WWE Smackdown in Glasgow: Randy Orton vs. Big Show, Fandango vs. Ted DiBiase, Alicia Fox vs. Natalya, Mark Henry vs. The Great Khali

WWE Smackdown live event
Glasgow, Scotland
Report by Dot Net reader Chris Kraig

The arena was sold-out as it always is when WWE comes here. It had most of the main talent from SmackDown although for some reason, WWE elected to have Dolph Ziggler tour with the Raw brand despite being the World Heavyweight Champion. That meant that the Raw side of the tour has the two World Champions while the SmackDown side has no World title main event. Disappointed that AJ and the Bellas weren't there aswell. On the plus side, the New Age Outlaws were on the tour. Anyway, our seats were more or less in the same area as the last few times although a little higher up.

1. Drew McIntyre, Jinder Mahal, Santino Marella and Alex Riley beat Primo, Epico and The Prime Time Players. In the past, I've always had an idea of the matches as Glasgow is almost never the first show so it was nice to not know this time. This is the fourth or fifth time McIntyre has returned to Scotland since he broke through to the main roster. WWE has tried to have him play a heel once by turning on the fans but the last few times, he's always been a face. Anyway, he came out with Mahal to the 3MB music and the music actually got booed until he was announced and he then got loads of cheers. He came out wearing the Scottish soccer/football top and waved the flag.

The match was good, McIntyre was on fire and you could tell he was amped up from the reaction he was getting. McIntyre got beat down a bit until he made the hot tag to Santino and then Santino set up for the Cobra. He put it on his arm and then pulled another one out for McIntyre and they then hit a Double Cobra. They did the double pin and the faces celebrated.

McIntyre ended up in the ring along and the Shield came through the crowd and threw out Santino and Riley. Mahal had disappeared and then they beat down McIntyre to huge boos. They eventually gave him the Powerbomb before talking on the mic and saying that justice had finally come to Scotland and justice would be served in their match.

2. Fandango beat Ted DiBiase. Fandango got a good cheer when he came out and the humming of Fandango's theme began right away. The reaction to it in London will be just like on the post-Mania Raw. Fandango was accompanied to the ring by NXT diva Summer Rae. They did the whole dancing bit before Fandango got on the mic and went to pronounce his name only for DiBiase's music to interrupt.

I knew from his tweets DiBiase was coming over and it's nice to see him back from his injury problems. He had a bit of fun at the beginning of the match by doing the hand motions to the humming of Fandango's theme, which kept coming back in spells from the crowd. DiBiase also did the Gangnam Style dance which got a cheer. One section started a Johnny Curtis chant which made Fandango exit the ring to mouth off to them.

Decent match. Fandango got the victory in the end. He didn't use his usual finisher, he used something else but I can't remember what. After not liking Fandango at the beginning, I do now and I hope his character manages to sustain in WWE. After the match, Fandango said his name.

3. Natalya beat Alicia Fox. Second time I've been treated to this match on the live event circuit in a few years. Hornswoggle was the special guest ring announcer and introduced Natalya first who got a good cheer. No real reaction for Fox when she came out but she turns heel and face all the time so even if WWE did invest time in it's diva division, I doubt people would know how to react. It was an okay match, the crowd weren't really into it at all and the divas don't really try and get the crowd involved, especially Fox. The only real reactions were when Natalya was in a sleeper, when they traded slaps and the Sharpshooter at the end that Natalya won with. Natalya danced with Hornswoggle a bit in the ring.

4. Mark Henry beat The Great Khali. You can imagine the excitement in the arena as the crowd realized the match that they were going to be treated too. Henry got booed when he came out and Khali didn't get much of a reaction. Khali can barely walk, he struggles to pull himself onto the apron. Unsurprisingly, the match was awful and pretty boring. The crowd was mostly quiet during it although at one stage the Fandango theme propped up again. Why WWE would put this as a match on the card when they know it's going to be woeful, I don't know but Henry won with the World's Strongest Slam.

5. Randy Orton defeated Big Show. It was good to know that at least this match wouldn't be bad. Big Show was out first and got a very mixed response and it stayed that way throughout the match. Orton came out to huge cheers as expected. The match started off slow but picked up and was pretty good, Orton pulled out most of his big moves including the DDT off of the ropes and the finish came when Big Show went for the WMD that Orton ducked. Orton then hit the RKO to a huge cheer and picked up the win.

Afterwards, Orton spent a lot of time at ringside and at the ramp clapping fans hands and such. I always like to see that because even as a face, they could just slap a couple hands and go behind the curtain and be done but it's nice to see them spend some time at ringside. Orton blew a kiss from the ramp and then headed backstage.

Intermission

6. Wade Barrett beat Justin Gabriel to retain the Intercontinental Title. I think Barrett was looking forward to coming to Glasgow and ripping into us, numerous tweets about how it was his first time here. Barrett took the microphone and kept up the usual Scottish-English banter by telling us that tonight he was going to show us what a class act and a real man looks like. He said something like you wouldn't get that in a 'hellhole like Glasgow' which got great heat. Gabriel was out next to a decent reaction but he's never on TV either so a lot of people don't recognize the music. Good enough match, Barrett won it with the Bullhammer after preventing Gabriel's 450 splash.

7. Alberto Del Rio beat Jack Swagger in a No DQ match. Not really a fan of Swagger or Colter but they did their bit and entertained me. They did their talk about how the UK has a lot of the same problems as the USA and he said that immigrants come in and try and take everything we have. This actually got a bit of a cheer which Colter responded to by saying 'even some of you agree with me'. They talked about how they were going to claim Glasgow as part of Jack Swagger's America. Del Rio came out to a very good reaction, the crowd loved Rodriguez introducing Del Rio and did it along with him. Lots of 'Si' chants and 'Del Rio' chants, he was very over.

Earlier in the night, Lilian Garcia had said we had to decide if Colter got to stay at ringside by tweeting #ZebStays or #ZebGoes throughout the night. Colter was rejected and sent to the back and this got a good cheer. Del Rio and Rodriguez had some fun with the flag Swagger brought at the start. Good match though which Del Rio won with the cross armbreaker.

Lilian Garcia at this point thanked us for coming and said they couldn't wait to return to Glasgow. She said that they would actually be returning on November 10 2013..

8. Sheamus, Road Dogg, and Billy Gunn beat The Shield by DQ. The crowd loved Road Dogg and Billy Gunn. They did their usual introductions bit but Billy Gunn pretending to forget what it was and did 'If you smell...' before Road Dogg stopped him. They acknowledged a guy in the front row dressed as Hulk Hogan, by saying 'Hulk Hogan's here!' Sheamus got a good reaction too. Then came the Shield, their music hit and everyone was kind of looking around for them but they ended up actually coming out of the set of doors underneath where we were sitting. I just seen them come into my line of vision. Only a few rows separated us, it was pretty cool to be that close. They looked absolutely massive that close aswell. Really like this team, lots of potential.

Great match to end the show, the NAO's could easily have another run in WWE, they are still very good. WWE protected the Shield in this one though, the end came when they all started beating down Sheamus and the referee called for the bell. Eventually, the faces got the upper hand and Rollins ate a Brogue Kick. They all raised each others hands before going around ringside. Road Dogg got back in the ring and said 'Glasgow, Scotland, thanks for coming out tonight, good night, God Bless.' before clapping fans hands at ringside. The NAO went backstage and Sheamus stuck around to pose for photos before eventually going backstage.