More Detailed Reports For Last Night's WWE Live Event In Fargo: Huge Reaction For Roman Reigns, More
We have received more reports for last night's WWE live event in Fargo, which are below:
From Travis Vinje:
* R-Truth defeated King Barrett.
* Bayley defeated Naomi even with team BAD at ringside and interfering a little bit.
* Ryback defeated the Big Show and Miz in a triple threat match to retain the intercontinental championship. The crowd kept asking big show to chop the Miz. So Miz got chopped a few times. Some of them seemed pretty tame though.
* Jimmy Uso defeated Heath Slater after being challenged to a dance off. Slater danced goofy to the "I'm too sexy" song, while Jimmy Uso put on a hat and looked smooth dancing to some Michael Jackson. Slater got mad at how good he was doing and jumped him from behind. That didn't last long, Uso super kicked Slater to the mat and then frog splashed from the top rope to get the three count.
* Jack Swagger defeated Adam Rose with the Patriot Act ankle lock.
* The Lucha Dragons defeated the Ascension. The Lucha Dragons had a good pop from the crowd.
* Roman Reigns defeated Bray Wyatt in a Fargo street fight. They start off exchanging punches in the middle of the ring and eventually Wyatt gets throw out. Reigns goes to grab Wyatt by his hair but he gets hit out of nowhere with a Kendo stick. Wyatt gets in the ring and keeps hitting Reigns with it, until Reigns manages to grab it and fight it away from him. Reigns gives a couple swings of the Kendo stick to Wyatt before he falls out to the floor. Reigns breaks the Kendo stick in half and follows Wyatt to the floor. They fight out of the ring for a bit and throw each other into the stairs. Reigns rolled back into the ring and as he turned around to grab Wyatt, a chair comes flying in from Wyatt. He took Jojos, the ring announcers chair and threw it at Roman. With Reigns down, Wyatt brought a table into the ring and set it up. Roman got up and attempted to fight Bray but it was too late. Wyatt grabbed him and rock bottomed him through the table. Wyatt got almost a three count on Reigns. I thought it was over.
The table pieces are removed from the ring as Wyatt is hanging upside down in the corner as he usually does. He turns around and grabs Roman and is about to put him in the sister Abigail. Reigns slides out of it and goes around to roll Wyatt up for a two count. They both get back up quick and Reigns cocks his fist, turns around really fast and superman punches Wyatt. Reigns pins him for a 2 and 3/4 count. Another close one but he kicks out. I for sure thought it was over. Wyatt gets up and starts to make a comeback. He throws Reigns into the corner and grabs another table and sets it up close to the corner. He puts Reigns on the top rope and climbs up with him. He attempts to superplex him but Reigns gut punches him and head butts him a couple times to break his grip. With Wyatt still standing on the ropes, Reigns slips underneath and positions himself to grab and lift Wyatt into a powerbomb position. He does and steadily walks to the table, then he proceeds to powerbomb Bray through the table.
Before Reigns can pin him, a mysterious person (Luke Harper) proceeds to slide into the ring and throw Roman into a chair that was propped up in one of the corners. Then he super kicks him. Harper drags Wyatt on top of reigns for what could have been a three count, but reigns kicked out at the very last moment. Harper takes off the coat that was covering him, kicks a table piece out of his way and grabs Reigns head and positions it between his knees as if he's going to powerbomb him. Except Reigns overpowers him and flips him over onto his back. Reigns cocks his fist and turns around as Harper gets back up and superman punches him. Bray sneakily gets up behind Roman and you think he's going to catch Reigns off guard, except Roman spins around and charges Bray, spearing him into the mat. Reigns covers Wyatt for the three count and wins the street fight.
It was a really good match and it had the loudest pop of the night when Reigns won. Felt like a pay per view quality match.
* * *
We got a bit of a raw deal with a very weak card tonight tho I still enjoyed myself. Crowd was sold out on floor but only 50% full on elevated stands. I'd say 60%-65% full. Crowd was a bit lethargic and only really got into things here and there.
1) R Truth over Wade Barrett via pinfall.
Pretty much what you've seen on TV. R Truth warmed up the crowd to start things off with his freestyle intro. Crowd did give Barrett the reactions he was looking for and booed him often. I don't remember much of this match as it was largely forgettable. Crowd was solidly behind R Truth and loved booing Barrett. Thats about it.
2) Naomi (with Sasha and Tamina) over Bayley via pinfall after the Rearview.
My favorite match as I was interested to see the crowds reaction to the mostly unknown Bayley. A solid match with nothing the level of the NXT Divas work but there were no botches and Naomi and Bayley had good chemistry despite not working together before live. Naomi hit all her moves while Bayley also hit all her spots except the Belly to Bayley. Crowd more engaged for this bell to bell than most the matches on the card. Story of match was Team B.A.D having no respect for Bayley and laughing in her face at the beginning then using outside interference to maintain a advantage and ultimately secure the win after Sasha distracted the ref who missed the 3 count on a Bayley roll up which led to Bayley knocking Sasha off the apron but turning around into the Rearview.
The crowd easily got behind Bayley and cheered when they were supposed to even when Bayley and Naomi weren't working for a reaction. A lot of this card dragged because the guys worked hard for reactions but the crowd just didn't care at all with there being almost no star power on it.
Hard to say the level of star Bayley will be in WWE because its way too early but I will say the way the crowd rallied behind her with little prodding it will take minimal effort to get her over as a face and someone the fans really care about once she gets called up.
3) Jack Swagger beat Adam Rose via Submission with the Patriot lock.
Solid Red State North Dakota loved them some Jack Swagger. Rose worked hard to get the crowd to boo him but they were indifferent for most part. Blah
4) Ryback retained the IC title over Big Show and Miz after Ryback hit the Shellshock on Miz.
Ryback was really popular as the first real star of the evening and the crowd booed Miz when he invited them too which was often. Show got good face heat for the match and there wasn't any "Please Retire" chants which was nice because no one worked harder at being original in their crowd work than Show tonight. Match started with Show and Ryback battling it out while Miz hid outside content to let them weaken one another in the opening minutes. After a while Miz sneaked back into the ring and attacked Ryback from behind and controlled the action with some basic offense and things just stayed the same with 2 of the 3 men fighting each other while the other nursed a injury on apron or outside.
Outside of a Bayley v Naomi match I'll remember because I'd never see it before, the most memorable thing about tonight was the way Big Show interacted with the crowd. Loudly ordered Ryback to "stop with the feed me more s–t (he said this in character) ".He taunted one guy for wearing a N.W.O shirt to a event in 2015. He gave Miz a chest slap and when the crowd chanted "one more time" he obliged backing Miz into the corner, hushing the crowd, and then sent Miz crumpling to the floor. This sums up the card perfectly as it was one of the most unique things that happened all night.
15 minute intermission
5) Jimmy Uso beat Heath Slater via pinfall after a top rope splash.
This "match" was mostly filler to kill time while people returned from intermission. Match ended when Slater challenged Uso to a dance contest which he then proceeded to ham it up for "I'm too sexy". Slater tried to get a reaction but the crowd basically no sold it. Uso got the crowd back into by doing a pretty good Michael Jackson impersonation while dancing to "Billie Jean". Slater got mad at Uso winning so he attacked Jimmy from behind but quickly got a super kick and top rope splash to end this time killer.
6) Lucha Dragons beat the Ascension when Sin Cara hit a Swanton on Viktor (I think).
Basic match with the heels beating down Sin Cara for most the match and finally the good guys won. Ascension were in the same boat Rose and Slater were in that they worked their butts off to engage the crowd but the crowd just didn't care about them whatsoever.
7) Roman Reigns over Bray Wyatt via pinfall after a spear in a "Fargo street fight".
Crowd was instantly on fire for this match and showed they were ready to have fun tonight if they had been given a decent card with some stars on it. Surprisingly the crowd was overwhelming for Roman. Thought it would be more even but it was like 75%-80% for Roman. Crowd impatiently wanted tables right away. Real good work from both men as they brawled for a while before starting the street fight with a chair. Bray played to the crowd a bit hitting Roman repeatedly with a chair but then teasing one final whack of the chair and when people asked for it just tossing the chair aside and walking away laughing at them. Surprisingly later they did a spot where Roman was crawling out the ring and Bray just threw the chair at his head like RVD used to do in ECW. Didnt seem Roman fully blocked it and it at least partially hit him in the head. Would be nice to see that spot never done again. Bray grabbed the top part of the ring steps and placed it upright in the aisle to the ring. Bray remarked to my section what "a work of art" it was but Roman reversed his Irish whip attempts and avoided being introduced to Wyatts masterpiece. Roman threw Wyatt in the ring and proceeded to bring out a table from under the ring. Roman ended up getting chokeslammed thru it tho. Next weapon kendo stick Bray enjoyed working Roman over with for awhile before Roman wrestled it away from him and snapped it in half. They brawled some more making their way back towards the upright ring steps and Bray went right thru it in a twist of his ill wishes. More brawling and another table was introduced this time by Wyatt and like Roman he ended up going thru it after Reigns negated his superplex attempt and powerbombed him thru it. This led to Luke Harper running in to break up a pin attempt and cause people to excitedly clamor for Dean Ambrose to run in ignoring all logic behind why that wasn't going to happen. Luckily Reigns was in Samoan Hulk mode tonight and fought both men off before hitting his spear on Wyatt to win a very fun match. Reigns posed every place he could to make sure anyone who wanted a pic got one and send the crowd home happy.
A weak and very uneven card because of WWE using way too many people that aren't on TV or are in irrelevant storylines and people don't have a big emotional investment in them. That being said everyone put in a honest hard nights work and I dont want to bash anyone. It was what it was and the crowd just couldn't build any sustained momentum.