WWE Madrid & Cardiff live results: European tour begins

WWE’s European tour began on Saturday, with Raw holding a house show in Madrid, Spain and SmakDown having a house show in Cardiff, England.

Submitted from Raw’s house show in Madrid

– Finn Balor defeated Bobby Lashley (w/ Lio Rush)

Balor was very over with the crowd. Lashley was a “boo” magnet and got called boring by the crowd at times.

– Elias came out for a segment and got huge reactions. The biggest negative reactions were when Barcelona and Saudi Arabia were mentioned. The Riott Squad, Alicia Fox, and Alexa Bliss came out to interrupt him.

They tried to sing “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” and the crowd was very into it. The Riott Squad, Fox, and Bliss purposely sang it really bad. This led into the next match.

– Sasha Banks, Bayley, Nia Jax & Dana Brooke defeated The Riott Squad (Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan & Sarah Logan) & Alicia Fox (w/ Alexa Bliss)

Bliss didn’t wrestle here. Bayley was insanely over. Jax got the pin for her team.

– The B-Team defeated The Revival

The crowd was into this — even with them not being featured on the Spanish version of WWE TV.

– Braun Strowman defeated Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre in a handicap match

There were chants of “F*ck you Lesnar” and “Lesnar sucks.”

– AOP (w/ Drake Maverick) & Jinder Mahal (w/ Sunil Singh) defeated Apollo Crews, Heath Slater & Rhyno

AOP won by pinning Slater. The crowd was into this — they especially liked Crews.

– Raw Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey defeated Nikki Bella to retain her title

Rousey was insanely popular. Bella was still loved by her section of fans.

– Seth Rollins demanded an explanation from Dean Ambrose after Ambrose turned against him on Raw. Though Rollins vs. Ambrose was originally announced, Baron Corbin came out and announced that he’d be facing Rollins in an Intercontinental Championship match.

– Intercontinental Champion Seth Rollins defeated Baron Corbin to retain his title

This started slow, then it gained traction. The crowd also got into this in the second half. Rollins won after kicking out of a Deep Six from Corbin. He celebrated before being attacked by Ambrose.

During the fight, a brawl broke out between the male roster — including Matt Hardy and Chad Gable despite them not having matches on the show.

Submitted by Edd Young from SmackDown’s house show in Cardiff

– Randy Orton defeated Jeff Hardy

Hardy got a pretty big pop. Orton generated a lot of heat, taunting Hardy throughout the match. Hardy went for the Twist of Fate and Orton countered with the RKO to pick up the win.

– The Usos defeated The Colons

The Usos came out as faces and were immediately attacked by The Colons. The Colons were surprisingly impressive, gaining a lot of heat and mocking The Usos repeatedly. The Usos dominated the match and picked up the victory.

– Mark Andrews defeated Wild Boar

Very entertaining match. Not much hype despite Andrews being from Cardiff, but it was very enjoyable. Andrews has talent but has 205 Live written all over him. There were lots of flips and acrobatics. Both men impressed.

– Asuka & Naomi defeated The IIconics (Peyton Royce & Billie Kay)

The IIconics came out with microphones and talked about things they considered to be iconic, including their victory at Super Show-Down in Australia. They were booed throughout. Asuka and Naomi had a great reception. Asuka got the victory with the Asuka Lock.

– United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Rey Mysterio and Andrade “Cien” Almas in a triple threat match to retain his title

This was originally advertised as Nakamura vs. Mysterio, but they made it a triple threat and added Almas. For me, this was easily the match of the night. Mysterio got a huge pop as the crowd chanted “619” throughout.

Almas had Mysterio in the ropes as the “619” chants continued and Almas mockingly went for a 619 — only to wag his finger to the crowd in a “no” fashion. The match largely involved Almas and Mysterio as Nakamura spent most of his time outside the ring.

Mysterio hit the 619 on Almas, Nakamura snuck back into the ring and threw Mysterio out, and Nakamura stole the pin.

– Daniel Bryan defeated The Miz

The bell rung — but a segment took place for about seven minutes. The Miz berated the referee for telling them to ring the bell prior to him removing his sunglasses, headband, and jacket.

Miz referred to the Cardiff crowd several times as “fat, Cardiff, sweathogs.” He pandered to the fans as he opened his jacket ready to take it off, only to put it back on as the crowd continued to cheer and then boo.

Miz removed his jacket and headband. As he removed his sunglasses, Bryan attacked him from behind. Bryan then turned to the crowd and described them as “lovely and beautiful” and said he wanted to show Miz what a “real man” looked like. Bryan removed his shirt and the crowd cheered.

Miz hit a Skull Crushing Finale for a near fall. There were plenty of “Yes!” kicks from both men, but Bryan eventually picked up the win.

– Rusev & Lana defeated R-Truth & Carmella

There was a 10-minute segment featuring Carmella after R-Truth’s entrance song. Rusev and Lana emerged to a huge pop as various “Rusev Day” and Lana chants roared. Carmella and R-Truth had a dance off with Lana. The crowd urged Rusev to join in, but he shook his head and left the ring and refused.

Lana brought him back into the ring and encouraged him to dance. He squatted as he tried to perform a dance and R-Truth took the opportunity to roll him up. Rusev kicked out and the match begun. Very short match and Rusev won with a roll-up.

– SmackDown Tag Team Champions Cesaro & Sheamus defeated The New Day to retain their titles

New Day entered to a big cheer. As Cesaro & Sheamus’ music hit, New Day were wrestling one another in the ring and rolling each other up, including the referee. It was pretty funny to watch.

Sheamus removed his shirt after entering the ring and kept changing direction on where he was going to throw the shirt as each corner of the crowd cheered for it. He eventually went for a big throw, only to throw it to Cesaro as they laughed and hugged.

This was a pretty even bout. Xavier Woods hyped the crowd up nicely. It ended with a big brawl in the ring, Big E helping Kofi Kingston do a dive outside the ring, and Sheamus giving Big E the Brogue Kick for the win.

– SmackDown Women’s Champion Becky Lynch defeated Charlotte Flair to retain her title

The match was okay. Despite Lynch being in this weird situation as a heel, the crowd continued to adore her. Charlotte was booed repeatedly. The match was quite brief and we didn’t actually see any finishers. Lynch retained.

– WWE Champion AJ Styles defeated Samoa Joe in a no DQ match to retain his title

Styles got the biggest pop of the night, no doubt. The match was explosive. We saw kendo sticks used as Joe began to dominate. He also teased a Muscle Buster. Styles eventually found his way back into the match, hitting Joe a few times with a kendo stick.

Styles then left the ring and picked up a steel chair. He brought it into the ring, but before he could hit Joe, Cesaro and Sheamus ran down as Joe, Cesaro, and Sheamus teamed up on Styles. The crowd chanted “We want tables” as Cesaro and Sheamus set one up in the corner. They continued to wail on Styles until The Usos ran down to the ring to make the save.

They continued to brawl for a while until both tag teams left. Styles was left planted on the table as Joe surged towards him and went straight through the table. Joe was laid out, and Styles went for the Phenomenal Forearm to get the victory. Great match.