WWE Live Event Results From St. Louis & Springfield: Daniel Bryan Vs. The Miz, Randy Orton Appears
Below are results from this weekend's SmackDown live event in St. Louis and Springfield:
St. Louis (7/21):
WWE was at the Chaifetz Arena in St Louis for the first time for this weekend's live event. This arena is home to the St Louis University's basketball team, and is a much smaller arena than the home of the St Louis Blues, where WWE usually goes. The crowd was light, as the cheap seats in the lower bowl, and the expensive seats on the floor was full, but there were many open seats in the more expensive areas in the lower bowl. The crowd was very energetic and into it for each match. It was a great atmosphere, even though attendance was lower than usual.
* The first match was a triple threat match for the Smackdown tag titles of the Usos vs. Gallows and Anderson vs. Bludgeon Brothers. The Usos were super over with the crowd. Bludgeon Brothers won by pinning Anderson, match was 14 minutes.
* Andrade "Cien" Almas defeated Sin Cara in about 11 minutes. I was surprised how much Sin Cara was able to get himself cheered. Almas and Vega did a great job of generating heal heat. Match was 11 minutes.
* Next was a 6 woman tag match with the IIconics and Lana vs. Asuka, Becky Lynch, and surprisingly, Nikki Cross. I was impressed with how over Cross was, most of the crowd seemed to know who she was, and everyone seemed to be entertained by her. I hope she officially gets called up soon. The good guys won in 13 minutes.
* Shinsuke Nakamura retained his US title by cleanly pinning Jeff Hardy with his finisher at the 14 minute mark. Crowd seemed to be evenly split among the two. After Nakamura left, Orton arrived to beat down Hardy. The hometown boy got a massive pop. Fortunately, there was no ear pulling this time!
* Up next was probably the loudest crowd reaction match of the night, as Daniel Bryan faced The Miz. As you can imagine, both had the crowd in the palms of their hands. Bryan won with the flying knee at 13 minutes. I wish the match was longer, it was extremely entertaining.
Intermission
* The New Day defeated the Bar in 13 minutes. Woods was not there, his Twitter showed he was at Comic Con in San Diego. Both teams got great reactions from the crowd.
* Carmella retained her Smackdown Women's title by defeating Naomi in 10 minutes. Carmella gave a great annoying promo. The crowd chanted for Ellsworth, but he was not there.
* In the main event, AJ Styles retained his title by defeating Samoa Joe and Rusev in a triple threat. Rusev and Styles were super over. The match was 15 minutes.
Overall, it was a very fun show, it was a shame more fans were not there. Other than Bryan and Miz, it's hard to say who got the most cheers and boos, as the fans were very vocal for each match. All the wrestlers on the card did a great job working their butts off, it did not feel like any of them were mailing it in.
Springfield, IL (7/22)
Thanks to Wrestling Inc. reader Tyler
* SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Bludgeon Bros. defeated The Usos and Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson.
* Andrade "Cien" Almas defeated Sin Cara with the hammerlock DDT
* Asuka, Naomi & Nikki Cross defeated The IIconics & Lana
* U.S. Champion Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Jeff Hardy with the Kinshasa. After the match, Randy Orton came out and gave Hardy a low blow.
* Daniel Bryan defeated The Miz with a heel hook. Match of the night. It was a really long and fun match that went back and forth.
* Big E & Xavier Woods (w/ Kofi Kingston) defeated Sheamus & Cesaro with the Midnight Hour
* SmackDown Women's Champion Carmella defeated Becky Lynch via DQ after Carmella hit Becky with chair shot
* WWE Champion AJ Styles defeated Samoa Joe and Rusev in a triple threat match after hitting the Phenomenal elbow on Rusev.
Biggest pops:
1) Daniel Bryan
2) AJ Styles
3) Becky Lynch
4) Rusev
5) New Day