Saturday, June 29, 2019

WWE Live 2019 Part 2: Second half

The show resumed at 2105 hrs... the final 3 matches were all title defenses, and there was a bit of a sing-along sessions for each match.

Match 5... WWE Raw Tag Team Championship match.
Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder were first to show up. This was actually their second time in Singapore; back in July 2007, they were known as the Major Brothers and they wrestled against WWE Tag Team Champions Deuce n Domino. They were accompanied to the ring by StarHub winner Rudy bin Abdullah, who was swinging around his WWE universal Championship title. They were going against The Revival who had beat them for the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship 2 weeks prior (SAY YEEEESSSSS). They were really close to winning, esp when Zack laid out Dash Wilder with the Rough Ryder. The Revival took out Hawkins with the Shatter Machine finisher. After Dawson and Wilder happily walked to the locker room with their tag team titles still intact, Hawkins and Ryder got a standing ovation for their efforts in nearly reclaiming their titles.
                    

Match 6... United States Championship match.
The arena darkened and piano sounds can be heard. The fans sang along "Glorious! I won't give in, I won't give in" as the Glorious Robert Roode made his way to the ring. I personally preferred him with only the mustacahe... not quite a fan of his stubble which he grew back. Next was the Destroyer Samoa Joe who made his 2nd visit to Singapore, and feeling rather annoyed by the fact that he lost the United States Championship at WWE Stomping Grounds ppv 4 days prior. As his Godzilla-like music was playing, the fans were chanting "JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE!" Last to make his way to the ring was the current United States Champion, the "One and Only!!" Ricochet. Early on in the match the fans were chanting "NXT! NXT! NXT! NXT!" and later on when Robert and Joe were discussing on working together to beat up Ricochet, the fans were chanting "TNA! TNA! TNA! TNA!" due to the obvious fact that both of them used to hail from TNA, now known as IMPACT Wrestling a broken shell of its former glory. After a long fight, the high-flying Ricochet did a Running Star Press (instead of the spectacular 630 flip) onto Robert and pinned him to retain the title, while Joe simply walked off. When Ricochet held up the US title while perched on the ringpost, his pose was similar to Dwayne Johnson aka "The Rock".
                             

Match 7... THE MAIN EVENT! WWE Universal Championship match.
For the first time ever, the Universal Championship had stepped into Singapore shores, having been freed off the clutches of a Beast who had hijacked the title for nearly 2 years. First off came the challenger, the King of Strong Style Shinsuke Nakamura whose entrance theme led everyone singing along "WHOAAAAA WHOAAAAAAA... WHOA WHOAAAAA". Next up was the Universal Champion Seth Rollins, and everyone was yelling out "BURN IT DOWN!!!" Right after Mike Rome introduced both competitors, the entire audience was singing along to Shinsuke's theme, and were cheering both competitiors with the joint chants "NAKAMURA, BURN IT DOWN!!'. Some similarities between them... both were NXT Champions, United States Champions, and also Royal Rumble winners. Only main difference was, Shinsuke hadn't won either the WWE championship or the Universal Championship, and we all know why this is so.
It was a hard fought battle, and Shinsuke was close to knocking out the Beastslayer with his Kinshasa finisher, but he missed and fell victim to the Curb Stomp.
                           

After Rollins regained his composure, he turned his attention to Shinsuke, went down on his knees, and bowed down to show his appreciation and respect for the King of Strong Style. The extremely sweaty and hairy Rollins later swung his championship title around (like he did with the WWE Heavyweight Champioship after winning it at WrestleMania 31), mingled with the crowd, took a few selfies, signed on some stuff, then made his way back to the entrance ramp. And with that Mike Rome ended off the show, thanking everyone for their undying support. Here's looking forward to WWE 2021...
                             

I honestly thought that WWE Live Singapore this year overall was better than WWE Live Singapore 2017. There were actual title defenses (which was not seen in WWE Live 2017), there were 2 female wrestler matches, and the action was more fast-paced esp in the United States Championship match. My only minor gripe was that I wished a few of the male wrestlers had a chance to speak on the mike.