Event Report: World Wrestling Entertainment presents WWE Live (12-5-2014)

My wife and I were able to have a night out on the town this past Friday night, which is something that's a very valuable commodity now that the focus of most of our free time is taking care of the Duke. He's a bit needy since he is a newborn and all, but we're not holding that against him - it's not his fault he can't prepare his own supper or wipe his rear end yet, obviously.

This particular night was a special occasion seeing as how World Wrestling Entertainment was in Columbia, South Carolina for a live event at the Colonial Life Arena. If you didn't know, live events are also referred to as house shows because they are non-televised. Companies like WWE use them for a number of purposes. For one, they're quick cash generators as they typically take advantage of whatever the going storylines are on TV to pique the interest of fans in a local market. In addition, they're an opportunity for a promotion to test the waters in terms of how an audience reacts to a match, a new gimmick for a performer, or any number of things which may or may not wind up appearing in programming later on.

In this instance it looked as though a majority of what was going on had to do with the upcoming Tables, Ladders and Chairs pay-per-view that is set to take place later this month. That event will be headlined by a tables match featuring John Cena and Seth Rollins - who would also be headlining the event we saw in Columbia.

Getting in and around the parking lots at CLA has always been somewhat tricky seeing as how the building is in the middle of downtown Columbia, is adjacent to several major streets, sits on the doorstep of the University of South Carolina's Greek village, and there's usually no assistance from local law enforcement in terms of directing traffic. That last bit is an issue thanks to the fact that there are no traffic lights to control the flow of cars, rather a couple 4-way stops that leave it to motorists to negotiate matters amongst themselves.

We got to the arena around 6:30 PM by which time a majority of the front-most parking lot was filled. Cost for parking that night was $5 - that's not too bad seeing as how game day parking for events at Williams Brice Stadium will set you back $20 or more, depending on how close you want to be to the venue.

Our tickets were being held at will call even though I had purchased them as part of a pre-sale promotion. Why? Allow me to elaborate.

Face value of the tickets I chose was $25. Those seats were a good middle ground option since they were not as expensive as the $90 floor seats but with a better view than the $15 seats. (WWE offers what is called the WWE VIP Experience for certain of their events; this is a package that includes front row seating where you are given the chair you sat in that evening, a backstage meet and greet with some of the Superstars, and a few other perks. These packages start around $300 and go up from there. Yes, there were a handful of VIP seats sold at this event!) There was a section of limited view seats available for this event, which struck me as odd seeing as how there were no limitations on the view; "limited view" usually refers to seating situated in such a way that it can be blocked by staging used during TV tapings. As I mentioned earlier, this was a non-televised event.

After you add in CLA's fees ($9 per ticket for this show; I've referred to convenience/facility fees previously as the "take a dump" fee because I can only assume they want you to pay for the fact that you had to go to the bathroom while you were there), our total was $68. Wait, we're not done yet because that amount doesn't count the fee you incur depending on the ticketing delivery option you select: Mail delivery, print at home, or will call. I don't remember how much the other two were but at $3.50 will call was the cheapest of the three. (What that $3.50 covers I can only imagine. I gather these tickets are printed on parchment salvaged from an ancient Egyptian tomb and printed using the blood of pandas.) If you add in the cost of parking and ticketing delivery split between our two tickets, a $25 ticket in reality costs $38.25.

And folks in the pro wrestling business wonder why live event attendance is down!

I have to commend the people who work behind the scenes to operate and maintain CLA. It is a beautiful arena that is always pristine in appearance and the staff working there are generally quite cordial. I can't say as I've ever had a bad experience there.

Our seats were in one of the lower levels several rows off the floor. When it comes to events like this I've learned that the only good floor seats are in the front row. If you're sitting further back from that you're going to spend the majority of the time dodging the backs of other people's heads instead of watching the show. Given how much those seats cost, it's simply not worth it. For this reason unless I can get front row I'm perfectly fine taking a seat in the bleachers. Quite frankly I don't know that I would buy front row these days even if the opportunity presented itself seeing as how in my opinion the product doesn't warrant the cost.

A number of vignettes and advertisements were shown on the jumbo-trons around the arena before bell time, and these included a message from Dolph Ziggler who spoke about his Intercontinental championship match against Luke Harper that would be coming up later on in the evening. I can only guess as to what attendance might have been but I will note that there were plenty of good seats available. (The house looked about the same as what we've seen the last few times we've been to WWE live events in Columbia.) The show began promptly at 7:30 PM and our ring announcer for the evening was none other than Brandi Rhodes who is the wife of Cody Rhodes.

Here's a rundown of the card along with my thoughts on each match.

#1) Ryback defeated Curtis Axel

Ryback has had his name in the press a lot here lately thanks to having been the subject of some of CM Punk's comments made during an interview on Colt Cabana's Art of Wrestling podcast wherein Punk stated that Ryback was responsible for injuring him on a number of occasions. If Punk's statements are true, it would appear as though Ryback's previous gimmick of "The Corn-fed Meathead" Skip Sheffield wasn't that far off from reality.

Speaking of Ryback, he definitely benefited from being the first babyface (hero/good guy) to appear on the card as the crowd reaction he received was quite audible. It appeared to be coming from the same section of the audience that later on in the evening would be chanting "LET'S GO CENA!"

This seemed like an odd bit of booking to me because it was only a short while ago that Curtis Axel and Ryback were working as a tag team called RybAxel (appropriately enough). To my knowledge there was never a storyline presented as to why they'd be broken up, but then again the success of many modern WWE storylines is dependent upon the fact that their writers assume the fans suffer from some form of memory loss. (Hence the reason why Big Show has gone through something along the lines of 20 character turns - as in transitioning from hero to villain - during his run with WWE.) Nevertheless, you can tell who was Marty and who was Shawn out of their pairing based on the fact that Ryback was in the main event of Survivor Series and Axel has been relegated to appearances on Main Event (if you don't get the Marty/Shawn reference, I'm sorry but you've been reading this entry for far too long to be that far out of touch with this kind of material).

#2) Fandango (with Rosa Mendes) defeated Sin Cara

Fandango was announced as being "the new and improved Fandango". I bother with pointing that out because the wrestler now known as Fandango has been involved with WWE since 2006 (not the whole time as Fandango; he's had 3 or 4 other gimmicks) at which point he began working with Deep South Wrestling, an independent promotion that served as a developmental territory for WWE which no longer exists. He has worked there, Florida Championship Wrestling, NXT, and finally as part of the main WWE roster. For someone as talented as he apparently is to have had such a drawn out career with no real highlights to speak of is baffling to me.

Sin Cara came to the ring sporting a Lucha Dragons t-shirt, which is the name of the tag team he's involved with in NXT. As of this writing he and his partner, Kalisto, are the WWE NXT Tag Team Champions.

#3) Emma, Alicia Fox & Charlotte defeated Paige & The Bella Twins

There was a social media push before the show began towards getting the fans in attendance to use a Twitter hashtag to vote on whether they wanted to see a 6-Divas tag team match or if they wanted to see a 1-on-1 Divas match. In terms of offering up options to fans of pro wrestling, that's like asking a 6 year old if they want a chocolate-dipped ice cream cone or some nice blanched asparagus.

The big deal here was that Charlotte was involved. She's the current WWE NXT Women's Champion and, perhaps of more interest to most fans, the daughter of "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair. She was involved for the majority of the match and made a good showing for herself. The Flair references are a little thick with her presentation at the moment seeing as how she had "WOOO!"-ed about a dozen times before the match even started.

After the match was over, Nikki and Brie (the Bella Twins) began to argue with one another. The two of them are supposed to be on the same page according to what's going on within TV storylines, however they appeared to have split on less than amicable terms this night as Brie shoved Nikki and walked off on her own. That could be foreshadowing something to come down the line but it could also be an example of how house shows exist in a vacuum, meaning none of these events matter in the grand scheme of things because they aren't on TV and therefore aren't part of the running narrative.

#4) Intercontinental Championship Match - Dolph Ziggler defeated Luke Harper by disqualification

Going into the show I had this contest in mind as being a contender for match of the night. In reality it felt kind of flat, and that bugs me for a number of reasons. Knowing what these two are capable of and seeing the match they had, it surprised me that it was somewhat dull in its pacing. I knew Ziggler had zero chance of winning the title because titles never change hands at live events (that's not entirely true; they do change hands at live events but only about as frequently as we elect Presidents). The fact that the guts of the match didn't feature the sort of athleticism these two show off during episodes of RAW or Smackdown was disappointing but the decision to have the match end as the result of Harper pushing Ziggler into the referee was somewhat confusing (at first I thought the ref had disqualified Ziggler for making contact with him) and mostly unsatisfying.

- Intermission -

#5) R-Truth defeated Cesaro

As I mentioned on my Twitter feed, this is why CM Punk quit.

Here's another crazy booking decision which doesn't make any sense to me. Why would a guy like R-Truth, who hasn't been on any of the main WWE programming for a while now, get a win over Cesaro? I can only assume Cesaro is in someone's doghouse. If this is all the Swiss Superman will ever get to be on the main roster, then by all means send him back to NXT where he can be appreciated for having phenomenal matches with talent like Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, Finn Balor, and Hideo Itami.

#6) A New Day (Kofi Kingston & Big E Langston with Xavier Woods) defeated WWE Tag Team Champions The Miz & Damien Mizdow in a non-title bout

This was my favorite match of the night because out of the 7 contests on the card it was the one that had the most energy and life to it. The Miz can get heat just by picking up a microphone, Damien Mizdow is one of the best characters in WWE right now, and I sincerely hope that A New Day goes far because those guys are working their tails off in that gimmick.

#7) John Cena defeated Seth Rollins in a street fight

The last event my wife and I attended together before this one was a WWE Live show in November of 2013 which was also held at CLA. The main event that night was a street fight between the Wyatt Family (Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper & Eric Rowan) and the team of CM Punk & Daniel Bryan. Fast forward to the present where the Wyatt Family doesn't exist, Daniel Bryan may or may not ever wrestle again, and CM Punk is gone from WWE completely. My how things change over the course of a year!

I have to give a hand to Cena and Rollins because this match was definitely more in line with what one would expect when you hear of a match being held under street fight rules than others I've seen. (Of course you could just as well interchange street fight, extreme rules, no disqualifications, and a few other labels that get added to matches where anything goes. Why WWE uses one instead of another is anyone's guess. Perhaps WWE conducted a study and determined that "street fight" was more effective in terms of marketing.) They brawled up and down the aisle, made use of a number of weapons, and Rollins had so much heat on him that he even managed to make a young female fan at ringside burst into tears. That's the kind of reaction you rarely see anymore in pro wrestling and it goes to show that no matter how many times John Cena may face insurmountable odds (and triumphantly overcome them) his loyal fans are there with him 100% of the time.

Rollins went through two tables during the match, once on a reversal out of an Irish whip into one of the corners and a second time via an Attitude Adjuster from Cena off the top rope. I believe Cena and Rollins had this same match at least once more during the loop of live events this past weekend, so that means Rollins likely went through 4 or more tables in less than 3 days time. All I can say to that is hopefully he has a good chiropractor.

All things considered this was a fun night out but the matches overall left both of us feeling like there was something missing. I don't know if that something is star power, emotional involvement, or what but this was a fairly vanilla piece of work. Looking back, I think it's interesting that out of 7 matches the heel (villain) only won once, that being Fandango.

Of course we couldn't go to something like this without shooting an episode of Rasslin' with Redbeard! I have to give my wife major kudos seeing as how she served as camera operator for more than a few shots that became a part of this episode. She humors me and my silly endeavors, which is just one reason why I love her.

WWE Live at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, SC (November 6, 2013)

[Author's Note: This is an expanded version of an event report I submitted to the professional wrestling news website Pro Wrestling Insider, PWInsider.com. They published my original piece, which you can view at this link.]

It might seem somewhat childish, but I'm a 33-year old man who still enjoys watching professional wrestling. "Rasslin", as it's sometimes referred to down here in the South - it's the sort of thing that gets you a funny look when you admit to being into it as an adult because, much like cartoons, it's one of those things that society expects to be appealing only to kids. Fact of the matter is, though, I've watched it ever since I was a young lad and I see no reason to stop. Sure there are times where the stuff that makes it to television makes me slap my head because of how ridiculous it is (wrestling is a "soap opera for men" is a phrase I've heard, which is mostly accurate), but the reality of it is that this is a form of entertainment and at this point I'm working on better than 20 years of knowledge regarding the continuity of this story. Not that the plot will ever end, but leaving now would be akin to watching Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back but never bothering to check out Return of the Jedi.

What's more, a common interest in pro wrestling is one of the things that my wife & I share. She informed me of her fondness of it when we first got together and consequently I've used that to my advantage as I've dragged her to some, shall we say, incredibly questionable venues thanks to our mutually confessed adulation of wrestling. That brings us to the event we attended this past Wednesday, November 6, 2013 - an edition of WWE Live held at the Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, South Carolina.

This was taken by a photographer at The State newspaper as we entered the building.

We arrived about an hour before the 7:30 PM bell time. I'm a stickler for this sort of thing as I am always paranoid about things like parking and getting through security without being rushed to make it to our seats in time for the show to begin. There were a couple dozen guys in the parking lot literally coming up to people in cars, sometimes following them to their parking spaces as they were still making their way into the lot, trying to sell fake WWE t-shirts and posters. This isn't an uncommon practice as I've seen it numerous times at various buildings; it's kind of funny because their products are always terrible quality but I guess people still buy them else they wouldn't be out there. (Suffice to say the stuff they're selling is illegal seeing as how the logos and likenesses they use are intellectual properties protected by copyright laws.) After we waded through them we got to the doors, and to my amazement the arena was already open by the time we got there. No queue, no delay, we went straight in. For that matter there wasn't even security at the gate - no wands, no bag checks.

Suddenly I got the feeling this might not be the most extravagant of WWE events. What I mean by that is it didn't exude the big time feel that I've had in the past when going to their shows. Actually, I had concerns about that going into the thing as far back as when I bought our tickets. Reason being, that same day WWE was set to begin a week-long European tour, meaning that while our show was happening a majority of the WWE roster was already in a different part of the world. What that meant for us, potentially, was a show featuring what could best be described as leftover talent. Not to say that they aren't good, just that the event stood to be lacking in star power.

When we got inside we browsed the merch booth and noticed something new. Seems as though WWE has gotten into the idea of selling professional photos of fans holding a replica of the newly redesigned WWE title. I didn't look to see how much the pictures cost but it's probably much cheaper than buying an actual replica belt as a keepsake.

PRO-TIP: I bought our tickets as part of a pre-sale event, and because of this I was able to get us front row seats right up against the railing near where the wrestlers make their way to the ring. I surprised Jill with them as I'd kept them hidden right up until we went through the gates. Pre-sales are usually promoted by event venues via some sort of mailing list, so if you are a fan of concerts and performances and want to get the best seats possible you'd do well to sign up with your local venues. I will tell you, though, that these pre-sales can be a blessing and a curse when it comes to being a patron. On the one hand, if you get in early enough on the pre-sale you can get some fantastic seats like I did. However, sometimes venues only open up certain sections in the arena for the pre-sale, meaning it may look like there are no good or ideal seats left when in reality there are likely still some to be had. To make matters worse, a lot of times some of the best seats get reserved for giveaways and other promotions, meaning the general public essentially never has a fair shot at them. There are a lot of tricks to this business, needless to say!

We found our seats and took a few pictures at ringside. We noticed that it looked like a slim crowd at that point but in my mind I likened the situation to Gamecock football games in that Columbia crowds seem to be late on arrival as a matter of principle. My wife went to the restroom before the show began and when she came back she said there weren't very many people on the concourse at the concession stands. By the time the show started, the floor seats were mostly full but there was what I'd call a "splash" of fans scattered around the lower bowl of the arena. I think Colonial Life holds somewhere around 10,000 at maximum capacity - I'd say there were less than 2,500 in attendance that night.

Tony Chimel was our ring announcer. I don't know why but I thought he'd been released from his contract with WWE at some point in the past (not an uncommon thing for them; almost every year after Wrestlemania there are a series of cuts made to the roster, usually for budgetary reasons but others as well). Regardless, he informed us that we'd have a chance to determine the stipulation to be added to the main event by tweeting or texting our preference. I have to hand it to WWE - involving the fans using social media and technology is pretty awesome, even if it oftentimes seems as though they make the choice an obvious one. ("Okay, guys - who do you want to see face Randy Orton? Hornswoggle, The Brooklyn Brawler, or John Cena...VOTE NOW!") We would get to choose between a street fight or no disqualification rules being added to the CM Punk & Daniel Bryan vs. The Wyatt Family tag team match. As an old school fan who's been around long enough to know I kind of shook my head over this because no disqualification technically could be the same thing as a street fight. I say that even though I know well enough by now that looking for logic in pro wrestling is like looking for a specific grain of sand on a beach.

1) The Primetime Players (Darren Young & Titus O'Neil) vs. Hunico & Comacho

Hunico made fun of a kid sitting behind us who was wearing a Sin Cara mask (which looks like this). If you don't get that reference, there was a point in time where there were two Sin Cara's - the real one and the fake one, who was Hunico in disguise. This was a good opener, albeit a classically structured tag team match where Darren Young played the good guy in distress who finally made a tag to Titus O'Neil who promptly laid waste to Hunico and Comacho. The Primetime Players won and got things off to a spirited start.

2) Jinder Majal vs. The Great Khali

Jinder came to the ring using his old entrance music from when he was a singles competitor - I guess he still is a singles competitor, but it seemed odd that he'd be using it since he's part of a group called 3 Man Band (along with Heath Slater and Drew McIntyre, who would be appearing later on in the show). I made the comment to my wife that he looked rather militant with his all-black garb; I doubt this wasn't intentional, seeing as how an Arabic character in professional wrestling is almost universally recognized as being a villain.

It pains me to watch Khali. At better than 7 feet tall, he's a physical specimen but he has severe limitations when it comes to mobility and dexterity. This was more or less every Khali match you've ever seen. He delivers a couple overhand chops to the bare chest of Majal then he gets some heat when he botches a kick to the corner (which looks awful because he doesn't kick, he just throws his leg over the rope), and finally he makes the comeback for the win.

3) Brie Bella w/Nikki vs. AJ Lee (WWE Diva's Champion) w/Tamina

This was advertised as being a Diva's Championship match but AJ got on the microphone immediately as she entered the ring and announced that she would not be defending the title tonight. This was a solid match, which was a great thing to see since WWE's female wrestlers are often criticized as being one of the low points of a given card. Brie got the victory after Tamina attempted to get involved only to have Nikki yank her off the apron.

Trust me when I say that the aesthetic differences between the Bellas, who are identical twin sisters, are especially noticeable up close. Nikki is more enhanced than her sister is, if you catch my meaning. Also, during this match there was some dude perched beside me on the other side of the railing who seemed to be trying to take pictures of the Bellas with an iPhone. I'm not sure who he was or what that was about, though.

4) Intercontinental Championship Match - Curtis Axel (c) vs. R-Truth

Axel, who has an incredible lineage as he is the grandson of Larry "The Axe" Hennig and the son of "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig, ran down the crowd as being beneath him before the match. R-Truth came out to his usual pre-match antics, rapping and dancing on his way to the ring and getting the support of the fans in the process.

Curtis looked good coming off of a recent hip injury, although I want to be critical of the fact that his physique isn't anything to be especially proud of. I say that because here lately there have been a number of stories published by wrestling news websites regarding a talent named Khasius Ohno (who is better known as Chris Hero) who was more or less demoted from his position in the company for supposedly not focusing intently enough on developing his physical appearance. Why does a guy like him get thrown under the bus but not Axel?

Truth came off well here because it never felt like he wasn't capable of winning the match - right up until he finally lost, that is.

- Intermission -

5) Heath Slater & Drew McIntyre vs. The Usos

I can't lie, Drew & Slater are entertaining in the role of bandmates in the 3 Man Band gimmick. In the realm of potentially awful creative ideas that have been thrust upon otherwise solid wrestlers, that's the kind of thing that could end careers but these guys have found a way to make it fun if nothing else. The Usos, on the other hand, do nothing for me. Their work just seems sloppy and I do not get their appeal, at all. That said, the Usos won after what was a fairly competitive match with all parties getting involved.

6) Ryback vs. Justin Gabriel

When Gabriel came out I was hoping it wouldn't be Ryback as his opponent. To give those of you who don't follow wrestling an idea of why I didn't want it to be Ryback, Justin is a high-flying cruiserweight and Ryback would be considered a super-heavyweight who's so muscular that he looks like he could throw a Volkswagen through a brick wall. I didn't want to see a squash match this late in the card ("squash match" being wrestling vernacular for a match designed to make one competitor look better by having him soundly beat what is typically an inferior opponent), but but sure enough it was Ryback.

Ryback came out and tried to get the crowd against him by running down the University of South Carolina Gamecocks football team and how they're going to get beaten down by the University of Florida Gators in a few weeks. I'd like to have seen him say that to Jadeveon Clowney - that would've been entertaining, likely more entertaining than this match as a matter of fact.

The match went about how you'd expect it. Gabriel had a few fleeting moments of hope but couldn't get past Ryback, the guy who (WARNING - STRING OF WRESTLING & POP CULTURE REFERENCES APPROACHING) looks like Bill Goldberg wearing Rob Van Dam's singlet with randomly-placed Team Rocket logos on his gear.

7) Tag Team Street Fight - CM Punk & Daniel Bryan vs. The Wyatt Family (Luke Harper & Eric Rowan w/Bray Wyatt)

At this point, my wife & I got a little upset because we realized the card on this night was, in fact, subject to change (that little phrase has adorned every wrestling poster that I've ever seen, and for obvious reasons). In promoting the event, WWE and the Colonial Life Arena had advertised appearances by Kane, Paul Heyman, as well as Cody Rhodes and Goldust who are the current WWE Tag Team Champions. Not that we didn't look forward to the main event, but we were hoping to see Kane and The Rhodes Brothers. This goes back to my notion of this show not being all that loaded with star power, but hey - CM Punk and Daniel Bryan are a good get any day of the week as far as I'm concerned.

This match was the highlight of the night. The street fight stipulation won the fan vote (real shocker, that) but they never really took advantage of those rules - no brawling in the crowd or what have you. There was a point in wrestling's history where a match like this would've involved blood as it's a great tool that, when used appropriately, can add to the drama of a contest. That doesn't happen as often anymore as athletic commissions have had their say in trying to limit the dangers of exposing athletes and fans to blood-bourne pathogens.

There was some great work at the start of the match where it looked like Punk & Bryan would establish control early on but Harper & Rowan managed to get the upper hand by isolating Bryan, who took the bulk of the punishment from Bray's disciples. The Wyatt's introduced a kendo stick to the match, beating down both Punk & Bryan but Punk found his own kendo and evened things up. The finish came after Harper ran himself into a table that the Wyatt's had set in one of the corners after which Punk hit him with his signature finishing maneuver, the GTS (Go To Sleep).

 

After the match Bryan & Punk spent a good bit of time going around ringside, meeting with fans, taking pictures and signing autographs. I "slapped hands" with them and I will admit that in that moment I was a small child who just happened to be shaped like a grown man.

Overall I'd say that this show was quite entertaining but it was also very rushed. It started on time at 7:30 PM and even with the intermission it was done around 9:30-9:45. I guess these guys all had planes to catch in order to join the rest of the crew across the pond.