WWE Beast from the East feedback

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It kind of bums me out to think that all wrestling crowds will one day react the same way due to the internet. I really like how Japanese crowds are quiet and respectful, but this crowd seemed determined to act like western crowds with chants like “this is awesome”.

Cole did a pretty poor job of announcing, mispronouncing the names of both Bull Nakano and Tatsumi Fujinami. Saxton is starting to feel like a lost cause. Everything he says is witless and comes off phony.

The opener was really good. Poor Neville is as good as anyone could be at certain things, but it just feels like there’s no real spot for him in the big picture as anything substantial.

Finn vs. Owens was very good. The announcers seemed quite disoriented by the massive pile of streamers. It was odd to see Owens engaging the crowd so much. From what I understand, the WWE doesn’t want that kind of pandering on their shows. Maybe he did it because this was more of a house show? Don’t get me wrong, I thought he was fantastic, I just was kind of taken aback.

I didn’t care at all about the main event. It was quite odd to see the fans doing the dual Cena chants without any fervor behind it. Cena was the most over guy on the show by far, though. Much more than Balor.

Overall, a very fun show. I hope the WWE does more of this kind of thing.

Sean

Thumbs Up
Best Match: Balor v Owens
Worst Match: Divas

An entertaining event with a different feel. Still dont get the tag match going last over the NXT title match (or Lesnar) as it was a little tough to get through after the big matches. Hoping Owens beats Cena at Battleground because now he has two high profile losses in proximity to each other. Kofi was great as a bump machine for Brock. Atmosphere for Balor Owens was electric in terms of the pagentry and traditions of Japanese wrestling and Balors past. Great heeling by Owens w the bouquet. Was so odd to hear the announcers talking about Dragon Gate, IWGP etc but lets get more of it!  Happy fourth!

Michael O’Brien

I tried staying up all the way to 5:30am, but fell aleep by 3am, luckoly my alarm got me up at 5:20am, so I could catch the show live.

I had not been to a house show since the late 80s, so I liked the look and feel of the atmosphere, not the polished RAW or any other tv show set up. Reminded me of days gone by.

One major thing I noticed, someone kidnapped Michael Cole and replaced him with a look a like that could actually announce a match correctly, not the RAW or Smackdown BS. Guess Vince did  not make the trip.

The opening match was great, Neville and Jericho did a great job warming up the “tv” audience (finding out later there were mstches before they went on air), they worked great together, and got the crowd into it.

The Divas 3-way I dozed on and off through, just not the NXT style women’s match that is exciting, send the Divas down to train for 3 months, take them in shifts if need be.

Kofi was the sheep being led to slaughter, and Brock delivered. He was not selling the knee or leg injury from the RAW beatdown they replayed. Poor Kofi that one suplexed looked like it hurt like hell, landing on the back of his head and neck, the guy is tough, he came back to keep getting thrown around, after he finally defeated Kofi he dispensed the rest of New Day with ease when they arrived, they kept him as an unstoppable monster, that was good.

Owens vs Balor, loved that the crowd reacted to the entrance just like they do at Full Sail, even had NXT chants break out. They put on a good, not great, match I do not know if it was time of day here, or just knowing their spots, really did not get into it til towards the end, loved that Finn won the title, it was a huge deal to win his first (of many) WWE championship back where he became a huge star and really honed his craft, and the WWE Hall of Famer coming out to congratulate him. O thought it was cool that Owens did not shake Fin’s hand, looked so much like he wanted go, but he knew it would make him look like a hypocrit after blasting Cena about doing it.

And in a main event anywhere in the world, Cena and Ziggler vs Kane and Wade Barret, brother had 2 observations (1) Ziggler is looking a lot like Pillman dress wise and (b) he wondered if they pulled names out of a hat to make this match. It was an ok match, an ok house show main event, Cena got a lot of action early instead of being a “star” and letting Ziggler take the bulk of the match. Cena team wins sending the live audience home happy.

BEST MATCH: Owens vs Balor
BEST SQUASH: Brock vs Kofi
WORST MATCH: Diva 3way
OVERALL ALL give the show a B- on house show scale

Daniel Beling
From Baltimore