4/21 WWE Smackdown in Glasgow, Scotland: Brodus Clay vs. Jinder Mahal, Big Show vs. Cody Rhodes, and Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan for the World Heavyweight Championship


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WWE Live Events


4/21 WWE Smackdown in Glasgow, Scotland: Brodus Clay vs. Jinder Mahal, Big Show vs. Cody Rhodes, and Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan for the World Heavyweight Championship
Apr 22, 2012 - 11:28 AM


Dot Net reader David Anderson attended the WWE Smackdown house show in Glasgow, Scotland and sent along the following report.

This was the first time I had been at a WWE show for 10 years and first thing I noticed was the amount of kids in attendance. WWE are certainly pushing the “family entertainment” aspect. I have been to a TNA Impact taping in Florida which again was mostly 16-30 year olds. WWE certainly have the youngsters.

Arena was well set up and the new set looked really impressive, added a bit of majesty to the house show. Every seat in the house was taken (circa 5200) and the crowd was pretty pumped. There were Hundreds of the new green Cena t-shirts in attendance (mostly kids wearing them)…Too bad it was a Smackdown show!

Lilian Garcia was introduced and performed a rendition of “Flower of Scotland” (the Scottish national anthem) a nice touch which went down great as every fan joined in!

1. Brodus Clay defeated Jinder Mahal. Jinder came out first to quite a bit of heat, which to be honest was probably more just down to the crowd wanting to get the show on the road and excited to see it started. Jinder does look great in the flesh. However I think as long as he is using such a tired, stereotyped gimmick he will never get truly over.

Brodus’ music hit and the roof just about blew of the Braehead Arena! I personally was expecting The Great Khali after reading reports from the other shows, so the change was a welcome one. Brodus introduced Hornswoggle who came out dressed in the red tracksuit.

The match lasted a lot longer than I thought it would have given the normal length of Brodus’ matches. It wasn’t the best of matches and I feel Brodus is still too slow in the ring to compete in longer matches. But the crowd popped for everything he done and when hit the win there was a big pop. Followed by dancing (Hornswoggle included).

A ** match that only avoided being a dud by the crowd’s reaction, I like Brodus but feel that his character is not going anywhere and as with Rikishi before him, a dancing fat man is only funny for so long!

2. The Usos and Mason Ryan defeated Curt Hawkins, Tyler Rex and Percy Watson. Hawkins, Rex and Watson entered first with most people in the crowd wondering who they were they stood in the ring as the Uso’s made their entrance to a reasonable pop. The Uso’s stood on the ring apron and waved in their tag partner. Mason Ryan’s music hit and there was a big pop. Ryan looks like a machine in the flesh he is huge and really looks the part.

The match was enjoyable with the Heel team isolating Jimmy Uso for a large period with the crowd getting behind Jimmy urging him to make the tag. The crowd chanted for Ryan and when the tag was finally made there was a big pop and Ryan cleared house. The match finished with Jimmy and Jay hitting super kicks on Rex and Watson and then Mason Ryan hitting the big Full Nelson Slam for the pin. A ** Match which was enjoyable, even if the heel team didn’t have much of a reaction.

3. Alberto Del Rio defeated The Great Khali. Alberto Del Rio’s personal ring announcer, Ricardo Rodriguez was introduced and received bigger pop than Del Rio actually got. Del Rio made his way to the ring and teased the a fan in the front row by offering to give him the t-shirt he was wearing but then handing it to Ricardo instead. What a cad! The Great Khali’s music hit and out he lumbered. Khali is a giant pure and simple but I am afraid he can’t wrestle at all. Khali dominated early goings by throwing Del Rio from corner to corner then hitting Del Rio across the chest with his big tree trunk arms.

Del Rio won the match via the Cross Armbreaker. DUD – A very poor match. Del Rio and Khali have no chemistry (probably because Khali can’t wrestle). Del Rio gets no heat as a heel the biggest pop of the match was Ricardo Rodriguez being hit with the Punjabi Plunge.

4. Alicia Fox defeated Natalya w/Aksana as guest referee. I suggested to my girlfriend that we visit the merchandise stall when the diva’s match came on, but we decided to watch it. I said out loud, “Oh great the Diva’s they suck” to which a small child in front of me responded with “Its actually pretty good." Yeah, we will see kid.

Aksana came out first and most of the male fans were on their feet. Natalya’s music hit and there was quite a big pop (I popped purely because it reminded me of Bret Hart!) Out came Fox and the match started. To be fair to the Divas, they put on quite a good match. Natalya locked in the sharpshooter and there was a huge cheer (again, I cheered but because of the Bret Hart connection!)

Fox made it to the ropes and Aksana started to count Natalya who broke the hold and started arguing with her. Aksana pushed Natalya into a roll up and Fox picked up the win. ** Match. This was actually good, considering the usual quality on display from the Diva’s. Looks like the little 5 year old kid was right! It was pretty good.

5. Big Show defeated Cody Rhodes to retain the Intercontinental Championship. Cody came out to a lot of heat. I don’t like this big cloak that Cody has started wearing. Cody cut a promo prior to the Big Show coming out and got some huge heat by insulting Scottish people. “Nothing good has ever come out of Scotland” and “Most people are only aware of Scotland because of an American movie starring an Australian” – Great Stuff! The fans were going nuts at this and you could hardly hear him because of the boos.

Big Show came out to a massive cheer. He seems to be loved by everyone. He touched hands with all the fans around the ring before getting things started. There was a lot of comedy in this match with Big Show giving some huge slaps across Cody’s chest then at one point he got Lillian Garcia on to the apron and she held the microphone up as he delivered another massive slap. Ouch!

Cody responded with a few slaps of his own but, Big Show no sold them which had the crowd laughing. At one point he actually asked Cody to do it again then said “What the hell was that?!” The match finished with Cody hitting two Beautiful Disaster kicks but then on the third attempt Big Show caught him and hit the Show Stopper for the win. A **** Match. Was great to watch and Cody did a fantastic job at getting the crowd going.

6. Drew McIntyre and Booker T defeated Mark Henry and Christian. Home town favorite Drew McIntyre was introduce to a massive cheer. WWE clearly allowed him to break character for the night as he was acting as a normal guy and came out wearing a Scotland soccer top.

Drew cut a promo about how great it was to be back in Scotland and compared it to fighting at WrestleMania (he didn’t do much fighting at Mania!). His parents were in attendance and he started to talk to them and thank them for...We will never know what for, as Christian’s music hit and Captain Charisma came out to a lot of heat.

Christian insulted Drew and insulted Scotland in general and was subject to a lot of Boo’s. Mark Henry’s music hit and the World’s Strongest Man came down the aisle. Christian continued his promo and told McIntyre that since he couldn’t find a partner it would be a two on one match. But Since Christian was a nice guy he would give McIntyre three seconds before setting the World’s strongest man on him. On the stroke of three, Booker T’s music hit and the place went nuts!! Booker T came out to the ring and the match started.

Some good back and forth action between the teams, McIntyre and Henry spilled out of the ring and Booker T hit the big scissor kick for the win. Queue spinaroonies from Booker and McIntyre! *** A good solid match. That was supported by a massively pumped crowd. I don’t think a lot of people were expecting Christian and Booker T’s involvement so that coupled with the Home Town star made for a very excited crowd

7. Randy Orton defeated Kane in a No DQ match. I am a big Randy Orton fan but I have to say before going any further this rivalry with Kane is a disgrace and almost as bad as the Kane/Cena one. Kane came out first and was given a mixture of cheers and boos, I think a lot of fans respect Kane so his heel/face persona doesn’t matter nowadays.

Orton’s music hit and everyone burst. I could hardly see anything as people were standing on their chairs and everything. Orton slowly made his way to the ring and the match started. Unfortunately I could not really see much of this match as some people in front of me stayed standing. It was a back and forth match with Kendo sticks and chairs becoming involved after a brief spell fighting in the aisle.

The match started to wind up in the usual Orton fashion. He hit the big hanging DDT on to the steel chair before hitting a couple of big clotheslines and a big running bodyslam. He started hearing voices and did the usual taunt on the ground to a big cheer but Kane blocked the RKO attempt. Kane took control and gave the throat cut gesture to indicate he was planning on hitting a tombstone (To which I started a “You’re no Taker” chant). Orton countered the tombstone and then hit the RKO for the win.

Orton spent time with the fans before heading to the back. *** match. I think this match was hurt slightly by the fans being a bit tired from the previous match! Kane is approaching the end of his career and I would hope WWE would let him go out gracefully and not keep using him in these pointless rivalries in a bad horror movie style.

8. Sheamus defeated Daniel Bryan to retain the World Heavyweight Championship. Daniel Bryan came out first to a huge reaction, a combination of “Yes” chants and boos. The children in the audience were boing and the “Attitude era” guys were all shouting “YES! YES! YES!”

Bryan cut a promo saying how he was going to win back the World Heavyweight Championship and referenced that one portion of the crowd were intelligent (the part we were sitting at and shouting “Yes”) but the rest of the crowd were stupid for cheering Sheamus. He also highlighted that if Sheamus touched the referee then he would be disqualified and he would be awarded the World Heavyweight Championship.

Sheamus came out to a rather subdued reaction considering, All the kids love Sheamus and it was good to see Sheamus acknowledge a little kid on his dad shoulders who had his hair dyed Orange and was continually pounding his chest.

It was good to see Bryan getting down and doing some mat wrestling. Something which I think has been missing whilst he had the belt. An interesting John Cena esk chant started of “Let’s go Sheamus” then “Daniel Bryan” chant which went on for most of the match. At one point Sheamus touched (but not hard) the referee and Daniel Bryan jumped out the ring grabbed the microphone and demanded that Sheamus be disqualified. But the referee said no and ordered Bryan back in to the ring.

After escaping the Yes Lock, Sheamus hit the Celtic Cross for the win and sent the fans home happy! **** match. This was a really good match with some great technical wrestling on display from both competitors and the fans were totally in to it from start to finish. Although there was no chance that the title would have changed hands, you forgot about this during the match and it had a PPV feel to it. Good Job and well done to both.

Overall this was a really enjoyable show that hit the mark for a lot of fans in attendance. I will try and get tickets for the next show. I have been rather disillusioned with WWE recently but it is clear that kids and families love the product that is being put out right now.

Biggest Pops
Randy Orton
Booker T
Daniel Bryan

Biggest Heat
Christian
Daniel Bryan
Cody Rhodes

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