7/28 WWE in Brisbane, Australia: Fan frustration with the perceived halfhearted approach to the Australian tour, lack of merchandise, notes on John Cena vs. Ryback in a tables match for the WWE Championship

WWE Live Event
Brisbane, Australia
Report by Dot Net reader Beau Dabron

Again, the merchandise stands were understocked as has been the case for the last few years. People waited in line for approximately 30 minutess only to be told at the counter they had only kids sized shirts. The selection of stuff was dominated by John Cena gear.

The staging only consisted of three giant screens and was lacking the giant lighting "X" that was part of the house show setup that they had introduced after the overhaul last year. The arena was 3/4 full. Justin Roberts came out as usual to introduce the show. He gets a great pop every year.

1. Zack Ryder over Heath Slater. Pretty standard match. Ryder won after his Ruff Ryder.

2. Natalya over Aksana. Slow match to start. Nat is way underutilized. Aksana is waste of time. Nobody really cared about this match until Nat started hitting her spots.

After the divas match, We were given a chance to twitter vote for a U.S. Title match - Brisbane Street Fight or 2-out-of-3 Falls.

3. Great Khali over Jinder Mahal. Khali received a nice pop. Khali is very stiff in the ring. Khali won with his chop.

The Miz made his entrance. He is way over here. Dean Ambrose made his entrance thru the crowd, only feet from us. That was wicked. The results were shown from the prior poll. The obvious result was the Street Fight.

4. Dean Ambrose over The Miz to retain the U.S. Title. A very good match. Kendo Sticks, chairs, and a mic all played their parts. They made their way up the aisle during the match with Miz climbing on the barricade asking for a beer right beside us. He settled for a bottle of water back at ringside. Post-Match, Ambrose returned to attack Miz as he made his way to the back. He received a Skull Crushing Finale for his efforts.

5. Curtis Axel defeated Antonio Cesaro to retain the Intercontinental Title. Paul Heyman had been advertised locally on TV but was not present. Very odd heel vs heel match but the crowd was into Antonio. There were a couple of botched spots including one poorly placed uppercut from Cesaro but overall a good match from these two.

Daniel Bryan made his entrance and the arena ate it up with the 'Yes' chants. Kane made his entrance minus the pyro - in fact there was no pyro at all thru the show which was unusual. The Shield made their entrance again thru our section.

6. Daniel Bryan and Kane beat Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns by DQ in a WWE Tag Team Championship match. The Shield retained the Tag Titles over Team Hell No after Ambrose interfered with a chair. This was an awesome match with some great spots, hot tags and "Yes/No" chants. Easily the best match of the show.

Post match Kane and Bryan cleared Roman and Seth from the ring with synchronized choke slams. Bryan cued the audio crew to cut his music and get him a mic. He polled the crowd about winning at SummerSlam and if his chokeslam was better then Kane's. Bryan made an attempt to choleslam Kane before Kane took the mic and offered to "hug it out" for the last time. Ever. Some nice comedy that the crowd was really into.

Ryback made his entrance, taking exception to the "Feed Me More Steriods" sign from some douche at ringside. Cena made his entrance.

7. John Cena defeated Ryback in a tables match to retain the WWE Championship. Overall, an OK match. The steel steps went through two tables during the match, and when they were thrown out of the ring they slid straight up the aisle on the polished concrete, almost wiping out security and the photographer. The "Goldberg" chants prompted Ryback to grab a mic mid-match and respond with "Ryback" several times. Cena won with an AA thru a table.

Justin Roberts thanked the crowd and delivered the usual line that they would return soon.

Notes: Overall, the Brisbane shows are progressively suffering from a lack of organization and star power. It feels as thou the Australian Tours have become an afterthought from the arena organization, through the merchandise stands and the show itself. WWE turns up in July/August every year and it now feels like we are simply a date on a calendar that they are obligated to attend. The Miz, Team Hell No and Ryder were the only guys that genuinely seemed as thou they enjoyed being here. Even Cena didn't seem overly thrilled to be here like previous years and was simply going thru the motions.

Whilst the was a "C-Grade" house show at best, I took three friends to their first ever show and even they thought that while the show was good, they still left with an element of disappointment. I said last year that I wasn't sure if I would attend this years show given the quality of the show last year but at the last minute I booked tickets given how hot the product has been lately. It is really hard to get a crowd excited about matches that have stars just thrown together (Ryder/Slater, Divas, Khali/Jinder) or have seen several times (eg Cena/Ryback/Tables). Unless the do a TV taping somewhere in Australia (The UK, Italy and Mexico all get them, why not Australia?) I highly doubt I will fork out the high cost of tickets to see a house show again.