7/27 WWE in Brisbane, Australia: Ryback bothered by a fan sign, Kane and Daniel Bryan challenge Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns for the WWE Tag Titles, Curtis Axel vs. Antonio Cesaro for the Intercontinental Title

WWE Live Event
Brisbane, Australia
Report by Dot Net reader Mick Small

Justin Roberts welcomes us to the show before introducing the first match up for the evening. 

1. Zack Ryder beat Heath slater. Slater with a flurry of offense, then Ryder struck back with Broski boot followed by Rough-Ryder for the finish. Fair heat for slater. Fair pop for Ryder. 

2. Natalya beat Aksana. Aksana came out to crickets. Natalya received a nice pop for her music. The match was a typical Divas match. Lots of holds. Not a lot of offense. Aksana worked Natalya's knee a lot. There was a funny point where the Divas rolled over the referee and the referee jumped to his feet in excitement. And after several attempts, Natalya locked in the Sharpshooter. They teased a rope break before Natalya dragged Aksana back to the middle for the tapout finish. 

3. The Great Khali defeated Jinder Mahal. Jinder got in his offense early. Khali countered with his chest slap in two corners before Jinder took control again through the middle portion. Khali countered late and won with his karate chop. 

4. Dean Ambrose beat The Miz to retain the U.S. Championship in a Brisbane street fight. The crowd voting via twitter decided upon a Brisbane street fight stipulation. Ambrose introduced a kendo stick early on before setting up chairs squeezed between top and middle ropes in opposing corners. He also introduced a second kendo stick and a spanner (really???). Miz beat Ambrose with kendo stick before sending Ambrose into one of the strategically placed chairs. Ambrose dropped to ringside where Miz hit him with water bottle, followed by the microphone. At this point, Justin Roberts had no chair to sit on. Ambrose returned serve and backdropped Miz on Roberts' chair in the middle of the ring. The finish came with Ambrose's face plant move in the middle of the ring. As Miz left the arena, Ambrose returned and Miz supplied the Skull-Crushing Finale to send it to intermission. 

Side note: the spanner??? What the hell???

5. Curtis Axel over Antonio Cesaro to retain the Intercontinental Championship. Surprising support for Cesaro and his 'We the People' schtick. Great match with some great spots including a superplex from the top rope. Axel won with the superplex for the win. 

6. Kane and Daniel Bryan beat Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns by DQ in a WWE Tag Team Championship match. Great match back and forth lots and lots of support for Kane and Daniel Bryan. The were both hugely popular every time they tagged in and out. Dean Ambrose interfered with a steel chair for the DQ. There was a fun bit after the match with Bryan and Kane both chokeslamming either Rollins or Ambrose. Then there was a fun bit on the mic with Bryan asking if he can beat Cena at SummerSlam, which the crowd responded to with loud chants of 'YES!!!' He then asked if he has a better choke slam than Kane, met with a mixture but mostly 'NO!!!' Kane took the mic to announce 'for one of the final times' should Kane and Bryan 'hug it out.' Both superstars obliged and the crowd was left happy. 

7. John Cena beat Ryback in a tables match to retain the WWE Championship. Ryback entered first and spotted one idiot in the crowd holding a 'feed me more STEROIDS' poster. He seemed legitimately upset at this. Enter the champ. The usual power game by Ryback, which included throwing Cena into the steel stairs, throwing the steel stairs into the ring. There were loud chants of 'GOLDBERG!!!' reigning out throughout the arena. Ryback dove to ringside and grabbed the microphone to start chanting 'RYBACK!!!' paying particular attention to the one aforementioned clown.

The action returned to the ring. Ryback was about the use steel stairs to put Cena through the first table set up in the ring. Cena avoided and the first table was destroyed. Ryback fetched a second table from beneath the ring and whilst trying to use the stairs again. Cena avoided a second time and table number two was destroyed. A third table was retrieved by Ryback and after a flurry of back and forth close finishers, Cena put Ryback through the third table with an Attitude Adjustment to send the crowd home happy. 

Notes: This was my first ever live event and I travelled 1,500km, with my girlfriend to see it. Besides having some uncontrolled screaming children behind us all night, a very enjoyable night. The one disappointing aspect was that they had no Daniel Bryan shirts at the merchandise stand. That was the one thing I wanted to buy more than anything. I guess I will order it online.

Biggest Pops
Bryan and Kane
Cena
Zack Ryder

Most Heat
The Shield
Ryback
3MB members