Detailed WWE Results From Denver (2/24): AJ Styles Defends, Crowd Sings Happy Birthday To Nakamura
Thanks to Wrestling Inc. readers Jason Tanner for and David Aguilar sending in these results from last night's SmackDown live event in Denver, CO:
From Jason Tanner:
The Pepsi Center was about half full with the top levels tarped off.
* The show opened with a 4-Way for the Smackdown tag titles with The Usos defending against The New Day, American Alpha, and Rusev & Aiden English. The Usos pinned English after a double super kick.
* Sin Cara defeated Mike Kanellisr a Senton off the top rope.
* Mojo Rawley defeated Tye Dillinger with a running fist.
* The Bludgeon Brothers squashed Breezango.
* U.S. Champion Bobby Roode defeated Jinder Mahal with a Glorious DDT.
* Charlotte, Becky Lynch & Naomi defeated The Riott Squad.
* Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Dolph Ziggler with a kinshasa. The crowd sang happy birthday to Nakamura.
* WWE Champion AJ Styles defeated Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens and Baron Corbin in a Fatal 4 Way match.
Good show. The women got one of the biggest pops of the night.
From David Aguilar:
When we walk in, Greg Hamilton (host of the show) is upgrading a fan's tickets from the 100 level to the front row.
Surprisingly, the attendance for this show was about the same for the RAW in October, and exceeded the attendance for the Smackdown in October (the one where Kevin Owens powerbombed Shane McMahon through a table in the hallway). I'd call it 4,000-5,000 total, with no seats sold in the 200s/300s.
The last house show I attended was in 2010, and WWE sure has upgraded their house show production since then. Stage, mini-Titantron (with actual Titantron vids that you don't see on TV/tapings). Gives the feeling of a bigger show.
* The Usos (c.) def. The New Day (Big E/Kofi, w/Xavier), Rusev Day, and Benjamin/Gable in a Fatal For Way to retain the Smackdown Tag Team Championship in about 20 minutes. Rusev Day were over as huge faces, the other two face teams were pretty over as well. Benjamin/Gable played the heel role well. A lot of spotty New Day BS at the beginning, some posturing between Gable and English, and virtually no Uso involvement until the finish. Kofi used English's head as a weapon to hit Gable with a low blow. Rusev took a big kick from the Usos, finish sees a botched corner buttram (he completely missed) by Jey Uso into English, followed by a double face kick by both Usos for Jey to get the pin. ***
* Sin Cara def. Mike Kanellis in 10 min. Surprising that both are still employed, but both were also surprisingly over with the crowd. IMO most of the crowd thought Sin Cara was Kalisto. They played the Toro Toro game with Mike's Maria jacket. Sin Cara wins with a senton bomb. *1/2
* Mojo Rawley def. Tye Dillinger in 10 min. Was a lot worse than it sounds. Seriously, these guys could have done so much better. Slow, brawling match, very sloppy. Mojo wins with what looked like a clothesline in the corner (I think he missed) followed by a pin. 1/2*
We get a cutaway for Fashion Files. Tyler Breeze says he can't wait to perform on WWE Live (but says live instead of live). LOL I guess.
* The Bludgeon Brothers def. Breezango in 3 minutes. Both teams were over as faces (I was surprised by this). Breezango gets in about 80% of the offense, but Fandango ultimately takes the double powerbomb from the Bros. *1/2
Sunil Singh comes out and introduces Jinder Mahal.
* Bobby Roode (c.) def. Jinder Mahal to retain the United States Championship in about 15 min. Jinder Mahal cut a decent promo before the match. Many in the crowd chanted USA the whole time, but somebody should have told them this was a match between two Canadians. Mahal looked great, and Roode was definitely serviceable. This was actually a very good match, finish saw Sunil (on the apron) get inadvertently airdecked by Mahal, followed by the Glorious DDT for the pin. ***1/2
While Roode was celebrating, Denver Nuggets players Kenneth Faried (complete with WWE Universal Championship), Wilson Chandler, and Tyler Lydon (I think) walked up our aisle right passed us. Nice.
Intermission.
* Charlotte Flair, Naomi, and Becky Lynch def. The Riott Squad in 15 min. Liv and Sarah had tight tank tops on that looked pretty damn hot. The crowd was hot for this one. Charlotte was way more over than I had expected. Becky Lynch carried the match for the faces, but got beat down by all three Riott Squad members the whole time. Sarah Logan needed two tries to get a suplex off on Becky (it could have been ugly). Finish saw Charlotte get the Figure Four on Logan. ***
* Shinsuke Nakamura def. Dolph Ziggler in about 18 min. Both over as faces, but these guys were just screwing around. Ziggler stopped the match to have the crowd sing Happy Birthday to Shinsuke (it is apparently indeed his birthday), which was followed by a Ziggler heel turn. Both guys got all their offense in, Nakamura got the Kinshasa off on the second try for the pin. **
* A.J. Styles def. Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, and Baron Corbin in a Fatal Four Way match to retain the WWE Championship in about 20 minutes. Appropriate reactions for everybody. Kevin looked/seemed checked out. Match was entertaining, but most of it involved Sami/Kevin teaming up to beat on AJ. Baron turned on AJ pretty early in the match, but he stayed on the ground by the stairs for most of the match after he got thrown into them by Sami/Kevin. Baron did hit Deep Six on AJ (so beautiful), and End of Days on Sami and Kevin. There was a big spot we may see at Fastlane, AJ was sitting on the turnbuckle, Sami/Kevin tried to superplex him, but Corbin came and powerbombed Sami/Kevin off the first or second rope (AJ remained on the turnbuckle, but I don't think he was supposed to). It looked pretty raw, Sami and Kevin kind of just fell. Finish saw Sami go to kick AJ in the corner, but he hit Kevin instead. Sami then received the Styles Clash for AJ to get the pin. ***1/2.
Overall, it was a great show. AJ stayed around for at least 10 minutes to interact with the crowd. No return date announced.