11/5 WWE in Vienna, Austria: Randy Orton and Ted DiBiase vs. Cody Rhodes and Wade Barrett, Brodus Clay vs. Yoshi Tatsu, Daniel Bryan vs. William Regal, Tyson Kidd vs. Hunico


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WWE Live Events


11/5 WWE in Vienna, Austria: Randy Orton and Ted DiBiase vs. Cody Rhodes and Wade Barrett, Brodus Clay vs. Yoshi Tatsu, Daniel Bryan vs. William Regal, Tyson Kidd vs. Hunico
Nov 6, 2011 - 11:00 AM


WWE Smackdown live event
Vienna, Austria
Report by Dot Net reader Markus Gronemann


Before I start, I would like to use this space to plug my own upcoming little corner of the internet, the first glimpse of which can be found right now at http://www.darkmat.eu/.

This is a project my brother and I are undertaking, both to get some more of what is going on in European pro wrestling and MMA out there, but also to cover, at least as good as we can, independent pro wrestling and MMA from all around the world. We want to show that there are other companies besides WWE, UFC (and to a smaller extent, TNA and Bellator) around, and that there is talent that deserves to be showcased and should be swept out from under "the dark side of the mat". On the other hand, we want to offer some help to such independent promoters and wrestlers, to improve their noticeability and marketability.

I’m excited for this, and I hope it will make for some interesting and entertaining content. While our website at http://www.darkmat.eu/ is still under construction, we put up a first presence on some social media platforms, so you people can already like us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/DarkMatEU), follow us on Twitter (www.twitter.com/DarkMatEU), watch us on YouTube (www.youtube.com/DarkMatEU) and view us on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/DarkMatEU). In fact, some pictures of last night’s show are available in our Flickr gallery right now!

The show started pretty much right on time at 7:32 pm. They switched the card and some matches around a bit, so as not to do the same thing they did yesterday in Graz. The key parings were the same, but I was happy with the way the card was laid out. Pre-taped stuff in German (by German WWE announcer Carsten Schaefer) on the PA. In addition to "please, don’t try this at home", this was the first time they also plugged upcoming DVDs and urged people to pre-order WWE 12 (to get The Rock as a playable character).

Eden Stiles, who is quite the cutie, was our ring announcer (and she did her job well, never got my ears bleeding like Christy Hemme sometimes does on Impact). Guess Austria is too shabby for Justin Roberts these days. No complaints, Eden is much easier on the eyes and looks much better in a short, white dress (I presume).

1. Daniel Bryan beat William Regal by submission in about 15:00. I was hoping that we would get this match and was glad that we did. These two also had a match last year in Innsbruck and from what I remember, this was different enough from the last one I saw that I didn’t feel like knowing what they were doing next. I wouldn’t have used it as the opener (maybe switched it around with the following tag match), but oh well.

They worked a great, mat and hold based catch style at first, which is always nice and it’s a shame there is no place for this kind of match on WWE tv these days. They did a test of strength with various bridges and escape attempts. Regal even kipped up from being held down during this, which was nice. Bryan put Regal in the surfboard, later they traded European uppercut. Bryan hit some STIFF kicks throughout the match, and at times there was some friendly banter between them, even though Regal worked as a full-fledged heel.

At one point, Bryan jumped up and actually standing-triangled the poor Englishman. Regal put Bryan in the Regal Stretch, but eventually, Bryan won with the LeBell Lock. They were given about 15 minutes and had a very good match, even though I kind of liked last year’s match more. But then I was not really in my groove by the time the match started, so that might have played a part. As I said, I’d have switched the first two matches around to give the crowd some action to sink their teeth into, before taking the speed down a notch again with the kind of match they did.

2. Justin Gabriel and Trent Barretta beat Jinder Mahal and Johnny Curtis in about 10:00. At first it seemed this match would be the Job Squad vs. the No Heat Express in a "loser gets future-endeavored bout," but they actually had a nice little, Rock’n’Roll Express paint-by-the-numbers kind of match (and that’s not a bad thing). If anything, it painfully showed that both Barretta and Gabriel are totally underutilized and could be likeable mid-card faces. If they decide to make these two a permanent face team, I wouldn’t complain.

Jinder and Barretta started, and Trent showed that he watched his Rockers matches, as it was ARMDRAGMANIA, followed by HIPOSSMANIA. The madness continued, as Gabriel got tagged in, and they showed that they can pull off a mean double-armdrag too! When Barretta got tagged back in, it was time for some sweet face in peril time until he finally tagged in Gabriel who cleaned house like he didn’t know he was just an undercard geek and for a brief period probably thought he’d team with Rock at Survivor Series. Eventually all four guys where in the ring, Jahal was thrown outside, Barretta followed with a sweet tope and Gabriel hit the 450 splash on Jinder for the pin.

3. Brodus Clay squashed Yoshi Tatsu in about 5:00. Brodus is a great man, kind of reminds me of the One Man Gang back in the day. I hope they let him be a monster in tv and fuck up a few mid-carders before feeding him to Randy Cena with no build, just to pop a rating/trend on Twitter in a few weeks. Crowd was mostly dead for this one, which was a shame. No half-painted face or action figure from Yoshi. Buh! Basically Brodus threw him around like a rag doll and Yoshi got very little offense in. Eventually Brodus hit his "Fall of Humanity" running cross body to wipe out poor Yoshi. Still, every time I see this merry little Japanese fellow I remember the story of him beating up Sheamus. For some reason, that always makes me smile…

4. Hunico (in Sin Cara gear) beat Tyson Kidd in about 10:00. Sin Cara came out in his gear, doing his entrance. A good time was had by all. Sin Cara got a sign, showing support for him. And the crowd was merry. Sin Cara ripped that sig up. People were appalled by this temerity. Sin Cara removed his mask and shirt and turned out to be Sin Cara Negro Sin Mascara, aka Hunico. He cut a promo in English and Spanish, basically telling us we suck and he’s great.

Tyson Kidd came out to a slight pop with his awful generic music. Why they don’t play off the Hart family legacy in one of the hottest foreign markets Bret Hart has ever had is beyond me, especially when Tyson actually works as a face. Probably because they don’t get things right anymore these days.

Anyway, fun and fast-paced match by these two, Kidd deserves so much better than this. One unique spot I never saw before was Hunico hip-tossing Tyson Kidd close to the ropes, Tyson hitting the top rope mid-move and sling-shotting back. He threw Hunico out and followed up with a sweet somersault plancha. Hunico got the upper hand again and put Tyson in a camel clutch and later a camel clutch/sleeper combo, followed by a Gory Special.

He then missed a corner-charge and found himself again on the top rope, only to be catapulted back into the squared circle by a top-rop-huricanrana. Tyson tried to finish him with the Sharpshooter (decent pop for that one), but Hunico reached the ropes. Tyson placed Hunico’s head on the canvas and tried to catapult himself over the top rope to legdrop on the head on the canvas, but Hunico moved and followed it up with a baseball slide to the outside. Shortly thereafter, Kidd was in position to be hit with the swanton bomb and that was it.

5. Sheamus beat Christian in about 12:00. Christian came out first and even got a decent small pop (I guess nobody watches SmackDown). He made sure to inform the people about the errors of their ways by and old trick of the trade: getting MASSIVE heat! He told us he couldn’t understand us, because of our weird accents and horrible pronunciation (well, I’ve been in English classes with my fellow countrymen for the longest time, and what can I say – he’s right). So in order to hide said deficits, we should just shut up altogether. He gave us one more chance to be silent or he "would walk out and none of us would ever see him again". The crowd was Ok with that. Turncoats, I’m sure they’ll love seeing him again if he ever turns back face. Anyway, as Sheamus had come out in the meantime, he made sure to thwart Christian’s exit strategy. Then he showed a sign, depicting Christian as a one-toothed crybaby. First real superstar reaction of the night for Sheamus and also first time of massive heat for Christian.

Christian did what any good heel does – stall and run away. At one point he even jumped over the railing and went into the crowd, causing that poor WWE security to almost get a heart attack and follow suit. Sheamus safely removed both from the crowd. Sheamus did his spot, where he traps his opponent’s arms in the roped while the other guy’s on the apron and slaps him about the chest ten times. The crowd, with their weird accents horrible pronunciation counted along. Christian, being the sportsman that he is, demanded a time-out from ringside. Sorry, only works on low-blows and eye-pokes, fella. Sheamus at one point launched himself from the apron to inside the ring with a shoulderblock, which looked impressive at his size.

Then it was time for heat on Sheamus, resulting in him almost getting counted out and only getting back in at 9. Christian then hit his trademark spots, like the slap from outside the ring to Sheamus in the ropes and standing on Sheamus back while he was in the ropes. Sheamus eventually whipped Christian into the ropes and hit his signature backbreaker and then a top-rope shoulderblock. Christian beat him down again, hit a flying headbutt off the top and went for the Spear from out of the corner, but Sheamus hit the Brogue Kick to the charging Christian for the pin. He then celebrated with the fans and held the Crybaby Christian sign up one more time.

INTERMISSION… ah… intermission (only about 10:00, maybe even less). Quite a few people at the merch tables during that time.

6. AJ and Alicia Fox beat Natalya and Tamina in about 7:00 with Aksana as special referee. Aksana was introduced as the special guest referee per Teddy Long's orders. She is quite a babe in person. Tamina ripped up a sign in the ring, before the match started. Sadly she didn’t show it to our side of the crowd, so no idea what it said, but it probably gave support to the faces. Natalya came out to the old, late 90s Bre Hart/Hart Foundation theme to a big pop. They really should have used it for face Tyson Kidd earlier.

Lots of stalling early in, Nattie then dominated both faces for a time, AJ played face in peril and Alicia got bumped a bit too. Eventually Tamina got tagged it and missed the Superfly splash from the top. This allowed Alicia to be tagged in again and she eventually hit a handstand flipover legdrop and what I think was a northern lights suplex (didn’t catch against who) for the win. Decent divas match, albeit nothing too fancy.

7. Randy Orton and Ted DiBiase beat Cody Rhodes and Wade Barrett in about 15:00. Cody came out first and cut a great promo on us (in his normal, not in super-villain voice). He told us how he recently got interviewed by Sky Sports and how they asked him who the ugliest crowd that he ever performed in front of was. Of course it was us, which had people aghast. Well, as I looked around, I quiet shared his opinion at certain points. A huge, fat guy, who seemed appealed even more than everybody else was standing around giving Cody the bird. Well, I thought, it seems like you are our king of ugly people tonight. Cody then said he was not saying this as a wrestler trying to get booed, but meant it from the bottom of his heart.

Barrett then came out, followed by DiBiase and finally Orton for the co-biggest pop of the night, shared with Big Show. Barrett and DiBiase started and eventually tagged their partners. Big pop for Orton first being in the match. Cody took a page right out of the Larry Zbyszko book of stalling. Orton eventually got his hands on him and started working him over, including a back suplex. Tag back to DiBiase who did the old face 10-punches-in-the-corner-spot, to the approval of the crowd. Orton was tagged back in and was worked over by Rhodes and Barrett, including some ground and pound by the former bare-knuckle fighter.

Orton worked face in peril for a brief time, before Rhodes had worked heel in peril in a kind of strange dynamic. Orton hit a nice high slam an tagged DiBiase. He tried to put Cody in the Million Dollar Dream, but Cody hip-tossed out. Barrett tagged back in and kicked DiBiase to the outside. DiBiase did his best Ricky Morton imitation for a bit. Finally, he tagged Robert Gibson, err, Randy Orton who ran wild, and unlike Justin Gabriel before, is actually allowed to do so. He hit his snap powerslam and draping DDT on Cody and went for the RKO, only to be thwarted by Barrett. All four guys hit the ring and one-upped each other, leaving Barrett and Orton in the ring. Barrett picked Orton up for Wasteland, but Orton slipped off his shoulders and hit the RKO for the 1-2-3.

Fun tag match, and Orton worked a bit more of his tv style than his usually, slow, methodical and safe house show style, which was good. All the girls loved themselves some Randy Orton. Some chick from a local reality show (Tara from Saturday Night Fever – think Jersey Shore, but without everybody living in a house together, just showing the local Austrian youth partying, drinking, screwing around and getting their boobs surgically blown up to DD+ size) seemingly also was in attendance, as she posted a Randy Orton pic on her Facebook page earlier that day and deemed The Viper to be the "second hottest hottest guy ever, right after her future husband she has yet to meet". Well, if he ever needs a fourth wife and wants to become the hottest guy ever, he knows where to call now.

8. The Big Show beat Mark Henry by DQ in about 10:00 in a World Heavyweight Title match. Henry came out first (I hate that; the champion always should come out last) to more awe than heat. He just comes across so great as this no-nonsense monster. I deemed that as a part of his entrance, he should always throw the ring steps into the ring, making the ring announcer or referee dart for cover. It’s really refreshing to have a champion people physically have respect of, as I doubt anybody in attendance thought they could Henry in a real fight, if it came to that.

Big Show came out second, for the co-biggest pop of the night, shared with Orton. Everybody loved Big Show and he seemed to enjoy it, smiling and waving at the crowd. They started off with a few power exchanges, of which Henry got the better, as he actually pushed Show back early on. Show threw Henry out of the ring and they brawled at ringside for a bit.

Both worked hard and it looked impressive, seeing these two work like monsters, albeit monsters who can move. Henry jerked Big Show around by the leg when he was down, etc. He also slammed the world’s largest athlete once or twice and Big Show also returned the favor. Henry hit a huge DDT on Show, which looked awesome. Big Show eventually went for the chokeslam, but Henry got out and hit the WORLD’S STRONGEST SLAM Show kicked out, got back up and eventually hit THE CHOKESLAM. Henry kicked out and rolled out of the ring. He grabbed a chair and smashed it against Big Show’s leg from the outside, resulting in the DQ. He got into the ring, further attacked show with the chair and beat him down. He dragged him to a corner, went up, posed and hit a Vader Splash. Big Show then got up and hit the WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION to knock Henry out and send the crowd home happy. He even sold being groggy form the chairshots, which was a nice touch in the days of Super-Cena.

Thus the show ended at about 10:05 pm, continuing the trend of WWE house shows running just about 2.5 hours these days.

Conclusion:

It was a solid, fun show with not one boring or bad match, but in the end, still pretty much forgettable. Even the Brodus Clay squash was fun, albeit I would have loved to have seen some more Yoshi offense. Still I doubt I’ll be able to remember most of it off the top of my head a few years down the road. I guess some people, especially kids, were disappointed that Sin Cara wasn’t there, even though he was advertised. Then again, there were people there who had a Great Khali sign and even some who hoped to see Batista, so I guess a lot of casual fans who go to the house shows don’t follow the product on a regular basis.

It will be interesting to see if WWE can get attendance back up again for the next tour. As they usually interchange brands on each cycle, we should be getting RAW next, and I hope they run here again post-WrestleMania, to live off the Mania hype and business/interest generally being up during that period. Maybe Cena can put some more asses into seats. They do get some coverage on the papers here, but I think they really should try to get somebody on local TV when tickets go on sale and again in the week leading up to the show.

One other problem is, that they just don’t have good tv here, even though it has been that way for years now. Raw, SmackDown, NXT and the highlight shows Afterburn and Experience are on Sky Sport, but Sky still is a premium package and has only been available back on UPC, the sole cable provider in Vienna for a few weeks now. A one-hour version of SmackDown (interspersed with horrible on-screen commercials for ringtones and wallpapers) runs on Sport 1, but it’s on Saturdays at 10:30 pm, when usually people are out.

They also have This Week in WWE and Vintage Collection on Eurosport, but I think these shows get pre-empted or moved around for other sports a lot of times. Of course people will download shows, but once you have the mentality that everything should be free and are only a casual fan, you may not want to shill out 50-100 euros to see it live. Also, once you’ve seen one WWE house show, you’ve pretty much seen them all, unless the roster really gets mixed up, or there is a guy you want to see real bad (CM Punk, if he keeps his popularity, would be such an example, as he never wrestled in Vienna and only was in Salzburg, as a heel, last April). We’ll see what the future holds.

Also, if you live in Austria, Germany or Switzerland, don’t forget that all the WWE shows (sans Superstars) and Impact are on Sky Sport. If your cable provider is UPC, you can get the full Sky package (movies, sport, Austrian soccer) for only 16.90 euros for the first three months, even if you only order the Sport or Film package,  and if you’ve got a satellite dish, you can also get WWE and TNA PPVs for 20 euros (often 15 euros if you pre-order a bit in advance) on Sky Select.

Notes

This was the first of hopefully many more times we’ve partnered with Sky Austria for promotion of this show. While things were a bit too much on short notice concerning an opportunity to meet and interview a WWE performer and get some things signed for giveaways, we got a total of seven tickets to raffle off at this website. A fun time was had by all, and as some things got shuffled around, we even were stuck with two extra tickets and I think made a small boy very happy as we gave him and his dad two free tickets to the show, even though his das was a bit skeptical about just being given two tickets by a stranger.

I also got to meet a fellow subscriber and boarder (an there probably aren’t too many of these in Austria) and had a nice chat about old times. Funny thing: I could, without any problems rattle of dates and matches from some of the first house shows in Austria in 1993, but had a hard time even remembering matches on the last few house shows I attended in Austria. That either shows that I was much more impressible as a kid, or that WWE nowadays fails to put on memorable shows.

That being said, this was a decent little house show, even though not as good as last November’s show in Innsbruck. Attendance seemed to be WAY down, as a lot of the upper decks of the building were tarped off. I’ll hopefully get exact attendance numbers this coming Monday, but I guess this was closer to 5,000, instead of the usual 8,000 sell-out. WWE skipped Vienna during their WrestleMania Revenge tour in April (they only ran in Salzburg), so it was actually more than 18 months between shows in this market, so this is not a good sign.

I don’t know if general interest is down or it has to do with the market being down and ticket prices being rather high, or if everybody who wanted to see WWE saw them and doesn’t need to see them every time. Plus, there was a show in Graz (first time in that market in about 15 years or so) yesterday and Graz is only about two hours from Vienna, so maybe people who would come to Vienna went to the Graz show instead.

There were lots of posters up, plugging the show throughout the city during the last couple of months and there also was some local press during the last few days as well as the day tickets went on sale back in April. Still lots of kids in attendance, but not as many as in earlier years. One of the top merchandise sellers was the white CM Punk shirt and also quite a few Sin Cara shirts. Maybe I didn’t notice and frankly, I didn’t wander around and look at people as I usually do, but I hardly saw any Cena or Orton merchandise. Of course, merch prices were as ridiculous as ever, with 30 euros ($41) for regular shirt, 35 euros ($48) for the punk shirt and 60 euros ($83) for the Sin Cara mask. I think I ordered the Punk shirt for $25 from WWE.com a while back.

Also, please don’t forget to visit Dark Mat at www.darkmat.eu and to follow us on our various social media channels to keep up on this project and be informed when we get everything off the ground very soon (our social media handle is DarkMatEU on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr, dedicated links are at the start of this report)!

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