4/16 WWE Raw in Birmingham, England: A second, more detailed report on the Raw event that featured three title matches, a street fight between Randy Orton and C.M. Punk., and John Cena and Sin Cara team up to face The Miz and Alex Riley


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WWE Live Events


4/16 WWE Raw in Birmingham, England: A second, more detailed report on the Raw event that featured three title matches, a street fight between Randy Orton and C.M. Punk., and John Cena and Sin Cara team up to face The Miz and Alex Riley
Apr 17, 2011 - 12:35 PM


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


1. Evan Bourne, Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov defeated Tyson Kidd and The Usos. The Usos went out of their way to work the crowd. They must not get out much. To be fair the match was entertaining, if a little 'paint by numbers' in terms of your typical Santino/Kozlov match. Evan's offence was awesome live, and everyone loved Santino's comedy stuff. They got the crowd going and they popped big for the Cobra from Santino before the Airbourne by Bourne for the win.

2. Percy Watson defeated ? I consider myself to be a very hardcore fan, but even I can't tell you who Percy beat tonight. I was in the upper tier, so maybe someone on the floor could tell you, but my best guess is Zach Ryder. Watson was making his entrance (to silence from the crowd) when the mystery man attacked him on the ramp. He never got introduced or have music played. Mystery man dominated Watson until out of nowhere Percy hit a Complete Shot for the pin. [ED NOTE: Percy Watson faced Primo]

3. Brie Bella defeated Eve to retain the WWE Divas Championship. Standard diva match 101. Eve showed some impressive athleticism, but that was about it. The Bella's pulled the Twin switch to distract Eve and eventually Brie hit a Bella Buster to retain.

4. Sin Cara defeated Alex Riley. Believe it or not, Sin Cara didn't botch the trampoline entrance! I know it hasn't worked consistently on TV, but watching it live is amazing. Riley had his left leg taped up. These two seemed to gel well. It was nothing special, but Sin Cara's offence looked crisp and the crowd loved it. Alex was no slouch himself, and hopefully when his time with The Miz is over he can branch out on his own. Finish came when Cara reversed a powerbomb into a roll up.

5. Randy Orton defeated C.M. Punk in a street fight. Punk was the highlight of the whole show. He feigned high fiving the kids at ringside before getting in the ring. He kept flashing the peace sign for some reason. When Orton was making his entrance, Punk started mocking the Viper stance by rolling round the ring. Justin Roberts asked the crowd to choose between a 2 out of 3 falls match and a street fight. Street fight won, but Punk grabbed the mic and said Roberts had rigged it. Punk then did a perfect Robert's impression asking what the crowd wanted.

This match was by far the highlight of the night. They brawled all around ringside. Orton hit Punk with a fans chair, before Punk hit Orton with a soda and Orton looked like he had got shot. He was lying on the guardrail motionless while Punk got a mic. He said we should of chose a 2 out of 3 falls match before nailing Orton with the mic, it sounded brutal. The match ended after Punk and Orton traded finisher reversals before an RKO.

R-Truth and Melina came out to host a dance contest. Someone behind me shouted 'Is this intermission?' Truth asked some kids to get in the ring to win a chance to go backstage. It was kind of disturbing to see R-Truth pointing at kids and saying 'Gimme him, I want him'. Four kids got in the ring and danced, the crowd dug it because it seems to be mainly families tonight. Melina said nothing.

INTERMISSION

6. John Morrison defeated Dolph Ziggler. I was really looking forward to this match, but it was really slow in the first half. Lots of rest holds by Dolph. When the patches of action got going it was good, and it picked up down the home straight. Morrison won with Starship Pain.

7. Sheamus defeated Daniel Bryan w/ Gail Kim to retain the United States Championship. Great house show match. It was perfectly balanced between Sheamus looking dominant, and Bryan having flurries of flashy offence. Such a shame that they didn't get to show us what they could do with good time at Mania. Sheamus won with the Brogue Kick.

8. John Cena defeated The Miz w/ Alex Riley via DQ (Miz retained the WWE Championship). Miz cut a promo beforehand chronicling his career and how at every stage he was looked down upon and criticized, and how he has always proven everyone wrong. Riley was ejected from ringside early on. They actually worked a good match compared to some of their recent battles. Miz played the crowd just as well as Punk did.

He filled the rest spots by antagonizing the fans at ringside and made it look easy. Riley eventually came back out to pull the ref out of the ring when Miz was about to tap to the STF. Cena retaliated, hit an AA and pinned Miz, but Riley broke it up with the briefcase to cause the DQ. Riley worked Cena over the the briefcase until Sin Cara made the save. The GM chimed in and said the match would restart as a tag match.

9. John Cena and Sin Cara defeated The Miz and Alex Riley. Miz and Riley dominated Sin Cara until Cena got the hot tag. He laid both of them out in the ring, hit the Five Knuckle Shuffle on Riley and Sin Cara hit a lionsault on Miz. Cena laid Riley out with the AA for the fan pleasing ending to the night.

Notes: The place was about 90% full, only one section was empty. The crowd was mainly families, with a smattering of loud mouth hardcore fans. The show was a good standard in comparison to some of the other shows here over recent years. The action was pretty solid throughout, so I think most people left happy.

Earlier in the day I met Dolph Ziggler at an autograph signing in a local toy store. The queue was fairly big. Dolph seemed pleasant enough, it was a fairly warm day so he must not have been too excited about having to spend it sat indoors. I got my tour t-shirt from last year signed, and said it was time for The Spirit Squad two. He said 'We had that, it was called The Nexus. And then we had three and four. They were called The New Nexus and The Corre.'

He couldn't understand my friend Kyle (we both have heavy accents) when he asked Dolph what he thought of Walsall (the town we were in), and Dolph paused and said 'nice weather'. Keeping up the heel stuff even at a fan event, now that's dedication! If you have the time to spare, I would recommend checking out this autograph signing when they come to your town.

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