I got back from Mexico on Tuesday, one of my friends had tickets for the WWE Wrestlemania Revenge tour for quite a while, but towards the end of the week he text the lads and said one ticket was spare for Sunday if anyone wanted it. GSRR’s #1 fan who is also a wrestling fan replied “Murr you can go as a wedding present from me, But I’m not paying for it!”
I snapped the offer up straight away.
When we arrive into Cardiff arena and find our seats it hits us just how amazing a seat we got. We were close to the ramp so could see the wrestlers very clearly, we weren’t all that far away from the ring, but we were right on the end of a row, so if a certain stable… oh lets say the Shield were to enter on our side, we would be able to smell their sweat.
Well it kicks off and the first thing we hear is…. “I Hear voices in my head!” and despite not liking Randy Orton, I was still in the mind set of “Holy Shit!” and then there he was on the ramp about 10 meters away from us. He made his way down the ramp doing a terrible “YES YES YES” mockery. In the ring he then went onto make fun of Daniel Bryan who couldn’t be here due to neck surgery.
He then went onto say that he was the only member of Evolution in UK so called out the “Leader of the Shield” Roman Reigns. Shield music starts… the crowd are looking everywhere, where would he come out… and then there he was literally next to us. As mentioned in the Geekly Review I could not contain myself. Like most people I’m massively into the Shield, and to have Reigns sooo close was just incredible.
Well anyways into the ring they break into a scuffle, Rybaxl come running down to the ring (FYI Ryback is fucking huge seeing him in real life) and beat up Reigns, of course The rest of the Shield then come to the rescue and the crowd erupts.
Brad Maddox comes to the ring and then intervenes creating matches for tonight. He starts off saying that Ambrose & Rollins will face Rybaxl in the opening match, the main event would be Reigns vs Orton in a Cardiff Street Fight. The crowd enjoy this.
Rybaxl vs The Shield
So the opening match is awesome. Ambrose is in the ring for such a long stint, Rollins really builds the crowd up. Again while watching the match the sense of “holy shit” is just there. Rybaxl continue tagging in and out. Eventual winners though are The Shield. This match lasted 30 minutes, but it never felt boring, even with Rybaxl involved, It was always fast paced.
Sin Cara vs Rusev
Bit of a squash match. Sin Cara did some high flying moves, but Rusev is being built up as some form of Monster so this was always a win for him. Wonder if he’ll be another “Great Kahli”?
6 Woman Tag Match – Funkadactyls & Paige vs Tamina, Rosa Mendes and Layla
The match itself wasn’t that entertaining, but that didn’t seem to matter as the venue was crazy for Paige, and rightly so. She eventually picked up the win then danced with the Funkadactyls… This was good.
NXT Title – Adrian Neville vs Bo Dallas
Wasn’t expecting to see NXT stars here, especially to see a title fight. So this was a welcome surprise. Bo Dallas entered and took to the mic, he went on about “BOlieving” Can’t fathom out if he’s trying to be heel or face, but the crowd weren’t that appreciative of him. Adrian Neville was very impressive and his finisher looked amazing. Good match in fairness. But find it strange that Bo will be pushed to main card soon, really didn’t come across that great.
Dance off – Fandango vs Mark Henry
Ugh… I really doubt the fans voted this as a danceoff but apparently they did. So Fandango danced in the ring, Mark Henry entered to a big pop. The lights went out, and then Mark Henry is in the centre of the ring wearing 1 white glove. He dances to Billie Jean to the crowd delight. Fandango attacks him, Henry fights back, and is declared the winner. Mark Henry continues to dance and invites some kids from the crowd into the ring to dance too. Nice touch, and glad I got to see Fandango in the flesh, but not like this.
Table Match – Kane vs Big Show
When announced that the match was a table match there was rather good crowd reaction. Kane entered the ring to rather mute reception, then Big Show got one of the biggest pops of the night for some reason. The match was actually terrible, it was so slow, and the way that Big Show won… geez… Worst match of the night for sure. Only saving grace was how great a view we had and I got to see Kane in action. Another wrestler that I was glad was at Cardiff, but not a great match for him.
Kane lost by falling off the turnbuckle through a table *facepalm*
Fatal 4 way for Intercontinental Title – Rob Van Dam vs Big E vs Jack Swagger vs Bad News Barrett
This was a great match, Zeb Colter and Swagger entered first, and Zeb had an excellent segment making fun of Welsh people and comparing the country to England and USA. The crowd hated it naturally, but it was damn funny (especially being English) The other guys all made their way to the ring, RVD had a great pop too. Then Bad News Barrett arrived and delivered some bad news that he’d walk out of Cardiff still as the Intercontinental champion, well this is a house show, of course you will Barrett.
He delivered on his promise after an entertaining match.
Cardiff Street Fight – Randy Orton vs Roman Reigns
I prepared for Reigns to enter the ring again from our side, but unfortunately he entered from the other side this time. This ‘Street Fight” was pretty entertaining. We saw Kendo sticks, steel steps, an RKO, Reigns high flying punch and spear. Rybaxl came in and interfered again, but again the other Shield members came to even the odds. There was even a “this is awesome chant” around the arena. It was pretty awesome! Reigns gives a spear onto Orton to pick up the win.
A pretty impressive match card for a house show, and some entertaining matches made the 3 hours fly by.
They are returning to Cardiff in December, I’m most certainly going to try and get tickets for it again. First time I’ve been to a live WWE event and loved every minute of it.
– Murr
