WWE Newark, DE, live results: First house show after Battleground
Submitted by reader Richard Kelly
– SmackDown Tag Team Champions The New Day defeated Breezango & The Usos to retain their titles
This was a fun opening match that really got the crowd into it from the start, with Breezango and New Day doing a lot of comedy. Big E and Xavier Woods were the New Day team in the match.
The Usos got the heat on Tyler Breeze until Fandango made the hot tag, then it broke down into a six-way and Woods pinned an Uso after the Midnight Hour.
– Baron Corbin defeated Sami Zayn
Another pretty good match. The crowd booed Corbin a lot. He continued his heat from Battleground, using a bearhug on Zayn for a while. Zayn made a big comeback, but Corbin cut him off and hit the End of Days for the win.
– Tye Dillinger, Chad Gable & The Hype Bros defeated Aiden English, Erick Rowan & The Ascension
English came to the ring and sang his whole introduction while being booed heavily. Dillinger and The Hype Bros got big reactions as well. Rowan was doing the monster shtick in this match, having all of the babyfaces try individually to take him out and nobody could.
Dillinger and English continued having problems stemming from their match at Battleground. The heels cut off Gable, then Zack Ryder got the hot tag to run wild. Ryder focused on Rowan until everyone ran in the ring and hit a big move. Rowan was eventually hit with the Broski Boot from Ryder and a running punch from Mojo Rawley for the finish.
Viktor complained about competition and demanded a singles match, leading to Luke Harper coming out.
– Luke Harper defeated Viktor
Viktor turned around to put away the microphone, with Harper hitting a discus lariat for the win in one move.
– Randy Orton & Shinsuke Nakamura defeated WWE Champion Jinder Mahal (w/ The Singh Brothers) & Dolph Ziggler
Mahal came to the ring and cut his normal promo where he spoke in Punjabi. Ziggler, Orton, and Nakamura all got big reactions. There wasn’t much to the match. Mahal avoided Orton and they isolated Nakamura and got the heat on him for a very long time.
Orton eventually got the hot tag and cleaned house, doing the draping DDT on Ziggler and a double draping DDT on both Singh Brothers when they tried interfering. Nakamura hit Mahal with a Kinshasa and then Orton hit Ziggler with an RKO for the win. The crowd was really into the finish.
– SmackDown Women’s Champion Naomi, Charlotte Flair & Becky Lynch defeated Natalya, Carmella & Lana (w/ Tamina)
They had a basic six-woman tag match. Lynch and Carmella went back and forth with a bunch of covers and Lynch teasing the armbar. It eventually came down to Lana and Charlotte, then Tamina interfered and helped cut Charlotte off.
Naomi got the hot tag and ran wild on Lana. She got Lana in her submission finisher, but Natalya broke it up. It broke down again into a six-way with everyone hitting a big move and ended with Naomi hitting Lana with the Rearview for the win.
– United States Champion Kevin Owens defeated AJ Styles to retain his title
They had what was probably the best match on the show, but it wasn’t anything close to what these two could do. Owens took a while stalling at the beginning, then took the mic and started heckling fans at ringside. Styles ran out and attacked him, but Owens sent him flying over the guardrail.
Styles made it back in and we got a ton of chinlocks for the heat. Styles made his comeback and it picked back up with both guys hitting a bunch of big moves for near falls. Styles started gearing up for his finisher when Owens rolled outside, grabbed his title, and walked out.
Styles chased him down and threw him back in the ring. Owens distracted the referee, thumbed Styles in the eye, and then hit the pop-up powerbomb for the win.
Owens grabbed the mic after the match and cut a promo berating the fans. Styles recovered and hit him with the Phenomenal Forearm, then posed with the US title.
– John Cena defeated Rusev
This was the first time in many years that Cena was in Newark, and he got a mega reaction. It was the loudest of the night.
They worked a standard house show main event. Rusev feigned a knee injury, the trainer came out to check on him, Cena turned his back, and Rusev jumped him and beat on him for the longest time. Cena made his usual comeback and went for the Attitude Adjustment, but he hit the referee.
Cena put Rusev in the STF and he tapped out, but there was no ref. Rusev low blowed Cena and got a chair, but Cena cut him off, hit the AA, and won to send the fans home happy.