Arriving and entering at the Antwerp Lotto Arena was a bit of a disappointment; nobody was handing out any flyers or other leaflets to announce WWE's return to Belgium for the coming November European tour or next April's. So fingers crossed for us Belgian fans for at least 6 to 7 months and hope they come back next year.
Lotto Arena is a +/- 5000 or 6000 people venue. The place was packed up but not sold out. Taking in consideration that WWE has no TV time at all in Belgium (at least not in the Dutch speaking part that includes Antwerp) this is no bad business.
* Dean Ambrose defeated Luke Harper in the opening bout of the night. Both men were doing their best to deliver a solid performance and by the second half of this 15 minute match the crowd was already in it as if it was a main event type of attraction.
* Next up we saw Nikki Bella (w/Brie in the corner) defeat Naomi. Before the match Naomi tried (and succeeded) working the crowd as a true heel. Very nice match and hell yeah, #givedivasachance!
* This was followed by Goldust getting at the end of the match caught up in a very sneaky roll-up by Stardust. Like I guess in the rest of the world, Stardust got jeered on with Cody chants before, during and after the match. When he got out before the match he played the crowd by first asking who understood English and then asking who was on Twitter. He then continued with claiming that it was announced at 10 a.m. earlier today that the 2016 Royal Rumble would be held at the Lotto Arena right here in Antwerp! A majority of the crowd even fell for it. After the match Goldust got on the mic claiming that this tour has taken him all over Europe but that the Lotto Arena crowd has giving him the loudest support of the entire tour by far. Right, but since there were no "you still got it" chants and it wasn't his birthday either, I would say good ol' Dustin was just being polite but not really truthful
* A bit to my surprise, the match before intermission was John Cena successfully defending his US title vs Rusev (w/Lana). I would have thought this would have been higher up the card. At least 60% of the crowd seemed to have come just for Cena. This was the 4th time I've seen Cena in Belgium but this was by far the loudest pop he got. The crowed was in the match from start to finish and the "Let's Go Cena" chants had much bigger volume the than the "Cena Sucks" ones. On a personal note: before the match both Rusev and Lana did their jobs by addressing the crowd to draw more heat. I was a bit disappointed that "the champ" never even bothered before the match or after his glorious victory to say at least a few words to his many (young) fans. But hey, they didn't seem to care so who am I?
* After intermission we saw an 8 men tag team attraction in which the teams of The Prime Time Players & The Lucha Dragons defeated the combination of The Ascension, Heath Slater & AxelMania. This was all in all a very entertaining bout, the type of match that makes you wish you have more than just one set of eyes to follow the action. Before the match, Axel drew the most heat and crowd reaction. During the match the Dragons had the crowd on their hands and they kept them going, including the first (and only) "ole-ole-ole" football chant of the night.
With the crowd still buzzing, Kane made his appearance. Not corporate today, just in ring gear. His opponent was Ryback and I am afraid that all I can say is that Ryback scored the pin before everyone was back in their seats. Short, very short, and.. quite pointless.
* Main event time: Seth Rollins once again, with the aid of Jamie Noble and Joey Mercuryretained his WWE championship belt after he got defeated via DQ by Randy Orton. Like all the previous reports of this on-going European tour have been stating, this match was action packed and awesome. I don't know if they have done it elsewhere, but tonight, Rollins was literally kissing Orton's boots in the middle of the ring. If these European performances accumulate into a memorable performance by these two in the cage at Extreme Rules, then most of us wrestling fans will be happy campers!
From Eva:
* Dean Ambrose defeated Luke Harper.
* Nikki Bella (c) (w/Brie Bella) beat Naomi to retain the Divas Championship.
* Stardust defeated Goldust.
* John Cena (c) defeated Rusev (w/Lana) to retain the U.S. Championship.
* The Prime Time Players and Lucha Dragons defeated The Ascension, Curtis Axel, and Heath Slater.
* Ryback defeated Kane.
* Randy Orton defeated Seth Rollins (c) by DQ in a WWE World Heavyweight Championship match
.WWE Live Event Results From Antwerp, Belguim (4/17): WWE Title Match, John Cena Vs. Rusev, Ambrose
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5
Oleh
Unknown
