WWE Manchester, England, live results: AJ Styles vs. Dean Ambrose

Submitted by reader Stephen Lyon

– I-C Champion Dolph Ziggler def. The Miz (w/Maryse)

Fun 10 minute match where Maryse kept interfering and was finally ejected by the referee. With Miz distracted by this, it immediately led to a Ziggler superkick for the pin and win.

– WWE Smackdown Tag Team Champions Heath Slater & Rhyno defeating The Usos and Breezango in a three way

Rhyno speared Jimmy Uso for the win.

– Jack Swagger beat Curt Hawkins via ankle lock submission in less than 10 seconds

Hawkins came out and gave Swagger the option to leave beforehand which didnt end well. Swagger threw his t-shirt into the crowd before the match and a fan threw it back even though he was the babyface.

– Nikki Bella & Naomi beat Carmella & Natalya when Nikki pinned Carmella

– Baron Corbin beat Kalisto

This was the surprise of the night in that it was a short 5 minute match that was all action in which they worked really well together. Corbin was a good base for the much smaller Kalisto to fly around and everything they did was very smooth and quick. Corbin won with the End of Days.

– American Alpha & Kane beat Randy Orton, Bray Wyatt & Luke Harper

This was an enjoyable six man tag team with a great finish. Orton hit the RKO on Jordan just before Wyatt gave Gable the Sister Abigail. Kane chokeslammed Harper for the win. Crowd cheered Orton, even though during the match he worked as heel. Crowd chanted for him to be tagged in, and when he finally was, he stalled for a few seconds and then tagged out, resulting in boos. 

– Hype Bros beat The Ascension

The finish came when Ryder hit the Rough Ryder off the top rope on to Viktor, who was then pinned by Mojo Rawley. Mojo’s wacky antics were met with deathly silence from the crowd.

– WWE Smackdown Women’s Champion Becky Lynch def. Alexa Bliss to retain

Good match, but not blow away. Lynch won with a cross-armbreaker.

– WWE Champion AJ Styles defeated Dean Ambrose to retain

Very good 20 minute match. They went back and forth and built the match well. Finish saw Styles score a nearfall with a Styles Clash, before undoing the top turnbuckle. The ref was unsighted when Styles shoved Ambrose chest first into the exposed turnbuckle for the roll up win. After the match, Styles left, then returned to try to lay Ambrose out with a belt shot. Ambrose blocked the attempt and hit Dirty Deeds on Styles to send the crowd home happy.

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The announced dates for the next U.K. tour in May 2017 were: May 7th in Liverpool, May 8th in Bournemouth, May 10thin Birmingham, May 11th in Sheffield and May 12 in Newcastle. Raw and Smackdown tv’s will be taped on consecutive nights, May 8th and 9th at the London O2 Arena. 

The arena was packed. There were no sections curtained off (apart from the entrance area), and I couldn’t see any empty seats in any sections, so I’d estimate the crowd to be at least 10-12000. It was mostly families with lots of kids.

One thing I found interesting was that during the matches, the entire screen and lighting of the entrance area was completely switched off and dark, as was the lighting of the crowd, and the only thing lit up was the ring. I realise they’ve been doing this type of thing for a while, and previously they just had a stationary logo on the screen during matches, but this is the first time I can recall all entrance lighting being switched off during matches.

They aired several ads on the big screen for the WWE Network during the show, all aimed at older fans and featuring past wrestling legends.  First ad was based around old 1980s WWF stars, and the ad even said if you are a fan of old school 1980s WWE (even using an old style WWE logo), this is the thing for you (clearly aimed at parents of kids and older fans in attendance). 2nd ad was based around Stone Cold Steve Austin, and 3rd ad was based around Ric Flair.

Show was about 2 hours 20 minutes in length with a 20 minute intermission.