Fernando and El Torito) beat Jack Swagger (w/Zeb Colter). Zeb cut basically the same promo he cut last year, confusing Birmingham for Manchester. Decent match. Flashy offence early on from Diego popped the crowd, until Swagger began to dominate. A Diego and Fernando switcheroo lead to the finish, where Fernando kicked Swagger during the Swagger Bomb and rolled him up. Zeb got gored by Torito after the match.

2. Dean Ambrose defeated Dolph Ziggler and Big E Langston in a Triple Threat to retain the U.S. Title. Best match of the night for me. Ambrose and Ziggler did the bulk of the work with Big E selling on the outside. Lots of nice close counts preceded Big E hitting Ziggler with the running body check, only for Ambrose to throw him out and pin Ziggler to retain. Ziggler and Big E left together after they raised each other arms.

3. Natalya defeated Aksana. Dull. Aksana was on offense for most, and it devolved into a waiting game for her to do something not PG rated. She didn't, and eventually Natalya applied the Sharpshooter out of nowhere.

4. Kofi Kingston beat The Miz. Lots of early counters. Miz switched to heel mode fairly early on, working the leg for the figure four before getting caught by the Trouble in Paradise. The crowd carried on booing as Miz left. Pretty standard live event match.

5. Cody Rhodes and Goldust beat Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns to retain the WWE Tag Team Titles. This match woke the crowd up. It was basically a house show version of their usual matches. Long stall from Goldust for the hot tag on Cody, and after Reigns had been taken out, the finish came when Goldust hit Rollins with a throat thrust and Cody rolled him up. After the match, Rollins and Reigns attacked Cody until Goldust ran into the ring with a chair to scare them off.

Intermission.

Santino beat Fandango in a dance off, which was voted for by audience  over a traditional match via Twitter. Fandango and Summer Rae went first, before Santino did some break dancing to "It Takes Two." Fandango attacked Santino after he won, but got hit by the Cobra. Damien Sandow came out to interrupt, and attacked Santino in the ring. He cut a by-the-numbers Sandow promo before his match, saying he was still the uncrowned World Champion.

6. Damien Sandow beat Zack Ryder. Extended squash. Sandow won with the Silencer.

7. Randy Orton defeated Big Show to retain the WWE Title. They basically had the same match they had last time I saw them live earlier in the year. The finish came when Corporate Kane walked out, and distracted everyone (inc. the audience) so Orton could hit the RKO.

The Shield came out to beat up Show. They set up the triple powerbomb, but Show threw them off, chokeslammed The Shield before KO punching Orton. Corporate Kane walked away before Show got to him. Show thanked the crowd, and apologized for Daniel Bryan's absence (lots of Bryan and Yes chants throughout the night).

Notes: The place was about 80% full, lots of kids. Kofi, Show, Santino and Dolph were over big. Mixed feelings for Orton, and The Shield got the only true heat of the night. A few strong matches on the undercard pushed this above the previous show here, but it had the same main event, and I'm gutted that Bryan, Punk, and especially the Wyatts didn't appear.